The Great Taurus

This probably isn't one of my best paint jobs, but I'm really pleased with it anyway. I'm pleased with it basically because it involved me stepping waaaay out of my comfort zone.

I nearly chickened out and painted him red, ala the 90s paint job. But I didn't want to do that: I envision the Great Taurus as a near-molten mass of burning embers. It isn't an animal in any true sense, more like a daemon of the harsh landscape. I imagine that when it moves, it does so with a fizz and hiss and crackle, furnace heat blasting out of its joints. 

The thing is, this effect called upon me to do everything in completely the opposite way I normally would. The recesses would be brightest, and inconsistencies were actually desirable. This was going to be a ... hair raising experience. 

So I sprayed him black, then... uh... Averland Sunset yellow. I looked at what I'd done with a dull, distant sense of hysteria. If this went wrong, it was going to go very wrong. With a sort of crazed reckless determination, I grabbed a drybrush and heavily drybrushed the whole model Fire Dragon Bright. It looked unutterably horrible. Before I could cower out, I grabbed the Mephiston Red and hammered the model with a heavily drybrushed layer of it. It looked like a film of a John Blanche nightmare directed by Gary Morley. But I was committed now.

I did a sort of rough wetbrush layer with Eshin Grey over the top. Mercifully, it was starting to look like something. I then applied two layers of Nuln Oil over the grey areas to give it the uneven impression of ash and coals.

I picked out his horns, nose ring, hooves and eyes in brass colours, and applied small amounts of Carroburg Crimson, Fuegan Orange and Ardcoat to soften rougher edges and give a bit of a glow. 

It's worth noting that this is a very beautiful model to work with, which is puzzling for a model that was sculpted 25 years ago. It remains an imposing, ferocious and distinct monster which I'm pleased to have been able to get hold of. 

Game of Thrones is over and I'm... pretty happy, actually

Game of Thrones was a pretty good TV show. It wasn't ever as great as people tried to make out: even the early seasons had uneven and sloppy moments. Hardly surprising, considering that Gerge R R Martin's books were uneven and had sloppy moments (apart from A Dance with Dragons, which was pretty much all bad all the time with repetitive diction and incoherent plotting, and Dany actually being out of character). Now it's over, and I really do mean that. George R R Martin will never, ever finish his books. I'd put significant money on that. I would be fairly surprised if he ever finishes the mythical sixth book. Let's not forget he's managed to write other books and screenplays while not writing The Winds of Winter. I doubt he has any idea how to end it or much inclination to do so. In all probability, until he dies and another author is recruited to finish it, the end of the show is the end.

And I think they did a pretty good job in the end. The last season was uneven, but then they all were. The Long Night was a terrible episode, granted. Daenerys was never particularly fit to be a civilian ruler. She's an absolutist: in season one she told her new followers that people who defied her would die screaming (and then set a witch on fire as if to prove the point). In season two she told the rulers of Qarth that she would take what was hers is blood and fire. Season three she mass-murdered the masters, season four she crucified hundreds over Barristan's objections. Even then, as Barristan the Bold looked a bit unnerved, Dany was starting to look a bit dodge. She always picked on people we didn't like, but how long would it be before her perception of who the bad guys were shifted to encompass a population? So it was absolutely right to have her do what she did. The internet is sobbing about a sudden personality change, but there's been no such thing: we've seen her from the point of view of the people being Dracarysed. She applied the same absolutist mentality to her war with Cersei.

This, of course, leads us to the real problem. The show had potentially written itself into a corner with the early dismissal of the Night King, the climate-change embodying scariest of old white men. There was suddenly a villain void which only the half-guessed at Dany heel turn could fill. Which meant that they'd backed themselves into a corner where their two antagonists were women and only a dour white man could save the world. We live in an age of resurgent misogyny, with the screaming hellbaby in the White House and attempts to confiscate women's rights popping up all over. It was a little cringy that a manly man was going to be the answer.

Quick aside: this didn't mean that the women in question didn't do a great job. Emilia Clarke's scenery chewing has been beautiful in the last two episodes, and Lena Headey was the MVP of episode 5. I'm not a massive fan of 'rocks fell and people died', but actually, Headey pulled off Cersei's fall perfectly. Her arrogance and superiority are chipped away systemically until she's a broken, cowering husk. There's a great moment as she crosses the maproom where some rubble falls beside her and the look of total terror she pulls off is stunning. After all she had done and been, Cersei Lannister died cowering, helpless and afraid, unnoticed by the younger and more beautiful one who had come to take her place and who was ultimately responsible for her death. She died begging to live, knowing that she wouldn't, knowing that House Lannister would die with her. She who controlled and judged so many lives couldn't, in the end, control her own fate. The prophecy about her little brother killing her came true twice over: Tyrion's plan to let her flee and Jaime's attempt to execute it led her to that dead end. It was a wretched, squalid end for a thoroughly unpleasant individual.

Back on topic. Entering the last episode, I did worry. Dany pretty much had to go, but Jon Snow's ascension made me uneasy. Partially because of the tacit endorsement of misogyny it could imply, partly because inherited wealth and position have given us some of the worst people imaginable. Jon being the 'true heir' made me feel a bit off.

They pulled it off pretty well. Dany makes pretty much the same speeches she always has, motivated by the same goals she always has, but now we're seeing it from the other side. Jon accepts the reality of what he has to do and does the deed. Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke have never had amazing on-screen chemistry, and it felt a little by-th-numbers, but it was the right result. Drogon's symbolic destruction of the Iron Throne and flying off into the mist never to be seen again was pretty spot on.

Then we get on to a bit of kinging. I liked this sequence a lot. The High Lords of Westeros just not being sure what to do. I liked that they laughed Samwell down... and then ironically moved in the direction he was proposing. An electoral monarchy is a step towards a Republic, which in itself is the forerunner of representative democracy. They weren't breaking the wheel, but maybe they were reinventing it to be less of a bastard. The choice of Bran did take me by surprise, but I liked it. Logical, distant, not who you'd expect and averting the wince-worthy stereotypical handsome-man action hero. Bran will be a good king because he's seen all this rubbish before. The closing sequence with Tyrion and the Small Council gave me a chuckle. It was a nice way to see off a group of beloved characters, an odd assortment of misfits and rascals. And that the Seven that we got to see Brienne again, majestic and powerful after that ghastly scene with Jaime at Winterfell.

And then the actual end. I'll tell you what I loved about this: everything. It was all Starks (counting Jon here, he's informed more by Ned Stark than by his blood) and that's as it should be. The Starks were the good guys we all routed for at some stage. They were torn to bits in seasons 2-4, and the narrative says that in the end, they had to emerge remade even stronger. Sansa becomes queen at last - not the way she expected to be all those years ago as a dreaming girl, but queen nonetheless. Arya does what Arya does - something nobody else would think of. I think she's the biggest winner of the entire show, honestly. She sails off into the blue yonder to adventures unknown. I hope we hear from her in the Land of Sequels, but if we don't, she was the hero we needed.

And then it's down to Jon, leaving the Wall behind with Giantsbane and Ghost. Let's be honest now, sending him to 'take the black' when the wall's broken and the Night King is slowly defrosting in a million shards was just a way to key Grey Worm happy. Sansa and the others knew he was off to the true North, the only place in the whole show where he seemed that happy. And in the closing shots, with a sprig of symbolic green showing, the show comes full circle, with men riding out beyond the wall.

It wasn't perfect. But you know what, it was fine. I felt happy at the end. I liked that seeing Ghost made Jon smile and laugh a bit. I liked that the Starks ended up ruling Westeros and that most people seem to have emerged largely alright. I'm very happy that Bronn and Davos made it out alive. In a show which seemed to want to spend years making us miserable because of faux-realism, I'm glad it went out on a fairly high note. None of the ridiculous internet conspiracies came true, and that's a relief. Stop for a moment and think about how utterly ridiculous it would have been to explain that the Night King was Bran or that there were suddenly a clutch of baby dragons or any of the other nonsense peddled online.

That was the end of an unevenly written show based on very undisciplined books. I for one am glad that I walked away with a smile, even if it's a slightly dumb one.

Thunder over Nuln

The hour has come. The Empire and its Lustrian allies have reached the city of Nuln. The Empire's first major test since the dark years.



Read the Siege of Nuln.

Gorgonok the Dread

So I've been quiet on the WFB front for a while, especially my Age of Rebuilding project. There's a good reason for this, which I'll discuss a bit below. But let's do the fun part first! 'Thunder over Nuln' should only be a couple of weeks away now, but for the meantime, this is the model and rules for a character that readers of Age of Rebuilding might recognise from some of the chapters: the nightmarish Doombull Gorgonok the Dread.

     Download the big man's rules.

I've had the idea of Gorgonok for years. Originally, he came about because with the endless fawning over Archaon, I really wanted to present a character for the Beastmen who could be seen as a monstrous, all-powerful threat. I wanted a guy who wasn't going to crawl to some Gods-pampered three-eyed idiot but would prove that the Beastmen could get it done. I used the GW Doombull model to represent him, but let's be honest... that model's so-so. I spent a long time thinking I was going to have to just deal with that, until Zealot Miniatures released their beautiful new minotaur models. This model is the 'Minotaur General'. Incredibly, he will cost you exactly the same as GW want for their Doombull.  And this model is incredible..

Look at the speed and power of this bloke. This isn't some giant clumsy cow. This is a guy who is going to be ploughing through the enemy's ranks before they've even got their halberds up. And that's what an armoured minotaur should look like. He looks like he's wearing a wrecked Steam Tank and it isn't even slowing him down. 

I originally envisioned Gorgonok as an albino, but the thing is that albinism is almost complete lack of pigment. I'm not a good enough painter for that, to be honest. So instead I decided that he would be very pale. The paint scheme is a base of Rakarth Flesh, a 50/50 Reikland Fleshshade/Lahmian Medium mix all over and then fairly strong drybrush layers of Pallid Witch Flesh and white. 

I think what surprised me most was how easy he was to paint. And he's one of those models that you really enjoy painting. 

Where have I been?

Today of all days is probably a good time to tell this story, because of the date. 6th May. On this day several years ago, I left a job for a company which I'd been at for a very long time. It was not my choice, nor was I dismissed. Indeed, I was a high performing staff member in a high performing team. That we were at the time one of the company's better assets was never denied. But nobody is safe from desperate management trying to demonstrate activity, and we were all made redundant. It's a strange experience: by the time an employer is willing to do that, you're probably fed up with them anyway. But that doesn't make it less offensive when they decide to get rid of you in spite of the fact that your department works well, makes money and is needed. In the most literal sense, ou jobs weren't redundant: the company simply thought that a short term saving could be achieved by shipping the jobs up north. As you can imagine, I was somewhat put out. 

After many years of working in the private sector, I have to acknowledge I was tired of it almost beyond belief. I was weary of the ineptness, the corruption, the constant need to stroke massive but fragile egos. Truthfully, I could not have entered another corporate role. I promised myself two things: I would travel a lot more, and I would find something actually worthwhile with my life. Once I realised this, I was able to get back in the game with relative speed and ease. I started working at the University a few months after departing the other company, and was bowled over. It wasn't perfect by any means, but the academic world is far, far kinder and more competent than the corporate. I maintain this after a long time working there. My only slight gripe was that I was a contractor, needing to pitch myself and gain a new contract each year. In December 2018, that changed when my boss offered me a permanent position. I was and still am ecstatic. In February 2019, I applied for a promotion (more to stop my colleagues yelling at me) and was surprised when I got it. And I realised with a sudden, jolting sense of amazement that I was happy. I was comparatively well off, I had a secure job which I thoroughly enjoyed, a decent nestegg of savings and I had managed to fulfil my promise to see at least two new countries every year. There are some I knew who, in the late-stage-capitalism sense of success, are vastly more successful than I. But I realised that after a rocky start to my career years ago, I had finally 'arrived' as it were. 

So why did this cause me to have trouble with Age of Rebuilding? The answer's simpler than you might be thinking. The truth is that... since my last update in March, I've just been enjoying myself. Just taking time. I didn't have writer's block. I didn't have a struggle with what I wanted to achieve. I will admit that I'd bitten off more than I could chew. I had this image of the narrative of the Empire/Lustrian alliance besieging Nuln, a separate Nuln army list and a seperate siege supplement. But honestly, I'm one bloke who writes for a living and only wants to write outside work... sometimes (this is also why you might find typos scattered through my work; I'm not damn well editorialising on my own time, and besides why should I do it if GW don't?). But mainly, the holdup has been caused by me just... kind of... living. I recently spent eight days wandering the national parks of Croatia, and as ever the new experience fired up my creativity again. Watch this space for 'Thunder over Nuln' very soon :)