Showcase: Goblin Wolf Rider Standard Bearer

I actually finished this model a week ago, but I’ve held off from showing the finished piece until today which is competition deadline day. The competition is public vote on Facebook so I didn’t want the impact of the finished piece to wear thin. Lots more thoughts and angles after the jump. 

The first picture in this entry is the “money shot”. When I come up with a conversion I compose it as if it was a photograph. I did the same for my Abaddon conversion (first picture in this link) recently. As you can see when viewed from a certain angle you get more impact. Because you’re converting the piece you have complete control of the “money shot”.

This piece took just under a week to convert and sculpt and exactly a week to paint. Which is a reasonable amount of time. If you missed the conversion pictures you can see them here. If you want full tutorials on how I sculpted the model you can see that here.

Colour choice for the model is very deliberate. Everything was carefully chosen and planned out to work together. The colour of the leaves and the spiders. The colour of the wolf was chosen to work with all the bones and skulls. It’s quite a natural palette with woods, rusts, furs. It really makes the unnatural greens pop out more such as the foot on the banner, the skin of the goblin and snotling which are all key area focus points.

I think competition pieces do better if they tell a story. My story is subtle and simple. This is goblin battle standard going to war against the undead. The base is littered with skulls of the enemy, the banner pole is made up from parts of the enemy and the banner depicts a scary image of the enemy about to be flattened by the foot of Gork. Little visual cues are there to add interest such as the giant piece of warpstone at the top of the banner hints it is a magical banner. The little snotling holding on to the tail of the wolf adds speed and movement. The spiders on the base and the banner pole explain the web used to tie to the banner to the frame. 

Whilst I don’t consider myself a Golden Demon painter, I do wonder if I could paint the base edge black, mount it on a plinth and enter it. I think it ticks the boxes. Story, well painted, freehand, technical skill, realistic effects. So it might be good for a finalist pin maybe? What do you think?