Wednesday 22 May 2013

Harvest Time

Yes, those ripe ears of corn are just ready to glean.

Let's Thresh!
It's another set of marauders, nine more for the Khornate group. That gives me a solid block of twenty, or possibly two smaller units of ten - easy enough to whittle or route, but frenzied flails or great weapons means they'll draw fire or put a crimp in something.

Can barely see past his mace head

Can barely see because of badly painted eyes
As before, they're a crude amalgam of viking, saxon, marauder and random parts. I had Heroquest leftovers after savaging a bunch of bases for the chaos warriors last time round, and I put some of them to good use. Or use, anyway.


In Tim Burton's new Warhammer film,
Brian Blessed plays Edward Morningstar Hands
The Heroquest orc body looks particularly odd with a human head.
Something to do with fist sizes, I believe. 

All of them are even more... impressionistic? than my usual work. 'Messy' seems a terribly judgemental word. I've never been patient enough to make sure rank and file models have super-crisp edges, so I'll never win a Golden Demon. I think I can live with that, though.

Nice pose, shame about the hairdo
I had to put a bit of flair on the base
to hide the fact that half that back foot is missing
Another of the chariot kit weapons.
This guy has a bit of detail yet to do, the jewel on the axe isn't ready.

Here's a blurry pic of the whole unit. I fully intend to work out how depth of field on our camera functions one day. But not today.

Red! Because they're angry!

Finally, a sneak preview of something I am too cheap to pay full whack for.

Can you guess what it is yet?

5 comments:

  1. My entry for Name That Cthulhu: the smart money would be on a Chaos Spawn, so I'm going to plump for a Mutalith Vortex Beast.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Correct! General Kas, on examining the genuine articler a few days back, expressed concern that the base was much too small. 'It should be on a big monster base, surely,' quoth he. But no, GW are really charging £50 for something chariot-sized. Gah.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Given that a typical Finecast character model is sold for between £11-15, a Vortex Beast on a chariot base is far from the highest cost-per-base-coverage.

      The real bugbear of a small(ish) base size is how much lethality can be concentrated in one spot for so little return - a Vortex Beast or Hell Pit Abomination will only need to absorb 10-15 counter-attacks (assuming a big regiment), whereas a massive base like the Arachnarok will face twice that number. Poor wee giant spider.

      Other than the fact that the base just seems too small - your proxy actually looks better fitted than the official model, which seems to be balancing on the tiny space like a seal on a ball.

      Delete
  3. You're right about the hands, but I'm surprised at how well the Heroquest orc converts to a human - it has a good 'rough peasant' look.

    Would a larger-scale head (is that a Hammer of the Gods ones, rather than a GW head?) even out the scale a bit?

    (more than ever do I regret trying out my painting baby-steps on the Heroquest range - wish I'd used the Space Crusade instead, there's always more space marines)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's funny - the orc body is actually well-proportioned overall, and the pose is a good, low-centre-of-gravity combat stance. That's a GW marauder head, though - it's just those giant mitts that make it look so weird.

      I got stick from my school friends for my space crusade painting. "Ha ha, he's painted the blue ones blue! What a waste of time!"

      Well, who's laughing now, losers?

      Delete