BCK's Thread of Stuff: Maybe not eldar...

[Lexington]

Love it!

 

One suggestion I’ve got is that “V” shaped scarring up towards the top of the head could maybe use a couple little branching bits, as it’s pretty smooth right now.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Yeah, those originally branched off more but I didn't realize that the ends weren't as deep and the plastic cement and following light sanding filled them in. 

[Spaced Hulk]

Last pic of shouty sarge in the build phase, showing his unceasing bad luck with helmet damage and facial injuries over the years. 

 

Absolutely brilliant model!

 

GW have been reimagining classic models a fair bit over the last few years, from the original beakie Imperial Space Marine to the guitar weilding Noise Marine. I'd say this Vet Srg is as good, if not better than anything they've released. Put it this way, if it was for sale, I'd buy it!

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Thanks! Unlike my usual conversions with a lot of sculpting work, this is much more of a kitbash than anything and should be easy enough to reproduce if you want to a shouty sarge of your own. I found an eBay auction with all the sgt arms from the Intercessor box, slapped on a Centurion head I had laying around for a while and here we are. 

 

I got the bolt rifle from the bolt pistol arm with the rifle slung and trimmed off the plastic sling bits so I could connect a new greentuff sling in its place. You wouldn't even have to remove the holstered pistol from the thigh if you didn't want to resculpt the thigh armor, but I wanted a better fit for the gun. 

 

Also, the updated scars and last pics of shouty sarge (for real) until he gets some paint. 

 

[Spaced Hulk]

I'm really tempted to have a go at building one (imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, and all that). I think it's the green stuff sling I'd have most trouble with, as my sculpting skills are mediocre at best. I generally use jeweller's chain to make slings, but I'm not sure it would look as effective. Out of interest, is it just greenstuff, or do you use a core of wire to give the sling additional strength?

 

Also, I'm thinking the base model is a Dark Imperium Intercessor (the one who's arms and shoulders are both separate)?

 

The scars look awesome btw, you've definitely perfected them

[apologist]

The original is perhaps my favourite Space Marine model of all time (of all time! [/Kanye]), and this affectionate update is absolutely fantastic. You've nailed the likeness, brought in some new elements (like the scars and wrist-mounted thingummy-bob), and the result is brilliant. It's also been very interesting seeing your process for making the scars develop. 

 

I echo Spaced Hulk's point: this could very easily be mistaken for a new release, and that's the bar for an excellent conversion, in my opinion. Thanks for sharing.

[Forté]

That's a whole lot of loyalists.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Backing up a bit, I love your autocannon Land Raider, both in concept and execution. Are you planning to use it counts-as or is it a display piece? Or did I miss a way to use custom tank loadouts? (Please let me have missed something!)

I meant to reply to this in my earlier post, oops! I don't play the game so it's just a display piece and if there's some custom tank rules, I'm not aware of it.

 

I'm really tempted to have a go at building one (imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, and all that). I think it's the green stuff sling I'd have most trouble with, as my sculpting skills are mediocre at best. I generally use jeweller's chain to make slings, but I'm not sure it would look as effective. Out of interest, is it just greenstuff, or do you use a core of wire to give the sling additional strength?

 

Also, I'm thinking the base model is a Dark Imperium Intercessor (the one who's arms and shoulders are both separate)?

No sculpting or wires involved for the strap at all! I rolled some GS out flat and used a straight edge and a fresh hobby blade to cut it to size after it cured. I used the bolt rifle from this arm:

 

 

I cut away all but a little tab of the original strap and sliced the end of the new GS strap at a sharp angle to mate up with the tab and used a dot of super glue there and then glued it onto his chest. If you, or anyone else reading this makes your own version of shouty sarge, link me or post the pic in here. I'd love to see it. :)

The original is perhaps my favourite Space Marine model of all time (of all time! [/Kanye]), and this affectionate update is absolutely fantastic. You've nailed the likeness, brought in some new elements (like the scars and wrist-mounted thingummy-bob), and the result is brilliant. It's also been very interesting seeing your process for making the scars develop.

 

I echo Spaced Hulk's point: this could very easily be mistaken for a new release, and that's the bar for an excellent conversion, in my opinion. Thanks for sharing.

High praise from one of the best converters on the boards! He's one of my favorite models as well and has been a Blood Angel, Imperial Fist, Crimson Fist, Salamander, and a Crimson Son. I figured he could use an upgrade after so many years of service.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Has your Captain been hitting the chow hall for a little too much stress eating lately? Has the techmarine told him he can't let out the waist in his gravis armor anymore? Has he started cracking bad jokes about how he's on the level because his bubble is in the middle? If so, it's time to bust that Gravis Gut!

 

 

This is as far as I got right now because I was working outside all day and I'm fething drained, but I don't like the standard pose of this guy and I don't like the Palumbo Gravis Gut. 

[Chaplain Raeven]

Have your Raptors found the Space Hulk 'The Nostromo'? Don't trust the xeno pets roaming around in there.

 

Edited August 30, 2019 by GreyRavenC

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Here's a little tutorial on how I did my Necromunda bases. The idea I had in my head for the bases was that the gang is exploring an industrial area that had previously been flooded and rust got everywhere. 

 

Supplies

 

 

• The handy Vallejo Mecha washes in Black, Rust Texture, Dark Rust, Light Rust, and Oiled Earth.
• A light color to paint the base in, and in my case it's the Vostroyan vehicle color I mixed up from a few P3 colors. 
• Black paint to do to the paint chipping with. 
• A bit of sponge and some locking tweezers or hemostat to hold it with. You don't really need something that locks, but it makes it so much easier on the hand. 
• A primed Necromunda base
• Not pictured: a hair dryer to greatly speed up the drying time of the washes which gets this done faster but also helps to keep tide marks from forming. 
• Also not pictured: Matte varnish or a matte mixing medium

 

1) Paint the base!

 

 

Since this will be heavily weathered the coverage doesn't have to be perfect, especially in the lower recesses. 

 

2) Chipping

 

Hold the sponge in the tweezers, dip it into some paint straight from the jar, and similar to drybrushing you will dab off most of it on a paper towel until it barely leaves any marks. I will usually test it on a fingernail at that point to see if it's good or if I need to add or remove more paint from the sponge. 

 

 

When it comes to any weathering, you need to think logically about where it would happen on the vehicle, figure base etc, but it's most important with paint chipping. I've see a lot of paint chipping out there on anything from scale tanks and other AFVs to sci-fi and fantasy models, and when there's a ton of chipping in a place that it wouldn't normally be it instantly breaks the illusion for me. On these bases specifically, the edges of the highest raised sections are where you want to focus, with corners being a prime target for a little heavier action with the sponge. 

 

If you happen to overdo it in a particular area, you can use a fine tipped brush or another piece of sponge with the base color to take some of the chips away. 

 

3) Depths

 

I mix Rust Texture and Oiled Earth about 2:1 to loosen up the Rust Texture a bit and get it to spread easier and then paint it into the lowest recesses where all the dirt and grime would accumulate the most. If you get a little outside the lines, don't worry about it too much. 

 

 

4) Rust Phase 1

 

Now I take the Light Rust and thin it down a bit and begin to use my two-brush method with these washes; a smaller brush loaded with the wash and a larger brush that's clean and slightly damp. These Mecha washes are more forgiving than any other acrylic washes I've ever used, meaning you have a couple of seconds of working time after you lay down the wash with the first brush and then you quickly swap to the clean one to move it around where you want or to clean up any mistakes. 

 

 

With these 'Munda bases, there's 3 layers of height to them and I mostly concentrate on the second layer, painting the wash into the corners and along edges where it would accumulate. For the top layer, I apply some wash across the area and then immediately wipe my thumb across it to remove most of the wash but leaving some streaks behind creating an effect that I haven't been able to duplicate with a brush. For the low spots that almost look like ladder rungs, I do the same thing but use the damp brush to remove small sections of the wash. Any depressions or holes, like these that appear to have bolts or something in them, get some love too. 

 

5) Rust Phase 2

 

Now I switch to the Dark Rust and mostly just repeat what I did in the previous step, again, concentrating on corners and along edges. 

 

 

6) Rust Phase 3)

 

Now I mix Dark Rust and Oiled Earth 1:1 and add some matte varnish (or mixing medium - something to break the surface tension) so it doesn't stick to the walls and corners and begin using the tip of the brush to place little blotches of wash in various areas with the intention of creating darker spots and some harder edges almost like tide marks. 

 

 

7) Rust Phase 4

 

Now I mix Dark Rust with the Black Wash 3:1 and some matte varnish and repeat the previous step of using the tip of the brush to add little points of visual interest. 

 

 

When I was done with that, I added a little more black to what was left of the wash mix and hit a few corners and edges harder than I had previously to add more contrast. 

 

And you're done! Clean up the outside of the base with black or whatever color you might paint the base sides with and you're ready to mount a figure on top.

[hushrong]

Nice tutorial! I’m going to have to try this out as I’ve been using similar bases.

 

Also interested in seeing where you go with the gravis armor gut. I do and don’t like it in equal measure but more often than not it makes me think they used a large role poly as inspiration.

[Urauloth]

Very nice tutorial which also answers all the questions I happened to have about the Mecha washes, which I'll be picking up as soon as I get a chance. Thanks for taking the time to make it!

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Thanks, brothers, I hope it's useful.

 

And now, back to the Underhive and a return to House Escher. As a reminder, the artwork my heavy stubber lass is inspired by:

 

 

And the current progress, with a special thanks to Bryan Blaire for the new barrel. 

 

 

The arms still need a little more work, but I've spent the past 3 hours on them and need a break. There will be a support strap and shoulder pads!

[Gederas]

Man she's got some GUNS on her. I like it :tu:

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

They're formerly chaos marauder arms that have had a lot of filing and scraping work done to get them smaller and my reduce them a bit more. I also just noticed the hair in the art is not what I originally thought it was with several braids across the top of the head - like the model head I used - but more like a mullet with the long hair in the back put into several braids. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Continuing the heavy stubber love is something I spent a number of hours working on today for my friend's Goliath gang. 

 

 

The spare heavy stubber I had from a chaos cultist looked too small for the Goliath, and with my friend having a ton of ork stuff, he insisted I use a big shoota instead. Looking at the possible Goliath arms that might work for the conversion, I thought the ones that go with the rivet cannon might work, and to my absolute shock, they were almost perfect. The right wrist will need some greenstuff, and the left arm had to be rotated and the shoulder cut down quite a bit to line up properly with the shoota stubber.

 

Even more handy was using the largest shoulder pad on the sprue to simply cover up the mangled shoulder instead of re-sculpting it. The big shoota ammo backpack not only makes it look like the guy has come to party all night long, but also balances out the figure so the gun doesn't topple the figure forward anymore. 

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

Attempt #2. I made a new tool with a fine but blunt tip out of a piece of brass rod instead of the chisel shape I used previously and I think this one turned out a lot better. 

 

 

Something interesting I noticed about this particular marine head (because almost everything reminds me of something from a movie) is that from the side it looks a lot like Adam Baldwin but from the front, it looks a lot like Neal McDonough.

 

Fancy doing a tute, I really like the look of that scarring, it looks kinda like Tu’Shan’s ritualistic scarification. I really like the look and think it old look fantastic if I do end up starting a Salamander’s project once their supplement drops.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I thought I pretty well described how I did it in previous posts, but I could see about doing a tutorial for it. 

 

Back to my amazon, who finally got some legs to match her arms. 

 

 

And a few more tweaks towards completion:

 

 

While I was looking for a larger size of the art piece that inspired her, I saw something in the original uncut one I hadn't noticed before around her leg area. 

 

 

Is that animal fur butt cape or something? And should I replicate it on the figure? I dunno on both counts. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Almost done with the machine gun lady, thank the God-Emperor. This conversion has given me more trouble than anything I can think of in recent memory. What you're seeing here is about eight sessions of greenstuffing and most of them were me redoing something that looked like crap. 

 

 

Things left to do: left shoulder pad, left wrist and hand join, and fixing that terrible gap where the face joins the head (why would they do it that way?!). I wanted to put the strap on the stubber like it is in the art, but I've having a real aggravating time getting something to work. At least it's coming together now and seems to be worth the hassle, but I'm reaching for that light at the end of the tunnel before the engine runs out of steam. 

[Augustus b'Raass]

I love the stubber lady. Well done!

Scarring on both MkX marines looks good and I really am impressed by your recreating the shouty sarge. Dunno if you've seen it btw, but shouty sarge's pointy hand has some fugly mold lines on it. Beware!

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Thanks, Augs. I like stubber lady too - which reminds me that I need to giver her a name and I'm open to suggestions. Since a lot of the Escher artwork has a fair amount of scarring on them, I might put my new technique to use on this figure, as the artwork has a pretty good scar running across her cheek. Speaking of cheeks, I'm almost worried to show off some of the sculpting I did when getting her legs and other muscles in proportion with her arms. The base figure had a lot of gubbins on the legs and backside that I needed to remove when I was lengthening the torso and a lot of that got cut away. 

 

 

I've seen immature responses to some things like that both in my thread and others. 

 

Oh, and I am aware of the mold line on Shouty Sarge's hand, but thanks for pointing it out. 

[Augustus b'Raass]

How about Hela Xon? Or Agatha Phyrr? Or Anuk Ra? 

Your scarring technique is summarized as such, right (and please correct me if I'm wrong): dip a needle in Plastic Glue (don't drench it - avoid a drop hanging from the tip) and then scratch it into the plastic skin of the miniature you want to scar. Correct?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I scratch the scar in with the needle, then use a thin brush to apply some plastic cement to the scratch to smooth it out and make it look more organic and less like, well... a scratch in hard plastic. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Heavy Stubber gal is done, for the time being.

 

 

There's a superglue mishap I need to clean up where the left arm joins the body and then get rid of that awful seam where the face joins the rest of the head. Now, anyway, I'm taking a break.