Well, the Ghostwinds Campaign book is finally out and its time to decide which warlord to use (or even create a unique one). The book lists which figures to use, but let's be realistic here for a moment. Wouldn't it be better to customize a figure that would easily stand out from the crowd for a warlord?

This considered, I decided to customize my own personal warlord figure.

Step 1 - The Beginning
Needless to say, I plan on playing Naresh in the league (come on, my name is JarekGnoll for a reason). Therefore, I decided I wanted to use a Gnoll figure to start with. After looking through what was available, I decided to use the Gnoll Archer (the male one as I don't have the female one since it is rather hard to come by).

Step 2 - Customizing
Now the work begins. I decided on a relatively simple conversion as I really did not feel up to truly chopping up figures.

Looking through my various bits and pieces from other miniatures, I found some that I decided to use. I decided to cut the bow out of the hand of the archer, but I still wanted to use it on the figure.

On the "short" arm, I glued a generic shield from another miniatures game (which will remain nameless).

On the arm that had the bow, I used a Dremel to drill a hole through the hand where the bow was. I then inserted a javelin cut off of another figure in place of the bow.

Still wanting to keep the bow (after all, the figure does have a ranged attack), I managed to attach it to the back of the model. Of course, since it had been cut off of a hand, there was no grip left. To add a grip to the bow, I used the handle from a knife (from a miniature) and placed it between the two halves of the bow.

Here are the pictures of the assembled and primed figure. Just click on each picture for a closer view.

Step 3 - Painting
After priming the figure, it is now time to paint.

First, I applied a brown wash to the figure to bring out the details later on. The wash soaks into those small cracks and detailed places easily, making it easier later on to bring out the detail. Not very pretty, but there is still a long way to go yet and this is only the beginning.

Next, I applied a layer of a reddish brown paint to the figure, primarily on the areas with fur.

Next, I drybrushed the figure with a non-metalic antique gold color. Also, I painted the shield, quiver, face, hands, and feet black.

The next step (while somewhat hard to tell in the pictures) was to paint the various armor bits a dark green. Why green? Mainly because I wanted the armor to be a different color than any that I have use so far on my various Gnoll figures. I have used black, red, and blue all for armor colors and wanted this one to be different. He is, after all, a warlord.

The next step was to paint the various straps and wood parts on the figure. For the "straps", I have a medium brown paint that looks very much like leather when painted onto a figure. For the wood parts, I used a darker brown color.

Time to paint the metal parts. On the armor, bow, buckles and earring, I used an antique gold. This gold is a little darker than some I have used, but it works great. On the axe and spear/javeling, I first painted them with a dark gunmetal silver and then drybrushed them with a regular silver. The observant individual will also notice that at this point I have painted the base black. Personally, I hate the green bases that a certain company "requires" be done on their figures. I much prefer the black bases as they, to me anyway, make the figure stand out a little better.

The shield was an attempt to paint the Naresh symbol by hand. Overall, I am not real pleased with how it came out. At some point I will probably go back and replace it with a decal or some such. However, it will do for now.

All that's left now is to finish up the base and clear coat the figure.

Finally, the finished figure!