Scratch-built Squiggoth/Squigadon

Squiggoths have always been some of my favourite Warhammer creatures. The official sculpts are great (if somewhat expensive), but I've been wanting to build one from scratch for a long time. The miniature I'm presenting today was built in spring/summer of 2017 and is still one of my favourite projects ever.

A lot of great custom-built Squiggoths can be found on the web. Some use existing miniature kits as a basis (e.g. War Mumak, Stonehorn, Stegadon, Maw-Krusha), while others opt for the cheaper option: toy animals. Viable creatures include dinosaurs, elephants, hippos and rhinos. Another toy that is often used is the Star Wars Reek, which looks quite similar to a Squiggoth even without any modifications.

For my conversion, I decided to use a toy hippo, as hippos have quite an orcy appearance and I did not want my Squiggoth to look too reptilian. After some research I found a great sculpt that was large enough and made from durable plastic:

Safari Ltd. Wildlife Wonders Hippopotamus 111889

I'm not the first one to use this particular model as a basis for a Squiggoth conversion, in 2009 Kleiner Zorn transformed it into a stomping monster for his 40k Orks. My approach was a bit different, as I wanted to depict a Squiggoth in a fantasy setting like AoS. As a side note, Squiggoths actually exist in the Age of Sigmar, as mentioned in the Rogue Idol warscroll:

When greenskins gather for war, their Shamans build mighty idols of Gorkmorka. Some are formed from the rubble of the Orruks’ recent conquests, mortared with noxious Squiggoth dung. Others are built using strange stone quarried in the deep places of the realms, or even incorporate volatile shards of realmstone or shadeglass within their lumpen forms.

I started my conversion project by making a simple draft using good old Microsoft Paint:

My modifications were pretty straightforward: First I cut off the snout and ears and I sculpted a smaller snout from greenstuff to make it look more like a Squiggoth and less like a hippo. After that I sculpted the tusks, the horn and some absurdly large teeth and added them to the model. The last step was to sculpt orcier claws as well as a club-like tail to complete the appearance of an enormous squiggly beast.

 

The paint job was quite simple - Chaos Black primer, Castellan Green base coat, Elysian Green highlight, Athonian Camoshade, Nurgling Green drybrush. The howdah was made from wooden coffee stirrers which I shaded with Seraphim Sepia. Of course I had to add some orcy bitz - the skull and the small evil sunz icons are from the WHFB Orc warriors kit, while the large icon on the back is from the Ironguts kit.

Another Squiggoth is currently in the pipeline, ready to get painted - hopefully it won't be too long until it gets featured here.