Since the gift arrived safely (but really late) to @MichaelX I thought I’d post about it here as well.
The thought that came to me was to remake the Secret Zhanta model I made for @Antenor for the Christmas exchange a couple of years back, inspired by @Loidrial 's artwork:
But then I saw a GW warband that featured a malignant little pet, namely this guy:
So I figured that Zhanta riding on top of a similar beast (why not a twisted Lamassu?) Would be cool. I started to work on the beast but forgot to take pictures at first. I started to work on the evil Zhanta and decided for simplicitys sake that he’d just be seated directly on the back of the beast. This way the beast could also be used separately without any conversion work. Then I realized that I’d made the fit too lax and decided to add a simple saddle to fill out the void. I made it removable as to heed my trail of utility thoughts:
Then it was time to start his axe, which was carved from plasticard with later added green stuff details:
Then I really started to go crazy… I thought it looked weird that the saddle was just sitting on top of the beasts back, so I sculpted straps to keep it in place. I looked at the original art and realized there “really ought to be a sack of presents” but it looked unbalanced for him to carry it on his back so I made a cart. Then I figured there needed to be straps to keep the cart in place so I added those. I then added lots of detail work in GS, resculpted some of the rider since I wasn’t quite happy with the proportions. My initial plan was to make Zhanta a shield, but his left hand looked like it was supposed to rest on something or hold some reigns. So… I made some reigns. But they needed something to fasten to, so I made a necklace for the beast (you can see where this is going 
). I decided that the saddle needed some work, so I expanded on it. Finaily I added lots of details and of course - optional smoke for the chimney hat. 
Here’s the pictures of the final result, hope you like 'im:
