Mori's March of the Murlocs (Happy birthday, love!)

[Morihalda]

Hey all! I've been working hard on my husband's surprise birthday present. It was going to be a surprise reveal at ReaperCon, but finances/vacation time mean that it's just me going now. But since I told him about it, that means I get to make a WIP thread! Yay!

I grabbed these really cool "Deep Ones Mutant Fishmen" by RAFM out of the Box of Goodwill a couple years ago. He accidentally saw them so I've had to wait until I was sure he forgot about them, haha. Oops.

 

When we were teens and couldn't meet up, we spent most nights online together. A lot of that time was spent in WoW. With Classic coming out, I thought it would be the perfect time to get these little guys done! He's always loved murlocs and even built entire decks around them in Hearthstone, so I decided to make them based off of cards I've seen him use the most.

 

Top: Original minis.

Bottom: Prepped and repositioned for modding. Arms, fingers, toes, and bases were chopped off. The middle one needed a lot of bending to look natural. One lost his head. They all lost their noses....

 

I don't have WIP photos because this was a SECRET.

They all got little spines drilled and sculpted on, buttcapes, little details like crab and tentacle armor. The reading one got a little "nightlight." I painted the Hearthstone cards before sculpting the head so I could actually reach the book. 

(This is a HUGE photo if you right click -> open link in new tab. I couldn't make it wider in the thread.)

 

I did keep a photo of the angler underpinned head because he looked so happy!! What a cutie! This might be my avatar someday.

 

The warleader's sword was made with Apoxie Sculpt for the base and Green Stuff details. I accidentally made it too smooth(?!) because I really struggled to get any GS to stick. That meant I couldn't do the multiple layers I wanted.

 

I also made some terrain on a whim. The little huts are pretty iconic to him so I knew he'd immediately find it in the display area! I drew out the sizes I wanted, cut some baked sticks to size, and doused everything in appropriate amounts of superglue and hotglue. The hut top was made with a ball of foil with Apoxie Sculpt. Once it was mostly cured, I removed the ball and smoothed the inside and outside with more clay. Once it's painted, I'll use long grass to mimic the hay. I still need to add little jars, skulls, lanterns, treasure chest, etc.

 

Lastly - the cards themselves!

These card images were pulled from the Hearthstone Wiki and I added some short, awful descriptions.
Top left: Underbelly Angler. Play a murloc, you get another murloc. He loves this one. This is Booklight!
Top right: Toxfin. He can destroy most cards in a single hit. He's the one with the stinky fish.
Bottom left: Warleader. Your other murlocs have bonus attack. Big sword guy!
Bottom right: Soul of the Murloc. When your murlocs die, they come back with 1 health, 1 attack. He giggles so much when he plays this. It doesn't look unique, but I think I'll use the ghostly scheme on the Warleader. I don't know if I can do that yet!

 

Tomorrow I'll be making the little bits and bobs. Hopefully I can arrange all the terrain on Thursday, prime Friday, and be painting next week!

Edited July 23, 2019 by Morihalda

[Cyradis]

I love this SO MUCH!

[Darcstaar]

What an awesome project!

[Jeepnewbie]

Oooo super cool!  (Insert murloc sound here)

[zoroaster100]

Great project! And awesome gift.

[WhiteWulfe]

Ooooh, Murlocs. 

[Rigel]

Beautiful conversions, great story, a splendid gift, and it's always good seeing some Bob Murch work (if I'm not mistaken). Look forward to seeing more! 

mrgl'mrgl'mrgle...

[Rat13]

Great looking progress on a great project. Its impressive just how much you were able to transform the original pieces. 

 

From the card's descriptions it sounds like the Murlocs played a lot like the old Red deck goblins did in Magic (I haven't played in over a decade so the current goblins may still play this way but I wouldn't know).

[Morihalda]

Little bits have been made. I got intensely carried away with the treasure chest. I ended up spending about 4 hours on just the chest. Whoops! I tried to match it to the in game version from the starter zone (battered chest). I was a little fussed with myself for wasting time on such a little thing, but then he yelled out, "That's it! That's THE treasure chest!"

 

So I felt validated.

 

I dug around my dad-in-law's garage for some "free" basing materials. I used a scrap piece of pink insulation foam, "cured" it with a blast from a heat gun (old cosplay trick), and then made a paper mache heart with it. I mixed up some wall mud with baking soda, paint, and dried herbs for a basing paste.

 

Putting the sword back in his hand for the 5th time..... I'm priming everything tomorrow!

 

 

[Jeepnewbie]

Looking AMAZING!

Making me miss WoW quite a bit watching this. 

[Morihalda]

5 hours ago, Jeepnewbie said:

Looking AMAZING!

Making me miss WoW quite a bit watching this. 

 

Thank you! Honestly, me too haha. It's been several years for us but we're anxious to see how classic goes. 

[Glitterwolf]

Wonderful!

[Morihalda]

I started painting this week - I'm on track! I'm having a lot of fun with the bright colors!

 

And then last night, I accidentally dropped my Surface on the most fragile mini of the set, breaking off the sword, arm, and some spines.... Spines and arm are curing again, I'll make the new fingers and add the sword later tonight. :<

[Dr.Bedlam]

Eeeeyeah, Murlocs are not known for blending into the background.

 

In terms of coloration OR behavior...

Edited July 30, 2019 by Dr.Bedlam

[Morihalda]

I've noticed that I struggle painting past tabletop quality. It's got the paint on it, it looks pretty, I've already spent forever on it, let's go play or sculpt another one! 

 

This has been no different.

 

Booklight still needs his OSL and plenty of other little details, but his skin blending is "done." He is brighter on the front and top than the bottom and back.

 

I also noticed that he's sitting a little crooked and he is decidedly not coming off of that base. Super glue and green stuff is pretty strong, so he got a little bottle sculpted nearby to uh, sell his posture.

 

The treasure chest was painted with the same browns used for the rest of the terrain. The highlight is the belly color of the murlocs and the hut top. I used Styx purple (Booklight's feet color) for the base color of the metal, then drybrushed a dark Shadow Silver on the bottom and a bright Polished Silver on the top.

 

Does anyone have any better suggestions for this hut top? I'm currently just gluing some grass I found in my friend's tote and hoping to trim the edges unevenly after.

 

 

Top: colors used for the front two murlocs. They are very bright!

Bottom: colors used for the back murloc, Booklight. All of the bright colors used on him are the same used for the other murlocs. His darkest color, Styx Purple, will be used for shadows on all three to keep them together.