Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Old timers might recognize the name Les Edwards from his contributions to a lot of GW's iconic imagery (sadly, my copy of Blood and Iron is long gone :( ). He had a couple of pieces that were flat out creepy and unsettling, which I think is the best you can really hope for in miniature and painting. To be SCARY, I believe, implies some kind of movement or change over time. A corpse is creepy and unsettling, a corpse falling out of your cupboard is scary. In other words, scary lies in a transition. You start out OK, then scary happens, and now you're not OK. Unsettling or disturbing is scary at rest, or the promise of something scary happening soon.

I couldn't find Edwards' picture of the doctor putting on the examination glove with a grind that's a LITTLE too wide, but I did come across some of the other ones I remembered:





As far as Chaos goes, I have to say that Khorne's LOOK HOW EVIL I AM! SKULLZZZ! approach is just boring. I always loved Tzeench and Slaanesh much more because of the theme of twisting and perverting things. Slapping spikes on skulls on something is far less scary to me than something like turning into a Kafka-esque skittering cockroach thing, just keeping enough of your old self alive to regret your decisions in life.

I'd always stayed away from Chaos because I didn't want to sully my list with what I considered the "lesser" evils (Khorne, and to a lesser extent, Nurgle) for the sake of competitiveness. But after seeing some of the excellent "counts as" demon armies out there, I'm thinking of taking up sculpting and casting to create my own Tzeench-themed army. And for inspiration as to what would be creepy and surreal in that regard, you only have to do a google search for Hieronymous Bosch. Just the details of the Garden of Earthly Delights alone will inspire a dozen miniatures.

Strelka wrote:To be SCARY, I believe, implies some kind of movement or change over time. A corpse is creepy and unsettling, a corpse falling out of your cupboard is scary. In other words, scary lies in a transition. You start out OK, then scary happens, and now you're not OK. Unsettling or disturbing is scary at rest, or the promise of something scary happening soon.

This is a really good point too.

I was afraid that my last post on Khorne may have killed the thread. Sorry.

So let's look at Nurgle then.

Nurgle chiefly gets its mileage from the gross-out factor. Which makes sense, because how are you going to represent Tuberculosis at 30mm? But being gross isn't the same thing as being scary (unless the gross thing wants to give you a hug), so I feel like even though drippy and green is an established part of Nurgle imagery, it's not enough to actually make Nurgle scary.

What's scary about Nurgle followers?

1. They're pretty hard to stop.
2. The "Papa Nurgle" aspect- ordinary people might voluntarily sign on with the green and drippy crew.

Number one isn't really psychological horror, but it would be good to see more often in minis. We've got all sorts of Nurgle daemons and plague marines holding their own entrails as they leak out of their abdomens, but that's just gross, not scary. These guys are supposed to be tough! Like Jason Vorhees tough! Why do we so rarely see Nurgle troops with obvious injuries that they are oblivious to? A fat, bloated Nurgle champion at the head of an army doesn't inspire fear. A fat, bloated Nurgle champion with someone's throwing axe lodged in his shoulder in a way that suggests it's an actual wound but the champion doesn't seem to mind, that would be scary.

Number 2 is more psychological. Nurgle has a unique aspect among the chaos deities because he is by far the most repugnant, and yet the least magically coercive. Khorne fills people with bloodlust, Slaanesh uses intoxicating pheromones, and T'zeentch uses super-human plotting and planning and manipulations of fate and destiny to ensnare their victims. Nurgle just uses basic human psychology. He gives people diseases, and then in their most desperate state, gives them a choice to serve him. There is nothing magical about the conversion that follows. His victims are simply so desperate that they voluntarily adopt the ways of the plaguefather. That I find pretty scary.

So how do you convey that in miniatures? I always thought that a subtler version of the Plague Cart was a good way to go. I actually think the Carnival of Chaos minis themselves take things too far. A guy shows up with a funny mask and an intestine snaking out of his gut, that's not a believable sort of corrupter. But the cart itself has about the right level of barely concealed malice. If it weren't for both the driver and the horses being obviously plagued, I'd say it just about strikes a perfect balance.

I'd like to see something like that done for 40K. Probably it would work best as scenery. Something subtle, like if every wall section had a mouldy poster on it with a crudely-drawn fly icon. If the scenery had a couple of emaciated corpses lying around, but they all had gaunt smiles on their faces (no idea where one would get the bits for that). That would suggest that there is a greater story going on than just tanks that grew tentacles and snot-squirting guns for some reason.

Papaskittels wrote:

FredTheEvilKitteh wrote:

Papaskittels wrote:listen to the songs
Prothstetics, and scissors
by slipknot... creepeyest things i have ever heard

You sir, have impressed me with your musical taste.

Is that sarcasm XD

Actually no, Metal is kinda my thing.

The Ghoma wrote:It's not about looks that are scary, it's the atmosphere. Locations or things that make you think " need to get away from this thing" or "this thing is going to kill me" that are truly scary IMO (silent hill does an amazing job of doing this)

I agree. The only times i get scared in games (other than from shock horror) is when i am so utterly freaked out by a place that i am rushing as fast i can to get away from it.

For me this normally happens underwater.