Hey all,

I've decided to start a Kroot mercs army as a way to motivate myself to paint my Kroot, and so I have a few things on the go. My Knarlocs will be a while yet as they still aren't assembled and I have some conversions planned for them, but I spent last night trying out my paint scheme for my Kroot and I thought I'd see what you all think!





I'm not sure if I like the eyes... may try to fix them a bit but it is hard to be precise deep in the hood recesses!

Here are some pics of the new power weapon and flamer Shaper that I've been working on as well:









I've got another shaper in the works, and by bits just arrived so I can get working on the carnivores soon... lots of work to do!
(...and now I gotta make time to build an objective marker too -eek! )

Any feedback is most welcome, Cheers!

Wow! I love it. The sculpting seems fairly decent, but I'm confused by the head- is that a mask over his face?

All in all, an excellent conversion.

Those are hellov cool! I'm really impressed by your several different Drone conversions! Spot on!

Thanks guys!

@Fraggle, yes its supposed to be a gas mask he's wearing. Hopefully it will be more obvious when its painted. I'm putting masks on a number of my shapers, cause they make them look different and are kind of fun to make. I've been reading the nausicaa of the valley of the wind comic series again and wanted to try to get a similar esthetic... if any one has read them. On that note, O'Shovah over on Kompletely Kroot used some reaper models of prehistoric birds as mounts for his tracker unit, and as they look like the horseclaws in nausicaa I think I'm gonna do the same eventually.



And a link to O'Shovah's converted tracker WIP
http://z8.invisionfree.com/KompletelyKr ... c=492&st=0

I just got my bits order yesterday so its time to start working on the carnivores now!

More Kroot Players are always welcome!

Great looking shapers by the way, it makes me want to redo my old ones and put them in more dramatic positions!

So just because I am curious, are you going to be building off of the chapter approved version of the codex, or will you be working more with the revised supplement put out by kompletely kroot?

Also, care to give us a list you are working towards so we know what to expect in the coming months?

Thanks stillfrosty, much appreciated! And thanks for the prompting to put up a work plan, hopefully this will motivate me to keep working in the coming months and post my results!

I'm definitely planning on using the new KK codex since the main motivation behind a kroot force was to buy and use the FW Knarloc Riders. While I'd always wanted some for my Tau army they never seemed worth it as their bad stats seemed hardly worth it for their high points and cost. However, as I already had 2 dozen Kroot and a dozen hounds, when the Kompletely Kroot codex emerged and a friend offered me another 2 dozen carnivores suddenly the Riders served a dual purpose of bringing together a seperate Kroot Mercs force and being able to be used to support my Tau cadre - this way I am actually motivated paint all those Kroot that have been boring grey plastic for so long... and to boot the work will benefit the completion of both armies, Hoorah! And conveniently I came into a small pot of $$ in the winter and with the pound so low... well, it was inevitable I bought two sets of 3 Knarloc riders and a set of 2 Tetras to celebrate (the tetras are still in the bag for now, but they'll get some love eventually!)

So 5 of my 6 Knarlocs are partly assembled, the other is still in pieces. The 5 are still missing the riders' torso's as I want to do some converting first, but the Knarlocs are pinned to their bases for ease of converting and painting, so they can still be used in games right away since my friends are not sticklers against using proxying and unpainted models. These guys are going to be the centrepiece of my army so I want to do a fair bit of work on them, hoods, leggings, spears... I'm going to convert two of them into Shapers, so that I can use them as a tricked out unit of up to 5 with a shaper and led by a Prey Shaper, or just as two small units of 3 each with their own Shaper. I also have 2 reaper velociraptors that I'm converting into the Prey Shaper's escort hounds. They move like cavalry so I thought that something a little different from the regular hounds, more Knarloc-like seemed appropriate (and they were way cheaper!) Anyway, much work to be done, and it will be ongoing, but these guys are my big priority!

I also picked up a used (riderless) Great Knarloc from Kris over at KK for a good deal, and it is assembled and basecoated but needs a bit of GS work as it is slightly damaged in a few places. I'm contemplating mounting riders on this guy and magnetizing their weapon mount to switch between the Kroot Gun, Bolt Thrower, and a CC weapon (lance of some sort - to represent the crushing beak PW upgrade), but with all my other work to do this is at the bottom of the pile. I'll get to the GS work soon as I have leftovers from the other projects that I'm working on, but I doubt I'll do much more on him until I get some more GK's to do them all at once (I plan to have 3 eventually).

I've just basecoated my hounds. I love hounds. People who don't use hounds don't fully understand Kroot imo. The big gaping hole in the KK dex imo is that carnivore units can't take hounds. In one game recently a squad of fourteen models (10 carnivores and 4 hounds) was pulverized by Tyranid shooting and only 2 hounds survived. However, these ferocious little beasties passed their ld test and went on to carve straight through 2 more squads of 8 spine guants (it was a patrol clash) before being finished off by the same warrior squad that killed the rest of their squad (but downing one in the process!). This may have been exceptional but I5 and 3 attacks is nothing to shake a stick at! (unless you want your arm bitten off... - sorry .) I haven't decided if I will give them the same colour scheme as the carnivores, which I tested out on the shaper above and am pretty happy with. I may test out some ideas soon but I want to get a unit of carnivores painted first so I can see what will look good with them.

I just got a bits order in and am currently working on kitting out my carnivores with pouches, grenades, etc. I'm going to build them into 2 squads of 14-17, and another 10 to run with the hounds. I have three shapers at the moment,the two above (one basic pewter, painted, though I may give him some grenades now that I think of it...; the power weapon/flamer converted shaper that is also above; and another that is half done, he needs only his eviscerator but I haven't decided on a style that I'm happy with yet. I'm not a fan of the chain sword but I haven't come up with a better alternative. I'm going more for an eldar/exodite look rather than a looted/IG look, so any thoughts are appreciated. I'm leaning towards a power lance of some sort... as that will be look great on the Evscerator Trackers that I plan to get eventually, but am still unsure. The extra Kroot models will eventually become stalkers or hunters... haven't decided yet. I'll also do up a Master Shaper eventually, with a surefoot charm and BoS to give the crushing Beak GK's scout and a fleet reroll but that is for the distant future. I also have 2 Oxen... they've never really seemed that useful but I may try one out in a carnivore troop unit sometime soon. I will get to them eventually but they are not a priority.

My overall theme is heavy on the mobile beasts and cavalry as you can likely tell, with hounds (and maybe stalkers?) as a key aggressor unit to fit the hunting party theme (using the exodite codex for inspiration regularly!). The Carnivore units will snipe away from cover while their fast chasers hit the weak spots. Then the carnivores can charge in and clean up... or something like that. Once this stuff is under control I plan to convert 2 Baggage Knarlocs from plastic dinosaurs to fill up more troop slots and a unit of trackers to fill up the FA and provide some fast anti tank support. The other Two GK's will trickle in as I can afford them/find deals on ebay.

So, much work to do! I should have some carnivores converted and basecoated soon though, and then I can get to painting a full squad! And I plan to do a lot of GS work on the Riders in late april as my partner is away for 10 days, so I'll put pics up as things progress.

...And then there is the objective modeling contest coming up... hmmm I think I have time to squeeze something special into my busy schedule...

Wow thats a lot of knarlocs you own there.... but then again I did go a bit obsessive with hounds, I think I had 74 hounds before the kroot mercenaries codex became illegal at American GT's! Good thing I found another use for them by converting a whole tau army into a kroot themed list : If you are interested, check out Kroot Renegades on this site.

Well it seems like you have a lot of work on your hands, but maybe you, turbo, and I can start up some kroot themed khaos because of the birth of the fan codex. There are a lot of units in my army that need some attention because my converting skills have shot threw the roof after I converted my kroot merc army. I was looking online at back to basix and they have some pretty sweet forrest bases that I wouldn't mind having for my kroot. Failing that though, I wouldn't mind working with my tradition black/deathworld bases which have severed me well.

I just noticed the base converting project today, so I am going to have to wip something up for it. I have a lot of ideas, just trying to figure out which ones I want to use... and trust me it will be pro-kroot.

Anyways,

Once those kroot are finished I want to see pictures!

I somehow think that this was posted in the wrong spot... I'm sure this was posted in that Stealth thread....because I've never looked at thsi thread before..what the heck?

Moderator split original thread ~ Eiglepulper

Well, those first few models look great. The GSins is amazingly good on the guy with the stick.

haha, don't worry, you are not going crazy Eiglepulper split the threads in two after my Kroot posting to prompt me to develop the WIP independently, and your post just happened to end in the wrong one, but thanks a lot!

Hopefully I'll have more to post soon but I have heaps of school work to do first Oh well, the sooner it gets done the sooner I can get back to the (green)stuff that matters .
(how is it that working long hours makes bad puns seem funny... )

Hey! I've been absent a while, getting married and finishing school takes a lot of time away from gaming, modeling and painting! I just thought I'd drop in to remind myself - and you - that this project is not dead, and will be getting some updates in the near future.
For now, here is a teaser pic I stumbled on as I was sorting through old images of one of my converted knarloc riders. Sorry it's kind of blurry, must be why I didn't post it in the first place.

More to come soon!

p.s. 10 pts to whoever can name the reference this guy's conversion is based on

wizards

And it looks great fits the look of that cover almost perfect.

Nice catch! I'm happy to hear that I came close enough for others to spot it. Weird movie, but it had some great images.

It's an often imitated cowboy-esque pose that's very striking been used for a lot of sillouette pics, also a lot of american indian plains warrior paintings use a simular pose.


This may sound odd but I had a kroot idea you may like, try converting up some beefy muscular kroot from Ork bodies to make buff goons squads with. Kroot that ate dead orks and adapted to have a huge physical frame, half way inbetween a kroot anda a krootox. Could make for some intersting meat shields with punch.

Wow! I love that greenstuff work! It really adds a lot of character. I will have to try my hand at that for my next Knarloc rider!

Thanks Wolfs, it actually isn't quite as nice as it should be, it was an early try and the blurry image hides the lack of detail, but I'm working on improving it. Here are a couple test heads that I've done in the last few months. Nothing amazing but the last one I think will really look good after another round of touch ups...
full face mask side

mask and goggles front

mask and goggles side

hood with crest front

hood with crest side

LordDirk's Kroot helm side

LordDirk's Kroot helm side

LordDirk's Kroot helm side angle


I\m not in love with the first two, especially the second, but I think I can improve on them. The helm though was really fun and I think will look great once the imperfections are fixed and smoothed out. Hopefully I can get some time to try my hand at LD's other helm concepts soon...

as always, C&C welcome!

Gniknok: I admire your sculpting skills, very professional. Keep up with the good work.!
How ever I can not understand your fascination (obsession ) with the Kroot.. Vile creatures I tell you!
Sinc.
Wodai.

simply A W E SO M E ! ! !

Keep those updates coming!!!!

Thanks all, much appreciated!
@ Wodai, yes it is an obsession but where would the tau be without the kroot? it is an excellent symbiosis I think, the differences in eating habits are simply cultural idiosyncrasies. Imagine how physically weak and puny Tau seem to the Kroot?
@ Wolfs, I look forward to seeing your GS experiments, your work is always impressive.
@ Paulson, the ork kroot is actually pretty well established hybrid, often called green kroot. It is an evolutionary adaptation that you can take for a whole force (excepting certain units...) at +2pts/model that gives +1T. I may try some one day but I love working with the kroot body and I have so much to do in the meantime that it will be a long time yet. Could be an interesting way to experiment with oxen though... I'll have to think on that one...

So here is some more recent work to whet your appetites:

An Eviscerator shaper



Baggage Knarloc (made from a Tallarn Mukaali)




I've been debating sculpting a beak on him... not sure yet. I think I'll give it a hood of some sort though, perhaps with a blade attached to the chin or nose represent its decent skill and strength in cc.

Knarloc rider with flamer





Knarloc rider





More to come soon!

As always, C&C are welcome!

your idea for heads has been stolen sir

I love it! There is so much good stuff here! I have some ideas for critiques and suggestions, but would it be possible to get bigger pictures? Right now it's a bit tough to make out the details.

One thing I will add now is this: The Tallarn Mukaali is beautiful and really a cool alien model. He has quite a lot of baggage on him though! It seems a bit unwieldy at this point. I think I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so tall. If you are going to sculpt anything on him though, I suggest that it be a beak and then cut sculpt out some longer talons on the feet. That would tie it in with the established look of a Kroot subspecies. Also, probably some quills.

So please, bigger pictures so I can say more!