I’m a tinkerer—I can’t work on a model without doing something to it to make it my own. No matter how great the stock model looks, more often than not I’ll start snipping and shaving, working to add something of my own to it. As a result, my desk is covered in half-completed miniatures, wads of dried putty, and copious amounts of my own blood (pro tip: cut away from your body). I’ve been watching the Sacral Vault take shape over the past few months, and during that time I’ve developed a bit of a fixation on the Giant Gators that push it. I’d had a half-baked plan to Skornify my Gatorman Posse for a while, and now I’d found the perfect brute to act as the unit leader. The Gator’s pose was already full of motion; I just needed to put that motion to use doing something more inspiring than pushing a heavy load. I decided to make a list of possibilities:

Picking flowers (aggressively)
Hugging
Frolicking
Swinging blood-soaked halberd into the face of an enemy

It was a tough decision, but ultimately I settled on “Swinging a blood-soaked halberd into the face of an enemy.” The halberd was made from a plastic tube and the top and bottom of the Tyrant Commander’s weapon. I bent wire into shape for the arms and used Formula P3 Brown/Aluminum Putty to rough out the musculature. I then put a thin layer of putty over the wire to refine the shape and pushed the scale pattern into it with a sculpting tool. When sculpting the hands, I used thin wires for the fingers and put a sausage of putty that came to a point for the claw around each. Once that putty cured, I returned and added the outer layer with the scales. If you’re like me and don’t always nail the anatomy on your first attempt, don’t be afraid to cut off any parts that aren’t working and try again. So far, he’s not looking too much like he’s in the empire, so my next step will be to add armor.

Until next time, later gator. (It’s a pun.)