Hobby Update: Herd Beast of Nature

Up now are some terrestrial Beasts of Nature for my frigid Herd!

It is many months away, but we will have the second annual Northwoods GT early next year. I did not bring the Herd last year to do Command Orders being in use (the Herd's were pretty terrible), and I could not settle on a list or even a style that I liked. Time and money have both been tight the last year, and I don't anticipate being able to travel much to any tournaments the coming year either, so I want to bring the Herd to our little GT. To do that, I need to put a little more effort into figuring them out in the coming months.

The new duo.

Big picture, I know I want to bring the Avatar of the Father, as it is a nice centerpiece model, and that want to try and fit in some Brute play, presuming that I can make that work well enough for me in the coming months. I've been kicking around a number of ideas on that front recently, but points are always very tight. If I need to drop the third horde of Brutes and take Lycans or something else instead, then I need to free up a lot of points, and my thinking is that I could drop Flying from one or both of my Beasts. It's pretty sacrilegious, as I think Fly does bring a lot to the table, and multiple fliers would help out the Avatar of the Father, but I wanted to have the option, and explore it sometime, so jumped on some Wizkids Owlbears that I liked the look of.

Hiding the seams.

Hobbying-wise, these got some special prep since they are WizKids models. First, they got a nice soapy wash and rinse were allowed to air dry overnight. Then, the following night, I used some green stuff to try and hide the seams and joins of the model. The readied arm had a vey obvious one; around the head was another, and there were more by the legs as well. I am still not great with green stuff, but did ok here, first rolling out a rope, then pressing it along the seam, and then messing around with it using some tweezers and a dull knife to sculpt a quick fur effect.

One of the newbies.

I am a big fan of how uh... "traditional" arctic owlbears look, presenting them as essentially snowy owls, but I felt that much white would be off-putting with the rest of my army. So, painting-wise, I tried to draw inspiration from my original flying Beasts, though the feathers here aren't as distinct. Instead of hard striations, we have a slightly more gentle transition with grey feathers around the legs and body, and then pale teal feathers around the head and arms, with white dry brushed harder and harder into the face and upper extremities. It turned out well enough. The eyes in particular look a little goofy or cartoonish, but again it all works well enough overall.

The other newcomer.

As-mentioned, these are a bit of a hedged hobby project. Flying Beasts are one of the stronger and scarier things a Herd player can bring, and I typically do make use of the extra speed. I don't think these will hit the table too often, but being me, it'll be nice to have them around just in case! That's what collections are for!