Squat-tober Mutant Round-Up: Battle at the Bitz Box 1

Although Hungry Ghosts HQ has been busy as Captain Ahab pursuing his White Dwarfs to flense their carcasses for their precious Lost Lore of the Squats (up to 1999, and done with Troll), we have not seen a whole lot on the actual painted miniatures front.

Well, Hungry Ghosts is a bits junkie, and converting is his crack. To heighten the temptation, the bitz bins are right next to the painting zone, which is next to the TV, which means constant exposure to interestingly shaped bits that suddenly reveal their purpose. Like the Tyranid Hunter-Slayer face that had been waiting more than 20 years to become a Chaos Ratling-Centaur's buttface.

Master Chef Gravy Chunckx's Chaos Cooking for All Times and Places reports:
"According to their unholy religion, the Chaos All-Stars must cook and eat their coach if they lose a game [of Blood Bowl]. If they win, of course they're allowed to eat him raw!"
(actually from White Dwarf 221 p. 14, by Jervis Johnson)

But some progress toward army completion was made. The Lava Shark Leman Russ is ready for highlighting, and the Fire Shark Hell Hound has been lined.

With the Hell Hound, I'm trying out the use of a base for the tank, so that corpses like the Dark Eldar Warrior there, and other bits, can be added. There aren't many places to get bases big enough for the tanks (about 150mm long and 120 mm wide), and they are expensive, the Hell Hound is attached to part of a DVD case.

The Land Shark Termite and Driver Hellfisch were finished and joined the rest of the Hungry Ghosts Horde in the Tower of Chaos (aka the Ikea modular shelf).

Ken the Thunder Chief is also ready for his highlights.

Then we took a break to create a couple of minor stars in the Hungry Ghosts galaxy, Master Chef Chunckx, whose GrimDark recipes were a key to warping the Legios Moriad XIV Expeditionary Force into the Chaos fiends we know today.

No meal is too big for the Master of the Cuisinatorium!

And the Hungry Ghosts hired a Renegade Guardsman from the Plague Barons Army of Nurgle to help resolve line of sight issues, since the 40K 5th edition rules would favor the Squats due to their stature. Plus I wanted to paint something green.

Trooper Los Fnnr was not very impressed by the new version of the Lord of Change.

Then things got chaotic.

The Explosion of the Scrunt-Spawn

Some people see a driver torso on the shelf and say, great, I'll use them for my tank drivers. Instead, they nip nip nip at the corners of my brain saying “where's my legs sir?...need legs...or wheels...tracks...” A separate part of my brain decided “you need to make tall Dwarfs, you don't know why, maybe because Mickey was caught heightening on Seinfeld, but you will make them...”

These Super-Size Scrunt conversions are a mix of Citadel metal and plastic bits with Scrunts torsos from Olley's Armies. Citadel & Olley's Armies are independent companies, and neither has endorsed, nor recognized the existence of, these hideous half-breeds.

The stained wood appearance of the Scrunt Spawn is Terra Cotta primer and Chestnut ink wash over it.

The Super-Size Scrunts don't have official names yet, so we'll call this one Grasshopper. He has the legs of a 40K 2nd edition Genestealer, a Gorkamorka Mutie Backpack, and a (2e) Chaos Spawn Head taking care of business in the rear with a Daemonette Crabclaw Arm about to toss a grenade.I forget whose giant horns those are, they are metal, and is suspect a dragon of some sort, maybe a Greater Daemon. Grasshopper is also enhanced with some plastic bits from Kroot, Chaos, and Undead.

SSS-2 has been enhanced through cybernetics instead of hybrid genetics. He was sort of inspired by the Powerlifter used by the heroine of the film Aliens, so we'll call him Ellen Ripley for now.

Ellen is heavily equipped, with Ork Bionik Deluxxe Kickin Legs, a Space Marine Servitor Arm, and a giant weapon scope from Ork with Mega-Armor Head Sprue 3. His central-waist area was made by taking the hand part out of the center of an Ogre Weapon Animal Trap bit, with various sacks and other phallic symbols added.Ellen's arms are from the Mordheim Carnival of Chaos set (gun) and Necromunda Redemptionists (mace). The exhaust-pipes backpack is from an arm from the Epic Imperial Knight Crusader, with some plastic Empire Knights Eagle Head symbols added.

This fellow has a long ethereal arm reaching out to slime the enemy, so he'll be Ecto-Cooler. The crazy arm is the Lashwhip from the old metal Tyranid Hive Tyrant. He also has bolter-type gun from one of the Scrunt Weapon Sprues on his right, while the left arm is part of the torso, with a giant metal spike, also Tyranid I think, added to counterbalance the Ecto-Arm.

From the back, we can see that Ecto-Cooler's lower half is a Beastman from the previous round of plastic Gors, along with a generic Horse Tail bit added for more beastiness. He also has a metal Gorkamorka backpack, and makes use of some of the metal Scruntification skull symbols from Olley's Armies.

The last Super-Sized Scrunt is Wheelie, whose lower half is the Ork Bionik Gyro Monowheel. Wheelie has also turned to the Green Menace for his robo-arms, which are the Power Claws from the 1990s metal version of the Epic Gutrippa. The centrally located Las Weapon is also Epic, from the Dreadnought on the Space Marine Legion sprue. His antennae are Tau Fire Warrior, like the wreckage on the base, and his gunbarrel is enhanced with an old Eldar Fusion Gun tip.Wheelie's originally exhaust pipe has been doubled with the Horn from a High Elf Warrior Musician, while the cloth streamers are the leftovers from the Eagle Head bits on Ellen. He also has one of the old little metal Empire Outrider Backpacks, along with some Imperial pouches and more Scruntification.

Our final Scrunt conversion is super-sized in attitude instead of height, and was inspired by a character met during Judge Dredd's legendary voyage across the Cursed Earth to save Mega-City 2.

This version of General Blood N Scrunts is based on the old Epic Imperial Basilisk/Manticore Chassis, with additional armor plating from Grey Knight Terminator Shields.

Celebrating the Forever War by rolling over a RTB01 Beakie

From the back, we can see that the General has had to cobble together his engine and supplies from parts scoured from the battlefield, with the assistance of a WFB Zombie hand.

Four more Super-Sized Scrunts are planned. Like the other 4, 2 will be feral mutants and 2 will be cyber-mutants.

The leather biker look complements the metal Daemonette-Kangaroo crossbreed legs from the 90s. Whips, snakes, and capes will complete the perversion.

This Scrunt will use the bottom half of a 90s Flesh Hound (with Pink Horror Tail), and will also be position on the corpse of one of his fellow Khornicons who has fallen in battle (the Flesh Hound legs require a climbing posture).

The Cyber-Scrunts are less differentiated at this point. The one pointing will be hovering about shouting orders using a metal Dreadnought Power Fist bit and a metal Tau Drone bit, with additional curved plastic and metal bits from various ranges.

The fellow in the cockpit will have a zippy little Cloud-Car with long engine bits from old Epic & Space Fleet Eldar bits and/or old Tyranid warrior arms. Odd how similar the Nid gun is to the tail portion of the Eldar Wraithship. This one is meant to be reminiscent of the ancient and off-scale Iron Claw Hover Car.

That's it for today's miniature review. Coming up next will be Storm Troopers and their Spawn Slaves. In the meantime, ponder this image:

(from Troll 37, March/April 2001)