In a break from unfolding the tale of that long-ago tournament and various other things, here are a couple pictures of what I’m currently all about. Put in some major work on these boys yesterday and today, and it’s just so damn much fun. They’re the monstrous infantry support for my Typhonic Beastman army, all designed to give me multi-wound stomp-having models without resorting to using the GW minotaur sculpts, of which I am not a fan.

I went back and forth on a number of options for my minotaurs, everything from biting the bullet and buying the GW sculpts to using Tomb Kings Ushabti warriors (which I do love, and thought would have been a great fit). The boar man choice was partially motivated by price, but more by seeing some incredible ogre-to-minotaur-conversions (that link is sort of janky-cachey, but ’twill serve) and wanting to put my collecting of proper shaping tools to work! I’m having so much fun getting to texture greenstuff that, among other things, I’ve typed “fun” three times in this post already. They’re all built out of a box of standard Ogres, which netted me 6 bodies for roughly the price of 3 of the other options. Their heads are from Savage Orc Boar Boyz, which I’d already picked up in order to replace the use of Tuskgors. I ground down the back of the heads and hollowed them out so I could slide the Ogre neck bulge into the socket, and the rest of the work is all strips and layers of greenstuff. My plan isn’t for them to have all-over fur, or even consistent fur coverage from model to model, because I’m hopeful that my paint job will convey a grungy, fetid effect. Boarmen are slovenly, and sullen, and prone to black moods broken by unexpected flashes of snarling fury. They should have matted, curly fur. Getting the arms to support a great weapon (their most likely loadout) is tricky without going the Irongut route, so I’ll probably plasticard great weapons to hands that I magnetize for swapping with normal hand weapons (and I guess that means I’ll be magnetizing both hands since I’d only be giving them hand weapons if I want to give them two…though a quick glance at the rules indicates they only lose their parry saves when frenzied, not the armor bonus). Not sure how best to represent the musician, so perhaps I can make off with my wife’s Mournfang Cavalry horn and use that; I tried a bellower arm but it cups the pig’s face in a fashion that suggests glamour shots.

I also had three lion heads lying about (four, actually) along with a box of Crypt Horrors I’d originally purchased to make Kroot Gunners from. I haven’t given up on the Gunners, but Crypt Horrors are essentially my go-to 40mm infantry purchase for conversions; all of my Spawn are built off of them as well, and the Horror heads found their way into another conversion for this army. I was excited at the prospect of some leonine minotaur stand-ins, and am passingly satsified with the current results. Finding a way to represent weapons for them is tricky, because I wasn’t planning to run them as an additional hand weapon unit of 3 (the easiest way I could put them together). I’m guessing I’ll do something with spears, but it’s all the trickier because I plan to use them as my Doom/Gorebulls, and that’s going to mean their loadout shifts from match to match.

We just had a war party meeting where much was said about WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get, referring to how models must physically represent their various wargears)  and tournaments, and those are rules that seem poorly applied to hero level characters, since one model is going to sub in at a bunch of different levels. It’s also something I have trouble paying much heed to, though, because three of the armies I play/will play (Daemons, Chaos Space Marines, and Beastmen) are heavily reliant on rules and effects that don’t come with models bits, let alone models. Hell, Daemons throw the concept right out since their stuff is randomly rolled at the beginning of the game; CSM is almost as bad because they’re rolling during the game, though you can buy pre-game rolls. Beastmen aren’t quite as bad, as their Gifts are purchased pre-play; but there’s, again, no set kit to represent any of them. That meant the whole WYSIWYG basically felt like a rule that might eventually bite one of my conversions—say gargoyle-tipped guns for my Noise Marine Sonic Blasters and Blastmasters)—in the ass, which in turn mostly made me less interested in playing tournaments as a whole. So it’s on my mind as I play with these guys, and detracting from my enjoyment of constructing them just slightly.

Still, I’m looking forward to painting the lions as well, and trying to decide between painting them traditionally, aiming for a regal air, or going for something a bit more fantastical and splashing them up with gore. Beastmen are a Chaos Undivided crew traditionally, but I’m a man of allegiances; still, in a major departure for me I’m thinking I’ll dedicate these lads to Khorne over Slaanesh, largely because he fits Set(h) better and that’s what the Gors are going to represent.