Three weeks ago, I put up a post asking what people’s opinions were on how I should rebase this stone thrower, originally painted a hell of a long time ago. Feedback both here and on Dakka was overwhelmingly in favour of round, (as well as my own preference) and so that’s what I did. Unusually in some ways for me, I’ve actually got a follow-up with the finished goods – in no small part due to the “get this stuff finished and outta here” kick I’ve been on lately.

Iron Claw Stone Thrower – Fear the gaze!

Something I never bothered with back in the day was to paint or even glue on the shields on the front. Something I rectified this time. It took awhile to figure out what to paint on them, which accounted for at least a week of the painting time – in the end I went for “realistic” Red Eyes, given that they can work well enough for either Warhammery goblinoids or the vassals of the Dark Lord Sauron. They also have a suitably “old-school” feel to tie in with the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Third Edition feel of the model – and really create an entirely new, really strong focal point for the model, as we naturally look people and “things” in the eyes. I toned down the original Goblin Face masthead slightly by going over the bright red-orange “sideburns” I’d painted originally with some copper/bronze, though I left the rest of it in the green it was originally painted in, just adding some darkness at the base of the horns.

Iron Claw Stone Thrower – rear view.

I also toned down some of the other stuff, like the blue padding on the crossbar, and brightened up the brass metal areas a little as well. I left the bright goblin-face filigree and decoration untouched. As per some of the suggestions, I added some ammo to the base, and some static grass and tufts to make it into a slight mini-diorama – and also left some spaces for crew – though as you can see, the Orcs you see here don’t entirely fit on the base. I used a spare Mierce base I had sitting around since it was more or less the right size and had some kind of direction/facing markings on it, to help mark out the 90 degree front firing arc for KoW.

Oldhammer Orcs crew the Iron Claw Stone Thrower

Some of these Orc crewmen were in semi-painted limbo for years until 2014 when they got finished, others were originally painted over a decade ago. They’ll work as stand-ins for now, since I think I threw away the original Bob Olley goblin crewmen.

“I fink dey’re over dere?” Oldhammer Orcs load Bob Olley’s Stone Thrower

Not dat way, you idiots.. dis way!

Ultimately, I’m very happy with the way this one turned out. It’s the best kind of update, really. Taking a model that I had considered an old piece of junk that I pretty much disliked, and turning it into something that I actually actively like. The last major example of this was Golfag’s Ogres, who had a similar kind of update last year.