A brief intermission.

As you may have noticed, the second post about the building of Centigor has yet to appear.

The reasons for that are thus:

First, my son has a Pinewood Derby coming up this weekend and, as a result, most of what I would have spent as 'hobby time' has been dedicated to the sweet, sweet science of building the fastest wooden car possible.

And, second, we've recently found out that we've been selected for the adoptive placement of a little boy whose awesomeness is only matched by the awesomeness of the little boy we've already got.  So, any free time that hasn't been spent getting ready for the Pinewood Derby has been spent driving to visits with this new little boy and, you know, trying to get his room ready so that he'll have somewhere to sleep.

So, please excuse our brief intermission.  The Domain of the Geek will return as soon as possible.  In the meanwhile, be sure to visit the excellent hobby blogs on our blogroll to the right.

How to Build a (Male) Centigor, Part One: The Bits Required

So, you want to build yourself some centigor?  Well, you've come to the right place.

While there are a lot of tutorials out there for building a Centigor, I've decided that, rather than simply showing you pictures of what I'm building, it might be beneficial for those of you out there who might be trying to do something similar yourselves to walk you through the steps I undertake in the process.

Let's start at the beginning with assembling the necessary bits.

Bitz Site Review: BitsandKits.co.uk

As nearly every one of my projects involves a lot of conversion work, I tend to buy a lot of bits.  A lot of bits.  As in, I spend more on bits than I'd care to think about and far more than I'm comfortable admitting to my wife.

Because of that, I tend to look for the best deals and the best dealers.

As lots of small businesses survive on word of mouth, if I find them, I'd like to share them with you.  It helps them by keeping them in business and it helps me by having them still in business (no, they don't pay me commission to talk about them or slide me free bits on the side or anything).

As most of my experiences with bits sites have been positive, most of my reviews will be positive.

This is not one of those reviews.

Rumors: New GW Paints revealed.

In case you missed it yesterday, Stahly's Tale of Painters posted images of the color swatches for GW's new line of paints that we'd talked about last week.

They'll be hitting store shelves on March 24th.

Complete*: The Pestigor Lord.

* - Complete except for his base, obviously. I want to try to do something ironic with it, with lots of flowers and such, but I don't have any on hand at the moment.

If you haven't picked one up yet to find out for yourself, let me just say that the new plastic Hero (Wizard/Sorceress/Champion/whatever) kits that Games Workshop is putting out are absolutely outstanding. I've picked up a couple now, and I'm impressed not only with the level of detail offered, but the ease at which they can be converted into other things.

For example, the Nurgle Lord.

You noticed this one ain't human, right?

More photos (and a lot of exposition about the good ol' days of Warhammer) after the jump ...

Rumors: Games Workshop's new paints.

Obligatory picture of what the new paints might look like that's already been everywhere.

Rumors have been swirling for a few weeks now -- the first I saw them was on Bell of Lost Souls, I believe -- that the reason for the disappearance of the painting and hobby articles from the Games Workshop website and the reason that hobby stores were having issues replenishing stocks of paint was that Games Workshop was getting ready to re-vamp their entire line of paints.

Now, the list of new paint colors has hit the internets.

Works in Progress: Centigors (Unit #1).

With the completion of the Beast King and the Celestial Dragon Monk, I began work on the conversion of my Centigor units. As with all of my units, the Centigor are going to be subject to some heavy conversion work and sculpting.

The difference between these units and the others, however, are that there only five figures in each of these units while some of my others -- the Temple Monk P'nthors (Ungors) and the Ti'Gors of the Golden Fang clan (Gors), most notably -- have as many as 40 figures per unit.

There are currently two units of five centigors in production, and three other units of five centigors. The first (pictured here) features a Standard Bearer (which the other centigor units won't have) and the requisite Ghorros Warhoof.

As always, comments and (constructive) criticisms are appreciated!

Complete: The Celestial Dragon Monk.

As I mentioned last week, this conversion has been completed for a few days now. This weekend, I finally found time to take some pictures of him to share with you all.

Take the jump for more ...

Complete: Shere Khan, the Beast King.

(* - Well, mostly complete.  The base won't be wrapped up until the rest of his unit is.)

Last week, I mentioned that I'd managed to complete the painting on both the Panda(ren Brewmaster) Battle Standard Bearer for the Mountain Temple half of my army and the Beast King, Shere Khan, for the Jungle Temple. This weekend, I finally found a few minutes between installing closet organizers and running family errands to snap a few photos.

First up: Shere Khan, the Beast King.

Take the jump for more ...

New from ForgeWorld: Skin Wolves and Arcane Frogs.

I'm not sure why the folks at ForgeWorld are so insistent on coming up with products that might sidetrack me from my plans of actually completing my Beast Kings army -- yes, all 6,000pts. of it -- sometime in the near future but, alas, their releases today are almost too fun to ignore.

First up, the Arcane Frogs. These figures will hold little game value, but they still look like they'd be a heckuva lot of fun to paint up.

The first appears to be the amphibian version of the Storms of Magic Chaos Sorcerer (complete with his broken staff and third eye), while the second presents a slightly more generic option so that any time your wizard had a bit of a sorcerous mishap, you could slap down a frog in his stead.

(Frankly, I'd be afraid that even carrying them around in my army box might jinx my spellcasters.)

The Skin Wolves are the models, though, that I find particularly tempting.

These lovelies represent "witch-curs’d and Chaos-tainted men and women afflicted with this gift from their unholy gods bear a mutation that does not show as a stigmata of the flesh, but instead lurks in the blood, a slumbering beast to be roused by dark sacrifice and unspeakable ritual."

You see, they're not just werewolves.  Oh, no.  When their curse takes over, the wolf literally erupts from within, shredding the flesh of the poor soul that formerly housed it.  That's where they get their names: from the gribbly bits of discarded husk that were their former selves that still dangle from their fur.  Then, when their curse is abated, they themselves fall to the ground, leaving their former human selves to fight their way out in much the same gruesome manner.

Why is this so tempting?

Well, alongside my beasts -- when I tire of painting tiger stripes or just get distracted by other things -- I'm slowly putting together small units of Slaanesh-y dedicated mortals and daemons from the bits I've accumulated but won't be using for other things.  They'll be northmen, obviously, with the new 40K Fenris Wolves running alongside them as hounds.  What better 'monstrous' unit might there be to fit amongst those humans and wolves than Chaos-based wolves that literally tear their human hosts apart from the inside out ... ?

Perhaps -- if the stars, finances and hobby pursuits align -- I shall reward myself with them when I get a bit further along with my main Beast Kings army.  We'll have to wait and see ...

I haven't disappeared.

I haven't disappeared.  I promise.

Between job stuff, illness, family birthdays, household renovation projects and an assortment of other things stealing away my free time for the past month, I haven't gotten as much downtime as I'd have liked to be able to devote to crafting my army.  However, by Wednesday, I intend to have pictures up for you of the finished Panda(ren Brewmaster) Standard Bearer for the Mountain Temple army -- yes, he's done and based -- and the finished Ti'Gor Beastlord for the Jungle Temple army.

So, please, stay tuned.

When they're completed, I've got about 25 Centigor, including Ghorros, that I'm converting up for the Mountain army.

There's going to be both males and females in those units because, after all of the drinking and fighting, they like to rut a bit -- they do have Ghorros, the father of all beasts amongst them after all -- and, well, having their females fighting alongside the males makes that a bit more handy.

(I suppose the ratio will still be a bit squicky as it's to be about 4:1 males to females because, well, that's the bits I've been able to get ahold of but it'll have to do.)

What will they look like, you ask?  Well, this is the photo I'm using as a bit of inspiration for the boys of the units, so ...

New from ForgeWorld: The Basilisk.

ForgeWorld introduced, today, their new Basilisk (no, not that Basilisk).

(More angles and thoughts after the jump ...)

Paint Progress: Beast King and Dragon Monk.

Look! I can (almost) take pictures where you can actually (sorta) see (kinda) what's going on with the miniatures!

Here's the Wargor BSB for the 'Mountain Temple' army. Still have a couple of highlights to add (teeth and buckles) before he gets his ale barrels and a 'lacquered wicker'-sytle pair of shoulder pads added. His armor is intentionally dark, as he's wearing the Blackened Plate so that he can stand in a unit comprised of my Shamans and a horde of Ungor inside of Fozzrik's Folding Fortress the Mountain Temple and give them all a 4+ ward against fire:

And, here's the Beast King himself, Shere Khan (it's a title taken by all Beast Kings; his real name is Janesh). He's in need of a few more washes here and there, having his stripes added, having his eye greened, his scars accentuated and having his armour weathered. Other than that, though, I think I'm pretty happy with how he's turned out:

I hope to be able to get them both finished this week.

Paint Progress: Beast King and Dragon Monk.

So ... I picked up a paintbrush last night.

Looking this morning at the work I completed last night, I realized a couple things:
First, I'm not a great painter but I do think I am a decent painter (you know, considering I was working after 1:00am).

I wound up going to bed before these were completed so what I've got here are mostly just basecoats and washes. Touchups and highlights and re-washings are still to come.

Second, the things I paint do not look good at all when blown up to a ridiculous size in photographs. But, let's be honest: nothing looks good when photographed that close.

While I take solace in the fact that -- even with just the basecoats and washes -- these guys both look much better in real light at their real size to the naked eye, I've zoomed these photos back out a bit so that they're a more representative size of the actual miniatures.

And, third, I really need a light box for my photography. I'll look into that this weekend. You know, if I've got time.

So, with those disclaimers out there, here's what things look like so far ...

Beast Kings Character: Dragon Monk (Part One)

Because I'm easily distracted ...

From the Beast Kings bestiary:

Among the Beast King’s harem, one can also find human female mates. These young human women, often members of the Tcho tribes, are the most beautiful virgins given (or sometimes sold) by their fathers to the Beast Kings. Those who aren’t killed in the furor of the mating process are held in high regard; only these humans can birth a Gray-Shaman.

These Gray-Shamans, unique white-furred and gray-striped female Ti’Gors, reside in the innermost sanctums of the Ti’Gors’ jungle temples. Because of the rarity of their births and their unique markings, they are believed to be predestined by Yag’ganesh for positions of power and respect. As soon as they’ve been weaned, young Grays are taken to a temple high in the mountains of the distant northern reaches of Ind and are taught to harness their natural gifts, learning enlightenment from the traditions of the Celestial Dragon Monks while also mastering the darkest arts of Chaos itself. When their training is complete, they are allowed to return to their tribes where they become revered advisors of the Beast King.

Preview of the mysterious Dragon Monk (who'll be that particular temple's Wargor Battle Standard Bearer):

Beast Kings Character: Beast Lord (Part One)

And so it begins ...

Shere Khan.

It was a title Janesh had not aspired to.  He was a warrior, not a king.

Janesh had followed the previous Khan through everything and his Khan had rewarded him well.

For his resourcefulness, he had been tasked with helping find food for his people through the dry months of the drought, when the Peace Rock had broken the water's surface and left them all so hungry that their joints ached and their bones shown through their hides.

For that, he was loved -- not only by the ti'gors of their pack of clan-families, but also by the p'nthors and the other beasts of the jungles.

For his ferocity, he was chosen to lead the Khan's army into battle when the Ogres invaded from the mountains in the north.  He had faced the tyrant alone, tearing out the tyrant leader's throat with his teeth even after the tyrant's blade had taken his right eye.

For that, he was respected and, some may say, even feared.

When the Khan had died sonless, and despite not having a clan-family of his own, Janesh was chosen to fight for the crown.  His opponent was to be Darshan, elder-father of the largest clan-family in the pack.

For Janesh, it was a fight he didn't want for a title he didn't want.

For Darshan, it was the final step toward a crown he had schemed and manipulated and fought for since his youth.  Darshan was powerful, indeed, but he was mistrusted by the other clan-families.

There were rumors swirling that, when crowned, Darshan meant to break the treaties with the human kings that his Khan had forged.  Rumors that, even now, Darshan's ti'gors were preparing for war; that, once Darshan held the Khan's crown, they would set upon the humans -- humans thinking themselves safe behind their wood and clay walls, guarded by their axes and their dogs and their treaties -- and wash themselves in human blood.

Janesh had faith, though.  Faith that Darshan would surely not be so foolish.

They were, after all, a people of honor. Their treating with the humans of Ind had meant prosperity and peace for generations. It meant that the children of the clan-families could grow strong and, if they were lucky, grow old.

When Janesh knelt, the pack that had encircled them jeered.

Darshan would simply draw blood, Janesh knew, as was required by the rite and take the Khan's crown and, with it, the pack. He would lead them as he saw fit, just as the previous Khan had.

When one of Darshan's sons threw him a sword, the crowd shouted.  The only weapons were not permitted in these fights were fangs and claws and strength.  And, to violate those sacred rules when one of the combatants had already ceded the battle ... ?

Darshan spoke. He spoke of power. He spoke like one already drunk with power. He spoke of a new kingdom; a new reign that would be grown in the soils of war and watered with blood.

"Blood for the blood god," he whispered.

The words were heresy, stinging Janesh's ears.

Darshan lifted the sword in a brutal arc, like a woodsman readying to split a log.  Not simply attempting to draw blood as was required to claim his crown, but a killing stroke.

There were many gods worshipped in Ind but, for followers of Yag-ganesh, worship of the dark gods was forbidden. Darshan was a fool. And worse, his foolishness would bring death to the pack.

As the blade was plunging downward, Janesh's instincts took over.  His hand jabbed forward; long black claws biting deep into the fur and flesh just above Darshan's groin.  Scraping against bone, cutting through gristle and then, almost before either realized what had happened, there was a sudden spill of entrails over his hand and wrist and forearm.

And, in that instant, the fight was over.

Darshan stumbled backward, the blade falling from one hand even as the other attempted to keep his life from spilling out onto the jungle soil.  But it was already too late.  The spark of life was already gone from his eyes.

Janesh held his bloodied hand high for everyone to see.  The pack roared its approval, and then chanted his new name.

Shere Khan.

Sculpting notes and progress pictures after the jump ...