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...

Dark Skies Over the Harrowmark, Part 2

Peker's Haven, WIP

As planned, I've painted the base and built the top of Peker's Haven.

For the base, I've matched the mossy grey and hearty brown palette of Saul's terrains, although my browns are darker than his, and added a touch of green for the foliage hanging from the island. I've also added a further link to the rest of the Harrowmark by writing the names of its two main settlements on the roadsign.

I've hidden the four supports by stretching cotton balls, soaked in a diluted mixture of PVA and grey paint, around them. Once the glue was cured, I drydrushed the cotton with lighter greys, completingthe look of the fog bank.

After painting the details on the sentry box I've added ladders made with string and pieces of toothpicks, again soaked in diluted PVA glue. They'll be painted together with the top of the island.

The top of the island is a base of foamcard of the exact same shape as the one used for the rocky bottom. The jetties are made of skewers and coffee stirrers. On it, I've created a number of small vignettes, using all sorts of bits from the Walls & Fences set, Ogor and old Empire kits, some random skulls, the menhir held by the Gargant and a few slate chips.

The walls and roof of the tower are made of cardboard supported by the last few bits from the Mordheim houses I still had in the bits box. It was then decorated with bits from the more recent, but equally out of production, Empire buildings. The tiles on the corners of the roof are pieces of cocktail straws cut in half.

Once painted, it will be glued on top of the other part. Sooo looking forward to see it coming together!

Dark Skies Over the Harrowmark, Part 1

Pecker's Haven, Flying Island of the Harrowmark

Pecker's Haven is a small island in the stormy skies of the Harrowmark. What its name was in the Age of Myth has been lost to memory, but it sat midway on the skylane going from Blackrocks to Gallowmire, its residents prospering off the trade between the two towns. The ravages of the Age of Chaos first and of the Necroquake later saw it unthetered from its advantageous position and sent adrift over the Harrowmark. Today, only a single structure remains intact, the tall tower home to retired sky-captain Pecker, the old sky-dog offering safe moorings to any ship willing to part with but a small part of their cargo.

Later last year, we started talking about exploring an aspect of the Harrowmark's background that Saul had built into it since its conception: the skies above it and the ships and pirates infesting them. This quickly escalated into the idea of running an event like Tor Megiddo and Rhossum Secundus. Flying ships will clash, sky-scums and wretches from all races will cross cutlasses and will plunder the flying islands over the dreary woods.

Saul has already churned out his first ship, started on a second and on some more ruins within the woods. So, I took it upon myself to work on the first flying island, inspired by John Blanche's paintings and sketches.

So far, I've built the stand and the rocky bottom of the island. The bottom of the island is nothing but an upturned hill made with polystyrene and foamcard, festoned with leaves from the old Citadel Woods and a couple of ruin bits from the Aleguzzler Gargant kit. It is roughly half the size of a Warcry board, so plenty of action can take place on it.

The stand is made from four thick wooden skewers glued into a foamcard base decorated with really old Citadel Trees (propped in for the picture), slate shards and a sign from the Walls & Fences kit.

I wanted non-flying models to be able to move on and off the island, so using skewers and coffee stirrers I built rickety structures jutting and hanging from the bottom of the island. Once painted, I will add rope ladders to join the two structures and to reach the ground.

The mid-platform serves both as a trading post with landlubbers and as a sentry box, an idea I conveyed using a brazier from the Fortified Manor, barrels from the Ogor Gluttons, a Free City handgun and assorted bits like ropes, powder horns and shields.

Unfortunately, I had run out of black primer just before the whole world went into lockdown. It seems that under coronavirus, black spray paint is harder to find that gold! In the meantime, I will build the top of the island and wait until I can paint it.