Looking back I think this project has run close to the 12 month mark. There’s still the temptation to tweak the paintjob, especially the wings but I don’t want to risk going too OTT. Effectively this guy is ready to be varnished. The little glass health potion on his belt is just tacked on at the moment because varnish would probably ruin its appearance, so after varnishing I’ll attach it properly.

I’m very pleased with the finished model, the white armour looks great and I finally got to add a Tzeetchian tattoo to his upper arm as a finishing touch. I’ve considered adding other tattoos, maybe on one side of his face, but honestly don’t want to run the risk of screwing it up at this late stage.

So there we go, one model down, 180-ish Beastmen to go…

If the rest take as long as this one I should have a finished army ready for Warhammer Fantasy 53rd Edition.

So what’s next for the Beastman army?

Well for the moment I’m going to resist the temptation to work on the other characters and get some rank and file done. I happen to really like the Ungor and Gor plastics as they are and there’s really nothing that stands out that I feel needs changing. The Bestigor are nice models but I think I can tweak them a little to match their army book entry artwork a little better. I also dislike the notion of having all members of a unit in the same pose, it’s ok for elves but not so much for Beastmen. Of course this will lead to issues getting the models to rank up so that will require a fair amount of extra effort.

I also bought an Empire Griffon model on a whim the other day. It is without a doubt my favourite “big kit” that GW has released. Perhaps I’ll save it for a Warriors of Chaos allied contigent, or maybe even use it as a Jabberslythe proxy but that doesn’t really feel appropriate. I do feel an overwhelming urge to find someway to convert it, at the moment I’m mulling over the idea of adding an extra layer of detail to the feathers to make them more ruffled looking, but otherwise it’s pretty close to perfect.

One nice detail I found in the kit is the wizard’s eagle headdress. I’m going to use that as a starting point to making my Harpies, which will be bird like Beastmen rather than actual Harpies.

Other than that I’m still working on the Artscale Terminator Tutorial which I hope to have finished real soon.

Although I was inspired by a Tzeentch themed Doombull from an ancient White Dwarf issue aswell as the Tzeentch themed content from Warhammer Online when I began this project I’ve felt rather stuck when it came to painting it. Because of this I’ve ended up falling back on the colours I always like on miniatures and feel comfortable painting, black, reds, browns and yellows.

Now although I really like how this is coming along, I hadn’t intended to make this a Khornate themed Beastman army. I’m very strongly focussed on the idea that an army isn’t just a collection of models you want to make effective use of in a game, but is also an aesthetically cohesive collection. So, I want the whole army to share the same colour palette, even the characters and the centrepiece models like this Doombull. Stupidly though I start with the models I most want to make and paint and always tend to leave the rank and file stuff till last.

At the moment with the red and gold armour this guy definitely looks aligned to Khorne and I could certainly imagine that an entire Beastman army decked out in these colours looking very nice on the table. However, with a little photoshop jiggery-pokery I’ve mocked up some alternate colour schemes.

Of these three I have to say the white-ish colour (I’m imagining a NMM steel) is most interesting, and I can see that working as a colour scheme for a Tzeentch themed force (polished steel and gold!). On top of this there is also the option of painting some subtle patterns on the armour plates, and I’m also really keen to add some bold tattoos, particularly to that bulging upper arm.

Other than my complete lack of ability to make decisions for myself this guy is very nearly finished and I’ve placed an order for a Beastman battalion box set (hoping that arrives tomorrow) and been searching ebay for some OOP beastmen models too.

Because my focus on building armies is the aesthetics, I like to create a rigid army list beforehand so I know exactly what models to buy and what conversions I plan on doing. This is my current 3000 point list:

Great Bray Shaman (General & lvl4) – Hagtree Fetish, Crown of Command, Obsidian Lodestone

Doombull – Wings, Heavy Armour, Shield, Warrior Bane, Talisman of Preservation

Wargor BSB – Battle Standard, The Beast Banner, Gnarled Hide, Shield, Heavy Armour

Wargor – Sword of Anti-Heroes, shield, heavy armour, Ramhorm Helm, Luckstone

Wargor – Shield, Heavy Armour, Hunting Spear (Champion with huge bow or crossbow)

Bray Shaman (lvl2) – Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon

50 Gors – full command, extra hand weapons

30 Gors – full command

30 Ungor – full command

10 Ungor Raiders – full command

9 Chaos Warhounds

40 Bestigors – full command,  Standard of Discipline

1 Razagor (converted from SW Thunderwolf into a giant Chaos Warhound)

9 Harpies – Scouts (bird/eagle beastmen rather than Harpies)

I may swap out the Great Bray Shaman for a Beastlord and just keep the level 2 Bray Shaman for defensive purposes, but that’s a small alteration.

I’ve always had a preference for infantry heavy armies, both in Fantasy and 40k, so not only should it look really nice on the table top, most of the army can to built by buying just 4 battalion boxes, nice and straight forward. For conversions, the characters, Razagor and Harpies will be getting the full treatment, but I’m also tempted to resculpt some parts for the plastic Bestigors to bulk them up a bit, I’ll have to wait and see when the battalion box set arrives.

The exclusion of other troop types is mostly down to the look of the models, no Minotaurs for instance, and I’ve never been a fan of chariot models.

Anyhow, back to the model in question, I need to decide to either keep the red armour and paint the force as Khornate aligned or repaint it white/steel and follow the calling of the Raven God. Whichever I choose will also influence the future Warriors of Chaos allied contingent I want to collect, as I don’t like the idea of mixing patrons.

Decisions, decisions…..

Finally managed to attach the first pair of cast wings to mu Doombull conversion (two pins in each to be sure). Now that I’ve finished all the sculpting on this model, I’ll begin painting this long overdue project. Still a little uncertain how I’ll be painting it (colour choices), but I’ll probably opt for something in natural tones rather than the often used blues, yellows and reds of Tzeentch aligned creatures. I really liked the Warhammer Online game’s interpretation of Tzeentch aesthetics so I’ll probably go in that direction.

I’m extremely happy with the final result of this conversion. It’s going to be the centre piece of my fantasy army (maybe a small warband, let’s not to ahead of ourselves, eh?).

I have two dozen pairs of casts of these wings available now that are up for sale in the Store. Each wing is 100mm tall, 50mm wide and averages 10mm thick, making them very nice and chunky. There is almost no flash to clean up on them, a testament to the skill of the caster (ie: not me). I’ve priced a pair of wings at £11.99 each, with £1.99 to cover shipping costs (to anywhere in the world).

I got to admit I am so pleased with how this model is finally taking shape. The wings are near completion. I’ve spent most of my free time (which I’ve had much of lately) working on filling the gaps under each of the feathers to ready them for casting. There’s still a bit of filling and the top edges need detailing, and I intend to resculpt the details in one or two places where I’m not entirely satisfied with them. The whole wing making process (shown in my previous post), is pretty straightforward and the gap filling process wouldn’t be necessary if I wasn’t going to cast them. I still need to sculpt the skin of the “limb” that actually attaches the wings to the model but that should be a no-brainer.

Only thing left to do now is the hands and hooves and maybe a few accessories.

This has been a long time in the works but this week I devoted some time to trying to get my winged Doombull. This post is just about the progress on the wings. Once they are finished I’m going to have some casts made, so there will be some up on the Store. They each measure 50mm across and 100mm tall and will be a good match Daemon Princes and monsters.

My whole aim with making these was to make them really detailed and ruffled looking because wings featured on most other models (that I know of) are a bit on the flat side.

I started with a paper template, which for anyone trying something like I can’t recommend enough.

With a rough idea of the size of each feather I wanted I then sculpted a range of them on piece of plasticard (half for the right side and half for the left side). I then made 3 Blu-Stuff molds of the feathers. The quick curing time involved stopped me from making just one big mold, three smaller molds is just easier.

With the molds made I then used them about 10 times so far, to cast a pile of feathers.

Taking the easy approach, I used the paper templates and attached some soft copper wire around the edge to reinforce their shape. I also gave the paper a thick coating of PVA glue just to give them some rigidity on which to build on. Starting with the largest feathers first I started layering them from the bottom upwards, fixing them with a small amount of superglue.

So far I’m about a third of the way through this. I still need to do the same on the other side of each wing and before they can be cast there will be a lot of filling in to do.

I’m still playing with the idea of making the wings on my Doombull a magnetized option because I still like my current Doombull as he is. This is one of the reasons to have them cast in resin just to help reduce the weight.

UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF POST

So after much deliberation I’ve settled on building a Beastmen as my army for Warhammer 8th edition. I like the fact they are one of the least popular forces being collected but I also think I can make them into a great looking army (most important part for me). My starting point is the theme of the army, which will be Tzeentch. Yes, I know Beastmen’s rules aren’t tied to any one God of Chaos anymore but that’s not important. I’ve always favoured Tzeentch above the other Gods and I’m a real big fan of what was done for Tzeentch in Warhammer Online (aesthetically speaking), a move away from the traditional bright primary colours and presented in the subtler form of the Raven God. As such the Chaos forces from the game will be a big influence on the aesthetics for my conversions and painting.

The first major conversion for the army will be a Doombull who will serve as the “army champion”. As progress develops on the conversion I’ll update this post, so scroll down to see how it’s going . Starting at the beginning, the inspiration for this character will be this image from White Dwarf 135.

Trying to duplicate this simple conversion 20-ish years ago was one of my first forays into converting minis. With a little help from the guys on Warseer I came up with this equipment list for him.

Heavy Armour
Enchanted Shield
Sword of Swift Slaying
Gnarled Hide
Shadow Hide
Arabyan Carpet

The Carpet will allow him to fly and will be represented by his large feathered wings. The rest of his gear gives him a 1+ save and allows him to hit first with re-rolls most of the time. The Shadow Hide gift will also influence the final look of the miniature. Later on I’ll come up with a suitable backstory about this winged shadowy lone minotaur who has been chosen by the Raven God to act as my general’s personal champion.

I acquired a GW Doombull off of Ebay and started giving the project some thought. As I worked on the components I did change my mind a few times as to whether to give him wings or not, as the most important thing was making a great looking model and I didn’t want it to be too over the top. I didn’t want to convert it just for the sake of it, because its a great model as it is, but I feel I need to do something special with it. Only after the model started to take shape did I decide to proceed with the wings, but I made the decision that to make them look right I would have to make them myself. Before that though I concentrated on the basics.

To start with the trotters for feet had to go. Minotaurs should have hooves not two ways about it. Why GW continue to make their Minotaurs with anything but hooves baffles me. I found a tail from the Be’Lakor model that I really want to use on this conversion. It’s lizard like but not an unreasonable addition in a beastman force and I think will help sell the idea of the Gnarled Hide mutation.

The first thing I did with my Doombull bitz was hack them up. I took the main chunk of the body and removed the legs as cleanly as I could, trying to save the chain loin cloth but not before I made a Blu-Stuff mold of the loin cloth (just in case).

I could now pin the legs (minus the stupid feet) back onto the torso and start to work out the pose. I wanted him to be charging forward rather than standing still as the standard model is. I also felt this necessary to distance the conversion from the stock model as best I could. I say this because the worst conversions are often the ones that immediately scream “Conversion!” because they look way too much like the standard model with some OTT element to them.

Next I inserted pins in either end of the legs and attached them to the torso, filling the gap with junk Green Stuff. To clarify, when you get Green Stuff in two adjoining strips it is a good practice to not use the middle bit where the two colours meet as this greenstuff has a small amount of already cured material (appears as lumps when mixed). This is what I call junk Green Stuff. However, I don’t throw this away as it is fine for filling gaps where it’ll later be sculpted over.

I then used pins in the lower legs to attach it to it’s base leaving what I thought would be enough room for new hooves. Once I’d bulked out the hooves in a rough fashion I realised I’d not left enough room, and he would end up with really stump lower legs. So with great difficulty, as I’d glued the pins in place, I readjusted the whole attachment giving some extra space to sculpt the new hooves. Unfortunately I then realised I’d gone too far the other way and now his legs were going to be too long. Rather than make do I ripped the whole thing apart and started over. Sometimes, especially with complex jobs like this, you have to be willing to take 2 steps back before you can go 1 forward, but it always leads to improvements in the final work.

 

Hooves too short.

Whilst working on this I decided I was going to have to heavily convert the head because the standard Doombull head wasn’t good enough for me and I wanted something of the more like classical Minotaur look. At first I was going to hack large areas of the existing head off and rebuild it, but whilst looking for some reference images I came across Bane Beasts models from Maelstrom Games. Whilst their monsters are some of the best I’ve seen, I’ve never been a fan of big monsters in my armies, but then after a browsing a little further I found their Bane Lords range and minotaur standard bearer Kaastaruk. It’s a beautiful piece of sculpting and I bought it right away simply for the head which I intend to swap with the Doombull metal head.

I had trouble with the connection of the new head onto the body and have had to sculpt a lot of extra muscle to make it look right. Took a lot of work to get it right but it’s been worthwhile and the head looks like it belongs now.

I had to remove him from the base twice more to get it correctly located (he’s been attached and removed from the base four times now). I made a duplicate of the shoulder pad to fit his other arm (Blu-Stuff mold) which I think looks really nice. The armour plating that normally fits that upper arm I decided to leave off. The arm itself I wanted to re-sculpt with all rippling muscles.

I ditched the enormous axe the Doombull came with and started work on a scratchbuilt mace reminiscent of the original inspiration model.

The mane took a bit of work to make fit as I had repositioned the head and sculpted new chunkier the neck muscles onto him. With a bit of twisting and resculpting I was able to blend it right into the small wisps of hair on the head. At first I made the hair on the top of his hair rather thick and tall to give him a mohawk, my belief that “everything looks better with a mohawk” unfortunately turned out to not be as true as I’d have liked. Still he does have a bit of a mohawk 

Right from the outset of the project I was very keen to have this guy flexing huge muscles. I tackled the muscular arm bit by bit sculpting over the existing arm (that I trimmed back a bit first so as not to risk having anything sticking out of the GS). Once I had done the upper arm I attached the forearm part but found that next to his new mass it look a bit too slender. To fix this I remodelled the armour plate to “beef it up” (pun intended) and make it match up better.

I added the chainmail loin cloth back on the model by casting it in Green Stuff from the mold I made at the beginning of the project. The club itself I’m trying to have match as close as possible the original model. The rather blobby looking spikes will be cut down with a scalpel into sharp points, I just needed to get the approximate amount of GS in the right place first. The best way to achieve a sharp edge with GS is to cut it after it’s cured (with a sharp blade of course).

UPDATE 6TH OCTOBER 2011

So I haven’t had much time to spend on this big guy but I’m hoping to find time to spend on some flamboyant wings soon. With the exception of the wings there’s not a lot left to do on this guy. I added a chunkier studded belt by sculpting it on a plasticard strip and transplanting it onto the model about three hours later. I did this mainly because his waist just looked too slim  with the adjusted legs. I still need to add a shield/belt bulckle. I did buy an Ogre bit from www.letthedicedecide.co.uk which physically fits nicely, but the style of armour didn’t match the armour plates he already has, so I’ll probably try something else.

I added long hair to the back of his calves (I was aiming for a shire horse look). I did this really simply by making a Blu-Stuff mold of his mane and casting that detail onto the backs of his legs.I took the Green Stuff out of the molds after about 2 hours while they were still pliable and attached them directly to the legs, trimming and pushing about a bit with a metal tool to make them fit right.

To help me get a better idea of how to proceed with the wings I printed out some on paper and tacked them onto the back in roughly the right size and position. I think doing stuff like this is very helpful when working on complex conversions. More time spent considering and planning will ultimately lead to better results. I’m toying with the idea of making the wing magnetized, if so I’ll probably make them in wire and Green Stuff first and them get them cast is resin to reduce the weight a bit. I’m envisioning them being very feathery (the opposite of FW’s Lord of Change smooth looking feathered wings).