Wrath of Kings Diorama: Part 1

I've been commissioned by Cool Mini Or Not  to build a diorama table for the upcoming release of  Wrath of Kings. If you're unfamiliar, Wrath of Kings is a new miniatures game, set in the world of Arikania. There are 5 factions to play, and the miniatures look pretty sweet. (But don't take my word for it, check out their site!)

I got to see a ton of environmental art, and selected one of the more characterful cities for the set of the diorama. This project (along with a few other commissions) needs to be my main focus, so all of my personal projects have been put on the back burner. I'm going to be pretty busy between now and Gencon!

"What's in the Box?!"

When making an elaborate table like this, it's essential to have a crate for storage and shipping. I start with the crate, making sure the table base and crate cover fit together properly. Once the crate is finished, I can use it as a makeshift work table, and I have the maximum height locked in so I don't get carried away.

The city is atop a hill, so I begin by layering up the hill with 1-inch pink insulation foam, secured with Liquid Nails.

Once the adhesive sets, I shape the edges with a snap-off blade. I'm not trying to get the final shape here, just removing big chunks to smooth things out a bit.

The real shaping of the hill comes into play when I take the belt sander to it. This smoothes over all the layers, and removes the "stepped" appearance.

Here's the finished hill. Some cracks are still visible, but they'll get filled with wood putty. The back side will be carved up like a rocky cliff. Terrain building, for me, is also an organic process, so the shape of the hill will likely change as I add the buildings.

The next step is to start placing the buildings. I cut pieces of 2-inch foam to serve as the foundations, and cut out sections of the hillside for the buildings to slot into.

As the buildings take shape, I work on cutting the rocky crag. It was easier to cut away the layered foam, and replace it with chunks of cut 2-inch foam.

I'll be updating the table's progress on my blog, so be sure to check back to see how things are shaping up.

Check out the rest of the project journal:

Part 2: Building the Goritsi City

Part 3: Rooftops and Chimneys

Part 4: Resin Casting Windows

Part 5: Painting and Final Details

'Til next time!

Skryre Lord Skreekits' Lightning Engineer Cult

This weekend, in between my other freelance and commission work, I took the time to take some proper photographs and add a Skaven gallery to my site. There are a few new pics in there, and I'll be updating it regularly (well, as regularly as I update the other galleries).

The army is designed around a very shooty, Clan Skryre theme, with Warlord Skreekits as the general. I've incorporated little details like poisond wind grenades and warplock pistols into the units, and the Rat Ogres have been heavily converted using Space Ork and Inquisitor parts for their claws.

In the Fast as Lightning post, I had mentioned how my Skaven have always been a "fast and dirty" army. My goal with this force is to get models on the table as fast as possible, while still looking top notch. This is one of the few armies I collect that doesn't have a slew of assembled models waiting to be painted. With the exception of some Gnoblar-converted Skaven Slaves that have been patiently waiting in their figure case, every model I've begun has been finished. 

Part of this is due to the speed with which I paint them. Even the 30-man units only took about a week each to complete. (Although as I was setting up the army shot, I noticed that I had neglected to paint the Stormvermin's noses!)

One dilemma I'll be facing in the future is the mixing of the older "monkey" Skaven models (the ones with the giant hands and feet) and the new, slim Skaven from the starter set. I've decided to keep the two segregated by clan. The larger Skaven Clanrats, which I still have boxes of, will be reserved for the Skryre and Eshin clan models. The new ones will be for Clan Pestilens, probably painted with olive green robes. It will be fun to branch out from the main theme and build some of the new plague machines.

Poisoned Wind

The Doom Wheel has made me eager to work on something else, and The Poisoned Wind Mortars are it. The mortars can be fielded as weapon attachments for Poisoned Wind Globadier units, so I need to fill out my six Globadiers to create two 5-man units, each with a mortar attachment.

Digging through my parts bin, I came up with enough Globadier models to fill out the units, and some spare Space Ork parts to customize the mortars.

The Globadiers have access to unit champions who can take magic items. I've added some modeling putty to distinguish this guy as being equipped with a Death Globe (That's not a poke-ball!) These champions also needed more impressive weapons, so I replaced their puny knives with serrated blades from the Leman Russ tank's bulldozer. 

The Poisoned Wind Mortars took a bit of work to incorporate the new parts, mainly figuring out where to attach the pipes and whatnot. I've also inscribed some Skaven runes and damage on the machinery.

Here are the Globadiers, with their new comrades, ready for priming and painting.

These two guys are probably my favorite. I'm using the old Jezzail riflemen (riflerats?) to represent Warlock Engineers armed with warplock muskets. The engineers are only 15 points, and the musket upgrade is also 15 points, making for a 30-point character. (If you don't play Warhammer, that's dirt-cheap in army building terms.) The one with the longer scope is equipped with Warlock Optics, making him a better shot (until the rifle explodes in his hands, anyway).

But before I work any further on these, I've got 30 Stormvermin noses to paint!

'Til next time!

Modeling: The Garden of Morr

This weekend, I sat down and assembled the Garden of Morr. The kit is pretty simple, containing a lot of single-piece components, but I did make a few modifications, mostly with the basing.

The first step was to build the mausoleums. In my opinion, the gargoyles included in the set didn't really add anything, so I left them off. They'll probably find their way into a future terrain project. There was some minor putty work on the tower to cover the join between the two halves of the top. I also added a small bell from the old Skaven command sprue.

The mausoleum bases have a squared edge, and some wildly inconsistent ground texture.

To remedy this, I beveled the edges with my hobby knife, and roughed up the stones a bit.

The largest base had some of its detail running right to the edge, making it difficult to bevel the ground. I added a layer of styrene card underneath, to extend the sandy areas.

The ballast was super glued to the base, taking care not to obscure the embedded skulls and bones.

Here are the finished bases. The mausoleums are kept separate for painting, but will be glued on at the final stage. The large base will be left separate, so it and its mausoleum can be placed together, or as two separate elements.  

The uncovered crypt presented an opportunity for some articulation. By adding a brass pin, the coffin lid can be rotated to an opened or closed position without it being a loose part that would inevitably slide off onto the table.

Surprisingly, the wrought iron fences didn't require much mold line cleaning. The main issue was with the marks left by the ejector pins. This was easily fixed by scraping the surface with a rounded scalpel blade.

The walls received the same treatment as the other bases– sanding all the ground areas. I had given away the cross over the main gate, so the missing block needed to be filled in with putty and topped with a spike from one of the Chaos sprues.

To articulate the gate itself, I drilled through the hinges, and set them over "L" shaped pins in the wall. The original recesses for the hinges were filled with modeling putty.

The Garden or Morr (or as I like to call it– The Undead Barracks) is ready for priming. Watch for the painting tutorial to follow! 

'Til next time!

Fast as Lightning!

Saturday, I played a game with my Skaven for the first time in years. I had forgotten how much fun they are! It's quite a change from my non-shooting, unbreakable Vampire Counts, to use an army that is full of shooting, and will panic and run at the first opportunity. It was a very close game, but in the end, Steve's Empire pulled out the victory. 

Towards the end of the game, one Warp Lightning Cannon misfred and exploded, which caused the other cannon next to it to run off the table. This got me thinking about alternatives to the cannons and the plastic Doom Wheel that's been sitting in my Island of Blood box for the past year.

My Skaven have always been a "fast and dirty" army– painted with lots of washes and drybrushing. I decided to challenge myself to complete the new Doom Wheel kit in an afternoon. Could I do it? Here's a photo-journal of how everything went down on Sunday:

1:00 PM– I set up my workstation:

1. The Doom Wheel sprues

2. Warp Lightning Cannon, for painting reference

3. Instructions

4. Chariot base

5. Styrene card

6. Super glue

7. Hobby tools

8. Paper towels

9. P3 bag, with paints 

10. Watch, to keep track of the time

11. Fruit salad

12. Coffee

GO! 

1:35 PM– Main chassis and the two halves of the driver are cleaned. It took about a half an hour to clean the mold lines on just that one part! Already beginning to think I might not get this finished...

2:00 PM– Driver complete! There are two head options; went with the gas masked head to cut down on the amount of fur and flesh I'd have to paint later. Can hear the ice cream man outside. Have no time for ice cream (or personal pronouns).

2:35 PM– Assembling the lightning generator on the front. Not a fan of the flat, symmetrical cables on the warp stone mounts, so I'm trying to come up with a better solution. Right now, I'm considering using the spikes from the Ork Battle Wagon Track sprue.

3:20 PM– Settled on clipping the lightning icons off of the sides of the Doom Wheel, and using them to create some lightning-blades. Much better!

3:45 PM– Rear wheel assembly is finished. Noticing a lack of "battle damage" on the metal parts. For a piece of Skaven equipment, the parts are very cleanly machined and assembled. Adding cuts and nicks wherever I can. Time for more coffee.

4:15 PM– Assembling the wheels. Decided to clip off the spikes ringing the interior of each wheel. This will make the rats inside the wheels much easier to paint, and I won't have to pick out 100 individual spikes with metal after painting the wood. What keeps the rats from jumping out of the wheel? Their loyalty to Clan Skryre, of course! Also, time to put more food in my face!

4:40 PM–  Wheels are assembled. The directions aren't very explicit about the fact that the inner ring and outer ring need to be aligned in a specific way so that they will attach to the body properly. Good thing I dry fit the parts first! Tried work out a conversion using some of the larger rats from the old metal Doom Wheel. Regrettably, they just won't fit inside the wheel.

5:05 PM– Wheel blades are attached. Clipping out the small lightning generators for the sides. At this point I have a pretty good idea of how I'll separate the parts for painting.

5:40 PM– Blades are attached to the front of the chassis. I've got a popsicle stick with some of the smaller parts glued to it for painting. Clipping the spikes off of the bellows operator. Not a fan of spikey rats, and he will paint up more quickly without them.

6:10 PM– Assembly is just about finished. Just cleaning the flag, and the wheels and other parts are already primed.

6:35 PM– Working on the base. Glued a thick strip of styrene card under the chariot base to keep it from curling when I glue the ballast on. There will be a couple rats running along side, as well.

7:00 PM– Assembly is finished, and the Doom Wheel is ready to paint! At least 75% of the assembly time was spent cleaning mold lines. Seemed like every part had its line running right along the center, rather than on the corners of the squared-off edges where they could have been largely ignored.

7:30 PM– Drybrushing on the wood is nearly complete. P3 Battlefield Brown, GW Snakeite Leather, and then GW Bleached Bone.

8:00 PM– The wood is finished. Working on the rats. Their fur is Battlefield Brown, overbrushed with GW Vermin Brown. For the fleshy areas (faces, hands and tails) I use a mix of GW Bestial Brown and Bleached Bone, with successively lighter highlights.

8:40 PM– Rats are finished. Adding more Snakebite to the sand so it matches the army's basing scheme.

9:00 PM– Basecoating the metal on the wheels with straight P3 Pig Iron. Brass parts are painted with P3 Molten Bronze.

9:40 PM– Metal parts all get a wash of GW Brown Ink, as does the wood. I mask some of the metal areas and spatter brown ink onto them to create a speckled, dirty effect.  (Apologies; my hand is obscuring the action, but that's what's happening, I promise!)

10:15 PM– Bascoating the metal on the chassis.

10:35 PM– Basecoating the brass. Cheese and Cracker Combos, my favorite!

11:15 PM– Metal is finished, and spattered. Here's a close-up of the detail.

12:00 AM– Alright, technically, it's not Sunday anymore. But for me it's not "tomorrow" until you go to bed and wake up, or the sun actually comes up. Working on the characters. Robes are layered with P3 Thamar Black and GW Shadow Grey. For the final highlights, I mix in a little P3 Frostbite.

12:20 AM– Drybrushing the warpstone. P3 Iosian Green, P3 Necrotite Green, P3 Cygnus Yellow. Blades have also been highlighted with GW Mithril Silver.

1:30 AM– Painting complete. Banner has been highlighted the same as the robes, and the pipes have been basecoated with Shadow Grey, and shaded with P3 Armor Wash. The rim of the base was painted with GW Catachan Green.

I finished the assembly at 2:00 AM, and then spent about an hour painting the runes on the flag. They are a simple layer of Bleached Bone, highlighted with white. This is easily the most complex Skaven kit I've assembled so far (I haven't tried the Screaming Bell, yet). The total time clocks in at 14 hours!

I used to pride myself on my ability to churn through models. It's nice to know that I've still got it. Maybe next week I'll tackle that Garden of Morr...

'Til next time!