77013 :: Bones Minotaur :: Weapon Conversion

[Thrym]

A buddy of mine decided to get into painting miniatures and checked with me about it.  He wasn't sure what to get and since I have over 500 miniatures I said I'll send you ten or so miniatures.

He spent a whole week going on about it.  I showed him the Bones listings on Reaper's Store and then he asked for a minotaur to represent a character of his so I bought him the Reaper Bones Minotaur.  He wanted the minotaur to have a maul. 

With no real thought put forth, I figured, I could make a maul and put it in the minotaur's hand(s).  I pulled out my minotaur and looked him over...
 

 

Two weapons to one two-handed weapon.  Piece of cake.

I pulled out some Sculpey clay and made the very simple maul head and baked it.  I dragged some tools over it to carve out some raised wood grain and dug out a split in the wood in the front of the maul head.  I wanted it to look used.  I then spent some time thinking about how to brace a maul head for use as a weapon and decided on a sort of t-strap for it.  I drew this just now to illustrate...
 

Here's the initial pieces I assembled and the results after I removed the axe and the cleaver.
 

I put a heavy flower wire through his hands.  Which required that I pop his left arm free.  That maul head is about as basic as it gets before sanding and "carving."  Then after drilling a hole through the maul head I created the wood grain and dry fit it all for a look at how he's holding it.
 

The old axe handle is at the end of the haft for the maul but I wasn't sure I would keep it or if it was too long.  There's a major split in the head from whacking some tough critter hides.  But I still had a lot of detail to add to the maul head and I needed to wrap the haft with green stuff to make it more hefty.
 

 

First Strap with a knurl pattern.

 

Second strap around the back of the maul head.

It's a bit damaged from big back swings.

 

A little sanding on the wire allowed easy application

of green stuff and the creation of a spike at the end.

Sanding and more sanding on the haft and the head got even better results.  So I then pushed to add the wood flaring from getting beat up and adding the decorative pieces over the weld points on the maul head straps.

Some proper photos taken in the studio:
 

A little more sanding took place after the photos above.  Mainly on the maul head but a little more on the handle.  The next step will be to add some ballast to the base to match the integral base and prime it for my buddy before shipping it all to Iowa.  Really the primer step isn't necessary except for my own sake.  I just want to see if I need to clean anything up.

A fun project since I created the maul from scratch and got to try some techniques out.

[ub3r_n3rd]

Looks amazing! Great job with this weapon build!

[Chaoswolf]

Nice work!

[falstius]

I really like this conversion. Well done.

[malefactus]

The two handed maul is definitely "him"...it looks PERFECT with the Big Bovine Guy. The weapon build & the conversion are BEAUTIFUL...only some painting could possibly make them better. GREAT WORK!

[72moonglum]

Wow, that looks like quite a bit of work, but so very worth it! Looks really great!

[Darkmeer]

Wow.  I now want one of those.  Nice conversion, Thrym! 

[Arc 724]

OH my lanta! I just died! That is great! I love conversions.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Arc 724

[jdizzy001]

This is a well executed, fantastic conversion

[MissMelons]

I saw this on facebook and cried. This is absolutely amazing work! 

[Thrym]

Thanks everyone.  I appreciate it.

 

Gonna prime him tonight.  Sadly, there won't be much to see on a pic unless I give him a wash which I will let my buddy handle.

 

I also doubt this will be his first painting attempt as he likes this character a lot so it might be some time before I get a pic from him.

 

I am encouraging him to join the forum. We'll see.

[klarg1]

That's a pretty slick conversion. You did a great job constructing the maul and giving it both detail and character.

 

This is the second or third cool rendition I have seen of this mini in recent weeks. I might have to get one for myself...

[CashWiley]

I might have to get one for myself...

I said the same thing when I was looking at this on paint day. Because I have any room in my painting queue for the next 200 years.

 

It was funny as Thom shot the WIPs, though. He voice activates his camera so I kept thinking he messed something up, "Shoot.....shoot....shoot!"

[Thrym]

It was funny as Thom shot the WIPs, though. He voice activates his camera so I kept thinking he messed something up, "Shoot.....shoot....shoot!"

 

Like I said then, it would have been weirder for me to say, "Smile ... smile ... smile" or "Cheese ... cheese ... cheese."

[CashWiley]

You should change it to 'fabulous'. Or that other word like 'shoot'.