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.
