Despite fraternizing with and doing commissions for Golden Demon winning artists, I've never actually scored a demon for myself. Years ago I tried: once with a Red Terror and once with an Old One Eye (somehow that seems fitting). Though I've taken shots of these two models before, while I had my photography set up out to take some other photos, I thought I should try to get some nicer ones of these models as well.
First up, we've got the...ummm...GREEN Terror. As he was my first ever Golden Demon attempt, I had absolutely no idea what I was up against, and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor once I got to the event, turned in my entry, and then looked at my competition. I knew instantly I was toast.
I guess you have to start somewhere, and I started here:
Though that entry was less than exciting, I was determined to follow it up with something a little stronger. I went to town on converting the heck out of an Old One Eye model, a process I document here, and I called my creation Hel, after the Norse Goddess, which I thought clever as the regenerating OOE is kind of like the half-dead Hel. It was the biggest conversion I had ever tackled at that point, and parts of the model were actually sculpted with plumber's putty {shudder}. I worked from the following sketch, which I think helped...a lot.
I took a month to convert the model, a week to paint it, and I turned up at GD Toronto, turned in my entry, then proceeded to lose faith in my ability, just like I did with the Green Terror.
That being said, Hel made it through the first cut before being smashed, and I guess that's something to be proud of! Though you've probably seen her before if you've been kicking around Warpshadow, here are some better shots of her for those who haven't.
Though she's a little top-heavy and a little rough, I still get compliments on her to this day. One thing I'm most proud of is the head, which I sculpted 99% of from scratch, back before I really knew what I was doing when it came to scratch sculpting (I remember using my work in layers/small areas approach):
Still. Though I finished the Hel conversion, actually painted it up, and even entered it into a Golden Demon competition, Hel has always felt like an incomplete project to me. I fell so in love pining away over that concept sketch in the space between the 3rd edition rules release and the release of the Tyranid codex that I can't help thinking I should have done a better job bringing it to life. So, in the back of my head, there is still this voice whispering that I should recreate Hel from a plastic Carnifex; that I could make her bigger and meaner than ever.
Maybe one day...
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