Chaos before Order

After many years of being rather nomadic, I finally have a permanent home! Which means- a home for all my hobby stuff! This is our designated craft room, and I am currently in the process of unpacking boxes, some of which have been in storage for a few years.... so watch this space for interesting time capsules!

As you can can see our two rather big craft desks (one of which is designated for my girlfriends crafty stuff) are currently covered in an assortment of crap. Which has made it a bit tricky to get anything much done recently.

However, I've been to two sculpting masterclasses recently and thought I'd share my experiences with you.

The courses were run by Alex from Warploque Miniatures at a studio space in Nottingham. Both courses took two days each.



The first was a beginners course in miniature sculpting and the second was building on this, focusing on larger creatures/monsters.

On the first day of the beginners course we began by looking at armature and face construction. I started off too small with my armature, so he turned into a weedy halfling!



I was quite pleased with my grumpy giant face, considering I've never felt like I could draw a face before.

Some examples of creating different textures- here you can see scale mail and veiny skin.

On the second day I had a go at sculpting a fleshgolem and a goblin face

Here's a close up of the grumpy giant.

I've made a few alterations to the goblin face since I didn't have time to finish it on the course but got a way to go before I'm happy with it.

Still need to bulk out the flesh golem so his body matches his fists!

In the second workshop we started looking at larger sculpting by making a dragon armature.

We drew a lot of inspiration from nature and real reptiles, however, since I really wanted to make a Griffon, I snuck in some musculature from a lion to get in practice. He's still far from finished but this is as far as I got on the first day.

My girlfriend thinks he looks like the dragon from Never-ending Story.

On the second day I started my Griffon and we looked at other body textures such as fur, feathers and scales.

Since we started a specific animal on the first day, I didn't have enough time to really get into the project I had set out to do (which would be my only criticism of the course).

Again, he is far from finished but it will give me plenty to focus on when the craft room is all sorted.

And finally, here are the Griffon's wings which I started and are a work in progress.



I'd really recommend checking out a course by Alex, its definitely worth it if you're looking at getting into sculpting or want to hone your skills.

The Greenfield Grasshuggers

I'm excited that the new halflings are here (they have a special place in my heart!) so thought I'd share them with you. Here is a breakdown of what's in the box and how they compare to the old models.

I didn't fully agree with the hillbilly vibe the Spike! journal took in their halfling edition- I still see them as the food loving, gentle, happy-go-lucky punchbags- but I'm still pleased that they got a Spike! of their own and new models.

Here is a size comparison, with models in chronological order of release (except for the out of scale referee model on the far right). The first three models are from second edition.
As you can see there is a significant size creep, with the recent models being quite a bit larger, even compared to the 2017  Warhammer World exclusive 'Crumbleberry'.

I still feel like the stunty teams are my favourite releases but feel short changed by not getting two full-sized sprues rather a clam shell and in this case only three balls.

Back of the box.

Transfers.

There are two of these sprues in the box - as usual.


Disappointed to note that the halflings DO NOT have any hair on their feet! This is a travesty. The Referee model had hairy arms but for some reason the sculptor decided to not give these players any body hair what so ever. Not even on their feet!

This is the first halfling models released WITHOUT HAIRY FEET. Did I mention that already?
But, in all seriousness, this is something that can (and will!) be easily fixed with some greenstuff.

Only one of this sprue in the box.

Two team markers and two coins are nice to have but for me, I'm not so fussed as I only ever use one of each.

As I mentioned, there are only three balls in the box since this is a single sprue. It feels to me that there is clearly space for more balls on this sprue- and extra ones would be really nice to have, especially because they are easy to lose, and they are so characterful.

Front on assembled. Catcher and Hefty.

A bit better light

Line up with my work in progress Treemen and Human line men.

Slightly different angle- snuck in the halfling Chef here too.

Third edition player next to new hefty for size comparison.

Second edition player next to Hefty, again just to show size difference.

Close up of the treemen. They are base on the Kurnoth Hunters. I talk a bit more in detail about them over here.

Copper wire armature is there, ready for hands to be sculpted later on.

Here is better picture of the kicking pose- for me, they should be less dynamic and as such I've tried to reduce the movement/running in the models where possible.

Hope to have further progress on these soon.

Planning out the Swift Twins

 The Elfheim Eagles in the box | Elven Union team part 1

Trying to move my pro elves or elven union along. Started assembling two more line men and two more catchers bringing the team up to 16 players with all positionals. Don't know if eight linemen is enough or if early builds would call for more. I'll do some more research before painting.

I know not everyone has affordable access to forge world and not all people are a fan of the resin. And then you have people like me who look at a something and think they have just used this as a base and added to it. After what I would class as a success with my last forge world recreation project I'll attempt the swift Twins next.

Here you see the box blitzer he'll be the base for Lucien Swift

They both will have bare faces if I decide to add the vertical half face masks I can always do that later.

I've cleaned off the studs from the right leg and will smooth that up before assembly. I've taken the spikes off from the right leg and will glue back on the left leg. I will saw the torso off and rotate it a bit more forward. Extend the belt buckle to more of a belt. And then add a bit of a vambraces thing forge-world got going on to the left arm. Right arm I might use one from the Dark Eldar Wyches
I will see later on how I feel about adding ribbons.

I'm planning to modify the shoulder pad by adding a gem and some wings and some swirly details on the  epaulette.

Gem and swirls on chest and swirls on the back.

Valen Swift
Based on Lineman 1's body.
He has two of the vambraces spike plate thingys and gems and swirls on both of them. He also has studs on his right leg that needs adding.

Swirls on shoulders and chest

Swirls on the back

Found this hand while rummaging through my bits think it would work well for star player that blows a kiss or hand guns gesture to the fans. Though probably won't use for this project.

Looncurse

I was going to be good and hold of from getting the new night goblins (gloomspite gritz) but when I saw this box it being cheaper than buying the new squigs separately and me having a wood elf army as well well games-workshop managed to get me to buy it. When there is the next lull in blood bowl releases I'll probably pick up the new manager squigs, some more hoppers, the new fanatics, Zarbag's Gitz. Not all at once and not necessary in that order but hey I got a soft spot for squigs and goblins what can a man do?

Quite nice box art. Surely we can agree that the artist is goblinst. He's on a squig a perfect opportunity to have him in mid leap letting the goblin sneer as he looks down at the puny half god (I haven't had the time to finish reading the fluff so don't actually know who this winged fella is.)

Nice comprehensive view of the content

Here are the two leaders. Been contemplating if I do want to not have the horns or do something with the tongue on the squig but think I probably will leave it. If I see a cheap second one and pick it up I might do some converting then.

I'm quite set on not attaching the body of the earwig just sculpt the wings in place

My girlfriend like the look of the trees so we might actually give it a go to play through the scenarios at some point.

I didn't take any pictures of the Kurnoth Hunters since I already got a in the box post on them here.

Now with those vegetables out of the way, on to the good stuff; SQUIGS!

We have been waiting for plastic squigs for a long time and I'm not disappointed.

Squig hoppers and fancy squig hoppers (Boingrot Bounderz) both very nice!

I might need more of these, I wonder if they are more viable as an option now? Squig cav army? They where a bit too much of a glass hammer to survive on their own before so they needed some sort of distraction to soak up damage for them.

Very good to include the cards since it's a starter box.

Tokens and Lore book. As I said haven't finished reading it but seemed good as far as I got.

And plenty documentation for assembly.

So a quite a full box of goodies to sink my teeth into when we have sorted our new crafts room.