Nyagchilios of the Speaking Stars | The Icefalcon | Der Eisfalke
His looks and dress up are as much as possibly based on the information derived
from the books by Barbara
Hambly. A single "glitch" is the fact he wears a white shirt
instead of something black in his guard's uniform. I can explain, though.
*g*
All the clothing I made for him is fully functional as the real things would
be. And everything except for trousers and boots are removeable. (Okies, with
a bit of effort I could pry him from the shirt as well.*g* He has now that
white shirt because I planned to make him another set of clothes in the "native"
style as he wears it in "Icefalcon's Quest" when he returns
to his homelands for a while. I figured that creamy white will less clash
with earthy and sandy colours.
His expression is inspired by what he looks like to me in my imagination and
what he lacks in "prettiness" is simply caused by the fact that
this is my first attempt in sculpting human features.
The creation process
... from a heap of fabric, some wire and sculpting clay to a fairly nice first try at the art of creating little dolls in scale ~ 1:10
The head is made from Efaplast, an air drying sculpting mass. Details are
made with Apoxie, a sculpting clay that hardens to greater durability.
Which is why the hands that will bear the greatest strain are made entirely from Apoxie.
After this I made a roughly humanshaped wire-skeleton. To ensure a natural
pose I did make that skeleton including shoulders and hips and placed the
wires for arms and legs on them in the right length difference to the middle of the
body.
Also his "spine" does the realistic "S"form of the human spinal column. Like this I never had the problem that other dollmakers complained of- that the heavy head would misbalance the lighter body and tip it over so that they had to work something equally heavy into their figure in the hip area to counter weight that. My figure was naturally balanced and able to stand on his own from the first second of being wrapped. I don't have piccies of that state because I was so eagerly going for the next steps that I forgot to take pictures.
Here he's already taken shape already and I've painted his head and hands
and gave him untrimmed Mohair braids:
The Icefalcon says hello to LBR Benji, a customized Breyer model horse.
As you can see here, I have wrapped his wire "bones" with many layers
of an elastic medical tape, taking care to model his bodyshape and human muscles
a little by applying different numbers of tape-layers to the bodyparts. His
arms did get only a treatment with very few layers for a simple reason- he
is supposed to wear clothes later and probably even two sleeves on top of
eachother. When the arm below had normal measures, he'd look like the Hulk
when wearing clothes. *g*
Also note that he has no modeled feet or boots, he is standing on two nooses
from wire instead. This gives him the ability to stand securely on any even
and uneven surface later by tilting his feet, just like a real human being
would do.
This part was the "fun", now came the tedious part, the making of clothes. I hate sewing, but I wanted to make him look exactly as I imagined so I couldn't give the order to make him clothes to anybody, but had to do it myself.
Lets start simple- trousers and boots, permanently attached to him:
Black Queen (also a customized Breyer horse) is already taking a liking to
him- does she chew on his braid?
And he is actually standing on his own and not leaning on the horse. ^-^
See, he can ride! ....and got a wee bit impatient with the fact of having
no clothes... *hurries*
And character he's got already, too- if looks could kill....
Okies, that's better, right?
Shirt and tabard are completed. The shirt is made from cream coloured rough
linnen and the tabard was sewn from the soft leather he's made his boots and
trousers made from as well. No quatrefoil added yet.
The bracers are made to give his forearms the necessary stability in use.
And they are keeping the wrists warm. ^-~
Ok, turn around for us, would you?
For the details on his clothes. Note the slits in the back and front of the tabard, they are necessary to allow him to move unhindered and ride.
...as he shows here. He is still able to nicely sit on a horse. I dunno who
was more pleased, him or me.
Of course he wanted his weapons... So I sat and made some. A dagger and Sword made from wood and Apoxie.(Detailed piccies will follow)
Here he's clutching the raw cut of his cloak under his arm and holding the sword in the unfinished scabbard. The mess in the background is my desk...
He's been at the hairdresser's, too. Braids are now trimmed in length and
the little things in them are mini fingerbones created from Apoxie with much
curses and then braided into the hair with even more curses. But details are
a must. *g*
There you go, now he's looking pretty complete apart from some equipment that
I am going to make one by one.
Detail of the finished scabbard.
Whatelse might he want immediately?
Right, horse gear in a fitting style!
So he got that, too:
Saddle, breast collar and bridle The saddle is a "fantasy" design, though
I studied existing saddletypes to make it theoretically functional. The bridle
was inspired by a (late-)medieval bridle on a tapestry.
The saddle has a second upper flap, so if one doesn't need the fake fur one
it can be removed and be replaced by simple leather.
Disclaimer:
The character of the Icefalcon is creation and property of Barbara HamblySource of inspiration were the following books by Barbara Hambly:
- The Time of the Dark
- The Walls of Air
- The Armies of Daylight
- Mother of Winter
- The Icefalcon's Quest