Tuesday 8 November 2016

"Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling"

The village had no name, or perhaps it had been forgotten. It lay deep in the chaos wastes and had few visitors bar chaos hordes tramping south, or the occasional Carnival of Nurgle. Each and every villager bore the taint of chaos - the woodsman with axes in place of arms, the porcine butcher, the snake-skinned apothecary. Even the cattle had 6-legs and the sheep had fleshless skulls. Yet village life continued. The young and the strong strode off with bows and their father's swords. Left behind were the old, the lame, the mothers and the children, tending thorned corn, tanning cockatrice leather, building houses from giant bones.

Back at the start of the year, I began the 2016 Legacy Project on the Oldhammer forums. If you're not familiar with the concept, participants make, paint and donate a model to a pre-agreed theme. One of the participants then wins all of the models donated at the end of the project. We agreed that the theme for 2016 would be to create an imaginary classic Citadel range - C49 Chaos Villagers. We're nearing the end of the project, and I decided as organiser, it was high time I painted up my entry - the village piper.


I actually converted my figure back in January. He's based on the above piper from the Citadel Militia range, but his pipes are now somewhat more sinister being made from a child's corpse and bones (or a sleeping chaos baby if you prefer). I replaced his head with a squig and the right foot with one from a beastman. The resulting figure looked both sinister and a little bit comedic:

 
 
I painted him up with a classic fantasy combination of dull browns contrasted with some nice bright colours. I also attempted to mirror the cloth colours with the washes on his face to tie the scheme together.
 





That's pretty much all there is to say about this guy. Here are the villagers received to date in a suitable setting, with several more to join them over the next couple of weeks.


If I remember, I'll take some shots of the whole lot when we draw a line under the project.


21 comments:

  1. It's gross and somehow wrong. I love it.

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    1. I think we can overlook the wrongness because of his winning smile :D

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  2. Ahhh, the old one-hooved-leg Chaos trope. Good work.

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    1. Nothing says chaos more than one bestial leg and one human ON THE SAME FIGURE!! *Shudder* ;)

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  3. His fugly grimace is extremely fugly Axiom :DDD

    Very "good" addition to the chaotic village.

    To be honest, I feel a slight pang of guilt not contributing to this year's painting challenge. Especially given that I helped with the nailing down the painting genre.

    It's looking like a rather nasty village is beginning to populate :)

    Well done Jon!

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    1. There's always next year to contribute :)

      I suspect we're heading towards 15-20 models by the end, if all the completed / promised models arrive.

      Glad you like his ugly mug :)

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  4. Ack! That's terrifying! Like a combination of Twisty the Clown and Der Kindestod! O.O

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    1. I was unfamiliar with Der Kinderstod, but google came to my rescue! He sounds rather similar to Neil Gaiman's creatures in 'Click-Clack the Rattlebag', who also suck the life out of people, leaving dry leather sacks containing bones. Ick!

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  5. Baby corpse bagpipes...

    ...there is only a thin veneer of civilisation on you Jon...its always the quiet ones...

    Thats a brilliant model.

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    1. One of those ideas that you reflect on and think it's actually a bit more sinister than you planned (because it wasn't creepy at all when I was gluing the baby head and bones on, right?!).

      Cheers Paul!

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  6. Squigs are comedic just being squigs. This bloke ups the comedy because he can fit a whole roast chicken in his mouth.

    Sterling work mate!

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    1. Not only can he swallow a roast chicken whole, he can also play a little tune on his nose horn :)

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  7. Squig head is a great choice for this guy, because it is both creepy and slightly comedic... effect of which is undone when you realize the kid part of his pipes!

    Reusing the hat was a great touch too. Not enough proper hats in miniatures.

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    1. I really liked the hat and wanted to reuse it. In fact, the figure was a bit of an exercise in simply shifting the focus while retaining the original look.

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  8. As a fan of muted pastels I can say without a doubt that this piece looks AMAZING!

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  9. This is one of my favourite miniatures of all time. That thing is horrific! 10/10

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    1. You can't beat a bit of twisted reality to make something really disturbing!

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