Wizardecember: The Beast

Punkrabbitt, The Beast
When I started the WizarDecember painting challenge, I set up my weekly parameters as The Monster, The Maiden, The Hero, and The Beast. Originally Punkrabbitt was slated to be The Hero. However, as I developed the idea for a new Punkrabbitt, it became increasingly apparent that this new iteration of my gaming avatar was not going to be very heroic. As in, not at all. Feral, aggressive, and vulgar, this is not the usual Punkrabbitt. Almost an Anti-Punkrabbitt.

I started with the usual suspects, a body and a rabbit to start with. In this case, Reaper's Wererat Matriarch and Ironwind Metals' Thumper Archer. I replaced the head, tail, and feet on the Matriarch with those of the Thumper, and also replaced the hands with some leftover plastics. I then added a staff which was a plastic something with an impaled head I added on top.

Reaper's Wererat Matriarch

Ironwind Metals' Thumper Archer

The painting was pretty straightforward. Brownish skin, tannish fur, and black clothes. The staff was done in Pearl Black and highlighted by adding Pearl White to it. I am extremely pleased with how this model turned out. Not quite as cool and awesome as Post-Apocalyptic Punkrabbitt, which I converted and painted at the absolute peak of my abilities, but darn close.

Punkrabbitt, the Beast...

If you have been following this blog at all, you will have noticed that I usually do complete Warbands for Frostgrave to go with my Wizards. I just don't know who I want to be the Apprentice, or even the Soldiers. I am thinking of a Chaos Warband-style group, with some heavily armored warriors, nasty beastmen, and maybe some other weird stuff. But I'm not sure yet.

...complete with the fluffy tail.

As happy as I am with how she turned out, this model has a general nastiness about it that I may find difficult to share with my family. Time will tell if he shows up on the table against my wife or kids...

Wednesday Night Musings III

Wizardecember
A painting challenge for Wizard miniatures, you say? And me needing to paint up some Wizards to add to existing groups of figures to create yet more Frostgrave warbands? How can I not be a part of this Wizardecember? 4 weeks. 4 Wizards. YES!

Punkrabbitt
Every time I start a new game and/or genre, I get around to a setting-specific Punkrabbitt figure eventually. So far, there has been Space Pirate Punkrabbitt (for Vor: The Maelstrom), Steampunk Pirate Punkrabbitt (for Warmachine,) Post-Apocalyptic Punkrabbitt (for Dark Age,) and War Of Spanish Succession Punkrabbitt (yes, really!) Now that I am into this whole fantasy/Frostgrave thing, my mind has turned to figuring out how to create a Punkrabbitt model with a difference.

Four Punkrabbitts: the poorly Photoshopped comparison edition

My Punkrabbitts have always been warriors of one sort or another, armed with a formidable melee weapon in one hand and a ranged weapon in the other. Short or tall, thin or plump, they have always exuded the masculinity of their genre. In Frostgrave, the character types are Wizards (generally without guns or tricorns) or Apprentices. And Punkrabbitt is not anyone's Apprentice! So, clearly a Wizard is in order. And while we are at it, let's make him a her, just to switch things things up a little. Is it an affront to my masculinity to have my personal icon in the game be female? No, of course not. Almost all of my World of Warcraft characters are female, and if I recall, most of my D&D characters back in the day were female, so why not have Punkrabbitt be female?

As I look at the four Punkrabbitt incarnations so far, one thing strikes me: they are all so nicely dressed, almost like they are a part of the "polite" society of whichever genre they represent. If I am doing the Opposite Day version, it calls for something savage, something feral, something vulgar, something cast out from civilization... and I know just the miniature to use as the basis of my conversion. This is going to be awesome!

Hopefully for Week 3 of Wizardecember...

More Scenery
I have not been idle in the scenery department. Behold!

^ I made a 2'x2' game board for playing games on. It is 2" thick white insulation foam, painted with Folk Art "Coffee Bean." I will be adding flecks of lighter and darker colors at some point.

^ Archways... excellent for making a mess of the board.

^ Another crypt, this time with better interior walls, a recessed floor, and more snow.

^ A small obelisk... there is a large obelisk coming soon. There is a piece that goes between this obelisk and it's base to make it much taller.

^ This is the other piece of the obelisk, in this case it is serving as a fallen something, with some adjacent snow. Gotta love the snow.

^ The ruined tower... the second and third floors are removable, so it can handle some interior action.

Okay, so that's all I have for musing upon this Wednesday night. Check back Satyrday for my first Wizardecember entry.