Showcase: Ahazra Redth, The Dust Prophet

Full disclosure: Before I was asked to do this mini I had no idea this special character even existed.

One of the most prolific contributors to DakkaDakka contacted me a few weeks ago. We had been chatting on the site a few times, he follows my plog on there and said he wanted a piece for his army done by me. He must be the most dedicated Mantis Warriors modeller and player on the planet. They're a pretty cool bunch and he did them in all shades, forms, sizes and variants. His plog really is worth checking out, just look up Mantis Warriors on Dakka. Excellent stuff.

The plan was to model Ahazra Redth, the Mantis Warriors' Chief Librarian. His thing is divination and camouflage, which makes him a master tactician and a valuable asset to his chapter. The customer's idea was to model him conjuring up a little 'dust devil' (very interesting little exercise in sculpting. Repositioning the hand and fingers wasn't much of a problem either). We threw a few ideas back and forth and he ended up sending me a whole lot of bits to convert this guy from. Of course you can see the base model used and there actually were rather few modifications (because it's just such a bloody cool model in itself.).

Ahazra Redth's trademark piece of equipment is the Talisman of Sundred Souls, a gorget within which lie shards of Wraithbone. Of course gorget can mean a lot of things. To represent the name 'talisman', to underline the ancient and mythical nature of the piece and not to mess up that really cool Mk.IV helmet on him I decided not to make it a gorget in the sense of neck armour but instead  shape it more like an ancient Irish gorget worn around the neck.

The last thing I had to change was giving him a Force Sword. Done. I hope you like the guy!