Meet the Cynocephali!

Hi!

Another group of miniatures finally got the loving they deserved after two years in the "tomorrow, really" drawer.

This time it is a group of Cynocephali, the dog-headed race from the other side of the Rotten sea that is known for their war-like, cruel and human-hating nature in general.

They are generally described as having human bodies and dog heads, but some claim they have goat legs or even one eye at the front and one at the back of their skull!

The eldest will have you know the dreaded soldiers ride in battle on horse-back and howl!

While the idea of Cynocephali is really, really old, the resemblance to Atila and the Huns is evident. Later, the Pasjeglavci/Pesjani/Pasjedlani as they are called in Slovenia, were associated with the Turks, whom in their invasion of the Balkans and push to the Vienna left a lasting impact on the region to a point where everything bad was associated with them for hundreds of years after they were gone.

Among others, there is a tale of Pes Marko ( "Mark the Dog",). Marko was born by a count's daughter that was locked up in a jail (tower) by her father. He gave her a dog to play with, which made her pregnant and thus she born Pes Marko. He eventually became the leader of Venice and pillaged the city in rage.

This tale supposedly originates from middle ages, during the wars between the Holy Roman Empire (that included most of today's Slovenia) and Venice, which is known for Saint Mark and venetian lion - you get the rest!



I imagined these ruthless creatures would be the most common enemies of any heroes wandering in the land of old gods and made four of them. A leader armed with an axe, a bow man for some long-range support and two spear grunts.

For the soldiers, I simply used some of left over GW Ungors I had from the Dunwich project. I have to admit I really like the miniatures. They are plastic and easy to work with, they are on the large side and quite cartoony, which I think fits well with the fantasy. I did, however, cut the axe to something more manageable.  

 Other than that I gave them a quick paint job and that's about it. They were kept very simple and I really have to say the photos don't do them justice. Surely I shouldn't just go with black pelt and the brown is all wrong, but overall I am quite satisfied.

In other news, I am preparing some of my own sculpts/conversions for moderns and fantasy and looking at my Strange Aeons collection, I really think I should start a campaing - which brings me to my Moderns, that I would like to at least remotely finish first. Ah, so many plans!

WIP table and projects

 Hello guys,

while I have insurgents painted that I could show, I've decided to share my WIPs with you. While not everyone likes to share their work in progress, I think it's a great way to get motivated to continue working on project that haven't moved anywhere in weeks (or months :3), plus comments are usually very helpful with ideas. 

Today I'll show you miniatures for Slavic mythology game I've been talking about. For good guys, I will buy a pack of plastic Vikings or Dark Age warriors. I'm still clutching to my money, so I haven't bought a box yet as I figured I'd work on monsters and creatures with what I have at hand. This seemed like a great idea at start, but I think some plastic models would make my life much easier!

To start with - a dragon. There is no mythology worth something that hasn't got dragons in it. I am basing mine to represent something between an olm and carp. So far, only rough framework has been done and I'm not too satisfied. He was done low on ground intentionally, but I think he ended up too low. I think I'll bulky his body further more. Legs are tight at body to make the model more sturdy (which is also a reason he lies on the ground).

 Next, I am working on two centaurs. In Slovene mythology, centaur is called a "Polkonj" (Pou-kon), literally meaning half-horse. Nothing much to say here, they are your ordinary centuars, I plan to arm one with a lance and the other one with a bow. If I can pull it off, I'd make one a female :D.
In tales they are either just as horrible as Cynocephali ("dog heads") in their quest to kill everything human. In western parts of the "Slovene inhabitated area" - today's Italy - Centaurs fight valiantly against Cynocephali to protect humans. To  sum it up - they could be used on both sides.

Moving on, I am converting HorrorClix Fiend ("Frankenstein's monster) to Kresnik. Kresnik is a bit of a complicated figure in Slovene mythology. It is believed to be the main god of ancient Slavs in this area and thus could be representing Perun, Slavic god of thunder under a different name. There are also theories that Kresnik's brother Trot is actually a Peron. To make matters worse, Kresnik is also a demigod protecting humans, fighting spirits and demons that want to hurt humanity. He is kind of a "Slovene Heracles". I've figured I'd use him as a "last resort" in my games - when good guys would get into a losing battle in their campaing, prayer to gods would give them chance to "spawn" Kresnik so that saga can continue.

He is your usual barbarian, long haired, long bearded, dressed in what might be a typical Ancient Slavic clothing and wielding a thunder axe. I am not sure about his other arm and I figured he could use some lightnings or a knife. Or another axe. The only thing better than an axe are two axes.

 

 Moving on, there is a "Malavar" lizard. A giant black lizard, so poisonous, his breath could kill. When you kill one of those, you have to put him on an ant hill and wait long enough that only bones and a diamond he carries under his skin are left there. Im effectively making a small dragon and I got a weird feeling he won't be finished any time soon.

 Lastly in this category, are "Pasjeglavci" (Pasyeglavtsee  - its plural). Cynocephali if you prefer, or the dog-heads. They are described as humans with dog head; beings with human torso, goat legs and dog heads; can't look up and so on and so on. They live on the other side of  the "rotten sea" and hate humans with all their soul. Every now and then a particular vicious dog soldier is born (as a child ofa princess locked in a tower that only has a puppy for a company - you get the picture) and he leads his army against humans. They are a representations for Huns, Mongols, Turks and all other "evil guys". I have used the remaining of my Ungor herd from WG for those and I am quite happy with them. I have cut the ears, turned horns into dog ears and added longer mouth. I like the looks of them and all the bones go along well with their savage nature. As they are from GW, they are much larger than ordinary humans, which is also a plus.  On the other hand, buying some dark age warriors would give me enough humans to turn into dog soldiers.

 Only thing I hated was ridiculously oversized axe, which I believe looks much better now.

 I actually wanted to show you my other WIPs as well (got moderns, Strange aeons and WW2 related miniatures I'm working on), but as this came out to be quite a long post on it's own, I'll show them at a later date. As I've said, I got some insurgents painted and I'd like to show them next time so I don't bury my blog in ideas and half done work.





In other news, I'm going on a representation of a book today. The book is about Rommel and his "visit" to Soča (Isonzo) river during WW1 (Caporetto anyone?). As the author wrote about Rommel's book I've read before and Stormtroopers (my bachelor thesis), I was quite interested at first. I've got the book in my library today to see what I should be expecting and I wasn't overly impressed - a nice read for people that know nothing about it, but apart from some nice maps it seems to be translation of Rommel's book and Wikipedia entries on Stormtroopers and "Infiltration" tactics.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo