Monster Chiller Horror Theatre: Cthuloid Monsters!

It's Hallowe'en! And we've got a scary one for you this week, Kids! It's another in our fine line of horror classics: Doctor Tongue's 3d House of Cthuloid Monsters! We're going to look at examples from five different spine-tingling ranges of miniatures inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. Pregnant women and those on heart medication -- please stop reading. 

First up we have the Hound of Tindalos. Brrr! Ha ha! That miasma of foulness will jump straight out of the angles of time! They are lean and athirst, Kids. That long tongue will suck the vital juices right out of you, faster than Count Floyd can drink a beer, I'm telling you.

This Hound of Tindalos was carved by John Dennett for Grenadier Models in 1983 as part of Grenadier's "Call of Cthulhu" range. Many of Dennett's sculptures remain the creepiest interpretations of these creatures. No one has topped his Hound of Tindalos, his Mi-Go or his Byakhee.

Quick, Kids: Who said "Man is the cruelest animal."? Was it the crazy Teuton, Friedrich Nietzsche? Or was it the mad Arab, Abdul Alhazrad? It won't matter when you find yourself upon an apparently abandoned road which you had chosen as the shortest cut to Arkham; overtaken by the storm at a point far from any town, and confronted with no refuge save for an antique and repellent wooden building near the foot of a rocky hill. Because that's when you're going to meet him.

This cannibalistic, ax-murdering Yankee is "The Hillbilly" from Citadel's Gothic Horror range of miniatures, sculpted in 1986 by Aly Morrison.

"Now the fact that adulterous drabs and whores are chiefly given to witchcraft is substantiated by the spells which are cast by witches upon the act of procreation...There is no doubt that certain witches can do marvelous things with regard to male organs." Thus wrote Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger in their witch-hunting manual, the Malleus Malificarum (1487). And they should know! 

This witch is "The Sorceress" from Citadel's C18 Night Horrors range from 1986. This was a wonderful assortment of devils, ghosts and B-movie monsters that was designed to accompany the Gothic Horror adventurers. The Sorceress miniature went on to enjoy a second life as "Etelka Herzen" in Death on the Reik range.

Hey Kids, what Hallowe'en would be complete without a coven of cultists? The Church of Starry Wisdom is a good option. The Esoteric Order of Dagon is even better... well, either way, who knows who is under those robes. Perhaps it's your neighbour... perhaps it's your doctor... perhaps it's me...

These cultists are "The Evil Acolytes III" from Otherworld Miniatures -- sculpted by Kevin Adams circa 2011. Otherworld is one of the very few inheritors of the spirit of Citadel's golden years in the 1980's -- especially Citadel's AD&D range. I just love what Otherworld does.

And finally Kids -- what's scarier than Dr. Tongue's House of Cats? Or Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses? Or Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Pancakes? Well, probably a black ropy, slimy, jelly tree-thing out of the woods. Yes, something that crawls up and flows up on its hoofs and mouths and snaky arms. Something black and hideous! Goddmammit! Who summoned the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath!

[his Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath is one of the plastic miniatures released by Fantasy Flight Games for its Mansions of Madness boardgame in 2011. It's not the most elegant of miniatures... but it sure makes up for it in size!

Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

Terror of the Lichemaster: Gimbrin Finehelm

Terror of the Lichemaster, Part 3

The Lichemaster has raised an army of undead. His opening move is to deploy Ranlac the Black and a phalanx of skeleton warriors to ambush a handful of prospectors working a nearby mine. This is the necromancer's first step towards seizing the Frugelhorn Valley and raising its slaughtered inhabitants as zombies. But what Kemler hasn't reckoned upon is that this isn't any mine. This is the mine of Gimbrin Finehelm and his warband of beautifully helmeted dwarves.

In this first battle in the Terror of the Lichemaster scenario pack, Gimbrin Finehelm and his 5 followers face off against 21 skeletons. The dwarves are cornered in a steep ravine, and have limited options. It's the classic underdog scenario. They could try scattering in hopes that a couple dwarves can escape the cordon and warn the villagers at Frugelhofen. Or should they stick together and try to break out as a team? Or can they defeat the undead wholesale by exploiting defensible terrain? Or will they simply grit their teeth and sell their lives as dearly as possible?

Terror of the Lichemaster doesn't give us very much information about the character of Gimbrin - just that he is an adventurer trying to resuscitate an old mine without much success. But he reappears in Return of the Lichemaster (1989), where we are told that he is a "thoughtful" and "powerful" leader", and "is thought handsome by Dwarven standards, having a beard of exceptional sleekness" (p. 83).

What I can tell you about Gimbrin is that he was the 2nd most expensive miniature I've ever bought.* It seems that he is the rarest of all the miniatures in this scenario pack, and never saw any release outside special mail orders during the 1980's. When he surfaced on eBay in late 2012, he represented the last Lichemaster miniature for my collection. And so I entered into one of those crippling bidding wars where, at the last second, you swoop in and bang a nauseating sum into eBay, assuring yourself that your stratospheric buffer is completely unnecessary. And then you wait the 2 or 3 remaining seconds of the auction to discover that some jackass has done exactly the same thing. 

And when eBay tells you "You've Won", you feel poor, proud and stupid all at the same time.**

When all is said and done, Gimbrin is a beautiful miniature. His helmet is unique in the Citadel range of dwarves, what with its long rectangular visor and the short aventail (the curtain of chainmail hanging from the helm). I really wanted Gimbrin to stand out in the crowd -- I hadn't paid all that money for a wall-flower! -- so I gave his armour a bright blue accent. And doesn't his beard look sleek?

Well, thanks for looking, and in the next installment, we'll take a closer look at Gimbrin Finehelm's five well-helmeted warriors...

Gimbrin Finehelm sketched by Tony Ackland

* The most expensive was Osrim Chardz from the Citadel scenario pack Blood Bath at Orcs Drift. But that's another story...
** You also congratulate yourself for finding a phlegmatic girlfriend.

Terror of the Lichemaster: Ranlac and Lord Krell

Welcome to my second post about the miniatures of The Terror of the Lichemaster, a Warhammer 2nd edition campaign released in 1986. My first post detailed the Lichemaster himself. Today I want to take a closer look at some of skeletal minions...specifically Ranlac the Black and Lord Krell.

The Lichemaster's plan of campaign is simple. It's all set out in the map of the Frugelhorn Valley drawn by the talented Dave Andrews....

Starting from the burial mound of Krell at the foot of the Frugelhorn Mountain, the Lichemaster divides his forces and creeps south so that he can simultaneously fall upon the two nearby settlements,Gimbrin's Mine (the 1st battle) and the Bogel's farmstead (the 2nd battle). By picking off these isolated victims, the Lichemaster will gain new undead soldiers and prevent any warning from arriving at the Village of Frugelhofen at the very bottom of the valley. Then he will reunite his army and crush the village with its paltry defenders (the 3rd and final battle).

Ranlac the Black Sketched by Tony Ackland

Ranlac the Black is the first of the Lichemaster's lieutenants that he dispatches down the valley. He is tasked with killing the dwarves at Gimbrin's mine. 

Detail of Shield

We are told that Ranlac is captain of Krell's guards, "more cruel in death than even in life." He's an Undead Champion and 20 Skeleton warriors are under his command.

Ranlac's miniature started life as an unnamed Citadel C17 Skeleton sculpted in 1984 by Michael and Alan Perry. This is a pre-slotta (aka solid base) miniatures of a very high caliber -- great detail and lots of character, thanks to the Perry Bros. I particularly like his flowing robes and samurai-like sword.

When I came to paint Ranlac, I wanted to keep the general palate dark and sombre. There's nothing I abhor more than a gaudy skeleton. But his shield demanded special attention, what with its tortured face. After trying several colour schemes and painting over them in disgust, I finally hit on a scheme I liked. I used a rusty metallic as background for a yellow crescent moon. It's just enough colour to grab the eye without being too flashy.  And to my eye, it seems to create an unsettling dual aspect to the shield, where you can see two different faces peering out of the same features.

The Lichemaster's most powerful ally is Lord Krell. He is described in Terror of the Lichemaster as "a bony horror" carrying "an evil weapon that had sent a thousand screaming souls to the chaos hells." In life he was a powerful Chaos Warrior and in death he binds Kemler to the Ruinous Powers in a dark pact. Within the game, he is a Major Undead Hero armed with a Magic Two-Handed Sword with Warp Attack and Degeneration Strike. Nasty.

Like Ranlac, Krell was originally a preslotta Citadel C17 Skeleton (1984) sculpted by Michael and Alan Perry. Because they were not specially produced for Terror of the Lichemaster, these two skeleton champions are slightly easier to find than the miniatures that were only created for the scenario and sold by mail-order (e.g. Heinrich Kemler or Gimbrin Finehelm).

Again, I kept my colours on the muted side for Krell. I tried to create visual interest mainly through the rust on his armour, and the dirt and decay on his robes. Krell is not looking to win a beauty contest. 

His skeleton minions are all from Citadel's boxed set of plastic sprues, the Skeleton Horde (1986). To my mind, these are the greatest plastic skeletons ever produced: they are well-proportioned, simple and easy to customize. My paint job on these undead is as simple as pouring piss out of a boot. I use a basecoat of bone-white, followed by a wash or two of brown ink diluted 50:50 with water. The tips of the bones get a rough highlight with more bone-white, and deep joints get an outline of charred brown. It's the speediest of speed painting.

In my next posts, I'll set out Ranlac's prey... the dwarf Gimbrin Finehelm and his small band of doughty followers.

Lord Krell sketched by Tony Ackland

Terror of the Lichemaster: Heinrich Kemler

Heinrich Kemler, the Lichemaster, is the most iconic villain from the golden age of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. He was invented by Rick Priestly for Terror of the Lichemaster (1986), a boxed scenario pack that included a campaign book, counters and 15 cardboard buildings. The three sequential scenarios in Terror of the Lichemaster were extended by a fourth scenario called The Vengeance of the Lichemaster which appeared in the Spring 1986 Citadel Journal. Finally, Priestly and Carl Sargent resurrected the Lichemaster in Return of the Lichemaster (1989) a mini-campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay that revised and reconfigured the events of Terror.

So welcome to the first of several posts unearthing a complete painted set of the miniatures from the Terror of the Lichemaster. 

Kemler has been an obsession of mine for years. But I'm not the only one who found him stalking me in my dreams. From the very beginning, the Lichemaster had a grip on the imagination of the Games Workshop studio. No other Warhammer character was portrayed so often or by so many different artists. John Blanche, Tony Ackland, Gary Chalk, Ian Miller and Dave Andrews all tried their hand at illustrating Kemler.

My favourite picture is Dave Andrews' frontispiece from Terror of the Lichemaster... a simple black and white affair resembling a woodcut. This portrait of Kemler is also the one that most closely resembles the Lichemaster miniature:

Tony Ackland, whose prodigious output provides the backbone of so many Warhammer publications, created two sketches of the Lichemaster for Terror:

John Blanche painted the cover for the Spring 1986 Citadel Journal, a dreamlike depiction of Skaven, monks and undead all battling before the gates of La Maisontaal. Here's a detail of Kemler's ghostly visage:

Ian Miller's cover art for the Spring 1987 Citadel Journal shows his talents in full flower: a Giger-esque horror mixed with flaring colours and composition. This painting was also used as the cover art for the 1987 re-issue of Terror:

Gary Chalk painted the original box cover artwork for Terror of the Lichemaster. And although Kemler doesn't appear by name in Warhammer 3rd edition (1987), the Orange Book does contain this portrait of the Kemler and his lieutenant, Mikael Jacsen (p. 164):

So who is the Lichemaster? According to Terror of the Lichemaster, he was a "necromancer and man of power" who studied magic in the great cities of the Empire. However, a life of dark magic ravaged his body until his enemies (witch-hunters? rival warlocks?) saw their chance and began hounding him from city to city. 

At the very end of his strength and with his pursuers closing in, Kemler washed up in the remote Frugelhorn Valley in the Black Mountains. There he discovered the burial mound of a long-dead Chaos Warrior named Lord Krell. Kemler reanimated Krell and his undead soldiers but the rite sapped what little life was left in the necromancer. At the edge of death, Krell offered Kemler a hellish pact: assist Krell in leading his skeletal horde, and in return receive the power to extend his life by killing others. The Terror of the Lichemaster then follows Kemler's attempt to slay the inhabitants of the Valley, culminating in an attack on the village of Frugelhofen.

Even Heinrich Kemler's name conjures up some fascinating associations. His first name evokes Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535), the German occultist who traveled across Europe and frequently found himself accused of heresy. His name also closely resembles Heinrich Kramer, the author of the 15th century witch hunting manual, the Malleus Maleficarum. But the clearest influence on the Lichemaster is the legend of Dr. Faustus (circa 1480 - 1541), a scholar who allegedly bargained his soul to a demon for great magic powers. In other words, Kemler highlights the close connection between the Warhammer world and the German Renaissance, where secular learning opened up a new world of scholarly inquiry that would often challenge the accepted morality of the Church.

I think we also have to say something about his title, "Lichemaster". Dungeons and Dragons popularized the notion of a Lich as an evil wizard who uses powerful spells to animate his own body after death. But in doing so, Gary Gygax and co. greatly extended the meaning of the word lich, which originally meant merely a body or a corpse (hence Lichgate means the covered entryway to a churchyard and a Lich-house is a mortuary). For this reason, Lichemaster is a better term for Kemler -- his is a Master of Corpses. (It is delightfully unclear whether Kemler is himself a corpse now or merely suspended on the edge of death).

Although the Lichemaster might be an iconic Warhammer villain, his is a hell of a rare miniature (it seems that he was only available by special mail order to Games Workshop during the mid-1980's). This is one of the reasons I became obsessed with him -- I just couldn't find him! When I finally stumbled upon him on eBay a few years ago, I paid too much but never regretted my lightening fast "Buy It Now". He is a beautiful miniature (the work of Aly Morrison if I'm not mistaken). But his rarity and cost made me scared to paint him -- it took me a few years to build up the courage. Terror of the Lichemaster indeed!

Thanks for visiting! And now I've posted the next installment of this journey - the Lichemaster's Lieutenants, Ranlac the Black and Lord Krell...



(And many thanks to Zhu who helped me with the provenance to some of the pictures featured in this post.)

Painted Battletech Infantry and Ground Forces

I've been fascinated by infantry in Battletech ever since 1986 when I bought the CityTech boxed set, which expanded the original game by introducing ground forces, buildings and urban combat. The image of a platoon of soldiers trying to stand up to a towering armoured robot conjures up all sort of romantic images... the sailors of the Pequod taking on Moby Dick... the Japanese Self-Defense Forces against Godzilla... the Smurfs versus Gargamel. So when I went on my mech painting jag (see my Unseen Mechs here, here and here), I also set about painting some conventional forces.

My favourite source for the infantry in the appropriate scale (1:285) is GHQ Models. They're cheap, well-sculpted and diverse. They're not meant for sci-fi, of course, but at such a small scale, who can really tell. And after all, Battletech is still a game of machine guns, flamethrowers and missile launchers. 

Mechanized Rifle Infantry supported by a COM-2D "Commando"

Purists may be turned off by the fact that many of the vehicles I use for my mechanized and motorized platoons are from WWII, but anachronisms like that don't faze me. If I was going to take over the galaxy, I wouldn't be shy about doing it in a Sonderkraftfahrzeug.

Another useful source for more futuristic vehicles was Forgeworld's line of miniatures for Aeronautica Imperialis (the Warhammer 40K-based air combat game). Although most of the models were aircraft, Forgeworld created some lovely anti-air tanks and scenery that I gobbled up for Battletech.

A FSH-9 "Firestarter" mech with two Anti Air Tanks (originally Hydra Flak Tanks from Forgeworld)

I had a lot of fun simply arranging the soldiers on each base... it felt like creating a mini-diorama, each with its own sense of movement or purpose. By using mere soldiers or a combination of soldiers and vehicles, I could conjure up the image of Foot, Motorized or Mechanized Infantry.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my pictures...

Above we see a Mechanized Machine Gun Infantry Platoon and a Foot Machine Gun Platoon, supported by a VND-1R "Vindicator", all painted in the colours of House Kurita.

Here's another Kurita force: a platoon of Motorized SRM launchers and a platoon of Foot SRM launchers, accompanied by a PXH-1 "Phoenix Hawk".

And here we see two platoons of Foot SRM Infantry and one platoon of Mechanized (Wheeled) infantry with rifles. A CPLT-C1 "Catapult" is marching in support.

Above is my SCP-1N "Scorpion" leading a mixed squadron of conventional ground tanks (which are all sculpted by GHQ).

And finally, my personal favourite Battletech conventional vehicle... the H-7C "Warrior" helicopter, which I modelled using a AH 1W Super Cobra from GHQ Models.

Thanks for stopping by!

Normandy... a wargamer's paradise

Last Monday I had a recurring thought: "This is one of the best days of my life". I was in Normandy, France with three friends and we were getting a tour of the D-Day battlefields from Colonel Oliver Warman (retired) of the Welsh Guards.

My father likes to recite the old ditty about the highest reaches of the upper class: "The Lowells only talk to the Cabots, and the Cabots only talk to God." Listening to Oliver, I often thought of that saying. Here stood a man who was shown around Normandy after the War by Hans Spiedel, Rommel's chief of staff. Here was a man who dined with Field Marshal Montgomery and called Major General John Frost (of Arnhem fame) "an old family friend". He served under General John Hackett (also of Arnhem) when they were both at NATO, and -- because of his decades long interest in D-Day -- had interviewed most of the battlefield commanders, including all of the Canadian leaders at Juno Beach. 

Colonel Warman indicates where Rommel and Speidel stood when first inspecting the Normandy beaches

Oliver seemed almost ashamed of this access. If we asked him about his acquaintance with King Hussein of Jordan or the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, he'd say sadly, "It's the old boys' club, I'm afraid." Or he would simply scratch his head and say "Well, you know, I am hideously old." His sense of shame was misplaced because I've never met anyone who put privilege to better use. During the tour it was clear that he'd spend 60+ years mulling over the Normandy landings. He had not just quizzed the generals -- he had paced the cow-paths, stared at the topography and questioned local farmers. The fruit of this labour is that he's the author of several books, the teacher of military courses and the leader of one stupendous tour.

Oliver takes cover in a sunken lane*

We talked of why the Canadians took no prisoners during the Battle of Normandy, Rommel's defence strategy, and the bloody beaches of Omaha Beach ("Here the Americans caught a bad cold," he said in one of his more memorable phrases.) 

At one point he said to me, "Small battles are what make up big battles." This simple but important thesis animated the entire tour. Time and again, he would point out how individual companies or battalions negotiated the hills, outflanked the enemy or fell into enfilading fire. (As a gamer, this gave me a new appreciation for the small skirmishes we play on the table-top -- such small engagements are indeed the building blocks of war).  

We are not giving the Nazi salute. Instead, we are following Oliver's sight-line toward Caen and the beaches

Using my phone, I recorded Oliver narrating the story of Operation Biting (aka the Bruneval Raid of February 1942). It's a wonderful piece of oral history -- you can see the way he frames the story around American perceptions of Britain's chances alone against the Nazis. (To be prosaic, I will point out that the Bruneval Raid actually occurred after the USA joined Britain's fight against Hitler. But that's the nature of oral history... there's a kind of truth that transcends details and can only be passed along through good story telling.)

After meeting Oliver, my friends and I headed east to see the Bayeux Tapestry in the town of Bayeux. The museum built around the tapestry is a gem -- the tapestry is presented flawlessly and without distraction in its own dark gallery. Up close, it's hard to describe how beautiful a work it is. No computer screen can capture its texture, life and artistry. 

On the second floor of the Bayeux Museum, there are a series of exhibits, including some wonderful dioramas that would make any hobbyist gape. The picture at the top of this post is from a diorama of the stone quarries on the river Orne near the Norman city of Caen. This stone was shipped to England and was used to create many of William the Conqueror's castles.

Other dioramas included this lovely portrayal of Walkelin, the Norman Bishop of Winchester arriving at the village of East Meon shortly after the Conquest...

And then there was this magnificent recreation of the whole village of East Meon in Hampshire circa 1086. The scale is too small for Warhammer, but it did make my heart skip a beat... how I'd love to run Krapfang and his orcs through those prosperous streets!

To top things off, when I was in Caen, I found a model train store that concealed some hidden treasures. After poking around a bit, I found a near-mint 1/100 scale kit for a model Super Dimension Fortress Macross "Spartan" (also known to Battletech players as an Archer). It was a nice tie-in for my recent orgy of painted Battletech miniatures.

But it's not all fun and games. Both Oliver's tour and the Tapestry brought home to me the all-around shittiness of war. Seeing Oliver scratch out in the sand of Omaha Beach a diagram of the overlapping fields of German machine gun fire was as chilling and depressing experience as I can think of. And even in the Tapestry's glorious portrayal of the Battle of Hastings, there are reminders of how ugly and tawdry a battlefield can be. Here are some close-ups from the lower borders of the cloth showing the looters, hacked-limbs and half-men left over from the combat. Blech.

Well, if you are ever in the market for a WWII tour of Normandy (or for that matter, of Belgium or Tunisia), I can't recommend Oliver Warman more enthusiastically. In the truest sense of the phrase, I was honoured to meet him.


* Have you noticed the Welsh Guards tie affixed to the front of his shirt with what appears to be a diaper pin? The man is stone-cold.