AoS Kharadron Gunhauler - Grubhauler & Bait Crew

Description

This is my third entry into the #T4W #8thWonderofGhur project, and my last full unit of 2018! A Grubhauler is one of the bait ships used when hunting Skysails. Operated by a 2-3 person crew, these fast and maneuverable vessels get painted and illusoried to look like a tasty treat and fly with other prey animals in the aether streams and lure the epic scale fish into a trap. Grubhaulers are also used as skiffs when replenishing supplies at dock, or in distractionary tools during sky-faring battles. The Grubhauler is one of the most versatile and oft used ships in Admiral Sailfin’s fleet.

Pictures

Build & Paint

This build starts with the 40k Drukhari Venom chassis and driver. The harpoon is from a Skycutter kit, as are the arms holding it. I used the gunner from the Drukhari Raider kit to be leaning back and firing the harpoon. As this is a work vessel, I added gribblies like rope, leather straps, and even the packing fur/canopy underneath. Interestingly the ogor stonehorn kit gave me most of those bits, including the barrels that they use as bombs.

Given how lithe they are, I wasn’t able to fill as much space as the duardin counterpart. I had some thoughts on having the ship pulling a large ‘chum’ of some sort, but didn’t take it that far, but may add that later. Alternatively, had I mounted this more sideways with the fins angled vertically, it could perhaps fit the size more.

The fins! These are definitely the focus of these sky-ships. Scratch-built from expanded pvc foam, plastic rod, and plasticard. The pvc foam carves rather nicely and can be highly machined or left organic. I wanted a mechanical joint to give it some ‘technology’ but then used a batwing membrane configuration like a Leonardo DaVinci drawing to keep it fantastical. The fin pattern of the fish scale had to be painted on as I’d tried a number of things to give it real texture, in the end painting it gave me the visual affect i was looking for. I may go lighter across the board to show more ‘drying’ of the fin.

Here’s what I used in the build:

Drukhari Venom Kit - The main body of the Grubhauler and the riders.
Ogor Mawtribes Stonehorn - the back fur bit made a great undercarriage sling as well as leather straps.
WHF High Elf Lothern Skycutter Chariot - Bolt thrower on the back.
40k Knights - Armiger gears on the wing hubs.
Expanded PVC Sheet - cut and shaped for the mast and booms.
Plastic Rod - for the sail veins, whittled to a point at the end to feel like fishbone.
Plasti-card - for the sails and some of the ship’s hull. I used clear plasticard thinking I could make them semi-transparent, but that wasn’t the case.
Aluminum Rod - for pinning and mounting to the rock.
Floral wire - twisted with a drill to make rope which I used everywhere to really sell the fantasy and sailing aspect of the piece. This ended up being my favorite discovery of this project.
Green Stuff - here and there; jewels, eyes, gap filler.