Converting The BaC Dreadnought (part 3)

This dreadnought is nearing a point where I can start priming him. I’ve positioned the legs, added the final layers of detail (a few bits missing yet), and have completed his two plasma-blaster dread CCW arms.

The body received a bit of extra detail here and there. My goal is to have each of my dreadnoughts be fairly unique with little details that help define their individual character and some of their story. This one has some field repairs done on the outside of his carapace, a rerouted supplemental power feed or something.

Detailing and leg pose on the dread’s torso.

Some additional detail added to his hip and to the waist to help cover the mounting points.

I was inspired by the level of detail on the Forgeworld resin dreadnoughts. Get back to work Mike.

 

The arms of this dreadnought were an area where I wanted to hide some additional details. The idea here is that there are power feeds to his massive, weaponized arms. I like these being tucked under the arms a bit so that they are immediately noticeable. I like the idea that these details are there for someone who really studies the model.

Arm cables for the plasma weapons

Plasma blaster made from a 40k era plasmagun hidden in fist.

Once I get the parts completed and primed I am going to bust out the airbrush and some red paint! I’ll finish assembly once the basecoat and much of the detailing is complete.

Converting The BaC Dreadnought (part 2)

The most time consuming and difficult part of this project so far has been the legs of the dreadnought. I think I will be working to find ways around doing this much resculpting for the other models. I like how this is turning out, I just don’t want to go through an involved sculpting process for each one.

I’ve switched to a procedure for converting which requires less sculpting and which uses more of the components that are part of the original model.

Repositioned Knee after a bit of careful cutting and gluing.

A bit of hose made with a tentacle maker was used to add some detail to the exposed leg area.

The leg can be repositioned pretty easily once you detach the upper and lower legs. The cutting can be a bit rough if you aren’t careful, but this can be easily cleaned up later. Here I put some additional detail on the inner leg which helped fill the void created by cutting the leg up.

The gap was filled in and some detailing added.

I rebuilt part of the hip joint and created some more interesting detail on the front part of the leg. This still needs some clean up, but is looking pretty good.

Extra details added to the hull of the dreadnought

I’ve started to add some additional details to the dreadnought’s armor. These pipes may have been part of a field modification or repair. My intention is to convert the dreadnoughts to give each one of them a unique character.

Legs attached and posed.

The dreadnought is starting to come together. A bit more detailing work and it’ll be ready to be primed! Next up I will share some of that as well as the finished conversion work on it’s arms.

Converting The BaC Dreadnought (part 1)

I’ve been collecting several of the of the Betrayal at Calth dreadnoughts to add to my Blood Angels force. The models in this set are fantastic, but the dreadnought’s pose is a little flat. I am going to reposition them to varying degrees, primarily the legs the head and the torso. This opens up a lot of dynamic options for the model.

Stock pose for the dreadnought

 

Removed legs after a saw cut at the hip

The first dreadnought is going to receive some significant leg work. Others will likely have more simple repositioning. This one is going to have a remodeled middle leg.

Cutting out the Dreadnought head for repositioning

Changing the position of the head on this kit is pretty easy. Once its been removed from the liner part of the torso and trimmed it can be pivoted slightly to bring a lot out of the torso’s upper body.

Removed and trimmed head

 

Repositioned head

Even a little bit of repositioning of the dreadnought’s head will make the torso’s position a lot more interesting.

Dreadnought legs cut, knees separated

Next up its time to chop up the legs. I am discarding the knee and middle leg. The plan is to rebuild these out of plasticard and putty.

Lower legs filled in

Using some greenstuff putty the cavity inside the trimmed lower legs are filled in. This will provide a solid foundation for the rest of the legs to built on.

Dreadnought Close Combat Arms

The contemptor dreadnought’s arms are convenient in that they are symmetrical making it very easy to create a left and right arm from the close combat weapon arm from 2 separate kits. Other dreadnoughts will have different load-outs that I can assemble later.

Test assembly of dreadnought upper body

Using a small amount of glue I did a test pose for the upper torso. This begins to capture the aggressive pose that I am going for with this model.

Stay tuned for the next part of this project!

Norman Warlord

Recently I dug out some Norman knight models that I had been using for Hail Caesar. The plan is to use them for SAGA. One of the models was a Norman leader made by Crusader models. The character’s horse had its weight on a single leg which was starting to bend. It was only a matter of time before the model collapsed entirely or broke so I decided to re-sculpt the leg.

One thing lead to another and I ended up turning the model into a proper conversion. I’ve been doing lots of sculpting for Wreck-Age, and working on this guy has been a good way to use up excess putty, and to bide time while my freelance work sets up fully.

Project Eldar – 1 week prior to tournament!

I spent much of the weekend grinding away at Eldar vehicles.  I made some very good progress on these, but was surprised how much more effort they took than I had expected.  I suppose this is par for the course… things require more effort and time than planned for.

I am quite happy with what I was able to accomplish over the weekend.  None of these vehicles are ‘done’, but they are at a point where I can move on.  As time goes on I will revisit these to smooth paint transitions, pull up highlights, and fix wash blobs which occured in some of the shaded areas.

The vypers are the latest addition to my force.  The design for these conversions was inspired by the fantastic Hornet models that Forgeworld put out.  These are the models which will require the most attention when I have an opportunity to go into a polish phase.  I think that some of the weapon mount points will need some additional sculpting work to cover up some ugliness which was a byproduct of my lack of a complete vision when I attacked this conversion.

 

Eldar update!

I’ve been making some progress on the Eldar! I am participating in the Dark Star GT in several months and I have some work to do! Here is what I have been up to…

Eldar Guardians

Eldar Guardian

Warlock WIP

Warlock WIP

Project Update

Bolt Action – I have plans for a panzerpioneer platoon for Bolt Action and have scored some armored infantry & a Panzer IVh model!  I am doing some light conversions on these to give some of the panzergrenadiers camouflage smocks and helmet covers.  The Warlord Games German halftracks are fantastic models!

Warriors of Chaos – I am revising several of my Warrior units to add some large model unit fillers to bulk out these units.  I also am aiming to getting my blood Demonprince finally painted!!

11th Hussars for Flames of War – The 14 odd Humbar and Daimler armored cars for my British in the Desert army are mostly assembled.  These should be a blast to play.  I need to finalize my 1500 point list and get some games in while I am painting this.

PAVN for Flames of War ‘Nam – I’ve been painting a bit of PAVN armor which has been fun.  What I really need to do at some point is to get my support teams for the infantry locked down.  I have some materials for some Vietnam Terrain as well which  needs to be built.

Slannesh Chaos Space Marines – I got these guys up to a table basic paint scheme for Adepticon, but they are taking a back burner until I get some of these other items settled.  They are off to a great start however so I can’t wait to continue on them.

Warriors of Chaos: Return of the Prince & Chariots

There is a new Warriors of Chaos book out for Warhammer Fantasy Battle.  They have dragged me back in!  The good news is that this has motivated me to get back into some of the half-baked models that I created for previous incarnations of my WoC army.  Several of the previous conversions and sculpts that I created are going to get some attention, some new details, and finally… painted!  The two first items in the hopper will be the winged Tzeentch (sometimes Slannesh) Demonprince.  I love this model.  It’s one of my favorite creations and now with the new book actually has a great deal of utility in the game.  The flying Tzeentch DP was my MVP in the one game that I have played in the new army book.

One new item added to the book is the Gorebeast Chariot.  I have the perfect model for this unit!  When I initially got into doing WoC I determined that having chariots pulled by evil looking monsters would be fantastic, so I made this guy;

Apparently GW agreed with me and gave the warriors a new type of chariot.  This guy is going to get a bit of an overhaul.  New base, new riders (who don’t look like they are about to fall off the chariot) are going to happen.  I will probably add some more armor here and there to give the chariot some more meat.

It has been very satisfying to get back into the WoC, I am not going to lie.  It is also good to get back into this army and try to get it completed after many years!

Spring Update!

This joint has been a bit dead lately.  I have been super slammed with painting, sculpting, tournaments, and of course tons of real life.  Adepticon has come and went, and it was a fantastic time this year!!  I was able to bag best painted with my Soviet Heavy Assault Gun Regiment for the Late War tournament!  This was a great accomplishment for me.  I have never won a painting award before, and it was great feeling to get that plaque!  I will have to get some proper gallery shots of my Russians up here soon.

I am painting some critters for my friend’s Descent boardgame.  It will be nice to paint something a bit different, and casual like that.  The sculpts kind of lack something to be desired, but I may be able to fix up some of their weaker details through the painting.

The Warhammer High Elves have finally begun!  This project has been on the back-burner for nearly 2 years!  I am excited to get a start on this, and with an aggresive deadline looming, I will need to hussle!  I have been taking some breif shots of works in progress on my Seaguard for twitter… check em out:

Unseen Lerker Issue X

Check it out… Unseen Lerker is a cool hobby magazine out of the UK which focuses on Warhammer Fantasy Battle. They have just released issue X as a free digital download! Its a good read and I highly recommend it.