The Work of James K. Craig
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So a spoiler - as I had been asked - yes I did manage to finish the stuff for that tournament…..no im not going to reveal the rest yet still feeding it out a step at a time as I am able and as is reasonable. As to the Minotaurs that I was building, here ya go - they were done enough to take with me but far from truly done - Basically I did my basecoats and first highlight using the airbrush and then tossed in a couple quick details but nothing much. When I built these It was in full realisation that new plastic minotaurs were on the way and as such I didnt want to put too much time into painting them in case I really liked the new models. Well the truth is - not only have these models REALLY grown on me, but I am not totally thrilled with the new GW minotaurs either.
The concept is cool but the anatomy bothers me (those legs - UGH!), either way I have really grown to love my own minotaurs so I will be spending more time painting these and they have found a proper home in my force for the long term. I may pick up a few bits from the minos and rearm a couple models or replace a banner but we shall see…. In the meantime here are the 8 models I made - im pretty proud overall I think they have a very unique look and will be really sweet when finished! Enjoy.
Got this question in my inbox:
Hey mate if you dont mind me asking i really like your army and was wondering, if you wouldnt mind sharing the recipe for the skin and fur, much appreciated.
Matt
No problem  Note: I rarely use pure colours and almost all of these are mixes based on my aesthetic preference at the time of painting. Unless otherwise noted the paints are all Vallejo
Grey Skin:
German Grey is the main base colour This is then built up with mixes with basalt grey, london grey, light grey and sometimes US grey (ill have to double check the name on that last one) for a warmer tone. I use Luftwaffen blue grey to cool down some of the shadows and sometimes a touch of SS camo black brown or buff mixed into a grey (again for warmer shadows and tones)
Fur:
SS Camo Black Brown mixed through GW scorched brown and GW bestial brown. Sometimes I will add a touch of Buff or Ivory and wash with Vallejo smoke or sometimes a GW wash.
Horns - mixes of SS Camo Black Brown, Buff, Ivory
NMM Steel - Luftwaffen Blue Grey built up with Basalt grey, touches of german grey and matte alluminium.
You will notice that the majority of the colours are used throughout the model - never in just one place - this helps to create harmony and unity in the model - looks much more natural this way - on the other hand it also means more difficult mixing and aesthetic judgements in order to keep each part looking like a separate identifiable materials.
So it has been about a month since I last posted and the honest truth is that Christmas holidays totally sucked away any spare web updating time I thought I might have.
So here is a belated Christmas card to all my readers….
Here are a couple pics of my son on Christmas morning (at my parents house) and while I was taking care of him on my own through the holidays….
I did manage a few random hobby things but not much (finished glueing arms on the dark elf bloodbowl team I made for a kid at school etc.) and I played some Dark Heresy with my buddies who came home for Christmas (oooh radicals handbook and dark conspiracies for Christmas……Drool!!!!)
Best gift of the season though goes to my wife who has agreed to purchase me a custom figure case from battlefoam to carry my beastmen in - more on this whole process to come in the next few months when I finalise which size/spaces I am going to need for new beasts army book stuff……
Otherwise we should now be back to buisness as usual - a new beasts post for next week is already prepared and the one for the week after is coming along nicely. I will continue blogging these for a bit in anticipation of the new book and will also update on my bloodbowl team in the next while.
Also please do check out my Bloodbowl League Blog Crusadercup.blogspot.com which is updated weekly during our season!
As discussed in my previous post I decided to field a very different Beasts army for tthe upcoming Lost WFB Championship event. I would not be taking Morghur and creating the usual spawn spam list that i enjoy so much (I LOVE ARMY RANDOMNESS). Instead I would be creating an army around a Doombull and two units of minotaurs (which I didnt have), two herds (which meant painting up 20-30 ungors), two chariots (of which I only had one painted), my giant and a little extra surprise for my opponents if I manage to get it all done in one month of time……) Oh and I wanted it all painted.
UGH.
First up was the Minotaurs which I decided to make from the Ogres I had collected. I bitz ordered marauder champion horse heads like the one above, got out my glue, knife and putty and got to work…. And after some reworking and rethinking I came up with the following for my first four.
I think they look pretty good though the learning curve has been interesting. I will be making 4 more of these and expect that I will probably then come back and edit these a bit -several require more hair for a start and I intend to change the left arm of the club weilder as the pose is too compact - but it is a good start nonetheless. Also, I genuinely like the look. Hot dang!!! Im not sure I am going to even bother with the new GW ones when they come out unless they are spectacular.
 
I am particularily pleased with the variety of looks that I have been able to achieve with the same horse head as the basis. A few new horns and some careful clipping made for great variety. I would especially like to thank the bloodletter champ who gave his horns to the cause in such an unselfish manner heh heh heh
 
These arent going to be golden demon pieces and so may have the odd rough edge but I think that they assembled well enough and, with a little application of skill, should paint up well enough that modelling flaws need not be noticable in any meaningful context.
Well thats it for now - much to do - cya with my next installment.
Aside from the imminent release of the new Beastmen Book, there is one other mitigating circumstance that has had me back working at my beasts with a vengance- The Lost Games Club’s first annual Warhammer Fantasy Championship Tournament! We have held 40K championships for several years now - at these events the winners names are immortalized on a club trophy and they earn a year of bragging rights to rub in the faces of friend and foe alike. Whats more, is that since I am no longer a Grey Knight and the conflict of interest has been lifted I am eligible to compete!!!!
Strangely enough - and I know readers will find this hard to believe [Sarcasm alert!] I may also have already been running my mouth that I was coming to crush em all!!!! SO…. I guess I really ought to at least show up despite the fact that it is widely believed that while they really do have something to fear on a 40k batlefield I sorta suck at WFB. In fact they have suggested that I even consider including the European tournament circut rules that would allow a so called 3rd tier army like the Beasts an extra 500 points in tournament setting!!!!!! Oh man that’d be awesome - but then they would just move from blaming any victory I might find on the extra points instead of Morghur - so no go.
Now my Morghur horde is well tested (and VERY destructive) but as noted above everyone seems to rack that up to the character and loadout instead of any input/skill from me - an autopilot army if you will. I have decided to take something else instead - in part to challenge myself and in part to force me to use the segments of my army that I know will carry over to the new army book (herds, hounds, chariots) so that I can really ensure that I have a good grasp of my core when the bells and whistles change.
As such I have been preparing mentally for the tournament by hanging out at the Herdstone website - absorbing as much knowlege about Beast tactics and army composition as I can. Also I have been picking the brain of my buddy Brett who is also a long time reasonably successful Beast general who has a great command of the WFB and 40K metagame (theory hammer/listhammer as some call it). Both sources led me to one conclusion - I want minotaurs.
This in turn leaves me with a few problems
- I have only one minotaur model - the unit filler piece
- I hate the rest of the current existing minotaur models
- I know that plastic Minotaurs will be out this spring - So do I really want to put much money or effort into something when the new ones might be totally awesome and a fraction of the work?
- I have only a few weeks before the event so major sculpting etc is a problem.
- Im kinda low on cash - so I have only finite resources to adress this no matter what decisons I make.
So what to do ?!?
Well I knew I could address 1 and 2 by coming up with some of my own model conversions - by being different than the unit filler but similar/equal to each other they will stand well on their own in the army.
To address #3, I decided that whatever I make has to look cool and be well made. That way If I like them better than the new releases in the spring I can detail them out properly but IF I like the new ones better, then I will still have a great unit that someone will want to buy from me for enough money to pay for the new models.
Point 4 means that I will have to find some bits that will be easy to work with and make conversions the mainstay of the model. I contacted a bitz seller on ebay and had the few parts that I really need shipped asap. The main parts ordered are the upper half of the champion horse heads(the one with the horns) from the new marauder horsemen set and a bunch of marauder and marauder horsement sheilds. These will be used to make the minotaur heads and to replace the gut plates. I also ordered a few other plastic horns and spikes and a few minor detail pieces. Everything else I need will come from my bitz box.
Finally point 5 has led me to using a bunch of the Ogres that I already have in boxes in my games room as the basis - they are the right size, I have plenty and while I had great ambitions to build an ogre army at some point, I really dont see that happening until they have a new book themselves.
Tune in next week to see what I actually make……
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