Chimaerat Classic Sculpt

This sculpt started because I really don't like the Boneripper from the classic comedy duo "Thanquol on Boneripper", but also because I like the derpy charm that old sculpts tend to have. I wanted to compliment my Bloodwake Corsair "Screaming Bell" with another heroic character that was interesting and unique, something I could slam down on the table and have my opponent weep with despair. (Or, more likely, say "oh that's cool what is that?" politely). So anyway I got to sculpting.

So a real quick history lesson and investigation. I like to use the site Lexicanum for looking at archives of old Warhammer or 40k models, for inspiration and reference for my sculpts. I've seen it a fair few times, but hadn't realized that the image below actually isn't an official released citadel miniature.

Turns out, this image originates from White Dwarf Issue 311, page 119, where it captions this creature with:

 "Chimaerat By Kirsten Williams. This Chimaerat is made from a Dark Elf War Hydra with the addition of Rat Ogre heads."

I gotta say too, this issue is a real cool one for fans of Skavens. There are a ton of fun kitbashes and sculpts, and I'm gonna be holding onto this PDF for future inspiration.

One last aside: I just want to stoke controversy by saying the above is clearly a Hydrat, and that it isn't technically a Chimaera since it doesn't incorporate multiple animals in it's makeup. It's just multiple rats. This is based on absolutely no research into either mythical creatures. But it's just a rat with extra heads.

Ok so as always, I organized a couple pieces of art for reference, primarily that one above, and some from the really cool mod for total war, as well as T&B.

As always, here's some snapshots of the sculpting process. It took a long time to get the face likeness right, and I'm still not 100% happy with it, but definitely enough to move on.

I also had a lot of fun with the top head's face, and I used a cloth sim to create the mask thing!

And here's a final beauty render!

A friend mentioned to me that I really ought to be selling the various models I've made on something like MyMiniFactory. That actually had occurred to me, but a couple different things mean that I don't really want to do that. One, I don't like to advertise my work (blog or sculpts or otherwise). I really dislike any sort of self promotion, and it wouldn't be something I want to spend my time on. Also, miniatures is kind of my hobby, you know? A literal time and money sink, and one of the last places my hobbies haven't become monetized in some way (fuck you, capitalism). And it's kind of nice if it were to stay that way; as something that I do just for the love of sharing it. 

With that rant over, here's the STL files! As always, you gotta figure out the scale yourself because blender doesn't care.

 Skaven Chimaerat

Thanks for reading, and here's hoping I can get this thing printed and painted up soon! I really got to show off the whole list, and maybe some backstory. One of these days!

- Miss Captain Bear