Good Morning from the Appalathian Plains!
Today I want to introduce you to a new member of my tribes and the first archer of the warband.
I coverted it quickly yesterday evening (instead of going to the gym, oh well) and I am pretty happy with the result, which is in keep with the rest of the tribal warriors.
The plan is to add another two to the warband and a couple more warriors with spear and shield, trying to take their number to 10, a decent size hunting pack. The road to get there is still a long one but I am benefitting of an inspiration burst and I know I have to take advantage of it before it goes away!
The obvious observation is that the bow is small, perhaps too much for such a bulky savage. But while I was trying different combinations of bits, including the most obvious Empire archers bows, this one was the one that convinced me the most! Perhaps is because it seem to add to the savage aspect of the hunter (longbows were a very recent invention and definitely not available in ancient primitive cultures) or perhaps because it seem to give it a more brutal feel, like a melee weapon as well as a bow. Its small size, almost reminiscent of a crossbow, inspired me to try something new I never attempted before: sculpting a bow string! Tricky as hell but I must say I like the final result, hopefully it will make it intact my first game.
I must admit that much of this recovered enthusiasm for my Sons of Or is due to the amazing response I received form the hobby community in the past month after my small accident. I was sincerely overwhelmed by the support of all of you guys and this really motivated me to get back to painting and converting!
Thank you all very much!
As always, beautiful work. Those sculpted feathers are a nice touch. Re: the bowstring, an alternative might be 0.3mm styrene rods from Plastruct or you could stretch out pieces of sprue over a candle. I feel that it would somewhat less fragile.
ReplyDeleteGood point about the styrene rods, I use them a lot for many things but wasn't aware that such thin profiles existed... The good thing about GS is that you can stretch it instead of having to cut it the exact length of the bow. I glue one end of a thin roll of GS to one of the tips of the bow and stretched it until it met the opposite tip (easier to do than to explain). Then I covered the whole string with a couple of thin washes of Liquid GS which I discovered increases the speed of the drying time and gives a bit of extra stiffness. At the moment it seems to held in place just ok, we'll see how it goes during painting!
DeleteGorgeous work, dude. Do you use a stamp/mould for those feathers? They're so sharp looking.
ReplyDeleteGlad you've got through your ordeal in as positive a manner as could be. Looking forward to seeing what your renewed hobby mojo spawns.
Thanks mate! The feathers were actually very simple to sculpt, they are just sausages of GS that I played on a Plasticard sheet and flattened with a sculpting tool. Then I carved thin lines on them and let to cure for a couple of days. Once fully dry I separated them from the plasticard and cut them to te size I wanted plus added some damages along the blade of the feather to make them more realistic. The only issue I found with this system is that your feathers will look ok only from one side and the other one will look flat because it cured on the plasticard. The solution seem to be to work the back side after the GS have dried by adding another layer and repeating the process, but this increases the thickness of the feather and is a bit of a fiddle to do, so I mostly resolved to use the feathers in a way that hides the flat back face.
DeleteNice as always, I think the bow has a good size, not every culture used long bows. The short bow has its advantages
ReplyDeleteTotally, Native Americans didn't use longbows (not that I am aware of at least) and hoplologists around the world have made clear that the mongol composite bow was one of the deadliest weapons in medieval warfare. When I think about the barbaric tribes of Ghur though I imagine them having a similar technology to Stone Age Europe (let's say around 12000 BC) which means that their weapons will not be as efficient nor refined like their medieval counterparts. What they lack in craftmanship though they more than make up for with audacity and sheer brutality. If you evolve in the Realm of Beasts there is not much room in your daily routine for technological innovation I assume.
DeleteUhhh, awesome! Your leather Strips are so great. I like the mohawks, sadly there are just so many bold heads in the Bloodreavers box.
ReplyDeleteDid you make the bowstring from green stuff? Why don't you use sewing thread? I use linen thread for my bowstrings.
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ReplyDeleteYes, The obvious observation is that the bow is small.
ReplyDeleteadventurefootstep