Spooktober 2024 - The Lord of the Harvest, part 1.

 

Harvest is the most important time of the agricultural calendar; the fortunes of farms, families, and even entire communities are tied to its outcome. Unsurprisingly, harvest has developed its own array of deities, traditions, and superstitions to safeguard its success, which are found in almost every farming culture worldwide.

Whole gangs of Harvester's toil in the fields, with scythe and sickle they reap an acre a day per man, at the best of times. The best of the men, their leader, would be called "Harvest Lord" and would negotiate terms and payment with the farmer or lord they were working for.

In good times, there is much work, cider and the community thrives.

In worse times, there are some who seek out darker powers to aid their survival...thus are born the demonic "Lords of the Harvest" and whole communities can be lain waste to as they reap souls not corn!

*****

As has been mentioned before on here, my friend Duncan owns a 3D printer (several actually) and likes seeking out weird and wonderful STLs to print 

A case in point is the subject of this series:

The "Lord of the Harvest" by Witchsong Miniatures.

Designed and given a statblock for D&D 5th edition (because no other RPGs apparently exist*):

He printed two copies of the "miniature"** in its statue form of about 120mm scale, this gives a great form for painting and working in a different scale then the usual 28/32mm Wargaming scale we usually work in.

As he'd printed one each for us, I jokingly said that as I was already taking part in Dreadtober 2024, that we should just do a friendly "Spooktober" and paint these things to compare at the end of the month on Halloween!

"Done" said Duncan.

So, the gauntlet laid down, paint the Lord of the Harvest, deadline: 31st October 2024.

*****

Having gotten the model assembled and primed grey, I am going to go back and zenithal prime the model with white from above and from the direction of the lantern to attempt some lighting effect. I also went searching the internet for inspiration.

From the page on Myminifactory, I found this effort by one of the people who had previously printed the model. I quite like this, however I find that the red/burgundy coat blends into the pumpkins too much for my preference.

As a concept art piece, I found this pumpkin headed warrior interesting. I like the contrast of the dark purple and green to the glowing orange of the head.

Speaking of, it's not often you see a skull carved pumpkin in artwork, more often you find the traditional 'Jack O'Latern' types.

There was also this art piece, which whilst similar to the above with the darker clothes, I did like the baleful glow from the face and the orb in its right hand.

So that's the jist of the project/challenge.

I'll post halfway through the month with progress, and then again on the deadline day with both of our efforts together.

Until next time, have nice day...

*Sarcasm.

**More Sarcasm.

Dreadtober 2024 preparation.

 

As has become tradition over the past couple of years, during October I'm going to be taking part in Dreadtober again.

The first year I completed an Ork Dreadmob and last year I painted up two World Eaters Legion Dreadnaughts for the Heresy period.

This year I decided to head back to my beloved Greenskins and tackle a model which I ALWAYS wanted but was never able to afford from Forge World before it was discontinued.

A Meka-Dread!!!!

A huge mechanical monstrosity armed with a massive Buzzsaw and a Shunta/Zzap Kannon. As well as a multitude of smaller holding klaw arms, and piloted by the maddest of Big Mel's makes this a brilliant kit.

As alluded to, I think the kit is Out of Production now, but as is usual for Forge World it was ridiculously priced for their lack of quality control so I haven't got that kit.

Instead, I found a free to download STL of the Meka-Dread on the purple site* and downloaded and printed my own.

After a few full build plates, washing and curing the parts I was left with this:

There are some serious chunks of resin there, lots of pinning will be needed!

Making a start, I began with the engine block as that seemed the easiest. The top exhaust and the pipes on the side were separate and easy enough to glue together:

Next I decided to tackle to Shunta-Kannon, this was in seven pieces total, and as there is a fair chunk of weight hanging off the shoulder I decided to add pins throughout this piece.

There are five or six pins in this gun alone!

Not photographed yet, but I also have the legs glued together and pinned with the hip joint added, so the beast is almost ready for priming.

I'm going to use my traditional Ork Goff scheme, starting from an orange basecoat to begin the rust effect, and then work up through metallics and add the black, red and checkers on the armour panels.

As usual through the month I'll document progress to keep everyone updated as well as for Dreadtober itself who post a weekly round up of everyone who signed up to take part.

Until next time, have nice day...