Danse Macabre

Verlinden 120mm Hun

by Brian Hirsch

I had my eye on this kit for quite some time, and with my love for knights or - I should say - men at arms it was just a matter of time before I had to have it.

The kit itself held a dark fascination for me as well: something along the lines of justice being done. I could only hope that the solder is pointing towards the killers of the two on the ground. As far as construction goes I attacked it the same as all the rest of my work. It was all pretty straight forward.

Danse Macabre

by Bob Caruso

Danse Macabre is a medieval symbolic representation of death. A medieval dance or procession in which a skeleton representing death leads other skeletons or living persons to the grave -- called also dance of death. In more recent times, it is a dance supposedly performed by skeletons in the graveyard. It was generally thought to have been influenced by the 14th century epidemics of bubonic plague in Europe.

In the Middle-Ages, the dance of death was thought of as a warning for powerful men, a comfort to the poor, and ultimately an invitation to lead a responsible and Christian life. But its basic idea is even more simpler, more timeless: to recall the shortness of life. It makes men remember that they all will die, without exception. It is also not astonishing that every century since the Middle-Ages has had its own dances of death.

Princess of the Horse Clan

By Mike Wohl

The Princess of the Horse Clan is meant to be a fictional Eastern European, in the general vicinity of Hungary. Hungary had a lot of open plains during the time period I had in mind, making it perfect horse-riding country. That's why she's holding a horse whip.

The idea for the Princess' cape was based on the jackets that the Hussars wore. Their jackets were made of wolf skins that came from that part of the world. To make the cape, I used a combination of tools to form the depressions, as well as blending layered strips of clay. As I was sculpting the skin over the shoulder, I thought of it in terms of a diagonal shape. The swirling hair idea flowed from that.

I didn't use a traditional armature for the lower half of her body. Her dress is solid clay, instead of having legs covered by a sheet of clay. The groundwork and all of the rocks are Sculpey. The fern-like material is made from dried flowers from a craft store.

Nite by Mike Wohl

Sometimes when I start a sculpting project, I don't know what the final piece is going to turn out to be.

This figure began looking like Catwoman. Since I'd already scuplted a Catwoman, I decided to take it in a slightly different direction.

It turned into an original character whom I called "Nite." The figure was created using Super Sculpy modeling clay over a wire armature.

The Great Unclean One by Bob Caruso

This is a figure that Games Workshop made in their Fantasy Range. They called it the Great Unclean One (also known as the Greater Demon of Nurgle). It was painted overall a Dead Flesh color. Dried Blood-Red was used where the Great one's flesh has been ripped opened. The baby demons crawling out from Nurgle's stomach were painted green.

Cobra Warrior

By Bob Caruso

I don't remember who made this resin figure. He's probably a wargame figure: a mean and nasty cobra warrior of some sort. I painted him entirely Andrea acrylics, then lightly drybrushed it with a metallic acrylic for the snakeskin sheen. This was followed with an over-spray of Krylon semi-matte for durability.

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Photos by Phil Novak and Jeff Junker