THE SUGAR PLUM FAMILIAR and SANITY CLAWS

Lately I'm on a Familiar kick. The release of the Silver Tower boxed set has somewhat revitalized an interest in these horrible yet cute little things. Their diminutive size belies their sinister nature, as so much of the mythology surrounding the familiar in fantasy is also attached to the concept of homonculi. This coincided with the upcoming and previous holidays, and how each year (so far as of recent) I have tried to paint something new in the Christmas...spirit. A few years ago it started with THE GREAT PUDDING, a long-forgotten chaos god relegated to a single entry way back in the ROGUE TRADER days.

Anyway, I acquired a mini about two years ago I really wanted to paint, but was a afraid to do. Eventually I gathered the courage and painted SANITY CLAWS.

So now, I decided he needed a companion. Why not make a familiar to help him out with his Christmas Curses? And why not make it a herald or lesser daemon, as it were, of THE GREAT PUDDING??!

I went forth and converted a Famous Familiar* jack-o-lantern sculpt into a Sugar Plum Familiar, a...Sanity's Little Helper of sorts...

 

And, So, here they are together...

 

*Now (only?) available in resin, and the cast of characters has been reduced to less than half!

Aekold Helbrass, Oldhammer Champion of Tzeentch

 From The Lexicanum:

"Aekold Helbrass is a champion of Tzeentch who bears a very unusual gift: the Breath of Life. This gift causes anything around him to spring into life. Even things long dead, such as the wood of a stave, renew. He is followed by a trail of green grass and other plants. It is very easy to tell where he has gone in the otherwise-desolate Chaos Wastes. However, this does not stop Aekold from slaying his opponents mercilessly."

Aekold is a miniature that I have wanted to paint ever since I saw this example on Cool Mini or Not:

Aekold Helbrass (2002) by Qiao Zhong

I was thoroughly inspired by the spectral nature of the tunic in particular, but wanted to emulate the effect rather than duplicate it, thereby making it my own interpretation.

I was always interested in Aekold's fluff; in particular, his curse that is known as the Breath of Life. It is a blessing and a curse, in keeping with Tzeentch, as his targets heal as well as he does. However, Aekold's sword, Windblade, also allows him to float, despite the fact he was cast as a miniature on foot.

As a result, I opted to chop off the earthbound feet and find some suitable replacement, which happened to be goblin feet with lovely bandages (hinting at the Breath of Life) and toenails that could be painted a lovely brass!

Other tchotchkes include the brand-new familiar from the Silver Tower set, Slop, and of course the-always cool mushrooms from the older plastic Night Goblin set, which makes a great hint at advancing the narrative of the Breath of Life. I intend to include more elements and nick away at super-fiddly details that no one else would notice! :-)

Slambo, Oldhammer Chaos Champion of Malal

I finally managed to find the long-OOP chaos champion infamously known as Slambo. In a fit of inspired mania, I managed to paint him in one ten-hour session. In keeping with the Oldhammer spirit, I decided upon the especially fluffy obsolescence of the now-trending forgotten anti-chaos Chaos God, Malal, as Slambo's new patron of choice.

Colour recipes (Using mostly the Citadel range):

"Black:" /Nuln oil/, /Drakenhof Nighshade/, Shadow Grey, Fenrisian Grey, /Drakenhof Nightshade/

"White:" Rakarth Flesh, /Seraphim Sepia/, Bleached Bone, Pallid Wych Flesh, Ceramite White

/denotes wash

I found him on eBay (PROTIP: look under,"chaos champion OOP," rather than Slambo to save about 20-30 bucks).

You can get him HERE, albeit not in oldschool 'Eavy Metal (pewter), but rather fiddly resin.

Sanity Claws

Merry Christmas!

 חַג שָׂמֵחַ

Happy Festivus.
Merry Crimbus!

Happy Mercenary Day!

Great Pudding's Feast!

As some (especially Oldhammers) will know, Sanity Claws is a Limted Release mini from approximately 1986. More info on his origins can be found at the exquisite Realm of Chaos 80's.

I'd like to think that he's a dimensional being from the Warp, bringing Change once a year to all who wish for it...his bag seems full of all sorts of unspeakable wonders.

I couldn't work up the courage to affix this guy to his base. I wanted the snow to look just right and was having trouble. This will definitely be a reminder to myself next time to "just do it."

When it comes to the painting itself, I was inspired by Ivan Albright and his most famous work for the movie, The Picture of Dorian Grey.

Image Source: Wikipedia

 Wunderkammer Miniaturum I.

 

My recent favorites, painted between the years 2011-2014.
I will ocassionally curate a miniature miniature exhibit from time to time. This was originally going to be an entry for the exhibit entitled "These are Some of My Favorite Things" at the ASU Ceramics Research Center.

More animated miniatures.

Horror-faced Apsiring Champion of Tzeentch.
Games Workshop Citadel parts:
*Ork body, arm.
*Chaos Warrior Axe arm.
*Horror of Tzeentch head, reveresed.
*Mouth-Inset Eyeball from Chaos Spawn sprue.
*Tentatcles from Green Stuff (Knead-Tite Epoxy Putty)

Testing out an animated GIF

Miniature:

Satyr Female (Satyar Tiebandigerin)
Das Schwarze Auge, Ral Partha Europe

My Little Cthulu

Miniature from the excellent Night Terrors range by CP Miniatures. Would like to know the sculptor, perhaps George Fairlamb? He has sculpted the Hook Horror from this range.

  ~~The Great Pudding ~~
WIshes You a
Happy Christmas!

The Great Pudding was inspired by this single entry in early Warhammer 40K Lore:

"As the governor of a hive-world you find it difficult to keep order at the best of times. Things have been getting worse since a madman started a new religion based around the premise that a  vast floating pudding would appear to make life better for everyone -- the people have stopped working, even the military has been affected and you can't rely on your own staff anymore. Yesterday you caught your mother reading a pamphlet entitled, "The Pudding is coming-- ten reasons why you should believe." Today the prophet of this insane religion, the Rev. Jeronimo Kipling, will be conducting a whistle stop tour of the run-down city bottom district of Tumbletown. You have positioned a special unit to attack and kill him. The troops dressed in civilian gear as you intend on blaming the whole thing on a rival religious group (possibly the Anadentists or the Church of the Lucid Shirt Button). The target will be surrounded by the usual bodyguards and mobs, and his vehicle may be well protected."


Work forthcoming inspired by the Anadentists.

~D

Wrath of Heroes: The Quick Goodbye

In memory of this cool, fun, characterful game, I present the concept I entered for the Hero Design Contest, sponsored by 6v6v6.com. The best part of this whole experience was that Mythic created a Hero similar in style to mine, Xuq'ls The Gibbering, and his alternate skin was that of a Blue Horror!

~Golmir, Herald of Tzeentch~

Army: Daemons of Chaos
Theme: Mobile & Disruptive--Stances, Charged Abilities and Counters.

HP: 750-800 (variable)

PASSIVE:
Traitor Aura: deals 15% more damage on rival Chaos heroes and receives 5% less heals.

ABILITIES:

Stance I: Storm of Chaos

1.) Fickle Flame: medium-range missile, bounces from one target to next within 25 feet, 40 (20 + 20) total damage, if no other nearby target: 30 damage to one target. *Adds stack to Boon of TChar

2.) Boon of Tchar (release on 3 stacks): AOE Buff (25 ft) on friendly targets—one random ability cooldown resets.

3.) Warp: Short-range teleport (random location)

4.) Rag Doll: Clones a stationary (but Ability-miming) Decoy, explodes after 2 seconds, 180 AOE DOT (60/sec.for 3 seconds)

5.) Change Stance—Heart of the Raven (25 sec. cooldown)



Stance II: Heart of the Raven

1.) Tendrils of the Dreamer: AOE melee attack (5ft.), 25 dmg, Has 5% chance to max Golmir’s HP to 800 for 10 seconds. *Adds stack to Wave of Change.

2.) Wave of Change (release on 3 stacks): Counter Debuff , aura (5 ft range, lasts 3 sec) raises cooldown by 3 seconds on target’s
ability that was used on Golmr (if attacked).

3.) Orange Flame, 3 sec. invulnerability/counter aura, feedback dmg on targets attacking Golmir (max 3 targets, max 90 dmg total).

4.) Dance of Fools: AOE Debuff blast that knocks heroes (max 3, incl. friendlies) 25 ft. away to random locations.

5.) Change Stance—Storm of Chaos (25 sec. cooldown)


STATS:
Offense: 2/4
Survivability:2/4
Support: 2/4
Complexity 4/4


MASTERY TREE:

1) Perk: Violet Fire, unlocks at 18 Assists (9+9)

High-damage single target. medium-range DOT flame spews from Golmir’s mouth. 200 dmg DOT over 3 sec.*

*Additional Effect: If target dies, will leave a Pink Horror (600 HP) that attacks with Fickle Flame (powered with Green Fire) and Tendrils of the Dreamer in 50 foot radius for 5 seconds.

2) Alt: Aekold’s Gift of Life: summons misc. flora & fauna in 25 ft. radius, 3 random heroes (including enemies, if any) restore 27 life/sec. for 3 sec. in AOE (if any), *Replaces Rag Doll.

3) Mastery--Green Fire: Adds a 3rd flame to Fickle Flame but has an 9% chance to hit a friendly target.

4) Alt--Disc of Tzeentch: summons disc that increases speed for limited time. *Replaces Warp with a 4 second Sprint immune to Root, Snares, Pulls, and Knockdowns.




Archive link for contest entry

Hero Contest Results

Wrath of Heroes: Goodbye thread

The Crimson King, Exalted Champion of Tzeentch

We're getting the Warband together...

Or rather, "Squad" in 40k parlance. But Warband sounds more Metal when it's Malal Cultists...

Cultist #1, in the service of Malal's Champion, Kaleb Daark (40k)

~D

Reaper Leprechaun riding Owl

Really great sculpt by Jason Wiebe, can be found here or here.

Here are some other great sculpts from Jason.

Notes: I intentionally avoided the go-to color scheme for both owl and leprechaun. I used the Kakapo as inspiration for the owl, and more of a Valentine's Day/cupid motif for the leprechaun, since this was a present :) The symbol is Japanese (Kanji) for "Sake."

~DQG

Kaleb Daark 40K

Context: 

Entry on Malal From Realm of Chaos 80's Oldhammer Blog.

Notes:

I used the Bretonnian standard bird-beak inelegantly piled on with Green Stuff to make Deathaxe. The head was from the old Space Wolves sprue, and the hair was part of a tail from some forgotten miniature. The chained-on bolter is from the old Black Templar sprue. I added a Dark Angel pistol as an allusion to the secretive Fallen. The right shoulder pad has a skull with a single horn sprouting from its forehead, further imagery borrowed from the original model. The skill is flanked by the old Lost and the Damned Chaos runes for Chaos Weapon and Magic Resistant.  I think I'll start using those symbols as references from now on!

~DQG

Horntooth, Familiar of Malal

Even Malal has little friends too...this is one of his smallest followers.
Done up in the bisected B&W scheme, with some OSL that barely shows up on camera.
Kaleb Daark coming soon, in both 40k and Fantasy flavors.

From the set, Famous Familiars. One of the best-kept secrets of Oldhammer goodies that can still be bought on GW's website :)

~DQG

Old Stuff Day!!

I wanted to continue the idea of Old Stuff Day, also seen here and here*, but with a twist: as there aren't that many blogs on this blog itself, I am going to share something old to me, but new to (mostly, I am assuming) all viewers:

This "Imp" conversion was done in 2005. It's simply Green Stuff (Kneadtite) eyeballs pushed into a regular Warhammer Goblin skirmisher. The pitchfork is from the Warhammer Zombie sprue. I wanted to go for a old-time cartoony devil look. I think I should make more of these.

I plan on adding some more of these "old" minis to show myself how far I've gone since then, and how far I still need to go...after all, that's what makes it a "hobby!!"

* Currently my favorite blog, and responsible for joining Oldhammer and for taking the initiative in finally sharing my minis with bloggers.

Cheers
~DQG

The Crimson King's Banner

Miniature Painting proper will take over this blog for awhile. I will amend it with updated photos as the quality of my documentation increases, or upon my flight of fancy and/or spirit of whimsy.

For now, let us look at the following, a banner painted to accompany the Crimson King, Exalted Champion of Tzeentch...

Based, of course, on the first album of King Crimson, titled, In the Court of the Crimson King.

Colors used include, but not limited to, Mordian Blue for banner base followed by Mechrite Red for face base coat, along with generous amounts of inks and Dheneb Stone and Ice Blue for mixing into highlights. All of these colors are now "out of production" as of this post (and not soon after finishing this model--2012--in fact).

Where, one might ask, is the King himself? Well, let us leave that answer for another day...

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Photo by Daniel Funkhouser

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