A big gribbly thing

This thing is from Fenris Games, it is called an Otyugh and is a Dungeons and Dragons monster.

It (he/she/they/it?) is a resin model that comes in seven pieces and, which assembled is around 7cm tall and 10cm from the end of one arm to the other. Assembly is relatively simple and the pieces fit well with only a small amount of trimming and smoothing required

I've wanted to get this one painted up since I first got it, but holidays and life in general got in the way, also a loss of my Painter's Mojo. Still, I thought that this was a great way to get back into the groove.

I've painted it in a fairly similar colour scheme to the one on the Fenris website, mainly because I think that the green is the best way to go. The actual painting was pretty straightforward, the bulk of the heavy lifting was done by using Halfords' Dark Green matt camouflage spray paint and lots of drybrushing with lighter shades of green, although I sprayed an off-white matt primer into the mouth before using the colours you see now. I washed the thing with two different Citadel shades, Reikland flesh in the mouth and Mortarion Grime elsewhere. I kept the base simple, AK Terrains Dark Earth drybrushed with Vallejo Iraqi Sand.

The photograph uses a Jon Hodgdon backdrop from the Fantasy Ruins and Tunnels book.

I think that apart from D&D (I seriously hope this thing doesn't end up in our club's current D&D campaign), this is the kind of Gribbly Horror that could be useful in anything from Victorian Pulp Horror and Cthulhu to skirmishes in far-away planets in the distant future.

A very strange and unsettling graveyard

This is a project I started about 18 months ago, although I'd bought the various bits and pieces months before I started work on it. I finally completed it last week. Here is the overall piece, looking down from above;

 The model is around 40cm by 30cm, based on a sheet of MDF. The perimeter is made of Renedra railings and gate pieces and the pieces inside are all from Fenris Games with a couple of extra gravestones from Bad Squiddo. Below are some closer views of the graveyard, with Jon Hodgson backgrounds.

Now, this is clearly not your common or garden graveyard and who knows what kind of people, if people they are, might lie under the ground in such a place? Those gravestones seem to be slowly sinking into the ground and some of them a clearly very old indeed.

The various obelisks and columns hint at some very unusual religious practices and one really has to ask "Why is the water in the pool bubbling?". Of course, another relevant question might be "Who lies here and why are all the interments carried out at night under the baleful light of a gibbous moon?".

I'm really happy with how this piece has turned out. I think it is the perfect place to carry out some investigations into the practices of the locals and examine the sacred books kept under lock and key in the crypt of the local church.

Moon Goddess statue

OK, this is my first attempt at a photo using a background from one of my new Jon Hodgson backdrop books.

I got two books via a Kickstarter; one is a fantasy set and the other is sci fi. Both are excellent. They are available from a few different places, including Bad Squiddo and Handiwork Games.The figure is from Bad Squiddo, but she isn't available in the Shop. Originally supposed to be Genepil, the last Queen of Mongolia. Annie designed her as part of the Bad Squiddo Community Miniatures project but later withdrew her as it turns out that the source for her was actually a photograph of an anonymous Mongolian noblewoman. So, she is never going to be available and is therefore rather exclusive.

I didn't need a mini of a Mongolian noblewoman but I definitely wanted to use the mini, so I decided to turn her into a statue. I put her on a resin plinth from Fenris Games and then added a couple of MDF squares to create a set of steps. I added some textures to show that the status is of great age, both ballast and, after painting areas of moss and lichens.

For the photo, I simply posed her on one of my Warbases pre-coloured dungeon tiles.

My idea was to create an arcane statue of a Moon Goddess, sheathed in precious metals and with a prominent silver crescent Moon on her headdress. I have slightly overexposed the image to make it look like she is being illuminated by the light of the full Moon. Below is an alternative shot, which was taken without any exposure compensation.

I like both photos, but I think that the brighter one suits the purpose of making her look like she is absorbing the power of moonlight.

Now, all I need is to work out a game setting where she might come in handy. She could definitely be the objective in a Back of Beyond Pulp game.

Toadstool Brownies

Last week I received a small parcel from Ian Brumby at Fenris Games, with the cryptic comment "teasers for the Kickstarter".

Inside were three really cute little minis, which I have duly painted up. Here they are from the front.

And here is a rear view;

I cannot tell you anything about these three tiny creatures, except that they are very nicely sculpted and cast and have plenty of character. They were a joy to paint and I am sure that they will be welcome to all manner of gamers who like fantasy armies with small little folk. They are around 18-19mm tall, so half the size of a 28mm figure.

I could see these being useful for Saga: AoM players who want a nicely different Swarm for their Lords of the Wild levies, and also in other settings where the the tiny inhabitants of magical forests and hedgerows might be encountered. 

I think that the Kickstarter will be launched very shortly, so keep your eyes peeled for details on various social media platforms.

More 7TV figures - evil cultists

My latest finished set of figures are these excellent Crooked Dice Cultists for 7TV. There are twelve figures in total.

First, here are the basic cult members, both male and female, some with firearms and others with clubs or knives. As well as being Initiates into the Dark Mysteries, they are also the muscle, used to keep prying investigators away from discovering exactly what goes on in that ruined abbey in the woods.

Now, here is the Magister of the Cult, together with his female counterpart and what appears to be a statue of the eldritch daemonic entity they worship, here shown in my Fenris Games Summoning Circle.

Next, here is the Magister and his Magistra again, together with the rest of the Cult's Inner Circle of Adepts and that Daemonic Entity again. The woman with the arcane book and the man with the chalice are Celebrants and the other woman is some kind of Seer or Prophetess, or maybe she is just struggling with mental health issues? Dabbling in the Dark Arts is fraught with all kinds of dangers.

Here are the senior Adepts worshipping Cthulhu. I mean, why stick to one terrible Dark Entity when there are so many available?

And here are the Celebrants invoking some Dark Powers, monoliths from Fenris Games.

I am really happy with these figures. I originally started painting a test figure with scarlet robes, but I wasn't happy with the results, so I went for this darker, more wine red shade, with purple for the Magister and Magistra. 

Hopefully, once lockdown and social distancing are a thing of the past, these will feature in a few games of 7TV.

Resin scenic stuff for Horror and Pulp games

Having started to paint my Pulp figures up, I decided that I really ought to give them some scenic items to explore and fight over.

These items are all from Fenris Games. They are very much suited to Cthulhu-themed Eldritch Horror games, but might also serve in other settings. The Outer Gods and Great Old Ones may well have had a presence in Felstad, for example.

First, here are two monoliths and a dais or altar with a statue (or is it?) of some unknown undersea horror, together with an intrepid 28mm Copplestone archaeologist to give a sense of scale. I've given the monolith on the left a green tinge to represent the remains of paint that once covered the carvings.

Here is another view of the strange altar, which has clearly emerged from the depths, seeing as it is covered in limpets. Of course, it might also be inside a coastal cave somewhere near the cursed seaport of Innsmouth and only revealed at low tide.

Next, here is a Summoning Circle, again featuring the intrepid archaeologist. This is definitely the sort of thing that might be hidden in the woods on top of a hill somewhere in the wild country inland from Arkham, where the whipporwills call on those nights when the Moon is full and hooded figures chant in unknown languages to certain constellations in the night skies.

Here it is from above;

I've tried to give the impression that the central circle is made from some rare mineral, probably from a meteorite from outside our solar system. It is surrounded by blood-stained basins cut into the rocks and the skulls of sacrificial victims.

Fenris Games - Cauldron Warband Kickstarter

Last year I backed a Kickstarter from Fenris Games. I found out about it from Annie Norman, of Bad Squiddo Games, the Mother of Peegs herself.

The Kickstarter interested me, because I already had a wonderful resin piece from Fenris and also because the figures looked so amazingly weird. I could see many possibilities for using them in various ways. 

The basic premise of the Cauldron Warband was a bunch pf plague-ridden Chaos Dwarves, Sorcerers and various other nasties and gribblies. I could think of a few ways of building them into games right from the beginning.

Anyway, the Kickstarter shipped in late December and I received my parcel on Monday. I thought I'd post a few pics, even before I'd cleaned up and assembled anything. Here they are. In addition to the figures themselves, there are some really very nice resin pieces, including some excellent detailed scenic bases that are almost too nice to glue the figures onto, the evil Black Cauldron itself and a scary Chaotic beast (called "Spot" in the Kickstarter).

I won't get started on these for a while, as I am currently devoting all my painting time to Peninsular War Portuguese line infantry.

More Saga: Age of Magic - my Unstable Portal

An Otherworld faction warband takes an Unstable Portal as its Sacred Ground.

I spent some time looking for an actual portal to use, but nothing I saw really excited me much. However, I am a huge fan of H.P Lovecraft, as I have mentioned before, so a portal might just be an eldritch stone with strange otherworldly angles and mystical geometries, so this beautiful piece "The Living Icon" from Fenris Games was exactly what I was looking for. A stone monolith with actual eyes and carved tentacles? I mean, who could resist it? Certainly not me, for sure.

I can thank my lovely partner for this piece, she bought it for me as a present. Also, I can thank Fenris Games for posting it out so quickly, which meant it came in the post on Thursday. Of course, it immediately went straight onto my painting table.

Each face of the Icon is different, so I simply had to photograph each one;

I've added in a female wizard to give an idea of the size of the piece. In this final shot, I think she might be getting a bit too close. What is that book she is holding? Surely not a copy of the accursed Necronomicon? Who knows what will happen when she finishes her incantation? 

This was an absolute joy to paint. It is a single solid piece of resin with no cleaning up required. I undercoated it in Halford's grey primer and when it was dry, gave it a wash all over with diluted Windsor and Newton Indian Ink (black, of course). Then I did a progressive series of dry-brushings in paler and paler grey. Finally, I finished off by painting the eyes, which were finished with a wash of Windsor and Newton Brilliant Green Ink.

The base was a simple and uncluttered case of varying sizes of sand ballast, with some cork rocks, finished with some murky dark green flock, which I also allowed to creep up onto the lower surfaces of the monolith. 

Once it had been spray varnished with matt varnish, I went over the eyes with gloss varnish, using a brush.

To say that I am happy with this piece is an understatement. I absolutely love it. I can see it being used for more that just Saga AoM. It cries out for a Cthulhu game setting, maybe using 7TV's forthcoming Pulp rules? Who knows?