Building one as an all plastic conversion from a Burning Chariot Of Tzeentch kit left me with a unique personal take on the model and a ton of cool extra parts while avoiding a fragile Finecast model.
Here's how I did it.
The Burning Chariot Of Tzeentch kit comes with a plastic Disc Of Tzeentch, Blue Horrors and tons of books and scrolls. Since I own more than one of these kits (remember my Burning Chariot Of Tzeentch painting article?) I had plenty of parts for this conversion.
Here is a reverse photo showing some of the early positioning of the books. The pile will grow as I add more bits!
In the next photo you can see that the books and scrolls pile has grown quite a bit. Feathers have been added to the quill pen. The mutant dual feather hints at a common Tzeentch mutation and the power of Chaos.
Here is the model in early stages of painting.I started at the bottom and worked my way up. Note the eyeballs painted on the tips of the magical wave upon which the Disc rides. The magic wave comes with Screamer tails in it. I clipped these out during the building process and then cleaned up the cut areas with a modeling knife.
This next photo shows the model fully painted and based. I used two different colors of GW textured paint to finish the base. The Horrors are the only things painted blue on the model to keep them the main visual focus. The closed books on the Disc started out as open books that I cut in half and then glued together closed. The incomplete book spines are concealed by the way I glued the pile of books together.
The eyeballs on the cover of the book being held by the Horror are painted using the same colors as the eyeballs on the wave under the Disc.
In this overhead view you can see some of the detail in the open books. The book being held has a mouth morphing in it. I liked the idea that Tzeentch might physically appear in some form in the book as needed to speak directly to his servants as they travel about. A multi-color vortex appears inside the maw in the book. Where the pen is poking the book the S-like Mark Of Tzeentch appears.
So now I have a uniquely personal Blue Scribes Of Tzeentch that is sturdier than the GW Finecast version. I also have two extra Screamers and a bunch of other useful bits left over from the source kit for the same price as the Finecast version that contains no extra parts. Converting is one of the most fun things about modeling and it's always enjoyable creating something that is unique.
At the time of this writing I'm working on an Ork Big Mek Stompa conversion using only plastic bits to create the lifta-droppa arm and belly gun as well as a different look to the head. I'll be featuring that in a hobby article here soon.