Tyrant with Wizarding Hat
As you will later see, this army was all about the fluff. I wanted to field an army without a wizard and the army was planned to be a collection of junior hunters. It was to be my final Warhammer purchase way back in 2012, as my first child was due any day. Alas and alack my days of sowing my Warhammer seed all over the midwest were soon to be a thing of the past. This fig, balanced on a lonely rock in the midst of reality could be seen as a self portrait of my mind at this moment in time. (Please excuse the waxing pathetic, I haven't written in awhile.)
The Skybreaker Ogre Tribe started with this miniature. It was converted from the pictured Orc Warboss and a standard bull, but the removal of the Night Gobbo immediately unbalanced the fig. I altered the stance so that it leaned to the right, but I wanted the viewer's eye to be drawn to the Wizarding hat. I mounted the two razorwings on the shoulder to echo the curve of the hat, and added some books to give some context to the static weapon arm. I don't think I was successful in completely merging the two models, but am still very happy with the results. Now I had to come up with a reason for why this guy had birds. I spent a lot of time planning and converting this guy and he remains my favorite conversion throughout the army.
I HATE PAINTING METALLICS. I always have and you can see my conscious decision to avoid it in the paint scheme. It started my obsession with finding new and different ways of painting bone and natural materials which continue to this day. I should have paid a little more attention to balancing the black between the bottom and top of the miniature, as it looks a bit awkward. I remember thinking I wanted it to stand out so it had to be black. Bit of a poor choice there.
Jared the Red
As you might be able to tell, the amount of conversion took a nosedive with this model. I love the model as is, and didn't feel it needed any conversion to fit with the theme. I posed him on a 'uge rock! People love 'uge rocks, and man did I repeat that thought over and over. I snuck out covertly and bought this as my first character model. It started a downward spiral of more and more purchases for this army, leaving many shiny new stuffs ignored half painted in the corner as it played terribly in game. I'm looking at you stonehorn!
Enter Jared the Red. A small bit of fluff in the Ogre's book refers to the original hunter who wandered off into the mountains and never returned. This was my attempt to make that miniature happen. The second razorwing added some visual weight to the left shoulder of the mini. This guy is my Tyrant in typical games. I used a lot of the same colors as the wizarding hat tyrant, and decided the rest of the army was going to have black skin and fur cloaks. The red hair really does have a nice contrast with the the hide and bone theme of the clothing. I painted a bit of a primitive paint daubing that really drew attention to the face.
Moving on.
Ogre Bull Star
Okay, but seriously guys, this army is all about the fluff! Well it started out that way. I painted the bulls as MSU units which really made the 'uge rock aesthetic kinda pretty. OH MY GOODNESS what happened with that Golgfang conversion! is he standing on a rock while standing on a rock? OMG the meta. (There is a reason why there is no close up of that BSB, I am too ashamed.) Eventually the army playtested into a Bullstar. See It's not Ironguts, it's Bulls, therefore my army is fluffy right?
This unit is where the army theme really came together. The cloaks, the birds and the basing really is much more interesting en masse. I chose the great maw symbol with wings as my icon, and added blue bodypaint to up the contrast. Note more Owls from the dryad sprue are on this unit than is truly believable, and the crow from the giant kit on the banner. I do have close-ups of that firebelly somewhere.. Wait, I said I wanted no wizards didn't I? Oops.
Ogre Bull Champion.
Who doesn't love being petted on the head? Totally not Skaw. He loves being captured by an ogre tribe with two of his best mates on eagles and wandering out of his army book never to be seen again. Skaw and his compatriots might have been purchased during my army ADD phase, which I was totally out of since my son had just been born #wink.
Skaw was in my bitz box, and provided a rather interesting narrative and hook for my tribe. I imagined Jared wandered into Athel Loren, searching for yet larger prey to capture. After witnessing Skaw's ability to control the birds, Jared captured him in order to break those monsters that yet eluded him. Or he could have just been a sweet mini that I really wanted to paint without needing to buy an army to field him with. I forget.
Battle Standard Bearer
OMG! Look at that 'uge rock! IT IS SO 'UGE!! Umm, this conversion was totally nothing to do with the fact that I had no right leg for this wood elf lord Eagle. Not at all. Also I ran out of energy while converting this model, apparently, because I could sculpt a harness for the bird, but not remove the leaves on its' back. In all honesty, I knew the conversion was ludicrous, but I thought it would just be fun.
This guy was just fun to paint and allowed me to add some height to the army. I had an extra saddle and rider from the Stonehorn kit, so I added it to the giant eagle. He was my battle standard bearer until I converted the Golgfang mini into a foot BSB. Then he got turned into my ninth mournfang. Oops.
Firebelly
This guy I won ok? It doesn't go against my theme since it was free right? Man did I love this model, and I was scared to paint the flame. I'm still scared of that flame. It looks nothing like flame. It looks like the firebelly is eating a stalactite that grew out of a vaguely purple testicular mass. Meh, I tried, and will someday build up the courage to paint up the second firebelly.
A note about the vulture. I love the vulture. It is an amazing miniature, especially for the size, but I HATE the legs. Those legs break, over and over again. So fiddly. Here's a secret. any vulture in these pics is just placed on the arm in question since they have been reglued to said arms so many times, you would swear the arm was just painted with super glue.
Mournfang Riders
I may or may not be so immensely ashamed of my "bone" color scheme. It is pretty gosh darn terrible. However, I still really like the colors on the fur, it just pops nicely. Also, I kinda forgot to mention the mournfangs right?
Look I'll level with you. I really wanted these kits just for the pistols. I converted up a really fun unit of maneaters modeled as hunters with two pistols each to use the sniper and poison kit. But, mournfang were just so darn good in game! I really truly could not resist. This was to be my final army remember? Shouldn't I be allowed to win with my LAST army. Man, I am really good at rationalizing. Especially when it comes to why I need more models. Those maneaters got no paint on em, but hey, they got primed.
You knew these guys were coming didn't you? I really wanted to push the idea that Jared had an army of junior hunters so I used a lot of the hunter bits and cloaks from the stonehorn kit to tie it all together. I used the helmet from the stonehorn kit on the mournfang on the right, and also the reins too. Those reins are a pretty sweet bit, The guy in the middle had a chaintrap. Emphasis on had. Stupid fiddly bits. Also look at my scenic basing, those guys fit together so nicely. In 2012. I feel like a hipster.
Mournfang Cavalry
I forgot for the last unit, so I'll talk about it on this one. It doesn't count as a 'uge rock if it's sideways. Why did I put a banner on that guy? That was a poor decision. Also the riders can be switched so I can have either ironfist and weapon or great weapon. I mean who doesn't want a parry save while mounted? NOT BRETTONIANS.
You can see more hunter bits used here as well as the bret falcon, and one of Skaw's falcons. Now would be a good time to talk about the basing. The rocks underneath the minis are all granite, solid granite. I used a hammer to break them into manageable sizes and then mounted them on the bases. Tufts were obviously used along with dead grass for contrast. This army weighs a ton in transport, but I love the look and always get comments.
Ironblasters
Of course I had ironblasters! What do you think I'm all about the fluff? I did do some conversion to make sure the two were not identical, and these are the only models in the army that do not have birds. I reasoned the birds were too smart to stay around the cannons, but that didn't stop me from including them. Hey look! the Ironblaster on the left is not on a 'uge rock!
Wow, I really can't justify including these with my fluff can I? Jared would not want a cannon to obliterate his trophy kills. Oh well, I managed to take out three tournaments with this army. and I really enjoyed playing with them. For about three months, they were the bees knees! Then I got so tired of the eye rolling, complaining, and getting beat by better players that I gave up on them.
These guys were my first attempt at a hobby focused army and were moderately successful. In terms of getting painted, this army happened in three weeks, Success! In terms of sticking with the original theme I failed miserably. Also a shelf life of three months, or less, really burned me out on trying to play competitively. I'd rather enjoy the army long term than try to build to win. Cheers for reading.