Thank you so much mate - I love sharing these figures with you!Wow!!!! ZEUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Honestly been the MOST excited to see how he turned out, WOW.
But since I tend to reply in a topdown approach....I'm so happy you were successful in switching the shoulder pauldrons around for Ares and Hades. It was such a great idea to swap the armour pieces to begin with, but I absolute LOVE how they both look with those changed around.
Poseidon literally looks like every piece was made for eachother to be a full figure. The oxidised bronzing is fascinating and looks marvelous!!! Very curious how you even arrived to that idea for a figure, but the execution is so.. authentic! I've traveled a bit around the US east coast for work and leisure and there's actually this bronze "King Neptune" statue at Virginia Beach which your new patina work instantly reminded me of:
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It's just a modern, loosely representative art piece, but I find it quite hilarious that it might be the only other blue-bronze depiction of a sea god and something I've seen in person!!
BUT ZEUS!!!! WHAT! HOW? How the hell is it so perfect?? Saving such a stark gold and white colour scheme for him makes him absolutely regal. The calm, determined look of that sculpt is perfect; a confidence that he's in control of it all. Absolutely adore the eagle sceptre. Not sure myself what every motif on the torso represents, but it looks so much like renaissance artworks: loud, angelic, beautiful--like having the Sistine chapel emblazoned on his chest. Very creationistic; which makes perfect sense in an ironic way. Between the almost hieroglyphic nature of images on the torso and the short staff, and the composition of the art on the torso, it makes me think of Zeus as being there first before Egyptian myths and Christianity-like he's the true progenitor to the whole world.
Also love the literal crowning touch--are the gold laurels original, I noticed they're not an olive branch, are they acorns??.... Poetically suggesting he's grown the roots of the world tree?!?!?! You couldn't have found a better or more elegant way to convey his status
Also also, that eagle looks perfectly magestic. Love that he's rising above it as if to say "I'm literally on a higher plane of existence than all the things in the sky"... the white cloudy cape and bits of sky blue make him look like he's one and the same. Also now wishing Eagly from the Peacemaker fig was closer to that size, lol.
The greaves are especially amazing, though; are they a depiction of the trio of Horae? The Fates? The Big Three? The furies? I kind of like to think the first, but trios in general are such an integral part of the balancing of the mythos universe that the ambiguity actually might be the neatest part. And the water bird above the ankles is especially amazing--now we know he just looked down at his feet to get the idea of turning into a swan.
Back to Ares for a moment; it's crazy that the original hand holding the head shattered... I can't even imagine the disappointment when it first happened LOL--but what an amazing success story in making those new grooves. It looks completely natural!!
I've no idea how much experience customising other figs you've had before kitbashing this whole line, but the creativity in tackling both the issues and improvements is really, really neat. You make it all seem straightforward and easy to think of things practically in a way I wouldn't begin to imagine. The handwoven fishing net, too, OMG.
I don't think you've shown that Cerberus stand piece beneath Hades either or else I haven't noticed it. Is that a pomegranate in his hand, too? INCREDIBLE!!!! I also just realised how similar the double helix of his staff is to the caduceus. Oh my god.
So exciting to see the three complete. It's such a serious treat whenever I see a notification for this thread Already loving the sneak peek of Apollo with his bow. AND SEWING A CAPE FOR HADES
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