Grenadier Undead Imperial Guard Mammoth [PICS]

[Pil]

Hello all! I got this fantastic model for my birthday, and of course I couldn't wait to assemble and paint it! Now, two months later, the model and the pictures are done, but before I get to them let's have a little lesson in miniature history first. The "Imperial Guard Mammoth" was originally released in 1986 as part of the Grenadier Masterpiece Editions. The Masterpiece Editions was a range of six large undead models: two mammoths, a rhino, a giant, a dragon and a chariot. You can see an overview of the Masterpiece Editions here:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tpope/sol/grenadier/masterpiece-editions.html


And here's another picture of the box of the Imperial Guard Mammoth and it's contents:


Grenadier went bust and the moulds came in the possession of Mirliton in Italy (and EM4 but they haven't re-released the Masterpiece Editions):
http://www.mirliton.it/product_info.php?pName=skeleton-war-mammoth-with-catapult&cName=fantasy-2528mm-undeads


If you look at the crew you can see that Mirliton has different skeletons on the Mammoth than the old Grenadier model has. These skeletons 'new' skeletons are larger and also made by Grenadier in 1995probably to make them fit in more with popular scales (read: for use in Warhammer). Unfortunately these new skeletons aren't very pretty, so I chose to replace them.

To give the mammoth the crew it deserves and to make it fit in more with my army I contracted three volunteers from my collection of old Citadel skeletons. I want to use the model as a Warsphinx in my Tomb Kings army, which officially has four Tomb Guard crew with spears. I didn't have that many spearmen, nor had I room for four models, so the mammoth has to make do with three crew and only one (far too short) spear. The other two models were duplicates so I didn't mind them being on the mammoth much.

Anyway, I put the whole lot together, painted it and photographed it, and this is the result:




I left off the armour in front of the rib cage. I never really liked the look of it though I saved the bit in case I might use it for a possible ext mammoth.




I also left off the banner that came with the model. I couldn't find an appropriate spot for it and extensions like that make transporting the model even more difficult. It'll probably find a use elsewhere someday.






As theme colours I picked white clothing with red details. Red doesn't always work well with my colour scheme as it disappears a bit next to all the rusty metal bits. The same thing happened in this case, so on a next model I will pick different colours again, though I don't intend to repaint the red bits here. I'm not too enthusiastic about the way the shields turned out on this model but I prefer to paint any changes on unpaintedn models rather than on already painted models.





The old Citadel skeletons are still my favorite range of skeletons and I think they are worthy crew for this beautiful mammoth!



I added some rope (button wire) to the catapult to finish it off. It's a very small effort and it looks much better. The catapult won't be of much help rules-wise, as the Warsphinx can't shoot (with the exception of an optional breath weapon).

I hope you like the pictures, I'm very pleased with the model so thanks a great deal to my friends!

[Mason]

 

Great stuff, Pil!

This big lad will look fantastic in amongst your undead horde, trampling all underfoot.
I feel it was a good choice to change the crew.
These do look much better and will work much smoother with the existing models in the army.

[white knight]

I had the original model from way back (as well as the other variant and the rhino) and traded them away to someone on this forum because the crew were so small and dated. I can't believe it didn't occur to me to simply replace them with other skeletons, now I'll have to buy them again.

Either way, you did a great job on them and it fits well with your other classic stuff.

[Commander Vyper]

Remember seeing this and the war rhino, skeletal giant and others in the family run department store in Southend when I went to stay with my nan during the holidays, always coverted it, even as a little lad. Nice to see it in you horde mate, long may it serve!

[Pil]

Thanks all! I'm hoping to get a long service out of it too! So far, so good and it'll be a while before the Tomb Kings book will be updated. And even then I don't think they'll just take out the Warsphinx. I have most of the rhino laying around as well for the same treatment after a proper stripping, but first I decided to concentrate on some other, smaller undead

[m4jumbo]

Very cool.  Love to see the classics.

[Totleben]

Normally not my cup of tea but here I just have to say wow. 

[The Dozing Dragon]

Great work! I have one sitting around somewhere........always hated the metal Grenadier used as it did not bend and tended to snap easily....very infuriating and put me off assembling the larger pieces (well, that's a good enough excuse for part of the lead mountain  )

[Faber]

 
very nice Pil! Love that beast!

[DeafNala]

That really is a VERY COOL piece & BEAUTIFULLY WELL DONE!
Much as I loved the BIG Beasties that Grenadier used to come out with, I generally tried to avoid them. I referred to them as "wrist breakers"; i.e., with the weight of the lead, as I worked on them my wrist would be slowly bend backwards. Their Dragons were, of course, the pieces every one of my customers wanted.

[Pil]

Thank you! I think I saw this model and others from the range years ago on conventions. I never coveted them a lot but when I started my undead army they were destined to become part of it, especially now that there are rules to use them

It was rather heavy indeed and that is definitely an extra strain during painting. And I personally have never been a fan of assembly after painting. Their dragons tend to rather weighty as well yes. Dozing Dragon> I know what you mean with the brittle lead, luckily the tusks proved no problem to bend but I felt the trunk already cracking when I was adjusting it's pose. Fortunately most of the model could be used as-is.

[phreedh]

Nice one Pil, really like the job you did on it! I've never bothered with minis like this, too much hassle pinning and gluing and stuff - but the effort really pays off! Not as impressive as your skeletal titan but close to it!

[jojo1976]

Hi I have one of this undead battle mammoths for sale if someone is looking for one still , it is new new and never opened from 1986, super rare, pm me if you may be interested..

[Delaney]

wow!

[**GS**]

that one is a beauty, if somewhat skinny