Friday, October 31, 2014

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 051++++ Imperial Armour 13 reflections and Arch-Heretic 1

So I have just gotten my hands on a digital copy of the Imperial Armour 13: Warmachines of the Lost and the Damned and it is awesome. I actually have a large renegade army which I have never posted pictures of before. It has the following roughly at the moment:
• 60 infantry with 6 autocannons and 6 plasmaguns.
• 2 platoon command squads
• 1 company command squad
• 2 special weapon squads
• 1 veteran squad
• 4 psykers
• 5 priests
• 8 ogryns and 3 hounds

I also have 140 cultists for my chaos space marine army as well.

And I made some test models of mutants but didn't actually go through with making a bunch of them yet as there were no rules.

I plan to make two separate forces. One will be led by a Primaris-Rogue Witch and have be made up of the renegade imperial guard troops. The other will be led by a master of the horde and be made up of the cultists.

With the horde army I will FINALLY be able to make an appropriate fluffy Word Bearers army with hordes of sacrificial cultists flung at the enemy with reckless abandon before my chaos space marines. Dark Apostles are awesome as allies to a L&TD army as they grant Ld 10 to units within 6". I'm excited as CSM cultists are a TERRIBLE unit, even as cheap as they are they are over costed for what they do. With the ability to potentially recycle my units when they die I can make a cool themed force, especially if I get the warlord traits where you score VPs for getting your own units killed.

The other detachment will be a more complete army on its own.

I had an original Lost And The Damned army back in 2002 which I converted for the eye of terror campaign. Model wise it was terrible but it was a ton of fun to play. It was also my fastest ever army in terms of how long it took me to make it, with the entire army converted and painted in just over two months!

Now for some pics, here is my Arch Demogogue for the horde force. He is my favorite character model to date, a Priest of the Ruinous Powers that I have named Kali'Ma.



The base for this model was a wizard from the Empire Celestial Hurricanum/Luminark of Hysh kit. The head is a Corpse Cart Driver and a skull from some beastmen Kit. The book is from the Empire Flagellants Kit and the chaos stars are mostly made by using a stamp mold I made.

The chest was greenstuffed and while they are hard to see in this picture he has realistic musculature.



The heart was a pure from scratch sculpt that I free handed from memory.



The base model is one of the most dynamically posed cloak wearing models I've ever worked on.

To date I've done about 5 fallen priests that I will use as Enforcers, more will be posted later.

As always let me know what you think of him.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 050++++ Truescale Chaos Space Marine WIP 2.2

I just realized I forgot to upload this before. Just another quick in progress shot. This one is next to a regular CSM model for reference.




++++INLOADING DATAFILE 049++++ Truescale Chaos Space Marine WIP 2.3




Ok he is most of the way done now. Lots of work has been done, a quick rundown is:
• The feet are built and ready for detailing
• The torso has been reworked a bit to blend the ribs into the rest of the model
• The mk IV helm has been corrupted and now connects to the tongue
• The shoulder pads have been blended and the screaming daemon face has been integrated
• The stamp molded tabard has been fitted
• The arm posing has been reworked to make the model more dynamically posed
• Lots of small details



FORWARD FOR THE FOUR!!!








The right arm is just pinned on for ease painting, someday...


Gotta connect those pipes!

The next post should have the finished model. The amazing thing is that I have only worked on this guy for about 8-10 hours so far over the course of about two weeks. That's compared to 60+ hours for the original test model from 2012. And the finished model is more detailed and easily dynamically posed as well!

Making the truescale masters is paying off.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 048++++ Truescale Chaos Space Marine WIP 2.2




Here is another small update on my second truescale wordbearer. As you can see the model is coming along, I've started on the detail work already. I will shrink the thickness of the arms on the next model I do, as they are a tad too thick. Otherwise there has been a lot of small details added and problems solved as I figure out how to use the master kit I have made.

He is next to a regular scale marine for reference.

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 047++++ Dark Eldar Revenant Titan WIP 2

Ok it's time for part two of the WIP log for the Dark Eldar Revenant Titan commission I've been working on for the last few months. This post should bring us just about up the the present point in the project.

Session 6:

At this point I started to seriously work on the legs. When The model was originally sent to me it was put together in a very strange pose. So first off I had to break them apart and remove the rediculous amount of glue from the joints.

The commissioner had left things open ended as to what kind of pose I could place the model in, so long as it looked cool. This led to a lot of test fitting and some sketches (which I couldn't find). In the fluff a Revenant Titan is supposed to be extremely fast and agile and it uses its jump jets almost continuously to evade return fire. Eventually I settled on a sprinting pose designed to capture the very moment the Titan ignites its jump jets to leap.

To achieve this kind of extreme movement in a static figure requires an understanding of how the human body moves and how to capture movements in static artwork. Boiled down to its simplest concept movement is most dramatically expressed at the very beginning and very end of a motion. So at the beginning of a sprinting leap one leg is at full extension behind the figure and the other is bent at full flexion with its foot planted on the ground about to push it off into the air. This is the pose I decided to achieve.

There were a number of challenges to achieve this look. First off this is a heavy resin model with very narrow limbs, so getting the model to stand while on one foot with the torso bent slightly forwards took a lot of pinning and slight adjustments. The second major issue is the reletive lack of posability of the Revenant kit itself. The Revenant is one of Forgeworld's oldest Titan kits, and it turned out to have a lot less joint mobility than I had expected it to. But eventually I had the pose I wanted.


Now for the details. I Dark Eldar-ified the kneecaps with some greenstuff and a blade and from a Raider. Dark Eldar models have a lot of sharp edges compared to their Craftworlds kin hence the crease in the knee.

The hip armor plate were based visually off of a similar part on the Incubi kit. The base was the Revenant's original shoulder armor with additional layers made from plasticard. This was my first time trying to make such an curved shape on a curved surface, and boy is it a lot harder than doing flat shapes!


The second hip armor piece I made a mistake on and had to fix it with greenstuff. It was a case of moving too fast without test fitting enough.

Session 7:

More detail work on the upper body this session. I used some bits from a Wraithknight kit to alter the shape and size of the shoulder socket. This was to help fix the lack of posability issue with the Revenant Kit due to its age.


I realized after altering the shoulder that I now was too wide for the torso. To make the extended shoulder socket visually fit in with the rest of the torso I widened the chest armor. Thankfully this turned out to be a lot simpler that I had originally thought it would be to do and so it didn't slow down the project.


Here you can see the initial first full mock up of the model in roughly the final pose. There was still a lot left to do, but at least I was able to send some pictures to keep my client happy.

The building was just a stand in for he actual base.
The pose was starting to come along but was still too static for my tastes.

Session 8:

At this point I started working on the Dark Pulsars, basing their look off of the infantry carried Dark Lance. The fluting on the barrel was rather straightforward if time consuming to make and fit right. It is actually surprisingly sturdy and hasn't broken off once! The "muzzle" is part of an Aethersail from the Raider Kit. The "antigravity stabilizers" we're made from Bright Lance barrels with some more Aethersail bits.


From the side you can see that I flipped the arms upside down, just because Ithought it looked better overall. You can also see that I finished extending the chest armor by this point.

Session 9:

There was about a two month gap between sessions 8 and 9, mostly due to my being busy with a lot of National Guard training over the summer (5 weeks). I'm now a certified Basic and Tactical Combatives Instructor though.

After doing a lot of work on the torso and breaking the model apart and reassembling it another two times (perfectionism sucks by the way) I finally had the desired action pose. Now the problem was how unstable and top heavy the model had become. For it to be able to stand it needed a big and heavy base, and it needed something to be leaping off of. After rummaging through my hits box I found the perfect thing, a Shadowsword Super Heavy tank...

Before the nerd rage of the internet strikes me down no, I did not purchase a Shadowsword just to make a base. It was an old chopped up model a friend gave me after he had tried to convert it into a Fellblade unsuccessfully.


As you can see the final pose is EPIC AS @&$#BALLS!!! And it can stand on its own, which is pretty important.


Here is a better angle to see the dynamic movement in all its glory. It is hard to tell from this photos but I converted the Shadowsword's tracks to make it look like the tank is being crushed by the weight of the Titan. Aside from looking cool this helped change the angel of the model so that it is more balanced weight wise,


Here you can see the rearward tilt of the Shadowsword a bit better. It is really important when creating a dynamic figure to ensure that it appears to be moving from every angle of view, hence the rear shot.


The left leg has to be almost entirely cored out and pinned with a copper clotheshanger.


The weapon arms weren't pointed quite the way I wanted them to be so I had to go back and fix them later.


Here you can see the entrance hole from the Dark Pulsar beam that knocked out the Shadowsword. I am not sure whether I want to enlarge it and make it blown out like the exit hole or not.


Here is the exit hole. For anyone who doesn't know the exit wound for any ballistic weapon is always larger than the entry wound as the mass of the struck object is sucked out by the vortex effect of the passage of the round. While a beam weapon would not have the same vortex effect I figured that the guts of the tank would explosively be chucked out of the exit hole anyways. Some artistic liscense is neccessary for visual awesomeness.

Session 10:

Sorry for the dark photos on this one.


The model is very nearly finished at this point and this is the current stage its in at the time of this post. As you can see the left Dark Pulsar is now finished and the right foot has been added. I also am almost finished with the Shadowsword, there is another layer of exploding wreckage in the exit wound too if you zoom in.


The pose is finished now. I had to fill the entire chest cavity with green stuff to ensure that the pose is consistently correct, and this has the added benefit of making it sturdier overall.


Otherwise I filled in a lot of holes and small gaps from pinning the model.

The next post should have the finished model. Unfortunately it won't be done until November or late October at the earliest as I have grad school midterms and a week of National Guard training between now and then.

I hope that you have enjoyed this step by step presentation of the project so far. As always let me know what you think of my work!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 046++++ Pumpkin Painting

Getting ready for Halloween with my girlfriend Caitlin, she told me to paint the first thing that popped into my head on a pumpkin.  2 hours later we have this...

Monday, October 20, 2014

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 045++++ Truescale Chaos Space Marines WIP 2.1

Here is another quick update for my second Truescale Word Bearer. Having scoured the internet for what the naming conventions for wordbearers are I've settled on Herat'Sul as this fellow's name. Everybody who is a 90% sculpted by me model deserves a name.



Anyways onto the model.

Session 2:







Friday, October 17, 2014

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 044++++ Truescale Chaos Space Marines WIP 2.0

Just a small update tonight. Over the last year I sculpted a master set of truescale armor components to then cast and make converting truescale marines much faster. This is the first expiramental marine, I am using parts from the dark vengeance chosen to make him chaosy.









Again this is a small post, more to come on these guys later.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone


Tuesday, October 7, 2014

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 043++++ Chaos Contemptor WIP

This is an in progress look at my Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought. I began this model many months ago and like most other things it stalled out over the summer. Now I'm back on the horse and it's mostly done.

First off the current rules for a Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought, while pricey, are amazing! With an extra hull point and wonky 'ignores glancing hits on a 4+' save and armor 13/12/11 this thing can wade through a ton of the kinds of firepower you tend to see in the current meta. I'm very curious to see what they do with it in the upcoming Chaos IA book. I decided to arm him with a Butcher Cannon, Soulburner, and Havoc Launcher.






I started with a Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought and startedodifying the kit to be heavily warped and corrupted to fit in with the rest of my Word Bearers Host. The chest is part of a Juggernaught of Khorne, the pelvis and horn crests are from a Hellbrute, the knees are from an Daemonprince, and the clawed feet are from a Tomb Kings Necrosphinx.





As you can see the torso has been substantially bulked up with green stuff to blend with the new chest plate. The tubes are inspired from the really old style of Chaos Dreadnought you never see anymore.

The horn crest needed to be cut and reworked a bit to fit the new model, and it still needs se additional blending with the rest of the model. It also created a conundrum on how to incorporate the Havoc Launcher as the horns block the missile rack from going on top. I solved this by cutting a space for the havoc launcher within his chest, which so far has come out pretty cool looking I think.

For the Head all I've done is add some horns and give him evil-er eyes with green stuff, though that's hard to tell at this angle. His muzzle also has teeth mutating out of it, but again that isn't showing up in these photos well.






The Butcher Cannon is an extreme kit bash and is much larger that I originally had planned for it to be. In the end a 48" Str 8 AP 4 Heavy 4 gun has to be pretty damn big though. The main sources of bits for this part were a Dreadknight. Hellbrute, and the Contemptor kits. The ammo boxes are from the original Land Raider Crusader kit and have been in my bits box for years, I finally found a use for them!

You probably noticed that one of this model's themes is the part-organic-part-mechanical-all-evil style of the newer Chaos kits. I a stickler for having unified visual themes within my armies, hence why older kits like the defiler irk me with how they are such a different visual style to the newer kits.





The Close Combat arm actually wasn't planned originally like this, but once I saw how massive the Butcher Cannon was the standard close combat arm just looked tiny by comparison. Thankfully I had a Conversion Beamer arm lying around and decided that it would make a great basis for a Soul Burner.

As an aside, the Decimator model is a terrible kit IMO. having worked on one I can say that the limbs are too small, very inarticulate, and hard to keep together while the guns themselves look like crap. The Soulburner is a tube with some pointy things on one end for crying out loud. Definately the ugly duckling of the forgeworld range, but it has really amazing rules.

The hand is built out of an extra lower leg I had from another Contemptor Dreadnought and looks ok, but honestly this is the only part of the model which I am really dissatisfied with right now. I'll probably redo it later on.






From behind you can see that I had to make the torso a bit taller at the waste because of the larger chest. You can also see the in progress musculature-hydrolics of the legs, though again I apologize for how poorly they came out in this lighting.

Ok that's enough for now, what do you guys think of it so far? Any recommendations for how I can make the close combat arm almost as cool as the butcher cannon arm?

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

++++INLOADING DATAFILE 042++++ Vorax Class Battle Automata conversion

This is a test model for my Dark Mechanicum Battle Maniple. I wanted to use Centurions as a base to create variants of Thallax Battle Armor that was both more heavily armed and armored.



I quickly found though that there were a number of problems with this concept. The first of course being that the Centurion kit is substantially larger then a Thallax. Also none of the weapon options that I was able to find for any Thallax variant seemed to suit the design that I was working towards. So after working on it for a week I decided to utilize it as a Vorax class battle automata instead.



Stage 1:



Here you can see the original concept, which is not dissimilar to the base Centurion kit. I used two of the weapons to create the shoulder mounted cannon. The bubble where the head goes was originally planned to be a glass head similar to what a Thallax has but later was turned into the thorax armor for the battle robot.