Leaderhead Preview: Urho Kekkonen

Who? Urho Kekkonen was the Finnish president in 1956-81. He stretched his already extensive presidential rights to their limit and became known for disassembling parliament on many occasions and in general, acting as a very authoritan president - Finland during his reign got a nickname "Kekkoslovakia". However, Kekkonen's style went for the people - he drank lots of alcohol, had affairs with women, was a former athletic and had his political negotiations with foreing leaders in a sauna... Much of his political image existed only in people's minds, but the fact is that Kekkonen became an institution. He reigned with practically no one to compete against and when a coalition was formed to put a new president in office, Moscow gave Kekkonen a political weapon by creating a small crisis in relations for Kekkonen to solve and emerge as the protector of Finnish independence against Soviets. Kekkonen definitely stayed in office for several years too long as during the last few years he wasn't anymore fit for office as age got the better of him. However, as much bad things you can say about him, he did get us through the cold war with our independence intact.

Anyway, I got so excited about working with Ekmek's Alexander the Great leaderhead that I started a new one by myself. Kekkonen was an easy choice, he's Finnish, he's the best choice for Finnish leader (with Mannerheim as close second) and the best of all: he's bald.

He won't be animated, but he will be mood specific in the diplomatic negotiations. As you can see, he is era-specific.

I'll release him probably later this week. Currently, this is all I have finished and even these need some polishing.

Edit: Some reference pictures for those who don't know what he looks like.
Young Kekkonen
Old Kekkonen

My version is something of a medium between the young and the old.

Comments are most welcome.

looks good ^ ^
maybe your next project will be to edit the chinese and korean leader heads. durring the middle ages they are wearing europien clothing....

You should you a program like 'Goo' to make the animations so they are bette than static and more similiar to ccm01 leaderheads.
Goodjob though

Originally posted by Unexisted
You should you a program like 'Goo' to make the animations so they are bette than static and more similiar to ccm01 leaderheads.

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I'm not much of an animator and it would mean completely new way of working. But I'll look into it.


In other news... comments are still most welcome. Hints, suggestions, opinions whatever. If you don't like it, say it aloud so I can learn from critique

I worked a bit more last night with this project, here's a little preview of what I did. Both are still works in progress.
- Ancient and Medieval were too similar, so I gave the ancient Urho a fur hat. Is it too similar with the industrial hat?
- Medieval Urho had shoulders like barn doors, so I changed them and started work on the angry mood. I haven't quite found the expression I'm after, but I feel it's on the right track.

Originally posted by ShiroKobbure
lmaybe your next project will be to edit the chinese and korean leader heads. durring the middle ages they are wearing europien clothing....

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I don't think I can help with that. I take the clothes from another leaderheads. But maybe I'll try my hand on it. Just don't expect anything.

This is a very crude thing I made (in Paint ), the idea is to have a cloth (wool) hat with a fur trimming.

This doesn't mean I'll add a Finnish civilization to my game, of course.

I considered that, but ended up taking a more shamanistic approach. I'm not sure about the result and it's currently the only part of the leaderhead that is still under consideration. I would love to hear opinions and suggestions about the ancient era. I would like to keep the shamanistic look, but should I start the hat from scratch or keep/modify the current one? Or should I go with mrtn's suggestion about a hat with fur trimming?

I think you should give him a Charlie Brown tie for the Modern Age.

Drift
It looks great. And the graphics blend well with other civ3 leaderheads.

If you are looking for a new hat for the ancient period you could make it a round hat with a point or something and have the fur brim. You can get metal looking stuff from either alex's armor in ancient or metal from Joan or Hannibals helmet. Its just a matter of drawing an outline and finding the approproiately lit pieces andd shape it to your outline (may be tedious, but thats how I got alex's hair to work)

great job!

Give the ancient Kekkonen a blue and white cap instead (you know, the legendary Väinämöinen style thingy).

Thanks everyone. I'll have to think about the ancient hat some more. The current shaman rag doesn't look too good. (And no Exel, I won't give him a blue & white cap. ) Although it might not be so bad idea if I could draw it properly. But I think I'm going to go with something more subtle.

Did you use the Dwight Eisenhower model for this?

Nice head, I might find use for the Medieval flic even though I dont have Finland included in my mod

Originally posted by Unexisted
Did you use the Dwight Eisenhower model for this?

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You are talking about Sween32's Eisenhower? No, I didn't use that, nor did I use a model at all.

Blood of great men flow in Kekkonen's veins. Most of his face is from Alexander the Great, brow belongs to Otto von Bismarck and eyes are those of William of Orange.

Kekkonen has also a hobby of collecting items from great leaders. His hats are made out of those worn by Tokugawa and Mao Zedong(not sure about this one), his ancient clothes are from Bismarck, Industrial suit belonged originally to Abraham Lincoln and Modern suit came from Alexander's wardrobe.