My son's scratch-build robot

 

My son's ork war machine

 

I was short of prep time for a couple of games of Grimdark Future over the weekend, so I commissioned my son to build me a "great walker". This is the result.     

It worked pretty well in the first game, though less so in the second, where I had to bend the points allowance to fit it in and ended up with too many eggs in its well-protected basket. I'll probably add some tattered banners and graffiti to it before its next appearance.

The Alzabo from The Book of the New Sun

 

This is my son's take on the Alzabo, a monster from Gene Wolfe's tremendous The Book of the New Sun. 

Happy Halloween!

(Video by my son)

The King in Yellow - in Fimo!

 Quite possibly my son's most horrifying effort yet!

Scratch-built Hounds of Tindalos

 My son has been busy with the Fimo and tinfoil again. You can see how he made these beasties here:

Scratch-built bulette

 

Here's the latest beastie from my son - a reimagining of the D&D bulette or landshark. And here's how he did it:

Scratch-built Nyarlathotep!

 Not my work, but my son's:

Mordeim ruin WIP

 Some progress on a taller Mordheim ruin - boarded-up windows to be added to the first floor, along with roof tiles. 

Mordheim ruins

 

These are some quick Mordheim ruins built from cardboard (ordinary box cardboard glued together for double thickness) with coffee stirrer planking. I covered the corrugations using wood filler. I took the templates from the marvellous Devs & Dice YouTube channel. 

The Carol of Cthulhu!

 

This is the latest from my son - Fimo and tinfoil as usual, and handily based as any number of flying Titans in Kings of War. This is how he did it ....

Have a great Christmas!

A tribute to Bill Making Stuff

 If you don't know the Bill Making Stuff channel, you're missing out - it's a terrific mix of whimsy and creativity. And it's brimming with great ideas for gaming projects: imagine Rick Priestley's deodorant hover tank as Studio Ghibli would have done it.

It's also by far my son's favourite YouTube channel. He recently made this short and cheeky tribute:

Things from The Thing

My son has made some of the things from The Thing. They'll be handy in sci-fi skirmish games, and the big one will also work as a chaos god in Hordes of the Things (appropriately enough ...).

My son's scratch-built Slaughterspine

 My son made this beastie out of an old toy dinosaur and lots and lots of bits of cardboard. 

He's put up a video about it here:

Foil and Fimo demons

 

As the party's sojourn in Hell continued, these scratch-built demons made their debut today. All three were very quickly built from tin foil, Fimo and green stuff. 

The larger two are based on HotT 60mm bases so that they can be roped in as behemoths or gods for that game when required. 

As with my other scratch-build efforts, there's no finesse involved in these. But while they're crude, they were very quick to make and paint.

Another scratch-built beastie

 

I'm increasingly fond of scratch-building big monsters for RPG encounters. This fellow - Gurakeel, Lord of Manticores and deposed king of the Seventh Hell (since you ask) - took a couple of hours to build from tinfoil, Fimo and greenstuff and maybe another couple of hours to paint. 

He was the result of a Friday-night decision after that evening's online session ended with an unknown monster crawling up the side of the ruin in which the party were sheltering. Some post-dinner fiddling with tin foil and Fimo produced the base. After baking him, I added some green stuff to the face and then finished off the feet and fur in the morning. Once he was dry, a suitably swift paintjob finished him off.

My son obliged by constructing the ruins in the morning, so we had a suitable stage for an epic slice of action.

The great thing about scratch-built and - frankly - rushed monsters like this is that there's no need to take much time with the painting. Base colours, a wash, some impressionistic highlights, stripes with a Posca pen and then a tiny bit of care with the eyes, and he was done. And he produced the requisite gasps on his debut - more than I'd have got by taking hours and hours over an expensive miniature.

Scratch-built brain collector

 

The party stumbled across a brain collector in the depths of Castle Amber as our last session of 2020 came to a close. For the first session of 2021, I knocked this fellow up out of Fimo, tin foil and mince-pie trays.

Scratch-built Zargon

As the party got deeper into the Lost City (or at least its above-and-below pyramid), I had to get Zargon ready for them. I knocked this fellow up from Fimo and tinfoil during Saturday's rugby, before adding a bit of Milliput and greenstuff in the evening. I then speed-painted him on Sunday morning while keeping the kids at bay. He made his surprise debut tonight - and we'll find out how the PCs handle him tomorrow ...

(He's also based as a god element for Hordes of the Things.)