Building Muties is now surprisingly easy and at last, cheap. Back in August Games Workshop released their new plastic Seekers of Slaanesh which paved the way for this kitbash.
The riders in the kit are fine from the waist down, but above that they get a little, uh, odd. To deal with this issue I got hold of some Kroot parts from Bits And Kits (you could buy the boxed set, but if you just want a few as I did, this is significantly cheaper) – torsos, rifles, and a few accessories and heads.
I feel a little condescending putting this tutorial together as it’s incredibly easy, but I’ve not seen anyone else write anything up, so here goes!
Required parts:
- -Seekers of Slaanesh steed
- -Seekers of Slaanesh rider body
- -Kroot torso
- -Kroot rifle arms
Then there’s the head. This is really personal preference and there are so many options, I’ve seen zombie heads, human heads, mutated heads, and a number of others. If you don’t have one that is perfect, you can always use some green stuff (kneadatite) to create a hood like the one CauCaSus made.
Step one: Assemble the mount
Pick one of the mounts, they’re all slightly different, assemble it as normal. If you plan on adding reins, don’t attach the spikes/horns on the head. I was originally going to add some using green stuff but Midnight informed me that Native Americans rode without them and it’s quite feasible for a skilled horseman – seems appropriate for the Muties, especially to keep their hands free to fight!
As you can see, the mount itself is about the same height as a normal (based) Ork.
Step two: Cut the body to fit
The rider’s body should be cut around the waist, near the thickest part – a knife or razor saw will do the job in seconds. Next is the Kroot torso – you can use it as it is, but when I blu-tacked it together it looked a little oddly proportioned next to a human model. Cut between the chest/belly panels and trim the edges to be relatively rounded.
A bit of trimming work is required to get the two to fit evenly but it shouldn’t take long. The two can then be glued together, although you should test them on the mount first as the torso extends out a little and will clip the saddle if you’re not careful.
Step three: Preparing the rifle
The Kroot rifle is pretty awesome, but the blades seem a bit much to me. I snipped off the front blade and rounded the back one into a stock instead. You could modify or replace the weapon, of course, but that’s up to you.
Glue the arms on and you’re nearly there:
Step four: Choose a head
This step gave me a bit of trouble as I’ve got so many different ones lying around. The Tau were released recently relative to how long I’ve been in the hobby so I don’t really recognise their heads and so I considered just using the Kroot head, but that seems wrong given the rest of the top half is Kroot.
I have a few heads from MaxMini’s mutation pack, but after trying them out I think I’m going to save them until a head replacement is required from visiting Da Green Pitz.
Eventually I decided to use one of the heads from the Seekers of Slaanesh set, one with a Mohican fringe thingy. As the head is a bit small I carved away some of the neck and shoulders of the torso and filled in the head socket with some scrap plastic.
In those photos you can see I’ve also added the horns to the steed’s head, having decided against reins earlier.
For those of you interested, here’s a comparison shot with an original Gorkamorka Mutie and this kitbash:
Pride compels me to add that I didn’t paint the Mutie pictured, that’s what it was like when I got it from eBay. Truthfulness reminds me that the old Muties I painted long ago are not any better…
Closing comments
This kitbash is very simple but should serve as a decent basis for more complex conversions. If I put together a whole mob like this I’ll be adding different features – saddle bags, different weaponry, robes, etc..
Once this model gets painted up, I’ll probably post photos. For now it’s on the backburner whilst I finish up some Dust Rat vehicles, but it could be fun to paint, so I’m rather looking forward to it!
…and with that, Mutie Week draws to a close. Next week is User Contribution Week!
