Warm Ale and Mud

Blimey, it has been about 2 months since I painted a model. It has been a stressy few months, but even so I had not realised it had been that long. Anyway, it is super hot so I did not spend overly long on this chap, the building I had done a good few weeks back when the weather was milder. Next up on our tour of Heiligsheld, the blacksmith's. The second building proper in Heiligsheld is the blacksmiths workshop of Hans Eisen. When the inn, The Wicker Man was first made, the then smith worked from the inns yard. However as the inn grew the smith decided it prudent to build a small workshop not far from the inn. It is this building in which Hans Eisen now ply's his trade as his fathers’ did before him. Where once the smithy mostly fixed the wheels of wagons and shod the hooves of the the visitors of the inn, it now makes weapons and armour for the Counts men. That is not to say Hans will not sharpen knives and fix pots and pans, but the real money lies in work for the Count. As ...

  Heiligsheld was not always called such. In 2155 Imre Jenz a veteran of the battle of Hel Fenn, died defending the sacred stone circle off in the forest from followers of chaos. Imre was already well respected in the village but when he managed to kill Grazak The Unclean a champion of Nurgle and later died of his wounds, the villagers, so grateful for his sacrifice at both Hel Fenn and right here in the village decided to rename the village in his honour. Since this renaming was never sanctioned by the Emperor, it is not official which no doubt goes some way to explaining why Imperial cartographers have not placed it on any maps. The stone circle is a site holy to Rhya, or as the villagers refer to her, The Mother. Rhya is the wife of Taal, (another of the villagers favoured deities) mother of Manann, Morr, and Verena.   Those who worship her view Rhya as the deity of fertility, childbirth and the family. The Stone Circle predates the village and not much is known about it. W...

I think for me with most oldhammery type stuff, it is the buy in factor, which in turn is influenced by the look/style. I want to believe the things I see, they should make sense and have a logical purpose. There needs to be internal consistency with any setting or the setting itself is not to be believed.  The Townscape buildings being a perfect example, I can very easily believe that people would build them: The fortified manor is just a bit too toy like and too high fantasy for me. This Skull Tower model; no chance: Yet this Skull Hill; yes: But why, they both have mad big skullz?! I think I like a feel of WFRP 1st edition to my WFB. WFRP really brought the world to life and I prefer that version to the WFB take on it. I find it to be more about context. Quality over quantity. The Skull Tower and The Skull Hill to me appear as two very different ideas, executed in two different styles. For me it comes down to buy in, if someone asked me to place the models ...

My next build will be a sacred grove/stone circle, so in readiness for that; a holy man. I did use a different flesh for this chap, which I am not sold on so will go back to my regular formula. Also I am still in my quick WECW painting mode it is not as good a paintjob as I would have liked, I will try and get back into my regular oldhammer painting style and get smoother work. Colour wise, not what I would have thought of, but I was stuck for ideas so just copied the colours from the official Talisman card

  Sabine and Mikael Stockhausen purchased the inn when they moved to the village just over a decade ago. Sabine was employed by one of the larger moneylenders in Nuln and Mikael was a former trader, they decided they wanted a simpler quieter life for them and their daughter Lottie. They had enough funds to go pretty much anywhere in the Empire and when they heard about an innkeeper wanting to sell up and retire they leapt at the chance. The Stocks Inn however is not its original name. It was since its building over 200 years ago known as The Wicker Man. For the longest time, the yard in the inn was where criminals were held in stocks until a roadwarden came to take them away to Leicheberg to face trial. However when the barracks for the Counts men was built in the village proper, criminals were held there instead as they seemed to miraculously escape less frequently. (some say vanish is a better word) As such the stocks became unused and languished propped up against the ...

To inform you I am starting an ECW project, sort of. New Blog HERE . No more mention of that sort of carry on will be mentioned on this site again. Taal Be Praised. 

Over on the Oldhammer Forum the monthly challenge is both Femuary and Februhairy. Sensible female models and hairy models. I am quite close to finishing my next big build, but these 2 models that fitted the theme also belong to the big build. For Femuary we have Sabine Stockhausen a landlady. Not the greatest model and not the greatest paintjob, but it gets the job done. And for Februhairy we have Bugmans Beer Cart. Here is the original as seen in a White Dwarf: and here is my homage to it.  The cart is not the original original but the original as now once again available. It was just as horrid to file/sand/fill and assemble as it was back in the day. I wanted to try and mostly copy the paintjob of the original. It made me realise I had not painted blue clothes on a model in about 20 years, which is a thing... I changed my normal skin recipe as I decided that with dwarves having been alive so much longer than men they likely would be a darker skinned. Slight changes made to the or...