Introducing…Master Crow

After posting the first part of my home-brew skirmish rules, currently entitled The Way of the Crow, which was introduced by the esteemed and dignified Master Crow, it occurred to me that I really should have a figure to represent him.

As those who had the dubious pleasure of meeting me in the flesh at Salute back in April will know, whilst I appear to be channelling Jack Dee’s voice, the person I most resemble is Sam the Eagle from The Muppet Show…

For those of you who were not able to attend Salute this year, I was given permission to re-publish the report compiled by the noted unnaturalist, Sir David Battenberg, who gives his thoughts on some of the attendees here.

As I appear to resemble this blue-hued patriot, and my online ID is Carrion Crow, it seemed obvious that I would use him as the spokes-crow for the rules. So, having spent some fruitless time scouring the internet I discovered that whilst you can buy figures of Sam, they’re all too big for my purposes. So, being a cunning and inventive bugger, it was off to my figure collection and bits box, to see if I had the necessary resources to enable me to create an approximation of ‘Master Crow’ in 28mm.

Having gone through my collection, I decided that this figure was the best fit:

This is one of the three Izumi Samurai that came with the original HeroScape boxed set. Of the three, it is my least favourite figure – the other two have more character and will be appearing on here during the current focus on Oriental fantasy, one as a samurai for Clan Karasu and the other as a member of the despicable Clan Chouda (boo!).

As I was not overly enamoured of this figure, I felt no compunctions in altering him to my needs…so I cut off his head. This went into my bits box, as I knew I’d have a use for it later. I then gouged out a hollow in the area of his neck, as I had a cunning plan…

When I previously visited Oriental fantasy back in August last year, I posed the question “Could you use a GW Kroot mercenary to create a figure of a Tengu?” The answer turned out to be ‘Yes’. Details of this conversion can be found here.

So having established that a Kroot head can pass for a Tengu, or other birdman of your choice, I selected one of the open-mouthed Kroot heads and cut off the rear ‘feathers’. I then filed down the back of the head until it was nice and rounded, filed the ‘neck’ of the head until it matched the hollow I had created earlier in the donor figure and glued it in place.

So far, so good. Now whilst the dark eyebrows which are a distinctive feature of Master Crow can be created using suitable layers of paint, his tufty hair was another matter. So I turned to my favourite item for creating hair on figures, the humble pipe cleaner. I’ve previously used this on both my Oriental dragon conversion and my Hulk to Oni conversion, and once painted, it does give the impression of shaggy locks, without the tedium of sculpting individual strands. I like easy…

Cutting a suitable length of the correct thickness (as my pipe cleaners are tapered), I bent this around the tip of a pair of needle nosed pliers, then glued it in the correct place on the back of his head. The end result is this.

So, now I have my very own Master Crow, who now only needs an appropriate paint job, and he will be ready to show everyone why he warrants the title ‘Master’.

Join me next time, when we’ll have more Oriental goodness of some description, as I juggle the many balls I have. I shall finish with an appropriate quote from Confucius:

“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”