Iron Fang Pikeman IKRPG character conversion

I was digging through my bits box today when I picked out the one random Iron Fang Pikeman I got in a big trade a long time ago. Inspiration hit and I decided to make an Iron Kingdome RPG character or NPC.

I added a lot of battle damage to his shield and armour. A lot of this will show up a lot better once I've painted it.

I don't know why, but I wanted to give him a sword so I glued this sheathed one which I believe is a Nyss hunter sword for the ones who are holding their bows.

I also added a bulge in the cloak to allow for the length of the sword, this adds a touch of realism in the conversion which I like to try to do.

I also gave him a backpack, as most adventurers would not get far without the various things you need to carry somehow.

I couldn't decide which type of backpack to give him so I asked the community!

I find that sometimes when making a conversion I can get decision paralysis, so asking others can help me move on with a project.

Thanks to everyone who answered with their preference, even if I didn't end up picking what you suggested. (I did go with the most popular though)

I found these really small leather pouches and got the urge to add some behind his shield. I don't know what he keeps in them but it's sure to be something important!

I decided he needed some ranged option, so gave him a small hand crossbow with an attached quiver.

I added a thin strip of green stuff to serve as a leather strap to hold them in place.

I am really happy with how he turned out and am ready to call him done and ready for painting. If you have any suggestions on anything you would change or add before I paint I'm happy to hear it and take it in mind. 

I will be painting him to match a friend of mines Black Dragon Pikeman, as I like to tie all our local armies into the same Iron Kingdoms world when I run the IKPRG.

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!

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!

Gator style void archon 2 wip

I mixed up some green stuff to make more Morrowan sunbursts for the alexia diorama and wanted to use up the excess in a productive way. So I gathered the parts shown above and got to work.
I've planned to make a 2nd void archon for a long time now so decided to do some work on it. Here is the result.

This is with the wings, head and arms tacked on to see how I felt about the pose before committing to anything. I had already pinned the two halves of the bone swarm together as that was a set part of the plan.

Here is the mock up next to the first Void archon I made, you can find a post showing off that one here if you are interested.

So I then attached the wings and arms, as well as as many candles as I could to flatter surfaces until the green stuff which started this whole thing ran out...

I wanted this one to have more of a forward leaning horizontal look to it. The head will be added later when it's ready.
What do you think?

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 wip content.

Even if its just $1 it really helps me out!

See you all next time!

Headhunter (Stormclad) Painted (Conversion)

My Headhunter conversion is finally finished! This project has been wip for a very long time. It was a community project with the crew over at Rikers Iron, a epic project spanning many long twitch streams (You can find his channel here)

There has long been talk of doing the final push to finish the project off, but this summer I have been struggling and needed a "win" and to reduce my wip projects list so I finished it up.

To anyone unaware, Headhunter is the Stormclad featured in the novels "Into the Storm" & "Into the Wild". It has a ton of character and a lot of fans of the books have made their own versions of it over the years. Here is mine!

I really wanted to pose this Warjack as dynamically as possible in a way which really showed off the aggressive nature of its character as represented in the novels.

I really like the cut into its head armour just above the eye, I really think it adds a menacing look to the Warjack.

There are cuts and bullet impacts all over this Warjack see how many you can spot!

Huge arrows (one has the flights snapped off) protrude from the buckler, these are very large and intended to have come from the skinwalkers Headhunter fought in the novels.

I added verdigris to all of the bronze looking metal parts which really give it a worn look compared to my other Warjacks. 

A Convergence Vectors head is tied to the right arm, I weathered this with verdigris as well as painting it to match the other Convergence models I have painted in the past.

The stepping off point for its pose is the Menoth light Warjack wreck which comes with Stryker2. It had been in my bits box for years as I didn't want to use it for him. Getting the Warjack to stay attached and not fall apart was a tough challenge. There are pins doing into the wreckage and more going from the hip into the upper leg. 

I used chain from a Mountain King to attach a Cryx Warjack head and a Warpwolf head to the boiler area. 

Painting all the pressure gauges was fiddly but rewarding once complete.

I really enjoyed painting the decapitated Warpwolf head. Trying out new ways to get the fur to look natural, as well as the transition area between the fur and the snout. 
I went with milky white eyes, I'm not sure if these are exactly how they "should" look once its been dead a while but my search history is already pretty dodgy given the other reference pictures I look up for painting inspiration... so I just figured this would do...

Oh and because its me, of course I magnetised it! I did this mainly to make it easier to transport given its outlandish pose. But if I wanted I could use it as a Reliant, although I already have two standard Stormclad/Reliant kits painted and magnetised so unless I write a list with three Reliants in it I'm in no rush to paint the Reliant arms for this model.

And finally I thought I would try something new! 
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 its 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 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.

Even if its just $1 it really helps me out!

See you all next time!