Tag Archives: Conversion

Seros the Red, Thrice Cursed of Khaine

09 Saturday Feb 2019

Posted by in AoS, Daughters of Khaine, Fembruary Challenge

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Greetings Terrans, how goes it? I have something a little different for you this week – no Orks for a change! However, I do have my first piece completed for Fembruary, who also happens to be the leader for my Daughters of Khaine warband that I’m building. One of the big draws of the DoK for me is the possibility of bringing a bit of Greek mythology into the AoS world… Medusae and Harpies – what’s not to like?? I’m sure I’m not the only one here who loved Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts as a kid ;-)

Anyway, here she is – Seros the Red, Thrice Cursed of Khaine:

She’s made from the tail of a Melusai, the torso from the Cauldron of Blood Hag Queen, and the head from the Bloodwrack Medusae. She was a fun little conversion, and rather nice to paint up! I’ve gone with a simple colour scheme, but I think it works nicely on such a weird and varied model. The base was fun too – I’ve tried to do something that might make sense in the AoS Realm of Metal… basically, she’s high-fantasy with a dash of Greek mythology. Here is some accompanying fluff:

Seros was ordained to be a Priestess of Khaine, a so-called Hag Queen, sworn to serve Morathi in The Helleheart, the first temple of Hagg Nar. As a Priestess of Hagg Nar, Seros was destined for a position of power and authority within Khainite society, yet in her heart, she knew she did not belong… Far from being nought but a cruel and bloodthirsty murderer, Seros held feelings of kindness and compassion for the weak and broken souls of the Leathanam within her heart, especially for a young Aelf male called Kaulgar. These feelings were reciprocated, and their despair at their forced separation was a terrible thing – even though both understood the necessity. Over time, Seros grew into power and majesty as a Priestess of Khaine, yet her feelings for Kaulgar remained, and she occasionally managed to abscond from her temple duties to illicitly meet him.

Of course, Morathi was aware of this situation, for she misses little that goes on in the hearts of those within her domain… however, she was prepared to overlook this frailty – after all, Seros was a High Priestess with great potential, and Morathi is nothing if not pragmatic. However, Seros was to commit one unforgivable sacrilege – she shared secrets of the inner temple of Helleheart with her lover, and this could not be ignored.

Seros was summoned to Morathi, who cursed her three times. The first curse was enacting the ritual of Slith-onoir, the rites used to create Bloodrack Medusae. Morathi’s second curse ensured that Seros retained her will and her personality, allowing her to appreciate the full physical horror of her transformation into a Medusa. The third curse was laid not on Seros, but on Kaulgar, who had been captured and brought before Morathi as Seros lay recovering from the terrible changes wrought upon her. Seros watched helplessly as Morathi burned the Doomfire runes into Kaulgar’s living flesh, and she screamed as she saw his love for her die within his eyes as the runes did their work. Kaulgar was left gaunt and ruined, with nought but the spite and pain that defines Warlock existence left in his heart

Her punishment complete, Seros was banished from Hagg Nar, and doomed to wander the Mortal Realms as a hideous monster, filled with the pain of love lost, and the enduring horror of her transformation. We join Seros as she ventures into Chamon, and the tale of her punishment begins to draw a small but dedicated band of followers from Khainite society. Here in the Realm of Metal, she seeks to grow her powerbase, and to try and find a way to break the curses laid upon her.

 

That’s all for now dudes, I hope you like Seros – there will be a few more Fembruary handmaidens joining her over the month, and I’m aiming to get ‘Mad’ D’onne Ulanti painted as well. I also intend to crack on with more Ork sculpting in the background as well, so plenty to look forward to! Have a good one dudes, catch you on the flip-side :-)

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Teenage Skumbo Baby!

17 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by in OldHammer, Scuplting, Wolf Time

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Greetings Terrans, just a quickie from yours truly today – it’s a busy time of year with lots of visiting and whatnot going on, but I’ve got my first skwad of Skumbos done:

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I decided to group all of the Hoodies into one unit, (hence the title), and they are led by an embarrassingly earnest Yoof wiv a snazzy beret. All of them have been converted quite extensively from old Fantasy Orc Archers (except the leader, and even he got a sculpted machete). I’ve tried out a pale yellowy-green spot colour for them – not sure if I like it or not, and I may tone it down with some brown washes further down the road, but they’ll do for now. Here’s a shot of their backs, showing various sculpted pouches & quivers turned into scabbards:

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Not much else to say on these guys really, so it’ll be more of the same over Christmas. I only have another 20 to go, and not the 25 I thought I had left, (I misread/misremembered the force requirements :-/ ), so I should be able to put a good dent in them during the Crimbo break. I’m also going to take some time to revisit my undead & do a piece for Deadcember, plus there is a secret little side-project I’ve been working on here and there – more news on that after the holidays!

Skumbo Number 5!

01 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by in OldHammer, Scuplting, Wolf Time

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Greetings Terrans! Ok, so dodgy post title, but I wanted to share some progress on my Scumbos for the Wolf Time campaign and it just kinda popped into my head… the ‘5’ in the title is misleading – there are way more than 5 of the buggers! As a reminder from last time, Skumbos are the generic name for the 30 cannon-fodder Orks that inhabit the top floor of Gov’ner Kulo’s fortress in the final scenario of the campaign. They are armed with bolt pistols & swords, and are described as being ‘low-caste’. I decided to use fantasy Orcs for the majority of my Skumbos – partly to get across the whole low-caste thing, but also because there are only a handful of actual bolt pistol & sword Space Ork minis of that era. So far, so simple, right?

Weeellll… turns out that chopping up 23ish Orcs and sculpting in all the pistols, swords and/or scabbards, plus the pouches and various other doo-dahs needed to hide cuts & make good is quite a lengthy process… My respect for professional sculptors has risen steadily throughout this project, but it bloody sky-rocketed during this phase! I’m just glad I had a few actual Space Orks to hand and didn’t have to convert the full 30… 23 was quite enough! But hey, I’m done with all the conversion work now, and we’re all based & ready for undercoating. I just thought I’d share a few pics of the work so far – before the paint goes on:

 

So there we have it – all those brown bits are done by yours truly! I don’t think any pro sculptors out there need to worry just yet, but I reckon these guys will do me just fine. I definitely feel that my technique improved as I went along – some of the early efforts are noticeably rougher than later attempts for example, and I found my speed improved significantly as well. The guns were the trickiest part, but I think they read as bolt pistols well enough… They may be a bit rough around the edges, but these Orks feel more ‘mine’ than any mini I have yet converted, and I’m super excited to get painting! At the end of the day, I reckon that’s about as good as it gets.

Until next time dudes! :-)

Teknishun Skwad 1

09 Friday Nov 2018

Posted by in 215th Praetorian, OldHammer, Scuplting, Wolf Time

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Greetings Terrans, I trust this post finds you well. I have (yet) another new Wolf Time squad to share with you today – as the title suggests, this is one of the two Technician squads needed to run the campaign… The technician squads are actually a bit of an oddity in the campaign – one squad is modestly armed with Bolt Pistols and Swords, and only appears in game 1, while the other is fully tooled up with Plasma guns, Conversion Fields, Bolt Pistols and Swords!! Thankfully, (for the Marines), the Plasma-toting hombres only appear in game 2!

Anyhow, today, we’re only looking at the first squad. I deliberately picked out some of my more weird & wonderful minis, most of which have some technical vibe to them. Also, all the models in this unit are converted to some degree:

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I went with a predominantly grey scheme for these guys, (because technicians), and I used blue as the squad colour. Also, they all have some small sample of the desert camouflage that I have used throughout the main body of the force so far, just to unify the army a little.

In other news, I have had a semi-productive week with the putty last week, and got 4 new power armour conversions underway. I’ve switched to Brown-stuff (rather than green), and invested in some clay shaping tools thanks to good advice from Jon ‘Axiom’, so the whole experience was way better than my first attempt. I even got a bit fancy with the stuff I was sculpting!

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Still very much WIP, and waiting for Chainswords from my pal Mark @ heresyofus, but hopefully these give you an idea of where we are headed :-)

That’s all for now folks – more Teknishuns to follow!

Armoured Thrugg Bullneck

28 Sunday Oct 2018

Posted by in Scuplting, Wolf Time

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Greetings Terrans, sorry it has been a while, but I was away with business the week before last – jet lag has combined with a busy week to reduce my output a bit, but I do have one last bit of Wolf Time progress to share before Orktober is done. Do you remember these guys?

For those that don’t know, these are all the named leaders of the RTB02 boxed set of ‘Space Orcs’ (sic) from back in the day. Thrugg Bullneck is da boss in the middle, and he’s very special to me, because this boxed set was my first Citadel miniatures purchase. I used to pitch my 18 or so Space Orcs against my mate’s 30-plus RTB01 Beakies, and I regularly got my ass handed to me… The Orcs were tougher, and could shoot just as good as Marines back then, but they really suffered for lack of armour and I was too skint to do much about it… I think I’ve carried a resentment ever since, so when I realised that I needed to do some power armoured orks with chainswords for the Wolf Time campaign, I pulled out a duplicate Thrugg and did this:

This was a few weeks back, but I’ve been too busy painting skwads since then to do much else with him. I didn’t have enough time to get deeply into anything this week, but when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, and so I used the few hours I did have to finish Armoured Thrugg. Here’s the result:

I must say, I am really chuffed with him – he’s the most ambitious bit of sculpting I have ever taken on, and, while a bit rough around the edges, he’s certainly fit for purpose. He has a Bolter, a converted hand flamer, sculpted power armour & chainsword, so he’s correctly equipped to lead one of Governor Kulo’s guard squads. More than that, he’s a gift to 16 year old me – a proper well-‘ard Thrugg, ready to boot some beakies right inna fork!

I’m away hiking with my youngest this week so I’ll be away from paints, but my success with this guy has got me motivated to try more sculpting. I’ve chopped up a few spare Orks and packed some putty & tools for a spot of evening putty-pushing while I’m away… if they come out half as good as Thrugg then I’ll be a happy chap :-)

Best laid plans…

30 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by in The Chapel

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Greetings Terrans, I hope you are all well. So today was supposed to have been a triumphant post showing off a fully painted game of Stylites, played at Mark’s place, and showcasing the minis that we have lovingly prepped and painted and the gorgeous terrain that Mark has made… and then my car died. The Machine spirit had almost got me to Mark’s house, but couldn’t complete the journey. Long story short, instead of a pleasant afternoon chucking dice in good company, I had a long afternoon sat on the side of a motorway waiting for a tow home. On the bright side, at least the car failed now, so I can get it fixed in time for BOYL next weekend!

Anyway, it’ll be a while before Mark and I can get together to do the showcase/photo shoot game, so I thought I’d let you guys see the Penitents that I literally lost sleep to finish in time:

 

So let me introduce them – first up if Kull. His crime was one of blasphemy against the Emperor, and the casting down his holy idols. The Punitore engines within the Chapel determined that Kull’s toungue be removed, his lips be sewn closed, his treasonous left arm be removed, and a penance sentence of life as a Stylite:

 

Next is Malven, his crime was sadism, kidnap and torture. Malven developed a taste for abduction and bondage, followed by the long slow suffocation of his victims – all the better to savour their fear. The Punitore engines dictated that Malven be permanently shackled, and that his breathing be restricted by artificial means while stim injectors act to keep him conscious… he exists in an endless state of near-asphyxiation and terror, and will continue to do so for the remainder of his life sentence as a Stylite:

 

Now we have Dunc, and his crime was that of spying and embezzlement. On his submission to Chapel justice, it was said that he stole with the left hand as he sold secrets with the right – a claim that the Punitore engines took literally. Dunc lost the fingers of his left hand, the whole of his right arm, and his eyes before beginning his life sentence as a Stylite:

 

Finally we have Cobb, guilty of murder and infanticide. Cobb bound and gagged his own twin daughters, before holding them face down in a pond and drowning them… Cobb claimed that the children were wytches, so the villagers who delivered Cobb to the Chapel also recovered the bodies of Cobb’s daughters, and handed them over for examination. There was no evidence that the children were wytches, and the Punitore engines were not swayed by Cobb’s defence. They decreed that his lies be gagged, that his mouth be hung with weight equal to the combined weight of his daughters, that his murderous hands be taken, and that the skulls of his victims be chained in their place to remind him of his crimes as he serve his life sentence as a Stylite:

 

Pretty dark stuff I know, but as I was making these guys, I couldn’t help but imagine what their crimes might have been. I also thought about what would prevent them from just jumping from their stylites and ending their own suffering – I thought it would be cool if those who seek to cheat their penance through suicide be brought back as servo-skulls, and doomed to spend centuries witnessing the suffering of others… That seems a good way to explain the penitents, the servoskulls, and the skull-jackers!

In terms of painting, these guys were all mostly wash jobs, and are actually pretty basic, (necessary due to time constraints). However, I did spend some extra time on the flesh, and in particular the faces, just to elevate them a little from a speed-painting job. I’m pretty pleased with how it all came together! But hey – now, it is your turn! Mark has issued a challenge to create your own take on a skull-jacker & penitent. There is even a prize! Don’t forget to link back to Mark’s blog to make it easier to have your entry considered – looking forward to seeing what you clever lot come up with!

Anyhow, that’s it for today chaps, I am finishing up one last mini before I head to the lead-belt for the weekend, so I may get a post in later in the week… If I don’t then I’ll catch you all next week with a full write-up on the Bring Out Your Lead weekend 2018!!! Woohoo!