CIV. The Wilderness Project vol.4

Finished the remaining dry stone fence sections.

A couple of group shots:

Thanks to Tomislav Rac for providing me with some photos from his visit to Dartmoor. They were a useful resource when painting the above pieces, and I'm sure they will be helpful in the future as well.

Photo by Tomislav Rac.

Photo by Tomislav Rac.

Photo by Tomislav Rac.

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Dead Troglodytes can be revived by their shamans, so I'll need some corpse markers for them to drop when they die during games. I'll probably need no more than a dozen.

First I made one on a 25mm base, from a plastic Goblin, some cork and sand. Then I made a mould with Oyumaru.

I poured plaster in the mould and this is what came out. Not bad. After casting I added injuries such as bullet holes and cuts.

The first four corpse markers, painted and varnished. Since I don't want all of them to look the same I'll make one or two more designs from which I'll make the remaining copies.

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AGRAM ARENA SUMMER TOURNAMENT

Registrations are open for my club's annual summer tournament in July. Like every year, I'll be there since I am attending the Black Queen painting competition and the international Malifaux tournament. Here's the official announcement:

 

"Dear friends! 

It is time for another (14th annual) Agram Arena Summer Tournament! 

We are in the second decade of organizing Arena events and this year's Agram Arena Summer is going to be held over a record three weekends:
 
09.07.2016. International Star Wars X-Wing Tournament
 
16-17.07.2016. International 40K Tournament + Hobby and miniature painting competition Black Queen!
 
23-24.07.2016. International Malifaux Tournament + demo/open gaming (23.7. Infinity & LOTR/Hobbit SBG and 24.7. Flames of War & Warmachine)

Location: MS "Cvjetni trg", Miskecov prolaz 3, Zagreb, Croatia.
 
Entry: FREE!

Refreshing drinks for all players will be free during the tournaments.
Accommodation for Saturday night is also free for the 1st-time-comers (read more in the rules)! Everyone else can be booked for the price of 13€ for the nights 16/17.7 and 23/24.7, and 18€ for every other night you might need. The Hostel is in the centre of the city, with parking ensured and only 5 minutes walk from the venue.
Lunch is available at the price of 75 Kn (around 10 Euro) for both days (= 5 Euro/day)!

Check out the tournament rules & other info:
http://www.ums-agram.hr/app/webroot/dokumenti/AAS2016.pdf

Official languages of the tournament will be English and Croatian!

Registration:

• Star Wars X-Wing - from 1st of June to 1st of July
• 40K - from 1st of June to 07th of July
• Black Queen - from 1st of June to 07th of July (not neccessary unless you need accommodation - see the rulespack)
• Malifaux - from 1st of June to 14th of July
• Demo Games / Open Play - from 14th of July to 22th of July
• (you can find guidelines on registration in the rules (check out the above link))!

If you need any other information please contact us at ums.agram@gmail.com or GSM +385 91 7620584

Note: After the end of the registrations of each respective event (July 1st for X-Wing, July 7th for 40k and BQ and July 14th for Malifaux) it is no longer possible to cancel your accommodation and you will be billed for the accommodation at full price (18€ per night regardless of any discounts you might be elligable for). Also, the room assignements will be done once the registrations are final as we are not a tourist agency."

 

CIII. The Wilderness Project vol.3

The Wilderness Project continues at a slow but steady pace. This update brings another Wyrd large  Hanging Tree and two new dry stone wall sections.
 

I converted this one, changing a number of details. I didn't want it to look exactly the same as its twin.

The back view.

That's three done out of the planned eight pieces.

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And now for something rather more exciting: plans for a centrepiece. So far I've made some sketches and I'm compiling reference material.

I haven't attempted making a building in quite a while. I think my skills have evolved considerably since the chapel and the house I did back in 2013. Now I want to put them to the test with a new project: the forest chapel of St. Hubertus.
 

This mysterious piece of sacral architecture stands somewhere in the Waywode Hunting Grounds. It was erected by the Waywode family, many generations ago. The counts take good care of it, making sure it gets renovated as time erodes it. The nobles visit it when they set out to hunt, to pray for safety and good luck. There are several legends associated with the chapel. But more on that later...

The actual building process will take a while, I expect. I want to give my best. I'll probably get down to it in a month or so, once my semester ends and I can focus on it fully.  I already got a pile of antlers and skulls to properly decorate the chapel and its surroundings:

They come from Mierce Miniatures, who let you order bits from their store. It wasn't exactly cheap, but they do have a fine selection of different shapes and sizes of good-looking antlers, and I'll need more than a couple pairs for this project. Sculpting them all myself was out of the question.

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And, as if this wasn't enough deer parts, I present this beastie I painted just for fun:

It's the first half or a diptych, the second being the Monstrous Hedge Hog (not yet done).

CII. The Automaton

Another Iron Painter entry from me: The Automaton.

The robot is based on this illustration for a Magic:The Gathering card:

Proteus Machine. Artwork by Greg Staples. © Wizards of the Coast

I wanted to make a clockwork automaton like that one for Gardens at some point. As a mercenary or even a part of a whole new faction. I made a skech and notes for later. 

But round 3 of Iron Painter had a theme in which such a miniature would fit, so I used the opportunity. But I had to turn the idea into something a bit more elaborate than a gaming piece. Not that I cannot still use him for games; it would not be too complicated to make him removable from the large base to a 30mm round one.

Sketch of the composition.

The robot started as a Necron Warrior.

The faces are 40K Blood Angel masks. I made copies rather than cutting the actual bits.

Originally I meant to make the head actually rotateable. However, since I later decided that I want dramatic lighting coming from one side of the scene, this idea didn't seem right any more. I ended up gluing it in place.

The torso needed some sculpting.

The finished conversion.

Once again I relied a lot on washes and glazes when painting the miniature.

The base was simpler than the last one. I used air-drying clay, plaster and real tree roots.

 

The feel I was hoping I would get was that of an old-school SF illustration. I think I did that part right. But there is just something missing. The scene seems to me too static, too dull. Do you have the same feeling? How would you fix it? It's too late now to improve it for the competition, but at least I can learn for next time.

CI. The Wilderness Project vol.2

While waiting for the next round of Iron Painter to be announced I've added a few more pieces to my Wildreness terrain collection.  

The well.

It was built stone by stone. The material is polystyrene, which I cut to small bits and then pressed against gravel to give them a rocky texture and shape. I glued them with PVA. This well and the wall you'll see below are my first attempts at miniature dry stone structures. I'm very happy with the result.

When the structure was built and the glue dried completely, I gave it a coat of plaster + PVA. After that it was just texturing the base and it was ready for painting.

 *

 

Dry stone wall.

The building technique was the same, except that the wall has a balsa wood core.

Ready for painting.

Another shot of the finished product. I plan to make several more wall sections, including one with a gate.

*

I finished another Citadel Wood. This means I have 3 large and 4 small tree scenery pieces. No more Citadel kits to build, but I have an unopened Hanging Trees box from Wyrd. That will do for 2 or 3 more small ones.

*   *   *

Speaking of forests, I visited one recently. Great both for recreation and for harvesting useful ingredients. I brought home some roots for use on future projects.

C. The Door to the Paths of the Dead

"The way is shut. It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut."

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Three of my clubmates and I entered Wyrd's Iron Painter competition this year, and the above vignette is my entry for the second round. I don't normally do display pieces, so this was an interesting exercise. I built the entire base from scratch, I painted it using almost exclusively washes and glazes over a white undercoat (I just painted on a few highlights at the end to finish it off). Bright colours, as well, are not what I usually put on my miniatures. But this really works. All in all I am very happy with the result and I learnt a lot in the process. Hope it fares well; my opponent is a tough one.

I took some pictures as I worked:

The building began with rough shapes. The wall was cast in plaster, the stairs are balsa wood and the rocks polystyrene. A large undead knight was originally meant to stand on the base, but in the end I changed my mind and went with the ghost miniature.

I had most fun making the door. It started from balsa, cut into shape and textured to resemble wood.

The metalwork is plasticard and pins.

The trees that flank the door are part wood, part air-drying clay.

The modelling part is finished.

I had fun painting with washes and thin glazes. This is what it looked like after the first couple of layers.

More washing and glazing.

The state of the base before I started work on the miniature. Later, when the miniature was in place, the lower steps felt too empty. So I added some bones. They also gave a darker tone to the piece.

The miniature is a simple one. It's one of the Spirit Host ghosts, with a Bretonnian knight's face and a crown. I added the 'hairs' made of thin wire and static grass, each glued in place individually. It took a while... but it was worth it.

The King of the Dead was in a way inspired by this Ian Miller piece:

And the base is an adaptation of the background from this painting by Petar Meseldžija:

Next round of Iron Painter won't start until April 25th, so I'll have some time now to work on the next update of  the Wilderness terrain project.