When I got the GCPS troopers I wanted to review, I also received a a frame of Kings of War/Firefight Butchers as well. I had no intention of touching anything Nightmares-related, but here I am. Behold, my experiences in making three very different Butcher builds.
This guy is the traditional Butcher – just like your grandma used to make. As an interdimensional horror born from our literal nightmares, it’s very modest, very demure in that he has a loincloth to cover his probably-nonexistent genitals and ass.
It’s a five-piece kit: you can choose and pose the head, and then add the left leg and both arms. Butchers, as intended, can be built with one actual, non-mutated arm – the left one. The right one is either tentacles (like pictured) or two arms (also kinda like pictured).
Ravagers are identical to Butchers, but they get a weird maw for their right hand. I decided to do something more interesting and use the leftover arms to put maws on his left arm and leg.
I suppose everyone can see that the maws aren’t meant to be there. You’ll need greenstuff so as not to leave gaps where limbs join the torso in a way they were never want to. But I wanted to something fun rather than having the Graham Cracker official build.
The last build is a Norse monstrosity, some ancient warrior awakened to kill once more. Or it’s just the logical result of draugr training. As befitting an undead monster, it’s has the corpse-like blue tongue, some runes on his skin, and a mystical eye on the leather hood covering his face. I’ve painted the tentacles and horns as blonde hair, and I think it works.
The non-mutated right arm is what happens when you don’t add the silly little mutated arm that’s meant to go in the armpit. You could see if you looked from under the mini, but why would you do that?
I tried to make the bones sticking out of his back look bloody – these things just happen to undead musclemen. Whether I succeeded is another question.
His base is also adorned with a rock and a gravestone/rune stone that were included in the frame. Having some fitting basing materials come with the model is really neat!
Outside of having some issues with the moldlines – especially on the back – the only real issue with the Butchers kit is the lack of head variety. They may have different expressions, but they’re all so uniform. If you’re trying to be Spawns or something else equally random, it will definitely show.
So there you have it, Mantic Butchers for Kings of War!