The Glass Cabinet

Many moon ago, I was a member of the Warhammer Forum. There was one subforum in which I spent all my time, The Glass Cabinet. It was by hanging about in there that I more or less learned to paint again after I quit smoking. Although I was never the most prolific poster - I kept losing my login details and re-registering was a real pain - I often spent a long time browsing to learn new techniques and get inspiration.

I was saddened to hear  last month that TWF was dying, but gladdened that the Glass Cabinet was going to live on as a Facebook group which I joined immediately.

One of the first things that was organised was a group paintalong of the free miniature given away with the new White Dwarf; although I'm not a massive fan of GW's current fantasy aesthetic, I decided to join in.

Having decided to use him as single figure unit in my undead Dragon Rampant force, the first thing to do was to remove the obvious chaos markings. I filled in the symbol on the forehead with putty and covered the Khorne symbol on his belly with the skull. This immediately made him look like the Punisher and so suggsted a fairly muted, almost monochrome palette.

With this in mind, I used the same pre-shading as on the Batmobile and the Great Goblin and set out to colour him with washes and glazes.

This was basically a quick, fun project to do while I was waiting for glue to dry on something else so I didn't spend a long time; I did use a couple of Tamiya paints - transparent red for the skirt and smoke for the metal. The sword was done with ink over white.

Overall, quite happy with this for an evening's work. Will base him when I'm basing the chariots which are the next in the queue. 

Bring out your dead!

I hadn't realised until I bought them that I'd seen them before; Lord Awdrey had painted some up. 

But these are the rather fabulous Plague Doctors from Foundry, painted up for my Dragon Rampant Undead force. They will serve as Heavy Foot, spreading disease wherever they go. 

Really lovely sculpts and castings. 

The disease spreading goo in the bucket is painted as an homage to Herbert West Reanimator. 

Certainly helping getting my mojo back. And, as an extra plus point I managed to score one of my all time Holy Grail minis in a cheap job lot off eBay today, so Doctor West is a happy bunny. 

"Gods were worshipped there with savage rites..."

I've finished off the sacrificial altar. Quite happy with the result; I made one slight change to the blood recipe I've been using since the Lord High Awdry gave me it - I've added gloss black instead of matt black.

I also added a touch of gore to one of the standing stones to encourage proper looming and foreboding. Can't have standing stones without some proper foreboding. 

I'm rather happy with what was, after all, a very simple build. While researching it I found again Tacitus' description of the Druidic sacred groves that were burnt by Suetonius on Anglesey.

"Interlacing boughs enclosed a space of darkness and cold shade, and banished the sunlight from above. ... Gods were worshipped there with savage rites, the altars were heaped with hideous offerings, and every tree was sprinkled with human gore. On these boughs ... birds feared to perch; in those coverts wild beasts would not lie down. ... Legend also told that often the subterranean hollows quaked and bellowed, that yew-trees fell down and rose up again, that the glare of conflagration came from trees that were not on fire, and that serpents twined and glided round the stems. The people never resorted thither to worship at close quarters, but left the place to the gods. When the sun is in mid-heaven or dark night fills the sky, the priest himself dreads their approach and fears to surprise the lord of the grove."

Rather a fascinating description and certainly one to get the creative juices going. Which is all by way of saying that I think I will be returning to this to build something slightly more elaborate at some point in the future.

Ringstone Round

"Huffity, puffity, Ringstone Round,

If you lose your hat it will never be found, 

So pull your britches right up to your chin, 

And fasten your cloak with a bright new pin, 

And when you are ready, then we can begin, 

Huffity, puffity, puff!"

I got hit by a fairly nasty dose of Half-termitis and so, after finishing the Space Hulk miniatures I foudn myself lacking the motivation to launch into the Dragon Rampant stuff.

I am aware that my terrain is quite history based - with some SF thrown in - and what I lack is decent fantasy stuff. You know what I mean - proper forboding, looming stuff. Inspired mainly by insane jealously triggered by Gordon's fabulous battle report I decided to cobble together some simple scenery.

As per usual, the two main divers were cheapness and speed; thus standing stones based on 2p.

Good old blue foam. These were simply offcuts kept from the In The Emperor's Name vignette. 

 Black undercoat and then drybrushings of blended greys up to white:

Giving this final effect:

I also had some leftover slate from a fossil-hunting expedition with the Eldest so I've started to cobble together a sacrificial altar, a la Caesar. 

Not bad for an hour sitting in front of I, Clavdivs. 

WIP

Just a quick update; while I was faffing about with the airbrush I did some work on an old Heresy piece I dug out of the lead pile. The intention is that this will end up in the Dark Elf Dragon Rampant force as a Warbeast - or possibly a Bellicose Foot with Flying.

And the current position:

Orcs, half-breeds and fearless vampire hunters

I've been having a bit of a trawl round ebay of recent days I scored some Mantic Orcs for my Dragon Rampant warband. I wanted to mix up the racial mix a bit, so some GW Orcs, some Oldhammer Goblins and these chaps should give a varied feel.

A unit of 6 to start - although I'll probably mix and match the varieties within Units in the end - and my first experience with Mantic.

They're... ok. Not as good as GW plastics and certainly nowhere near as good as Perry. Probably on a par with some Warlord ones I've dealt with. A little soft detail here and there and probably not as much poseability and variation within the units as I might like but they are dirt cheap.

Secondly, Dr Frankenorc is proud to present my solution to the fact that I find boar riders very silly: the Centorc.

This is a very simply cut and shut conversion of an old 4th edition Warhammer Orc and elf with some greenstuff chainmail and a mane added. As a proof of concept, it looks fine - certainly enough to make a unit of 6 look possible as heavy cavalry.

Thirdly, I painted the playing pieces from Fury of Dracula 3rd Edition. These were very soft on detail so I relied on quite heavy washes and highlights.

I also picked something else up on ebay that I'm very excited about but there will be an update about that next week....

Oldhammer

Continuing my Dragon Rampant work, I've dug out some the oldest bits of the Lead Pile. After all, no greenskin horde is complete without some insane goblins.

Fabulous old Kev Adams sculpts; just marvellous fun to paint. 

I've also started to put together the crew for the warmachine:

And some proper old school hobgoblins. I want to vary the skin tones in my force to make them a little less uniform, so I'll mix and match the bright green I've worked up for the goblins, this uruk-flesh Hobgoblin colour and the dark green I developed for my Blood Bowl team. 

I'll get some proper photos when I can base them. Next up, I've got some Mantic orcs to try.