Kilts in the breeze

I've done a little bit more work on my Marsh Reavers, namely the part that I was slightly confused about how to do - the kilts and hiding the join between the body and legs/saddle. With the fimir warriors I have been taking a small piece of bandage, soaking it in pva glue, draping around the waist of the figure, and applying superglue to the edges and joins. However, with the reavers there wasn't a lot of space to be able to do the same thing owing to the position of the legs on the saddles, yet I definitely needed something as there would otherwise be a large gap around where the body fitted, that and the riders would be naked and I'm trying to avoid that!

So I sat down yesterday to have a bit of a think about how to do it. Out of nowhere an idea struck me, rather than putting the bandage around the outside of the figure to hide the join, what if I put the piece of bandage in the join before gluing the body in. That way the gaps can be filled and I can get the kilt into the awkward places before the body is secured. Also, I could then try and get a bit of flow in the bandage to demonstrate movement of the model.

With a certain amount of trepidation I set about on the first of my three reaver models, cutting the bandage to size (half what I would normally use, but I normally fold that in half, so guess it is the technically the same size, just I wanted it thinner and more flexible this time around), putting it over the join, applying superglue to the base of the body and then pushing it down, hoping that it could create what I envisaged. With a bit of subsequent playing around, a few cuts here and there, and folds to try and show it flapping in the breeze, I added the superglue to secure the bandage in the pose I wanted. This was the first one I did:

I was really pleased with how it turned out, so I set about the other two reaver models in the same way. I'm really rather pleased with how it has worked, it still matches the look of the kilts on the warriors models, yet also conveys a bit of movement, whilst hiding the join between body and legs - ticking all the boxes as it were. Now I need to get the greenstuff out again to model the head/eye, then get the paints out. I'm really looking forward to getting these models painted up, I think they'll be a bit of a feature in the army.

Reavers getting closer

"Some Fimm warriors go to war on the backs of Bog Beasts, daemonic servant creatures from the deep places of Albion that carry their Fimir masters into battle on their backs."

I've been looking forward to making the Marsh Reavers ever since reading their entry in the fanmade army book from Warhammer Armies Project. Getting the lizards and the bodies from the saurus cold one riders was an obviously necessary first step, but now I've managed to do a bit of green stuff work to get the legs and saddles in place on the backs of the bog beasts. It took a reasonable amount of green stuff, but actually not as much as I thought. I think whenever I work with this stuff I am always expecting to have to use more - a little goes a long way, you don't need much to fill a gap or sculpt a bit of detail.

I'm really pleased with how they have come out. I think the saddles have fitted nicely around the back of the lizard, with the green stuff just making the saddle look thicker at the front, which isn't too odd or unusual I don't think. As you can see, I have also modified the tails of two of the mounted fimir - one to have a spiky plate at the end, and another a club-like lump; Fimir are after all supposed to have bone-like knobbly bits and mace-like structures on the end of their tails which they can then use as an additional weapon.

I have also started work on the bodies for the riders- trimming off the spines, etc. from the saurus riders, carving up the lizardmen heads, taking spear arms from the saurus warrior kit, and making a few more shield arms from spares. The marsh reavers are supposed to be armed with spear, shield, and hand weapon, so once I've put the kilts on I will try to add a few other weapons hanging from the saddle or the kilt itself; so long as it doesn't look too wierd - I'll give it a go and see what it looks like before actually gluing any on.

I just need to put the liquid green over the backs, legs and tails of the riders to tone down the prominence of the scales, as well as give a gnarled hide idea, and obviously I need to get my moulding tool and green stuff out again to sculpt the eyes. Once that is done and cured I'll take a look at sorting the kilts for them. I'm slightly apprehensive about trying to get these fitted and looking right. Not only is there not a lot of space around the saddle, but the kilt would also need to convey the necessary movement and flow of the bog beast charging through the marshes towards its next victim. I'm not sure if the bandages that I've used on the fimm warriors so far will work that well to show dynamic movement. I'd really like to still include them as it will cover up the gaps of where the body meets the saddle, but more importantly it will continue a cohesive look across the army. I guess I'll just have to give it a go!