Scratch built Primal Archon Painted

Here is my scratch built primal archon. My aim was to make it fit in with my Gators by having it made of Orgoth ruins like the Sacral vault but risen up out of the swamp by dark magics in a similar manner to Boneswarms.

I know some people don't like scratch builds or conversions, but I love them. I could have simply bought a primal archon but I wanted it to match my vision for what a primal archon in my Gator army would look like.

I actually finished painting this back in 2021, but I had originally promised to make a blog post about how I made it combined with the finished model post you are reading now. 
I struggled for a long time writing the article which felt unwieldy and ultimately I wasn't happy with, so I decided to just make the finished project article you are reading. 
I might get around to making the "how I made it" post if there is enough interest though, but no promises this time.

I tried to make the pose similar to the original model to make identification of the model as simple as possible. Though like with a lot of conversions communication is key to having a smooth gaming experience!

It was important to me that this look like a bunch of stone animated rose up out of the swamps, so adding a variety of plantlife was always part of my plan when making this. 
I didn't know how it would end up looking part way though making it however and was worried wether or not I would be able to sell the conscept.  

The face is press moulded from a Reaper bones models shield. It fit perfectly with my Orgoth stone theme for the model. I did have to hide the areas around what would have been the edge of the shield. I did this with vines, plants and Orgoth runes.

I press moulded the Orgoth runes from my sacral vault and placed them in various places on the model, such as here on the arm. I gave them a purple glow effect, in my painting version of the Iron Kingdoms each "type" of magic gets a different colour. Orgoth get purple.

This open hand was tricky to make but well worth the extra time it took. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Its hard to get decent pictures of the swampy base, but there is a spine of some beast in among the water and plants.

I even added a spider to the side of its "head", it was a fun little addition which makes me smile at least.

This was a very fun, although long project to work on. I started making this a very long time ago and ended up with a policy of - if I was using greenstuff on a different project and I finished up and had left over green stuff - I would use it up making vines or sculpting more to this model. 
It wasn't until late 2021 when I decided to push through and finish the model once and for all.

I plan to make a second primal archon, but the next one will be a bit different visually. I'm planning to base it around the skull of a Dracodile as well as Orgoth ruins. But thats a different project for a different article...
(though if you would like to see it happen let me know as people's interest in my projects does affect my motivation and drive to actually bother to complete them)

Using money from my generous supporters over at Patreon I purchased a rotating display stand. I like to put the money from supporters back into improving the content I make.
I'm hoping to get better at making these over time, one thing I know I want to save for is a better camera (I currently use my phone).
Please let me know what you think of this addition to my painted model articles.
If you like it please like, comment, and subscribe on Youtube it really does help with letting Youtube know it's a video worth suggesting to other hobbyists. (And it upsets Mike...)

If you want to support my content consider taking a look at my Patreon which you can find here. I don't put any finished content behind a paywall but I do offer rewards to people who support me in ways like getting to vote on what content I work on in the future or outright just picking the next subject of an article as well as posting wip projects.

Even if it's just $1 it really helps me out!

See you all next time!