Small and hairy...the cloaks are almost done!

Nearly there... thirteen cloaks left to do! I have been trying to get the army fully constructed over the last few days. That means basing everything and sculpting the details I have left to do. The worst part is the cloaks simply because they are the most invloved sculpting task. The marauders are now fully done. I have even managed to finish the champion. I was really stuck for inspiration for this guy. I just couldn't get a decent picture of what I wanted in my head! Eventually I just started positioning pieces and seeing what came out. I quickly decided that I liked the idea that he would hold his shield over his head. That left me confused though as to what he could do with his weapon. I considered having him point it forward. However that would make the piece hard to carry, a big concern for this army as I intend travelling a lot with it.

The weapon naturally fit across the body and had the effect of spreading the shoulders and making this model fit his body better. I find with the marauders that they don't fit their bodies. The huge chest muscles just don't look right. By increasing the volume of the shoulders and making them a little taller they suddendly seem to be scaled correctly. The shoulders are easy to do. The cloaks cover them almost completely and increasing the volume of greenstuff covering them makes them look bigger. Making them taller is also easy enough. The position of the legs allows for one of the feet to be raised on a stone or log. I didn't do this for all the models. I did make sure to do it for the Champions though.

The standard needed some sculpting too! I wanted to have a bear skin hanging as a standard. However I didn't want to sculpt the whole thing. I found a great compromise in using the existing standard as a base and simply sculpting the fur unto it. I left the details on it but sank them into the fur to give an impression of depth. I removed the strange hooks from the ends of the standard as they look bizarre. I wanted to add a bear claw or even a bear head to the standard but at the moment that might be beyond my abilities. I will consider it for a future regiment. I might add a few runic talismans or bones to the standard. All in all I am happy with it. I hope it will paint up well!

The full regiment of eighteen is done. I have all the ones with cured cloaks based. I just need to select the shields now. I won't glue them on until the models are painted. I wanted the regiment to look like they were rushing forward in a shieldwall like formation. I turned all the bodies so that it gave the impression of forward movement. The shields should all face directly forward then. I didn't want theem all to be to the side as they usually are. I also need to start thinking about how to make these guys Slaanesh. Most of their skin is covered so tatoos might not be noticable enough. The shields would probably be the best place though I haven't decided yet. I don't want them to be overly corrupted or marked. Hopefully a good skin tone with some interesting shading will give a suggestion of Slaanesh and a few select tatoos and markings will seal the deal!

In the last tournament they didn't see any combat. I don't believe they even suffered a casualty. Not a single spell or cannon shot was directed their way. They serve well as a home for my two sorcerers at least. I am not sure how these guys will preform if ever called upon to charge in. Their insignificance seems to make them ignored while people deal with the more obvious threat of Chaos Knights and flanking Marauder Horsemen!