Another year flies by. Yesterday, on November 1st, was the second birthday of Gardens of Hecate. This year was a productive one, though not nearly as much as wish it had been. The number of painted miniatures has doubled at least, and so has my terrain collection (however, I wish I had made more houses). I added two new factions, while the old ones gained some more minitures. Made a Fate Deck and started on another one. Gardens minis were exhibited in my club's annual exhibition in February. I've started working on the rules and scenarios some time in March. And I
still haven't played a single game. :D But it might happen this year, who knows...
I'm glad to say the number of followers has doubled as well. Thanks again to
all folks who read the blog and comment on the posts. Your interest helps my motivation, and more than once you've directed me to amazing sources of inspiration (art, books, films, tutorials, as well as your own work). :)
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Putrid Blightkings are all the rage nowadays among creative converters. So my brother went and surprised me with a box, as an early birthday+Christmas gift. How very thoughtful of him.
The kit is awesome. I'd already thought of a couple characters I could build before I even had the box.
As soon as I received it I started to cut things off the sprues. For now, I've just put bits together with blu-tack. As I still don't have much time, the progress on these will be very slow.
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In the end I'll just leave you with this eerie scene I shot from my bedroom window just this morning. The atmosphere out there was terrific.
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| I think I'll call it: "Some Poor Corvids Freezing Their Feathers Off in a Thick November Fog"... |
Congratulations on two excellent years! It has been wonderful watching your project evolve and expand over time; it is impressive that you have been able to stay so focused all this time (my blog: http://betweenthebolterandme.blogspot.com/ is almost two years old now too, but I have not been able to stay on task and work on different projects as the mood strikes me; so I really commend your force of will).
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see you have acquired some Blightkings! When first seeing them I could not help but think of your blog and what you could do with them! The countess is already looking chilling. The skull is an evocative choice, I really like the size of it, and how it really accentuates how massive the rest of him is (without being over-the-top and ridiculous). The little flintlock dueling pistol is great too!
I cannot wait to see how they all turn out, and again congratulations for two productive years!
Thank you very much, Eric!
DeleteI've always had problems with keeping focus, too. But the beauty of this project is that it contains various little sub-projects. When I'm tired of one of them I just move to another, and come back to the first one when inspiration returns. I just have to be careful not to start too many. Publishing everything in a blog also helps a lot to stay on track, I think.
Yeah, I certainly find have small side projects, all which further the general goal, help a lot. Also, as you said, having a blog where you can display everything and talk about your thought process as you go is excellent. It is nice to be able to look back and see how much you have progressed and how ideas have evolved over time (I know I have certainly felt that way with mine).
DeleteCongratulations are most certainly in order!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favourite blogs and I find it consistently inspiring.
The models have a very unique eerie quality that I don't see anywhere else. I get the feeling this is similar to what it would look like if Tim Burton made a miniature game. But, while burtonesque, you've managed to created a gothic fairytale world completely your own.
Looking forward to see what you do with the blightkings!
Thank you, Jeff!
DeleteCongrats on another year with the blog - it isn't easy to keep oneself motivated to post new things yet you've managed to keep showing new amazing stuff.
ReplyDeleteThis box looks great and I look forward to seeing what you come up with. There's actually a pretty good tutorial on painting these guys (Nurgle style). If you're interested, you can look it up on youtube.
Cheers Viruk! :)
DeleteCongrats on the anniversary!
ReplyDeleteWonderful sketches and images. I look forward to see more of your beautiful stuff :)
Thank you, FPOA!
DeleteHappy anniversary, Ana.
ReplyDeleteAs others have said above, this is one of my favourite blogs, too, and your consistency, focus and sense of aesthetic are always a pleasure to come and see - especially now I live vicariously through other people's blogs :) Here's to a productive year three!
Btw, the Gold Smoke Knight is one of my favourite miniatures of the year (outside of GW of course!). Did you manage to get your hands on one?
Thank you, Fulgrim!
DeleteYeah, the Gold Smoke Knight is an awesome mini. I wanted to make a spirit-possessed armour sort of character, and the GSN seemed perfect for that; I would have to change just a few things. That's why he's up there, among my doodles. However, he's not that easy to obtain. In the end I settled for the second option: a Blightking- which is not that bad since the conversion process will be a lot more challenging and the result a lot different from the mini I started with. I'm looking forward to that.
Pictures of crows are great. Very atmospheric and it goes well with the "Hrvatska naiva" meets Dark Ages feeling of some of the stuff from this blog.
ReplyDeleteLove the Bilght Knights. Can't wait to see what becomes of them and the sketches got me intrigued.
Are you going to build any peasants or common people? They'd work great with some of the terrain you've got (especially the new one I've seen you've got recently).
Just wanted to point you to the game Dark Souls since it also has a great atmosphere as your creations. The first game is supposedly better, but both are very hard games.
Just thought you should check it out for possible inspiration. It's dark ages/gothic horror and fool of doom and gloom.
Hvala, Rac!
DeleteI intend to add some townsfolk and peasants, but I haven't so far found any sculpts that I particularly liked. They are usually either too small, too warhammery in proportions, or too medieval (I'm looking for something 18th century-ish). I'm picky. But new minis get released every day, so the right peasants might still turn up. Or my standards might go down, who knows...
Thanks for the game recommendation. :)