Winter is Coming - Conclusion

[Pattus Magnus]

I definitely like them, they convey the feel of the Stark forces in the show. I think your kit bashing worked great!

[Hitman]

Wow!! Great looking figures. I particularly like your basing technique Making it look muddy and how it splatters up on their clothes and capes...very real looking. Well done and thanks for sharing.
Regards
Hitman
😎

[Spinal Tap]

Yet another thread that slipped under the radar.

Those trees are brilliant, the white and red really set them off.

[Rosie]

Glad you all like the miniatures!

@Hitman yes I'm rather happy with how the muddy basing technique turned out. I started adding some more decoration to the bases this weekend and have to say it makes them come alive even more.

@Spinal Tap good to hear you like the trees! I have to say I wasn't too sure about them at first. I felt like the color selection (white, dark mud, blood red) made it difficult to get the amount of depth I wanted. But adding some grass to the bases did wonders and really makes the other colors stand out.

Over the past few days I've found the time to paint up some more miniatures. First of all I finally finished my standard bearer. I had already painted up this one before but felt rather nervous when it came to doing the freehand on the banner itself. Now that I've done it though I'm quite happy with how it turned out:




how to make an image a link

I also finished yet another Northern commander. This time it's Rodrik Cassel. Now for this one getting the model right was quite the challenge. First of all, his upper body armor is different to that of the other Stark forces in the show. He seems to be wearing some kind of leather shirt. To resemble this I took the upper body of a Scottish highlander, sculpted on the strings to hold his shirt together in the middle then added legs and arms from the Northmen commander sprue.

The more difficult part was getting his head right. I knew right from the start I probably wasn't going to find a head as thick as his so instead decided to focus on his hair. For this I went with a head from the Folk Rabble box that has the same high hairline and backwards done hair. I then trimmed away the ring beard from his face, leaving me with just the sideburns. That's where the 'creative part' came in. I used greenstuff to make his sideburns run further down his neck and add that signature beard of his. Here's how he turned out:




I'm absolutely loving the result! He's probably one of my favorite models from the army already. True, my Rodrik seems to have spent some time in the gym, but aside from that he really gives me that same vibe as the Rodrik from the series.

I hope you like him too! Stay tuned for more warriors to rally in support of the King in the North!

[HappyChappy439]

Great work on these two! You've nailed Rodrik's muttonchops!

[Rosie]

Thanks! Back with another little update. This time it's Rickard Karstark, the lord of Karhold. Since the Karstarks are shown multiple time in the show, I didn't have a hard time figuring out how they were supposed to look. Ragged tunics with some chainmail seems the way to go.

I started off by using a Folk Rabble body and chipping off the excess cloth around the neck. After that I thinned down the top part of a Northmen commander cloak far enough so that it would fit onto the back. The next step was sculpting some chainmail around his neck, blending in the cloak in the process. To finish it all off I added a dagger and sword arm from the Northmen warrior box, a left arm from the Folk Rabble and a head from my bits box that does look a lot like Rickard. Here's how he turned out:




For his paint job I went with dirty grey clothing with black lines added on for that ragged look. I painted the leather parts brown like with the Hornwoods for some more color variation as opposed to the black belts on my Starks. Rickard's hair is white in the series, but seems to look a lot more dirty than that of say someone like Rodrik Cassel. That is why I went with a darker grey as the undertone, slowly drybrushing it up to pure white. To finish off the model I gave him a little Karstark sun on his chest.

I quite like how he turned out. Again, I think that he really captures the look of Rickard in the series. I'm also rather content with the chainmail. I wasn't too sure at first but by slowly drybrushing on layers of metal with frequent washes in between I think it looks acceptable, certainly given the fact that I still find chainmail to be amongst the hardest things to sculpt.

I hope you like how he turned out! Stay tuned to see the Karstark swordsmen following him into battle, which will be done soon!

[Rosie]

I've got another update for y'all, just not the one I was expecting. I wanted to start working on my Karstark swordsmen, only to discover I couldn't find my chainmail mold anymore. Therefore, while waiting for a new one to be shipped, I decided to paint up yet another one of my northern lords: Medger Cerwyn.

Now the series didn't give me much to work with. All I could figure out from googling images and rewatching the first seasons myself was that the Cerwyns seem to have plated armor. Therefore I decided to start with the body and arms of the Scandinavian Infantry as the core of the model.

Next up I thinned down the top of yet another Northmen commander cloak to go onto Medger's back and sculpted on two leather belts across his chest to hold it in place. After that I took a head from my bits box that I liked and put it on top. To finish the model off I armed him with, what else could it be, a double bladed battle-axe:




For the paint job I went with dirty grey for the plated armor, black for his undergarments and cloak and brown for the leather to contrast all the black and grey tones. As for his hair, I went with grey, making sure not to go too light since his head already rather resembles that of Rickard Karstark and I don't want them to look too similar. I hope you like him!

[Pattus Magnus]

These leader figures look good. The painting works well and I love the kit bashing you are doing.

[HappyChappy439]

Great work on the lords!

I really like the commitment to the axe motif for House Cerwyn, I like to think that where they don't have their own Valyrian steel sword they're very proud of committing to their axes

[Rosie]

Thanks again for the praise!

@HappyChappy439 exactly. I do like to get a reference to the sigil in on all of my models whenever possible.

Continuing on I'm going to need some help from you guys. I'm bringing this army to a tournament in January where I'll have the perfect opportunity to take some photos of the entire army in a fitting environment. Therefore I want to have finished all of the models before that date. Now the Karstarks are just waiting for my chainmail mold to arrive and I've already got the models for my Cerwyns ready to be painted, but I'm still pondering on what models to use for my Mormonts. I know that I probably want to give them greatswords to get some more armament diversity. But for the armor itself I see two options from the show:




Now for the first one I could just go with the same armor I used for my Umbers but paint it differently. For the second one though I'd need to be looking for models with similar bodies. I know Perry has a few, but their models are just too much of a mismatch size wise compared to my Starks for example. Therefore I'd like to ask you guys if you either know of any models with greatswords whose arms would fit reasonably well onto the Almughavar bodies or of any models matching the armor shown in the second picture.

[WitchQueenofAngmar]

If you can't find suitable greatsword arms, you can try these greatswords and add them to your chosen models.

https://www.shapeways.com/product/5624MEVZE/sword-2-handed-28mm-x25?optionId=152241707&li=shops

I've put them on some Oathmark elves by replacing the handles & removing the ricasso to turn them into longswords.

[Rosie]

@WitchQueenofAngmar thanks for the suggestion! I'm still hoping to find some great sword arms in time so I can have them dual wielding the swords, but if not I'll definitely look into those.

Alright, I'm back with the latest update. Now that my new chainmail mold has arrived I have finally been able to finish my Karstark swordsmen. I used the same parts and painting technique as on Rickard, just without the cloak. Here's how they turned out:



I'm really happy with the result. Having been able to add in the chainmail, ragged clothes and Karstark suns I think they resemble the Karstark soldiers from the show rather well. I hope you like them too. Once I get some more battle-axes I'll start working on the Cerwyn axemen. Stay tuned!

[Belgian]

Great additions, looking forward to see what's next.

Great work on the greenstuff too 

[HappyChappy439]

Great work! The little sunbursts on their surcoats are a nice touch

[Rosie]

Thanks again for the praise! Glad you like the chainmail and sunbursts!

While I'm preparing my Cerwyns to be painted I could use some of your help again. I've figured out what to do with the weaponry for my Mormonts, but am still in need of some heads for them. Does anyone know of a set that would go reasonable well with the other miniatures in this army?

Also, since I'm doing some of the minor houses now I might as well cover all the Northerners besides the Boltons before I finish this project off. Now there are two more houses the show covered, namely house Manderly and house Glover:


I'm using TW images since this mod consistently manages to replicate them quite accurately and makes for clearer images than shots from the show itself. Now for the Manderlys, Stark lower bodies with Stark cavalry upper bodies should do the trick. I am still looking for helmets resembling the ones in the picture so if you know of any please let me know.

For the Glovers it's a little bit more complicated. The lower bodies I could get from the Folk Rabble box once again and since I want to give them polearms those could come from that box as well, but I am still in search of both the upper bodies and helmets as shown, so for those I could also do with some help.