cengler42

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Portents of the Degloved Hand - Card Stand

I backed the "Portents of the Degloved Hand" Kickstarter a while back, which is an add-on for the Mork Borg RPG that introduces a deck of coffin-shaped cards that introduce ongoing conditions into the game. As part of the campaign, they made available an STL of the eponymous hand coming out of the ground that can be used as a stand for the current "Portent" in play. I got a friend to print it for me and I finally got around to finishing painting it last night.

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I finally got back to the painting table recently. Usually my long hiatuses from painting are because I get daunted by the prospect of how long it will take me to finish something so I don't start. My local game store (Black Knight Games) is doing one of their "Call to Arms" event which has spurred me on to productivity. A "Call to Arms" is essentially an achievement league for miniature painting whereby you have to take on a project of a certain scope and then work towards completing it by a certain date. You get small rewards for certain milestones and then a bigger reward if you complete your project by the deadline. Usually these Call to Arms events focus on army-scale games that I don't play but this summer they did a "Summer Skirmish" event for a variety of games so I dove in. I'll post details soon about that when I have my project finish (and I'm pleased to say I'm about 90% done with three weeks to go). The models I'm posting today are some that I painted on a short break from my Call to Arms project. I stumbled upon the Medieval Mayhem line of models from Hayland Terrain. They're inspired by the characters in Monty Python & the Holy Grail and they're delightful. They're very old-school in their sculpt style and composition but they're right up my alley. They remind me of Grenadier and Ral Partha models from the 1980s and the fact that their metal gives them a satisfying heft. As much as the plastic sculpts of modern plastic miniatures are better in almost every way in the detail department, there's just something about plonking down a metal model. I splurged and got their "Full Monty" set which has 60+ models, most of which are directly inspired by characters in 'Holy Grail plus a few extras like Merlin, Robin Hood, and The Sheriff of Nottingham. I started out with "The Knights Who Say Ni!" and they were a joy to paint.

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Kraken for Abyss boardgame

This is the Kraken model for the expansion of the same name for the Abyss boardgame. This was mainly done with Citadel Contrast Paints (Luxion Purple for the body/tentacle and Doomfire Magenta for the suction cups) and then a wash with Army Painter Strong Tone. I like the way the purple and red look together but, if I was to do it again, I'd want a more pink/fleshy tone for the suction cups.

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Cosmic Frogs: Part 2

Finished the green, blue, and red Cosmic Frogs (for the boardgame of the same name). Like the last three, these were done almost entirely with Citadel contrast paints. I think I either went too dark on the back colour or too light on the front colour on the blue frog bit I am otherwise pleased with how they turned out. One more game with fully-painted figures in my collection. Huzzah!

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Happy Halloween! I got back to the painting table and did up some of the game pieces for the boardgame "Cosmic Frog" by Devious Weasel Games (https://www.deviousweasel.com/cf0). Done almost entirely with GW Contrast Paints. Three more (red, green, and blue) to come.

[cengler42]

Crabadonk's Back-Story

The details below are back-story elements for my Dungeons Dragon character "Crabadonk." Some friends and I are starting a campaign in Ravnica soon and Crabadonk is my Goblin Warlock in the Cult of Rakdos.

BACKSTORY

Crabadonk grew up with his family in the shabbiest unit of the same tenement house as the person who grew up to be Dr. Lilla Zlovol. While Crabadonk and his siblings were nominally friends and played with the children from the other units, Crabadonk always resented the more affluent families, especially when he was being bitten by mites trying to get to sleep on the pile of rotting hay that was his bed.

Lilla's mother Danika was Crabadonk's family's landlady and wasn't particularly nice to the "lower dwellers." When she could, Lilla would help out Crabadonk's family with a few surplus niceties from their household, which spares Lilla from being the target of Crabadonk's "working-class rage."

What sparked Crabadonk's spirit was seeing the Rakdos carnival parades going down the street. His mother would club him on the head and tell him not to look but Crabadonk would run to the alley and steal glances, fascinated by the writhing acrobats, ululating singers, and nightmarish harlequins that would cavort in the streets enticing people to "come see the show." Crabadonk knew that's where he wanted to be.

Like many children do, Crabadonk would sometimes draw a pair of eyes with soot on his hand and curl his thumb under to mimic a mouth. He would entertain other children by doing little skits in this manner and eventually gave his hand-face a name: Mr. Bananas.

His mother would cuff him on the head and tell him to stop goofing around but Mr. Bananas was ever-present. What started to become alarming was that the voice of Mr. Bananas soon started taking on a depth of tone and personality that didn't really sound like Crabadonk.

It was around this time that Crabadonk started feeling a pull to join the Cult of Rakdos. His parents are guildless and had no such aspirations so when Crabadonk literally ran away to join the circus when he was a young adult they pragmatically saw it as one less mouth to feed and got on with their dreary routine.

Crabadonk developed his ventriloquism and became quite good and upgraded Mr. Bananas to a fully-articulated dummy in the shape of a monkey made primarily out of coconut shells. What has started to become off-putting about Crabadonk is that he is never "off." He carries Mr. Bananas with him everywhere and conversations with Crabadonk inevitably involve Mr. Bananas. When nobody else is around, Crabadonk frequently has conversations with Mr. Bananas on his own. Whether this is undying devotion to practicing his craft or outright delusion, nobody knows.

Proximity to the Cult of Rakdos awakened arcane potential within Crabadonk and, in his dreams, Crabadonk made a pact with a nameless, shapeless entity which has given him the powers of a Warlock. This allows Crabadonk to manifest all manner of phenomena during his performances to the delight of his audiences. While his act is rooted in a comedically antagonistic conversation between himself and Mr. Bananas, his shows often cross over into the bizarre, frightening, and disturbing. This has become part of the mystique of going to one of his performances, and Crabadonk is often heard saying, "Who knows what kind of mood Mr. Bananas will be in tonight!' with a wink.

CONTACT (ALLY): There's a lesser demon in the cult who thinks he owes me a favour, and who am I to argue?

Crabadonk has a contact with a slow-witted but reliable Dretch named Loafus. Some of Loafus' superior demons pushed him out on to the Prime Material Plane as a joke and Loafus happened upon one of Crabadonk's street performances wherein Crabadonk and Mr. Bananas had a particularly entertaining set. This cheered up Loafus and he helps out Crabadonk with bits of helpful information when he can.

CONTACT (RIVAL): I had a romance with a pain artist in another troupe.

While Crabadonk is short, ugly, dumb, and makes bad decisions, there's just something about the little blighter that people find endearing although they often can't say why, exactly.

One summer, Crabadonk got a job on a flying pleasure dirigible cruise ship where he and Mr. Bananas performed on the comedy side stage. One of the headline acts for the more affluent and thrill-seeking clientele was a renowned Tiefling Pain Artist named "Zaxsonya the Agonizer" who, by appointment only, catered to the needs of those seeking gratification in the medium of pain.

The world-weary Zaxsonya took a shine to Crabadonk and the two had the unlikeliest of cruiseship romances. Zaxsonya's troupe-mates looked down at her for "slumming it" with the likes of Crabadonk but when asked why she was on his arm she, with an ironically stern face, would simply say, "He makes me laugh."

Zaxsonya's idea of a good time eventually got to be too much for Crabadonk to keep up with and when the cruise was over Crabadonk ham-fistedly broke up with her. This enraged Zaxsonya and Crabadonk was nearly killed trying to get away from her. Zaxsonya still has a fondness for Crabadonk but seeks to humiliate him, as well, and sometimes shows up at his performances and is disruptive.

CONTACT (NON-RAKDOS): I once convinced a Golgari Medusa to participate in a show. We've been on good terms ever since.

One night, Crabadonk was having a particularly rough set in front of a highly inebriated and unappreciative crowd who were not appreciating the antics of Mr. Bananas that evening. There were two particularly aggressive hecklers near the front that were making it impossible for Crabadonk to even try to win back the crowd. The only person who he saw smiling was a Medusa named Vambrelia sitting off to the side near the front. She was grinning sardonically watching this hack ventriloquist act bomb but Crabadonk's unbridled confidence interpreted it as her enjoying the act.

Crabadonk shouted out, "OK! Time for some audience participation!!! Can I have a volunteer, please? Hey, you with the writhing hair-do, get up here" Before Vambrelia knew what was happening, Crabadonk had hustled her up on stage. He hastily whispered to her, "Look, I'm dying up here. If you shut those two guys up the way I know you can (wink wink) I'll split my pay for the night with you."

Taken aback by his chutzpah, Vambrelia shrugged and said "Why not?" to herself and proceeded to petrify the two hecklers. Crabadonk proceeded to then play a bongo solo on their heads while Mr. Bananas excoriated him for beating up the audience. The crowd loved it and, when it was done, Crabadonk addressed the crowd and said, "Hey! Let's hear it for... (what's your name?) Let's hear it for Vinbrolio! Hey, she's all right!"

Not wanting to be petrified himself, Crabadonk gave Vambrelia half of his night's pay and the two of them struck up a conversation that turned into a friendship.

Zaxsonya has seen Crabadonk and Vambrelia together and, even though there is in fact no romance between Crabadonk and Vambrelia, is seethingly jealous of Vambrelia for the time she spends with Crabadonk.

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Went digging into my miniatures cases looking for something and found this Goffik Rokker that I painted more than 30 years ago. I have said it before and will continue to say that the character of those old metal models is unsurpassed.

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Spiker of the Gloomspite Gitz Gobbapalooza contingent.

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While the detail on Games Workshop miniatures today is undeniably light years beyond what was possible in the 1980s and 1990s, the character on many "Oldhammer" models is still impressive.

This Sorcerer of Tzeentch on a Flying Disc is hands-down my favourite sculpt from circa 1990. I had painted it then but I stripped it and re-painted it, primarily with GW Contrast Paints.

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Sepsimus, Plaguesworn from the Wurmspat warband for Warhammer Underworlds. I started painting this model over a year ago but put it aside for some reason. The asymmetry and body-horror vibe of Nurgle models has always appealed to me.

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I finally got back to my painting table and did up some Mork Borg goblins. These are resin prints of the recent crowdfunding campaign. I will be interested to see how these compare to the studio-produced models when they arrive.

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I am knocking the dust off here to resume posting pictures of painted miniatures. Instagram is a dumpster fire that seems to arbitrarily delete posts. Hopefully things are better here.

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Model-a-Week Challenge week #52: Vitamir for Rumbleslam. "In Mother Russia... ring slams you!" And with that, I have competed the Model-a-Week Challenge!

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Model-a-Week Challenge week #51: A pair of knife-wielding cultists for Strange Aeons/Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten. Cthulhu Fhtagn!

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Model-a-Week Challenge week #50: We're in the home stretch! This week it's WAAARIOR for Rumbleslam.

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Model-a-Week Challenge week #49: My first try using some Citadel Techincal paints on some ghosts for the Ghostbusters boardgame (Galloping Ghoul, Fearsome Flush, Gruesome Twosome).

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Model-a-Week Challenge week #48: Petitioner for Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire. This was my last unpainted Shadespire model!