Games of the North: 20/5 completed carts, commerce & captives (GoT)

[Silent Invader]

Thanks folks 

Is "soured on" a typo or a real Australian expression - it's new to me?!? Glad to hear you're having a go Matt - if you get stuck, try a different tool and see what happens.

Regarding to convert or to sculpt: it's a good question.  If I intended to cast then sculpt for sure but these are very much meant to be personal one offs. Without being cast, the minis would be painted greens, which has the potential for problems if metal or plastic parts (swords, spears, shields, etc) are used, as GS joints won't bond like styrene on styrene and the GS isnt as stable a base for pinning as metal. A solution could have been to incorporate the spine of the sword etc as part of the armature but that - alongside heads and other fiddly stuff - would have added to the sculpting time. My thinking then - and there was only a moment of it, honest - was that it'd be quicker to convert and that the resulting mini would be more robust while retaining many of the lovely features of the Perry sculpts (and their abilities are a million miles ahead of my own).  Throw in that I already had the Perry minis in the lead pile and it was fun sorting through them and the bits box for interesting combinations...... 

[Constable Bertrand]

whoops, nope, that was a type-o!!!
I meant to say 'spured', auto correct changed it 

Going over figures gives nice proportions too, nice faces/hands without having to have 30 decades experience yourself in sculpting.

Cheers
Matt

[OSHIROmodels]

Well, don't they look evil and menacing 

cheers

James

[Mason]

That is a lot of putty work there, Steve.
Most impressive results!
 


It should be nice having a completely individual force once again.
 

[Silent Invader]

Thanks chaps  

@Matt: spurred makes more sense!  

@James: evilly menacing is the look to aim for and the dark clothing with blood red sigil will certainly help with that  

@Paul: yeah - not that I want them to be different, I just want the TV look  

As I can't finish the terrain just yet (missing grass tufts!) I guess I'll crack with the Wildlings.

[Silent Invader]

A quick update on the terrain WIP.

The look I'm aiming for is late autumnal moor, so plenty of grass with rocky outcrops.

Six tiles are presently awaiting the growies of static grass, tufts, moss, ivy and clumps of low bushes:



And the other fix tiles have been sketched out:



I expect I'll add a few clumps of trees, probably some stunted oaks as seen on Dartmoor, and maybe a few birch. At the mo, I'm not sure if these will plug into sockets or be on standalone bases.

[tyrionhalfman]

Looks like it will be a really impressive setup when you've finished

[Col. Aubrey Bagshot]

This sort of Dartmoor thing?
( Actauly looks a too green in the pics, in real life its far more dead looking.. fuzzy too!)




And who can resist a little mythos on the moors...

[Silent Invader]

Thanks chaps  

Nice tor!

The terrain won't be modelled on Dartmoor (though I do love the place and the granite tors influenced my FIW terrain of years ago) but instead I'm aiming for something closer to the TV series, which is more jagged. Specifically, my setting takes its influence from the location of the fight between Brienne and The Hound and then Arya's subsequent journey north (öxarárfoss in Iceland?), both the plateau scenes, the valley below and then by the river.

I do have another 4 tiles 'in my head' that comprise a high ridge line to one side, to include a waterfall, for which I'll need to pick up some larger pieces of cork.

[Elk101]

The terrain is really taking shape. Lovely work,  as usual Steve!

[Zaheer]

Thanks SI. I have seen pictures of that village before but never the beehive, always nice to see a new one! Your new terrain looks great too. You've been busy!

Thanks 

Very nice beehive building in your footer (and your other buildings too).

Have you looked at images of Cosmeston Medieval Village?

http://www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/en/enjoying/parks_and_gardens/cosmeston/cosmeston_medieval_village/cosmeston_medieval_village.aspx

It has a beehive building much like yours. The small farm I'll be making will have a similar vibe, the idea being that it is built from the smaller stones robbed from the derelict old fort.

[Malamute]

Lovely putty pushing Steve. You have completely transformed them.

The terrain is really taking shape as well.

[Silent Invader]

Ta very much !   

For supply column games I've ordered another Peasant Cart



from Boothill Miniatures .... I'll then have two for one parked up without mules and the other on the road with. The mules will be Perry ACW metals.

I've decided that the trees will go into sockets and have ordered various sizes of birch, larch and alder.

[Silent Invader]

Have started on the Wildlings, the basis of which is spare casts from the Bear People that I made for my Winter Wreaks Wild project. There's more about the base minis at this thread here:

http://www.silentinvader.uk/index_w_www_index_forces.html

Changes to become Wildlings include the odd wooden shield, a different mix of weapons, and some GS details that I've yet to add. The group of 20 has 5 females, for which I've shortened arms, legs and/or torsos as appropriate and used a pack of Hasslefree heads.  Instead of a standard bearer, I've given the Wildlings a horn, taken from Conquest Norman plastics.

A few rough images for a bit of flavour (GS work yet to be done):





And a pre-GS Wildling versus a post-GS Bolton:



PS: The trees have arrived and will really suit the project - more on that tomorrow.

[Silent Invader]

Have previously mentioned that the terrain for this project is inspired by the location of the fight between Brienne and The Hound. More specifically, it's the lower level landscape in the background, which can be seen in the centre and top right of this still:



So, rocky outcrops, short grass, few trees. Though this is The North, it is below the snow line (though White Walkers will likely have some snow on their bases to signify that they are bringing the cold with them). The board wil be a road with the wrecked old fort, a small farm or inn, and a bridge, with the buildings and outcrops providing cover. The need for trees is therefore more of an aesthetic one with the altitude and exposure suggesting 'stunted' and 'spindly' to be the likely form.

I find trees to be the terrain nightmare, as I like my trees to fulfill the role that they portray. For example, on my WW1 board they indicate a full cover woodland, which called for dense crowns and more substantive trunks albeit with reduced height for practicality. With this GOT board, their gaming role is secondary to the aesthetical considerations, so they don't need to suggest/portray a piece of significant cover.

Coincidentally, Jimbibbly introduced me to the following store:

www.themodeltreeshop.co.uk

The website doesn't work so well with my iPhone 4S but switching over to the IPad I bought 10 trees for a few small groups to go onto the next lot of tiles that I make. Cost including shipping was approx £45.

The order was processed and despatched same day, arriving a few days later by My Hermes (all within the UK). The order was extremely well packed.

The trees are very nice miniatures. I say miniatures rather than models because trunks and branches are in proportion, rather than the thicker model interpretation generally used. This is ideal for me as I want something more fragile looking.

The actual trees seem quite robust, being made from twisted wire with a thick coating to the branches and a net of foliage that doesn't seem to want to shed leaves. I intend to add plugs (not sure how yet) so they can be removed from the tiles for storage. I might add a few painted highlights to the trunks. One thing to bear in mind is that each tree species of whatever size has the same form to its trunk and branches, though as they are 3D rotation will of course change the profile.

So, here's what I bought (mini for scale purposes was a Perry 100YW):

3x 55mm Downy Birch and 1x 55mm Alder (left)



1x 80mm Alder (left) and 1x 80mm larch



1x 80mm Downy Birch and 1x 105mm Alder (left)



1x 105mm Larch (left) and 1x 105mm Downy Birch



A close up of canopies:



A close up of trunks:



The next step on the terrain is to apply the tufts and static grass to the tiles I've already built.