Wee Free Men

What’s that? This project isn’t nerdy enough? Let me fix that for you.

While working on an idea for something to add to the Granny Aching hut base, I decided to add in a packet of a Jolly Sailor tobacco. After Granny died, shepherds were known to leave packs of her favourite tobacco at the old hut site to keep the sheep safe. The feegles continued to keep the sheep (or ships) safe and so they took the tobacco.

Looking around the internet, there were two examples of Jolly Sailor branding but the photos are terrible so just printing them out very small wasn’t going to cut it. Thankfully one of the reference materials I found was a better quality image from Discworld Emporium from one of their older stamps.

I’m not very good at graphic design stuff but I know enough to muddle through so one evening, cribbing ideas from other people’s work, I managed to come up with something I was happy with. I could have spent longer on it, tweaking to my heart’s content but I have to keep in mind that this is not the point of the army, it is an Easter egg. My to do list is long enough!

Printing out a bunch of them very small, I added them to the Granny’s Hut base. I also got round to doing something I’ve hidden from you until now. The Feegle mound has a cut out section at the back to show a little bit of the inside of the mound. In the book, there is a scene where the Kelda’s room is filled with gold so my go to gold glitter came out of hiding. I mixed some with pva to make a thick paste (the less messy option – Smaug’s hoard taught me last year!) and added in some packets of Jolly Sailor while the glue was still wet.

There is this other thing I did with the file…

And yes, I’ve ordered new dice specifically to go with the army’s custom dice tin.

This is not the last you’ve seen of Jolly Sailor in this project.

As I said, this is largely just other people’s homework but here is the full image

My new dice arrived from Chessex. Having small child hands, I tend to use smaller dice (12mm) especially for Kings of War when you roll loads at once.

The new additions are Speckled Air (CHX 25900).

The white ones are for marking wounds, just the bog standard GW ones you get in every box game.

My bank and I sincerely hope this is the last stupid thing I buy for the army.

“Flappity-flappity flap! Cheep, cheep! Ach, poor wee me, cheepity-cheep!” Tiffany ran over to the window. There was a Feegle on the path. It had made itself some crude wings out of a piece of rag, and a kind of beaky cap out of straw, and was wobbling around in a circle like a wounded bird.“Ach, cheepity-cheep! Fluttery-flutter! I certainly hope dere’s no a pussycat aroound! Ach, dearie me!” It yelled. And down the path Ratbag, arch-enemy of all baby birds, slunk closer, dribbling. As Tiffany opened her mouth to yell, he leaped and landed with all four feet on the little man. Or at least where the little man had been, because he had somersaulted in mid-air and was now right in front of Ratbag’s face and had grabbed a cat ear with each hand.“Ach, see you, pussycat, scunner that y’are!… Here’s a giftie from the t’ wee birdies, yah schemie!” He butted the cat hard on the nose. (pg82-83)

The middle base for the back of the army display, this regiment is where the two other hills meet. This led to some creative positioning to get a decently full base.

Now to its special element; the Bird Feegle. Originally I was going to sculpt everything on it from green stuff but one of the other models I’m using on another gang had some extra bits they weren’t needing anymore so this little feegle got some feathers and a bird mask. I needed a little bit of green stuff to make the back look right but over all, there wasn’t a lot of work involved in this one. It’s not remotely how the bird feegles are described in the book but the bits were too good to pass up.

Ratbag crept along a branch. He wasn’t a cat who was good at changing the ways he thought. But he was good at finding nests. He’d heard the cheeping from the other end of the garden and even from the bottom of the tree he’d been able to see three little yellow beaks in the nest. Now he advances, dribbling. Nearly there… Three Nac Mac Feegles pulled off their straw beaks and grinned happily at him. “Hello Mister Pussycat,” said of them. “Ye dinnae learn, do ye? CHEEP!” (pg104)

I actually wrote this post and made model last summer so the photos are long gone by now. 

Horace the Cheese first appears in The Wintersmith. He is a Lancre Blue, a blue cheese known for developing character and personality. Tiffany in addition to being a witch, is something of a cheese expert and so when she tried her hand making a lancre blue she ended up with Horace, a cheese with an attitude.

Fond of eating mice that made the mistake of setting foot in the dairy, once Horace met the feegles, his destiny was fulfilled. Good pals with Daft Wully, Horace can now be found running around with the tartan of the clan wrapped around him.

Funnily enough, there aren’t any miniatures of sentient blue cheeses on the market so I have to make my own. There is this  great piece of artwork of Horace from Paul Kidby.

Here’s how I did my Horace (without arms cos I just think it looks more sinister):

• Starting with tin foil, I made a cheese shape. Compacted as much as possible to make a stable core for the next step
• Using what I had around the house, I opted for Super Sculpy for most of the work on Horace.  I have quite a lot of it; a lockdown purchase that never saw any use until now. This is a very soft polymer clay that is lovely to work with. Once you’re happy with it you can bake it and then add more to it if you like. Horace got two bakes; one once his body was done and one once his kilt and legs were done
• Texture was done with rolled up tin foil, a little piece of hessian for the kilt fabric, and the rest of the sculpting with some basic tools I’ve had for years but never really done anything with.
• The legs have some wire inside them and weren’t fun to do.I don’t like them but this is his second set and I’m trying to just let things go so these are the legs he has.
• Feet are hard and after two attempts I went looking through my collection for the best feet to use. GW Rockgut Trolls have great feet but because GW are just soooooo inconsiderate, there aren’t spares in the kit. Never mind, that’s what blue stuff was invented for. Milliput was used for the final feet. Easily drilled so they could be attached to the wire with some excess left to pin to the base.
• Daft Wully riding on top of Horace isn’t mentioned but felt like a reasonable thing to do. I tried bending the legs but at the size of the models, it didn’t work so I chopped them off and did a very rough Milliput version. A little more Milliput to help blend the join and Horace is ready for the next step
• [this is where Horace languished from last summer until the Spring Clean Challenge started] Coming back to the model, the legs needed some reinforcement so, when I was doing some work elsewhere in the army with a green stuff/Milliput mix, I came in and put an extra layer on Horace. This was especially necessary around the ankles

This is the first time I’ve made a model from scratch and I’m pretty happy with it. He looks like a cheese with legs. Perfect? Far from it but I have a model which didn’t exist otherwise. And more importantly the feegles have a cheese friend to fight alongside them.

“Well, I’m not supposed to know about what my father calls the Special Sheep Liniment” said Tiffany. “Granny Aching used to make it in the old cowshed.” “Strong stuff, is it?” “It dissolves spoons… It’s for special occasions. Father says it’s not for women because it puts hairs on your chest.” “Then if you want to be sure of finding the Nac Mac Feegles, go and fetch some… it will work, believe me.” (pg. 88)

Regiment number four includes a bottle of Special Sheep Liniment. In the context of the army rules, this will be the base with the Brew of Haste.

The bottle itself is made from green stuff.

The size of the bottle in relation to Feegles comes from the “Terry Pratchett: HisWorld” book where there is a beautiful piece of Paul Kidby artwork called simply The Chalk. In the foreground you can see a couple of feegles running with a bottle.

Painting was a bit slapdash but I have a deadline of getting everything finished before the 5th of June rather than the 20th for the Spring Clean Challenge. Getting everything to “done enough” is the goal, I can always come back and work on it more internet the future.

Next morning, she’d proudly presented it [a china shepherdess statue] to Granny Aching. The old woman had taken it very carefully in her wrinkled hands and stared at it for some time. Tiffany was sure, now, that it had been a cruel thing to do. Granny Aching had probably never heard of shepherdesses. People who cared for sheep on the Chalk were all called shepherds, and that was all there was to it. And this beautiful creature was as much unlike Granny Aching as anything could be. The china shepherdess had an old-fashioned long dress, with the bulgy bits at the side that made it look as though she had saddlebags in her knickers. There were blue ribbons all over the dress, and all over the rather showy straw bonnet, and on the shepherd’s crook, which was a lot more curly than any crook Tiffany had ever seen… She remembered that the old lady would smile oddly, sometimes, when she looked at the statue. If only she’d said something. But Granny liked silence. (pg. 130-132)

The Shepherdess was always going to be an important addition to the army. Mechanically speaking, she represents the base with the Blessing of the Gods but more importantly, she is on the original cover of the book.

The search for the right model had a few wrong turns (with some excellent but not quite right models making it into the stash) before I was on the Discworld site for something else and, as I’m prone to do, was looking at the miniatures. That’s when I saw my shepherdess. Granny at the Opera

Look at her! Perfect! I didn’t need the feathers on the back of her head, the fan in her right hand or the bird mask on a stick in her left hand. Careful clipping and they were salvaged for the Bird Feegle seen on a previous base. A little green stuff/milliput work to give her a full head of hair (a bonnet felt a bit much when she has the beads/pearls over her hair already). Then a bit of brass rod shaped like a crook, the hand was drilled and we’re ready for priming.

For painting, I used the book cover for reference; Skeleton Horde contrast thinned 1:3 with Matt medium and careful not to let it pool anywhere. Then Prussian blue for the details and finished with a gloss varnish for that nice fine china look. Mounted amongst her feegles, I think she looks the part.

With that, the five Luggit regiments are done. Time to get on with the rest of the army.

“Crivens! Where are we noo?” Said Daft Wullie. “Aye, and why’re we all lookin’ like yellow mushrooms?” Rob Anybody added.  Tiffany looked down, and giggled. Every pictsie was wearing a Jolly Sailor outfit, with an oilskin coat and a huge yellow oilskin rain hat that covered most of their faces. They started to wander about, bumping into one another. (pg. 255)

The army list has an option for a named horde called Grogger’s Lugg Lads. They have slightly better stats but they perfectly fit the idea of more feegles but a little different from the rest.

This was a base I procrastinated on quite a lot. I have limited experience in the sculpting side of our hobby and this is where I really start to move into the parts of the project that intimidate me.

First thing was to find some reference images. Google provided a good few but between starting this research and actually starting the sculpting, I’ve picked up the Illustrated Wee Free Men. I didn’t know this book existed until I found a solitary copy in the library catalogue when I was working on a display for the Glorious 25th. As soon as I flicked through it I knew I was going to have to get a copy for my own bookcase. It’s been out of print for twenty odd years at this point so rather than the wee £15 price it cost new, the cheapest one I could find was £40. So I’m not done spending money on silly things for this army. 

It arrived in near mint condition and finding the chapter called The Lighthouse, I was greeted by this wonderful image

When I ordered the feegles, sorry, dwarf warriors from Magister there were in fact three other sculpts. They all had helmets on them, visible chain mail or other bits that didn’t work for my army. I cleaned them up and put them in a box for when I got to this part. 

• Green stuff was the weapon of choice, a couple of sculpting tools, some Vaseline for lubricant and several long podcasts to deal with the tedium. I had tested how many fit on the horde base and then separated them into their three different sculpts. I thought I would switch between them to keep things fresh but I actually found it better to just work through each type completely before moving on to the next. 
• Everyone got a hat that mostly covered their eyes and had a wee rim so it didn’t look entirely like a blob of green stuff shoved on.
• Bulking out the bodies to make it look like a formless Sou’wester wasn’t too difficult and each got a little line down the front and some button holes just to make them look less flat. A case of not being accurate but being the kind of thing your brain expects to see so hopefully won’t be too bothered by.
• Annoyingly two of the sculpts had bare arms which were a pain to cover but it made them look much better to do it
• After curing overnight, everyone got a wash to get rid of the Vaseline residue, glued to tongue depressors and then primed the same as the other have been to date; black from a spray can and then a heavy dry brush of white
• I painted the skin, weapons and any hair first before going round and touching up with white
• Yellow Contrast paint was applied liberally. I don’t love the finished result from this stage but the idea of going through and layering multiple thin coats of a traditional yellow acrylic convinces me they look fine!
• Then basing like the other footprints and here we have it, a horde of Jolly Sailors

Overall, I’m happy with how they turned out. Much as with Horace, they won’t every win awards for sculpting but they look enough like what they are meant to. With these done, the last of the multibased units is done, now we’re on to monsters and heroes.

As I’ve been posting this project a little out of order this might not make a whole lot of sense right now but I need some filler bases. Not base fillers, bases that will fill. 

The army footprint is designed to fit on a single shelf of my glass cabinet and as I have been going along, I’ve been storing it there. As it has grown the two spaces that I knew were going to be there have been annoying me more and more. Thankfully I have a lot of spare feegles painted up and so fixing the problem was very little work.

1. Laying everything out on my desk, I drew the missing footprints on some paper and transferred them onto some scrap insulation foam. This was cut to a thickness to match what will be around them.
2. A quick coat of the paint tinted filler protected the foam so I could
3. Glue some spare feegles onto each one
4. Apply the AK Interactive texture paste
5. Cover in Tajima1 tufts – unlike all the real bases though, they didn’t get tufts all down the front. They won’t ever be on the table so this step would just have been a waste of tufts.