Part 5
Sparks sputter from the altar as a red-cowled monk makes obeisance before it. From outside the priory comes howls and gibbers and the scrape of claws on oak portals.
A brother of the order enters the threshold of the chamber where the surviving monks are huddled in prayer, and calls out to the congregation from the shadowed transept.
“Father Abbot, we cannot hide in here any longer! The creatures are attracted to the Eternal Flame of the Comet’s Tail, we must extinguish it before their dark tendrils corrupt its light!”
“Come forth into the light my son so you may be blessed.”
There is no sound of footfalls. The abbot turns from his prayer to inspect the speaker. With a speed surprising for his years, he snatches a handful of blessed ashes from the brazier and hurls them at the intruder. An alien scream pierces its lips as the fire burns away its disguise and the abbot’s sword pierces the cowl up to its twin-tailed crossguard.
As the figure slumps to the floor, the abbot beckons to the gathered brothers.
“They have got in. Hitch the altar. We’re taking the flame with us.”
This is possibly my favourite ogre sculpt. One of the last made before the Ogre Kingdoms book debuted, it embodies the Brothers Grimm, Jim Henson Creature Shop look of the classic ogres. While Ostland is known for its collaboration with Imperial Ogres, they are also a poor province so the lack of extravagant uniform helps this guy fit in with the rest of the party.
Pleased with how the skin tone turned out. Want to get a shinier gold paint for his gold tooth.
I included the model on the left as a Witchhunter; I thought he was part of their Warband. Suspicious of his meat accessories, I discovered that this was in fact a town butcher from the Frenzied Mob. Oh well, still works. A starving band of survivors needs someone to provide the bratwurst, just don’t ask where the meat comes from…
Compared to the Bright Wizard, I tried to capture a softer glow of yellow torchlight on the arm with a bit of starker overall lighting and some reflections in the glasses to give a sense of light.
The Roadwarden needed a little extra something to make him stand out so I gave him a checkered flag in the Ostland colours – makes sense for flagging down stagecoaches on the high road. Normally I would prefer to freehand the scrolls but this is a timed challenge and the sculpted text was a welcome shortcut.
Three more adventurers from the Ostland warband done. I felt the first few got a bit too much saturation in the red+yellow tones (what is this a Talabecland army?), so I kept these to mostly B/W + metal and put a bit more work into the faces to make them pop.
The Hunters of Sigmar are complete!
Following with the lore for the Knightly Order, each member has poorly maintained, improvised BYO equipment. Some have old provincial colours that have chipped and faded, others rusted away to bare steel.
I think I was successful in capturing variations of colour while keeping within a constrained palette. Looking forward to doing more specialty Orders.
Had to squeeze in some plebs in between showcase pieces so we have some shabby looking spearmen:
Keeping up the variations in clothing on the militia even though it is time consuming, but you wouldn’t expect to see two peasants with identical overcoats like they both shop at the same department store.
Couple of cannons with classic crew. Can’t complain. Might come back and elaborate on the bases a bit more than just “mud puddle”.
No it’s not Kojak, it’s the Deacon from the local chapel. After losing his brother in a cart-crash, he abandoned his faith and turned to the bottle. Surviving the burning of Wolfenburg proved a second calling, now the fire of Sigmar once again fills his veins (along with the cinnamon schnapps).
Speaking of the clergy, the Altar of the Eternal Flame rolls into battle.
This model was not designed with anything to go into the altar so I placed a torch flame (with a magnet in case I ever want to swap it out) and lit the inside with the light from the fire – a bit of a shame as there is some lovely patterned upholstery sculpted on the inside.
I kept the outside a simple lacquer and gold scheme, with marble statues, however you could certainly make a bright, garish nativity scene out of this piece. I may come back and add some freehand banners to the pole…it will be difficult to attach due to the sculpted ribbons coming out around the crossbar.
The chap pushing it had a Glade Guard head puttied on to tie him in with the monks.
The warrior monks have a ton of detail to make up for their skinny legs and funny faces. Red hoods mark them out as an elite unit. Fun models, I suspect the crosses are what kept them out of production.
So that concludes this update – the deadline is starting to loom and we may see some batch painting for the remaining infantry. They can be the back ranks.
If everything goes to plan though I have a few late arrivals which might come in as reinforcements and rescuers.
Hope you all enjoy and continue to follow my projects.