Namtar Runetusk

Finally finished up this bastard, and got a hold of a camera to photograph him with. Yay! All in all, I had a lot of fun making this guy and am looking for an excuse to make something else


Fun and Interesting stuff:

- I decided to do this guy in particular over all my other WoW characters because I like the trolls. They're my favorite playable race, although I've never trained up one past level 20. I figured with death knights starting at 55, this was my chance to get a troll to 80, So I put some thought into his name and look, and backstory.
- Since I created him on an RP realm, it was my intention to roleplay him. I even wrote up a backstory about how he is a Drakkari ice troll from Northrend who was killed during the scourge invasion of Zul'Drak, resurrected as a death knight, and released from the Lich King's controll. Namtar had always been crazy, but the madness of the old god, Yogg-Saron, had driven him further into insanity.
- The problem with Roleplay is you have to keep in character. I kept dropping out to do quests, talk to people, or I'd just forget to do it in the first place. As such, I just gave up and use the above text for flavor. I thought it's be fun to play a villain, but the problem is that I was doing a lot of "heroic" tasks during quest. "Oh, hey those are a nice pair of tanking boots. Alright I'll save those orphans from the chemical fire!"
- Namtar's name is referenced from a Mesopotamian god of death and disease. Seemed fitting for a death knight, until someone sent me a tell in game asking me "Why your troll's name was 'Ratman' spelled beckwards?". o_o'
- His armor is referenced from the Tier 8 death knight armor set (one of the best looking DK sets IMO), with the boots being a modified Ulduar drop that seemed to fit the theme of the rest of the armor.
- the runes on his tusk (ha-HA! literal last name) are the runes for 'blood' and 'unholy' (his two specs, blood for tanking and unholy for dps) used back during the Blizzcon 2007 announcement of Wrath of the Lich King.
- for his hair, I wanted it to look very disheveled and almost straw-like. Basically, I flattened out a piece of sculpy and shredded it with an knife so it looked like the ends were all clumped and uneven.
- I thought the axe would be studier (if not straighter) if I used wood. It is, but I quickly learned I need to be very careful carving against the grain, lest chunks of wood snap off and get lost. You can see where things went bad if you compare it to the reference. I thought that skinny hilt was going to going to snap for sure.
- Because of the wooden axe I had to cure his right hand separately. I'd never used a hair-dryer to cure scuply before, just the oven. Apparently, the inside was still soft and his thumb and 2nd finger kept snapping off. I couldn't get his grip to be strong enough on the axe, so I eventually had to glue it all in place. Lesson learned: use more armatures, or get a good book while using the hair dryer.
- The painting style I used (or rather, tried to) is from the Citadel painting guide. I'm still trying to get the hang of it. The paint I'm using is probably a little thicker than what I should be using anyway.
- I had intened to use the wooden base that this is all mounted to as the main base, but I liked the 'rotted-earth' texture that the spray-paint left behind on the styrofoam.
- The twig-tree was not intended. I kept because of claw-like twisted shape it made. The sticks I brought in I was going to make look like a felled, rotting log.
- Yeah, I know its cheap to use materials from my back yard, but meh.
- In fairness, I did use modeling grass to make the clumps of dead grass. I'm kinda regretting using it as it makes the model a lot more fragile than I'd prefer.