Silwon Fisk - the Water Seller

With four of my Helsreach mercenaries painted up, I wanted to spend some time on the Water Seller they would be guarding. The Water Seller will be my Journeyman in the Ash Wastes rules - the leader of the gang, travelling across the wastes in his crawler, looking for previously untapped sources of water.

 

The Water Sellers in Carl Critchlow's Logan's World illustrations (Rogue Trader rulebook) have a very distinctive look. They are fat, and heavily tattooed, with baggy trousers and wide waist sashes:

 

 

I decided that my Water Seller needed to hit the same key distinguishing features, although my figure would be a somewhat more dangerous character - very capable of fending for himself. The starting point for the figure was one of GW's more modern Lord of the Rings figures - the Harad Abrakhân Guard (still available from GW in metal).

 

 



I selected the guy with the more neutral pose, and mocked up some likely looking conversion concepts, complete with shotgun held nonchalantly over the shoulder:

After concepting the conversion, I decided I wanted to use the Paranoia High Programmer head. I also really liked the collar element from the Genestealer Hybrid concept, and planned to include this element in the final figure.

The Conversion

The first step for the conversion was to source the High Programmer head. I happen to have a High Programmer in my collection, but as he took several years to track down, I was loathe to chop his head off. I instead used Instant Mould to make a copy of the head.

Attempt #1 was not entirely successful!

Attempt #2 was much better.

After a first failed attempt, my second moulded copy of the head proved to be usable. The fact that the head has ended up flatter, yet broader than the original, was actually beneficial, by making him look fatter.

The conversion required a number of steps, punctuated by curing time for the greenstuff.

Excess material trimmed from head, new & hand collar sculpted. Shotgun from the Necromunda weapons sprue, collar port from Zinge Industries.

 

Collar refined, and details added.

More collar details. Pouch from RTB01 Space Marines.

Tiny feet embiggened!

Many inhabitants of Logan's World view Water Sellers as soft, fat and greedy - relying on their wealth drawn from their water monopolies to pay for protection. Some Water Sellers are indeed just like this, but others are hard and dangerous men; men like Silwon Fisk. Yes, Fisk is fat. Yes, Fisk is greedy. But Fisk travels with his crawler and precious cargoes of water. Fisk is rumoured to have survived 5 hours in the wastes without water or shelter. Fisk single-handedly drove off the Jag Eye mercenaries when they turned on their paymaster. Fisk is a man you shouldn't cross.

Painting Fisk

The key element in Fisk's paint scheme was the combination of flesh and tattoos. I gave him very pale flesh, then painted a variety of shapes and swirls over most of his body in a dull blue mixed with the flesh colour. This was then washed over with a dilute layer of the original flesh.

I gave Fisk a fairly bright white and turquoise colour scheme - relatively rich and clean colours compared to his more drab and utilitarian mercenaries.

One gold chain and a few details later, and Fisk was finished.

Side-by-side with the donor of the original head.

Not the first time I've converted this model - it also became my Skaven Blood Bowl team coach!

The Mini-Me

That should have been the end of this project, but the demands of a campaign-led game system mean that although I want to start with Fisk wielding his shotgun, I also want to upgrade his weapon to a grenade launcher when I can earn the in-game cash to do so. I really hate altering completed figures, so decided the best way to give Fisk his grenade launcher, was to make a little weapon counter...perhaps carried by a little helper of some kind?

I rummaged through my boxes and dug out this guy:

Familiar from Foundry / Casting Room Miniatures "Vinegar Tom & Familiars" pack.

I chopped off the trident, horns, wings and tail, added a FW Death Korps of Krieg grenade launcher, then sculpted new boots, trousers, sash, collar, fingers, ears and bald head.

And here's the creepy little fella painted up:

I added the little grenade belt to balance the pose and reinforce the fact it is a grenade launcher!

 

Master and servant side by side.

Phew! That's a mammoth post! I'll leave you with an image of Fisk conducting a surprise inspection of one of his water distilleries.