Fimir - Seanchaí

After a bit of a dry spell I have another fimir for you today. Tadhg, Seanchaí of the Fir Domhan. (The Fomorian Wayfarer from Krakon Games) He's a human size fimir, and is unlike many fimir-style models as he looks more of a wanderer than a warrior, despite his long spear.

I've been looking forward to painting him for a while. I decided to take my new Raphael series 8404 brushes on a bit of a test drive with him, so I added a spot of freehand to his cloak.

They are really nice brushes. They keep their point very well, and hold a nice volume of paint. I had been reduced to painting with scraggly ruins until they arrived, so it was a delight to have new brushes. I best not leave it so long next time. 

Here's Tadhg's backstory:

Tadhg is a welcome sight among the settlements of the Fir Domhan. He often appears around times of festival or celebration, but also times of mourning or ceremony. He is a Seanchaí, or storyteller, a custodian of tradition and keeper of heritage. He is also quite the gossip, and carries news and goings on from village to village. A master orator, his tales of heroism and tragedy are much loved by the fimir, though he is a frequent visitor to the human villages of the Tuatha Taiden as well.

He carries a long heavy spear, though in truth it seems to be more staff than weapon. More famous yet is his cloak, the Eagna Mac Tíre. Cut from wolfskin, it is heavily tattooed with beasts, heroes and passages written in Fimar, the written language of the fimir, which shift and change to compliment whatever tale or speech Tadhg is giving. 

Tadhg is not a tall fimir, and is, indeed, of the shearl class. In fact, he is quite rotund, being given to enjoying the constant hospitality offered to him. Despite this, he enjoys the respect and deference of even the dirach and the nobles of the Fianna. The Seanchaí is a sacred office, and to bring harm or disrespect to one is the most terrible offence.

Tadhg's tales are of the past, the present, and on occasion, the future. He presides over matters of custom and gives eulogy over the dead. He recounts to the fimir of the wrongs done to them, and reminds them of the deeds of heroes and villains long gone.

Then he is off on his way, and days are counted until he returns again.

For gaming purposes, Tadhg will count as a minor magic user or lesser hero. I'm adding s few characterful fimir at the moment so I can build up a nice warband for Warcry, Frostgrave and so on. I have a daemonmaniac coming up that'll work for any larger ogre-sized beastie I might need.

Elatha and Fedelmid catch up on the news as they escort Tadhg into the Ráth.

Fimir - Jes Goodwin's Limited Edition Fimir

Aah, a return to one of my absolute favourite factions, the fimir! I've been promising myself I'd get around to painting Jes Goodwin's 1987 Limited Edition fimir for years, and finally, here he is. May I present Elatha, Fian of the Warped (Na Buile). I have several bucket list minis I have decided to take on this year, this being the fist.

The fimir were always intended to be roughly human sized, as this fellow is. The reasons they ended up the size of ogres is already well documented already. This rare treasure though, is the archetype as far as I am concerned.

It's been a few years since I painted a fimir, so as you do, I tinkered with my recipes a little. I altered the skin, toning down the yellow and replacing my highlight colour, Elf Flesh, for a less yellow tone, Flayed One Flesh. I also added more green to the bronze. I'm pretty happy with the results.

I also had a go at making the club tail quite dark, and blending it into the flesh tone. It gives him a little more visual interest, so I think I'll keep that for now. Elatha is the first member of a new unit of fimm, the Warped. These are fimir that suffer from battle frenzy, and enter into the warp spasm in battle. There will be a lot of weird mutations and so on. I have a couple of larger daemonmaniacs I'll be adding to this unit as unit fillers as well as serving as larger beasties in warbands.

I am finishing off a second fimir right now, of a very different type. A Seanchaí, a wandering storyteller. He'll be for adding to warbands for Frostgrave and Warcry. I plan on proxying the fimir as Bonesplitters in Warcry I think.

Speaking of warbands, here is Elatha, serving as Fian in Fedelmid the Dirach's warband.

Fedelmid leads his fimm and half-dead in search of transgressors.

Krakon Games - Multi Part Fomorians (Fimir)

Recently Krakon Games were kind enough to send me some sample of their new multi-part fomorians from their successful kickstarter.

Krakon has made fomorians before, warriors, spellcasters and so on, but this particular set has me pretty excited. Why? Well, as you can see, the fomorians bear a startling resemblance to my favourite cyclopenans bog-dwellers, the fimir. There are very few large (ogre sized) fimir available unless you go hunting for the original range, or pick up the Forge World offerings. Even then though, there aren't too many variants. These fellas change that.

Krakon had quite a few nice stretch goals in this kickstarter. Shields, trident hands, new tails, new bodies, new heads, command hands, tathlum hands (a concrete ball on a chain for throwing) severed head hands, whips hands, sickle hands and loads more.

So what this has done is given fimir fans and players options. Command models for starters. Ranged units. Heavy infantry, nobles, spears and so on. I had a little play with the parts I got. Bear in mind this is only a small selection of the full range.

Tathlum and Hand Weapon: I really like this option, it allows for a sensible ranged unit for the fimir. This guy has a sword as well, to employ once the ball has been thrown. As these are resin you can easily bend the chain to change the pose and make it more dynamic.

Tathlum and Shield: This is the option I'd probably go for. I like the idea of a unit of six fianna fimm launching these in at close range, arrows skidding off the massive shields. All of these examples are on 40x40mm resin bases (not included).

Spear: Perhap a light unit of fianna, scouts of skirmishers.

Pick and Shield: Using the same body, we have a noble with hand weapon and shield. There are several armoured and unarmoured heads.

Tathlum, Sword and Shield: Another tathlum throwing fianna fimm with his shield across his back.

This is five minutes of playing with only a small selection of the new multi-part fomorians. The kickstarter is now funded, but I'm sure if you contact Krakon they might add you as a late pledge or some-such. They're great to deal with. They had a load of add-ons as well, such as oozes, mimics and grudges (undead fomorians).

So, rejoice fimirian lovers, for large scale variety is yours!

Krakon Games - Conand, Master of Tor Innis

What's this? It's been a while since the one-eyed fellows have stopped into the Mumblings. I have a few on the painting table at the moment, this being the first fellow I've completed. It's nice to be adding a few new models to the army.

This is Conand, a Fomorian from Krakon Games' latest kickstarter, Creatures of the Night: Wrath of Cichol. Ross was kind enough to send me an early copy of Conand to paint, knowing my deep interest in cyclopean bog dwellers. Conand is only one of a range of Celtic-inspired monsters that Krakon plan on releasing off the back of this and subsequent kickstarters. You can check Krakon out here.

He's a multi-part resin model with separate arms and tail. I based him on a 40mm square scenic base as he is of the larger variety of... Fomorians. It felt  little odd using a square base I must admit, but all my fimir are based on squares, so that's that.

He was great fun to paint. I gave Conand my standard fimir colour scheme, adding a little freehand in the form of tattoos and embroidery on the hem of his kilt to match my existing characters. He doesn't have too much intricate detail either, though getting in under his tail took a little bendy brushwork. I gave him a leather shirt and greaves as he looks like he likes to get in there and use that dagger.

I adjusted my skin recipe slightly, adding a little more elf flesh to the highest highlights before glazing with sepia. I'm down to the dregs in my pot of Gryphonne Sepia, so I'll have to upgrade to the new wash shortly.

Now, I'll be using Conand as a dirach in my Fir Domhan army. His story is thus:

Dirach - Fedelmid
Fedelmid is a stoic young dirach. He serves Solkan, the God of Law, with utmost devotion. He is a Brithem, or judge, and is the supreme arbitrator of the law among the Fir Domhan, bar Morgayne herself. It is Fedelmid's duty to enact the will of Solkan without fear or favour, and he has been gifted with absolute impartiality by his patron. 

Morgayne also employs Fedelmid as an assassin of some skill. His magical powers allow him to pass unheard and unseen, no small feat for a dirach of the Fianna. His skills with a blade mean no enemy of the fimir is safe once they have been condemned by the council and thereby by Solkan himself. There have been many and more slights to the Fir Domhan settled through the judicious use of Fedelmid's sacrificial dagger.

Myeri Tiarna - Alan Lee's Fomorian

For today's post, I've returned to a favourite subject of mine.

This handsome fellow is a Myeri Tiarna by Geoff Sims, from the forthcoming Myeri Clan box for The Woods: Legends of Shandisholm (due out August, it looks like it's going to be a beautiful book). He's armed with a Snaghyrn and based on Alan Lee's Fomorian painting. You can find Oakbound here, and their Facebook page here. Anyone who has any interest in the Fimir or Celtic fantasy should really check it out. The background of the Myeri is fascintating, and anyone who loves the fimir will love this as dearly.

The original Alan Lee painting.

The Alan Lee Fomorian is somewhat chubbier than the Tiarna, and the colour scheme is quite different, as I've painted him to match my own clan. It's very nice to have a model based on this painting, the great grand-daddy of them all.

In my own clan this fellow will be Murdach, a noble of the Fir Domhan. Having a more human size noble gives me someone to lead my fimm, and as they are due to go raiding in about a fortnight, he couldn't arrive at a more opportune time.

I painted his cloak Hawk Turquoise to match the other high ranking fimir in the army, and added some freehand detail along the bottom to increase his bling yet further. His bronze has had some verdigris added. He might be a noble, but he still lives in a bog. 

Painting the Tiarna has given me some mojo for adding to the Fir Domhan. There's a Myeri bagpiper around here somewhere...

Fimir - Swampy Pools

I decided to take a little tiny break from the cult in order to paint up some fimir themed scenery. Partially for my army display board, and partially for the fimir terrain set. I had ordered a pile of these from Wargamma, where they are listed as lava pools. Like a lot of gamers, I have a dearth of water scenery. Pools, rivers etc. These were quick to paint up, and filled a hole in the terrain set. I have another two sets, and with nine of these and some dead trees and the odd menhir I reckon that'll do nicely to represent the bleakmoors of Albion.

Curs'd Ettin - Finished

The athach is a monster from Celtic myth which basically means 'giant'.

After some weeks of effort, the ettin is finally finished. He was a very enjoyable model to work on that taught me a ton about painting larger models. He was my first forge world model, and I can agree that these are kits intended for the more experienced modeller. But the detail on the sculpt is amazing, and worth the extra effort.

Planning how to assemble and paint his loin cloth took military organisation. Pins had to be drilled where each section of the garment was going to be glued on. The four sections were then painted off the model, as there was no way to reach all the recesses if it was assembled fully before painting. Down that road lies insanity. Once the parts were painted they were glued to the pins so that they lined up exactly. Then I had to greenstuff the gaps between the sections, (greenstuffing an otherwise finished model is not for the carefree) and paint those. Finally, add goat. Actually, I added the goat to give him more of a sense of scale, as there are no indicators on the model that he's a giant. For the same reason I added the multitude of tattoos and the dead horse and orc skull to the base.

His rules are in monstrous arcana, and are pretty funny. His personality can shift leading to in-game hilarity. He's super expensive in points, but, meh. I'll use him for any kind of giant I need for the fimir. He's a really nice addition to the army, and it's given me a taste for more large scale kits down the road.

Mmm... resiny.

Curs'd Ettin - Update 1

The ettin, or fomorian as I'll be using him as, crawls along. I've not had much time over the last week with work, but I have gotten him mostly assembled. His lion cloth is going to be a bit of a bollox to do as it hangs loosely over his groin, well, where it would be, anyway, had he one. Gluing it on first would mean you'd need some pretty bendy brushes to get paint it the back of it, so I'll need to paint it separately and then attach it, which means pins, as there's no point gluing paint to paint. Same with the big rotty animal head and his pointy rock. I was going to give him a bigger weapon, but the angle of his arm would make it look awkward.

His base is pretty much ready for primer though, I just need to smooth it off a little. Again, I'll add pins to his feet and paint the base separately. I'm continually delighted by the detail on the model, it's just a wonderful sculpt, and it needed almost no clean-up, which is a major bonus.

More soon!

Fimir - Odhrán

The fianna fimm reboot continues. I've finished the unit champion, Odhrán the finmor. I'm much happier with the skin now, so I'll re-do the rest of the fianna to match. I added some freehand to the axe as it was a bit plain, and while I do love this model, there's some definite weirdness going on around the hand holding the axe where it meets the body. I essentially painted in some details to mask it. Here's the blurb on the fianna of the red oath for those who like a bit of background.

Fianna Fimm - An Mionn Dearg (The Red Oath)
The fianna fimm are regarded as the elite warriors of the fimir, second only to the nobles themselves. Greater in size than the more numerous fimm warriors, the fianna fimm are often found in the bloodiest fights in the battleline, smashing their enemies with mace, axe or spiked tail. The Fir Domhan boast a large proportion of fianna fimm, which adds greatly to the power of the clan. One of most renowned of these groups are the mionn dearg, or those who have taken the red oath.
These fimir have sworn to avenge some slight to the clan, whether a specific transgression or simply those fimir maddened by the wrongs done the to the fimir as a race. As the fimir are almost as prone to grudge-holding as the dwarves, this band of warriors is never short of those willing to join. They fight under the eye of Solkan, a God of law, who acknowledges the ancient grievances of the fimir but rarely intervenes unless a judgement is required. The mionn dearg are led by the hulking finmor Odhrán, a fimir who won the right to bear a belly shield for recovering a relic from the time of Fimul. Thought lost forever, the axe known as the doras an bháis, or death's door, has since been carried by Odhrán as a symbol of the resolve of the warrior's of the red oath.

Fimir - Fianna Fimm Reboot 2

I've been beavering away on my fianna fimm, looking to take more time over them this time. I spent longer on the skin, and bought myself a new shiny tin of strong tone dip from Army Painter. The reason for this is that too much dip had dried out on the lid of my old tin, compromising the seal, and the air getting in pretty much ruined the dip left in the tin over time. Once dip starts to thicken it is only a matter of time before it's totally useless. Sure, you can thin it out again with white spirits, but the viscosity of dip is fundamental to its use. It should be like thin gravy. It also gives you more time to work the dip before it begins to coagulate, and you don't get long at the best of times. Dip that has begun to thicken doesn't spread as evenly and dries faster giving you less time to brush it on and then brush away the excess pooling in the recesses. It's not a technique for the faint of heart.

This is what led to the fianna looking less than I hoped first time around. Granted, I always paint over the dip, using it more as a wash than a final step, but if the dip wash is a fail, it's all over baby. The new tin made me realise just how treacley the old one had gotten. Taking no chances I'm sealing the lid with blu-tack to make sure it's airtight this time around.

I'm tempted to try the new GW blood/gore special effect paint on the bloody hand. I'll try out a wee tester first I think. In any case he needs a few more highlights here and there, basing and varnishing. Then I'll get cracking on his five mates.

Fimir - New Models Spotted

Noble

While perusing the Oldhammer Group on Facebook the other day, I came across a post from Diego Serrate from Troll Outpost Miniatures. The post got me rather excited, as they were greens for new fimir models. Or, bog raiders maybe? Or Fenfolk? A few companies have now tried their hands at fimir-type models over the last couple of years. As far as I understand it, these are private sculpts, and nothing to do with Troll Outpost. They are, however, some of the best fimir-style models I've seen. They look quite large too, judging by the scale comparison shot. So far there are plans for a noble, dirach and meargh, hopefully more are in the pipeline if they prove popular. I have several fingers crossed in the fervent desire that they are available soon.

Dirach

Scale comparison with 40k orc.

Fimir - Fianna Fimm Reboot

After finally managing to pack everything away from KnaveCon and get back on track, I've decided to roll up my sleeves and get cracking on re-doing the fianna fimm. I've been sore tempted by the hobby butterfly of late, being almost lured away by ideas of greenstealer Gorkamorka mobs, skeleton warriors, infernal guard, genestealer hybrid parts, bloodbowl teams and so on. I stayed strong though. There's still a lot to do with the fimir, and added to that the fenland display board is starting to demand some time as well.

I painted the fianna a little too hastily for the the KnaveCon participation game, and I wasn't happy with them once they were done. Here's how they looked at the time:

Serviceable, but far from where I wanted them. I'm going to take a little more care with them this time around. Looking at the models again, I decided they needed a few more points of interest. They are almost all skin, so some shields and cloth, bags and such might be an idea. I'm generally loathe to alter such rare models, but these lads need something.

The first model up is this lad, to whom I've added a hood. A lot of my fimm are hooded, so it fits in nicely with the rest of the army. I'll freehand some knotwork around the edge of the hood to reinforce the focal point of the model. I think this is alteration enough for this particular fianna fimm, I don't want to load them up with stuff just for the sake of it or they'll look like the end of a game of Buckaroo.

I'm working on the next fellow, and the addition of one of Scibor's wonderful Celtic style shields really does help immensely. I'll be raiding my rapidly diminishing stock of ogre bits for maybe a rack of meat or a bag of bones to add some more jazz. I'm still putting off dunking the four painted fianna in the Dettol as I'm unsure how it affects greenstuff, so I'm delaying the date of execution until I find out more on that.

Fimir - Fianna Fimm

I've been busy this week painting four fianna fimm for our Oldhammer event this weekend at KnaveCon. I got them finished last night.

I've had these fellows primed and ready to paint for some time, and as I whipped through them, ideas came to mind. I'm loathe to convert such old minis, but I couldn't help thinking a hood and cloak held by a broch would look good on one, maybe a Scibor Celtic shield on another. I didn't have time for this though, so I ploughed on.

Now that they are done, I'm beginning to regret my rashness. For a start, I'm not happy AT ALL with the skin. Way too patchy. Added to that one of them has a little mis-cast on his chest which I missed when cleaning them up. Some folks would leave this and move on, but my OCD forbids such a move. So, with that in mind, once KnaveCon is over, these lads are destined for the Dettol, some conversion work, and a do-over. Hence the lack of grasses and moss on the bases, they'd just be wasted.

It's not all flowers and sunshine here at the Mumblings, some days it's a fail.

Fimir - Crom Cannon Finished

Latest off the painting table are two less than world-shaking yet very satisfying items for the army. Two base extenders, one for the meargh and one for my hellcannon, Crom Cruach. I've been tinkering away at the bits I needed for the cannon version of Crom for a fair old while in between other models, and it's finally off the table. As for the meargh, the first attempt at a base extender turned into a whole new character. My second attempt was less ambitious and worked out just fine. Both of the bases are lined with rubber steel so the models hold fast during gameplay.

The Crom cannon

The slots are covered in rubber steel for the models to magnetise to.

A 50x50mm extender for the meargh.

Fimir - Mud & Bone

I've been doing a lot of base work of late. This is no great trial, as I love basing in general, but it's been there have been no actual models attached to the bases I've been doing lately. The reason for this is that both are bases that models magnetise to, allowing me to get more bang for my buck as it were. My meargh can now sport either a 40x40mm or 50x50mm base. The 50x50 gives her a little more height too, which she badly needs when she's masquerading a a daemon prince. The other is a 100x150mm size base for Crom, so I can use him as a hellcannon as well as his regular 50x100mm chariot base. The 100x150mm base is almost done now, some more details and it's ready for the table.

I've made extensive use of ogre parts for the fimir, as there are so many fantastic bits. Bones, hooks, traps, bags, weapons, buckets and so on, basically conversion gold. You can see here a really tasty bit from one of the ogre sets, probably the thundertusk kit.

Fimir - Maggoty Crew

A small update today. Small and disgusting. I've had the 'crew' for my hellcannon, Crom, primed and on the painting table for some time now. I'm still painting the base they sit into, which you can see here. They are lovely little worm guys from Heresy miniatures. Pretty simple models, the only bit of pop on them is the grub's face in the middle. Still, it's another tick off the list, a list which is killing me at the moment.

Apart from a little detour to paint my dirach, I've been house keeping with the army for a good while now. Finishing movement trays, my fourth and final marlwyrm rider, some base extenders and some more dogs, I've been a puritan over the last few months in that I've denied myself any other painting until this stuff is wrapped. At this juncture only the dogs and marlwyrm remain, but by Jaysus it's been a tough road. I've been so tempted by the hobby butterfly it's almost reduced me to tears. Fimir, nobles, skeleton warriors, fenbeasts, genestealer hybrids, blood bowl undead, chaos dwarf war machines, all have wiggled their unpainted temptations at me. Added to that the imminent arrival of 15mm Martian tripods, which I know will send me over the edge.

Despite all this I've stayed faithful to the to-do list as I'm determined to get the fimir to 2,500 points sooner rather than later. I have plans for a display board too, which will take some time if I end up doing what's in my sketch book.

After that, who knows, I change my mind daily.

Fimir - Dirach Grunsgul

After something of a break, the fimir train is leaving the station. The first one-eyed marsh fiend of the new year is a character, the aged dirach Grunsgul. Originally this model was merely a base extender for my meagh to giver her a 50x50mm base, but has somehow ballooned into an entirely new model. The meargh sitting on the floating rock just looked, well, lame, so I had to make a rider that would sit more naturally on the plinth. I also wanted to be able to use Grunsgul on foot. If I had to build a whole new character, I was going to get the most out of him. Thus it was time for magnets. I hadn't used them before, but once I'd located the appropriate drill bits all was well. The most nerve wracking moment was drilling into the already finished plinth with a power drill, but all went swimmingly.

The model is from Oakbound Games, with some small conversion work. I added horns, as befits a dirach, and also a torc on his arm and a tathlum (concrete balls on a chain) hanging from his belt.

On the plinth itself I added some more bits and pieces. A jawbone, book of spells and scroll, as well as the little familiar. Dirach are also known as daemonfriends, and have a particular daemon they forge a close alliance with. In this case the diminutive scroll carrier.

Now, I guess I better start on the actual base extender for the meargh then. Keep it simple, that's the ticket...

2014 Hobby Kick Off

 After a rather hobby-free Christmas, I have taken up the sculpting tools once more. (I blame Warhammer Quest directly for this lack of progress) My poor neglected dirach finally got green stuffed and is ready for priming. I also cleaned up his diminutive familiar. I love old metal Citadel minis, but by hell, sometimes the flash, mould lines and general clean-up can be a nightmare. Thus it was with this guy. I suspect the mould was beginning to deteriorate when he was cast, as there was some miscast under his arm that required some serious elbow grease to remove. Now all that remains are some wizardly paraphernalia to add to the plinth. A book, a scroll, a cup or some bones should do it. I really want to get this guy done so I can get back to painting Crom's hellcannon base and maggoty crew.

I've also been looking at some Bloodbowl miniatures with an eye to building a new team. The Necromantic Rain Dogs have been a team of mine online for some time, mayhap it's time to make the jump to miniature form. I've been ogling Willy Miniatures' (wait, that sounds odd, doesn't it?) range of undead, in particular the wights and werewolves. The local game shop runs a Bloodbowl league, and it's time I got in on the action.

Ah yes, the hobby butterfly has been visiting.

 

Course, a fimir team would be a thing now, wouldn't it?

Fimir - Dirach Grunsgul, Update 1

Since I decided that my floating rock plinth needed a dedicated rider, I thought I'd use the the opportunity to build a human size dirach. I don't want him stuck on the plinth, so I'm going to magnetise him to it, and make another magnetized 25x25mm base for him should I want to field him on foot. This comes of the back of some salient advice from the various forums. Indeed, the idea for the model to use as a dirach came from Chico of Oldhammer on a Budget, who is a bit of a fimir fan as well.

As you can see, I've converted the head to make him a bit more dirachy. It's a really characterful head, and it suits the horns which serve to lengthen the face even more. I may convert the tail too, as dirach have smooth tails. (It does dawn on me that most folks won't know what the hell a dirach even is, let alone what kind of tail he has, or why I needed to add horns. Just go with it. It'll be grand.)

He's going to have a familiar on the plinth with him, a scroll carrier to help the ageing fimir remember his spells. I can feel a back story coalescing already. Anyhow, I'm going to use this little fella, who has been sitting in a box for years awaiting some attention.

I'll probably add a little paraphernalia to the plinth too, some scrolls and such to add a little more detail. To think this all started out as a base extender...

Fimir - Floating Altar

At the moment I'm still very much in the process of tidying up some loose ends with the fimir before I launch into any new units. One of the things I wanted to do was to make a small base extender for my meargh so she could be mounted on a 40x40mm base or a 50x50mm depending on how I was going to field her. Just a wee base add-on I said to myself. Texture the edge to match her 40x40mm base, paint it up, and done.

This is what I ended up with.

As you can see, the idea expanded a bit. Still some water effects to go on, but other than that, done. When I was digging through my bits box looking for interesting little bits for it, I thought hey, why don't I make it into more of a floating slab of rock magically torn from the bog. Then I could use it to give the meargh some height when she's pretending to be a daemon prince, or I could even magnetise the top so I could put other fimir characters there if I needed a disk rider. So that's the way it went.

 I was looking at it last night thinking while it's pretty versatile, does the base sitting on the stone look a bit weird? I've looked at it so much now I can't tell anymore. The other thing is the magnetic steel holds the magnetised base down well, but it's not going to take a major jostle. I have visions of my meargh taking an undignified tumble mid-game.

One thing I am thinking of is to just add a permanent rider to the plinth. A dirach, possibly. Then I could add some paraphernalia to the rock, a familiar, spell book or some other bits. The familiar would be especially appropriate for a dirach. Here's the model I'd be thinking of using, from Oakbound games. He'd need a little conversion, some horns and perhaps a weapon, but other than that he's pretty much bang on. His pose would work well as a rider.

I'd then work up the original base extender for the meargh, and lo, I'd have the meargh and a new mounted character.

Or, maybe I'm just making work for myself.