Tanzenwolfe’s Craft & Kitbash Adventures

Table and benches upgrade to kick off, medieval castle inspired:



This foamboard and oak veneer-made set is from my castle project a few months ago.  I was not quite satisfied with the bench shape or finish, so added struts etc to the base and a stretcher bar to look more similar to the table finish.  It’s now much more stable for seating figures too.

Then leather strips glued on the table and topping the benches, which better hides the gaps on the veneer edges.  The ‘nails’ are tiny rivets which were glued into holes made with an awl.  Finished off with little leather ‘shields’, and a tiny metal animal head.  Much happier with it now , and here it is getting a road test:



And some making-of/different angles pictures:

And my second head painting attempt… I got a little braver and removed all the eye makeup and eyebrows with acetone first, before repainting several times til I was satisfied enough.

Eyes and mouth were painted with model acrylics (Vallejo, Army Painter) and then I used watercolour pencils for the eyebrows, eyelashes and scar efforts. I really like the detail you can get with the fine pencil, however it’s a nervous varnish finale, as I use a brush. I learned (the hard way) to get a medium coverage of varnish quickly on in one swipe, or else it will activate the watercolour and dissolve it! I’m not overly keen on the varnish (Army Painter Anti-Shine Matte) as it looks more satin and shiny to me than I’d hoped.

It’s not the best angle, but here is a before and after of the head. I should know who she is (Marvel?) but can’t place her. I did not dislike the original head, but she didn’t fit my emerging olde-worldly themes.

Before painting:



After painting:

For castle shelves I used some Tim Holtz Idea-Ology little shadow boxes, cardboard cut to “shove it in and hold” width, covered in Holtz faded wallpaper pieces glued on.  Works pretty well and a nice easy make for 1/6 sizing.



For context, you can see some of the two shelves in the background here, dressed up with bits and pieces of treasures of course.

Yay another kitbash thread! I'm loving it. Customizations are great and I always find it so inspiring what others are doing.

I like your repainted face, gives her more character. I especially like how you did the eyebrows. Those are often hard to get realistic and not look painted on. The new hairstyle is also very nice!
Also a fan of her armor, the shoulder spikes are fantasy cool.


And of course quiet impressive work on the tables!

Wow! Fantastic stuff all around! Love the table and benches set, and that head is gorgeous! I was going to ask which one it is and then was very happy to see the explanation in the following post.  

Well done!

I love this diorama! It definitely gives off the medieval/fantasy officer's table aesthetic.

Make Geralt a whetstone and it looks like he's relaxing while sharpening his sword for the next battle.

So much to take in. Beautiful additions and upgrades to your castle dioramas, and great character work. The head repaint is definitely a success.

The castle diorama looks awesome.

That’s pretty cool. Excellent work, and thanks for showing your process.

Amazing work, both on the background furniture and your repaint. I really like the Witcher scene you've created for the characters to sit in, very authentic. Looking forward to seeing more of your work .

Thank you all for your enthusiasm and comments! I’m glad to know others find interest in these side ventures and will be happy to add bits and pieces as I get to projects. I may have to track down a mini whetstone, would quite fancy making a forge set-up, but that’s a whole other creation idea to add to the mental queue…

They look really awesome and that tavern is looking great.

dude the amount of work you put into your diorama just puts me to shame!
that table and bench set is just gorgeous..well done!
Any plans to expand the diorama for the wider photos ?

Theboo-bomb wrote:They look really awesome and that tavern is looking great.

Thank you! Needs some food and drink, which is coming

Allotropos wrote:dude the amount of work you put into your diorama just puts me to shame!
that table and bench set is just gorgeous..well done!
Any plans to expand the diorama for the wider photos ?

I will try and get some wider angled shots at some stage, including the outside too - it’s just the one room with two walls currently but who knows, it may expand one day!

I felt my recent head re-paint shown earlier here needed a hair-do upgrade and to fulfill her viking destiny. So plaits sewn into her hair, made a tunic and trousers from shot silk. Very easy to sew and I like how this shows different copper/blue colours in shade and light.

Made some leather armour (I’ve added a tutorial in that section about the wet forming process I used). Necklace is some seed beads on string. Quite happy with how she is shaping up! Need some shoes…..

Oh, how could I miss that? Fantastic interior design and character. The ornaments on homemade leather armor are really wonderful. The small clan seems to have an affinity for wolves. Thank you for showing me !

Beautiful female warrior and impressive character design.
As for shoes, maybe she eschewed them to sneak up on someone

She looks great!! The outfit is naturally fitting her much more than the original. Also big fan of the braids.

Nice work all around and hope to see more outdoor pics with her

Very nice!

Oh, that costume looks superb, particularly the leather armor... and that shield!

I agree with everything that has been said about this beautiful, cool, no-nonsense character. Nice to see a female warrior that is not a conventional tactical tease. The leather armor looks great. As for footwear, that I find one of the hardest things to make from scratch. You could get some cheap feet that work (or you make work) on the footpegs and simply cover them with appropriately painted material (from cloth to some sort of tape), or wound them tightly with narrow leather string. But maybe she took off her shoes for climbing the tree?