Dread Wyrm of the Underground

Some years ago I wrote a scenario called "Horrors of the Underground" for the Mordheim supplement Border Town Burning. In this scenario two groups of adventurers explore some abandoned mines in the Cathayan borderlands in search of mighty Chaos artefacts. As they go further into the darkness they uncover caves of spiders and other vile creatures along the way.
While searching for treasures and eventually for an exit out of the tunnels they encounter a horrible creature: The Wyrm. This terrifying monster appears out of nowhere to devour the careless explorers until they manage to fight it off. Then it would retreat into the tunnels to come back a few turns later.

A Tilean merchant and his retinue explore the forsaken mines
with Chaos marauders hot on their trail

When I designed this set-up I had a monstrous sand wyrm in mind living in the tunnels that were dug by the unsuspecting Cathayan miners. Now Forge World has released a creature that exactly matches my original vision: The Dread Maw.

Had this model been available back then, it would be in the supplement now. Rules for the Dread Maw can be found in the infamous tome that is the Monstrous Arcanum (pages 46-47). Suitably the rules are accompanied by a Tilean Merchant Prince's quote describing how "Every caravan master traversing the Ivory Road to far Cathay fears the shaking of the earth that preceedes a Dread Maw attack".

So if you plan on setting up a proper underground gaming board with a proper monster to fight off and run from, I highly recommend the new Forge World Dread Maw. Actually I find all these cool Forge World monsters highly tempting, be it the Basilisk, the Merwyrm or this new disturbing beauty.

The Horrors of the Underground scenario is part of the Border Town Burning supplement for Mordheim (pages 48-49). There is also an adjusted monster-less version called The Mine for Legends of the High Seas.
The Dread Maw is available from Forge World (Product Code: 99590299065) for £52.00.
The  Monstrous Arcanum is available from Forge World (Product Code: 60040287002) for £32.00.

Warhammer Blacksmith's Forge

My latest building for Gierburg is the Blacksmith's Forge from Forge World. I already posted the Warhammer Well and the Bloomery, and this is the last Forge World piece for now.¹




Contents

• Main Building
• 2 Roof sections
• Chimney
• 5 sets of 2 shutters each
• Set of 2 main doors

First impression
My first impression was that the building was smaller than I expected. It's not that small actually, the windows e.g. have the right height/position for a 28-30mm miniature. However, the door/gate looks rather small with a miniature in front of it.

Still, it is a great piece with astounding detail. I was very impressived with the wood structure, the detailed stones and the additional bits like barrels and wheels. The interior detail with the barrels, furnace and bellows is amazing. Also, there are no air bubbles in the resin. The quality of the piece is absolutely top level. There is nothing broken (as with the Bloomery) and there is very little flesh.

Apart from the disappointing size the only downside is that the base is a bit too big and thick and it requires some filing.


Second impression
I found a thin mold line on the chimney while cleaning the model, but that could be removed very easily. The quality really is great. However, there is one problem with the design: The two roof sections don't fit together so well, leaving a huge gap on the front wall. I tried washing the parts with warm water to bend them better but that didn't help. I was wondering for some time what to do with them until I finally decided to just glue the roof together and live with it.


I didn't glue the chimney on the model as otherwise I would have problems removing the roof. So the chimney is just put in there and can make place when necessary.




Add-ons
I added a sign from Thomarillion to the front above the door. I think it really adds a lot to the overall look.



The Painted Forge
Painting the forge was rather painless and done similarly to the Warhammer Stable. After the Governor's Mansion, which required a lot of additional work, it was refreshing to just paint a building.







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¹Unfortunately this building is currently out of production and not available in Forge World's online store (March 30th, 2010). Let's hope it returns soon!

All's Well that Hath Well

As the post title's little alteration of Shakespeare's classic phrase suggests, a well is a sort of must-have item for a medieval/fantasy gaming table. I ordered the Warhammer Well from Forge World along with some other scenery.

Just as with the recent bloomery there is not much to say about the well. It is a nice model that was fun to paint - absolutely recommendable. Personally, I would have loved to see the well itself being removable from the base so that it could be placed on a flagstone area or something. But that's not really a big disadvantage and to most other gamers this will probably not matter - on the contrary, they might be grateful for the additional modelled ground.

In full Bloom

I have finished another piece of scenery for my Gierburg table: the Warhammer Bloomery from Forge World. This review is rather short because there is very little to say other than that this is a fine detailed piece that I like a lot. It's a huge plus for me that this is a rather unconventional piece. You'll see houses from dozens of manufacturers, but a bloomery, that's really something special. And as usual Forge World live up to the quality that they are known for.

My only critique is that in the model I got, a tiny part of the hinge joint of the lever was missing/broken off (the bit left of the lever's anchor which is meant to hold the axis). I only realised this when I wanted to glue the lever on. It was no big deal as I could easily model the piece with Green Stuff, but still it was a bit disappointing and people who are completely unfamiliar with modelling putty would have probably been quite frustrated. I don't believe this to be a common deficiency, yet I found it noteworthy.

Aside from that I am totally happy with the model and I can fully recommend it. It's a great stylish addition to any medieval fantasy/historical gaming table.




And now for some pictures of the finished piece. I used the same foliage and flowers as for the Blue Wolf Inn and the Stable. I hope you like it. (Click on the images to enlarge them.)

The Stable

Review: Warhammer Stable
ForgeWorld's Warhammer terrain range offers some of the best medieval fantasy scenery on the market. I had been drooling over the photos on their website for long enough until I decided to place an order. In this post I document my impressions and experience with the first ForgeWorld piece that I assembled and painted for my Gierburg table: the Warhammer Stable.¹

I have to say that I am not a few of Games Workshop's latest Empire terrain for Warhammer. It undoubtedly has a distinct style but personally I am not a fan of all the Sigmar comet symbols, skulls and other falderal. I have always loved Forge World's scenery, however, because of its more authentic historical feel.

After painting the first building for my Gierburg project, the Blue Wolf Inn, I decided it was time to get my hands on the Forge World buildings at last. The stable is a great addition to the inn (and easy to assemble) so I did that one first.

Contents

• Main building
• Roof
• Beam
• Wheel sprue with 2x 2 wheels

As you can see, aside from the beam which needs to be glued on the base, there is no further assembly required. A little filing off of some surplus resin and that's it. Well, if it weren't for two enormous chunks of resin at the bottom of the base (unfortunately I didn't take photos of them). It took a while to cut/file/rasp them off and it was rather exhausting, especially as I accidentally drove the building in my right thumb twice in the process, soaking the stable with blood even before it saw its first battle.


First Impression
These were my first impressions:

• Larger than expected: Buildings tend to be smaller than you want them to be and this one was a nice surprise.
  
• Great detail: The detailed stones in the walls and the structured wood are nicely done.
  
• Lovely additional bits (on the model): There are two barrels, a bucket, a hay stack and hay spread inside the stable. That's some very nice extra detail that surely cannot be taken for granted.
  

Design
For this review I will grade the model as I described recently in the introduction of the Wrecking Ball Terrain Review article.
After the Blue Wolf Inn and the Burgomeister's Mansion (coming soon) I was somewhat apt to give a lower grade here. Surely a stable cannot compete with a huge inn or mansion in terms of impressiveness. But it doesn't have to and such a comparison would not be fair. It is a stable - that is what it is meant to represent, so it should be judged on that.

The stable is very nicely modelled: the detailed walls are sculpted on the in- and outside, the wood has a good structure, the roof sits nicely on the building and additional items such as two barrels, a bucket and a haystack round off the model. While it is great to have these items on the model it would have been better if they were removable. Especially the barrels get in the way of the brush when painting. Well, can't have everything, right? Ultimately, however, it is, of course, better to have these items than not at all.


Conclusion
The stable is a great building that comes at a very fair price (thanks to the current high of the Euro). The detail is pretty much perfect. The only deficits are the quality of the material. The resin itself is sturdy but at some places the paint won't stick (despite having washed the building prior to undercoating). Fortunately this was mostly only at the walls where the gray resin can be drybrushed to look like stone. These are only minor points though, and all in all the stable is nearly perfect: 4.5 of 5.




Painting the Stable
I really enjoyed painting the Warhammer stable. The roof and (structured) wood paint up nicely and fast so you get some good quick results that motivate further work. A first drybrush of Codex Grey on the stone walls soon gives you a rough idea of what the building will look like in the end. So you can get a great basis to work on after a short time so that you are motivated to go on and spend the extra time on figuring out how to do the stones.


Base/Ground & Roof
See the Blue Wolf Inn for how I painted the base/ground (Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown, Skull White) and the roof - I used the same technique and colours.


Stone Walls
Painting the stone walls took a lot of time. I found it much harder to get satisfying results on stone walls than on brickwork. Simple drybrushing is not sufficient as you need to mix and use a lot of colours and pay a lot of attention to the individual stones. This is pretty time consuming but, in my opinion, well worth the effort.

I tried to write down the steps I went through when painting the stones. I went through some "trial-and-error" but I think I figured it out alright in the end.

1. Drybrush with 1/2 Codex Grey, 1/2 Chaos Black
2. Drybrush with Codex Grey
   
3. Drybrush individual stones with one of the following:
   
   • 1/2 Codex Grey, 1/2 Bestial Brown
   • 1/2 Codex Grey, 1/2Vomit Brown
     
   • Bleached Bone
   • Fortress Grey
     
4. Drybrush with Codex Grey (tones down the previous layer)
   
5. Drybrush with Fortress Grey
6. Draw lots of small dots/stains/strokes on individual stones using one of the following:
   
   • Vomit Brown
   • Bestial Brown
     
   • Bleached Bone
     
   • Skull White
7. Combining these stains creates a nice realistic effect. Mixing the colours and stains should be done in a way that feels right. It takes a lot of time and I could have spent even much more on it.
   

Vegetation
Again I used the same as for the Blue Wolf Inn: flowers from Silhouette, ivy from miniNatur and foliage from Antenociti's Workshop.


The finished Model
Alright. Enough talk - here are the pictures, enjoy:







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¹Unfortunately the stable is currently out of production and not available in Forge World's online store (March 30th, 2010). Let's hope it returns soon!