Under an Ashen Sky - The Elder Scrolls in 28mm (Frostgrave)

[Manchu]

By hoses, do you mean the tentacle-like things hanging from the face of the Ascended Sleeper ... er, mask?

[Wyrmalla]

Some of the Telvanni in the concept art wore gas masks in the original concept art - to deal with all the ash.




The Dust Adept helmet in Morrowind has some sort of air filters, though its too low poly to tell. Gas Masks are canon to the series, with the MMORPG having a few off the top of my head (an updated Dust Adept helm and a few of Sotha Sil's ones).  ...Ahem, though if we're bringing ESO's Clockwork City DLC into this discussion that has bloody computers (cooled with Frost Magic and using inter-planer soul gems as a form of RAM).




So I was thinking of having some sort of filters/ hoses to tie back into the original art work. Something that the game didn't really develop presumably due to budget issues. Or I can just leave the helmet as it is, though I think its maybe a bit too generic as it is right now. ...Turning it into a rebreather may be a bit off putting however.



Back to painting. Seven models done today.

[Manchu]

I think it looks good as it is, although some tentacles would not go amiss. The gas mask stuff does not look Morrowind to my eyes.

[MachinaMandala]

What art book are you getting all the concept art from?

[LiamFrostfang]

  cool the bottom pic reminds me of … FLASH!!!

[Wyrmalla]

@ Manchu

Well I tried sticking on air filters/ hoses to the model, but they just looked weird, so yeah, I'll stick without them.

@MachinaMandala

I've no idea what the source of the art is, but there's loads of Morrowind concept art out there (I think the UESP wiki has most of it. Can't find any books with it for sale). I'm not sure if it was the same artist as their later games. When he died of Cancer they release a lot of his work (mostly Oblivion/ Fallout 3/ Skyrim). His art was so much more characterful than what actually made it into the games (the Balliwogs from the Shivering Isles were slaves rather than generic enemies for example, along with variants on the Flesh Atronach – like one with drinks trays for arms). ...Though the concept art's always better than the games.

@ LiamFrostfang

Youknow I think there's a version without the hood and big air filter in that game. Everyone paints it red and just uses it for cosplaying Deadpool.



Breaking things up a bit I fished out some unfinshed projects from last time which could do with a bit of a tidy up.

I'm not sure if any of these have been posted before, though maybe not beyond the odd unpainted sculpt.


This guy's from way back. He's the model which I sculpted during a class with Hasslefree's Kev White to show off what I'd learned. It never went beyond that though and had been sitting on a shelf for years.



If you look back through the pages here you may find him being discussed. He's based on a concept for the Skywind mod for an Orsimer Warlord. Uh, whom may be a bit too high profile for a guy hooking up with a bunch of scavengers.

The armour's based on Morrowind's Orcish style crossed with the more Mongolian like stuff in later games (before they went full Uruk Hai in Skyrim). The MMORPG's recently brought this style back, but in use by the Akaviri (they have their own Orcish styles, one like Skyrim, the other's kind of Nordic looking; though its supposed to be an older style before the craftsmanship was lost. Which I suppose explains why the ones we see in the games are cruder looking).


Here's this other older sculpt. A guy whom I hadn't ever finished painting as I didn't really like the quality of the model (too many large flat areas). With a dry brush and some painted on runes he doesn't look quite so bad.




And a Redoran warrior, again one which I wasn't too happy about so he never was finished.




As for the bought stuff I've had a few laying about unloved.

This Argonian Warrior (from Reaper Miniatures) was about 90% done for most of his life, but I never thought he looked quite right. Now however I couldn't care less.



Hmn, I don't think any of the games have had Argonian armour in them. You'd think there'd be some mercenaries wearing their native dress. Though most of the fighters in each of the provinces just wear what's local (probably for budget reasons. Oh, other than those Redguards in Skyrim which were cool). The Argonian armour in ESO was supposed to look really close to this model (which is why I bought him), but wound up being more of a generic South American leather affair (pity, the scales make everything better).


Speaking of scales. Back in the days of Morrowind when Cyrodiil was a tropical Rain forest (where the culture was a cross between the Romans and ancient Chinese ...rather than European) the Imperials were more reasonably dressed for the climate. Here's an Imperial mercenary wearing Newt Scale armour (I believe made from a Perry (?) Grecian type).




Who finds himself paired with this other Reaper miniature. A Battlemage for an Imperial based war band which I had planned. The Daedric style staff sold me.




And who better to be tailing alongside someone with a Daedric artefact and ill intent than a Vigilant of Stendarr (which I have no idea about the source of. The face is a bit Kev White looking).



In retrospect I could have painted his armour gold and made it Imperial Dragonscale armour out of Morrowind. I'm not sure if the Knight profile would best fit him, or just to go ahead and count him as a Demon Hunter from The Forgotten Pacts.


Since its been a while since I worked on any of this stuff things have been moved about. I can't for the life of me find some of the bits which I'd been working on. There's a few Dremora, a Xivilai and a Harvester (from ESO) lost in a box somewhere. Having a guy decked out in Daedric armour would be a nice addition. Maybe as a higher level demon than the Atronach which I already have.

 Which reminds me to go look out that Flesh Atronach I had to see if its still viable. ...At least, being a Frankenstein creation, any crap sculpting can be sold as though it were intentional.

[Wyrmalla]

Going way back in this thread I'd started on making a Flesh Atronach based on their appearance from the Elder Scrolls Online. Originally the model began as a Flesh Golem by Reaper Miniatures – with the idea being that it already had the look about it. In reality barely any of that original model shows through on the final sculpt – with the Reaper model being far too athletic / less tumorous (that's a word).



I'm glad to have this guy ready to paint finally. He'll be a larger demon type in games ...or perhaps a construct.






Let's call this "good enough".



Unless anyone has any suggestions?



I think this one's by Reaper (it says "RMI 08" on the base). She looks just the part to be a Spider Cultist of Mephala.





(Maybe short a pair of arms or two)

A wizard for a potential Daedric themed war band. Or perhaps she could be paired with that Sixth House Priest which I made for a Sixth House group (I already have an Ascended Sleeper and Corpus Stalkers).



Well, the old painting table's becomming busy again.

[Bloggard]

brilliant.

[Hupp n at em]

Great work man! Your sculpting gets better and better.

[Wyrmalla]

More from the world of not working on those Dwarven ruins...


Done!



I wonder how much all those jelly rolls jiggle...

Eww. I think one of those bulbs burst.


Ah, I won't lie, this guy only took like 15 minutes to paint. He's literally two colours, and one's just the wood on the hammer.



I'll need to find another suit of Dwemer armour which I haven't made yet to go along with my ruins set. I really should get around to working out how to do some automatons at some point.


Reaper do this elven Necromancer which just screamed Ashlander Shaman to me.



Don't ask me what that thing on his hip with the tentacles coming out of it is supposed to be.


Looking a bit dog like with how I painted her, here's a Khajiit ranger.



I'm not going to lie, I'm not a fan of the beast races. Maybe adding a cat tail to an elf would be good enough (in the canon most Khajiit are supposed to look like elves with tails, but those weren't unique looking enough, so Morrowind changed that). :I


Last, among the Reaper stuff which are unfortunately tall, this one's the largest. He's inadvertently been painted up like an old Dunmer adventurer with those dusty trousers of his.




Right, maybe back to playing with some more terrain again.

[Wyrmalla]

My Dwemer themed warband's still in the planning stages. Currently I've no idea when another campaign will be run, or how things will be organised. Regardless I wrote out a standard war band yesterday to have an idea what to make. Its:

Wizard – Sigilist – with Create Construct
Apprentice
Captain – 2 Handed Weapon + Mail Armour
2 Archers
2 Thieves
2 Thugs


So far I have, um, the Captain as a model. ...Lots of opportunities for sculpting then!

The task would be working out how to make low levelled Dwemer themed fighters. The current three which I have would probably be a Templar, Knight and a Treasure Hunter, and too rich looking for the regular scum you have when starting out.

The idea for the cheaper folks would be to go for bandit types wearing a mix of low level armour with bits and bobs of the Dwemer stuff thrown in. A bit like the bandits you'd find in Dwemer ruins in Morrowind.

Here's my first attempt at a pair of these bandits.



Once they're painted hopefully they'll fit in better. Maybe I should have others wearing helmets to tie them in a bit more?


I'd ordered one of those textured rolling pins from Green Stuff World which arrived today. Now that I have that the first of some lava pool tiles could be worked on. Here's my attempt at one, um, still unpainted obviously (still bits to fix).



Some pointier stalagmites may have been more appropriate. The crystals and skeleton are both from Green Stuff World. It'd be nice to have a lava river some tiles if I could manage it (the roller's easy enough to use. Its actually the cracked ice one, but should work for magma).

Only now do I realise that the bloody roller has the company's website stamped on it! Where's my damn craft knife...

[Wyrmalla]

Today's sculpts -



The Mongol Wrestling outfit on that one figure was unintentional. The tool just started to create it and I went with the flow. He kind of came out looking more like the Imperial concept art than I'd intended.

Out of the four two are supposed to be thieves, though most of them look more like thugs. I guess as long as I consistently use the models as one role then it won't be an issue.

Right, I'm still short two archers and the wizards.

[Wyrmalla]

Time for some constructs.



Spiders seemed like the easiest one to start with. In retrospect I should have made a mould of the sculpted area so I could make a few of these and havea  whole swarm. Hmn, guess I'll need to hack one up then.



Its the spindly parts which have been putting me off these, but the spiders are least didn't seem too bad. I'll need to look into making a Centurion Sphere.



Meanwhile I've been having a delve through the Bethesda Elder Scrolls concept art for some inspiration. When the artist died Bethesda put up a lot of his work onto their Flickr. Its a shame that a lot of his ideas didn't make it into the games.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/sets/72157629321027031/page1

I do want more Daedra...

[Manchu]

Daedra or Daedric princes??

[Wyrmalla]

Sheogorath's dead by this point.

Nah, I just started sculpting a Knight of Order. They've been something which I've eyed up for a while. A pity that they haven't appeared since that one DLC considering plot wise Jyggalag is a Daedric Prince seeking to bring order to the various planes (I guess he's become more cautious since the last time he tried that).