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.

Still waiting on an answer to my question about the competition unit entry size and whether some Golum handlers would be OK.

I decided to plough on regardless and kitbash those guys up.

So I dived into my trusty Fantasy bits box again. I have used a few Dwarves as broken statues for Frostgrave terrain because part of this eBay bought bits box has been badly assembled minis. Too much super glue, the wrong torsos and leg sections smooshed together with sprue gates keeping important pieces apart… A real mess. The two I chose are the best of a bad bunch. The bases for some reason have big cuts into them, but this helps with the ruins feel I was aiming for any way.

The guy with the built-in shield has cuts to his upper back where the last owner was trying to put the legs and torso together. Rather than filling and repairing I am just covering the unsightly join with a cloak (I believe from a Brock Rider). The hand was empty so I took an axe handle (I think) and put it at the bottom of a pike. The pike (cut from a Warlord Games Pike and Shotte sprue) on its own was going to look too slender in his gaping wide hand so the handle was employed. This would need to be wielded two handed by a human, but this dwarf manages the length and weight with ease, as he prods a golem from behind no less. The shield should give me a fun excuse for more freehand work.

The second guy also has an ugly gape under his left armpit that might actually need attention, but I will see how I get on. The mini had no arms. The left pointing arm is from a Oathmark Heavy Infantry Dwarf sprue and I cut away a part pauldron on the arm that wouldn’t gel with the Mantic dwarves armour properly. The right arm (the same Oathmark sprue) is meant to be holding a double handed battle hammer. I cut the head of the hammer off (now on the base at his feet) and also a lower length of the handle. The whip is made from a piece of sprue melted over a candle and pulled thin and then a kink worked into it before it cooled. I attached a spare off cut from a spear (I think) as a new handle for the hammerhead on the base.

The paint scheme will be the same as some of the few Mantic Games Dwarf minis I have ever painted. I believe I used an Army Painter paint set made especially for Mantic Dwarves. I may use the similar colour GW paints I have readily at hand to do the job, but may dig out the actual paints used if the difference is too glaring.

Martin and Ronnie from Mantic Games helped me confirm that the unit will be accepted without the extra handlers.

I will complete the handlers to finish off this project but for the competition I will just be submitting the pics in the gallery below.

Wish me luck.

Not needed for the competition, but a fun addition any way. They help with the theme of the unit and can be nerve dice guards when buckets of attack dice are being chucked down.

I enjoyed the mix of freehand and space wolf transfers on the shield. The same symbol transfers were used on Sparky’s flag and the freehand red symbol is repeated on Borscht’s shield on his shoulder.

Thanks go to OnTableTop for the shoutout on their Facebook page. Very cool.