Today we’re taking a look at a very special army: Cara Newby’s Mega-Gargants. Everything is heavily customised, everything is 100% GW parts and everything is magnificent. Over to you, Cara!

My name is Cara Newby, a woman from Scotland and I have been wargaming for over thirty years now, since the days of Rogue Trader and 1st Edition Fantasy Battle. Of course back then I was young and what I had to use was metal miniatures and model kit paints*, and over the years I have grown to love and adore the hobby side of wargaming more and more.

Taking a standard kit and transforming it into something unique and different really is my true love when it comes to wargaming, and while I do love playing as well, it seems that many people like my style as I have won quite a few awards for Best Painted Army in the Scottish AOS scene.

The Hobby side always has my mind thinking and cogs working away, so when I originally saw the Mega Gargants come out I knew that I wanted an army of them because with the sheer size of the model, the potential story I could tell with each model would be great indeed. I didn’t manage to get ahold of them till last year though (not too long after the expansion kit came out for King Brodd), but that just added more possibilities to the kits. So I came up with a concept, got a few more kits that I would need and dived right into my vast bitz boxes with gusto.

My Gargants are King Brodd’s harem, including his broodmate ‘Queen Brodd’ . The general idea is where else do Mancrushers come from but female Gargants, and who would have a whole group but the King himself? This particular group are from a jungle and so very tribal looking, with rough patches of skin, clothing, feathers, ropes, pieces of beasts and anything else they could scrounge. Their main unifying theme also comes along with their background. Wandering less than male Gargants, they wanted to form a lair, so they found a very large cave and evicted the current tenants by killing them, who just happened to be giant Arachnarok spiders . The little forest goblins that lived alongside the spiders (with typical goblin loyalty) saw something bigger and scarier than the spiders, and so instantly started worshiping the Gargants instead.

So was born the idea and concept. I strongly believe that it’s a great idea to have such a concept before engaging on such a project as it can bring you back to what you originally wanted when you start going down the rabbit hole of bits boxes. So what I would suggest for anyone embarking on any conversion/kitbash or scratch building idea is to have a rough idea of theme and concept in mind, but not to get too frustrated if you can’t make it perfect. We are all limited by access to parts, bits and budget. Luckily over the years I have grown a massive bits collection as a few of my good friends (such as Mark Roberts) have a habit of picking up armies, building them and then in time selling them. Then I tend to get the leftover bits from their not-needed sprue, which suits me just great.

I also have a habit of being able to look at general household items, pieces of random plastic, wood, string and other random bits and see beyond what they are and envision that I could perhaps find a need for them in modeling. A healthy supply of actual hobby materials such as the line of products sold by Gale Force 9 doesn’t go amiss either. For example in my Gargants I used not only both Gargants kits, but also several Arachnarok kits, the Skaven Screaming Bell, Chaotic Beasts, the Kruleboyz Vulcha kit, various shields/weapons from various races, parts from Soulblight kits, Gloomspite Troggoths and Goblins (plus many more Games Workshop kits), wood from terrain lizard tanks, tough shrink-wrap plastic from work, Greenstuff, Miliput, leaf litter, laser-cut plants and water effects to name but a few items.

But most of all, time and patience.

It took me about a month to convert and create all the Gargant ladies and there were many hours of dry fitting various parts of kits and looking through bits boxes, and ordering a few kits here and there for pieces that I just needed, but once primed the results I feel were worth it.

I was very happy how they turned out and as a group of four I felt they really helped make the theme. Even if the prospect of sawing and cutting up such expensive kits can be daunting, with practice you can have faith in yourself to see it through. I wouldn’t suggest starting right off with such things; if you’re new to converting, start small and build up.

Then of course came the painting and as crazy as it sounds, I painted one to get a feel of my colour scheme working, then batch painted the other three all at the same time. Yes, that’s batch painted three Mega Gargants, with all the layers of paint, washes, inks, enamels and oils. Then based them all in one go. I did this to get more of a consistent palette as many of the colours used were not quite standard ones and from many different makers combined, so it just helped keep them unified, while all being unique from each other.

I was particularly proud of how the details of the forest goblins/small spiders hanging onto each Gargant. I felt that the Voodoo-esque style really stood out well when painted, with body paint on each lady, and reused body parts from the Arachnaroks and other beasts again helping to keep the story together for them. The Headdress on ‘Queen Brodd’ shown above is from a Kruleboyz Vulture head, plus wings from the Chaotic Beasts kit (yes, I bought one whole kit to make a single headdress).

Now of course it’s not all building and painting and putting them in a glass cabinet. I have used them on the table top in a fair few tournaments, and to great success and fun. Gargants I find can be a nice palette cleanser in contrast to my normal horde armies, and I have ended up with some very funny moments, such as when I faced an army of Mancrusher Gargants (because it felt like it was four mothers chasing their kids around trying to get them to school), or when I headlocked and body flipped Skarbrand away from another Bloodthirster to remove him from an aura, and so was able to kill them both in one turn.

So in conclusion, I would say: Don’t be scared to just embrace the hobby, experiment and have fun! Let your imagination run wild but also have that strong theme to pull you back into your original idea. Take your time and don’t rush, good things take time.

I have been asked a few times to do video tutorials and demonstrations of converting and who knows, maybe one day I will start a channel.

But for now: Keep converting, experiment and enjoy your hobby as it is yours and if you like it, then it’s a win.

[Blows a kiss and smiles], Cara Newby

(P.S Thank you to my boyfriend and leader of Farmhammer team, Grant Fraser, for a lot of the pictures of my Ladies).

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* For anyone who didn’t live through that era: it was these things, designed to paint these things. They were crap, but they were what we had to work with.

~Pete

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