Borka and the Bears

"Sometimes, you eat the bear. And sometimes, well, he eats you. And sometimes a bunch of bears all ambush you at once and eat you, with some wild trollkin coming up behnind ordering 'em to do it. And sometimes, a crazy trollkin riding a bear attacks you and they both eat you, together."

Today we've got the two iterations of Borka Kegslayer, as well as the northkin bear handler unit. We though given Borka's stature he made sense as the warlock to represent the champions unit, and so decided to do him as an ogre instead of an orc.

Turning of the (Stone) Tide

"What are young men to rocks and mountains?"

Janissa Stonetide has been a bit of a project. This model was originally released during the game's first edition, and like some other early trollbloods it is small in stature - perhaps more so than any other model in the original line except Grissel. Getting it to match with the rest of the army required a full rebuild of the model's body.

Volley’ed and Thundered

No one accuses the gunner of maudlin affection for anything except his beasts and his weapons. He serves as least three jealous gods–his horse and all its sadlery and harness; his gun, whose least detail of efficiency is more important than men’s lives; and, when these have been attended to, the never-ending mystery of his art commands him.

Today's subject is the two Trollkin artillery crew units, consisting of three models for each of the "Thumper" and "Pummeler" guns.

War Beasts? More Beasts!

"It's like the four elements, right. You've heard of the four elements? Except here there's only three elements. And those three elements are - Metal, Lightning, and Smashing Things!"

Today we have three more builds for the troll warbeast stable - the Slag Troll, Storm Troll, and the newest heavy option, the Dire Troll Mauler Brawler. Let's dig right in.

Call The Warlocksmith

"What is there about fire that’s so lovely? No matter what age we are, what draws us to it?’ Beatty blew out the flame and lit it again. ‘It’s perpetual motion; the thing man wanted to invent but never did."

As with doomshaper, I recently finished built the 2nd versions of Grissel and Horgle, but I'll also be covering the builds we did for Grissel1 and Horgle1 here since they weren't posted previously.

Shaping Up Some Doom

 "I'm a wizard, mind you. This place is kept by powerful gods and spirits of kings. Harm my flesh and you will have to deal with the dead!"

The three Doomshaper models weren't all done at the same time, but I'm going to cover them in a single post since these were straightforward conversions, just head-swaps and some minor repairs.

Painting a Beast 09 Conversion

Recently I had the pleasure of painting a converted Khador Beast 09. I decided upon a color scheme of white, red and gray. Let's see how we did...

Number Of The Beast (it's nine)

Some years back, my old comrade-in-arms The Hungry Kithkar (THK) built me a Beast 09 conversion out of spare parts. Being a frequent Sorscha player, it was a perfect addition to my Khador army, particularly since at the time I was dead broke and didn't feel like spending $40 on the blister box.

Those Elemental Troll Nights

"The three trolls came back home, but they did not know how to find the best opportunity for showing their skill, so they sat down and consulted together."
 
When presented with the first three light beasts of the elemental persuasion, I was afforded several opportunities to break with the usual muted color scheme I'd been going for. This meant using some different painting strategies than normal, and my first foray into literal model fire.

Bold in the Cold

I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice

While the Ravening Kriels project is, nominally, a horde composed primarily of orcs - an Orc Horde, if you will - it was always the intention to include other monstrous allies commonly seen alongside orcs in fantasy fiction.  This includes the ever-popular trolls, obviously, but also such things as minotaurs, goblins and all sorts of other belligerent brutes.

We Three Brothers.. Always Fight Together!

A raging inferno isn't something you put inside you. It's already there! Sometimes you just need someone to help you ignite it!

The pyre troll conversion is another one from the archives.  Along with the Mauler, Axer and Impaler, it was one of the first builds I did since, at the time (in the second half of Warmachine mk2) it was a completely indispensable piece for trollbloods.  Shortly thereafter I added the Swamp Troll and the brand-new Night Troll to the battlegroup selections as well.

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Sword (and Hammer)

Sword-play is an odd thing; you don't really use your mind, it is much too fast for that. Your wrist thinks and tells your feet and body what to do, bypassing your brain...
Hammer-play, on the other hand, is reasonably straightforward.

The Fennblade Kithkar was a late addition to 'blades, and while the model itself was a bit of a hack (and slash) job, my compatriot channeled everything he learned painting the unit here and produced a really fine result.

Never Cry Troll

"They call me Mad Jack, and if there is anybody in these mountains that knows the real story about the Trollkin Skinner, that'd be me. So I'm putting it down in writing just how it happened in hopes of setting the record straight."

The trollkin skinner is a model for which I knew I HAD to do a conversion as part of this project.  With his Crockettlike coonskin cap and a knife large enough to impress an Australian action hero, it's a goofy model by any measure - but also an endearing one.

Propitious Prognosticationism

"Like the others, you were strong and swift and brave. A natural leader. But you had something they didn't. Something no one saw but me. Can you guess? 
"Luck."
"Was I wrong?" 

Calandra is another one of the warlocks I completed a conversion for relatively early on.  It's only a head and an arm swap, but it did present us with a new challenge as the first of the female trollkin models we'd added to the lineup.  As it turns out, the GW style orc heads we'd been using are not, as a rule, especially feminine. 

Blades in the Bog

"And when all the most renowned in the ancient sagas are named, the Fennblades must be counted the foremost in strength and accomplishments, in zeal and valor.

In keeping with the theme of coming back to start up activity in this blog once more, I thought it might be worthwhile to discuss some of the first models that I ever painted (and my namesake on this blog):  The Fennblades.

Swords in the Swamp

Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!

That one's for you, Jack.  Alright, so, Fennblades.  This was the first dedicated unit I converted as part of the trollkin project.  After the kriel warriors (which were originally just Orc Boys) this was the most straightforward of the infantry units, with conversion work limited to headswaps and a few reposed arms.

Grim Hunts Us All

"Then Angus, with a quiet expression, spoke to his companions in the hunt as they wandered through the solitary wilds. 'Friends, our spears and nets are drenched with the blood of our victims, and the day has been fortunate enough."

Hello, welcome back to another riveting¹ edition of The Ravening Kriels paint articles. Today's story: Grim Angus. Our story picks up where our talented sculptor left off,  a heavily modified, reposed model made from ork bits, original work, and filled gaps. The end result however, really gives the model a well-travelled look fitting for the Hallowed Hunstman.™

Hungry Beyond Mortal Ken

"No recognised school had animated this terrible creature, yet centuries and even thousands of years seemed recorded in its dim and greenish surface of unplaceable stone."

If ever there was truly a flagship model to this army, it would be Mulg. Our crack team of scientific experts have already proven Mulg's potent position of palpable primacy, and we persist to placate your plaintive pleas for a paintjob with plenty of panache.¹

To that end, I present this exposé on what was, in all seriousness, a solid weekend of painting and something I always love to drop on the table to strike terror into the hearts of heavy warjacks.

Old Beyond Mortal Reckoning

1. a Mulg at rest will tend to remain at rest, unless it is acted upon by an outside Food.
2. once compelled to motion, Mulg will remain in motion. 
   Deal With It.
3. when Mulg's body exerts a force on a second body, it dies.

Everybody knows that Mulg is the best.¹  He's got the most toothsome backstory, the meatiest big fists, and the writers give him all the wittiest one-liners.  He's a perpetual fan favorite, a cross-genre break-out character, and the troll softball team's MVP and Home Run Derby winner ten years running.

Labyrinth II: Still Lost

Nor did the creature keep him waiting, but struck suddenly and started in; he grabbed and mauled a man on his bench, bit into his bone-lappings, bolted down his blood and gorged on him in lumps, leaving the body utterly lifeless, eaten up hand and foot.

As we have mentioned before, gentle readers, the troll light warbeasts in this project have been replaced with custom made minotaurs. These products of my esteemed colleague's skillful hand presented numerous opportunities to bring  several distinct looks to models that might have otherwise faded into a unified, and ultimately boring, color palette. However, creatures so adept at defying gravity and conventional physics should have similarly distinctive paint jobs.