Kugane Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 Hello everybody, I have started a new Death army and planning to build it with an eastern theme. Originally I planned to make a samurai deathrattle army, but with the fact that most skeletons wear a shield of some sort it was becoming far too historically inaccurate to make it work. Instead I have now decided to simply make a blend of most asian historical warrior classes, mainly aiming at Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Mongolian and a bit of Indian styles mashed together into something that looks nice on the table and is still legal to play. Unfortunately I do not own a dry brush, so a lot of OSL effects take time to build up Some of my work in progress: Necromancer: Counts-as wight king or tomb king (depending on list): Counts-as Tomb Herald: #1 #2 Counts as Dire wolves: Skeleton warriors (shields not attached yet): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mengel Miniatures Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 Wow, I love this. Very excited to see where this goes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kramer Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 That's so cool! good luck and keep sharing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted July 21, 2017 Author Share Posted July 21, 2017 10 hours ago, Mengel Miniatures said: Wow, I love this. Very excited to see where this goes! 7 hours ago, Kramer said: That's so cool! good luck and keep sharing Thank you! I'll keep putting pictures as stuff gets finished! Trying to do some tomb kings chariots in an eastern style at the moment. Luckily stuff like Settra doesn't require much conversion work since with the right colour sheme they'll blend right in with the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ademo Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 So cool! Great work so far, look forward to more!Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mengel Miniatures Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 6 hours ago, Kugane said: Thank you! I'll keep putting pictures as stuff gets finished! Trying to do some tomb kings chariots in an eastern style at the moment. Luckily stuff like Settra doesn't require much conversion work since with the right colour sheme they'll blend right in with the rest. Yeah, the TK aesthetic was always kind of a mix of Egyptian and Eastern influences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted July 21, 2017 Author Share Posted July 21, 2017 Started working a bit on the Wight King today and fixed the lighting effect on the necromancer a bit. A few mistake fixes and detailing to go for the wight king. I'm aiming for a tabletop standard, so they are starting to look good enough for that purpose in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 I'm having a hard time convincing myself that the necromancer's lantern isn't actually glowing in the first picture...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazarith Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 This is a very well done project. I want to see more. It's inspiring me to put some paint onto models. Thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DynamicCalories Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 That Lantern is delightfully devilish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted July 22, 2017 Author Share Posted July 22, 2017 18 hours ago, Tommy said: I'm having a hard time convincing myself that the necromancer's lantern isn't actually glowing in the first picture...! It would be so much easier if I actually had an air brush. I need to dry brush these OSL effects on and from experience it either turns out ok, or it just becomes a huge mess. I think from a bird eye view it looks like its actually lit up. Thanks to @Dez for his advice on glow effects during my skaven project. 6 hours ago, DynamicCalories said: That Lantern is delightfully devilish. Thank you! It was either green robes and a red lantern shining, or a green lantern and red robes. A green lantern felt more undead. 18 hours ago, Jazarith said: This is a very well done project. I want to see more. It's inspiring me to put some paint onto models. Thanks for sharing! Thank you very much! I'll keep sharing stuff as it gets done. Currently brainstorming how to make tomb kings chariots look more eastern. Thinking to sculpt a japanese oni face on one of the front panels of the chariots and re-casting those for each chariot -or- leaving the front panel off completely and do some ink drawings on the flat surfaces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrCharisma Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 Mate....this is ****in' amazing! I'm not a death player but I'd love to know what you're using to make the oriental feel. Third party bits, green stuff, ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted July 23, 2017 Author Share Posted July 23, 2017 11 hours ago, MrCharisma said: Mate....this is ****in' amazing! I'm not a death player but I'd love to know what you're using to make the oriental feel. Third party bits, green stuff, ??? The fact that you need at least 75% Games workshop bits in a model for a conversion to be tournament legal is the main limiting factor actually. I am subpar at sculpting and cannot get the effect I desire (yet), mostly because I lack the tools, so I make-do with cutting and sanding pieces of plastic/sprue/buts into the shape I want. Originally I wanted a Nipponese Deathrattle army. I'm using a mix of things, green stuff for pieces like cloth and fixing arms, cloaks, bodies, etc and lots of repositioning and cutting up games workshop bits from various sets (mostly Skaven, 40k and Death stuff). The helmets are bits I salvage from the Wargames Factory historical Feudal Japan line, because they seem to be the perfect size for these skeleton warriors. I basically cut the Jingase (cone helmet) off the head bits and sand those down until they are just the cones by themselves. After that I either modify these or leave them as-is and cut the top of the skulls of the vampire counts skeletons/black knights/ grave guard and glue the helmets on top. So head conversions are pretty straight-forward and for the most part a head conversion already creates a strong asian vibe to the entire army. Since Samurai and Ashigaru historically tend to wear mostly cloth, bamboo and leather armour, it would make sense to me that as skeletons most of these things will have decayed already, leaving only the metal Jingasa helmets, weapons and bones. The best Katana bits I have found are the ones produced by Puppetswar, but they are costly and tend to arrive with lots of casting flaws such as bubbles, bends and snapping pieces, so they need quite some modifying before being able to use them. If it wasn't for that issue, I would very likely convert entire armies using those Katanas, but the price/risk just isn't worth the reward. They also have accurate Saya (scabbard) to go along with them. It takes a lot of cutting stuff apart to make these bits work, because they naturally come with a sort of space marine lookalike hand holding the katana. So I generally cut the katana off the hand at the Tsuba (handguard) and sand down some skeleton hand to glue them onto, after that its a bit of fiddling to get the tsuka (handle) to line up with the curve of the blade. Usually a bit of green stuff and super glue does the trick, but I do try to glue them to several points (like the Wight King I glued it to the hand and the cloak) othererwise it just seems to snap off far too easily. For the heroes, like the necromancer, I used a knife to cut grooves on the otherwise smooth helmets and cut off pieces to make it look wooden and weathered. The fact that skeleton warriors pretty much NEED a shield for their extra saves and competitiveness, as well as chariots not really being a thing in Japanese warfare I had to make some changes so the army won't break immersion for myself. I'm an enthusiast and somewhat practioner of Ninjutsu (Martial Arts), somehow it makes inaccuracies bug me, despite it being a fantasy game and all. Historically the japanese army stopped using shields around the 700s. As far as I know its because a long line of fighting traditions evolved from ground troops into horseback warriors, mostly specializing in archery, so shield traditions died out in later centuries, so by the time the samurai class became a thing around the 900s shields were no longer a thing used in the noble class (some Ashigaru and farmers still used shields passed down by ancestors, etc, but this isn't commonly depicted). Chariots were mostly used by the Chinese and Mongolians, not Japanese, so for accuracy sake I had to switch to an eastern army rather than Japanese/ Nipponese, mixing references from all the real-world countries and putting them into the fantasy world. In my mind I imagine the Necromancer's origin to be Nipponese and travelling with a handful of elite warriors west-wards, raising dead along the way and marching to Khemri to find and raise the remains of Settra. I am going to base my future conversions off this idea. I might end up converting a few skeleton warriors differently to represent that journey, perhaps even adding a few middle eastern conversions here and there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 Continued working on the minis. One of the Tomb Heralds got his first few coats of paint and I've started working on a Liche Priest. I am thinking what details to start adding to the Liche Priest to make it nicer. I've considered adding a monk-like robe or perhaps some large mala (beads) hanging around him, even levitating if necessary, but no idea how to go around and find materials to make those. Tomb Herald Progress: WIP Liche Priest conversion: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lysandestolpe Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 This is dope! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 9 hours ago, Lysandestolpe said: This is dope! Thank you very much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G.Prest Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 Love these guys. I would have a death army if they looked like that. The skeleton warriors especially remind me of the old Onimusha games (which I'm a big fan of). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 10 hours ago, G.Prest said: Love these guys. I would have a death army if they looked like that. The skeleton warriors especially remind me of the old Onimusha games (which I'm a big fan of). I love the art work of the onimusha games! I may take some inspiration from it to green stuff some armour for these skeletons. Currently working on Mannfred, giving him the Ronin look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eMills Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 This is pretty good work! As someone who is a fan of ancient Japanese arms and armor, I'm really liking what you've done here. The faux Egyptian Tomb Kings parts integrate surprisingly well. Looking forward to seeing more. ? ~Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted July 29, 2017 Author Share Posted July 29, 2017 6 hours ago, eMills said: This is pretty good work! As someone who is a fan of ancient Japanese arms and armor, I'm really liking what you've done here. The faux Egyptian Tomb Kings parts integrate surprisingly well. Looking forward to seeing more. ? ~Eric Thank you! I just wish they had a bit more clothed or layered armour skeletons to represent yamabushi or samurai. I'm horrible at sculpting, but it would have been nice to implement some actual japanese armour rather than just sticking with hats, helmets and shoulder plates. I'm in the process of sculpting more armor myself, going with the bamboo plate look, but its proving to be more difficult then I expected it to be. Also the fact you need at least 75% games workshop parts in most tournaments for a miniature to be legal to use is limiting. I picked up a few great samurai miniatures I'm using as a reference from Kensei (Zenit), they have some great looking sculpts. I sent the Zenit company a message if they'd be ok with me recasting some bits like the helmets for conversion work, but I didn't get any reply. I'm personally against recasting unless I have permission from the company, so I'll have to recreate what they've done by hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted July 29, 2017 Author Share Posted July 29, 2017 Started converting Mannfred to give him a Ronin or Yamabushi look. I found a nice head piece in the Malifaux range and had to put that in somewhere. The piece was quite big, so it fit the larger Mortarchs quite well. I'm still considering wether I'll take Mannfred along with Settra, Settra with a tomb king, or Mannfred and a Wight King, all seem pretty viable options to me. Still thinking what to add to make this model have a stronger oriental vibe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kramer Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 So cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted July 30, 2017 Author Share Posted July 30, 2017 I'm brainstorming how I'll create some oriental riders for my chariots. I am thinking to buy Stormvermin, cut off the legs and tails and replace it with skeleton bits to somewhat mimic the layered chest plates that samurai used to wear, despite the plates being stacked in reverse on these miniatures. 18 hours ago, Kramer said: So cool! Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted July 30, 2017 Author Share Posted July 30, 2017 Started working on a Royal Warsphinx now. It was a huge mistake to glue the head in place, I underestimated reaching the inside of the hood. I'm still thinking wether I'll use the stock basket on top, or if I'll build something more oriental with plasticard such as a small shrine. I tried creating a marble effect on the body. The head will need a few more washes and I can start working on some details soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kugane Posted August 8, 2017 Author Share Posted August 8, 2017 So I did some research on japanese warfare, and I have come across a Koryu fighting school that uses shields, namely the Yagyu Shingan Ryu used bucklers-like shields as a defensive weapon - the twist is that these bucklers were actually the Jingasa helmets worn on their heads taken off in certain situations and used as a shield. I had quite some issues trying to make stuff like black knights look eastern, because of them needing shields, but now that I could put their shield on their head it has opened new possibilities. I've checked the ratios and some of the shields would make perfect "shield" helmets. I'll update once some conversions are complete. I also managed to get a hold of some samurai head bits that fit the skeleton skull size nicely, so looking into creating some samurai graveguard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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