My Random stuff

[ManicMan]

some miniatures are taking too long to paint up, partly as I'm a bit undecided on some colours.. but oh well

I love the game 'Drakan: Order of the Flame' since I played a demo back in 1998 (this was a pre-release demo on a cover disc, back when such things existed). It was a PC game set in a fantasy world which is a bit more primitive then the normal medieval fantasy stuff which basically has you as a young (I think mid 20s) Girl who is bonded with a Dragon, so the game is spilt between attacking enemies and monsters by hand/sword/axe/whatever weapon, and flying around on dragon back, flaming and burning things. While the game was PC game, and I don't believe released on any console, they did something stupid when a few years later, released a sequel (which like the first, had a slightly quick and not as 'worthy' ending) on the PS2 only.. yeah.. thanks alot ¬_¬ in some ways the graphics were better.. it had been a 5 years or so, but in other ways.. bits weren't too much better but.. it's a good solid enough game.

Anyway, There is a nice amount of great character designs for some creatures. For my Skaven army as an ally (but I'm not sure if he is gonna be used as such) I wanted to make something a bit special.. So from the second game, I took the Flesh mage.. his in-game model and art is.. well.. pretty crap.. like FAR worse then pretty much ANY other creature in the game.. no clue why.. But his Concert art.. ooohh..


(Art by Susan Jessup who did alot of concert art of the game)
Yutaji, the Flesh Mage was a mage who created a large powerful Golem but while in service of the three faced Desert Lords (the main villains of the second game), he went insane partly by the Desert Lord leader putting a spell on him, mutilating his own body and demanding 'brides' to be send to his home, where he would skin them to add to his.. well, in the concept art, Body. in game.. he is just kinda a skinned guy who wears the skin as just a hooded.. no where near as good.. As you can see from that art, it's pretty interesting character design.. So I wanted one..


okay.. I'm not great at sculpting and I kinda want to get to a point while I'm happy enough doing repairs and the odd things. this isn't fantastic (the hood is a bit thick) but on the whole.. Passable. paint could be better and some of the body parts more defined but.. passable. His two arms, along with the rib cage were from a Wargames Atlantic skeleton set which I used as a base cause no way I was sculpting anything 100% from scratch. the arm at the bottom and two across his chest are female zombie arms. the rest is my trying to sculpt. the face near the bottom kinda comes out okay.. some other bits.. not as well, but the paint partly saves some of the patch work nature. Not fantastic by any stretch but I think very passable to be able to field him.. Its believed the character MIGHT be a Necromancer as there are quite a few undead in his home but...

the post at the bottom is paper clip. cause I glued the bits of skeleton onto a paper clip post to work on him and give a more flying design. wasn't sure if I would try to cut it off or make some kinda fancy effect but decided that just painting it black worked fine.

 

[Fimm McCool]

Now that is a unique piece. Totally recognisable from the concept art and as... what it is supposed to be. Good job!

 

[ManicMan]

thanks. No way some of the details and bits I could get right, mixture of skill level and getting detail at the size, but went fair enough ^_^

 

[twisted moon]

interesting fellow.

 

[ManicMan]

like the two skaven I just posted in my WIP Skaven thread, Taking a picture of this showed up some faults I need to tweak.. kinda been a bit... not quite up to some painting I think (long story to do with a number of RL things but hopefully should settle down.. Anyway..


AHQ Warrior. Painted him up first because all the others, while different models, came with HQ (Elf, Wizard, Dwarf).. still don't know what the hell is the story with the Warrior.. I mean, a Warrior was planned for the original Hero Quest.. but not used.. and all box art and stuff for Advanced Hero Quest used the Original Hero Quest heroes (all even being based on their HQ designs compared to AHQ) So why they decided inside of another Barbarian, use a warrior, I don't know.. If you want to do it to give more of a range, then could have done more Like Maybe the Elf, who was more of a High Elf in the original, could be more leaning to Wood Elf (kinda did but not much), and maybe make the Dwarf different, like maybe a Trollslayer, and maybe a wizard that leans more into a collage of magic which they started to use in AHQ. no clue..

anyway.. other then the odd bits (like on the face) I noticed now that I need to tweak, the only thing I'm not really happy about is the feature.. tried to do a fade but.. oh well.. good enough trying to blend it ^_^

 

[Machen]

I'd say he's worth it. You've already got some good highlighting going on with the knees, boots, and armor.

 

[ManicMan]

what the hell is this? Having decided to work on a Fimir unit for my Skaven Army (not really 4th legal but screw that, Its fine).. Anyway.. basically, to recap what I think I commented on in my Army Progression, the Contingent would be at the moment, 9 Fianna Fimm, with a Meargh leading it (I think the leader can be part of the unit too.. can't remember.. pretty sure it's fine).. and one of them is also a standard bearer. I have pretty much sorted out the figures and while rules say 40mm bases.. I think that's a bit stupid.. they are bigger then normal but really? 40mm? they aren't Rat Ogre size.. So I've gone for 25 as a good size. that's bigger then my standard army which uses 20mm, but not overly stupid. The figure i got for the Standard bearer is a bit smaller then the others but should be fine.

anyway.. that's just background.. now what goes with the 'what the hell is this?' bit.

Fimir are from Bogs and swamp area, So I wanted a more boggy swamp base.. I really have no clue what I'm doing with them.. this is a 'prototype'.. looking around for ideas of what swamps and bogs look like.. there isn't really alot on the small scale.. in that dead trees, and pools of water which don't really work on a 25mm base.. So like I said.. I created this prototype.. trying to be kinda muddy with the little pools of greeney water, some more swamp like grass and added some mushrooms .. Might use this for one of the figures but.. I'm not sure I like it.. seen a couple of 'guides' but they are more for bigger bases and doesn't seam to convert over well..

 

[Fimm McCool]

Lovely base. I can see it being a bit 'full' when there's a miniature on it, but I think if you're only doing a few models and spread the elements out so that of pools, tufts and mushrooms each base has one or two elements I think it will look cohesively swampy and nice. These kind of little bases elements are part of what I love about the pre-4th edition Golden Demon entries, always so many textures and little details. I'm afraid to say I've usually pretty much run out of patience by the time it comes to doing the base on a figure. I intend to go back in and add more, but I never do.

 

[ManicMan]

with the figure I'm thinking of putting on this base being a bit small, a busy base probably helps bulk him out a bit.

 

[Fimm McCool]

I think the fan-made Fimir lore in Warpstone magazine had some kind of animosity between fimir and skaven... possibly to do with the chaos gods abandoning their former creatures? Just an interesting aside as you know me, I set no store by fluff official or otherwise unless I made it up myself!

 

[ManicMan]

^_^ well, that limited information in 3rd about them say there alignment is 'Evil: Their Associations with demons often call upon them to make terrible sacrifices, often humans and in the most blood-thirsty manner', so not chaotic but really, 3rd has very little to no lore on them and they were dropped by the time of 4th.. might have to see about reading some WFB rules for information on them, though the main stuff I know was Graeme Davis writing a bit in WD 102 which gives a nice overview of them with where they live, caste structure, castles, how they kill any females born unless the Meargh is old and they need a new one to replace her at some point, though may also keep one alive if they feel the stronghold is overcrowded and how they can form loose alliances but really don't trust each other though on the matter of gods:
"Little is known of the religion and deities of the Fimir; it may be that they worship certain of the more powerful greater demons to whom they are allied. At least some groups of Fimir worship a deity called Balor."

though worse case.. Death-quest!
"If a Meargh dies without having trained a successor, the stronghold will disband. Each Noble takes the Fimm and Shearl of this retinue and sets out on a death-quest" ... ".While on a death-quest, Fimir will fight for or against any race, with no thought for the odds or for their personal safety. It is very rare for a death-quest to result in anything but eventual annihilation of the Fimir Involved."

Since soo little was ever done with them, it leads alot open for fan stuff. ^_^ Like how I kinda understand but don't go for the censorship stuff that happened when they found out more and more kids were playing (like had to remove all mentions of how the Fimir reproduce and stuff.. yet blood and gore which.. is worse is fine? reminds me of a bit in a nice comedy film.. where a group are hosting a murder mystery party but instead of murder, it's rape. One new person is very uncomfortable with that but as they say, you are fine with murder, but with a rape where no-one dies, that crosses the line?.. eh, it's just I find it weird that gore and blood and stuff is 100% fine, but a little bit of flesh or anything and people run away screaming.

 

[Fimm McCool]

Oh that's totally why I love the fimir... not the reproduction thing (necessarily) but the lack of info. Everything else in the WHW got explored to death but the fimir were left gloriously unwritten for us fans to make up whatever we like.

 

[ManicMan]

^_^
EDIT:
Oh and just an interesting point, How the Fimir reproduce is the same as Amazons in legend. They are all female, any male child born was either killed or 'thrown away'. In order to reproduce, they went into towns and kidnapped men. Apart from the gender swap, it's not different yet.. it seams Amazons are acceptable more.. (also in theory, could we add Sword Maidens? Any man that beats them in battle is now there master and husband... yeah.. a bit iffy there too)

 

[twisted moon]

nice base.

 

[ManicMan]

no photos right now but I do have a couple of nice finished miniatures to photo, also minor practice and experimenting in sculpting and casting. After having got a Prince August low temp metal casing kit with 3 Orc minis, I got another mould from them, 3 Wraiths which didn't look too bad.. Minor issue is that they are part of the 25mm line.. not a huge issue as most 25mm scale pretty okay with 28mm.. But I'm 90% sure they are a different sculpture then the Orcs.. while the Orcs are 25mm to the eye line, the Wraiths are 25mm to top of the head.. so they are a bit small.. still, not too bad cloaked figures with swords (okay,, clearly Ring Wraiths).. Could make up a unit of 5 (one has a crown so works well for a leader) but.. you can't field wraiths as a unit in 3ed, I don't have the undead book to know about 4Ed..

They might end up in my HeroQuest probebly as Death Reapers (from the Marvel Winter Special. Death Reaper is.. odd.. Its not technically classed as a Monster but it is a Wandering Monster. They say to just use a Skeleton for it or a tile token that comes with the special.. Its a slightly more powerful skeleton (extra 2 to movement, 1 to attack and 1 to defence.. but no listed body or mind (so guess at 1 and 0) but has the added thing that any character who has been hit by him, has to roll a combat die to see if they are frozen. The comic story doesn't clearly state but has a special skeleton with flaming eyes and a cape who does appear to have this freezing effect and treated like a major one-off thing. So thats fine. since no model is shown or anything, I think a Wraith is a nice figure for it..)

Also, had a couple of goes at sculpting swords.. got a couple which aren't great but fair enough.. So I made a quick mould and case them in metal.. not perfect but not bad.. I can use these metal versions to refine the design a bit more and smoothen bits. Then I'll have some of my own sculpted swords which I can use for things.. I have plans which need swords and I would prefer to sculpt my own then use some plastic ones I have.

 

[ManicMan]

appear to have mis-placed my camera right now (annoying) but got a new phone as a present and decided to try the camera out.. nice light on it but boy, they love to soften details.. and there is some weird 'beautification' function I'm not using.. so forgive the quality.. not that I'm great at photos anyway


simple job on an Oakbound Glastig. wanted to go a little bit more greeny blue then this turned out but its fine. couldn't get a bit of a good blend between the wave and the figure but works fair enough.


Heroquest Cupboard. plastic top, I had to remake the Rat's tail and it's kinda basic but it's fine. Made a Laser cut design for it for cutting it out of wood (didn't get the details for the cross axes and stuff to look right so gave up on them), the hinges are die-cut cardboard to make them alot thiner, Tried to sculpt a couple of handles, one turned out okay though a bit rough, so I just made a quick Silicone mould and greenstuff copied it to make all 4 the same.


I wanna do more work on the base but this is a 10mm mouse from 'Mice at arms' starter set. 51 pieces, including mice Cavalry (either on Larger Rats or two on a Cat), Cannon and crew, heroes and a bunch of infantry, for £30 on Little Solider.. who I think are the main UK importers of the range from RRB minis. Put on a 20mm round Laser cut base, I think they scale nicely with some of my 28mm figures in a Orc-Goblin-Snotling way... Anyone at the Woods in the Woods 2023 probebly saw my Kitties.. I think having little mice go well with them and I plan to have a nice bit of adjustment to the warband for next year. (I'll have to finish some tweaking to my "Caitts' and get some new photos of them. These 10mms are hand sculpted in a bit of a cartoony style which I think can sit nicely with a bunch of stuff and makes them fairly quick paints. though, long with the base, I might tweak this one a bit more.. It's just been sitting there like this for a little while now.

 

[Fimm McCool]

Ooh nice. I love to see custom HQ furniture.

 

[ManicMan]

Thanks, I do have a couple of others already done (one table and one chest) while very slowly doing two bookcases.. Oh also the Tomb.. Kinda minor tweak to the Weapons rack.. I'm very slowly doing up a custom board (I need to get around to finishing the paint, putting it together and seeing what I need to do to finish it) which scales up the squares into 30x30, and mostly doing some fancy furniture for it (the Weapons rack is on a base piece so it goes well on 30x30 squares.. I'm not gonna base the Bookcases or cupboard but it kinda does help to make them fit a bit better, but... oh well, it's fine ^_^

 

[EricF]

Well I think that blend came out nicely. I like the greener water, very nice. It's one thing I am lacking - elemental models. I am a big fan of 30mm dungeon squares! Give those bases (and models) a little space to breath!

 

[Fimm McCool]

Interested, are you going for 30mm slabs or groups of slabs together into 30mm total squares? 30mm just feels a bit big for a single stone slab (though construction trolls I guess). When people scale up HQ board art above 25mm it feels a bit jarring.