I designed this pair of companion models for the 2018 Summer Joust. The competition had a "Mesoamerican Setting" sub-category, which excited me, but the judges decided that fantasy elements would not be allowed in those builds. This wasn't a limitation I personally understood or agreed with, but I would have to adhere to it in order to participate. It's funny, though, how sometimes constraints can drive ideas...

In fact, this ban on fantasy in the Mesoamerican Setting category led me to choose a beast of Mesoamerican myth for my entry into the Creatures category. I endeavored to build Quetzalcoatl, a Feathered Serpent god from the Aztec pantheon. I paired Quetzalcoatl with my "Temple of the Feathered Serpent" to make the image you see above. Even though I had to enter the two builds separately in the contest, didn't mean I couldn't photograph them together for my own purposes!

Read on to learn more about the processes and designs of these two models.