Project Backlog, Part 12

Greenfather Herktus Whisperleaf

Herktus Whisperleaf was the Greenfather of a hamlet founded deep into Futilia Wood by one of the earliest Dawnbringer Crusades to set forth from the Living City. There, he tended the local shrine garden for years, until the Vermindoom hit. As the Skaven attacked, he tapped into the ley line nexus at the centre of his beloved garden to repel them. But in so doing he felt something, far more devious and subtle than the Skaven, had tampered with the nexus. He tried to pull back, but it was too late. A high-pitched laughter echoed through the aether as a blidning flash of multicoloured light engulfed Herktus' garden. When the light subsided, four pairs of eyes stared at him and the laughter resolved in a chilling voice.
"Welcome to my Tower, Whisperleaf. I trust you'll find its chambers to your liking. But should you wish to leave, just piece together the amulet inscribed with my name, and freedom will be yours..."

A few months before deciding to leave Manchester, I had a half formed idea to create a Warcry warband comprising thirtheen duardin from Ghyran, who would have been known as the Oakenshields, and their Wizard ally. I started from the Wizard, deciding to convert it to match the background and art found on the 3rd edition Core Book.

The body and head are from the Battle Wizard kit, while the arms are the ones holding the gun swab from the Empire Great Cannon. I clipped away the brush and replaced it with the final curve of a Kurnoth Hunter's bow.

The branches, shoulder pauldrons and sprite familiars come from the same kit and perfectly match the appearence of the Ghyranite wizard from the Core Book.

The choice of colours was pretty obvious, although I added yellow as the spot colour to draw attention to the head, sprites and cape frills.

As the only base I had was a Shattered Dominion one, I painted it in the same colours I had used for my Silver Tower models.

That, in turn, gave me an idea for the Wizard's story when, leaving Manchester, I realised that the Oakenshields would not be built for a very long time.

Now that I have a hobby station again, maybe one day Herktus Whisperleaf will emerge from the Silver Tower and the Oakenshields will be joining him...

Dark Skies Over the Harrowmark, Part 3

Pecker's Haven, Captain Pecker & Ysh Ma'el

How Gregorius Pecker came into possession of the island that was to take his name, nobody really knows. What all skyfarers of the Harrowmark know is that he and his ghurish monkey, Fetch, are surprsingly good at manning the cannon and swivel gun should a ship refuse to pay Pecker's mooring fees. Many also claim that, in the fumes of the grog that Fetch regularly supplies to its master, the retired captain tells with spite of the great sky beast that took his left hand and leg.
If this story is true, probably only Ysh Ma'el knows. But those that ask him, soon find out that the wizard is half-crazed and the only thing that they can get from him are incoherent mutterings of impending doom and of ghostly lights surrounding Pecker on the deck of a ship.
So it is that the pirates and sailors of the Harrowmark skies leave the two men alone, happy to at least have a place where warm grog is never in short supply.

Pecker's Haven drifting close to Blackrock

Gregorius Pecker, Fetch and Ysh Ma'el

Marking some hundred or so students' essays absorbed quite a lot of my time, but I got there. My floating island is finally finished!

For the house I went for a palette of greys, rather than the red roof and white walls of John Blanches' paintings appearing in Games Workshop publications. This way, it ties better with Saul's Harrowmark buildings and it remains close to what largely inspired the Harrowmark, Blanche's Voodoo Forest black & white drawings.

Everything else, was painted using the same combination of greys, browns, greens and aged metal.

Finally, I have rebased and touched up the painting on Captain Pecker and the other long term resident of Pecker's Haven, Ysh Ma'el. I made them ages ago, to be a Pit Fighter and Warlock for my Dwarf Pirates, when I used to play them as a Mordheim warband. Since the Dwarf Pirates were repainted to fit into the Free Companies of the Gilded Hand, Pecker and Ysh Ma'el had languished in a box, still on their square bases.

Pecker, being an old metal model, didn't quite fill a 32mm base (my favourites for human-sized models), so I've added the Powder Monkey from the Free Guild Handgunners.

Ysh Ma'el is a Battle Wizard, with the crystal ball swapped for the astrolabe from the same kit, a greenstuff hat and a resculpted sleeve. Funny thing is I can't recall why I resculpted the sleeve...

Now, the question is whether to build a crew for them and make them the central characters for our sky battle (whenever that will be!). The alternative is to keep them as NPCs and instead build a ghostly ship and crew to serve Kalyustar...

Kalyustar the Soulchemist

Kalyustar stared into the empty sockets of the skull. Its green-black shine had an almost eerie quality. Kalyustar's thoughts drifted back, to the Eclipse. Back then, his obsession was the elusive sigmarite, the only substance in the Realms he had not been able to add to his laboratory. He had wrested many secrets from sorcerers and priests, in the gloom of the Eclipse, until a wizened sorcerer pointed him towards Shyish and its realmstone. In the Harrowmark, he had come so close to capture a large amount of it, only to see it fall in the ghostly hands of the White Lady. And now, as more dread portents plunged the Realms in confusion, he held it in its vitrified form. Yet, he was no longer sure he could waste it to capture some sigmarite. And then, the voices came back. 'With me, you could capture an even more elusive substance. With me, you could refine and mould it'. Kalyustar the Soulchemist, the voices had called him. But whose soul was to be melted and refashioned in the crucible of his magic?

I wanted to model a new version of Kalyustar, the Wizard I had created for the Ex Profundis' Eclipse competion, ever since, during the Harrowmark Run campaign I had started to turn in-game events into the beginning of a possible fall from grace.

When Malign Portent was announced and with Warboss Kurgan and Wailslake we started to plan for our next campaign, I decided it was time to do it. We were already setting our campaigns in Shiysh, in the Harrowmark region created by Warboss Kurgan, so it only seemed logical to explore how Kalyustar would be affected by the events of the Time of Tribulations. After some chat on the DAoS group, I took on the suggestion by Matthew Benner to use a regular Battle Wizard with scrying sphere, but to swap the sphere for a skull, to hint at Kalyustar's inner struggle over alchemy or necromancy.

I once again found a Liberator head and cut the halo and cheek guards to recreate Kalyustar's mask. Kalyustar's staff was again made exactly in the same way as for the first model: the twin-tailed comet staff top was shaved to leave only the sphere, which was then topped with the Liberator halo and decorated with vials from the Freeguild Crossbowmen/Handgunners. More vials were added to Kalyustar's belt, as a nod to the vials hanging from the barding of his horse in his previous incarnation.

For the skull, I had initially used one from the Khemri Skeleton Warriors, but I realised it looked too big and I was not really happy with the almost caricatural look of the eye sockets (first WIP picture). I then replaced it with a smaller, more realistic skull (second WIP pic). I also dry-fitted the left arm with the open hand hovering above the scrying sphere, as I really liked the idea of him kind of caressing the skull. Unfortunately, the hand hid the face if I wanted to keep it staring at the skull. So I took another left arm from the Wizard kit, removed the staff hand and replaced it with the open hand.

The flowing stole of the left arm was square, so I shaved it and touched it up with green stuff. At the same time, I resculpted the area around the sleeve rim that had been damaged when removing the staff. In this way, both arms are now covered in pointy sleeves. The addition of the drawn back hood from the Wizard kit completed the conversion and ensured that all elements of the original model were also in the new one.
I have obviously replicated the colour scheme of the first model, but went for slightly darker hues for the mask and robe and added some corrosion to the staff top. As I was painting the model, I realised that, if I had painted the skull as if bone, this would have created no contrast between the mask and the skull. Luckly, the fluff in Malign Portent made it clear that Shadeglass is vitrified Shyishian realmstone. It was too good a narrative hook not to pick it up.
Now, Kalyustar the Soulchemist, formerly of the Gilded Hand, will fight through the Time of Tribulations in our very own Skirmish campaign Thy Soul to Keep. Who knows, at the end of it, I might have to convert yet another Kalyustar as a fully fledged Necromancer.

The Eclipse

Kalyustar of the Gilded Hand

The alchemists of the Gilded Hand lost their faith in Sigmar when the God-king retreated behind the Gates of Azyr. Ever since, they have learned to trust two things only. Their knowledge of the elements and the magicks that rule them and the skills at arm of the best mercenaries that wyrd-gold can buy. Kalyustar is no exception in this respect. Where he differs is in that, since the onset of the Storm of Sigmar, he forwent the safety of his laboratory in Venithya. Since then, he has traveled the Realms to collect the rare substances so crucial for his experiments. In Ghur, at the head of a motley host of ogors and orruks, he sacked the vaults of the Lofnir Lodge. On the Sky Roads of Chamon, he led a charge of Demi-gryph Knights to capture one of the Olwyr Stonehorns and grind its bones. He spirited away a chunk of Shyishian Realm Stone from Voldyr Keep, the Scourge Privateers he hired fighting their way through ravening flesh-eater hordes. Countless of times he has clashed with Chaos Lords and Sorcerers whose keeps held secrets worth the lives of many a man. Equally celebrated as a hero and reviled as a villain, he has collected the rarest of substances, but one. Sigmarite, the celestial metal, still eludes Kalyustar. As the Eclipse engulfs the Realms, he knows the vilest of Chaos servants can channel its dark energies and trap the precious metal. He will stop at nothing to seize their secret, whether this means ripping it from those he can vanquish or struck a bargain with those too powerful for him and his mercenaries.

As a nod to the old Dogs of War fluff that placed the mercenary armies in the Warhammer version of the Italian peninsula, Venithya is loosely based on 16th century Venice. For the first member of the Gilded Hand I modeled, I therefore choose the colours of Venice flagg, gold (for the barding) and red (for the mantle). I didn't want to overdo with the gold, so I've broken it with the blues and greens of the vials. Again, not to have too much gold, I kept Kalyustar's armour a dull silver, but decided to paint his mask white to make it stand out more.

I've painted the Militia banner bearer and musician using the same palette of the unit they will join in larger games. The colours work well also alongside Kalyustar, with the red tying the models together, but the brown and beige marking the two men as less wealthy than the wizard.

The flagg was painted blue with red sigmarite symbols to match the dress of Lothar Valdemius, the Excelsior Warpriest that leads the Church of Sigmar's Retribution.

The Eclipse - WIP

Since Jake (Bruticus) launched the Eclipse competion I've been looking in amazement at some of the entries that have being popping around the web. They spurred me to think and rummage through my pile of unbuilt kits, but inspiration was hard to come by. The search, however, took me back to my Free Companies of the Gilded Hand, my AoS28 tribute to the classic Dogs of War range. So far I've churned out a few Companies, but never attempted to represent one of the alchemists that pay for their services. That's it...until now!

Kalyustar of the Gilded Hand

Once I had decided I wanted my Witch Hunter to be a wandering alchemist, I started browsing books, WD issues and the internet for cool ideas. When I opened the 8th edition deck of Magic Cards and went for the Gold Magic cards, I was struck by lighting. I wanted my alchemist to look like the wizard on the back of the cards.

I had some arms from the Battle Mage, including the one holding the bottle with the skull-like puff of smoke, and a Liberator head sitting in my bits box. Mask, vial and part of the cape were sorted, what I needed was an armoured body and a hood. I had no armoured infantry that could be put to use, but I had a full box of Empire Knights (last minute purchase before they disappeared!). Armoured body sorted, I then sculpted the missing part of the cape and the hood.

The wizard on the card has another vial hanging from his belt and I wanted that to feature too. Since Kalyustar is on horse I figured the best place to put them was on the horse itself. After all, how else would a wandering alchemist carry his tools and ingredients?

Blackpowder vials from the Duardin Thunderers and the Freeguild Handgunners (and a scroll with skull from the Flagellants, why not?) found their way on the rump barding and dangling from the reins and staff. The staff was the fiddly bit of the entire project. It was the one with the Twin Tailed Comet top. I didn't want a too obvious connection with the sigmarite cult (more on this with the fluff, when the model is done), but I wanted to keep the orb. In removing the Comet's tails I snapped the staff, but that was ok as I found it was too long and broke the flow of the model. Once the orb was on top of the shortened staff it still missed something, but I still had the halo I had clipped from the Liberator head (never throw away a still usable bit!)

Since I was at it I've also knocked together the banner bearer and musician for the Church of Sigmar's Retribution Militia. When I modeled that unit, Militia could not have them, but then Grand Alliance: Order came out and they were given a boost. Luckily, I had the crew from an Empire Cannon (another last minute purchase) ansd spares from the Empire militia and Flagellants. The good thing is, I can also use them as reiteneers for Kalyustar in AoS28 games!

I have a rather clear idea of what Kalyustar's backstory is, but I always refine my models' stories while I paint them, so you'll have to wait a little to know more about him...