Love the work so far but some bigger Photo's would be nice your lucky with your ability to get FW mini's I am way too broke for that But none the less I am still going to build a Kroot Merc army just means I need to convert GW models but that just makes it way more fun I WILL be following this thread and will use this as inspiration for my Mercs .

Thanks for the encouraging words!

Rather than filling this thread up with lots of huge images, here is a link to my flickr site where you will find all of these images and more, as well as my earlier work. You can view any of those images in a variety of sizes there. If people really still want me to post larger images I will though.
Gniknok's flikr page\
@Vior'la Suam: I'd love to see your experiments with kroot heads, I'm happy that these provide you with some food for thought.
@Wolfs16: Glad you like the Mukaali! the reason I loaded him up so much is that as he is a stand in for a great Knarloc I wanted to make him closer in size to that much larger model to deflect any cries of beardiness for using the smaller mukaali. While he is still technically legal since he is on the same sized base as the GK comes with the mukaali on its own is substantially smaller and therefore easier to hide etc. With all the baggage it is at least a bit closer in height and bulk to the GK. I tried to make the load look balanced, is there anything in particular that you think looks out of place? And I'll likely do some krootifying on the mukaali, but I'm going to wait until I get some time to work on the head of my Mamuk of Harad. I want to have some continuity between those two creatures, in the same way that the Knarlocs are smaller versions of the Great Knarlocs.
Looking forward to hearing the rest of your thoughts!
@Whitefire: If you don't already, you should check out the kompletely kroot website, there are heaps of great ideas over there for conversions etc. If you want to use GW minis and do mercs on the cheap, the Dark Elf or lizardmen cold one's are perfect for trackers or knarloc riders and much more affordable (DE cold ones are nicer imo!), and the stegadons are a great stand in for Great Knarlocs + they come with a bolt thrower already! If you have any Q's feel free to ask and I'll be happy to help out where I can, and I look forward to seeing your take on the mercs. One of my favourite things about kroot mercs is that since we have so few kits to begin with, everyone's army looks very different since everyone's conversions are different and each person dips into different alternate kits to get bits, beasts etc. Best of luck!

more to come soon...

So its been over a month since my last post, but I haven't been idle. Here are some larger pics of some of the things I've been working on recently:

The Shepherd who accompanies my Baggage Knarloc beast



He isn't anything special rules-wise, but I had the idea for this the model for the "when we were shas'la" competition but couldn't devote the time when the comp was going on, and as the baggage knarloc is so heavily converted I thought his guide should match. I may use him as the shaman in the meantime as well, until I do up a specific model. There is still a small bit of GS work do do on his right should that I'd forgotten about... need to get to that sometime soon
Here they are together:


A Tracker


I used a MageKnight Desert Warbird for the mount. I'm not a huge fan of the mount as the sculpt is pretty poor, but it is a similar creature to another larger bird I got for my Prey Shaper and so I liked having some evolutionary continuity in my army's beasts. Also, I bought it a while ago and don't feel like purchasing any thing to replace it atm, I'm waiting for the plastic seekers of slaanesh to come out as they are what I plan to use for the next unit of trackers. Still some clean up GS to do on his knees, and of course he needs reins and stirrups... the list goes on.

Another Knarloc Rider




I think this one is my favourite so far, and I have only two left to do now as well! Both need heads still and one needs leggings as well. I should be finished these guys soon though

Here is the piece de resistance ... my Prey Shaper!

So obviously he is still WIP, I was going to wait until he's done to show him off but as it it taking some time to get the Howling Banshee sword I want to use in his right arm I thought I'd give you all some teasers...





The Bird is a Skull Cracker from Dragonblood minis. They just ran into some trouble but were recently bough out by Cavalcade Wargames. Really high quality sculpting and the contact, Eric Louchard, was really helpful. The head feathers got chipped in transit and he offered me another model but as I plan to turn those into quills it didn't seem necessary. The Prey Shaper's helmet is based on one of LordDirk's design, I showed it in an earlier stage a while back, but now it has a standard Tau optical array and antenna, and the gun is a counts as meltagun that I built to look like an infantry version of a Tau Battlesuit Fusion Blaster.
I'm trying to decide whether to mount that neat little shoulder sensor the dire avengers have onto his shoulder pointing in line with his gun... any thoughts? Of course there is still lots to do here: quills, stirrups, reins, straps to hold the saddle on, his right hip is still rough as are a few other spots, his right arm and sword of course, and then he'll need some gear... but he's coming along nicely I think!
The big Q in my mind is that the bird has little wings, like this:


I can position them with pins to not cover much of the rider, but they do seem like they'd be in the way for mounted combat ... I was thinking that perhaps the Kroot would have clipped its wings and could maybe trim them down to stubs ... any thoughts as to what I should do? Perhaps once I've got him a bit farther along I'll take pics with the wings on, and with them off for you to see the difference.
Here is a last pic of the rider, but this time dismounted

I'm imagining his right arm will hang down and out a bit with the sword pointed slightly up... you'll see
At the moment the Prey Shaper doesn't really fit in the Knarloc unit, as he is so high tech and the others are more feral looking, but I'm working on one more high tech Knarloc rider that will hopefully bridge the different styles between the Prey Shaper and the rest of the unit.... just bear with me

And finally, a very WIP teaser of things to come - one of my grand imaginings for this army...

I've been wanting to do this conversion for ages and got the fellbeast off ebay a while back really cheap. Then I realized why... The model needed lots of work stripping and cleaning up, the tail is missing (didn't notice that from the pics...) and one of the wing claws is broken off. Also, this medal model is not easy to put together, lost of GS gap filling etc. to make it look decent. I was pretty frustrated by it all and didn't touch it for months, and then when they came out with the plastic kit a few months later I was really annoyed. But I can't rationalize buying it until this one is closer to being done so its coming along but slowly. No rules yet for this creature either, I worked on some a while ago but with the new nid book out now those will require some alteration and adjustment. And modeling comes before rules here so I'll get feedback on fan rules when is is table ready!

Well that's all for now, I have lots more WIP that is close to being worth pics but I'll hold back so I can have another batch ready soon. Also, I'll go back over the old pics in this thread later and post some larger shots as requested. As always, comments and crit are very welcome, and if you'd like to see more angles, more pics or larger shots check out my Flickr page:
Gniknok's Flickr page

Let me first say that this is an epic post that makes my little heart rejoice! I thought I commented on your other stuff before, so I'm sorry for missing that. Okay, now to make up for it and to show my appreciation for your great responses on my project log, let's get down to some serious business:

The Shepherd:
I really like this model. Your green-stuff work is fantastic as always and adds tons of character to the model. As for the posing, I like everything but the way the arm with the scope is positioned. I think the size of the scope makes it look a bit wonky.

Here's what I'm thinking, what if you tilted the scope arm down so it was resting on his leg, like he was surveying the landscape. I know that's what he's doing now, but just moving the arm down gives him a look of confidence instead of having a large thing in his eye. However, that would require that his head be titled to the left a bit more so that it would be straight. Maybe that's more work than you want to do. What do you think? (It will look fine even if you decide to leave it. )

Count-as Baggage Knarloc:
That is a really neat model and I'm glad your including it in your army. Are you going to Kroot it up a bit like you mentioned?

I think I figured out exactly what it was that bugged me about the model now. I think it's the fact that the baggage looks a bit too small. To better explain, let's look at a picture.


While smaller sized baggage works on the FW Knarloc, it doesn't work as well on a four legged animal like the kind above. You see how large the bags are on that thing? I think the Mamuk would look best with some big bags, like the one you have horizontally right now, on its back. As it stands, it looks like it just has things thrown on a bit randomly.

A few Kroot bitz like you have is great, but I think adding some larger baggage will really complete the look. Thought?

The Tracker:
Totally awesome! I love the pose, I love the mount, everything is great! Although I think an open mouth Kroot head might look a bit better given the pose of the bird. How did you model the right arm to achieve that look?

Knarloc Rider:
As you know, I love me some Knarloc Riders. I think this guy looks great and the additions of the leggings and hood are awesome as always. How do you go about making those? They look just like the GW versions!

One issue I have though is with the head pose. The angle seems just a little too awkward; like he is really straining his neck.

Prey Shaper:
Okay, now we're talking.

That mount looks awesome! It does fit well with your other Tracker and is just plain cool to boot. I like seeing it with the wings, but I have no idea how you can mount them and not interfere with the rider. Perhaps you can just rationalize that this is an alien creature, so maybe it simply doesn't have arms! After greenstuffing some straps and such, it won't detract from the overall look. Are you going to add any techy bitz to the mount itself? Your greenstuff skills seem good enough to add a bit of armor to the head. What do you think? It might help to tie the rider in with his mount...

The gun looks good, but maybe a bit heavy in the front. But when you think about it, Kroot are actually really strong, so maybe that isn't a problem for them. In all honesty, the gun is well designed, so no real need to change anything on it.

The helmet is a thing of beauty and really well done. I like the added antenna and optics. But again, I feel like the head angle is really awkward.

As for the chest armor, I think I am simply more a fan of using heavier Marine armor because of the bulk it adds. Still, the Eldar armor works fine and it fits with the look of the rest of your army. Are you going to add shoulder pads? I think they would help him from looking too scrawny.

Fellbeast:
The thought of working with all that metal makes me cry. But I think you have a good start! I want to suggest some things, but I want to know what role you have in mind for this. That would help me to think of what equipment would look best.

---

All in all man, this is some amazing stuff. I had a really awful day, but seeing these models helped to brighten it up! Keep up the good work!

That is very creative and spectacular set of conversions! I'm really feeling the Tusken theme! Excited to see the finished results, am!

Though I think the fel beast will need a lot of adjustments to identify it as something not a fel beast.

HOT DAMN! What an update Gniknok!

Still loving the baggage Knarloc, but buy far the prey shaper is the one im really looking forward to seeing finished off

just wow!

The combination of the helmets/goggles, the leg protection, and the riding birds make me think of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. I think it's the best manga ever written, so that's a good thing! If you're not familiar, I've attached a watercolour from the movie's storyboards. Keep it up Gnikok!

Very Nice update!

I am very impressed with the progress that you are making with your army! You should be proud of your work. I will say that looking at your recent successes it is motivating me to get back into the swing of things!

I've only got a minute to post atm as I am in the midst of doing my taxes - "groan" - so I'll respond later in more detail, but thanks so much everyone for your positive feedback and comments, I really, really appreciate it!

What I will say now though is that Wolfs you are bang about a lot of your comments, they are forcing me to confront things I had known but avoided dealing with... but I'll have more to say when I have time to process and try out your suggestions

Also, Didi et Gogo you found my kryptonite - Nausicaa has been my favourite movie since I first watched the old american version "Warriors of the Wind" as a five year old in the mid eighties. Miyazaki's art has been a huge influence in my creations from day one. In fact I have volume 7 of the graphic novel series sitting next to my desk at the moment! (which, if you haven't read them, are just mind-blowing. The novels add so much to the story I can't begin to explain!)

Stillfrosty I'm so happy my work is helping motivate you to get back to yours, I regularly visit your threads for ideas so this is a two ways street.

And Turbo, now you can see why I was so excited when we gave the Prey Shaper those boosts in the recent version of the kodex, I really want this guy to kick some butt!

Finally, the Baggage Knarloc is definitely getting some krootification. I started a press mold of an oxen lower jaw last night with the intention of adapting it to the mukaali, so I'll let you know how it goes soon.

Cheers!

nick

Soooo true. I saw the Ghibli movie before I read the manga, and I always felt a little bit let down by it in comparison to, say, Mononoke, or Castle in the Sky. The ending is a bit rushed and clumsy - it breaks the spell. Then I read the 7 volume manga (in one night!) and what had once been missing from was restored beyond my expectations. It's simply a masterpiece.

Anyhow, back to the painting...

Exquisite work Gniknok. Truely masterful greenstuff modelling.
Wicked leather leggings sort of Mexican yet totally Kroot. The Prey Shaper's helmet is well executed and intriguing...can't wait to see him painted.

The MageKnight Desert Warbird could do with a reworking and sharpening of the beak.
The SkullCracker looks awesome. Is that a snake/serpent under its feet ?

I'm really looking forward to further updates.

Let me just say WHOAH! I hadn't gone through this thread in quite a while and there's some really great additions. Your greenstuff work is getting really awesome and the conversions have a ton of character in each piece. Really inspiring stuff I know a couple local kroot list players that will be very envious of this stuff.

Oh cool! Awesome using the helmet design. I love your very nice execution of the green stuff.

I've been taking a hiatus from 40k for a bit and haven't been checking the forum much recently, so I'm sorry for not having any updates in a while but thanks to all for your kind words, they are very motivating for me to get back to work! However, I just went to a big 40k weekend up island and wow am I ever keen to get back onto the kroot band wagon! And to top it all off, when I came home last night I randomly decided to check the kompletely kroot forum and what do I find? Faultie had kindly found this rare beauty on ebay and shared it with us all:




You can see the full thread here.
It seems to be a multi part resin kit by an independant russian seller, and obviously I couldn't resist new Kroot!
He'll make a killer kroot ox shaper special character upgrade I think! I'll send more updates and photos when he arrives...
Unfortunately I think they may be sold out of the kit atm, but hopefully the rapid sales will prompt them to make more kroot stuff... a guy can hope can't he?

Cheers!

First off, welcome back! I've always enjoyed your work and I look forward to seeing your army progress.

That model is fantastic! I love the design and will have to search more on how I can get one. Thanks for posting it!

Thanks for your words of encouragement Wolfs, I really appreciate it.

There are more of the big ape kroot figs available on ebay now, here for anyone interested.

I'll post kit pics and wip when he arrives.

Cheers!

The work in progress link will suffice, no direct sales linking. - Tael.

For those that are intersted. We now have the first one of the Kompletely kroot members with the Super Ox model in their possesion!

Here is a size comparison with a Normal Krootox and the greater Knarloc!



Could work as a great Knarloc counts as if you really wanted to Cant wait for my own to get here, but am at a loss for what to use it as

my man, you have make me fall in love with the Kroot. what a fantastic modelling job you have done on your models. all the conversions you have made are making my hands itch to get on with my own pile of work I have laying around. your greenstuff is really superp!

keep up the good work and looking forward to see more of your army.

Cheers, Daan9tjk

It just occured to me you could make a killer "counts-as" Broadside with that jumbo Krootox by swapping the weapon for a railgun...

Really inspiring conversion work here mate, I particularly love the heads on the first page. I've never considered doing an all-Kroot army before but the desert raider aesthetic is really appealing to me. Fantastic.