The Glass Cabinet

For my birthday a few months ago, I was kindly given a glass cabinet by my wife, in another new display of her accepting my hobby and giving it some space to be shown in the house. This is quite a momentous occasion for me too, having not really publicly shown my hobby off before. It is in the downstairs bathroom though..

So here it is now mounted on the wall and starting to be filled with some of my smaller projects:

Blood bowl Orcs and a couple of Fighting Fantasy tributes:

Gaslands at the top, Buried Giant tribute and a human warband

More Fighting Fantasy tributes along the top (characters from the novels and choose your own adventure series) and of course the Freeway Fighter. Wood Elf blood bowl team beneath:

A barbarian warband based on Frank Frazetta's art and some (unfinished) Star Wars miniatures. 

Some 40k Rogue Trader along the top:

Classic Chaos Beastmen (150pts).

This blog was originally set up, some years ago, to chart my progress in creating a Nurgle army from the classic Lost and the Damned tome. Along the way I have been easily, inevitably and enjoyably sidetracked by a plethora of new ideas, miniatures, games systems and competitions, but for now I've decided to come back to the project and try and complete it! Ive finished my Warhammer 3rd Edition Chaos Allies Contingent, which have the same basing, so I looked back at my many incomplete Lost and the Damned units and decided to tackle the unit which needed the least amount of work.

I had painted half of these classic Chaos Beastmen some time ago, and I remembered collecting them so that they were a disparate, ragtag bunch (certainly not just goats), of different shapes, sizes and races and of course choosing some of my favourite sculpts from this era along the way.

Here’s the now completed unit:

I've painted their skin with a variety of tones, trying to unify them slighlty by keeping the colours slightly drab and pastel like, and as always allowing the basing to tie them together further. 

The banner is painted from an image in Fighting Fantasy's Army of Death and is held by a Beastman that was regularly headswapped in Dale Hurst's iconic Tzeentch warband from White Dwarf 135, something I had always wanted to do since I first saw the article in 1991 and here I've done so with a new, plastic plaguebearer head added to the Citadel lead body. 

Here’s the original illustration  by Nick Williams, as found in Fighting Fantasy: Armies of Death:

The last part was to construct a movement tray, which is really more of a display tray to hold the unit together. More on how I do this in a future post.

So then that’s 14 Beastmen, with standard, making a total of 150pts.

A Wizard's Tower (WIP)

With most of my miniatures (painted and unpainted) packed away and my hobby supplies largely out of reach due to ongoing building works in my house (dust, workmen, very limited space for the five of us to inhabit), I've been recently focused on making some scenery. Having finished the laser-cut houses I had a scratch-building itch to scratch and decided upon creating a Wizard's Tower. That's not quite true actually; I'd always wanted to make a Wizard's Tower and had never got around to it until I inadvertently picked up a plastic bottle and some other recyclable objects to put in the blue bin and thought "hold up, these could be put together to make that Wizard's Tower idea that's been shelved in my memory".

Here's where I am now with it:

For the construction, in the back of my mind I had the Fighting Fantasy illustration of Yaztromo's Tower as inspiration, that slightly asymmetrical, jutting tower with several floors leading up to some sort of magical observatory.

 

And thus this is how the build started with a plastic drinks bottle for the main structure. However I soon realised that the plastic was too flimsy and filled it with some expanding foam which had been left lying around by one of the builders. I then superglued/epoxied a few more interesting plastic packaging shapes to the exterior (including some sort of fairy light) and raised it up higher with a piece of thick cardboard tubing and some sort of water filter container. 

I then decided that I wanted to make a scenic base for it, partly for decorative purposes but also because it was very top-heavy and it needed to be stuck down on a larger stand, in this case an mdf off-cut. Some blue expanded polystyrene scraps were used to build and shape the base, a Hobbycraft skull from Halloween cut and added at an angle and then all the surrounding areas built up further with that same expanding foam (which itself was then cut and shaped to look more like rocks). Finally some cocktail sticks were poked through and a sprinkle of sand for small rubble.

Some details were needed and it just so happened that I already had a stash of resin doors and windows (I can't recall where from) and these were super-glued into place. The last stage was the addition of lots of polystyrene bricks, cut up from some unwanted furniture packaging. These were cut into roughly equal sized brick and stuck on with a glue-gun over several evenings. They were then textured by rolling a ball of silver foil over the surface (this could have been done first for ease in hindsight - or I've even seen people put them all in a bucket with a few stones and smash them around). Finally, once attached, I covered all of the polystyrene in several coats of glue to stop the primer from eating into it.

The next steps I need to address are to add some twisted wire to emulate vines creeping up the side and to add some sort of wizardy gargoyle design from my bitzbox to fill that empty plinth in the middle. Perhaps some sort of dragon or flying creature? I'm also toying with the idea of carefully suspending a ping pong ball above the parapets at the top or to make a telescope? Thoughts on this please would be much appreciated?

Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Part 3.

After a bit of un-illustrated dungeon exploring we get to:

The door opens to reveal a small room with a stone floor and dirty walls. There is a stale smell in the air. In the centre of the room is a makeshift wooden table on which is standing a lit candle. Under the table is a small box. In the far corner of the room is a straw mattress. You may either open the box (turn to 240) or leave the room (turn to 363)

Of course we open the box:

The box is light, but something rattles within. You open the lid and a small SNAKE darts out to bite at your wrist! You must fight the Snake.

SNAKE         SKILL 5    STAMINA 2

If you kill the Snake, turn to 145.


For this instalment I've had to make a very small box with a snake in it. I did consider making it life size, but in the end thought that it just had to be in miniature, as that's what I do and so I can actually game with it. But it was hard to work on this tiny scale (and even harder to photograph properly with my iphone).

I'm not at all sure what manufacturer made the snake and I relise it's more cobra than the original illustration. It's also not attacking in it's pose. Again I considered a scratchbuild, but thought I could actually spend my time better on scratchbuilding the box. I used plasticard, tissue paper, card, a bead and some crackle medium.

And here's the original illustration by Russ Nicholson

My photograph with a Prisma filter on it

And again with my hand in it.

Of course I completed my colouring in exercise too, which helped me think of the colours I wanted to use on the model itself.

Here I've tried to recreate the scene as depicted by the passage of text for page 240.  "The door opens to reveal a small room with a stone floor and dirty walls. There is a stale smell in the air. In the centre of the room is a makeshift wooden table on which is standing a lit candle. Under the table is a small box".

 Some WIP photos:

I had to employ my tweezers on this, as it was very fiddly trying to glue everything into place. Black plasticard for the box, green tissue paper hardened with pva for the lining, a bead for the clasp and some cardboard edging and hinges.

And just for scale purposes, seen here with my Deadcember model.

The box has fallen to the ground during your fight with the Snake and out of it has fallen a bronze-coloured key with the number 99 carved into it.  You may take this key with you (note it on your equipment list) and leave the room. Add 1 LUCK point and turn to 363...

Warlock of Fretop Mountain. Part 2; Sleeping Orc Sentry

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..

Fighting Fantasy Characters (Warbands Part 5)

My love of Fighting Fantasy has been evident in quite a few posts now and this one takes it a little further - using some of the illustrations from the Trolltooth Wars novel by Russ Nicholson and some of the text which I recently re-read, I've created a small warband based upon the main characters of the story. Firstly I had to source the miniatures and as you can see from the photo, they are a combination of Citadel and Otherworld Miniatures. Can you guess who's who though?:

Our intrepid adventurers assemble in the town square, ready to adventure. From left to right we have; the Mantrapper, Gareth Yaztromo, Nicodemus, Chadda Blackmane, beast of burden and the Chervah

Walking across the town bridge, heading into the unknown. But not just walking; also pointing, waving or loading weapons or just testing out their lanterns or raising dead spells.

Approaching the entrance to Firetop Mountain, our adventurers decide to investigate to see whether the layout is the same of yore. They turn to page 42.

Exploring the dungeon rooms, the adventurers take it in turns to lead and incessantly re-arrange themselves into different positions within the group. The lantern is working and casts some long shadows. Nicodemus' spell takes an age to raise a full zombie. The mule waits by the entrance.

They feel like they are being watched from above as they admire the not so carefully placed dungeon scenery

With the adventuring done, they all retire back to the studio for a quick photo-session, ensuring they show their best sides and line up in a roughly symmetrical way. "Most important character in the center" - they hear the photographer bark at them. The Mantrapper being not best pleased at being the symmetrically opposite of the mule.

So the individuals, first up; Garth Yaztromo.

A slither of descriptive text in the novel provides an insight into his age, beard and attire ie. a slightly faded red cloak.  From the illustrations and other Fighting Fantasy references, he of course has his familiar, Vermithrax the crow; which is a plastic bit (unsure from where) that has been added to the base here. An Otherworld Miniature wizard was acquired as the sculpt seemed to perfectly match the description; in fact I'm sure it was pretty much sculpted to be Yaztromo; the face, beard and garments all allude to the images of him from the books. Therefore an easy choice of miniature and a straightforward paint scheme. I used several thin glazes of red over a flesh colour to create the faded robe effect and a little bit of osl from the lantern. I also had this illustration from the cover of Shadowmaster (the third and final book in the Trolltooth Wars trilogy) to help me out with the colour red and blue colour scheme:

Some other reference images I found that helped inspire me:

For this warband to work in the Frostgrave format, I needed a wizard and apprentice and decided that the Otherworld model I chose for Yaztromo had a slight apprentice like feel to it, i.e, just not as powerful and dynamic as the next model I wanted to use (even though he's not in the Trolltooth Wars). A peer of Yaztromo - yes Nicodemus:

 Now this Mordheim model (actually named Nicodemus itself) has been on my painting wish-list for some time, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to paint him up. I decided to keep the rising zombie from a previous aborted project as I can imagine Nicodemus being powerful enough to control the dark magics without them affecting him. Although it could be imagined that he does appear to have a slightly darkish side from this iconic illustration of him from the City of Thieves:

I think there is more than a passing resemblance in the miniature and in the drawing. Obviously the illustration came first. To add to this dark side I imagined for Nicodemus, I decided to paint him monochromatically which also provided a contrast with the slightly more garish attire of Yaztromo and the rest of the warband. The grey tones also provide a nice contrast with the yellowing, fetid zombie rising from the floor.

Next up is Chadda Blackmane.

I spent some time contemplating which model to use for this brooding character; in the novel he is described as knightly; armoured, broad-shouldered and stocky, with the usual courtly and garish outfit. Obviously he has dark skin and jet-black hair which I could paint onto any model... But in the end I plumped for the old Valten model- perhaps not the most appropriately dressed for the role of Darkmane, but certainly dynamic and heroic in pose and with a mane of hair waiting to be blackened by my paintbrush. Also again, a model I have long since wanted to paint. I like dynamic poses. I went for the fashionably quintessential blue and white striped trousers and strong complementary greens and reds to make him feel quite well dressed. I was tempted to add some insignia to his garments, but decided it would be too difficult and may clutter the model too.

The Mantrapper is described as an elegantly dressed gent, but a lethal, strpping swordsman.

I again returned to Otherworld Miniatures and found a bard which had a moustache, some nice robes and a foppish hat. I removed his lute and added a greenstuffed knapsack to his back to indicate that he is a mercenary and likes to collect gold and jewels (this is certainly referenced in the book and his greed is his demise). In lieu of not painting patterns onto Blackmane, I decided that the Mantrapper must be even more elegant, hence the diamond/stripe pattern on his strides and the circular motifs on his jacket. I went for nicely polished, jet black boots (working with a bit of gloss varnish here) and a light, plain neckerchief.

The Chervah was the most problematic model as his description in the text and from the illustrations is pretty clear.

 I should have taken some time to sculpt a head onto a goblinoid figure, but was starting to flag on this project and decided to choose a model, paint it and move on. I delved into my Citadel lead pile and found an old goblin, with moustache and decided that some garidh colours would help define him as a courtly man-servant. Given the inclination I would have sculpted some pointy shoes, a large, round head and some ruffs too.

Finally to complete the group of adventurers (and even through it's not mentioned in the story) I felt that they needed a beast of burden to carry all the assortment of weapons, provisions, spellbooks etc as they wandered around adventuring.

This model is another Otherworld sculpt and fitted in perfectly with the group. I imagine the Chervah to be in control of the mule. I did a little bit of research on colour and pattern choices for the mules coat and decided that a reddish tanned colour contrasting with an off-white underbelly would do the trick:

I'm currently reading the subsequent novels to the Trolltooth Wars; Demonslayer has Gan the smith's apprentice as a pivotal character, so he may well make an appreance in the future to add to this band of Fighting Fantasy adventurers...