It's time once again to ferret out those murderous vampires in a new VAU - Vampires Amongst Us. A cross between Cluedo and a roleplay, sometimes gory and often hilarious! Find out more and sign-up! here.
@Farmer7574 Thank you for the comment! I'm glad that you read those dryads as I intended them ;) I also think they will turn out really messy, I just hope it'll be readable somehow! And yes, the conversions took much longer than I expected - they deserve to be shown and take a weekly slot ;)
I'm glad you like the orcs too! BB is actually the only game that I play nowadays - a match with my wife at home doesn't take much time as a random 'serious' game in the shop and it's plenty fun. That makes me actually motivated much more to paint stuff for it - so in the future BB updates will be much more frequent!
Here I have some Skin Wolves from Forge World. I always liked those models but I couldn't find a good excuse to incorporate them into my collection. Well, I could use them as Varghulfs, but I already have some of those and they are all bat monsters, having werewolves added to that mix didn't sit well with me. Then, when I started expanding my collection beyond just undead and came up with body-horror-themed 'Dwellers of the Bog', those wolves suddenly found their place.
They fit right in as they are so the conversions are minimal here - I added the Lady's sigil on their bodies ('painted' on with Liquid Greenstuff mixed with gloss varnish, visible at the bottom of the post) and filed off any Chaos iconography. The painting was pretty straightforward, I went with light human skin and dark wolf flesh for the contrast. Only on the hands themselves, I tried to go for the 'flayed flesh' effect to bring more attention to them and I think it turned out pretty good.
Their own unique fairy tale:
Once upon a time, there were three hunters, masters of their craft, who were trying to help their starving village during an exceptionally strong winter. Most of the game was already hunted down - everywhere but in the lush garden that belonged to the wise and beautiful enchantress. She forbade anyone from hunting on her grounds, but the hunters were desperate and they decided to try nevertheless. They fell down a great stag - but as they were rejoicing, the enchantress appeared before them. They shook with fear, but the wise woman told them that the rule was just a test to find those truly skillful and brave. In reward, she offered them a chance to become better hunters than they could ever be - strong, fast, resilient, with keen senses. They could also hunt in her gardens without restrictions and their village would never know hunger again. They just had to swear their allegiance to her. Three hunters agreed and they took the stag back home, where they were greeted as heroes. After a great feast, they woke up at midnight, horrifying transformation ripping their skin open and breaking their bones. Turned into crazed, grotesque man-wolves, hearing the Lady’s whispers in their ears, they killed and devoured every single person in the village. Ever since that night, they roam Varsavia on the Lady’s of the Bog orders, only occasionally turning back into humans to realize what they agreed to.
I converted the Rotters and then some Pestigors for my Nurgle Blood Bowl team, now it's finally time for the Warriors, or how they are now called - the Bloaters. Those big, slow and bulky roadblocks are the core of the team and my favorite positionals in the team, the stars that crush the opposition with their mutated fists.
Ones available in the current GW kit are fine models, but in no way how I envision those players. After playing Blood Bowl 2 video game, I imagine them more similar to stereotypical Chaos Warrior, with armor and spikes. The most obvious choice in this situation was to revisit the delightful kit of Putrid Blightkings. I choose 4 of them, leaving one to serve as a Head Coach later and went crazy with the conversions representing their skills, just like my other players from this team.
Wanting to justify their heavy armor, atypical for modern Bloaters, I came up with a backstory that they were displaced through time by Nurgle, many, many years forward, making them living (?) relicts of the old ways. To go extra ancient I gave them roman-themed names and crests on the heads. This brings them all together as the special players and strengthens the effect of how ancient and out-of-touch with the modern Blood Bowl fashion they are.
Here are they all together:
And some closer photos.
Captain on the left was the first that I made and which gave me the least problems when deciding what to do. This is easily my favorite pose out of the Blightkings kit and came together beautifully with what I had in mind - the stone under the foot got changed into a ball, left hand was in great position to sculpt a scary pincer there (instead of some variation on Wolverine claws, I went with the classic interpretation of the 'Claw' mutation) and the outstretched hand was perfect for a 'thumbs down' gesture, bringing even more Roman themes into the whole mess.
The second one has 'Stand Firm' as his upgrade and this one took the longest to design. At first, I wanted to give him thick and bloated legs, but then it would be too similar to the captain's right leg - so I left this topic for a while. Only later I decided to turn his legs into a mass of swarming tentacles and worms - which both greatly illustrates how well is he glued to the ground but also fits Grandfather Nurgle perfectly.
Here below, the guy on the left is the one that rolled doubles when leveling - and he got 'Jump Up' which helps players get up quickly after being knocked down. To represent that, I decided to give him a lot of spider legs sticking from his back - which would prop him back easily after he falls down. His body was the most armored of all the Blightkings, so to retain some balance I decided to make him completely unarmored from the breastplate up - like rotting meat rupturing a metal can.
And the last one is the Bloater with 'Mighty Blow'. I thought about representing it quite a lot and many options were just not good - giving him a large fist could be confused with 'Big Hand' while adding a lot of spikes on it could be confused with 'Claw'. I considered giving him a heavy hand made out of stone, but in the end, I decided on giving him a thick, flexible appendage ending with a spiked ball - like a fleshy flail of sorts - with a sporty armband to keep him properly themed. Hopefully, it's heavy- and slow-looking enough not to be confused with a 'Tentacles' mutation.
It's been some time since the last odd necromancer, now it's time for the second one - Matthias, the fancy necromancer who's living under the delusion that all the death and decay around him is actually a pristine elegance.
While Alarich was kinda complicated to convert and straightforward to paint, this one was the opposite. There's barely any conversions on him and an overabundance of freehands. It was challenging a bit, especially keeping the patterns visible while giving them some depth, but also a nice change from other, dirty necromancers in my collection. It was also a good opportunity to do the trick with just polishing the sword on a metal miniature instead of painting it - this guy sure looks like someone who uses a very shiny, clean weapon.
As a piece of trivia - I took his name from an old, old Vampire: the Masquerade character I played, from my edgy teenager phase ;)
The backstory:
Yet another necromancer shown to Hautfell during his search for allies was Matthias Schwarzfeuer. He was sitting alone in a dilapidated palace in the Varsavian wilderness, being tended to by undead servants. Despite all of that, his manners were overwhelmingly noble and royal, his clothes clean, ornate and impeccable. He was indeed a necromancer, quite powerful at that, but he thought, that his profession wasn’t an excuse to stop caring about looking and acting as a noble should. Schwarzfeuer addressed his undead minions with Empire military ranks and still considered himself an important Empire citizen. It was unknown if he was so elitist that he refused to acknowledge the reality around him or he was just stark raving mad. Nevertheless, he acted as a competent ally and necromancer, as long it was an old nobleman Hautfell talking to him - he wouldn’t debase himself taking orders or advice from those beneath him.
Top job buddy - those Skin Wolves look like something out of a comic book, and painted as though they’re lurking a dark candlelit street. Nice job with the sigils too, they’ve been painted to stand out really well.
Also love the continuation of the GS conversions to show abilities/upgrades on your BB minis - big fan of them all but I especially love the aesthetics of the ‘Jump’ guy.
The conversion of the old necromancer is awesome. He looks fantastic and that hat really matches what you’ve described of him. Way better than the original, in both regards - paint job and appearance.
Ah what is there left to say, as always it's fresh and awesome stuff, it has it's share of pleasingly creepyness, and your modelling and painting still improves even further. Not that is was ever bad, but even then there's a huge level between your first stuff here and now. Keep going mate. Impressing.
That is one of the first VC models I have ever painted, so that model will always have a special place in my masters' spirit, very cool looking conversion and excellent execution.
@Farmer7574 Thanks man! I'm glad you like the wolves, but I don't know if it's the matter of paintjob or the photos themselves! (Lately I'm having problems with overexposure during summery days, maybe now, in the grey german fall/winter it won't be a problem). Also thanks for the BB guys, I'm really into sculpting, painting them - actually playing the game brings lots of motivation and ideas ;)
@Theerteen Thank you so much, it's nice to read that my stuff is getting better, I'm convinced that I've hit a plateau and the progress has mostly halted (at least my speed improves).
@Sessioni Thanks, glad you like him - it's indeed a fine classic model :) Also, howdy man, it's been a long time! How are you doing now?
And of course I neglected this plog for a looong time. I will just dump everything that I did those last weeks (except for the sculpting tips, it's not a place for them here), feel free to disregard!
First, the Dark Elf Blood Bowl team mascot/owner.
Back when I gave a name for my Dark Elf Blood Bowl team, the Dreadspear Dragons, I came up with the idea that due to some legal shenanigans, the team is officially owned by a real dragon, becoming a gimmick that makes them famous. This was just to give some more meaning to their name and make the whole backstory a bit more interesting but it would be waste if I didn't represent it somehow! So I digged through various dragon miniatures and decided on using a Shadow Dragon from Reaper Miniatures - it had the good style, pose and size for me.
Besides that, I also thought that I could do banners for my teams (because I love banners) - which could be then paired with cheerleaders and/or mascots. Thankfully I had a dragonskin (?) banner in my bits collection, one from Mournfang Riders, so I mounted it on a base, covered in various Dark Elf bits and added several skulls for the evil factor. Now the Dragon can stay with the flag on the sidelines and represent the team better than ever!
The painting scheme was chosen to reference the players' colors - purple, dark red and blue, pale green, with silver/bright accents. I used numerous points for shading and highlights on both instances of dragonskin to simulate the scales - and I think it was actually easier to pull off than trying to go for smooth blending. The wing membranes also got a lot of dots to make them more visually interesting.
I plan to use him in the game as the equivalent of 4-5 cheerleaders - and that's why there are two giant pompoms laying on the ground, just in case someone had doubts what is the dragon's role on the pitch. Maybe I'll come up with some additional rules for him - if so, I'll post them here of course.
Backstory:
The Blood-Bowl-enthusiastic dragon Mallerion, a mascot of the Dreadspear Dragons was a known oddity in on the pitch, but he became especially noteworthy only after becoming the actual, official owner of the team (due to some desperate legal maneuvering on the part of the previous one). Being a dragon, he was neither interested nor capable of all the bureaucratic work needed, so there’s a wide array of assistants and representatives who do all the legwork for him. They may even set their own salaries and working conditions as long as the owner is happy. Thankfully, Mallerion is perfectly content with having enough food, being able to cheer from the sidelines (heightened statistical amount of deaths correlating with him being on the stadium is a coincidence!) and taking part in photo sessions. Not only he makes the press more interested in the team, but his presence on the sidelines can also motivate the players and the fans into a glorious rage much better than a whole team of cheerleaders! The only problem is that he personally terminates the staff who’s he displeased with - after which the unfortunates often don’t find a new job. Well, this isn’t strange, since it involves fire breath and being eaten alive by the dragon, but nobody gets into the Blood Bowl business expecting a long life and nice retirement!
First, the scaly lad himself:
And the banner that I prepared to accompany him:
The conversion work that I did here was really minimal, but I've made a photo nontheless:
Then, something undead related, another Wight Hero(ine).
After Yarema I have yet another wight hero painted - or a heroine to be precise - Drachitsa the Slayer, the Fearless Maiden and the Killer of Dragons.
After all the wights that are basically the same with their patinated armor and patterned cloaks, this one has something special - a dragonskin cloak. Still, I didn't want her to stand out too much so I kept her in the same color palette, with only a slight tint of green added to the scales. Other than that, she was a rather standard fare for me.
Every society has its heroes. One such in Varsavia was Kiril the Woodsman, another one was Drachitsa the Slayer. From her earliest days thought to be without any fear, she was the only one to undergo a quest to find the legendary Oakspear and slay the terrible dragon Zmey that was terrorizing his countryside. She killed the beast, took it’s skin as a cloak and returned as a heroine. Since then she was slaying beasts and other enemies of Varsavia and the Death God and made many, many more tales about her, until finally succumbing to old age and a bitter rival. After an excavation under one of the mountains, ahe was found by the wights and subsequently raised. Thanks to the powerful enchantments on her tomb, she retained all of her memories, skills and famed weapons - and like Kiril, she joined her undead brethren to do what she did best - slaying.
I bring you first miniatures that I got off a Kickstarter - some amazing pieces from Black Crab Miniatures, a very interesting collection made by Meridian Miniatures and inspired by amazing artwork by @blackcrabart. Those guys were right up my alley and made me finally use kickstarter for something - normally I am more than okay to wait for the stuff to get sold in retail. Second part of that Kickstarter ended not that long time ago and I also bought them, so expect them in the future!
From the moment I saw those guys, with their overall style and all the bones they have on them, I knew they would fit perfectly as mortal followers of the Death God, so I used here the same color scheme that I use for all my Death God-worshipping wights. I think it fits them quite well. The minis themselves were very well made, with sharp detail and very fun to paint so I am looking forward to some more minis from this series.
Right after being raised, Daremnych started with raising back his oldcommanders and additional troops for the wight army - but that was not enough in his opinion. To really secure their position in Varsavia in the long run, he needed the support of the mortals living in the land. The old faith in the Death God was reduced to myth and superstition - and to bring it back, the old Liche created the Cult of the Radiant Wheel. He took the old Kolovrat symbol the wights use and repurposed it as a wheel of birth, death and re-birth, to which all the creatures are bound, promising eternal life after death, forgiveness of misdeeds and protection from the enemies. People preaching it (and achieving quite a success) are fairly normal humans, but the High Council that Daremnych formed to steer the cult in the right direction are anything but. Their faces hidden behind ancient masks, wrapped in bangades, with pale, grey skin, they are a mystery. They reside in a hidden village deep in the forest where they write the sacred tomes, gather the bones of their saints and organize their faith, but their real motives are known probably only to Daremnych himself.
Then, the Nurgle guys are finally getting painted:
After much deliberation, I can start showing my beloved, heavily converted Nurgle Blood Bowl team, the Putrid Punters!
I am spending much more time and energy painting those than any of the earlier team, so I decided to separate the positionals into their own posts - this will give them adequate space to show everything and give me time to finish other ones. After everything is done, I will post the whole team together, of course. The color scheme was inspired by their look in Blood Bowl 2 video game, with the yellowish skin. To that, I choose cold, black armor with white markings - and it was a lot of fun painting all that.
First come the Bloaters, which I wanted to paint the most, the biggest and the nurgliest of the bunch. They are also the ones carry the Roman theme of the team the most - which is explained in their backstory. I based my conversion on the awesome Putrid Blightkings kit because I wanted my Bloaters a little more warrior-like and diverse. Like the rest of the team, they are modeled to represent an additional skill they possess, to make it easy to recognize who is who on the pitch.
The Putrid Punters have a very strange relationship with the Grandfather Nurgle - they can play season after season enjoying the favor of their god - until something happens that displeases him and they disappear into the warp without a trace. Many years later the Punters show up again as if nothing happened - willing to spread pestilence and score touchdowns as always. This quirk of theirs is especially apparent when one sees their Bloaters - durable enough to be with the team since the very beginning. They wear armor that remember the warlike times before Blood Bowl, they speak in an aged dialect and block their opponents just like ancient gladiators. Now they are back to show once again that the old ways are the best.
Here the left you can see the Bloater with Jump Up ability - spider legs on his back represent how easier it would be for him to get up after getting knocked down. I did put arm(?)bands on them to make him look more sporty. On the right is the captain of the team, with the very obvious Claw upgrade - easily my favorite model from them all right now.
And the other half of the team heavy lifters. The one on the left is a Stand Firm guy, who uses numerous tentacles he has for legs to make him almost impossible to push around. The one on the right has a Mighty Blow skill - I pondered quite a bit how to represent that without straying accidentally into Claw, Big Hand or Tentacles territory. In the end, I made him a thick, fleshy mace for a hand - which not only gives him indeed some might but is also properly disgusting.
A bloody, tentacled body-horror priest, conversion:
Recently I got miniatures to be used as human followers of the wights and their Death God cult - and after getting them, I started wondering if I could represent somehow people following the Lady of the Bog, their priests - to mix some religious imagery with blood and flesh horror. Then I saw THIS artwork from the amazing Bogdan Rezunenko and it really got my gears moving. This resulted in me buying Taddeus the Purifier, the priest from Blackstone Fortress to change him into what I need - bringing us the update this week, Kaliglav the Scarlet Priest, the pious servant of the wise and fair Lady of the Bog.
I had to get rid of all the technological elements, smooth out the details and make it everything much grittier and dirtier. Just like with the tentacle-legged Nurgle sportsman from before, I attached the priest to the base with a rod and then built up all the tentacles around it - which gave me freedom when sculpting and posing them. I could also give him more than just two hands - it strengthens the effect of being 'beyond human form' and it actually references the original miniature, who had a servo skull with a gun as the third 'limb'. I also cut off the top surface of the base - I will fill it with some resin to represent a murky, dirty bog.
After the fighty, tough Bloaters, it's time for the fast (as far as Nurgle allows), ball handling Pestigors.
Just like with the beforementioned positionals, I wasn't satisfied with the official GW ones - while it's a good sculpt, there are just two of them in the box, both with the same pose. To get all 4 in different poses I decided to use Beastmen from the Doom Lords Blood Bowl team and convert them into the rotten versions of themselves. Using BB minis also spared me making them more sporty, they were unarmed and quite dynamic already.
In comparison to the warriors, those guys didn't have that much armor on them, so it was purely an exercise on disgusting, Nurgly flesh - and it was, of course, a lot of fun. Like the others, they got also converted to represent somehow their upgrades - which I describe below. Their names were inspired/taken from BB1 and BB2 video games, where the generator makes a pretty good job creating some beastly-sounding monikers for the goats.
When the Putrid Punters disappear into the warp, only to reappear many years later, they do so together - players, coaches, staff, etc. Only while you can see on the nigh-unkillable Bloaters how they are from another era, the Pestigors are never really keen on following the universal cultural norms, so the changes on them are not that noticeable on the first look. Here it’s the playstyle that’s different - while Bloaters smash and stink as always, modern beastmen are more refined and organized in their behavior on the pitch. In comparison, the Bloaters’ Pestigors are more bestial and chaotic - relying on their instinct more than on the coach’s instructions. Thankfully, they have a brain (unlike Rotspawn!), so it usually works out in the end.
On the left there is a goat with the 'Sprint' ability - the intestine trailing behind him is supposed to give him a sense of speed. The one on the right rolled the unlikely 12 and got a bonus to his strength - to represent that, I made him much bulkier, beefy - making him resemble a Bloater a little more (which makes sense, they are ST4 too!).
And the remaining two runners. The Pestigor the left is the one with 'Extra Arm' skill and the first one that I converted. Such an upgrade is also usually the first one that I take in the video game, making the first lucky goat into an official ball handler. The other one has 'Two Heads' mutation, which makes it easier for him to dodge (somehow). The additional head is small and malformed, which was also inspired by the video game, where it's similarly represented.
Half a year ago I posted my WIP pictures of converted, odd Necromancers and it's finally time to wrap up the project and post the third and the last one of them painted, the fire-necromancer Ignatyi.
As you can see, this one was all about fire all over him - the rest was my standard dirty clothing. Unfortunately, I have a weird dislike for painting flames, I don't know why, but it just drains my motivation. I noticed it already on my Hexwraiths, but this time I thought I can force myself through it and maybe it'll at least look good. To make it even more interesting (and worse for me) I bought a Burning Head endless spell because it works just perfect with this character.
The whole idea came to me when I was reading rules for 9th Age a long time ago - and they decided to give necromancers Lore of Flames, to give them more offensive potential. This gave me an idea to create a crazed Necromancer, shrouded in green balefire - if not for the game, then at least as a painting/modeling challenge. Since that time the creators of the game changed the whole idea of Lores of Magic, to my miniature no longer applies there. Oh well! I will leave the assessment to you if he looks good enough to be worth all the stress those flames costed me.
Being a fire wizard is one of the surest ways to get yourself banished from the Kislevite society - not only you pose a hazard to all the wooden buildings, but you also stand in direct opposition to the traditional ice magic practiced in the land. Such was Ignatiy’s story - what started as an unusual talent which could find its use on the battlefield, soon became a reason for discrimination and exclusion amongst his traditionalist peers. That, together with pyromania which started to creep into his mind, soon led to his banishment. Ridden with paranoia and slowly losing his sanity, he was found by a certain hooded and masked individual. That creature showed him that his talents can be melded together with necromantic arts to use the energies of the dead and create an especially fell and devastating kind of fire. Wielding those sinister green flames, Ignatiy descended into almost complete madness through all the years he plagued Kislev. In that state, he got recruited by Hautfell - as a very volatile, fiery artillery for his necromantic coven.
I showed you the Bloaters, I showed you the Pestigors, now it's the time for the fragile, unsung heroes (not really) of every Nurgle team - the Rotters.
Unlike the other two kinds of players, this time the official ones from the new GW box were exactly what I needed! Small, scrawny, funny and easy to convert! This even fits well with my backstory, where the Bloaters are ancient, Pestigors are pretty old and the Rotters quite up-to-date with the times - it makes sense for them to look the same as the current team. Still, I converted every single one of them to represent the upgrades that they rolled - and it was both a great opportunity for some interesting modifications and a way to make them all really different.
When it came to painting, they had all that the Bloaters and Pestigors had - armor, flesh, tentacles, green clothes, some leather. That made them actually more tasking to paint that I anticipated! As for their names, I was inspired by Blood Bowl 1 video game, where they all had painfully mundane names with some disgusting, Nurgly byname. I decided to make a twist on it and make it more ironic, with noble and bombastic bynames, just to exploit some BB silliness where it fits the most - the poor, easily killable and replaceable linemen.
With the time-traveling Putrid Punters, the spectators can marvel at the ancient, elaborate armor of the Bloaters or outdated, but savage playstyle of the Pestigors, but with the Rotters, well, there’s not much to see here! Bereft of regeneration and easy to crumble, they die easily and are replaced so often, they are actually quite up-to-date! Their armor conforms to the current regulations and if their brains weren't mushed at this point, they would actually understand the fans’ current slang! Still, Grandfather Nurgle rewards them generously for their selfless service to him and the noble game with numerous mutations. This makes them quite versatile and useful on the pitch - no matter if it’s about kicking a ball or getting kicked by an Orc to keep him busy and let more valuable Punters actually score.
The pictures are messed up on my computer (maybe on others not!), but the links inside them do work, so one can click on them to see them, if someone's so inclined.
The one on the left here has the most useful 'Guard' skill - I represented it with shields he has all over him. The middle one, 'the Great' rolled a lucky Agility upgrade, making him as nimble as an elf! Because of that, he got a 'tricky' pose with a ball raised high. That and pointy ears too. The one on the right has 'Thick Skull' - I showed it by sculpting a turtle shell over his head - a built-in helmet!
Here, the guy on the left has the 'Big Hands' mutation (obviously). Since the WIP post, I glued a small topknot on his helmet to bind him just a tiny bit with the Bloaters and their headcrests - maybe he's the captain of the Rotters, or the oldest one? The middle one has 'Prehensile Tail', also pretty obvious and simple. The last one is the precious 'Kicker' of the team, so I changed his pose to make it seem like he's preparing to kick a ball. Maybe in the future, he'll get 'Dirty Player', which will also fit pretty nicely with this pose!
Warhammer Fantasy drama! xD I love how you've gone out of your way to go ahead and actually paint the owner of the team - beautiful and very appropriate mini you've chosen, and that medallion he's rockin' is awesome. Beautiful banner too.
Next up; your undead stuff is probably the highlight of the update for me - Drachitsa is one bad-looking woman and I love the High Council of the Radiant Wheel - excellent minis and very macabre, perfect for VC.
Your Blood Bowl stuff is always wonderful to see too - it's nice to see Nurgle minis looking more yellowy brown rather than green. I love the green on Nurgle minis but your style has made an impressive and interesting change. I like the names you've chosen; it's quite funny how you have stuff like 'Bleggharius' and 'Mu'Mulgor', then you have names like 'Mike, Jim and Bill' - full on typical names of our working class citizens. I find the contrast amusing :D
Top class work on that necro too - he's another excellent piece of Borgnine work that I may need to 'borrow' at some point :D
Excellent work mate - keep it all coming but keep those updates a bit more frequent.:thumbsup:
Wow, that was a lot to catch up on and it's all so brilliant! That Nurgle Bloodbowl team could be sat on John Blanche's shelf and not look out of place :bowdown:
@Farmer7574 Sorry, between Carpe Noctem, the blog, instagram and real life, I'm getting whelmed with all the comments and updates! Glad you like the Blood Bowl stuff - I'm getting really into making and painting all the things that don't play on the pitch, but are in the background - that's a lot of interesting opportunities. And some of them even have some minor role in the rules too ;) As for the Nurgle stuff, I was never too fond of the green color scheme for them (too obvious!) so I went for warm and squishy yellows with them - similarly, I'm thinking of starting winter-white-themed Death Guard for 40k too ;) Glad you find the names amusing - that was the point! And the undead - also thanks! When I was suffering while painting the Necromancer I actually thought, that Farmer would be a better person to paint something like that ;)
@Shadespyre Many, many thanks! I'm really flattered about the Blanche part - I'm still not sure what defines that style, so hearing people calling my stuff like that shows me I'm getting the hang of it :D
This time a little more on-time! And undead to boot!
Another small update of one of the wight heroes - only this time it's not much of a hero, but rather a constructor, sculptor and an architect - Drazhan the Younger, the Magnificent Maker.
The whole idea with him was to kitbash a version of a Necrotect from the Tomb Kings roster that would fit with the aestethics of my army - the conversion can be found in the link above. I painted him in the usual color scheme for my wights - only now he's not a warrior, but a craftsman. The metal parts are rather minimal, the patterned black and yellow cloth is also small and it's the red hat that's the focal point of the composition - I tried to create an impression of an building site foreman (who also often wear differently colored headwear).
Besides being a gaming piece, he's also narratively a creator of constructs (like the Effigy of Death) and a reason to start creating my own takes on iconic Tomb Kings constructs such as the Ushabti, Tomb Scorpions and Bone Giants.
The backstory:
Zlyshko was very satisfied with the Effigy he managed to bring back to life, but one was not enough for his plans. The fact that all remaining ones were destroyed didn’t help. Only way to deal with this was to get their creators to make more. They may be all dead, but that wasn’t as much of a problem nowadays. A wide search was conducted - it wasn’t easy, for the architects-sculptors-engineers that made those marvels often omitted their own name out of humility. Only one - Drazhan the Younger - was honoured (or prideful) enough to be buried with all the information about him. An egocentric, brilliant creator and a harsh overseer, Drazhan was most pleased to be able to glorify the Death God with his creations once again and with them, drive away nonbelievers from Varsavia.
Come on man, leave some awesomeness for the rest of us! I'm kind of tired using the same praisephrases (tm) again and again, but it's always so desperately appropriated xD . I friggin love what you do, mainly because in many cases it's extremely near at what I do - but on a such higher level, that I know I will never reach, still it's a thing to orientate at and improve myself. But it's fantastic to see your popping ideas and following executions which I can completely relate to, although they are so different yet so similar to what I would/wanna do.
I completely missed the priest you're working on, he's one guy I really look forward to seeing finished, because even on your extraordinarily stuff I think he will stand out!
@Theerteen I'm leaving plenty of awesomeness for you - I promise I'll never do anything circus related (because it would be just copying your ideas, frankly) - and thanks dude for the kind words - it's really nice to hear that it's creating such a reaction :)
@Farmer7574 thanks! Even if it's quite a simple mini ;)
Now it's time for the Big Guy for that Nurgle Blood Bowl team. WIP version that is.
The mighty Bloaters, the 'fast' Pestigors and the fragile Rotters are painted, but a Nurgle team is nothing without the Beast (or a Rotspawn as it is called now)! There are the official one from Forge World, GW minis that can be repurposed and many other third-party options, but I couldn't find one that I really liked. The obvious solution in this situation was to make my own from scratch! I have been sculpting Nurgle guts on existing minis for a long time now, so this shouldn't be that much more difficult.
First design principle was to make it 'ugly cute', like HERE - the picture that inspired me the most. Beasts of Nurgle always had the background of having a puppy-like mentality and I wanted to show this quality, despite the 'official' art direction for new Rotspawn. To achieve that, I gave it large, round eyes - which will be painted glossy black - to get that 'puppy eyes' effect and a wide grin with tongue sticking out. During the sculpting process, I also decided to make its face flat and with many folds to make it similar to a pug. The arms are also posed like that to get that 'pet animal' effect.
The second design principle was to make the tentacle really important. In the game, the 'Tentacle' mutation that the Rotspawn possesses from the start dictates it's the whole role on the pitch and plays a giant role in the whole team's strategy - and most miniatures used for this creature have their tentacles stuck to the head or the back, almost like an afterthought. I wanted this sticky appendage to be an integral part of the whole miniature - so I designed it as an extension of the beast's head, the tentacle IS its head! Only from that main one smaller ones grow out to make the whole composition more wriggly and untidy.
Other than that, it was your usual Nurgle pleasantness, with open wounds, sucktion cups, toothy maws, spikes, boils and many similar. In the end, only the pauldrons, three spikes on the back, a nurgling on the side and two maws are made out of existing bits, all the rest was sculpted by me - I used all the greenstuff that I had on hand at that time. I am pretty happy with this result and now I can't wait to put some equally sick colors on it!
Before I started all the greenstuffing, I did a plasticine 3d-sketch, to get the scale and proportions right. I still had it after the finished model was done, so I made a comparison photo of them together - I find it interesting to see how different and yet similar they are.
Disgusting and superb - he has that cute ugly image you were after for sure! He kinda reminds me of Mr. Oogy Boogey from The Nightmare Before Christmas film :D
Excellent job on the sculpting and good call on doing a test sculpt beforehand, it's paid off.
Goddamnit, lots of pictures are gone for some reason. I hope it's temporary. Still, klicking them sends you to the direct link properly, so at least there's that!
Theerteen Thanks man! Actually yes, he would - which is why I often think that your hobby ideas would work pretty fine in Blood Bowl ;)
Farmer7574 Thanks too, glad you like him ;) And he indeed resembles Oogy Boogey a bit ;)
After painting them for quite a while (lots of breaks and distractions), the Lady's Gardeners, mockeries of real Dryads made by the Good Enchantress are finally ready. I took the basic GW Dryads and sculpted all matter of fleshy and bony appendages on them - think The Thing from 1982. Their faces were removed and replaced with an engraving of the Lady's sigil.
Frankly, with those here, it was the sculpting phase that was the difficult one - painting was really easy. Without any clothes, weapons, hair, etc. they had basically just 4 surfaces - wood, flesh, bone and leaves - so I when I finally sat with them, I finished them pretty quickly using the assembly line method. In the end I just slathered it with gloss varnish and blood. Still, they turned out pretty horrific and disturbing - exactly as intended, a little in the AoS28 direction. Now I am wondering if a Treeman made in this style wouldn't be an interesting idea...
If someone were to venture into the lands of the Lady of the Bog, they would meet many guardians that will protect the Great Mistress' privacy. There is a wide menagerie of those marvellous creatures, but the Gardeners stand out especially. Similar to the treelike Dryads inhabiting Athel Loren, they are both a part of the enchanted Garden that is the Lady’s realm and its defenders. Unable to duplicate the ancient magic of the Asrai, the Wise Enchantress of Varsavia molded the trees herself and injected them with her own seeds, vines and flowers to make them able to move and act. They roam the forests and bogs, tending to the vegetation and rooting out any weeds and pests. Glory of the Lady that they are imbued with makes intruders and weak people break down in fear, but those loyal to her can rest easy, for they can also count on the Gardeners’ protection.
The whole unit of them is a hard-to-understand mess, so first I am showing you all the singular gardeners:
And then as a whole 20-strong unit - which really is a lot of fun to rank them up - and they still poke each other in some places.
And as a sidenote:
Several weeks ago I got asked by CryinMo to do an interview about my work here on the blog and the effect of our talk is finally up, on this spooky day. It was a real pleasure to be a guest on the podcast with a great host and I hope that someone will find it interesting! We had a talk about painting, conversions, perseverance, zombie weddings (yes, I'm talking about yours @Theerteen !) and some other stuff too - so if you have an hour too much in your life, you can check it out ;) Sorry about my weirdly thick accent at the beginning, it gets better later.
You can find it directly HERE or by clicking the image below:
There was the WIP Post and a long Step-by-step sculpting process, now it's finally time to finish this project and post the painted version of my (mostly) scratchbuilt Blood Bowl Nurgle Rotspawn, the cute Sloth the Sloth.
I painted him in the same color scheme ashisteammates, only this time flesh was the overwhelming majority of everything that was to paint. To make it more interesting, I tried varying the shades on him - with some parts redder, some greener, some darker and duller. To further that, I also freehanded some fine veins in some places, like on the boils and the bulbous part of the main tentacle. Then I applied some gloss varnish on all the swollen fleshy bubbles, tentacles and the eyes - especially the eyes - and he was basically ready. Green shirt, bony spikes and black armor were just accents here. In the end, I am pretty happy with him and I hope I can mess with some elven game plans with him now!
His name was taken from my version of Putrid Punters that I had in Blood Bowl 1 video game - the names are randomly generated there and the Beast rolled a coincidentally redundant name, so I decided to keep it because it fits and it's funny - also as a memento from those times.
All the design principles and ideas for this creature are explained in the WIP post, linked above but also HERE.
His backstory:
Weirdly named (Nurgle himself choose it, who are we to argue?) Sloth the Sloth is the Punters’ Rotspawn - and as his name suggests, he is always a little late after the team’s reappearance in the world. But once he shows up, the game starts for real - for the creature is known for his affectionate character, stealing the hearts of the audiences with his antics and gluing the opposing team to the pitch with his friendly licks. So determined he is in his need for pats and love, he can force his way through the blocks of less experienced players! Sadly, Sloth’s heart is really vulnerable to rejection, making him whine and sob in the middle of the field - so he almost always needs his teammates nearby to assure him that he’s a good boy.
Then, seeing how I managed to finish all the regular players for that team, I did a group photo. Close-ups and views from different angles of all the players can be found here: Bloaters, Pestigors, Rotters and the Rotspawn. I already played a game with them and I'll be setting up a match report here sometime in the future.
I guess it's finally time to finish the project of Varsavian Bogatyrs, various hero-sized characters that I made for my Undead army - you can see their WIP versions HERE.
After Yarema, Drachitsa and Drazhan, now I present you Vekoslav the Beautiful, the proud Battle Standard Bearer for the wight army. Unlike everyone else from this group, he's not a kitbash, but an old discontinued Forge World model. My only change was to file off the vampire-themed image on the banner itself, make it smooth and mount a separate, plasticard sigil in front of it and add a ghost on top.
The reason for that was because I already painted a banner with an elaborate freehand for my Grave Guard - and no amount of additional freehands would make this one more special or prominent. To go a step further, I made a big sigil to move into 3D, beyond the two dimensions of a freehand. With the sigil itself being golden and on a black background, it even fits with the color scheme of my wights.
The ghost on top was a spare from the Nagash kit and an additional attempt to make it more special. Unfortunately, it somehow discouraged me from finishing this mini, so it got postponed to after Drazhan was posted. Still, it was a pretty good project - and a good addition to my collection as the only Vampire Counts model made by Forge World.
Background:
During his life, Vekoslav’s gift was his beauty and noticeability. Tall, handsome and imposing, he has drawn everyone’s attention to him. Maybe a wrong skill thing for a spy, but perfect for a statesman - born as a farmer, he managed to become a locally important chieftain. When he found himself in the Varsavian army, not only he led the most elite units but was also honored with the Great Banner of the Death God. Standing or marching with it on the battlefield, nobody could miss Vekoslav. He was always there with the standard, no matter the situation, visible, proud and unwavering. The bearer was so good at his position that he got buried together with the whole banner after death - all the better for Wight Kings when they raised him back to unlife. The great symbol was covered with patina, the flag was tattered and Vekoslav himself was reduced to a bony wight - but they were still inspiring awe on the battlefield, even amongst the dry-hearted wight soldiers of Varsavia.
The core team of the Putrid Punters may be finished, but my work on Blood Bowl Nurgle is far from over!
I want to make a whole range of staff miniatures, upgrades, inducements and markers for them - and I started with the Star Players - special characters known in the Blood Bowl lore, famous celebrities from that universe, that can be employed for a match for a fee. 4 of them are strictly Nurgle-based and I decided to sculpt the whole set of them. Each time I was referring to the official illustrations from GW publications - and it was actually interesting, trying to sculpt something from an image.
Now to focus on each of them separately.
First is Guffle Pusmaw - he was included in one of the first supplements for the 2016 edition of the game, so I treat him as the most famous Nurgle player. As you can see, he got blessed with a giant, toothy maw on his belly, which makes it easier for him to catch and hold on to balls - he's actually the only player in the whole game with the 'Monstrous Mouth' skill (yet). Nurgle teams are bad at passing, but I still wanted to have him.
I built him from leftover Putrid Blightkings legs and torso, with BB Bloater arms. He has only Strength 3, unlike a Strength 4 Bloater, so I wanted to make at least his legs more scrawny, but in the process, I made him overly high. Oh well, it's not like Chaos cares about proportions!
As a comparison, HERE is his picture from the Spike! magazine.
The second one is an ex-circus Player, Tolly Glocklinger. This one is special for having a 'Ball and Chain' skill (think night goblin fanatics) - which he naturally interprets, in a Nurgly fashion, more like 'Bell and Intestine'. He sports also whopping Strength 7 (normal humans have 3 and big guys like ogres and minotaurs have 5) - so to represent it all I wanted to make him really fat and thick. I based my conversion on a Bloater miniature - I didn't use them in the core team, but they are still pretty amazing models. The bell was taken from the Putrid Blightkings and mounted on a brass wire, covered later with Greenstuff.
As a comparison, HERE is his picture from the Spike! magazine.
Next, the Pestigor Star Player, Bulla Shardhorn. The concept for this one is 'almost a chaos spawn' - with 'Two Heads', 'Extra Arms', 'Disturbing Presence', 'Foul Appearance', 'Horns' and even a 'Stab' for good measure. Now, while the Pestigor from the GW box was way too unique and monopose for me to use it in the team, this was the perfect use for it. I glued both options of head here (merging them with some greenstuffed flesh), added extra arms from Plaguebearers and Ghouls, and covered him with branches from the Dryads kit - I wanted him to be a twisted, shaky and gnarled plaything of Chaos - and seeing how difficult it is to read what is even happening here, I think he works quite well.
As a comparison, HERE is his picture from the Spike! magazine.
The last one is arguably the least spectacular, but also probably the most useful, Bilerot Vomitflesh. He is basically just a Bloater with extra strength, making him kind off like a Nurgle ogre of sorts. I based him on the second Bloater model and besides changing his head, pose and adding a shirt over his chest (to get him to look like the official depiction) I made his arms and neck extra bulky, to represent his extraordinary strength.
As a comparison, HERE is his picture from the Spike! magazine.
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