Meet the Ghouls!

Hello,

finally another SA related post!

I've bought a pack of Heresy ghouls at Salute earlier this year. After I've checked list back at home, I've settled for a single pack (but I had the dying wish to have them all :P)...I didn't really pick around too much, just made sure it is not the one with mother and a baby. Not that I'm particularly bothered by those two, its just that this pack is more suitable. I've painted them about a month ago (just before I started working on humvees), but I have saved the post until after that project.

Now, I got a bit of a love-hate relationship with this pack. The sculpts are great. Could be a bit more canine around the faces, but overall great ghouls. Perhaps too..hm...too "violent" looking for my "cartoonish" preferences in SA (GW would be perfect :P), but very, very nicely defined and all. They were a pain to put together (not sure if that is only in my case), but painting them was true joy. I went for true-to-Lovecraft blackish skin, made some glowing eyes and the rest is nothing special. I had great joy using Tamiya clear red again...in abundance. It has to be the smell!

Not much else to say about them...one of them (I figured the one with a sickle) would be Ghoul King if needed in games.

Thanks for looking,

Mathyoo

Meet the King in Yellow!

Hello,

last of the three Horrorclix repaints I've done in that one batch. This one is a bit more converted and fully repainted. It is a conversion of Gypsy seer (not my image). I have cut his headgear, sculpted a hood, done some work on his sleeves (at hands, they're more loose now) and I've covered tassels on the scarf he had around his body.

In Strange Aeons, I will use him as a "high priest", generic wizard, or as the King in Yellow when I'll play that specific scenario (the King can only be summoned in one particular scenario that needs special props). I must say I really like this miniature, especially the two accompanying spirits. Yellow worked quite well. I was thinking I should paint that scarf in some other color for some contrast, but I really liked that yellow, so I've kept it :P. I have painted some mud on the edge of the cloak, but it didn't really work too well.

Not much else to say about it, so see you next time!
Mathyoo

Meet a Mummy!

Before I start- 20,000 hits! THANKS GUYS! It is but a minor milestone, but a milestone nonetheless! Next goal - a million! :D

Today is my little country's 22th Birthday. I wanted to make a bit bigger post about it, but to keep things hobby related, I've decided not to. If anyone is interested there is an "okay" article about our War of independence on Wiki. I'd just let you know I'd be more than happy to chit chat about it on private, if anyone is interested :P.

Back to hobby, not much has been done lately. I am doing some basing and a bit of painting, but luckily I got this and one other post prepared from a while ago!

Got another horrorclix "repaint" for you today. It is a mummy. Comes in handy in Strange Aeons and I really like this sculpt. Actually I am really into lots of horrorclix stuff from the sculpt perspective, as they're very original. This one carries a sarcophagus with it!

There isn't much I can say about it, I tried washing and drybrushing the mummy and its sarcophagus, but it didn't really work out. So the biggest change I've made is pain the glow on the eyes. I am thinking about making a net on the sarcophagus from UHU glue strings or something, but I am not sure yet. It is based on 30mm base and that is about it.


As usual, here is a daring shot of explorer finding the reanimated Pharaoh! Had my painting skills been better, I'm sure you'd think it is from the movie!

Thanks again for all the support, just posting this post gives me a little boost to go finish what's on my painting table!

Mathyoo

Meet Bertha!

Hello,

before we move on to lovely miniature that Bertha is, I'd just like to thank everyone that has ever found interest in my posts and even more so to people that regularly read my posts and comment on them. It really is appreciated and helps me slowly work on my projects. While I like converting and sculpting, I need a real kick to get things actually painted. I would also like to mention Brummie's pimping post and let you all know you've got it wrong. Brummie is a popular lad and sending him a little something was a step closer to WORLD DOMINATION! Hra hra hra (evil laugh)!

Anyways, I've been repainting (some more than others) horrorclix miniatures I got at Vampifans (hope you're holding on up there mate!). I've got three done that I'll show in separate posts, again, to keep up with my Strange Aeons bestiary "format".

Bertha will be used as a blasphemous construct, i.e. big zombie. And big she is. Also not at all feminine and quite disturbing. To make her fit better with my painting, I've decided to completely repaint here. I am not much of a painter and painting her was a huge fun (pun intended)!

Apart from being as hilariously gross as an obese naked undead can be, she also holds a cleaver - she is taking "Femme fatale" to a whole new level!
Nothing special on her front, some exposed skin (groovy!), a bib and thats about it.

It appears she sat somewhere else before, judging by a stuck lollipop, mmm cherry!
I've painted the ooze yellowish green for some added "eww" effect. As any true zombie, she was finished with a coat of TCR!

Below, a brave agent's hair rise as he sees the construct in the dark...YIKES!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Meet a sabretooth cat!

Behold - a mighty sabretooth cat!

This one is by far my favorite extinct mammal and I think it is for obvious reasons. I was fascinated by the peculiar long fangs it had and I still enjoy reading about theories regarding the use of these teeth. I am not the oldest guy around, yet I remember reading (in a book older than me :P), how sabretooth supposedly couldn't eat large prey because long fangs didn't allow it to swallow anything to big. However, it has been found out that it could open jaws to as much as 120°, compared to modern lion's 60! It (again, supposedly) only had 1/3 of a lion's strength in a bite and fangs are believed to be pretty brittle. The interesting belief is, that animal was like a lion on steroids, really muscular and strong.

Now, I've read about two different ideas on how it used to hunt. While I am no expert myself, neither self-taught beyond few books and documentaries, nor actually educated in this field, I found one much more likely than the other.
The first idea puts a cat on a tree or in some other ambush position, where it would wait for prey to come along (usually one of the previously shown megafaunas) jump on it, sunk its fangs in the animal and back off until the prey bled to death.
Now, I find this unlikely. While lynxes do jump from trees, they're much smaller and I just can't imagine a big muscular animal climbing on branches...but then again, big cats do that often. I could say my opinion is biased as I find waiting for animal to bleed out kinda boring :D.

Anyhow, the second idea is, that sabretooth used its weight and strength to wrestle big animals and then used its fangs to snap the throat, like modern cats do, but closing the "pincers" faster because of the long teeth. While it muscular front paws and back legs could help it brawl, it was too slow to catch anything fast - it was a specialized megafauna predator. It is believed it went extinct shortly after its favorable prey went extinct as well.

Whatever the reason was, the animal appears in Strange Aeons just as that - a sabretooth. While rules mix mammals and dinosaurs, I'd say my choice of going more mammalian comes out a bit better.

This particular model is from Steve Barbers and I while I really liked it at first, I am sitting on a fence by now.

I am a bit clumsy and I've manged to drop the miniature while putting primer on (brushing it on). It fell about a centimeter or two down on a ceramic plate I use as my palette and this is the result:

I got no idea how it has happened, perhaps it hit a grain of sand (I was putting sand on my bases and few could get on a plate, but I haven't seen any), or something, but it literally got brain damaged. I've fixed it with some putty, so it was no problem, but it was a bit of pa party pooper.

Secondly, I wanted to do a bit more elaborate paint job than simple sandy colors and I've messed its fur up with useless camouflage pattern before I've decided it isn't working. Too lazy to start again, I've kept it. Not too visible, but shows my lack of feeling for colors nicely. I'm horrible! :D

Next, I really liked its big eyes at first, but now that I've painted them and the cat looks retarded, I've decided I'd prefer small eyes that I could simply put some wash in and keep them at that!

Other than that, I really like it's unusual, threatening pose.
I've based it on (thanks for the idea Colgar! :D) 20mm round and square bases. I've cut round base on half and put it on each side, producing "40k bike base", but in 20x40. I'll use same technique for actual "bike bases" as those are awfully expensive.

Below is the ordinary "encounter!" scale shot and a quick set up of a sabretooth versus megatherium fight! It could be just me, but I think Steve Barber's miniatures might be a bit on the smaller size, while my megatherium appears even bigger, as it is sculpted in roughly 1:50 scale. Good luck biting that throat Smilodon!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Meet an Argentavis Magnificens!

...or perhaps some other teratorn (giant bird, but using big words makes me feel smart :P)?

Argentavis magnificens, which, unimaginatively means magnificent Argentine bird is supposedly the biggest bird that has ever lived. There isn't much known about it, but its wing span is estimated to be as large as 7 - 8 meters! Now, I've sculpted this and the two previously shown monsters in 1:50 scale, as I found it easier to convert numbers...I never was much of a maths guy :P. So, my models wingspan should measure something like 14 centimeters, but I did something wrong somewhere so it gets to around 11-12 centimeters or so. We could say it's not a full grown bird yet, or just call it some other teratorn - I don't think anyone would lose any sleep over this matter!

I will use it instead of Pterodactyl in my Strange Aeons games - this is why I've decided to find a giant flying bird instead of terror birds, the ostrich-like predators. I have started sculpting it with the other two sculpts (previously shown woolly rhino and megatherium), but it bogged down with this one. The suffering and sheer repulsion its wings caused me could only be compared to putting shingles on your model roofs. Boooooring. It has killed my sculpting mojo for weeks, I am telling you. And feathering them was the easy part...I just couldn't twist the wire to the right position, no matter how many birds I have looked at. This is some seriously weird piece of engineering! I went with intimidating / take off position and while I think position came out okay, wings are too slim (as in there is only three lines of feathers and should be 1-2 more) and all together, the wings are too thick (as in individual feather is too thick so wings are quite bulky). Also, as I am stating the bad things, its legs are too thin - those toothpicks could never support 70+ kilos that those birds weighted!

I have painted the bird blue, as per most common art I could find on the internet. While I can't say I'd expect a condor-like bird be blue, I must say I am quite happy with five-minutes-paint-job and this is one of the rare sculpts where I feel looks better with paint on. Talking of real birds, I've did some searching and I've found out they probably had problems getting off the ground and had to jump of cliff, like modern hang gliders. Nobody is even sure if it was able to hunt or had to resort to scavenging. I've read arguments that made sense to me, supporting both theories.

No matter the historical facts, I think a human sized bird (based on 40mm base) will fit in nicely instead of pterodactyls and could easily be used in other pulp games!

Ah, there is one more thing that really, really bothers me. Somehow, I've manged to glue it way off centre of its base and I must admit, the more I look at it, the more I feel I should fix it. It doesn't compromise its stability and such, but it annoys me...kinda like half-closed drawers. Hate those!

Well, anyways, thanks for looking and expect another extinct animal in next post!

Mathyoo

Meet a Woolly Rhinoceros!

Hello,

second beast for my Lost World-type games is a Woolly rhinoceros. It was made alongside Megatherium, so it has came mostly like it - too thin and with fish-eyes. Still, I have learned alot regarding sculpting its hair. What I did with both, was cover it in putty and then score it. I guess this approach would work for Megatherium, to stimulate its short hair, but with woolly animals, it would be better to work from bottom up in strips, overlapping previous set. While this would take few days instead of few minutes, it would greatly help with the overall looks of the model in the end. If you look close enough, you can see later added putty on rhino's belly, to see what I mean.

Personally, I am even more proud of this one compared to Megatherium, but even here, I had quite some trouble finding art I'd like - one would think it's appearance would be straight forward, but it never is. Here, I have came across Elasmotherium, a mountain sized beast! It is low on my list of interesting animals (sculpting wise), but it can't cease to amaze me just how huge those animals were.

In game of Strange Aeons, woolly rhino will be my substitute for triceratops and that is about all the explanation needed, hehe.

I do have one question for you guys...there is a certain scenario in a book, where you steal dinosaur eggs and every now and then enraged momma dino comes stampeding through the table. Now, rhinoceros would be perfect for the stampeding part, but I have no idea what I would want to substitute eggs for? And don't tell me baby rhinos, too cute, too cute!
I was thinking simply using eggs of other birds, while stampedo would still be done by rhino...I guess territorial animals wouldn't like some weird apes running around their area.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Meet a Megatherium!

Hello,

I got something special to show you today! It is a miniature of an extinct mega fauna - enter: Megatherium!

Marked by this thrilling, inspiring name, seconded only by Dinosaurs, is somewhat cute giant ground sloth. Apparently, it grew up to 6 meters tall and has weighted 4 tonnes. There is quite a few photos and illustrations of it on the net, each a bit different one from another. There are skeletons of it but as with anything else long extinct, one can only guess how exactly it really looked like.

It lived in nowadays South America. It was supposedly walking on all fours, but could sit on its huge tail to reach higher branches. As todays sloths and anteaters, it had long claws and had to twist his feet a bit to be able to walk.

I was quite interested in those beasts when I was younger, but I forgot about them eventually. My interest grew again when I saw Colgar6's amazing post about his collection. He has mentioned that finding pleistocene giant mammals would make more sense than finding living dinosaurs. And I completely agree. As Strange Aeons has a special linked campaign where you visit unexplored lands of Brazil rainforest, searching for a lost expedition, where you encounter dinosaurs, I have decided to swap them for Ice Age creatures.

This one will be used instead of T-Rex. Now, I know they don't really match, especially because Megatherium was mainly herbivore (it is supposed that it might be eating carrion sporadically), but its sheer size and huge claws could be used in offense. If anyone thinks any other mammal of roughly that period (very, very roughly that period, so we can go a million years back :D) would work better, please let me know. So far, the only one I'd consider would be Terror bird, but I think it size would make it a better raptor supplement (but I will use wolves for those, as suggested by Zabadak :P).

Now, I've found a nice human-megatherium size comparison photo that I've used to roughly sketch the sculpt. I have shaped it with wire and filled it with air drying clay. Because I planned to finish it with milliput for texture, I left it way too thin, which kinda bothers me. Plus I allowed myself to get lazy again and didn't use wire on any of the limbs. They aren't too well done, compared to illustrations I've made it after - they do look okay on the end sculpt however. Last thing that could be done better is the face. It was done really quickly so it is way too narrow - eyes are looking to sides instead infront - like those of fish.
Anyways, I've decided to keep those sculpts (I was/am working on 2 others at the same time) and finish them. All but one (we will come to that in later posts) were a blast to sculpt and I am looking forward to sculpting some of the weirder "elephants"  - say Deinotherium.

I've based this one on 2 sheets of roughly cut plasticard, so it looks terrible, but I can live with that.

For the end, here is a scale shot. While the animal seems quite small on its own, it really is towering over brave agents. If I ever go to redoing it, I would certaily make sure I position it so it looks down, the only reason for it to look straight forward is if it would be feeding, anyway.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Meet a henchman!

Hello,

here is the final EM4 gangster / agent / whoever. For purpose of my SA bestiary page (clickable above this post if you have missed it) I've decided to mark him as henchman. In game of Strange Aeons, he is just what you'd expect him to be - human right hand of the evil-doers. While not as fanatically connected to the cause as cultists, he does know how to use his weapons more efficiently and is thus quite viable lurker. Obviously, I have never used him in the games before, but he really isn't that bad!

I bought this mini because of the characterful pose, primarily to use as an agent, of course. As you can see, he is reloading his revolver (don't see too many of those, do you?). He is dressed in stripped black suit with a matching hat and elegantly wears a carnation and a handkerchief...except for being not being comically fat, he would make a great mafia boss, dressed so elegantly.

I didn't include any scale shots, but he is somewhat short, when put next to other figures.

Very brief post today, but there really isn't much else to say. It is pretty modern to be a tease these times, so you can expect to see some THINGS THAT SHOULD NOT LIVE in next couple of posts (and sorry, still not zombies :( ). Feel free to guess what it might be, but can't offer you any candy - I didn't really give you too much information, hehe.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Meet the Servitor of the Outer Gods!

Hello,

another great EM4 sculpt I've painted is Servitor. A squid-fish-something-else-like alien playing blasphemous music on his pipe, driving people mad all over the place! Now, I am no expert, but I suspect him being Scottish!

I went with rainbow colors on this one,  but they are only notable on the eyes. It is a nice miniature that takes washes and drybrushing well, so that is what I did. I believe it could always be better, but then again it could always be worse.

In Strange Aeons, profile for this lurker was introduced with their latest expansion, Shocking tales of madness and mayhem volume 3. He is quite an expensive little fellow and pretty much useless in direct combat. If he is given enough time to pipe his music, however, he calls in a Godling (the ultimate lurker, ala Cthulhu) and that...that is worth something! He is mostly reserved for special scenarios where Lovecraft himself is in play, but having a miniature gives me no excuse to use it in bigger games.

EM4 sells it in various positions - I only needed one so I went with this one as I liked it the most.

Also, if you look carefully above this post (but below the name tag), there is a page called SA Bestiary. It comes in most handy to people that actually play Strange Aeons, but it is a nice collection of all the lurkers in game and my interpretations. I had some problems with lurkers as Rogue Threshold agent and character, henchmen and such who are nothing but your ordinary humans and one miniature easily fits all the slots (and could still be used as a good guy!). Feel free to go check it out if you think you could find something that interests you but you've missed it in the past.

Thanks yet again for looking,
Mathyoo

Meet the Night-Gaunt!

Hello,

While at the Salute, I made sure I've checked out EM4 stand. I know EM4 since my early days of blogging, as I wanted to order some gangsters for my zombie games from them. I have decided against it, because postage to Slovenia included mandatory tracking, due to previous experiences of lost parcels sent to my country. I never had any problems myself, but anyways, I've decided against ordering because I've only wanted a couple of miniatures. This time, I've ignored the gangsters all together and I've picked up three "agents" (well, armed humans - will show them later once I paint them), this little fellow  and another monster that I will show you next time. I must say I love them all. I am not too fond about their females, but if I would pick again, I'd certainly pick one - got no female agents!

Back to nightgaunt. You got option of one standing normally (the one I picked and I just love it!) and one with raised paw, that looks a bit silly to me. You can get nightgaunts from many other companies, but I've picked this one. One reason is price, but to be completely honest, I really like this sculpt. I like its simplicity, albeit it is somewhat on the small side.

Nightgaunts are the monsters of Lovecrafts childhood nightmares and I must say...those had to be some wicked dreams, because the concept of the monster sends shivers down my body. We are talking about slick and rubbery black (hence the gloss varnish) humanoid figure with barbed tail, claws, horns and no face. NO FACE!

 I would like to have a bit bigger nightgaunt, but their wings tend to take lot of space and I plan to play games with my buildings more and more - plus I was just at EM4's so there was really no reason not to get one.



In future, expect even more "meet the" posts, as I am working my way trough England pile. Out of my head, I have monsters, policemen, civilians, agents and bunch of horrorclix (thanks Bryan) to work on. Once this is done or the starts go wrong again, I will paint some more of my modern zombies, which I got loads of from England (thanks again ;) ),  but got neglected a bit - the reason lies in lack of rules and sheer diversity that eldritch horrors pose compared to hordes of walking dead. They were the start of this blog and they will reappear for sure!


Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Meet the Kindred!

Hello,

Kindred is relatively new lurker in Strange Aeons, introduced with their third (or fourth if you count the scenario book) expansion. They represent the Dunwich folk from Return to Dunwich black dossier (short linked campaign). After the event in 1928 (so, the Dunwich Horror story by Lovecraft, accessible here) Threshold agency is keeping an eye on backwater village of Dunwich. They weren't informed about curious events of Horror's appearance, but have decided to keep an eye on village in case of any other... indescribable  macabre events or rituals would took place. And they couldn't be more right...the Dunwich folk have gathered and stored liquified remains of Wilbur, son of Yog Sothoth and are now drinking it, wishing to please the God! They've starting to get goatish appearance and various other mutations (tentacles, goatish legs, even an eye here and there!).

I have decided to convert Warhammer Beastmen Ungor (the small ones) herd. I know, I know, Warhammer, but it is still a plastic kit of goatmen nevertheless. I've only made 3 for start, as the conversion process soon bogged down. They use less sophisticated weapons than Threshold agency or your ordinary cultist, shotgun being their strongest weapon. I give mine only "common" weapons they can pick among - .22 pistol, a club and short bow.

There is one thing I hate...darned hornes. I've managed to cut them from the one with the bow, I could do it to the one with the pistol, but I've opted against it. The thing is, some heads have horns and ears in one piece, so removing the horns would remove or damage the ears. So I just went with it, it isn't all bad.
First from the left is upgraded Kindred  - patriarch. He is the hierarchical leader, so I picked the head with biggest horns and painted his hair and beard greyish white. It isn't noticable too much, but he is kinda fat. I didn't sculpt any pants on him and didn't want to give him a shirt to show the belly (which, sadly isn't all that visible). To make him at least a bit converted, I've given him a small gift of Yog Sothoth - tentacles at at his belly area. Oh, and I gave him that hair. I can't find an english word for this style, where you "knit" the hair in one long snake...how is that called? If I put it in dictionary, it comes out as "two whales", as our word for it has two meanings :P.
Anyways, I've decided to give some modern firepower to second guy, so he got .22 revolver. For a rush job, I think it looks quite decent, but its barrel has slided off the wire. On the side you can't see, however, is a mess.  I've given him some hair and ripped shirt, as his fragile body suddenly got all musculate. I've kept the little bones, they don't seem too out of place with inbred kindreds of god forgotten village.
Last guy was actually my first guy, I gave him a bow from the box and nice pair of "hillbilly pants" - but I am sure there is a better word for those pants?
He is my favorite, but I didn't want everyone to wear the same pants - which now I regret a bit.

As you can see, they're unified with blue colour, which wasn't really planned, but I quite like it. I wanted to paint the jeans blue, so when I had colours mixed, if just figured I'd applay it to all of them. I didn't want to do leather armbands in browns as there is enough brown all around as it is. It unifies them, which I don't really like in skirmish games. I have yet to decided if I will paint next ones with blue as well or something else - one they'd get mixed those three perhaps wouldn't stand out as much.

Overall, I think they are good enough, but if I could do anything, I'd have my kindred as bunch of hillbillies, some with goatsih legs, some with tentacles, multiple eyes and way more human in appearance than those are. Being from GW, they are also somewhat large, but well, you can't have everything!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Meet the Hound of Tindalos!

Hello,

originally, I wanted to show you cool EM4's nightgaunt, but as I've changed my profile picture to Hound of Tindalos, I've figured I should show it, to let you see what I've got here.

The Hound is my sculpt, influenced by a drawing of somebody apparently known as Sorrow king. I have saved this drawing when I came across it months ago while searching the subject.

The Hounds live in angles of time and space (humans live in curves, according to the story by Frank Belknap Long available here) and they enter our word from angles - 120° or narrower. So, I wanted my hound to be emerging from angle. After much thought, I've settled on a simple rock, as nothing else I've tried worked in limited space of 30mm base. Hounds' appearance is not described in much detail, but there is something about lean, hungry bodies and tongues. I've read somewhere that they're supposed to be more bat-like in appearance and that hound refers to the way they act, not the way they look. As much as I like the concept drawing I sculpted my on, I would do it rectangular, with lots of angles - check the link to story for drawing. I imagine them more like snakes myself, but angular - kinda like 2D lines or how should I say...hard to put it out in a 3D model, but disturbing enough to fit in the horror theme.  It wouldn't look as demonic, but it would fit well with a description of a being from other dimension, wholly different from what we are used to. My sculpt has tentacles, which works okay, I guess.

I've been sculpting it really, really slowly. I did it in layers and took my time. I've made a lump for a skull, then I slooowly added more texture, teeth, cheekbones, tentacles and such. I was really proud of it until I've painted it...it honestly doesn't do it justice!
As for the tongue, you can see it is quite "alienatic" (is that a word? :P) - the reason is I couldn't make smooth putty coating on a wire, so I sculpted some kind of lumps on it...it does add a horror effect, I believe.

I have painted it gray at first, but it was dead boring, so I've turned it to dark red eventually. I forgot to paint tentacles in another color (red tentacles on grey body offered nice contrast). Blue tongue and eyes seem to be correct choices. I could probably do better paint job if only I was more patient at painting my miniatures!

In game of Strange Aeons, there is a special scenario devoted to "demonic hound" (that I will use my model for), which I will play as soon as I get a chance. I will make sure I post a report here!

 

Thanks yet once again for looking,
Mathyoo