Empire Witch-Hunter

I wonder if you can guess what this post will be about... ? .... 

any ideas? .. ogres perhaps? .. more maneaters maybe?.. 

AHA!.. you have fallen foul to my masterfully conceived trap!!! Mwhahahaha...

yeah.. i agree, lets cut the melodrama.. 

so to business...

today we have, the 'new' empire witch hunter!

i've had this model since it came out a few months ago.. i actually pre-ordered it.. not that i intended to use one in my army, i just liked the model (although he does currently act as my general of the empire)..  

I also painted this model more or less as soon as i got it.. which means this is hardly an up-to-date post, i just didn't have any photos of it until now...
I chose to stray from the GW paint scheme slightly as i didn't want him to be overbearingly red.. i was aiming for a slightly more 'Van helsing' type look.. although i still wanted to hint my armies colours.

This model was actually the first finecast model i ever bought and i have to say that sadly it lives up to its rather unfortunate internet nickname 'crapcast' (and all the other variations). The model needed a fair bit of green stuffing to repair it.. such as fixing the cloak (which had a big hole in it), the hat (which was broken) and rightside of his face and nose (which was just a mess) and countless air bubbles across the model. Although this was fairly easily solved with some greenstuff and abit of patience, its still not the sort of thing you want to be required to do to a new model. It did however give me a chance to try out the liquid greenstuff for the first time and i have to say i liked it alot, makes filling in gaps alot easier and quicker!
This model was also the first time i tried out the army painter quick-shade system, which i've already spoken about in another post... although as it was the first time i tried it, i did nearly completely ruin the model...
let me explain..
I spent ages painting up the model, applying my own highlights and shading as normal, with the intention of using quick-shade to add further definition. After dipping the model and letting it dry i realised that i'd forgotten it would come out shiny.. so i bought some army painter matt varnish spray and coated the model the same way i would with games workshop primers.. and watched in horror as the heavy coat wrinkled and deformed. As a result i had to carefully scratch of the wrinkly bits, reapply some of the paint, brush on the quick-shade in those places and then lightly 'dust' with matt varnish. I should note that i don't blame the products (which are excellent) it was simply me being a ponce!

So yeah.. thats it for this post!
i've got some more models ready to blog but need to grab the camera first..
so i'll try and upload something next week!
   

   

 

Maneater conversions- Boxing ogre

Well, as promised i have another maneater... the boxer!

If your anything like me.. which to be fair, your probably not..
you would have picked up the ogre bulls box, examining the ironfists on the sprues.. and gone straight for the one that looks like a solid iron boxing glove (probably whilst mouthing the lyrics to the final verse of a certain Simon and Garfunkel song.. i'm sure you can figure out which one)

well this gave me an idea.. how about an ogre, that is so confident/violent/psychotic that instead of dispatching his enemies with a sword, or even perhaps an axe.. he would much rather bludgeon them to death with his own, allbeit metal encased, hands..

naturally, he would have to be a maneater..

this 'conversion' was very easy.. really more of a kit bashing than anything else.. it uses the body and ironfists from the ogre bulls set and the head and arms from the mournfang box.. as i found the arms were generally more dramatically posed than in the bulls box..

A very small amount of greenstuff was needed to fill in the gaps between the arms and the body.. clearly games workshop didn't consider interchangeable parts when they made this set.. but it was easy enough to sort out so can't really complain..

more greenstuff was needed to cover up the right hand... as all the ironfists where made to be left handed.. apparently there aren't many ambidextrous ogres wondering around the place.. so a small blob which i flattened out and voila problem solved. 

Alot of the character of this maneater however will have to come out in the painting and basing... i plan to paint him splattered with blood (although trying to figure out how to make it look right, as alot of blood effects on models look terrible) and i'm thinking maybe a rather battered looking body lying on the floor in front of him..
 

i don't know when i'll post something next, as i'm away all weekend.. but i'll try and get something up on monday.. I just finished 3 ironguts today, so they will be added to the mounting list of models i've yet to blog..  on the brightside, it gives you all something to look forward to.. in theory

let me know what you think of the maneaters so far.. i've just figured out an outline for the last 2 and am also considering converting my own tyrant as i'm not overly keen on the gamesworkshop one..

stay tuned.