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...
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Finally cleared up the hobby table a bit, and immediately put more stuff on it! As the pic shows:
Old and new projects there, with the Huaxtecs dominating, and those archers from the First Legion of Ever Present Glory, resplendent in blue, are on the left. Along with those troops is the return of some Boschenberg musketeers from my Monster Blood Tattoo project and, making a table appearance after a very long absence, are some Reptus warriors.
The Huaxtecs have a fairly good coating of paint for their skin (close-ups at a later point). Some will get tattoos, and their clothing and weapons need to be finished. Then, there is the matter of their shields...
The Ever Present Glory archers are getting close to being finished also, with just some detail work and skin shading left to do.
The Boschenberg musketeers just need detailing also. I am wondering if I should consolidate the posts from my usual Monster Blood Tattoo blog (link here) to this blog.
The Reptus miniatures are for an old fantasy skirmish project, and they will need to be stripped and restarted anew. I have orcs, humans, and Reptus, while my lovely wife has elves, and I am slowly getting around to doing some actual work on them. I feel a little more confident about my usually poor painting technique and I am willing to give it another go. Of course another driving factor is the hobby budget, which is getting tight once again and new purchases are being directed into just one or maybe two projects.
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