Wednesday, May 17, 2017

AoS28: Freyvid Hafnar - The Eclipse

Is it like the hand of God hovering above?

Freyvid Hafnar, Chief investigator of the Barak-Nar Biologis Guild, had been commissioned, alongside an Overlord warfleet, to venture into the humid cloudbanks of Ghyran in search of a missing explorator fleet. The Kharadron had long forsaken the realm of life for the riches of their native Chamon, but greed and hubris garnered from their dominion over the skies eventually pushed them outward. Rumors circulated the airways of some daemonic taint that had begun to overtake some of the farther reaches of the realm, and the Admiral Counsel began to fear that their ships may have been lost to its vile clutches. In hopes of salvaging something from the lost venture, they commissioned a Grundcorps reconnaissance fleet to investigate, with Hafnar amongst their storied crew. Never ones for superstition, the Barak-Nar Admirals reasoned that a scientist would prove useful in case the lost fleet met their end via some unconventional means. Hafnar was also somewhat of an expert on Nurgle pox and maladies, if anyone could truly be called such, studying the Guild’s labyrinthine archives on the matter. Whatever the fate of the lost ships, the decaying hand of Nurgle or otherwise, they would be found and avenged…

Freyvid Hafnar shaved off his beard as an oath to his commitment to unlocking the mysteries of the crystal blight.

Freyvid Hafnar is my entry into Ex Profundis’s AoS28 contest, The Eclipse. The contest’s goal is to have each contestant create some form of witch hunter within the Age of Sigmar setting. Having recently devised a crystal blight afflicting the mortal realm for our first venture into AoS28, we thought it would be neat to continue to explore the idea for the contest. We were interested in examining how the inhabitants of the Mortal Realms would assimilate knowledge of this new contagion. Would they assume it is some new curse from the pantheon of Chaos Gods ? Or perhaps some would take a more scholarly approach and attempt to empirically determine its cause? Science and scholarly pursuits are not much talked about in Games Workshop’s universes (Age of Sigmar or otherwise), but it is hard to imagine they would be completely absent. So for our witch hunter, we wanted to create a scientist that was trying to elucidate the cause of the crystal disease and possibly even devise a cure, or failing that, attempt to purge it from existence. The release of the Kharadron Overlords coincided with these ideas, and we decided to create a scientist from one of their skycities.


As a scientist first and foremost, Freyvid Hafnar is not covered in weapons, but has a single sidearm.

Freyvid examines the crystal encrusted helm of one of his kinsmen.

The Kharadron Overlord’s society is built around Guilds that handle various vital aspects of the dwarves’ lives. The Aetheric Navigators of the Nav-League and the engineers from the Endrineers Guild are two of the most powerful, dealing with navigating the skies and building airships, respectively. To fit our theme for the Eclipse contest, we created a new Biologis Guild that focuses on biological sciences and medicine, something that would be just as vital to their society as dredging Aether-gold from the skies. As an organization that values knowledge (and free exchange of that knowledge), it does not get caught up in prideful displays of what Sky-port they hail from. Towards this end, they also have a common practice of shaving off one’s beard at the onset of any new quest of learning, remaining that way until the quest ends. This Oath of the Moment symbolizes their altruistic commitment to their new scholarly pursuit (a dwarf’s beard is a point of pride throughout dwarven culture). Our dwarf comes across the crystal disease as it infects some of his peers when traversing the Realm of Life, investigating a missing Kharadron fleet.


The Biologis Guild functions on the idea that knowledge is universal, and therefore not interested in prideful displays of their Sky-port’s colors.

When setting about converting the model, the main thing that I wanted to do was modify the Overlord’s questionable anatomy. The stock models hardly have abdomens, and seem as though their scapulas attach to their pelvises. This makes the models look a lot like eggs with muscular legs attached to the sides of them. Instead, I wanted to try to make the model look more like the cover of the Overlord’s battletome, with legs attaching more naturally (no huge thigh gap) and an appreciable abdomen. To do this, I needed to cut off the legs and reattach them closer together. To make the legs look more natural (and not so muscular), I trimmed them down quite substantially before reattaching them. I then used green stuff to rework the leg detail. I also extended his torso with a little piece of plastic card and green stuff. Although time-consuming, I think these two changes help tremendously, making a dwarf that could conceivably move around. Due to the ball and socket design of how you attach the Overlord’s heads, it also looks as though they do not really have necks. I made sure to sculpt one on the head I chose, which was one from a Chaos marauder horsemen. Although the face does not have a beard, I really liked the look of it, and felt it reflected the Guild’s background (see above). To suggest his role more as a scientist than a warrior, I did not want the model to be overflowing with weapons, and only added a pistol to his waist. Finally, I made him holding the helmet of one of his afflicted brethren, studying the crystal phenomenon and considering how best he might combat the crystal menace.


Work-in-progress images of the Overlord, notice the extensive work done to his pants and torso.

Although the modifications made to the Overlord made him a little taller, he still looks like a dwarf next to other Age of Sigmar models.

The WIP dwarf next to the fully painted one!

Now that all is said and one, I am quite glad that Ex Profundis held the Eclipse contest when it did, as it forced me into action to put some of the ideas we had been throwing around into model form. It also got me to chose a color scheme for the crystal disease, something I was dragging my feet on! Let me know what you think about this somewhat unconventional witch hunter!

-Adam Wier

28 comments:

  1. Really stunning model Adam. The green stuff work is very impressive especially the fabric of his clothes which is quite difficult to make look natural. I have already praised how well he is painted but again killer work man!

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    1. Thank you for the kind words! I am pretty happy how the fabric turned out on the dwarf. I used Simon Egan's Elysian Drop troops as a reference for the pants. The different folds in the cloth were created over several sculpting sessions.

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    2. excellent model ... and as much as i like the Overlords i find you interpretation a better model ... kudos

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    3. I really like the Kharadron Overlord range of models, but after seeing some of the great art in the Overlords armybook, I knew I needed to make some changes such that the models match more closely. :)

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  2. Tremendous work, both the sculpting and the painting... and is this not rather fast for you too? Those durdin just came out after all!

    It was a little hard to make out what it was he was holding, so it may make sense to take a different picture from above model left maybe to give view of the overall figure and the helmet at once.

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    1. It was a pretty fast conversion and paint job by my standards. The Arkanaut Company only came out a few weeks ago. Jake's AoS28 contest over at Ex Profundis really got me motivated!

      Your right it is a little tricky to determine what he is holding from a lot of the pictures. The crystals do a good job of masking a lot of the details.

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  3. Really cool conversion and an awesome paint job to boot. Well done Adam :)

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    1. Thank you! I am really pleased how the model turned out in the end. I am particularly happy with Freyvid's face. The crystals turned out pretty well; I was pretty worried about how to paint them.

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  4. The head completes the build and it is actually the key feature that sells this as a dwarf for me.

    Other than that great miniature and while it is probably canon, who cares when it looks so good!

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    1. I too was really pleased with the head on the model and think it goes a long way towards suggesting he is a dwarf. :)

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  5. Just to expand a bit on my comments as they where a bit rushed.

    With regards to the head it is scale I'm refering to and canon that they are actually flesh and bone underneath as I haven't seen any confirmation on what's behind the armour. Though truth be told I haven't looked that hard at their fluff yet.

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    1. Based on what I have read in the Kharadron Overlord armybook, the Overlords are flesh and blood. Additionally there is a really cool illustration in the book of a dwarf before he suits up in his armor which clearly depicts his skin and beard (which was one of the inspirations for the model).

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  6. Man quality work, was hoping you would post this up in extensive run through. Really well done and your usual understated style which I admire.

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    1. I am glad you like the model and the paint scheme! I tried to use really drab and dark tones throughout the model to go along with the tone of AoS28. I hope to make a few other dwarves in the future. For them I will try and do a more complete overview of the conversions. :)

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    2. Crystal detectives in Spaaaace...!! Would be great to see a crew, down to earth (errr..up in the sky) like the Arbites :)

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  7. Wow, great figure! The sculpting on the cloth is amazing!

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    1. I am glad you like the sculpting on the cloth! I spent a lot of time trying to get it to look right. :)

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  8. Excellent conversion, especially the legs, torso and using that particular head. The facial expression and hairstyle remind me of the dwarf slayers of old. I am also a fan of the colors you've used on him, very realistic and utilitarian looking. I really hope you'll convert and paint one of the new airships, there is definitely potential to make one into a mobile research lab/stronghold for entrepid explorers.

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    1. When I found the head I knew it would work perfectly for the model. The hair style just seemed so fitting for a Warhammer dwarf. I have been kicking around the idea of trying to create an airship for the model and the rest of his crystallizing crew. I think it would also be cool to convert a crystallizing Endrinrigger, floating lifeless in the air...

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    2. "be cool to convert a crystallizing Endrinrigger, floating lifeless in the air... "

      Oooh, vote one from me! :D

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    1. Thanks! I am soon finished painting the crystallizing Stormcast Eternal.

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  10. I would love to do my Dwarves in this scheme of Biologis Guild. Would you have any objections?

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    1. Feel free to paint your dwarves in the scheme of the Biologis Guild! It would be an honor. :)

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  11. Adam,

    I have been quite inspired by this particular piece, to point late last night and part this morning I wanted to start making an attempt at similar conversions. The Physically changes and making the dwarf more lean looking really makes the model pop. I hope this doesn't offend you at all mate. This is one of the best conversions I have ever seen, would love to see more on the conversion and how you built it up. Would love to chat more on the subject.

    Here is one I started work on.
    http://i.imgur.com/4zEwj3Y.jpg

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    1. Thank you for the kind words about the conversion. I am happy to hear this little dwarf inspired you to start your own dwarf conversions!

      Your conversion is coming along really well. I found for mine, it really helps to move the legs closer together than what is seen on the base models (they all have really wide stances too that looks a little weird). Feel free to send an e-mail to the blog and I can talk in more detail about the conversion and send pictures of the conversion process.

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