LXXII. The Beast

The Beast arrives to take the White Harpy's place in the crew. 

The body comes from a metal GW Chaos Warhound, the "crown" from a Tomb Kings banner, and the face from a Slaanesh Daemonette; the elongated neck and the pointy breasts are my own sculpting.

Before priming.

The Countess is able to use a spell which severs a part of her soul and releases it from her body for a limited time. The soul fragment manifests as the Beast. The creature is an ethereal monstrosity, a potent ally in battle. This practice is not entirely without risk, because if the Beast is harmed then so is the Countess. 

Painted. I'm pretty sure she could look better if I were to experiment a bit with the colour scheme, but I'll leave her like this for the time being. Until Inspiration strikes.

I've also been doing some work on converting the rules lately. The Doctor's and the Countess' crews have their stat cards ready. The Troglodytes too, pretty much. What I haven't touched yet are Upgrades and Reaper Horseman's retinue of bell ringers and hobby horses. I've even converted the Malifaux 2E rulebook, and the M1.5E campaign rules. The scenarios of the first campaign have been outlined, but not yet written. 

Since I last showed the stat cards in LVI. The Rules, besides the slight rules changes I have now added proper symbols for card suits, pulses, blasts, auras, attack types and fate modifiers. The stat cards are now easier to read.

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The next mini-project will be a brand new minion type for the Plague Doctor's crew: the Orderly. Actually, I'll be making a pair of Orderlies. They will both be wielding cumbersome poison throwers, which spew toxic vapours at the enemy.

The core bits: Skaven Warpfire Throwers, masked Chaos Cultists, Victoria Miniatures round goggles.

LXXI. The Autumnal Forest

I have finally painted all the plastic tree terrain I had in my possession. My forest now consists of: one large Hanging Tree, two regular Hanging trees, six regular trees, and six pygmy trees. All done from one Wyrd and two GW plastic kits. 

The forest. You will notice the Guardian of the Golden Bough chilling in there.

 The PYGMIES

Once both the Citadel Wood kits were finished, I noticed that I had six leftover branches. So I got the idea to make some bushes. These can stand on their own, or some day I could make a larger base that holds several of them- like the one supplied with the Citadel Wood kit, and have area terrain. 

When I compared them to human-sized miniatures it turned out they are more the size of small trees than bushes. They are small, but don't really look like young trees (too gnarled and thick), so I just call them 'pygmy trees'. 

The stuff I used: 30mm wooden bases, leftover branches from the Citadel Wood kit, cork, sand. Not pictured: green stuff, brass rod, PVA glue, superglue, plastic cement.

I pinned the branches to the bases, and resculpted the base of each trunk with green stuff to get the right growing-out-of-the-ground look. The bases were finished with cork and sand.

After painting the bases and the trunks, I glued the canopies. These were painted along with the canopies belonging to the larger trees I made recently. It's boring, repetative work, so it's best done in larger batches. I left one of the small trees bare for extra variety.

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The Shaman is also done.

The third Troglodyte Shaman.

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LXX. The Troglodyte Shrine

The remains of a huge fish from a subterranean lake make the centrepiece of this Troglodyte altar.  The fact they are now building their sacred structures above ground means Troglodytes are beginning to feel more and more at home in the upper world. Not a good sign...

Front. The fishbone is adorned by preserved human heads.

Back. Hallucinogenic mushrooms grow at the foot of the shrine.

 This piece of terrain is made for use in a campaign scenario featuring Troglodytes.

The main feature of the shrine, the giant fishbone, actually comes from a Rackham Goblin mini: the No-Dan-Kar Fishbone Bearer. I got the goblin quite cheap from a local. It was in a good state, the only thing that was done to it was a thin black undercoat.

The Fishbone Bearer.

 First I removed the fishbone from the goblin, naturally. You can see in the picture there are some human heads hanging from the bone- that's quite alright. However, on the reverse side there were two large mugs belonging to deceased Confrontation Dwarfs, and this would not do. So I thought I'd remove them with my dremel. After lots of grinding I finally managed to remove one. Tired and frustrated with how slowly that was going, I decided that I would try a different approach with the second head. I saved myself a lot of trouble by just cutting off the ribs it hanged from, and then replacing some of the missing ribs with ones I made of pins and green stuff.

I put the bone on a nice 50mm base. It's my standard cork + sand + fallen leaves and grass tufts. 

Awaiting some custom detailing.

The Staves

The fishbone is surrounded by the kind of long staves Shamans carry. This helps make a connection between the terrain piece and the Troglodyte models.  

A staff begins as a brass rod cut to desired length. I also need some thin wire and metal rings.

The wire I usually use for this used to be some sort of a net; I think it came from a wine bottle. Useful material can be found everywhere.

I just wrapped the wire around the brass rod, passing through the metal ring several times. Here I used another type of wire, the one I pulled out of the cable of a pair of broken earphones. This is all fixed in place with a drop or two of liquid superglue. Finally, I wash a layer of watered-down PVA glue over everyhing.

The Mushrooms

Fly amanita mushrooms seemed like a good idea for some spot colour. They also provide detail to the back of the base, as the piece looked less interesting from the back as it was. This is how I make my mushrooms:

When I have leftover green stuff after sculpting, I often make it into mushroom caps for later use. All I need to do when I want some toadstools is drill into the caps and insert a stem (brass rod or paperclip will do).

Green stuff toadstools. And pin heads make good smaller shrooms.

To make their shapes more organic, the metal bits need to be covered with some PVA. When that dries I also give them a coat of liquid green stuff.

Mushrooms fixed to the base and undercoated grey.

Painted. I looked at photos of Amanita muscaria for reference. This poisonous mushroom was used by Siberian shamans to induce trance state. Looks like the Troglodytes like it, too.

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The third Shaman is coming along nicely. I put the bits together: a Hobbit goblin, a staff (still unfinished in this picture) and a Plaguebearer's arm holding trophy heads. He just needs a bit of green stuff where his new arm meets the body, and some sand on the base. Then it's painting time.

LXIX. Back on Track

I'm glad to say that the period of silence is finally over, and I'm back to work in the Gardens. Today I'll just show the little that has been done for the last month, and some of the stuff I'm working on right now. I have so many ideas that my head is overflowing. I'm having difficulties concentrating on the usual just one or two projects at a time... I'm really happy to be back. :)

I. the LEAVES OF THE HANGING TREE 

 

This is just an update of an existing piece of terrain, really. As I was painting the leaves for one of my bare Citadel trees (no longer bare now), I thought I might put some on my Malifaux Hanging Tree. It was entirely gray, and I thought it would benefit from a little bit of colour. As a bonus, it now looks pretty much like it came from the same set as the GW forest. The lot will make a lovely glade on the tabletop once all are finished.

I added some more grass tufts on the base as well.

II. the FAIRY SURROGATES

 

Unfortunately, having lost the fairy swarms I meant to use in the Piper's crew I haven't found satisfactory replacements. I've tried Wood Elf sprites, but found that wasn't "it". I even tried forcing Nurglings into the role and failed. I thought about sculpting them, but since it would mean making around twenty tiny sculpts I said "no" to that idea. In the end I gave up. And resorted to rats. 

Plastic GW rats. There is a limited number of poses, so I gave many of them new tails made of pins.

 I already had a whole bunch of them at home, having purchased them ages ago for use in a scenario, or just to have them creep around the board. They're good for decorating bases as well. One can't have too many rats. I painted some of them last september, along with a rat king I made. Now the existing ones got rebased and their paintjob upgraded, and several more joined the pack. The original rat king got hacked up for the bits, but I made a new one and there are two more in the making. 

Two classical rat kings - just a mockup for now.

 They are a decent replacement for fairies, but they take the overall look and feel of the crew in a different direction. Twelve Rats and three Rat Kings will do, which means I'm already just two Rat Kings away from my target number.

The finished Rat King- not a classical rat king, but a whimsical interpretation of the creature's name.

The rather large rat is from GW, and it's wearing the crown of Figone's King Maulg. The babies following it are from the Skaven Abomination box.

 

III. the TROGLODYTE SHRINE

The Troglodyte tribe is getting some love as well. I am about to convert another Shaman (not much to see yet), and a shrine that will be used in a campaign scenario- with the Troglodytes defending it, and the opposing crew having to destroy it. I'll write a lot more about that piece when it's finished. For now, a WIP picture:

IV. the BEAST

 

A rough sketch of a new beastie for the Countess:

I purchased more balsa wood recently, so I think something new might spring up in the terrain department in the foreseeable future. Something houselike, I expect. And there is that Fate Deck I have yet to finish.

Well, that's it for today. More will follow later this week.

LXVIII. The Plunder

It's been a busy, exam-filled couple of weeks with not much time to dedicate to my minis. Nontheless, I managed to squeeze in a little bit of painting. 

My collection of treasure chests and barrels has grown in size. These are all plaster copies, and I think the originals came from various manufacturers. The two rectangular chests are my own sculpts, though; you might remember them from XLII. The Old Cemetery. I'm planning to do some more barrels still. 

And a minor update on the second Fate Deck:

Twelve of Bone. All four twelves are now done.

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Yesterday and the day before yesterday my club held the Agram Arena Summer event, which featured a two-day WH40K tournament and the Black Queen painting competition. Like every year, we had guests from abroad and it made for an interesting weekend. I had entries in nearly all of the categories. There was a lot of Malifaux in the competition- especially in the Unit/Squad category, which was full of Malifaux Crews (my Redchapel Gang won third place). 

The Chapel won gold in the Open category. You may remember this piece from XXVII. The Chapel. It's the first building I ever built for Gardens of Hecate.

The Box won second place in Diorama/Duel category.

 The Headless Horse-man won third place in the Large/Mounted category. Fun fact: I entered his friend the Reaper Horse-man in the same category last year, and he too came home with a bronze medal.

And it's not just the medals. There were many sponsors, so the prizes were really neat. My haul included a photo backdrop from Hangar 18 Miniatures, a Winsor&Newton brush, Dragon officer guard from Figone, a couple of scenic bases (also from Figone), Gregory and his twin from Phlegyas-Art Miniatures and a Secret Weapon Miniatures online store voucher. 

Many thanks to UMS "Agram", to the generous sponsors, and to the other participants. Congratulations to all the winners. See you again next year!

And the next weekend I will be attending the Agram Arena Summer Malifaux tournament. I better get on with finishing my Crew...

LXVII. Another Fate Deck (WIP)

Around Christmas 2013 I produced a custom handmade Fate Deck for use in my future games. The design was very simplistic. Since there are two sides in an encounter, each needing its own deck, I knew I would eventually need to make another one. From the beginning, the plan was for the second deck's art to be more elaborate. Since I was in no hurry I took my time, waiting for the moment of inspiration to come.

Eventually it did: during one particularly tiresome class I stopped paying attention and started brainstorming and sketching out some ideas for the deck.
The first step was to upgrade the suit symbols. So I opted for giving more weight to the rings of Spirit and Blood, as well as adding some simple detail to each symbol to make it more interesting.

The old suit symbols (bottom) and the new suit symbols (top).

After that I started thinking about the face cards. The original deck treated them as all other cards, simply showing their value (11-13) and the number of suit symbols corresponding to that value. This time I wanted to decorate them with some artwork.

The format is the following: the thirteens will be horsemen, the twelves quadrupedal beasts, and the elevens bipedal humanoids. Each figure is painted predominantly in the colour of its suit, with details in the other colour (Spirit and Bone are black with red detail; Flesh and Blood are red with black detail). Each horseman wears a helmet, carries a weapon in his right hand and a round shield in his left. By the feet of each horse is a small pet animal.

I'm not yet settled on the design for the two Jokers. I'm currently mulling over the idea of the Red Joker being all intricate and fancy while the Black Joker stands on the opposite side of the scale: fully simple and toned down.

My sketches and notes on the deck.

 When brainstorming for subject matter, I took the name of each suit and gathered around it a cloud of my personal associations.  For example: FLESH - carnality, hedonism, self-indulgence, luxury, wealth...; animals: goat, satyr, monkey...; details: ruffles, jewellery, expensive fabrics...; weapon: club (phallic symbol); horse: covered with a luxurious caparison. There is usually more than one direction in which associations can go, so I always picked just one of them (e.g. Flesh could also have been interpreted neutrally - as an anatomical, biological thing, the physical body; however this quite religious interpretation provided me with a chance to use more colourful imagery). I also took into account how fun it would be to paint the particular image.

I did the same for every suit, and ended up with a pretty clear idea of what I will be painting. Though there might be some tweaks to the designs as I go along, of course.  

Some more sketches: face cards and aces.

 The next step was actually making a few cards for each suit to see how my ideas looked when realized. Pretty good, actually:

The first deck (bottom row) VS the new deck (top row). Left to right: ace of Flesh, eight of Blood,  six of Bone and twelve of Spirit.

And now I just have to finish the rest. It's a slow process, since I only work on this when I really feel like it and I find enough time. But I'll get there eventually.  

Unlike the first deck, this one will feature illustrated Jokers and face cards (eleven to thirteen of each suit). So far I have finished these three twelves (Blood, Spirit and Flesh).

XLVI. Eater of Children

This weekend I've been busy with this miniature version of the Pale Man, a grotesque child-eating monster from Pan's Labyrinth. I've wanted to make this conversion ever since I first saw the film, and now I had an excuse to do it. He will be a Henchman in the fairy crew I'm working on. :)

If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a peek at this post: HERE.

The Pale Man.

I found the perfect miniature to start from: GW Dark Eldar Ur-Ghul. It is Finecast (I won't comment on the quality of GW's resin casts; it's been discussed and ranted about enough all over the Internet), and it comes in two parts, plus an extra head for those who need more than one and want variety. The creature is about human sized, and it comes with a 25mm round base. It would look best on a 30mm, but I put it on a 40mm lipped base for practical reasons (if I ever wish to use this crew as counts-as Hamelin&co. in Malifaux this mini would represent Nix, and Nix is on a 40mm base).

When I was thinking about the pose I had several options, but I went with this one because it is the most iconic. This meant I needed a couple of open hands to replace the original fists.

The bits: one Ur-Ghul and a pair of plastic Pink Horror hands.

First I needed to take my power tool and grind his legs thin, turning some of the muscles into hanging skin flaps. I took the tool to his head as well, removing all the excess nostrils until he was left with the proper amount of two. I cut off the arms and built complete new ones with green stuff over paperclip armature. You can see the armature showing on the right arm in this crappy picture.

I sculpted the skin hanging under his chin, and the eyes on his palms. The eyes drove me crazy, I just couldn't get them right. Had to redo them three or four times.

After all the bits came together and got properly blended in, the mini was ready for some paint. This is just the white basecoat and the first light-grey wash.

The idea was to fit him among other fae, and at the same time keep him recognisable as what he is supposed to be. The colour scheme obviously deviates from the source material because I wanted to adapt him for the crew; this unnatural skin tone is standard for my fairies, and so are the creepy black eyes. But the details on the sculpt and the iconic pose should be enough for him to look familiar to someone who had seen Pan's Labyrinth. 

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You might have noticed a couple of new elements in the sidebar. In case you haven't, they look just like this:

 

Clicking on them will take you to pages dedicated to the Countess' and the Plague Doctor's crews. They contain pictures and fluff about the characters, all gathered in one place. For now it's just these two, but eventually each of the factions will get their own page.

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