With the yearly disappearance of the sun, life as a Scandinavian is once again prey to lethargy and melancholy. So of course I have been keeping my feelers out for something I can hobby with during these gloomy months. And to my luck, not only has Curtis Fell made a really cool range of Boglander miniatures, but I already have had an early release shipped to me.
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Its a collection of some 47 unique miniatures, 36 unique tokens and who knows how many different arms, all initially kickstarted back in early July this year. And for a couple of months it has all just lay on my shelf in a big shrink-wrap filled box until I gathered up the guts and purpose for which to use them.
And that time came around October, when I started going over all the never-do-wells and sorting them into rough groups or castes, with the intention of having a flexible collection usable for various skirmish games. The first thing that really inspired and stood out to me was all the tokens of various beets, bugs, kitchenware and tools. This gave rise to my initial group.
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Partially inspired the recent Ill Gotten Games project Grudge, I decided to dub these beauts The Families. Insectoid farmers and peasants, gathered into large clans with a thousand young each, just trying to keep everyone fed and the soil from going fallow. I always love doing non-combatants and auxiliary models as a contrast to soldiers, armor and weapons loose some of their significance when everybody has it. So here I went the obvious route of weapons improvised from tools, carving knives, pitchforks, a hunting bow, a woodcutting axe.
Later on The Families also saw adventure as a Reborn Coven in The Doomed.
- The bug with the big knife is my Exemplar, leading the force and keeping his kin safe. He wields a Toxic Blade and a flowing Cloak.
- The large-eyed lady with her abdomen scandalously on display is my Offspring, a fast multi-clawed fighter.
- The bow-wielder in the background is my Engineer with a Rumbler. Engineers represent those who carry the biological weapons and firearms into the fray, while the Rumbler is a gun more effective against standing targets. All mechanically fitting for a sharp eyed hunter.
- The worm sipping soup is my Kindred, workers who can exert them selves to gain more actions. Wielding a Ripper Staff, which is a melee weapon that is more effective when you're standing your ground.
- Finally we have the cluster of worms in the background, they are my Unborn, failed progeny that is regardless dangerous in numbers and if let too lose.
But they were hardly the last, not with that many forge tools laying around...
These I collectively dubbed the Ironmongers. I like the idea of basing my factions professions and crafts and go from there. The idea here is that they're be a caste of secluded smiths, forging weapons and armor on commission for others. They'd send out scouts to scavenge scrap metal or notice claims on mines. Where as The Families are largely based on one race, I figured the Ironmongers would welcome any who proves loyal to their cause. They became one of my most indulgent builds as my ambition mounted. For one thing the stone tabled with a book and large gauntlet was supposed to be a sword mold, but I like the idea of it being an elaborate prototype with accompanying notes and schematics even more. Most encompassing of my changes though is to the large gunner in the below picture. The weapon was a sci-fi HMG, where I clipped off the barrel and filed down the magazine box, instead adding a musket-like barrel, a side-pouch for shotte and a sphere to the bottom of it, for a much more techno-barbarian look.
These I collectively dubbed the Ironmongers. I like the idea of basing my factions professions and crafts and go from there. The idea here is that they're be a caste of secluded smiths, forging weapons and armor on commission for others. They'd send out scouts to scavenge scrap metal or notice claims on mines. Where as The Families are largely based on one race, I figured the Ironmongers would welcome any who proves loyal to their cause. They became one of my most indulgent builds as my ambition mounted. For one thing the stone tabled with a book and large gauntlet was supposed to be a sword mold, but I like the idea of it being an elaborate prototype with accompanying notes and schematics even more. Most encompassing of my changes though is to the large gunner in the below picture. The weapon was a sci-fi HMG, where I clipped off the barrel and filed down the magazine box, instead adding a musket-like barrel, a side-pouch for shotte and a sphere to the bottom of it, for a much more techno-barbarian look.
The Ironmongers too saw action within The Doomed, serving as a Martyr Retinue.
- The guy with the in-progress blade is my Steward, a semi-mechanical leader able to issue orders to his subordinates, wielding a Shield and an Electro Sword.
- The ork having a time of his life is my Besieger, a tough brute who becomes vengeful when enemies fail to kill him, he is wielding a Railgun for some proper ordinance.
- The shrew in the background is my Seeker, outrunners who quickly secure resources for you, wielding a Piercer, represented by his pistol.
- The strawhat in front is my second Seeker, wielding a Shield and a Shock Prod, so he can stand a melee better and might just stun some foes up close.
- Finally we have the worms clinging to the mechanical arm, they are my Automata. A machine able to soldier on even while injured, and likely to fix itself back up if left alone.
For my third faction, the inspiration was nautical.
So far lacking a proper name, the theme is still pretty strong. We're talking fishmen, sailors, boating hooks, pistols and booty. I'm imagining these lads as riding the grey-zone of legality, being a collection of former navy men, smugglers and cut throats. They'd be mercenary through and through, likely controlling major underground rivers or trade routes, asking merely for tithes if you're lucky.
Also with all the treasure chests (I have like 5-6 unpainted still) and one with teeth, I of course had to go a lil overboard and make a weird mimic by giving it arms, and eyeball and fleshy patches.
And speaking of monstrosities, there are plenty of models who have these weird worms grown on them or are just straight up wormy clusters. Rather than have them be part of The Families, I have actually been trying to file off the worms where needed on models and keep the worms as a sort of infectious parasite zombie deal. A very entertaining thing there was colour choices, because for other factions I had sort of stuck with a specific cloth colour for each of them, but the worms I wanted to be "cross faction" in the sense that anyone could catch them. So instead I made the worms bright magenta and dirtied up their clothes to unify them a bit, but still show previous allegiance.
And that was the state of things for a while. I have dry fitted some more and weirder things using blue tac, and also dug into my other assorted miniatures from Ramshackle Games, such as the above fungus and the ginger dwarf among the sailors. My current plans is to make a big wormy monster, finish up some cavalry I have made by literally cutting boglanders in half and attaching them to Dungers I had.
Meanwhile I am ofcourse brooding on what other factions to make and what models to use for what, I absolutely want to make some nobles/ambassadors/bourgeoise and maybe a sort of black magic cult who embrace the worlds, but just what things to use is still being puzzled out.
But guess what, surprise, bonus content right here! While digging out some of the scifi models from Ramshackle I had to go and make their assault rifle into some weird musket, and suddenly I had some very fancy armoured lads, with the inclusion of another dwarf with a headswap and a guy to read you your rights, it felt very on point as lawmen, or at the very least enforcers protecting the interests of the crown. You might already have seen them on my instagram, but here they are as a group. Unified by a rich purple coat, with the exception of the marksman who has a camouflage shawl over.
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