14418: Bloodstone Gnome Scragger

[Sanael]

This fella was painted up to represent a PC in the game I'm running...the character--known as "Fluffy"-- is a feral halfling Bar-bar with a penchant for eating small animals and living in filth. It's a very interesting addition to the group, to say the least.

 

The scragger was originally holding a buckler and a sawtooth-sword-thingy...I removed the buckler with wire snips, then carved away all the pewter that wasn't a bracer. The sword came out with a standard "snip off the blade and drill out the hand" weapon swap, then I cut apart a GW rat (from a Skaven rat pack) and pinned it in place. I also sculpted a little paw coming out from between the fingers, but it's hard to see it in these pics.

 

The kilt is meant to be pieced together from varios stray cat pelts...the front is a Russian Blue, and the back is a "black" cat, a calico, and an orange tabby. I'm really happy with how the calico came out.

 

He's a bit glossy, because Testor's Acryl Brush-on Matte Varnish is not as awesome as their Matte Spray.

 

C&C, Please!

 

[JimL]

That's a cool concept, I bet it's an interesting game. Nice work.

[bikerdrew]

Great work. I love hearing about the character rationales that come with these kinds of conversions.

[Rocky]

Really neat job on the conversion, i had to read what you did to him to see what you changed out. Looks like he squeezed the rat so hard it squished all the guts from his front half to the rear half. I can see the highlights and shadows pretty well on the head, but they sorta look like they got a bit washed out, ..maybe because of the sealer you used? Regardless of that though the blending of shadow and highlight gives him the look of a dirty little guy imo.

It would be sorta neat if you could sculpt skinned out heads and legs and glued them to the kilt to emphasize the fact that it is made from cat pelts, but I really don't know how much of a pain that would be, so it may not be worth it.

[Legion]

Great work. I love hearing about the character rationales that come with these kinds of conversions.

 

I agree as our group tends to have interesting character backgrounds as well. Nice job on everything but I would hit him with the spray dullcoat.

[BKBass]

LOL that rocks!

[Jabberwocky]

Sorry, it's taken me a bit to comment--was away from the 'net over the weekend.

 

I like him alot! He just oozes character. The conversion is nicely done. Excellent job on the kilt. Critiques--I'd take the teeth of the rat up a bit brighter; at least on my monitor they are fairly dark and blend with the fur somewhat. I'd like to see the skin shaded a bit more as well.

 

There you go--Cap'n Nitpick at yer service!

[Sanael]

Thanks, all for the comments!

 

Rocky, yes, the glossy nature of that sealer is washing out a lot of things, but I'm glad you're still getting the "dirty" feel of this guy. I thought about cat heads and the like, but decided against it because a)I don't have any GS at the moment (what little I used on this guy was "borrowed" from my FLGS paint-night box) and b) sculpting wasn't one of the things I wanted to frustrate myself with on this mini--getting that *&@# rat together was enough trouble! If the character ever reaches higher levels, I may make some kind of animal skin thing for that mini!

 

Jabberwocky, thanks for the nitpicking; it's ALWAYS appreciated and I don't get enough of it, most of the time. You're right, the skin could do with some more love, as skin is always one of my bugaboos. I will say the gloss hurts a lot of what is there...once the weather cooperates I'll reseal with the truly matte sealer. As for the rat's teeth, I very quickly brushed some linen white onto them, but not enough to get a solid coat, so they're quite dark...it was one of the things I did after hitting the "OK, I'm done now! So why is there so much left to paint?!?" stage. That stage is smaller than it used to be, I think, but I still need to figure out how to get rid of it entirely. Thanks again for the comments.