CLXIX. Fae Serpent and a Kobold

Two new minis painted, one for each setting. The Gardens of Hecate Fairies get the Serpent, a Fae noble who likes to take sport hunting trips to the lands of man. The Isles of Brume, my AoS28 setting, get a Kobold warrior of Volmar.

The Serpent

Wanted to add this model to the faction for a while. It's a Rackham metal figure, S'erum. Lovely sculpt, didn't convert it at all. Originally I intended to paint his armour like white ceramics with blue detail. I could not make it look right, so I ended up going another way. His plain sleeves could use some freehand patterns, but that will be added at a later date, when inspiration strikes. For now I call him done.  

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Ogmen, Kobold Warrior of Volmar

I mentioned before that the people of Volmar consist mostly of Duardin and Kobolds. But the latter were not represented in the group of models I made. Now I bought the Doomseeker model from Silver Tower, and demonstrated what a Kobold equivalent of those Duardin would look like.

The easiest way to tell these two kinds apart is by looking at their face. Unlike Duardin, Kobolds have prominent noses and large, pointy ears. This is the reason why their ceremonial helmets must be slightly more open than the dwarven ones. The noses' size makes them rather vulnerable, and it is not unusual for a Kobold warrior to have a scarred snout, or even parts of it missing.

Kobold women can grow beards just like Kobold men, which is not the case with Duardin. This causes interesting shifts in Volmarian fashion, changing like the tide. Depending on the current trend, we either find Kobold women regularly shaving their faces, or Duardin women wearing finely crafted beard wigs. I should totally make some models of those ladies, but I fear this might demand full scratch-builds.

Kobolds lay eggs rather than birth live babies. During the incubation period, the mother will paint the egg shell with apotropaic patterns, colours and symbols, to help ensure that the Koboldling inside is safe and hatches alive and healthy.

I like this faction more and more. All sorts of interesting and messed up scenarios possible in their reclusive kingdom. Considering buying a box of Vulkite Berserkers to make a bunch of regular footsoldiers, half of them Kobolds, and half Duardin. I'm also trying to figure out their religion and social structure. Fun stuff.

CLXV. Duardin Warriors of Volmar

Here come the rest of the Duardin.

Volmar sits on a mountain on Erebos, and is inhabited mostly by Duardin and Kobolds. People of Volmar are well adapted to their high-altitude life. They manage to grow crops on artificially constructed terraces, and herd goats on their mountain pastures. What their own efforts at agriculture cannot supply, they trade for the riches they discover in their mines. 

Duardin and Kobolds are very similar in height and build. The easiest way to tell them apart is  looking at the nose and ears: they are both elongated in Kobolds. However, the biggest difference is the fact Kobolds do not give birth to living young like Duardin, but lay eggs. This makes them incompatible, so Kobolds and Duardin generally do not intermarry. But they consider themselves to be one people, and most of their culture is shared.  

The kingdom has been on good terms with its neighbours for a very long time; conflicts with other realms are not common and not large in scale. 

Let's take a look at each of the Chosen Axes (and hammers!) of Volmar.

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Fjul.

This was originally the Fjul-Grimnir model, the leader of Chosen Axes. What I liked about the original model is the set of keys, the giant's skull on the base, and the pose. As with the others, the mohawk was cut off to make way for a conical helm with a mask. This not so practical ceremonial helm has a bit of a samurai vibe mixed in... The runes in his skin were sanded away. I admit that weapon is utterly ridiculous, but for some reason I liked it. So I kept it, only removing the dragon head detail from the bottom end (the part I disliked). I had to replace it with something of similar shape and size in order to preserve balance. So I stuck a ring into a clutched hand from my bits box and glued that on.

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Ugal.

This was the first one done, discussed in my last post.

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Maegri.

This was Mad Maegrim, originally wielding a pair of axes. I simply wanted some variety.

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Tefk.

And finally, this was Tefk Flamebearer. He used to have two different axes, but gave him one I removed from Maegrim, so now he has a matching pair.

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A few shots of different stages of sculpting Tefk's helmet. The nose ring was actually added in the middle of painting.

Fjul's armour is the most elaborate one. I'm relatively satisfied with it, but I see I need to work more on my symmetry. Here I went to some other Trudvang dwarf armour designs, by Alvaro Tapia. The 'beard' portion of the mask covers a larger area on the front, basically being a chest plate. It's an interesting solution. 

When I look at my four warriors side by side, I feel the style of the helmets across the warband should have been more consistent. That's something to keep in mind for next time.

The original Chosen Axes are Fyreslayers. Photo taken from games-workshop.com.

CLXIV. Volmar Duardin

Yet another converted Shadespire warband is in the works. The Chosen Axes fell into my paws last week, and I immediately started hacking them up. The first of their number is finished (bar the base, which will get done at a later date because I'm considering a display base). 

 

 

I really don't like the look of AoS Fyreslayers. The axes that are braziers, the headgear, the golden runes implanted into their skin... All of that is inextricably linked with their backstory, so if I was to transform them away from those elements, they would no longer be even remotely Fyreslayers. But that's fine by me, I love coming up with my own factions. So the mountain kingdom of Volmar was born. It's waiting to be populated by a mixed people: Duardin, Kobolds, Humans and Half-Dwarves. I'll delve deeper into their country and culture when the warband is done. They look like this at the moment:  

I've shown the first dwarf earlier on social networks, and people seem to pick up both Norse and Mesopotamian vibes from the helm. I'm very happy to hear that I've successfully blended those. The design was most heavily inspired by one particular illustration Paul Bonner did for Trudvang:

Art by Paul Bonner. © RiotMinds

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In other news, the village of Dol, the designated battlefield for the Legen event, got a few more people to inhabit it. Converted and painted another fleeing peasant from the plastic giant kit. Two boys who foolishly wish to fight the attacking gargants with sticks were converted from LOTR Hobbit Shirriffs. The panicked soldier attempting to hide under a discarded ox skull is a characterful conversion of an older metal model, done by Florian Gand from Germany. Thanks again for sending the conversion over, it's perfect for Legen.