Hail, and well met!
I’ve decided not to bore you with yet another WIP post about my Realmgate, guardians, Palladors or Aquilor. Take my word for it, they’re getting there.
But we have a deadline, a planned meet-up to pit our collected Blog-spawned forces against one another in the Aaronorium. That looming date has given me back some momentum to overcome my perpetual hobby inertia.
While I’m working towards that target, and as Ross alluded to in his post, we’ve also considered adding some neutral beasties to our adventures in Ghur…sort of wandering monsters that aren’t under the banner of our existing forces.
Now as soon as we discussed this I thought I had the perfect choice in mind. The gorgeously monstrous Forgeworld Preyton.
This twisted take on a Peryton of myth seemed a natural juxtaposition to my winged and beaked minions, especially with my planned Gryphon-rich force. I wondered if the stats were challenging enough:
Wow. Perfect. Except for one little hiccup.
Forgeworld no longer sell it.
I couldn’t even seem to find a second hand one.
Disheartened but unbowed I came up with a ‘plan b’. Toying with the Ghur theme and the notion of degenerate human tribes I decided on a counterpoint to my Gryphon-worshipping free peoples force. I imagine Ghur is full of Beastmen, Skaven and various hybrids of man and monster, but one of the most obvious feral beast monsters from modern culture seemed the natural choice.
I’m planning on a large pack of skin wolves, interspersed with Dire Wolf conversions based on the 40k Thunderwolf miniatures. This should provide a nice ‘mob’ of beasties with no allegiance to anyone but themselves…perfect for an unexpected plot twist in any Ghur-set battle.
The pack will be themed around a unified paintscheme, and I’m vacillating between something natural, or a more ‘Dark AoS’ concept, like some ‘shade wolves’ or elemental appearance. If anyone has any useful links, pics or thoughts to offer on which direction to take them I’d love to see them in the comments below! I’m also planning a conversion for the skin wolves using a thunderwolf head and tail on this often forgotten gem of a mini:
Hopefully the clawed fiend will be of a similar scale and bulk to add a characterful ‘Alpha’…
Time (and sanity) permitting I may even knock up a small group of converted blood reavers with a wolf vibe to round off the concept as another ‘random encounter’ mob.
Until next time, hobby well!
Mark
Tales From The Aaronorium 
You could also perhaps use the Maw-krusha to make your own version of the Preyton, get some antlers from somewhere else. Not something you’d just finish in a month/ 2 months however.
The skin wolf models look so good though, and I’m really curious what the end result is going to be!
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Love that maw krusha! One of my favorite models of the whole AoS range. But wouldn’t it be a little bulky for a Preyton?
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I’m thinking maybe a Terrorgheist, with a bit more skin on its bones. Could maybe use the antlers from FW’s Thranduil?
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Now that has legs…
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Good point – I always saw the Preyton as a nasty Peryton – half stag, half bird of prey, and that really lends itself nicely as a nemesis to the Gryphon concept of my force…but both halves of such a hybrid are pretty lean.
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Terrogheist with those antlers from Thranduil could really work nicely, great idea. Although the Terrorgheist is moch mure skeletal than a preyton. If that should prove an issue, one would need to sculpt some kind of fur or loosely hanging skin. Or use Vargheists, altough they are much smaller.
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A fine and gribbly suggestion, which I may well have to revisit. I’m not averse to converting my own, but really do love the ‘foetid’ look of the original…
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… how have I never heard of the Preyton? I’ve been buying stuff from Forgeworld for years and I’ve literally never seen that model before. o_o
Absolutely love the AOS28 look for your Ghur beasties. Probably old news, but have a look at references like Ex Profundis and the AOS28 Facebook group if you haven’t already – just some amazing kitbashing there. Doesn’t have to be quite as dank and grotesque (as it probably wouldn’t fit with the aesthetic this group seems to gravitate towards but perhaps a touch of an unnatural colour to show they aren’t “just” wolves? Shade with a bit of Coelia Greenshade or Druchii Violet and build up that colour with a really fine drybrush that gives them a bit of an iridescent look?
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The Preyton was one I’d completely forgotten about until I needed and then I was too late *groan*.
I love both those Ex Profundis and the AoS28/DarkAoS FB groups as a source of inspiration, too – As to making the wolves more unnatural that’s where I’m stuck, WSP. Do I go all out with a supernatural vibe, or keep them ‘realistic’ (with a hint of something magical – this is AoS, after all!) or somewhere in between…
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You could make them white/albino wolves rather that the usual grey/brown/black. Still a natural colour, but unusual enough to make the superstitious locals worried. Could mark them up with warpaint or ritual blood markings to hint at their allegiances.
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Intriguing…I’m torn, as I don’t necessarily want them to be ‘evil’ looking, more part of the everyday craziness of living in Ghur. Equally I’m a sucker for beasties that are spectral/shadowy/aflame/covered in crystals etc, etc in other fantasy settings, so if I conceive of a more magical concept I’m not going to want to pass up the opportunity.
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Rather than something crazy like crystalline wolves or ghost wolves (probably more suitable for Shyish than Ghur) I imagine something a bit more realistic, with a touch of magic to show it’s still an unnatural creature. Glowing indigo eyes. Rather than going for earthy fur tones, use washes and glazes to steer it towards a slightly unnatural one (but not TOO unnatural) ie. indigo and/or green. You don’t need to do very much because they still retain the familiar wolf shape so the slight oddness of colour will be even more obvious. The albino wolf idea from Ross is also a great one.
Googling supernatural wolves tends to bring up a lot of cringe-worthy deviantart pieces that look like they should be airbrushed on the side of a van owned by a sexual predator to serve as a warning to local children.. but expanding the search to include World of Warcraft and Japanese foxes gives some good examples of otherworldly canines/felines.
The grand-daddy of magic wolf forms
For other inspiration
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Some food for thought, cheers, WSP. The grey and violet tones really look intriguing from the WoW range, but I’m inclined towards the more subdued end of the spectrum, and may try and work in some ties to the terrain we use. I agree that Ghur should be populated more with the bestial than the magical, and will aim to lean that way…
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Hm. I’m not sure of the size of the Preyton, but the Varghulf model might make a good base for a DIY version.
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-AU/Flesh-Eater-Court-Varghulf-Courtier
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That’s a pretty close starting point…cheers for the insight Azazel!
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Maybe something like…
http://cdn2us.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeekus/files/styles/main_wide/public/2017/11/star-wars-the-last-jedi-vulptex.png?itok=aCaOz5W9
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