McDeath's Last Stand (Part One)

Mentioned this project a while ago. I have no inclination to paint for wargames, but I still love the miniatures. So what to do with them? When the mood has taken hold (about 3 times), I have let my mind wander to imagine all sorts of dioramas. The list is definitely worth a future blog.

For some miniatures though, something else is required, and in this instance, how to present something worthy of Lord and Lady McDeath. Answer was obvious - recreate the cover of the Tragedy of McDeath guidebook, a Tableau Vivante made of miniatures.

Some background info: The Tragedy of McDeath was a box set campaign for Warhammer 2nd Ed. It was based on Shakespeare's play McBeth Macbeth. You will have undoubtedly guessed this very early. Citadel released miniatures that were specific to this campaign and only sold by mail order, 60p each. Oh how I wish I ordered more. And Sandra Prangle. Nowadays, the Lord and Lady sell for up to £100. Each.

So anyway, I am very fortunate to not only have the McDeaths but a good number of appropriate figures to fill out the battle scene above. There are, though, some glaring holes to be filled. Klinty the Treeman is the most glaring, the hardest to find (cheaply) is Sir John Quicksure (the mounted knight behind Dart with the flaming sword). And there are figures not shown but would be nice to include, like the wizards Een McWrecker and Chalconer.

Stage one is planning. Composition is absolutely key to making the scene work in 3 dimensions. It will not get done quickly.

TBC...

~J~

Gnarly Dragons

Dragon Ogre (1989)

A venerable member of my collection, as well as a (personal) all time favourite paint job. In those early years I was inspired much more by John Blanche's paintings than by his own miniatures (apart from his Minotaur, which is still and always will be amazing). I took my visual cues from the cover art from some Warhammer roleplay supplement, which featured a lone fighter crossing a causeway through rough seas to a decrepit old keep. The colours in it were an inspiration; I wanted to give my Ogre a similar feel, with deep, rich contrasts. Paint job is very much 'of its time' and very personal.

Mordax, Great Imperial Dragon (1993)

Very old, very gnarly, very not quite dead. Another one from my Bright period. I just wish I hadn't used purple on the wings. Does. Not. Work! Can't bring myself round to overpaint it, even though I want to.

Must get some NEW stuff done...

~J~

Goad to Self #2

On the premise that writing a blog will help induce me to finish a project, here is something almost completely irrelevant to miniature painting, but nonetheless related by subject matter.

Mucking about with clay is something I'd like to do far more often, but circumstances and my fickle mood get in the way. So I had this old lump of clay knocking about, just enough to form up into a head sized vessel. I've had this in mind for ages, something a bit different from my usual 'arty' ceramics. Don't be too critical of my efforts, although constructive crit is welcome. If it looks a bit asymmetrical, well, he is meant to be an ugly monster and its at least partially deliberate...

Teeth and eye are Fimo, waiting to be baked, but it just occurred to me to have a look for a taxidermy eye.

Painting it is another matter too. Being life sized, techniques will necessarily be different, more akin to special effects prosthetic mask painting. This means I get to use my airbrush for a change.

The inspiration was these lovely chaps, which are in turn inspired by JB's almost ubiquitous demon face in 1980's GW stuff. Fans of old Citadel should recognise them:

Time to shut up.

~J~

CMoN

Uploaded my first photo onto CMoN (Chaos Marine Lord). This is what it tells me:

"You are ranked 8226 out of 8226 artists. You can add this rank dynamically to your website like this:..."

And I was already feeling like I am at the bottom of a deep well...  :-(

~J~

Sacrifices

Since the destruction of my dedicated desk, all painting has pretty much ceased. This is despite the fact I have a small area to work on my computer desk. What's stopping me? Having a computer RIGHT NEXT to the painting station is enormously distracting; it just sucks away all my time and attention. I've known for a number of years that sitting at a computer 'narrows the mind'. I forget where I saw the article, probably in New Scientist. But studies have been done, I know that.

Anyway, long month no blog. I am having my 'nth' sweep out of miniatures to evilbay, and this time, for urgent financial reasons, I'm selling some old painted stuff from pre-lapsed days. So, this blog is a memorial to paint jobs I will soon no longer possess.

In no particular order, here they come...

Fantasy Zoat (1992)
Zoats, particularly the two fantasy variants, tend to sell for a few quid. Will find out how much a half-decent painted example will fetch. Painted during my 'bright' period: I had noted how deep and dark a lot of my early stuff was, so I purposely went a bit over the top. Towing the Citadel line ;p

Pink Horrors (1992)
More over-the-top colour from the same year ;p

Chaos Terminators (1992)
This is more like it. Same year, some hard red colour but altogether darker and deadly. This was the one and only year I painted with armies in mind, so I got some exercise in mass painting. Didn't really enjoy it that much, I much prefer doing individual characters, and I think I like painting chaotic and evil subjects most of all (go see my newer stuff).

Zombie Dragon (1993)
A paint job to match the John Blanche box cover art. Not great, not awful.

More, much more, to come, and go, never to be seen again...

~J~