18 July 2018

Turkemen, part 1

This is the first new post on an old project of mine that is taking on some new life of late.  The Turkemen, not to be confused with the Ottoman Turks, are from the fictional world of 'Monster Blood Tattoo' or The Foundling's Tale as the series is known in the USA.  MBT is a series of books by D.M. Cornish, following the adventures of a young boy through a dangerous, mythical world.  This mythos would be best described as 'black powder fantasy' with a heavy dose of alchemy and Frankenstein-ish beasts, along with other interesting quirks which will be examined later.

The Turkemen are the northern neighbors and foes of the main european-styled civilization, the Haacobin Empire, and yes they are based on turks but only in a vague sense.  One of the specialties of the Turkemen is the construction of bolbogis - a 'dog of war' after a fashion, although it is not readily apparent that they are related to canines.  (One of the fascinating points of Mr. Cornish's writing style for the series is his habit of turning our usual English words and phrases around to sometimes very different meanings.)  Bolbogis are created/constructed/raised/? by inexplicable means as guard and attack creatures, and although they do not feature prominently in the stories, I am taking liberties to put those few words into gaming miniatures using proxies.



Pictured above are my first attempts to put bolbogis on the table.  On the left are a trio of miniatures from Khurasan Miniatures known as 'sponks'.  Their claws are not glued in, however.  They will be smaller, faster bolbogis.

In the center of the above pic is a Scarab Ogre from Crocodile Games.  They are larger than the average human and much more dangerous.

On the right is an Umber Hulk, a D&D figure.  The original miniature is bent down close to the ground, so I intend to alter the miniatures so they stand more upright.  These figures are plastic, which will make it easier to convert them.


A strange project?  Yes, but one that will be lots of fun, at least for me...


.

6 comments:

  1. Looking forward to seeing this painted.
    Alan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. The metal ones should be soonish, but the plastic beasties will be a bit longer as I learn to sew them back together.

      Delete
  2. What rules are you using (or planning to use) for MBT? I wrote my own, but struggled to develop a balanced points value for the various combatants.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm happy to see you return to Monster Blood Tattoo because I am also working on miniatures representing the bogles and everymen of the Half-Continent.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've just started a site for MBT games. At this point it only has a few photos of my minis - Europe, Rossamund, bogles, glamgorns, and a nicker.
    https://ericsagunt.wixsite.com/theroscade

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the comments. I have yet to figure out the rules question, but I am looking at using historical miniatures-based rulesets at first, then figuring out how to add in the special characters.

    ReplyDelete