Having purchased the Skaven portions of 2x Island of Blood (IoB) sets, I am thrilled to be getting started on my Skaven force. The Rat Ogre models are of particular interest to me for obvious reasons.
The Good: These models look fantastic, are ripe with detail, and the proportions are spot on. The figures assemble well, and the peg & hole system along with some glue goes a long way to reduce the gaps between pieces.
The Bad/The Ugly: Unfortunately both Rat Ogres from IoB have a similar pose and overall appearance, so if you have more than two, you will really want to fire up your conversion engines. With the models comprised of two main body pieces plus the head, you are definitely going to have some work on your hands to make any pose changes or swap body parts between them (even the heads are not interchangeable without cutting/greenstuffing.
However, the challenge is one I welcome, and of the four IoB Rat Ogres I currently own, I have converted two of them thus far. Working titles are simply "ROgre Claws" and "ROgre Wings". You can find some WIP example shots of the Rat Ogres below, and more photos in the Warp Watcher. Enjoy!
ROgre Wings:
Warpstone can creat all sorts of mutations, some more useful than others. ROgre Wings has powerful looking wings, but they of course cannot lift his substancial mass off the ground, but the wings can be a terrifying sight, as he leaps down from terrain, rocks, and trees onto his foes.
The wings (above) were cut off of a Chaos Marine backpack, filed to the approximate rounding of the rat ogre's back muscles. They fit in quite nicely.
Despite the good fit, I wanted to cover the gaps that did exist with some green stuff (GS), so I added a big fur patch on his back (see right), from which the wings have sprung (or been grafted). This fur was achieved by rolling GS into a thin roll, and weaving it around the edge of the wings both on the outside and in. Next I flattened and smoothed the roll with the butt end of a paintbrush. For texture I first pressed a toothpick into the smoothed GS in a V pattern all over, then went back with the blade of an exact-o knife and used the tip in a "press and drag motion" to create a more detailed hair look, always dragging down/towards the outside. I am very happy with the end result, as I am still a moderate newcomer to GS work. Tip: After mixing, rolling, placing and smoothing the GS, let it set for about 3-5 minutes before texturing.
ROgre Claws:
This formidable rat ogre has had warpstone infused directly into his body, one part at a time. His right arm mutation has been fully grown, and the mutation device has since been connected to his left arm, where a grafted claw is currently undergoing infusion.
Several conversions have taken place on this model. The large claw and the attached arm are from the Chaos Spawn sprue, and the smaller claw is from a Chaos Marine arm. I had originally intended to GS a bandaged-on look to hide the size difference on the chaos spawn arm (above) but I could not get the GS to look like the wrapped bandages already on the model, so I switched gears and instead GS'd muscle (right). I was very pleasantly surprised by how well this turned out. This figure's head didn't glue in as tightly as the other model, so I GS'd fur around the neck to hide the unsightly gap. I used the same GS fur technique described above. In addition to the arms, I augmented the shoulder tank by cutting off the top to make room for raw warpstone. This warpstone was made by cutting up sprue pieces on odd angles. It doesn't look like much now but I believe the end result upon painting will be good. I also added three "spine spikes" on his back, a side effect mutation from all of the raw warpstone pumping through his veins. The gaps are reasonably small, so I don't want to add GS fur here, lest he look too similar to his buddy.
In summary, I am thrilled with these models, and the conversions of the first two were a lot of fun. Therefore, I fully plan on converting the next two with over-the-top mutations as well. Painting of these figures, and converting of any others sadly must wait, as they are now strong motivation for me to get painting my 80 clanrat/slave models. If all goes well, I will blog about them soon!
Comments, questions, and constructive criticism are always welcome!
Next I painted the eyes (yellow on the one above but I corrected this to Scorpion green for the rest. After painting O&G I got real tired of red eyes, so my army will possibly all have green eyes instead!
