A Miscellany of Ingenious Scratchbuilds & Kitbashes:

[Maddoc]

I don't know how to sell painted figures. I just don't have the capacity to do so, to the core of my being.Thus my bloated collection!

Amen!!

[Padrissimus]

29. Resurrected Head-Hunting Charioteer (Kit-bash)

I had two 'counts-as' corpse carts for my skelebobs, but I was not convinced by them. One was, frankly, a pathetic excuse for corpse cart ...



... as it had only the power of a rotting donkey and one lone corpse.

The other was too 'grand', clean and fancy to be a corpse cart ...







... but rather was the finely decorated carriage of a long dead proud and noble warrior.

I wanted something that was more fitting, with a story that fit its role, and so I took one old chaos chariot, ancient metal skeleton, a couple of standard plastic skellie horse, LOTS of skulls and a giant's skeletal hand ...













... I fitted, glued and painted until, Wa la! An ancient warrior, whose hobby is collecting the heads of his slain enemies, gets to pursue his hobby once more!







This corpse carts 'magical' effects are powered by the undead souls of the head hunter's many ancient (and more recent) victims, cursed to travel with this cart wheresoever it roams.

(Don't ask what the horses did to have their heads chopped off too, but I reckon with the two bony ones assisted by the cursed souls of the the two horse's heads then that adds at least some extra horsepower.) As for the hands, he must've thought they'd come in handy!)

[LordOdo]

Oooh well done! Looks very good!

[Hupp n at em]

Man it is downright criminal that this thread doesn't have more comments.  Amazing scratchbuilding! 

[Elk101]

Excellent work on the chariot, very creepy looking.

[Padrissimus]

30. Greenskin baggage/loot wagon.

This is a kitbashed greenskin baggage wagon as featured in the Tilea Campaign Part 3 story: Interlude, The Greenskin Corsairs.

I didn’t take WIP pictures, but here you can see it from different angles. The greenskins are very old, very basic, Citadel plastics. The wagon a Tomb Kings chariot which they have ‘fixed up’ a bit (presumably looted after a battle, or found abandoned, or stolen from some other greenskins, or … who am I kidding, there must be thousands of possible ways they might have obtained it!?).









If I was working on it now I would've made their hands clasp the poles better, but back then I wasn't really bothered by such fiddly details!

Here's the little bit of the story with this particular model in it ...

As ever, they were the last to arrive at the camp. When the mules were alive they were always behind the rest of the mob. Now the beasts had been eaten - the very marrow sucked from their bones and all agreed very nice it was too - they were just that little bit further back. Toggler knew Hafdi had to do most of the heavy work, but without Toggler’s constant encouragement they would never reach the camp each night at all. Hafdi, not the brightest of orcs (and that’s saying something considering the level of wit possessed by your average orc) was easily distracted. For an hour he had been complaining about his swollen toe.



“It’s not just ‘urtin, it’s itchin’ too!” said Hafdi.

“Well,” sighed Toggler, “pull a bit faster an’ we’ll get where we’re goin’ an’ then you can get to scratching.”

“I in’t gonna scratch at it, not when it ‘urts this much.”

Not for the first time today, Toggler rolled his eyes. “That, my big toed friend, is what you call a dilemma.”

Hafdi stopped, so suddenly that Doodo the snot nearly fell from the front of the wagon. The orc looked confused, more-so than usual.

“You talkin’ to my toe?” he asked.

Toggler had no idea where this new nonsense came from. “What’ya mean, talkin’ to yer toe?”

“You just said he was your friend, and told him about the dilella.”

“’Dilemma’” corrected the goblin. “The word’s ‘dilemma’, ain’t that right Doodo?”

“Go faster. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!” shouted the snot, as he always did.

“Come on, Toe,” said Toggler, “It ain’t much further. You can bring Hafdi along too.”

Hafdi’s pained expression vanished to be replaced by a grin. “You is talkin' to my toe!”

Hefting the pole, and once again nearly tipping Doodo the snot over (he never learned), they set off for the final stretch ...



… passing by the camp’s outermost sewed-skin tents. There a bunch of Poglin Fangface’s goblins were gathered around a trestle table they had dragged from a woodsman’s hut nearby. Upon the table lay a murderous looking five-barreled pistol ...

[Padrissimus]

31. 'Cartoon' Zombie Pirates (of course!)

These feature in the Tilean Campaign, Part 9 story 'Assault on Viadaza'. They were done in two batches, years apart. First, I painted a regiment of ex-Empire soldiers during a campaign with 6 friends before I started any internet involvement (apart from e-mails). Modeled from Empire and Zombie sprues, I painted them, cheekily, in one player’s army colours, so that he could see he was now fighting against what used to be his own soldiers!



You can see a smattering of red and white, quartered, and the use of some Empire troop arms, legs and bodies. I must have taken the picture later though, because they are carrying a pirate flag,  which links to …

In a later campaign, again before my internet battle reports etc, I wanted an army of zombie pirates in the same cartoon style as above, to allow me to mix the earlier troops in with the new ones, bulking up their numbers. This time I mixed the zombie sprues with free company sprues ....



Here are two of the captains ...


(That arrow must have stung when it went in!)

Here are some of my favourite scallywags ...


I doubt any of their pistols are still loaded, but some of them can still manage to shoot bullets. Not well, mind, but at least they go bang ...


(These handgunners are my favourite zombie pirates.)


They still thirst for rum (indeed I reckon they are probably even thristier than they were in life), so a fairly simple kitbash ...



They have 'bloated corpses' in their army (as per the White Dwarf Luthor Harkon list) ...

(Don't ask me why I forgot to paint their faces. I just noticed now!)

Their artillery apparently doubles as a pencil sharpener ...


And their ship once served as a cigar box ...


Their dogs were once used for hunting cochon marron and sangliers ...

... but now help in battles.

And their insane, bestial, vampire admiral can be seen here with one of his most trusted captains ...



The admiral is also a kit-bash as his right hand has been replaced with that of an ogre, clutching a suitably curved blade.

[Padrissimus]

Forgot about this pic from an unrelated bat rep ... all gathered together in a castle's courtyard!

[Padrissimus]

Cartoon zombies are obviously not very fashionable. Hmm, not sure, then, if I'll raise much interest in the following! But hey, I must continue the thread now it has been started, and so I shall.

32. Rotting Leviathans



I made these circa 1987, I think. For decades they were just painted black, but I gave them a new paint job, and added some watery effects, about 10 years ago for a new campaign.

They were fashioned from ...

Timpo 54mm knights mail armoured legs, feet cut off
Timpo 54mm shields
Plastic sails from some tiny toy ships
Red plastic caps for a 1980's style cap gun
Cotton thread
Lots of milliput
And after painting - dripped glue to make the (admittedly over-sized) water drops.



This is the description of them I wrote for the story of their raising ...

Bubbles began to bulge up from the depths, bursting to release a foul stench, and heralding the slow rise of the long dead monsters. When they came their armoured backs broke the surface first, then a mass of thrashing limbs appeared, bearing barbed claws and writhing tentacles. Galdabash looked upon them and decided that they 'would do'.

Water poured from them, for inside their exoskeleton were cavities where once their organs had been. Those spongy organs had completely rotted away, and as the water leaked out the beasts became much lighter than they had been in life - now able to scuttle across the swamp surface. Long, tusk-like claws protruded from their front-most limbs, and viciously sharp pincers flexed and snapped together beneath the bumpy bulk of their pre-historic heads. Tentacles hung on their flanks, some twitching, others flailing, and huge, many jointed tails bore curved horns and topped with hardened plates, similar to those on the top and sides of their whole bodies.

No eyes were visible, for they had not in life sported such appendages, instead they had lumps fashioned of hairy sinews, being the flaccid, rotten remains of what had once been their sense organs.

Now Galdabash turned and began the journey back to where most of his army lay unmoving and awaiting his command. The two creatures slithered along the surface of the swamp behind him.

[v_lazy_dragon]

So many brilliant ideas on this thread - I'm in awe!

[Padrissimus]

So, v lazy dragon - which one(s) do you like?

33. Skaven Palanquin

I wanted my skaven warlord in an old internet campaign to look impressive, but he was just a ratman. I decided he should therefore be mounted on something a bit more impressive.

so I harnessed up a rat ogre ...



Got together some bits ...



Painted up a personal guard of 30 skaven (in yellow, by far the bravest of skaven colours as it means the enemy can pick you out) ...



Built and painted the palanquin ogre ...



And Warlord Scabscar ...



And he was ready...





In his first battle, however, he joined another regiment ...



... because his yellow guards weren't quite ready. I did finish them eventually ...

[Padrissimus]

Maybe I should have taken new pictures for that last one? I think I used to use the flash too much!

Anyhow ...

34. 'Arabyan' Elephant

This is a toy elephant, with balsa, real cloth, bits of my mum's old 1980's 'dress' jewelry, milliput, GW goblin plastic shields, chains and cords added. 





Here is the beast on parade as a mercenary company arrived in Marienburg in a campaign years ago ...



And here are some 'in game' shots from an old battle report ...




(I like how the servant is still offering his plate of sweetmeats to his master even as that beast attacks.)

[scatterbrains]

That's the most unique and craziest thread I've ever seen!

I always screech said, skaven make do the craziest things. You must be on clan skryre space program yes yes?

[guitarheroandy]

So many crazily good ideas in this thread. Very creative and well-executed!

[Padrissimus]

I'm in the very early phases of another crazy Skaven scheme. Annoyed, however, that I stupidly threw a certain plastic toy away (keeping only the wheels!) years ago. I am an idiot! Now I am trying to find me a cheap plastic toy alternative, which ain't easy.

I can't even find a picture of said plastic toy, which I once took as a joke!