Meet the Conglomerate!

"Hue hue hue"

"HUE HUE HUE HUE"

"HUE HUE HUE HUE HUE"

The sounds of evil laughter have mixed with the sounds of the stormy night.

The laughter came from filthy basement that medical student, one Herbert West has used as his laboratory. He started experimenting with reanimations with good intentions, but the thing have came too far. Driven by his wish to research a formula of elixir of life has twisted his mind. Right now he has finished stitching an abomination that looked like an ox, a human, an octopus and some other, unearthly beings would be mix together in a way, indescribable by pen and ink.

Herbert's laughter was masked by new, even more horrible sounds that could not be made by anything from this world! The beast got up and started destroying the laboratory. Herbert was still laughing maniacally! The creature turned, and then I saw it...the face of a man, screaming with hysterical fright! This face...could it be, it has retained its own brain and thinks separate from it?

This answer is unknown to me....as the moment I saw it, my knees got soft and, gracefully, I've lost my consciousness.



Not yet pained miniature that I've shown in last post:

 Painted front:

 Painted back (not happy with the eye :( )

 Some semi-atmospheric pictures:

Sorry for the raw hero. He will be first to get painted as he is my character in campaign now. He is new adventurer from BCB and I gave him lantern, so he looks like he has just heard something in the dark. Other options were a pistol (but he has one tucked on right side hip and another in arm, so he'd actually have 3 that way), a shotgun, an axe, a sabre, a broken bottle and even a pen. Second option was I'd give him reaper sawn off double shotgun on his back (thanks Johnny!), but that'd be too much. He's a fun mini. Need to get him painted!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

AAARGH MY EYES, MY EYES

I think I went mad then...

My sculpting mojo has came back after few weeks break and I've been sculpting little by little for whole week. I managed to get some sculpts to a degree where I call them "finished", even though they look half done.

Before we even start, let me assure you the post title refers to cosmic horrors that lurk the deepest shadow of our unimportant planet and by no means refer to the quality of the sculpts themselves! :D

I'd like to start with my crypt (from and old post ) roof. As the sign was bad, I went to fix it. Firstly, I have put a rectangle of putty on the roof and wrote the letters in. I wouldn't have been myself if I wouldn't write SCOOT at my first attempt. I wasn't satisfied with result and I scrapped the sign off. So I made a thin sheet of puty and cut the letters out. They are cruder than I had imagined, so I've added bolts (you press a toothpick in PVA and press it where you want bolt to be - voila). They still have to be painted, but you can get the general idea.

If you look careful, I've also sculpted unrecognizable face on the triangle above the name. Yikes!

 Once it get painted, I am pretty sure it should've looked better than it did!


Next, I've finished a "conglomerate" lurker for Strange Aeons games. As I've wrote in the post I've linked at crypt, he is supposed to be an experimental clump of organs, that does bad things. He is now finished. Suckers on the tentacle are horribly bad, but I couldn't succeed with any better attempt.

Overall I am quite satisfied with how it turned out.

 Backside:

Next is Shantak, WIPs were shown in few posts, for example here. He was started as early as July. When I start working on miniature, I have high hopes, which slowly sunk lower. Then I come so low, I don't know how to proceed and miniature sits until I get enough courage to do something with it :P.

If you're familiar with Strange Aeons rules, he will be used as a "winged nightmare".

 As you can see, for the ease of painting, he can be detached from his base.

Then we got a random "conversion" of mantic legs, also a few months long project. Wanted a "bloater" zombie, got a fat lady. Still considered a WIP!

We move back to eldritch  abominations....a dimensional shambler this time. You can see its start in one of the linked posts above. The miniature should be on all fours, like a gorrila, because I've planned to make a "missing link" at first, an ape-like creature, yeti, sasquatch, big foot. Whatever you'd like to call it. The wire armature broke and I just went for the shambler. Somewhow I've managed to give him two elbows per arm, but hey, hes from another dimension and something humans have never seen before! I still think he is too humanly looking, as he is partly described as an "insect". This one has nothing "insecty" about him, but never mind the details! :P
I quite like how twisted "dead eyed rudiment of a head" looks. Needs legs done. I've disobeyed laws of physics and built him upside-down. I've learned a lesson and let me tell you, people start sculpting at legs for a reason!

I got more to show!

Next is a WIP of "blasphemous construct", a Frankenstein. He my first attempt at twisted wire for an armature. I twisted wire for his legs really good, but somehow failed while coating it. He is totally out of proportions. I need to redo his girly feet, but having one hand "normal" and other king-side was my intention. I also wanted to make his fake look angry at world, but it ended up being retarded. Now that I'm writing this, he actually has stylish hair, modern in 1920's!

I've also tried to sculpt her , but plans got ditched almost as soon as I've started. So I've decided I'll make a female Treshold operative, with a 2-handed sword. Don't ask about the weapons choice, I just felt like doing a sword! Because I can't get myself to do her legs right, I'll gave her a longer skirt. Not practicable when slashing monsters from nightmare, but with strange aeons, even skirts can work.

For the end, I've put aside six 25mm bases as a "side project". When I sculpt I tend to have some leftover putty. As I don't want it to go to waste, I do all sorts with it. At first, I just sculpted on, ruining my work (sculpted a hand, worked on another one and destroyed the first one when i grabbed a miniature, for example). Then I did smaller things. Now I am making sausages that I'm putting on a pile. When pile will grow enough, I'll call it a "swarm". Pretty clever, eh? 

 Another way to use leftover putty is to make a thin stripes of it. Those can then be used at sculpting of weapons (found that on the internet!), or whatever. Works as plasticard, but its thinner!



I am glad I could finally put a somewhat decent post on my blog and I hope you guys found it interesting. I understand the sculpts are not of commercial quality, but we can't expect I'll be on par with people that have more years of experience than I have sculpts started! It is a great fun, however and it is really nice to see something become out of nothing. The Formless thing I've sculpted and painted, for example, was a great fun to make and offers a special satisfaction when I play with it. Also, Strange Aeons has rules for monsters that are not too widely available, so sculpting my own is a nice practice that also ends up useful! Last but not least, when you work on abomination that "even pen and ink can't describe", how can you do wrong?

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten AAR

Today, my brother and I finally got together and played some Strange Aeons. Because we haven't played for a while, we decided we'd rather start new campaigns. Because that would take so much time and we had cults already made (but never played with), we decided that we should play a game of Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten (VUK) instead. It is a beta-testing version of game that derives from Strange Aeons, but it is a lurker vs. lurker type. You can get your copy here.

His Death cult has met my Dagonites on a graveyard.

His cult was made of:

Magus
Cult leader, with light vest, .22 pistol, bowie knife, meat cleaver and a double barreled shotgun.

Congregants:
Cult leader, with .22 pistol, bowie knife, light vest and a double barreled shotgun
Conglomerate
Conglomerate

Cultist:
Maniac, with meat cleaver

Two cult leaders give him the ability to nominate all of his cult at once (Cult leader nominates other leader and a maniac, other leader nominates conglomerates)

I went for a different approach. I had:

Magus
Fishman Demagogue, rainment (a thing that gives 6+ save that I forgot to use!)

Congregants:
Fishman
Fishman
Hybrid, with a club and bolt action rifle
Hybrid, with a club and a shotgun
Hybrid, with a club
Cultist, with a torch
Henchman, with bowie knife and a double barreled shotgun


We've rolled for "Chained coffin" scenario. We set up the graveyard, placed the 7 graves we rolled for and deployed. He won the first turn and moved forward, 2 conglomerates made it in base to base with 1 grave. In my turn, I could only nominate demagogue and 2 others. I've moved demagogue to one grave and one fishman to other.

In their next turn, Death cult's conglomerate manged to dig out a chainned coffin already! He started dragging it down towards his deployment zone for safe opening. On my turn, I also rolled 6 (would have found a coffin), but was auto changed to 5. A restless spirit emerged from grave and haunted my poor cultist with a torch, scaring the living hell out of him!
My brother spent next turns to open the coffin (found the scrolls) and massacring my cult. I used my turns searching 2 more graves and removing casualties... In one grave, there was another spirit (again, after I rolled 6 -.-), in the second, I found some valuables that I traded for money (Resource points).

I think it is useless to fully describe how we played, as I got no pictures.The game ended after he massacred my team. All 8 of my cultists were removed as a major injury (needs to roll on major injury table which can end up in death, phobias, injuries or even gives you a free skill or makes you hate the one who did the injury!). In his cult, his magus and one of the conglomerates survived. Maniac was removed as a minor injury (comes to play next game unchanged) and the rest were major.

He rolled injuries first. Conglomerate rolled full recovery, so he will play next game normaly. Cult leader rolled and after recovery, he now hates fishmen that gave him such a horrible scars!
When my turn to roll came, I started with my Magus. If he'd die, I would have 2 options. Another model with command could become a new magus, or if I'd have enough RP, I could buy another model with a command skill, to be new magus. Well, with my luck, I rolled and old immortal fishman demagogue died. I had no other models with command in my cult and not enough RP to afford another such model, so my club scattered and Innsmouth people no longer treathen Death cult's exsistence.

For fun, we rolled some more and I got two cultists with leg wounds, two cripples (one action instead of 2), one fishman would now be scared of being touched, henchmen would fear everyone in enemy's cult and little cultist got a full recovery.

Quite unexpecting turn of events on my side! Maniac and conglomerates literally cut trough my team. Fishmen had some chances, the rest were just there to feed the wretched madman and undeads!

Now I'll have to make a new cult and he will just keep on playing with his. I will go with Dagonites again. The reason is, I still got trust in them and well, I just got my fishmen and hybrids to play with!

Cheers,
Mathyoo

I was about to take some pictures, but decided against it, as we dont have any models painted :P. The game ended so badly, as you could see, that I've decided to write about it!

Graveyard scenery expanded! And more!

 Hello,

I've been working on some trees and such for past few days. Also decided to finish my crypt. Here is all what I've done since last time (and graves templates from few posts back):

 So, we got 3 bases of two trees each, a crypt and thats actually all of it. They still need some fauna. I have also made and primed some "jungle" bases, but I'll show them once they're done. If you have the eyes to notice cookies box on the left, keep in mind it is empty and I am not a lucky man!


Lets take a closer look of the pieces. Laid-back survivor will help us with demonstration of sides. Pictures are no better than usual, so well, I can only apologize one more time!

The crypt is based on an old CD, made of cork tiles I've used for most of my buildings. It is pretty basic in shape, with some bits added to make it a bit more interesting. As you can see, it is dedicated to a Scott family. Could it be a final resting place of brave captain Scott, who got doomed while searching for the Mountains of Madness in the Antarctica? Or it is dedicated to other Scott family, who's member is well known for his interest in the misteries of occult and undead? Shall we ever know the truth, it will most certainly be posted on this page. But for now, lets just check all 4 sides of the crypt:

 The crypt is obviously of an old origins, iron cross is damaged and door look like time has gotten to them, as well. I am not satisfied with how the name came out. I've used very light grey and white, but then went over with metallics to make them appear "metal". I think it could be done better...perhaps it could use another panel.

 The side shows triangles for variety and interesting windows. Windows are made of plasticard, cut to uneven shape to make it look like I've planned it that way. The fence is greenstuff. Painted in metalics, washed with black and brown wash to give a feeling of old to it. I didn't dare try to make a rust effect!

 Below are two close-ups on front. I've painted padlock red to give it a striking contrast. I was planning to chain the doors all over, but I did it all after I've placed the doors between the two cork triangles, so it would be kind of hard to sculpt any chains (the cork parts of the crypt were done first, as I don't plan too much but rather think of the things as I go)

 Doors are made of plasticard, cut to planks an scored with wire brush. A padlock is visible better here and you can also see the twisted "metal" on the lower part of the door. I dont know why I am telling you this, but the thing is, the strip was cut too long and I've just twisted it instead of cutting. This produced a nice little detail, making door look even older and more battered.

The roof opens and thats how it looks like in the inside: 

 I was planning to sculpt some torches and make a lightning effect, but that'd be very hard to paint in such a confined place. I had to be satisfied with "tiles" on the floor. You can also see a sneak peak of the sarcophagus, that is a separate piece.

 Here is the sarcophagus itself:

 It is made of plain plasticard with greenstuffed cthulhu head and an inscription. The sides are unfortunately boringly plain. I was thinking about making some hieroglyphs but that would probably ruin it all. Besides, I was told I have to do things simple!

Thats about all I've got to show you regarding the crypt itself. Next are the trees. I went for dried look, thats why the trees are all grayish. Theyre made of wire, PVA and some toilet paper. Some of the little detailes were sculpted with green stuff. I gave them some resemblings of skulls, faces, mouth and such, to make them look kinda spooky.

On picture below, you could probably spot a skull (leftmost branch) and something that might as well be called a crabs claw.

 The other tree in the same base has a branch with horrifying  face-like features....and...ARGHHH MY EYES...is that a....tongue sticking out?

The rest of the trees are not as special, but they all got something hidden somewhere. I didn't want all the features to be too visible, but if they can't be seen, whats the point of making them?

Look, is that...an eye?

For the end...you might remember I've started scultping some more beasts a while ago. This fellow, a conglomerate for Strange Aeons players had the most progress done. I've made it shortly after posting that post, where I was mentioning it for the first time, but never got a chance to show it. He is pretty small, but was much fun. A conglomerate is just that, a conglomerate of various beasts and human body parts. I gave mine a human leg, a hoove, a human face (that has scared impression, looks like it can think separately from the creature and does not like what it has became a part of!). Then we got...well, a man's treasure, a tentacle (that fell off 2 times and i will pin it now) and a huge mouth with a tongue sticking out. It will probably get another tentacle on the other side of the body, unless I'll manage to sculpt a good looking hand.

 A closer photo:

And the monsters back:
I think you can't backstab this fella, it seems like he sees things clearly!
If you check it, each leg goes its own way...the heck? Well, a sculpting accident, but it looks even better that way!

 A hole for the hand or another tentacle on the other side:

Thats if for today! Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo