When I first saw this model, I thought it was messy. Too many bits sticking out the top of it, and a very silly looking head. But I liked the solid rhino like body and thought it had potential. After a brief search through my bits box I found an old metal bloodthirster head which was just about the right size. I had to use my limited greenstuff skills to add some hair braids to blend it in. I also removed a couple of skulls that pop out of the skin, and simply cut out or left off the snake tentacles on the shoulders. If I possessed better sculpting skills, I would have completely redone the shoulders to omit the gaping maws and the emerging skulls. One little problem I was able to overcome was the metal head toppled over the figure, so I counterbalanced this by adding lead weights to the base - hidden under cork rocks.
When it came to painting I had decided early on not to go with the usual red skin. At first I thought black skin, with fiery innards, balrog style. But I also wanted to include some blood, which doesn't really show up well on dark skin. So eventually I just started painting and hoped for the best. I stippled on pale flesh colours and then some shading in greys and blue. I was hoping for a mottled appearance. The rhino legs I glazed with greys, blues, green and purple. The muscles under the skin I painted pink, with brown thin lines, then glazed a couple of times with rusty red for a fairly quick and easy flesh effect. Lots of glazing, stippling and just going with the flow, I think it worked out in the end.
Hopefully I will get plenty of games with the beast. It will join my Khorne contingent for skirmishes using the Fantastic Saga and Dragon Rampant rules, and maybe a couple of other rulesets I will be unwrapping soon. I took quite a few close-ups of some of the details, so here's some more gory details.
