Put-Put-Putty!

So thanks to Zorro, I've been using some putty to revamp a few units. Here's a small showing of the in-progress work I'm doing on my warriors:

1) The Goblin Shaman

Goblin archers are probably the least valuable units in the Goblin army and I couldn't wait to convert one of them into a Goblin Shaman. The Shaman costs 40 more points than a Goblin Warrior with spear and has a similar profile. 30 of the 40 points are easily valued in the 2 Wounds, 1 Might, 3 Will, and 1 Fate point that the Shaman has. The other 10 are found in the following benefits:

• A Shaman is a hero and this provides me with a cheaper leader for my army in small skirmish games;
• A Shaman can cast Immobilize on a 5+ (which I don't intend to do); and
• A Shaman can cast Fury on a 3+, which makes all Goblins within 6" pass any courage test they are asked to take AND Goblins within 6" gain a 6+ Fate save, which doesn't mean that many wounds will be ignored, but the fact that some are (read, archery hits for sure) means that more Goblins stay in the fight. This is lost if the Shaman loses a fight, but seeing as he has a spear (and should remain near the back of the lines anyway) he shouldn't be fighting much on his own.

I'm quite excited about using the Shaman. I've play-tested a Shaman with Gaius before I started this blog and was impressed, but not to the extent that I wanted to pay $9 or more to get him. Conversion became a good way to get the points I wanted and should make my army much stronger. You'll see in the next picture that his helm is supposed to be a wild warg skull...

Since these pictures were taken (just before jumping on an airplane), I began a second round of conversions. You'll see when I post that picture (the ones I've taken get really blurry, so I'm hoping the coloring will change that) that there are now two bags of gadgets for this guy, one of which has a strap. The staff has gotten some filling in so that it looks more like one piece of wood and has a ball on the top...don't know if that will become another skull or not.

2) Khazad Guards

For 3 points more, a Dwarf Warrior with two-handed weapon could become a Khazad Guard. For these 3 points, the Warrior gains an additional Strength point, an additional Defense point (suffers -1 to swimming, but whatever), and the Bodyguard special rule (great for charging trolls, staying in the fight, and knocking Will points off Nazgul). As such, I sought to change five of my Dwarves with two-handed weapons into Khazad Guards. The other three have become a banner-bearer and (soon to be) Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows. This final conversion won't happen until the Dwarf Rangers come (soon...very soon).

As you can see from the picture, I used putty to make their face-guards and accent some of the ridges in their helmets. They all have bracers on their arms and once the Dwarf Rangers come, their axes will all be double-bit axes. I'm really excited about all of this and can't wait to use these warriors against an army of Elves in the coming weeks (and against Goblins, but that can wait a little bit). With six Khazad Guards, Balin could be accompanied by an elite unit of bodyguards, for a grand total cost of 161 points!

3) Uruk Crossbow Captain...Vrasku

Vrasku's elbow has been in need of help for a while. The crossbow was taken as a spare from my brother Glenstorm's model and was added to the body of a pikeman whose pike snapped in half. The result was a small patch of empty, rough space at the elbow joint of the crossbow warrior and now with a little putty, it's become one smooth space. This will be painted black with a dull shine like the rest of the armor as it continues the elbow guard that Vrasku wears. By far, this one was the easiest conversion to do.

4) Galadhrim Archer

This one by far was the hardest of the conversions to do. As you can see in the picture, the Galadhrim archers and the High Elf archers are quite different. As such, I want to make this High Elf archer look just like his Galadhrim cousins and so I'm working on adding armor to him to make him look like the rest of his new kin. This meant adding hand grips to the bow and making armor for both his legs and chest out of putty. Though not a perfect conversion, it's a start. He'll get a new paint job (as will the other Galadhrim archers) to make sure that the army looks the same, but I'm thinking about leaving the white sash intact, as it makes him a unique archer in the army. His helmet will change too, but not today.

So that's an update from the hobby workbench - and if you have pictures you'd like to post from your hobbying adventures, please let me know in comments!