WHQ SPIDERS!

finally.....

so spiders, i had a little problem with spiders for my recreation.
if you have read any of my previous posts you will see i set about making my own, for various reasons.

i kinda liked the original ones from the game, but wasn't keen on the mono-pose on them.
didn't want to pay Ebay prices.
the ones on the market just didn't fit what i wanted.

so in classic fashion...."I'll make my own"
but who wants to make 12 different spiders? from my previous posts it might be easy to gather i don't like units or large numbers of things at all...painting....even less sculpting.

so how could i go about it?
well i sculpted a spider with a wireframe skeleton. with the intention i could replicate the skeleton and case the outer body for the purpose if replicating, and this would then allow me to repose to move away from the mono-pose option.

so that was my first attempt...i say this because the sculpt wasn't yet completed. and i wanted to see if the idea would work first and foremost.

i wanted to find the right method for recasting that allowed me to put a wireframe inside, there was only 1 option here, and the sole reason i ended up buying some bluestuff too, however this bluestuff has come in mighty handy already for replication if simple shapes, but a spider? Of course the casting involved a flattened out spider, i needed to find the right material to use too.
needless to say i made about 4 spiders that ended up in the bin.
first my wire was too strong which didn't help with the posing.
i used an epoxy first which managed to capture all of the detail perfectly. but was also too brittle for the repose.
i ended up back with old Greenstuff...it lost a little detail. but its still relatively flexible when cure and allowed me to kick out my first spider...not perfect. but it was the first.

as you can see the one in white was the only epoxy spider that ended up being used. and you can see how it captured the bristles better than the green stuff. however the green stuff just held up better for this purpose.
needless to say. these weren't perfect, and i was never expecting them to end up looking perfect either.
however i wasn't too fussed about this. i was making something i could be appeased with.
i was happy with the scale, they ended up coming out a little cuter than expected, but hey

so... before i progressed i noticed some of the legs were a little chunky and some were longer than others, so i re-sculpted the bottoms of the legs so they were a little more slim lined and all the right length.
and on i went doing 2 spiders a day for the next week or so.
they didn't come out great. some were better than others, and some needed a little bit of carving or re-sculpting on certain areas that didn't take too well.
but regardless. they are not completed. and im pretty happy to be able to chalk another set of critters off my list.
i kinda painted them pretty muted, with autumn around the corner i was thinking more 'those nasty looking buggers you see webbing up your privet' as opposed to bright fantasy colours. i also figured this would help the not so great sculpts not stand out too much, they are what they are and they serve their purpose, and im happy with that :)

oh and instead of looking to buy a binding machine for over 100 quid i realised my local trusty printers also did allsorts of binding too. i kept it simple. for a nice and easy £4.25 all 3 books from the base game are now completed too

Bretonnian Questing Knight

whilst i have been busy making the core set for Warhammer Quest, in true 'me' fashion, i cannot help but do something extra. this is maybe linked to my loathing of working on units and the monotonous rinsing of the same things over and over. however it is nice to break this up with some variety. and having the option to use more warrior options when i do finally complete the base set isn't a bad option to have at all. so i have a trollslayer up and ready to go. i also have a witch hunter floating around for the next monotony breaking opportunity too.

but this guy i completed a few weeks back and i am not too happy with him in all honesty,  main reason for this being that i had to buy some new army painter anti shine...and well....its kinda shiny!
shit huh?

first up i tried the spray can i had left around which was kicking out white speckles. the can had clearly had its day and was no longer of any use.
and then i had to use a firm stippling brush to try and scrape the white flecks off the model without damaging the paint job too much. and the brush on anti shine i attempted to use to fix this wasnt much cop either. so when you have painted a model and it ends up getting ruined at the end you can either get it as best a possible. or strip it all and start again. obviously going with the first option here, it wasnt all doom and gloom.

i wanted to remove the idea of a quintessential questing knight, choosing instead to go for a more of a struggling jobber of a knight.
slightly unshaven, slightly damaged armour and such making him a perfect up and coming of age knight as opposed to a classic knight in shining armour.

however my anti shine had slightly different ideas on that! haha

another thing i want to do different with all of my warriors for this game..i want to show their faces. whilst i am fully aware warriors will die left right and centre. i don't want them to die as faceless heroes.

so this guy is made from reaper miniatures Baran Blacktree, whom seemed to fit the mould perfectly for what i wanted to achieve. All i have done here that is different is that I sculpted a a plume to his helmet to give that more bretonnian look.

also opting for a similar colour scheme to the original. you have to excuse the freehand on the shield. this is another one of the reasons i wasnt too happy how this guy turned out.
along witht he fact i should of painted him without his shield arm. because no matter how hard i tried. i couldnt get any good direct contact with my paint brush onto the left of his face.

that lame anti shine really shows up on the cloak of this guy. maybe one day they will change the formula back to actual matt finish and i can fix him?

regardless. something cool for me to sink my teeth into. and i'm cooking up loads of ideas on what i want to do for the warriors already
i have a very distinct and different idea for the pit fighter
and i am pretty confident the witch hunter is also going to turn out good.
i want to replace the wizard with a new one and have seen plenty of options floating around.
same goes for the elf and dwarf, of which being the only man in the house. i may well have to be making some female options to boot.

any way hoping you liked sir shiny shine outcast of antishine land :)

RATS IN THE CELLAR!

classic level 1 fodder in anything fantasy based. a game simply wouldn't be a game without the mundane need to go and clear out a room full of rats.
but these babies bite back!

finally repainting the bases i decided to give the paint jobs a bit of a spruce up too. previously i just slapped on some base coats and threw some agrax earthshade over them but this time i decided to add a little more detail. vary some of the washes on the furs and generally just add a little more detail.
also another perfect reason to show off the dungeon with its ever growing list of denizens

i also wanted to share what i have had in the works along with this

i'll leave the discovering to you guys, but things are really starting to take shape nicely and i get to tick off another from my to do list.
go me!