CCXXI. King Ambros II

Ambros II. A king of Folda from the post-Ostrom era.

This is another in my series of scratch built dead people busts. I got to try out new materials I've purchased, like tiny faux gems and pearls (sold as fingernail decorations). Great stuff. I was channelling catacomb saints for this one (I've written about them a bit before: LINK). 

The piece is cca 65mm tall. Made of mixed materials, including epoxy putty, DAS clay, card, cotton, wire, jewellery elements, thumbtacks, etc. Those of you who follow me on Instagram have seen some work in progress shots already.

CCV. Hecate

The spirit of the Gardens...

I'm working on another mummified saint, but in the meantime I've finished the blog's 'mascot'. She's in a little bit larger box: 7x10x3,5 cm. Built with DAS clay, epoxy putties, roots, card, and other bits and bobs. Painted with acrylics.

I remembered to take some WIP shots during the sculpting process:

CXCVI. Folda: Moorland Harpies

Just like wolves of the forest, moorland harpies still honour the old pact with the Martyred King. In times of war, they will fly to Folda's aid.
 

Folda armorial bearings from a pre-Ostrom armorial.

A crowned harpy is on the ghoul kingdom's coat of arms. Has been since long before the Ostrom. However, now in the post-Ostrom age the bird's golden crown has been replaced with a wreath of thorns, to honour the Siege Martyrs and stand as reminder of their sacrifice.

Post-Ostrom depiction of  Folda's national emblem in an illuminated breviary.

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It's always bats with vampires... So I said to myself: let's try something more exotic. I considered giant ravens for a bit, but that also seemed a bit meh...  At the time, I was also thinking hard about what Folda's coat of arms would look like. Didn't want to go with wolf as the emblem again as it's been done a lot, even by me: on the Countess' family arms. Then it hit me while I was browsing my reference image collection: I came across a still of a harpy from Ronja, the Robber's Daughter animated series. This led me to dig up various depictions of harpies, sirens, as well as their descendants: the Russian alkonost and sirin. And this lovely creature solved both the problem of monstrous flyers and the kingdom's emblem! It worked with existing lore and helped shape it further. I love where this faction is going.
If you want to see another take on this type of creature in miniature form, have a look at Borgnine's: LINK. His gorgeous converted undead army project has a criminally low follower count. I don't know why, because it's well worth checking out.

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On the Isles of Brume harpies are birds with no beaks, and with heads that look like womens'. That is why most people believe there are no male harpies, but that is not true. They are simply hard to tell apart, as is the case with most birds of prey. In the kingdom of Folda harpies live on the moor. They build their nests in ruined towers, on top of trees and crags. 

Based on Stormcast Aetherwings. I bought the kit primarily for the birds, and was pleasantly surprised by how big they were. Perfect. As for the heads, looks like I found a use for those microscopic Escher ganger faces! 

Had to change the way they were fixed to their bases. Originally they were cleverly attached via ribbons tied to their legs, but that would not work for my conversions. These harpies are not trained pets, but wild raptors.

What do you think about this idea? And how believable is my faux medieval art? Wish I had the skill and willpower to make a whole illuminated manuscript like this. Some day perhaps...

CLXVIII. Gardens of Hecate Deck Released

Those of you who follow me on Facebook may remember that back in February I shared a photo of my first printed deck. The printing was done in collaboration with Jesús, the author of El Soldado Tranquilo. This generated plenty of response, people expressing interest in getting a copy for themselves. Though pretty cool, I felt the deck wasn't good enough to offer it as a product, so I decided to do some editing to bring it up to an acceptable level of quality. 

This deck was first painted back in 2014/15, and its creation is discussed in these two posts: LXVII. and LXXIV. There was another, older version from 2013. This was when I came up with my custom suits, but it did not put any graphics on the cards other than suit symbols and numbers: XLIV.

 
The biggest problem when we got to having this printed was the format. The original cards were completely handmade, with no prior intention to be turned into a printed deck. They did not have rounded corners, so part of the card would get cut off to fit the standard poker card template. In that first print, this was solved by adding a solid colour 'frame' around the scanned card. I wanted to avoid that issue this time around, by constructing the cards digitally, within a poker card template.

Another bit that bothered me was the card numbers. They looked... meh. Their glaring imperfection is passable on the handmade item, but on a printed, neatly cut card it just sticks out. So this got replaced by something more professional-looking. The suit symbols got the same treatment. Basically, the only thing kept from the original deck scans was the artwork from the face cards, but they also got tidied up a bit before scanning. 

The handmade original has minimalistic Jokers: gold foil for Red Joker and a blank card for Black Joker. This was because of the way they function in the rules system I use: the Red Joker is the best card in the deck, and the Black Joker the absolute worst. Gold foil was not an option, so I made some actual Joker artwork for this printed release:

Finally, the design for the backs. The handmade original just has blank backs. I went for a version of the Gardens of Hecate banner for this; seemed the most fitting.

When I finished the editing, I ordered a test copy to see how it comes out. And now I finally have it in my hands. I'm happy to say it looks quite good, and I am perfectly comfortable offering this as a product. Pretty exciting!

This is how it compares to the hand-painted original (left) and the 'Jesús edition' (centre):

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If you like it, you can purchase the deck on MakePlayingCards.com, following this link: MPC. 

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.

 

CXXXV. Woodland Creatures

The second misshapen deer for Monstrous Births scenarios. This one has slightly different deformities than the first - most obviously the long muzzle and tusks that make it somewhat boar-like. I gave it some chaotically growing antlers. The mess with the limbs is quite familiar, though. I think they will all end up with creative number, placement and size of legs... I'm going for five, so that's three more to go.

 

 

 

 

 

The two finished deer, side by side.

The conversion was very like the first - Citadel deer and horse parts plus cheap plastic toy limbs and putty.

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After some dabbling with modelling shield designs, I've made an attempt to sculpt an entire humanoid figure from scratch. This is the result:

The sculpt has an old-school vibe. I reckoned this sort of style would be easier to work in, for a beginner. One step at a time... I'll make a scenic base for him soon so that he gets a proper frame.

I layered green stuff over a wire armature. Since it's a monster I didn't pay too much attention to size - he ended up 38mm tall, which would not do for a human at 28-35mm scale.

I had most fun with the face, of course.

This is the finished sculpt. I learned a few things and got some useful practice. On the next attempt I will try to make the head and hands smaller in proportion to the body. And I need to be more patient when rendering the fur texture, there are parts that look quite untidy. But I am very happy with this first try, which motivates me to take it further with the subsequent ones. I made a mould of the shield so that I can convert a few more variants. On this shield I tried out a hybrid mixture of green stuff and Milliput - it was better for that particular job than either one of the putties pure.

I'd made a Wodewose figure before (can't believe it was an entire year ago...). Now that I look at it, it's not that good. There are some problems with the posture as well as anatomy. I can see it getting scrapped, as soon as I manage to scratch-build a better one.

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I got an idea for a new illustrated poker deck, this time with much more elaborate artwork. I don't have time to get into that project properly for now, so I think it will stay on only this one card for a while. I'll just leave it here as a teaser.

The XIII of Blood.

CXXI. Swampfiends: Second Silurid

Another Silurid joins the Swampfiends. I'm gradually getting to know the crew as I play the campaign, and these jumping fishmen are just fantastic. 

Like his brother, this one was only slightly modified and painted in a matching colour scheme.

The first Silurid and the Spawn Mother's basing has them standing in water. This one is in a jumping pose, so I made him jump from a muddy bank into the water. As you'll see further below, this has to do with the display base I'll make for them.

I also painted the original Gupp swarms I got in the Spawn Mother set because they are essential to how her crew works and I needed them for the campaign. I hate the models, though. They are terribly cartoony and don't match the feel of the Swampfiend crew I'm going for at all, so I don't even want to show them here. They can't even be converted to fit. I do intend to make my own version of the swarms from third party bits that will have the right look, but that is not high on my priority list right now.

The fish family.

The future display base. I don't have the right tools to cut neat round slots on the display base, so I bought some MDF round base extensions for that purpose. The base itself is a picture frame.

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I'm working on a small illustrated book that I'm hoping to publish some day. I painted a couple of test illustrations for it; I thought you might find them interesting: