StoneMonk Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Going to Havoc was my second event away from home, and I was so hyped to go to a narrative and hobby focused event. My doubles partner and podcast co-host @Red_Zeke took our 'Endless Destruction' force (you can see my Tyranid themed Destruction Army WIP here) My Beastclaw/Gutbusters and his Bonesplitters. So to lead them at the event, we needed a bruiser who could thump both armies into compliance, for at least a few battles. I'll be sharing the step by step from concept to event in the thread below. To start, these are the ideas i shared over chat with my local gaming group. Couldn't have pushed forward on this their initial positivity reinforcing the inspiration. I knew I wanted to use the IronJawz Warchanter as the base, stripped of armor. Then, with his arms in the air, I wanted to use the open stance to show off the weapon upgrades he was going to receive throughout the event. and if that wasn't enough, I wanted to have the bodies of his frienemies be piling up beneath him as he rose in status amongst the two armies. Ambitious enough? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMonk Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 I needed to test it out to see if this was even viable. So...I started with the Warchanter model, and magnetizing weapons. Pretty quickly I knew I could do the weapon swap part pretty easily. The tyranid stuff was meant to be just bonkers, and those were actually the easy ones. I had some difficulty sourcing the bows. More drama on that later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMonk Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 Next I had to start experimenting with the basing, still the question of how that would even work. One thing I realized a bit late, was that my original sketches started with him on a lower base, and then adding the ogors as 1st add-on. But, as you can tell, the ogors are so bulky, and needed more covering to make it feel right. He's beaten up some ogors and a giant, and they've quickly been consumed by the sands. The orruks have great poses with arched backs and almost dangling arms, so i used that to my advantage. I found a position i liked for the first one, and then once I got a second one laying on there as well, I simply dabbed some plastic glue on the connection where the two met, held the position a bit, and let it harden. I did my best to find positions where they could just fit into place easily, so they orruk base only fits a certain way on top of the ogors. once i had it built up enough, I was able to add a single magnetization spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMonk Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 I started to get antsy with paint and was procrastinating a bit on the third tier of the base, but eventually got there. Of course, because our destruction armies were set in the Endless Desert, it's likely that they ran into the legions of King Pharakh so wanted to pay homage to @mengelminiatures by painting the skeletons in the scheme of his army. Using bits from your opponent's army as trophies is another thing on the wargamer's bucketlist isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMonk Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 So here's the base on it's own, all the pieces and the 4 layers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMonk Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 Somorukk sat with basecoats for quite some time while i finished up the base. so, time to make all this bare flesh look good. My destruction army has allowed me to focus on blending, a combo of wet blending and loaded brush. As @Russ Veal says, sometimes it's just putting paint on the model and moving it around until it looks good. Oh yeah, and his feet are magnetized too, so easy to take him off his base and paint him. I wasn't sure how bright to take his skin, but I usually like a lot of contrast. I really try and just highlight the top areas of a mass, so all the blends are happening at the top areas of muscles. I was pretty proud of making those shadows feel really dark. The back/neck was sculpted, and i could have made more muscle happen there...but I couldn't find any google images for orruk musculature Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kramer Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Haha loved this from the sketch to the last post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goodapollo4 Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 This is incredible! Your conversion work is top notch. I love the idea of showing weapon/victory progression, and this is a fantastic way of making that happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMonk Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 Now for the weapon upgrades. BTW, the Ironjaw and bonesplitter hands, are all the same 3D sculpt, so weapons swaps were dead easy. I think i pinned all the swaps where i had to attach a bit onto a ironjaw hand. Tier 1: Bonesplitter's bow and stone sword. I chose to paint the small ironjaw sword that the Warchanter comes with, more like stone. The wrappings are pink because they used the Tyranid flesh, which tied him in with my army a bit more at the lower tiers. The Warlord scroll started with one melee and one missile weapon. Tier 2: Bonesplitter double bow and tomb blade The Bonesplitter bow was created by gluing more bows together - in perfect orruk style. The tomb blade is from the old bone giant kit, glued/pinned onto one of the orruk hands holding a weapon with a bird skull hilt, which seemed perfect. Tier 3: Tomb Bow and Ironjaws Jagged Gore-hackas Now the tomb bow was made from a kurnoth hunter bow painted in @Mengel Miniatures style, and it was given to me by @Vincent Venturella on the first day of the event because i couldn't' source it prior. So this was painted the night before the event started - but that's the only thing i had to paint the nght before *wink. And of course Somorukk only needs one hand for the gore-hacka Tier 4: Nid Bow and Nid Blade The nid bow was made from two fo the Mawloc's blade scything claws, and the nid blade uses a bigger one from the Tyrannofex - i think. It all works somehow...Somorukk says so. Tier 5: Pain on the nid bow. We ended up going the path of the stalker, upgrading the bow each round. So the sword upgrades were never used. But it's best to be prepared, amirite? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMonk Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 Lastly, before getting to the event pics, he had to have a tattoo, marking him as Somorukk, Eye of Mork - a cunning Orruk able to bring armies together through cunningly brutal taktiks. The plan then was to add onto the tatoo as the even progressed, giving him even more of Mork's power to be victorious! Worked in some ways better than others i guess! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMonk Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 The event was amazing! such beautifully painted armies and displays. I tried to keep my pics consistent, photographing Somorukk on the Endless Desert realmgate steps, but it didn't always happen. A few things didn't happen with the project. 1: His left hand full of arrows, could totally have changed into bigger spear sized arrows for the final tier. 2: If you saw in the plans, I had plans to give him a second head. The head he has IS magnetized, but i ran out of time to do that part. 3: He could have punched and kicked our armies a bit harder to perform better, but perhaps he was too busy posing for the camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMonk Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 Thank you @Holy Hammer Hern and the @Holy Wars & Holy Havoc TO crew for putting on such an event to inspire this project. Thanks to @Mengel Miniatures for that freakin' Endless Desert awesomeness you're putting out. Thanks to @Vincent Venturella for the bow! And thanks to @Red_Zeke for being a fantastic partner at the event, and my home crew @dosaceos @Pjschard for encouraging me in this project. Warlord Somorruk, Eye of Mork, Havoc 2016 Best Warlord Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowlzee Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 This is absolutely amazing! Well done on such a great conversion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mengel Miniatures Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Fantastic stuff. I love the inclusion of the TK stuff (obviously ) but the whole thing is great. Now I expect to see something to this level every year, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMonk Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 Well, we're not eligible to win best warlord at Havoc 2017, but @Red_Zeke has already got us working on next year's armies and display board. Should I expect to see you at havoc next year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Lyons Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 2 hours ago, Mengel Miniatures said: Fantastic stuff. I love the inclusion of the TK stuff (obviously ) but the whole thing is great. Now I expect to see something to this level every year, right? Even if he could win, he'd have to find a way to beat @Vincent Venturella and I a second year in a row...which won't happen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Double Misfire Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Pure class. Your use of Tyranid bits in AoS will never cease to amaze me. Any chance of modular armour for him in future evolutions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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