Entmoot 25

At the beginning of the year, I talked about wanting to do more community projects because they're usually fun, and because I like having a community.

No calorie thought of the year. Fun is fun and friends is great.

In the past though, I start off doing something with a community and its a long term project, and after a while I spin out so hard that whatever I've come up with no longer resembles the prompt that it began as. This has gotten better since the days of Wasteman and the OGFB painting challenge, but a thing I've noticed is that with better structure and expectations, its easier for me to follow through and stay on track when doing projects that are not just mine.

Wow, another feather in the cap for Captain Obvious. 

Anyhow, a lovely, short and sweet project has been #Entmoot25, cobbled together by Kyle, Michael, and Dellon, who all seem like really nice freaks.

Entmoot25 is basically "make a guy out of sticks," so I went and got some sticks (see picture of sticks at top of post,) and decided to have a chill time making/sculpting a little stick guy. Since I don't have an LOTR/MESBG setup, I decided to make my Ent more of an Oldhammer Treeman to match with my various gnomes/Old World projects. Here are some concept sketches I did parallel to my stick-finding mission.

Once I'd sorted my vibe out (older bodies with pizza troll proportions and leafy/mossy bits,) I dug out my Giant for my Alpine Gnomes so that I could make my Treeman to scale with other figs that stood on 50mm square basses. The armature came together pretty quick between the sticks and some overeager apoxiesculpt application. I'd never included bits of wood in my homesculpted miniatures before, so it was a bit funky trying to situate the sticks/chips in the epoxy and on the wireframe, which in retrospect could have been resolved with pinning and patience. Good to know for next time!

 

Gus the Treeman doesn't quite fit with my current forest terrain, but that's ok; I'd hate to give my opponent a Dryad Arbor dilemna.

 

 

Instead I wound up with this chonkster. I tried to keep Trish Morrison's Treemen in mind while sculpting (as well as those from Black Tree Design, who's attributions I could not find,) but as the hours passed, Gus emerged as something truly singular. He's a grumpy old man who got snapped in half at some point, and now takes umbrage with anyone who tresspasses in his neck of the woods. Also, I gave him kneepads, because he probably has arthritis given all the creaking he does when he walks about.

 

 

Here himb, but green, and towering over the Chaos Gnomes of this year's OWAC.

While I'm not sure what the green kneepads are in lore (or the moustache, or the shoulder armor,) I think the paint job really pulls him all together. Now he's set to trounce any and all comers who disrespect his forest. My favorite parts right now are his eggplant nose and maybe more importantly his one buggy eye, which I think qualifies him as a capital "C" character among the likes of Commissar Yarrick and Old One Eye.

 

Here's Gus lined up beside two of my other Oldhammer Giants, to compare scales. I think he's spot on, since even though he's technically the tallest, Gus' face is lower than the rest of them, which sort of balances the piece. In retrospect, I wish I'd treated his upper trunk like a really high forehead, or maybe a hat, but this is probably the most respectable option I could have chosen.

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with how my ent for Entmoot 25 came out, and even though I could still do with a lot of sculpting practice (that I aim to get over this coming year,) what I came out of it with is a model I can be proud of, and hopefully enjoy on tabletop someday. Big thanks to Kyle, Michael, and Dellon again, and good luck to the other participants! If Instagram still exists while you're reading this, the hashtag is #entmoot25 and popping it in the search bar should amass plenty of awesome treefolk for your viewing pleasure.

Thank you so much for reading, and have a good February!