If you've been following me for a little while now you'll recall my rather dismal attempt at trying to convert an old Freebooter Minder into a convincing Kulo. But, to be honest with you, after fucking about shoving GS into his face & gut for an inordinate amount of time, I came to the conclusion that I was fighting a losing battle. I just wasn't convinced with the shape he was taking & how the end product he was looking like becoming. Also, a few welcome critiques in the comments section helped confirm my suspicions as well. So I gave up.....back to the drawing board kinda thing.
Roll forward a few months, after I'd finished off my Bullock's and played a bit more with the Space Wolves, and I stumbled across this guy on the net:
 |
| Batter up! |
I think his from some kind of Blood Bowl clone...or something like that. But his skull smashing abilities on the football field aren't what attracted me to him. It was his guts man! And the stance, and the.....the whole vibe of the mini (stellar movie reference for those in the know) that got me all excited. Also, he was pictured beside a ruler (always handy when you want to convert something IMO) and stood in at just over 30mm from head to toe. So I was quietly confident that his proportions would scale up ok vis-a-vis with an RT Ork.
Oh, and I forgot to mention he was cheap too. Always a concern for discerning, tight fisted grognards.
Here's a comparison shot for all you sceptics out there:
 |
| Here he is, pictured with Thrugg & another random RT Ork.....not a bad fit I reckon! |
Immediately after the above photo shoot was concluded I began to carve him up good!
 |
| Mohawk gone, batless and no weird base.....but still waving his pointed finger at the sky though. |
I haven't completely abandoned the original mini that I tried to convert. He wasn't a bad choice as a donor mini. It was just my shortcomings as a sculptor that lead me to give up on him. He still has some redeeming feature that I want to try and incorporate into this new mini. So, into the acid bath he went, to remove all the offending GS that I'd abused him with. Then I propped him beside the new kid on the block, for comparison....and thunking time. About which bits to use and how I was going to go about melding the selected components into one.
 |
| My first Kulo mini on the left, after his bath vs Plastic fantastic on the right, now with his arm cut of as well! |
I also decided to have a bit of a play on a drawing app I've got on my phone too. Mixing and matching heads & feet before I "really" started carving into him. Here's what I came up with:
 |
| From R-L; bog stock original, FB Minder head, Fattened up FB Minder head, and Thruggs' head.....all three concepts with FB Minder boots as well. |
My pick of the bunch, hands down, is the second one from the left. The human head on the original, although nicely detailed, would require too much work (and talent) for me to fatten up. The standard FB Minder head on the next one is a tad too "normal looking" for a Kulo mini I reckon. And Thrugg? Well, he wasn't really in the running in the first place to be honest. I just wanted to see if another Ork head would look ok on the mini.
Now, the next step is going to take a fair bit of finagling. I've got a cunning plan you see, a plan, that if it succeeds will make converting this guy up a walk in the park. I'm going to try something new (to me anyway) with GS. All will be revealed in the next post my friends :)
Good bye and........
