Beastmen Warband

DeafNala wrote:

If your limit your minis to a particular material or mini maker, you're putting a lot of unnecessary restrictions on War Band/collection. When minis were lead based there was a real difference in heft between metals & plastic. The difference between pewter & plastic is a lot less...if you weight your bases the difference become unnoticeable. PLUS for the unique minis that conversions/kit bashes yield, plastic is far superior to metal. AND G.W. isn't the only source of metal Beastmen.   

I once had a blood bowl team made from mostly plastic skeletons that I glued nickels to the bases to add some weight.

The last of the gors is another older GW metal model that was originally a musician.  The model normally has a horn that he is blowing that I was able to snip off without causing too much damage to the models mouth.  The only noticeable think is that his off hand is not turned in a normal combat pose.  To help hide this I added another marauder shield that add the added benefit of a stretched out beastman looking face on it.  Besides adding the shield I also removed his normal weapon and added a beefy looking plastic gor weapon.  Since his skin was a grayish color I just added some red bandages to keep the color scheme intact.  It was an easy conversion and I am pleased with how he turned out.




I used a little of the GW blood effect on the shield to make it a little more gory



The horns I was relatively pleased with this time.  For an older model I think it still holds up well to today's standards

I could be wrong...this would not be a unique experience...but I think that's one of the Morrison's Marauder minis. I still have some unpainted ones along with the old Citadel types that probably will never see a paint brush. That aside your Old Beast Fellow looks TERRIFIC. The dark skin tones & white fur work well together. VERY WELL DONE!    

lowenbraugh wrote:

I once had a blood bowl team made from mostly plastic skeletons that I glued nickels to the bases to add some weight.

I use zinc washers myself; I picked up a box of 1,500 for about $15. Over on Lead Adventure Forum, using 30mm or so washers as bases has become rather chic.   

I will look into that when I start on the mercenary warbands since I'll be using some plastic mini's for the henchman.

Up next I have the minotaur.  Personally I think this model is one of if not the best looking minotaur that GW has made.  The current plastic ones look nice and are certainly scary looking, but they also look so swollen with muscle that they look like they are about to pop.  The mordheim model reminds me of the minotaur from Greek mythology.  The model gives the impression of strength without looking like something off the cover of muscle fitness magazine. I love the tail and the human shaped feet as apposed to hoofs.  The model normally comes with a bag of skulls, which is a nice touch, but I opted to go with two weapons instead.  The club is from the plastic minotaur kit from GW and was a VERY easy swap.  There was a few gaps I had to fill with green stuff on the chest and back.  Before paint I thought I done a good job, but once paint was applied I was left with a line through the hair where the green stuff ended.  I was a bit weary on giving him a human skin tone, but in the end I was pleased with how it turned out.  

Your brushwork & base are OUTSTANDING as always. GREAT WORK!    
I think what ruins that mini for moi is the legs. Of all the Beast Guys the one that absolutely should have bovine legs & hooves is the Minotaur.

I really like the big guy.     

Perhaps a group shot? Show us how they all look together?

Von Kurst wrote:

I really like the big guy.      

Perhaps a group shot?  Show us how they all look together?

Sure, once I get the last of the individual pictures up I will get them together for some group shots

Winding down the warband I have the ungors.  Since their promotion prospects are grim and they are essentially cannon fodder.  I painted up the three from the Mordheim models and for the others I had to troll around on ebay.  Wanting to stick with metal models I found some old command models that I think work well.  Up first the regular Mordheim models



I rather like the look of this chap, he has a really nasty look about him.  I gave him a little axe in his off hand since I didn't have any empty beastmen hands to work with.  I like his paint job except I wasn't too pleased with how his fur coat turned out.  







The last of the dead rockers.  I was a bit stumped on how to paint the glasses, which I decided was a horrible thing to put on the model in the first place!  My only regret though in the end is that the hood color is too close to the models skin color.  His spear is a plastic one from the GW box.









The cat burglar! This guy means business because he brought a lunch.  






Obviously this guy was a standard bearer and it is not a good way to hold a spear, but I liked the look of the model so I went with it.  The three horns reminded me of Nick Three-Horn from the old Blood Bowl fluff so I snipped the top off the banner and added the spear tip that my Centigor originally came with.  Unconventional looking but I think his uniqueness makes it okay.




I know running the streets of mordheim blowing a horn is probably not the best tactic, but I liked this model and thought removing the horn would be too noticeable.  He originally had the most puny looking spear that was removed and I went with a plastic gor one.   I had to cheat slightly by tilting the spear so it wouldn't be hitting the ground,  Overall simple yet good in my opinion.  

They are least and last (at least so far), but you have done a fine job with the lowly ungors.   

As a long time fan of the under dogs, these Runts of the Litter are especially COOL...GREAT brushwork once more. The Top Guy with the studded leather is my favorite in the Group...definite attitude problem here. VERY WELL DONE!    

Those are awesome! Love how they all have different skin tones. Looks suitably chaotic!

Daniel36 wrote:

Those are awesome! Love how they all have different skin tones. Looks suitably chaotic!

Thanks man.  I tried my best to not duplicate the skin color as much as possible.  The randomness of the mordheim models is what drew me to purchasing them and I wanted to keep that Chaotic theme going.  The chaos hounds are by far the most bizarre and chaotic of all the models, but unfortunately trying to find those models for sale are both rare and expensive.  Instead of paying 17.00+ per model I went with the old metal Chaos hounds.  To be honest I couldn't get too excited about painting the models because I don't really think they are the best looking pieces.  I kept the paint job simple and the detail to a minimum.  So, not my best work with these three, and poor picture quality doesn't help their cause.

Ha! I looked at the pictures first and was pretty pleased because I like this generation of chaos hound, maybe because I have a lot of the previous release and I am not fond of those. The Mordheim hounds were never very well marketed. I didn't know there was a Beastman boxed set for Mordheim until I bought it on sale in some game stores reject bin a few years ago. To each their own, or the chaos hound is always greener, something like that   

Von Kurst wrote:

Ha!  I looked at the pictures first and was pretty pleased because I like this generation of chaos hound, maybe because I have a lot of the previous release and I am not fond of those.  The Mordheim hounds were never very well marketed.  I didn't know there was a Beastman boxed set for Mordheim until I bought it on sale in some game stores reject bin a few years ago.  To each their own, or the chaos hound is always greener, something like that   

I do think this version of Chaos Hound is much better than the newer plastic set. I had tried to get some old school GW hounds of chaos but settled on these. They aren't bad models I just couldn't get excited about painting them.

VERY fine paint work on these guys! They really have a lot of character.

Awesome job on the beastmen. Really cool paint jobs. I like the grey fur on one of them. My fav is the Cat Burgler. I love his pose. He's got the hip thrust going with the "yo mama" thing going on. Very cool.

The Hounds look suitably unnatural...VERY chaos style. The brushwork & basing is as SPLENDIDLY DONE as ever. GREAT WORK!    

Thanks again for the positive feedback!

The last model of the warband was the one that went through the most revisions.  Originally I started painting the Shaman model from the box set, but for some reason I didn't really take to it.  Perhaps my paint job wasn't turning out well but for whatever reason I became disenfranchised with the model.  My second attempt was with the new plastic Bray Shaman and while it is a nice looking model once it was assembled I was rather intimidated by the painting challenge and backed off.  The third attempt was a go with Malagor who I removed the wings and did some nice greenstuff work to cover it up.  It's a great model but I then felt that it was a more intimidating model than the War chief.  I have always felt that the leader of the warband should be the most intimidating or most grandiose model of the group.  My final option was to go with the old metal Bray shaman model.  It has less intimidation factor and is still a great looking model.  Here it is:



I don't have much variation in my color scheme from bone and horns, so this made for a tricky situation.  The colors turned out similar, but I hope there is a enough subtle difference to work.  I have since picked up some of the new GW paints so hopefully in the future I won't have the same problem.  My base color on the robe didn't work too well with the highlight colors so the robe ended up with a quasi-dirty look.  Not my best work.



I used some of the new blood technical paint to get the skull to cry some tears.  



And that concludes the last of my warband.  I was going to get some group shots this weekend but I was too busy working on my latest project warband.  If Uncle Sam takes it easy on me this week then I will try to get some done and post them.  Off all the mordheim warbands I have worked on through the years, I will be honest that this is the first fully completed and painted warband I have done.  Hopefully I can get them into the fight some time soon!

The Beastly Shaman is a FINE finale to the War Band...BEAUTIFULLY painted, based & rather dramatically posed. VERY WELL DONE!    
All that's left to do is a Group Portrait.   

As promised here are some quick group shots that I took of the whole warband and some smaller groups.  I tried my best to get good lighting.  I apologize for all the wood veneer...

















Finally I have been working on a new warband project so I wanted to leave you all with a sneak peek of my next project.  It is a quick test model I put together to try out some color schemes.  

Love it! The varying flesh tones really convey the chaotic nature of the Beasts    

The Group Portrait really shows off the Beastly Band to advantage... a WONDERFULLY Chaotic Crew. AND the new Lad gives a glimpse of things yet to come. VERY WELL DONE!    

Beautiful warband. Love the colors. I love the minatour. Nice quick conversion.

That'S one awesome looking-warband!

Fantastic work man. Can't wait until you get back from Korea so we can get these minis on my terrain.
You'll have to give me some painting tips when you get back too.

A+!

My warbands would be honored to get their asses kicked by these brutes! Truly wonderful job!