CREATING PRINCE TUTENKHANUT

BY TY FINOCCHIARO

This article is one of the US Web Team's "Fleshing Out" series, which bring tiny
bits of the Warhammer world to life. Throughout the Codexes, Army books,
evocative Games Workshop imagery, and background material, countless
individuals and champions have been mentioned. Some of these heroes have been
given the royal treatment by the talented GW sculptors and realised in model
form for the tabletop. Others have not.

Ty: These Fleshing Out articles will be all about the characters that
may have a really interesting back story but never quite made it into
official model form. To bring these characters out of the shadows,
we'll challenge talented conversion artists and painters to model these
Ty Finnochiaro characters and show us how they did it. Of course, none of these
projects will be official in any way - each one will simply be an
individual's interpretation of how a previously unmodelled character would look. We
won't discuss stats or rules since the focus here is on modelling. We just want to
provide a fun way to get folks thinking about and then building unique models.

Alright, now that we know what this article is about, it's time to check out Prince
Tutankhanut. He had the honour of being the first character in the Fleshing Out series.
He is mentioned as a bit of background material (quoted below) on p. 65 of
Warhammer Armies: Tomb Kings. Ty Finocchiaro of the Black Gobbo crew
converted and painted this model. The thing that drew him to Tutankhanut was the
fact that the story mentions that the character has some sort of protective golden body.
That's rad. Also, as Tutankhanut was a skilled archer in life, Ty wanted to make a neat
staff for the model that could chuck bolts of energy instead of boring old arrows –
being a Tomb King does have its benefits, after all. Check out how Ty made this cool
conversion by following the links below.

Prince Tutankhanut was the only son of the wealthy King

Ahken of Numas and was famed throughout Nehekhara for
his handsome features. Tragically, the young Prince was
slain before he had even come of age at 15. He had been
hunting lions, for he was renowned as a particularly skilled
bowman, even when speeding along the plains on his war-
chariot. Separated from his hunting party, a crude spear
hurled by a savage northern tribesman smashed into his
chest and threw him from his chariot. Adored by his wealthy
father, Prince Tutankhanut was given an elaborate burial.
When the young King awoke from his death sleep he was Tutankhanut
horrified at his withered skeletal form. According to the
Nehekharan beliefs, in the afterlife, the Gods would bestow
each king with a body of gold. Tutankhanut was furious to
find this was not the case and demanded that his priests
fashion him such a body. When he arises from his tomb
resplendent in his golden body and death mask, the still
living people of Numas hearken to his call – they perceive
him as blessed by the Gods. When the Prince and his army
march to war, the people join behind the icon of
Tutankhanut as they march alongside their long-dead
ancestors to war. Tutankhanut has led his army to many
victories. Fighting in the thick of battle, his golden form
deflects even the most powerful attacks.

CREATING PRINCE TUTENKHANUT

BY TY FINOCCHIARO

Page: 1|2|3

Coming up with a plan to make this guy was kind of tough. I needed to somehow
create a metallic body or shell, keep the undead Tomb King look going, and avoid
adventuring too far into the realm of science fiction. I took the whole "golden body"
description to mean a really impressive suit of golden armour rather than a solid-gold
body. Therefore, the model would have a lot of armour and just a tiny bit of flesh
exposed (decrepit as it may be). With this approach, I could show the Prince's frail
body poking out of the armour and behind the decorative Death Mask.

After poking around in various Collector's Guides and catalogues, I decided that an
Eldar Guardian would provide a fine torso for the Prince. The Eldar torso has a nice
set of abdominals (thanks to a wraithbone ab-flex) that gives off a form-fitting armour
feel. For the lower body, Settra provided all I could ask for, and I figured Settra's arms
would do just fine as well. The rest of the model just fell into place after a bit of
research and fumblin' with various bitz.

Building Tutankhanut was fairly simple as he didn't require intense putty work or
resculpting. Just make sure you test fit everything before you commit, carefully
assemble the various bits, make your joins solid, and everything should turn out fine.
Below is a list of all the bits I used to make the model along with some photos that
detail the steps necessary should you wish to make this model for your own force. If
you need further help, see the reference page for large images of the assembled model
that show the details.

The Tutankhanut Conversion Kit

Eldar Guardian Sprue : 99380104001 Lord Settra Arm Sprue : 9947020711001
Tomb King Skeleton Sprue : 99380207003 Lord Settra's Body : 9947020711002
Tomb Kings Casket Vultures : Lord Settra Staff Arm : 9947020711003
9947020711611
Necron Destroyer Lord Staff 1 :
9947011001604

Separate the solid banner top Carefully clip this particular Position the banner top on
from the tattered cloth shield in two. Make sure you the shield bit like so, to form
wrappings. make a clean cut! the mask.

Cut poor ol' Settra in half and Carve a small hollow in the Glue the torso in place and
place the torso aside for pelvis so the torso bit will fit pin the vultures to the
another day. snugly, then add a pin. shoulders.

Add a pair of the grenade Fit the mask into place. It Drop a spare head (Zombie
belts from the Eldar should fit quite nicely against skulls are preferred) behind
Guardian sprue. the backpack. the mask.

Pin the head of the Necron Glue the right arm into place. Glue the left arm into place
spear to the tip of Settra's You might need pins and a and add the Eldar exhaust
weapon. tiny bit of putty. bitz to the back.

CREATING PRINCE TUTENKHANUT

BY TY FINOCCHIARO

Page: 1|2|3

Painting the model was fun because I got to use a lot of gold, and gold is pretty darn
easy to work with. Just slap a basecoat down, ink it, and the results are quite nice after
just a little touch-up work. From there, it was a matter of adding lapis lazuli details
(those are the turquoise gemstone areas) and painting the tiny sections of exposed,
rotting flesh. In the end, I had one mean Tomb King all set to terrorise the Old World
in his freakish "golden body".