My God - Freyr

Hey Internet, 

I've very much been looking forward to putting this model up online - my god for 'Of Gods and Mortals' - Freyr.

Some WIP pictures of this model can be found HERE.

The model itself is a converted 'Jason' from Spartan Game's short lived 40mm scale Greek Mythological skirmish game. I absolutely love this model - and that not a thing I say often. Perhaps it is because I've never worked on a 40mm scale model before, but I was awed my the level of detail and character that the model possessed - particularly the intense, piercing stare of the eyes.

"Freyr (sometimes anglicized Frey, from *frawjaz "lord") is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was associated with sacral kingship, virility and prosperity, with sunshine and fair weather, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals". Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden and seen as an ancestor of the Swedish royal house.

In the Icelandic books the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Freyr is presented as one of the Vanir, the son of the sea god Njörðr, brother of the goddess Freyja. The gods gave him Álfheimr, the realm of the Elves, as a teething present. He rides the shining dwarf-made boar Gullinbursti and possesses the ship Skíðblaðnir which always has a favorable breeze and can be folded together and carried in a pouch when it is not being used.

The most extensive surviving Freyr myth relates Freyr's falling in love with the female jötunn Gerðr. Eventually, she becomes his wife but first Freyr has to give away his magic sword which fights on its own "if wise be he who wields it". Although deprived of this weapon, Freyr defeats the jötunn Beli with an antler. However, lacking his sword, Freyr will be killed by the fire jötunn Surtr during the events of Ragnarök."

[The text above is an edited extract from this Wikipedia entry.]

Although I was initially daunted by the prospect of painting the centrepiece of my force without ever having painted a model of this scale before, I found the process to not only be incredibly enjoyable, but incredibly simple too. I didn't 'read-up' on painting 40mm figures before tacking him, so just painted it as if it were a 28mm model, using the same colours and techniques. As it turns out, it is exactly the same - you simply have far more space with which to blend colours on flat surfaces, and any fiddly details are much, much larger, making them also far easier to paint.

The final thing worth mentioning are the glowing eyes. I probably spent half of my total painting time for this model researching how to paint glowing 'directional lighting' effects on-line, and 'um-ing' and 'ah-ing' over whether to give it a go or not. On the one hand, I was very fearful that I would screw-up my otherwise completed model if I hacked blindly at the eyes with a paintbrush, while on the other I thought a glowing eye effect, whilst far more Greek than Norse, would set Freyr apart from his mortal comrades-in-arms. In the end I just went for it, and I think it looks really quite all-right. I think I did good.

A little out of focus, but I think it shows the eyes pretty well.

My next step towards completing my Norse project will be painting up Freyr's alternate form on the table-top, Skíðblaðnir, his dwarven forged, magical long-ship.