Here is a log of what was just going to be a model for a D&D game and is turning into a mounted army of halflings. I have used many of the moot armies as inspiration, so I thought i would post up my progress here.
Tyromancer: One who divinates by cheese. Be it by coagulation, the holes or mold that develops, how rodents choose to eat bits, or other methods of reading cheese to find out the future. My friend (also my current 3.5 DM) brought this up as an interesting word he came across while going down a wiki rabbit hole. I instantly had the of a halfling cleric or paladin that would use cheese to cast augury or divination. He would ride a goat into battle as it can keep up with the medium sized pcs and can go into the dungeon without having the same kind of terrain issues a pony would have and has a spine that can keep carrying a creature unlike a dog. Plus there is the added bonus of goats producing cheese.
So I started working up the character as a back up. I used to play High Elves and Wood Elves back in High School and have dabbled with modelling for the last 12-15 years. In the last few years I started collecting bits to make figurines to make characters and soldiers for my Fallout PNP game. Using these I thought about starting an IG army. This army was loosely based on the idea of the Akali (Sikh soldiers of the 17-1800's) and I started gathering Empire bits to gain unique looking torsos and arms with swords. I got bored of this and moved to making characters in our D&D game. In the midst of that, I also picked up what's been referred to as the 'dark arts', that is casting resin. So with that in mind, I started to make the figurine for the halfling cleric/paladin on a goat.
Basic Body and leg structures. I used a beastman head as I had it in my bits box.
Halfling Body and more greenstuff on the goat:
Head w/ helmet:
I decided I didn't want to use the head from the beastman as it looked to human. So, I ventured to make my own:
I realized that I really liked the model and decided to make a mold of the goat and cleric.
I am missing some progression pics, but this is the mostly formed cleric and partially barded goat. By this point I was trying for a cataphract, maybe Byzantine or Parthian in influence. Eventually the Scythians and other steppe peoples would be my influence on style and back story, but I'll get to that later.
Fully barded goat:
Completed figure:
I painted up the full model in the fashion of the Wayward Wardens of Yondalla in D&D.
At this point, I began entertaining thoughts of a whole unit of them. So i began cutting up the original greens to be able to cast in multiple poses.
My plan is to make a whole army of halflings based on the hordes of the steppes. In D&D, halflings are semi-nomadic and I wanted to run with the idea of a group of them that follows a massive herd of goats, like the Mongol or Suomi peoples and their respective herd animals. The model featured is my heavy cavalry and there will also be dismounted versions. The problem is that I don't know if I will take it on the field as a WHFB army as some have like bas_2312, Steve D, or der Hurenwiebel (my apologies to others who are as well that I didn't list). I had thought of something akin to the Kislev armies or maybe Bretonians (due to high cavalry model counts). I've always liked the Empire though and always kind of coveted my friends who fielded their guns and canons vs my White Lions and repeater bolt throwers.
Any ideas on that front would help.
Up next: Expanding the forces.
