Stones, Shrines and Alters of Erin

Here are the finished standing stones from Alternative Armies amongst others.

I've added a few extra skulls to the base once flocked.

A bear hide has been left as an offering too.

Battle shine, again extra weapons have been added to the base. The rocks form a sacred circle in which to knee and offer your items.

Paper ferns were added to this base. I'm not sure how they will last as they are fragile. Being hard up against the stone will help them.

This place must be strong in fey magic because flowers have sprung up around the stones. Flowers are a nice way to show the affinity of a place. Flowers equal a nice holy area, where dead and dying grass says the opposite.

The great fertility rock with it's comfy furs to lie on. I wanted to give this the impression of a giant lady in a fur cloak. The cloak is made from moss and ivy.

Ancient pillar, I added some ivy to this to weather it in. Also putting flock to act as moss up one side helped to age it. Moss normally grows on the north side of trees, so I added this trick to a lot of the stones.

This is a miniature from Reaper Bones, I think it's called 'Evil tower'. I thought it would make a good Fomorian piece or maybe something older and darker. What ever it is, it has been thrust up from the ground and killed the surrounding grass. It must be cursed...

Ivy again helps weather these small stones. This isn't a bad place as flowers grow around the mound, new life from old.

I've rediscovered Celtos as a figure range that might be useful for this growing project.

 

It's time to dig out the old stones and compare them. A lot of these previous models had a greenstuff carving in them.

The two weapon shrines. One is a place of worship, the other, sacrifices.

The two stones of the dead. These could be used for any undead project.

Recently I thought about making more of an effort to photograph my miniatures. I have seen other people use backdrops and so thought I'd play around with the idea. By using a photo from a book as a background, the results can be quite different. Rather than a cluttered work table full of detail taking away from an image, the background actual enhances and compliments it. This simple book set up has really improved these stone pictures and it's something I'll do again for sure.

Creating Barnacles in 28mm

I just had this idea while writing the last post, but had to wait a bit for the base to be dry. Mixing wood glue and grit should make for some nice coastal detail on the base. 

To tie everything together, I added the barnacle mix to the other seaside scenery too. 

I covered a pirate bottle with a coral mass to make it a bit more in keeping with an ancient shoreline.

I had some fun with green stuff again, blocking in corals and lumps of seaweed. No starfish this time, maybe on the next base.

I plan to dry brush this base is light Grey's to make the detail 'pop', then use various Contrast paints to add the colour. These Contrast paints should be good, as you can add patches of red and orange into the rocks for a real seaside look.

I imagine these rocks will be mostly browns with a few exotic colours popped in.

 

Making all these rock pools really makes me want to go to the seaside again. Arrrr the smell of it!