The Garden of Kama

Who? Hmmm, not sure if that applies in this case..."me", I guess, or Andrew May, as he has done the sculpting so far; and others, who haven't yet done any for it, but shall...

What? A sort of Fantasy India and South-East Asia with elements of Hindu and Buddhist Mythology; Thai, Burmese, Cambodian folklore; and Tibetan Sacred Art. Plus some inspiration from the Hari Siri komix.

When? It's set in a mythical "Time of Heroes" when gods and men walked together and fought demons and each other. Before the events in the Ramayana or the Mahabharata, or perhaps around the same time. Who knows? Time sorta tends to flow together in Myths anyway!

Where? Good question! On the back a turtle swimming in the World Ocean, or was it the back of an elephant? Or tucked in next to Venhya, maybe? Who knows - go through that pass in the mountains to the north and you might end up on the Hyrkanian plains, or on the shores of an inland sea...

I think the Hari Ragat setting is just off the map to the east.

Why? Because, Cletus, I'm bored! Ok, not really. What really happened is that I have liked the frontispiece to an old book of pseudo-Indian love poems called "The Garden of Kama" since I first saw it - that's it pictured above. And over the holidays the local rag published a Tibetan folklore story which was illustrated by these and I thought - hmm, "wouldn't those be cool!"

And then Andrew got me hooked on Tibetan sacred art and it sort of went from there!

The Mara Completed!

Sculpted by Andrew May

Here are the completed figures. Don't they look great?! They are multi-part figures with separate heads and hands, so Andrew has used blu-tack to hold them together.

Next up: their sisters, the Daughters of Mara!

(Can't wait!) :-)

The Inhabitants of Sporewood

Sporewood is a great mushroom forest. The name comes from the famous one located in Dagori Inkarth, or Shadows Dance, in the Rockwood Mountains of Glorantha. For my purposes, however, it can exist elsewhere as well - fungus caverns are also a popular choice.

Sporewood is the home of the Voralon, the "dark elves" of Glorantha. Mushroom men, you could call them.

Hasslefree Miniatures call them Agarix. They can be found here: A, and here: B.

Khurasan Miniatures call them Fungoids. I don't have any of the latter yet, having only just stumbled on them, but at 12-25mm height I think they will fit in well.

I think Agarix/Voralan should be quite varied in appearance, expecially given there are so many varieties of mushrooms out there!

This just in...

Andrew posted in the comments:

"You may find [Ral Partha Europe]
01046-mushroom-men
10019-fungi
of use but I am not sure if these would go [Reaper]:
03041
02679
I do like these though no idea of size! [Magnetic Displays]
RP29"

Thanks! These are great - I do think the Reaper would go as variety is important for Agarix.

The More Mara the Merrier!

Andrew sent me some new pics of the WIP Mara today. Note that there are six bodies, six different heads, six weapon hands and six clawed hands. I think that means there can be 6 x 6 x 6 x 6 = 1296 unique Mara possible. :-)

Mara - close up

A Mara, sculpted by Andrew May

Here is a detail pic of one of the Mara Andrew is sculpting for me as part of the Garden of Kama range. The hands are separate as there will be options for clawed hands or weapons.

An Extra Resolution: Heroes, Season 3!

Finish watching the damn thing!

I left off with Hiro in a spot of bother and the story really taking a turn for the worse. Gotta finish it so I can lend it to my friends Bruce and Ellen (hopefully in return for them lending me Big Bang Theory Season 1) - theoretically this should be a fairly easy resolution to keep...

Oops...missed a day!

Damn, my resolutions are slipping already! *sigh*

So much the one-post-per-day goal...

edit: Double Damn - just noticed that I already missed a day - Wednesday (and didn't even notice)

Mara

Mara is the demonic Lord of Evil. The Mara are his demonic minions; the Daughters of Mara are cruel temptresses who delight in pain and suffering.

The Army of Sinistra - initial uniform colours...

Ah...the planning stages - often my favourite part. Of course, the execution holds much more rewards but often seems elusive. So it goes...

Anyway, undaunted, here are my initial thoughts on the Army of Sinistria, which nation being a little known principality in Western Germany.

The infantry consist of the Guard; the "Old Line" - that is, the regiments with long established histories; and the "New Line", regiments newly raised or of less "noble" lineage. And then there are regiments of "Light" infantry. All regiments have flank companies of grenadiers and lights. The whole organization is rather "French" - go figure: I'm using French figures to represent them! :-)

The "Old Line" will be in black with green small clothes and trousers, reversed for the drummers. Light troops all in green. Units of the "New Line" are in green jackets with white small clothes. The Guard are all black.

Edit: on consideration, I think that most of the "Old Line" will be black with green, but one unit will be green with black. The "New Line" will be some in all white and some in green with white - so basically "Army of Italy" - just to keep the more historically minded happy! ;-)

Haven't decided on turnbacks and cuffs yet.

Artillery are probably all black, or green with black.

Cavalry I haven't thought about. Probably all colours for the Hussars, green for the Dragoons and Black for the Cuirassiers.

Garden of Kama Research: Foundry Books

Today I took a look through my collection of the excellent Foundry Books by Ian Heath. I have the whole "Armies of the 19th Century Series" and was looking in particular at the volumes for the North-Eastern Frontier of India, and also Burma and Indo-China. Both these volumes have information about some fairly exotic tribes and armies that are a little off the beaten path.

I'd already decided to base some of the armies on the traditional Indian Order of Battle: Elephants, Chariots, Cavalry and then Infantry. Reading about the Burmese and Shan armies has given me more ideas about how the armies will be organized...

Haven't decided about firearms though. Part of me wants them, but the other part not so much. Maybe just matchlocks...?

Great Underwater Diorama...

Constructed and Painted by Rafa Coll
Just came across this really cool underwater diorama done by Rafa Coll. More pics can be found here.