Thank you, Sir. Only took me 3 months to paint from when I built it (never mind that I’ve had some of those models for 10+ years).
Devolving intentions is how previous attempts have gone mostly. Definitely possible it’s all wishful thinking, but going to try to keep the momentum of the last few months going.
Now that the GH XL contest is over, presenting my entry. The idea was to build a larger than average Bull Centaur Render/KoW Greater Abyssal Halfbreed playing an instrument that is a mashup of sax, bagpipe, and euphonium with a gramophone horn.
Warning - pic heavy. A shot of the model, in the PIP unit it will be a part of, is at the bottom of this post, and gives the scale versus a standard FW Bull Centaur Render
I had been toying with various versions of a gargantuan bull centaur for more than a year now using bits from an extra FW winged Taurus as the base. I considered entering a version of this idea for multiple recent contests, but nothing I looked at for the torso seemed to quite be in scale.
The musician version of the idea started for this contest as a bagpipe and mutated from there to what you see here.
Body build out bits used (beyond the Taurus body) include the body and head from a Reaper bones hill giant, arms and hand from a totally different hill giant (the torso was right, but the original arms were oversize), wih teeth from a Reaper bones Great Maw as the horns. The hands and arms were cut and reposed to play the instrument. I sliced and shaped bones material from the left over hill giant pieces, and mixed them with super glue to fill in between the taurus body and the hill giant torso. The original beard was very short. The updated beard is actual twisted wire clamped with flattened aluminum rod, and fashioned in the style of the FW Bull Centaurs. Original giant minis:
The drum platform was a mix of styrene sheet and rod, over structural supports built from chopped Bionicle parts. The drum cradle, instrument body, and gramophone horn-end were built from engine exhaust bits from a dreamforge Leviathan, styrene, and brass or aluminum rod. The rest of the horn was a tapered super glue bottle cone sliced at angles to curve around the back of the brute. The drum canister itself is a light from an old gi joe toy I think, and the drum cover is a lightly textured round base.
Armor was added including the shoulder pad front the other hill giant, and a plethora of shields from all over the place, I can probably ID most of them if anyone is curious. The chains are from the hell cannon, the instrument keys are paper-clip wire and round bits from a thin metal sheet for detailing mechs, and the bolts are model train bits. The axe head comes from that Titan Forge infernal golem. Torches are from click pen workings, and the flames are random curvy pieces from bones models.
The drummer is a Reaper metal female dwarf with the top of the head sliced off and a big hat from Admiral’s awesome priestess model (on backwards). The weapons/tools were replaced with rod and pin heads for the drum mallets. The brace arms (that hold her onboard the platform) are resin bow arms from a random model. Original model:
Was a fun build to do and I look forward to using the model on the table-top. Enjoy. Build pics:
And the final painted model:
The drummer by herself. Her base is magnetized so she can be removed from the platform:
And finally a shot of the model with the unit it will join (which is paint in progress):
Hope you enjoy seeing the detail behind this build. Cheers, JR
Complete utter madness. Another iconic Jackswift bash! Your bits sourcing and greeble-trash pillaging always make the post contest WIPs a thing to behold. Looks imposing in the unit too!
Always good bits inside click pens! Especially perfect use for them here.
Wow! I loved this one. Now I am even more impressed. Amazing skills and insane imagination. Hashut will be proud.
Beautiful work as ever, and what a mad, jolly build it is! So happy to see the priestess you designed in concept drawing make it onto such a grand converted monster. The magnetized base was cleverly hidden with the side details. I actually didn’t spot the ordinary base at first because it fit so seamlessly into the rest of the platform. Clever and creative and high quality all around! Among the largest musician models on here.
Exquisite work, Jackswift! 
Fantastic work! I’m beginning to wonder if your bitz box is comprised of a bottomless pit… You “just happened” to have one of the rarer CD releases, the rider free Bale Taurus, as a spare and decided to chop it up for a conversion?!
All, Thanks very much for the comments! This model was a fun one to make for certain. I think the thing I enjoy most about the hobby is chopping up random models, and hunting bits, greebles, and odds and ends for just the right pieces to build something entirely different than what it started as.
@denelian5 my bits box is quite extensive, but not that deep, just alot that I have collected over many years, but never built. It was a Drazhaoth the Ashen on winged Taurus. 
Now I have a bull head, some nice wings, a rider, and more bits for future conversions, too! 
I crossed the bridge of being willing to chop up and convert even costly/rare models a long time ago. Sometimes those bits are just what is needed to get the result right. Especially when I consider the model has been languishing on a shelf for years, and using those parts means I buy nothing else. The final model is entirely unique, and to me worth what goes into it.
Cheers!
This was an absolutely insane and amazing build! It had an almost ILM level of greeblies in it, that clearly made us all stop and stare for waaay too long at the insane amount of details. Excellent build, my friend.
Oh man this is why I couldn’t wrap my head around your entry! I was looking at it intensively trying to understand where that torso was coming from, and I didn’t even realise that the bottom part was a Taurus!
DAMN!!! 
the amount of work behind this is huuuge!! And it shows, now with WIP even more!!
Excellent work man!! 
Ok. Starting this blog up again after more than two years hiatus… First up my entry for Golden Hat XLIV - The Greater Winged K’daai aka “Wingaling” Thing.
This one was a far less ambitious conversion than my last few entries only using core potions of three models, a few random bits of chopped up models, and for the first time ever on one of my creations, green stuff.
Model donors are as follows. One metal Privateer Press Cryx Deathjack, one Reaper Bones translucent orange Fire Elemental, and one Void Koralon Brood Master. Other addition Mage Knight steam scorpion “screecher” tail bits, sprue, and green stuff flames.
The main body is made from the Deathjack torso. The spikes and skulls were removed from the shoulders and back of hands, and the upper back carapace was trimmed and used for the kilt plating behind the lower leg flame column. The right arm was repositioned and the metal rod was replaced with styrene rod to make the arm fully outstretched for flinging the fireball. The fireball is actually the elementals arm end. Fingers on the right hand were splayed significantly back to represent overextended straight fingers. The fingers of the opposite hand were curled inward in a claw or loose fist.
The lower flame column of the body was from the Reaper Fire Elemental. I figured out where the seams were (yes that model has some very cleverly hidden seams like other bones figures) and pulled or where needed cut the model apart, then used it from a different angle that he original model to make the flame column and attach it to the upper torso. The rest of the model was cut apart and strategically placed to represent (you guessed it) flames coming out of joints, and back of wings, etc.
The wings use the Deathjack legs trimmed of spikes and reversed. They are pinned to the torso through slices from the steam scorpion tail. Some strategically bent aluminium tubing allowed me to fit the spiked snake hood pieces from the Brood Master onto the end of the leg joints and flare them out as wings.
I used the Death Jack head but modified it to give it a CD style “Big Hat” using one of the smoke stacks, with some bones flames coming out the top, and repurposed the shoulder spikes as the beard.
Finally the base was a couple of bases stacked and covered with model train ballast. The finish ing touch was drilling and cutting deep into the middle of the base and into the bones flame column and then placing a flickering led candle in the hollow.
Paint was pretty straightforward. I opted to be somewhat minimal on the Fire Elemental translucent bits towards the bottom to avoid occluding the flickering led too much. Some of the detail is hard to see in the final shots so I have included non-lit photos below and throughout.
And the final lit shots:
Thanks for looking. Cheers!
SO much awesomeness… and I have no idea how I missed that epic musician earlier on!! WOW!!
~N
Thank you, Sir! That musician is still one of my favorite pieces in the army.
It has been a significant amount of time since I spent any time on my Chaos Dwarf army, but this most recent Golden Hat has brought it back to the forefront of my current projects. To start with, I have a few CD contest prize models to paint (more to follow in a few days). I am also putting finishing work on a number of units which are missing models to make it a complete unit, or which are partially painted (minimal detail, or some models never fully finished). First up, a Slave orc unit made from Celtos Orcs. The model on the right is the existing paint job, and the one on the left is the updated version with more color in the skin tones, a pop of color on the armor, and a slight sheen added to the sword. Still need to paint the armor straps, add depth to the leather, and finish the base. Then 8 more and one unit filler or missing model to finish (still pondering what to do for that last one):
Ohh I really like the use of purple here
