Scion of Ehecatl / Kobold Coatl-Born (2)

 

These Colorful heroes are my entry for this months Printed Encounter paint club. The modular packs are a fun concept, and I was keen on requesting a new part for the kobold kit, so I charged it. 

For a concept I really wanted something that would leverage the unique modularity of these kits, something very different from my normal subjects or from the kobolds already in my collection. I'm not exactly sure how the inspiration struck, but somehow my brain connected the dots that this style of kobold head had an uncanny resemblance to the Aztec god Ehecatl:

 

Notably, the toothy snout  was a good fit. plus an neckbeard, and a brow that looked a bit like a horn! Perfect. Ehecatl is a god of the winds and an aspect of Quetzalcoatl - It doesn't get much cooler than that! In D&D lore the Kobold is often associated with dragons, and they manefest their characteristics from time to time. Following that logic, why not a Coatl? It seemed like an amazing convergence of concept, inspiration, art, and opportunity. I dug around on the web and found some good coatl art, as well as as many images of Ehecatl as I could. A full body image is below:

A few themes were clear: A dark body, either blue or green, a red face (and often hands and feet), here he is shown with a warclub and a round shield. Great reference material.

PE has a very nice set of modular wings that were perfect for the concept, so those were an easy choice. I had the idea early on that I would use the D&D coatl color palate for the wings to join the modern gaming interpretation with the mythology. The gear was tougher, as the current offerings were far more western in theme. Fortunately, I have a Mesoamerican frogfolk pack from PE and I am pretty handy in Meshmixer and Blender. A pair of quick weapon swaps onto the hand bits and I was in business with a macuahuitl and chimalli. The bases were also kitbashed from various free bits and bobs I had in my collection. Easter-egg: the statue on the base of the model on the right is none other than Ehecatl himself! It is a scan of an actual statue (in his human form, it would seem). All of the parts were assembled virtually, and they were printed, bases and all, in a single piece. (note to self: next time use at least two points of contact to the base!).

For the colors I wanted to keep it very colorful, and dang, those wings came out bright! They really pop. For the full buy in, I decided to freehand the chimalli (round shields) using known shield patterns (from codex Mendoza): 

  

I took some liberties with the designs, but I really enjoyed it. I almost never do freehand these days because of the time consuming nature of it, but it was really satisfying.

The bold palate was such a fun change from my normal subjects that I'm tempted to paint a coatl next time I need a palate cleanser.

In summary, a great project! I was able to flex my modeling printing and painting skill, all under a deadline, and I really had fun with it. Heck, I learned a bunch! the research was really interesting, and I'm eager to do more. I hope Ehecatl approves.