Fungal-Infected Dryads & Puff-Pack Shroombeasts

The fungal-infected dryads & puff-pack of shroombeasts are complete! (For now?)

Test Shrooms, Farmer Maggot, Tolkien Musings

I spent part of my New Year holiday back at the workbench. Continuing on with the homebrew Shroomfolk faction for various games (but still eyeing Five Leagues from the Borderlands first) I did some test figures for a couple of enemy types.

Fungal infected dryads. Plastic GW dryads with some shrooms sculpted on. 

 

These were inspired by hikes in the woods.

Next were some scratch built puff ball shroom-beasts made from putty and bits of florist wire.

Once again, inspired by my hikes.

And lastly, unrelated to the Shroomfolk, I painted Farmer Maggot and his wife.

NOT inspired by my hikes in the woods, but rather because I found a bag of super cheap rubber maggots at the craft store after Halloween and wanted to see if paint would adhere. And it did.

Although I joke about Tolkien, that wasn't really an inspiration to paint the Maggots/maggots. However, it brings me to a point I've thought about while out wandering the woods & mountains the last year or two. I've more frequently been acknowledging that I feel an inspiration to create when hiking, and have related this to my understanding of how much Tolkien was inspired by his walks in nature as well. The difference, of course, is that he created a universe, his legendarium. I paint toys. ;) But I will admit to having urges to get back into sketching & watercolors, and delve more deeply into world building.

Maybe I should follow those urges. But for now I'm still struggling to find enough time to get out among the trees and hills and rivers and mountains, or sit down and sculpt or paint critters like the ones above. In fact, the only reason I've done much this year has been a couple of recent holidays. I'm not one to make New Year resolutions, but I'm hoping 2026 is a better year and gives me a little more time to indulge in creative projects as well as more time outdoors.

Shroombeasts

I'll need some shroombeasts if I ever get this Five Leagues campaign started. This is my quick & cheap solution for now. I may try sculpting something else in the future.

Slime

DIY slime made from hot glue.

Not exactly fungi, but they are initially for the fungal/Shroomfolk faction.

The Funks of Shroomsbury

OMFG I painted! 🤯
OMFG Blogger got an update! 🤯

It's been a complicated year and there's a lot of change. As the wind & snow moved in to our part of the world, I decided to take a day OFF from most other responsibilities and just slack for a while. I painted for the first time since the couple of convention figures in July. Prior to that, I had painted a figure in March, and my OWAC entries in January & February. So it's been a slow hobby year.

I've been going over my ideas for another solo fantasy campaign, flip-flopping from wanting to try Five Leagues from the Borderlands and going back to Sellswords and Spellslingers. In the process, I've also been thinking about setting & theme and decided to lean into the fungal faction I've been dabbling with for the past few years. I've had the Midlam Miniatures Mushroom Folk on my table for a while, and they were a perfect fit for one of my proxy ideas for 5 Leagues campaign. So here we are...

The Funks of Shroomsbury!

Most are from Midlam Miniatures, except for the hunched over figure on the far right (3d print picked up at the anime convention in July), the little gob-shroom near the center (Gin Fritter/Armorcast), and the infected human (Satyr Art Studio wizard's apprentice with converted shroom sprout.)

Yes, I'm a fan of the Cadfael mysteries and couldn't resist the awful pun. ;)

New Year 2025

Happy New Year!

A couple of quick updates.

First off, my goal for a vampiric Deadcember was a pretty big flop. But I did get this lovely couple and their pet bat painted.

Second, I've decided to get back to organizing pages of painted miniatures. I started this years ago. The links are at the top, with figures organized into categories. But a lot of the photos are old and piecemeal. The Dragon page was done recently, and the Half-Orc page is mostly newer photos. And the Five Parsecs faction page has been my big project for the past year and a half. But I'd like to work on revising some of the others with better photos & organization, and creating pages for some of the unrepresented factions (wood elves, trolls, etc.) 

I started today with a small one: the Shroomfolk!

And Just Like That... Three Months Go By!

 

Apparently it has been three months since my last update. There has been a bit going on lately. For one, I had some down time due to a thumb injury...

I have also done a bit of travelling (survived a tornado near Chicago, an earthquake near LA, and less dramatic visits to Palm Desert/Joshua Tree NP, and Miami) for work. On the topic of work, I have also made a significant career change and taken a new job. To be honest... I've also been a bit uninspired lately. I think my head has just been elsewhere with everything else going on. Really, I'm not terribly good at keeping up with this blog lately either.

But there has still been painting going on, though no real gaming.

I wasn't very successful with my "Five Months From Painted Factions" but I did make some more progress. I built and painted some mutants!

I also painted Ambassador Khan Cern. He has no patience for your shenanigans.

Following up on my previous Five Bananas entry, I purchased my crew. Just tonight I started putting a bit of paint on them. More to come on that soon. "Soon." Like maybe in a few months again?

For now, I have also returned to painting the mercenaries that I had started working on before my thumb injury.

On the fantasy side....

Satyr Art Studio zombies...

...and some old Ral Partha zombies.

The middle figure is my D&D character, if the family D&D campaign ever gets started. Nettie Coldwater, middle-aged empty nester forest gnome turned druid. This is the second time I have painted this figure from Reaper Miniatures. The one on the left is the "stock" figure, and Nettie was converted a bit to more accurately reflect my character. The dog on the right was painted previously but I was thinking that it would be interesting if she brought her dog along with her.

Random daemon. Daemonette. Had the figure, figured I would paint it for my mixed-daemon horde. 

D&D figure, Grick. 

Dwarf With No Name.

Giant flies/stirges.

Painted a couple of tiny bunny toys, inspired by the Black Rabbit of Inle.

Fungus infected ant swarm.

I was fortunate to live within the path of the recent total eclipse in the US. I could not get a good pic during the total eclipse, and really didn't want to spend that brief time messing around with my phone trying to take pics instead of fully enjoying the experience. But here's the closest thing -- I got a couple of decent pics of the approach to totality.

New Shroomfolk

A little while ago I picked up these three 3d shroom prints. Found some time to paint them recently, pretty happy with them -- prints and painting.

I occasionally think about getting a 3d printer, but I hear it is "a hobby in itself." Plus there are plenty of traditional cast or plastic/resin minis to keep me occupied. But some of that 3d printed terrain that's available.... mmmm.

Ogres and Fungus and Ooze

Some odds & ends I've painted recently.

A couple of ogres...

One more shruman...

Experimenting with homemade oozes based on other people's blogs...

And some more Shroomfolk. The two on the left are supposed to be "snow golems" but I thought they would make good puffball style mushroom creatures. 

...and one more with a bit more color.

Rats & Fungus

Skaven - Old World Army Challenge VI

As teased previously, I am participating in the Old World Army Challenge again this year. I can let the rat out of the bag now and fess up to painting the verminous Skaven this time around.

You can find my January entry pics and texts at the OWAC site. Group photo below, more at the link.

https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2023/01/zerotwentythrees-january-skaven-130-pts.html

Shrumans

I recently learned there is a new-ish series based on a similar premise as my latest miniatures sidequest. I will have to check it out if I find some time. But with as little free time as I get, I'd rather paint, or game, or get outside if weather permits.

At any rate, I've been developing a backstory within my Althammer setting as I've been building and painting the little critters. I've also got some ideas for some other fungal-themed figures I'd like to try sculpting. What I would really love is to play some games with other human beings and make use of all this worldbuilding and modeling and painting.

At any rate, the Shroomfolk thing is getting out of hand, which isn't a bad thing. Below are seven more shruman figures. I have one more on the painting desk. After that, I need new host miniatures to infect. The old Citadel zombies (and some militia bits) have been working really well. I'll need to find some more and/or some alternate figures.

And one group shot of all of them together!

More 'Shrumans & Shroomfolk

 

Two more 'shrumans painted. I definitely like how these have turned out and will be making some more. I only have a few more zombies worth of bits from the old kit left. Will need to find some other bodies/parts to use after that.

And here's a group shot of all of the Shroomfolk so far.

Ach! It's Them! The 'Shrumans!

 First two 'Shruman test figures.

I'll write more later, but the basic idea is to apply the real world zombie ant fungus to humans (or former humans....) in a more whimsical way in a fantasy setting.

A Little Bit in the New Year

Failed on my End of Year/New Year entry. I'll get back to that and do it right. I've been busy & stressed out.

For now, here's a few things I've worked on latelyish.

Chaos familiar. I didn't fully appreciate how well the face was sculpted until I painted it. The whole range of familiars is really great. I've got an incomplete (half-ish?) set. Maybe I should collect the rest...

Santa brought Owlbro a family. :D

I just couldn't leave the figure alone. Too much color on the scythe. This time I'm really done. No more touch-ups...

Random new development.... 'shrumans. These are the first four.

The 'shrumans will compliment Fried's Shroomhost. I also painted the two big bruisers in the front last week. Would like to get a couple more, as well as some more variety of 'shroomfolk.

Sneaky OWAC teaser.