Brakka Braytooth, Bearer of the Herdstone Standard (The Gelded)

So, here's my newest character, Brakka Braytooth. He's a mean Son of a Sow. I painted him really quickly, I just really enjoyed this model. Such a great character. The axe was a bit hair raising to paint around as I was worried about snapping it off.

The banner had a few false starts. I decided to paint it in a similar vein to my Wargor BSB, just to help tie them together. This banner was inspired by the artwork in the beastmen army book, with the shamen infront of the towering herdstone. Liber Chaotica tells us minotaurs are sacred protectors of herdstones, so I thought that a standard of a long distant herdstone would be a standard worth fighting over.

I painted his axe in a similar fashion to my Doombull's to again tie them together.

Banebeast Minotaur standard bearer review

With a little friend

So this weekend, after proxying the majority of my horde, I decided to splash out on the banebeast minotaur standard bearer whilst there was still the 16% off. I was toying with the idea of converting a plastic BSB for my mino army, but in the end I decided I would rarely use it in a competative list, so took the easy option and went with the £17 banebeast. The Skullbearer of the Taarviks Khaargstrukk (or however you spell it).

Well, I can honestly say I was not dissapointed! What a cracking model. He came in several parts - the body consisted of right arm with weapon (all one piece), body with left arm, and left hand and banner all in one piece. His head and tail came on another sprue, the head being all one piece.

The torso came with...erm..."anatomically correct" lower body. In his gooch was a huge pair of fruits. I thought long and hard (giggedy) about whether to keep it or not. I decided to get rid.

I'm all for realistic sculpting, but he would look out of place being the only model with a scrote. There was not loincloth to hide his modesty and, with no effort to sculpt one or a suitable size bit in my bit box, I just lopped them off.

Our bull, post gelding

So, after I gave him the snip, I put him together. The parts went together smoothly, with just a tiny bit of filling on the right arm. The right arms weapon looks a bit bent and flimsy, but thats the risk of having a long shaft made from resin. The resin is really nice to use and work with, and is perhaps a little nicer than games workshops finecast, just because there was no faults in the casting and the details were immaculate.

So, once I finished putting the model together, I got to putting my own personal stamp on this cheeky chappy.

In comparison to a standard minotaur and my doombull

I took a spare skull dingle dangle (tm) bit from my bits box and attatched it to his gutplate, just to help connect him to his fellow beastmen who have loincloths. I added a minotaur shield to his left arm as BSB he'll be most likely taking as much armour as possible. I finally added a small club from the ogre bulls box to his waist to show his armed to the teeth - a gorebull can never have too many weapons!

Overall, this model is absolutely fantastic. The banner I would have liked to replace as it's a bit bland, but when the models finished it doesn't look too bad.  The axe also rests close to the ground, leading to potential ranking up issues should he be in the second rank of a regiment. The base he came with was also slightly warped, so I just put him on a standard GW 40x40 base.

All in all, a solid 8 out of 10 from me. If the rumours of upcoming minotaur regiment from banebaeasts is true, I will definately to purchasing a box!

Painted Karniforox - Gorebull

So, remember Karniforex? The converted doombull, well, he's BAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

Here he is pretty much finished. Quite happy how he turned out - unfortunately I'm still trying to get a good formula for snow but other than that I'm quite happy, he's tabletop standard at least!

I tried to play down the purple and instead make his magical armour and weapon black as well, with purple being a highlight. This should make him stand out, well, that and his tyranid shoes.

I'm not going to lie, this guy was a bit of a pain to paint. I'm still not happy with the snow, All of my neutral colours all appear too neutral, meaning theres very little definition and contrast and for some reason the inks decided to pool straight away and leave huge puddles on perfectly flat areas of skin instead of coating nicely. Conspiracy! I managed in the end, I've also painted the little flag "wood elf green".

I want to go back later and fix some things, but at the moment it's time just to stand back and leave this dude, as I've got a whole army to get painted and time's ticking on.

Karniforex - Doombull WIP

Ok, well I've been teasing you all with this for a few days, so I'll just throw this out for you all now.

My Doombull Karniforex the Butcher (I may rework that name...) is a mad afternoon's work. The name's wordplay of carnifex (latin for butcher), which is both fitting for a 12foot slab of pure meat with a huge chopping blade but also because of the source of his hooven feet - originally from the tyranid carnifex kit. I wanted to make him stand out to normal minotaurs so I thought adding some large hooves would increase is height. After a bit of a play I realised I could get a quite fluid movement by putting both hooves on slightly differently on each foot. I greenstuffed fur to mimic the appearance of the rank and file gors, and also to help mask the ankles to make the hooves look more natural and less tyranidy.

The blade is from the daemon prince kit, as is the huge shoulder plate. I'm usually not a fan of space marine shoulder pads on fantasy models, but this one is just chaosy enough to pull it off. I've added an empire shield from the giant kit on his thigh, and gone for an entirely armoured left flank like a gladiator - his left side takes all the firepower whilst the right side is free to do all kinds of chopping! The shoulder armour also has a nice groove for his horn to go into - very ergonomic!

I didn't want to go made with this model's extra bits. I did add a spawn tail to make him looked extra blessed and represent gifts of chaos - and also to mask the huge gap between the two torso pieces, which was unfortunately leaving a huge chasm in his butt crack.

The base is from lelith hesperax - it helped elevate the model slightly and show off more of him front, otherwise on a flat surface he'd have looked like he was sprinting with his head down, charging for a gore. Although really cool, the model would stand out better with a visible face

A few ideas didn't make the grade - plastic chain on his nose ring, a huge tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, spikes sticking out of it's back with a fur coat of greenstuff fur. I decided to just leave him as it - simple is best! The more I add to him the sillier he may look - and I'm quite pleased with how he looks.