TURM 2024 – How to thematize a warband – Fishfolk Warband
One of the biggest advantages of this hobby for me is creativity. Narratively and visually, we are given the opportunity to express ourselves and play with the ideas we want to realize.
For the upcoming Agram event TURM 2024, I decided to make my own warband and I was looking for a way to make it my own. The simplest way is to convert or, if you have the time and skills, to sculpt your own miniatures in order to better translate your idea into physical form.
The choice of theme itself had little to do with the miniatures I already own, but I was looking for a theme that I had not had the opportunity to realize so far, and which would match the theme and the atmosphere of the event. I wanted something that I could play with narratively and breathe life into the characters with a story, write their backstory and give them a motivation that would make them go into conflict with monsters or other adventurers in the first place.
One of the subjects that has always been interesting to me is the horror fiction of the writer H. P. Lovecraft. From his rich portfolio of monsters, the underwater horrors of Shadow over Innsmouth seemed perfect for an event like this – created by forces outside our world or reason, but still creatures of flesh and blood.
One of the things that significantly helped me realize the idea were the heads that Ana gave me. Fish-shaped faces perfectly match the aesthetics of vintage horror and how human-fish hybrids were portrayed in the middle of the last century.
As I was sure that I wanted to have a wizard in my group, I decided to use one head for the occasion. The body I chose for the wizard belongs to the Warhammer Fantasy Flagellants. Wizards in games typically don't wear significant amounts of armor, and the exposed torso does a great job of showcasing that unarmored approach.
Wizards in the game Forbidden Psalm, which we will play on Turm, are very perceptive. Surely such a character would contribute to his group in reconnaissance, noticing dangers or opportunities first, and reporting to his superiors. I imagine such a perceptive character would be in charge of a lookout, maybe a navigator, but a head with a face that looks like it's surprised or like it's shouting was just perfect for this character.
I didn't significantly modify the torso itself for this kitbash, I liked the fittings around the neck, but I had to deepen the recess for the head, and on the head I shortened the joint a bit to make the parts stick together easier and to remove the unnecessary gap between the torso and the head.
I have equipped the wizard with a sword in one hand, and to further emphasize his reporting, the wizard points to what he is talking about with the other hand.
When I was satisfied with the miniature, I repainted it black so that I could double check that all the connections were good and that I could consider the conversion complete.
Encouraged by the wizard's success, I decided to strengthen the crew with a real warrior! I used the Dark Elf Corsaire's body as a base, and for the head I wanted a face showing her teeth. Since the body is quite static, I wanted to choose hands and equipment that can tell my story. This warrior is armored in heavy armor, and I wanted to incorporate some other elements from Lovecraft's mythos. I had some ancient zombie miniatures with human faces crucified on the discs – this reminded me a lot of the Necronomicon displays. The hand holding the shield has a spiked shell, which reminded me of a crab's shell. I was left with a choice of weapons, and for such a brave warrior, who surely carries the spoils of his adventures to his temple for sacrifice, the Dark Eldar Wrack's hook seemed like a great choice - if we can handle big fish like tuna, swordfish or sharks with big hooks, why the same tool would not be effective against humans?
I wasn't sure how much time I would have to convert, so I wanted to fill the rows with something simple and effective. I converted the two nighthaunt models by replacing the skulls with octopus heads from Stargrave, and replacing the weapons (two-handed sword and scythe) with spears (one was a skeleton warrior spear, the other was a Dark Elf spear). Harpoons were popular weapons for hunting whales and large marine animals, so it made sense for me to have spears in this group as well.
The model I wanted to play with converting a bit more was this crossbow. The basis is the body of a lotr goblin, on which the head of the GW Horror is attached. Assembling the head was challenging, and I had to first cut and scrape the goblin head, so that the demonic face could fit into place. In order not to leave visible scraped plastic and part of the torso, I modeled the inside of the mouth and tongue from greenstuff. The arm and hand with the crossbow are separate parts, and there was a significant gap between the arm and the shoulder. I didn't want to close the gaps with greenstuff and then model the missing anatomy - I believe that great results could be achieved, but I wanted to introduce more underwater elements. I made thin ropes from greenstuff and wrapped them around both crossings - when I paint I will try to use them to show the coiled sea grass and kelp that this hunter brought with him. Every spearfisherman knows that the easiest way to hunt with a speargun (or in this case, a crossbow) is from an ambush - with a check.
These five models are the basis of my warband, and I hope that by the time of the event I will be able to assemble and paint a few more auxiliary and spare models!
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Science behind Acrylic Paints
- Binders (eng. resin) – form a film – in our case probably pure acrylates, I suspect they are styrene acrylates.
- Fillers – in addition to adding volume to the paint, they also affect the viscosity, coverage and appearance of the dry film
- Pigments – the main division is into organic pigments and inorganic pigments. Inorganic ones are more covering but have less vivid shades, while organic ones are often quite poorly covering (yellow for example) but their shades are vivid and bright
Additives:
- Anti-foam
- Rheological modifiers – affect the behavior of wet paint on the substrate (e.g. spillage) and the behavior of the paint when a force is applied to it (brush, roller, spray, airbrush). Rheological modifiers also include thickeners that affect the viscosity of the paint.
- Dispersants – envelop pigment and filler particles and prevent their agglomeration during standing. Good dispersion of pigment and filler affects the coverage and uniform appearance of the dry film. There are a bunch more but I won't go into too much detail
- Solvent – in this case water.
Contrast paints and speed paints – high pigment content, but not so much that it causes high coverage. They are formulated to spread, not to stay where you put them. The result of spreading is that the paint collects in the recesses, where a thicker film of paint remains than on the protruding parts of the miniature. Where the film of paint is thicker (the recesses), the shade of the contrast paint is more pronounced, unlike on the protruding parts where the film is thinner, which is why the shade is then influenced by the color of the substrate.
Composition:
- Binders
- Pigments
- Additives – all listed above + surfactants that reduce the surface tension of the wet paint film, which is why it flows
- solvent
- I would say they do not contain fillers, or contain very, very little of them
Washes – similar in formulation and behavior to contrast agents, only they have a much lower proportion of pigments, certainly no fillers, a higher proportion of surfactants, lower viscosity, and probably less binders.
If we want to greatly dilute acrylic paint or contrast, it is better to use a product intended for this purpose from the manufacturer of that paint rather than water, because it contains all the necessary amount of binders and additives for that paint to retain its properties.
" ["content_hrv"]=> string(4306) "
U ovom članku, naša Dunja nam otkriva znanost iza akrilnih boja.
Akrilne boje – visoki udio pigmenta i dobra pokrivnost. Ako su dobro formulirane ostaju tamo gdje ih naneseš, ne ostavljaju „brush marks“ i suše se dovoljno sporo da stigneš napravit što želiš na minijaturi a opet dovoljno brzo.
Sastav:
- Veziva (eng. resin) – formiraju film – u našem slučaju vjerojatno čisti akrilati, sumnjam da su stiren akrilati.
- Punila – osim što dodaju volumen boji utječu i na viskoznost, pokrivnost i izgled suhog filma
- Pigmenti – glavna podjela je na organske pigmente i anorganske pigmente. Anorganski su više pokrivni ali manje živih nijansi, dok su organski često dosta loše pokrivni (žuti npr) ali zato su im nijanse žive i jarke
Aditivi:
- Protiv pjene
- Reološki modifikatori – utječu na ponašanje mokre boje na podlozi (npr razlijevanje) i na ponašanje boje dok na nju djeluje sila (kist, valjak, sprej, airbrush). Pod reološke modifikatore spadaju i ugušćivači koji utječu na viskozitet boje.
- Dispergatori – obavijaju čestice pigmenata i punila i sprječavaju aglomeraciju istih stajanjem. Dobra dispergiranost pigmenta i punila utječe na pokrivnost i ujednačen izgled suhog filma.
- Ima ih još hrpa ali neću toliko u detalje
- Otapalo – u ovom slučaju voda.
Kontrastice i speed paints – visoki udio pigmenta, ali ne toliki da uzrokuje visoku pokrivnost. Formulirane su da se razlijevaju, a ne da ostaju tamo gdje ih staviš. Posljedica razlijevanja je skupljanje boje u udubine gdje onda ostane deblji film boje nego na isturenim dijelovima minijature. Tamo gdje je film boje deblji (udubine) nijansa kontrastice izraženija, za razliku od isturenih dijelova na kojima je film tanji zbog čega na nijansu onda utječe boja podloge.
Sastav:
- Veziva
- Pigmenti
- Aditivi – svi nabrojani gore +
- surfakanti koji smanjuju površinsku napetost mokrog filma boje zbog čega i dolazi do razlijevanja
- otapalo
- rekla bih da ne sadrže punila, ili ih sadrže vrlo vrlo malo
Washevi – po principu formuliranja i ponašanju slični kontrasticama, samo imaju puno manji udio pigmenata, sigurno ne sadrže punila, veći udio surfakanata, manji viskozitet i vjerojatno manje veziva.
Ako želimo jako razrijediti akrilnu boju ili kontrasticu bolje je koristiti za to predviđen proizvod od proizvođača te boje nego vodu, jer sadrži svu potrebnu količinu veziva i aditiva kako bi ta boja zadržala svoja svojstva.
" ["created"]=> string(19) "2025-11-20 13:03:37" ["modified"]=> string(19) "2025-11-20 13:03:37" } ["Member"]=> array(10) { ["id"]=> string(2) "64" ["group_id"]=> string(1) "1" ["first_name"]=> string(9) "Krunoslav" ["last_name"]=> string(8) "Belinić" ["first_name_mask"]=> string(9) "krunoslav" ["last_name_mask"]=> string(7) "belinic" ["username"]=> string(5) "Kruno" ["password"]=> string(40) "eb3fda45fbec0258e90d809803b10491c548b22f" ["born"]=> string(19) "2015-01-18 09:19:00" ["created"]=> string(19) "2015-01-18 09:20:39" } } Krunoslav Belinić, 20th November 2025 - We attended: ModelMania 2025 Marko Paunović, 5th November 2025
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