Kilt Lifter Conversion, completed

All painted up. Overall I'm pretty pleased. The kilt started off pretty nice, but I got sloppy with the lines towards the end. Also one of the eyes got a bit messed up somewhere along the line and I didn't notice until I took these photos, so I'll have to go back and fix that.

Kilt Lifter Conversion WIP

The best way to describe how I felt when I first saw the Kilt Lifter model from Gencon last year is shock and awe. I think this model sums up everything I love about Trollbloods. A huge beastly dude wearing a kilt with a giant sword holding a pint and puffing on a stogie. Doesn't get much better than that. I decided to bump up the scottish theme a bit so I added some details to the head. I was going to put the sword on but it didn't join the arm quite right and it would have obscured a lot of the kilt. That's when I got the great idea to do a repose. The idea was to have him resting his sword on his shoulder/s instead of sticking in the ground. That way none of the kilt would be obscured and it would be obvious to everyone just how freaking buff this guy really is. I chopped the arm into a million little pieces and got to work. I got the arm reposed and was attaching the sword/hand but it looked off. Like he wasn't relaxing so much as trying to scratch his butt with his sword. So I tore everything apart and started over. That's when I remembered why I got into trollbloods in the first place. There's a part of the story in the Trollblood section of Primal where Grissell and a bunch of scattergunners are defending a hill from some invading Skorne. In between ass kicking sessions the scattergunners rest up (I assume that means smoke and drink). For some reason that just seemed really cool to me and I've loved the idea of Scattergunners ever since (fingers crossed for mk2). So I grabbed a scattergun and got to work. Here's the results. I still have some work to do, but the model is finally back in one piece. I need to smooth out the wrist join, fill in the shoulder join, and maybe do a little more work on the hat. But for now, this is it. (And yes, that's a cheez-it box in the background).

Manhunter Update

So apparantly my manhunter looked like the Bride of Chucky. Which is cool I guess, if you're into that sort of thing. However, Chucky gives me the creeps in a big way so as soon as the comparison was drawn I knew I had to make some adjustments to the model or I wouldn't be able to sleep without the fear that I would be chopped up into 28mm scale peices. So I softened the eyes a bit (I left a black line around the eyes that was waaaaay too thick) so hopefully it no longer looks like a possessed cabbage patch doll. I think it still has a bit of a sinister edge, but c'mon this is a manhunter not a man-suprise-you-for-your-birthday-with-ice-cream-and-cupcakes-er.

Before

After

Greylords Before

Next up on the chopping block for stripping and reassembly...Greylords Ternion.

I ripped these guys off their bases and they're stewing in a vat of greenstuff as we speak. I'll check them tomorrow morning, but I'm pretty sure they're going to be cleaned and ready for the weekend. Party on! As for the bases, I ripped off the cork and glued down some GW dirt which is drying as we speak.

There was nothing wrong with the cork rocks per se, but I really think it's over done. I get a little annoyed when I see armies where every single unit is on cork, or some kind of heigtened base. I mean honestly, does every bodger really need to be standing on a 2 inch pile of skulls? A simple base, with not much added height really accents a clean paint job instead of distracting the eye away from the model itself. Save the cork/elaborate base for showcase pieces like your caster or a particularly awesome character solo or jack and leave it off your rank and file. I do make one exception to this bias for legion. Craggy/snowy bases really fit with the Legion background and complement the faction well, so you generally won't hear me bitching about cork on Legion bases. So all that to say, my Greylords won't be on cork.

Manhunter(ess?)

Cranked out a solo earlier this week, my alt sculpt manhunter. I got a couple lots of Khador models through bartertown and they all had some paint already on them. So I guess this model is unique in that it's the first model I've stripped (a Simple Green bath overnight) disassembled, filed, reassembled and re-painted. As far as I can tell the end result is just as if I'd gotten it new.

Widowmakers

Here are some pics of my recently completed Widowmakers. The Khador battlebox was the very first bunch of Privateer Press minis that I painted/played so it's quite fun to return to my roots (and do a hell of a lot better job at painting them). The snow is a mix of water, white glue and baking powder, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I'm still undecided if I want to add some tufts of grass or leave the bases barren. Bonus points for anyone who can name the inspiration for my Kapitan.