Brokk

Brokk the mechnomancer is ready to reanimate some busted machinery. 

Here he is next to his associate the Skadiir and a human naval officer (who's probably feeling slightly nervous between the two large space aliens) for size reference.

Also: First mini painted since september! Yay!

Mechnomancer - work in progress

The mechnomancer is getting some paint slapped on him. Haven't painted in a while so things are progressing in a slowly but not very steadily kind of fashion... 

But, so far - so good methinks!

Ivaldian Mechnomancer

So... The plan was to do a mercenary xenos - a starwarsy "scum and villainy"-type who'd fit in well rubbing shoulders with your average Mos Eisly cantina customer.

Then the grimdark just sort of started creeping in and he turned into something else entirely... 

Meet Brokk - a grumpy Ivaldian Mechnomancer. 

The Ivaldians are a technologically advanced race that have attained a special form of psychic affinity with machines. They all have the ability to communicate with any sufficiently advanced apparatus (techepathy) and some, the Mechnomancers, to revive and control broken machinery. 

Ivaldians tend to have lots of bionic implants - the artificial parts seem to enhance their powers. 

Back on the air!

Hello. 

As you might have noticed, things have been a bit quiet on the Convertorum these last two months. This has mainly been for two reasons:

The first reason is that I've been trying to finish writing my next book. This has, as you might imagine, been rather time consuming ( plus my ridiculously oversized 27" iMac has occupied my worktable ).

The second and, in a way, most important reason is a general sense of miniature fatigue. I had boxes full of bitz but couldn't come up with any interesting ideas on what to make with them.  Also I've kept a pretty frantic pace these 2,5 years since the start of the blog and felt I really needed a break. That break grew longer and longer as I realised there wasn't really anything I  truly wanted to build. 

But now the book is done, the computer is stowed away and paints, brushes and little plastic men are slowly taking over my worktable yet again. 

As a warm up piece after the break I'm working on a xenos mercenary to accompany the skadir. I like the Star Wars vibe these two give off...

The Hunter

- The Skadiir -

Hailing from the infamous ironwoods of the Garmian cluster the skadiir are a race of fierce and proud hunter-witches. Trackers beyond compare, with the ability to psychically home in on their quarry´s warpshadow, they are sometimes found in the employ of less than orthodox imperial agents.

The ironwoods are giant spherelike aggregates of thorns the size of small moons, orbiting the upper atmosphere of gas giants common in the cluster. These floating forests can all be considered as deathworlds, each teeming with various ferocious ecoystems of their own.

Only female skadii are ever encountered by outsiders - the males are hulking semi-sentient beasts who roam the cores of the ironwood orbs. When reaching maturity a skadii must earn the right to become a full member of the ruling matriarchy. She goes on a quest to hunt down and kill a particular prey. The more powerful the quarry the greater the honor, but she cannot rejoin her coven-pride until the quest is complete. Most choose among the various feral beasts roamning the forests of the thornworlds, but some particularly adventurous skadii choose exotic targets such as zoats, ork warlords or chaos champions (or in some cases even senior space marines ). It is these hunters that normally come into contact with the imperium. Should their goals coincide a skadii might be persuaded to join an Inquisitors warband.

If their hunt is successful they return to their home and are given the right to mate - otherwise they will stalk the stars until they die. The female goes into the deepwoods in search of one of the feral males, capture him and bring him back to the pride. There they mate and when the mating process is over the coven-pride kills and consumes the male. After bearing a huge litter the young hunter-witch is taken up as a full member of the matriarchy and her full psychic powers develop.

=I=

Predator in progress

Here's a little sneak peek of the Hunter halfway through the painting process. Getting the mottled predatory skin right was a lot of fun. 

Turned out a little "krootier" than originally planned perhaps, but I'm still quite happy with it. 

The hunt is afoot!

Early this year I was invited to partake in Iron Sleets first Invitational. My first plan was to create a group of xenos bountyhunters in an attempt to show off the diversity of sentient life in the galaxy. 

This unfortunately proved a bit too ambitous and I got completely stuck - none of the xenos turned out the way I wanted them. In the end I decided to do a slaaneshii themed entry instead where one of the xenos was reworked into a warped hellbrute construct. 

The xenos that I felt worked best - nicknamed The Hunter - was temporarily shelved after he had a little accident. Now however, I feel the time has come to get back to him as I'm really quite fond of this mini. There's a certain feline menace about him...

He'll probably end up part of Carax growing retinue of miscreants or I may actually do an entire band of xenos like originally intended.

The Hunter

Finally some long avaited bitz arrived in the mail which helped me move forward with xenos no.2. 

Inspired loosely by John's sanctioned xenos sketch (shown in the first invitational post and which in turn I feel is at least somewhat inspired by the Predator) this guys working name has become "the Hunter". Here's where he's at at the moment.

The spear tip is deliberately not in the picture as I haven't finished the design of the business end of the weapon. 

Nasty, brutish and tall.

Here's a new take on the big guy! Termagant head partly covered in grey stuff hood (chopped off from an old conversion that I never liked anyway). Armament is a rather hefty poweraxe made from the dreadknight hammer. 

What do you think about this configuration dear readers? 

Oh, if anybody has a spare dreadknight left fist I'd love to trade it for something from my rather extensive bitz box. 

Big xenos

After the completion of the Diva the focus is back on the xenos trio for the Iron Sleet Invitational. Here's a mockup of the big guy on a 60mm base ( part of the challenge is to use bases of different size for all three models). 

Not sure about the mask as it does makes him look a bit like a grotesque. On the other hand it does fit rather perfectly... But I'm looking for other options. If anybody's got a spare dark elf cold one head lying around I'd be very interested indeed..

The Diva beside it for size reference. 

The Beast from 40.000 fathoms

Well here he is in glorious technicolor. I give you - Glarrg the Brontoglorrg. 

Realised I'd forgotten to do final finishes on the purity seals red wax but apart from that I consider this monster done. I also might go back and paint the cowling on his gun-arm the same style as the armour to make it pop a bit more. We'll see...

It came from outer space

After spending the weekend out in Stockholms archipelago celebrating midsummer's eve, that great swedish holiday when we eat raw herring in vinegar (which we do basically every holiday), get drunk on snaps (that too) and merrily dance around a giant phallos, it was time to bring out the paints and start bringing some glorious technicolour to Glarrg. 
To enhance his (B)movie-monster qualities I based the skintone and pattern on the Predator. I really wanted him to look like something that could be played by an actor wearing a rubber suit. It came out good but unfortunately a bit too green.  
Not quite done yet, but getting there..,

Walking with Brontoglorrgs

This might be wierdest creature to ever roll off this particular converters assembly line...

I'll probably write up a brief background for these foul xenos at a later stage, but until then I give you: 

Glarrg the Brontoglorrg - bountyhunter. 

Beware the brontoglorrg!

Working on some foul xenos for a new warband.

First up is this saurian bountyhunter. I felt he looked like a glorrg or something like that. JB suggested "brontoglorrg" so that name kinda stuck.