Retrograde
The commission: Make a “Prime” Skarre model using the “Epic” Skarre model.
The challenge: Taking the “Silver Surfer” pose and making it into a “Captain Morgan” pose.
The specs called for a barrel to replace the ship and to swap out the pistol for the dagger. Not too complex, but still tricky. I set to work on the pose straight away. What I discovered (to my relief) was that widening the stance was fairly easy. A bit of grinding on the coat and deepening the recess where the back of the leg met the main body allowed me to swing the leg out wider so that the knee was directly in front of the body. A little applied pressure to twist the upper torso more in that direction and the new pose was complete.
I had a resin barrel which was to scale, but it was much too large to accommodate the pose. After turning the possible configurations over in my head I elected to chop it in half. I knew it wasn’t an ideal solution, but it would at least get the idea wheels turning for the client.
Not knowing where the client would like the weapons posed, I came up with two extreme variations. The first was the one I liked, with the knife in front of the body and resting on the raised thigh, with the sword held loosely pointing downward. The second was more of your standard “action” pose, with the dagger held out in front and the sword raised. The model would allow for either of these and any variation in between the two. Pics submitted to client for feedback.
The client agreed that the first pose met his idea so work continued along that line. The half barrel was rejected and a suitable replacement located. The keg from the back of Borka Kegslayer looked like it would fit nearly perfectly in place. (I made sure by doing an actual scale size comparison in Photoshop.)