Cloister:
Great looking stuff, love the shiny red cloaks on your slaves.
HPN:
Here i’m with a small update to my current sculpting fatigue! The base of the body is almost finished. It just needs some more cleaning and refinement, and then to sculpt some armor/protections.
The bones and muscles part of the wings is also almost done so i would soon start with the leathery part. Have i already said that i officially HATE wings? Never had to sculpt any before, and i’m sure i won’t sculpt more for long. It’s awful how much time-consuming they could be 
But luckily, once wings are finished, i could focus on the most fun part, the rider! The seat with the rider is supposed to be a separate part (like wings are), to make easier for me to cast it and maybe to allow me to make a different version if i get in the mood (while not the top of competitivity, double bull lists sounds fun enough in 9th age to give them a go).
I’m thinking about the armor to put on, i was thinking about something like this, but i’m open to suggestions.
The front part is somewhat inspired to the persian heavy cavalry barding, and the whole armor pieces system is also intended to hold on the belts and striped that will keep the saddle in place.
I recognize that putting too much heavy metal on a winged creature has a basic idiosyncrasy, but well, it’s a fantasy world.
During the lunchpause i also put down some Background about this specific breed of winged bulls you could find in the wasteland.
[…]
Winged bulls living in the zone are wild and hard-to-tame beasts, prized battle-mounts for the most important chaos dwarf viziers and overlords.
Despite the wingspan and the strong shoulder muscles, these creatures are in fact incapable of prolonged flight. Examining some old bones found during excavations, i suspects that their ancestors were smaller and lighter, more similar to nowadays common cattle, allowing them to spend quite some time in the air, like pegasii still do. With the passing of time, the environment (or maybe, also, selective breeding) made these creatures to grow bulkier, gaining in toughness what they lost in nimbleness. They are however excellent gliders and jumpers, able to easily move in an environment spotted by lava rivers and sharp rock formations.
They are also capable of unexpected surges of speed on the battlefield, charging with savagery and reaching, thanks to some powerful strokes of wings, even opponents considering themselves at a safe distance.
Currently, i’m dubious about their natural life-span. They are a slow growing race, but i had the luck to see quite closely some of the rare specimen the dwarfs call “Great Bulls”, and i guess they were probably centuries old. I suspect that these majestic creatures never stop growing, even after they reach maturity.
They usually live in small herds, made of around 15-20 members, but groups as big as 35 creatures has been observed. Herds are usually composed of an adult alpha male, guiding the herd, some weaker males that protect the herd, also periodically battling in the hope to become alpha males, and females along with young adults. Males are usually way more aggressive than females (and so preferred as battle mounts), but try to take a calf away from the mother and you will behold a display of brutality and ferocity with few equals in the wildlife.
This is especially true because, when enraged or scared, winged bulls surround themselves in flames, a spark of innate sorcery strong enough to ignite combustible materials or burn down unprotected bystanders.
Unlukily, during our last expedition, dwarfs have proven unwilling to sell us any of their bulls, with unremovable stubborness; and we lacked the equipment to try to capture one in the wild. This might be also related to religious reasons, since the bull seems a strong simbolic element in their culture, and one of the divine beings they venerate, Shamut, is often depicted as a bull.
That’s a real misfortune, since i thought one of the creature would have looked great in the Imperial enclosure in the capital. Maybe, thinking at it now, it has been better this way, bringing back with us such a burning monstruosity wasn’t going to be a trivial task for sure.
I will also probably attend in a tournament in a couple of weeks, so i’m going to try to finish to paint some models i have on the desk, to be able to field them. First real battle for my Dawi Zharr in quite a long time!
As usual C&C welcomed!
Uther the unhinged:
How gorgeous is he. Great sculpting. I love his bulk (don�?Tt worry re reality �?~a wizard did it�?T). I like the armour, but if the rider has scale you could link the two aesthetically with sheets of scale. Just a thought from someone who does not have to do the sculpting!
HPN:
How gorgeous is he. Great sculpting. I love his bulk (don�?Tt worry re reality �?~a wizard did it�?T). I like the armour, but if the rider has scale you could link the two aesthetically with sheets of scale. Just a thought from someone who does not have to do the sculpting!Well, my little drawign was just to judge the ideal placing of the armor pieces, the final look and texture of those is still up to be decided. Scales are a good idea, since they would tie the beast to the rider, who will probably have those on his armour (despite the tedious work of sculpting those, i have to admit I'm a fan of scales armor for chaos dwarfs).
Uther the unhinged
Anyway, another little update, this time about my Bolt Throwers. As you can see i tried for a different design than the usual "oversized crossbow". They are mostly made out of throw-away old leftovers parts i picked up in the plant where i work, along with some gluing and sculpting for the bolt's heads. Unlukily these won't be based yet, since i'm waiting to see the final call in 9th age rules for round or square bases. I'm going to use these in a toruney soon, so i will probably just patafix the legs to a suitabel sized base.
No servents yet, but i will do something about that.
Below a bit of history about this specific kind of Bolt Throwers.
Units of Renown - Merhaz-Nir Spring Impalers
Merhaz-Nir is considered the most influential engineer in the development of technology and weaponry for the fortress-city of Marr Zagib (and due to his other talent and interest, having sons, we could also say that he really helped in filling up the ranks of the city's army too).
His most commonly found invention is probably the Spring Impaler, still seeing large use in battle and making the backbone of the light artillery of the city.
The invention derived from some observations he made at the city barracks and on the battlefield:
1) Bolt Throwers require good quality wood to be durable and effective, other than long hours of crafting to be sure that the weapon's bow is calibrated in a degree of precision suitable to dwarf standards.
2)Even if small, regular bolt throwers are quite cumbersome to transport assembled, and require some time and preparation if transported unassembled.
3)On average, Hobgoblins not following the correct procedure and doing wrong reload operations are responsible for around 27% of bolt throwers misfires and accidents observed on the battlefield. No amount of whipping and training seemed able to push this ratio below the 21%.
With this in mind, he designed a new kind of bolt thrower, using springs from the cushioning of bigger machines as propulsion force for the bolts, with a body made almost completely of cheap metal and easy to cast in few parts and be assembled. The weapon then gets pre-loaded and each bolt is blocked by a simple hold/release trigger.
Due to its compactness, the weapon is simple to pack and transport to the battlefield in large quantities, and no special assembly is needed, except for placing it on its stand (Merhaz noted that was technically possible to fire the weapon even from a transport, like the back of a chariot, but he suggested that gunpowder weapon were still preferable for that use).
Then, even the dumbest of Hobgoblins could aim at the target and pull a trigger, to release a bolt powerful enough to pierce dragon skin or impale several ranked man alltogether.
The main downside of the weapon is that it cannot be reloaded on the battlefield (it would require an ogre or something equally strong, to put enough compression on the springs), but this has rarely been a problem due to the other advantages it provides, and also removed the misfires caused by hobgoblin's wrong reload operations.
As noted in the city battlereports archive, many are the fools who have underestimated this humble piece of Dawi Zharr technology, just to find themselves on the receiving end of a deadly salvo.
As usual, C&C welcomed!
Uther the unhinged:
Ahhh, my steampunk heart leaps for joy at these brilliant bolt throwers.
Will you add triggers or mybe 6 big red buttons?
Rozmax:
For the future trays of sculpting wings, tray to use this link:
http://mandragoreminiatures.free.fr/tutoailedragonanglais.pdf
Abecedar:
Nice little Bolt “Blunderbusses”.
Rozmax - that link to sculpting wings is great
Sjoerdo:
wow, that is one chunky bull!
Any pictures with a model in it, for size comparison?
Fuggit Khan:
Your Taurus bull is really some wonderful work, you should be proud of it.
You’ve captured the look very well, and I’m particularly impressed by the look of contempt on the bulls face…looking suitably angry as well :hashut
Excellent!
Strutsagget:
Absolutely fantastic work!
HPN:
Here i’m again with some updates! I have to admit that some time has passed, but this has been a quite busy period, mainly because i spent the summer vacations in moving out of parent’s house to my my own fortress along with the “lady of the house”
Anyway, cutting this short, i finished my bull, made molds and some test of home castings. Here’s the result!
This is the first cast, so i had to fix some little defects, that got greatly reduced as i learned to know the “behaviour” of each part of the mold. I also took the chance to experiment with resin pigment, that has lead to the different shader of color of it.
No comparision to a nearby model, but the base you see below it is 50x50mm.
Maybe i have to take mor epics of the rider, since it is largely covered by the wings here, so armor/shield details get missed.
Copies are of course available, if anyone is interested!
Next step is painting it! But i have to admit i didn’t resisted and already played it in a game
Meanwhile, i’m also sculpting an alternate rider for it, since the upper part/seat is a separate piece. Still very rough and WIP!
To finish, and a bit unrelated, but i’m very proud of it, so i would love to share…my new workplace.
Integrated in the living room and conveniently concealed in an anonymous, converted IKEA closet. It shortens the sofa/sculpting-sculpting/sofa transition time to mere seconds, and needs just a moment to get closed and look clean and in order if unexpected guests appear.
This is also a bit WIP, i will add more metal plates to stick sheets on the right door, and organize better the lower storage space (feet level).
As usual, C&C welcomed!
Gargolock:
Wow, that is an awesome bull. Great job! I personally love chunky looking bulls gives them more bulk and makes them look stronger. Those wings are very cool on the bull. I also very much like the bolt thrower shotgun thing its pretty awesome.
Abecedar:
very clever cabinet. And great work on the bull
Uther the unhinged:
The bull is fantastic. I also love the sheer bulk. You have also given him binocular vision, cool, makes him look like a predator!
tjub:
@HPN: Wow, great looking Taurus you have got there. I like that he looks a little “compact”, he will hit the enemies like a flying brick! Either I hadn’t seen or forgot about it, now Im really tempted for my own 15mm version… That female rides seem to come along good as well, great sculpt so far.
Seem to be a rather practical set up as well!
@Rozmax: Ah, great tutorial, thanks for the link!
Duncan:
I like this one a lot, very bull like and solid looking. Also despite your lament the wings look great, much better than my own efforts I don’t mind saying.