More spirits hit my assembly table

I was thinking I'd finish my Kirai crew assembly last month and get straight onto Nico. I've been hanging out to play punk zombies and Mortimer. I think they'll both pack a punch in my Seamus crew that's currently missing, but then I started looking at Kirai tactica and suddenly two more Gaki and 2 more night terrors were being purchased and squirreled in the door, under the misses's nose.

Gaki in particular look like they are going to be very useful in my Kirai crew and so I decided I'd need at least two more. I went looking for four, but I'm pretty sure I can convert up some if push comes to shove. I've had to use the Wyrd Asian garden bases this time round, since I've now used all of the bamboo bases that I bought from
Malcontent (aka Dark Templar) many moons ago. I really should have bought more.



Maybe I got unlucky with the asian bases, but I didn't expect to have to file off a good three millimetres to get the base insets to fit. Hopefully the 40 and 50mm bases will be more accommodating. They certainly have some fantastic details.

The two Gaki needed to be rushed out because I'm sending my entire Kirai crew off for commission painting. This time round I'm using some local talent. Keep an eye on Disco Volante's Facebook page for some updates on how they proceed. I'd did my best with a few bits from a friends vampire counts bits box to convert up these two dupllcates. Ultimately though, and because I'm far from a green stuff master, I just managed to reposition the arms. I either switched out the arms provided, or cut off the shoulders and put on some VC replacements.

The night terrors might languish on my pile of shame for a while but I definitely need these for the GT next year, so I can flock hop objective markers or just blind that elusive sniper.

One things for sure, I'm going to have to get that photoshop session in soon, so many duplicate sculpts...

Night Terror Conversion

Keeping with the theme of my bases, I had to do something about the Night Terrors being mounted on rocks. I toyed with mounting them on lamp posts but I didn't want anything that tall.

The rocks just looked out of place on the cobblestone streets so I embarked on converting one to be perching on a barrel. I cut away the rock and green stuffed the affected talon before pinning it to a barrel. As I was doing this I was struck the fact that they pose looked like the terror was about to take off and so I repositioned it slightly to look like it was launching itself off.

I had the same intention for the other pose but the more I looked at it, the less confident I was, so I reshaped the rock more like a tree stump. Whilst I'm not a overly happy with how this one turned out, in my mind its still easier to explain away the tree stump in the cobbled street than the rocky outcrop!

Conversion


Original Pose

Dead Rider Conversion

Another quick conversion I did was on my Dead Rider. The original sculpt has one hoof on a rocky outcrop, whilst I like the pose, the outcrop would have looked out of place on the cobblestone streets I'd based my crews on.

I cut the leg from the outcrop and then pinned it to a broken barrel I had in my bits box. I then bent the leg ever so slightly to get the new pose to fit anatomically.

Conversion






With this mini I decided to also take the precaution of repositioning the horns so that the point of the horn flowed back more towards the saddle. I had the horns in the original pose but they were very loose and beyond my ability to pin so this alternate pose just gives the horns two contact points and provides a stronger solution

Original Pose

Graveyard Spirit Conversion

Just a quick post to show off a simple conversion I did on my Graveyard Spirit to give it a bit more menace. Of all the totems, this is the one I'm likely to run. I kept forgetting that the Graveyard Spirit has a reasonable damaged output for a Totem, so I wanted the mini to remind me of that fact.

I thought the existing pose with hammer being held limply in front was a bit naff, so I cut the hammer from the body, gently repositioned the arm and then filed the body back. I had to add a little green stuff to bulk out the hammer again but otherwise I think this works nicely.

Conversion


Original Pose