Quickie Paintjob: Christmas Tree Ornament

Just a quick pic and post of a miniature I quickly painted up for a friend of mine.  Phil's an old roommate of mine, and one of the moderators of Warseer.  He's also one of the nicest guys out there, and incredibly knowledgeable about just about everything (although military history is a particular specialty of his). And while he's a member of the Canadian military, he looks nothing at all like this:

Anyway, he and his wife invited us to their Christmas party, and rather than show up empty handed, I quickly painted up a spare Space Marine model I had kicking around.

It was supposed to be a Christmas tree ornament, and it was supposed to take about an hour or two tops.  Instead, I got a bit carried away experimenting and practicing my blending, and it ended up taking about 4 hours the night before the party.  The wire in the back is a paper clip drilled into the backpack, and I attached a loop of fishing line to it later.  I also added snow effects to the base, used a Christmas-y colour scheme, and freehanded a snowflake on one shoulder pad, and a Christmas tree on the other.  The "12" and "25" represent December 25th, to further reinforce the Christmas theme.  The model also needed some sparkle in order to catch the eye (the whole thing is only about an inch tall), so I used a mix of bronze and gold paint on the rim of the base, and gave that another coat of gloss varnish for extra shine.

It's a total geek gift, and I probably got more of a kick out of making it than Phil and his wife will get from putting it up on their tree.  However, in this day of crap made-in-China assembly line consumer crap throwaway gifts, I decided to apply a bit of personal effort and do something up by hand.  Yes, I know the model itself was pooped out of an injection-molding machine somewhere in the UK, but at least the paintjob and detailing was done with the finest Kolinsky sable brush and japanese precision made airbrush.  All inexpertly applied by myself.