"And for My Next Trick..."- The Prestigious Cabinet

Once a tool use by vampires to capture

their prey and drain them of vital essences,

the newly named 'Prestigious Cabinet'

has been refinished in the finest wood and

granted the appearance of a grand coffin.

The dark magician uses the Prestigious Cabinet

to capture unwitting 'volunteers' and steal 

them away in the midst of his performances.

CMoN

It's all Hocus Pocus today on The Art of Caesura!

We're going to leave Silver Tower and The Underhive for a little while and dive into a few weeks covering a Kickstarter that I backed last year: The World of Smog: Rise of Moloch. 

Now you guys have heard me wax lyrical about The World of Smog many many times in the past, so all I'll say is that it is that it is as if the setting was designed with my specific interests in mind! It's a Horror-steampunky alternated history in Victorian London. Isn't it great when you find a game / film / book / band that completely speaks to your interests!? 

Now, onwards to today's model!

This is not my image

I was drawn to paint this Rise of Moloch (RoM) mini first because it is just so different from anything that I've painted before. More of a diorama than an individual miniature really. 

I have always been interested in magic (Harry Houdini was an idol growing up) so having a miniature of this prestigious cabinet trick is pretty cool. I really like the lore behind it too: rather than just being a haunted magician's prop, it was originally used by vampires to drain their victims. 

There are two elements that I would have loved to have seen transferred from the art to the model. The first is the goblet that the blood is dripping into - this would have strengthened the historical vampiric narrative. Secondly, the hair hanging down would have given the model a bit more dynamism. Finally (something that wasn't in the art either) it might have been creepy to have her screaming - to ramp up the horror. The actual model has a very passive face, I tried to add a bit of surprise / anguish in the eyebrows, but only had limited success.

Anyway, the curtain adds so much to this miniature. Can you imagine it without the curtain - as just a chest on the base - it would have been much less eye-catching. In painting the curtain, I use purple inks (Druchii Violet) over the red and the gold to give them both a regal (or at least "faded glory") look. 

I wanted to paint the chest a lightish wood (so that it would in fact look prestigious and not old and dirty) so I used Seraphim Sepia rather than Agrax Earthshade for this and Liberator Gold (rather than Hashut Copper) for the inlays. I ran into a little problem with my colour scheme though, once I shaded the wood, I realized that it was still a bit light and didn't contrast the lady's skin very well. I probably could have done it a darker mahogany. 

I painted her hair black for a bit of contrast and to add some symmetry with her black shoes. 

As you can see, I haven't decided how I am going to paint my bases for the many minis in RoM. I have seen some people paint really nice wood panelling or flag stones on the bases, but I'm more a fan of actual 3D texture over implied texture. For the full-body figures of the Gentlemen of The World of Smog: On Her Majesty's Service, I made cobblestones out of Greenstuff. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, and while that was manageable for 6 figures it might be a bit much for this whole set; so might consider something like that again...maybe with something like this, perchance?

So one adventure ends, and a new one begins here on The Art of Caesura!


Reading: Gotrek and Felix: Slayer - David Guymer
Eating: Sensational Food at Ballymaloe House!


Next Week:

A Canopic creature...