Medusa (1/24 Masterbox)

[B4en]

I fancied a change from tiny tanks and planes, and found this. A rather fine bit of sculpting, the sculptor has even put subtle scales on some of her skin. Construction is simple and parts fit is pretty good. This is obviously meant to be a 'sexy' version of the myth rather than the original Greek 'utterly monstrous' version.

In the myth Medusa was actually a tragic figure: the beautiful mortal child of two minor deities, raped by a god then cursed by a goddess. No women's solidarity from Athena there! The basic kit is a bit lacking in the snake department so I made some extras for her hair from milliput - a few spares can be seen on the floor. The floor itself is based on an actual ancient Greek mosaic with a serpentine motif - I roughed it out in pencil on a piece of plasticard then dabbed away until I was happy with it. Took a while but it was quite enjoyable to do, in a therapeutic sort of way.

Just for fun I decided this should be Euryale - one of Medusa's immortal sisters - and added an unfortunate German feldwebel in the process of getting stoned. He really shouldn't have scrawled his name on her podium!

It was nice to try some really careful figure painting on a slightly larger scale for once. I used a mix of acrylics and artist's oils for most of the painting. Hope you all enjoy the Indiana Jones vibe.

[general rocket]

Nice

[mattbacon]

She looks great. Beautiful paint, and I am in awe of the base…”dabbed away” eh?
Best,
M.

[JamesPerrin]

Blimey the base is stunning piece of work itself, but the excellent figure more than stand up for itself. I really like you’ve painted her scales to match the mosaic.

[B4en]

Thanks guys, glad you like her. The floor did feel like an exercise in pointillism. The original mosaic looks much better and is certainly better laid out.

[Clashcityrocker]

Great idea, and very well executed.

Nigel

[B4en]

Great idea, and very well executed.

Nigel

Cheers Nigel! Honestly the old Tamiya German was kind of an afterthought as she looked a bit lonesome by herself. I wish I'd made the graffiti a bit larger as it looks a bit smudged and hard to read in the photos. It should read GUNTHER HIER WAR.

[BWP]

Superb work B4en, but we expect nothing less!

[B4en]

Superb work B4en, but we expect nothing less!

Many thanks Bruce. Sometimes the painting works out well and I must admit this looks better than I expected in the photos.

[rob_van_riel]

Gorgeous little vignette, although if it were me, I'd probably need therapy after that mosaic

This is obviously meant to be a 'sexy' version of the myth rather than the original Greek 'utterly monstrous' version.

Mind you, even the marginally less ancient Greeks preferred a stunningly beautiful Medusa (lame pun intentional) to the gross and ugly one from about 500BC. Not sure if that included her sisters; Medusa was drifting away from one of three similar creatures to a more unique character by then. Given that they're supposed to be immortal, I suppose we could go and check what the real one looks like, but there might be side effects to taking a look

[B4en]

Gorgeous little vignette, although if it were me, I'd probably need therapy after that mosaic

Haha thanks Rob. Honestly once the basic pattern was sketched out it was like doing one of those old painting by numbers sets.

I've suspected for quite a while that the gorgons were derived from the 'heroic' age attacks on Crete, with it's snake waving bare breasted ladies.