Ankhara City of the Dead part 6 - Carrion Beast

While looking for something else, I came across the bits for this "carrion beast" (that's the working title, it may change) and decided it was time something be done with the headless undead body that I've had since last century.

The body is an ancient Grenadier miniature (a demon dog? maybe a blood dog? some kind of dog, I think). I needed to find a head and eventually settled on this Nurgle hero head from an Underworlds figure who got turned into a Hapi-folk Crypt Lord. It was that simple.

I pinned the head and there were really no glaring gaps to fill, s then I could focus on removing the accursed thick intergral base. I decided I would only remove part of it, leaving the rocks the back legs are standing on to help show this beast is in the ruins of Ankhara.

The final touch was to chop off part of a metal ankh bit from some unknown source to act as some more rubble to show this is Ankhara.

This beastie is the first of some number of things created by the Carrion Queen. I've been slowly working on various Eater of the Dead sub-factions controlling parts of Ankhara. The Carrion Queen is either going to be an Undead Beast Mistress who has unlocked some serious power in death (including control of most of the Ghouls throughout the City of the Dead); or, she's a Khemru Dark Harbinger who has begun experimenting with what abominable things she can create (plus the Ghoul thing). The Carrion Beast is the first of these to actually be built and painted. I have no concrete ideas about what sort fo powers it has, but it will be something simple but weird. 

...witha Heru champion and the converted Scorpion Sorceress.

Here we have the Carrion Beast with varous WarGods miniatures to show how well he fits in with them.

...with a couple of fancy Crypt Lord conversions.

...with the mummy lion from the undead beastmaster.

Wendigo Ice Witch, but Forest-y

I've finally painted the Ice Witch for my Forest-themed Wendigo Warband. This is another crossover with my Minismith's Forge blog for my Wednesday Wizards painting stunt, the post from that side of things can be seen here.

My small Wendigo warband has long been planned to be a more forest-themed color scheme instead of the snow and ice that most people have used. I don't recall the first person I saw do browns instead of blues for their Wendigo, but thanks to them for helping spark this loose painting plan of mine.

I started with her cape. Various layers of greens built up. Since she was assembled before painting (I try to avoid sub-assemblies unless absolutely necessary), it was a little difficult getting to he back and to the inside of the cape, but I managed it with just a bit of frustration. 

The sword turned out pretty good with some gray brybrushed up to the whitest white paint that actually works for me. Is it ice? Is it bone? Is magical bone-ice? Possibly.

 Her skin was originally going to be greenish, but I have a canvas color that looked much better when mixed with some light green. Her scepter needed to be some magical crystal. I got to use my favorite aqua color pints to help make it look magical.

Here we've got the first (and currently only) Wendigo Warrior (or Hunter?) painted with his Ice Witch. I like how they look together. Below, we have a couple of other Harbinger types from Crocodile Games- a Demigoddess of Athena and a Harbinger of Isis. I think the Ice Witch fits in pretty well with these ladies.

Treeman and Clockwork Owls

I picked up a Dungeons and Lasers Deuslair preview pack of multipart plastic miniatures last summer and promptly assembled two of the big miniatures in the box. The third is still waiting for glue and a base. I managed to finish one of the miniatures back in January. Now it was time for the treeman, or, according to the D&L lore, it's supposed to be a tree golem. More on that later.

For reasons that will be made clear below, I found my two Crocodile Games clockwork owls and decided to base the one on a tree branch to be a possible companion to whatever Olympus mini might need him.

 He can also act as an objective maker, that's why I used a 20mm round base. I decided to avoid metallic paints for both of these Owls (I previously painted one to use with sci-fi minis, so that one got metallic paints) and tried to do slightly NMM. I'm not sure how the NMM came out, but I think he looks okay. Here we've got the Clockwork Owl with Iomeda, Demigoddess of Hephaestus, and an Amazon Spearwoman.

This treeman came with little guys on his back. I primed everything up and then decided that I really didn't like them. Some chopping and careful cutting took the little guys off. I used some plastic bits from some Warhammer dryad kits and a couple plastic sprue lengths that were carved to look more like branches. 

He needed something more, that's when I decided on the clockwork owl. There was a flirtation with magnetizing the owl, but I decided it would be best to just glue the owl down. This addition made me think that the treeman could be used in Olympus games as a random monster, or maybe a Titan, or a servant for a Demigod.

The paiintjob was pretty straightforward, a mix of different browns and some greens for the leafy area on the back and for his tentacles. The cape holding the big rock on his back almost got a symbol on it, but I deeded to keep it simple.

This Clockwork Owl benefitted from the one on the branch. I used almost the same colors for it. Both the treeman and the owl got aqua blue eyes, because magic.

The treeman with a couple of Titans, I'm not sure he'll be able to rank up with the Titan Slaves.

Perhaps the Treeman could be part of my whimsical and illegal Satyr Warband.

Perhaps the Treeman could be a stand-in for a Minotaur.

Maybe the Treeman is a construct of a Demigoddess of Hecate.

...or, perhaps more appropriately, a servant of a Demigoddess of Artemis.

ToTanem Artifex 5

Another crossover with the Wednesday Wizards painting stunt at the Minismith's Forge blog, this time is a new ToTanem Artifex. I had to dig through my painted ToTanem minis to find the previous Artifex minis I've painted. This guy is number 5?!

He was based on a 25mm base because he just seemed too cramped on a 20mm. I used a bit of cobblestone mat that I think came from a cheap Xmas Village line of products to make the base a little fancier.

The painting was pretty straightforward. It had been some time since I used greens for a ToTanem's rock skin, so I thought I should give this guy some greenish--grey skin. I decided to make his hammer some fancy white material- it's magic.

The newest Artifex with a ToTanem Harbinger and young Scribe Shefdu.

This newest Artifex joins the previous Artifexes. The first Artifex was a Reaper female dwarf who, at the time, seemed like a good proxy since there was not yet an official Artifex sculpt. Her lore was that she was a City Dweller Artifex, but just with regular Artifex stats. Next came the ToTanem with the pistol, converted from a regular warrior with a GW pistol. I'm not sure if the Artifex with the anvil or the official Artifex sculpt came next, but I like them both, especially the glowing metal on the anvil.

Chumwaag, Corruptor of Words

Chumwaag and his pack-rat Nubd travel Ægyptus on a quest shrouded in mystery. Referring to himself as a 'Corruptor of Words,' Chumwaag has exhibited a mastery of twisted versions of some commonly known spells employed by the Masters of Words. This dark reflection of the revered Ægyptian sorcerers is a threat that the Assessors are surely aware of...

First, let's look at the pack-rat, Nubd. This bit has been rattling around in my WarGods bits box for over a decade. It's from a Pathfinder miniature that Crocodile Games produced for a short time. There's supposed to be a goblin rider, but I thought it would make a good mount or pack animal. I used some platic Warhammer bits from various kits for the barrel and bone bag. The bow and quiver are Crocodile Games bits from their weapons packs. 

Nubd was built first with a vague idea that he'd be somehow connected to a Nekharu character. That character was originally going to be a Reaper Necromancer with a Nekharu headswap. But after years of starting to paint that conversion, I finally gave up and decide to make a character from an actual Nekharu mini. Nubd then got painted alongside Chumwaag. I think the pack-rat turned out as feral and creepy as I wanted.

This converted Corruptor of Words (evil Master of Words) started out as a Nekharu stadard bearer. I chopped off the right arm at the elbow and the left hand at the bracer. For the magic staff I used an olde WFB Skeleton spear arm with a resin skull on the top and some banner bit for the banner. Some very sketchy sculpting on the arm and around the banner made the right arm look okay.

The left hand replacement was easier. I have used parts from the olde WFB zombies kit with other Nekharu conversions in the past (mainly the witches), so I knew on of them would work well. The hand I chose gives a good casting feel when combined with the head I chose.

Chumwaag and Nubd have no rules for WarGds, yet. I plan to figure out some way to give Chum a few modified Master of Words spells and maybe a couple of witch and/or necromancer spells too. He's going to be an evil wizard. He may also get a couple of bodyguards too. I like how the plastic spear looked and think some spear armed Nekharu would be cool.

...with the Witch Master and a standard Mancleaver guy.

...with the Scorpion Sorceress and young Scribe Shefdu.

...with a To-Tanem and Heru spearmen.

...with the Nekharu Hero and my converted Nekharu Hero.

Since Chumwaag was finished on a Wednesday, he became the 10th "Wednesday Wizard" over at the sister blog.