release the hounds WIP

some shockingly poor photos, but it's a gloomy day today... conversion of the Warlord ECW command sprue musician (again oddly - strange that I find that the most workable of the 3) to be in charge of the hunting dogs that any witch hunt needs...

I haven't decided on a head yet, but will be adding several heads to my head bag this weekend at Salute - am currently thinking the not-Colonel Tigh from Crooked Dice... the base is a normal cavalry slotta with ends replaced with bits from a 25mm slotta... originally it was just the front I did like that to allow the other hounds (on their own 25mm slottas) to cluster together more easily for a pack feel when they are all on the leash, the end of the cavalry base was about level with the back of the handler, but the sword projected too much and was getting twanged and bent, so I added one that end as well to take the pressure off the plastic sword... the g/s hides lots of bracing above and below and it's quite sturdy... I tried to replicate the pose from the Warlord Ancient Briton pack handler, so cut off one leg and repositioned it and it's ankle... little bit of g/s to move hands, arms and what have you...



of course, it does occur to me that I may now need to do one without the dog, so will need another command sprue... sigh...

Blood on Satan's Claw

a curious thing happened when I was watching Blood on Satan's Claw the other day... I'd always intended to do the demon to join Angel and had long identified a suitable figure in a Fishman from the Strange Aeons range... I'd always assumed I'd just be adding the hood to the figure as that is how it's seen for most of the film, but I figured I rewatch the end and really have a good look at it's face... as the finale rolled, I got sketching what I was seeing and was very bemused... this is one of my favourite films, I've seen it hundreds of times and continue to enjoy it, but had never noticed before that the demon is a horseshoe bat... now I've seen it, it's blindingly obvious, I had always assumed it was a mis-shapen face based on early demonic images... especially as they show a great example in the film and the glimpses you get throughout the film just add to that twisted face image...


but, a horseshoe bat it is... believe it or not... anyway, back to the figure... the Strange Aeons fishman was perfect, wrapped up in a tattered cloak, with a single hand visible, even if it is a hand rather than a claw, but you can't have everything... it was even the correct hand (oddly you do see one of the coven has given up their left hand to the demon, but you never see it's left hand, nor a right hand missing within the cult)... I decided to skip the hood and try for the full head, the wide head of the fishman was not a million miles away from what I wanted - I closed the mouth slightly, added the nose and ears with g/s and then added some fur to the head, neck and hand... it's not an exact match for the demon or a horseshoe bat, but I like it and it has the strange mis-shapen human nose in profile that is quite visible in a lot of the promotional material...


colours, of course, had to be black and black... and now Angel Blake has her demon...


and before anyone says it, it's not a vampire - there is no vampire folklore in England from that time as far as I'm aware and none will be appearing in my little world - but the fact that it is a horseshoe bat just adds to the feeling of darkness and corruption in bright sunlight that gives the film it's atmosphere...

ghouls, ghouls, ghouls...

finally got around to getting some paint on my ghouls...

annoyingly, what stalled me was what colours to paint them - I'm fine with uniforms and Timelords and what have you, but as soon as I need to decide on a colour, I really do ponder too much... in the end I just picked out the earthy tones from paints, and slapped it on... so it's kind of a slap dash job to an extent as I didn't want to be thinking about the colours too much... it kind of worked - a nice surprise was the WW2 German Uniform green... will use that more for this project I think...

these three are basic Mantic ghouls (although not sure what the camera was focusing on as the faces are a bit blurry)... some minor g/s on the back for the joins...

next were four Mantic ghouls that were heavily g/s'd for the 17th century vibe... quite chuffed with the frilly shirt on the red chap...

finally, a mix and match with Mantic bits added to Warlord plastic ECW figures... the female ghoul is converted from a Redoubt Enterprises ECW villager (with buckets on a yoke thing)...


went with a green grey for the basic skin colour, highlighted up with white and washed with mainly purple, but the odd splosh of green for a unhealthy shade... not a huge fan of lashings of blood and gore and I suspect others may have gone a bit paler, but I quite like the inhuman greyness... similarly I like the all white eyes, but may try some small pupils with a rotring pen or something... gums are also purple if you can manage to see them... I also added a fallen gravestone to one of the bases to go with the priest...

old timber frame cottage finished...

and it's done... as much as I can do with it really... not 100% happy with the thatch, had to avoid a too yellow/brown, so ended up using a Vallejo Green Grey and Green Ochre, I kind of like the finish, it has a dirty, old look, and as a first attempt at thatch, hey...


woodwork is GW Graveyard Earth (or whatever they call it now), drybrushed with varying bits of different greys and washed with Devlan Mud and variably drybrushed again... the render is GW Bleached Bone, drybrushed with Skull White and then the edges washed with Ogryn Flesh... the interior colours are the same... the windows are from the 4ground details set and are just the Foundry black triad...

the interior now has a Tudor settle (the correct name of which I found out googling images for Tudor benches), scratchbuilt from balsa... this is fixed, but the hollow nature of the bottom means it doesn't really impede any figure placement... a late thought was to take a mold of the settle with some Siligum so I can do some more for other buildings in resin... but I'll do another more fancy one for that I think... the door is balsa and card and g/s and is loosely hinged into the wall, so it can be open or closed or removed (pops out lovely)...

plenty of room still inside, have some barrels that may make an appearance in one corner, but don't want to clutter it too much... but don't want an empty box either...

the ladder was cut short to fit the wall, the other half is attached to the next floor and gives a nice continous run when the top floor is in place...

not much to say about the upstairs, did make a box bed, but it takes up alot of room, even if it is away from the window... may rethink that have maybe some bedding/matress straight on the floor, that way it has some detail and figures can still go where they will... I put in a couple of timbers along the wall with some balsa, just to hide the wall/roof join, I could have done more, but figured it would do...

old timber frame cottage part 3

interior is done... -ish... pondering some furniture, and need to do the ladder access to upstairs...

the fire was made from blue insulation foam, two pins, splintered matchsticks and superglue... the flaw there involved the hole from the pin leading to unprotected foam which promptly melted and collapsed when the superglue found it's way down there... g/s replaced that bit, sadly it looked better beforehand, but it will do...

old timber frame cottage part 2

ok... terrible pictures, but progress of sorts - I had been worried the render wasn't working, so gave it a spray undercoat to get a better feel for it... that worked ok, a few spots needed more definition, so I stippled some liquid g/s in spots... windows were added and the door and lintel... the windows and door lintel are from the detail kit, with a bit of texture added to the lintel again with liquid g/s... the door was made from 2mm balsa, with a latch made from g/s - it's loosely hinged, so can be open, closed or kicked in...

and then to the roof... tried thatch as I couldn't face cutting all those tiles... some nice tutorials can be found here for teddy fur and here for towelling... I went the towelling route, as they were dirt cheap in primark... not 100% about it yet, it looks ok, but I was a bit over enthusiastic with the brushing down and trimming, so patches needed replacing... this was especially true for the split where the roof seperates to give access to the first floor, a good hard line there helps a bit... the roof is taking an age... I think I've managed to replicate the weave ok in g/s, but won't know for certain til I can undercoat that... it may all get removed before long...

now, the sharp eyed will have noticed the absense of a chimney, Levied Troop over on Frothers pointed me towards a very useful little book... Discovering Timber Framed Buildings - it's dirt cheap (from £2 something used) and has some great illustrations... including the evolution of the chimney, so I went with a smoke hood rather than a chimney proper - that will stay regardless of what I do with roof...