FrostHeim Post 004 - Cloven-Hoofed Child...

*Post 004*

Cloven-Hoofed child... 

The Apprentice

Since my first post it's been evident that my war-band has been in dire need of an apprentice. Whilst there are no ruling requirements to take an apprentice as part of your Frostgrave war-band, in game terms an apprentice is a player's only opportunity to add a second spell-caster to a war-band's roster, and by extension gain access to a second chance to cast powerful spells in the 'apprentice phase'.

For the longest time I was completely stumped as to how I was going to incorporate an apprentice character into my war-band, but after a little hunting through my collection of older metal miniatures, I found the perfect candidate; a 90s-era Games Workshop Chaos Sorcerer with a remarkably similar sculpt to my war-band's wizard, The Wretched One, only with a few notable differences...

Above: Clutching an ancient sacrificial dagger, this aspiring priest of the All Mother bares the mutagenic marks of the Shub-Niggurath's favour; the cloven hoofs and sinister horns of a sacred black goat...

Cloven hoofed and endowed with an impressive set of animal horns, these monstrous features differentiate the model from the war-band's wizard while simultaneously being a perfect thematic fit for the war-band's dark patron deity!

Above: Abandoned in the woods at birth by horrified parents, the Cloven Hoofed Child was left to die in the cold and dark. Guided by divine visions, the Wretched One found and took the malformed creature, raising him as devout apprentice...

The term "Cloven Hoofed Child" lodged firmly in my mind whilst I was painting this miniature, and from here I developed a tragic backstory for my war-band's latest addition. Taking more than a little inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Dunwich Horror" and its monstrous antagonist Wilbur Whateley, I decided the Cloven Hoofed Child would be just that - an unfortunate child born with frightful deformities, left abandoned deep in the woods. Where the civilised world had seen a cloven hoofed monster, the followers of Shub-Niggurath beheld the malformed child as a messiah, baring the holy marks of the All-Mother...

Crumbling Bricks

Eager to grow my fledgling terrain collection and begin building the abandoned woodland hamlet that has been so clear in my mind since I began this project, I decided to start with something simple and acquire some more ruined structures to match the hovel from my last post... 

Above: Zealots of the All-Mother spring  forth from the ruins of an abandoned tavern to ambush their prey, covered from above by the deadly crossbow of a Black Huntsman...

Ever since seeing these single piece resin models at 'Salute 2016', I had been keen to acquire some scenery from the Adrian's Walls 'Frozen City' range. At £30 for 4 corner pieces (2 copies of each sculpt) it's hard to find fault with this set, and I fully expect I'll be purchasing a few more terrain packs from Adrian's Walls to add to my collection. 

Above: Once a bustling tavern, this ruined structure has fallen into dire disrepair as the Hamlet of Midwich is reclaimed by the surrounding forest... 

Unsatisfied with the 'bright' look of the ruined hovel in my last post I took some much welcome advice from a fellow hobby blogger and friend, Mr L. Sabia Byrne of the fantastic 'Brushes and Bayonets', and put in a good deal of extra work researching the look of damp molding stone before starting on these ruins. Using a liberal black ink wash I've managed to tone down the grey and give the stone a cold, damp look, and achieved a subtle mold-green hint with a more conservative coat of thinned out green ink. Whilst far from perfect, I think the extra touches do a lot to add a level of realism that was missing previously. I actually went back and applied this effect to the aforementioned hovel, and am happy to say I'm very pleased with the result! 

Above: The Ruined Hovel gets the 'Moldy-Stone' treatment...

My Thoughts...

So it's fair to say that the Cloven Hoofed Child is in dire need of some highlighting, particularly on the horns and hoofs, which currently look a little messier than I'm happy with. He certainly came out neat however, which will act as a decent base to work from.

Whilst I am much happier with the mold-eaten stone of the ruined terrain, I feel like there could be more that I could do; perhaps some textured moss between the stones for example? Now I've gotten the terrain to a decent standard, I'll shift my priority onto other things for the time being, but will be sure to return and explore this further at some stage in the future. 

It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything, owed primarily to a mixture of a busy work schedule and a sheer lack of motivation to sit down and get painting. Whilst you can't force these things, I'm happy to say that after a bit of a break I can feel the inspiration returning, and getting this latest post (which has been sitting in drafts uncompleted for about 2 weeks) published really feels like removing a mental road block in this regard, so overall I am very happy! 

What's Next?

Up next in FrostHeim Post 005, I think its about time I get my act together and paint up some suitable creatures to count as my Minor Summoned Demon and Imp characters. There's no point in having a Summoner if I've got nothing to summon, and right now I've only got one of 3 bases covered with my Dark Young, so it's about time I rectified this sorry situation! 

On top of that, perhaps some more terrain?... and lets not forget that I keep threatening to post some work from a different project....

Til next time, thanks for reading! 

FrostHeim Post 003 - The Ruined Hovel...

*Post 003*

The Ruined Hovel...

Rotten Stone

I had this vivid image in my head; my war-band's summoner, The Wretched One, flanked by thick ethereal mists, standing upon the broken ruins of an aged structure long since reclaimed by the unnatural forest... Whilst life conspired to throw me a busy schedule this week, there was time enough at least to bring this image to life, so to speak...

Above: Emerging from the unnatural fog, The Wretched One leads his fanatical followers on their "holy work"...

Purchased for little over £10 from the Ebay-based seller Small Terrain, I was really impressed with this one-piece resin kit. It's quite simple in design and functionally has plenty of space for your average 28mm miniatures to hide within, whilst also showcasing just enough little details here and there to look interesting. 

Above: The autumn foliage collecting on the stairs and around the fallen stones will be a concurrent feature on my future terrain for this project.

Above: I added a spare part clipped from a GW forest to one corner of  the hovel to represent a sapling growing into the side of the ruins...

I wanted the stones to look aged and rotten, this hovel long since abandoned to the hostile elements, collecting mold and moss. After toying with a few ideas I decided to try a simple green wash around the gaps in the masonry. Overall I think this worked well, but I'm going to do a little bit of research into other techniques I could try for my future terrain pieces. 

The earth tones match those on my war-band's bases, which I think helps tie the project together as a whole. I've not mentioned in previous posts, but the autumn foliage comes from Gale Force 9's modelling flock range, and whilst nothing special up close (it's essentially coloured foam), certainly looks striking from a distance when on the tabletop. 

My Thoughts...

Overall I'm happy with the look of this first terrain piece, which has served as a pretty good guinea pig for the look and feel of the rest of my WIP scenery. Whist I like the effect of the green wash between the masonry, I'm eager to try my hand at some more advanced techniques for conveying mold and moss on aged stone. I'm actually a little concerned that the two-tone grey of the masonry is a little on the bright side when compared to the earthen tones of the ground... Perhaps a more liberal coverage, with a watered down green wash would both tone down the brightness and achieve the aged rotten look I'm going for?

What's Next?

I had a lot of big Ideas this week for potential terrain.... abandoned carts left to rot by the roadside, strange cyclopean ruins etched with jagged runes, a blood-stained sacrificial altar and an ever present image in my mind's eye of a seemingly abandoned hamlet deep within the forest... Whilst I couldn't find the time to bring them all to life, I can feel the overall picture of what I want to create become more and more solid. So whilst this week's post has been a small one (lite on miniatures and lore both) it has at least got me thinking...

Up next I think it's about time I started on my war-band's cloven hoofed apprentice, and perhaps I'll pull a wild card and post some hobby work from a different project? 

We shall see... Until next time, thanks again for reading! 

FrostHeim Post 002 - Entities From Beyond...

*Post 002*

Entities From Beyond...

The Dark Young 

It wasn't difficult to find a candidate for my war-band's summoned 'Major Demon' role, as few creatures say 'Shub-Niggurath' quite like her grotesque, disturbing offspring; the 'Dark Young'.  First appearing in Robert Bloch's short story 'Notebook Found in a Deserted House' (first published in Weird Tales Vol.43 in 1951) these spawn of the All-Mother are described as horrifying monstrosities composed of a mass of ropy, branch-like tentacles and gaping toothed maws, standing upon deformed, cloven hoofed goat legs...

"It crawled up and it flowed up on its hoofs and mouths and snaky arms... The men bowed and stood back and then it got to the altar where there was something squirming on top, squirming and screaming..." - Robert Bloch, Notebook Found In a Deserted House.

Said to dwell deep within the forests where the All-Mother's power claims dominion, Dark Young can be summoned to attend followers of Shub-Niggurath's unnatural faith through means of esoteric ritual found within the black and terrible Book of Ebion. By moonlight, deep within the forest, the Summoner must offer up a blood sacrifice to the All-Mother upon a stone altar, leading his followers in a terrible chant with which to call the Dark Young to accept the sacrifice and bestow the blessings of Shub-Niggurath upon the faithful.

With lore like this I really couldn't ask for a better thematic fit for my war-band! Now it was just a case of finding the right miniature to represent this horrendous beast, a search that would not take me long... 

Summoning the Beast... 

Whist there were a large number of Dark Young miniatures on the market, most left much to be desired, with many of the sculpts bordering on comical. After a bit of research however, I found the miniature; Fenris Game's fantastic 'Cthulhu Wars: Dark Young' kit!

Above: "Despair, loathsome Infidels... Behold! An angel from the All-Mother's sanctum, come to aid us in our holy mission! Iä! Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!!" - The Wretched one, High Summoner-Preist of Shub-Niggurath

Sculpted by Ian Brumley of Fenris Games for the Cthulhu Wars board game, this beautiful resin kit went together fantastically, requiring minimal cleanup, and only a tiny bit of epoxy resin (green stuff) to re-position the tentacles. Once I'd finished the build I accidentally knocked the model off my hobby desk, and was both surprised and impressed to see that the model remained completely intact, and even bounced from its tentacles onto its base, waiting to be picked up!

Above: Shub-Niggurath's frightful and disturbing appearance in Id Game's classic 90s PC game, Quake.

Whilst many sources describe Dark Young as being pitch black in colour, I had a very different mental image in my head inspired by Shub-Niggurath's appearance as the final boss character in one of my all time favourite games, Id Game's Quake. As shown in the above image, Quake depicts Shub-Niggurath as a tree-like tentacled monstrosity, weeping gore and ichor over pallid necrotic flesh from a gaping wound-like maw. Wanting to capture this look for my own project I took inspiration from the sickly pale colour pallet, and made sure to include a liberal smattering of gore and viscera!

Above: A maddening mass of wreathing tentacles and gaping, gore-stained maws, it is said that few men can gaze upon a Dark Young for long and maintain their sanity... 

With so much going on in its disturbing and chaotic design, the Dark Young miniature looks striking and sinister no matter what direction it's viewed from. I'm hoping that it's going to make quite an intimidating presence on the tabletop when my Summoner manages to conjure a 'Major Demon'! 

My Thoughts...

Overall I'm very happy with how this miniature turned out! I toyed with the idea of a layer of extra highlights but I'm worried that this addition could detract from the pallid, sickly flesh tone. Whilst it is possible that I will revisit this idea in a later post, for now I'm happy to leave it be.

I used Tamiya Clear Red for the gore and viscera effects, a technique I've used many times before on previous hobby projects, only this time utilising a wash of Games Workshop's 'Baal Red' on the outer areas, which I feel helps blend the effect more naturally into the contrasting skin tone. 

What Next?

Now I've got a striking centrepiece model for the war-band I believe I'm going to take a side step and indulge in some thematically linked terrain pieces. I've always been keen to own my own set of wargames terrain, if only to facilitate gaming at home without relying on a local gaming club. With this project in particular I have an excellent opportunity to create some really interesting pieces of thematic scenery that will complement the war-band and make a great start to a fully-fledged 3x3 gaming board!

Obviously the war-band still lacks an apprentice, and is in dire need of both  'Imp' and 'Minor Demon' models for summoning, but with my mind teeming with ideas for creepy forest terrain these additions to the war-band will have to take a back seat... for now!

Once again,  if you've made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read my latest FrostHeim post! feel free to leave a comment below if you have any feedback, and stay tuned for more!

FrostHeim Post 001 - Children of the All-Mother...

*Post 001*

Children of the All-Mother...

Introduction 

Ever since getting my hands on a copy of Osprey's fantasy skirmish wargame Frostgrave, my mind has been racing with ideas for potential war-bands, terrain pieces and thematic scenarios. Somewhat of a spiritual successor to Games Workshop's classic skirmish game 'Mordheim', Frostgrave pits small forces of 8-10 warriors against each other amid the backdrop of a cursed, ruined city. Each war-band is lead by a powerful and unique Wizard with access to a wide range of varied spells and abilities that define your war-band's strategy on the table, and perhaps more importantly, its theme... 

After eagerly digesting Frostgrave's 10 'Schools of Magic' (sets of magical disciplines from which a Wizard selects their spells) the description of one school in particular sunk its grimy claws deep into my imagination; The Summoner.

"Summoners work their magic by opening doorways to different planes of existence. Usually this is to bring forth creatures from these other planes to use as servants, although there are other ways to use this power..." - Frostgrave Rulebook

As an avid reader of weird fiction, the works of one H.P Lovecraft in particular, the mere mention of 'planes of existence' peaked my interest almost immediately. I found the concept of opening doorways into alien worlds and summoning forth the unwholesome, cosmic entities that dwell beyond seemed like a captivating theme which would open up a range of interesting modelling opportunities and allow me to indulge heavily in my macabre tastes in horror...

Black Goat of the Woods...

Like many hapless mortals in weird fiction, my Summoner would be a devotee to one of the sinister, cosmic deities of the Lovecraft Mythos. Whilst Cthulhu would have been an obvious choice of patron, as the most well known and loved of Mythos entities, I've never found him a particularly interesting or frightening character and wanted my war-band's theme to tap into something more personal. In the end the choice was clear... Shub-Niggurath, The All-Mother, Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young! 

Above: Symbol of the Black Goat of the Woods...

Arguably the most extensively worshiped of all the Mythos deities, Shub-Niggurath is a profane and malevolent fertility goddess who claims dominion over forests and all those who would make their home within their boundaries. 

Growing up in a relatively isolated, rural village in England, I spent much of my formative years around dense and dark woodlands. During my frequent (often solo) rambles through local forests I quickly developed a liking for their eerie stillness and creepy atmosphere which would leave a lasting  impression on me. To this day I maintain this sense of 'sylvan dread' and find forests to be an evocative and creepy setting, so Shub-Niggurath seemed an appropriate choice of dark patron for my Summoner and his retinue of fanatical cultists!

(She's also the ending boss of my all time favourite PC game,  Id Games' seminal classic Quake, but that's a story for another time...)

The Beginnings of a War-Band

So without further ado, I give you the beginnings of my Frostgrave war-band, 'The Children of the All-Mother' in all their dark glory!

Above:  The Children of the 'All-Mother' emerge skulking from the shadows... hunting for sacrifices to their dark goddess...

There where no shortage of great miniatures I could have used for this project, but North Star Figures excellent multi-part cultists proved to be the perfect choice. Aesthetically speaking the pointed hoods and ragged robes could not have been more of a perfect fit, not to mention the wicked curved blades and fiendish angular crossbows. 

Above: a close up of the cult's 'Zealots' (Men-at-arms); what they lack in combat prowess they make up for in a fanatical devotion that borders on suicidal... Ia Ia Shub-Niggurath!!

 As these miniatures represented an organised cult, rather than a rag-tag collection of hired mercenaries, It was important to me for the war-band to look and feel like a cohesive group. As such I decided on the red and black colour scheme pretty early on to tie them together. The red and black combo just seemed to fit; being sufficiently grim for the theme whilst striking enough to look good on the games table. 

As the red and black contrast so well, it was fairly easy to keep them looking neat, for the most part at least. Whilst by no means a fantastic paint job (they could do with some tidying up, and proper highlighting) I'm fairly happy with these miniatures as a decent 'tabletop quality'. 

Above:Two of the cult's 'Black-Huntsmen' (Crossbowmen)... their barbed bolts dipped in a vile poison which renders their victims paralyzed, yet fully conscious (all the better as candidates for sacrifice)... 

Whist I did want a measure of uniformity within the group, it was also essential that the different troop types stood out as distinct enough to be recognized when on the gaming table. Thanks to the nice variety of different hooded heads on the Frostgrave Cultist sprue I was able to differentiate the crossbow troops with these mask like half hoods. 

Above: the war-band's 'Butcher' (Berserker) acts as the Summoner's personal honour guard. Having gained the favour of the All-Mother this initiate has been granted a taste of the coveted "Mothers Milk", a black ichor like substance whose mutagenic properties grant paranormal strength to its drinker... 

This Butcher (Berserker) model started as an experiment to see how well the cultist-kit parts worked with a GW plastic kit and quickly became my favourite character in the Summoner's retinue. Whilst the cultists are slightly smaller in scale, the difference is not so noticeable as to be unusable. Personally, I think the exaggerated bulk of the GW Marauder body makes this model look quite intimidating. 

The concept of the mutagenic 'Mothers-Milk' of Shub-Niggurath was taken from the Call of Cthulhu Role-play game, first appearing in the classic module 'At Your Door'. It's said to have been gifted directly from the All-Mother herself to her most devoted followers, warping the flesh of the drinker to give them supernatural strength and agility. I loved the idea of this sinister substance and want to explore it further as the war-band grows. 

Above: 'The Wretched One' (Summoner)... a dark shaman-priest of  Sub-Niggurath. This hunched creature is said to be able to commune directly with the All-Mother and call forth otherworldly entities from her divine realm...

Finally the war-band's leader 'The Wretched One', a classic GW 'Chaos Sorcerer' model from the 90s that I've had sitting in my bits box for years. His hunched form and gnarled staff fit the unnatural shamanistic look I wanted for the Summoner, whilst his robes mark him clearly as a member of the Cult and tie him in nicely with the rest of the war-band. I'm particularly happy with this miniature's base which makes up for his small stature, and helps distinguish him as the cult leader.

  My Thoughts...

After writing this post it occurred to me that, whilst the war-band certainly feels like a cohesive whole, nothing yet really screams 'Shub-Niggurath'! In their current state, they could just as easily be generic devil-worshipers or chaos cultists, which I'm not particularly happy with. Whilst this will start coming together once I source some suitable mythos creatures for the Wretched One to summon, I feel it would do me good to revisit these cultists and add some more thematic details. Perhaps a few goat skulls? Maybe a cult symbol of some kind daubed on their robes? I'll have a think in the coming weeks and share my thoughts....

Whilst I'm happy with the war-band as 'tabletop' quality (good enough to play games with) obviously there is some room for improvement on the paint jobs. As they stand most of the models have a basic base-coat, layer and wash applied, with some hastily applied (messy) highlights on the black robes. I think I'm going to go back to these soon and tidy them up to a higher standard with some more highlights and extra details. 

What Next?

So what's next for the Children of the All-Mother? 

Firstly the war-band is missing is a suitable apprentice model to stand alongside the Summoner. In games of Frostgrave your apprentice character is the only way of including another spell caster in your war-band's ranks. He or she represents a novice wizard learning from your war-band's leader, often younger and certainly more inexperienced. I'd like to start exploring the 'Black-Goat' aspect of Shub-Niggurath, so perhaps I'll look for a fitting beastman or satyr model to fill this role.

Obviously the Summoner needs creatures to actually summon onto the tabletop. The rulebook specifies rules for 'imps', 'minor demons' & 'major demons' that can be called forth by a Summoner, so I'll need to source and create suitable miniatures to represent these 3 tiers of the All-Mother's unholy spawn!

Finally my mind has been racing with ideas for terrain pieces that fit the war-band's theme. I've got a very vivid picture picture in my head of a seemingly abandoned town, deep in the gnarled forest where The Children of the All-Mother are said to dwell, so may well invest some time into bringing this to life...

So that's it for my first post; if you've made it this far then thanks for taking the time to read it! Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any suggestions, constructive feedback or questions about this project.

Oh, and until next time; Glory be to the All-Mother!!