CXIV. Swampfiends: First of the Catfish-People

To be ready for the upcoming Malifaux campaign at my club I have to paint a small starting crew (35SS). After a bit of thinking I came up with a list that includes Spawn Mother as the leader, Bad Juju, a Waldgeist, a Silurid and a Will o'the Wisp. I'll also need a few bases of Gupps because Mother can (and most certainly will) summon them during the game. This will gradually grow into a larger pool of models led by Zoraida.

 Two Silurids and a Wisp. They were all subtly converted - just changed some details I didn't quite like. The assembly was not too difficult, luckily. Malifaux plastics can be a real pain when it comes to that.

First Silurid painted. Most people go with green skin (I guess because box art suggests it). I wanted to take mine a different way.

I assembled Spawn Mother, too. She is smaller than I imagined. Even more now that I cut off her feet to make it look like she is wading through water. Again, there were some details that bothered me. Her claws and fangs were ridiculously long. And there was something about the shape of that dorsal fin that just didn't look right. I sculpted whiskers so that she would resemble Silurids more; Wyrd made her look like a completely different species for some reason... If you care to see exactly what I changed you can find good images of an unconverted version HERE for comparison.

Painting starts from a light undercoat.

Then I go crazy with washes and glazes. This is still early WIP.

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After reading my Crew's stat cards I realised I'll be able to generate Burning tokens as well as Poisoned... Took care of that right away:

And I made a second Scheme Marker, as you can see all the way at the beginning of the post. I like the idea of painting a new one to accompany each new post. They make neat thumbnails. I'll see if I can go through with that. 

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Before I sign off, just a small update on my Fae faction. Many thanks to Florian Wortmann for sending me 15mm Fairy swarms I originally wanted to use for the Piper's crew, only to find out they had gone out of print. He happened to have them and kindly offered to give them away. The Fairies arrived through the post recently and I quickly painted them so they can join their master. Thanks again, Florian!

CXIII. New Growths in the Garden

I've been neglecting the blog for too long... A new year is upon us and I have big plans for it. I'll briefly go through them, shall I.

• I am to convert and paint a Zoraida crew for Malifaux in time for Agram Arena Summer in July, complete with a display base and all necessary markers and tokens. In the meantime I'll be taking part in a campaign, gradually adding painted models as the Crew develops from the starting 35 Stones. The image above is a 30mm Scheme Marker, first of about a dozen I aim to produce. It's a way to push myself to paint things other than miniatures. I need more practice making artwork.
• A few of my clubmates and I are preparing to get into Frostgrave in the foreseeable future, so I'll be making a warband and some monsters for that. And custom gaming aids, of course.
• I wish to make at least one display piece this year. I remember how much I enjoyed last year's attempts.

So the blog will expand in the subject matter it covers since I'll be documenting and publishing all those things here (and possibly more). The main worldbuilding project will be pushed into the background, but the plus is there might finally be some battle reports featured in my posts. And all of it will be aesthetically close to what I've shown so far.  

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I've already started working towards my goals. My first offering:

 CONDITION TOKENS for Malifaux

I've been plaing the game for years, yet I've never had gaming aids for keeping track of conditions on models. Making some was a fine opportunity to get creative. After some thought and several design ideas I opted for round, 25mm or smaller, two-sided and hand-painted. I set off to make twelve Poisoned tokens (1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8), three Defensive1/Defensive2, two Focused1/Focused2, three Paralyzed/Reactivate and four Slow/Fast. That should do for now. 

The tokens started as coins, with a thin layer of Milliput to cover the embossing. I like the weight of the coins.

When this cured I painted the faces of the tokens black. This was followed by some filing to clean up the metal edges and then a tidy-up of the black.

Doing the freehand writing was the most tedious part of the process.

The final step is applying Vallejo Still Water. It works as very thick gloss varnish in this case.

Poison tokens have an image instead of words. They were actually faster and easier to make, though before I started I expected it would be the other way round.

 Condition Token CONTAINER

Because I really like boxes, I painted one to carry my fancy new tokens.

The little box came unpainted, so first I glazed the light wood with diluted acrylic dark browns. I painted the interior black and covered some of the surfaces with black felt. This will make the tokens more comfortable inside.

I wanted to decorate the lid with some freehand. I masked off an area for that purpose.

Neat.

After sketching the design with a pencil I moved on to colouring it in. It's the same paints I use for miniatures.

 

 

 

Done. It looks too clean, though. Time for some Agrax Earthshade and Typhus Corrosion.

This is it. A couple coats of varnish to keep it protected and the box is done.

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Finished tokens and container.

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Just a small update for the end: the textured board I commissioned in mid-2016 finally arrived around Christmas. I took a shot of the Wilderness scenery on it. A big improvement, in my humble opinion.

CXII. The Moss Monster

The Moss Monster.

A hulking thing made of mud, gnarled roots and moss.

The Moss Monster is a part of the new faction I'm introducing to Gardens. It will consist of animated scarecrows and similar rickety constructs, as well as some slimy critters, led by a Witch. Conveniently, I'll be able to use the models as a Malifaux crew (Zoraida), seeing that each of them will be either a converted Malifaux mini or entirely scratch-built.

I wanted the Monster to resemble an Ancient Leshen from The Witcher 3 videogame. 

The Moss Monster is a converted Bad Juju from Malifaux. I replaced the original head with a GW horse skull. The antlers are from Mierce Miniatures. I left out some of the details I didn't want, such as human and alligator skulls and voodoo dolls. And I gave his right hand scythes for fingers. After painting I glued flock and tufts on to make him nice and fuzzy.

The original model.

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 So far the Monster is accompanied by three Treefolk.

They are slightly converted Malifaux Waldgeists. My problem with the original models was that they looked as if drawn by three different artists, all with different styles. So I intervened a little bit with green stuff and natural roots to bring them all together.

I didn't take a proper picture before converting, so here is the boxart so you can see what exactly I did with them.

CXI. Forest King

I present the conclusion of the WIP from my last post. The Forest King:

 

 

The Forest King is a spirit that dwells in Waywode Hunting Grounds. He was tamed long ago, along with the Wodewoses, by a Waywode ancestor. The King is bound to protect the Chapel and the woods. His death would have terrible consequences on the forest.

From the notebook.

INSPIRATION and REFERENCE

The idea for this character stems from Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke. I watched it for the first time when I was a kid, and it left a deep impression on me.  In the film there is a creature called the Forest Spirit.

I wasn't going to recreate him in miniature, but to provide my own interpretation.

 Deer body, human-like face, grows plants where it steps.

For the head I wanted something like this; elflike, with sharp facial features and an outlandish skin colour. I don't know who the artist is, but I suspect it's by the late Wayne England. If anyone knows for sure please enlighten me so I can credit the image appropriately. 
*EDIT: yes, the elf head is Wayne England's work.

CX. November

As of a few days ago this blog entered its fifth year of existance. I'll just give a few words of reflection on the past year.

While 2015 saw me making cemetery-themed scenery, this year was all about forests and fields. I've produced enough to equip a table, but there are many more ideas I have yet to bring into reality. I learned a lot in the process (and I hope it was useful to you, too, as observers of my endeavours). What I'm especially happy to have made this year were The Automaton and The Door to the Paths of the Dead vignettes from April and May. They were a shy foray into building and painting works that are meant purely for display, and I enjoyed it very much. I expect I'll make more such pieces, even larger and more elaborate ones, when inspiration strikes and time permits. Finally, thank you all for reading and commenting. 

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I got a number of requests for a group shot of my scenery. Took a while, but yesterday at long last I managed to get it done. The board dimensions are 100x100cm Enjoy.

Great news is that the textured and flocked board I commissioned some time ago is finally ready. This means that soon enough I will no longer have to use the dull grey blanket you can see in the above photos.

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I'll finish with a few WIP shots of the newest miniature project on my desk. The progress is painfully slow since I now have very little time to dedicate to Gardens. I actually started converting just after I had finished the Chapel.

A deer mount from Citadel Wild Riders set was the starting mini. Chopped off its head and replaced it with a Stormcast Liberator's. I also shaved off the saddle using my dremel.

The head got its ears, eyeballs and main piece of armature for the antlers. The fuzzy neck was achieved with flock.

After that I glued wire armature for the prongs.

The antlers were built up with several successive layers of green stuff.

Still looking messy here.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures after this point (or I somehow misplaced them; either way, they aren't there). But it got further refined with more green stuff.

And here we have a WIP of the paintjob. This is how it stands now.