Eldar Phoenix Lord Maugan Ra

The Harvester of Souls (version 2)

Whilst the plastic miniature of Maugan Ra is a substantial improvement over the original, there were still several aspects of the new design that I wasn't so keen on. These issues took a lot of work to address, but I am ultimately very happy with the final result and I feel that it is a better representation of the character (to me at least).

Date: 2024 - present (work-in-progress)
Components: 1x Maugan Ra, 1x resin scenic base element (pile of skulls), 1x Dark Reaper Reaper launcher, paperclips, Green Stuff, plasticard, 40mm round base

Related:

The exaggerated, bombastic pose is reminiscent of a death metal album cover from the 80s.

Maugan Ra's legs are very far apart (and the scenic base makes him look precarious).

This edge of the cloak is far too long; this is a consistent problem with Games Workshop's Eldar models as it's been seen on Farseers and Autarchs as well.

The hood covers too much of the face and makes the right shoulder pad a more obvious focal point for the model instead.

The hood has these weird trailing parts that make no sense. Hoods don't have "ends" and these cover parts of the chest, right arm and Maugetar; all of these are already busy, detailed areas and the result is a mess of overlapping, competing elements.

The scythe on the Maugetar is square at the end, which doesn't look particularly threatening.

The Maugetar is raised very high, obscuring nearly all of the detail on the chest.

The left arm is contorted into an awkward position due to the odd decision to change use a horizontal, rather than vertical, grip on the top of the Maugetar.

1. A great design, let down by a few questionable decisions and an unnatural pose.
Original image © Games Workshop.

Because this section of the helmet is normally covered by the hood, it had no detail - I removed it so that I could reculpt it with Green Stuff to continue the tubing.

2. A close-up of the early preparatory work on the helmet.

I filed down the uppermost ribs to expose more of the detail on the helmet.

3. The torso starts to take shape.

Eldar Phoenix Lord Maugan Ra conversion legs

4. The component pieces of the legs.

I removed the odd connecting spurs that joined the ribs together.

5. The right leg has now been attached and the cloak has had additional holes added to it.

6. A view of the tattered cloak from behind. The additional holes were made using a combination of a pin vice drill and a craft knife.

7. Close-up view of the helmet, with the section of tubing extended using Green Stuff.

8. The Maugetar was left largely unchanged, with the exception of the scythe blade. The square end to the blade didn't look threatening to me, so I used a craft knife and file to carefully reshape it into a point.

9. Reverse view of the modified Maugetar.

The hand is from a standard Dark Reaper.

The forearm was cut in two and the elbow rotated to be inline with the wrist.

The supporting bone braces were cut away entirely.

10. In order to change the grip on the Maugetar, I had to substantially change the left arm. The resulting piece is actually four separate components, pinned together using lengths of paperclip, with Green Stuff to mask the joins.

11. Alternate view of the left arm.

12. An early dry-fit of various components of the conversion.

Green Stuff was used to fill the gap between the two sections of cloak.

Repositioning the right foot meant that there was a gap around the ankle, which was also filled with Green Stuff.

13. The right-hand side of Maugan Ra.

14. The left leg has now been glued in place; this was also repositioned, so more Green Stuff sculpting was required to fill the resulting gaps.

The spare Maugetar clips have been repositioned to lie flat against his leg, rather than flung outwards. With the change of pose and the position of the Maugetar, my version of the model has less movement and is intended to appear more ponderous and determined, so this made sense visually.

15. The cowl of the hood has now been added; it covers much less of the helmet/face and tucks in under the chin, disappearing into the armour. This is a much more traditional design of hood compared to the original model, which only makes sense if Maugan Ra had basically draped a loose piece of cloth over his head.

16. Alternate angle showcasing the new hood.

17. The Maugetar, after adding the shoulder pad to the right arm.

I drilled a hole into the top of the Maugetar to allow the pin in left hand to connect securely.

18. Another angle of the Maugetar.

19. Reverse angle of the work-in-progress conversion.

I drilled three reciprocal holes for matching pins in the backpack. I also cut away part of the ribbing to allow the backpack to sit closer to Maugan Ra's back.

20. Rear angle of the body.

21. The start of the scenic base. Sandwiched layers of roughly-chaped plasticard were glued together to form the basis of a rocky outcrop.

22. Maugan Ra's backpack.

23. Mock-up of the conversion, which is nearly complete at this stage.

24. Elevated view of the model.

25. Close-up elevated view.

26. I used Green Stuff to soften the "lip" around the edge of the skeletal backpack as this didn't look natural to me.

This pile of skulls came from a long out-of-production set of basng materials produced by Games Workshop.

27. The completed scenic base.

28. The mighty Maugan Ra, in all of his glory.

29. I am very pleased with the changes that I've made to the model; the eye is immediately drawn to the helmet now that it is clearly visible, the Maugetar is no longer obscuring the chest and he still looks dramatic and imposing.

30. The completed conversion is now awaiting undercoating.