Wolfygryph progress

Last weekend was not the best in terms of modelling progress - work destroyed painting night and we were busy for all of Saturday and most of Sunday - but I have moved along a little bit since the last blog update. My focus has now fairly firmly clamped onto my converted Thunderwolf/Demigryph models, so my efforts have been entirely on them. Below you can see the furthest progressed of the models at this point.

No, they're not complete. But all they need now is cloaks and shields...

I have not put as much planning into these guys as I probably should have, so my approach is a bit haphazard. I hadn't even decided which torsos to use for the riders, however when I realised the plastic Knight torsos were far larger than those of the Pistoliers, it kind of made the decision for me. The riders should be large, powerful, and hairy - like their mounts. Little round breastplates were not going to cut it. Unfortunately I've kind of had a gut-full of the plastic Knight torsos, so I decided they needed to look a little different this time. I decided this was a good time to finally make use of the wolf medallions that come on the old "hairy head" sprue, and set about carving the front off the breastplates and shaving down the medallions, before combining the two...

Wolfy breastplates

Once I stuck the torsos on, my focus flitted about a bit and I did a few things at once. I fiddled with weapons, with a major focus on Black Orc axes. I also started worrying about arms, as I want a variety of poses, plenty of armour and most of the guys hold their weapons with both hands. This will all doubtless combine to mean a lot of cutting and gluing. You'll note that the furthest progressed guys are from the command group, and only hold their axes with one hand (the command group naturally being the most manly, and needing to keep a hand free for things like waving flags, blowing horns, and making obscene gestures at the enemy).

The unit champion. He'll have a shield on that left arm. I couldn't think of anything more exciting to do with it.

The champion is making use of one of the Space Wolf axes that comes with the Thunderwolves. It needs a little more cleanup, but apart from the strange angular nature of it (and the gem in particular), you'd never know it came from a 40K model.

The musician is one of the models leaning a fair bit in the saddle, but it works with his doggy. The horn comes from a spare Teutogen Guard command group I had lying around.

As will be the case with a lot of these models, the musician's axe comes from the Black Orc box set - with a few modifications. Overall this guy looks pretty dynamic - more so in person.

You'll notice that some of the riders are on some pretty wild angles, but I'm OK with that. They generally fit with what the mount is doing, and I figure they will encourage me to make their poses more dynamic, rather than having them all sitting regimented and rigid in the saddle. I'm really looking forward to making each guy distinct, and I hope my enthusiasm doesn't burn out if it means too much cutting and changing. I'll also be keeping an eye out for opportunities to make things and then copy them for the extra Teutogen Guard that I have been meaning to convert for a very long time, and keeping putting off.

They all have torsos, but that leaves a long way to go.

For anyone wondering how much effort it will be to convert Thunderwolves into models for Warhammer Fantasy, I have good news. It's really pretty simple. There is the odd bit of cabling that needs to be cut off and hidden in the fur, but not a lot. The most robotic of the legs and heads are actually optional components, and they have normal wolfy alternatives. There is a robotic claw that needs to be livened up (which I had forgotten until I started typing this), and the rest of the changes basically lie with one of the 3 variants - the one you can see below. He has a creepy bionic eye and a metal plate in his shoulder. I found it pretty easy to cut away the bionics and conceal both bits with green stuff, so I don't imagine it will be a problem for anyone with a willingness to fiddle a bit.

The bionic eye is gone, and hopefully my bodgy covering with green stuff will go unnoticed once he's painted.

Yes, they're things that had to change. But no, it was not hard.