Dottirs of Hel

I just received the giantess from a good friend of mine and I have removed it from the nearly impregnable fortress of supports it was encased in. A hot water soak was the best course of action in detaching parts. I wasn’t too pleased with this as the hollow sculpt and drain holes held enough to scald as I was prying away the supports. No matter, I pulled it all loose and went through successive dunks in order to scrape out the fine details into prominence.

I had been worried that the print might be too small compared to the monsters I’m assembling right now but this dry run on a 90x120mm oval shows there’s nothing to fear when the time comes to set her permanently. The added FDM bits are gifts I received from Giftmas a few years back and I’m pleased to use them here. Small things for visual flavor at this scale creates more interest. I may or may not add a thing of two. I’ll wait for it.

As I put up before this was just too cool a model to overlook. I have seen so few moose figures and this was great in combo with the witch. The only drawback is that she is so very plain and my lack of skill in painting black might not do it justice.

From the rattlecan brown I coated the witch in Army Painter Speedpaint Gloomy Black. I thought it a good idea to sketch up using Scale75 Anthracite Grey (SC-04) to highlight folds. I then hit the highest of highlights, which was the barest of surfaces, with Proacyrl’s Blue White. I’m pretty damn proud that it came out how it did. It didn’t grey out like how so many other things have ended up before. The flesh and skull were basic technique work otherwise which I don’t think need much explanation.

The moose was successive drybrush passes and then get its eyes dotted. Little fuss, no muss.

Unit numero dos for the army is done. Vallejo Xpress Color Black Lotus gives a nice blue-black that got a quick drybrush of off white to highlight. I overdid a little bit of that on a couple, admittedly, as I used a larger brush than normal thinking a little more moisture might be needed. I was wrong, I have learned, I move on.

Using the great base scheme from before these guys pop pretty well. I just don’t like the fact they’re so damn light and fall over so easily. I also need to get some magnets for the bottoms to help in transport and for staying upright.

First unit done for the army and it pleases me to get these done in short order.

From a basecoat using Army Painter Oak Brown from the rattlecan (my airbrush is still out of commission) I worked up a Dark grey into a lighter one and highlighted using a cool off white. The stomachs were done using a tan just to give some warmth and contrast like real canines.

I see ModPodge works damn well for the grass flock and snow once it all dries out. Some Gamer Grass Autumn at 5mm accentuates the transition of spring or an early winter with however the viewer wishes to interpret. I will continue with this for the rest of the army.

Oh shit oh shit oh shit! My brain was left to sit and boiled over. Egh… oh well. Here’s where we are then with a mess of thought all over the place. Atleast its still on theme as I look at adding some owlbears for Creatures. They aren’t flashy like I normally try as I consider Creatures to be just mini monsters but it does round out the great wood theme.

Maybe this build is a good balance for me as waning away from the other visual blasts by scale. I also say this before getting my printed giant in hand or get the ice wyvern. I guess that’s really the case for anything in the process. All my foot troops scale relatively similar at 28mm and then grow in demand for attention on the board. Maybe this is why GW, as a company with design, painted itself into the corner it did with scale creep into 32s and complexity of all the gribblies. Less noise and more focus works here.

I can’t very much leave well enough alone with things sometimes. I have bits that I am not using and an army that needs some more sprucing up from just people.

I decided to use the resin crows I pulled from Etsy years ago. This steers it all in the direction of an Otherworld board build. The stl files appear to come from White Werewolf on Myminifactory. Visually it works and continues the Scandinavian theme. It doesn’t hurt to think back to Lloyd’s Giftmas sticker and the track from Kordhell.

I’ll keep thinking of what else to lob into the pot and simmer in my head.

With all the shieldmaidens and just a few werewolves this army didn’t look fantastic enough. I was aware of the halflings on walri from the time they were announced long and I checked around Myminifactory to get them. I succeeded and have enough to field a Warrior unit. Good things are coming about with this build. I look forward to a friend of mine shipping me the giant soon as it will prove to be great addition for scale. I may or may not have enough credit built up with my local resin dealer to get the model for my Scourge just yet.

Since this has been intended to be a teaching army I’m not sure if I should get a third monster or not. I could do it for visual variation but I might just be spinning my wheels with that. Perhaps I could find another geek culture reference to run with here. I’ll let that thought  simmer.

I ordered a Signum Games figure with the intent of mirroring my Arabian Knights magical crew to this one. A moose mounted female arcane artist and a male on foot. Keeping with the Scandinavian theme I believe this will work. The werewolves from Wargames Atlantic are a touch of fantasy I’m ok to field as perhaps a special unit of shapeshifters or general fantasy warriors. As Hearthguard/warlord bodyguards I do have the berserkers but visually I might need more fantastic troops. I probably just need to drop monsters on the board to get over this.

My army has gotten a transport tray and most of the army is now magnetized. I have yet to do the second archer levy but that isn’t going to be too bad. The single figures of werewolves will get magnets but I’m debating on whether or not I should cannibalize some of the ones I earmarked for a future classical Indian army and a movement tray. I think I probably will just for the cohesion.

For the larger bases to magnetize I have my sorceress from Bad Squiddo and the leader from Gripping Beast’s Shieldmaiden box. I’ll be going with larger magnets for these since there’s more weight to them. These will have single 1/2″x 1/16″ discs to adhere with. On the other hand, I feel as though I did make a mistake in the size of magnets for my warriors and levy on the trays. I used 3/16″ diameter by 1/16″ thick discs and together they have a strong pull even with the metal minis. I slide them across the transport tray to over come the issue. At 3mm thick the movement trays leave little room to pull with enough force using my fingertips. Let this be a lesson to others 1/8″ is fine for plastic and should be ok for metal as long as you’re not throwing them around.