Wednesday 20 July 2016

If I only had a brain.

I could while away the hours
Conferrin' with the flowers,
Consulting with the rain;
And my head I'd be a scratchin'
While my thoughts are busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.
Sorry about that, it must be the sun!  That said, the old brain has been hatchin' a few thoughts lately including this addition to my wheat field.  In all honesty I'm not entirely convinced that this little bit of resin loveliness didn't, in fact, start the whole wheat field build in the first place.  Bought as a pack of three from 'Ristul's Extraordinary Market', which I now see is imported to the United Kingdom by 'Bad Squiddo Games', this was one of those 'must have' purchases.
Having cleaned away the wispy excess, which literally came off with a hot, soapy wash, I set about basing my straw man.  The obvious solution was to use some of the coir mat off cuts from the 'Fields of Gold' build and with the aid of my rotary compass cutter fashioned a section to fit a 30mm 'Warbases' MDF disc.

 However when I offered this up it looked a little forced so I started to hack away with my scalpel, varying the hight of the wheat and creating some space at the front.  Continuing the theme of adding livestock to the field a couple of 'Warbases' rats* took centre stage adding a bit of levity to the piece.  Once assembled it was a simply matter of painting the scarecrow with suitably muted colours, with the added bonus that the wheat field needed only a light dry brush.

*I have no idea what made me buy this pack either and my word they are small!
It was at this point that some more thoughts finished hatchin' as it struck me that what my scarecrow really needed were some crows to scare!  A quick root around the Zombicide plastic mountain that has formed, quite alarmingly, in the spare room unearthed a murder of crows that required the simplest of paint jobs.  
Based and dry brushed they were ready to take their place in the field and torment my scarecrow or possibly act as a fearful omen of some great evil about to befall the land.
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68 comments:

  1. Brilliant, I love how you've managed to make this into a dynamic terrain piece

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    1. Thank you Martin, I may have got a little carried away again. ;)

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  2. Realy lovely work Michael !!!

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  3. The perfect addition to the wheat field.

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    1. Thank you Clint, really pleased with how they both work together.

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  4. Damnit, Michael. To the dice bag lady's shop again!
    Really good job - that looks amazing.

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    1. Whoops, sorry Mike, if it is any consequence I'll be putting a new order in myself soon.

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  5. The stuff of nightmares, excellent work Michael!

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  6. Creative and awesome job!!!

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  7. Very nice indeed! I must admit I'd have been tempted to add a crow sitting on his hat :-)

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    1. Blast, should have bought about that, great idea Millsy.

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  8. Wonderful work Michael! The crows finish it all off rather nicely.

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  9. Fantastic! They really add to the mood of the piece.

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    1. Thank you Brian, I was pleased that I remembered the crows.

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  10. You really are quite annoyingly talented, in an admirable and brilliant way!

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    1. Quite possible the nicest thing you could have said Paul, thank you. ;)

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  11. You really put the SCARE in that crow, the hangman's noose really ramps up the tension

    Ian

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    1. Thank you Ian, as soon as I saw it I knew it would work for my Witchfinder world.

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  12. Great stuff, Sir Awdry. Plenty of scare and crow in that scarecrow ;-)

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  13. Bizarre..only just yesterday I was lookimg up subjects about Moll King aka Moll Flanders..(yep the story was on R4, well a buggered around Version ..what else do I expect from the BBC ?) and Research about her (Moll king´s) life led me onto the subject of pickpockets and a short film titeled (On YouTube) "Murder of crows" Worth a look.

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    1. Anyways...last comment went mildly off Topic. Love the GallyBagger...I´ll have to make me one for my Imagi-Nation

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    2. As always Paul, your comments open a line of enquiry that I would never have stumbled across myself, once again my sincere thanks.

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  14. Delightfully creepy! Nicely done.

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  15. Lovely. Filed in the 'Must Shamelessly Copy' file. :)

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    1. Thank you Curt, good to know that I'm not the only one with that file. ;)

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  16. Now, that's spooky! Just the right thing to set the scene for your Witchfinder project.

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    1. That is very kind Nick, I certainly found it far too tempting to pass up on.

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  17. Amazing so much character to this piece. Still like the fox but those days really add to this too.

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    1. Oops predictive text - days should have been rats !

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    2. Thank you Dan, Warbases have a lot to answer for.

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  18. Now, if you could rustle up a pumpkin field or two, Michael, we would have the perfect setting for some headless horseman action. Or Scooby Zoo. Or Ghostbusters...

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    1. Now funny you should mention that as one of the other sculpts has a pumpkin head, then there is that headless horsemen sculpt I backed as a Kickstarter and don't even get me started on Ghostbusters and Scooby Doo!

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  19. Another outstanding addition, Michael. (One might even say that scarecrow is outstanding in his field.)

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    1. Oh that is very good and very kind, thank you Mr. Finch.

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  20. Love the scarecrow, great addition to the wheat field terrain piece. :)

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  21. Very creepy. Excellent results as always.

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  22. Brilliant scarecrow, wheat field, rats and crows!

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    1. Thank you so much, I seem to be building up quite a menagerie.

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  23. Hola
    Magnifico si señor
    un saludo

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  24. Excellent creation Michael. The crows are really good addition

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  25. Thats superbly creepy Michael even more so with all those nasty crows around him as well!

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    1. Thank you Simon, so glad I remembered them.

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  26. Smashing stuff Michael, the addition of the rats really add some character to the piece.

    Cheers Roger.

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  27. Nice work on all the pieces but a simply perfect arrangement on the picture with the field, the scarecrow and the crows. Splendid work, my friend!

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  28. Great looking stuff Michael! The rats on the base are a lovely addition :)

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  29. I have to admit that you have certainly skill in turning the mundane into the sublime - what a cracking piece.

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