Kitbashing a Beast for Cauldron

 I love skirmish games! They are what I play most often and I enjoy making warbands of all different sorts but making weird monsters is my favorite.

A while back at this point, I met Dellon of White Tiger Table Craft in person for the first time since he had just moved to my area. He gave me a copy of Hill Giant Game's new book Cauldron which he and Steven created. Flipping through the book, I was immediately inspired and bashed some trolls to use. 

https://hillgiant.itch.io/cauldron

I didn't get the chance to play Cauldron until this year at Under the Dice Fest. Late one night a group of us decided the board we were playing on was perfect for Cauldron and we quickly rolled up warbands. I created a warband of 4 beasts named The Golden Girls.

I can't remember who won but we had a great time. Since then I've wanted to make more miniatures that fit into the world of Cauldron and that led me to making more minis for a warband but starting off with a new Beast miniature.

This miniature started its life as a bear that I got from work. I really liked the pose of it standing up. The head is also really dynamic and I'll save it for a future project. 

Next I dumped out one of my bits boxes to start searching for bits to use for a Beast. I have one giant tub of bits and one smaller tin of bits. When I get bits, I sort through to see what I can immediately use for a project or something that sparks an idea, it goes into the tin box. All other bits go into the big tub. Since I knew I had some monster bits in the small tin, I dumped the box onto my work service and searched. 

The first thing that caught my eye was this metal miniature of a fish person. This miniature I got at Adepticon at Totally Not Panicking booth through a random pull. The miniature is sculpted by Ana of Gardens of Hecate and it has so much character. I already used its claws on a different kitbash which Dellon painted (photo at the bottom of the post). But knew the head would be perfect for this project.

My saw was so dull it didn't really do much to the metal. Through sheer force, I used my clippers to free the head from the shoulders. The part I had to cut through had the most metal material of the model but I got it free after about 10 minutes. 

The bear model is a soft rubbery plastic that would struggle to support the metal head on its own. A hole was drilled into the bear's neck and a paper clip was inserted. I also drilled a hole into the bottom of the head and pinned it to the model with super glue gel.

After seeing the fish head, I found two crab claws and glued them for new hands. Rarely do I plan anything when kitbashing. I generally go with what makes me laugh, looks weird or makes me go 'Thats cool'. 

I also cut the tail off a dolphin toy and added it the back of the bear. Now that all the bits are added, its time to fill the gaps around the neck, tail and claws. 

My favorite materials to use when for gap filling is green stuff but I usually have milliput around incase. Some people prefer to mix both epoxies but I prefer to use just green stuff in most cases.  The pokemon tin in the back is my small tin bit box. There are also some of my other Cauldron warband minis hanging out in the back. 

After a little bit of gap filling the miniature is done but it lacks over all texture. My painting style relies on texture to help add depth to the model. While I am skilled at sculpting, sculpting fur is something I haven't done. I would love to spend time learning to sculpt fur, if anyone has tips, let me know! 

To help transition between the base model and the bits, I used liquid green stuff and my home made texture of coffee grounds and tea bag contents for basing. 

And now its ready to paint! But that will be for another post when I paint my entire warband. 

BONUS:

This miniature is a collab between Dellon and myself. I kitbashed the mini and Dellon painted it. It now serves in Dellon's Warhammer Fantasy Chaos Army.