Trogg King Progress!

Big, Dumb and Beautiful!

Just a quick update today to show the progress I've made on my Troggoth King and his Dankhold Colossus mount.

The king himself is now nearly complete; I've fixed all of his components in place with bake & bond and fired him so all that's left is to do any corrections and add minor details with traditional putties.

I didn't make his spear tip in Sculpey as it's not the best material for the job - I'll make that separately and attach it as part of the final assembly.

I've made some good progress on the Colossus, having set the spines in place and started detailing the skin on his back. I also started blocking out his missing hand.  You'll notice from the pictures that I've also finally added a proper saddle for the king which has little bum cheek divots so that he sits snuggly atop his big beastie!

Once I've sorted out the missing hand and any other issues with the overall form, I will continue detailing the skin and go back to add further details like fungus and more stalagmites.  I also have a lot of 'hair' to add to his underside as moss has built up over the centuries while he's been sleeping in his cave!

Anyway, I'll stop banging on now - enjoy the pics!

The Trogg king in all his glory! Notice the giant puffshroom he's squeezing - the fumes were tricky, but look great!

From this angle, you can see his missing hand which is just a sculpey nub at the moment.  Completing that is the next sculpting session!

I took another image of him next to a Rockgut so you can see just how enormous the Colossus is! Even the Trogg King himself is about 10% larger than a normal Dankhold Troggoth as I wanted him to be bigger and even more imposing!

I blended the neck and skin before this firing.  I find that you need to do a whole area with sculpey to make sure everything is consistent, so I'd held off doing this until I was ready to complete his back

I was really pleased with how the feet turned out - especially the wiggly toes on his right foot!

The 'throne' is nestled in between the crystal spines, the Trogg King having 'removed' the ones where he wanted to sit!  Notice the butt groove and heel grooves which hold him in place beautifully

I even snuck a Stalagsquig in on the shoulder!

Into the Depths rejigged

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the 'Into the Depths' campaign event I was working on had to be cancelled.  Rather than consign all of the terrain, converted miniatures and resources to storage, I decided to rework it so that I can play with my son who is just starting to show an interest in Age of Sigmar.

The premise of the event was that a network of caverns had been discovered and each had a different theme, with unique monsters, terrain and items.  Below are some photos from the inhabitants of the first two caverns. Enjoy!

The Cave of Living Stone

At first glance, the Cave of Living Stone might appear to be a cold, grey lifeless cavern, but it's actually inhabited by some creepy, sinister monsters...

The main antagonist of the cave is a large and terrifying Cockatrice.  Turning any who venture into its lair to lifeless stone!  Only frozen statues and vicious stony creatures are tolerated by the Cockatrice, making navigating the cavern even more treacherous!

A foul Cockatrice stalks the darkness...

Towering over a hapless Duardin victim, while slithering around and crushing his warmachine, the Cockatrice lets out an ear-piercing shriek

With a clutch of slimy eggs to protect, the Cockatrice is even more dangerous to would-be explorers!

An ancient cluster of stalagmites form the nest of the beast.

I painted the Cockatrice in the vibrant colours of a modern parrot, albeit a giant warped version!

From above, you can see the cannon which the Cockatrice is maliciously breaking after petrifying its operator!

3 'Boneflayer' nests are ready to drag unwary adventurers into their murky waters while an abandoned Duardin cart shows further of previous unsuccessful attempts to explore the darkness...

A carelessly dropped bag of petrified dust, gathered from the Corridor of Stone Warriors 

The Corridor of Stone Warriors is a terrain piece featuring a number of the Cockatrice's victims turned to stone - some toppled and others broken - all equally silent...

Stalagsquigs infest the Cavern, snapping and tearing at the flesh of anyone unwary enough to stumble upon them

I made most of these stalagsquig clusters from putty, carved them from left over sprues or used spares from the troll kits.  The one with the large tongue in the middle is my favourite!

The Griffon Roost

One path within the network of caves leads back out into a secluded mountainous pass.  Named for the mighty beasts which circle the skies above, the Griffon Roost is as perilous as it is majestic to any who might witness it. 

The grassy peaks of this mountainous pass are home to some of the fiercest beasts in the mortal realms

This family of Griffons nest within the peaks

The peacock covered male constantly on the lookout for prey

The huge brown female Griffon watching over the nest

The trio of Grifflings explore their surroundings but don't stray far from the nest

Dare you venture Into The Depths?

I've been planning an Age of Sigmar narrative event for almost a year now.  Although it's still at least a few months away, I wanted to give people a bit of a taster of what's to come!

Into the Depths

You are the lord of a growing warband seeking coin and glory for yourself and your chosen Gods. 

Following Nagash’s great Necroquake, whispers of newly revealed dark places, across the known realms have been carried to your ears.  Rarely do opportunities for such riches and power present themselves in these troubled times.  Although you move quickly to gain advantage, you are not the first to overhear talk of these places.

Tracking the source of the rumours is not easy, but you and a variety of your rivals eventually find your way to an isolated mountain shack within Chamon’s desert wastes.  From the outside, the shack resembles a poorly maintained mud hut, smelling strongly of decay and littered with the bones of what you hope were animals…  You pull back the ragged skins covering the entrance revealing what you first thought was a stinking pile of leather and rags until it speaks…

“My most humbled Greetings honoured guests!  The rumours you have heard?  Of course you have, yes!  Come to seek the truth of them?  Yes, yes of course; a much-wise leader would surely not pass on this greatest of opportunities for glory, riches and power!  Wish to hear more you do?  Then be comfortable in my humble dwellings and let me impart the knowings of which I have.

Of the recently discovered dank-dens I speak – by umbral portal, stony pass and hidden fissure have long forgot caverns been found.  For the knowing of ways and the guiding of feet you have come like many before you.  Few have returned from the goings, but those of the coming have given me their wisdoms that I might pass them on to far worthier men such as thee…

Guide your ‘parties’ I shall, to the entrances – but never until the mappings and warnings I have given you!  Of the depths we may know little, but to other more… exotic beings, the caverns are home.

To assist old Trelok in recalling knowings, he requests… a donation towards the upkeep of his fine abode!  Rarely after all, are wisdoms gleaned with no risk to self; perils of great magnitude have been faced in the gathering of the truths which Trelok speaks!  And the truths could save you undoings when venturing into the depths…”

Old Trelok collects your offerings gladly in a filthy bowl, coughing affectedly at anyone trying to avoid the giving of coin.  He quickly squirrels the coins away, hiding them deep within his ragged clothing.

In return, Trelok produces a dusty journal and unfurls several large maps.  He explains that 8 caverns have been discovered across the realms.  Each holds valuable treasures but also great peril for any who enter.

Although whispers of a 9^th have been heard, he has no further information regarding what he calls the ‘Greathold of the Trogg-King’.  He muses that any who discover information as to the whereabouts of this cavern might be rewarded for such a contribution of knowledge…

Trelok offers his disgusting hut as a treasury for your most valuable findings.  Each warband is provided with a chest which Trelok explains will be protected by powerful magical runes which will prevent them from being opened by anyone but the pre-determined owner.  After testing the chests exhaustively, each warband agrees and sets off with hastily taken notes in order to venture Into The Depths…

Here are a few of the cave maps and some of my sketches which all form part of the event itself:

King Stolothum's Mine

Chamber of Illumination

Shroomy Hollow

The Beasthold

One of the curious inhabitants of Shroomy Hollow...

Don't eat the shrooms!

Stalagsquigs are right at home in the deep dark places...

Suffice to say that there are a lot of custom miniatures and scenery in progress at the moment along with some other surprises such as special items I've made for the event like this prototype...

Watch this space for more info in the near future... :)

Golden Demon Entries 2019

Previously on the Road to Golden Demon...

In my last post, I spoke about what I'd be entering into Golden Demon this year.  Now I'd like to show you the finished entries and talk about them and the event briefly.

In the end, I completed all of my entries, submitting 7 pieces (listed below) on the day.  Although I didn't take home a trophy, I was very pleased to get a Finalist Pin for my Mollog's Mob entry.

To be completely honest, I was surprised I even came away with that as both the quality and volume of entries was absolutely staggering!

1). 40k Large Model: Genestealer Carnifex
2). 40k Vehicle: The Fisher King
3). AoS Large Model: The Frost Giant
4). AoS Unit: Mollog's Mob
5). Middle-Earth Model: Sauron the Necromancer
6). Diorama: Throgg Vs Karanak - Khorne's Vengeance
7). Dual: Titanicus Scale Imperial Knight Vs Gorkanaut - Clash of Iron

My Golden Demon 2019 entries just before setting off for Warhammer fest!

As I've covered them several times in the past, I won't go over my first three entries again - you can find them easily with my blog tags.

I'd like to run through entries 4 to 7 though, with some nice images of the completed miniatures and a few WIP pictures for the ones I haven't shown on the blog before.

Age of Sigmar Unit:  Mollog's Mob

I love to make things; that much is obvious.  I think I'm pretty damn good at it.  Unfortunately, my painting is distinctly average.  As Golden Demon is primarily a painting competition, taking home anything at all was going to be a big ask for me.

So, imagine my delight when I received a Finalist pin for Mollog's Mob!  I worked so hard on these guys and I'm really glad that was recognised!  For anyone not familiar with the Golden Demon awards, there are trophies for Gold, Silver and bronze, then a small number of finalist pins (normally 2 or 3 per category) for people who made the final cut, but didn't quite make the trophy shelf!

Kevin Chin's original Mollog cover image is just amazing and was hugely influential when I came to choosing Mollog's paint scheme

I wanted Mollog and his minions to be framed in a cave setting to really capture their troglodytic lifestyle!



The entire box scene was made from scratch with inserts for each character.  The addition of skulls, mushrooms and slime pools tied everything together nicely.

At Warhammerfest, Seb Perbet described Mollog to me in what I believe is the best way ever - he's the king of the morons!  A Troggoth so stupid that only complete fools would

Although it's difficult to see in these pictures, I extended the patterning on Mollog's skin well beyond the etched surface.  The whole model was a joy to paint and I'd highly recommend the kit!

Mollog the Mighty!  Mightily stupid maybe...

Bat Squig!

Stalagsquig!

Spiteshroom!

Prolonged exposure to Dankhold Troggoths can yield unexpected pin badges and fungal growths...



Middle Earth Category: Sauron the Necromancer

I showed this entry as an early WIP in my last post; below you can see some completed images.  I feel that this entry never quite came together the way that I had originally envisaged in my mind's eye.

I originally wanted to sculpt fire out to the edges of the arch to make the eye of Sauron with the actual model as part of the flaming effigy.  This idea had to be scrapped because I was running very low on time.  As you can see, the final entry just didn't have the gravitas I was hoping for and I wasn't surprised that I didn't place with it.

Diorama: Throgg Vs Karanak - Khorne's Vengeance

Throgg fends off Karanak, Khorne's Hound of Vengeance amongst the red dunes and boulders of meteoric iron in Chamon, the realm of metal while the fate of those who fall to Khorne's wrath is revealed below the desert sands...

 This piece was a labour of love from start to finish.  I had always wanted to paint Throgg the Chaos Troll King since it was released around a decade ago.  It was only when Games Workshop offered him briefly as a soon to be retired miniature with their made to order service that I decided to pick him up for a Golden Demon entry.

Finding someone or something for Throgg to do battle with wasn't easy - he's a large model and his pose is normally rather static.  When the new plastic Karanak sculpt was released as part of Wrath and Rapture, I snapped up a spare which a friend had after buying two copies of W&R.

I estimated that Karanak would be roughly the right size and that with some tweaking to Throgg, a scene with the two grappling for supremacy could be engineered!  I carefully cut the stone hammer from Throgg's foot and moved it to his raised hand, re-sculpting the haft and flat top edge to make it look as though the previously idle maul was now swinging through the air towards Karanak!

But Throgg wasn't having everything his own way as Karanak's bloody mouths and his savaged forearm show...



The detail in this miniature is simply amazing.  The chompy mouths are just awesome!

To offset the removal of the hammer, I built up a sand dune over a huge skull for Throgg to stand on as he grapples with Karanak

Aside from adding gore to the mouths, Karanak needed very little alteration.  Again, this kit was a joy to paint with the intricate scaling and Khornate symbols cut into his flesh.  I decided to paint his fur as flames to make him a more intimidating foe for Throgg!

I loved painting this cloak.  Tiny thread veins on the inner and outer surface are hard to see in these images, but the large flat areas really allow for these sorts of detail to be added.  I hate the axe in his shoulder though.  I must have snapped the shaft at least 5 times...

In this image, you can see the strings of gore on Karanak's three gaping mouths and the metallic boulders propping up chaos detritus which has been left to the desert sands...

The skulls of worthy foes claimed by Khorne tumble through reality until they emerge through the flaming sockets of giant stone skull pillars jutting from a lake of burning blood...

...trophies for the God of War!

Dual: Titanicus Scale Imperial Knight Vs Gorkanaut - Clash of Iron

Although this piece didn't place (it was originally intended for the small scale category, but was moved to the Duel category instead), it got a lot of attention on the day.  People genuinely couldn't believe that I was made enough to make the Gorkanaut from scratch.  Well, below are the WIP images to prove my insanity! :)

The Gorkanaut, base and building were all scratch built.  Even the Knight had to be re-posed!  I altered his legs, arms and shoulder pads to give the illusion of him running at full pelt towards the slower Gorkanaut!

Steaming round a blown out building, a Knight of the noble House Raven prepares to crash into a hellish Ork contraption!

Painting this Knight gave me such a headache!  I used a selection of transfers to faithfully replicate his 40k scale brethren's heraldry.  I took them mainly from the Armiger decals, but also borrowed from the Mechanicus infantry sheet as well.  The tilt shield and hull symbol were painstakingly cut down in size from the Armiger hatch emblems. It took ages, but was totally worth it!

Painting the Gorkanaut was pretty straight forward as I simply copied the 40k scheme including the chequer pattern on the hull which looks great in this scale!  If you look carefully, you can make out faces and patterns on the missiles...

I was quite pleased with the exhaust array despite gluing my fingers together several times trying to get them to sit correctly!

The Gorkanaut picks his way over a crater while an Imperial Knight charges at its flank...

I like this image as you can see just how tiny and detailed the finished Knight really is!

The completed Gorkanaut before painting

 

Again, this is a great WIP image as it shows just how tiny the Gorkanaut is!

So what's next?

Well, I have 1.5 28mm scale Warhound Titans to complete before the Titan Owner's club walk in June.

Although the hounds will be my main focus for the next month, painting Mollog and Throgg really gave me the urge to create a Gloomspite Gitz Troggoth army so that I can play some casual games of Age of Sigmar.  Below are some WIP images of my first Fellwater Troggoth - he's nearly finished and has some friends on the way too!

Until next time fellow Troggoth Herders, fare well and don't eat the purple shrooms!