Hagen

Hi DynamicCalories, this is an interesting question... I personally belong to the serial buyers group, having acquired literally thousands of pounds of unused plastic kits that I hide in my closet as the proverbial skeleton... I have to say though that although I have a vast, almost endless bits box, for almost every conversion I plan I end up needing to buy a new kit or two, maybe just to use a small component and throw the rest in the bits pile. Of course, none of that is necessary or even recommendable! It is close to an addiction and I would not say it is the only way to end up with great results. So, how can you achieve great conversions with a limited bits box? The answer I think is simple: plan ahead of starting. It normally all start when you look at a mini and you suddenly think: mmmhh... this would look great as a Mordheim henchman/Inquisitor follower/etc... Then it's time to start planning. I use sketches to do this as I find it incredibly useful to firm up my ideas and clarify what components I might need. For instance, if I know I am converting a miniature to resemble some sort of priest I might add some priestly robes, maybe a stole, and then start looking at different miniatures from the range to see whether some of them include a stole and how feasible it would be to use it. This is the point when you start preparing your shopping list. It can normally break down into three main cathegories: Base models: the vast majority of the mini is done with bits from this kits, legs and torsos for example. To continue with the priest example, let's say that you previously collected an Empire army for warhammer and you happen to have a lot of bits left over from the Empire archers kit. The legs and torsos are covered in robes, and you decide that you will use them as base models to convert your priest. Bits swaps: the parts of the original mini that you intend to change, like arms, head, weapons etc. In case of our priest, now that you have the base model (Empire Archer) you will need to make it a bit more war like... Bows and arrows are not really a priest first choice of weapons, so you decide that he will have to be armed with an Hammer and a book and you start looking for suitable bits, first of all in your bits box. While looking for them, you notice that you do not have any hammers but you find an ineresting bald head that you did not iniitally consider but would suit the model nicely you think. Always be open to suggestions from you bits themselves! Then, since you miss the hammer start surfing online for it. First of all look at the GW website. Look at every mini range, both fantasy and 40k, as it is not uncommon to use sci-fi bits for fantasy conversion or vice-versa. When you find the kit containing the item you want stop and think again: do I need to purchese te whole kit? Will I ever need the rest of the bits or just the hammer this one time? No easy answer to this one and you have three choices at this point: 1- you buy the whole kit from gw and toss in the bits box the items that you do not need. This might sound expansive (it is) and borderline idiot BUT it's the only way to build a wonderful bits box that will make the envy of all your fellow hobbists. 2- "****** it, I am not paying ££/$$/€€ for a tiny hammer." Then go to ebay or one of the many bits resellers online and look for bits from the same kit. This work especially better for the small details as they are normally non repetitive and you will just need one of each, so no real point in buying a box with 20 of them. This way you will save a lot of cash but you'll have to wait up to two weeks to get the bits for your conversion while the shipping is processed (by which time you might have shifted your interest to a new project) and you won't improve your bits box, meaning next time you will probably have to do the same again. 3- you buy the whole kit from gw and you sell the rest of the items on ebay. Never tried it personally but I know being a regular customer that it could become a quite successful business! It takes time though and a lot of energies and ultimately you asked about how to make a conversion not how to make money out of it. - Small details: these are the final touches to give your model a cohesive look. They normally include parchments, gemstones, relics, trophies etc... It follows the same steps as the Bits swaps, but it's worth remembering that these details are probably going to be single items. You will just need one relic hanging from the priest belt, so it normally becomes more sensible to buy it on ebay than purchasing a whole kit just for that single small bit (though you might want to do it anyway because of time or to increase the size of your bits box). This is all I can tell you about the bits but there is another fundamental aspect of conversion that every hobbist will have to deal with in their career: sculpting with Green Stuff! I won't say anything in detail about this, as it's kind of next level of complexity and not really easy to explain or give tricks, but I would recommend every hobbist of every age to just buy some Green Stuff and have it available just in case... Many times your bits from different kits will not fit together perfectly and you'll be required to resculpt some parts or hide the joints behind carefully placed detail (parchments are great at that). Here, sorry for the text-wall, I hope this can be useful. Hagen

YES! elfhead is joining the fray, now I can sit back, grab some pop corns and watch this turning into something fantastic! Great start on these models, and the fluff is great and well written, allowing for some great conversions! I am very curious to see some Sons of the Ox in the future! I hope the Ox will visit my dreams tonight, I am sure I have some bling-blings to offer him. Hagen

Wonderful piece of fluff you wrote my friend, I finally know who is the elf behind Thalion's legend! As I told you many times, I've been following this project with a lot of interest since its inception, and I am glad to see that the background that drives your efforts is so interesting and different. Chaos is always about destruction, but why must it be the case? I enjoyed what you did with Talion's story, he actually used deception, corruption and treachery (all trademark of chaos, and Slaanesh in particular) to fulfil the task of saving the great work of arts that so pleased his dark master, while the rest of Ulthuan was only concerned with war and murder he turned their anger against them to actually save their grandest achievements! A real chaotic masterpiece of paradox and heroism, I should say that Thalion is one of the greatest heroes of Ulthuan's history, unlike Tyrion and Teclis who proved to be their people greatest nemesis. Fast forward to the Age of Sigmar and we have a demon prince worshipped by artists and poets, a chaos demigod of the arts and creativity instead of a brainless destroyer. A great and original character who takes his place alongside Kaleb Daark and Lord Mortkin as one of those chaos heroes whom actually seem to be the only ones working for the right cause. Hagen

OH...MY ... GOD. This is the most inspiring bunch of minis that I've seen on a long while Bruticus, a true masterpiece that sets the bar of this AoS project so high that we will all have to struggle to keep a similar standard! They certainly deserve some detailed comments: - The beast is the one of the most impressive conversions/paintjobs that I have seen recently. I can literally feel its disgusting smell in my nostrils. The colours of the leaves and moss is just perfect and I am left speechless by the colour blends on the skull, so realistic and different from the usual polished bone look... It really feels like it spent a long time rotting at the bottom of a swamp. Unbelievable, seriously... - The same goes for the leader and the warriors, so alive, I can hear the sound of rotten wood creaking while I look at them! The colour scheme pulls them together so nicely. I like the subtle addition of some reddish brown spots that make a great contrast with the predominantly green palette. - Finally the Wild Rider did not disappoint, he is the best looking conversion of the bunch (though it's seriously tough to pick one) and the paint job just does hi justice. Love the green fading tattoos/marks on the steed, really appropriate. All in all an amazing job, I am in awe at your skills and vision. Hagen

Thanks Megaboss! I was just reading through your bits of fluff... The sky ports of Chamon are incredibly inspiring! I can perfectly picture them, now I want to convert an Aqshyan cargo vessel Hagen

Hey Bruticus! Glad to hear you agree on this! I think I was just mislead by the definition of AoS28 basically being the same thing as Inq28... Of course the two movements are very similar in spirit, but I just thought it was worth mentioning that aesthetically there are some differences between the grimdark of the 41st millennium and the weird fantastical realms of AoS. I would not bother adding anything to the great work you did on the FAQ, it was just me being picky No new minis today, but I managed to sketch a concept of the Luminarch Malakia, the leader of my war band which I am currently converting. It is quite time consuming as it uses many kits, Eldar Farseer, Genestealer Magus, light college wizard and various bits and bobs from different 40k bits... I had to purchase 2 Ahriman 30k kits only to use the star symbols hanging from his stole! I hope it's going to look as the drawing in the end as I am pretty pleased with his aesthetic. Hagen

Incredibly useful post Bruticus! I will recommend it to my friends who are starting to develop an interest in AoS28. It is great to have a firm set of guidelines providing an indication to what the creators of this initiative had in mind. I can see from some of the points you listed that my personal take on AoS28 differs a bit from the grimdark atmosphere you are trying to conceive, as one of the aspects of the new setting that I am interested in is the High Fantasy vibe which reminds me of Moorcock's Elric's Saga. It is not the impossible scale of the main AoS storyline that I am aiming to recreate with my minis though, but rather the whquest/Realm of Chaos of the late 80s which, to me at least, was an original and interesting blend of grimdark and high fantasy: flying ships and dark forests, godly beings and miserable mutants. I personally strive to pull these two aspects of the setting together as the initial fluff for the new setting went too far on the epic side of things and forgot to give a more human and grounded point of view of the action (when I see battles through the eyes of angels/demigods I tend to quickly loose interest). I am a huge fan of Blanchitsu and the associated style of both painting and storytelling, but looking at some of Blanche's early fantasy works I can see that realism or indeed grittiness are on the background while artistic references and hints to pop culture (and High Fantasy was quite popular back then) are everywhere. I attached some of the images that served as a reference to my recent model efforts. Though I feel that the total grimness and hopelessness of some of Blanche's works fit the 40k universe perfectly (and Inq28 consequently) I would like to point out that, to me, AoS is a peculiar setting where aspects of both high and dark fantasy cohesist (or at least this is how I envision it) and I feel that both deserve being reflected in AoS28 projects if that happen to be the intention of the author. I would be very interested in knowing the views of other members of this community and hopefully get to see some of the artworks that inspired the great models that we've seen in the last few weeks. Hagen

Hey Toby, really digging the idea of the Kroot mercenary... For some reason it fits in the setting pretty well. What kind of creature is it supposed to be? some sort of mutant/beastman? I smell the scent of chaos on this one.

Oh my, that banner! You are improving your painting skills with every new update! BTW, I was thinking... Did you hear about AoS28?? It's a great idea by Jake Bruticus at Ex Profundis, which aims to explore the AoS setting with a different perspective, similar to Inq28 atmosphere but with hints to the high fantasy weirdness of the new setting... The scale is small war bands max 10 minis and I think your talent and imagination would add a lot to the project (plus is a very fun interlude to any project you might be working on atm, providing some quick distraction and the opportunity to create original fluff and conversions... what's not to like! I will post here the link to the tga blog... Have a look! I am working on a small paladin gangs inspired by the Law Gods of the old lore, and there are many great and interesting projects! I'd love to see what you can come out with.

Hei OrfeoCulzen, are these Slaanesh seekers? They look the part! For some reason they reminded me of the incipit of Dante's Inferno: In the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood, astray Gone from the path direct: and e’en to tell, It were no easy task, how savage wild That forest, how robust and rough its growth, Which to remember only, my dismay Renews, in bitterness not far from death.

That maiden-ghoul is just hilarious but for some reason also incredibly sad! I picture her looking into the mirror and see a beautiful and elegant girl... a sad, sad destiny! Great work on these Warbosskurgan! Looking forward to see them painted. If I can make one small suggestion, check carefully the minis for moulding lines before start painting! Those damn things are really annoying to find once you applied the first layer of colours! Hagen

Cheers man, glad you like it... I was very reluctant to jump on board with AoS at the beginning as I was (and still am) in love with the historical dark fantasy of warhammer, but then I eventually realised that the great freedom this new setting allows in terms of narrative would have made for incredible looking conversions, different aesthetics and completely crazy and new cultural references...If you like the dark side of fantasy as we all do, that's great, plenty of it available but I am also tempted to explore the 80s High fantasy vibe of the setting, which is what I am doing with this war band. Looking at old lore from previous editions of warhammer is a great inspiration as back then dark and high fantasy were mixed in a very weird and interesting way. Also, as you said, it was refreshing for once not to think too "historical" and mix different elements a bit more freely... My Luminarchate conversions show aspects of the crusades Kingdoms of Outremer, arabic and egyptian cultures and a hint to medieval european clerics, but I tried to make none of these aspects stand out too much so that the general feel of the model was still of an odd-looking and unrecognisable culture. Imagination is really the limit in AoS, which is something I seriously enjoy!

Impressive works all around! Gavroche, your horse-skeleton-hounds look really fantastic and straight out of a John Blanche picture! Orfeoculzen.... WHAT IS THAT THING ON THE IMPALED HORSE???? Looks like a fetus and will most definitely give me nightmares tonight! Love your take on those disturbing scavengers. It's really great to see so much enthusiasm around this project! I also had a very productive sunday (well to my standards) meaning that I completed another one of the Luminarchate paladins and even had time to sketch a concept of the leader of the warband, the Luminark Malakia himself. As you can see I have decided to convert the shields of the paladins to represent the holy semblance of Alluminas (looking pretty pissed off), inspired by a piece of artwork from the brand new wh quest shadows over hammerhal (sorry, just found this terrible image). The Luminark is just a very early WIP but it gives a good hint of the direction I am going to take with him... Less warlike than the paladins but not totally wizard in terms of esthetic, something more akin to a fantasy cleric of Light. I also have an idea about his weapon/staff that I will expand in future updates. Hagen

Thanks Mate. I am planning to start painting it soon, but first I want to complete at least three of them. As a colour scheme I was thinking to keep the palette down to two main colours... This is a change for my usual "Golden Rule of Three", that is using three contrasting main colours on a model and work with them to achieve a coherent result. This time though I want to test myself with an almost monochrome (bichrome I guess) palette of white and gold, but trying to infuse a bit of golden luminescence to the white as well... It's going to be an experiment so I am not entirely sure whether it is going to work as I imagine, but I am quite determined to try something slightly different from my usual models on the Luminarchate. Hey Jake, thanks for your comment. I guess you are referring to the circular detail in the middle of the breastplate? I slightly resculpted to look like a gem instead of a hole to accomodate a pipe. I thought it would have looked nice to have something contrasting right in the middle of the model, I hope that the finished result will turn out as planned... The only hose/cable I left on the model is the one which is visible on the left side of the model (to the right in the picture), under his breastplate where I hanged an archaic looking key as a symbol of the goddess Arianka (more on her in next updates). This is going to be painted as a sort of rope/rosary and again I hope it will be clearly non-40k on the finished model.

Very small update on my Luminarchate... Second paladin done! I am very happy with the look of them, they suit my idea of a Chaos Warrior of the Law (though I guess that is exactly what Stormcasts are supposed to be). Bits come from all over the place, legs are from the Phoenix Guards (incredibly versatile kit), torso is the Skitarii Sicarian Princeps, arms from the skitarii rangers, shield and icons from the Knights Excelsior upgrade pack and finally the head, the most complicated bit, is a bretonnian man at arms with a MKIII Iron Armour faceplate fro the Burning of Prospero kit... Which is quite fitting as my Luminarchate draws quite a lot of inspiration from pre-heresy Prospero in terms of aesthetic, costumes and mysterious sects. Pics are black and white to give a slight feel of Iron Sleet beauty and mystery, but mostly to hide the flaws of my very poor phone pics Hagen

I think this look gorgeous as always! I was really keen to see the finished result on Lileath and it's not disappointing at all... Great conversion idea and once agin amazing paint job. What's up next? Hagen

Hehehe, I did, hope it's fixed now... Anyway we will need to see pics of your work as well Tarragon, great fan of your Stormcasts!

These look fabulous! The conversions look so natural and the colour scheme fit them perfectly, really giving the impression of rotten wood. All in all great work, what's next on the workbench? Hagen

They come from the Savage Orcs kit... I thought they would have looked really cool on some human barbaric tribesman but unfortunately most of the weapons in the kit are just insanely big and do not really fit human size hands. I ended up having to cut and file quite a lot of them to make them fit.

I would agree with Bottle, the work on here is quite amazing! Bruticus' stuff is brutally awesome, and I am a fan of the blanchitsu style of most of the great models showcased in here! For the Luminarchate I personally wanted to do something brighter and with a more vibrant palette, but I have also got some other ideas that would fit really nicely in here I believe... One of these is my war band of the Ghurian plains, which I started last year but never finished... I shall post some pictures in here and some bg to give you an idea of what will follow, although the Luminarchate is my priority at the moment, so it might take a bit of time before the ghurians get some attention. Just a couple of WIPs, bg and painted models will follow (but you can find some of it in my personal blog: http://hagenpinxit.blogspot.co.uk) Hagen

Mind blowing job on this model Jake! Do I recognise a FW chaos spawn?? Pure genius! Where does the skull come from?

Thanks guys! The marble recipe is quite simple actually and pretty enjoyable to do... Base coat of Corax White (spray) Then you start playing with shades... I used 3/4 thin coats of different colours, Reikland Fleshshade, then Agrax Earthshade and Drakenhof Nightshade. It is really important to thin these coats, I used Lahmian medium which I find a great product and give a more consistent result without letting the shades forming pools and stain the model in certain areas... This second passage is the one that takes most time, usually about an hour while you wait for each coat to dry before applying the next one. Then it's time for some touching ups with ceratite white to create some highlights. Pretty straightforward. After highlighting the model it's turn of the marble veins... With a very fine mechanical pencil (I use an HB to avoid scratching the paint) draw some very thin irregular lines across the whole marble areas... Do not overdo with this, it is important that the veins are visible but not too clustered together or it will detract from the final result. Once I was satisfied with the result I then retraced these lines with the same shades used previously (Reikland, Agrax and Drakenhof) this time following the pencil lines and letting it slip a bit more in certain areas as the veins are often irregular in both colour and thickness. And that is basically it! All in all is a one our job, allowing to complete the stromcast in less than 3 hours, which is a record for me! When developing this technique last year I have taken inspiration in some great tutorial around the web, one in particular was very useful , so I shall post the link here (with pictures): http://thegodmachines.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/how-i-learned-to-love-marble.html Hope this helps. Hagen

Hello guys, I am ready to join the fray! As many of you I am so hyped for this! I am currently working on a couple of projects which I think will fit nicely in here and I am glad that this great project will be hosted on TGA, a great and positive community! So, let me present you the first of my war bands for AoS28: The Luminarchate of Anaryn The idea behind this project came from my many years of Warhammer Fantasy Role-play... I was around back in the days of the 1st edition of the game and I remember bits of fluff that have long been forgotten and arguably have no space in the new AoS setting... Or do they? I was recently re-reading the Realm of Chaos books (the original ones form the late 80s) and I found very interesting that the description given of the Chaos dimension (the Warp, the Immaterium or whatever name you want to give it) has survived in more or less the same philosophical spirit... A place where literally everything is possible, where new gods are born every day and old and forgotten deities are slowly fading into oblivion. There is no really such thing as "canon" fluff when we are talking about this Realm and it's always been far from straightforward and full of interesting paradoxes. One of these were the forgotten Law Gods, the triumvirate of deities that were described as the philosophical opposite of the Chaos Gods: these were Alluminas, god of light and eternity, Solkan, god of punishment and vengeance, and Arianka, goddess of rectitude and temperance. So I wondered, what if among the endless dimensions of the Mortal Realms some humans were still worshipping these ancient gods? As the RoC books suggest, as long as a warp entity have worshippers it exists as a tangible materialisation of their communal devotion, desires and fears. So the Law Gods could still exist, provided that somebody was still praising them. So that was what I imagined... a community of faithfuls who somehow managed to keep their devotion to the Law Gods intact and survived the Age of Chaos to be rediscovered by Sigmar in the initial stages of its Vengeful war. Let's jump to this project then, which revolves around the idea of the small kingdom of Anaryn in the Realm of Hysh (Light) protected by an order of warrior-monks called the Luminarchate whose hq is an abbey/library which survived miraculously the Age of Chaos. Much like our own benedictine monks during the Dark Ages, I imagined the Luminarchate to trace its origins back to a religious order who spent centuries collecting and protecting all the knowledge they could find, copying it in manuscripts and enchanted tomes which they kept locked in a giant Fortress-Library. It was thorough their endless quest that they found out about the Law Gods and started to worship Alluminas for protection, trusting the Unmoving God with the preservation of their holy work. When Sigmar's Storm broke and the Age of Chaos came to an end the ancient Realmgate deep in the heart of the Abbey cracked open and a small company of marble clad giants emerged from the swirling void beyond. Similar in appearance to the image of their gods the Luminarchate named them Astrafteros, the Gleaming Ones and started worshipping them as emanations of Solkan, the Vengeful Punisher. These divine warriors spoke to the people of the Luminarchate telling them that the time had come to leave the boundaries of their hiding place and finally spread the True Word of the Law to the rest of the land and to liberate them from the curse of change. Armed with all the knowledge of times long gone the Luminarchate warriors are powerful indeed and their zeal is unshakeable like the will of their god. The paladin warriors of the Luminarchate are fanatics who believe that change in every form is abominable and try hard to reach enlightenment through martial discipline, rigorous asceticism and constant prayer. If you are familiar with the Name of the Rose (either the book or the movie), they would get along really nicely with Jorge of Burgos... Basically their paradoxical philosophy is that all knowledge exists as an emanation of the gods (both chaos and law gods) with the difference that change and progress are tools of chaos, akin to black magic, while the wisdom of their lawful patrons is eternal, unmovable and unchangeable. It must only be preserved, not enriched, as doing so is to invite the Dark Powers into ones heart. Their adepts and acolytes are constantly copying ancient manuscripts recovered by their brethren and even the minimal deviancy from the original text or addition is severely punished by there superior. The Luminarchate is constantly trying to recover these fragments of ancient knowledge to preserve them for future generations, but every time a tome or a scroll is found and taken back to the vaults of the Abbey, the higher ranks of the order gather to study their contents to establish whether the knowledge within it is pure and untainted, and therefore worth surviving and being preserved, or tainted by Chaos and destroyed on the spot. They might dress in gleaming white and gold but they are as grimdark as 40k most puritan inquisitor. Strangely they do not seem to see any difference between their patron and the astral god worshipped by the Astrafteros, who in turn never spoke against their creed or their rites. Are Sigmar and Alluminas one and the same or are the new comers exploiting the religious fervor of the Luminarchate to fulfill their own goals? I will leave you with some shots of my first Astraftero (almost no conversion at all I am afraid) and the first attempt of converting a warrior of the Luminarchate... More to follow, hopefully very soon! Hagen

Wow my friend! Lileath conversion is beautiful and what a great idea!I really love what you are doing with the End Times fluff as I am one of the few who enjoyed (most of) it. I actually still hope that the mistweaver we have seen is somehow going to be related to Lileath as I also noticed most of the iconography of the goddess on the model... As Ladrielle she was the Lady of Mists and her symbol as Lileath was the crescent moon after all. And then there was that whole story about Araloth and Lileath's daughter which I still hope will get expanded in future fluff for the Aelves. We will see but I do enjoy what you did with that model! Sigvald is also wonderfully painted in your distinctive style, love it! Keep on working on this great project.

Hey Kramer, as Cincinnatus said that's a phoenix guard helmet with the crest from the eldar dire avengers... all my elves are done like that, it takes some time but the result is rewarding.