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Plague-Doc-Matteo β€” Lego MOC: Saxum

Published: 2013-10-24 16:58:09 +0000 UTC; Views: 3909; Favourites: 70; Downloads: 0
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Description About The MOC
Saxum is one of those projects that got out of hand for me, not in a bad way though. He started off wth me wanting to build a revamp of Bruizer but started to take its own shape early on in the process. He's also a bit of a realization of an idea I've had for a while. My original concept of a "rock Monster" was a creature with an amorphous shape that could absorb things, other forms of earth or even machinery. Not an original concept I know but the concept allowed for an interesting ideal for the MOC. The MOC iteration would be this creature when it had torn off the boom of a crane and is using it as an extendable arm. The idea was to counter technic looking machinery with natural looking stone. I plan to create this MOC eventually, but for now, we have Saxum.
I decided to build this MOC to try and get some practice in texturing with system parts. Luckily I got a good many "cheese" parts in olive from a Pick-A-Brick cup so this allowed me to try and do a simple Mossy stone look. I also tried to give him a sense of erosion on the parts of the build that were brick built and not just the preformed rock pieces I used to make his torso and front of the legs. Though I did try to mimic the look of those parts in the arms and head a bit.
The name Saxum come s from the Latin word for "stone."

I built Saxum over a three day period with one full day of MOCing that covered the bulk(no pun intended) of the MOC, and two lighter days to complete the build and then finish it off. Overall he's a fairly stable build. He's easy enough to pose, especially the arms. The legs are a bit touchy but as you can see I can get him in some decent poses. He's pretty flexible despite the bulkiness. The use of Hero Factory extenders keeps most of the joints in his legs rigid enough to hold him up. The weakest point in his legs would be his ankles that don't use any extenders, but has a short actuator system in place. Once balanced he's stable though.


I've discovered Snip has a superpower, he has the ability to charm any living creature, even otherwise hostile ones. Nothing wants to hurt him, not even Bionicle MOCkery Matteo. I confess that the idea of Saxum giving snip flowers came from the Iron Golems from Still adorable as hell though.


Bio(rough draft)
I don't have a full bio just yet. I'm having trouble figuring out which setting/universe to place him in. I only have basic ideas or an outline. All information is subject to change. Feedback and ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

Saxum is a juvenile Stone Golem. Relative to human he would be older than a toddler, but still a young child, so about the age of 5 or 6. However, because Stone Golems live for hundreds or thousands of years, or quite possibly indefinitely. Saxum is still a few hundred year old. Stone Golems can grow to be quite large, but never gigantic. but the process for some are subverted by the effects of weathering and erosion. This is believed to be the reason Stone Golems die at all, once they reach adulthood they live until their bodies have shrunk due to erosion to the point their internal organs cannot sustain life and they simply die. Their bodies then become inanimate masses of stone and then return to the earth.
Stone Golem Birthing happens when two living Stone Golem break off a pieces of themselves, combined the two pieces into a crystal and bury it within a significant amount of rock. After an unpredictable amount of time the baby Stone Golem emerges from the ground.
Golems are typically peaceful creatures unless harmed or provoked by other Golems. Those that interact with Golems typically perceive them as stupid, simple or dim, but in actuality they have a comprehensive knowledge of nature.

And that's all I've got so far. i've got a lot of different ideas that don't necessarily fit together.

MOCs featured in this Deviation
Snip
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Comments: 66

Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to ??? [2013-10-27 02:57:04 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the Critique Dennis. I'm glad you like him.

He's not supposed to look menacing though. He's a "rock golem" not a "rock monster." Kinda different things. Golem are simply creatures made of inanimate objects or material, they're not necessarily evil, hostile or menacing. The idea I tried to convey with the photos is that he's friendly but is capable of violence if threatened or provoked. Like I said in the part about the flowers, I guess the Iron Golem from Minecraft had more of an influence on me than I realized. They're peaceful and actually helpful creatures since they fend off hostile mobs in their vicinity to protect villagers. But if you(the player) attack one, they'll beat your ass dead in one or two hits depending on the situation(i.e amount of armoring or if it enchanted). That's kinda how this guy is. Since I can't nail down a setting for him its hard to determine some characterstics. So I kinda went for a more broad bio about Rock Golems. I wanted to make his face more expressive by using 1X2 tiles and having his jaw be able to open and close more, but everything kept falling off that way. Oh well. I like his goofy, weird expression. It gives him his deceptively dim look.

Considering he made it onto The Brothers Brick blog, I guessΒ  everything else is pretty much correct. He was more unique and original than I realized. Thanks again for the critique. I appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to give some feedback.

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WDenniz In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2013-10-27 20:03:03 +0000 UTC]

Hehe ooh, did not realize that . Sorry for that, but I guess my critique is still pretty accurate though. I know it's been taking me ages to actually even write some incoherent stuff down xD, let alone write a decent critique. But now I'm back home and will do my best to write some more (and more decent) stuff.Β 

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megaherofactory [2014-12-18 16:51:42 +0000 UTC]

AWESOME

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to megaherofactory [2014-12-19 14:06:36 +0000 UTC]

Thanks.

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megaherofactory In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2014-12-19 20:44:42 +0000 UTC]

np

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Magith1 [2013-11-19 10:25:31 +0000 UTC]

That face...It's just so....Doofy....Almost in a satanic way....


Well, now I know what to expect in my next fever dream. The HF armor parts look a little out of place, and the crotch looks pretty out of place, but just about everything else works. You might wanna add a bit of a rocky texture to the tops of the feet.

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to Magith1 [2013-11-19 18:20:10 +0000 UTC]

Well I was going for Doofy/weird, so thank you.

I agree they don't look quite right, but I needed to articulate him some how, so that meant using HF parts and he needed something to go there that was minimal and out of the way of the rest of his moving parts, so HF armor. Ideally it'd just be dark grey, less conspicuous but it is what it is. Yeah I agree that he could use some rocky bits there but again movement is key and only that outer most part of the buildable bottom side of that rock raiders cabin piece wouldn't block the movement of his legs so there wasn't much room to work with, especially since I'd need to invert studs so it could have studs facing up while still connecting to a bottom piece.

In a perfect world, all those things could happen, but we don't live in a perfect world.

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Magith1 In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2013-11-19 20:04:52 +0000 UTC]

You probably could just connect a few studs face down on the tops of the feet. It would still give a rocky look. Also, maybe you could give him a loin cloth to place over those horrid friction adders.

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to Magith1 [2013-11-20 02:10:14 +0000 UTC]

They're horrid...to you They're dark grey, they fit his color scheme, I'm okay with them. Its personal preference. They didn't bother me that much so I didn't and still don't feel the need to address them as an issue, other wise I would have. The thing about the feet, yeah I kinda would have liked a little something there since its such a flat surface. I'm pretty certain I have the parts to do something, but I tapped out my supply of sorted parts and I didn't feel like digging through the tub of unsorted system parts to find a few studs to put there. Again not a big problem.

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ejaylee [2013-11-03 00:27:42 +0000 UTC]

Saxum could be some sort of bridge between 2D and 3D as he seems stuck between those two plane.

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to ejaylee [2013-11-03 05:03:23 +0000 UTC]

How do you figure that? He looks pretty 3D to me.

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ejaylee In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2013-11-03 09:07:47 +0000 UTC]

From the front he looks like something straight out of Minecraft The blocky feel that it has.

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to ejaylee [2013-11-03 12:24:31 +0000 UTC]

My mom said it looked like some minecraft creature to. I think someone else on here or somewhere online mentioned it as well.

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Gale-OneOfMany [2013-10-28 15:37:48 +0000 UTC]

Oddly enough, I don't really like this one. For some reason, it just doesn't work for me. Oh well. It's pretty nice beyond my dislike of it. Good job using them BURPs and LURPs too.

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Trimondius01 In reply to Gale-OneOfMany [2013-10-30 10:00:34 +0000 UTC]

I have to agree there,my mind just cannot understand whats going on in the design.

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to Gale-OneOfMany [2013-10-28 18:38:01 +0000 UTC]

Thanks Gale. When I think about it. MOCs like this or 5pr1nt3r kinda venture out of the BioMOCer lexicon and I think that's why they end up not being liked or favored by BioMOCers. For me though I've really broadened my horizons of what to use in MOCing and have brought a lot of system flavor back into my MOCing. I said this to Simeon in his comment thread, but this isn't really all that different from any other figure build we Bio MOCers do, its the same concept-build a guy out of parts, but how I got there is different. Its more or less a BioMOC done with system, which I'm no stranger to. I did that with Grayskayl to, and I'm sure to do it again on other MOCs. Some MOCers make it a point to stray as far away from system as they can, I make it a point to see how much I can bring it back into my world of MOCing.

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Gale-OneOfMany In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2013-10-31 13:22:28 +0000 UTC]

Yeah. It's hard for some of us "set in our ways" bio-MOCers to really look at something that throws system so much into our method and say "huh, this is a good idea". But even if I don't understand the MOC, I gotta respect how you're putting system in it. I like how you're putting in into Bio-MOCing. I think it needs to be done more. I just can't say I'll ever be that good at it XD

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to Gale-OneOfMany [2013-11-08 11:54:55 +0000 UTC]

Thanks Gale. Well I think it comes from having so much system just lying around and me going "well fuck this seems like such a waste. I should use it some how." And at heart, i'm a bio-MOCer. I don't build houses or Minifig Cars. All that kind of stuff amazes me when MOCers show MOCing ingenuity for minifig scale stuff. I'm used to seeing ingenuity in Bio MOCing, but in Minifig houses or dioramas and shit like that its just like "Oh wow I never woulda thought of that. Like this for example.It uses Piraka spines to achieve the look of a pine tree. He made a kind of "how to " for it as well.

See, when you say things like that, it automatically walls you off from being able to do something. A few years ago if you woulda said "hey use some system parts to make a MOC" I would have been like What the fuck am I going to make with that useless shit?" You just gotta stay open to the possibilities of things. I can't see myself being a Minifig scale MOCer, but hey later on down the line, it might happen. Who knows. Just gotta look at things in a broader context and realize you're limiting yourself by thinking a certain way about MOCing, or life in general really. One thing seeing MOCers online have shown me is that there's no such thing as a useless part in Lego. No such thing.

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OddVibe [2013-10-26 01:59:09 +0000 UTC]

I'm really digging those 'chameleon" eyes.Β 

And he's very appealing to look at! Very sturdy too!Β 

Β 

Kind of makes me think of what if Minecraft just beame one whole being.Β 

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to OddVibe [2013-10-27 03:08:08 +0000 UTC]

HAHA I guess he does have Chameleon eyes kinda, stickin out on the side of his head kinda. And we were just talking about Chameleons to. Maybe that wiggled its way in there subconsciously. I've noticed I kinda take inspiration from things without noticing sometimes. So umm Thanks for that Sweety

that'd look pretty interest. Though that'd be a cool MOC, get the Minecraft sets and make like a microscale giant. Or ooo how about Atlas, but he's instead holding up a minecraft level with the micro scale sets in it. That'd be so cool. I'm gonna suggest that to some system MOCer friends. Cause they could do that justice far better than I could Those Minecraft sets are esspenssiveee~ That's a pretty cool idea Sharlene. After thinking about it, I realize the way this guy behaves would be pretty similar to Iron Golems in the game, peaceful and helpful to living creatures, unless attack or provoked by creatures attacking other creatures he cares about. He's like an animal cop. Now I just gotta figure out which world to put him in. Got any ideas which universe he'd go good in?

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AndiusMaximus [2013-10-25 21:30:13 +0000 UTC]

Makes me think of 'Shadow of the Colossus.'

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to AndiusMaximus [2013-10-25 21:51:20 +0000 UTC]

I was actually considering going that rout. Adding arches and areas that looked like structures and making like a custom colossus. I decided against it since colossi are a mix of fur and stone structures, and that would have meant differentiating the two color and texture wise. You were definitely on the right track with that comparison.

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BionicleC4 [2013-10-25 19:01:09 +0000 UTC]

hmmm... weird but awesome!!!!

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to BionicleC4 [2013-10-27 03:08:46 +0000 UTC]

I was trying to go for weird. So that's a compliment. So thank you.

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Lol-Pretzel [2013-10-25 08:31:46 +0000 UTC]

The head reminds me very much of Sid from the Ice Age movies XD


The build is excellent. This guy could well make a Chima set or similar. That said, I really can't see any worthwhile ties back to Bionicle on him. The Matoran Runes have no place on him, in my eyes.

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to Lol-Pretzel [2013-10-25 16:32:42 +0000 UTC]

Huh, yeah I can see that.

Thanks Gringat. Well i think there could be room in bionicle, I just am not sure I wanted him there. I was also thinking he could be tied into LOTR as a baby rock Giant. Or perhaps Matteo's world as some kind of spirit of eath. Kinda like how Hyde is a spirit of Harvest, this guy is actually a spirit of the earth itself. So that's one way I could have gone. I was also thinking he could be some kind of creature hunted by people for his eyes and possibly internal organs which could also have crystal like properties. I kinda have too many options and when that happens with me I don't know which way to move. I'm more of a creative freight train rather than a car.

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DerpyDemon [2013-10-25 06:32:58 +0000 UTC]

Jut thinking about the time and effort put on this! It's really amazing!

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to DerpyDemon [2013-10-25 16:34:14 +0000 UTC]

Thanks Derpy. I only spent about two full days on this MOC, not as much effort as I have other MOCs, like the Nui Moko Before this one. That MOC took forever.

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DerpyDemon In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2013-10-25 16:48:37 +0000 UTC]

Oh, okay. I'm going to check out Nui Moko now.

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Wretched--Stare [2013-10-25 01:19:46 +0000 UTC]

Nice Moc Dave, I really enjoyed the bio on Stone Golems.

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to Wretched--Stare [2013-10-25 16:33:15 +0000 UTC]

Thanks Greg.

Nice icon by the way.

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Wretched--Stare In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2013-10-25 16:41:44 +0000 UTC]

Welcome, glad you like it.Β 

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to Wretched--Stare [2013-10-25 17:10:00 +0000 UTC]

I do like it. But it needs to move some how. Your icons always look cooler when they're doing something.

I'm using this icon cause a friend made it, but I'll be switching back to something else at some point.

I'm having this weird conflict with myself lately. I've been thinking of making a Matteo icon, cause that's what I use everywhere else, but I have this conflict of "Matteo Vs 3rdeye88" Yah know Matteo is my identity as a MOCer, but 3rdeye88 is kind of my identity as a presence online. Can you kinda see the conflict there? Hmmm maybe I should get To paint me up a 3rdeye'd Matteo, solve that problem.

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Wretched--Stare In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2013-10-25 17:58:02 +0000 UTC]

I think that would be cool, I been trying to simplify my online stuff to one site I am wretched stare others I am Dark-Aberration ect.Β 

3rdeye88 is a great name and Matteo is a great character so its a win no matter what you pick Dave.
I personally hate the name I have now and wish I kept Knght-terror or wretched-stare here.Β  If I get the chance to change it I might use Wretched Finger or Crimson Terror those I like.

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to Wretched--Stare [2013-10-25 21:32:27 +0000 UTC]

I'm gonna note you to keep having this conversation.

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R603 [2013-10-25 01:18:45 +0000 UTC]

How interesting.


Overall as a character I really like him. He's huge and intimidating, while at the same time seemingly energetic and bumbling and can't truly be taken seriously at this point in life.


I'm not too great at giving my artistic thoughts on system MOCs, but I'll try. I can't say that it's absolutely great in comparison to the many system things that I have seen in that size range from people that mainly focus on system MOCs, but it has it's qualities. The hands are simplistic yet cool. I really like the arms and legs/feet the most, but.. That head, it irks me and I find it rather creepy. Design-wise the head isΒ really unique. I'm not truly getting a moss covered vibe from him though. In my opinion you could really use another green, a darker one. Better yet if you could get some darker or dark green Lego net or string like things you could integrate them in a way that works to complement that light green in some places.

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to R603 [2013-10-27 19:20:32 +0000 UTC]

Thanks Simeon.

Hmm well then I'd say I did what I set out to accomplish. I wanted him to be able to look intimidating, but also be something that small animals or perhaps a child could befriend. He's a Golem, not a "rock Monster." So I guess when I come back to the proper idea I had, that one will be mean and evil. Then they could fight.

Well try not to think of it purely as a system MOC, there is a HF skeleton and some bionicle and technic in there. Technic keeps the BURPs and LURPs connected to the HF bones. And then there's a bit of bionicle in there. I like to think of these kinds of MOCs as "Bionicle...but with system." Its the same concept, its just a different way to get there.
I'm inclined to agree with you there. I've been rubbing elbos with way more system MOCers as of late, and some of the stuff those guys do is god tier stuff. I'm just a BioMOCer derping around with system.
Lol Lianyu thought the head was ugly/creepy to. I was trying for a kinda creepy/bizarre look there. Hmmmm Alright. Yeah I think for a realy detailed Moss texture a lot more could be done. You're completely right there. But Moss tends to be pretty consistent in color. So I think if I did more to "moss" him I'd use Olive parts still. I'd most likely get some Leaves in olive. That's kinda the go to part for moss, vines and of course tree leaves, that and the big variant.

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R603 In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2013-10-27 21:46:00 +0000 UTC]

When it comes to moss I've seen different color variations in Florida. Some were rather dark-ish green, others were quite a lot brighter/paler, then there is Spanish Moss.

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to R603 [2013-10-28 18:30:20 +0000 UTC]

Oh you misunderstand what I was saying. Yeah Moss can be different colors, I'm just saying which ever particular Moss you're looking at tends to be one consistent color across the rocks or what ever. So one color to represent the moss works.

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R603 In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2013-10-28 20:55:02 +0000 UTC]

Oh, lol.


Maybe throughout his years he has been in different regions and collected other mosses on him?

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to R603 [2013-10-28 23:10:29 +0000 UTC]

That could work I suppose. Though I'm thinking that since he's got Moss on him to begin with, he's stayed put for a very long time.

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Deadpool7100 [2013-10-24 22:53:54 +0000 UTC]

very nice!!!!

wanted to point out that you have "their bodies" twice in a row in your bio

not that i know diddly squat about English but it should probably be reworded

also where do you get your fonts?

you seem to have a plethora of cool ones!

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to Deadpool7100 [2013-10-27 19:25:20 +0000 UTC]

Thanks DP.
Alright, I fixed it...I think.

I use Dafont.com . I get a new one for each MOC. I try and type in searches that fit the MOC in some way. It always has to visually make sense with the MOC, like this one looking rock like, but sometimes I find them because the name of the font itself ends up working out to.

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Deadpool7100 In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2013-10-28 06:00:58 +0000 UTC]

Thanks man!!!
Elements just cut down on the default fonts but i figured out how to add my own!!!
Hopefully I can find a good one for the upcoming avalanche post!

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to Deadpool7100 [2013-10-28 18:26:37 +0000 UTC]

Yeah you can add your own fonts because when you add a true font file to your computer all the programs that use fonts can access it. SO I could use those rad fonts in Microsoft word, PDN, Photoshop if I had it, all sorts of stuff. Its pretty cool.

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Deadpool7100 In reply to Plague-Doc-Matteo [2013-10-28 18:39:10 +0000 UTC]

yeah!

i cant wait to get the pictures done!!!

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CelticSpartan [2013-10-24 22:31:25 +0000 UTC]

Hmmmmmmmm..... Interesting. Β 

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to CelticSpartan [2013-10-27 19:31:06 +0000 UTC]

Thank you.

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The-Dapper-Scrapper [2013-10-24 21:39:46 +0000 UTC]

My only nit-pick here would be to extend the front of the chest and back to give him width that way and alsoΒ youΒ could build up a nice effect.
Apart from that it'sΒ aΒ very nice and overal sereneΒ build and the bio is very creative as yours always are

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Plague-Doc-Matteo In reply to The-Dapper-Scrapper [2013-10-27 19:30:58 +0000 UTC]

Hmmm I can see why you'd say that. I agree that it'd give him more definition but I also want to retain the shape and visibility of the LURPs.

Thanks Aaron. Sarene, I really like that. Thanks for taking the time to read my bio. Got anything to add to it? maybe what universe to stick this guy in? I'm kinda struggling with this guy's bio.

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