My mind has been swimming with ideas for my seafaring Trollbloods army ever since the initial concept bubbled to the surface. As much as I wanted to complete my Mountain King or Mulg the Ancient, the siren’s song of one of my favorite Trollbloods sculpts lured me into its blue embrace.

The first model I ever painted for HORDES was Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls, and to this day it is still one of my favorites. After some fairly extensive conversion work on my other models, I wanted to do something simple I could complete without too much of a time investment. I decided to dive into the Privateer Press parts store, and this is what I came up with.

I took the standard Hoarluk Doomshaper model, shaved down the top of his head, and fitted on Captain Bartolo Montador’s hat. I removed the scroll from a Choir of Menoth acolyte arm and glued it into Doomshaper’s hand, then gently bent his fingers down to grasp his newfound treasure map. Because the high seas can be a lonely place, I added the parrot from Captain Rengrave to the tip of Doomshaper’s staff and Mr. Wall’s monkey to his other hand.

For the base, I started by gluing down a piece of bark and then adding a few cleaned-up ammo boxes to act as treasure chests (a Winter Guard field gun crate and lid, Trencher Chain Gun Crew ammo box, and a Winter Guard Mortar Crew ammo case, if you’re curious). After filling the chests with gold coins made from plastic card discs, it was just a matter of sculpting some crashing waves to fill the rest of the base.

After a few well-placed strokes of the old paintbrush, here is the finished model:

When working on your own models, I encourage you to look at all the models Privateer Press has to offer. You may even find inspiration for a really cool conversion by looking at the models of a faction you don’t normally play. In the meantime, I’ll be scouring the parts store for ideas for my Krill Warriors.