Tuesday 19 July 2016

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.


 

23 comments:

  1. Fabulous work, brimming with character.

    Great stuff.

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    1. Thanks cheetor - glad you like them. Coming to a table near you soon perhaps?

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    2. Thats what I am hoping for :)

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  2. Flawless from design to exécution. The kind of character That makes the story by himself

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    1. Thanks JB! I'm hoping his many travels will be covered in glory (perhaps he gets a new tattoo every time he makes a successful trip?!)

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  3. Majestic work! He and his little pal are excellent, his tattoos turned out great too, they look very authentic.

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    1. Thanks very much. It was my first attempt at painting tattoos, and I think it came up OK.

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  4. Can't wait to see these in the flesh at BOYL

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    1. Can you wait until 2017? I can't make it this year :(

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  5. The water merchant looks great, nice use of the lotr range. Nice paint job too. I like the little mini me, I'm not big on chopping up any miniatures either, I'd rather make two conversions with different weapons than chop one up after its complete!!

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    1. I'm 100% with you. In my last Inquisimunda campaign I made new models as characters developed. I have also been known to make a new figure when the old one died (in spite of them being identical in game terms).

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  6. He's not related to Wilson Fisk is he? ;)

    But seriously, stunning conversion and excellent GS work! ^^

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    1. He never talks about his family ;)

      Glad you like him!

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  7. Wow, love that conversion, and nice work with the instamold to create the head. I like how he can be either a grotesque fatman or a mutant as needed, and the tattoos are quite good as well. I should really give that a go sometime...

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    1. There's nothing mutated about him - it's all natural blubber ;)

      Give the tattoos a whirl - it was easy enough!

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  8. Each one a little story. It's amazing how much narrative they managed to pack into those little few small pictures.

    You've done a fine job.

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    1. Thanks very much - that's pretty much the best feedback you could give me. I love creating characters, rather than just models.

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  9. That is particularly well done. And a splendid paint job to boot. You're getting good use from those LotR models.

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    1. Thanks very much! The LOTR range has some nice figures - I just wish more were a fraction larger, like this guy.

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  10. Most excellent work there! I didn't know the original GW mini and I must say it's a total win! Cool inspiring conversion!

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    1. Thanks Suber! That's one factor that really disappoints me with GW's move to multi-part plastic kits - it's so much more difficult to find an obscure model from a side range to adapt.

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  11. Everything about this post blew me away. Fantastic work!

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