Hey folks, welcome back!
This is a bit of wild blog, as things went completely off the rails. As you'll know from previous blogs, I've been working on a Warhammer Fantasy Battles themed SAGA Age of Magic warband. This has revolved around demonic monsters thus far, but it's time for the mortals to make their appearance.
One of the most classic Tzeentchan unit is the infamous disc of Tzeentch. These discs are essentially demons bound by sorcerers into flying mounts, allowing them to zip and hover across the battlefield. I knew that these must be included in my warband, so I chose to use them to represent my flying Warlord and flying hearthguard.
Now, while this all sounds well and good, one must remember that I'm playing in 15mm scale, not 28mm scale. Discs of Tzeentch have never been produced in 15mm scale, but I wasn't going to let that little hurdle stop me.
Instead, I elected to embark on a maddening journey in sculpting, silicone mold making, and resin casting. While I've done some sculpting in the past, the latter two endeavors were effectively virginal territory for me.
I began by finding an appropriate base for my miniatures. After searching online and at various craft stores, the best I could find were these small shank buttons.
A great start, but more work was required. I first clipped off the hollow protrusion from the reverse of the button, giving me a flatter surface to work off of.
I then used a rubber mallet to as delicately as possible flatten the button, giving me the desired "disc" form, rather than domed shield.
Huzzah, great progress so far. Next, time for some sculpting. Using plastic card, ProCreate (a two part epoxy putty), and some microbeads from a water filter, I carefully crafted my disc.
Not bad, for an amateur. I was very careful to avoid creating any sever overhangs, as I knew I would need to cast this disc using a simple drop mold. I then hot glued the disc to a piece of plastic card, built a knock-off LEGO enclosure, and poured some Smooth-On OOMOO 25 silicone on top.
This worked relatively well, especially for a first-timer. You can see my nice, clean mold below.
Next, I poured Smooth-On Smooth-Cast 65D resin into the mold. This worked well at first, but did give me significant challenges with bubbles in the spine tips later on. In the future, I think I'm going to switch to Smooth-Cast 300, which in subsequent experimentation performed admirably. Once cured, my discs popped out easily.
Now, if you assume everything went to plan, you'd be wrong. As you can see, there are missing chunks in the edges of the disc above. It took a ton of trial and error to get things casting "reliably," and even then I probably had a fail rate of about 50%. Furthermore, the "successful" casts consistently had bubbles in the spike tips, requiring me to fill them with putty later on. Likewise, when not mixed carefully enough, the resin would remain too soft or, even worse, forever sticky and greasy (a sure symptom of improperly cured resin).
Regardless, I pressed on and eventually had nine discs of acceptable quality.
Much better.
Next, I converted my riders. These were constructed using Khurasan Miniatures' Northmen of Raumm, available
here. I'm a big fan of simple but effective conversions, and these were no different. Using some brass rod, I converted their hand weapons into polearms, as they'd be striking foes at a distance from upon their discs.
The originals.
The modified versions.
I then mounted each rider upon his disc, crafted a translucent plastic flight stand, and glued the whole assembly to a base. Finally, I wrapped the flight stand in masking tape, so as to prevent any paint build up or damage during painting. Once primed, they struck quite the pose.
But, enough with all that. Where's the leader? Who drives these magical men into the crucible of battle? What fiendish sorcerer finds himself worthy of such a monstrous warband? Well, none yet, so let's make one.
I decided to convert both of my warlords (one on foot and one on disc) at the same time, since I wanted them to feel like equals. Likewise, once I'm in the zone it's hard to get back into it at a later date.
The foot warlord used the Northmen of Raumm's command as his base while his disc-riding equivalent used a standard rank and file miniature.
These two truly pushed my sculpting abilities to the max and I'm very pleased with how well they turned out. I used several horned bits from some Tzaangor Enlightned staves, since they felt scale appropriate.
With all the conversion work done, let's turn those hands of time forward a bit and see what a nice coat of paint can do. For my palette, I used a classic Tzeentchan blued steel plate and magical blue cloaks. I gave the trim elements a golden look and their fur trim a pinkish hue, tying them visually to the pink horrors. The eyes of the discs were painted yellow, just like the pink horrors and giant screamers (scourges).
The warlord took a bit of time to get right. Tzeentch is known for shimmering, ever-changing prismatic fire and I wanted to achieve the same look for my warlord's weapon. To do so, I blended colors from across the hue rainbow very carefully using multiple subtle layers.
Notice the forehead eye, in addition to the larger, orb-like one perched between the horns.
Yellow, reptilian, and predatory eyes look out from every side of the demonic disc.
A maddening eye luridly stares out from his shield at would-be attackers.
Iridescent, coruscating flames flicker across the surface of his glaive.
All in all, I think this project was definitely worth the extra effort. I've now found myself with a unique, one-of-a-kind warband that drips of nostalgia for the Old World of Warhammer. As always, stay tuned for further updates, as my next blog will most likely focus on my enormous Lord of Change!
-Nick
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