There is a right -hand turn to the north in the passage. Cautiously you approach a sentry post on the corner and, as you look in, you can see a strange Goblin-like creature in leather armour asleep at his post. You try to tiptoe past him. Test your luck. If you are Lucky, he does not wake up and remains snoring loudly - turn to 301. If you are Unlucky, you step with a crunch on some loose ground and his eyes flick open - turn to 248.
For Part 1 of this adventure I had to create just a piece of terrain, but this entry required a figure too, which greatly complicated matters (more of that later). For the sentry's post I used the same technique as before, using the expanding foam over a dense polystyrene base and then carving back into the expanded foam once set to create a niche for him to sleep in:
A small torch was scavenged as a left over from my son's birthday castle and some thin wire wrapped around it to make a sconce and so as to hold it to the wall and some greenstuff added (not shown here) to extend the flame upwards. Obviously I was constantly referring to Russ Nicholson's illustration as I was working.
Finding the appropriate model was the most time consuming part of the build. Trying to source a scrawny orc was quite a challenge (so many of them are brawny nowadays) and after flirting with some of the Midlam Orcs in the end I plumped for this crewmember from Notlob's artillery which I paid £2 for:
He obviously needed a fair bit of converting and greenstuffing (on a very minute, detailed scale) to get a likeness, you can see a wip shot below where I've lengthened his nose, added wrinkled bags under his eyes and some tattered clothing. Only the helmet and draping loincloth to add at this stage. The legs were repositioned to make him recline and some mantic ghoul arms were added across his chest to re-create the same slumbering pose as per the illustration.
Yet again I forgot to take photos of the painting stage, because it really is such a quick process for me now. Sprayed grey and brown, dark wash over everything, highlight up and then glaze with browns and greens for the mossy appearance. I had to spend a bit more time working on the lighting effects from the torch, glazing in with some yellows and oranges.
The painting of the orc skin followed my usual recipe and I finally added a few clumps of foliage for some extra detail on the rock face. Here's a few other photographs where I was experimenting with angles and lighting:
The prisma app is a wonderful thing for projects like this, as I can turn my model back into an illustration in the style of Russ Nicholson's originals. Unfortunately my app is no longer working, so I had to interrupt JB's romantic weekend through Messenger, with a geeky favour. And of course the good chap that he is, he came up trumps (hopefully during a lull in the weekend) :
I think the top one works best. Of course I also coloured in the same illustration from my colouring in book, trying to capture the sense of light and dark and a slightly gaudier palette than on my painted model:
I deliberately built this diorama to also fit in with my modular dungeon, as one day I'd like to play the Warlock of Firetop Mountain, with all the re-made illustrations integrated into the layout, following the actual map from the book:
I do need to make and add a small modular floor that can cover the exposed magnetic strip, as can be seen above.
The next instalment of this will be page. 240..
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