Obsidian Golems (with a twist)

This guy lost his left arm and his left pauldron somewhere. So the connection point on top of the shoulder and the elbow joint needed to be part of the kitbash. The shoulder got a shield (I think it’s from a Viking Gripping Beast sprue) and the elbow got a cut down Mantic Games Dwarf battle hammer. In the righthand fist I set another cut down battle hammer (The slight bend was deliberate; showing off his tight angry grip).

The shield was nice to paint. Geometric rune like shapes just improvised at the worktop.

I painted the horns of the helmet like bull horns I found on Google. It proved easier and more aesthetically pleasing to include more brown and black than much of the source photos I found.  Most just went white, cream white then abruptly brown then black at the tip.

The head is original where the other two golems have bits box Dwarf heads added, but I added what I think is a Dwarf standard top? It looked rune like and imagine that it was used on this golem, grafted to its forehead, to somehow focus it’s mind against the Abyssals and keep it from turning on the dwarves he now fights for.

The rust was a mix of Typhus Corrosion, Jokaero orange and dabs of Stormhost silver.

The rock was Athonian Camoshade over the grey Halfords plastic spray primer. I dry brushed with Grey Seer, added dots of Celestra Grey, Nighthaunt gloom and Athonian Camoshade to give it the interesting stone look.

If I am going to enter this as a competition piece I imagine I will have to revisit it and try to find more ways to improve and refine the look. I will likely enter this as a unit entry so may look to a photographer friend to give me the best chance possible by taking some better pics. I have a small photo booth, but these are bigger models and want to give myself the best chance. Not looking to win, just want an honourable mention or shortlisted. Just a nod or pat on the back would be awesome.

This was the first model of the three that got some kitbash treatment. The backstory of a regiment of turned Abyssal golems was not in my mind for this kitbash. He was to be a hastily crafted Enchanter wizard’s Large Construct for my Frostgrave warband. Built from rubble, broken statues, weapons laying around and slabs of wrought iron and held together by magic and not much else. The arm hole filled with weapons really appealed to me, draws the eye and adds that last minute cobbler together construct feel.

The iron bars over the front gut cavity made some sense to me at the time. I initially hoped it would look like an oven door, but soon conceded that it was more like prison bars. For my Construct that was fine because the rock he is gathered from could easily have cell window bars encompassed in it. As I look at him more as a traitor Abyssal obsidian golem I feel these make sense as supports after the fires died. This would have been a central core where the lava bubbled and turned over, but now he is cold the Dwarf Stone Priest had to shore up the gap to give him a stable core to lash out from. (Don’t skip abs day.)

In the first picture the cloth hanging from the hole where his arm used to be was just a plain white cloth.

In the second picture I had added a spattering of blood and a wide blue central stripe.

As I am trying to get as many browny points as I can, I am going to hand paint some runes amongst the torn cloth.

The rock effect – Athonian Camoshade over the grey primer, dry brush of Grey Seer, added dots of Nighthaunt gloom and Camoshade – was all roughly worked out on this model first.

I found after my first round of base colours, washes and highlights that the silver grey of the metal was too close to the grey rock and this gave no contrast or definition to the different materials on the golem. So to add warmth to the metal I added rust tones and to take the rock colder and less grey I added the Nighthaunt Gloom spots that made it look almost icy in places.

I will show off the rune work on the cloth soon and then move onto the last model.

Once all three are at a decent table top standard I will pick back over my work and try to find ways of improving them before a final photo shoot.

The spikey shouldered gent that started this idea has the runes on his flag under his arm hole. Yet again the photographs help me with bits that need improvement and I will revisit him.

The chains seemed like a fun way to take him a touch further from the original silhouette and a hint that perhaps these Golems are not being freed to get revenged – but temporarily given life under new management. I just though that I might try some of the Cryptek Armourshade Gloss on the chain. It would be a warmer colour breaking up the metal and blue grey of the stone.

The head being the only piece missing is what inspired the chains being used. There needed to be more to the kitbash than a Dwarf head that I had already used on the first construct.

I figured that now the lava has been lost that they would be more likely to need weapons along with their bulk. The fists accepted the weapons quite well.

I played around with the order of my minis after getting them pretty much finished and found that they wouldn’t rank up side by side.

Rather than re-base them I decided that I could use some foam board, remove the top layer and dig down into it and put the minis at different heights to get them ranked up…

…and then as I started to play with the arrangement of the three minis, I found that there was a way for all three to rank up anyway. Lol.

I found that if I cut short the hammer of the gent with the dwarf shield on his shoulder, that they could scrum down as a tight front row after all.

I decided to persevere with the base anyway.

I created a drop of about 2-3mm by digging out foam with a hobby knife and the lip is about 2mm wide which is acceptable in game terms.

I covered the whole thing in a sand, plaster PVA mix and sprayed it grey (Grey Halfords Plastic Primer)

The movement tray came out OK. The method was fairly slow. I won’t be digging at polystyrene and trying to keep a 2mm thin lip intact for a dozen movement trays for an army if and when I ever make one.

The Golems fit in the tray and the sand and plaster PVA mix gave me enough texture to dry brush and make the tray edges look interesting at least.

Which background helps show off these minis to their best? Red or Green?

I read the rules again for Brush with Death unit entries and….. It’s a requirement to have 5 models.

I am trying to work out if two kitbashed Dwarves, prodding these behemoths towards the enemy would be adequate to enter them as a unit or they have to be playable minis.

It meets the other criteria… The unit is able to function within the game it is from. It is the full PMC for a regiment, the minis are converted but very much from the Mantic range, are displayed on the appropriate base sizes for the game the miniatures are used in and mounted on a single display base… but there’s only 3. Is this an immediate fail if I tried to enter them?

I am trying to find out.

In the meantime I have decided red is best for showing of my minis after taking some more snaps.