In 1471, eleven towns of the Duchy of Pomerania renewed their alliance, pledging to send soldiers to each other in need.
There were wars in Pomerania in the coming years, but we don't know if the soldiers of the promised alliance ever took arms.
In 1471, eleven towns of the Duchy of Pomerania renewed their alliance, pledging to send soldiers to each other in need.
There were wars in Pomerania in the coming years, but we don't know if the soldiers of the promised alliance ever took arms.
Last summer I joined the second Turm event held in Zagreb at UMS "Agram" by Ana Polanšćak of Gardens of Hecate fame. We were playing Forbidden Psalm, and my warband was the pious knight Sievert and the Grateful Dead.
The idea for my miniatures came to me when I was looking for references for 15th century Duchy of Pomerania at a local library and I found a history article about this painting from Kołobrzeg cathedral:
(source: Wikipedia)The painting, which is an epitaph of one Siewert Granzin from 1492, shows a knight praying for the dead, and the dead raising from their graves to defend him from his pursuers. It has become an instant favourite of mine -- the dead look so happy! And the Noble Necromancer was an idea I've really liked at least since I read the Lord of the Rings chapter with Aragorn leading the army of the dead.
Forbidden Psalm is based on the Mork Börg roleplaying game, and the RPG book uses a lot of moody old Public Domain art. So I thought using a painting reference for my warband would be a good match.
So here they are, the pious knight Sievert (name changed for the ease of pronunciation) and his dead retinue, wandering around the accursed graveyard-city of Graven-Tosk (or maybe the accursed Kołobrzeg):
The dead were hand-sculpted from scratch. I made three torsos and four heads, then cast them using Oyumaru and Milliput + Green Stuff mix. Hands and weapons were sculpted individually. The knight was a mixture of Perry Foot Knights and Perry Mercenaries parts, with a scratch-built bevor and sword sheath.
The banner was made following an old Massive Voodoo tutorial by David (here), butchered with a few shortcuts to save time. It was cut from graph paper, and when you look at it against a strong source of light, you see graph paper lines underneath the painting. I regret nothing.
Since I had several skulls to spare -- that's a very nice bonus you get for casting your own minis -- I made a few handy skull tokens to represent treasure, spell effects, objectives, and the like.
The minis were painted over a few days before the event in Zagreb, using borrowed Scale 75 paints (which take a while to get used to, but make for a lovely matt finish) and a Mig Ammo silver metallic, which turned out to be surprisingly great.
And here's a picture from the event. Terrain and photography by Ana Polanšćak:
Late last year, I followed Ana Polanšćak's TUTORIAL on making trees and made a small forest.
The base is MDF with cork board and hot glue here and there on the top, with the bottom painted, PVA-covered and stretched to fix the warping. Grass is mostly MIG. Trees (real branches glued together, with sculpted fungi here and there; somewhat fragile) were basecoated with sprays, then painted using a primary school-grade brush with Renesans Flow art acrylics with a wonderful matt finish, plus some other paints I had around, with a photo reference of real tree trunks.
The varnish is a matt spray from the Action store, which hopefully preserved the paintjob while making the finish somehow less matt. That's exactly what a Citadel varnish would do, but five times cheaper.
(Coming back from hiatus? I'm on social media now. www.instagram.com/bwdeathworld, bwdeathworld.bsky.social. Facebook too.)
Celaeno,
a minor hive fleet active in a cluster of dim stars,
emerging from dark waters in the half-light of day,
twisting and coiling in frail gravity.
...a unique set of forces converge here...
...creating a major biological alliance...
...any waste is recycled...
...the tentacles draw the victim into the central mouth...
...can create colonies by cloning exact replicas of themselves...
...their strategy is mass production...
...its maze-like structure... a three-dimensional puzzle...
...but mass spawning creates plenty of chances to create hybrids...
...a hybrid makes an unusual addition to the family tree...
...whenever species interbreed, the branches reconnect...
...hiding away, they can feed and grow safe from predators...
Assembly:
- I clean mould lines pretty thoroughly and aggressively.
- I glue the models with plastic cement (Revell Contacta) or with plastic cement mixed with mould line / sprue shavings.
- Where gaps would be visible and undesirable, I use a lot of glue and after it dries, I shave off the excess plastic goo (where this is not possible, I fill the gaps with Green Stuff and / or Milliput).
- I drill gun barrels, 1 mm drill bit for (heavy) venom cannons, 2 mm drill for fleshborers, even larger one for deathspitters.
- After basing (see below), I wash minis in water + dish soap using a toothbrush.
Basing:
- I make Oyumaru moulds of some stones and create larger rocks from Milliput.
- I make smaller pebbles from Milliput.
- I glue big rocks to bases with superglue.
- For places where I want to have water, I use sand paper (500 grit, then 1000 grit) to smoothen the base surface.
- I cover bases with superglue, and sprinkle them with small pebbles and sand / baking soda mix.
Eyes:
- I paint them with VMC black (after the surrounding area was painted and washed; don't paint the edges of the eye).
- I add a single spot of white paint.
Teeth:
(after the mouth was painted and washed:)
- I paint each tooth separately with VMC Pale Sand.
- I highlight with VMC White (or just paint them with one coat of white and forget Pale Sand).