So my recent hobby inspiration came from playing Iron Maiden's Legacy of the Beast. If you're not a Maiden fan, Legacy of the Beast is a horrible pay-to-win mobile game that cashes in via an established IP. If you ARE a Maiden fan, Legacy of the Beast is a cool game based on Iron Maiden, featuring tracks, themes and characters from their catalogue of work. It just also happens to be a horrible pay-to-win mobile game that cashes in via an established IP.
Nevertheless, collecting Eddies and building a small warband got me thinking, wouldn't be cooler to replicate this on the table top?
So I broke out my sculpting skeletons, something I knew would come in useful at some point and got to work. Now at this point I have a Mordheim warband in mind but guess these models can be used for a few different games.
I must say that I don't consider myself a sculptor, I've picked up bits along the way sure, but some of these models will be pushing my skills to their limits and if they push them beyond that, well I probably won't provide photographic evidence...
The bugle sounds, the charge begins
The first model almost had to be the Trooper. While I used the single cover for the majority of the reference points, I also Googled images of British uniforms from 1854. So Eddie's redcoat is not exactly how its depicted in the artwork, but there seems to be a few different variations from Iron Maiden anyway.
For the flag, I tried something new this time which used masking tape. To do something similar, stick some masking tape to a plastic sheet (I used a grip seal bag). Press green stuff onto the non-sticky side of the masking tape, flattening it as much as you can. With a hobby knife or sharp sculpting tool you can cut the green stuff to the shape you need it, in this case, a torn flag.
Then with another piece of masking tape, press it against the green stuff with the non-sticky side. You now have a sandwich of green stuff with masking tape acting as the bread. Gently peal this off the plastic and wrap it up in one layer of masking tape. You'll now have no sticky sides visible. This can now be forced into the flowing shape you need it to be in by letting it cure between pens, paint brushes or the like. You might need further masking tape to hold it in this position. Once cured, you can peal away the tape and be left with a flag, cloak or whatever else you sought to create.
The reason masking tape is used here rather than plastic sheeting, is that the masking tape adds a texture to the green stuff, an approximate to fabric. If plastic was used, the flag would be completely smooth.
A shell of a man, god preserved for a thousand ages
Pharaoh Eddie was another I knew I wanted to tackle. I had a lot more creative freedom on this model as the Powerslave album cover depicts this Eddie as a stone monument. A few google image searches on Pharaoh Eddie gave me something to work on but I decided to arm him with a Kholpesh and Tomb Guard shield. There will be very few models in this warband who could be armed with a shield, so I took the opportunity on this one.
The seventh, the heavenly, the chosen one
This Eddie was a challenge as he didn't start as a sculpting skelly, in fact he's mostly paperclip under all the putty.
To begin with I set out to create Seventh Son's rib cage. I did this by using what I assume was some sort of makeup brush from my wife's collection of stuff. I picked it out as it had a smooth plastic handle that was oval in shape (if you cut it in half). I sculpted the rib cage around this, inserting a length of paperclip into the spine as I went. Once it was finished, a sharp hobby knife gently picked the putty away from the brush handle and it slid off the bottom.
From this, paper clip arms and milliput gave me the rough shape. It is a little larger in scale to the other two Eddies already made but not enough to cause any issues.
My blood lust defies all my needs
Next up is Killers Eddie. Less than happy with the final result here. I don't think his face is bang on but it will do. I'm typing this before the model is painted so I'm hoping it will all look better with some paint on it.
I went with the standard jeans and sneakers for his lower half, I assume that would be the rest of his outfit. For the outstretched hand however, I used the arm from an old Zombie box set. The fingers are a little too big but they were curled round to roughly fit the pose Eddie is in from the 1981 album.
Selling them whiskey and taking their gold
Run to the Hills Eddie was sculpted alongside the Killers one. Both are wearing very similar clothing, so they were basically done in batches.
I even used the same Axe and Zombie hand. Although this axe has an added feather. During the sculpting process I actually preferred the Killers. Thinking that RttH Eddie wasn't coming along very well. Ironically I think this one came out better in the end.
