Trudvang has been on my radar for a while. Originating as the 1982 Swedish RPG Drakar och Demoner (literally “Dragons & Demons” *cough*), it distinguished itself with a setting heavily based on Norse and Celtic mythology and, in later editions, some jaw-dropping art by Paul Bonner... Obviously, this is what caught my attention. As of 8th edition, the publishers decided to do an English language edition, and in 2016 ran a successful Kickstarter to that end. But as a cherry on the top, Cool Mini Or Not; (which began life as a sort of "Hot or Not" website equivalent for pictures of painted miniatures before going on to becoming miniature and game producers in their own right); just announced that they are producing a miniature boardgame based on the world of Trudvang and Bonner's art. Coming to Kickstarter in the second quarter of 2019, Trudvang Legends joins an acclaimed series of games by CMON, including Blood Rage and Rising Sun, noted for their solid game design and fantastic miniatures (Here is my painted Blood Rage Frost Giant) I went all in for Rising Sun (and hence have boxes of Japanese mythology-themed miniatures awaiting my attention), and couldn't be more excited for Trudvang Legends (Samples painted by the amazing Jen Haley) From the limited previews filtering online from Gencon, it looks like they've captured Bonner's artwork perfectly. I'll be keeping an eye on this as the KS approaches. In the meantime, here's some more of that Bonner artwork to drool over...
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Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms have exploded in a host of independent and high profile miniature offerings, with new ways to deprive you of your paycheque showing up on a weekly basis. And ratmen have burrowed their way into quite a few of these. Some of these have since gone on to sale in online shops, some were exclusive to backers, and some have disappeared off the face of the planet leaving very angry comment sections. In no particular order at all, lets see what the wonders of Internet Age amateur investing has to offer... First off, lets return to some old favourites. I covered the Heartbreaker line of rats by Tim Prow way back in Part III of this series, and a recent Kickstarter by Kev Adams and Prow has brought these old sculpts out of retirement and cast in fancy new plastic versions. (Well...theoretically, I'm still waiting for my pledge). Included in the Kickstarter are two sets of classic Heartbreaker Ratmen, one with some unique weapon teams... ...and another with a host of individual characters and rat warriors Once the KS pledges have all been fulfilled (and despite being a bit late (but not to the point it isn't understandable for a new business venture with limited staff), these will be available at the Impact miniatures webstore. Meanwhile, Mantic Games' successful Warpath Kickstarter gave way to an update of their Verr-myn line, pleasing those of us tired of waiting around for Games Workshop to get around to doing a H.R.U.D. army for 40K. Backers have already gotten their rewards, and the refurbished Veer-myn are available on the Mantic website and in finer game stores around the world. Enterprising Skaven players will probably see some great customization options in the motley crew as well... Creator AF Scott offered the following small group of sportsrats, The Raging Rodents, for one's Bloodbowl considerations. I passed on this one as the sculpts are a bit too cartoony to fit into my army, but they have a certain old school charm, nonetheless... Wendy's Miniatures, (assuming no relation to the fast food joint with square burgers and milkshakes you can't drink), also known as Cartoon Miniatures, gave us some gorgeous rodents with their Mouse Adventure Kickstarter. Their rats are modular, able to be constructed in a variety of combinations. I really love these guys. Absolutely fantastic sculpts. They don't fit in with my Skaven armies at all, but will make for a great Skirmish force. Another attempt at modular ratmen, Labmasu's Rude Rats Kickstarter. Their ratmen are, um, interesting-looking. In the past I've described modern Skaven as looking like the halfway point in a werewolf transformation scene with their rapidly-receding furlines - Well these look even more like that, with some werelion manes thrown in. Gotta love those wolfrat mounts, though. Of a very similar style, so that I initially thought they must be the same company, are Hidden Dream's Ratmen, which show up on Indiegogo, the Burger King of crowdfunding sites (hmm, a lot of fast food jokes in this post, I must be hungry...) and FundRazr, (the...uh... Arby's maybe?) I've no idea what the big difference in these platforms are, as I've not really researched the Kickstarter terms as yet, but Hidden Dreams have gotten a lot of love appealing specifically to the 9th Age crowd and their general bitterness towards GW. Its a pretty comprehensive line, offering proxies of just about every major Skaven unit, and a lot of potential for conversions. Cool Mini or Not, a force to be reckonedwith in the Kickstarter arena, added some ratmen into their Massive Darkness KS, as an expansion to the boardgame, going with a very anime-esque style Over on the 15mm scale front, Edward Spettigue included the Vermians as a faction in his Battle Valor wargame, featured in two successful Kickstarters thus far. Finally, the improbably-named Txarli Factory offered their own addition to the growing number of sportsrats with their straightforwardly-entitled Ratmen Fantasy Football Team Kickstarter (when are we going to get some Ratmen playing hockey, eh?) They went with a design choice that doesn't really appeal to me - the proportions in a lot of cases seem more like "bandy humans with rat heads" than wererats. That isnt to say they aren't nicely sculpted, just not to my taste. Anyhow, that doesn't for this series of Updates, more to come as I accumulate material. In the meantime, coming up I'm going to be introducing a new series entitled "The Verminous Galleries" (unless I come up with a better pun beforehand): look for the first post this week.
Before introducing the next addition to the series, I'm going to share here my term paper for English a few years ago, which I wrote before discovering the following miniatures, but provides an interesting context for them. If it holds no interest, I will not hold it against you for skipping to the end. In the fall of 2000, the government of Alberta organized a special celebration for a unique quinquagenarian anniversary. For 50 years the province has boasted the status of being rat-free. This is a more remarkable claim than it might first appear. Rats inhabit every continent in the world except for Antarctica, and have even “reached at least 90% of the world’s islands” (Rachel Nuwer, 2014). Conservative estimates place the worldwide population of rats “at many billion and most consider the highest of all mammals - including humans.” (Jerry Langton, 2006) The United States alone is home to 150 million or more rats (Brian Handwerk, 2003). Alberta is currently the only region in North America free of rats (Frances Reilly, 2016), a point of pride for the province. Brian Bergman writes that “outsiders may be forgiven for believing that what gives Albertans their unique identity is their aversion to a provincial sales tax and a certain fondness for turning right-wing fringe parties into formidable political forces...but no, as important as all that is, what really keeps us united is a common enemy, one that walks on four legs and boasts continuously growing incisors that can chew through anything from electrical wire to concrete.” (Bergman). John B. Bourne, head of Alberta Agriculture's rat control program, states that "we maintain and broadcast our rat-free reputation, so that Albertans know that the province is free of rats." (Handwerk) Alberta’s rat-free status “is not by chance but by design,” (John Bourne, 2002) the result of an unprecedented government-sponsored rat control program began in 1950. “While the United States was responding to Cold War pressures by ferreting out Communists, Alberta was busy eradicating a menace in its countryside.” (Dawn Walton, 2000) That the avid hunt to eradicate rats in the province coincides with the communist witch hunts of the “Red Scare” is more than a coincidence, however. Alberta’s war on rats finds its origins and impetus in the communist paranoia that swept North America in the wake of the post World War era. Walton states that “fifty years ago, Reds and rats had something in common: both were targets of government- sanctioned witch hunts.” The comparison is more apt that one might guess. The Albertan war on rats was a reaction to and an expression of the war on Communism, and in effect the two are synonymous manifestations of The Red Scare that gripped Cold War North America. To comprehend the unusual and extraordinary effort put into Alberta’s anti-rat campaign, it's important to understand how daunting a task is the creation of a rat-free environment. Rats are members of the order Rodentia, the largest order of mammals. “The characteristic that unites this order - and its most conspicuous trait - is a single pair of razor-sharp incisors.” (Ed. Wolff & Sherman, 2007) The name “rodent” itself derives from the Latin rodere, meaning “to gnaw”. The success of rats as a species is largely based on their exceptional adaptability. Jerry Langton notes that it “doesn’t take long for rats to adapt to any environment, no matter how inhospitable it seems...Colonies of rats have even been known to thrive in meat lockers, where constant freezing temperatures would kill humans in a manner of minutes.”(2006) Rats also reproduce at an alarming rate. With a gestation period of roughly 3 weeks and litters between 6 -12, “it's possible for a three-year-old rat to have given birth to forty-three different litters, up to 516 separate births.” (Langton) Rats possess exceptionally acute senses, a rapidly-evolving immunity to poisons, preternatural agility, and the ability to squeeze through holes no larger than a quarter by collapsing their rib cages at will. (Langton) Though rats will prefer to flee rather than fight, their nails are capable of rending human skin and their bite is an evolutionary wonder. “The hardness of the enamel on the front of the rat’s incisors is comparable to some grades of steel,” notes Langton, “[and they] can exert a force of 7000 PSI in a bite, much greater than the 1000 or so for a dog.” There are actually three types of rat bites; besides the ordinary one for eating, a rat can gnaw through materials including brick, concrete or lead by sliding down a protective membrane, and, when aggressive, their incisors “separate to create a wider wound and more damage.” (Langton) This is to say nothing of the deadliness of a rat’s saliva, host to numerous communicable diseases, with infected bites “fatal in 13% of cases in humans, despite antibiotic treatment.” (Langton) To humans, rats have long been considered deadly pests. They infiltrated Rome among the many food shipments and are thought responsible for spreading the devastating Antonine Plague that claimed the life of the Emperor Lucius Verus (Paul Erdkamp, 2013) Likewise, rats were long held responsible for spreading the devastating Black Plague that claimed the lives of roughly ⅓ of Europe’s total population from 1346-1353. (David Herlihy, 1997) Every 50 years massive swarms of rats from the bamboo forests sweep across India, devouring crops. (Alasdair Wilkins, 2010) They are considered the world’s worst invasive species, with evidence that rats are to blame for 40 to 60% percent of all seabird and reptile extinctions. (Science Avenger, 2007) According to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, “each year, rats destroy approximately 20% of all agricultural products in the world.” (2008) But despite this, no place on Earth besides Alberta has made such a concentrated effort at eradicating the vermin. Though measures to ameliorate their harm are taken, for the most part rats are accepted as an unavoidable blight. So what would cause Alberta to expend such vasts amount of money, time, and manpower to warring against nature? To understand that one must look at another threat that captivated North America’s attention in 1950. The Red Scare is the name typically given to the paranoia and ideological insecurity that swept North America in the years following World War 2. “Domestically, this anxiety and insecurity translated into a widespread concern over internal subversion,…[and] led to spy chasing, police investigations and security screenings, red baiting, accusations of conspiracies, the squashing of legitimate dissent, and smear campaigns.” (David MacKenzie, 2001) By 1949, these fears were exacerbated to a fever pitch by the communist party of China winning the Chinese civil war and the first Soviet tests of atomic weapons. In 1950, the Korean War began, pitting U.S., Canadian and South Korean forces against North Korean and Chinese communists. On the homefront, the war against communists was embodied by Senator Joe McCarthy, to the point that “McCarthyism” is now a common synonym for the Red Scare (Whitaker and Marcuse, 1996). Together with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a series of government witch hunts began, along with a propaganda campaign that incited public tensions. The emergence of a “National Security State” in the U.S. had a profound effect upon its neighbour to the North (Whitaker and Marcuse). “The atomic age changed the way Canadians looked at themselves and forced them to evaluate their place in the world,” writes MacKenzie, “Overnight, Canada went from being a small country ‘far from inflammable materials’...to the territorial buffer between the superpowers...geography made neutrality or isolationism an impossibility,while ideology made Canada a partner...with the United States.” A Canadian variation on HUAC, The Security Panel, was created by Prime Minister MacKenzie King to determine the loyalty of government workers. RCMP screenings were held, with accused individuals denied work or moved to less sensitive positions without explanation or appeal. (Whitaker and Marcuse) Provincial governments “quickly endorsed various levels of witch hunting.” (MacKenzie) The infamous Padlock Law empowered the government to decide what was defined as “communist” and close down any group or publication officials interpreted as propagating communism. (MacKenzie) This was the political climate in which Alberta launched its campaign against rats. Rats have been associated with communism at least as far back as the Victorian era, when Charles Dickens, in an article for the periodical Household Words, humorously remarked upon a pamphlet he acquired in London entitled Rat!!! Rat!!! Rat!!!, wherein the author comments that “Communism, Socialism, and Ratism - are terms synonymous.” (1851) Richard Nixon, a member of HUAC during the infamous Hollywood trials, gave a speech in which he stated “Reds [are] a bunch of rats. But just remember this: when you go out to shoot rats, you have to shoot straight, because when you shoot wildly it only means that the rats may get away more easily.” (James Cross Giblin, 2009) Pamphlets were handed out during the Hollywood Blacklisting trials that stated “‘Star’ is just ‘rats’ spelled backwards.” (Ellen Schrecker, 1994). The analogy is easy to understand from the point of view of those caught up in the paranoia of the Red Scare. Rats are an omnipresent but seldom visible threat to humanity, gnawing at the infrastructures of civilization. “During this era, communism, much like the rat, was seen as an infiltrating force,” writes Frances Reilly, “ it was an “other” that could invade through the “familiar.” Seemingly “normal” Canadians could in fact be communists, and could spread the ideology through friendship, family, and the home.” (2016) In 1950, the Alberta government officially declared a “War on Rats.” (Jeremy Berke, 2015) Utilizing a 1942 law, The Agricultural Pest Act, allowing the Ministry of Agriculture to “designate any animal likely to destroy crops or livestock a pest,” (Reilly, 2016), rats were deemed an official threat to be killed on sight. Rat Patrols were created, but the ultimate success of the venture depended on civilian participation. To that end a propaganda campaign was initiated that mirrored the anti-communist campaigns in the States. Whereas U.S. citizens were watching the public service films such as The Red Scare, “Albertans were fed a steady diet of anti rat animus.” (Walton). Posters extolling the “Rat Menace” even made obvious allusions to the parallels between “the rat’s historical migration from east to west and the feared spread of communism along the same trajectory”. (Reilly) As U.S. citizens were entreated to monitor each other for subversive behaviour, Albertans were encouraged to keep watch for signs of rodent incursion. (Reilly) “While it might be tempting to scoff at the comparison between rodent and ideological control...both governments used similar tools of persuasion to urge residents to, well, rat out enemies of the state.” (Walton) And just as suspected Communists in Hollywood ended up testifying in HUAC trials, “Albertans who didn't control rats ended up in court.” (Reilly) The parallels between Alberta’s War on Rats and the Red Scare are numerous and obvious, which ultimately leaves only the question of why a nationwide fear of communism would manifest in such a unique and specific manner in Alberta? Communist paranoia was a fueled by anxiety and uncertainty. What the war on rats provided was a tangible enemy, a scapegoat that focused the aggression and fear regarding communist infiltration upon a physically identifiable threat. The rodent became an antagonist for Albertans to rally against and a battle that ultimately could be won in a way the Cold War never could. In this manner, Alberta is perhaps additionally unique in North America for dealing with the Red Scare in the healthiest way possible. As Reilly puts it, “viewing the rat control program through the perspective of Cold War disaster management, the campaign successfully endeavoured to control chaos at a time of measured disorder, anxiety, and potential disaster, with corresponding environmental effects that have lasted up to the present day.” Now 60 years from its Cold War origins, Alberta’s War on Rats continues on well after McCarthy was discredited. The Rat Patrol regularly hosts educational programs in Alberta’s elementary schools, and citizens still keep a watchful eye for any signs of rodent infiltration. For a modern Albertan, the province’s remarkable status as a rat-free environment is an essential part of their identity and something that defines them as unique in the world. While Alberta may have started out symbolically hunting communists, Albertans ended up cementing a sense of community and provincial pride. Okay, so what does all that have to do with Ratmen miniatures? Well, lo and behold gentlerats and maladies - Khurasan Miniatures' Rodent Civil War line: "When war against Adlers was lost, Caesar Mouse was overthrown, and rats rose up, saying all cheese belongs to everyone. Menshimice did not concur and pressed war against Bolshirats. Bolshirats were led by Kommissars who gave many "incentives" to rats to fight against Menshimice. " Sculpted by Bob "Lord of the Dwarves" Olley, the Bolshirats are 28mm scale (though stand 20mm in height in comparison to the taller Adlerkorps) and are astoundingly detailed. The examples shown here were painted by one Andrew Taylor, and based on these I'd love to see him try his hand at some Goodwin Skaven. Bolshirat Infantry Command Bolshirats with Mousin-Nagant Rifles in Overcoats Bolshirats with Mousin-Nagant Rifles in Jackets Bolshirat Heavy Machine-Gun Team Bolshirat Platoon Menshimice Infantry Command Menshimice with Mousin-Nagant Rifles in Overcoats Menshimice with Mousin-Nagant Rifles in Jackets Menshimice Heavy Machine-Gun Team Menshimice Platoon COMING UP: Kickstarter Rats!
My original 13 part Rat by Any Other Name series covered a lot of ground, but a few figures managed to slip through the cracks that have since come to my attention. And as time marches on numerous new offerings have sprung up, primarily on Kickstarter, which seems currently the venue of choice for most sculptors jumping into the market. To kick off the new year, I thought it was high time I spotlighted some of these ever-increasing options for rodent connoisseurs. I'll save the Kickstarters and bigger lines for the next post(s), so for now I will just run through a menagerie of smaller additions, in no particular order. To start with, one very early Wererat miniature I missed in my initial outing was this rare fellow from the Chronicle CM series. (CM16 to be exact). Originally an independent miniatures company, started and sculpted by Nick Lund, Chronicle was bought out by Citadel, who then ceased production of the line when Nick Lund left them for Grenadier. I think this guy is gorgeous, and if any reader of this blog has one they'd be willing to part with or a line on where to acquire him, I'd be most grateful. Now, let's return to Gaspez Arts whom I originally talked about in Part VII, particularly raving over their fantastic Big Topi. Well, Big Topi has recently been joined by Big Fat Mouse, a corpulent rodent behemoth who apparently enjoys attacking his enemies with a make-shift flail composed of rats tied together by their tails. Big Fat Mouse reminds me quite a bit of the early Skaven Bloodbowl star player back from 2nd edition that was never produced... ...Well, officially, at least. Every once in a while on Ebay this fellow pops up, a fan sculpt clearly based upon this early design: Speaking of fanmade figures, I ran across an interesting Heroclix conversion of TMNT's Splinter from a Mole Man mini, courtesy of one "Skrull Dad" In regards to Heroclix, though I've largely avoided pre-painted minis in this series so far, I must at the least express my appreciation for the Blightrat figure from the sadly defunct Dreamblade line And speaking of those who lack the time or inclination to paint up miniatures, but would still enjoy an accessible army of Ratmen to play with, Brave Adventures does a line of paper minis available as pdf downloads from RPGNow : Fanath Art is another European sculpting group making Blood Bowl alternatives, which includes two Ratman figures: a Ratman with Plague Ball and Ratmen Gutter Mutant. Bronze Age Miniatures is a Utah-based miniature company mostly known for their Frank Frazetta-inspired line. They offer three Ratmen figures with a particularly medieval flavour: Dwarven Forge, mostly famed for their pre-painted terrain, offer their own small clan of Ratmen. The sculpts remind me a bit of Ral Partha's Ratlings in style and stature Oathsworn miniatures offers a small group of Ratmen intended for use in their Burrows & Bunnies skirmish game. The sculpts are okay, but unfortunately Michael Lovejoy, co-owner, has a reputation as a bit of an arrogant twit on social media. The Dungeons of Doom III Kickstarter included one Ratmen figure, the evocatively-named Horsepuncher Jones Aradia Miniatures recently offered the quite gorgeous Bismuth: Treasure Seekers, sculpted by Ali Jalali and screaming out for an impressive Rat Ogre Bonebreaker conversion: Turnkey miniatures was started in 2013 by Craig Jirowetz and his partner Stephanie to continue many of the lines once offered by the late and lamented Mega-Minis. Included is a set of giant rats including a large and vicious-looking ratman Gydran Miniatures Studio is, as of this writing, currently running a small Kickstarter to fund the creation of one "Pelegian Sapper - Sci-fi Rat Trooper," an appropriately dynamic H.R.U.D. -proxy for those inclined towards Space rodents. To go from the current to the classic, Ral Partha Europe offers a set of 4 miniatures entitled "Difar Demons," which are suspiciously Ratlike in appearance And to finish up I want to make a shout out to Geoff Solomon-Sims, of Oakbound Studios, who posted the following WIP recently on the Oldhammer Sculpting Group of a ratman that is uncannily similar in style to the original Jes Goodwin Skaven that I love so dearly. I eagerly await this fellow being completed and available for sale, and hope that if Geoff can so successfully capture the spirit of Goodwin again in the future, that this one example will soon be joined by a line of such Ratmen that could join my verminous hordes. COMING UP NEXT: The Update continues with several Kickstarter lines, as well as a surprising post-WWI themed group of Rats.
Its funny how much things change with experience. It was around a year ago I conceived of the Claymore project (I think, I haven't gone back and checked the exact time frame). In the time since I have devoured many, many wargames, stretching back in time to Tony Bath to a variety of modern historical games, from Hail Caesar to By Flame and Sword. Moreover, my gaming group has, in the wake of AOS, embraced Warmaster as our primary game. This has led to an entirely different focus, from the previous bottom-up design to a top-down design philosophy that instead of focusing on the capabilities of individual soldiers, considers the role of units on the battlefield and the command structure that supports and utilizes them. What started as a simple update of the early days of Oldhammer, 2nd and 3rd edition, has become its own unique thing. I'll take a moment here just to say that Warmaster is an astounding game that shows how one can strip the Warhammer conventions down to their essence yet simply and effectively (perhaps more effectively than any recent iteration of Warhammer Fantasy) evoke the unique feel and playstyle of each of the myriad fantasy armies. Anyways, all of this has filtered into Claymore in one way or another. At its core, I've retained the following goals for the project:
As these goals provide the framework for the design, let me unpack a bit what I mean. To evoke the themes and aesthetics of Oldhammer, and captures the nostalgia of 80s fantasy in general. Early Warhammer has a specific feel to it, a blend of British humour with exaggerated gritty fantasy that is all but a kitchen-sink approach, yet filtered through the lens of 80s British anti-establishment culture, from Heavy Metal albums to 2000AD comics. This is not the bowdlerized fantasy of Disney, nor the high fantasy of Tolkien, nor even the gonzo Midwest American fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons. This is the grimy black humour of Gilliam's Jabberwocky, the sarcastic fatalism of Moorcock's Elric, and the bleak horror of Reeves' Witchfinder General. This is not something I can capture outright, not being a part of that zeitgeist, but something I hope to evoke and elicit even as it's blended with my own aesthetics and interests. Ultimately, though, in all conceits, this is meant to be a nostalgia game, a re-issue of a hypothetical system that originated in the 80s, in the midst of the Satanic panic, the Cold War, and the flowering of underground media. To provide the open playability and interactive creativity of Oldhammer This is not a game system tied to a single miniatures line, and does not limit itself as such. Any miniatures can be used, and indeed includes elements that would require expanding beyond the confines of a single company's range to illustrate. It also isnt tied to specific army lists. Armies are created as fits the player's personal tastes, units and characters are completely customizable in a way evoking roleplaying games, and though there is a setting, its provided only in broad strokes and just enough to evince a mood and flavour. This game is, as much as anything, a reaction to the regimented restrictions of later editions of Warhammer. To provide a system that simply and efficiently captures the grandure of mass battle Skirmish systems are a dime a dozen these days. Yet, in the wake of WFB's death, those who want fantasy mass battles have incredibly limited options (besides playing out of print gamelines). There's basically Kings of War, a few unfinished WFB clones such as The 9th Age, and a few fantasy variations of historical systems. This game is meant to fill a niche that doesn't really exist in the market today. That's not to say this project has any designs of profitability or even widespread appeal, rather that its the game I wish existed and was available. Anyways, all of that probably sounds well, and good, if ambitious, but its very easy to write about a game, much easier than actually designing one. And as I've been focused largely on the latter, chances are it may be some time before a more substantial update occurs. I've done a lot of work, but there's much more to do, and plenty more playtesting before I'm ready to unleash it publicly. However, to give a taste of how the game has evolved and changed since my last post about it, I thought I'd go over the unit profile as it exists now. This is an easy direct comparison to the unit profile I previewed upon starting the project, and should show how much the game has evolved thus far. CLAYMORE UNIT PROFILEKITH - The type of creatures composing the unit. TROOP TYPE - The unit’s armaments and battlefield role. ORDER - Open, Loose, or Close TRAINING - Levy, Warrior, Veteran, Elite, or Fanatic DISCIPLINE - Drilled or Irregular MOVEMENT - March/Charge/Flee COMBAT STATSATTRIBUTES
The thread title belies my sad fondness of puns so comes across as a little hyperbolic perhaps, but I'm writing this to point out that at the end of the year Thunderbolt Mountain Miniatures is closing their doors and not taking any new orders. This has gotten next to no publicity in the gaming world, but it hit me like a brick and has seriously refocused my spending for the next two months. For those unfamiliar with Thunderbolt Mountain, this was the personal shop of Tom Meier. Tom Meier is a legend in the miniature hobby. He is almost the fantasy miniature equivalent of Gary Gygax, and even if you don't know the name, if you ever saw a fantasy miniature in the 80s, chances are you are familiar with his work. Meier co-founded Ral Partha, and later left to focus on toy design, which is apparently thousands of times more profitable, but still continued to contribute to the hobby. Far and away Tom Meier is best known for his elves. In the 80s, Meier's elves achieved a legendary status as THE miniature representation. Recently, a lot of these early elves by him have been made available again as of the Chaos Wars Kickstarters (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1050509756/ral-parthas-chaos-wars). But this mostly represents Meier's early work (though he did sculpt a few new figures for the re-release), and as time went on, he became more and more concerned with realism, studying anatomy and rejecting the exaggeration that would become norm for the hobby as Citadel's influence became pervasive. Thunderbolt Mountain was opened as Meier's place to sell his personal projects, stuff he had worked on for himself over the years. This included everything from King Arthur to ancient historicals. They've been around a long time now, and I kinda assumed they always would be. Just a niche place for Tom to indulge his fancies. I've no idea why they are closing the store. Meier has never taken to social media in any form, and my assumption is only that the amount of sales these days probably aren't substantial enough to justify the cost and time of casting and filling special order (or perhaps his wife, who seems to run the site, just has better things to do). Edit: After writing this I came across this post on Facebook by Jim Ludwig: "I spoke with Tom about it at length a week or two ago. It is simply not worth the time and effort for him anymore as molds get worn out and need to be replaced. It never did gangbusters business in the first place, but was a fun place for him to sculpt whatever the heck he wanted and get it out into the world. He can pretty much do that with Dark Sword still." I personally became aware of Thunderbolt in my search for elves. Not just any elves, but miniatures that represented my personal ideal image, informed as it was by Alan Lee & Froud's Faeries, HJ Ford's illustrations for the Colour Fairy Tale books, Celtic mythology, Tolkien, and classic Folklore illustrators such as Kay Nielsen. I was soundly disappointed by most miniatures available. I very much dislike Warhammer Fantasy's elves, with their exaggerated features and pope-helmets. Most others seem to either follow suit or take on more modern videogame & anime influences. And the less said about Mantic's Elves, the better I think.
So it was, after much searching, I came across Meier's range for Thunderbolt Mountain. Sculpted in "true scale" 30mm, they seem to draw on many of the more traditional sources that I enjoyed. I'd planned an order for a while, but finally had the discretionary spending to make the plunge in September. It was just after I recieved the order that the notice came up on the site that they were closing shop by Christmas this year. I kinda doubt my order specifically prompted this decision in any way, but couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. Even moreso, I'd always planned to supplement the initial order as time went on to build up my elf order, but this announcement upped that timetable, and I've already placed another large order at the end of October, and plan one more for November to complete a large army of these amazing elves that will never be available again for the foreseeable future (and OOP Thunderbolt Mountain stuff is rare and goes for insane amounts on Ebay). I leave you now with a gallery of some of these fantastic elves: So, this post was hard to write, mainly as I don’t have much in the way of accompanying pictures for reasons I’ve touched on. I’m currently in the process of setting up a small studio in my new office, after moving at the end of the summer, including putting together an actual photo box to finally up my game to take decent miniature pictures. Along with the purchase of a digital camera, the plan is to have this all up and ready to take pics of my entry for the newly-revitalized Golden Gobbos, which I’m currently hard at work on and may be my most ambitious project so far. In the meantime, I’m left with the same scattered crappy cellphone pics, to which I can’t be bothered to add to and I’m apathetic about sharing. That said, I’m a month away from Mid-Terms, so want to get this series finished off and maybe get a few other things completed before my free-time gets sucked up with studying. It’s funny that, even as I’d worn out on painting, I was still (some might say obsessively) amassing piles of old lead. My min shopping habits didn’t decrease at all, while I couldn’t find the motivation to raise a brush. But one can’t lurk on the Oldhammer forums and assorted blogs, without the painting bugs starting to bite. As it happened it was my first ever 40K figure that got me to once again enter the fray. A Nurgle Renegade Marine I bought off ebay on a whim, just because the model was so full of character, I couldn’t resist. I decided to go really “old school” and paint the whole thing with enamels, picking up a small pack of Testors at the art supply store. It was partially nostalgia, partially a personal challenge. And I ended up quite pleased with the results. It’s not as good as I could achieve with acrylics, enamels remain a bitch to work with, but I felt vindicated in some manner. Like the project had unclogged whatever mental block was holding me back. I returned to acrylics, and fantasy, but stayed with Nurgle for my next few projects, which included painting up a set of old school Plaguebearers (a picture of which opened this series), and kitbashing together my own Maggoth Rider, using some bitz and the body of a plastic toy rhino. Unfortunately, I only have WIP shots of this one, you'll have to wait for the photo studio for a nice shot of the finished product. Here also is some WIP pics of a Plague Drone I was working on at the same time This was followed by some Blightkings, done in a style similar to my earlier Nurgle Lord. (Note you can see some of the finished and based versions of these in the background of the Plaguebearer pics above) At this point I was ready to get back to my Skaven, and started painting my Jes Goodwin collection in order of release. Again, here all I have is some WIP shots of the first two, after these I switched to working on entire units at a time, and they will feature in a post once the army is closer to completion. And, finally, before I completely gave up on taking blurry pics with my phone altogether, here is some shots of my growing Warmaster Skaven army. There's quite a bit of stuff here I'm rather proud of, but none of it is reflected by the photographs themselves, alas. And what you see here represents maybe 10% of my painting from the last two years. But, as mentioned previously, this is something I hope to rectify soon. In the meantime, I'll see if I can't get some more content together before school overwhelms my free time. I've got some half-finished articles that need some love, and quite a few updates regarding Claymore and that whole business.
Since becoming entangled in the Oldhammer movement, I've had several fancies, some of which have led to the accumulation of whole armies of out of print models, others passing as rationality overtook them. Much of it is driven by nostalgia. I have a small army of Fimir, my favourite of the Oldhammer monsters. Likewise I own the three Zoat models produced. After a long search, and a silly amount of money I have a copy of Nick Bibby's unequaled Spined Dragon, the Manchester Rabbit, and a respectable number of Jes Goodwin Chaos Warriors. This is all besides, of course, a complete collection of Citadel Skaven figures stretching from 1985 to the present. While Skaven remain my first love and overall priority, I've dipped my fingers in most of the Oldhammer fantasy pond, from McDeath to the C47 villagers. I have also always had a fondness for the Middlehammer-era Chaod Dwarves, the so-called "Big Hats" adorned in Babylonian trappings. There is something about them that recalls for me the Russian fairytales of my youth. A certain endearing character in their warthog-toothed grimaces. And so, for a time, I aspired to collect a Chaos Dwarf army. During this pursuit, my grail item was the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer riding a Lammasu. I love this figure, still do. And so it was that I encountered a fellow on the Oldhammer Trading Group who offered to sell me one. Except that he offered me an alternative to cash. He asked if I, instead, would like to paint some figures for him in exchange. Not knowing any better, I readily agreed. The deal was for painting his 40K Squat army. He sent me 70+ miniatures, and I assured him that I would lavish my painterly skills upon them. My goals were lofty. I would wetblend all the skin tones. Each bit of hair and beard would be unique. 3-5 colour shades on every bit of clothing. I drafted out a colour scheme, bought paints and brushes, even some "True Metallic" paint from Vallejo for the visors and shades. and...it went badly. In a very short time, my excitement for the project dissipated and working on the space dwarves became a grueling activity. For 6 months, I painted nothing for myself. I found myself procrastinating more and more as the Squats became a chore and any joy from the hobby leaked out in the face of a pile of primed lead. Partly it was because it was simply a subject matter I have no enthusiasm for. Partly I'm sure it was the awareness in the back of my mind that I wasn't painting these for myself. Later on there was even resentment towards these things stealing all my hobby time away from my Skaven and Nurgle. Add into that an increased workload at my job, a strained relationship with a girlfriend I barely got to see, and in the middle of the whole thing moving apartments, and overall that half of a year was a grind of self-defeat and mounting guilt as time wore on. Stubbornly, I refused to give up. But by the end I hated those dwarves. Looking back on the pictures now, they aren't as bad as I recall them in my mind. My memory is of one failure after another, finished off with just hackwork. This is another case where the crappy cell pics work in my favour, however. The end results were nowhere near what I expected of myself nor promised. At the time I really had no idea how to do proper "human" skin. The rushed work meant the paint was way too thick. And the eyes...Zues's Bear, those eyes nearly broke my sanity. I cant say how many weeks were simply spent on redoing eyes. I took numerous pictures at the time, as updates for the fellow whose patience was deteriorating as the excuses piled up. I post them here as a monument to my shame. Though there wasn't a set time period for this project, by the end the patron was rightfully getting annoyed and antsy until he finally demanded his figures back, no matter their state of completion. I did manage to complete them, for whatever that's worth. But I dutifully boxed them up and shipped them back to him in two installments. I was embarrassed, defeated, exhausted. And in the end, he never sent me The Lamassu, and I couldn't bring myself to ask about it. Eventually I sold what Chaos Dwarves I'd accumulated. For quite some time following that, I didn't touch a paintbrush. Still played some games with my Skaven and Nurgle, but I was temporarily worn out on the hobby, defeated as a painter.
To Be Continued... Occasionally I get asked about my actual painting of miniatures, admittedly something thats been curiously in short supply on this blog in comparison to most miniature-related endeavours. There's a few reasons for that, but honestly the most important is that I consider myself to still be in the process of learning in regards to this artform. I have at various times made something of a living with my 2D art, I can given the time produce works that I am (at least temporarily) happy with, but I've been drawing in pen and ink since before I could walk. Whereas I've only really started painting miniatures in the last few years. As a child I did make an attempt to paint some of my minis. I remember it well...Testor's enamel paint set from a model airplane, some cheap paintbrushes, a complete lack of awareness of basic things like "priming" or "thinning". They came out about how you'd expect. After turning a few beautiful Jes Goodwin sculpts into the equivalent of play-doh monstrosities, I settled on simply painting the bases green and giving the figures a black then brown inkwash and calling that good for gaming. Honestly, I retain an affection for monochromatic art in general. People visiting my Phantasmagoria art page on this blog will notice that pen and ink forms the majority of my artistic output. I can do colours, and anyone who goes back far enough on Phantasmagoria will see an example of my work with oils, but even as inspiration black & white art speaks to me stronger than even the most adept use of colours. I'm not sure how to explain this exactly, but when I look at a pen and ink drawing my mind "fills in the colours", in a way that is more realistic and satisfying to me than most oil, watercolour, acrylic, or digital. More often than not, even with painters I really love (like Waterhouse), the colours give the artwork an ethereal or unnatural look that is not as immersive as a black and white piece. Anyways, that aside, it was my return to the hobby a few years back that I decided to sit down and actually learn how to paint miniatures to a standard that I was happy with. I returned just as Warhammer 8th edition had started, and my first purchase was two copies of Island of Blood (swapping out the High Elf halves for more Skaven) and a Doomwheel. Starting with the Skaven, my initial effort was nothing to write home about. I was under a deadline for our first planned game, and so the clanrats recieved a primer of Krylon Ultra-matt brown and then details and a heavy wash in Army painter Strong Tone. They looked decent enough for the tabletop, light years ahead of the paint massacres I'd inflicted on my childhood figures, but it was all still very amateurish. The only really good thing to come out of this initial burst of hobbying was that I hit upon the mix that I use for Skaven skin to this day, IMO more accurately replicating actual rat flesh than any of the suggested mixes I've seen before or since (more on that later). With the troops finished, I decided to lavish my attention on two individual projects. The first was my inaguaral attempt at creating some scenery for our games. In this case a rather simple single story building, haphazardly crafted one afternoon from a mix of foamboard, popsicle sticks, and cardboard tiles for the roof. Still rather crude, nothing to write home about, but looking back on it now it exudes a sort of childish charm for me. My terrain-making skills would improve quite rapidly after that, but this was me exploring a new manner of creation. It was the second singular project I tackled that I would take immense pride in however. The Doomwheel. I've either lost, or temporarily misplaced, my WIP shots of that process, but I started with painting the elements still on the sprue, worked at using much thinner multiple layers, began experimenting with highlights and washes, and ended up with something that made me think I might actually have a bright future in this hobby after all. After this, I was looking for cheap ways to expand my army and encountered a number of online Bitz retailers. This was in the middle of the recession, when Canada seemed to have the only thriving economy in the Western world, so places like Hoard O' Bitz were incredibly affordable, often a much better deal than simply going down to the hobby shop and buying boxes from GW. Among other things, I wanted to add a Warp Lightning Cannon to my army next, but the ease of kitbashing with plastic meant that I was enamoured with making mine unique. As such I decided to use an Empire model as the basis for my cannon, reasoning this was a warmachine the Skaven had cobbled together with spoils of war they'd skavenged from battle. Though it represents more enthusiasm than skill, I still am rather pleased with how it turned out. I started doing up some Plague Monks around this time, and I found one picture of the unit in progress that still makes me wince a bit to look at (I'd been painting about 3 months at this point). Again, these were done quickly to get them on the table as soon as possible, so not much time devoted to developing my painting skills. I also wanted a Hell Pit Abomination for my army, and again trying to be unique as possible I settled on the Reaper Bones Cthulhu model as my proxy. I'd begun to read up on various techniques and the bigger model afforded me a chance to explore stuff like wet-blending for the first time. I was really proud of this guy at the time, and even now I think he's decent for tabletop standard, but I could do so much better. By now we'd been playing 8th edition for a few months, and it was fun, but I began to feel a longing for the Warhammer of my youth. I felt restricted, creatively, by the army book. I found the need for huge armies just to field any of the fun big models annoying. And it was in an ebay search that I by happenchance came across someone selling a set of the early Plague Monks that I was suddenly awash in nostalgia for the miniatures of my youth. At this point, honestly, I didn't even know the name "Jes Goodwin". But I knew his work. I knew his Skaven actually looked like humanoid rats. And scooping up that auction with the inflated Buy It Now price set me on the road that would lead to my discovery of the Oldhammer community online, and the creation of my Skaven Collector's Guide. This was also a period in which I was seeking out and devouring all the online tutorials I could find. I was painting as much as I could, experimenting with new techniques, trying to apply tips and tricks from various sources. But this was also when pictures of my stuff became fewer and further apart. I was (and am) working towards a goal or standard that I am happy with, and much of my work fell short of that. It was rare I was satisfied enough with anything to even bother taking a picture, an issue that plagues me to this day and the main reason this blog isn't filled with pics of my own models. On the one hand, I was improving with each new project I tackled. On the other, it meant that I looked at anything that wasn't current with disappointment and disdain. However there were a few exceptions. I began to conceive of an Eshin-themed army at this point. Kitbashing provides a satisfaction in and of itself that supercedes my own self-criticism towards my painting abilities, and thus I took several pics of my initial experiments with "Ashigurat" Night Runners and "Stormshadows" (samurai stormvermin). I'd also branched out from Skaven into an allied Nurgle force at this point. "Disgusting" tends to be easier to pull off than "beautiful" when it comes to painting, and as such I was pretty happy overall with my Nurgle endeavours. In particular, the Nurgle Chaos Lord. I dont have the proper set-up for photographing minis, but in this case (as opposed to most others where the crappy cellphone pics are probably a godsend for obscuring mistakes), I have to say that the photo doesn't do this fellow justice. A mix of glazes and 'ardcoat means his skin is, IRL, incredibly slimy and putrid, with the dripping blood and guts appropriately bloody and squicky. The rusted and rotting metal, the highlights, and the skin tones - I was, and remain, very happy with how this figure came out.
Feeling braver than usual, I even entered this fellow into a competition at the local hobby shop, and damned if he didn't win me a prize. Unfortunately, at this point, maybe because of overconfidence after the success with Grandfather Nurgle's kin, I made perhaps my biggest mistake regarding this hobby; I accepted a commission job. To Be Continued... PREFACE Please be forewarned, in the interest of calling a spade a shovel, that the following post is mostly pure fanwank. I am going to present a theory and support for that theory that is not only non cannon, but due to the vagaries of certain copyright laws (ironically acting against Games Workshop in this case), it intrinsically cannot be cannon. Regardless, I believe the wonderful aptitude and undeniably beautiful synchronicity of the theory lends it a degree of "Truth" worthy of consideration. But then, I would say that... Skaven; the Chaos Ratmen. Since their introduction into the Warhammer multiverse, they've been shrouded in mystery. Even their true origins are obscured, wrapped in the riddle of a Lovecraftian fairytale, equal parts Pied Piper of Hamelin and Chambers' King in Yellow. Their relation to the other forces of Chaos is ambiguous, their patronymical deity's connection to the other Chaos gods tenebrous. Skaven society is an absolute monotheistic theocracy; all Skaven worship The Great Horned Rat. Even Clan Pestilens, who are great friends with Nurgle, carry out their diseased machinations in the name of their Verminous God. The lore of the Skaven was established in the Spring 1986 issue of The Citadel Journal, and though embellished upon to some degree, has remained largely constant ever since, even as the Warhammer world itself was only just starting to be defined, and would remain in a state of flux at least until the early 90s. According to the extensive article by the creator of the Skaven, Jes Goodwin; "The Horned Rat is feared and worshipped as the patron deity of the Skaven. This mighty Chaos god gnaws at the fabric of the multiverse, instigating the forces of decay." So The Horned Rat is a Chaos god, a "mighty" one at that, who appears to represent the forces of "decay" or "entropy." But later texts would never mention him in reference to the other four main deities of Chaos. The Horned Rat is not detailed in either of The Realms of Chaos volumes that largely provided the definitive overview of Warhammer's finalized mythology. And even as Chaos Warriors, Beastmen, and Daemons would occupy a unified front for the ruinous powers, The Skaven (and, by extension, the will of their god) would follow their own path, largely disinterested or even inimical to the goals of Chaos et large. For all intents and purposes, though certainly chaotic in nature, the so-called "Chaos Ratmen" seem no more to do with the Chaos gods than Orcs`and Goblins. As previously noted, The Realms of Chaos were largely the revision that solidified and codified the Warhammer mythos for subsequent editions. That The Horned Rat would then continue to be noted as a Chaos God past that point almost seems bizarre, like a holdover from a prior reality. This renegade Chaos god seems to belong more to a forgotten world of Fimir and Zoats than what Warhammer became. Yet in the 4th edition armybook, The Horned Rat's presence and import is not only reaffirmed, but strengthened by the appearance of his very own Daemonic servitors in the form of The Vermin Lords. And so for many years and editions the mystery remained, with GW remaining non-committal and oblique. In the Liber Chaotica, there's a suggestion The Horned Rat may simply by a verminous resident of Nurgle's garden, but this raises more questions than it answers. Then came The End Times. And Age of Sigmar. AoS has its own fluff, and has dealt with The Horned Rat in its own way... ...but this post concerns the Old World, and so for the answers we seek, we need to look to the past, to the worlds before, rather than the future. In trying to discover the origin and identity of The Horned Rat, we are looking for a fifth great Chaos God. A renegade among the Chaos gods. One who embodies attributes that define The Skaven, like ruin and destruction, treachery and betrayal. And what we find is... MALALThe connection between Malal and the Skaven goes back to the very beginning, in the pages of Citadel Journal. Malal was created by John Wagner and Alan Grant, of Judge Dredd fame, for a series of comics focusing on the adventure's of Malal's Moorecockian champion, Kaleb Daark. Running for only three instalments (with a fourth left unpublished), The Quest of Kaleb Daark premièred in the pages of Citadel Journal one issue before the Spring 86 edition. In the same issue the Skaven's background was presented, they appeared in the Kaleb Daark instalment, where they first evinced their idiosyncratic manner of speech ("Hurryhurry" "Quick killkill!"). Malal was conceived of as "the embodiment of Chaos' indiscriminate and anarchic tendency toward destruction... [a] cancer of chaos if you like." (1) Or, more extensively, "Malal is effectively Chaos' self-destruction and internal conflict incarnate. Known as the Hierarch of Anarchy and Terror, his warriors were dedicated to the annihilation and destruction of other Chaos followers, hunting down and waging war against Chaos itself. It was for this reason he became known as the Renegade God." (2) "One way to look at is that Khorne is |
PLOG OF THE HORNED RATIn which The Shadowy Mr. Evans engages his obsession for painting tiny metal figures SKAVEN BLOGROLLChequeo de liderazgo
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February 2024
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