MOC: Susan Sto Helit revisited

 I'm still here! Sorry for lack of MOCs lately. There have been two months of no builds at all. It's not that I wouldn't have built anything. I've built quite a lot, actually, despite being somewhat busy with studies and attending number of various rock music gigs (from Italian doom metal to Finnish noise rock) lately. It's just that my projects are big, and as I don't want to spoil surprises with WIP photos, I don't have much to show you yet. I'm working on a block of early 20th century modular houses and a big character build project with six figures and plenty of hardware. In addition to these I have also some random smaller WIPs as always. So there's plenty to do, and especially last weekend was very fruitful on aspect of MOCing. Stay tuned, even though it might still take some time, and I can't promise to be very active on the following months. Projects are ambitious! I am an ambitious man.

Now, this MOC was completed a month ago or so, but I just kept thinking about whether it was finished or not. This is a Discworld character, Susan Sto Helit, the daughter of Mort and Ysabel and the granddaughter of Death. I've built her before, in September 2015, around two years ago. I was quite happy with the previous version, but it didn't fit the style of my other Discworld models, as it featured super-simplified facial features akin to my Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind characters. This received some legitimate feedback on Worldcon 75 (which was great as most people actually recognized the characters) so I knew I had to do something. Now Susan is a young woman, and facial featured in style of my Discworld characters (three-wide heads and headlights as the eyes) tend to look somewhat antic or humorous. I pondered a lot how I could make Susan look convincing while sticking with the style; after all, people are not that different looking, despite of age or sex. Segregation by design principles felt unnecessary. This isn't Susan's face exactly as I imagine it, but given that these are some building blocks and it's not such a big model, I think it's alright.

The face aside, this is the first creation that uses pieces from this year's LUGBULK order, precisely Art Nouveau style fences in black (as "some" lace) and tan 1x1 quarter tiles (which are wonderful) and tan 1x2 baby bows to model bare skin areas. I also got some basic bricks (tan, dark blue and medium azure) but those are naturally not used here.

I began with the bodice, featuring some lacing using minifig hands connected to odd wedge slope; the previous used grill tiles. Otherwise I kept the design similar to the old one, just improved. The hands use now the usual design, which means they're poseable and sturdy if a bit too large. Ornamental fence pieces give some air to the dress. The left leg is visible, as inspired by Paul Kidby's art. I'm rather happy with their shapes. There's bit of movement here, too, to enable more natural stance. Death of Rats has stayed exactly the same.

The scythe was a louse of sorrow*. It is the exact same scythe made a bit longer. I would have wanted to make it bigger, as it's Death's scythe and Death is a seven-feet-tall skeleton who would need a big scythe. But I didn't have needed pieces, and I quite liked the free-flowing shape of this one. And, honestly, as I hadn't posted anything in two months, I wanted to just post this to show you that hey, I'm still here. I'm alive and kicking.

-Eero

* Louse of Sorrow = Murheenkryyni. Kryyni is a old pseudonym for a louse; they believed that if you don't use thing's own name, it doesn't cause harm. Murhe is Sorrow in Finnish, and afterwards phrase Murheenkryyni has extended to mean anything that causes sorrow to one.