Converting the Black Beast of Argh and the Three Headed Giant

 I made a pair of armies for Hordes of the Things based on the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (see the article below). These two units were some of the more challenging to create but a lot of fun.

The giant was made by cutting up three plastic toy knights I sound on the bring and buy at the IMPS show. These were a lucky find as they had the right equipment and two of them were identical meaning when I put them on either side the stance was natural. What’s more these two were holding two handed axes, which allowed me to have them waiving their fists at each other in argument.

The knights had poorly sculpted faces with gaping mouths which I did some work on to give them an approximation of the actor’s features, hair and beards.

The sword was a separate piece which plugged into a hole at the waist. It was in a scabbard, so no edge, with crossed straps at the top. I had to cut these off and try to get an edge on it. This all looked a bit ragged which is why it is splattered with dried blood to hide it.

The sword was a separate piece which plugged into a hole at the waist. It was in a scabbard, so no edge, with crossed straps at the top. I had to cut these off and try to get an edge on it. This all looked a bit ragged which is why it is splattered with dried blood to hide it.

I built up the head with green stuff, I must have had Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors in the back of my mind as this was the shape it was taking on. I had to cut the mouth back and re-do the lips to expose more of the teeth and gums.

The eyes are round headed pins, cut down to a short length and embedded in green stuff. At first I let them eyes sit at different depths but it looked rubbish so I took them out and started again. I made the hair with clumps of thin rolls of green stuff, lots of them. I added the ears and dangly bits.

I realised that the continues row of toes was wrong and clipped out the inner toes and sculpted new ones on the end. I cut off the ends of the fat claws and put brass rod in to sculpt new claws around. Then I incorporated the remaining original claw into the toe. I also bulked out the muscle in the legs to get the right proportion. I inserted more brass rod into holes in the back to build the spines around.

 

 

Hordes of the Things: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

 

 Monty Python and the Holy Grail was released in 1975, co-directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, and was later adapted into the musical Spamalot.

I have seen a HotT army for Monty Python's Life of Bryan in 15mm and I have long planned to do this one. Along the way some film specific miniature became available again and someone else beat me to it with their own 28mm HotT army. Still this is one of my favorite projects and has taken a lot of searching and converting to make.

Some of the figures are are from Studio Miniatures Medieval Mayhem range and are no longer available. They also did some shield transfers which I haven’t used.

Arthur, King of the Britons (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

Knight General                King Arthur, Sir Bedivere                               @ 2 AP                 1

Hero                                Sir Lancelot                                                      @ 4 AP                 1

Paladin                            Sir Galahad                                                       @ 4 AP                 1

Lurker                             Sir Robin and Minstrels                                    @ 1 AP                 1

Cleric                              Brother Maynard and Monks                            @ 3 AP                 1

Knights                           Sir Bors, Sir Ector and Sir Gawain                   @ 2 AP                 1

Blades                             Knights of Camalot                                           @ 2 AP                 2

Hordes                            Army of the Britons                                          @ 1 AP                 4

 

Alternatives:     Magician (Tim the Enchanter) @ 4 AP

Stronghold:        Camalot

 

King Arthur and Sir Bedivere, with their squires are a Knight General (Arthur is not very heroic in this version “run away, run away”). 

 

 Lancelot is a resin miniature, probably 3d printed and turned out to be very fragile. His squire, Concorde, may be familiar to any old Bretonian Warhammer players. He's having a lie down now, I've given him a beard, a big pack,and an arrow which refuses to show up in photos.

Galahad is a plastic Teutonic knight and the squire (not his own squire if you want to get pedantic) is under a dead cow.

Sir Robin (see above) and his squire are from Studio Miniatures, the minstrel is an old Citadel model.

The (singing and dancing) knights of Camalot are Blades. Some of these are old Citadel medieval that are now sold by Foundry.

On the left are the remaining Grail Knights, Ector, Gawain and Bors. Much freeze-framing reveals that one knight’s arms are never seen, while various sources including a licensed card game assign the Fish to both Gawain and Ector. Two of these are resin figures and both had needed their swords replaced before the first game.

 

Tim the Enchanger is from Studio Miniatures. Brother Maynard and co with the holy hand grenade are from various sources. The monk with the Book of Armaments was actually a nun before I got to work with the green stuff. 

The Hordes include some more old Citadel knights and a mixture of metal and plastic figures from different sources. The shield transfers are from Little Big Men, and there are some more I mislaid to attach later.

 

Enemies of King Arthur (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

Horde General                 King of Swamp Castle and Useless Guards       @1 AP                   1

Horde                               Maidens of Castle Anthrax                                @ 1 AP                  1

Blades                              Knights who say ‘Ni’                                         @ 2 AP                  1

Blades                              The French                                                          @ 2 AP                 1

Beast                                Beast of Caerbannog                                           @ 2 AP                 1

Flyer                                Catapulted and thrown livestock                         @ 2 AP                 1

Magician                          Old man from Scene 24                                      @ 4 AP                 1

Behemoth                         Black Beast of Arghh                                          @ 4 AP                1

Behemoth                         Three Headed Giant                                            @ 4 AP                1

Lurker                              Anarcho-Syndicalist Peasants                             @ 1 AP                 1

Water Lurker                   The Black Knight                                                @ 1 AP                 1

 

Alternatives: Horde (the Police) @ 1 AP

Stonghold: Stone Tower

 

The Enemies of Arthur are led by the King of Swamp Castle, along with his useless guards as a Horde General. The King is converted from the Citadel Grima Wormtounge model for Lord of the Rings. The police are can either be substituted for a Lurker, or could be saved as a replacement if the General is killed and resurrected as an ordinary Horde. The Maidens of Castle Anthrax are from various sources but include two Galadriels.

 

The French and the Knights who say Ni are all form Studio Miniatures.

The airborne livestock include a metal dead cow and  some plastic farmyard animals set from Warlord Games.

The Giant and the Black Beast of Arghh my biggest modelling challenge and I will post a short article on how I made them later.

The Beast of Caerbannog is surrounded by bones from a skeleton warriors set  that were too fragile to actually build as intended but are a useful source of bones.

The Old Man from Scene 24 (also known as the keeper of the bridge of death) is another Studio Miniatures model.

 The Anarcho-Syndicalist Peasants are dark age figures covered in green stuff and featuring a hand cart from Warbases.

The Black Knight is a Water Lurker. As he can be deployed on the table up to three times I have a different model for each time, with fewer limbs.