Hobby Update: The Otherworld
Hey folks, welcome back!
This blog focuses on my new, monstrous, legendary, Lord of Change! In SAGA Age of Magic, no Otherworld warband is complete without an Archdemon, so it was high time to construct my own.
Over the decades, the Lord of Change has changed quite a bit. Arguably inspired by the Vrock, a magical creature from Dungeons & Dragons, the Lord of Change is the greater demon of Tzeentch, one of the four great Chaos deities. Tzeentch is the god of change, sorcery, spellcasting, and forbidden knowledge.
A Vrock from the 5th Edition D&D Monstrous Manual.
A 1989 Citadel catalog .
A classic Lord of Change painted by QiaoZhong.
The last iteration of the Lord of Change.
The incredible newest version released by Games Workshop.
For my 15mm version, I took inspiration primarily from the newest Lord of Change, but used a base model, a "Vulture Demon," from Reaper Miniatures. This choice helped me to combine elements from both primeval history and the brilliant, new-fangled hotness.
The Vulture Demon from Reaper Miniatures.
To further my conversion goals, I also picked up some leftover Tzaangor Enlightened sprues off eBay, since they had a whole mess of Tzeentchan goodness. The images below chronicle my build as it progressed over time.
A mocked-up staff with the untouched Vulture Demon.
Over many evenings of tinkering, I slowly started building up the Lord of Change, one bit at a time.
Some snips, a bit of drilling, some scalpel work, a dash of abrasive paper, and a toothpick later, we have a completed Tzeentchan staff worthy of our fickle Lord.
The Tzaangor armor has now been carefully hollowed out and adjusted to fit the anatomy of this avian demon.
The hand has been reposed to better grip the staff. Likewise, neck feathers have been sculpted in and additional eyes have been placed.
Further tissue and sinew was added using ProCreate to the back of the hand.
Supporting eye sockets have been sculpted in to support the micro bead eyeballs.
Consistency is key! If one side gets an upgrade, so must the other.
Additional back musculature and a crest of feathers now grace the lower back and tail.
I felt the torso muscles were a bit too rudimentary, so I opted to add some pectoral, oblique, and serratus muscles.
More feathers added along the spine.
Why stop there? I felt the beak and tongue needed a bit more "oompf," so I elongated both with more putty.
Here, putty has been added to blend the wings into the torso, as well as along the cuirass to simulate leather straps. You'll also notice two large, conspicuous pieces of floral wire which have been added as support structures. The Reaper Bones miniatures are a very soft plastic, so they tend to stoop and bend, especially when top heavy.
A view of the sinister cuirass straps.
Some extra detailing added to the foot.
Finally, the Lord of Change was complete (minus, ya know, paint, and stuff)! Here are some pictures before the primer left the can.
Spoilers, midway through painting, this tongue snapped off. In later pictures, you'll see a new tongue which was added later.
Now, onto the painting! I began by coating the miniature in Kyrlon Colormaxx gray primer.
As you can see, the miniature was airbrushed with an even coat of blue paint. I then began picking out areas with a solid base coat, then giving them various ink washes.
The wings and other feathered areas took a bit of effort, as I needed to carefully blend the hues between cool blues and warmer pinks.
Further blocking on the armor and cloth ribbons.
Here you can see the replacement tongue (Rest in carpet, old tongue). You'll notice careful blending and highlights along the tarsometatarsal (shin?) and beak areas. This was accomplished using a mix of paint blending and carefully thinned ink washes.
Due to the multiple colors, blends, ink washes, and large surfaces of this mini, the Lord of Change was not quite a quick job. However, overall I'm completely pleased with how it came out, as it will be the centerpiece of my warband.
Furthermore, to give a sense of scale, you can see it here, lodged amid my ever-expanding force! It's gotten so large that it's difficult to fit the whole thing into the lightbox.
However, despair not! I still have multiple units still waiting my attention. Here are my remaining warband members are their various "statuses."
- 12 Flying Warriors: assembled and primed.
- 4 Flying Creatures: need to be sculpted.
- 8 Hearthguard on foot: in possession, not yet cleaned up.
- 2 Behemoths: haven't purchased, still considering.
- 1 Flying Sorceror: partially sculpted.
- 1 Warlord on foot: partially painted.
- 1 Sorceror on foot: still considering.
- 1 Flying Conjuror: still considering.
Stay tuned for more updates and thank you reading.
-Nick
Pretty amazing. Thanks for the detailed write up. I was a bit shocked when I realized it was a 15mm scale and not a 28mm model that I hadn't seen before. Very well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dave! People often claim 15mm is too small for proper detailing, but I've found it to be completely workable and sufficiently detailed.
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