It's in the Cards

While most of what I post involves tabletop games, I also enjoy playing a variety of board and card games. One of these is Fantasy Flight's Arkham Horror LCG. Something I like about the game is its high-quality card art- I make a point of checking out all the art as I play, although I never anticipated that I would recognize one of the locations...

Since I was a child, my family has vacationed in the North Georgia mountains, mostly around Helen GA, and Unicoi State Park. This continues a tradition that has been ongoing since my mother was a child. When we go, we always make sure to visit the Old Sautee Store, an old country store in the small town of Sautee. The store is known for its troll statue, which currently resides on the store's counter. Somewhere I even have a picture of myself, at the tender age of nine months, with the troll.

About six months ago, I was playing the Blood on the Altar mythos pack, and noticed, on the Osborn's General Store card, a very familiar troll! I was intrigued, and decided to find out more about the artist, one Mark Molnar. He is a self-described illustrator and concept artist based out of Budapest, and does excellent work in both fields. I emailed him to find out if the troll was an intentional reference, and received a prompt response-

"Yes, it was absolutely intentional.
I used the Old Sautee store as my main reference for that illustration, as I felt it resembles perfectly, what a place like this should look like - or looked like in the '20s. (...) When I got the assignment for this card, I started to do a research, this is what I do before starting any illustration. During my research I just stumbled into one photo about the store on Pinterest I think and I instantly felt that this is what I am looking for. After that I specifically searched more references about this actual store and used them as an inspiration / general direction to paint the picture for the card."

I'll actually do something similar with my miniatures- a lot of my inspiration comes from other sources. For example, my sig figure-

-is inspired by Tom Baker's outfit as the Fourth Doctor Who!

Later, a couple of weeks before Christmas, I had the opportunity to take the card to the Old Sautee Store itself. I showed it to the owner and his son. They were very interested in the card, and were able, at a glance, to identify other features of the store in the many details of the illustrations. Oddly enough, the son's daughter had just written a school report on Lovecraft's poetry. I sent the above picture to Mark Molnar, who replied-

"Oh wow, that's great to hear and awesome image with the troll!
Please let them know I am an absolute fan of their shop and I find the atmosphere they created really inspiring and unique."

It's been fascinating getting to see just how much goes into a single card- and I have hundreds! I wonder how many more stories like this there are, waiting to be told...

What news from the north, Riders of Rohan?

Despite my masses of infantry, I have never painted a single cavalry miniature! I recently decided to fix the gaping hole in my forces, and what better way to do this than with one of the Horse Lords of Rohan.

I opted to paint the horse somewhat like a Welsh pony- largely because of the imagery of the Rohirrim, and the example of Shadowfax in the book. Despite its apparent simplicity, the horse was a very difficult paint-job. It took quite a while to bring out the depth and smoothness of the muscles, especially in a difficult to paint color like white.

The rider, on the other hand, was straightforward. I wanted a simpler, less ornamented look than is seen in the movies, with plenty of earthy tones. On future miniatures I may replace the shields, as the raised detail is a bit high for my taste. I did not glue down the rider, as I wanted him to be able to dismount from his horse.

I have heard that GW is revitalizing their LotR line, from which this model comes, with a new set of rules, including a campaign system that sounds similar to Frostgrave. This is very interesting news, and I look forward to seeing what they do with it.

Greatest and Chieftest of all Calamities

There's been something missing for a while in my miniature collection, something no self-respecting fantasy nut can do without- that greatest of all legendary beasts, the dragon!

Perhaps my first proper introduction to this king of the bestiaries was, of course, in The Hobbit. I had the advantage to first read it in a Michael Hague illustrated edition, and the image of his Smaug, sitting atop a mountain of treasure, inspired this dragon's color scheme. The miniature is a Reaper Bones model by Julie Guthrie, called Narthrax.

I may do something a little more interesting with the plain base, but, for now, he's perched atop some lonely mountain peak, making a snack of any burglars who pass by.

He's a big beast, almost too big for this photo set-up! This is definitely the largest, most involved miniature I've ever painted, and not just due to the size. Each scale had to be individually painted in four different reds, followed by an over all dry-brushing of metallic gold- and that's not even counting the wings or horns.

Unlike his inspiration, he lacks a diamond-studded waistcoat- or any gaps in his armor- on a shelf full of meddlesome heroes, survivability trumps style.

The mountain smoked beneath the moon,

The Dwarves they heard the tramp of doom...