Wizardecember: The Hero

Ooleekoo
This gal (yes, I checked) was originally meant to be my "The Beast" entry for WizarDecember (based on my own brief of The Maiden, The Monster, The Hero, The Beast.) But as Punkrabbitt shaped up to be a villain rather than a hero, and "The Monster" entry was already filled with goblins, that only left "The Hero" role to be filled. She is the Wizard of my Glorantha-themed Morokanth Warband.

Ooleekoo is a Morokanth shaman, essentially a sentient tapir native to Glorantha specializing in spellcasting. The Morokanth herd semi-intelligent humans called gern (also called "herdmen) in the same way that humans herd cattle. While this practice puts the Morokanth in general at odds with humanity, Oleekoo and her Apprentice (no name yet, I haven't even started modelling her) are noble of spirit and are trying to recover dangerous artifacts from the city of Frostgrave to protect others, who might harm themselves trying to operate them. The two of them keep a group of trained gern to fight for them while they loot, er, explore the ruins.

This is how Ooleekoo started out. I know, right? Totally time for a makeover!

From a modelling perspective, this is one of the most complicated conversions I have undertaken in a long time. I have used techniques and materials that I haven't tapped into for possibly fifteen or twenty years. I started with a soft plastic tapir from a Safari Toob Rainforest set, and used a variety of materials to dress it up, including scrap fabric, electric wiring, actual model pieces from my bits box, aluminum tubing, modelling putty, and beads.

First, apply a little foundation...

The Morokanth have been described as being black or grey; I decided to go with grey because, honestly, I am getting a bit tired of black (the kids' Elves, the Dwarf Witch-Lord, Punkrabbitt.) I had a vision for the clothes (cloth? back drape? cape?) and accessories, and it turned out almost exactly how I had expected it to.

Ooleekoo, Morokanth Shaman

No black used at all, but some very dark brown.

A face only a mother could love.

I was not sure whether I should go with a 25mm base, which she barely fit on to but would allow more flexibility in the game, or a 40mm base, which was roomier but would be too wide to fit through any of the narrower areas in the terrain. In the end, I went with the 25mm base more because it is the same height as the rest of the bases I am using, while the 40mm base has enough of a height difference to be noticeable. Things like that really bug me.

These are the guys I am going to use for my gern herd.

Warlord games makes a nice unit of Celtic fanatics, suitably nude for gern. I may need to do some head swaps for the guys with helmets, the shields are separate so I can simply not use them, the swords can be replaced by clubs, and those spears will become sharpened sticks. I can also add some beards. When I get around to buying them, that is.

Well, that about wraps up WizarDecember for me. I am not sure what painting challenges will be issued next month that may be relevant to Frostgrave, but if they are, I accept the challenge!