Flesh Golem (Goldar conversion #1)

Flesh Golem

Goldar conversion #1

Recently, after ordering a box of Frostgrave Cultists from Warlord Games, I wanted to challenge myself to make at least four very different cults with their own personalities.  One of the ideas I had was for a simple necromantic cult, led by necromancer with zombies, skeletons and human minions.  

To start with, I ended up making a flesh golem which I'm pretty happy with.  I tried a bunch of new sculpting and painting techniques and though they aren't the best, I think I'm making progress.  

But anyway, here is the final look followed by the detailed guide and WIP.

How it was done... 

The body is from Reaper's Goldar the Barbarian (see below left), but I didn't want to want to lose the original (which I have plans for in another cult), so I copied him using a mix of Milliput and Green Stuff in a mold I made (below right is a pure Milliput example after cleanup).  As far as I know, this is ok as long as I don't try to sell the copies, if this isn't the case please let me know.  The copies have messed up hands and heads, but I have loads of spares so I just replaced them.

Using a head from the Frostgrave Cultists and the gauntlets and hammer from Games Workshop's Stormcast Eternals (not sure which set, was in a bunch of bits from eBay) I wanted to adjust the original posture to make the figure not look like a carbon copy.  I separated the left gauntlet from the haft of the hammer and used paper clips to wire the hands into position, with bends for the elbows.

This required me to sculpt elbows, a cap for the hammer shaft and fill in gaps around the neck.  I originally wanted to use this guy for a cannibal tribe, so I sculpted the haft of the axe from the original model (the piece on his lower back) into a big bone.  The funny part is that this is the first time I scuplted elbows (or a bone), and this is when you realise that you don't really know what an elbow looks like... besides being a bend in the arm.  So after learning myself some elbow anatomy I was able to do a passable job.  Obviously they stand out right now but I'm hoping that when painted the same colour, they will look like a single piece.

The redo AKA the "Buggerit" moment

Thinking I was done with my cannibal brute/executioner, I started priming him.  However, I then got inspired to turn him into a flesh golem for the necromancer cult!  This required some adapting so I decided to try sculpting the stitches between body parts, and try to go further from the original model by replacing the fur loincloth and bone I sculpted with a leather belt and codpiece (Which required me to google leather codpiece for examples and I now feel slightly scarred).

Kicking myself for only thinking of this after priming, I started backtracking by scraping away the primer around the areas where the stitches would go so I could get the Green Stuff to stick.  The stitches were relatively simple.  Applying a thin roll of Green Stuff along the line of the intended seem and smoothing the boundary to the model, I was able to use the back of a knife to make a gap between the body parts and then pushed it together to make a rough seem.  Then I pushed together lines adjacent to the seem using a scalpel to make the stitches.  In hindsight, I wish I had cut up some plastic wire and embedded them into the stitches to give a better 3D effect (like the stitches in the hood) but instead it looks like the stitches have gone, leaving only scars.

The paint job.

The theme colour for the necromantic cult is purple (original I know), so the cowl and cape went that direction and I gave green glowing eyes to add contrast.

I wanted the changes in skin tone between his parts to be extreme, but, limited by the caucasion-ish tones that I currently have, I decided to make one of the sections look like it was from a longer dead "donor".  However, I used very pale colours followed by grays and washes with Nuln Oil, which turns out to be a great way to paint stone :/ .  

Anyway, the stitched seems were washed with Carroberg Crimson on the living side and Nuln Oil on the dead to make it look like the living skin did not meld with the dead well.  The metal was standard Ledbelcher and Runefang sliver with Nuln Oil.

Lastly, I used a gloss varnish for the skin to give it a greasy/living look and sprayed with whole thing with a dull coat lacquer to preserve.

All in all, I'm pretty proud for how he turned out.  The only things I would change is my paint job for the dead side obviously, but also adding physical stitches to the seems and better contrast on the purple clothing.