Stone Giant Tribe and Display Board WIP

[Shadespyre]

Hello Reaper friends!  You might remember I did a whole tribe of Hill Giants on a display board, with hex bases?

 

This is my follow up to that, this time: Stone Giants.

 

Errrm, it all got a bit out of hand, and I'd LOVE some input from you all, please

 

This is where I'm at after a week and I'm a bit stuck tbh.

 

I think I need to decide more about what the "finish" will look like before I go a lot further. Once I cover that foam with more than paint it's going to be harder to make changes. I'm thinking of sort of "cladding" it in pieces of slate, with sculpted  bits / groundwork in the gaps?

 

I'd also love to hear suggestions for other miniatures and features to add to the scene to break up those big open rocky spaces. Current extra bits and bobs are just there for a sense of scale and how extra minis might "interrupt" or "enhance" the scene.

 

Some next steps though:

- cork around the hexes on the platforms for the bases to fit into
- some sort of "door frame"
- "box in" the sides (which are cut out of a continuing mountainside, in my head at least)

 

Please, rain your ideas and encouragements upon me!

 

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Shadespyre
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[Glitterwolf]

Great project.

[AussieAusborn]

This is a great set-up, I'm looking forward to seeing more progress! I'm not sure what you could do to the stonework...what's the story of this location? Was it made by the giants, or did they move in after it was abandoned/etc? I think that'd be helpful for figuring out how to proceed.

 

As for what to do with the open spaces, I think using some little creatures, like bugs, rats, bats, or lizards, would be really fun and add some "Easter eggs" to the piece.

 

Can't wait to see what you do with it next!

[Shadespyre]

Good thoughts - knowing the story would imply some planning on my part, though. I think it's a long term Stone Giant home, those steps are a bit big to have been made by Dwarves or similar?

 

I've got some goats (sadly not giant goats as suggested in the Monstrous Compendium) which I think might go in the upper right hand area, away from the action. I'd quite like some cliff-nesting birds, but haven't found much in the way of minis for other than birds of prey. If anyone knows where I can get 28mm scale swifts or similar then I'm all ears!

[Glitterwolf]

On 9/21/2020 at 11:39 PM, Shadespyre said:

Good thoughts - knowing the story would imply some planning on my part, though. I think it's a long term Stone Giant home, those steps are a bit big to have been made by Dwarves or similar?

 

I've got some goats (sadly not giant goats as suggested in the Monstrous Compendium) which I think might go in the upper right hand area, away from the action. I'd quite like some cliff-nesting birds, but haven't found much in the way of minis for other than birds of prey. If anyone knows where I can get 28mm scale swifts or similar then I'm all ears!

 

Figone Miniatures they're listed as resin birds 32/54mm?

[Shadespyre]

Just a little bit more progress - fixed the positions of the miniature bases and put in the cork floor surrounding them.

[Shadespyre]

Slow progress - it's very hard to work on this indoors, so I havr to go out to our poorly lit and unheated garage to do the messy work - but here's where we are:

 

 

Added the door frame
Textured the surface with a mix of plaster, sand, grit, PVA, paint and slate scraps
Tidied up the sides (not visible here) with cardboard - these will be the "cut off" areas where the mountain side continues "off screen".

 

I'm not sure how pleased I am with the effect, but I'm learning as we go. There's a lot of tidying up to do - cleaning the filler off some of the slate, tidying up gaps around some pieces, etc.

I need to do some cleaning up so that the bases fit properly, and then start thinking about the decor of the bases and blending them into the surroundings.

This very much leads into the positioning of the giants and bears, and then additional models and bigger scenics such as trees and scrubs.

[Peithetairos]

Great project and obviously nice verticality to it. You have four levels, so all of them should be somehow connected narrative wise. Given your giants are in attacking poses, it might be an idea to also model an attacker at the bottom level. 

 

The stonework looks a tad too geometrical to me, so I would sand all the straight edges and use a textured pebble to impress some irregularities in the foam. I would also add some more protruding parts and variety on some of the flat surfaces. 

[Shadespyre]

Thanks for commenting. Yes, it does look a bit like a cartoon version of a rockface, still, doesn't it? I can excuse some of that as it will have been worked a bit by the giants (obviously, those stone steps aren't natural). I'm also hoping that introducing other scenic elements (plants and animals mostly) will take the focus off the rock a bit.

 

The narrative is supposed to be that the giants are engaging intruders at the bottom corner of the scene, but off camera, as it were. I'd have gone quite differently if I'd wanted to include the foe in the scene. This worked well with my previous Hill Giants project but it's harder to carry off here - I wish mini makers would use slightly less dynamic poses, sometimes. There's nothing I could really do with the female giant swinging a hammer to make her more static. Two of them are just assembled as is. I didn't like the club carried by the rock thrower, so I stole the much nicer one from the smaller (older) white giant. The white giant is reposed, and got a home-made hammer (as carried by the other giants) and a small throwing rock added. And rather broader shoulders!

 

 

 

 

[Shadespyre]

Well, I've been away from this for a long time.

 

I got stuck on the mountain side and struggled to make any progress, and then I've been busy with the Old World Army Challenge ( you can see my Lizardmen over here https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/search/label/Shadespyre ) since December.

 

But now I'm almost done with that, so I dug out the Stone Giants themselves and put a couple of coats on them. Very much work in progress, but at least it is progress!

 

[Chaoswolf]

I missed this the first time around; I'm glad to see that you're still working on it.

[Shadespyre]

Work in progress on the giants

 

I fancied blue gems and so on as a theme, taking me away from my red gem comfort zone. Some work better than others so far.

 

Also notice how the blue tone from the stone club has been carried over to other areas e.g. heads because I DID NOT CLEAN MY DRYBRUSH WELL ENOUGH! I hadn't even noticed in normal light, though I can see it now I know it's there. Hopefully I can cover that easily enough - it makes them look like they are top-lit in blue, which I bet I couldn't do on purpose!

 

 

 

 

 

The greyish blue cloth is of course my old favourite Shadow Grey (aka Space Wolf Grey). The purplish grey is actually the Reaper Dark Elf Skin triad - still not put these anywhere near a dark elf, but I'm already in love with these tones!

 

The detail on these models is a bit soft and I keep finding more moulding lines. Hopefully some careful finishing touches can hide both of these issues. 

 

All input welcome 🙂

[Chaoswolf]

9 minutes ago, Shadespyre said:

it makes them look like they are top-lit in blue, which I bet I couldn't do on purpose!

Don't you just hate when you accidentally do something really cool, and then can't re-create it on purpose?

 

I think the blue gems look really good.

[Glitterwolf]

I agree with that Wolf in the post above me!

Edited April 25, 2021 by Glitterwolf

[Shadespyre]

Thanks, Wolf buddies. I'm wondering if I could get this effect to work as "plasma glow" on my space marines, but that's for another time.