Wednesday, 17 April 2019

The Oaranium Ibex

An update!

It's been another long while without updates, but I am back now (at least for a while) to show you what I have worked on recently. Very early stages at the moment but here goes the green of the first model of my new gang of the Realms.






He is the first member of a new warband project I am currently working on called the Oaranium Ibex.

I have been wanting to create a warband hailing from Chamon, the Realm of Metal, for a while now. In the past I have been trying to convert something similar but all my attempts failed because of a lack of planning ahead of the conversion. This time I gave a lot more thought to what I was trying to achieve and what bits I would have used and this model, which is the first concept for the warband, is the result of these considerations.

The idea is to explore the aesthetic of the Realm of Chamon, a land imbued with the raw essence of the Wind of Metal and pulsating with alchemical powers. It seems that when people think of Chamon, they think of a steam powered fantasy setting, where the boundaries between magic and technology are blurred and where everyone owns at least a rifle and a pair of goggles.
Nothing wrong with Steampunk aesthetics to me, but I wanted to create something with a different feel that responded to the question "how do humans of the Realm of Metal look" without recurring to over-the-top clockwork technology. 

This warrior belongs to the Oaranium Ibex, a regiment of armed guards specialised in escorting mining expeditions into the dangers of the Cold-iron Anvil.  This vast mountain chain to the north of Chamon is rich in the mineral called Oaranium, a combustible realmstone capable of powering entire civilisations across the Realms. The Anvil is a very hard place though, full of Ironjaws tribes and the mutated remains of the fools who roamed too close to the realm edge. The Oaranium Guild pays well to ensure the protection of the brave pioneers who are willing to venture into those misty heights and the Ibex are one of the  regiments of mercenaries that specialised in mobile warfare and protection of the mineral caravans.


Symbol of the Oaranium Ibex

So that is the general idea: a sort of Klondike pioneers guild of the Mortal Realms. In addition to the soldiers, I am planning to convert a couple of miners, an itinerant blacksmith, a Duardin mountain guide and possibly a wizard/alchemist and an warrior/engineer of the Oaranium Guild to lead them.

Painted updates of the test model to follow, hopefully soon.

Hagen

8 comments:

  1. Excellent as always. Do you mind detailing from what miniature you started? (I don't recognize anything here)

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    1. Thank you Sir! The legs are from the Genestealer Clamavus, with resculpted armour and padded gambeson. The torso and shoulder pads are from the Militarum Tempestus Scions. The head is from the Empire Hurricanum acolytes with again the padded hood as a sculpted addition. Right arm is from the old knights of the white wolf upgrade sprue with the mace from the gene stealer hybrids. The shield is from the Bretonnian men at arms but I filed it to a triangular shape the suits better the idea I had in mind. Finally the backpack is sculpted while the rolled blanket is from the Empire Outriders.
      Lots of bits but all in all a pretty easy conversion.

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    2. Thanks for the update ! A picture of the back would be nice too

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    3. Picture of the back with sculpted backpack added

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  2. Truthfully, I never envisaged the Realm of Chamon as a steampunk clockwork landscape, but rather as mountains of iron-pyrite, lakes of still Mercury that reflect the radium moons at night. Scalding waterfalls of liquid lead tumble down from zinc cliffs whilst in the distance the cobalt mountains can be seen peaked with arsenic snow. The daylight suns are the white hot forgefires of smelted steel that hang in the sky alongside sporadic giant rusting cogs of which purpose can only be guessed at.

    Long ago, I had it in mind that the dispossessed Duardin of Chamon that remained in their mountainous strongholds during the storms of Chaos (as supplies dwindled and the enemy taking more an more ground as the barricades fell one by one) changed and adapted. In the darkness, as the last of their lamps guttered and began to fail, with the enemy howling at their very gates, the remaining Duardin prayed to their gods; first the higher pantheon, then the ancient ancestors, then the long forgotten ones until finally just the stones themselves. And then, as the last light went out, the stones answered them...

    When the Ruinous hordes finally broke through into the mountainous hold, they found it eerily deserted and no earthly sign of the Duardin that formerly dwelt within.

    It wasn't until the Age of Sigmar began that the first rumours began; of sightings of strange elemental beings of stone and rock leaving the supposedly abandoned Duardin mountain halls. In later years, these silent golems became a more frequent sight amongst the market arenas of the human settlements looking to trade rare ores for gems and other precious stones. The reasons for this have yet to be discovered....

    Obviously, so much inspiration has been pulled from a number of places, including the Nome King from the Return to Oz film and the Pyroviles from Doctor Who. :3

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  3. Did you ever manage to finish this project? Would love to see the group

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