Wot I did: The Redmaw Conversion

Calling this a “Wot I did” rather than a tutorial as it’s literally a “i did this” rather than a “you should proceed thus”. as a teacher, I see a difference :)

I’ll still tag it as a tutorial though, and you should feel free to take away from this anything you want or are able to :)

So, I started with my two donor models:

 

Which today is a Thunderwolf mount, and an old Mornheim Skaven Rat Ogre. though anything with humanoid but still beastly hands and claws would do as well I think.

I wanted to work from a Thunderwolf because of the fluff…

+++SpoilerSpoilerSpoiler+++ (dont shout at me if this spoils you!)

what with Thunderwolves basically being Astartes who have lost the fight with the Canis Helix, ultimately, Bran will end up properly on all fours and drooling, but for now he can hold it halfway.. that’s what I wanted… anyway.. onwards.

++Spoiler over++

first, I chop the Thunderwolf in half.

Using Magic Sculpt I put a base together and pinned the lower torso (and it’s new feet) to it, I also pin the arms into the torse, bulking it out with Magic Sculp to hold the heavy white metal limbs safely to the plastic torso.

Once this is set up, (about 2 hours) I do the same thing with the upper and lower torso, putting much more bend in the waist than the original Thunderwolf body had.

 

With the head in place this gives me the basic form, although it looks very stitched together right now.

So, time for the Greenstuff!

 

That’s My usual sculpting set up, though for this sculpt a few of those tools get used far more than others. the one at the bottom of the picture is my “go-to” for cutting and placing putty on the model, the one above it has the perfect triangular tip for shaping fur GW style, the clay shapers in the image are largely used for smooth putty before i start to add any desired detail.

Vaseline keeps my tools lubed.. that’s about it. the mounted needle and the bladed metal tool weren't needed for this work.

the putty goes on in stages, first any large forms get blocked out, the torso in this case is made to look a little more humanoid, then the two major joins are covered, and rough fur is sculpted to blend them into the figure.

 

Next we sculpt yet more fur over any joins and to help blend new forms into the figure, this is where you need to take great care not to smudge work already done, and why I usually let most work set up in between changing locations on the model

 

And here he is, a blast of primer homogenises the colours so you can more clearly judge the form, at this stage often you need to do more blending work over seams and transitions.

More picture available on the first post, and paint will soon be forthcoming.

thanks for reading, and I hope that helped someone :)