Shroomy Hollow II, some Ravening Jaws and a little peek into the future...

In my last post I shared some images of my Shroomy Hollow project in progress - I've now completed the Shroomancer's Hovel (which functions as a Balewind Vortex endless spell) and have even added some extra details before painting!

Completing the Sculpt

First up, I needed to make something for my Fungoid Cave Shaman (or any other Shroom caster!) to stand on as I wanted this piece to represent a Balewind Vortex Endless Spell.

I didn't want to just resort to a wooden platform, so I decided to create a giant flat headed toadstool to fit in with the overall theme.  I approached this in the same way as the main structure, creating a basic shape with tinfoil then coating it with medium grade Super Sculpey.

I wanted the large flat surface to be really interesting, so I created some nice splits along the edges and sculpted pits and boily protrusions on the surface.  The overall effect is very pleasing to the eye, having quite a nurgly look to it!

As the top surface was very large (approximately 3" across) it needed plenty of surface detail to stop it from looking out of scale.

I tried a new technique for detailing the underside of the head and the stem of this mushroom.  I cut slightly deeper channels into the surface then used isopropanol to smooth the surface.  This also has the benefit of removing unwanted surface details such as finger prints.  I use this technique sparingly though as it can easily melt away finer details...

Once the large flat mushroom had been fired, I glued both parts to a large acrylic oval base (which I scored heavily to help adhesion) and used Milliput to create a better gradient - this also helped anchor the parts down.  The flat acrylic base was a conscious decision as it's heavier than a hollow plastic one and offsets the high centre of gravity which the sculpt has!

The final build stage was adding some additional smaller mushrooms and texturing the base with rocks and sand.

The skeletal signpost from the Aleguzzler Gargant kit finished off the base nicely!

I added these extra smaller mushrooms to the surface of the main one to break up the large surface a bit.

The wiggly tendrils where the mushroom meets the base look wonderfully creepy!

The Finished Shroom Hovel

Although I'm still working on some lesser (only 5" tall!) mushrooms to properly finish off the Shroomy Hollow board, the main Shroom Hovel is now complete.  Behold it's fungal Splendour!

The Shroom hovel mushrooms are all finished with fluorescent paints, so they are lurid under normal light and glow in UV!

It was difficult to photography this 'miniature' as it stands approximately 10" tall!

The yellow eye-like pods and smaller green mushrooms break up the main cap's large surface nicely

I used white moss, yellow grass and dark green clump foliage to simulate a light starved underground environment.

The surface detail on the flat toadstool is probably my favourite part of this piece.  The green flesh peeking through the tears really makes it pop!

As a final details, I added a couple of barrels stuffed with more Shrooms to the hovel - snack storage, potion ingredients or a shop front for an enterprising grot?  I like the story they suggest!

What else was I going to write on the sign?

Mollog and his little helpers are on the hunt for new digs...

Mmmmm... Mollog likes dis.  Mollog gonna stay...

Gnash Gnash!

In preparation for a recent game of Age of Sigmar (my first in over a year...), I decided to paint up a particularly nasty looking spell - Ravenak's Gnashing Jaws!  Annoyingly I didn't manage to successfully cast it during the game, but I was very happy with the final paint job.

Ever since I first saw this model, I wanted to have a crack at making it look like the creatures from 'Attack the Block' which were jet black with luminescent, glowing teeth.

As cool as jet black looks on film, it's dull on a miniature, so I used pearlescent paints to give it some texture and shimmer on the black surfaces.  I plan to add some glow in the dark paint to the teeth when I have time!

On the horizon

So, whilst I have been delving into the underground world of the Gloomspite Gitz, I have also been looking to the future.  38,000 years into the future to be exact!

The next big project which I am working on is an Acastus Knight Asterius 'Quake Hydra' who will be joining the ranks of the Fisher King.

I need to get him finished in time for the 2020 UK Titan Owner's Club Walk in June, so it's full speed ahead!

As the eagle eyed amongst you can see, I have replaced the carapace Plasma cannons with two of the Armiger class Conversion Beam cannons.  The reason I did this is simple... it looks bad-ass.

The base for this model is 10" across, so I had lots of room for a strong theme!  The front section of the base will be filled with lapping resin waves when it's completed

Getting the pose right on this model was pretty difficult as it is really chunky and like other knights, only stand on its toes, so I had to take that into account when building the base as well.  I'm happy with the overall look - posing at the edge of the beach, gazing out across the endless oceans of Corbenic - a bit like this wonderful painting:

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by German artist Caspar David Friedrich

When I built the contemptor Dreadnought conversion beam cannon, the grills were annoying.  Having to tidy up and straighten 8 conversion beam grills each the size of half a contemptor dreadnought was despair inducing!!

When I test fitted the arms onto the Asterius body, I found that the shoulder pads interfered with the carapace.  Having looked back at the Forgeworld site, I could see that this wasn't an issue with my assembly, but with the kit design as the rivets from the trim overlap the carapace.

Things like this annoy me because they detract from the realism of the miniature - the arms can't move if the shoulders which they're mounted on can't move.

To resolve the issue I created two 3mm thick spacers using greenstuff.  I used rubber and steel washers glued to baking paper to create a push mould then cleaned up the rough edges with a knife once they were removed.  These increase the thickness of the joint where the shoulder meets the body giving better clearance from the carapace.

Yes, I am anally retentive.  And no, I'm not sorry!

Corbenic is akin to a deathworld, with huge underwater expanses where giant beasts roam, testing the shoreline and dragging the unwary into the icy depths.  I wanted to make a little window into this inhospitable environment with the addition of large tentacles investigating the artificial shoreline which the Knights patrol.

I used octopus musculature for reference to add a bit of realism to the tentacles.  I'm very pleased with the overall form; it looks to be writhing and lashing without being made of jelly which can happen if you don't imply a structure under the surface of the arm.

Two film creatures helped me find the right look: Ray Harryhausen's giant Octopus from 'It Came from beneath the Sea' and the monster from 'Deep Rising'.  I liked the suckers and heft of the Octopus arms in the former and the gnarly 'teeth' and skin texture from the latter:

It took me several iterations before I settled on this sculpt for the questing tentacle. Tentacles are notoriously difficult to sculpt and I have a new appreciation for anyone that does them justice!  I added the toothy protuberances near the tip of the tentacle to make them seem a little more threatening and otherworldly.

I'll be sure to post some more pictures once I've finished Quake Hydra!

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!