Building a better Astorath

[Brother_Dan'l]

I've finally decided to see how Astorath might work with my army after running into him in a game this week. But to be honest I think the model stinks. I always thought Mephiston was a little too close to Gary Oldman's Dracula armor but Astorath is a 1000 times worse.

 

I'm probably thinking about starting with a Sanguinary Guard body (surprise) but using Lemartes' jump pack. Where I'm stumped is the axe. I don't like the chaos feel of the spinal column axe at all. So where do I go? Has anyone else made their own Astorath? What did y'all use?

[Brother_Dan'l]

Thirty-two views in 24 hours but no one has any ideas on a better Astorath? I guess I'm the only one who doesn't like the sculpt.

 

Oh well, I'll post some ideas as I have them and maybe that'll spark some thoughts.

[Vadskær]

Hey, don't be put off by the number of views versus replies - it might also be guests just browsing the board!

 

In regards to astorath, buy the official model but just use the jumppack with scrolls and the cool wings - and then add whatever kit-bashed coolness you can make from either sanguiniary guard, death company, commander box etc. I've done that with great success!

[JamesI]

I built my Astorath entirely out of a Sanguinary Guard. Using the big doubled headed axe.

 

I did buy the official Astorath model, but I'm converting it into a Chaos lord and using the Astorath backpack on my Dante.

 

I'll try to post a picture of my Astorath soon.

 

I'd worry the Lemartes backpack to be too heavy for a plastic figure. If you want a regular jump pack (not the winged ones) then I'd go with a DC jump pack.

[Montuhotep]

I think the Sang. Guard double-head axe is definitely the way to go here; though it might look a little unbalanced if you go with the 'over the head' pose of the original Astorath mini - perhaps held at a high angle off to one side might be better?

 

'I'm going to kill you now, but first I'll let you appreciate the size of what I'm going to belt you with...'

[JamesI]

Here's my homemade Astorath.

[ImperialReaper]

I've finally decided to see how Astorath might work with my army after running into him in a game this week. But to be honest I think the model stinks. I always thought Mephiston was a little too close to Gary Oldman's Dracula armor but Astorath is a 1000 times worse.

 

I'm probably thinking about starting with a Sanguinary Guard body (surprise) but using Lemartes' jump pack. Where I'm stumped is the axe. I don't like the chaos feel of the spinal column axe at all. So where do I go? Has anyone else made their own Astorath? What did y'all use?

 

Well I definitely would not use Lemartes jump pack - this way it would be had to attach the wings and those are defenitely an important part of Astoraths awsomeness. I would use his head istead. Astorath is an chaplain after all and I myself really like the skull masks.

I would also tend to not using a SG´s body. This would probably make him look like the Sanguinors little brother. I think a Death Companys Body would look much better.

Speaking of it - I cant even imagine what the guy at GW thaught about while designing Astorats armor...looks like he has no skin an you can look straight at his flesh and mucle.

[Hemal]

That's the point with Astorath's armour - its designed to echo the armour of Mephiston a lot, though Meph has thouse robes covering his leg armour - just as the armour of Dante and Tycho is a beatifully muscled form, the armour of the lord of Death and Guardian of the Lost has the skin removed to display the raw bloodiness underneath - a nice dichotomy in my view, and of course the BA as a whole ARE a dichotomy..

[ImperialReaper]

That's the point with Astorath's armour - its designed to echo the armour of Mephiston a lot, though Meph has thouse robes covering his leg armour - just as the armour of Dante and Tycho is a beatifully muscled form, the armour of the lord of Death and Guardian of the Lost has the skin removed to display the raw bloodiness underneath - a nice dichotomy in my view, and of course the BA as a whole ARE a dichotomy..

 

Mephiston IMO is the worst BA model. It does not at all reflect his pure epicness. A S6 T6 bad ass psycher which can mow down a squad of krohne berserkes single handedly should look really epic and not like some movie antagonist from the 70s.

[Hemal]

Remember that the BA characters (Tycho, Dante, Mephiston) are of an early 1990s vintage - in my view certainly all 3 look better than Ragnar, Ulrik and the old Njal models and I own all of the above models, and all except Njal actually still stand comparison vs the newer models. Mephiston is a little static and maybe doesn't reflect his "aswesome" now...but Mephiston was essentially the same as a Vampire Lord in Fantasy battle - all about how much tougher and stronger than a mortal he was despite being the same size and having a distinctly unhealthy pallor...

 

The painting in his Angels of Death unit entry goes some way to it, I prefer the Mark Gibbons pictorial representation of Mephiston (wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand whilst having his sowrd lowered, menacing snarl on his features). He is a good miniature for teh vintage, shows his age somewhat more than many, but so does Dante - only Tycho is "future proofed" after a fashion...

 

His colour scheme is also not the best - I would have painted him darker and more brooding/menacing, with a slightly etheral face.

[Brother_Dan'l]

I just had an idea that I'll try out this evening. The Gamesday jump pack model with the overhead thunder hammer for arms, Sanguinary Guard body and probably axe head and then the Sanguinor's wings on a regular SG pack.

 

I'll post some picks after I do some test fitting.

[Brother_Dan'l]

Finally got around to doing it and had a minor flash of pseudo-brilliance.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb219/Brother_Daniel/DansAstorath.jpg

What do you folks think? It's Lemartes with the Sanguinor's jp and a Sanguinary Guard axe head on the TH arms from an older Games Day (I think) model.

[Montuhotep]

Oh, very nice. :P

[ImperialReaper]

Yeah thats what I was talking about.

Just the pose should be a bit more aggressive - the axe overhead like the normal astorath.

[Brother_Dan'l]

Thanks. ;)

 

I tried a couple of more "Here it comes!" type poses but they never really worked for me. Since the arms/hands/axe aren't centerline it looked off balance and a tended to put the left hand directly in front of his face. With any luck I might even get some painting done on him soon. But I doubt it. ^_^

 

I'm thinking of keeping him very black with a few accents of red and bone. The wings almost have to be black so as to keep his dark feel. Or am I limiting myself too much?

[WingsOfTheFalcon]

Personally I would have gone to town on the Seth model as he's in a highly aggresive pose but your conversion is really nice too, get some paint on it! <_<

[Ironfather_cogface]

Rock and roll, i think there is something very disturbing in that calm stance, something latently violent. It's like the calm guy in the Kung-fu gang fight. You know he's gonna open hell, he's just choosing when.