So - Winter troll - one of those models that people love to hate. It is a great useful beast with a solid animus that can be well used in various combinations..... but still just looks so uncool. People have been displeased with the look of him for some time, but in the face of the resculpt for his kin the pyre troll or the new sculpt for the storm troll or even the much maligned night troll (great model but only barely even situationally useful it seems), he really just kinda sucks.
Some people rag on him for his air guitar soloist pose (an image that is certainly not helped by his swept back hair and chin beard) but for me the real shortcomings of this model are not in the pose but in the details.
First, this little guy has the smoothest skin of any troll warbeast. Rocky protuberances are an established design feature of troll kind and this guy, furry forearms aside, is pretty smooooth especially across his back - which generally makes for some boring, low contrast painting. The second issue I have is that his head is VERY TINY and his teeth are dull and flat. I think his face looks more like a toothless old man - again refer to the storm troll and pyre troll for contrast... well.... ya know, since I AM focusing on these other trolls as examples of what would make this frosty cousin better why not actually use them to make it so!?!
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| Attitude (and teeth) a-plenty here! |
I had set aside to dry some excess Apoxie sculpt that I had mixed by squashing it onto the surface of a blister. Once it had mostly hardened up I broke it into little pieces with pliers/knives/my fingers and then simple filed the base a little to fit the curvatures of the back and glued them in to place - instant rocky textures! I added a bit of loin cloth and a mini keg (if yer gonna run with bearka - you really ought BYOB) and Frosty, as I have taken to calling him, was now complete!
I am so much more satisfied now with the overall appearance and with this update in design and proportion, I don't even feel the pose is an issue. Sometimes a simple tweaking can really change the dynamics of an entire figure.
James
PS Sorry for not having a post up last week - I thought this one was going to publish but I must have hit the wrong thing. Ah well better late than never ;)