Stingwing – Cockatrice of Chaos

My teenage Orc and Goblin army featured a Night Goblin shaman on Cockatrice.  I’ve sold the bulk of the army, but hung onto the Cockatrice out of sentimentality.  Bulking out my Frostgrave Chaos into a Dragon Rampant force demanded a fantastic monster, so this mythological bird resurrected itself from the ashes.

cockatrice-in-4e-warhammer

The wings on my Orc and Goblin Cockatrice weren’t the original MM44 ones, but had been nicked from an High Elf Dragon.  I replaced these original replacements with a pair of 15mm Demonworld dragon wings.  Since I was converting the figure with non-Citadel parts, I figured I’d swap the rather dull tail with a scorpion one from the Dark World Manticore.

Cockatrice IngredientsThe Cockatrice torso showing his original yellow paintjob.  He was known as “Lemon Chicken”.

I did plan on him having a Chaos rider, and tried every single mounted Chaos figure in my collection.  However, anything bigger than a weeny Night Goblin shaman looked ridiculous, and the wings and neck all obscure the rider.  So Stingwing is an unbound monster, which also means he’s easier to legitimately field in Age of Sigmar.

cockatrice-rough-assemblage
Chicken stripped.

Attaching the Demonworld wings, and at a different angle to the original MM44 wings, required hacking away the sockets on the torso and some heavy pinning.  I used three layers of putty to first fill the gaps, then sculpt muscles, and then add fur.

cockatrice-snapped-wing

In my efforts to bend the old lead wings into curved shapes I managed to break the left one straight in half.  The metal along the split crumbled, and I had a pig of a time trying to reattach it.  I managed it with pins in the only two places that joined, and a good amount of putty.  Luckily the membranes had very little sculpted detail so my repairs are barely visible.

Anyways, here’s the finished beastie! I went with a mainly flesh, and ran the warband’s signature red colour onto the comb, wattles and scorpion tail.

cockatrice-isolated

chaos-cockatrice-with-thugs

Cockatrice breaks through a clearing in Mourningwood.

Sadly I have no good photos of the six-way Dragon Rampant game from the Knavecon weekend – I’d borrowed sho3box‘s selfie-stick and only managed photographs of my own arm.

superman-socks
Put in black and white, however, this looks intentionally arty. And you can’t see my Superman socks clashing with the hotel carpet.

The monsters is also an iconic Dungeon and Dragons monster, and will be featuring in some upcoming adventures!

chaos-cockatrice-with-thugs

Pazyryk  Banefire and the Thugs in the Matityahu Temple.

Curis

Curis has painted for Games Workshop, Forge World, Warlord Games, Mantic Games, Avatars of War, Wargames Foundry, Studio McVey and many others. He's won at Golden Demon and Salute. He publishes monthly painting tutorials on Patreon.

10 thoughts on “Stingwing – Cockatrice of Chaos

  • June 28, 2017 at 8:13 am
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    You’ve breathed new life into that funky old chicken :D bravo! Go petrify some fools with an airborne stone gaze attack! Pew pew!

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    • June 28, 2017 at 9:04 am
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      Thanks again for the name “Mourningwood”.

      Reply
  • June 28, 2017 at 9:41 am
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    What an excellent resurrection – that’s the way to take a tired old mini and enhance it beyond the original limitations. Fleshy pink is also nice on a big bird.

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    • June 28, 2017 at 10:01 am
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      Thanks! The original yellow did make it look like a character from Sesame Street.

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    • June 29, 2017 at 12:29 am
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      Thanks! One day my red Chaos army may match yours in size.

      Reply
  • June 29, 2017 at 1:30 pm
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    Very nice indeed though I am a little bit disappointed you didn’t reprint him bright yellow and red. ;)

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    • June 29, 2017 at 3:22 pm
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      Plenty of yellow paintjobs underway with my upcoming Bad Moons. Waaaagh.

      Reply
  • June 29, 2017 at 7:52 pm
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    Thats lovely, all the more so considering the engineering involved.

    “Mourningwood” Ha ha!

    Are you using that? Because if you are not, then I want to steal it.

    Reply
  • June 30, 2017 at 9:53 am
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    You’re welcome to my Mourningwood.

    Actually, originally Captain Crooks gave it to me.

    Reply

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