Duck Tales from the Crypt - Sculpting Fearsome Fowlmen (Frostgrave, Glorantha)

[lilljonas]

I recently started to learn to sculpt, primarily to make a halfling army. This project suddenly took a secondary role when some clubmates started to play Frostgrave. Everyone immediately jumped at the chance to field necromancers and other evil mages. With a ton of new activity, from terrain building to impulse buys of warbands, it was impossible to resist joining the bandwagon.

With the small figure count I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to make something unique from scratch. Something that's hard to buy as minis. Something that could stand up to the growing threat of the undead. So welcome, dear reader, to let the chill crawl down your spine as we dwell into the



The idea came from the role ducks have in the Glorantha settings, as small yet determined members of a dangerous world, making the best of their situation. I always loved the images of the ducks in Kings of Dragon Pass, desperately trying to get the crude Orlanthi humans to wake up to the dangers of undead. Ducks also played a part in the role playing games of my youth, as D&D wasn't a thing here in Sweden. Instead, the heavily Runequest-inspired Drakar och Demoner copied not just much of the rules, but also directly imported the ducks as well. With a childhood filled with plenty of pirate ducks roaming the Copper Sea that spanned the world of Ereb Altor, combined with the best of Bark's various historical versions of his Disney characters, just thinking about this project tugged at a lot of nostalgic heart strings.

So this project consists of scratch sculpting at least eight ducks. There will be at least one mage and an apprentice, as well as a gang of thugs, brutes, sellswords making up this rag-tag group of adventurers. It is highly likely that I won't be able to stop at just eight minis, but we'll see.

First out is the main character, the mage. He'll be armed with a magic staff and carry some suitably mystical gear. This is the WIP as of today:







Overall I'm happy with him, though the staff stone ended up a bit too big. It was really hard to try to get the sleeves to be both the same length and size. But most of all he was a ton of fun to sculpt, which is why I decided to continue and make an entire warband. He's still a WIP since I think I'll give him a big ol' 16th century floppy hat, maybe with a feather or two.

Next up will be the apprentice. I also ordered a bunch of hand weapons, since I find sculpting weapons to still be a complete chore, and I made armatures for the first eight minis in the gang. One ended up much bigger, as rumours tell of a fearsome, brutish barbarian bird stalking the wasteland. If our heroes are lucky it could be lured with gold and food to join the expedition as they dwelve into the heart of the rising undead menace.

Stay tuned for more duck tales if you dare.  Or will you...

.... chicken out?

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Might want to watch some of the Ghost Archipelago vids on Youtube for inspiration.  You're not the first person to think of using RQ-style ducks for the XXXGrave rules.

For ex:

[lilljonas]

Thanks, that's some great inspiration as well.

This weekend I continued work on the ducks. First off, the mage got a fancy hat, and I consider it done now:







I also made an apprentice. This guy is tiny, with the haunched stature he's just 18mm to the top of the head! It's hard to tell from the pics, but he's holding a backpack full of scrolls and books in place with his hands.







The third duck out will be a proud knight. I still need to give him a cape, I already sculpted a shield on the side that I'll put on his back after the cape is done.







Finally an overall view of the rest of the gang, slowly approaching the next sculpting phases. Since they'll be used in Frostgrave I'll need a lot of unarmoured basic thugs and thieves, which I realized I feel less inspired to do than the more specific types. So I might blast through them to get them over with if I don't find an interesting take.

[OSHIROmodels]

Grey stuff 

[Cat]

Very nice.
 
You'll be wanting some with halberds of course, for a fiercesome unit of billmen.
 
: 3

[Blackwolf]

As a Glorantha fan,and a bit of twitcher ;  they are fantastic 

[Little Odo]

These are coming along rather nicely.

[jetengine]

Love it, will you cast them at all ?

[lilljonas]

Grey stuff 

Thanks

Very nice.
 
You'll be wanting some with halberds of course, for a fiercesome unit of billmen.
 
: 3

 

Or an unlucky duck who had to sacrifice his tail feathers for the upcoming archers.

As a Glorantha fan,and a bit of twitcher ;  they are fantastic 

Thanks!

These are coming along rather nicely.

Thank you

Love it, will you cast them at all ?

Well I have never tried it before. I started sculpting this year with the aim of getting good enough at the end of the year to try to get some cast. I have considered doing the entire set first, and see if any end up good enough to try to get cast. But I have no idea what company would be suitable, I don't have the space or time to set up something myself.

[jetengine]

Iirc Macrocosm cast for people?

[Bloggard]

awesome work

[lilljonas]

Iirc Macrocosm cast for people?

Thanks! I'll add them to my small but growing list about people to get in touch with when I have enough ducks.

awesome work

Thank you!

Ok, so next batch will focus on some unarmoured or lightly armoured ducks. I'll need plenty of these for Frostgrave, and they should be suitable for an adventurer gang or for RPGs.





This is probably my favourite in this batch. I like his face and his stance, and the mail coif. The kettle helmet is just started, I'll work more on it when the base has cured. I'm thinking of giving him a big stonkin' polearm.





I nicknamed this "The Brute", because of the menacing pose. I'll give him a big club.





Finally a dastardly thief. He'll get a knife and maybe some kind of mask or similar disguise, or just a hat. The pose ended up a little bit wonky with the legs, but it might work out in the end.



The growing gang. It feels great to have them lined up and see how they organically develop. It's like I'm forming tories in my mind when I work on the ducks. Now I'm wondering if they don't travel around with some kind of wagon, maybe with a mule-driver goose? Who knows!

[HappyChappy439]

Incredible sculpting work! 

I picked up King of Dragon Pass the other week for the first time so I've definitely learned that ducks aren't to be taken lightly! 

[trev]

These are coming along very well.  Great work.  I hope you can get them cast,

[lilljonas]

Incredible sculpting work! 

I picked up King of Dragon Pass the other week for the first time so I've definitely learned that ducks aren't to be taken lightly! 

Thanks! Yes, KoDP is a great source of inspiration for these.

These are coming along very well.  Great work.  I hope you can get them cast,

Thank you, I'm working steadliy towards the goal of having a dozen good sculpts done this Summer at least.


Sculpting was slowed down by work and picking up a whole bunch of old Orcs & Goblins second hand, but I've had some progress and if I dare say it myself, some of my favourite results this far:





This magnificient barbarian warrior is huge! Almost human size! :O





This billduck also got the last touches.





A thug duck, staring down the next victim of its big club. This pose come up by coincidence, but I really like it.









Two thieves. I need these to be able to play Frostgrave with this gang of adventuring ducks, but I'm not sure I really hit the spot with these sculpts. I might try some more ideas for more thief sculpts.



Finally some WIPs, including a sorceror, a crossbowduck and an archer.

And here are the finished sculpts so far ranked up: