release the hounds...

finally got around to finishing the houndmaster and his pack... annoyingly this was a pain - firstly I needed a head... after considering the Bearded Tweedy head from Crooked Dice, I found some GW Empire soldier heads on ebay - on the whole they are too large for the Warlord plastics, but this one in a hat managed to hide that fact enough and he looks comparable to the Hasslefree head on the Witchhunter...

then I couldn't quite decide on what colour to paint his clothes, I didn't want him all in black, I knew the dogs would be tan, so another buff coat seemed silly... I had tried a faded red, but that didn't work... in the end I figured, he probably once worked for a lord or squire, someone with land who would need dogs, his family has probably been in service for generations, hence the older style hat, so some faded hand me downs seemed appropriate... the base colour is Vallejo violet brown (or brown violet)...
 

it was during the storytelling in my head (I can't be the only one can I?) that I had trouble picturing him running through hedges and ditches after his dogs on the chase in shoes and hose... so - and I hate doing this mid paint job - cut his legs off, which left him flopping about by his chain... with the boots from one of the Warlord command figures, he was reattached and all seemed well...

then the chain broke... and his hand came off... so I had to replace the chain, and getting a new loop was a pain in the arse, so it become a leather strap instead of an iron chain, the hand was repaired, the chain reattached.. and everything patched up... I hope... sadly, this may rank as one of my better conversion jobs but thanks to the hell of painting it, not my best figure overall, I can see lots of niggles everywhere... not least of which is that he's still damn shiny, so will need to touch him up with Dullcote again...