Werewolf Cousins, AK miniatures - Part 4 of 4

Just a few more images showing the differences between the country werewolf and his townie cousin. Hopefully this exercise might provide people with a few ideas so that they will attempt modifying of their own figures. 

I realise this is stating the obvious but using a number of relatively simple techniques you can create your own unique set of models. Even trying a new basing method can transform the the overall impression of your collection. If anyone attempts something similar, please let me know as I'd love to see the results.

There will eventually be a video (released on both YouTube and the WargamingForFun sites I assume) that will show just how I made and painted this figure. This may be a while as Ade is extremely busy editing his own videos. I will of course repost a link via this blog as soon as it appears online. 

Urban Werewolf, AK miniatures - Part 3 of 4

Following on from my previous posts about werewolves one of the reasons I bought them in the first place was that I had been recently rereading collections of old 2000 AD comics and one in particular that I remembered about Judge Dredd battling werewolves, drawn by Steve Dillon from way back in the summer of 1983.

Get down Shep!

In the preamble the authors, Wagner & Grant, mentioned that they wanted to show that the werewolves still had a trace of humanity and he indicated this by showing them still wearing fragments of their clothing. When I first saw the models I wondered if I could produce a similar effect with one of these figures (that's the reason I bought two identical figures in the first place). With this in mind I decided that I would make an urban werewolf.

Original model

Point (or Tail) of no return

In the Judge Dredd story the werewolves are shown wearing ripped and torn trousers but more noticeable is that they don't have tails (I'm not sure if werewolves generally have long tails or not), so obviously the first thing I did was commit myself to the idea and snip off the model's tail with my side cutters. I know I was going to use greenstuff to make the tatty trousers but I thought that rather than simply cover the fur I would file down the metal, hoping this would give the impression that the werewolf was actually wearing the trousers rather than just having them placed on it. With a Sharpie pen I marked the area of the clothing so that I didn't remove too much of the detail down the legs and waist and then filed down the fur detail in the appropriate area.

The greenstuff was applied and smoothed out using a rounded metal handle of my trusty scribe. then using the same scribe I added the seams and also created the shredded edges of the trousers. Once the main area of greenstuff had cured I added the pocket just to give an extra dimension to the model.

Comparison view of the two models 

The claw scratch marks effect were added to the door with a pencil.

As previously mentioned I wanted to give the impression that this werewolf lived in a ruined urban setting as depicted in the old Judge Dredd story. Therefore the base was painted in shades of grey rather than brown and added off cuts of plastic sprue and card to compliment the ravished urban look as opposed to the previous model which had a deliberate rural feel. Powders were used for the rust effect.

Big Wolf. AK miniatures - Part 2 of 4

From the same sculptor as the werewolf figure detailed in a previous post (here) this could either be a werewolf or rather large normal wolf (although possibly too large for an actual wolf). To give you an impression of the scale of the model the base is approx 40mm dia. so hopefully you can tell just how large it is as the head and tail of the wolf overlap the base considerably.

Werewolf, AK miniatures (?) - Part 1 of 4

Whilst walking around a small wargaming show held in Stafford earlier in the year my brother noticed one particular trader selling quite unusual figures and models including the one shown here. Speaking to the trader it soon became obvious that he also created the figures himself and had already produced numerous different sci-fi/near future themed figures (dwarf bikers etc.) but as is often the case I didn't really take note of the company. I bought a few figures and then wondered off looking for other goodies to buy.

The models were bagged and simply labelled 'AK' and had a brief description of the figure but without any website or contact details. I have since been unable to find any trace of AK online so if anyone recognises the figure or knows more about the sculptor please let me know, if only to give him some more publicity.

This is quite a large model, the base is approximately 40mm in diameter as can be seen from the 10mm squares printed on the cutting mat.

Rather than just assuming how wolves appear (if asked I would have said just various shades of grey) I used Google Images and noted that real wolves are often multiple shades of grey/off white/cream/browns and black and painted the model appropriately. Note that I have deliberately finished the base with grasses etc. to give the model a rural setting, the reason for this will become obvious when Part 3 of this mini-series is posted.