Steampyrite's Miniature Painting: Building a Better Beast 09

Did you build Beast 09 to run with your Khador army? Do you find it to be significantly shorter than the rest of your 'jacks? Does it look like it's holding that axe in an unnaturally awkward swing? In here I show you my simple conversion to build a better Beast!

More after the jump!

I picked up Beast 09 when I couldn't wait for Ruin, and I had an irresistible urge to paint a Khador character warjack. The concept art, graciously provided by Chris Walton (gallery here), shows a more proportional, imposing robot than the standard assembly.

As I finished dry-fitting the model, I realized how easy it is to just put it together as a sad little midget. Examples:

I grabbed the above from Google images. The paint jobs are great, but the assembly leaves Beast 09 lacking in the height department, and somewhat toad-like in silhouette.

This amphibious state can be fixed with a few simple conversions. Let's get started!

1) Most Khador warjacks are posed with the legs in a very static position, which simply will not do for a dynamic, aggressive character. Solution for Beast: lop off the lower leg and foot, pin and repose, then greenstuff in the gap.

Simple conversion, and a tiny detail that helps add some personality and motion to the sculpt. Zerkova for scale.

2) The next small change is to the chestplate/neck area. The majority of Beast 09 models out there have an exceptionally long neck, which makes it look...well...

Murderous machine?

My solution was to lower the chest plate, which has the dual purpose of making the torso look beefier, and adds more room for the neck to hide - giving the head some actual protection from stray swords.

I really need to be more conscious of needing better pictures when I do these, but there's some greenstuff gap-filling in there.

3) The main problem area lies in the large socket where the chest meets the waist. The socket is much too large to allow for a decent fit without some help, so I used a long pin ( paperclip) to gauge the proper height, and created a pedestal using milliput.

Of course, I got too focused on the project and forgot to take a picture of the milliput pedestal, but just imagine a blob tall enough to support the torso and fill the gap. The excess can be easily removed with a sculpting tool, and the end result looks something like this. That axe can finally be held in a natural position.