Entry VII. - The Black Hand Gang

This one's gonna have a lot of images! 

As I've been in something of a rush to get my Hive Spire Noble warband ready for an Inq28 game tomorrow, I haven't really stopped to document much along the way since completing the Visconte and his two Knights. Thus, the warband's remaining members - its hired muscle, retainers, and hangers-on -  have pretty much come together as one solid block.

First up is the Visconte's personal Footman and bodyguard; a hulking Techno-Barbarian from the tribes of the Chem-Wastes. He's known as Gulnan Vrax.

While technically a "Big Mutie", Vrax is a "counts-as" Ogryn for game purposes and as such carries the Abhuman signature weapon; a Ripper Gun; an automatic, drum-fed, large-bore combat shotgun.

Fluff-wise, Ripper Guns are described as being built for durability, with the designers knowing that Ogryns will quickly and enthusiastically burn through their ammunition, and then resort to using the weapon as a club to turn what enemies remain into a bloody pulp.

To me, the traditional design of it being a proper gun-shape, with a stock, barrel, and the like, didn't fit well with this description. In my mind it would be better made as a purpose built bludgeon, or even a fist-weapon, with a gun embedded into it in such a way as to avoid having its mechanisms smashed into pieces.

That resulted in what you see above; the back-end of a heavy bolter as a sort of hammer-fist combat gauntlet, with a grenade launcher embedded in the side as the giant shotgun itself. I'd imagined it as a removable gauntlet weapon, but I suppose it could be interpreted as a mechanical implant replacing Vrax's arm.

Vrax himself is of course made from a Khorne Slaughterpriest, a fantastic model that is a lot of fun to work with, and I'm already cooking up tons of other conversion ideas for it.

He displays his master's house Corbulio colours in a red and white checker pattern. I also added some Blanchian flames to the shoulder pad.

More Blanchitsu on the back with a grotesque face on his armour plate.

Next is Syr Balphorus Ziegl's Footman, a Underhive scummer known as Grigori. He's armed with an autorifle and also displays his master's black and gold colours in a check pattern.

Syr Zanthamel von Ymir's Footman, Lubovir, is another ne'er-do-well from downhive, equipped with a drum-fed shotgun. He too has the Ymir colours on his badge.

With Ymir himself focusing on ranged combat with his Meltyr Gonne, he employs a Servo Skull fitted with a chainsword and combat protocols to help fend off would-be assailants who get too close. Designated unit code: D1-48-0L-V5.

The Nobles aren't a squeamish lot as far as skulls are concerned, but they do like a bit of refinement, so their bionic servants are clad in decorative masks.

The Ymir Cadre

The Ziegl Cadre

The Corbulio Cadre

The Warband

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

If you're interested you may find me on Instagram.

Entry VI. - The Forest Awakens

I have completed the pack of five Fenrisian Wolves to serve as the Leshy's summoned forest companions. Nothing too special, a spot of minor re-posing and I used pictures of real Grey Wolves as reference when painting.

 I'd originally intended the snarling black one to the left of center to serve as the pack "Alpha", and hence painted him black like the Alpha wolf in the movie; The Grey.

However, on closer inspection it seems to me he's one of the smallest wolves in the pack, so not very suitable as a dominant specimen! (Note: I'm aware that the "Alpha" theory regarding wolf social behavior has largely been debunked at this point, but for fantasy gaming purposes and having a unit leader it is simply a convenience.) I now favour the one in the middle as the proverbial "big dog".

I'm considering sourcing something bigger like a Thunderwolf for the purpose though. I'm also thinking of getting some kind of were-creatures (one of which possibly being wolf or bear-like) for the Leshy's shape-shifted form; I figure there are surely times where he "runs with the pack", so to speak, but I still want him to stand out even when transformed.

I have further plans to expand the warband, and have now decided I'm going to leverage the Giant/Gargant I was working on as an additional ally, but this combination of master and hounds is the core setup I'd imagined when the idea first germinated.

I'd like to make him a Leshy-Wife, but haven't figured it out yet. There's also an idea for an aerial contingent in the form of giant birds of prey. Perhaps the Wife could bring the birds? There's a thought...

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

If you're interested you may find me on Instagram.

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.

Source

Source

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

Source (Both)

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).

Source

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.

Source

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

If  you're interested you may find me on Instagram.

Entry IV. - Hive Spire Nobles: The Duelist

Hello folks! Been a while. I've been insanely busy for some time and haven't been able to do much hobby stuff in that period. On top of that, I took some time to reorganize and re-jig my work-space, and also to re-consider my approach to the hobby generally; I'll cover that in more detail with a later post, however.

Additionally, I've actually made contact with some fellow hobbyists locally, some from the Ammobunker website, and have now got a group for games of Inquisimunda/Inq28, which is great as it gives me more incentive to get projects finished in a timely fashion.

So here's my latest member of my Hive Spire Noble warband, another "Knight", this one more of a close combat specialist proficient in the art of dueling with swords, knives and pistols.

Syr Balphorus Ziegl; Knight in service to House Corbulio, by way of the ancient Tithe system.

As with the other nobles so far, he has his official documentation hanging from his belt. His coat of arms is a golden key on a black field, and I also added a key hanging from his belt as well; I like to think his family is somehow connected to finance and banking in the upper Hive.

I wanted him to give off a vibe of being highly skilled and dangerous, with the kind of martial prowess in the weapons of the nobility that only hours of private tutelage will allow. At the same time I wanted to convey a decadent, preening foppishness, an elitist and snobbish air, which ended up with giving him powdered face and rouge make-up, as well as a delicate white lace neck scarf. I also added a black strip of warpaint to keep in theme with his gang-mate, Syr Ymir, and to give him a slight Adam Ant feel.

As well as his Archotech rotary autopistol and elegant chainsabre, he has a pair of matched daggers as back-up.

Hope you enjoyed!

Entry III. - Forest Lord: The Leshy (Part One)

"Wander not in yonder dark woods, lest ye upset th' Olde Mann"
- warning written on a sign outside the village of Ulfsvelt

~~~

Panic. Mad, blind panic. The raw pain in Gunter’s legs was searing as he gasped and wheezed, his lungs pushed to their limit. 

He burst through the thick undergrowth into a small clearing, not daring to look back at his black-armoured pursuers. The screams of his dying comrades echoing in his ears urged him onwards in spite of sheer exhaustion. But he was wounded, and his frantic running on tired legs caused him to stumble. He tripped and fell, landing heavily in the tall grass.

+++

Whether he had closed his eyes for a second or for many hours, he did not know. But as Gunter became alarmingly aware that he was regaining consciousness from a sleep he could ill afford, he noticed that the sky began to grow darker. 

However long he’d been out, his enemies had not yet caught up with him. Surely, it could not have been that long.

Looking up, he heard the cawing of crows, as first a trickle, then a flock, then a great stream of the black-feathered birds fluttered frantically overhead. Suddenly, he felt that he was not alone. 

Glancing to his right, Gunter jumped as a huge and terrible figure with the skeletal head of a stag emerged almost silently from the woods beside him.

He screamed in horror, raising his arm to shield his face, believing he was now to be struck down by this cruel servant of the Dark Gods.

Mere moments passed. Moments that felt like an eternity. And yet no evil deed was carried out. No grim fate befell Gunter at the claws of this fell beast.

Shuddering and whimpering, he opened his eyes, lowered his hands, and peered cautiously at the creature before him. It stared back. Calmly regarding and examining the Free Guild soldier cowering within arm’s reach.

+++

The being was the height of a troll. Lithe yet sinewy, with great thick hands and long, clawed fingers; it clearly possessed great physical strength. Its body was covered in shaggy and matted grey hair resembling the bark of an ancient white ash tree, and about its shoulders was a mass of leaves, twigs, and moss.

At that moment, the creature reached up and pulled down a piece of this mossy mantle to reveal its true face, smeared with mud and hidden beneath the great-antlered deer skull worn atop its head. 

A cunning ruse perhaps? To make the beast appear bigger and more imposing? 

Certainly it had worked on Gunter.

The creature’s true face had an almost human appearance, though much hairier and with a heavy brow, thick nose and wide jaw. It almost resembled the savage Ogors of the mountain steppes, though not quite as bestial. 

Gunter could see in its eyes an intelligence far greater than even the most cunning chieftain of those tribes. Indeed, he sensed that this being surpassed the capacity of his own mind by some margin. He was reminded of the haughty, yet wise and powerful Wizards he’d encountered back in the cities.

Lifting its huge arm, the figure pointed a  clawed, gnarled finger, first at a nearby plant, then at Gunter himself. It then made a gesture as if rubbing something on its arm.

Around the clearing Gunter heard heavy rustling noises, the sounds of large, four-legged figures moving past at speed. They came from the direction the beast had arrived and were heading towards the massacre the soldier had fled. 

The forest was pierced by the mournful howl of a wolf...then another...then another…

Many more joined in the chorus. The pack was clearly huge.

The beast slowly and silently turned away and began to follow the unseen wolf-pack, but not before a massive bear shuffled out of the woods and came grunting to his side. 

As the creature and its bear companion disappeared from the clearing, the wolf howls were joined by new screams....notably more guttural than before, but no less terrified.

+++

So, this is my first model for AoS28, aka Dark Age Of Sigmar; a Leshy, a mystical forest guardian. I might as well come straight out and say it; yes, this was inspired by the Witcher 3 video game (where the creature is called a Leshen).

But with that said, I was already reasonably well-versed in Slavic mythology before that game came to my attention, and the Leshy is a being that's fascinated me for some time.

This post is just going to be a showcase of the model. I have a lot to say about the background of the creature and my thought process in creating him in model form, but I'll put this in an additional post so that only the curious, and those prepared to read  a wall of text, may opt in if they wish! If so, click through to "The Leshy (Part Two)".

Thanks for stopping by!

If  you're interested you may find me on Instagram.

Entry II. - Hive Spire Nobles: The First Knight

Here I present the second member of my Noble House warband.

The wily and ruthless Syr Zanthamel von Ymir; Knight in service to House Corbulio, by way of the ancient Tithe system.

While he may have a Knight's title, like his liege lord he is little more than a ruthless and depraved cutthroat.

His family has sworn loyalty to the Corbulio dynasty for several generations and rules over a smallholding inside the House's Hab-Sector.

Zanthamel has the Ymir family crest on his badge; a golden field charged with a crimson "Pall" Heraldric Ordinary stylised as "Y" (for Ymir).

Like his master, he carries copies of his official family documentation, alongside his antiquated but no-less deadly Meltyr Gonne.

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In terms of the design of this model, I chose a Free Company head that reminded me of Heihachi Mishima from Tekken. I wanted him to look like quite an untrustworthy character.

I also added a stripe of black warpaint down the side of his face with the non-bionic eye. This was inspired by the recent Macbeth film with Michael Fassbender. I'm thinking I might do this on several models as I just think it's really cool and scary looking, and also reminds me of the War Boys from Mad Max: Fury Road.

The rest of the paint scheme simply follows in the same pallet as Titus. 

+ The Meltyr Gonne +

This was a pretty simple kitbash; it's an Ad Mech Radium Carbine (from the Skitarii kit) with a small piece of plasticard tube as the muzzle. 

I scored the tube twice around with my tube cutter for some visual interest and to give the look of cooling ribs or vents. The back end is from an Empire/Freeguild crossbow; I added a little rectangle of plasticard with a plasticard rivet detail on top to cover the join as a kind of charging handle.

I painted the weapon to look like it's made from a mixture of mystery future metals and has Verdegris and patina throughout. 

+ Heraldry +

Of all the historical periods I'm interested in, the Medieval era is probably the one I enjoy the most, and within that I love the armour and weapons of the time, but also the heraldry, which is something I get quite nerdy about.

For Zanthamel von Ymir I opted for a different route from Titus, who himself had a fairly straightforward heraldic style. 

To my knowledge it's not something that occurred very often, but I thought it would be interesting if Zanthamel's heraldry communicated something about his family name. 

The only other time I've seen this in historic records is the family Parteneck, which featured an image of an axe head as its "charge" - the charge is the image a shield is "charged" with over its background colour or division of colours (the "field"). 

The archetypal charge is something like an animal or an object; a wolf or a bear, for example, or as with Parteneck, an axe head.

However, some charges were very simple geometric shapes, these were called "Ordinaries", and one such Ordinary is referred to as "Pall"; this is essentially a coloured field with a "Y"-shape over it in a different colour. 

To me this communicated "Ymir" almost perfectly, but to give it a bit more visual interest I decided to add a cross-bar to the Y, which reminded me of the cross symbol used in the medieval badge of the Kingdom of Hungary.

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Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed! If  you're interested you may find me on Instagram.

Entry I. - Hive Spire Nobles: The Visconte

Welcome to the very first entry of my blog!

For my debut, I'm showcasing the leader of my Inquisimunda/Inq28 Noble House warband...

Visconte Titus Di Corbulio - Hereditary Hab-Sector Ruler

Most of his equipment is made up of ancient family heirlooms, including an Archotech plasma pistol and an encrusted face mask which is far more robust than its layers of patina would suggest.

His cane is a symbol of his authority and doubles as a deadly weapon (counts as either a power sword [sword-cane] or shock maul).

He wears a suit of tailor-made power armour emblazoned with a badge depicting the Corbulio coat of arms; three white daggers on a crimson field.

On his back is an official Writ of Marque, the seal of approval from a long-dead Magistrate, acting in the Emperor's name, granting a great-ancestor of the House the rights to rule over the district that Titus still commands by blood.

Perhaps at one time the Tithe system involved benevolent and noble souls, but today such Lords are little more than robber barons, trumped-up thugs with the wealth and clout to back up their bluster. True, they can be hard to live under for the Hive dwellers, but they're often a preferable option to the alternatives.

The Writ is, of course, a copy of the original, which is kept safely inside a sealed vault deep within the Corbulio compound.

However, the copy is still a valid document under Imperial Law which officially grants Titus all his inherited privileges.

What's more, it is digitally linked to the original, carries an array of trackers and sensors, is DNA-locked to Titus himself, and, in the event that it is stolen and he can't intercept it, he's able to remotely detonate it with the force of a cluster of grenades.

Titus also carries a curious piece of artwork on his cloak. No-one knows quite what it's for, or where it's from, though some in the Hive say it's a totem carrying a protective and vengeful Corbulio ancestor spirit to watch his back. Others whisper that it has a darker origin...

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I really wanted to go with the whole decadent and corrupt noble angle, but still recognisably part of the Imperium of Man and its institutions. Not so much evil characters, but definitely driven by self interest.

It's also interesting to me, having been used to ten-man Necromunda gangs, to explore a smaller warband made up of a handful of very powerful and well-equipped individuals.

This model has some very deliberate homages to Picta Mortis' incredible Imperial Bounty Hunter, which inspired me to go in this direction with the Dark Eldar Archon as a base model for my Noble House leader. In particular, the skull on a spike on the base, the upwards pose of the gun hand, and the placement of the purity seal on the cloak are all nods to his work.

You might notice the head moves from one picture to another - it's actually magnetised to the model; something I've started doing more with special characters or models where I have multiple heads I like for them, or multiple roles they could fill in different warbands.

+ Painting +

For the colour scheme I drew inspiration from this piece of Dark Souls 3 concept art, with the purplish-grey cloth topped by a crimson mantle. I'm afraid I don't know the name of the artist, I found it on Pinterest.

I tried to go for a painterly, somewhat graphic novel style which I've kept deliberately fairly monochrome with a limited pallet and spot colours, and have tried to focus attention in highlights and details on particular areas like the face, while allowing the less significant parts of the model to be darker and to fade into the background.

The mask was a tricky one, as I wasn't sure how to colour it until very late in the paintjob. I had originally thought pure white or gold, but did dabble with the idea of red, black, or a very dark midnight blue. In the end I went with white, but then after Googling for masks online I saw some old bronze ones covered in Verdigris, so some quick washes with watered down Thunderhawk Blue brought it all together nicely.

I also experimented with using metallic paint on the armour together with non-metallic highlights, I was trying to achieve a look similar to the sort of bone-like armour seen on these amazing models by Gabe Hearnshaw, who also contributed in inspiring me to go for this paint style I've adopted.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed! If  you're interested you may find me on Instagram.