Tutorial - Cobblestone Bases!

Hey there! I haven't posted anything last week due to the total lack of time for myself and for my hobby, but today I give you a little tutorial about making cobblestone bases like mine!
Cobblestone bases are perfect for games set in any fantasy urban setting, would it be Mordheim, Malifaux, gdr like D&D or anything else and are also really easy to do!
So grab your bases, your tools and your green stuff (or any other putty you use) and let's start!

Simply start making a little ball of green stuff, putting it on the base you wanna use (here I used 20mm bases but any measure would work).

Then just press it against the base, making a little gs disc out of your little ball. Remember to always wet your tools when working with green stuff, otherwise it will stick everywhere making your work really hard. Once you have made the first disc simply continue adding the others, varying in size and making all a little irregular.

After some work, the base will start to take shape, just continue to fill it with gs discs untill it's full!

Once finished it will appear similar to this one! Now you just have to let it dry. If you have to make a large army with these bases, it's my suggestion to leave it like this one. Otherwise, if you want to add a little more detail, you can add drains, wood planks, ruins and everything you think it would fit onto your cobblestone base!
I've decided to add a little metal drain on my base, so I've waited for the gs to dry and then started placing a gs ball onto it!

Then I've started working it to take the drain shape. I wanted to make it square, and after a little work it wal like this!

The drain was slowly taking shape I only had to add the metal bars and some rivets and it was done!

You can add anything you like to these bases, it's pretty easy! Just look some of mine if you need inspiration:

I hope that this little tutorial will be useful for you! If you have any question please write it down here in a comment! This is all for today! Like, share and comment if you liked this post! Bye!!!

The Dead Awaken 4 - The Third Dreg

And here's the last post related to the heroes of my warband! One dreg's left and it's a particular one! When I started thinking of the model for my last dreg I choose to make something different from the other two. The Vampire needed a real warrior, a trained and strong soldier to defend his lair in the hours of sunlight. Sadly I couldn't change the stats of the dreg that are... poor? So I made a soldier, yes, but an old and tired one, a Sylvanian noble too afraid of death to remain loyal to the Empire during the Vampire Wars, pledging his alliance and servitude to a strong vampire who could give him the gift of eternal life. 

I've started as always searching in my bits box and what came out from there were bits from the old empire spearmen.

So I had the base for the model. I haven't made major changing to this with the gs work, because I intend to represent the "oldness" and the "traitorness" (lol!) of the miniature painting it more than modelling it. So after a little gs work here's the finished model!

It's a simple and fast work, but I think that fits his role well! 

See you next friday on my blog! Thanks for watching my content! Share, comment and follow! =D

The Dead Awaken 3 - The Hunchback Dregs

Hi everyone! I want to show you the next two heroes of my warband! Two poor dregs! It took me a lot of time to decide how two make them, the original Mordheim models are quite ugly but with a good vintage flavour, so finally I took my bits box and searched for inspiration in those plastic pieces.
 I wanted at least two of the three dregs of my warband to figure similar to the original ones, so with a bit of imagination (and glue) I've started working on the first one:

I wanted to make him like a miserable and quite dumb hunchback, so one of the corpses' heads of the corpse cart was perfect for represent a stupid creature. Plaguebearer's arms were good for a deformed man, so as the old night goblin's kit torso. The legs were from a spare chaos marauder. The base of the first dreg was made! It needed some fixing and it was ready!

So after some work he just needed a bag full of body parts and various equipment for the vampire to use (by background is likely their only use, searching for useful objects and carryingthings for their masters). And the first dreg was done!

The second dreg is armed with a two hands axe, made from a chaos marauder's one and to add a comic tone to the model I've represented him with two tiny arms (from the corpse cart) and with a fatty belly.

So after adding an horrible haircut, some bags on his back and resculpting the fingers on the axe staff also this guy was done!

Well, that's all for today! Hope that you enjoyed my works! Stay tuned for next week!

The Dead Awaken 2 - The Necromancer

Every good vampire in the Warhammer universe needs to be accompanied by a powerful necromancer, so who was I to stop this trend? So I started searching for a possible way to represent a dark warlock in a Tzimisce way, but in the end for my personal attachment to the classic figure of the necromancer and his minions I chose to keep him old style. So I took an old corpse cart I bought for making a Nurgle chariot/ Altar which had a little shrouded guy driving it and it was nearly done!
I had to rebuild the necromancer's staff, fix some details and add others (like the corpse-parts purse on his right). Finally I've made a scenic base that would rise up a bit the little and crouched miniature using a skeleton decoration of the corpse cart.

So here's my Necromancer, ready to  conquer the dark arts of the dead for his vampire lord. I can't wait to paint it! Hope that you like it! Comment, share and like if you want! See you next friday guys!

The Dead Awaken 1 - The Vampire (Blah! Blahblah!)

Hello everyone! After a long pause with my hobby for university commitments I've left apart the old projects to start a completely new warband for my Mordheim campaigns: Undeads!
I've never played or had interest in the warhammer world's vampires, but after I've joined a Vampire: The Masquerade (White Wolf's gdr), the inspiration for a Tzimisce Vampires (one of the vampiric clans of the gdr) warband rose naturally!
So I took some spare bits from my bits-box and started brainstorming in search for ideas for the first hero of the team: the vampire! I've surfed a bit the network and then I've found this beautiful artwork from Tim Bradstreet.

I had the artwork, I had the bits and the greenstuff, so I've started working putting bits together!
The base model I took was from an old Empire Cannon/ Mortar set that I had unused since I bought my first Warhammer box. In particular it was a mix of the cannon crew bits:

So with a bit of work I've cleaned the model and started working on hair and armour plaques:

I wanted my vampire to be as menacing as the artwork one, but I had to apply a bit the WYSIWYG and in my warband the vampire has an heavy armour, a sword and a shield, so I've choose to position and clothing changes in my model.

The vampire was slowly taking shape with foot and chest armours finished and the dress and arms in progress, (Yes, he looks a lot like Mickey Mouse with those big hands and thin arms.)
After some work on the guy and the realization of a proper base (which I choose to make like a cobblestone road with a metal sewer cover.)

Now this guy is ready to be painted, get a name, a background and start terrorizing the citizen of the Empire! 

I've in program to make a cobblestone base tutorial soon, cool for sewer and urban bases! 

Comment, like, share and follow if you found this post good (or bad XD) and see you next friday here on The Hamster's Lair!

Presenting the Warband: The Beasts of Decay, Skrull and the Flayed Dogs.

Hi everyone, fortunately I'm finding the time to restart publishing with the same frequency of before Easter! So let's continue with the presentation of my warband which will end with this post! In these days I'm starting to get interested in Warhammer Quest and I'm reading some rules and game mechanics and the temptation to adapt these rules to a mordheim battle is a real temptation. I think I'll realize some dungeon 3d tiles for some underground mordheim matches, mutating a skirmish battle in an incredible dungeon crawler!. MUAHAHAHA! Well, we'll see if the time that my thesis' lab will take will leave me the time to do all the projects that I've in mind (which are really a lot).

-The Beasts of Decay:

After the defeat of Groshnak by Kergal, and his joining in his warband, only two of his gors were saved. With their warchief still alive and under the leading of that incredible human with a minotaur's strenght, they could either die with their companions or join their fallen leader in a road that would take to decay of the body and of an already twisted soul. Walking along Kergal and his rotting retinue changed slowly the gors, the power of Nurgleth tempting them, mutating their flesh, corrupting their mind, transforming the gors in an absurd shape of their former self. Their will now broken, the two gors are only Nurgle servitors.

- Skrull:

One of Rothgar's experiments, Skrull is a mass of decaying muscles without brain or will. A creature that is pure instinct, without the control of the Seer. Noone but Kergal and Rothgar know who or what that bulky creature once was, the onlyn thing certain is that Skrull could easily crush bones and armours with apparently no effort and resist incredible pain, as he doesn't sense it at all.

- The Flayed Dogs:

Of the big warhounds pack that Lepros once had, only two, the stronger ones, resisted Nurgleth's corruption and therefore joined the warband. Full of horns and stings dripping venom, skin stripping from the cancrenous muscles, these hounds are a fearsome view and a deadly threat.

Presenting the Warband: Lepros/ Nurgleth Puppets

Finally a new post on my blog! I'm sorry for being really late, but with Easter holidays and exams I couldn't find a minute to start writing this!

So, let's continue with the presentation of my warband with the last hero: Lepros, the Beastmaster of the warband and the first henchmen group, the Nurgleth Puppets!

- Lepros:

Lepros was once a great warrior, capable of killing a bear alone with his hatchet in no time. His strenght was not only in his muscles, but also in his great knowledge of the animals instincts and behaviours, making the huge marauder capable of hunting and killing animals without fail. He was one of the man of Kergal's original tribe and was known as the Beastmaster, for his ability to tame the ferocious and twisted warhounds tainted by the powers of chaos. Thanks to him, Kergal's tribe could count on a great and strong pack of wolves.

During his travel along Kergal, Lepros lost his left arm, that usually carried the whip that he used to spur his animals to attack, by a powerful blow from an enemy warrior, but father Nurgleth with the assistance of the seer Rothgar cured him, mutating his stump in an organic whip with three sharp nibs. 

- The Nurgleth Puppets: 

Not everyone of Kergal's tribe joined his warband when he devoted to Nurgle, some even tried to oppose him, inevitably failing. The Nurgleth Puppets are those who, after the betrayal, had their eyes and tongue removed and knotted, and had their mind subjugated to Nurgleth's will, transforming them in soulles puppets in Kergal's hands. 

Presenting the Warband: Groshnak One-Eye

The start of the campaign is near, and my marauders prepare for battle!
Today I'll present you Groshnak, the Pestigor champion of the warband! Althought an Onogal marauders' warband could have only humans in his ranks, I decided to insert models from the beastmen range to play them as humans, for a better division of the henchmen groups and to add that feeling of an horde to my warband.

- Groshnak One-Eye:

Beastmen are a proud and tribal race, just as the marauders, but with something more wildish. Groshnak didn't make an exception: he was the warchief of a gors clan, one of the fiercest in the north of the Great Wall, erected by the filthy humans ages ago. With his companions the great gor pillaged and devastated the little villages of the stupid men that stayed in his dominion, ravaging the camps, killing the mans and kidnapping the women to sacrifice them to the Gods. Moving in the north, Groshnak started to meet occasionally northmen tribes which attacked with rage, for they were human and they deserved it. Noone could withstand the power of his horde, until the day he met a man and his tribe:

"I was expecting you..."

Said the man, who must have been the chieftain of that warband, a colossus of meat and  pus, standing next to a bloated man dressed in capes covering two insectoid wings, after a magic attack from the second one melted the first ten gors that were assaulting them.
Then the Chieftain rose his rusted sword against Groshnak, saying loudly with a guttural voice:

"I'm Kergal, serve of Nurgleth, and today you will kneel to me, in surrender or in death!"

Groshnak gnashed his teeth in rage and with a waving of his hand signaled to his gors to stand apart, because now was betwenn he and Kergal.
With a slow laughter the man prepared to withstand his attacker, who came to him running in anger with his two maces prepared to strike.
When the blow came, the Chieftain didn't move, simply taking the hit that moved all his fat and decaying meat, continuing to laught, with his free hand, faster than Groshnak could think, he grabbed his harm, hurling him away with no effort, under the laughter of the marauders and the shouting from the beastmen. The warchief rose up growling, returning to attack. The battle continued for a long time, but all the damage that Groshnak dealt to Kergal simply made no effect at all, the man was always standing there laughting. At last, when Kergal bored of his little game, simply gutted with an incredibly strong blow the gor, saying to his man:

"Slash them all..."

All the gors fell that day, save for two of them that were left alive and taken as prisoners. Before the black of the death obscured Groshnak view, Rothgar, the seer, lowered to him, asking the same thing he once asked to Kergal:

"Do you want to live?"

From that day, the beaten gor was reborn in nurgle favour and joined his warband with his two survived gors, because this was Nurgle will, as told by the seer.

Presenting the Warband: Rothgar the Bloated

Let's continue with the description of my warband's background, but first I would like to thank you all for watching my blog! I couldn't imagine that in less of a week I could have my blog visualized by more than 700 people! This makes me really happy and helps me to find the strenght to go on working!

But let's return in topic, I'll now present you the story of my nurgle seer, Rothgar the Bloated (a.k.a. Little Fairy in my group lol):

- Rothgar the Bloated:

Near Kergal's tribe, was rumored to be a fearsome sorcerer that lived lonely in a little hut hidden in a wood of rotting trees, performing experiments and foul rituals. Sometimes the strongest men from the North tribes tried to reach his house to take his head for the favor of the Gods, but even thought lots of marauders joined these quests, noone ever returned from that wood. It's told that for every man that entered the wood of the sorcerer, a new rotting tree was planted.
This warlock was a Nurgle worshipper from and old cult, the cult of Nurgleth and nobody knows that the trees that surrounded his little hut were not planted when someone entered the wood, but were actually the people who dared join his decayed realm, brutally disfigured in a moaning and rotting tree.
Rothgar was is name, and his appeareance was horrible as it was his dark magic. A bloated body full of buboes and rotting wounds, a deadly scythe in one hand and a pair of chitinous, bug-like wings on his back, too little to make him flight.
When Kergal was in his tent, body trembling for the fever, Rothgar showed up at the camp. The men of the tribe that attacked him, seeing the foul appeareance of the seer, were reduced to a bubbling mass of goo with a wave of his hand. After the first deaths noone interfered with his doings.
The Nurgle sorcerer walked by Kergal's tent and entered, bending down to ask Kergal a simple question:

"Do you want to live?"

All that Kergal was able to do was a suffering moan. The seer nodded solemnly and standing up walked slowly away from the tent, returning to his hut.
When the marauder rose up with his strenght renewed, the first thing he did was return to his saviour, searching his hut in the wood. The twisted trees bent upon his arrival, creating a safe path to the seer's house, moaning during his walk. He was waiting for him out of the little dwelling.
Rothgar said to Kergal that he was now a favorite of Nurglitch and that he should now be his champion, because the Plague God had great plans for him. He would battle in his name, bringing his gifts among the world, to the Throne of Chaos, because this was his destiny... but only if he proved worthy.
So the seer joined the marauder, he taught him the ways of his Master and guided him along the path of greatness, to the quest of the Throne of Chaos.

Well guys, see you the next time with the story of another member of my warband! =D hope you enjoied it!

Also, I've started a little competition against my MPM Studio colleague: each one of us has to make a sculpt from an artwork we found of the Grim Reaper. Keep reading us for all the progresses! =)

Presenting the Warband: Kergal

The painting of the warband is going on a little slowly, thanks to my university exams and stuff, but I want to start presenting you the models, starting from the four heroes!
My Mordheim warband is called "The Sons of Nurgleth", a fiery group of sanguinious marauders from the Kurgan tribe that joins Tamurkhan and his host in the descent to the Great Cathay to find the Throne of Chaos. Every member has his own story and I want to briefly describe it to you! Let's start from the chieftain:

- Kergal the Flayed 

Kergal was born in a ferocious tribe of the north and in his youth has always proven to be a great warrior. One day, after an harsh battle against the rat-things that dwelled the mountains around the encampment, a little bruise in his arm, made probably from one of the skaven's rusted weapons, started to ache terribly, forcing Kergal to stay in his tent for the pain. After one day of extreme suffering, when his destiny was certain and the venom was slowly killing him, Nurgle met him, in an unusual way...
The day after the dying man rose from his tent with a renewed strenght and a foul smile, a mark on his chest.
The faith in Nurgle grants you lots of powers, but the price is big, the murderous trail that from that day Kergal brought after him left the marauder with a decayed and bloated body.
When Tamurkhan, the son of Kurgan, proclaimed himself as the heir of the Throne of Chaos, Kergal and his warband joined him, prepared to betray and kill the foul marauder in order to take his place on the Throne, all in the name of Nurgle. And with the start of my Mordheim Campaign, his story will be wrote...

See you the next post for the story of Rothgar, the Seer of the Sons of Nurgleth!