Thursday 15 March 2018

CLXIV. Volmar Duardin

Yet another converted Shadespire warband is in the works. The Chosen Axes fell into my paws last week, and I immediately started hacking them up. The first of their number is finished (bar the base, which will get done at a later date because I'm considering a display base). 


 

 
I really don't like the look of AoS Fyreslayers. The axes that are braziers, the headgear, the golden runes implanted into their skin... All of that is inextricably linked with their backstory, so if I was to transform them away from those elements, they would no longer be even remotely Fyreslayers. But that's fine by me, I love coming up with my own factions. So the mountain kingdom of Volmar was born. It's waiting to be populated by a mixed people: Duardin, Kobolds, Humans and Half-Dwarves. I'll delve deeper into their country and culture when the warband is done. They look like this at the moment:  



I've shown the first dwarf earlier on social networks, and people seem to pick up both Norse and Mesopotamian vibes from the helm. I'm very happy to hear that I've successfully blended those. The design was most heavily inspired by one particular illustration Paul Bonner did for Trudvang:

Art by Paul Bonner. © RiotMinds


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In other news, the village of Dol, the designated battlefield for the Legen event, got a few more people to inhabit it. Converted and painted another fleeing peasant from the plastic giant kit. Two boys who foolishly wish to fight the attacking gargants with sticks were converted from LOTR Hobbit Shirriffs. The panicked soldier attempting to hide under a discarded ox skull is a characterful conversion of an older metal model, done by Florian Gand from Germany. Thanks again for sending the conversion over, it's perfect for Legen.   

22 comments:

  1. i thought i'll never like em. Thank You for changing my mind!

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    1. Even a simple headswap can usually go a long way.

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  2. I always love your dark looking on AoS lady :)
    greetings
    M.

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  3. Good one, as you Shadespire conversions in general. Now I regret that I only glued Stormcast helmets on all my Shadespire minis. Works good on orc, but make the original dwarves even more rediculous. :)
    I look forward for your painted gang!

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    1. Thanks! I checked out your stormcast orcs, they look pretty cool. But what have you done to poor Steelheart :D

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    2. Thanks. When I painted him you can see what dwells in what was once some guy called Severin. So far it is called Steve...

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  4. I'm not planning on going quite so far, but yeah, the Fyreslayers are the only Warband that I feel I absolutely need to convert to get them to something I'm OK with. The ones you've done here look kind of semi-feral, which is a vast improvement, just not quite the direction I want to go with them.

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    1. It feels to me that their most glaring issue is what's on top of their heads.

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    2. I cut off the mohawks last night, and they already look vastly better. I still want some more armour on them, tho. Planning on giving your chainmail tutorial from a little while back a try.

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  5. I love the highlights across the toes in the first picture. The WIP picture of the others leaves me absolutely baffled as to how you take them to finished product. Would like to see a timelapse of that!

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    1. Cheers. I'll try to take pictures at intervals when working on one of the remaining two.

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  6. I've said earlier in Instagram that he looks like Sargon king of Akkad but now I see him again I feel a thracian helmet vibe ! Same elongated shape on the upper part, same face mask with beard and moustache. I can see why people think "viking" but to me it's a very oriental design ! I love it, it's very original in our fantasy universes !

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    1. Thank you! It's comparable to Tracian helmets too. Though they were generally more open.

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  7. Lovely work, as always, Ana!

    I'm not too much of a fan of the Fyreslayers either. That head swap (and a lot of more subtle mods, I'm sure) has done a lot to tame the more exaggerated elements of the model. All in all I think the Shadespire Fyreslayers are better than the regular ones, but they still need some work. I love that art.

    Those hobbits work great as kids. I have a mental block to using LotR figures for AoS/40k conversions, but they obviously work a treat in the right circumstances.

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    1. Thanks Ross. Vast majority of LOTR minis looks way out of place next to Warhammer figs, since they are scaled and styled differently. Much closer to what we see in historical minis. For instance, goblins from the Hobbit line are a great example of those rare exceptions. The hobbits here were a lucky accidental find in a friend's bits box.

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  8. Oh my. This is brilliant! I would have a hard time using Paul Bonner as inspiration for AoS, but I have to give it a shoot. Its amazing how you transferred the concept and carefully picked a detail, that I haven't noticed in the first place.

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  9. Very well done. And the art you used as inspiration i.e. Paul Bonner's work looks amazing too!

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    1. Thanks! Paul Bonner's work is truly fantastic.

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  10. Hi it's me, Florian. So cool that the model found its way into Legen! Also, great paintjob -as always. And the dwarf is awesome!

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