The Eternal Struggle

[Klaus not Santa]

And on we go!
A new idea that needs venting...
And if I mess this one up, I'll burn quite some bucks :/
In a phase of overconfidence I odered two Kits from kimeramodels.com
One being ABEL (https://kimeramodels.com/product/abel-phoenix-chosen/)

and the other
ARES ( https://kimeramodels.com/product/ares/ )

Both are 1/24 scale and 75mm tall - they are awesome and superbly sculpted and detailed, but you know me, eh?
So I have the megalomanic idea of a duel scene between the two
This is my first rough sketch, with some initial thoughts scribbled on it

As you can see, the current poses in the kits are nowhere close to my vision

So let the chopping begin!
This is the left arm seperated

for the leg I'll make a backup copy of the knee-armour as I'm afraid it will break when I cut the leg

The other leg is already in a close posture, but the foot needs to be repositioned

I inserted a small splint

and then sculpted the new back of the foot

Well, this is as far as I got on the first day
So, am I insane?
What do you think?
Cheers
Klaus

 

[Belugawrx]

You're insane... but in the best possible way
I think I will be following your excellent conversion.
Cheers

 

[Quaralane]

Oh, you are DEFINITELY insane, Klaus
But in a good way

This should be an interesting one to follow

 

[Steve Ski]

Good start on the conversion. This will look really nice when you get all the action in there, standing by.

 

[Bouq]

Wow!
indeed, an insane project but a real pleasure to follow your progress...

welcome back Klaus!

 

[Klaus not Santa]

Thank you guys!
Hi guys,
sorry for the delay, but today is ging to be a good update
I've been busy
So after the initial left leg, I started work on the right leg

This will be the "jump" position

with GreenStuff

With the basic for the "good guy" in place I started with the bad boy

As the sketch showed I want him to be in a kind of defensive posture

A quick check for the head

Leg and hip area filled with GreenStuff and left (shield) arm attached

With spear arm and head

And a first matching of the two


The rest went rather quickly

It is pretty much the dynamic pose I had in mind

My desk was really a mess

Here I did a first test with the cape - that originally belonged to Abel, but really fits Ares in this pose

A final decission point was on weather to go with horns to the helmet (yes) and maybe exchange the spear for a sword (no)

 

[Klaus not Santa]

So I finished the bad boy with horns, cape and spear

and the good guy with a "flaming" sword

And so I conclude the built






So, what do you think?
Cheers
Klaus

 

[Belugawrx]

Wow very nice !
Now, take us to school on the paint work Klaus

 

[Bouq]

wunderbar !
How did you fix the figures together at fists ?
I cannot see it on the pics

 

[Quaralane]

Excellent work on these, Klaus

 

[Klaus not Santa]

Thank you guys!
Yeah, I was thinking a lot about the balance issue, but luckily it worked out nicely - these models are very light in weight

So, with the built complete, it was time to prime them and clean up the desk



Here you can see the pin that is used to connect the two models


With the diorama depicting the eternal fight between good and bad, light and dark, fire and ice I initially had the idea to use some molten metal armor for the bad guy - the one out of hell
For this I tried some different designs



but so far none was really convincing


Especially for the cape I realized quickly that this would absolutely NOT work


On the legs ... hmm, it COULD work


So I concentrated on the shield for a while



and decided to continue with the legs to see how it would work together


I'm semi-pleased


while Ben totally lacks enthusiasm


and Luna is all but conviced

So what do you think?
Start again?
I'm really not sure....
Klaus

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely an interesting idea. Kind of reminds me of concepts for Games Workshop's Eldar Avatar

 

[Klaus not Santa]

Thank you Quaralane!
Yes I'm very aware of the Avatar of Khane - and I want to try something different

Well, I was struggling for the last few days, but then last night my Kimera Kolor Set arrived

So I immediately went to try them out

Their pigment level, hue and saturation is simply astonishing!

Blending and glazing takes some getting used to

But it is fun painting with them

And so for the first paint session I'm mighty pleased

What do you think of the change of color scheme?
Cheers
Klaus

 

[the Baron]

See, now, I saw the title, "The Eternal Struggle," and thought it was going to be a lady and her suitor!

Great vignette, and I love seeing all your steps, especially for sketching your design, to picture what it will be.

 

[Quaralane]

Rework is looking very good

 

[Steve Ski]

Man, this is wild! I'm an oiler, but I seriously appreciate the acrylic techniques, awesome. Ruck Over Bby!

P.S. You've trained you assistant very well. Mine would wreak havoc in my bunker, yikes!

 

[Klaus not Santa]

OMG 5 months!
I'm really sorry for the long silence.
I had a pretty bad encounter with a "tennis arm" which incpacipated me for a long time. It still feels bad and I'm often in pain, but by now the vibe is back and I was able to pick up my brushes again.
Since the last update

I did change quite a lot.
I didn't really like the way it had turned out - especially since I couldn't get the "temperature" across. So I repainted the metal armor parts in a kind of burnt-out metal and added the glowing lava feeling to the sections between the armor

From here it was mainly increasing the lava effects

A first posing check with the new color scheme

I also added some glow effects back onto the armor

Still needs plenty of clean-up

But I think the burning feeling is now visible

With the cloak (base color only)

I was afraid I'd had to repaint the shield too, but I think it still fits

Eye to eye

Still a long way to go, but I really like it

What do you think? Is it worth continuing?
Cheers
Klaus

 

[Belugawrx]

I like the composition Klaus
I think the molten parts need a bit more orange blending...so far so good my friend
Cheers..Keep at it

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely liking this, Klaus