Thursday, January 22, 2015

A blast from the past part 2

In my previous blog (Legatho's workshop), I had begun to question all the artists who inspired me. Did not drop that idea , so I would like to get those old interviews to repost here. So here they are.



The second one : 

Hi followers! Today is the time for an other blog :


officio_new


Here's the universe of Jeff Vader... A lot of you have ever seen a part of his fantastic work in this year january WD's Blanchitsu. many of his figures, if not all, really kick ass. From Warhammer 40 with Orks, Grey Knignts or dark eldars to Inq 28, this blog i oOne of the best I've ever seen. 


Hi Johan and welcome to Legatho's workshop!

My name is Johan Egerkrans (AKA "Jeff Vader") and I´m an illustrator living in Sweden. 36 years old on saturday 22nd (yay!).

I´ve been more or less obsessed with the warhammer 40k universe since the age of 12 when I first came into contact with it. What I initially fell in love with was the orks (then still called "Space Orks") - the mix of humor, weird contraptions and the extremely well written background captivated me, as did Paul Bonners brilliantly rendered artwork and Kev Adams leering miniatures. At this time I didn´t play the game - I was just deeply fascinated by the world and the miniatures. 

A few years later me and some friends started playing Warhammer and Blood Bowl. When 40k 2nd edition came out it reminded me of how a cool place the the 41st millennium was and we started playing that as well as Necromunda which came out a few years later.

During all this time my focus was always on the miniatures themselves, the art and background and that´s how it is to this day. I´ve taken breaks from the actual hobby, sometimes for years, but I´ve always bought White Dwarf every month and generally tried to keep up. 

A few years ago I started noticing an increasing number of hobbyists creating miniatures for something called inq28. This inspired me to start modeling my own grimdark, John Blanche-infused, minis which led to me starting up Officifo Convertorum which in turn led to me befriending all these talented artists including John. That also led to me being featured in Blanchitsu in what was to be the last "proper" White Dwarf (something I´m naturally very proud of). 

When I play 40k (which happens about three - four times a year) I play my Blood Axe ork army which I´ve been collecting ever since 3rd edition when the new style plastics came out. 

Could you tell us your vision of Warhammer 40k/ Inq28?

I still hold the background book from the Warhammer 40.000 2nd edition box to be the best thing GW has ever produced ( with "Waagh the Orks" and White Dwarf 127 with the origin of the eldar as close seconds) . To this day it´s, in my humble opinion the definite version of the 40k world. 

What I like about it is the mythical quality of the book - it doesn't get bogged down in details. 

To me that´s what  40k is about -  MYTH. Events are happening on a cosmic, allegorical scale. It´s about larger than life heroes, mad gods, devastating intergalactic wars. A place where the individual human is completely and utterly insignificant, both existentially and in the eyes of its government, and what living in such a universe does to a person (which is where Inquisitor comes in).

What are your main sources of inspiration?

John Blanche - he´s the alpha and omega of everything warhammery. 

Jes Goodwin - I´ve always been captivated by his beautiful design sketches, perhaps even mow than the models themselves. 

Both these gentlemen have had a huge impact on not just my hobby but my work as an illustrator as well.

 Hobbywise it´s the talented members of the Inq28 community (who I now happily call my friends) - PDH; Migsula, The Spiky Rats; JNR, Kraut and the rest of the gang - too many to mention.

How do you choose your paint schemes? Do you stay on a coherency or did the mini told you how it want to be painted?

I try to keep to a pretty muted palette consisting of browns, beige, greys, off-white and black with blood red, cyan and metallics as contrast - at lest when doing imperial stuff. My orks are a little more colorful.

What are your favorites bitz?

The small rods from the Grey Knight teleporter backpack. They turn up in the most unexpected places in my conversions. 

Do you have any project on your workbench?

I always have a lot of unfinished minis on standby, biding their time. The one that really deserves paint is the Dark Eldar haemonculii made almost half a year ago - I really like that build but haven't worked up the nerve to start painting it…

Last step, choose one of your minis (your favorite one) and tell us why. I'll do the same with what you made I prefer.

My favorite is probably the cherubim (not very seriously nicknamed mr. Snuffles) I converted from a nurgling. He just oozes character and manages to be cute (which is rare for a 40k character) and creepy (which is less rare in 40k, but still hard to get right) at the same time. 


Okay, now it's my turn... and my choice is the Nurgle's Prophet... I love it because it really stands out figure that one usually sees, and even if it is not completed, charisma is omnipresent. 



 Thank you for you answer!


And if you don't have enought, please take some minutes to visit his other website: egerkrans.com.

I hope you were pleased to read those archives from another age.

Thank you for reading

1 comment:

  1. Really enjoyed your article. Some great models, look forward to checking out your web site. Cheers

    ReplyDelete