10mm (Back to work!) Fantasy Funfest

[Aldhick]

Wow, stunning sculpsts! Looking forward for more!!!

[Grumbledook]

Wow, thanks for all the support guys.

There's been a bit of a slow down in updates, but the first few weeks of term have been pretty hectic and my usual midnight modelling sessions have been a bit disrupted by the small person who's going through one of those 'stages'.

I have made some progress with the standard beared almost done, the second ogre nearing completion and even the musician has finally been started in earnest.

Today though, something with a bit more colour..... mainly green. The the little group of Polar Fox Goblins and Troll have finally been painted and here they are:



Always great fun to paint, the assassin was particularly fun as a model and the Troll is just a brilliant model.

Anyhow, thanks for looking and more will grey stuff will hopefully be up soon!

[marell le fou]

Niiice !

You're right, the gob assassin is fun And the troll very original.

[Stormwind]

Oh wow, I love that troll!

[Tiberius]

Beautiful!  Nice work, I love the sneaky looking little assassin!  But they all are great.

[jchaos79]

Such a lovely warband!

Great paint and Bel... superb sculpts

[Grumbledook]

Thanks everyone, there are a couple of space hoppers, a shaman and the Arabian sample on the painting table next.

Also another mini WIP update. More on the second half-ogre, the standard bearer and the musician:



There's more words on the blog, but basically once the standard and musician are done I think that should be plenty for the inaugural unit for the range. Also I jotted down a list on paper for other units and it looks like I'm basically planning at least 10 more unit types - oh my - and a bunch of characters.

Anyways, thanks for looking as always.

[marell le fou]

It's us who say thanks

Your sculpts are at least as good as GW ones. And i love this arabian army. It's a true great addition ton Wh world and your new units will even increase this interest.

[dry_erase]

I still think these are great - not much to add to previous frothing posts! The command group do look particularly nice.

[Stormwind]

These are looking super impressive...

[jchaos79]

The one with the alphanx is superb!

+1

[Tiberius]

It's us who say thanks

Your sculpts are at least as good as GW ones. And i love this arabian army. It's a true great addition ton Wh world and your new units will even increase this interest.

I absolutely agree.  Those sculpts are most impressive.  I can't wait til production begins.  Thank you very much!

[Grumbledook]

Cheers guys.

 I've pretty much finished the standard bearer and the musician just needs a drumstick and then I think that'll be the spearmen finally done and dusted.... in terms of individual sculpts that works out at 7 different spearmen and 3 command figures. I've also started painting the metal sample cast, so I'm itching to see how he turns out.

I have a question to ask. I've finished two of the half-ogre pit fighters and have started a third, I was wondering how the general feeling is in terms of the number of sculpts for a unit? I'm working on a basis of the unit consisting of 9 miniatures, would 3 fighters, a captain and a standard bearer be enough variety for a unit of 9?

Another question (how demanding am I today?), I've got a couple of armatures wedged into corks and was wondering about the next unit type....... I'm thinking Archers. I guess it would make sense to focus on another standard unit type and then another exotic one, like Dervishes, or Harem Guards, Palace Guards, Kataphrakts (hey, I'm shoehorning in some Persian elements too!), Magic Carpet....... the list of the fancy stuff goes on, and on, and on.

Anyhow, I'd love to get some feedback and opinions so please let me know what sounds sensible or utterly foolish!

P.S. more pics when I get some decent afternoon light and my four year old isn't screaming at me.

[jchaos79]

Well in my opinion bowmen or arquebusiers seems the next natural unit.

It seems you really have in mind what you want,
I could share a little dossier with some crazy ideas of what I could see interesting for an araby army (click to enlarge)

- Exhalted saint people: faquirs, serpent tamers, spit firers, ultra thin saints, and exceptional people.
   

- Dervisches


- Swordsman and hand weapon soldiers
   

- Harem guard:


- Thieves band (40 men) with his leader Ali baba


- Elephants and huge monstruos mounts.
   

- Assasins hashasins sect and haschis consumers
   

- Astrologer and alchemist. They can summon elements (fire, stone, wind, water) so elemental daemons/djins sounds perfect. Also they can read the stars.


- Desert nomads and camels.


- Pirates of the east sea and barbary pirate. Barbaroja and Simbad journeys
   

- Cannons (turks were famous for their cannons... big big cannons). They were obsessed with the thick walls of constantinopla... 700 hundread years willing to torn away those walls.


- Horse archers with Phartian shot.


- Heavy armoured kataprhakts as sassanid.
   

- Subjugated tribes, people from the distant corner of the vast empire, as indian or kushite black people.


- Archangels and winged soldiers. Despite they were iconoclast they have a strong tradition of angles.
   

- Djinn or magic spirit of the desert.


- Giant Worm riders tribe from the sandland.


- Guards of palace: two handed alphanx


- Sultan and cohort
      

- Summoned daemons
   

- centaurs from the desert
   

-Kapiculu or slaves of the gate, the guards of the sultan


- A unit of sandorcs. They use to ambush and assault caravans in the desert. Also act as mercernaries for the araby army in times of war. When they are hired in the arbay army they have the stats of Guards.
This units are spearmen + elite (+1atack) + unrealiable (-1comand)



Unit: Guards from the Harem of the Mighty Sultan Mustafá al Gadafi,
The idea pops remembering the guard of the libian dictator, a bunch of fatal and beautiful women holding maching guns.
Guards from the Harem are highly skilled slaves trainned to make love to the sultan and war to the rest of the men. The leader of this regiment is Dalaila, a empire born from Tilean who was kidnapped by arabs pirates while whe was a children. Now an assasin of exceptional beauty is the most loyal follower of the Sultan.
When things goes bad for Mighty Sltan Mustafá al Gadafi in the battle, he join this unit of camel raiders and launches himself to the heat of the war.
This unit is camel raider + banner of defence

[Grumbledook]

That's an awesome response Jchaos, have you been planning this for a while? Thanks for putting in so much time into your post.

I really like the idea of having a 40 thieves type unit, they'd be great for an infiltration type unit.

The worm riders would also be good fun, a kind of troop carrying monster!

I've definitely been thinking along the same lines with elemental Djinns. Something I've been toying with is an Arabian style Landship, perhaps using Air Elemental Djinns bound to it to keep it racing around popping little cannons off.

The idea of 'Subject' units has always appealed to me ever since reading Herodotus' account of Xerxes' army and it's exotic units of axe wielding Scythians and White and Red painted Ethopian archers.

I really want to portray this Fantasy Arabian culture as a real economic and cultural powerhouse , as opposed to the somewhat limited scope they are given in the fluff. I picture it as being being a mix of Arab Golden Age, Achaemenid & Sassanid splendour and Ottoman grandure. In my mind the great cities of the merchant princes, viziers and satraps would be an amalgam of Constantinople, Isfahan, old Baghdad and Seville.

Thanks again for sharing all the inspiration, and I'm glad my ideas aren't far from the mark. I really need to look into that Berserk comic, I love the Sultan - battlefield portable peacock throne anyone? I also thought that the half ogres I'm working on would probably fit into the summoned demon role perhaps.

Anyway, almost too many ideas and all my time has been spent teaching life drawing from 9a.m. to 6p.m. Gets a bit of a strain keeping students interested after two solid weeks, but I get some sketching in when doing examples - which I'll be popping up on the blog hopefully tonight.

Cheers again, and as always opinions are welcome.