Sons of Ursun Conversions

High atop the sacred Ice Mountain stands a great temple dedicated to the Great Spirit Bear. It is said that this fortress monastery was founded by Boris Ursa the Forever Tzar, and that the warriors who serve are descendants of his most noble knights.

The temple of the bear God is built over labyrinthine enclosures leading to bear pits where many bears are kept. In times of trouble it is supposed that the bears will protect the people – and this is indeed the case as the temple keepers drive the bears out to fight the enemies of Kislev. These great creatures are ridden to war by the noble Sons of Ursun, the greatest warriors of the Kislevite army.

Great White Bears guard the iron gates of this formidable place and the time of its inhabitants is devoted to the learning of the arts of war. Rarely do they ride to war, these Sons of Ursun, perhaps only once in a century. But when they cross the High Pass over the World’s Edge Mountains and brandish their proud standards, Kislevites take heart and their enemies flee before these mighty knights and their fearsome steeds.

No other regiment in the army of Kislev typifies them more than the Sons of Ursun. Heavily armoured knights atop War Bears, they are a symbol of Kislev itself. They venture forth from their fortress monastery in times of great need to take their place at the front of the army as their most feared and respected warriors.
– Sons of Ursun description from Kislev Armybook by Mathias Eliasson

Click images for larger view.

Other than some minor touch-ups with greenstuff, I have finished the Kislev bear cavalry conversions. The base model is Kraan, Untain of Baalor from Mierce Miniatures, IMO the best looking bear model out there (I think I have considered them all). As with the horses, it had to be de-chaosified a bit (why does chaos always have the coolest mounts?)

There is unfortunately only one sculpt, so I had to do some cutting and bending to get these three guys to look different. While one rastafari looking fella was ok as the leader of the unit, I mean, they live with bears on a mountain top, I hardly think they wash their hair a lot, the other two needed helmets. I wanted to tie them more into Kislev, so I tried my hand at casting and made a mold of the coolest Gryphon Legion helmet. The casts came out with surprising amount of detail. See the image below for the pre-cleanup cast.
With Gryphon Legion helmets and dual back wings, I think these guys are looking the part. They are heavily armored compared to other Kislev models, but with them being a mystical Templar order, I think that is fine in a fantasy setting 🙂

For use in Kings of War, these guys will be a horde of Honour Guard. They are below the minimum unit size of 4, but with the size of these guys, getting four onto a base would just look insanely crowded, if it is even possible.