Väinämöinen

 Väinämöinen is one of main characters of the Finnish folk epic Kalevala, collected and arranged by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century. In addition of being a sage, a singer and a swordsman, he's also the god of water. This sort of things are entirely possible in folklore.

If you ask an average Finn what Väinämöinen looks like, they'll describe the sinewy, tough-looking character illustated by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (Axel Gallén) in famous paintings such as The Defense of Sampo or The Deparature of Väinämöinen. It's a good and fair vision, but I was inspired by another depiction: the strong-moustached and very small character in the corner of Väinö Blomstedt's The Theft of Sampo. Blomstedt was Gallén's contemporary, but never gained the same status and thus I was able to find only that small-resolution version of the painting. But in inspired me nonetheless.

 Thematically, this follows the overall theme of Vainolaista Vastaan, another Iron Age Finnish themed model inspired by a painting. As Väinämöinen is a character of high status, I gave him more elaborate clothing while sticking to earthy colours. The pattern on under the belt reminds me of fishbones, which is fitting with Väinämöinen's association with water, and his Kantele made of a pike's jawbone. The dominating dark blue colour of the coat is taken from Blomstedt's painting.

Väinämöinen needed a big, bushy beard, and the large wing pieces worked perfectly: I wonder why I hadn't used them before this way. I've used the smaller wing pieces as facial hair numerous times, after all. The heavy moustache uses a croissant piece, but the stache needed to be longer to capture the vibe I liked in the painting. I learned that there are two croissant moulds, one with rounded ends and one with regular flat bar ends. The latter enabled connection with 1x2 round plates with hole, which again connected to the white frogs. There are more frogs on the muttoncops. The eyebrows use mug plates made thicker with Technic pins - a tech I picked up from someone, but I didn't find the original picture. Round eye have sort of unnatural stare, and covering bit of their upper halves make the characters look more human.

Väinämöinen is armed with a "puukko" knife, a normal part of any prehistoric grown-up Finn's appearance, and the sword forged by Ilmarinen; this is meticulously descibed in Kalevala, and if I remember correctly, the sword is inscribed with barking dog, meowing cat and a shining sun and moon; these, of course, do not appear in my MOC as the sword rests in it sheath. Nice thin swords are nigh impossible to build. Finally, Väinämöinen has his kantele, a string instrument made of the jawbone of the great scale-pike. Väinämöinen wielded this legendary artefact for a brief moment only, during the Theft of Sampo climax, but the sound surely enchanted everyone from birds to gods. I'm quite happy with my design, which utilises the 1x2 clip plates I rarely use.

 Currently, this model is on display in Messukylä library, Tampere.

 -Eero.