Ragnar and Stefan

In my last post, I said I was considering that one guy as a replacement image for Ragnar Clevenger. My original idea for Ragnar was that he was a bit of a side character; his younger brother Stefan would be the main character, and Ragnar would be a bit like Racer X to Speed Racer. (Because I used to watch that show a lot in the late 70s when I was a little kid.) I've actually, as I've started going through this 5x5 business, decided that I needed more than one protagonist. Like a lot of larger fantasy novels, there's multiple plot threads with multiple characters off doing their own thing rather than a single plot thread with a single main character. Ragnar and his "crew" was the obvious alternative here, so he got elevated to a secondary protagonist, who mostly does his own thing in a different geographical area to Stefan, although their work ties together to tell the full story.

While this is common in really huge Sir Mix-a-lot sized butt fantasy novels, as written by guys like Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan, for instance, even Tolkien did it. After Fellowship of the Ring, the Aragorn-led plot and the Frodo-led plots diverged for almost the entire remainder of the narrative, and Aragorn was "promoted" if you will from being a supporting character to being a co-protagonist on a different track.

Anyway, I ended up redoing him in a different outfit, but his head looks pretty much the same. I'm actually redoing a lot of characters, because my early efforts were kind of primitive compared to what I can do now on with the tool. I also decided that Stefan and Ragnar would probably dress similarly. 

I don't like to get into the really weird stuff with Hero Forge; the using extra arms, but posing them so that they are inside the body, and their hands just stick out holding something, or the doubled miniatures so you can have more layers of clothing, etc. Those kinds of minis aren't reposable without too much work, so I prefer to keep to the "basic" steps of just creating a mini and equipping and clothing and painting it to get it to look as good as you can without these glitches and tricks and stuff that the tool obviously wasn't ever meant to do.

Anyway, here's the main protagonists of each of the three groups I might potentially use, with Ragnar and Stefan being the most iconic, and Claud being an alternate for if I need three streams.

I also decided that I don't need so much gear. A cavalry saber in his right hand, a bow in his left, and a dagger at his hip is probably already more than I need. Stefan has a packhorse to carry most of his stuff anyway.

Stefan is a bit broader, while Ragnar is a bit taller. While their hairstyles are different, and their eye colors, they are meant to look quite a bit alike. They even both use the same faded green and dusty leather color schemes.

Two images of my reimagined Claud. The original image I had for him was one that I got from the library, and it was a doubled image to get a few tricks, including a unique hairstyle that combined two models. While this isn't as complicated, I actually think it looks considerably better. And it was hard for me to change the original, because it was a doubled image. That's why I don't like using them.

Claud is also a Tarushan gypsy version of the Jekyll and Hyde archetype, so here's his "Hyde" form.

Here's both forms on the same base so you can see the size difference.

When next I post; the next column of the 5x5! If I remember correctly, the next one should be the Northumbrian orcling pirates in the Darkling Sea based on Chersky Island.