Skaven

The mini is based on an Adrian Smith artwork, that was in the old warhammer 'Battle Bestiary' from the warhammer box set in the early 1990s - the one with the plastic high elves and goblins in it haha, which were the first minis I ever got! I have always loved the artwork, and always dreamed of making it into a miniature one day, so when I was trying to think of projects for Uk GD I decided it might be time to give it a go.

As you can see from the sculpting pics, I based it very closely on the illustration at first, with the spear/halberd weapon and the round spikey shield. But when I started painting, there were problems: the mini seemed unbalanced and strange looking from some angles. So in the end, after a lot of agonising over the decision, I bit the bullet and swapped the weapon and shield to something else. And I think it was a big improvement composition-wise, so I am glad that I changed it, even though it was a shame to deviate from the artwork. But at least it was fun to add something quirky with the hanging zombie head censer, haha.

This mini was my main entry for Europe, and I spent about 5 weeks on it: all of July, and a bit of June and August. It was a lot of work, but I think it was worth it... I learned a lot from trying something ambitious with the sculpting, and although I think there are lots of big problems with the sculpt, I think it's still a step forward. Plus, after all the kind words I have received about it, I feel a lot more confident about going on with more sculpting now.

Discussion link.

Guild Artisan,
Sebastian.