MOC: Herald of Scales

 Hello readers, and happy July. I haven't been able to post as often as I hoped - I've got plenty of builds finished and some even photographed, but hey it's summer, I haven't been that much on computer anyway.

This was a fast, pleasant build, beginning with the idea of using Friends dress pieces as skirt segments for bigger character. Why? I got some of them free from LUG event, they have cool, mundane gold ornamentation and somewhat organic, round shape. They don't connect to anything very well, but I was able to connect them to clips.

The nature of the character wasn't defined from the start. I fiddled around with large Ninjago katana pieces to make angel-like wings for the start, but eventually settled with reddish brown skinned, ancient Egyptian-styled character. I think brown looks good with the simple, white dress, and I liked the idea of having some Egypt-ish jewellery, using some sand green with gold and trans blue. I wondered if the upper legs would look better in reddish brown, giving the supposedly warm environment for this character, but I settled for dark blue as it looked great with white and transparent blue.

The arms are new version of style used in my "Four Seasons" characters, scale being somewhat same than on those. The shoulders seemed too broad for a while but the hair balanced them to look natural enough. I didn't have any good finger pieces in reddish brown, so she wears white gloves. They likely didn't exist in real, ancient Egypt, but that's not the point, right? I was able to make some gold patterns to the gloves, I'm happy with them. They recall the ornamentation on the skirt.

The hair was fun. The idea of using chains on a braided bowl cut came with the Egyptian idea, and I had had those black chains around for a while from LUGBULK. There are two layers on them on two rigid tubes. Atlantis gate key with a squid pattern is used as a sort of headdress; nice piece but rarely seen on MOCs. They eyes are similar to aforementioned Four Seasons, with batarang eyes.

The legs have suitable sandals and sort of gaiters to make them interesting. Subtle patterns are done using pearl gold bars, sais and printed Elves tiles. Boat studs joints allow some movement and mandatory CCBS shells are used on the knees. The upper legs design was originally done for another build, but this one was finished faster; It's sturdy, has organic shaping on most sides and hides the ball socket almost completely.

She also has a staff with scales; one cup with a sword, another with bread. Profound, right? Basic stuff, scales of life and death. It was going to be a wizard's staff, or a shepherd's, but I liked the scales idea. It took a while to get it work! Elephant tails are used here - one of those cool pieces I can't get enough. What a great shape they have. Another Atlantis gate key associates the staff with the headdress, and the chain wrapping the handle is metaphor for something important or deep, probably.

- Eero.