The last of their kind

Finaly, here they are, contemplating the empty horizon of their endless fate, the last of their kind, kings of fading realms and lost dreams... Or, to put it straight, the last two figures I'll be painting for the SAGA dwarves project. 

"Axes drawn, watch your back...

One of those could have make a convincing a warlord, but I did not really need an other one, instead of what I thought it would be fun to have my 6 pts war band led by the Anglo-Danes King Harald and his two brothers, from the rule book. Thus, since I wanted to have these two Dwarf Kings painted since ages, here are the two brothers.

...I have the feeling someone is staring at us from behind."

Now, I know that I will suffer from the comparison, but I thought it would be fare to show the picture that inspired me for those last two. Again, it is a magnificent piece of art from the russian illustrator Ivan I. Bilibine, whose work led almost all my choice with the painting of the dwarf  war band. I discovered the artist six years ago and his rather colorful prints have been haunting me ever since. Eventually it had me dive into the russian folklore and discover wonders that I never could quite imagine before. Lets just say for now that my attempt to render something from these corpus of inspiration is a first try, that is to be followed by many other.

Ivan I. Bilibine, an illustration for the tale Vassilissa the Beauty.

But, for the time being, I'll be soon setting sail towards other interests, other kind of being too. The kind of regular human sized figures of an appearance totally compatible with SAGA. But that will be for 2013, for I recklessly enrolled in a painting contest that I have absolutly no chance to win (well, I did it more out of friendship, than for the vanity of honors), whose rules stipulate that brushes have to be kept dry from paint until december the 20th. So, more on that latter, I'll probably post an entry detailing what my modest participation to this challenge will consist of.

Oh, and I soon as I can take descent pictures of the all war band, I think I'll bundle it together on a single page... That is it for now!

An humble piece of land

I had started November by opening a parcel and unwrapping a rather exciting medieval homestead, so I thought  it would be nice to exhibit the results of this interesting sub-project to kick-start December.

"If you look for the keys, they lay under the stone"

"A simple place, for simple after pillage parties with the lads"

I think I did wrong when assembling the cottage, since some parts did not adjust very well. I might have interverted the opposites side walls, so I had to trim the bottom of each piece a little, in order to have everything on the same level. I can't really imagine this is due to a defect of the kit, since the quality of Renadra products is not something to question here. Anyway, I didn't really worried about the overall look of the finished piece. One  can disguise many under layers of drybrush, and the house surely looks more medieval thus.

"Follow the guide, if you like to see where the peas are grown"

My initial idea was to arrange all elements of the kit together in order to create a terrain feature that could have a significant impact on the battlefield and give a feel of the period. Well, I don't really aim at historical accuracy in gaming, the dwarves I have painted like russians and played like SAGA Anglo-Danes tells it enough. This kind of timber framed house probably apperead in Feudal Europe during the 12th century and so might very look like a snobish avangardist piece of architecture in games meant to be set during the 11th century. Nevertheless, I tried to have it look plausible, if not accurate.

"back of the place"

"Now from a distance"

So, I ended up with this idea of having it surounded with wattlework fences, to protect both cattle and crops from the greed of foxes and boars. Well I can't claim to have invented something here, and previous works of others definitly paved my way, as much as the well known picture from the Limbourg brothers displayed earlier. Through the readings I have had as to understand how a meaningless peasant cottage would have been seated on a nasty piece of earth, I found out what seems obvious to me now, that the most precious belongings of its inhabitant, i.e. vegetables and goats, would have been kept the closest possible from its walls...

"The peas should be ready for next fertility celebration,
 when the lads will be raping enslaved virgins named Ursula"

That's it, I hope you'll enjoy my modest attempt to simulate, both a muddy yard covered with straws, and a tiny backyard adorned with peas and pods about to blossom. Let say that the same snow that started to fall on Montreal the other day has just leave room for Spring to blossom on this humble piece of land...

"The goats are away for the moment"

"But as soon as they are back,  I and the lads
will prepare the blood sausages"

Now, I only wish to order the beasts and serfs it takes to achieve the country-side feeling of this cottage. But wait, something new has just landed on my doormat straight from Volgograd, Russia...

The long coveted Plastic Miniatures Russian Heroes...