Monday, March 26, 2018

Rugg, Bugbear Leader: Bones 2 Figure, Converted to an Elephantman

      I've been eagerly awaiting the release of the Elephantman from the Bones 3 Kickstarter "Savage Avatars" set so I can order a couple to play the role of Erithereans from the Bestiary.  But that is a little while away, and we've already started our campaign.   So, I was just going to be content to wait, until a friend sent me a link to some photo of some fantasy figures a guy had made by chopping the heads off of dollar store animals, and gluing them to the bodies of 28mm plastic medieval figures.  The little lightbulb went on in my brain...I had just seen a small elephant figure in a box of junk, and I knew I had a spare Bones Bugbear, Rugg, Bugbear Leader, from the Bones 2 Gnolls & Bugbears set  laying around somewhere...
     I found the elephant and the Bugbear, but I had borrowed the Bugbear's weapon hand for an Orc a while back. So, a quick dig in the bits box, and I came up with what I believe is a GW Ogre weapon hand.
      A little bit of sawing, and I had this.
        It was just a matter of gluing it all together then. 
    I then used some greenstuff around the head to blend it to the body, and added some ears.  Another problem was his Bugbear hand only had four fingers and his ogre hand had five fingers.  Considering the problem, and the fact I had already glued everything together, I decided adding an extra finger with greenstuff was the easiest solution.   I also added some hair to the top of his head, and tried to blend it in to the hair on his back.  Lastly, I clipped the claws on his feet to make them look more like elephant toenails.
     Satisfied with the conversion, I decided to spray the figure with some Army Painter "Necrotic Flesh".  I choose this because I had it on hand, and I've found Army Painter primer to be the best option to be a safe primer for multiple types of plastics, including Bones; not because I particularly thought the color was the best option. :) .
     I began by painting all his skin with Folk Art "Medium Grey", and then painted his scale armor with Americana "Raw Umber".  I then painted his belts and straps with Folk Art "Teddy Bear Brown"and his loin cloth with Duncan "Olive Green".
     Next, I decided I wanted all his armor to be the same color, so I also painted his arm guards and his shin guard with the "Raw Umber".  I then painted the cloth/fur under his arm guards and shin guard with Folk Art "Butter Pecan", and the bandage? around his right knee with Americana "Khaki Tan".  After that, I painted his hair with Black, and then painted the pouch around on the back with Americana "Mississippi Mud". I then painted the sword blade, and his back shoulder armor with Americana "Zinc" and the grip on his sword with Reaper MSP "Pumpkin Orange".
I decided I didn't like the orange sword grip, so repainted it with Reaper MSP Bones "Cinnamon Red".   I then painted his tusks with Americana "Dove Grey", and his sword blade with Folk Art Metallics "Gunmetal Grey".  After everything had a while to dry, I gave the whole figure a wash with Citadel "Nuln Oil" wash. 
     When the wash was dry, I painted his eyes, and then worked on highlighting his hair using Citadel "The Fang".  After that, I highlighted his skin using Crafter's Acrylic "Storm Cloud Grey", and then highlighted his tusks using the base "Dove Grey".  I then highlighted his armor with Americana, Sable Brown, and his belts with Americana Shading Flesh".  For his pouch around back I highlighted with Reaper MSP "Tanned Shadow", and then highlighted his sword grip with Reaper MSP "Holly Berry".   Next, I highlighted the fur under his arm and shin guards using Americana "Antique White", and highlighted the bandage on his right knee with Americana "Bleached Sand".   Lastly, I highlighted all the metal bits with Ceramcoat "Metallic Silver", and then I painted the figure's base with Americana "Bittersweet Chocolate".
     I let the figure dry overnight and the next day I gave it a coat of Americana "DuraClear Matte" varnish.    Then, when  the varnish was dry, I used some white glue to flock the bases.  Another overnight dry, and I sprayed him with Testor's Dullcote".

      I'm really happy with how this conversion turned out! The head seems to go perfectly with the body.  The ears are probably the weakest point, I should have studied some photos first before sculpting them.
  And of course, I was left with a headless body, and a bodyless head; so this had to happen.  A Bugaphant!  :-D


 
 Here is a photo of the Elephantman next to a regular human to give a sense of size of the figure.

14 comments:

  1. That's a great and imaginative conversion! If you hadn't said that the weapon was from an Ogre, I'd have thougt that the miniature was smaller. Amazing that you had the fitting size elephant.
    Those Leftovers are interesting as well - what are going to run this creature as?

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    1. Thanks! Yes, it was an amazing thing that I had just the right elephant lying around. I knew I had held on to it for a reason. :) I have added a photo of the Elephantman with a human to give a better sense of his size.
      I don't know what that odd creature will be, or if I'll ever use it in a game. It just needed to be made. :) But who knows...I didn't know I'd have the perfect need for that little elephant one day, so maybe one day the perfect need for the Bugaphant will present itself! :)

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  2. Elephantman looks great! And the Bugaphant is a thing of nightmares. Nice work.

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  3. That elephant man turned out so well! And I am surprised to see how big the figure is, given that I know how big the ogre hands are... pretty big figure then.

    The bugaphant is great too... some sort of carnivorous pig animal.

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    1. Thanks!
      While it's big, it's not giant... I have added a photo showing it with a standard human to give a better sense of it's size.

      Yes, the Bugaphant is definitely carnivorous! :)

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  4. Lovely work, and inspiring too.

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  5. Your creative cranial cavity almost boiled over! IMHO you let your genius get out again. Really sweet modeling...it is what IT is all about.

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    1. Ha! Thanks, Jay! I agree; conversions are one of my favorite thing to do. :)

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  6. Wow, that's what a goblinhound should look like.
    Great job!

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