Mortuary Cult Battle Standard, Part 1

While Tomb Heralds normally carry a Tomb Kings army battle standard, the Mortuary Cult army of infamy may elect a liche priest to be its battle standard bearer. I've been dabbling in the Mortuary Cults list recently, so I decided to convert a new liche priest to serve this role.

 

 

My first step was selecting the model. I decided to use one of the classic metal Tomb Kings as the base miniature, with some alternate pieces for his arms. The battle standard needs to be in a regiment to take advantage of its full effect, and since I usually have a level 1 priest in a unit with the Glittering Robes spell to make them all more difficult to hit, I figured this model could fill both roles. My Glittering Robes priest typically carries the Tome of Spellcraft so he can re-roll his casting attempt, so I dug through my parts box and came up with a metal book from a classic Demonhunter miniature.

 

 

The body didn't require much work; I only scraped some scale plating off of his skirt. The cobra headpiece will fit well in the Serpent Brigade of my army, serving under Liche Priest Settisis.

 

 

For the banner pole, I used a (now out of production) plastic skeleton spear arm. While I normally appreciate the heroic proportions on the older models, this hand looked a little big. I also want the priest to have a less "skeletal" appearance, so I shaved down the hand and sculpted fingers and some jewelry.

 

 

With the top of the plastic arm shaved down, it pegged into the shoulder socket, and I sculpted wrappings over the arm and hand. At this stage, I also realized that the odd fold in the bottom of his cloak was actually a divot that the model's original halberd was supposed to fit into. I filed down the folds and filled in the gap with putty.

 

 

One final touch was to add a strip of hanging bandage. I glued a thin bit of styrene card in place and sculpted over the surface.

 

 

I also added a bit of wrapping across the bottom of his torso.

 

 

Now, thanks to the 6th Edition Storm of Chaos and Zombie Pirates of the Vampire Coast, I've learned my lesson about converting models that are unique to a thematic army list. At the drop of a hat (or the drop of an edition) the Arcane Journal army of infamy lists could be relegated to the scrap heap. So, I'm designing the pole so the banner top can be swapped with a regular staff head, allowing me to field this model as the battle standard bearer in a Mortuary Cult, or as a regular priest in a Tomb Kings Grand Army.

 
This cobra staff head from the Empire Wizards kit has been sitting in my parts box waiting for the perfect use. And if this cobra-themed priest isn't it, I don't know what is! I carefully drilled through the banner pole and cut a length of paper clip to pin the tops into the pole. When drilling, I went down past the model's hand to ensure the pinned component would sit deep enough to be secure and not create a weak point where the plastic might snap. Since the spear didn't extend all the way to the ground, I extended it with a section cut from an old Tomb Kings chariot banner pole and capped it with the spear's original end cap. I also added a layer of styrene under the priest's feet to get him to stand at a better angle and to prevent his feet from getting buried in the sand.

 

 

The book doesn't have an accompanying arm, so I had to build one from scratch. I used a spare arm from the plastic Liche Priest kit and a bracelet cut from a Grave Guard arm, with a length of paper clip as the armature.

 

 

It took a couple tries to get it right, but here you can see how the parts fit together. The top of the paperclip fits into a hole drilled in the shoulder.

 

 

With everything secure, I sculpted bandages around the armature.

 

 

On the book itself, I replaced the Inquisitor symbol on the bookmark with a skull, and sculpted an eye icon on the back cover. The eye's "iris" is a tiny skull shaved off of a plastic miniature. (I have a bag full of bits like these; any time I remove detail from a model or scrap a component I try to save it for use later.) 

 

 

I fit the arm in place while the putty was still soft so it could form to the attachment point. Then, once the putty had fully cured, I glued it on. After adding a pair of scrolls (taken from a 40K accessory sprue) to the priest's belt, the core model was finished.

 

 

At this stage, I've got him glued to his base, but I'm waiting for the new skeleton reinforcements this weekend to see what banner components I can use for his banner top. If I can fit them, I also want to add some skeletons rising in front of him.

 

 

One other tidbit I worked on this week is a token to represent my Necrotect's Eternal Taskmaster ability. This was built from a bunch of spare bits and mounted on a coin.

 

 

'Til next time!