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!

XCI. Crews

New members for four of the factions. A painting spree.

The Fairy faction got more little blue fairies. These are a mix of GW Wood Elf sprites and Nurglings converted using sprite parts. Some are new and some I'd made before (those were just rebased from 30mm to 25mm bases). Nasty little buggers.

Another Brute for the Troglodytes. I transplanted a goblin head on a Plaguebearer and completed the conversion with Horror arms. Here he is, hanging out with the first Brute.

Orderly #2 for the Plague Doctor's team. I used the same base model as for the original
Orderly - a 40K Chaos Cultist. While #1 is armed with a poison smoke thrower, the new arrival wields a blunderbuss.

And finally, a completely new unit type for the Countess. I knew I was going to add the plastic Spirit Host to the crew as soon as they got released.There are nine single spirits in the box, so there are still more to paint.

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Group shots of the crews:

Troglodytes

Plague Doctor

Fae*

Countess**

*The tainted Rats and Rat Kings also belong in here, but there is just too many of the vermin.

**I had difficulties fitting all the spirits in the picture, so this time I had to leave out some of them.

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As per request, a photo of my graveyard terrain built so far. Download to see in full size.

LXXXIX. The Ogre

Being busy with the Cemetery Project and several commissions, it's been a long while since I last painted a miniature for my own pleasure.  But after the Black Queen painting competition last month I got really inspired and I couldn't resist the urge. The result of one whole day of manic painting is this Ogre, whom I intended for the Fairy faction in Gardens of Hecate.

 The 30mm resin miniature is produced by Mannikin Studios and it's based on an illustration by Arthur Rackham.

I put him on a 30mm base. He's quite slim, but he stands more than a head taller than a human.

The colour scheme is the same as with the other members of the Fairy faction.

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Apart from Black Queen, my club also organised an international Malifaux tournament the week after. I must say it was two great and busy weekends. I met new people, had a lot of fun. Won some prizes. :)

And this is the loot.  I must point out that these came with prizes in form of miniatures, supplies and  store credit from the tournament's many sponsors.

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Then my brother and I made a trip to the city of Prague for a few days. We saw lots of fantastic architecture and I had plenty of good beer. Sadly, we didn't get the chance to visit the famous Old Jewish Cemetery.

St. Nicholas Church. Dome interior.

St. Nicholas Church. Main entrance.

St. Vitus Cathedral.

St. Vitus Cathedral.

One very fancy lamp post.

While I was traveling, a package arrived for me containing Renedra gravestones and MiniNatur ivy. The work on the graveyard terrain continues... 

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LXIX. Back on Track

I'm glad to say that the period of silence is finally over, and I'm back to work in the Gardens. Today I'll just show the little that has been done for the last month, and some of the stuff I'm working on right now. I have so many ideas that my head is overflowing. I'm having difficulties concentrating on the usual just one or two projects at a time... I'm really happy to be back. :)

I. the LEAVES OF THE HANGING TREE 

 

This is just an update of an existing piece of terrain, really. As I was painting the leaves for one of my bare Citadel trees (no longer bare now), I thought I might put some on my Malifaux Hanging Tree. It was entirely gray, and I thought it would benefit from a little bit of colour. As a bonus, it now looks pretty much like it came from the same set as the GW forest. The lot will make a lovely glade on the tabletop once all are finished.

I added some more grass tufts on the base as well.

II. the FAIRY SURROGATES

 

Unfortunately, having lost the fairy swarms I meant to use in the Piper's crew I haven't found satisfactory replacements. I've tried Wood Elf sprites, but found that wasn't "it". I even tried forcing Nurglings into the role and failed. I thought about sculpting them, but since it would mean making around twenty tiny sculpts I said "no" to that idea. In the end I gave up. And resorted to rats. 

Plastic GW rats. There is a limited number of poses, so I gave many of them new tails made of pins.

 I already had a whole bunch of them at home, having purchased them ages ago for use in a scenario, or just to have them creep around the board. They're good for decorating bases as well. One can't have too many rats. I painted some of them last september, along with a rat king I made. Now the existing ones got rebased and their paintjob upgraded, and several more joined the pack. The original rat king got hacked up for the bits, but I made a new one and there are two more in the making. 

Two classical rat kings - just a mockup for now.

 They are a decent replacement for fairies, but they take the overall look and feel of the crew in a different direction. Twelve Rats and three Rat Kings will do, which means I'm already just two Rat Kings away from my target number.

The finished Rat King- not a classical rat king, but a whimsical interpretation of the creature's name.

The rather large rat is from GW, and it's wearing the crown of Figone's King Maulg. The babies following it are from the Skaven Abomination box.

 

III. the TROGLODYTE SHRINE

The Troglodyte tribe is getting some love as well. I am about to convert another Shaman (not much to see yet), and a shrine that will be used in a campaign scenario- with the Troglodytes defending it, and the opposing crew having to destroy it. I'll write a lot more about that piece when it's finished. For now, a WIP picture:

IV. the BEAST

 

A rough sketch of a new beastie for the Countess:

I purchased more balsa wood recently, so I think something new might spring up in the terrain department in the foreseeable future. Something houselike, I expect. And there is that Fate Deck I have yet to finish.

Well, that's it for today. More will follow later this week.

XLVI. Eater of Children

This weekend I've been busy with this miniature version of the Pale Man, a grotesque child-eating monster from Pan's Labyrinth. I've wanted to make this conversion ever since I first saw the film, and now I had an excuse to do it. He will be a Henchman in the fairy crew I'm working on. :)

If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a peek at this post: HERE.

The Pale Man.

I found the perfect miniature to start from: GW Dark Eldar Ur-Ghul. It is Finecast (I won't comment on the quality of GW's resin casts; it's been discussed and ranted about enough all over the Internet), and it comes in two parts, plus an extra head for those who need more than one and want variety. The creature is about human sized, and it comes with a 25mm round base. It would look best on a 30mm, but I put it on a 40mm lipped base for practical reasons (if I ever wish to use this crew as counts-as Hamelin&co. in Malifaux this mini would represent Nix, and Nix is on a 40mm base).

When I was thinking about the pose I had several options, but I went with this one because it is the most iconic. This meant I needed a couple of open hands to replace the original fists.

The bits: one Ur-Ghul and a pair of plastic Pink Horror hands.

First I needed to take my power tool and grind his legs thin, turning some of the muscles into hanging skin flaps. I took the tool to his head as well, removing all the excess nostrils until he was left with the proper amount of two. I cut off the arms and built complete new ones with green stuff over paperclip armature. You can see the armature showing on the right arm in this crappy picture.

I sculpted the skin hanging under his chin, and the eyes on his palms. The eyes drove me crazy, I just couldn't get them right. Had to redo them three or four times.

After all the bits came together and got properly blended in, the mini was ready for some paint. This is just the white basecoat and the first light-grey wash.

The idea was to fit him among other fae, and at the same time keep him recognisable as what he is supposed to be. The colour scheme obviously deviates from the source material because I wanted to adapt him for the crew; this unnatural skin tone is standard for my fairies, and so are the creepy black eyes. But the details on the sculpt and the iconic pose should be enough for him to look familiar to someone who had seen Pan's Labyrinth. 

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You might have noticed a couple of new elements in the sidebar. In case you haven't, they look just like this:

 

Clicking on them will take you to pages dedicated to the Countess' and the Plague Doctor's crews. They contain pictures and fluff about the characters, all gathered in one place. For now it's just these two, but eventually each of the factions will get their own page.

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XLV. Stolen

The Stolen trio.

As I sad before, they are children that were stolen from their homes and are kept under the Piper's influence. Such kids are normally taken to a Fae market and sold as slaves, pets or snacks.

I wanted the Stolen to be visually linked to the Master of the crew, not too different from each other, and well-sculpted. I took a look at miniature children from a number of different companies, including Wyrd, GW, Reaper and Hasslefree, before I concluded these would be the best choice (although OOP). 

The uniformed look is plausible storywise, since the Piper might want to give his wares a standardised and recognisable wrapping. See, they are even decorated with a pretty yellow bow. 

The colour scheme of their clothing matches that of the Piper. The fairy enchantment they are under causes their skin to become eerily pale and their eyes give away a faint blue glow.

They all started as one and the same sculpt: Sidiamie from the old Rackham range. And since I wanted them to be quite similar but not identical, I had to make some minor conversion work. The one in the middle is unchanged- painted as it was. The one in the right just lost his horsey, and the rest of the distinguishing elements are in the paintjob. The one in the left went through the biggest transformation: his toy horse was likewise removed, but also the hat he used to hold behind his back. I sculpted a new hat on his head.

The boy with the hat; before painting.

My favourite detail about these is the little horse on wheels pulled by one of the boys. The paintjob on it is based on a traditional wooden children's toy from Hrvatsko Zagorje region in northern Croatia. I love those toys. The horsey on the miniature is really tiny, and I was afraid I would not be able to pull it off, but I managed quite well. :)

"Villagers along the pilgrimage route to the Marian shrine of Our Lady of the Snow in Marija Bistrica in Hrvatsko Zagorje in northern Croatia developed a technique for traditional manufacturing of children’s wooden toys that has now been handed down for generations.

The men in a family take soft willow, lime, beech and maple wood from the region and dry, hew, cut and carve it using traditional tools; the women then apply ecologically-friendly paint in improvisational floral or geometric patterns, painting ‘from imagination’. The whistles, horses, cars, tiny furniture, spinning dancers, jumping horses and flapping birds produced today are almost identical to those made more than a century ago – though no two toys are precisely the same, thanks to the handcrafted production process.

Popular among both locals and tourists, these toys are sold in parish fairs, markets and specialty shops around the world. They have also evolved with the times and, in addition to the traditional shapes such as horses and carts, new ones representing cars, trucks, airplanes and trains have appeared, reflecting the world surrounding modern-day children. Tiny toy instruments, carefully tuned as they are created, still serve as important components in the musical education of rural children."

- from the UNESCO website

 

Wooden horse, made in Laz Stubički, 1989. Photo by Ethnographic Museum/Zagreb.

And in the end, a group shot of the Fairy faction:

The Piper, Bratcatchers and the Stolen.