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Toby

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  1. I'm not sure if you're joking, but if you are put off, don't be. Seeing the work of other people on this thread has inspired me to take more time on what I'm doing and go the extra mile. The way I see it, originality is as much doing exactly what you want to do as doing something that nobody else has thought of before. Two people could have very similar ideas or build warbands off very similar models but end up with totally different things.
  2. Deep in the marches dwells a race of amphibians. The local people call them "Froglodytes", and hang dried swamp-toads outside their houses to ward the monsters away. The more learned inhabitants of Fort Dirge wonder if they are creatures of chaos formed by the marsh itself, or some twisted remnant of the long-departed Seraphon. For their part, the marsh-hunters stay away from mankind. Humanity has little to offer them, and men can never be part of the spirit of the swamp they way that they are. However, while humans are foolish, skaven are a downright blasphemy to them, and their best hunters have been known to guide the groups of determined soldiers who issue forth from Fort Dirge to take the battle to Clan Pestilens. Slaark Shallow-Stalker is one such guide. He has killed many foes, as shown by the coloured baubles he wears, and carries the skulls of chaos champions to add their cunning to his own. Before battle he listens carefully to their empty heads, hearing the voice of the marshes whispering through their white teeth. He carries the colours of Count Dirge on a pauldron, given to him both as a gesture of thanks and to prevent the count's own men firing at him. Dozens of ratmen have fallen to Slaark's skinning knife, their bodies swallowed by the marsh.
  3. @MegabossChompaHow about the genestealer magus or the chaos sorceror for the main body? They've both plastic, and they've got long robes and those droopy scarf-type things that hang down from the collar. They're both tall, though: in real life they'd both be well over average height. Then again, tall and thin might suit the style you're thinking of.
  4. I like him, Riot! No idea what he is but he looks good. Hagan's tips are really good. The only thing I would add is that I've found it helpful to look at the shape of a model rather than its game function or army when deciding what bits to use. A Chaos body might be a good basis for a heroic knight because once you've removed the spikes, it's got the right armoured shape, or a high elf's legs might be good for a cultist because they've got robes and so on.
  5. Personally, it's all three. The first conversions I ever did were of old metal models that had been miscast: it was either convert them or don't use them at all. I also really like converting models: it's more satisfying that painting, I find, and feels more creative. I do have a lot of bits, but quite a few were given to me by friends who built an army in a very regular way and then gave me the remaining sprues, especially where one body can have several arm builds. When I used to play whole armies, I would sometimes find that I liked most of the army but not some units, so would try to add bits or use alternate models, which resulted in a lot of conversions and leftover pieces. I ended up doing a couple of Dark Eldar and Sisters of Battle units like that. A lot of it is just having a mental image of some kind of person and trying to find the parts that suits it best rather than buying a miniature for a specific force, especially in skirmish games where you don't need loads of idential soldiers.
  6. Well, it's hard to answer to such great work, but here goes... Count Dirge has been the lord and master of Fort Dirge ever since the death of his father Beauregard at the nasty little hands of a skaven raiding party, fourteen years ago. Since then, Clovis has held back the marsh and its worst inhabitants, patrolled the main roadways and maintained some level of sanity in the place: considerable achivements, in the circumstances. Fort Dirge belongs to him: the galleries of mouldering tapestries, the collection of ornate and broken clocks, the battlements and stones themselves. Through the hovel-towns inhabited by marsh-sifters and froglodytes, to the reeking wetlands themselves, Count Dirge's word is law. At least, in theory: outside the endless hallways of the castle, the wild creatures of the marsh are ruled by their own hunger and fear. Most lethal of them all is the sly and vicious marsh-dragon, which has claimed innumerable skaven and, at their only meeting, Clovis' right leg. Count Dirge is a massive, brooding man, still strong and shrewd, resplendent in his brazen armour. No longer able to dash into battle, he has grown fond of his collection of firearms, which he has used to deadly effect on the hordes of Clan Pestilens on several occasions. On warm nights, he sits in the cupola at the top of the North Quadrangle, his musket by his side, watching for ratmen and the bursts of burning marsh-gas that show that his nemesis has returned. I've also made some progress on the dragon. While it's not incredibly grimdark, I think the low, crawling pose suits the style of old Warhammer (before the dragons became very serpentine). I bought a terradon head to use for its head, but it was too narrow. Luckily, I had a spare and ended up filing them down and sticking them together, and filling the gaps with green stuff, to make one large head. The "ears" were old bat wings, and the horns came off a chaos cart. His base is nearly finished.
  7. Bruticus, those models are great. The treeman is like something from Slaine. Terrific painting and converting.
  8. My own view on this - and I'm a very long way from being any sort of expert - is that one of the things that's always made Warhammer different from "standard" fantasy illustration (especially in John Blanche's concept art) is the "twiddlyness" of it all. Even models that aren't gothic in the proper sense carry lots of stuff: the Brettonian questing knights for instance with all their trinkets and baggage, or the complex paintwork on the shields of fairly standard orcs and skeletons in the old Realm of Chaos days. The pictures Hagen posted have a sort of obsessive detail like those Bosch and Brugel paintings full of grotesque figures. Even the knight on his horse has a complex helmet and a leopardskin cloak. The sky and the ground look full of different bits of colour. That kind of intricate detail feels to me very AoS28, even in patches. At least, that's how I see it.
  9. Thanks! I'm thinking that he'll be some kind of mutant frog/fish thing, a bit like the old Slann or one of the Deep Ones from H.P. Lovecraft. He'll probably end up grey like a catfish or maybe a faded green, although I don't want him to look too much like a 40k kroot. I expect chaos is involved somewhere... One of the things I like about AoS is the potential for mutation and strangeness without either witch-hunters or the chaos gods being involved - given how big and varied the setting is, the potential for random weirdness seems much bigger.
  10. Hi, Here are a couple of works in progress. This guy is the leader of the warband. In his role as lord and master, he wears ornate heavy armour, but has acquired a few wounds along the way. Parts: Legs: Empire general Peg leg: Empire handgun Torso: Blood Angel space marine Cloak: High Elf Left arm: Empire pistolier Right arm: Empire handgunner Head: Empire free company This guy is a tracker native to the marsh. He assists the humans in hunting their common enemy: skaven. Parts: Legs, torso and arms: Bloodletter Head and knife: kroot warrior Spear: savage orc Shoulder pad: Chaos marauder.
  11. I think both of those ideas would be good. I like the idea of a royal court: you could have a jester, bodyguards, a scribe and so on. It could work really well.
  12. Sorry to double post. I'm not sure how to edit a post - a box briefly appeared on screen but now seems to have vanished! Anyhow, here is a better picture, which I would have put into the post above.
  13. This is an amazing thread. There are so many good ideas around. Those wolves with skull heads look great. OrfeoCulzean's stuff is crazy. I expecially like the little dog-thing being pulled along by giant rats. Here is Lady Dirge with paint. The flash has slightly washed out the detail. Below is a WIP shot of the marsh dragon. I've had this model for years. Someone gave it to me and I've no idea where it comes from. The lead was very soft, but I don't know if that's just what happens to old models. I've had to add wings (again, I'm not sure whose wings they are). I think he'll end up with a head from the lizardmen terradon set. He looks suitably low and sleazy, as dragons go.
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