CL. Stat Card Art

I've been busy painting some artwork over the holidays, to deck the stat cards for my Gardens of Hecate models. Most of the Countess' spirits got theirs, as well as the handful of monsters that will make an appearance in the upcoming Monstrous Births games. Here is a sample:

I've also revisited the stats for the models. We'll see how they work when the game is played. All that is left to do is some printing and cutting.

The Wolf Herdsman has the ability to transform into a wolf, so I painted a model to represent the Wolf Form. The mini is from Reaper, and is visibly larger than his 'ordinary' wolf companions. You will also notice the finished cave entrance scenery piece, which will be the objective for game #1.

 

CXLIX. Shadespire: Steelheart's Champions

The final member of my Shadespire warband is finished, so here we finally have the complete Steelheart's Champions:

Severin Steelheart is the leader of the warband, and I wanted this to show on my model as well as it does on the original. When sculpting his helmet and chest armour, I borrowed heavily from the design of the Iudex Gundyr character (Dark Souls III).

The original Steelheart.

An early stage of converting.

This was captured not long before painting began. As before, the blue is the original model, the grey is other plastic bits and green/yellow is putty.

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The Monster Competition at Ex Profundis reached its conclusion today as the results were announced on the blog. You can see the post with the winning entries here: LINK.  The winner is Surtep by Jan Warnke, while my Prince Arpad the Depraved took third place.

CXLVIII. Tutorial: Corroded Plate

By popular demand, I prepared a step-by-step of how I painted the rusted armour on my Shadespire Stormcast pair from earlier. I'll demonstrate it on a spare Liberator shield.

I. Starting from a dark undercoat, the whole thing is basecoated with a darker steel colour. I used Citadel's Leadbelcher.

II. This is then shaded with Agrax Earthshade, a dark brown matte wash. 

III. Using Typhus Corrosion and water to help blend it, slight texture is added. This is done in layers and selectively, with highest concentration in the least exposed areas where moisture would be retained the longest and where it is least likely for the layer of corrosion to be polished off. Typhus Corrosion is of consistency similar to a wash, but with more pigment and tiny granules that add texture to the paint. 

IV. Then the colouring of rust begins, first with Secret Weapon Red Rust. This line of weathering acrylics is easy to use and has a very matte, powdery finish. I always apply them in several watered-down coats to have better control over the intensity. Only as a finishing touch, where I want really strong rust, I use the paint straight out of the pot. A thing I noticed with these, though, is that they are always a bit darker when they dry, so keep that in mind. 

V. Orange Rust, also from Secret Weapon. The principle is the same as with the previous step. Layers are added until it feels like there is enough.

 

VI. Going back to the metallic base, edges of plates and details are picked out with a small brush. On larger flat areas, such as a breastplate or here on the front of the shield, light stippling with Leadbelcher can be used to add depth.

To finish it off, I would certainly recommend blacklining between the individual armour plates to separate them. On this shield, this wasn't really necessary, but I wanted to include this step in the demo.I often see people painting heavily weathered models in full plate without this step, and usually they end up looking like old statues. It just looks off, like the plates are fused. They would overlap, and move with the body, so there would be no unbroken rust deposits exactly where the plates meet in that particular pose in which the character was captured...

That is all for now. Severin Steelheart is in the works and should be joining his mates by next week.

CXLVII. Shadespire: Obryn the Bold

Obryn the Bold, the second member of my version of Steelheart's Champions. He is a beefy fellow wielding a two-handed hammer. Same as with Angharad, I gave him an extensive armour makeover and a worn-out look with the paintjob.

 

 

The original model, for comparison.

Again, huge shoulder pads and weapon got replaced with something more reasonable. I also wanted him to have a full breastplate, so I resculpted that part.

The blue parts are the original mini, the grey is other bits and the green/yellow are putty.

In the meantime, I've played my first game of Shadespire. I'm happy to say I like the game, so the warband will not sit unused for sure.

Angharad and Obryn. Only one member left to do - the leader.

I've been asked a few times for a tutorial for this weathered armour. I just want to say haven't forgotten; it will appear here soon.

CXLVI. Shadespire: Angharad Brightshield

Bought Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire last week. From the time it was announced, the game was advertised as "the ultimate competitive miniatures game". Since I'm not one for competitive gaming (not that I have anything against that approach in general, I just prefer to invest my energy in other things), I was mildly put off initially, but as I learnt more I warmed up to the idea of starting it. I like the small count of miniatures and gaming implements needed, the short play time for a single game, rules simple to learn but not dumbed-down, as well as the not too steep price of warbands. What I don't appreciate is the fact each warband comes with new cards any warband can use, so in order to have all the card options for anyone warband one must buy all the warbands. However, I don't need all the cards... And even if I want to, I can borrow or proxy. I do not intend to play this in tournaments. Anyway, saw this as opportunity to convert some Dark Age of Sigmar Stormcast. Only three models for a complete playable warband. Nice.

I am not thrilled with the Stormcast aesthetics, but I don't hate them either. They possess enough elements I fancy that I feel they have a lot of potential. With the Shadespire three I want to make some darker-looking Stormcast Eternals. I've been looking mostly at Dark Souls game series art books for inspiration. I have ideas for more customised Shadespire warbands, but must stop myself before it gets out of hand...

 

Stormcast Liberatress Angharad Brightshield was a smith in her past life, according to the book.

Put a golden sun on her tower shield; seemed appropriate to explain why they call her Brightshield.

 

With this conversion, first order of business was to reduce the way over-the-top things: shoulder pads, voluptuous boob plate, oversized hammer. Then I swapped the sidearm with a more medieval looking one, added chainmail in place of scales on the front, added some keys to fill a spot that seemed empty of detail, sculpted tassets and rondels, reshaped the shield and helmet. I'd say most of it is not even obvious at first glance on the painted model.

The blue plastic is the original model. The grey parts are from other plastic kits, and the yellow and green areas are putty.

The original model, for comparison.

Angharad's two comrades are still on sprue, but I expect they will follow soon enough.

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Also working on a cave entrance; another addition to the Wilderness terrain set and the final piece for Monstrous Births scenarios. It's polystyrene, clay and an old CD for a base. Quick and simple, nothing that hasn't been seen here before, so I won't go into detail. Still WIP, as it needs grass and some highlights on the rocks. 

CXLV. Abhorrant Ghoul Queen's Court: Varghulf Courtier

Arpad the Depraved, Prince of Folda; Queen Ligia's vicious feral child. A monster, feared both by his enemies and his mother's pathetic ghoul subjects.

Arpad was a foreign knight, trapped and converted by Ligia. During decades of undeath, his body gradually morphed into its current horrifying form. 

I. BACKGROUND

Varghulf Courtiers are huge vampires that have gone completely feral.

"Within every Vampire lurks a predatory creature, driven to feed on blood time and again. There are a few Vampires who embrace their thirst, who allow the bestial hunter within to take over. These are the Varghulfs - blood-mad killers that exist only to feed. A Varghulf's main weapon is a wide mouth filled with dagger-like fangs capable of puncturing armour and crushing bone. They use their immense claws to strip flesh from bones, the better to suck at the marrow of their prey."

"The varghulfs are entirely devoted to their liege, and so are more trusted to enact his vision upon the Mortal Realms than any of the other courtiers. Varghulfs drink long and deep from their master’s veins, and so theirconnection with the court’s sovereign is strong."

W:AoS Death Battletome: Flesh-eater Courts 

II. OFFICIAL MODEL

The mini dates back to the Vampire Counts release in 2008. I came across the issue of White Dwarf where the redesign of the faction was discussed. The Varghulf creature, which had not existed in the fluff before that time, was based on one of John Blanche's sketches. The rules and background for it were invented after the concept sketch. This was pre-Finecast days, so originally the mini was metal. I actually like everything about it except the pose...

Source: games-workshop.com

III. WHAT I DID, HOW, AND WHY

Since I made Ligia out of a Techpriest Dominus, I knew I had to make something from Belisarius Cawl. Looking at the available options within the faction, I elected to turn the model into a Varghulf Courtier. Prince Arpad is much more feral-looking than the Queen, with fur, long claws, and his snarling wolf head (the name suggests a wolf-like creature to me, rather than a bat). I veered away from the official background when I chose to make my Varghulf flightless; and I intend to play him ignoring the Fly ability on his warscroll. Also, there's those extra legs - but I think that goes well with that 10'' Move stat.    

Belisarius Cawl comes with a mass of characterful bits and pieces, making him a very busy model (which works in his case). I left off all of those extras and assembled only the core of the model. Many details still needed to be sanded away, and the numerous mechanical limbs under the robe had to be replaced with organic ones. I used Bloodletter and Kroot feet, and a left hand of a Poxwalker.

That's actually a deer head underneath the green stuff. Only the eyes were left untouched.

There were many little details to work out all over the model. My biggest concern was sculpting the head and hands right.

I liked the mechanical hands' pose, so I used that as a skeleton on which I built flesh and skin with green stuff. The clay shapers I got recently were absolutely essential for this task.

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Arpad posing with his mother.

CXLIV. November

So, Gardens of Hecate rolls into its sixth year. 

Looking back on year five, it can be said it was a productive one. Back in January I listed my plans for it, and I'm happy to say I was successful at accomplishing these goals. I've built and painted a Swampfiend Malifaux crew with accompanying gaming aids, the Cult of Vvolos warband for use in AoS skirmish and Frostgrave, started another AoS28 band - the Flesh-eater Court of Folda, a few display pieces, then there were minis for Tor Megiddo and Monstrous Births. Sharing my work on Facebook, which is something I didn't use to do before, connected me to more people (but I stil very, very much prefer to publish on a blog). I took part in several local painting competitions and tournaments, did more hobby skill teaching at UMS "Agram", won an RPG writing contest in Poland with Witold, travelled to Finland to fight in a desert... A very good year, hobbywise. Hoping this one will be at least as good. :)

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The fifth and final Misshapen Deer is finished. Monstrous Births is one small terrain piece away from being played.
 

This one has a parasitic twin and abnormal antlers.

 

Finally got the tools I needed, so my experimentation with sculpting can move further.

Back to work now. That Ex Profundis monster contest entry is not going to convert itself...