Conanesque: A Fantasy Warrior Kitbash (update 5: February 2020)

Nice job!

CHEERS!

ReverendSpooky wrote:I really like Conan 2.0!  And while never an outfit we saw in the movies, it totally looks like something Conan would wear.  I keep going back and forth on the Kaustic sword.  In person I thought it looked kinda small, but looks great in these pics, and I remember looking up reference pics and thinking the size was more accurate than I had thought.  And the additional paint details really sell it.
On Dadrab's fur diaper comment, I think it's the volume of the fur that give it that look on a figure, and not so much in the movie.  Fur is one of those things that's really hard to get to look quite right in smaller scales.
And the slate tiles are a brilliant idea, and look so perfect in photos!  Might have to acquire some myself.  

Thank you, Adam! The Kaustic Plastik sword is a lot better than anything I could have made myself, so I am not looking that gift horse in the mouth I wish it had come properly painted, but since I had both sets and both came with one of these swords, I did it to one of them. I'm worried the paint might rub off, but it hasn't yet.

I agree about the fur. It can be quite tricky to achieve the right look, and I cannot claim to have perfected it. The Spanish rabbit fur sold at Hobby Lobby is soft and not too long, so it can be pretty user-friendly when customizing.

The slate coasters were featured in post 180 of the Useful Items thread. They come in sets of four.

Rogerbee wrote:Nice job!

Thank you, Roger!

So to answer the question about what Coomodel Viking gear would fit on M35 bodies, I tried out some newly arrived parted-out pieces, and this resulted in the following (though not enough pieces to make a real kitbash). The fit of the foot pegs into the boots is a bit loose, and requires some ingenuity. I will also note that if you don't tuck in the pants into boots, they could make perfectly good pajama bottoms! And no staining (yet).

Promising!

CHEERS!

Thanks, Roger!

Well today I received some more Coomodel Vikings parted-out parts, and the spontaneous kitbashing resumed. I ended up with two extra fantasy warrior figures, one of them building up the second figure already shown above, the other a simple archer. The belts, knives, and axes are from Ignite, the bow and arrow from Star Ace. Do bear in mind this is all driven by experiments to see how much of the Vikings set is compatible with the TBLeague M35 body; I think it worked out pretty well, given that.

Nice one, gubernatorfan!

ZombieKev wrote:Nice one, gubernatorfan!

Thank you very much, ZombieKev! And I know that comes from another Conan fan.

They do look good!

CHEERS!

Yay, I like these guys much better. The last pic is funny, the Steroid Brothers and their Austrian friend from the 80s. Is the archers gambeson also from those Coo Metal Vikings?

Rogerbee wrote:They do look good!

Thank you, Roger!

Ovy wrote:Yay, I like these guys much better. The last pic is funny, the Steroid Brothers and their Austrian friend from the 80s.  Is the archers gambeson also from those Coo Metal Vikings?

Thank you, Ovy! I thought they were all brothers. Anyway, the gambeson (if that's what it is) is also from the Coomodel Vikings. It is from the Warlord figure, to be more specific (unless it is also hiding under the furrier outfit of the Berserker too).

I love this! Great warriors, I can't wait to see them on the battlefield or in the middle of a snowy mountain!

Excellent work!!!

blackpool wrote:I love this! Great warriors, I can't wait to see them on the battlefield or in the middle of a snowy mountain! Excellent work!!!

Thank you very much, blackpool! I might have to give them some furs if I am to deploy them on a snowy mountain

Funny, I actually like these pieces all so much better as part of your fantasy bashes than in their original context. These guys look like a crew of absolute bad asses, and I'd totally follow their adventures.

ReverendSpooky wrote:Funny, I actually like these pieces all so much better as part of your fantasy bashes than in their original context.  These guys look like a crew of absolute bad asses, and I'd totally follow their adventures.

Thank you. Interesting, I wonder why that is... maybe because there is no pretense of historicity here, or because the resulting combinations are a tad bit simpler than the multi-layered look of the original set. I will keep this in mind, although I am too busy these coming weeks to do anything creative with them.

GubernatorFan wrote:

ReverendSpooky wrote:Funny, I actually like these pieces all so much better as part of your fantasy bashes than in their original context.  These guys look like a crew of absolute bad asses, and I'd totally follow their adventures.

Thank you. Interesting, I wonder why that is... maybe because there is no pretense of historicity here, or because the resulting combinations are a tad bit simpler than the multi-layered look of the original set. I will keep this in mind, although I am too busy these coming weeks to do anything creative with them.

I think you might be right that it's kinda a less is more thing. I love a ton of detail, but the way it's layered on the viking, a lot gets covered up. And honestly, the jacked and barechested warrior with the armor and straps has that really iconic fantasy look that's a lot of fun. And the Archer's gambeson is mostly covered up on the viking figure, but is beautifully made and look great on it's own. Not to mention badass choices of heads.

I'm with the Rev. The more fantasy oriented guys look awesome. Very comic-book style barbarians.

ReverendSpooky wrote:I think you might be right that it's kinda a less is more thing.  I love a ton of detail, but the way it's layered on the viking, a lot gets covered up.  And honestly, the jacked and barechested warrior with the armor and straps has that really iconic fantasy look that's a lot of fun.  And the Archer's gambeson is mostly covered up on the viking figure, but is beautifully made and look great on it's own.  Not to mention badass choices of heads.

Glad you agree. Makes me wish the chain and scale mail would fit on these bodies, but they are too tight. But as you point out that would be less iconic for this style of fantasy warrior. As for the heads, I just got lucky with the PMC Urban Sniper Marshall head arriving when it did; my Arnold custom and the modern Viking head were already predestined for this sort of thing... I think the gambeson look would benefit from "downgrading" the body to M34.

Stryker2011 wrote:I'm with the Rev. The more fantasy oriented guys look awesome. Very comic-book style barbarians.

Thank you very much, Mark! Well, I should hope so. Although I am not actually familiar with Conan comics, they were (in part subconsciously) inspired by the Conan movies and the like.

The fourth member of the gang is a berserker. Although the Norse term (and its derivative, "berserk") rings familiar, we actually know little about the appearance of berserkers. There is some agreement that they were ferociously violent skirmishers, whose bravery (or rashness) and energy were fueled by possibly narcotic trance, and that they went into battle very lightly armed, typically with an axe. But beyond that there is little agreement. The term has been interpreted to mean that they were naked (like some of their Celtic parallels), or wore only a loincloth (like their Dacian and Herulian parallels), or were simply armor-less, or shieldless, or clad in a garment made of bear skin. That's a pretty wide range of possibilities, but since these are fantasy warriors, I am not going to worry about getting it quite right. This one is a compromise between the various options, but basically a somewhat lighter (M34) axe-wielding warrior wearing a bear fur loincloth. I had already made a slightly lighter and slimmer (M33) version when I had fewer parted-out parts to supplement the Viking for the Coomodel Viking Ship Review. I can't decide whether the bulkier or leaner body makes more sense.

Hope you like it.











The previous, leaner and simpler version, for comparison:

The leaner body works better historically. The other figure is only achievable with modern steroids.

shazzdan wrote:The leaner body works better historically. The other figure is only achievable with modern steroids.

Very true, historically. Then again these are fantasy characters... though leaner bodies do suggest more agility.

I kind of like the "leaner" body myself. I think it looks better with the leaner Hemsworth sculpt.

Stryker2011 wrote:I kind of like the "leaner" body myself. I think it looks better with the leaner Hemsworth sculpt.

I think I agree with you. Just wish TBLeague had not chosen this body to experiment with the ugly ankle extenders and the body had taller stature by itself.

Accuracy aside, I have to say I do like that leaner body with that head sculpt. Somehow, they just look really right together. Another really fun bash! You've got a great fantasy group. Makes me want to go read some Conan comics.

ReverendSpooky wrote:Accuracy aside, I have to say I do like that leaner body with that head sculpt.  Somehow, they just look really right together.  Another really fun bash!  You've got a great fantasy group.  Makes me want to go read some Conan comics.

Thank you very much, Adam (and I agree). Your words inspire me to do more, down the line.

These are so much fun. I like both the Conan and the 'Conanesque', lol. Also their fantasy warrior comrades are pretty awesome.  You used all the bits of armour and accessories in a very aesthetically pleasing way. Since the original items are not exactly historically accurate anyway, I agree with the others who have said that these are in many respects preferable to the Coomodel figures. 

It's also great to see Conan with 'real' hair, rather than sculpted or synthetic. Hope I can try out all your helpful tips on my own version at some point, as well.


ETA: Meant to ask...did you make those torcs on the Chris Hemsworth figure?

skywalkersaga wrote:These are so much fun. I like both the Conan and the 'Conanesque', lol. Also their fantasy warrior comrades are pretty awesome.  You used all the bits of armour and accessories in a very aesthetically pleasing way. Since the original items are not exactly historically accurate anyway, I agree with the others who have said that these are in many respects preferable to the Coomodel figures. 

It's also great to see Conan with 'real' hair, rather than sculpted or synthetic. Hope I can try out all your helpful tips on my own version at some point, as well.


ETA: Meant to ask...did you make those torcs on the Chris Hemsworth figure?

Thank you very much, glad you liked them! That's what I meant about recycling fantasy elements on pseudo-historical figures, and the CooModel fantasy Vikings are a treasure-trove of those (you've seen the ship review, HERE is the slightly older review of the actual CooModel Viking figures themselves). But of course, there are also pieces from other sets. One of the new Conan sets comes with "real" hair, too. If you don't pick it up or find it good enough, or make your own anyway, I'd love to see what you come up with. By the way, I think my archer could use a vambrace.

Yes, I did make these particular torques on the Chris "berserker," although they go back to my custom non-comic-book Thor (a couple of photos in the M35 mega-review HERE). Although there is twisted art wire, it tends to be (at least the type I have found) too high gauge (i.e., too thin) to work for sixth-scale torques. So I took a lower gauge (i.e., thicker) regular smooth circular-section wire and wrapped (winded? -- is that a word?) more delicate wire of the same type around it. Then I bent it into shape. Kinda hard to do when you are working with something this small, but with a little patience, you get decent results. By the way, you want even your thicker wire to be relatively soft and pliable -- not only so you could bend it into shape more easily, but also so you can open it up a bit and then closing it when attaching to wrists or biceps, etc (easier than always having to yank out hands).

I was recently asked whether some of CooModel's Viking gear would look right on the less bulky seamless bodies, so I tried it out on an M33, resulting in the following spontaneous kitbash, which is Conanesque in more ways than one. I think the result speaks for itself -- at least my interpretation of it is "kind of." Maybe he's an eager young warrior trying to follow in his dad/uncle/big bro's footsteps?









Although I think it looks ok overall, the vambraces and upper parts of the (two-part) boots are rather wide.

Additional reminder: while TBLeague ankle pegs do fit into the holes on these CooModel boots, they fit rather loosely. I advise using cut off pieces of plastic baggies (I used four layers) to jam between the hole and the peg to get a somewhat tighter fit. Even so, the figure could loose balance easily.

What do you think?

I can totally imagine him running joyfully in a montage, accompanied by his sidekicks and the Civilization music by Basil Poledouris, wearing a Jason Momoa grin, in search of mayhem, sex and riches glory, love and honor.

I lost track of all those Jason heads, this isn't the Hot Toys Aquajason you rooted?

Clothing and head look good in combination with that....super skinny, elf-like M33 body. It's a more 'realistic' feeling look somehow, compared to the pumped up archermachine you made.

And about the big shoes and armguards, do you think fur padding might help?

Thanks for that, Guv. I'm glad I passed on the vambraces and boots, after perusing your earlier link; and now that I see them in person, they definitely wouldn't have worked for the body I was intending to use. Still, he does look cool. I still think his Conan movie wasn't very good -- Arnold for the WIN!!! -- but as any other type of fantasy character, Momoa works here, despite the oversized of some of his accessories.

Rnold will always be the reference I guess, I was too quite disappointed by the recent remake... Still that character looks very cool and totally fitting the conan universe, I second the suggestion of adding pants or fur to fill in the gap on the upper part of the boots, and seeing the "strength" of the guy, may be some leather arm bands or wraps would be enough...

Very cool anyway! Now I want a Conan fix with plenty of warriors and warrioresses, let the blood cover the floor by Crom!!!