Wednesday 27 March 2013

Convertible

I love the new Warriors of Chaos list. To me, it seems to have a lot more options and flare, particularly addressing the fact that the last list could be a bit slow and ploddy. Chariots are core? Well, yes please, I'll have some of those then.

Now in Colour
Here's the first one. I started work on it three months ago, scratch-building a chassis out of chopped up sprue (you can see a picture in this post). The main body is still that - lengths of plastic sprue cut to size with pliers, then glued next to each other alternating which way up they go so they tessellate flat, then a couple of support beams.


Once I'd got the new chariot kit, though, it was immediately apparent that I had much better spare parts to use. So I filed my sprue body down to fit one of the armoured front bits, turned it sideways to fit and snipped up an old minotaur standard to use as side rails.

The horned ends of the banner pole hooked nicely over the front armour 

I went with one of my vikings as the cabbie, which fits into the army better. He looks predictably weedy. That's why he's using a spear to steer.

There are two options for what this little cabriolet has under the bonnet, and I went with the upgrade.

Never has two horse power looked so inadequate
Are those two lethal killing horns in your pocket, or are you just... oh.
They were lethal horns.
Goodbye spleen.

It was a tough one to paint. I should have done a few bits separately before sticking it together, you can't get to the charioteer's legs easily or any of the undercarriage. Not that anyone should be concentrating on that, I hope.

Once more I rise!
Ol' Skeletor is now in his third incarnation. He's the original Heroquest Chaos Sorceror, and the first paint job was blocky enamel. It's still in there, under a layer of matt varnish and the second, more Disco, do-over. This goes with yellow and blue for a Tzeentchian option, but I haven't actually used the Mark anywhere, so that I have the other options I'm interested in for this chap.

Glam Rock instead of Disco, for a start. 
For this could well be fielded as my army general. Quite a promotion from the Bag of Limitless Minions, even more so from the original game (where he was never an actual chaos sorceror, just an all purpose 'assorted bad guy'. He even plays a wounded knight you must rescue in one quest, as I recall. That's a horrible facial gash he's got, right enough).

One possible I've thought of is having a level three wizard general and no other heroes. Leadership's the same, he's still no pushover in melee, and awesome magical power would be at his fingertips. Riding his Gorebeast chariot makes him not only badder but also asser in close combat, plus I could field him with the lore of Death, which has some mean close range options. Having the your opponent's general laugh himself to death at what you're fielding isn't usually a good thing. It is now.

I'm not going to say yikes, it's my own work. But I'm thinking it.
The conversion isn't perfect. The wheels particularly are pretty rotten, just the round bits you find in the middle of a sprue with silver paint rims to slightly distract the eye. Works much better from a distance. Like outside the room.
This may look terribly unrealistic, but it's genuine plant growth.
The base isn't my best, either. Yes, I put chariot tracks on, but the snow didn't really work, it's very uneven and patchy looking. But the use of pieces of painted grape stalk give me some minor kudos for inventiveness, if nothing else. I've got two more chariot bases (and three monster bases) ready to hand, though, so this is a first practice. One more chariot and a little surprise on the way...

Before
After. It's Priscilla, Queen of the Chaos Wastes!

5 comments:

  1. Excellent work: on the conversion, the paint job and the new lease of life for the Heroquest chappie (mine is too clumsily enamelled for any redemption).

    AND THE HELL IS PULLING THAT CHARIOT? It looks like the thing that chased Rick Moranis in Ghostbusters.

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  2. Well, General Stylus, according to the fluff 'even the lowliest of beasts recognize the bulky shape of the Gorebeast as synonymous with death,' so I'm not sure where that places you on the scale of evolution.

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  3. That said, of course, thank you for your kind remarks.

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  4. Well, of *course* I recognised it as a Gorebeast. I just thought I might recognise this specific Gorebeast.

    As it happens, we met at a cheese-and-pineapple mixer last year. The Gorebeast's name is Geoffrey, and he's an absolute delight.

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  5. I know his wife, Germaine, better - when we summer in the country, the four of us make up doubles for badminton together.

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