Underworlds - Mollog's Mob - WIP

Seeing the approaching 4th season of Underworlds, I decided to buy the last of the expected-to-be-discontinued 2nd season warbands that I liked - the Mollog's Mob. When they first appeared, I disliked them, they were a bit too comical for me, at least for Underworlds. Then I got into Instagram and followed a bunch of AoS28 folks and the idea on how to convert them slowly appeared in my head.

As far as I saw, one of the easiest way to make a monster creepier is to make it more human, have human attributes when one would expect monstrous ones, make the weird thing that much closer to us. To achieve that, I gave every single creature in the band, a human-like face - the troll, the squigs, the frog, everything. Because of the scale difference, every face turned out pretty distinct and characterful, an unexpected, yet good feature.

With the main man here below, I wanted to go a small step beyond - which was inspired by the great menagerie of grimdark Giants which can be seen HERE and the manga/anime Shingeki no Kyojin - where the giants are not just big humans, but humanlike creatures that were scaled up to their size, unperfectly, like in an broken mirror, or by an unskilled creator. Those creatures carry certain human features, but they are all set up wrong - so my 'Mollog' has a very wide mouth and instead of a club, his whole left hand has way too many joints and is just generally too long. The original troll's uneven proportions were perfect for this. Someone may say that this is too small for a giant, but I like my giants on a spectrum - which starts from about this size, when it can overpower an average human with size alone and devour later, if not whole, then bite by bite.

And here are the squigs, little minions of 'Mollog' - those were nice and easy conversions.

Underworlds - The K'nights of Kross

So, after scrambling my motivation and some paints, I finally managed to paint something to completion since my life became busier! After being told (thanks potsiat!) about the competition on the Warhammer Community page, with the theme being 'Crusaders', I thought that was the sign. I am also posting them all at once - there's a limit to how much I am ready to drag my projects along on this blog!

There was a long break after my last Warhammer Underworlds warband, but just that one, I decided to reimagine the models into something different (the game allows for some heavy dose of interpretation). So, today I present you the K'nights of the Kross - a brave warband of greenskins that's all about crusading and reclaiming the Holeeland, wherever that may be.

The original models were heavily armored already, so making them look more 'knightly' was mostly a matter of changing their weapons, adding some tabards, and painting them in the Templar color scheme. I had a lot of fun painting all the metal, with all the plates and flat surfaces.

Also, here I am, painting an S1 warband, happy with my progress, while GW is probably getting ready to release S4 of Underworlds anytime soon...

The peoples of Vechernya have a lot of problems already in their own realm, but sometimes they have to deal with outside invaders. One of those are the crusading orcs of Chamon, always ready to attack drier, coastal regions of the land. Clad in shiny armor and bearing red crosses, they seem to emulate some knightly order from a faraway time - but nobody can say if it's their own invention, a bizarre transformation of some knights or are they just a heavily distorted part of the Withered King's dreams. Nevertheless, they're very tough in combat and can't be bargained with, thinking only about following their unknowable ideals - more than a match for anyone unfortunate to find them at their doorstep.

Fitting 4 minis in the picture above made them quite small, so here are the close-ups, with the Grand Master first. You can see the WIP HERE.

This guy was the kickstarter of the whole project and he was surely the most fun to paint - the shield, the flowing cape, he was much more special than the rest. His sword, though... I cursed myself for not sculpting any extra edges on it.

The second most favorite, Sir Bonekutta wielding a greatsword to cleave the unbelievers - despite being new in the warband, he's more zealous than the rest. You can see his WIP HERE.

I like the pose on this one, raised arms made his chest and the tabard much more prominent - and the muscles on the arms which were a real pleasure to paint.

The third one, a fan of exotic weapons which still bash skull nicely, Sir Basha. His WIP post can be found HERE.

I struggled a bit with his maces a bit - after some options, I went for mostly black metal with very strong silver highlights on the edges and points, which seems to work quite well.

The last one, Sir Hakka, hiding a disfigured face behind a full templar helmet. You can see his WIP post HERE.

I considered him the least interesting of the bunch until I got a suggestion to put a feather on his head - which improved him immensely (thanks Pepe!). Now he looks very knightly with his helmet, strengthening the whole theme even further.

Underworlds - Hakka - WIP

The scramble with the crusading boyz go on - and the final conversion is here - welcome brave knight Hakka.

The whole idea with this one was to give him a big, boxy helmet, already building over his existing mask - I didn't want a crusader warband without at least one of those. Besides that, I didn't have anything special planned for his weapons, so I just changed the knife into a sword and the axe into a spearhead of some sort.

I pushed the conversions forward a bit because there's a competition on the Warhammer Community page, with the theme being 'Crusaders', lasting for July 2020. It motivated me to actually start painting seriously, instead of just kitbashing and converting as I was trying to over the last months. They are being done right now and they will be done and ready next week - on the last Sunday of July.

Underworlds - Basha - WIP

The crusade of the orcs continues - quicker than I planned because now I have a reason to finish them all before July is over! After Ironskull and Bonekutta, I have another one - Basha.

Unlike his companions - and as his name suggests, he wields blunt weapons. I like to reinvent my Underworlds minis, but I prefer to at least reference their original equipment and/or skills, so I decided against giving him swords. Still, I wanted to change his weapons to make them more knightly, more 'historical'. Flanged maces seemed like a fun choice - they have a very specific look and I could imagine an orc smithing it somehow. I cut several pieces of plasticard to have a roughly similar shape and glued them around the handles of the original mini. I gave him a desert-y headgear to make him fit better in his scenery while avoiding pieces too similar to the ones of his pals.

Underworlds - Bonekutta - WIP

After the boss Ironskull, it is time for the rest of the crusading orcs - this time with Bonekutta.

From the very beginning, I knew that I wanted to give him a two-handed sword - but unfortunately, his pose and grip were made with a long-handled weapon in mind, so I had to be creative. Thankfully, real swords of this size were held often by the so-called ricasso, a non-sharp part of the blade - with some parrying hooks separating it from the sharp part. It call came together to make the sword much more realistic, even if it was a crude slab of orcish metal! I made it out of plasticard and damaged it severely - this greenskin doesn't care about his weapon too much.

To make his head different from the rest, I gave him a simple helmet. Here you can also see much better the cloth that I greenstuffed on his chest - which will get a nice red cross during the painting.

Underworlds - Gurzag Ironskull - WIP

My life is still a bit hectic, so with this project, I will take my sweet time here. I hope the readers can understand!

When the first season of Warhammer Underworlds, Shadespire, was getting out of print, I quickly scrambled to get the teams that I wanted to play, with the intention to reinvent them how I did with my Steelheart's Champions. It's a big part of the game's charm for me, to change the minis heavily while retaining their gameplay value. With the first of the two teams that I got, Ironskull's Boyz, I decided to go for a crusading theme. With their heavy armor, the orcs look knightly already, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

Today I am showing you the leader, Gurzag Ironskull himself, as a proof of concept. His pose was good enough to incorporate a shield, so he looks the most convincing - and probably even more when his cape will be painted later on. I also changed his axe for a sword - something which I will do on his comrades too.

The rest of the boyz will follow shortly.

Underworlds Warband - The Faceless

Finally, my 'Stormcast' warband for Underworlds is finished. They are an effect of an idea I came up with maybe a year ago, to turn some of those golden champions into creepy and enigmatic knights in ornate, but neglected and faceless armor. The conversion process, both the design phase and the sculpting were the most taxing part of the whole project - you can see it all explained HERE, with all the inspirations, concepts and plans for the future.

The painting process was much simpler in comparison. I used this image as a direct example of what I wanted to recreate, inspired by all the miniatures and artwork that gave me this idea in the first place. I started with a dark metallic base, added several layers and colors of rust pigments, then applied some additional shades and bright silver highlights. More typical painting work was used on all the fabrics and leather - and then also covered in pigments and sprinkled with washes to get the dirty look. They turned out mostly how I envisioned them - the only problem that I noticed is that they are easy to mistake on the tabletop when standing near my Garrek's Reavers - they are both dark, muted and dirty! Well, I'll have just to deal with it, because I don't want to change the aesthetic concept just for gameplay convenience!

It always starts the same. First, all the vampires, undead, chaos worshippers, heretics and similar become too much for the nobles to deal with. Not wanting to use their own warriors and troops, leaving them weaker in internal conflicts, they instead organize a ragtag militia of peasants and poor townspeople to hunt them in exchange for money, titles and land. Those bands soon become obsessed with their mission of ‘cleansing’ Vechernya of filth, heretics, undesirables and they start a cult around it. Not long after that, strange knights start joining their ranks - ones that believe their purpose so much that they forge a whole military order around it. Frighteningly effective in combat, they achieve great results in fighting the dangers lurking in the land. All is well until they run out vampires and ghouls - then they start turning on the folk of Vechernya - slaughtering villages and burning people on the slightest of offenses. Growing in numbers, they soon turn out of control, forcing the warring dukes and nobles into forging an alliance and destroying them, usually at a great cost. Then, many years later the whole cycle will start again, spun by the dreams of the Withered King.

This time the knights are known simply as the Faceless - they hide their faces and identities behind elaborate masks and helmets, believing their mission to be more important than their old personas. The fact that nobody ever saw their faces or heard them speaking and lived to tell the tale only strengthens their enigmatic and sinister reputation. Small, yet dangerous groups of those ominous warriors wander through Vechernya searching for any sign of corruption and heresy, no matter how slight or hidden.

First all three faceless as the whole warband. They are all different and turned out pretty characterful, so below this one, you will find much more pictures of them individually.

Now, all the members - first, the leader. I turned Severin Steelheart into the Crusader, an unrelenting champion fighting to purge Vechernya of all the undesirables. The piece of cloth (backskirt?) behind him was a perfect canvas to really try out some dirtying techniques, with pigments and washes.

The next one is Obryn the Bold, which is known in my warband as the Bull - a very diligent, but impatient warrior. He was interesting to paint thanks to the combination of flat and highly sculpted areas on his armor. Weirdly enough, when I was reading the Shadespire cards recently, I was surprised to see that Obryn is described as "bull-hearted". Now I don't know if it subconsciously inspired me a long time ago (and/or I forgot about it) or if it was just an interesting coincidence.

And the last one from the band is Angharad Brightshield, turned into the Vulture - a vicious warrior willing to prolong the fight if it means hurting and tormenting her enemy more. Her shield was a delight to paint (as wood usually is for me) and the freehands on the ribbons flowing behind her were a welcome variation from her freehand-less bandmates.

I would love to have a much larger force of Faceless, but seeing how taxing and difficult it is to convert every single one of them, I probably won't be doing that very soon!

Underworlds Warband - The Faceless - WIP

Finally, the converting part of my Warhammer Underworlds Stormcast team is finished - now it should be much easier.

The idea went through several stages and evolutions, but the source of it was Ana's (from Gardens of Hecate) brilliant take on the same kit, which can be found HERE. I wanted to do something similar, but also not copy it blatantly. Then I saw THIS artwork and I realized that I can make heavily armored counterparts to the cultists that I made for my zombie legion. At that point, I decided to get a Shadespire box to try this idea out. There are only 3 Stormcasts there, a perfect amount to test out this idea. Besides, I heard good things about the game itself, so trying it out was a bonus. Then I spent several months developing the idea in my head, sketching various options and looking for inspiration on the internet.

The Faceless were the final result of all that deliberation. Heavily inspired by Dark Souls aesthetics, I made my Stormcasts into creepy, otherworldly knights that hide their faces and identity behind elaborate, sculpturesque armor. Each one has a leading motive, starting with the helmet which then affects all other parts of their equipment. As their name suggests, there will be no faces on their helmets - only animals or geometric/abstract shapes, the more inhuman, the better. I have many, many more helmets/themes planned, should I someday decide to expand on this idea.

As a side note, this was probably the first time when I was doing so much precise sculpting on such (relatively) small infantry miniatures. It required different methods and I learned a lot during this whole work. Hopefully, future projects will benefit from this.

EDIT: The painted group can be seen HERE.

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The whole warband, the Faceless:

As a comparison, the original ones, as envisioned by Games Workshop (not painted by me, pictures taken from GW's website).

Now, the individual knights. First comes the leader, the Crusader. He is obviously inspired by the Pyramid Head from the Silent Hill franchise (especially the movie version) and the artwork I linked above - but he was also thought as a knightly variant of my zombie cultists. In the beginning, I wanted to make the whole team look like that, but I had too many interesting ideas for other knights to just dismiss them like that - the Crusader remains as the only one left from that first idea.

The second one is the Bull. It was this idea that made me scrap the concept of making everyone a pyramid head. He was partly inspired by Smough from Dark Souls, especially the part with the 'fat armor' and helmet visors being hidden in its 'neck'. The rest are my original ideas.

And the third one, the Vulture. This one I made the last and was inspired by THIS and THIS artwork. I had the least ideas for her and made her last, but as the sculpting progressed I was getting more and more into it and I am pretty happy with the final result.

And a bonus, here are the renderings of some of the more geometric helmets that I have in mind for the future, mostly the ones that I could model digitally. Many of them are taken from various pictures found on Pinterest. It's also a quick example of what color I have in mind for the Faceless - well, maybe a bit rusted than that, but you get the idea.

And to add even more to this already long post, this is a 52nd regular weekly post. This means, that I managed to keep up the pace and have at least a bit of progress every Sunday for a whole year. Let's wish for another year like this!

Underworlds Warband - Sons of Skalv

Second Warhammer Underworlds warband is now ready - this time, one based on Garrek's Blood Reavers. You can see the conversions HERE. The whole idea was to get rid of all the ornaments and make them look more like low-fantasy Vikings, turning them into raiders that do worship Khorne and believe is piling skulls for his throne, but know him under a different name and don't know anything about the 'mainstream' cult.

Besides simplifying their sculpts and changing some bits, I wanted to differentiate them from normal Khorne warriors through paint too. I choose pale, desaturated colors and painted their clothes in many different hues, not only red and brown. Their weapons are also simpler and dirtier than the ones proposed by GW. To make them extra special I freehanded some Norse- and Celtic-inspired tattoos on them.

In the end, work on them was a fun experience and I think they turned out pretty well. It was also probably the first time in my life when I painted so much human skin! Now all that remains is the Stormcast warband - they are easily taking much more effort than both other teams combined, several times over!

Another reality that’s reflected in the Withered King’s dreams is the appearance of the barbarian hordes living on the northern coasts of Vechernya. Speaking an alien language, warlike, unwilling to cooperate and worshipping Khorne in all but name, they are almost always at war with their southern neighbors. Sometimes they are pushed back and brought to heel by an organized effort, but they always come back under one name or another. The newest ones are just starting on their own Path to Glory, as warbands rampaging through the southern lands to earn the favor and respect of both gods and their ancestors. One particular group, all sons of a great warchief Skalv is particularly successful. If they will prove their worth and survive, future Vechernyans will tremble before hordes of bloodthirsty raiders, all claiming to be descendants of Skalv.

First, all the brothers together as a whole warband:

Next, the singular warriors, with Garrek Gorebeard and Bloodbeast Sarrek going first:

And last, but not least, the rest of them - Karsus, Targor and Arnulf:

Underworlds Warband - Kiril's Retinue / Vechernyan Wights

As you could already see in one of the previous posts, I bought Shadespire and started assembling the teams that came in the box. Besides those two, I got the Sepulchral Guard too, of course - I am collecting undead after all! I liked the miniatures so much, I would get them even if I wasn't planning to play the game.

Ever since I saw the previews of this band, I wanted to paint them in my usual patinated color scheme, like all my other WFB wights. But, on the other hand, I wanted to integrate all my Underworlds bands into AoS setting somehow. So I came up with my own little land in Shyish which would be a twisted reflection of the Old World - set in the Mortal Realms, but also still vaguely connected with everything that I invented for my WFB army. Now I could paint the same patinated armor and yellow freehands, like always! I actually painted them parallel with the Grave Guard, but seeing as they are more special and not a horde, I added additional layers of shadows and highlights, which took some extra time.

All in all, I enjoyed painting them - now I need to finish the two main bands and try out the game!

Vechernya is a land in Shyish, ruled by a plethora of warring princes, tsars and dukes - but held together by the influence of the local god - the Withered King. He survived the Wars of the Dead, but since then remains in a weakened state, slumbering, beneath the notice of Nagash and his Mortarchs. Still, he affects the land by forcing his dreams into reality - dreams of a realm otherwise forgotten, perished in the bygone times. Although the inhabitants of Vechernya have free will and progress through their own histories, their lives and events tend to reflect the Withered King’s memories - trapped unaware in cycles of deadened existence. Even death isn’t a release from it, for dead Vechernyans are known to raise from their graves - all to continue one of many existences lingering in their god’s mind. One of such groups of undead is the Kiril’s Retinue, roaming the land, wishing to rejoin their old unit and leader. No matter how many are destroyed, new ones always seem to come and group together. All of them are driven by the same purpose, one they often cannot completely recognize as their own, yet still hopelessly following the Withered King’s dream.

First, the individual wights:

And the whole warband:

Underworlds Warband - Sons of Skalv - WIP

One day I got an idea about converting some Stormcasts. Not wanting a full army, I decided to get a Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire box. This gave me 5 khorne guys, the second warband from that set, so I had to think what to do with them too! Finding them too golden and ornate, I decided to turn them into much simpler, gritty, Viking-inspired barbarians.

The first thing to do was to get rid of their weapons and replace them with low-fantasy ones - either finding something from my bits box or sculpting them from scratch. Next one was the worrying lack of facial hair amongst them. I understand that GW maybe wanted the leader to stand out a little more with his glorious beard, but that was not enough for me. I replaced two other heads with Chaos Marauder ones, they worked like a charm here. The remaining two got some hair sculpted. Finally, I simplified their armor and got rid of any Khorne iconography, replacing it with a single rune in some places. Fluff-wise I want them to worship Khorne in their own way, unaware of the 'mainstream' cult. They will know the Blood God under a different name, use different symbols, but still believe in the importance of spilling blood and piling skulls for the skull throne.

I must admit, this colored plastic is handy when showing conversions, it's really clear what's the original substance, what's kitbashed and what's sculpted.

EDIT: The painted warband can be found HERE.