LXXX. Locations and Environments

Seeing how I haven't painted anything new for a whole month and the blog started feeling neglected, I went through my notebook and pulled out scattered bits of lore I've gradually come up with so far. I put the bits together into these paragraphs.

GARDENS of HECATE 

Gardens of Hecate is a historical region, dating back to the Ancient times. There are several stories that attempt to explain its name. One says that the area was rich with magical herbs and the people who lived there were famous as herbalists, sorcerers and healers - so the Ancients named the region after the goddess associated with these very things. Another speaks of a temple of Hecate, whose ruins might probably still be found somewhere near the mountains. Those who are more knowledgeable say that the name might come from the fact there are so many entrances to Underworlds hidden across the region - and Hecate is a chtonic deity. But the most probable answer is that the name comes from the Ancient settlement that stood there long ago. The settlement was called Trivia, because it was placed where three roads met. Trivia also happens to be another name for Hecate (the goddess of crossroads, among other things). On its site, the town of Heron stands today. The largest part of the region is now under Glassfog County, ruled by the Waywode family.

  

the town of HERON

Heron is a town in Glassfog County, which is a part of the Southern Province of the Adlerburg Monarchy. 

To the west of the town lie the plains of the Golden Valley, going on for many miles. To the north are forests and wetlands, and beyond them the bed of the river Deep Run. South of Heron is an alluvial plain formed by Quiet River and its tributaries. To the west, there is a large forested area and the landscape goes more vertical as a mountain range springs up that way. However, beyond that moderate elevation the plains continue relentlessly. 

Mighty Brook flows through Heron, effectively splitting the town in two by the middle. North of the town close to a dozen watermills have been built on the small river. Mighty Brook ends up in Quiet River further south. In Heron's surroundings one can find a number of villages and hamlets, such as Wells, Mudhorn, Foolsmarch and Swallowmire; and some solitary farms as well. There are several monasteries in the town's vicinity, and in the woodlands to the north-east stands Castle Waywode, the seat of counts Waywode- lords of  Glassfog County.

 
Up until several generations ago the area had been under occupation by the Hassanag Empire, and most people had fled north. When the Hassanags were pushed back, counts Waywode returned and repaired the damaged castle. They sought to repopulate the area, so they brought craftsmen, traders and peasants from their other lands across the Empire. Heron thrived, and became quite a prosperous town. However, over the course of the last fifteen years two plague epidemics have ravaged the South, and the population diminished visibly. A number of villages have been completely wiped out, and the town lost much of its populace as well. Ghost hamlets and decaying, uninhabited neighbourhoods are a result of this. The county is still recovering from the plagues, but things are seemingly getting better. More and more people are moving into Heron's half-timbered houses, and trade is doing well.

  CASTLE WAYWODE

 

Castle Waywode is the seat of counts Waywode and the current residence of the Countess, whom you've already met. The Countess is not a Waywode, though; but a Vérzőfarkas. Her family's lands are in one of the eastern provinces. She is married to the current Count Waywode, who is not around much. So the Countess takes care of his county while the man is far away, fighting for the Empress in the ongoing war in the north.
The castle is situated north-east of Heron, standing on a small hill and surrounded by the Waywode Hunting Grounds. It was built centuries ago by the first Count Waywode, nicknamed Hogsbane because he, legend says it, put an end to a monstrous wild boar that was terrorizing the countryside. The creature got immortalized in the family coat of arms, which features a skewered boar. There is talk that the castle is haunted, and that this is due to the monster-boar's dying curse. Some of the people who have been guests at the castle claim that they saw processions of ghostly quadrupedal shapes noiselessly passing through luxuriously furnished rooms in the dead of night. Others say they felt random chills, heard hollow cries and shreaks and howls, or encountered disappearing rabbits and ethereal pheasants in dimly lit corridors. This has alwasy been dismissed as a silly superstition by the more skeptical. But everyone has to admit they have never heard of any other case of a site allegedly haunted by ghosts of game...

Artwork by Francesco Balsamo.

That is all for now. There are other places (like these Underworlds I keep refering to) and other topics (such as religion and heraldry) that will get covered in the future. I made a separate page for writings on lore; you can find it in the sinister sidebar, below the Soundtrack. The page will gradually be updated as I publish new information in the posts.

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I've started thinking about terrain again. Listed below are six types of environments in which the future skirmishes between my miniature gangs might occur, with lists of terrain pieces that will make the environments come alive on the tabletop. This will help me plan what to build. Some terrain pieces are generic, and may appear pretty much anywhere - trees, woods, fences. Others have a more narrowed-down usability- e.g. tombstones will normally be used in graveyards, or a barn in villages and farms. There will also be terrain pieces that are landmarks, unique to a specific location and appear nowhere else. I have already made a portion of the entries in those lists, but there is plenty more to do.

WOODS

There are plenty forests, woodlands, thickets and groves in the area around Heron, especially to the north and the east of town. 

• trees
• woods
• rocks/rubble
• mushroom ring
• shrine of St. Hubertus
• uprooted tree

FIELDS
Glassfog County is a plain, and gloomy fields, grasslands and meadows roll in all directions. Along with dark forests, this is the most common wilderness environment around.

• rocks/rubble
• trees
• fences
• windmill
• ruined cottage
• rotting wagon with supplies
• mud 

Artwork by Larry MacDougall. © Wizards of the Coast

TOWN
Some encounters might take place in the town's streets.  

• town houses
• inn
• shop
• watch house
• church
• water well
• walls
• fences
• barrels/crates/parcels 
• shrines 
• monument
• townsfolk

Artwork by Omar Rayyan. © Wizards of the Coast

FARM
A number of farms, some inhabited and some decaying, are scattered across the wilds. 

• cottage/ruined cottage
• fences
• pumpkin patch
• hay wagon
• water well
• farm animals
• pigpen, henhouse, other small structures
• barn
• trees
• rocks/rubble
• mud 

Artwork by Larry MacDougall. © Wizards of the Coast

VILLAGE 
There are villages around Heron, both dead and alive. The plagues have taken their toll.

• cottages/ruined cottages
• fences
• pumpkin patch
• water well
• barn
• trees
• inn
• chapel or shrine
• windmill 

Artwork by Omar Rayyan. © Wizards of the Coast

 

GRAVEYARD
The final resting places of the good folk of Heron and the surrounding villages. There are burial grounds near each settlement. Some are centuries old, forgotten and concealed by the woods.

• tombstones
• old graveyard
• fences
• walls
• chapel
• church
• trees
• woods
• mass grave
• shrines
• monumental cross

LXXIX. The Assistant Mk II - Painted

All done.

A drop of Secret Weapon Scenics Realistic Water on the lamp's "eye"makes it look like glass.

All that digging inevitably puts mud on one's clothes.

There is a red cross patch on the Assistant's right shoulder- this symbol appears on several minis throughout the crew.

I've read a bit about body snatching while working on this fellow. The practice was widespread during 18th and 19th centuries, when fresh corpses were on high demand by medical schools of the Western world. The schools, who needed the bodies for dissection and anatomy lessons, could legally get them only from convicted and executed criminals. However, while the number and size of medical schools increased with the progress of medical science, the number of people condemned to death decreased as the laws became more lenient and people were no longer hanged for trifles. As a result, there were simply not enough cadavers to meet the growing demand. This saw the emergence of the resurrectionist profession. 

The resurrection-men operated in small groups. First, a suitable grave needed to be found. They often had gravediggers, undertakers, etc. on their payroll, who would tip them off. Working under cover of darkness, they would dig a hole down to the end of the coffin at the head of the grave. Using crowbars or hooks they would then lift the lid on that end, remaining earth on the coffin providing a counterweight which would snap the wood of the lid. The deceased could then be pulled out, stripped naked (stealing possessions of the dead brought a more severe punishment than stealing a corpse) and put into a sack for transport. Good rezzers could do all this in under half an hour.  

The punishment for taking a body from a grave was a fine or time in prison. However, if a body-snatching gang was caught in the act by outraged locals, they would sometimes take law into their own hands. Lynch mobs are nasty. 

People developed various methods to protect the remains of their dearly departed. There were cemetary patrols, watchdogs, watchtowers, mortsafes (metal cages encasing the coffin), mort houses (where bodies were safely stored until they decomposed far enough to be useless for dissection)... 

All in all, it's a fairly morbid, but interesting topic.

LXXVIII. The Assistant Mk II

Happy New Year, everyone!

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I'll open 2015 with a new version of the Plague Doctor's Assistant. The old mini is not bad and I'm fond of it, but the modern-looking bone saw he wields is a tad too high-tech to belong in the setting. Besides giving the new version a more suitable weapon, I wanted to achieve a more outdoor look, with garments and equipment the Assistant would wear if he were sent to fetch a fresh corpse from the cemetery for one of the Doctor's experiments. When developing the concept, I drew reference from Jeremiah Crow (one of my favourite Smog 1888 minis) and old Space Skaven concept art by Jess Goodwin.

Here is the final concept sketch.

Like a proper resurrectionist, the Assistant carries his trusty shovel and a lamp for lighting his way around dark graveyards. There's also a pistol and a knife, as means of defence from anyone or anything that might interrupt his morbid midnight work. 

Although he first sketches had him wearing a plague doctor's mask like the original Assistant, he ended up with just a pair of goggles. I saw Nordic's Nomad over at Ammobunker, and really liked the way he turned the Empire Wizard's tall pointy cap into a hat by adding a plasticard brim. I wanted to incorporate that detail, but in the end left the cap as it was - as you will see on the mini itself. 

The bits used come from lots of sources. The torso comes from an Empire Huntsman. The robe underneath that, as well as his upper arms are green stuff. The gloved hands came from a 40K Chaos Cultist and the lamp from the WHFB Dwarf Miner kit (though modified to a certin extent). The head is that of a plastic Empire Wizard, but with added goggles, green stuff moustache and extra chins (the wizard's face was way too skinny). The pouches, goggles and shovel come from Victoria Miniatures. The pistol is from Freebooter Miniatures...

Now I just need to slap some paint on the fellow. I expect his clothing will mostly be in different shades of brown, but I'll work it out as I go along.

 

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Also, last week I more-or-less finished all the 13s of the second Fate Deck. These have the most elaborate artwork, and I even covered their shields in shiny gold foil. Now I'm just a pair of Jokers away from a finished deck.

Bone.

Flesh.

Spirit.

Blood.

LXXVII. The Bell-Ringers Revisited

As promised, here are the updated and re-based cattle-headed revenants:

It all started with the fellow pictured below. He was the last Bell-ringer I had made (that was back in January), and different from the others in that he had Horror arms instead of Plaguebearer ones. I found that the longer arms suited the Plaguebearer body better; they made the creature's proportions somehow more pleasing to my eye.  That is why I decided to replace the arms on the rest of them.

LEFT: before; RIGHT: after. The only change here is the addition of a small bell.

Besides arms, all Bell-ringer bar that one got brand new faces. These masks give the group a more coherent look.

LEFT: before; RIGHT: after. A visible difference on this one. The bells on his left arm come from the Blightkings kit.

I made each of the black masks out of bits of plasticard, carved with a hobby knife and put together with superglue. For reference I looked at photographs of real wooden carnival masks from Međimurje, such as these:

Photo by Davor Rostuhar; published in National Geographic HR

The musician got a bit rearranged. This walking bagpipe's chanter now sticks from the base of his neck, while before this intervention it used to be a transformed mouth. 

LEFT: before; RIGHT: after. The bell got relocated to his back, as it would have been obscured by the new arm had it remained around his neck.

You will notice that some have a ring or a disc between their horns, which reminds me of portrayals of Egyptian gods. I can't really explain the logic behind this detail, but it feels right. Does it look out of place to you?

LEFT: before; RIGHT: after. This guy got his old club replaced by a new one, put together from  a brass rod, a plastic bead and green stuff. The weapon's red colour adds a splash of interest in the crew's otherwise monotonous colour scheme.

LEFT: before; RIGHT: after. The first bell-ringer I ever made, this poor fellow has been through many transformations. I wish I could promise this was the last.

As for the Devil (not pictured in this post, but THIS is the mini I'm talking about), I can't seem to make his new look work. All attempts to fix him have failed (which is a bit frustrating), so I decided to put him away in a box for the time being. In my experience, that is the right course of action when a mini refuses to cooperate. There are plenty of others in need of my attention. :D

This is it. What do you think? Was the makeover successful, or do you feel they were better before?

LXXVI. Merchant's Shop

Last month I finally got my hands on one of Tabletop World's resin houses. It was the lovely Merchant's Shop.

I painted it for a step-by-step tutorial published in last month's Figure Painter Magazine. You can purchase Issue19 if you follow this LINK. It was fun, even though I had to paint fast to meet the deadline. It will be a welcome addition to my terrain collection. The only problem is that it makes my own scratchbuilt houses look quite poorly made in comparison. I guess I'll have to up my game when it comes to terrain making. Or fill my table with Tabletop World stuff. Spaking of which, the newly released Mansion is a real beauty. But that price tag...

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I recently bought another blister of Reaper Dire Wolves, so the Plague Doctor got two more cheap minions. The newcomers are at the front, and the two old ones are at the back.

The undead pack.

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Another thing I did in November was a redesign of the Bell-ringers. I wanted them to look more visually coherent, and more reminiscent of the source material. Before setting off I made some sketches:

The faces got an overhaul.

The Devil gets a new head. Also, possible new types of units are here. The stag and hounds belong to the Hunter Horse-man, though- whose crew is planned for a distant future.

The Plaguebearer arms are replaced by the longer Horror arms. They wield new clubs as well.

The big, Blightking-based fellow I haven't started yet; the Devil again, and the musician got a change of concept.

The next post will feature before and after pictures of the six minis that went through the makeover, as well as inspiration, design and execution notes.

LXXV. And Another November

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.

I think I'll call it: "Some Poor Corvids Freezing Their Feathers Off in a Thick November Fog"... 

LXXIV. The Jacks

 

The work on the second custom Fate Deck continues. I've already written about it in LXVII. Another Fate Deck (WIP), where I showed the twelves of the deck and explained the idea behind the designs. You can see and read about the first deck in XLIV. Fate Deck. Now I have proceeded to make another batch of face cards: the elevens. And this time I'll say a bit on how I go about painting the cards.

Rough sketches- the first transfers of the designs from my head onto paper. Useful for many different reasons.

It begins with sketches. I carry a notebook and a pen with me wherever I go, which I use to store any ideas I come up with for later use. At this point I also search my books and the Internet for reference pictures. Once I'm happy with my design I start drawing on an actual blank card.

Blank cards. I cut them to size myself and lightly stained them with coffee. I usually make enough of these for a whole deck at once, to avoid too much difference in tint.

I learnt long ago that use of reference when drawing/sculpting/etc. is pretty much mandatory. The results are better beyond comparison. I have a fine number of various illustrated books at home, and I keep a folder on my computer packed with pictures of interesting things I find in the vastness of the Internet. For these particular illustrations I dug up as many pictures as I could find of ancient Greek black-figure pottery (for everything, but the satyr especially), plate armour and bascinet type helmets (for the man-at-arms), medieval depictions of wildmen (for the woodwose),  Danse Macabre (for the revenant)...

The sketches of the four Jacks/elevens on the cards themselves. Left to right: Bone, Flesh, Blood, Spirit.

When the drawings were done I scanned them. Not just to show them here, but also because some of the small details get lost under the base layers of paint as I work. The scans help me know where everything needs to be.

Colouring the sketch. These are the same paints and brushes I use for my miniatures.

The card value, in this case 'XI', is written in black ballpoint pen.

For the suit symbols I use improvized tools- plastic tubes of different diameters that leave neat rings when dipped in paint and pressed on paper. You can see them left of the card. One is a part of a broken pen and the other two came from brush packaging. This way I know all suit symbols are the same size and regular shape. The larger suit symbols in the corners require some extra work with a brush.

And that's it. The following picture shows all face cards I've finished so far. Comments and critique are very welcome. :)

LXXIII. Orderly

A big commission is taking up most of my hobby-time, which resulted in this long period of no updates. Over the course of last five weeks I've managed to slowly convert and paint the first Orderly.

As the aforementioned commission consists of painting rank upon rank of brightly coloured, nearly identical High Elves, working on this fellow helped me preserve my sanity. :P

The red cross on the poison thrower marks him as a member of the Plague Doctor's retinue.

Skull and crossbones on the tank's side warn of its toxic contents.

The rules. Orderlies are pretty slow, with a low Walk and no Charge value. Their purpose is dealing out poison with the Poison Thrower attack. To keep them from being completely useless in close combat, they carry a knife as well. I'd have represented it on the miniature, but I simply had nowhere to put it.

Below you can see the finished conversion next to the base model: a WH40K Chaos Cultist.

The bits used: Chaos Cultist, Skaven Warpfire Thrower, Empire Millitia left arm, Victoria Miniatures round goggles.

Fitting all those bits together without gaps and awkward angles required filing, sanding and subtle green stuff work. Skaven runes on the Warpfire thrower bits had to go. The cultist was (surprisingly) free of chaos insignia to begin with.

The hideous proportions of Citadel humans usually keep me from using them, as they look terrible next to my more elegant Wyrd and Rackham people. This one, however, is wearing many layers of protective clothing, so he could work. I just needed to hide his stunty legs and enormus feet by extending his coat into a robe.