Three days he had now traveled, South and West, towards the warmer lands and away from that cursed ruin of a keep, and now before him loomed the Halpi Mountains and more importantly, in the Southern wall of the valley that lay below Tomlin, was Bazur'Ubam, the Pass Under Stone, an old dwarven tunnel under the first row of jagged peaks. It was many years abandoned, but Tomlin knew the hardiness of Dwarven stonework. Besides, he had passed through it without incident with a caravan some years prior to his current calamity.
Somewhere behind him, thin against the wind at first but growing came the howling of wolves.
Tomlin spat and cursed and then he kicked his horse and went down the slope. Just a little more, and he would be in warmer and safer climes, even if said climes were not exactly warm and safe in any absolute terms.
--
Greetings!
In this post I will go through the process off making a multibased unit, namely a regiment of Werewolves for my upcoming Undead army.
For me the process of making a new unit always starts with searching for a feel of the unit I am building. As I'm big for fluff and stories, I always try to answer questions like who are these warriors? Why do they fight? What do the rumors say about them?
Those are key elements in making a cool army, because units with stories behind them tend to gather more reputation than units without them. I mean, it is pretty cool to have that one unit your opponent absolutely hates because they've done some pretty amazing things.
With my Werewolves I wanted to go for a properly feral feel, a pack on the hunt. I may have over indulged on Metallica's Of Wolf and Man...
The models are Mantic's Werewolves with no additions. The material of the miniatures is restic, which, while difficult to clean up prior to painting, is excellent for posing by heat bending.
I wanted my wolves to look like they're speeding through craggy, snowy terrain. I wanted to give them a thoroughly feral feel and I went for it by posing them so that they're hunched over and using their powerful arms as they run.
I began the process by seeing how the models go together, what kind of modifications can be easily achieved and how many points of contact the models need on a base. Those are key points when you are going for a more complicated unit.
These models are built so that, originally, only their feet touch the base, but I quickly saw that their hands were well suited for additional contact and I decided to capitalize on that to get that canine running pose.
When making rocky terrain like cliffs, thick cork is your best friend. Why thick? Because even though one can add multiple layers of cork, as I've done with this base, thin layers will have many flat-on-flat surfaces. Those will stick out even after painting, and even if layered rock formations are a very common phenomenon in real world, thin cork does not yield itself well for that slate look. For that you should use pine bark.
When gluing cork into a rock formation, I'd suggest not applying glue to the edges of layers. While it would make it initially more stable, it would also make it more difficult to pry off bits of cork to hide the seams. I reach the same stability and durability through a layer of thinned down PVA glue applied over the whole formation once it's in sculpted to my satisfaction.
I wanted to increase the bestial look of my Werewolves by giving them a base that certainly does not look like the kind of terrain any normal troops would prefer to move through. I also wanted to get that leader of the pack up there on that miniature Pride Rock, showing those pesky kitties who it is that rules the Night's Hunt.
Heat bending can be done repeatedly and that is exactly what I did to achieve the level of interaction between a model and the base that I wanted. Superglue withstands hot water well, so you don't have to worry about dunking the model in even after putting it together. Here I repositioned the model's feet and fingers so that they lay against the surface of they touch. I attempted to make it look like the Werewolf is dragging itself forward as much with its hands as it with its feet.
As the next step, I worked more on the base. I dislike painting models and making them wait, as that increases the chances of them taking hits and chipping while in storage. I decided to widen the gap between the rock formations on the left to form a narrow, frozen-over creek that the Wolf is skipping over. Then I glued sand on the surfaces that I wanted to give a gravelly look. I use fine grain construction sand, the same stuff they put into concrete, because it has small enough grains to look pretty natural with miniatures.
Then I used wood filler paste to form snow drifts (more on that here) and undercoated the rest of the base black. I really think everything should be painted, natural materials stick out in a weird manner, like a photograph in a cartoon.
The rock got a three-layer drybrush from dark grey to white while the sand got first a flat muddy brown and later a wash. The snow drifts were painted light blue that I later painted mostly white again. I'm starting to change my opinion on the light blue color under the snow flock. While it does give a cooler shade to the white, it's a bit too obvious sometimes.
I like stripy rock and the way to make it happen the way I want it is with a much lighter color than the base and one directional strokes so that the brush touches the surface only when it's passing, not when it's brought back. That gives the systematic decrease in the how strong the effect at the start of the brush stroke compared to where it ends. Painters who actually know what they're doing can probably give you better advice on making rock look cool.
Then it's time to add snow and icicles. On this base I used bits of sprue that I heated over a candle flame and stretched and later painted, but I wasn't entirely happy with the result and so I'll be working with clear plastic in the future. This is, however, a readily available alternative as well.
Creating deep snow that interacts with the models will require multiple layers of flock. I added the first layer with PVA to give the underlying wood filler more resistance to impacts as it is fairly brittle once dry and PVA gives it more strength in that regard.
I painted my wolves to have a mixture of brown skin and grey fur, with a lighter skin on the abdomen. This was because I felt like the models themselves are relatively low-key in terms of what goes on in them, and thus they benefit from a bit of shift in color here and there.
Once I had each Werewolf glued down initially, I went through the points of contact with the base and added more snow flock with superglue. One should be careful with that, as extra flock sticking on the models doesn't look like snow clinging to the them, as the grain size is a bit off. However, that way I could make the fingers on the wolfie look like they're pressed into the snow bank on top of the rock.
--
Tomlin ran.
The tunnel was rising, which was a good sign, but the roars of the cave troll behind him were not.
The damned thing had taken the head off his horse before he had even realized that what had seemed a particularly reeking part of the passage under the mountain was particularly foul for a reason. The broken left stirrup on Tomlin's saddle had proven his savior, as he managed to pull himself atop of the headless beast before its limp form could pin him down.
There was a cold gleam of moonlight on snow ahead, the only sign of the tunnel coming to an end. If the full moon wouldn't be enough to persuade the troll to give up chasing him, at least Tomlin would have some light to see how he'd meet his end.
Then he felt cold night air fill his lungs, burning in his throat as he sprung out of the tunnel, coming into the valley beyond between two scored and battered statues of dwarves, many times their normal height. Behind him the troll roared and came on, its massive feet pounding the frozen earth as it came. So much for the help of moonlight.
The road was, luckily enough, blown clear of snow by the strong winds, but Tomlin could only run so far. Feeling the burn in his thighs and calves grow into a raging inferno, he knew he could not keep ahead of the troll much longer. Cursing under his ragged breath, Tomlin drew his blade and swerved to face the cave troll.
The beast was at least twelve feet tall, a misshapen mass of muscle and claws, taken by surprise by Tomlin's sudden move. It brought a clawed hand down on where Tomlin had been, swiping wide, while the man dived under the beast's stroke and struck out with his blade. Cold steel bit, piercing the beast's grey hide in a long gash across a meaty thigh.
The troll roared, turned and swung again as Tomlin sprang aside, dodging the fist and then dashed in, grabbing the dull part near the middle of his blade with one hand while adjusting his grip on the hilt and drove it upwards, under the beast's ribs with all his strength. Deep he struck, stopping only when his hand on the blade of his sword slammed into the beast's filthy hide.
The black spray of blood smoked as it streamed out of the wound, half a bucket at least, when Tomlin pulled his blade free, springing past the cave troll once again. The troll roared and clamped its massive hand over the gushing wound. No blow chased Tomlin as he danced away from the troll, breathing hard.
Tomlin and the troll stared at each other, some ten yards apart basked in bright moonlight. A slow grin bloomed on Tomlin's face as he watched the blood gushing down the trolls flank.
"That's right you you ugly horse-killing piece of shit. Bleed!"
He stared for a long moment, before realizing that the troll was bleeding less and less, but not because of loss of blood. Slowly, the creature drew itself up and rolled its shoulders, shaking off the pain of the now-staunched wound. Tomlin could see the gash on its thigh knit itself together before his very eyes.
He sighed in resignation and hefted his blade, dropping into a fighter's stance.
"Come on, then!", Tomlin shouted, his voice echoing from the cliffs, "You fucking rot-breath, come on!"
The troll roared and came.
Then came a deep snarl and a grey shadow passed Tomlin, so close that he could feel the heat coming off the massive form of the leaping creature. It bounded high into air and slammed into the cave troll, almost toppling it, snapping jaws sinking into the troll's forearm as it tried to push the creature off itself. A piercing howl rose and two more beasts came dashing out of the shadows, masses of ebony muscle topped with thick hackles of white fur. The troll pushed the grey one off with a blow from a massive fist and scampered on its feet just as the two others came upon it.
Tomlin stared, slack-jawed, as he watched the pack of werewolves circled their prey. Closer and closer, eyes burning with the joy of the hunt. He was still staring when they felled the troll, rending jaws ripping out tendons and finally canines like daggers closing on its throat. Wet sounds of carnivores feasting on fresh flesh filled the air.
He came to when he found the grey one, more massive than the rest of his pack, staring him, its grey face covered in the troll's black blood. The werewolf turned back its pointed ears, a sign of aggression, and growled.
"Our kill. Run, thief, run, and live to see another day."
Tomlin obliged.
Thanks for reading!
Next up, first few characters.
Cheers,
AoW
