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.

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!

Mutant Examples WIP

Here are some shots of some of the ways my chaos warriors are being mutated. I may do some more extreme mutations, but I want to be sure that the general feel of the unit stays consistent.

Bestial Mutation.

Serpentine Mutation.

Hero & Steed of Slannesh crossbreed mutation.

Update for Slanneshi Chaos Army

I have gotten the chaos army production back into gear! I am attending the Midwest Rampage Tournament at the end of May, so its time to give this project the big push to get the 2250 done! Its going to be quite a challenge for the next month and change, but I think I can do it!

There are 2 chariots in my list, and this is one of the two actual chariots in progress. This is based on the Tomb King chariot, heavily modified to accommodate 2 chaos warriors. I like the Tomb King model as a base, as it has a certain elegance to it that will go well with the rest of the Slannesh themed army. As a counterpoint I banged up the wheels a great deal with the dremel to make them look like battered metal, pitted and worn from blazing across the countryside.

I’ve started to nail down the mounts for the chariots as well. These will be chaos spawn like critters that have a Slanneshi vibe, and I believe will tie into the rest of the army quite well.

After tinkering with my list a bunch, I decided to jump on the band-wagon when it comes to sorcerers, and marked this one with Tzeentch. Gamewise, he is equipped with a Disc of Tzeentch as a mount. I decided against setting this guy up with some sort of disc, surfboard thingy, but rather a set of wings. These are from the plastic Pegasus knight kit.

The chaos warriors were a bit of a sticking point for me. The are a core element to the style, and play of the army so it is critical that I really nail them. Recently I was able to capture, more or less the look that I was going for. I feel that the strengths of the prototype come through with these, while also showing some more dynamic posing.

I have 15 of these (1 of 2 units in the list) at this level of completion. I’ve come up with a formula for these which is helping me speed up the modeling phase.

Several of these have face-plates that have another layer coming. I decided to stick with a chaos knight head for the unit champion. It fits the vibe I am going for fairly well, and the horns help him stand out some.

‘The Push’, or ‘So Close Yet So Far’

Stupid Holidays.

Having some time off was great, and stuff, but unfortunately I was unable to use any of that time to make headway on my sculpting work. Ok, this isn’t entirely true. I did refine the design of the chaos warriors a bit, and I was able to get underway with the painting of the cultist unit. These are big steps forward, but that is also where the problem is! I’m getting back to the daily grind, and playing a bit of catchup, right at the time where I would love to be able to point some energy at getting some of these units finished. As I adultify more over the years, I realize that I am terrible at time-management, and this is largely a byproduct of my impulsiveness, and feline attention span. While I have kind of come to accept this about myself, I have also been trying to bend my behavior slightly to fit my ambitions better. I am trying to approach some of my projects in a more granular fashion. When I am able to do some work on something, I try to make it a concise, but small chunk, so that when I return to the project, I am more inspired, and less daunted by where I left off. So far that has been a successful approach. The tricky part is for me to consciously be aware of how much I am taking on in one sitting.

More (and somewhat better) shots of the spawn progress

Tentacles!

I did a bit of work on the modified Chaos Spawn this week. Work life has kept me away from my modeling bench somewhat, but I was able to resolve the missing leg on this critter, as well as the feelers coming out of its face. I am pretty happy with the use of guitar wire for this. I will have to carry this over to some of the other monstrosities that I have planned.

I took a bit more care with these photos as well. I remembered to shoot in RAW mode, and took the time to play with their exposures in photoshop. What I need is better lights, and some kind of stands so that I can position them more easily.

In the front shot of the spawn you can see a very rough region under it’s chin where the sculpting is particularly unrefined. This is my next target with this thing. That, and some sort of hook/claw/feet for the ends of its legs as well will pretty much wrap up the modeling on this piece.

More Cultists & Chaos Spawn WIP

This is the latest progress on my Slanneshi army. The 1st group of cultists is almost done with its modeling, 2 spawn are almost there as well.

The champion has received a sword and a shield.

This is the full block of 20 cultists. The standard bearer is the next modeling work I need to do on this unit.

This is a conventional GW kit chaos spawn. See, I can have non-converted stuff in my army!

This spawn has a lot more custom work done to it, and some more to go.

Other units that are under way are a block of more dogs, Chaos Warriors, Mutated Chosen, and a Slanneshi Giant.

New project shots coming soon!

…most likely tomorrow.

I have been making some fine progress on my Chaos army of Slannesh. As usual, I seem to have made the models for this project more complex than I probably needed to, but I think that these are going to be sick when they are done.

On the workbench now is a unit of 10 (soon to be 20) Cultists of Slannesh (my interpretation of Chaos Marauders), 30 Chaos Warriors of Slannesh, 2 chaos spawn, and 10 chaos puppies. The dogs are finished, and ready to paint. The cultists are next up, and I will be posting images here as they progress. Stay tuned!

Inspiration : Chinese Demon

http://www.coolminiornot.com/206961

This is a very cool model!! Some of the Helldorado minis are incredible. This is gives me some inspiration for my WFB Djinn for the Undead of Araby project. It captures the way I wanted to model the smoke that the Djinn is materializing from very well.

There is so much good stuff out there these days!!

projects update – Imperial Guard, Genestealers

I have been juggling several projects lately (well… I always am actually). Here is an update covering what has been going on.

My Imperial guard army has been a labor of love and hate for the last several years, and only recently have I been able to get the units to start coming together the way that I had hoped. My recent re-discovery of the Mechanized Company (Lots of soldiers riding around in tanks) has given me some new focus for the project.

I had posted some images earlier showing some modifications that I had been planning for my Chimera tanks. Several days ago I finished the mold, and made some casts.

These components, because they are fairly large are very easy to cast with good results. Because they are fairly shallow, and open ended, I can easily pour resin into the molds with little problems with air bubbles. As anyone who has done amateur resin casting knows, air bubbles that stick to your mold and create voids in your casts are a huge pain in the ass. This is the very problem that is holding up the heavy weapon teams for this project (more about that later).

Because the tanks need something to carry around, I have been trying to get some platoons finished up. Here is part of the 1st platoons A squad.

In addition to my IG tanks and troopers, I have also been doing a little work here and there on a squad of Genestealers. I have been inspired to work on these since the test pieces that I did several months ago. In the shot below there are several bodies in a early phase of conversion. I want their poses to be more varied than what I often see in other Tyranid collections.