Author Topic: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)  (Read 33522 times)

Offline Daargrim

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 242
  • Karma: +26/-0
Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« on: June 12, 2009, 07:59:29 PM »
Hello all,

I've browsed these forums on-and-off for several years now and got a lot of great modeling/painting ideas.  I felt its about time I contributed. 

I've played Chronopia every so often for many years now, and recently I embarked on a project to create a Dwarven War Totem.  I play 1st edition rules, so I think this is called the War Torkha in the 2nd edition rules, not sure?  I have a lot of pictures to share detailing the construction, but for now I would like to simply share pictures of the completed product.  As you will see from the pictures, I created the model with all 4 Dwarves removable from the Totem itself, with the ability to place them on bases should they dismount during battle.

More to come when I have more time...its getting late and the kids will be up bright and early in the morning!

Totem and Crew:









Just the Totem:




Crew Member - Crossbow Operator:




Crew Member - "co-pilot":





Totem Warriors (2):














« Last Edit: June 12, 2009, 08:04:26 PM by Daargrim »

Offline Manic _Miner

  • Member Emeritus
  • *****
  • Posts: 1552
  • Karma: +56/-2
    • Four A miniatures
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2009, 08:19:46 AM »
 Nice proxy.I like the Reaper beastie.You have done a good job with the miniatures being seperate.Very good idea.

Offline joshuaslater

  • Board Member
  • Administrator
  • Member Emeritus
  • *****
  • Posts: 3684
  • Karma: +115/-4
  • Homebase: Philadelphia, PA
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2009, 08:31:34 AM »
Is that a Reaper Krung Beast?

And where did you get the axes????
« Last Edit: June 13, 2009, 08:35:55 AM by joshuaslater »
May the Dark Lords of Lead-Free Pewter smile kindly upon you.

Homebase: Philadelphia, PA

Offline Daargrim

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 242
  • Karma: +26/-0
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2009, 08:57:03 AM »
Is that a Reaper Krung Beast?

And where did you get the axes????

Yes, Reaper Krung Beast.  And the axes I think are from a Reaper Warlord weapons pack.  I'll be able to verify that as I go through my notes and pictures to update this thread. 

Offline joshuaslater

  • Board Member
  • Administrator
  • Member Emeritus
  • *****
  • Posts: 3684
  • Karma: +115/-4
  • Homebase: Philadelphia, PA
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #4 on: June 13, 2009, 10:34:30 AM »
Thanks!!!
May the Dark Lords of Lead-Free Pewter smile kindly upon you.

Homebase: Philadelphia, PA

Offline leutenantbrittan

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 91
  • Karma: +3/-0
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2009, 11:48:33 AM »
Thats a cracking piece of conversion work and excellently painted too!

Offline joshuaslater

  • Board Member
  • Administrator
  • Member Emeritus
  • *****
  • Posts: 3684
  • Karma: +115/-4
  • Homebase: Philadelphia, PA
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #6 on: June 13, 2009, 05:35:21 PM »
Applaud button, all.
May the Dark Lords of Lead-Free Pewter smile kindly upon you.

Homebase: Philadelphia, PA

Offline Daargrim

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 242
  • Karma: +26/-0
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #7 on: June 13, 2009, 05:39:28 PM »
Nice proxy.I like the Reaper beastie.You have done a good job with the miniatures being seperate.Very good idea.

Got that idea from a buddy of mine who introduced me to the game.  It's easier to execute for models like the Goblin myrmidon which you don't need to be able to use the goblins as individual troops, just remove them when they die.  In this case I needed to be able to have them mounted, and on foot.  It's not perfect...the totem warriors "slip" off of their posts when they are on their bases.  Makes it hard to move them on the table.  Will try to crimp the nail a bit or I might even add a small magnet to hold them on.

Offline Daargrim

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 242
  • Karma: +26/-0
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #8 on: June 13, 2009, 05:42:45 PM »
Thats a cracking piece of conversion work and excellently painted too!

Thanks, overall I'm happy with the paint job.  I'm always pretty critical of my painting.  I also have less time nowadays so I am trying to be quicker in my methods.  The helmets on these guys are the same as the axe-horn warriors that I previously painted and I struggled with making them look right.  Ended up settling on just drybrushing them gray and calling it good.

I like how the cloak colors turned out, just so happened the deep brown and red I used worked really well together.

Offline luckyone

  • Member Emeritus
  • *****
  • Posts: 2249
  • Karma: +40/-0
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2009, 08:12:17 AM »
Holy cow!  Those are some great figures. Looks like they could qualify for the chariot race IMHO.

Always look out for number one, but don't step in number two.
What do you mean Flash Gordon approaching? OPEN FIRE!
The entire Capitol Army.
Don't ever say anything but a 20 before rolling the dice.

Offline Daargrim

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 242
  • Karma: +26/-0
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #10 on: June 14, 2009, 11:20:56 AM »
Initial Planning and Design

I pondered how I was going to build this thing for quite some time.  I was only going to attempt it if I came up with a design that would look believable on the table, and also was versatile enough for all the riders to dismount onto bases.  In the end, I settled on using the Reaper Krung Beast.  I thought the Krung Beast had several things going for it.  First of all, it looked very "Chronopia"-ish and would blend in well.  Second, it was horned, so would fit the description exactly for a Horned Ones War Totem.  Third, due to its shape it provided natural mounting locations for the crossbow (shoulder "hump"), and the operator to stand (dip in the back) which would not require me to build a "seated" operator.  Fourth, it was big enough to pass as a size 3 model (its roughly the size of the Goblin Myrmidon).

The final "pro" of using the Krung Beast is related to what I see as it's only "con".  I think its a bit too small.  I think if it was slightly larger it would look a little more natural with all 4 Dwarves mounted.  But all and all I'm happy with how well it worked.

As far as the Dwarves, the Horned Legion troops were a natural choice for building proxies.  The 2 crewmen wield swords, so I just needed to modify the crossbow operator to have the sword somewhere out of his hand, and the other crew member could be used "as is".  Both would need slight modification to fit into their mounted positions on the Totem.  The Totem Warriors would just need a swap of weapons since they use axes instead of swords. 

Krung Beast and Horned Legion Warrior, ready for conversion


Part of choosing what models to use was also trying to come up with specifically how I was going to mount the troops on the Totem...I spent a lot of time thinking about how exactly I was going to do that....
« Last Edit: June 14, 2009, 05:33:59 PM by Daargrim »

Offline joshuaslater

  • Board Member
  • Administrator
  • Member Emeritus
  • *****
  • Posts: 3684
  • Karma: +115/-4
  • Homebase: Philadelphia, PA
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #11 on: June 14, 2009, 03:31:55 PM »
more!!!!
May the Dark Lords of Lead-Free Pewter smile kindly upon you.

Homebase: Philadelphia, PA

Offline Daargrim

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 242
  • Karma: +26/-0
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #12 on: June 14, 2009, 05:32:52 PM »
Creating the Central Platform

So, it took me a while to choose which models to utilize to build the totem, but it probably took me longer to think exactly how I was going to build the means for the dwarves to ride the darn thing.  What I finally landed on was utilizing a pair of "plastic peg thingees for bookshelves" (a technical term).

Plastic Peg Thingees for Bookshelves


I'm not sure if these were really for bookshelves or not, but I found them in my workshop in my box of "miscellaneous small parts that might be useful in modeling someday".  The plan was to use two of them to straddle the Totem with the "peg" parts sticking out away from its body.  I figured the pegs could be integrated somehow in whatever means I come up with to mount the Totem Warriors.  As you can see in the above picture, I have already modified the one on the left.  I've shortened the "platform" section, as leaving it at original length would result in the platform being much too wide.  I've also significantly shaved down the "peg"...and you will see why shortly.

I decided that it would be easiest if I could build small "mini platforms" on each side of the totem which the Totem Warriors could simply stand on.  What I ended up using were a couple of stray parts I had from one of those kits you can buy for hanging mirrors and pictures...the kind of kit that comes with about 5,000 parts, but you really only need 2 of them.  (This kit will come in handy several times).

Stray parts from mirror hanging kit


And wouldn't you know it, the "peg thingees" and the "mirror hanging stray parts" fit perfectly together!

The miniature gods smile kindly upon me, and deem the parts will fit together perfectly


Note at this point I had decided to cut off one "panel" of the metal piece.  I thought about leaving it, which would leave a sort of "curtain" down from the mini-platform on either side of the Totem.  That would allow for some creativity and decor, but it stuck out too far and just didn't look right.  Instead I cut if off, and shaved down the adjoining panel to make the shallowest mini-platform I could.  Also note that at this point I have also shaved down the triangular inner section of the plastic piece to better fit the contour of the Krung Beast.

(Side note: one of the best purchases I ever made was buying a cordless dremel tool and a whole bunch of attachments...I used it a lot for this project!)

So far so good...but there is still a lot of work to be done....

Offline Veez

  • Member Emeritus
  • *****
  • Posts: 2990
  • Karma: +159/-7
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #13 on: June 15, 2009, 03:05:57 AM »
That is unspeakably awesome!
VeezCon products:  Not as good as if they had been actually produced by a real figure company, but better than using your shoe to proxy with...sort of!

Offline Trollen

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 77
  • Karma: +11/-0
  • Rafal Maj
    • HardOrc
Re: Creating a Dwarf War Totem (Torkha)
« Reply #14 on: June 15, 2009, 04:40:43 AM »
I've showed those pics to Polish Chronopia gameRs - They were stunned by the perfect work you did! Great RE5P3CT from Poland :)
« Last Edit: June 15, 2009, 10:09:50 AM by Trollen »