Kings of War A Veteran Wargamer's Newbie Guide

There is no Mantic miniature for Golekh and it seems there has never been one.  There is a picture of a Dwarf in a chariot so I guess there must have been something suitable in a previous release but no longer.  There wasn’t anything on the secondary market places either so I had to go with the closest thing I could find which was an  “Abyssal Dwarf King” in metal by Mantic.  He looks to fit the lore as Golekh was badly injured in the Ratkin revolt and this miniature looks to have a rather Darth Vader like set of additions and supportive exoskeleton armour.

I knew I needed him on a chariot and decided to scratch build one.  Then all I needed was a means of propulsion and I had some large rat creatures from Mierce and a spare Night Terror that I got as a free bonus miniature when I bought a Tangle on eBay.  I’ll have to test them against the vehicle I build to check on the fit.  I started with Golekh and his charioteer.

The charioteer is going to be made from a Dwarf command sprue that came with my 2nd Edition Abyssal Dwarf army box set.  I’ll make another Iron-caster out of the cloaked body and use the other one for the charioteer.

I have a spare metal head with a grilled helmet that will do very nicely for him.  A blob of Greenstuff to fit the head and I sculpted some extra hair and and a couple of side plats to cover the join.

Golekh needs a whip and one of the Mantic sets had this large metal one in that I’ll add to the empty hand on the king.

As you can see from the side to side view the King is huge in comparison to a regular Dwarf, as befits the main character model.

I had a look at the Mierce monster twin headed rat.  I like the two heads.  Once I had it built I decided it might be a bit too tall – the connection point for the chariot would be very high.

I built the chariot from bits I have in the bits box.  You can see some of the selection I chose from.

The main body is from an Airfix sci-fi walker kit, as are the cable connections to the beast.  I tried out a few wheel solutions.  Smaller side wheels and a larger mono-wheel to go behind.  The smooth wheel was an option but I settled on a couple taken from a toy truck that were stuck together.

Plasticard for the floor and I stuck a piece of fishnet fabric onto that to form the floor grate pattern. I tried to cover the blank side panels with smaller detail pieces and then layered the chained trophies over those. I put a Perry Agincort English Men at Arms diadem on a North Star Cultist head to make the trophy of an unfortunate king Golekh has defeated in the past.  The trident spike on the front is from a LotR plastic troll kit spare.  The flagpoles were from SM bike kits and reminded me of the flags that the old Raleigh Chopper bikes used to have on them.  Perhaps Golekh had a Chopper when he was a nipper and had it in mind when he designed his chariot?

It will be painted with the charioteer glued in place and Golekh separate.  I went for a dynamic pose for the charioteer, yanking on the reins to try to get some semblance of direction control from the beast.  His hands were in good position for this pose as they were holding something, perhaps artillery ammunition? I drilled his hands out and made reins out of thin strips of tomato paste tube.  I presume the only way to stop would be to crash into something large and immobile.

I painted in the same way as I have for all of the Abyssal Dwarfs.  Armour for Golekh was Hoard Gold Speedpaint with some layers of Dark Star Golds over that and a top highlight of Vallejo Metal Gold.  I’m hoping the purple cloth and some details in the turquoise colour will help tie him in to the wider colour scheme.

I like the whiff of whimsy that Mantic sculpting often has so decided to paint the small abyssal hound creature on the top of the charioteer’s helmet as a flesh and blood animal rather than metal ornamentation.  She’s definitely got the best view from up there and I imagine her putting her tiny front paws over her owner’s eyes if it’s all getting a bit much.

The final touch for the basing was adding some Ratkin Wretches, painted in the same way as previous Ratkin.  These are Vanguard miniatures in metal from Mantic although they are now available from the Mantic Vault for 3D printing.  They fit the lore perfectly.  Golekh has earned the moniker Skinflayer because he enjoys having his prisoners flayed.  He doesn’t want to get his hands dirty so has Ratkin slaves with flaying knives accompany him on the battlefield to finish off his victims.

Overall I’m really pleased with how he turned out.  I enjoy the challenge of a kitbash and it isn’t often I get to build something completely from scratch.  Because I wanted to stick to Mantic miniatures that stopped me from swapping in something obvious like a Chaos Warrior chariot and made me think a bit harder.

He is a suitably impressive centre piece and the model invokes the way he’ll get used on the tabletop – all speed and evil intent.