CXLV. Abhorrant Ghoul Queen's Court: Varghulf Courtier

Arpad the Depraved, Prince of Folda; Queen Ligia's vicious feral child. A monster, feared both by his enemies and his mother's pathetic ghoul subjects.

Arpad was a foreign knight, trapped and converted by Ligia. During decades of undeath, his body gradually morphed into its current horrifying form. 

I. BACKGROUND

Varghulf Courtiers are huge vampires that have gone completely feral.

"Within every Vampire lurks a predatory creature, driven to feed on blood time and again. There are a few Vampires who embrace their thirst, who allow the bestial hunter within to take over. These are the Varghulfs - blood-mad killers that exist only to feed. A Varghulf's main weapon is a wide mouth filled with dagger-like fangs capable of puncturing armour and crushing bone. They use their immense claws to strip flesh from bones, the better to suck at the marrow of their prey."

"The varghulfs are entirely devoted to their liege, and so are more trusted to enact his vision upon the Mortal Realms than any of the other courtiers. Varghulfs drink long and deep from their master’s veins, and so theirconnection with the court’s sovereign is strong."

W:AoS Death Battletome: Flesh-eater Courts 

II. OFFICIAL MODEL

The mini dates back to the Vampire Counts release in 2008. I came across the issue of White Dwarf where the redesign of the faction was discussed. The Varghulf creature, which had not existed in the fluff before that time, was based on one of John Blanche's sketches. The rules and background for it were invented after the concept sketch. This was pre-Finecast days, so originally the mini was metal. I actually like everything about it except the pose...

Source: games-workshop.com

III. WHAT I DID, HOW, AND WHY

Since I made Ligia out of a Techpriest Dominus, I knew I had to make something from Belisarius Cawl. Looking at the available options within the faction, I elected to turn the model into a Varghulf Courtier. Prince Arpad is much more feral-looking than the Queen, with fur, long claws, and his snarling wolf head (the name suggests a wolf-like creature to me, rather than a bat). I veered away from the official background when I chose to make my Varghulf flightless; and I intend to play him ignoring the Fly ability on his warscroll. Also, there's those extra legs - but I think that goes well with that 10'' Move stat.    

Belisarius Cawl comes with a mass of characterful bits and pieces, making him a very busy model (which works in his case). I left off all of those extras and assembled only the core of the model. Many details still needed to be sanded away, and the numerous mechanical limbs under the robe had to be replaced with organic ones. I used Bloodletter and Kroot feet, and a left hand of a Poxwalker.

That's actually a deer head underneath the green stuff. Only the eyes were left untouched.

There were many little details to work out all over the model. My biggest concern was sculpting the head and hands right.

I liked the mechanical hands' pose, so I used that as a skeleton on which I built flesh and skin with green stuff. The clay shapers I got recently were absolutely essential for this task.

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Arpad posing with his mother.