Terrorgheist conversion completed

I have spent the last few weeks playing with a slight conversion on a Vampire counts Terrorgheist. I wanted to spread his wings out a little to try and emphasize  his flying beast nature. At last I have him completed...

The main problem I have with him now is that he is just so very wide.. With a wing span of a eye watering 14 1/2 inches (37cm) he only just fits into the cabinet in which I store my figures. Even then I have to put him in at a slant to get him through the door! I decided to build his colour scheme off a purple/black base colour. I did this because I didn't want him looking too grey because it can look a bit drab. This has caused quite a lilac colour scheme to come through, but I am getting used to it!

Hopefully it does not look too unnatural close up. To complement this colour I have gone for quite a dark bone colour. This is built off a base of bestial brown (Mournthang Brown) through Snakebite leather (Ballor brown) to Bleached bone (Ushabti brown). I may yet add a gloss varnish to the red areas to make them glisten and appear more alive(?)

The width of the figure can make him difficult to interact with other figures on the tabletop. For this reason I chose to lift him as high as possible so that infantry and cavalry figures can fit underneath his wings. I placed him on top of walls from the excellent gardens of Morr set.

His left foot rests on a gravestone. Both of these connections are glued and pinned and are quite robust. I fully expect them to be able to withstand the rough and tumble of gaming.

Hope you enjoy!. Remember that you can make each picture larger by clicking on it.

Terrorgheist base finished.

I have been putting together a base for a Terrorgheist I have converted. I have played with the base Terrorgheist model to put his wings out sideways. This means he heavily overhangs both sides of the base. If he is going to be usable on a tabletop then I will need to raise the model above the tops of other models. This needs me to lift him high up. To achieve this I have added some walls to sit him on top of. The arrangement was put together with just the body part of the beast asseembled to ensure that he would sit right.

 

 

I have now added a little paint to the base. I have tried to keep the base colours fairly restricted so that the base will not distract too much from the beast. Having said all that I had a bit of fun shading each of the blocks in the wall to try and make it quite natural looking.

I have tried to keep the metal work as painted black with areas of rust coming through.

Now all I need to do is add a little colour to the terrorgheist!

Hope you enjoy.

Spread your wings and fly little Terrorgheist!

Did you know that even with his wings held fairly tight to his body, as above, the Terrorgheist has a wingspan of 14 1/2 inches (almost 37cm). I know this because I have been playing with a Terrorgheist conversion to show off his lovely wings. I believe that with the wings stretched out they could reach a whopping 26 inches (66cm), but even I am not daft enough to try that conversion - just yet!.

I first played with flying beast conversions with an Imperial dragon for Karl Franz. I have recent looked again at this model (following a chat on the excellent Warhammer forum) and felt inspired to have a play with the biggest Vampire counts beast.

The majority of the animal is built as normal, but the wing to shoulder joint had to be repositioned. I put a solid pin in there and set about hiding the joint by building up layers of muscle around the gap.

 I did this in a number of stages for two main reasons.

First I wanted to make sure the muscle  looked OK. With my limited sculpting ability I wanted to pace myself so I didn't get too frustrated with my lack of ability and I wanted to review each step.

Secondly, this starts off as a big model,when you have made it so wide it becomes very awkward to handle. I need the figure to be robust to play with, so I need to make sure I don't snap it in half in one go, so I fixed each wing individually and then let them set before having a go at the second one.

Pictured below is the finished model ready for its undercoat and resting on its back. It was a difficult birth and I guess it needed its rest. I certainly did!

Building a base for a Terrorgheist

A Terrorgheist scream is a truly awesome thing and having been on the receiving end of it with my Empire army was all the encouragement I needed to add one to my Vampire Counts army.

I thought that I would start with the base. Now I have two significant problems with the GW base build;

1. It is just too barren. The base is very large and the small amount of jagged rocks not only look a little lost, but don't look gothic enough for my visual image of a VC setting. After all where are the skulls? I thought the GW approach was at least 20 skulls per square inch of base!
2. For reasons that will become apparent when I go on to assemble the Terrorgheist, I need more height!

This is the base that evolved, and I will talk through how this came about.... 

The base itself was a bit of a disappointment. It was warped at the corner. I tried setting it again by placing in alternating boiling then cold water, but that did not work. In the end I just learnt to accept it and hope that the weight of the scenery on it would hold it down (it has not).

 

I then assembled the trunk of the Terrorgheist. I knew I wanted him to stand on the garden of Morr wall, but needed to learn how high the support for the other leg needed to be. So I made a little mock up. I tried different sized pieces of plastic until I got the assembly to look about right. Thank you blue-tac.

The gravestones were put together using scenery pieces from a company called Renedra. They fit great and were very easy to place. I selected one just the right height to support the beasts left leg. The only slight problem with these is that they have quite a few crosses and Christian iconography, which just does not fit into the warhammer world. Never mind, I was able to find sufficient to suit my needs.

I made a path out of flagstones from a spare GW movement tray kit. I did this mainly because I wanted to use a gate, so needed a reason to have a gate. I had to remove then rotate the gate so that the skulls etc were facing forward on the model.

I then added to old spare tree trunk bases from microart studio to break up the space at the front of the base. Next comes the beast itself!