Long Hiatus and the Critical Conversion

Hey folks, I know it's been a long time... I started a new job, and ended up where my painting was more industrial than fanciful.

That said, recently the wonderful folks at the Mayacast Podcast did a conversion contest rather than a painting contest. I decided there was one absolutely critical conversion that needed to happen. One model whose conversion wasn't a case of personal challenge or what-if, but an absolutely, only-way-I'd-play-him necessity.

I give you, Saito Togan:

He's supposed to be a master ninja, ghost in combat. Not a sumo wrestler.

Thank God for jewellers saws and greenstuff, because it let me 'fix' him. Underneath that weird pose is an actually good model design, and I hope I have more conveyed his awesome ninja-ness with my conversion.

Two cuts, just above both knees, let me notice that just with his lower legs removed, you can get a very good pose going. It was great for me, as I originally thought I might have to resculpt the entire upper leg bit. Instead, I ground away at the 'fabric' until I had slots for the calf muscles/armour, pinned the limbs in place where I wanted, and refilled the gaps with putty, imitating the fabric that was there. For the most part, the head is just slightly repositioned, and the arm is pushed out wider (and greenstuffed in the gap) to fit.

On his back you can see I've moved the scabbard to a more shinobi-logical back draw, as opposed to the default model's samurai hip draw location.

And finally, for a nice ridiculous shot of him bisecting a guijia in full anime style!

I'm going to try to post more frequently now. I've been working these last few months on a Skaven army, and while much of it isn't especially fascinating from a paint exploration standpoint, there are a few things that I can draw attention to.

After that, ghosts!