Round bases it is!......The ruins of Krappefortt (MORDHEIM)

[Kitsune]

Great work and pictures. Table looks stunning!

[Andrew May]

Just saw the finished table shots!
Wowee!

[Mason]

Thanks for the comments, chaps.

Going to get cracking with the Undertaker's conversion this week.
Was thinking about about posting some pics of the various gangs contesting dominance of Krappefortt, mine and others when they drop them off to me.

Should have a new member joining our group soon, and his figures are certainly worth a look!
(If he doesn't mind them posing for y'all!)

[Mason]

Starting work on the Undertaker's this week.

The Undertaker's shop has already been used in most of our games so far but, as I feel it is now begining to be dwarfed by the other buildings around it and I am not really happy with it, I have decided to do some extra work on it.
As it stands it is only one storey and a small yard surrounding it.
It consists of a small polystrene ruin (I cannot remember the manufacturer as I bought it on ebay for a couple of quid a long time ago, and it just sat in my scenery bits box for ages), mounted on the usual MDF base, and some GW fences, again cheap from ebay.

I intend to add another storey, a roof to cover some of the yard, and a bunch of coffins to 'decorate' the area.

Here are a few pictures of it as it stands before the 'upgrade';







The Trollslayer standing in the courtyard is one of the Hired Swords from our campaign.
He is known to all by his famous war-cry of 'WODYOOCALLMARMUM!'
He is currently in the employ of a Marienburg trade cartel that dominate the Fort area of Krappfortt, The Posenhosen Trading Company.

WIP pictures to follow.

[Luckyjoe]

That's cool. Definitely need an Undertaker in Mordheim. Could also double as a Butcher Shop.  I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[Mason]

Got a little bit done with the Undertakers;

Sorted out a few bits from the bits box that will be used;


A couple of wooden beams from White Tower, and some parts from PMC games left over from previous projects. Still to dig out the roof parts, and the obligatory balsa wood, but wont need those yet. Will get the basics done before detailing.

Wodyoocallmarmum is keeping a watchful eye on proceedings!

Cut the base model down to the required height, keeping the cut offs for future projects;



Cut the PMC wooden floor level into the necessary pieces and began to assemble the second storey.


Second storey seen here drying, awaiting the next stage.

You can hopefully see where I am going with this.

More to come when I get a little more time.

[OSHIROmodels]

Is this going to be a sort of bridging piece so you get a larger floor area or am I talking out of my botty 

cheers

James

[Mason]

Is this going to be a sort of bridging piece so you get a larger floor area or am I talking out of my botty  

cheers

James

You can rest easy, James; Your botty is silent on this one!

It is indeed a kind of bridging piece.
I needed to extend the PMC piece in order to to cover the required area that the second floor extends to.
Added in the floorboards to do this, supported beneath with a couple of crossbeams.
I will go back later to 'damage' the floorboards later.

Feeling a bit rough today, nothing serious, just not in the mood to make anything.
Laying around was begining to get on my nerves, so I thought I would have an attempt at improving my skills with the camera.
So I had a go at taking some pics of one of my Mordheim warbands- The Skaven!

They were awful, so I asked my better half to do them again and, even with poor lighting, they are much better than my attempts!

Anyway, I digress..........

I started off with Skaven in Mordheim for one reason alone- I had a few laying around from a previous project.
I had never played Mordheim before and wasn't too sure if I was going to like it, so I didn't fancy investing in any new shinies, so I used these.
(Little was I to know at the time that Legionnaire Bert was leading me down a very DARK path by introducing me to this game!)
They were originally bought on the cheap off of Ebay, painted to a very basic gaming standard. I have gone back at various times and tarted them up a bit, rebased them and added a few of my own over time as the warband has progressed.

Introducing my first Skaven warband-
The White Klaw Kabal!

Leader of the Kabal is the ratman known by his enemies as The Master, accompanied here by the two Night Runners, litter brothers and runts of the group, 'Itchy' and 'Scratchy' Stilletto;



Next up are the two tough guys and elite monsters of the band, the Black Skaven known to outsiders simply as 'The Warrior' and 'The Enforcer.'
These two are like a whirling maelstrom of destruction, armed with fighting claws and a set of skills and upgrades that make them a match for anyone in Krappfortt;



The final 'hero' of the warband is the Eshin Sorcerer known as 'The Hex,' accompanied here by his famililiar 'Fleabag.'
(He is the third Sorcerer to have joined the Kabal, the magic-users of this band don not seem to last too long for one reason or another!)



Next up are the various warrior groups that make up the bulk of the band, the ever expendable Verminkind;





The final group of Clanrats are armed with spears and captured shields and form the bodyguard of the 'Master;'



Following along in the wake of the band, devouring any scraps left by them are the mutated Giant Rats of Krappfortt;



No band of warriors of the Underworld would be complete without the services of one of the fearsome creatures bred by Clan Moulder, the Rat Ogre!
Known simply as 'The Monster', it usually leaves a trail of destruction wherever it goes;



Finally, a group shot of the whole band, The White Klaw Kabal!;



I hope you can make them out due the lack of good light, although any attempt by thr Missus is always better than mine.

Will be back with more WIP shots of the Undertaker's as soon as I pull my finger out and get back to building.

C&C welcome.

[Luckyjoe]

Those are great. I love the names you have given them, and I think "the Monster" is my favorite.

[OSHIROmodels]

I'm certainly no photographer myself so can't help you there but I do like the skaven, the bases in particular 

cheers

James

[dodge]

Photography is a challenge for me too,

try smaller groups and fiddling with the apperture value or macro, natural light is always better than halogen etc..

but then I do all of those things and it still aint great.

like what you have done with skaven though 

[Mason]

Thanks for the comments, Chaps!

Considering the photos are so bad, your comments are much appreciated.

Those are great. I love the names you have given them, and I think "the Monster" is my favorite.

Thanks, Luckyjoe. The fact that that is one of the better pictures probably helps!

I'm certainly no photographer myself so can't help you there but I do like the skaven, the bases in particular 


cheers

James

Thanks Jim! The bases of all of my Mordheim gangs are finished in a similar way. Barring the Skaven, they are mostly on a flagstone style. The skaven were already based on fairly standard 'grass' basing, although I did manage to make a few a bit more interesting i.e. the Giant Rats and Black Skaven. The leaves have been put on all of them, though, to tie them together.

Photography is a challenge for me too,

try smaller groups and fiddling with the apperture value or macro, natural light is always better than halogen etc..

but then I do all of those things and it still aint great.

like what you have done with skaven though 

Thanks for the tips, Dodge. I may just leave the photography to my better half in future.
I may just ask her to re-take these of the Skaven, they may look better than the blurs that they currently are that way!

[Mason]

Whilst I was doing a little work on the Undertaker's, I asked my better half to re-take the pictures that I took of the Skaven.

They are much better, please scroll up for a look.

Got some progress going on the Undertaker's building. Will add some pics later.

[OSHIROmodels]

They look much better  but might I suggest a bit of matt varnish on some of the characters, some of the cloth looks a bit shiny 

cheers

James

[Argonor]

Now I just want to dig out my Mordheim box and get my hands on the plastic Skaven.... Not that I need another project... 

Concerning photography, I've had some good experiences with using a tripod, macro setting, and 2 secs 'suspended release'? (or whatever it's called - to ensure that I have my hands away from the camera to avoid ANY shaking), no flash, but 2 or more lightsources. But the quality of the light is probably the one most difficult thing to get right without using som kind of diffusion, and the most frequent reason for blurred pics, even with the macro setting