In the most recent edition of the Beastmen army book for Warhammer there was a little snippet of text describing the Warherd of Khorok Manripper which roams the Forest of Arden. As the Forest of Arden was obliterated alongside the rest of Bretonnia during the End Times, I’m sure Games Workshop will have no issues with me showing it here.
It’s such a wonderfully “Warhammer” concept, full of the setting’s trademark blend of grubby eccentricity. Moreover it’s one of my favourite bits of Bretonnian fiction and as soon as I sat down to write a list of concepts to cover in this week I knew I had to include a beastman from Khorok’s herd.
I’ve enjoyed all of this week’s models a great deal, and I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite. If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose however I’d probably plump for this one*. Perhaps it’s because he’s a conversion, and thus uniquely mine, whilst the others were built pretty much as intended, or perhaps it’s because he’s chaotic and evil whilst the others have been honourable goody-two-shoes.
*Or in my panic just name whichever I thought of first and blub a lot. So please don’t, there’s really no need for violence here…
I tried to match his heraldry to that of the other Bretonnians I’ve painted (with the exception of the Green Knight of course) in order to create the impression that it was the cousin or brother of one of the other knights that he looted the armour from. Of course, there is the darker possibility that this knight was never killed at all but was simply corrupted and mutated by the forces of Chaos until he found himself roaming the forest in bestial form, becoming a braying warrior of the very herd he once set out to slay…
Although I aimed to repeat similar heraldry on all of the knights you may have noticed that I avoiding repeating it exactly. The aim was to reflect the idea that each knight is a hero in his own right and, although he proudly wears the colours of his house, he also puts his own spin on it so he can be recognised in battle and his deeds celebrated.
Convert or Die 
March 3rd, 2017 at 2:48 pm
Oh yeah, he’s really cool mate, great concept – he looks properly hard!
March 5th, 2017 at 8:36 pm
Cheers mate 🙂
March 3rd, 2017 at 8:28 pm
He looks angry mate. I like the stance a lot. You can just hear his muffled growl through his helmet… “come at me bro” hehe. Very nice. I couldn’t help but imagine the chap who is putting a gun to your head to force you to decide on a favourite Bretonnian Miniatutre hahaha. What a sad depraved individual he would be. Maybe you should make a mini in honour of him.
March 5th, 2017 at 8:41 pm
Cheers! The stance came together very naturally as I test fitted the bits, it wasn’t my original aim but it looked so natural I went with it.
As for the tiny diorama of someone holding a gun to my head and grilling me about my models – complimentary though it would be I’m not sure that’s the kind of obsessive fandom I’d want to encourage!
March 5th, 2017 at 8:58 pm
Haha that’s fair
March 3rd, 2017 at 9:15 pm
That’s an excellent concept and a striking conversion. I might do some of my own inspired by this down the line when I get up to my beastmen.
March 5th, 2017 at 8:45 pm
Thanks very much. I did a bit of hunting around online and didn’t find much in the way of beastmen in this style which is a shame as he was a lot of fun to build and paint. An army in this style would look really unique and interesting so good luck if you do decide to pursue it.
March 7th, 2017 at 9:08 am
The Bretonnian Knight heads are some of my favourite in the GW range (although I suppose they’re not there any more…). I used them recently on some putrid blightkings. It looks great on that Gor, taking away the face emphasises the bestiality of his body.
March 8th, 2017 at 9:37 am
Aye, it’s a shame they’re gone from the range, I’d have done a lot more with them if they were a bit more freely available. Can imagine they look amazing on the Blightkings – will be watching out for those when you finish them.
April 4th, 2017 at 5:41 pm
Shame for the round base or else it’d been perfect miniature.
always fun to see aos ripping ideas from original Warhammer.
April 5th, 2017 at 9:35 am
Cheers mate! For me he’s a model first and foremost, I doubt he’ll see much action as a playing piece, so I used the base that I thought suited him most. Nonetheless you’ll note that most of the fantasy models I’ve painted recently have been firmly on square bases 😉 Still, “almost perfect” is good enough for me 🙂