Swashbuckling Nobles

Hi Gierburgers!

Today I am showing you two young noblemen I painted for Chris. On these guys I went for a "clean"shirt, using a more blue-ish palette to suggest a thinner and more expensive cloth. One that would suit young noblemen.

I started with a mix of VGC Sombre Grey + VMC White and worked my way up to pure white. Some folds in the shirt took some time to get accentuated properly, because they were either very shallow or non existant. I always find that painting whites is pretty difficult and even when you get the hang of it, you need to be REALLY patient.

Richard - Work in Progress

The first one is Richard the Rake (originally named "Diego the Rogue") from Heresy Miniatures. This really cool and charismatic mini is one of Andy Foster's earliest sculpts (along with Scrote, the Jailer) and unfortunately they both were taken out of the Heresy range recently.

The second nobleman is by Black Cat Bases. This one doesn't have a name (yet) - something cianty will hopefully remedy soon!

Just like Richard this one wears a posh white shirt to stress his social status in Gierburg.

The two nobles fighting a group of Bondsmen

Bondsmen of Gierburg: The Leader

A few months ago I presented the first members of Chris' warband of Bondsmen for Gierburg. Today I present their leader: Gerrard, Bondsmen Leader, sculpted by Tom Meier, produced by Dark Sword Miniatures. While Chris really loved the sculpt, he chose to add a tricorne from Black Scorpion's pirate weapon sprue to the model to make it fit the Bondsman style of French greatcoats.

I tried to use as much black as possible without making the miniature dull to look at.

Gerrard leading his group of Bondsmen through the streets of Gierburg

Whoohoo!!!

Going a little off topic today...

After seeing this episode of the Nostalgia Critic I had to dig up the intro to DuckTales.



Aaah.. the memories.. The version I grew up with was obviously the German one:




It's awesome to hear other countries' versions as well. Personally I find the Dutch version incredibly epic:




There even is a full length version of the song:




As a Barks fan I can't totally approve of the TV show but the song is definately catchy as hell. In fact most of these old shows have awesome intros: Chip 'n Dale, Gummi Bears, Tale Spin, Darkwing Duck... Browsing youtube for these songs is always a fun trip down memory lane. The comics (and to a lesser extend the cartoons) got me into drawing, painting and eventually the wargames hobby. Maybe I'll go into that a bit further at some point in the future. Anyways, back to Thomas and his latest Gierburg paint jobs...

Citizens of Gierburg: Kids

Hey guys!

Today is Kid's Day in Gierburg. These cute figures are all from Hasslefree Miniatures, namely it's the Village Kiddies and the Medieval Kids packs.

The cutest models I have ever had the opportunity to paint.

Trick or treat

Citizens of Gierburg: Girls Girls Girls

Hi guys!

Today I would like to show you some of the female civilians I painted for Gierburg. All models are from Black Cat Bases.

The first model is this unfortunate Captured Noblewoman. Fancy clothing. It is my first shot ever at painting make-up on a model (I like my women natural normally ^^) but I thought I'd give it a try. I also placed a teeny tiny white spot in the lower lip to simulate light reflection.
I think that doesn't look too bad.

Next is a young woman of far less noble stock, but in turn she knows how to take care of herself: Jeny, the Wench.

Last is the Innkeeper's Wife... another one. I thought Stilhoufen already had a wife called Bertha... but who am I to judge - I prefer not to get involved in these things. At least this confusion would explain her bad mood:

I like to slightly accentuate faces with pink to simulate bloodflow. It makes the models look much more alive. In real life, faces are most often not monochrome, but have different colours. The cheeks and lips are usually better irrigated than the rest of the face.

To achieve this effect quite simply on your miniature, all you need to do is add a very small amount of red to your mix and water it down well (consistency of milk). The 2 things to keep in mind are

1. Don't add too much red. It is better to add another layer than to have clown-like red cheeks.
2. Water down the paint. Why? Because it makes it more transparent and more subtle. Also, should you inadvertedly mask recesses with it, you can quickly "save" the situation by absorbing the excess paint with a fresh dry brush (capillary forces are your friend here!)
   

Then carefully accentuate zones where you imagine bloodflow e.g. lips, cheeks and nose.

Citizens of Gierburg: Vendors

There is a number of different types of merchants operating in Gierburg. Vendors wander the narrow ways of the south, pushing a small cart or with a tray around their neck full of wares, usually some sort of light snack or beverage to aid a thirsty traveller.

Hey guys!

It's Tom reporting on Cianty's blog again. The painting is going well and there are plenty of new Gierburg citizens that I want you to "meet". Today I'm showing you two characterful figures from Alionas Miniatures that I painted for the Gierburg Project: the Fishwife and the Appleseller.

First is Hazel, the Fishwife. This is one of my first models entirely with Vallejo paints (save for the wash on the apron for which I used GW Devlan Mud.

I find fish can be a little tricky to paint, since it is hard to get the colour right. Everybody has a mental picture of a typical fish, but when you ask what actual "color" it is, it is tricky to define. I would say, most commercial fish are black-ish or silver-ish. However this would not necessarily look very recognisable on a miniature. So I decided to go for green, with the following recipie:

1. Basecoat VMC US Dark Green
2. Add VGC Camouflage Green increasingly and overbrush (stay mainly on the dorsal side of the animal)
3. Repeat with the same mix, but add a drop of VMC Dark Sand (Arena Oscura) and only overbrush the dorsal side.
4. Give the whole fish a wash of watered down VMC US Dark Green

The other vendor is Johan, the Appleseller. This is a model where you need to do some careful highlighting, shading and possibly some blending. The shirt is rather intricate (although it doesn't look like it) because its folds are deep enough to require shading but shallow enough to look unnatural if overdone. It took quite a while to get the mixes of VMC Tierra Mate and VMC Arena Oscura right, and I had to work my way back and forth between the different hues on the model to zero in on what I found to look best.

Enjoy the pics!

See you soon with another post!
Tom

WIP sneak peek of more Gierburg citizens coming soon

My Top 10 Favourite Wargaming Boards

I have been wanting to make this post for a while now and with the Christmas days approaching quickly I guess it now is the perfect time. So here is my holiday post: My Top 10 favourite gaming boards.

This is a purely subjective rundown of wargaming boards that I came across on the internet. Of course, the list is not comprehensive and you might have different opinions - especially if you are more interested in Sci-Fi, Wild West, Pulp, FIW, Steampunk or whatever. To me though, they are a tremendous source of inspiration and amazement and I like to drool over them regularly.

I hope you enjoy it.


#10 - Pirate Town (Rob_Jedi)
Rob_Jedi's Monkey Island influenced Pirate Town is a great inspiration. You can see it at the Privateer Press Forums and at Oz Painters.




#9 - Temple Triade de Jade (Yiu)
This is a very impressive jungle board for Alkemy. Check it out on the Alkemy forum.

#8 - Mordheim (Flame_On)
The Flame On guys have created an incredible Mordheim table. You can see many photos of their terrain on Tom's Boring Mordheim Forum in their many Battle Reports.

#7 - Village (Captain Blood)
I found this village by Captain Blood on the Lead Adventure Forum. You can see some stunning close ups of the buildings in this thread. He uses a lot of ready painted buildings from PMC Games but the set-up and the Forge World Coaching Inn are amazing.





#6 - Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror (Vikotnik)
This is a stunning black/white horror board. Read more about it on Lead Adventure Forum or Max Paint (German).



#5 - Tortuga Island (Rux)
I really love this Caribbean style table. I was happy to see it at this year's Tactica convention. You can see more photos of it here.




#4 - Medieval City (Theomar Pius)
This is one of the most impressive medieval cities I ever came across. You can see his barbican townhouses at CoolMiniOrNot and at fotki.



#3 - Fantasy City (Thibo)
This Fantasy City board by CT Scenery is really amazing. And you can even buy the buildings from them. Niceeee.. :)

#2 - Mordheim (Wolfgang Jädtke)
Wolfgang's famous recreation of the City of the Damned is probably the best Mordheim board ever - as well as the most famous. You can see it in the gallery at Gidean-Gelände. However, definately also check out Wolfgang's gallery at Gidean-Gelände as there are tons of other stunning works by him.



#1 - Tod in Lorien (scarface)
Somewhere between gaming table and diorama this is the most impressive set-up I have ever seen on the net. This is actually more than just a diorama, it is an enormous picture story with lots of unbelievably detailed photos. Head over to TabletopWelt.de and check it out. Don't feel bad if it makes you cry with envy and amazement. Also don't be afraid if you don't understand German, because these pictures certainly speak for themselves!

Honorable Mentions

The following mentions don't qualify as gaming boards as they are individual pieces but still are outstanding pieces of scenery/terrain and worth a look or two.


The Gold Mine (Admiral Benbow)
This incredible terrain piece brings some Old West flavour to this post at last. I enjoyed following the development process a lot and looking at it almost makes we want to play some comboys




Pirates Part 2 (Trull)
Trull certainly is a diorama creator extra-ordinare and this probably his most incredible work. Check out his gallery at Gidian-Gelände including more photos of this piece.