The bells

Just a very quick note to apologise that there has not been any fimir update in ages. Firstly there was the end of the school year which is very busy and knackering as a teacher. Secondly I'm getting married in just under a fortnight's time so I'm busy getting the last few bits sorted for that. If I get a spare moment I want to get a few bits done, but to be honest I can't see me making any progress this side of September! Sorry!

The Hound of the Fimirvilles

Of course Fimir aren't the only things that live in the marshes:

"There are countless tales of massive black-haired hounds stalking the moors in search of prey. At least some of the stories are based on the daemonic hounds summoned by the fimir as trackers or as allies in battle." - extract from the fimir army book, courtesy of the Warhammer armies project.

GW chaos hound models are absolutely spot on for the moor hounds!

Getting a 'head' of the others

One thing that I have wanted to do was get a fimir model that had a helmet on. This could be used as a champion or suchlike, perhaps with some kind of magic item helmet, but however I use him I wanted him to be wearing quite an ornate and over the top helmet. The problem was that I didn't have a clue how to do it. My other warhammer army is dwarves (which you will definitely know by now if you have read the other blog posts) and I do have one or two spare helmets (with or without horns), but I didn't think that they really matched the aesthetic that I wanted, and they were the wrong size anyway.

Then I had an idea - one of the boxes of dwarves comes with a horn playing musician with two different heads for the horn, one being the classic bell funnel, the other being a stylised dragon head breathing fire. I really didn't like the dragon head on the horn, but I thought that it would work really rather nicely as a helmet for a fimir warrior. So I had a go at making another model (the fifth warrior now) and gave him the dragon head. It's not ideal as my sculpting skill to match it up is not good enough - to me it doesn't look like the fimir's head actually goes into the helmet. I still like the idea though. What do you guys think?

I also thought that I should pay some attention to the tails. Fimir tales often end in bony blades, clubs, maces, etc. The lizardmen tails end in a nice sharp point which I am happy with for some of the models, but I wanted to get a few club-like tails as well. Basically I just tried a blob of green stuff that I then teased some points out. I'm not sure about it at all to be honest, but I'll leave it and see what it looks like once painted (if I ever get around to that stage, mind you wedding prep is slightly more important at the moment - less than 50 days!)

The evening's standard

One day this week my fiancee was up in London so was going to be back late. Therefore I thought I'd take the opportunity to do a little bit more modelling. I already had a musician, but I thought it would be nice to do a standard bearer (especially as I'm not sure which one would be more useful in my Regiment of Renown). I've got used to the work required in sculpting the head and bulking up the stomach, and I knew that the main staff for the standard from the lizardmen box was perfect, but I really wasn't sure about what to actually use for the banner itself. Just as I was thinking of using more of my bandage supply to sculpt, I thought about the boxes of dwarfs I have for my other warhammer army. In that army I have used figure head type standards as opposed to the flapping banners (except my thane with my army standard). Therefore I pulled out a box and found a nice banner design - all it needed was taking off a few of the more dwarven features, like the ancestor heads. I think it works really nicely, though I'll do a bit more work to it as I'd quite like it to look a bit tattered and worn. The entire model needs a bit more work - kilt, greenstuff on the scales along the back, a banner top, etc.

I also had some fun with this guy's shield. Now that I have received the shields that I want to use - some old GW goblin shields that look like they are wicker/woven rushes or wood and hides - I can keep moving forward with the project. The wicker type ones have a brutal spike on them and I thought that it would look fantastic to have a skull impailed upon on. Again my friend who plays Tomb Kings is an absolute star, because she had previously supplied me with a bag of skulls that she didn't need, some of which have helmets on, like dead Brettonnians. I'm very happy with the result!

The naked truth

I've been looking at the three fimirs that I have sculpted so far, rather proud of what I have managed to achieve. But then it hit me, they have their belly shields, but other than that they are naked. Most fimir pictures have some sort of clothing, so how could I represent this?

I was thinking that some kind of fabric skirt or kilt would suit the style of the fimir quite nicely. Now I know that my green stuff skills are very basic and there is no way on earth that I was gong to be able to sculpt that. So instead I was thinking of getting some actual fabric and using that to drape around the figures, that way there'll be some nice material texture. Well, assuming that the material I get has a reasonably prominent texture so that it shows up!

So I had a momentary flash of inspiration and took a trip to the local supermarket and bought a cheap roll of bandage (got to love their smart price range). Soaked in PVA, moulded around the waist of the figure, cut to give some slits for easy movement (legs and tail), and with the belly shield glued back in place; well the idea is good.

And when I tried it - turns out pretty damn exactly as I wanted it!

I'm really looking forward to getting on and painting these!

Amidst the pools and sinking mud

I've done a bit more work on the modelling of the test base - a dry brushing (slightly heavier than I has originally intended), some tufts of scorched grass glued on, and some water effect added to the pools. Overall I'm really happy with the current result. If I can reproduce this on each of the other bases for the prospective army I'll be really bloody happy! I'm thinking of possibly adding in some bark pieces to represent fallen and decaying trees in the marshland, I think that would look quite cool and give another nice aspect to the scene.

'Facing' the challenge head on

Okay, so it has been a little while since updating the blog. The trouble with being a teacher is that work tends to take over, especially when its the final run to exam season; but this week is half term and the 6th formers I teach have gone on study leave - I make that pimms o'clock, well at least modelling time!

I am a green stuff virgin, but it's time to break out the putty and moulding tools. For the 'regiments of renown' list that I am planning (only 200 points!) I need three fimir models, this seems like a nice amount for me to start with and check if my skills are up to the challenge of then going on to model an entire army. I've previously posted some pics of one model that I started doing some work on - a musician, well I have continued working on that model, plus adding another two to it.

So this is the original musician test figure that I made. I found the green stuff a bit tricky to work with to be honest, and it's going to be a challenge to do that for an entire army, but I know that it'll get easier as I get more familiar with it. I'm actually rather proud with how the head turned out seeing as it was my very first attempt. I think it sticks to the ideology well and actually looks like a fimir (well, it will do once it's been painted anyway). I also tried to cover the scales along the back with liquid green stuff. I'm not convinced with how well this has turned out though. I think it has made them less prominent, so perhaps once painted I can make it just look like a leathery, tough hide rather than actual scales.

This is the model that will be the leader of my regiment of renown, armed with a morningstar and shield. Obviously the shield is a special magic, invisible shield - or alternatively I haven't got the ones that I want to use yet, so that will be something that I'll have to come back to at some point. The morningstar is taken from the GW tomb kings range (a friend of mine collects the skeles and has a load of spare bits that she has, incredibly kindly, passed my way - I'm using them for this project, but also as additional bits to help stylise my black templar crusade for 40k). It's supposed to look like the morningstar is being swung down, about to crush the head of some unfortunate victim. I'm not convinced that it looks right, but hopefully the finished model will give a bit more of an idea. I haven't got around to covering the scales on the back with liquid green stuff, that's next on the list of things to do. The face on this one is alright, but I don't think it is as good as the first one I did on the musician - think it was really beginners luck. Generally this one is just lacking a bit of definition I think, but hopefully some paint and washes will help get the desired look.

These photos show the model I'm using as a champion, dual wielding hand weapons to boost the attack output, hopefully this guy will be all about dealing damage. The head on this one took quite a while to do, the green stuff just wasn't doing what I wanted it to do. However, I eventually got something that I think is pretty cool, including some nice bony ridges along the skull. Again tried the liquid green stuff along the back scales, hopefully when painted it will look as I want it to, not convinced at the moment - think I might need to get the filing tools out.

Having done all of this now I'm getting quite excited about the project, but also realising just how much work is going to be involved!