Week One Lankin Longpouch The only things GW's really released this year are the "new" dwarfs and the new giant. Monsters, next to banjos, are my favorite things in the world, period.  So when I finally caught a glimpse of the fabled plastic giant, and then realized that it was designed and sculpted by Brian Nelson, my fate was sealed. I'll probably build about five of these kits before all is said and done.  At this point, I definitely plan on a giant to field in OK, O&G and Chaos armies I've been working on over the last couple of years. An Empire army also languishes on the painting table, and a DoW giant would fit in very well with the "alehouse militia" Empire force I've planned. Before getting to these army-specific incarnations of giants, however, it seemed wisest to assemble and paint an all-purpose heavy who could fit into any force and serve as a sort of modeling test for future projects. What you see here is a giant (Lankin Longpouch) average in every way. There is nothing really special about him in terms of his clothing, decor, pose, expression, whatever. I only intended to convey the idea that he covers a lot of ground in very little time, and so positioned him pretty far forward on the new, scenic giant base.  Under his back foot lies a flattened goblin who didn't get out of the way fast enough. You can be sure he'll be splattered-up nice and good before this project's all over. Because this giant is intended to be a johnny-on-the-spot ugly who can run with a number of armies, I kept cool bitz at a minimum.  Shields from the new giant kit and the OK Ironguts box suggest that Lankin's been around long enough to know that protection is desireable, and the variety of his armor underlies the idea that he's been around the block. Food and drink are fundamentals for any wandering badass.  So the sack of hobbits and the goat carcass canteen dangle from his belt. A few arrows in the gut and thigh imply that little deters Lankin when he wades into the fray.  This idea is further emphasized by his arms, which are bent forward in anticipation of walloping a flank really hard, or making some big snatch to stuff in his groin pouch.  Many boyz have suggested that I stick a bunch of arrows in his considerable crotch sack. I may do it before the project's done.  We'll see. I thought the perfect face for this giant-of-all-trades was the one on the "Orc and goblin" giant head. Closely-set eyes, smashed nose, bellowing maw and hairless, this noggin conveyed the sort of savage dimness bordering on innocence I wanted Lankin to embody. I carved away the straps and cords intended to attach the dragon-jawbone bit to this particular giant head. Once his bean was clean, I added a sassy ogre top-knot to convey further a sense of motion, as well as the idea that this giant could easily be taken for a slave or servant monster, since clean-shaven heads with a simple patch of cropped hair have signified servitude, obedience and submission in many cultures over time (the royal scribes of ancient Egypt, for example). Finally, the goal of trying to suggest many different contexts influenced the choice of skin color.  I've started painting Lankin with a subtle variation of the OK skin color described in that army book. The base is a mixture of Graveyard Earth and Shadow Grey, lightened up through several stages with Kommando Khaki and Bleached Bone. As you can see, I haven't yet made much progress: basecoat, a thin wash of blue ink to reveal folds and creases, and a highlight or two on the feet and knees. The end result will not, hopefully, have much in common with the look of OK skin, since I plan on highlighting up to a ruddy, pinkish flesh color. This grayish-to-pinkish skin will emphasize the very otherness of the giant as a non-human creature, a monster who may be tainted by Chaos and/or, at the very least, a target of misunderstanding and bad treatment by other fantasy races. Next: Longpouch's skin is finished (or almost so), and it's time to take a look at his attire. Willard! Poor, poor Starcrusher.  Momma's found a new giant.  Truthfully, Starcrusher has little to worry about.   One of the first things I wanted to accomplish when I set out to work on the new giant kit was to make sure that it wouldn't be just another giant in my army.  He had to be unique from Starcrusher, giving me different reasons to field either.   As many of you know my army has a bad tendency to gain a life of its own.  Every unique model has its own story and history.  Part of this comes from their exploits on the battlefield, part of it just because I've been playing Da Momma's Boyz so damned long, and part because of my own deluded imagination.  I think it would be a shame to not give Willard his own character.   Fortunately, I lucked out on this with my current crawl to build my East African themed cavalry Orc and Goblin army.  A giant makes a perfect addition to the army giving me a hard hitting power that even my Savage Orc Boar Boy Big'uns can't match. Initially, the Masai themed Orcs were going to be the dominant theme throughout the army, but my initial test models were of my Voodoo Goblins.  The black and white skeleton imagery has proven so strong that it now is coming to dominate the rest of the army's non- orc units.  Very well, Willard is going to have to get some Voodooing up.   Originally most of the theme on Willard was going to get played out through paint.  With my only conversion being the addition of some strategically placed wicker shields in place of the empire and bretonnian ones the kit came with.   But then in my research I stumbled across this.  I knew I had to incorporate those bones somehow.   Out came the greenstuff.   Unfortunately, I hadn't been bright enough to print out a picture of the Voodoo Priestess so I was working on a vague memory instead.  I did know that I still wanted to keep a lot of his visual interest as war paint so I needed something that would accent the whole theme rather than dominate it.  To this end I decide to give him three sets of bulls horns, pierced through the skin above his rib cage and along the back of his neck.  This would leave his expansive belly and face to me and my paint brush.   Tragically my camera's battery died in the middle of Greg and I's photo shoot so I was unable to take pictures of exactly how I did the horns.  The basics are simple though.  Roll out a long tube of green stuff.  Take your exacto knife and cut it into equal lengths.  Then take each piece and gently roll each end on the table until it forms a point.  Next I put a dab of glue on each spot I was going to have a horn and stuck it there in the middle.  After giving the glue a couple of seconds to grab hold I gently took the back edge of my exacto knife and curled the horn up.  As with all things I was a little pissed because I got better as I went so my best horns are the ones on the back of his neck and won't be seen as often.  Poo. To get the fold of skin the horns were pierced through I simply stretched a slightly cured piece of greenstuff out to give me a flat "strap".  I then cut it with plenty of slack to cover all three horns at once; laid it across the top and then used the back edge of my knife to press it down to the giants flesh between each horn.  Blend it into the plastic and trim away the excess. After finishing the horns I had too much greenstuff and was bored so I decided to make his club a full tree.  To do this I made a long paper clip pin/armature from the bottom of the club covered it with greenstuff and then cut in some wood grain.  Pretty simple actually.  The last of my greenstuff filled in the chaos icon on the stone he was carrying. By this time, he had greenstuff all over him that needed to cure so rather than risk screwing him up I figured I'd better leave him be. Next Week:  We base and prime this bad boy.  I'm also looking for suggestions on skin tone so feel free to post some suggestions. DISCUSS BACK