Entry V. - Forest Lord: The Leshy (Part Two)

In a previous post, I showcased the Leshy model I made for AoS28/Dark Age of Sigmar, but avoided going into detail regarding the model's conception and background as I didn't want to clutter the post, make it overly long, or force people who just like the images to read a wall of text.

That said, I do enjoy sharing my creative process and, for me, it's a big part of what this blog is for. So here I will go into detail about how the Leshy model came about - be warned that if you don't like long rambling background stuff, you might want to give this one a miss!

As I mentioned in that post, the Leshy model was inspired by the Witcher 3 video game, but only partially, as I was already familiar with the creature from Slavic myth.

Much as I enjoyed hunting it in the video game, about the only thing I really liked about that depiction in terms of visual design was the iconic stag skull headgear and the somewhat unnervingly lanky proportions.

I did like the creature's ability to command wolves and other forest beasts, however.

In Slavic myth, the Leshy is not necessarily always a malevolent force as it seems to be in the Witcher, although it certainly can be depending on the story. There are even tales of him helping lost travellers. It is quite variable. In the AoS setting, I can easily imagine him hating Chaos more than terrified humans, however.

Still, woe betide anyone from any faction who intends to harm his sacred forests.

He's described as being male or masculine (though he is sometimes depicted as having a female equivalent or "wife", and even having his own children), and humanoid or human-like.

However, usefully, for the purpose of representation, he's able to shape-shift at will into anything he likes (though usually some kind of woodland based form) and to any size. I may explore this in future with various other shape-shifted forms of the Leshy for representing in-game transformation powers.

For now though, I wanted to begin by depicting my Leshy in his true form.

You can read more on the Leshy here and here. I also enjoyed his portrayal in Mike Mignola's Hellboy graphic novels.

One thing I really love exploring with mythological beasts is the possible ways in which they could exist that is slightly different from their normal portrayal. Specifically, my usual angle of trying to introduce a touch of realism to everything.

But I'm also intrigued in the way the archetypal peasant villager, fearful and superstitious to the core, could get things so very wrong, and talk up some things which are not so fantastic into the tallest of tales. 

On a similar track I'm also interested in Cryptozoology, and generally trying to explain the inexplicable! 

So, in a lot of art and other media, the Leshy is portrayed most often as a sort of Treant/Ent/Treeman/Dryad type creature, with skin that is literally bark, and hair that is leaves.

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Sometimes he seems to be more explicitly tree-like, and others more like a man but with these bark and leaf features nonetheless. 

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The Witcher 3's portrayal is very much like the former case; he is essentially a Treeman with a skull head.

To diverge from this path, my brain immediately went towards some kind of missing link Hominid Crytpid, a kind of Bigfoot or Neanderthal, essentially. Not quite a man, not quite an ape, something somewhere in between. 

The base model is a metal Ogor Kingdoms Yhetee I purchased on eBay. Things became complicated over time and his arms and legs were chopped, changed in length and re-positioned several times. He's now a good deal taller than the standard model even without the scenic base. His hands are from the Crypt Horror kit. I also replaced the flimsy antlers seen below with some bigger and more robust ones from a Nurgle Plaguebearer head. The skull is cast from an old citadel undead horse.

One of the things which piqued my interest about the Witcher 3's Leshen, and I'm not sure if this was deliberate, is the way there is a little sort of opening in the mantle just below the deer skull. I cannot tell if it's intended that the skull is the actual head, or if it is housed inside, or if its actually beneath the skull and inside this hole, with the mantle actually being a hood (see below image).

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I thought for my Hominid Leshy I would run with this idea, which escalated into the concept of him being a kind of Druid or Shaman character wearing elaborate head-gear, perhaps designed to trick and intimidate his enemies. I made a cloak out of green stuff to resemble moss and vines, and perched the stag skull on top, then made a little indentation for where the "true head" would be and built up layers around it to hide it as much as possible.

I applied glue to the dried putty cloak and rolled the model in the bits of debris on my cutting mat - spirals of plastic from drilling, plastic shavings, bits of green stuff, bits of balsa wood, to give a random twiggy, viney, and leafy texture. When it came to painting I made sure his hidden face was painted to blend in, as I imagined him covering his face in mud or crude paint to help with his ruse. I also used plenty of Agrellan Badland crackle paint for added texture.

I thought about how the Leshy could be misinterpreted as a Treeman-like beast and investigated how some tree bark looks a little bit like dense, matted fur from a distance. Thus, I decided to paint his fur in a light grey colour like what you'll find on fairly mature and weathered White Ash trees.

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Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed. See you next time!

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