Deep Thoughts

More Carnivale this week, and this time around it's the Deep Ones. Unsurprisingly, the horrors of the deep have decided to colonise Venice. This is another great metal model, on a base made by Wyrd.

The base is so detailed that it's virtually a miniature in itself.

And the Deep One sits on top.

For a quarter of a ton of enraged sushi, he's a nice model. There are a lot of Deep Ones on the market, but Carnivale's version is the closest to my own mental image of these delightful creatures. I think he could do with a bit more of a highlight on his back scales, but it's hard not to make them too cartoony. I'll have another look tomorrow.

Two Narns, One Sheik and Some Coleslaw

Narns are chunky alien quadrupeds quite like small hippos. They are beige and greyish in colour, and they taste somewhat bland on their own. Narns are often preyed upon by phallhounds, and can be found around the edge of the Slurry of Curry, soaking up the atmosphere.

In the underhive, where conditions are not suited to larger animals, some locals have trained narns as beasts of burden, and equip them with body armour and metal cases to carry their supplies.

The narns were old epic squiggoths, which came broken. I used the two halves of a plastic barrel as their baggage containers.


Sheik Anvak is a mysterious man who leads a solitary life deep in the wastelands. Although he seems merely to be an old hermit, the raiders take pains to avoid him. Curiously, he never seems to be the man they are looking for. Some claim that he is an ancient mystic, but others whisper that he is really the dreaded crime lord Abdul Goldberg in disguise, lying low in preparation for some new criminal scheme.

Margarita Coleslaw is a respected trader and matriarch of the powerful Clan Coleslaw. The wastelanders say that if it moves, she can get a good price for it - which might explain where several of her more troublesome siblings have gone. 

The sheik was a model from the Spectre line. He was, unsurprisingly, a sheik. I made his hand a bit bigger to keep with the proportions of the other citizens. Madam Coleslaw started off as a Privateer Press miniature called Dannon Blythe. I repositioned her left arm so that she would have her hand on her hip. It was originally holding a sword on her shoulder, which was a bit medieval for my tastes. It's hard to see, but she is holding a coat over her shoulder. I really like the sculpting and the nonchalant style of the model.

It's Carnival Season

As theatre-going becomes more popular with the nobility, the priesthood condemns playwrights for putting sex and violence on the stage. And they are right to do so: here we see Mr and Mrs Antoinette shortly after watching The Bloody Murder of the Foul Prince Romero and his Enormously Bosomed Wife, armed and ready for violence on the streets of Venice.

Here are my first two Carnivale models. They are Barnabotti, apparently, and are the foot-troops of the nobility. I painted them in similar colours, to suggest that they are husband and wife, and mounted them on some Wyrd scenic bases. They took a long time to paint, but I'm really pleased with the results.

Mind the step!

Mrs A was slightly converted. Her arm was so spindly that her hand was just going to snap off, so I cut the arm above the shoulder and turned it so that her hand would rest on the front of her dress for extra stability. Otherwise, they are as they came from the box.

How dare you insult my nose!

Tractorbot

It's been a slow couple of weeks or, more accurately, I've actually done something other than paint models in the last fortnight. To start with, after a lot of faff and delays, my new book is on the way to being in print.

Buy me!

My friend James came down and we played a few games, including Shadows of Brimstone and Space Hulk. Space Hulk is a funny game. While I can admit it's technical excellence, it is so completely unforgiving that I usually feel that I've basically lost in the first few turns, if not in the actual setting-up of the pieces. I enjoy it a lot, but it always feels like a last stand rather than a winnable game. Anyhow, it's a classic in its own strange way, and extremely evocative of what it's trying to depict.

I also started work on the old metal Carnivale models that I've been stockpiling. They're fantastic but very spindly and detailed. I'm taking it quite slowly because I want to do the best that I can. Hopefully, more of that soon.

The only thing I've made recently is this. It's based on a tractor from the 40k crane set, with arms from a set of plastic blobs I got down the art shop and a face cast in green stuff from a Reaper Bones model (the same one that I used for the shoulder pad of my titan).

My mental image is that the machine rolls around doing tasks, and that the face is the projected hologram of the tech-priest who controls it (and whose remains may be interred within). One of those odd 40k things that happen when you start holding the bits together. I'm not sure if the face and body go together (or clash interestingly) but I like both of them.

The painting isn't my best, but I wanted a rest from the detail of the Carnivale figures. I'd better get back to them while the light's still good!

Who Lives In A House Like This?

This week, I've been working on some terrain. First, I made some improvements on a large workshop that I first built years ago and, appropriately, have been tinkering with ever since.

It incorporates all kinds of stuff: boxes and yogurt pots for the main body, a fuel tank from Ramshackle, some kind of little resin bunker, a crane based around a sentinel cockpit, and what I think was once a movement tray from Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I added some more detail, tidied up the painting (to an extent) and made a few adjustments. Here’s a closer view.

I think it will suit my team of mechanics pretty well.

Every so often, I have a look for useful stuff in the local art shop. This time, I turned up some papier-mache boxes designed to be used as treasure chests. I thought they would look good as buildings, and used some textured plasticard to put together a lower floor under one of the boxes.

I added some random detailing and painted it to resemble the bright green favela-style house that I made a few months ago. I expect that even on Necromunda, there is a suitably vapid publication that shows off the homes of the rich and infamous. So, taken from the pages of Hell-O, here renowned gang leader Algebra Flaps shows us around his beautiful armoured hovel.

EDIT:

I forgot to add this! It's the completed dormouse in his automated teapot. Here he is.

 

Alice in Warhammerland

"When men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go..."

Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit.

Prompted by a comment on the Tears of Envy blog, and in a desperate attempt not to buy any miniatures for a little while, I decided to repaint my Alice in Wonderland inquisitorial delegation.

I first made these models about ten years ago. I have no idea why it seemed like a good idea to make 40k Alice back then, but it still seems like a good idea, and I still don’t know why. Perhaps Wonderland is in warp space or, more likely, warp space is in Wonderland. Perhaps I should go ask Alice: I think she'll know. Anyway.

Inquisitor Alice has seen it all. Nothing can surprise or bewilder here. She has passed through warp portals, consorted with the lords of chaos (over tea) and defeated not just demon princes but red queens.

Alice was converted from a flying sister of battle torso on an Eldar warlock’s lower body. It's hard to see, but her bolt pistol says "Fire Me" on the side.

Many daemonhosts attack their enemies with blasts of warp-force. The Cheshire Cat (or Grynx) uses the pure weirdness of its smile to mangle the brains of its enemies. Many who have seen this strange, teleporting being remain fatally confused, unable to banish the image of the cat from their minds long after it has disappeared.

The Caterpillar is a wise, if slightly over-medicated, savant, who draws inspiration from his hookah. He hovers on a xenos device and appears to be some kind of alien. His ready supply of medicine can enhance the accuracy of his comrades, much like a Jokaero engineer.

The cat was a GW model mounted on part of a plastic dryad. The caterpillar is a kroot body and arms with a Necromunda Millasaur’s legs. His head came from a chaos model, and his base is a Tau drone.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee are two modified ogryns, who provide long-range support with their gun arms. Whilst poorly-equipped in the brains department, they can be very handy, provided they can be persuaded not to bash each other.

When I first made them, they counted as gun-servitors. Now they would have to be acolytes, armed with storm bolters. The Tweedles (as played by Ray Winston on a bad day or Donald Trump on a  good one) started off as fantasy ogres, and their guns come from an Immolator tank.

If you can keep your head when all those around you are losing theirs... you’re probably the Queen of Hearts. Monarch and executioner, she serves Inquisitor Alice as a handy enforcer – although cutting the heads off the creatures of chaos isn’t a guarantee that they’ll stop so much as change.

The Queen of Hearts is an old dark elf sorceress with new weapons, made from Warhammer and sisters of battle bits. She functions as an acolyte.

If Alice brings order to the Warp of Wonderland, the Hatter exists for chaos. His complete lack of logic marks him out as a true servant of chaos, as demonstrated by his frequent demands that “All change!”

The Hatter (who looks quite a lot like Harpo Marx and slightly like me) is mainly made from old plastic Empire militia bits, with a storm bolter glued on and a hat and teapot made of Green Stuff.

And finally, I thought I’d add a new member to the crew. This is going to be the Dormouse, who lives inside a giant teapot. I made him out of a plastic rat from a skaven set. The teapot is largely leftover parts from the Wolsung giant golem, with a funnel and handle made from Necron and Dark Eldar bits.

Goats On The Racecourse

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Colours at Newbury racecourse to meet up with my friend James and buy a load of random stuff. Perhaps it was the subliminal influence of the horse racing setting, but I decided to purchase some animals for the post-apocalyptic town.

My haul ended up with a strange mixture of farmyard and Middle Eastern themes:

4 goats (Magister Militum)

A sheik (Spectre Games)

A camel loaded with provisions (Bitzbox: 2^nd hand GW)

A Tallarn Desert Raider captain (likewise)

2 post-apocalyptic merchants (Lead Adventure)

And

5 berserker-type ladies (Dice Bag Lady: Prodos Games) which were going very cheap.

A slightly unusual haul, admittedly. I was also recognised by some guys from steampunk events at which I’d been selling books. Who would have thought that there would be an overlap between steampunks and wargaming?

Anyway, I painted up the goats. Everyone likes goats, even Satanists, so here they are.

I also painted the two merchants. The guy on the left is an electrician. I’ve attempted a bit of object source lighting but I’m not sure that it really works. The chap on the right is a car mechanic. I hadn’t realised that the Lead Adventure sculpts were so cartoony, but I really like the how full of character they are.

 And finally I painted these two. The woman on the left is a scavenger from Copplestone, I think. I did a small amount of converting on her: I filled in her chest to hide her gigantic cleavage (I think the torn pattered dress she’s wearing looks rather good) and used green stuff to hide the place where the end of her boot had come off, revealing her toes like a comedy tramp (I reckon that a half-feral post-apocalyptic survivor would either have two shoes or none at all).

The guy on the right was a GW chaos cultist with a flamer. I swapped his head with one from a Mantic soldier with a raised visor. He clearly spends his time cutting things up with his welding torch.

Next up, I’m considering tackling the camel (which is surely a euphemism for something very rude) or going back to my old Alice in Wonderland-themed inquisitorial warband. I also really ought to make a workshop for my mechanics to use.