The Egg of Coot

I will have to admit that when I originally bought the Witch Coven of Garlghast & the Egregore set by Privateer Press (34035), it was really because of the witches... but since they weren't 1/72 scale, the set languished in my giant pile of unstarted miniatures for years.

Selene and Helleana

Recently, I decided to paint up the Egregore after seeing some nifty examples of basing for the model ^[1],[2]. While planning my build, I found out that Warmachine players nicknamed the Egregore, "the Egg". I did not make the connection immediately, but it dawned on me that "the Egg" would be a great representation for the Egg of Coot from Blackmoor ^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}.

This all consuming personality lives off the egos of others to support his own ego. At one time (millennia ago) of humanoid characteristics, today, his exact physical description is unknown. In fact it is not even known for sure if he (it) has a physical appearance. Theories say that he is now a huge mass of jointly operating cells, a huge mass of Jelly, a giant thickly hided egg, pure energy, a man, a mass of living rock, etc. It is generally acknowledged that the physique of this creature is too horrible for any mortal to behold and that it carries out its activities through the use of surrogates which it controls or has programmed. All communications with this beast are through direct mental contact or via his throne-room which is dominated by a huge old world artifact said to be an ancient war machine, through which it communicates directly via voice transmission from some other area of its City-Palace.

– The First Fantasy Campaign

For my own take on the Egg, I stretched and formed clear plastic rods over a flame to represent the ichor that is supposed to pour from the Egregore. The plastic was attached to a washer with clear epoxy, and then painted with Tamiya Smoke (X-19).

The painted Egregore was then epoxied to the plastic rods extending from the base, while some plastic representing dripping ichor was affixed to the side of the model.

I think that I might add a bit of patina to the bronze parts, but I'm still not completely decided on it. The base also needs some final touches, but I'm otherwise pretty much finished with this model.

Knights, Death, and Barbed Devils

Knight, Death, and the Devil
Albrecht Dürer - 1513

Originally titled Reuter (The Rider), Albrecht Dürer's engraving eventually became known as Ritter, Tod und Teufel (Knight, Death, and the Devil). There has been a lot of context assigned to the engraving by various people with different agendas, but nobody except Dürer can say for certain the intended meaning of the piece.

It really just goes to show that a work can develop an identity of its own, and in many ways make the intentions of the creator irrelevant.

Anyway, onto the actual subject of this post, which is primarily about miniatures of knights and barbed devils.

I finished painting these two figures not too long ago. The left figure is a Ral Partha Paladin (Personalities and Things that go Bump in the Night 01-112) which was also available in the Fantasy Champions box set (Best of Ral Partha 10-306). The right figure is the Ral Partha Briar Rose Knight (Personalities and Things that go Bump in the Night 01-107) which was also available in the Adventure Fellowship box set as a Chevalier (Best of Ral Partha 10-305).

The paladin is painted in the colors and heraldry of the Grand Duchy of Ellay, while the Briar Rose Knight is painted as a knight from the Kingdom of Troy.

The next set of figures include a Minifigs Plated Armored Fighter w/ Sword & Shield (Fantasy Folk FF-016), and a Citadel Female Fighter in Plate Armour (Fantasy Tribe Fighters FTF32).

I believe that the next pair of knights are also from Minifigs, but I do not know which lines they come from.

Representing Death is the Grenadier Charon, Boatman of the Styx (Fantasy Lords 175).

One of these days, I'm going to make a figure similar to this of Death in a straw boater hat poling a Venetian gondola.

First up for the barbed devils are three plastic figures; a DDM Barbed Devil (Angelfire #35), a Pathfinder Sentinel Devil (Skulls & Shackles 015), and a Horrorclix Terror Demon (Base Set #078).

The first two miniatures are modeled after 3.5 edition barbed devils, and have spines on their backs. The clix figure has the look of a more traditional devil, but it has some spikes on various parts of its body and a barbed tail.

In metal, we have a Heritage Barbed Devil (Dungeon Dwellers 1288). A different Heritage Barbed Devil was also in the Demons & Devils boxed set (Dungeon Dwellers 3520). My figure was actually from the GFI Creature Pack II (Dungeon Dwellers MIF25921808).

The figure on the left is mostly covered in scales, though there are spikes on its back. It is also probably larger that I would like a barbed devil to be. The second figure has good height, and the back is completely covered with barbed spikes. Unfortunately this figure seems to be pretty difficult to come by nowadays.

There were also other lesser devil sculpts that could be found in the blister set, but the one that came in my blister was more of an imp.

Last up are the ex-Center Stage Miniatures Barbed Devils now available from Pacesetter Games & Simulations (Demons & Devils BAD1).

These guys have the appearance of the Trampier barbed devils that we know and love, but they are really too big for use with 1/72 scale figures. They also have a distinct lack of barbs on their backs. Otherworld also makes some barbed devils in this style, but they are too tall as well.

The next pictures are of conversions I did on one of the Minifigs knights and the Pathfinder Sentinel Devil.

Before and After

Before and After

Maybe you had an inkling of where I was going with this post, but here are the two converted figures posed in the start of a tableau based on the iconic DCSIII illustration from the AD&D Players Handbook.

Stalin's Sledgehammer

Another subject that has not been produced by plastic model companies in 1/72 scale is the 203 mm howitzer M1931 (B-4). A resin version of the howitzer was produced at one time by AER, but the kit looks like it would be a bear to prepare and assemble.

Once again though, Altaya comes to the rescue with a model of this sadly neglected subject.

The barrel can elevate to to about 45°, but the limber is glued in place so it cannot be displayed in firing mode.

The same model is also sold by War Master, except with a different color scheme and some weathering.

Since both howitzers are in travel mode, I've pre-ordered a couple of Trumpeter Komintern Artillery Tractors to tow them (maybe Trumpeter will make a 1/72 version of the howizter as well).

The following images are some interesting photos of the howitzer that I found on the web.