Tuesday 7 June 2011

Medieval Town - A Few Extras

It's been a while since I posted something here. And with no surprise, really, as I've been doing several mini-projects at the same time - but all related to the town.

For starters, I'm still in the process of painting the remaining houses of the Ziterdes lot. Not too far to go, but it's part of the backlog. Then, there are other important parts to consider if I really want this town to come to life. Which brings me to what I've been on about in the past weeks: the town square and a few civilians.

In the process of buying, assembling and painting bits and bobs, I managed to finish a few market stands, a well and a statue. I also had my first go at balsa wood and scratch-building activities, from which I got a hell of a good time with my buddy Tim resulting in two pieces of terrain: a stage and an "alternative" market stand.

Adding to this, I felt the need to include a few civilians in the town. Having a bunch of buildings together but no people to be part of the scenery was becoming a bit pointless, so I painted a few merchants - which was very challenging, as I was still in building-painting mode (very different from painting little men and women, with all their insane little details).

Anyway, let's first look at the new terrain items. I got these beautiful market stands from Thomarillion.



First of all, a special thanks to Thommy, who was brilliant in shipping the items super fast and for keeping up with a very helpful and motivating email correspondence. Secondly, his pieces are so neatly done and full of character that they were a joy to paint. I still haven't decided if I'm going to include the awnings that are downloadable from the website. Also, there is a fourth stand that is still unpainted because my lovely girlfriend told me that she would like to paint it.

The second item I got from Thomarillion was their well. I had been waiting for a long time for Forge World's well to be released again with no success. So when I found this model I just decided to go ahead and get it.



Very straight forward to assemble and paint and a delightful piece of terrain for my town.

Finally, a third terrain item was included in the order: a statue.



Again, a gorgeous piece of terrain that didn't take too long to finish off.

As for the home made items I got some serious inspiration by Cianty's work and his amazing blog and the super cool forum that I joined recently, which is populated by a horde of very nice and talented people. Adding to that, I got Tim's help and supervision during our DIY session which resulted in a market stand to sell heads - we'll get there in a minute - and a stage.



The stage was highly inspired in this trailer from the Settlers. The reason why I had it made considerably higher than the one they show on the trailer was because I also want to use it for executions (not that I'm particularly obsessed with gore and human suffering, but executions were a constant in those days). As for the market stand with heads and skulls (which I'm going to call "Mind Yer Head"), I got inspired by two dwarfs from my collection that are showing off their head trophies.



Since I have so many GW bits and pieces (including heads), why not add a bit of a macabre flavour to the market?

Stepping outside, let's see how the town looks like with these extras and the civilians.











Regarding the civilians, I got these awesome models from Black Cat Bases. They come labelled as Tavern Staff but work really well as vendors for the market.


Most definitely sisters!


She's trying to sell other things, apparently...

The tall man who is selling weapons is a bouncer from Ral Partha.

His pose is perfect for this role too.

The sinister executioner is from Hasselfree Miniatures.

Although the model isn't as tall as I wished for, it is still a great addition to the feel of the town. The miniature didn't come with any weapons, so I just added a Beastmen axe and a key from the GW Flagellants set.

As for the disturbing little fellow who sells heads, he comes from the Evil Henchmen pack, from West Wind Productions.


And here are some of the amazing trophies you can buy and show off to your friends. :)




Here are two of the main suppliers.

These two characters come from here and here.

And that's it for now. It might take me a long while to get back to painting as I have a few deadlines to meet - non-miniatures related. Still, I hope to carry on whenever I get the chance.

7 comments:

  1. I really love how this town is coming to together. It has a great vibe to it. Keep it up!

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  2. Fascinating! The 'willing suspension of disbelief' is so easy!

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  3. Wow! Thanks for the visits and comments! They really make me want to paint more - which I really shouldn't at this stage, otherwise someone will go mad in this house! :)

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  4. Beautiful stuff, love it. Where's the mini from on the last picture, the guy in the trap?

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  5. Hey Dr. Willett, thank you for the comment! I've been following your blog very closely as you have some very interesting pieces of terrain in there. Are you asking about the poor guy who is going to be executed? He is a GW flagellant, from the Empire plastic set.

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  6. Yep, that was it, it does work well with the executionner from Hassle. Talking about executionner, you might want to check this fella,
    Raoul from AMMON Mini:
    http://ammon-miniatures.com/?lang=en
    Ok, I'm partial, I love dwarves.

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  7. That executioner is ace! The pose it perfect, too. I might look more into those Ammon minis when I finish my temporary backlog! :)

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