Before Kithguard hit the battlefield, they first took shape in the sculpting studio. Today, our lead sculptor, Russ Charles, takes us behind the scenes of Southern Kriels Kithguard’s creation.

Crafting the Kithguard models

Hi! I’m Russ, lead sculptor at Steamforged Games. My role is to guide the sculpting process and coordinate the talented pool of 3D artists we work with to bring our miniatures to life. 

I’m also a long-time Warmachine player, and have been a trollbloods ride-or-die since falling in love with Gunnbjorn’s model early in Mark II. So, the chance to work on a new trollblood army that blends Mark II callbacks with a new aesthetic was music to my ears!

Our approach to creating models is collaborative. Different teams work together so that visual design, lore, and, of course, gameplay, are crafted in parallel, to make sure the army has a cohesive identity. We’ll start with the initial pitch, the concept art, and the essential high-level identity of an army, and interrogate those with a series of questions to unlock the direction.

For Kithguard, the pitch was strong: “trollbloods, but war movie” is instantly evocative. The concept artwork delivered by Andreas was also stellar, so we had plenty of exciting material to work with. Some of the questions we asked were:

• How do we streamline the art to deliver clean, strong models that are fun to paint?

• What can we do to convey the models' narrative and lore?

• Are the designs cohesive in their storytelling and look?

• Are there any wider game objectives we can fulfil? 

From here, we knew we wanted the following:  

• Strong silhouettes 

• A reduction in unnecessary small details that can make units a chore to paint

• A blend of military uniformity and ragtag individualism

• Reference to the history of Kithguard, their kriel-kin forebears, and the reality of their circumstances now

With this in mind, I began with this excellent set of infantry designs from Andreas. Then, I set about creating a set of ‘maquette’ models of a basic male and female trollblood grunt, and one of a generic pygmy troll grunt. 

This lets us test our translation of concept elements as sculpted, scale designs, exploring what works and what doesn’t in a controlled way. It makes feedback between Mat Hart, Warmachine’s Creative Director, and myself, efficient. The approved maquettes can also then serve as a benchmark and library of assets for our sculpting team, ensuring visual consistency across the army and giving every artist a clear direction to work from.

Maquettes, muscles, and model language

Our maquettes also let us to establish a solid anatomical standard for trollblood models going forward. Whilst we can deviate from this to show different builds and body types, this baseline is helpful as it unifies a physiology that’s been variable over the years. We want variety, but we want it to be intentional and purposeful, so a strong baseline is very handy!

It also led to a discovery in the sculpting process. I intended to use a scaled-down variant of the Kithguard helmet on the pygmy trolls, only to find their heads are considerably larger than those of their bigger cousins.

From the male maquette’s basic parts, I then sculpted Sgt Craghorn. His visuals so perfectly capture the army’s identity, making him a natural choice to explore the design language of the models. This nailed our overall look and reinforced the benchmarks for interpreting elements of the concept art, such as runestones or troll quills. One of our sculpting artists also put together a basic ‘mass study’, so our dire trolls had some nice proportional consistency. 

With Craghorn to serve as the face, and some great benchmark models in place, we looked at each piece of concept art to see if there were any opportunities to get a little extra value from the sculpt. Interpreting 2D art into 3D models opens up different possibilities.

For example, with the Jungle Troll, we determined the design allowed the model's head options to each look in a different direction. This seems minor, but the eyeline of a miniature is the dominant factor in establishing what we naturally see as the ‘front’. So, by changing the eye-line angle, the natural way to place each Jungle Troll option adjusts their ‘front’ facing, increasing visual distinction between the model’s configurations. 

Getting Gunnbjorn back in action

Another great example is General Gunnbjorn. This was a bucket list opportunity to work on the character that got me into Warmachine, so I immediately laid claim to sculpting that model myself.

When we reviewed his concept art, one thing that stood out was his General’s field dress with an Officer’s hat and heavy coat. It looks incredibly cool, but felt out-of-keeping for a character in a tropical environment. 

So, I pitched a wardrobe change that returned Gunnbjorn to his classic field kit from his first incarnation. Keeping everything in harmony, the rules team then reworked his weapon loadout to incorporate his classic bazooka, all the better to support this visual direction!

The final story we highlighted through sculpting was a lore-inspired visual spotlight on what it means to be Kithguard. Their reliance on salvaged equipment tells a sad tale; this is the most structured and organised a trollblood military force has ever been, yet it still relies on the scraps of other battles most factions would regard as junk. 

This meant a couple of things. At an army-wide level, we wanted to retain the characterful and rich look of trollbloods, with nods to their origins via tartan and kilt-like sashes. We also wanted to reflect their difficult history by keeping comedic flourishes restricted to the pygmy trolls, who serve as excellent visual foils for this, whilst keeping the mainline trollbloods and full-blood trolls feeling grittier and more grounded. 

And finally, it meant a dive into archived concept art all the way back to Warmachine’s inception to compile a reference library of the classic weapons being used as salvage. Most, if not all, of these weapons pre-date digital sculpting, and so needed to be recreated with the fidelity available through modern tools, but with accuracy and care to evoke their hand-crafted ancestors.

Bringing Kithguard to life has been a fantastic process, and I am very proud of the work done, not just by the sculptors on the models, but the whole team. I’m confident in saying Southern Kriels Kithguard look, feel, and play in a way that’s unique, accessible and full of potential.

I hope this dive into some of the thinking behind the creation of Southern Kriels Kithguard models has been interesting, and I look forward to discussing the next, very different, army’s visual identity with you. If you found this interesting or have any questions, please do share them in the Warmachine Discord or Facebook group.