OK, I got the camera, but unfortunately it’s a bit crap, and I don’t have any kind of decent light set up right now. Here we go anyway, and a digital camera gets added to my things to buy after Christmas list!
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INSPIRATION This is the picture I’m taking my inspiration from.
I’ve never really understood the popularity of Slaanesh. Whilst they are great in the game, and their background also has some cool elements, I think the fairly common use of pastels and bright pink has put me off them!
Mr Blanche’s illustration manages to capture a side of Slaanesh I like a lot though. I realize you either love or hate his work (I personally think it’s superb) but even if you aren’t crazy about the way he renders his art you’ve got to admit this is a cool concept right? There’s a graceful, deadly elegance mixed with a more hideous alien/horror side. She’s just really dark, nasty and chaotic looking!
She’s also going to be a challenge, but I think that it will be worth it. I’ve not seen her done by anyone before either (please let me know if you have) which is a bonus.
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SIZE
I’ve followed a few clues about scale on the picture. The blades threaded through the flesh give a basic point of reference, as does the gauge of the chains. Best of all is the head morphed into the shoulder, which looks vaguely human. Taking that as a guide I\'ve calculated that she’s... fairly big!
OK, so I\'m not being very scientific about it. In the end I’ve just guestimated it rather than making sure the scale between the art and the miniature is perfect. I don’t see it as that big a deal. I figure she’ll be about 150mm high, and fit on a base about 150x150mm wide.
Any thoughts on the size? The armature bellow gives a better idea of how large it will be because there is a Gobbo for comparison. I don’t want to go too over the top with it, but it has to be impressive. If you add in the coiled tail it means she is actually pretty large so I figure this is about right.
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CHANGES
Whilst I like the overall look there are things I’m not so keen on in the John Blanche picture which I will be changing. I’ve also had to make some assumptions about what’s going on on the other side.
Tail, Lower torso and legs – Will be as in the picture. The back leg looks to come from two different sockets right? That’s how I’ll be sculpting it I think, should be cool. I see the dirty pink bits as a sort of fleshy carapace, with the black bit beneath more glistening and snakelike.
Mid torso and lower arms – Again this will be pretty much as in the picture. I may cut back on the number of boobies a bit! It looks to me like they should be duplicated on the other side behind the protruding spikes. I’ll probably cut back on the number of blades through the skin too.
Upper torso – OK, so in the picture the upper torso is tilted towards us slightly, which means that she actually only has one row of boobs, with the spike running through her nipple closest to us (Yikes!). I think I’ll go with this, but if it starts to look unbalanced I may change it.
The tentacles I am going to do almost like hair flowing from her side and cascading back and down.
The major change is that I am going to turn the torso so that it is facing the other way (to her right) as I feel that this side will be more interesting as the main front view (because of the curled tail on show and the tentacles hanging down I figure attention should be drawn to this side).
Head – I like it a lot as it is. Not sure about the mini heads at her neck though so they will probably go. I also don’t know if I should try and replicate the shower of needles being spat out... I’ll get to that much later!
Upper Arms – Nothing wrong with these from my point of view!
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ARMATURE
I’ve kept it pretty basic so far and built up a frame that supports the main body and torso area. The legs that are attached are going to be the front ones and the other limbs sticking out will be the spindly lower arms.
It’s made with floral wire, with a thinner wire coiled around it to avoid the modeling clay from slipping up and down the wire. I’ve also used it to bind the arms in place firmly as they are made with a second bit of wire.
Note that the armature\'s arms and legs are longer than they will be once done. I\'ll just snip them down when necessary.
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So next I’ll be adding a thin layer of Green Stuff over this, and then putting a 50/50 mix of Super Sculpey and Super Sculpey Firm on top before it dries to aid the adhesion. Once I’ve done that I can start building up the basic shape of it.
Any thoughs so far? I know it\'s not that exciting just yet but I\'d hate to get something wrong already!
