Sunday 2 October 2011

Transportation of Corpses... and Open contests...



MOOOOO!!!!

Sorry for the delay everyone. I've been pretty tired the last week of so with work, getting my Open entry finished up and then working Games Day last weekend. But all worth it as my Open entry, a converted Corpse Cart, picked up third place in the contest. My first win in the Open after a few tries over the years.

So, to the entry itself. Not long after joining the studio I started thinking it'd be cool to enter the Open and the task of selecting a figure began. After a few false starts I settled upon the Corpse Cart. The Corpse Cart is a wonderful plastic kit though one that I really haven't seen painted that many times and certainly not as a contest entry. That was as good a reason as any to make it the project I would go with. Then we hit a problem. I can paint well but the guys who regularly enter the open aren't good painters, they are often the best of the best and I couldn't really compete paintjob to paintjob so I had to work out something else and sculpting and conversion seemed like a plan.

I'd thought about painting a Corpse Cart many times over the years and had always planned to not have it pulled by zombies. Nothing against zombies of course (who would) but I wanted something different. The idea had always been a skeletal horse but I started thinking if I could impress more. A few early thoughts were of getting a plastic regular horse and 'zombifying' it. Then I took a look at the ancient Plague Cart model that was presumably the initial spur of the Corpse Cart concept.



A classic figure of it's day but showing it's age. Then I saw the Ox pulling it. Hmmm, Steve thinks, that could be cool. We we certainly thinking scratchbuild for that and I quickly decided that zombie ox was more appropriate than skeletal ox. So, I delved straight ito sculpting myself a zombie ox. A little way into the sculpting process I started thinking that, without the constraints of casting, it really should be hollowed out and so you can look into the ox and see all the inside of his ribcage and if you peer back into the darkness, his intestines. Niiiice!

After a lot of working out the logistics of how the cart would attach to the ox I had the piece ready. And here's the pics I luckily remembered to take before painting...





With the ox complete I was concentrating on the cart itself. I decided to put the new single figure plastic Necromancer, released with Storm of Magic, on the back instead of the figure that comes with the cart. He fits quite well as long as you open the right arm component out a bit and fill the gap. Just a bit of trimming to get it to fit nicely.

I also added a grotesque face to the bell and generally went around the cart either removing or adding small details.

So, with the conversion done I was ready for painting... aaaand... to be continued. I don't want to turn this one post into a behemoth so will save the painting stage for another post. There will be another after that to talk about the basework... not sure if I have decent pics... hope I have some.

But I'm not going to leave this post without showing you the finished article. Admittedly not the best pic ever but it at least shows the whole figure. So, here it is... The Corpse Cart!!!

15 comments:

  1. Lovely piece. Zombies are cool, zombie oxen even cooler! The ox pulling the cart is definitely my favourite part! Its skin really looks like the meat beneath it is mushed by the rott. Skeletons rising from the ground was also a nice little touch...

    Need to get myself one of those Necromancers too, neat miniature indeed.

    P.S.
    Here's the photo taken on Bugman's terrace last Monday.

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  2. Wow, that pic came out waaay better than mine. Conditions were perfect for photography that day. I went back the next day to try and get pics but couldn't get the same results...

    Cheers. Will add that pic to the painting article in the next few days :)

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  3. Great job Steve, thought it looked great on the day too but it's nice to be able to see more of the details in the pics. Also, thanks for sharing the unpainted pics, always interesting to see.

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  4. husahhhh - im just blown away bi the necros face - stunning......

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  5. I have a closeup of the face for the painting part of this article series...

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  6. Cant wait for the closeups either, The
    model is perfect combination of sculpting, conversionwork and kitbashing!
    Good job indeed!!!

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  7. This is amazing Steve - well done! I remember the WIP of the ox you showed me in Bugmans so it's great to see the final version. The paint job is awesome too. I love the base as well - plain but enough detail to keep you interested. Xx

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  8. Fantastic, I love the way the ox is literally transfixed by the yoke. Beautiful piece, great idea, great sculpting, great painting.

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  9. Everything about it is brilliant. I love the skeletons pulling themselves out of the ground. Just the right touch, and shows that the nasty bloke on the cart isn't just a mean old man. :)

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  10. Fantastic! Excellent idea for a mini and brilliantly painted too. I look forward to reading the painting article.

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  11. I suppose you didn't think to make a mould of the ox....?

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  12. No mould of the ox. Not sure there would have been much point even if I'd had the time. I don't see GW releasing a random zombie ox...

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  13. Not even to go with a plague cart? :D

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  14. Hi, I came across your site and wasn’t able to get an email address to contact you. Would you please consider adding a link to my website on your page. Please email me.

    Thanks!

    Joel Houston
    JHouston791@gmail.com

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