Hello Planeteers!

It's been quite a while since I posted new stuff, but here's one fresh from the bench

This bust is sculpted by talented french sculptor Cyril Roquelaine, and you can find all his creations on http://www.sculptart31.com. At 45.00EUR and being a hi-quality, rock hard, bubble free resin casting with practically no prep work to be done, i consider this being very good value for money indeed.

So that's almost what you get when you open the box:



I say 'almost' because there are a few minor adjustement I made, the most visible being the replacement of one of the strap affixed to the helmet with some Magic Sculp. The casting limitations had the strap clinging tightly to the armored piece underneath the helmet, this minor issue had to be fixed.



A couple of thik rivets (punched out of a 1.5 mm plastic card and roughened up with a round burr at slow speed), a thorough wash in warm soapy water and the bust was ready for priming and painting.



I first sprayed a thin layer of white primer for the paint to stick, followed by automotive flat black (dries more satin than flat but whatchagon'do?). Then, With the same white primer came another light coat of paint, centered on the face and upper torso. This acts as a pre-highlighting / pre-shading, and allows me to simply "read the volumes", rather than having to interpret them while painting. This is quite helpful, as the rest of the bust was painted sans[/]-airbrush.

After this basecoat has dried for 24hours (it's important to start on a bone-dry base, as the first layers of paint are done exclusively by drybrushing, which is quite devastating if the paint is still soft). I forgot to mention that i can give pointers if you guys have questions about the paint job, but overall i'd be quite unable to tell the exact reference i used - i tend to use a wide array of paints in a not-so logical manner (like a bright purple glaze over a toned-down dark green drybrush...). Anyway, if you have a question, shoot away ^^ Here's the first licks of paint, 100% drybrushed:



A word over the only effect / texture for which i used an airbrush is the helmet:



For this, I brush painted the basecoat using a metallic "chainmail" colour with a lot of black, then gruadually going for lighter and brighter metallic tone (the top higlight is pure silver). This goes on very fast, because i want a rough iron effect. Then, using a scrubby sponge dipped in liquid mask (Maskol-like), I dab the surface in an irregular pattern. Then, using the airbrush and black ink (from Games Workshop), I apply some very subtle shading over the entire helmet. I finish buy applying low tack masking tape, picking up the flakes of liquid mask that reveal "fresh" and untarnished metal underneath. The rest of the effect is done with glaze of brown ink and spots of Vallejo's Red Leather to make some rust in the crevices.

Couple of days later, the bust is finished and placed on a custom plinth:



All in all, i don't imagine this Berserker as the mythology / history would suggest. I rather consider him like a big gentle oaf put to slavery. After surviving a certain amount of battles, he was isolated from the other warriors and subsequently "trained" - drugged and abused, really. Surely this treatment put forward a kind of brutality he did not have before... His lucidity is constantly altered by psychotropic drugs, their effects boosted by the pain caused by the hooks and straps that runs under his skins.
The berserker's superiors (or torturer, whatever) found out that a lot of his kins died from choking on blood accumulating in the throat and nose during battle, so they devised an easy and cheap solution that allowed a few hours more on the battlefield: from the moment the berserkers entered training, a tracheotomy was performed to re-route breathing and the remains of their speech through an iron grate...

Come to think of it: was this Berserker supposed to inspire fear or pity?

CMON link if you have a minute to spare

Cheers!

Patrick

Patrick,
Not my cup of tea. But extremely well done and looks gruesome indeed.
Cheers
John

Wow! Nice job. I like the helmet best of all.
Chris

Gross! But in a great way. Bravo!

Jon Metters

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fantastic work mate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fantastic work indeed. Very realistic and scary.

Xenofon