Wednesday 27 August 2014

Model rescue part 1 - how to save a chaos warrior and get back to work

"Krontharg Hornhelm, Chaos warrior. A man barely alive." 

 "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make another converted beastmaster. Krontharg Hornhelm will be that man. Better than he was before. Better...stronger...faster."


You know what? I love broken models. I mean I love buying or trading for broken model when I know I'm buying them broken. After an exhausting week-end with friends, I came home with little energy and no will to throw myself in some tiring and troublesome hobby time. I felt like playing with my lead though.
What does a man do in these kind of situations? A man makes conversions, that's right. A man gives a second life to a damaged model.

Yesterday's victim was a splendid Jes Goodwin chaos warrior. I already have one like him and it's already painted and amongst a bunch of chaos warriors in the middle of my chaos army.


As you can see, he has been heavily damaged in the rear by a rough saw work and has lost a good bit of his arse and part of his right boot too.


What I really like about damaged and broken models is that I feel absolutely no remorse for cutting, sawing, filing, drilling them even more.
That's why I decided to remove his magnificent warhammer, damaging his fur a little more and making his knee armour piece an horrible mess.




And now here he is in his renewed glory, ready to lead packs of smelly hounds to battle !


While I was at it, I decided to save a fistful of other model of the same sort to add some meat in my ranks :


These were all broken or damaged at some point, some only lacking part of their weapon, some needing a little more repair. Some like the guy on the left have had the chance of a 100% retro rebuild while the others owe their life to some plastic bits.

But why stop at 5 when you can make a whole unit !


Here we are, a 10 man unit with complete command !

The best part of this is that this unit of mostly vintage chaos warrior didn't cost me much since they were all broken or damaged to begin with. It's a double win for me. I could build a whole unit for cheap and I got the pleasure to convert old lead wich is frankly one of the things I enjoy most !

The only problem with that kind of activity is that you cannot stop once you start :


My friend Sartong above has found friends in my model pile and he somehow convinced them to follow him... I don't know what he promised those guys but one thing is for sure : iy's going to be nasty.


Next is one model I've been wanting for some time but always pushed back because I had more important things to chase.

What really told me I had to get it NOW was Matthew Sullivan's excellent post on his blog OLDENHAMMER which I strongly advise you to follow for the massive amount of good stuff he posts.


 This manticore is the best I know really. A Jes Goodwin model is always a good point to start from but this one is particular because you can sense the feline aspect of it and the perfectly chimeric and chaotic nature of it too. it feels both natural like something which could exist AND supernatural at the same time.
I based mine on a big rock to enhance the feeling of an animal in its natural habitat. I like how it looks like some sort of animal documentary or something.

While th eglue and the greenstuff were out, I was compelled to building the excellent models I received from my friend Diego :


An excellent space minotaur I can't wait to start working on...


A fishmen and the start of a retinue for him...


Oh and BOYLdrick has got to be next right? Note how I used a hexagon base to enhance the old school bibe of this lttle fella.


I also received the bases I ordered from EM4 and started basing my Skaven. I wanted to leave them as is at first but now I can sense I could very well convert them a little to make an army of H'ruds for a 40k setting... a pleasant idea isn't it?

Oh and don't ask me why but too very old friends just decided it was time to come back on th efront of the scene...
I actually have quite a lot of Inquisitore models all converted and ready for paint but so far I only managed to paint one (a squat adventurer).

After the 15 mm models, maybe some 54 mm could also be a good way to change my habits... who knows...



I haven't touched a brush since BOYL (only came home form holidays last WE) but I have built quite a lot of models and I'm now ready to get back in action to finish a lot of pending projects...

19 comments:

  1. A tantalising post JB!

    I love the basing of the manticore. I look forward to seeing this lot painted. :-)

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    1. Same here, There are lots of things I want to work on so I'll start with quick stand alone projects and will get back on warbands and army units then !
      The manticore really is fabulous, it's even better when you old it. Some little details like teh textures in the wings are just too good.

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  2. Fantastic Looking projects and juicy conversions...well done. You have your painting work cut out for you!

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    1. Oh thanks ! I actually have a little more than that actually (cough cough) since I still have a squat gang for RT half painted, a plastic Kaleb Daark to finish, an eldar avatar and the 21 chaos models form the "how to oldhammer" challenge as well.
      But hey, I won't complain about having too much good things ahead right?

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  3. I've got a similar set of chaos warriors that require some attention, you've given a load of ideas. Cheers.

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    1. I'm not worried, you're not the kind to get short on good ideas ;)
      Consideirng you legendary speed you'll have them all painted before I even prime mine !

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  4. Pretty nice work! Wow! But now you have to spare some time along with the brushes, hehe...

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    1. You're right, modelling is actually my happy place, an dI like to build models, base them and convert them when I'm lazy, it just feels natural. Painting requires more focus and time but I do enjoy it a lot. I just needed something easy after a 3 weeks hyatus. There will be priming very soon and there will be painting just after that believe me !

      Thanks Suber ;)

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  5. Love that weird, dancing, bug-eyed rider you have there! How's the time-travelling gunslinger coming along by the way?

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    1. Well I based this way and only realised he was a rider afterwards, it gives him a groovy pose I quite fancy !

      The time-travelling gunslinger is advancing well, I just need one or maybe 2 sessiosn with the green stuff before I start painting and I have the colour scheme well in mind now. I won't show WIP shots of him because it would spoil the fun wouldn't it?

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    2. Massive doses of Iron Miaden's "Stranger in a strange land" have inspired me somehow and even provided me a name for the model but enough for now...

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  6. Ohhh great post JB!!
    That Manticore is a thing of beauty indeed!
    And I almost cry seeing my Minotaur and Piscean assembled and ready! Damn , I need to create more of this guys , the pleasure of seeing other people enjoing my miniatures is a feeling very hard to explain with words....
    Thank you!!!

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    1. I can understand this joy, must be close to hearing people sing a song you wrote !

      The manticore is absolutely splendid and far much better than what I believed (and god knows I thought it was cool). It will be a stand-alone model so I can work quite rapidly on this one I hope.
      The minotaur is definitely high in th priorities though !

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  7. Count Metalmane would have to be the number one candidate for having his weapon tip broken off. My friends one broke off, I picked up one cheap.....coz it was broken & just about every other one I've come across has been too! I've converted my guy up, but haven't finished painting him yet.

    I have similar sentiments to you too JB, I love converting minis...painting takes more time & effort than cutting & glueing. I'm nowhere near your GS skills though, I can round off edges, but I'm hopeless at sculpting replacement parts.

    Well done!

    Your gunna be a busy boy at your painting desk for quite a while now though :p

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    1. Thanks, I am not that good with putty but by working with it you actually learn rapidly what to do and what not to do. The only thing is that it requires patience.
      I am going to be busy indeed but it's the kind of busy I love ! I actually have a few more chaos references like loads of Chaos dwarf shooters (swivel guns, bazooka, mortars) which could very well be the base for another chaos army. I also have to remember to paint some chaos renegades units for my RT army as well.
      I guess it's time to let the brushes talk.

      Thanks a lot !

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  8. Love the conversion work on the Chaos Warriors. Its one of those skills I should work on a little...

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    1. For lots of them it was basically just pinning a new weapon and smoothing the joints with putty, even the beastmaster was not that hard a conversion really, sculpting armour and fur is quite easy, Sculpting faces wouldn't be as easy though.
      Glad you love the work done, I hope you'll like them even more once painted.

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  9. The rescued Warriors are a great looking unit. And I love the basing on the Chimera.

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  10. Thanks Jonah, I'm eager to give colours to those ! Oh and I have found things to add to your "asslessbits"

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