Saturday 8 April 2017

Corum and Jhary - The eternal champion and companion


The eternal champion, if there ever was universes that inspired the warhammer setting, Michael Moorcock's epic saga has got to stand on top of the list !
Now some time ago, Colin suggested that we could have a game at BOYL including different incarnations of the eternal champion. That idea did hit bull's eye in our minds and like the others I saw the perfect opportunity to tick a few boxes from my ever growing "to do" list.

Anyway, to be perfectly honest, I only really know 2 eternal champions, namely Corum Jhaelen Irsei and Elric of Melniboné.
Of the 2, I do have a strong preference for Corum because he's a cross between your usual hero and your usual anti hero (which Elric is in my view). Corum shares with the Metabaron, a sense of being "off" or out of place and playing his part reluctantly and yet perfectly...

Corum is the sort of guy who finishes writing a poem or a song before going to save his kin, he's the sort to spit to the face of a barbarian about to cut his hand and tear his right eye out, to spit to the face of a god offering the hand and eye of gods in replacement of his own, to kill gods, that sort of stuff.

Painting wise I tried to stay as close to what I could remember of him (last time I read the books was about 4 years ago...) and I wanted to convey the feeling that he's the last of his kind so wanted to avoid the regal look with too much gold.

Good challenge was also painting the Eye of Rhynn and the hand of Kwll. For the eye, I tried to represent many facets one what looks like a basic eye patch to stay close to the decription stating it looks like the eyes of an insect. For the hand of Kwll, I tried to go for something alien with jewels encased :


I just kept all the jewels blue because I'm lazy and I don't like to have too much colours really.

Now to be completely honest here, althoughI'm a huge Goodwin fan, I have to confess Corum might very well be one of his weakiest sculpts, some wrong proportions (the arms especially), the face being very far from his usual excellent elvish faces... I don't know, maybe more than one sculptor was working on this one but it's more a miss than a hit to me.


Just while taking the pics, I suddenly realised I had actually already painted an incarnation of the eternal champion in the form or Erekose ! His model at last since he's part of the champions of Law but anyway, that's still 2 champions ticked !


Now Corum's story is also very excellent because his eternal companion is Jhary A Conel. He's quite different from Corum actually with his cheerful yet dutyful character but he's a real bad ass in the books. It took me a while to track that model and I was very pleased to get it from the hands of one of the great names of the early days ! I tried to keep things simple with him although I'm still a bit puzzled by the alignment of his eyes (which I tried to correct a fair few times until I had to admit it might come from the model itself...).
Funnily enough I had already painted Friskers (his flying cat companion) before, a private commission.


I have to say it felt quite funny to paint 1987 lead after all the plastics of late, a bit like changing shoes from a season to another. I do realise that in the short to mid term I'll have to focus on a few things "I have" to paint for events I'll be attending and all but being my usual self, I won't be able to refrain from painting totally unrelated stuff...


26 comments:

  1. Well they turned out nice didn't they? I have to say that the Eternal Champion stuff is pretty new to me but I'm thoroughly enjoying the books. I just finished the first Erekose book which is well worth the pennies you'll have to pay for a copy on EBay. More power to your paintbrush JB. Your productivity is astounding at the moment!

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    1. Cheers Colin ! I have never read about Erekose apart from what you hear from him in other books so he'll be the next I read about !

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  2. Corum was one of my favourite miniatures to paint last year (was my first miniature of the year as well) and one of the minis in my Holy Grail list. So it's always interesting to see what others do with it. :)

    "...a bit like changing shoes from a season to another." Couldn't agree more!

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    1. To be honest, I love the character way more than the model but it's still nice to have this one done !
      Thanks !

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  3. Beautiful symbiotic pair! I can't wait to see them in the flesh!

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    1. I especially can't wait to see all of them on a table !

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  4. A superb painted collection of lesser known Citadel classics brought to life with your unique style. I have always felt this range to be beautifully sculpted with yours the finest painted examples I have seen, Friskers being my favourite of favourites. Lovely stuff! (:

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    1. Thanks, I think most people know the set including most champions but it's true the other personalities aren't as famous and we rarely get to see them. For shame really.
      thanks !

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  5. Can't wait to see these in person JB!

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  6. I agree with your comments about the sculpting but you have done a wonderful job.

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    1. Something's definitely wrong but it's not a total miss either. Thanks !

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  7. Gorgeous. The alignment on Jhary's eyes works well -- the eyes may be imbalanced on the model, but the way you've painted them gives him a sly, side-long view that's very much in keeping with his character.
    Stupid question... is Friskers a Citadel sculpture or from some other manufacturer?

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    1. With his left eye a little higher than the right, it was sort of strange so I made him look sideways to tune that down.
      Friskers was from a small batch commisioned by Axiom from "magpie and old lead" to match with Jhary's little furry friend.

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  8. You're certainly churning out great paint jobs on so many models in such a short time. I never read any of Michael Moorcock's work which is funny considering all I ever read are scifi and fantasy stuff. Just somehow missed his work for one reason or another.

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    1. Well there's plenty to see and read so plenty to miss as well I guess.
      I'm not painting as much as I'd want too but things get done so i'm not complaining, cheers !

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  9. Right I'm hooked in. These painted figs have got me intrigued and I've just ordered my first Moorcock book.

    Great work as usual, my friend.

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    1. Cheers Chris, to be honest, this all thing makes me want to dig a bit further than the 2 champions I know about. It's getting sunnier everyday so lunch break reading sessions are coming back ! ^^

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  10. Great paintjob and good research on the original source. I read the second trilogy if Corum about 20 years ago and I always planned to read the first one sometimes. That's a good proposition for Summer.
    Agree that Corum is probably one if the most appealing incarnations of the Eternal Champion. The miniature has been in my wishlist for a long time...

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    1. Both trilogies are very different, I do like the 2nd because of the elements you find in other stories like in Slaine with Balor and the fomorians but the first trilogy is somehow a bit more epic and with a better pace I find.
      The hardest ting about the eternal champion set is finding models without broken ankles ! ^^

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  11. That's some superclassic miniatures. Big fan of Moorcock so great to see these nicely painted. Remember some very old versions painted by John Blanche
    /Hans

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    1. Thanks ! As you can see, I went for a wa ymore classical look than Blanche did. ^^

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  12. Making me want to go re-read the Eternal Champion books from Elric through to Hawkmoon. There are some really evocative images described in there and the various iterations of the Eternal Champion each have some splendid moments of heroism and bravery that could make for some excellent modelling opportunities.

    Fantastic work all around JB.

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    1. Some moments in those books really gave me gooseflesh back then.
      Can't wait to see what the other guys come up with and a tabe full of eternal champions !
      Cheers !

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