McDeath, part 4: first dress rehearsal

 It's late, I'm bored, I can't watch anything on streaming because my mobile data speed is utter shite. 

So here we have a field rehearsal on a piece of wood from my bro's workshop. I was prevaricating between 10 or 12 inches, in the end my dad just pulled a sheet of offcut and oh look it's 11 inches wide. Choice made and it split the difference. 

What now. An electric drill so I can pin together the Dart mini. Buggered if I ever do that unpowered ever again. I need an alternate Chaos Hound so I can perform a head swap. I need to fashion a Quicksure. I've been studying late 80's multi-part knights, and I think they will do. I need more fighters for the good guys. I have some dwarfs to add, but matching the Goodwin style is challenging, and I might include some Asgard barbarians. Just a few more running orcs, but lots of orc casualties to litter the foreground.

There is no suggestion that Banquo is a'reddy deed going by the scenario book. I have a mind to have him as a ghost in the background.

~J~

McDeath, part 3: Klinty, or how we got Treebeard all wrong

Project diary... 

Before I settle on a base size, first I need to map out the positions of the central protagonists. I am deconstructing a 2-D painting, so I need to have a sweet spot, a perfect viewing angle that most closely reassembles the John Blanche painting with the miniatures. My chosen angle is 30°, seen roughly by the line of sight of my phone lens below...

Now I have a rough map of positions, the next step in planning is deciding just how much battle is going on behind the cast. That is for the next post.

Now I want to talk about this fellow below. Klinty, aka Treebeard from Citadel's original foray into Lord of the Rings licensing, has always been put together wrong in every image I've seen in print. I had this before but sold it years ago, and I had assembled it as per the original catalog pic. I think pretty much everyone did the same. After stripping the paint and breaking up this new one, I looked at it with new eyes. 

I didn't notice anything until I had cleared away some residual milliput from the recessess of his feet. Then it was crystal clear that Treebeard is walking, the foot of his left leg is planting a step. The arms have some leeway (i.e. rotation), but it looked correct to have his right arm reaching out, the head lines up with the direction of the step. With this pose I have much less work to do to match the painting. 

~J~

McDeath, part 2

Project Diary...

So ten years after I stated an intention to do a recreation of the McDeath rulebook cover art, it may finally come to pass when I acquired a treeman this month. I only lack a Quicksure for the horse, and decided the best answer is to do a conversion of a cheap knight miniature. Having studied the 'official' miniature, it needed too much work to look right. 

Other things that need fixing: Harkness needs total dismemberment for reposing; Lady McDeath needs a new face; tricky job reposing McEwmans arms; scratchbuild a tail for Spot; source a dozen orcs/goblins just for the foreground, and they have to be Perry sculpts, nothing else will do; Treebeard can be readily heightened five mm, that allows a bend to his waist and make him more looming; and two fingers have to go, sorry Treebeard; then there is the battle in the background. In this respect I have lots of flex, and it's just a matter of how big. 

~J~

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~