Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror! The beginning of something new...?

[Malamute]

Wow Karsten, the  moon is magnificent.

The award is very well deserved too.

[gamer Mac]

The face on the moon is very creepy
Are there more pictures of it in action?

[Doug ex-em4]

I took a few pictures of the game that I'd be happy to post if people are interested and if Karsten has no objections. Didn't get the moon though...........

Doug

[vikotnik]

Thank you again, guys! I really hope that I can play on this table with some of You next year or so...
Gamer Mac, if I have the time today, I will finish putting up all the pics concerning the 'Monduntergangsmaschine'.

The sun:
I had a rather abstract sun already finished, the first idea was to see just a couple of rays appearing behind the scenery. I found that idea quite satisfying until...

...well, until Zafarelli mentioned that '...this peculiar half-disc rather looks like a bunch of your rats than rays even if You have painted all of them orange.'.
So I disgrunteledly flung the thing in the corner and started on a new one. Naturally, the sun is a completely different character than the moon: Bright, content and happy!
The idea of making a disc rather than a ball stayed. I decided to paint the back of the sun like it would be a wooden construction.

Again, I used Super Sculpey and had to find out that this stuff shatters if you let it fall to the floor once it is baked!
I needed two hours of gluing the pieces back together and fixing missing parts with Milliput.

Anyway, the thing is finished now, here goes:

The main bulk of the sculpt, still without any details:


...eyes finished:


Sculpt completed:


Painted:


Next up: The complete MONDUNTERGANGSMASCHINE!

@Doug: Yes please! Feel free to post some pictures.

[gamer Mac]

Again a great face.
Full of character exactly like you would imagine the sun and the earlier one of the moon

[Gluteus Maximus]

I took a few pictures of the game that I'd be happy to post if people are interested and if Karsten has no objections. Didn't get the moon though...........

Doug

Yes please!

[Doug ex-em4]

I am experiencing a little post-Crisis Exhaustion Syndrome (ie - in English, I'm feeling a bit knackered) but if I can prop my eyes open, I'll upload them tonight. Usual disclaimer about the pics only being from a phone camera but they're not too bad.

Doug

[Doug ex-em4]

OK - here goes:













































I apologise for the lack of captions - I didn't have time to find out the narrative of the game because I was working. Maybe Karsten could add some comments.

Doug

[WillieB]

Incredible 

Way beyond incredible.
Two years ago I felt that Vikotniks' effort would probably never bettered.
I have ( gladly) been proven wrong.
This is without a doubt the finest piece of work that has ever graced a table at Crisis.
The maestro has done it again.

[vikotnik]

Willie, Thank You very much for the nice compliment, I can only return it by saying that, without doubt, Crisis is one of the finest and best organised wargame shows to attend to!
Driscoles and me have talked a lot about new ideas and I am sure I will attend Crisis again in 2011.

@Doug:
Thank you for the pictures, they came out well indeed!
Since the first test games, each game was completely different, hence it is not possible to comment on each pic regarding to the story, so I try to keep it general.

Here is the english introduction to the game:
"Successful estate agent Thomas Hutter, young and newly wed, is instructed by his superior to visit Count Orlok in the Carpathians. He is assigned to finalise the Count’s purchase of several estates in his home town Wisborg.

While signing the documents, he drops a medallion bearing the image of his wife Ellen. Instantly the Count is taken by Ellen’s beauty! The Vampire numbs Hutter with a single bite and at once leaves by hip for Wisborg to conquer Ellen to be eternally his.
The cargo on his ship: Coffins with native soil, but countless rats as well.
The ‘Hildegard’ reaches Wisborg with none alive. Orlok and his rats abandon ship and he starts the quest for Ellen, who is hiding in one of the towns many cellars. The residents of Wisborg realise too late that the plague has hit their beautiful town... Meanwhile Orloks henchmen have set up a coffin in one of the cellars to function as a first retreat.
Hutter, recovered from Orloks bite, is riding to Wisborg in a frenzy to save his spouse and end the spell of evil.
The player moving Count Orlok tries to find and seduce Ellen before sunrise. The player moving Hutter tries to prevent this and tempts to destroy Orlok’s coffin."

I do not want to bore You with game mechanics, guys. Suffice to say that each player tries to find the secret of the other under one of the houses(Yes, it might even be the same one they are hiding it in!). They have to find clues in order to find the other one's secret or they can decide to search the houses individually. The rats Orlok can summon do not only spread the plague, but function as a means of teleporting him across the table as well.
In fact, the main bulk of the rules were devised by Driscoles, while details came up through test gaming.

However, I have to comment on a few of the pics:
While watching the Werner Herzog version of the story(the one starring Klaus Kinski as the Count), I have noticed a few things I wanted to have on the table as well in order to add atmosphere:
A set banquet table on the market place, a ruined coach complete with dead/dying horses, and a grey horse running guidelessly through the streets.

[Captain Blood]

Superb. What a table 
Karsten, you are a true artist. The moon (and the sun) are simply brilliant.

[Malamute]

Yep its a rare thing of beauty. I love the extra touches like the crashed coach, the benches, smoke from chimney pots and the banquet table. All stunning stuff.

It completely captures the look and feel of Nosferatu. I love it.

And Karsten - is that you in the photo? You have cut off your long hair 

[Driscoles]

And he became thinner too 
Cheers
Björn

[vikotnik]

Cheers for the nice comments, especially the one about the weight!
 

While making pictures of the Monduntergangsmaschine, I had to understand that it does not photograph too well, but here goes:

I bought a plastic gear mechanism from an electronics supplier that I cast in brass to give it a more antique feel-a red plastic casing and gears would hardly be fitting, do they? I then assembled it and used some antique silver fork handles for the hands. The last 'hard part' was to sculpt the lever and then cast it in steel.
The fork handles were then soldered to the upper cogwheel, the lever to the lowest one.

The casing was built from some leftover Pardulon-parts, embellishments, edgings and other stuff were sculpted out of either Green Stuff or Magic Sculpt. The rivets were made out of tiny brass nails I still had lying around from an old project. As mentioned before, the idea was a machine that makes the moon go down and the sun go up in ten rounds, the lever has to be turned ten times to have the sun up and shining.

Here are two pictures of the unpainted, scratch-built version:



...the finished machine, front and half-back view:



It can be used like this:


Here goes what the gamers see on the table:

[bc99]

So awesome. Wow.