What little I've been doing

Yes, I know it has been over three weeks since I've posted anything.

I just haven't had anything to say.  The whole current situation has managed to kill any incentive to work on anything lately.  Some people are doing all sorts of work, but for me the biggest accomplishment was finishing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (and soon to start Voyager). 

I will be honest, deadlines help to keep me working.  But all of my deadlines have been cancelled -

  • Adepticon - cancelled
  • Daycon - postponed to August
  • Ohio War Kings - cancelled
  • Origins - postponed to October
  • Gencon - cancelled
I did get one idea and have been (VERY SLOWLY) working on one model.  I did a conversion on the Wyrd Alpha Crawler from The Other Side Gibbering Hordes to use as a Kraken (because the Nameless Goliath just didn't hold up next to Cthulhu!).

Well, Wyrd makes a second titan model that can be used for EITHER Gibbering Hordes or Cult of the Burning Man - so I figured maybe it would also look good in my army.

The Horomatangi (jokingly called Godzilla behinds the scenes) was pretty cool.  And since my son just happens to be the lead designer for the game I thought I'd pick one up to use.


I get it in, and it is in a suitably large box.  All of The Other Side models are pre-assembled - so it was just opening it.

First thing I did was set him on my desk next to the Alpha Crawler, and immediately noticed something.  Putting him next to Cthulhu just showed it even more.


He just wasn't as big as I expected.  He wouldn't fit as another Kraken (like I need another one anyway).

However, he did happen to be a very similar size to another monster I had in my army - the knucker.  I had gotten that model from the Volfyirion kickstarter.  I did this because I liked the model - I honestly haven't even tried the card game yet.


I replaced the scythe arms with tentacles and trimmed down the base quite a bit, and have been using him as my knucker.

And Horomatangi was very close in size.  So I figured he could be another knucker!


However he was a bit too 'dinosaurish' for my army - he needed tentacles and something weirder.  My oldest son (who claims to have all my ideas) suggest something like the demogorgon from Stranger Things.  I didn't think I could actually sculpt it, but I did find a McFarlane Toys action figure of it on eBay for a reasonable price.

It arrived, and with a little bit of prying I was able to actually pop the head off.  

blue-tac to get an idea
mom always said I would lose my head if it weren't attached!
A bit of super-glue remover and some more prying got the horomatangi head off as well, and the demogorgon head, while a little big, actually fit fairly well.


I wanted to keep some of the other cool features of the Horomatangi, such as the spines and tongue, so I cut thee off and glued them on.


Taking the tongue off the original head and gluing it in the middle of the new mouth
The back spine up the head


It was still missing one required piece however - it had no tentacles!  I could not allow that.  Of course I wasn't able to go to the FLGS to look for conversion bits, but I was able to order some from Reaper (their bones are so nice to work with for conversions - I used them for the Alpha Crawler as well).  I got several models, but liked the tentacles from the bones Stone Lurker the best.


 Then some green stuff to fill in all the gaps, including those on the original model.



I did try to repose it a bit using hot water, and this seemed to work - however in the time since then it seems to have slowly returned to it's original position (I want it to stand up a bit straighter, lift the tail and bring the right arm around a bit).  I may have to put something under his toes to tilt him back slightly.

I primed him black

and then it was suggest I try Zenithal highlighting on him



Showing the darker primer on the underside of the model
I always struggle coming up with paint schemes, so with my son's help (again) I'm going to try a dark red (as opposed to the green of the other monsters, and similar to the other knucker).  Since he doesn't have scales, I don't want to use the Turbo Dork color change metalic paints directly on him, but I figure they would work well for the fins.

Of course I was out of the red paint I wanted, and finally was able to get down to the store and pick some up this weekend to begin airbrushing the main body.

And that is where it is right now.

On Tuesday I finally get to go back into the office instead of working from home, which may help with my hobby inspiration.  (When working from home, my work laptop is set up where my normal one is (so I can use the extra monitor) - which means that I'm working in my hobby chair, just turned 90 degrees from my hobby stuff.  And after sitting in that chair for 8-10 hours, I don't want to sit there to paint.

I'll try to keep this updated.

Because it is all fun and games . . .







Comments

  1. Fantastic conversion! Really looking forward to seeing it finished.

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  2. I added a couple of pictures of the finished model in this post : https://blog.untilsomebodylosesaneye.net/2021/02/cant-let-it-go-by-unnoticed.html

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