"Urcaen has no rage, to match the shaman's zeal.Nor Hell a fury, like a dire troll 'fore a meal."
The Dire Troll Mauler wasn't the first warbeast conversion I did for this project, but it was easily the most extensively modified of the first batch of models. I wanted to build one of these for Jack early on, because in addition to being a relatively simple model for a new player to get a handle on, it also ends up being a cornerstone of a lot of lists as you start playing larger games.
Early on in the project, we took an inventory of what was already available in our collections and bits boxes. In the "viable for use for heavy warbeast purposes" bin, we had 20% of a metal blitzer, the bottom half of an earthborn troll, some bits from other metal dire trolls (like the mauler head used here), one complete-ish plastic dire troll kit, and an assortment of leftover parts from various warhammer trolls and other monsters.1 After this initial assessment, we figured that we could strrrreeettttch that out to build maybe 4 or 5 heavies, using The Power of Imagination tm. We later ended up buying a few more dire troll models anyway, but that's a story for another day.
Of course, all the "cool" heavy warbeasts have their signature bits. And once these were partitioned out, what was left for the 'basic' mauler was basically the scraps. It didn't help that I'd assigned the huge plastic mauler hands and some other parts for a Mulg scratch-build that didn't end up working out.2 My initial attempt was enthusiastic, but the results ended up being somewhat lackluster:
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| yeah, but those ears tho... |
And here we are after the break. Two major changes were made to the core model. First, I cut off the top of the mauler head (ouch), cut away the lower jaw of a river troll head (really ouch), and grafted the two parts together. Second, and the subject of the previously-promised irony, is that I swapped the mauler's hands with those off the Night Troll, which are COMICALLY large for a light warbeast. But they work well here, and the rat ogre hands fit pretty well on the night troll, too!
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| Sweet Dhunia! With these appropriately-sized hands, I can do anything! I could even become... MAT 6!! |
I wish I'd taken some WIP photos before I did the gap filling and sculpting, but if wishes were fishes, then I'd presumably be living in comfortable retirement as the owner of a wildly successful aquarium. In that scenario, one must assume I'd be writing a blog about all the species of sea life I'd magically acquired, which would be ghastly and boring (sorry, ichthyologists!) and not at all amazing in the way that this blog is amazing!
[I think you should reduce your caffeine intake - ed.]
With the base model built, I was able to get on to the sculpting, which ended up consuming the troll's share of the time on this build. In addition to patching all the disparate bits together into one model, I ended up having to bulk up the model with a good amount of extra material, especially in the chest and shoulders. For added rockiness in the shoulder flesh, I jammed some crushed plaster pieces into the putty when it was about half cured.3
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| What do you mean, "signature pose"? |
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| I also sculpted a little belt to hold up his loincloth. That was a kinda weird design choice, in hindsight... maybe I should have sculpted on some purple pants as well? |
One might be forgiven for assuming I've converted models before. In fact, I'm completely new at this. I didn't even know what a 'miniature' was until last week. [citation needed - ed.]
All photographic evidence of the Mulg scratchbuild has been destroyed. (to protect the guilty)Crushed plaster is often sold in basing kits to serve as concrete rubble or jagged rock, but it's fantastically inexpensive and easy to just make yourself. Just pour a thin layer of liquid plaster into a baking sheet, let it cure, and then smash the [expletive deleted - ed.] out of it with a hammer.
