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Hordes Concept Artwork Rocks – Privateer Press’ Insider

By Zeb Barrett | January 18th, 2017 | Categories: Hordes, Privateer Press, Tabletop Gaming News & Rumors

horgle the anvil

Ever wondered what went on in the design stages of our miniatures? Check out the concept art and thoughts put into designing Horgle!

So much work goes in to the design of miniatures long before they hit production. Lets check out some of the stages involved.

Be sure to checkout the full article with all the artwork over on Privateer’s site

In this week’s Insider we get to take a look at Horgle, the Anvil. Concept artist Andrea Uderzo was tasked with updating Horgle’s original design, taking him from a journeyman warlock to a full-fledged ’caster. Our written description for this iteration of Horgle requested the following changes and additions:

-Horgle’s new look should represent a transition from a magic-using tradesman to a more prominent military leader. He should have a little more armor and fewer of the trappings of his trade as a blacksmith.
-Horgle is armed with a pair of melee weapons. These could be based on his original weapons or be all new. These are magical weapons that radiate with heat. They should be primarily made of metal.
-We need two poses for this model, a soft plastic version for the army box and an alternative metal version.

Andrea sent the following sketches, which all had elements that we liked:

horgle the anvil

At this point we decided that Horgle didn’t quite have the feel of a warlock yet in any of the sketches, so we began mixing up the bits we wanted, taking into account any production concerns and considering ways to give him the most visual impact on the table. In discussion we settled on the following figure elements and additions:

-Emphasize the nature of his fire-based abilities and add a swoosh of fire coming off of his sword and hammer.
-Use the head from Rough 1.
-Use the belt and upper torso armor from Rough 1.
-Use the gloves from Rough 2.
-Use the back from Rough 1.

I then sent that feedback off to Andrea with some quick sketches to help illustrate additional ideas, and I received this back:

From all that it goes though several design revisions up to the final product below:

If you’ve seen any of the previous concept art Insiders, you know the last step in this process before modeling and illustration is that I establish the paint scheme and color the concept art for the artist’s reference:

horgle the anvil

I hope you’ve enjoyed this truncated peek behind the curtain on Horgle’s visual development process.

To get some of the amazing miniatures for Hordes and Warmachine, head over to Privateer Press today!

About the Author: Zeb Barrett

I am a huge gamer from miniature war gaming, to board games, to video games. When I'm not hanging out with my son, I try to spend all of my free time gaming in some sort of way and broadcasting on Twitch with my wife. I also like to do some video editing and throw up videos on our YouTube. Come check us out live! Twitch.tv/ChaoticCouplesGaming YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmffaTgT__t0Uu2WFkfQjsA