I’ve really been struggling to convert this bike up, but it’s sort of come together now the head lamps have been added. Just need to add a stormbolter strapped across his shoulder. He’ll be painted in the next few days with three other of his fellow Red Scorpion Captains.

I’ve kept these posts brief, because I’m really really tired right now, and I just wanted to get some images posted before I get some desperately needed shut eye.

Work in Progress Bike, Red Scorpion

Just a quick pic of the finished Astropath, nothing special, but I’ll post a pic of the Inquisitor and his henchmen showing how the colours tie the squad together aesthetically.

Work in Progress

First up, apologies for the lack of posts recently. I’ve been dealing with some minor health issues that have been getting in the way, and so haven’t really done any work the last week or so. Things are looking up though, so I’ll be trying to bring updates a bit more regularly.

The Actual Scale bike is temporarily on hold. I have plans for it, but they will have to wait for the time being.

Most recently I put together this charming little guy, who will be a Pedro Kantor character, painted up in Salamanders chapter colours.

The client asked for a rotary stormbolter on a sort of underslung set up attached to his forearm (like a mini assault cannon), but after playing around with components for a while I couldn’t see a way to do it and not have the model look ridiculously out of proportion. As an alternative I settled for a quad barreled heavy looking storm bolter which fits the “Assault 4″ stats of Pedro’s weapon rather well.
The main body is from one of the standard Space Marine veteran models (one of my faves from the range in fact) with a head swap from the veterans sergeant. The cloak is one of the nicest I’ve done yet. I made an original from a soft clay, and then made a mold (destroying the original after because the mold wasn’t flexible. After applying GS to the inside of the mold (silicon putty) and letting it cure I then had to break the mold to get the GS one out. Came together quite nicely without too many imperfections, although the cloak is a little narrow at the top.

There’s a bit more to do, gaps to fill, iconography to go on the storm bolter, and details to add to the fist as it’s a bit plain at the moment. I’ve got to admit converting Space Marines at this scale has become more difficult for me, now that I’ve gotten comfortable with bigger marines.

Also managed this week to take a few steps backward with the scaled up Land Raider I’ve had for at least 6 months. I ended up literally ripping it in two so I could replace the main doors on the front with wider versions. I’m a bit annoyed with it but the finished thing will be better in the long run. All I know is that I’m not planning on making any more of these. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the new Blood Angels flyer either won’t need scaling up or will be easy to do so.

Gonna try and have some painted stuff to post in the next couple of days.

Work in Progress Pedro Kantor, Quad Storm Bolter, Salamanders

Just a quick post to show a work in progress Red Scorpion captain (3 of 4). He has a combi- bolter/flamer, powerfist (with grenade launcher). I’ve yet to add an Iron Halo and Digi lasers to his powerfist. I think I’ll also be sculpting something scorpion-y onto his back banner.

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A little extra tidbit is this Actual Scale chest eagle I sculpted for someone, based off the one I did for the Grey Knight Chaplain. This is actually the second attempt. I don’t think it’s as good as the first but it’s satisfactory. I’ll be making molds of this to cast chest eagles for some of my future Blood Angels. The torso I sculpted as a base here is actually larger than the torsos I’ve used on most of my Marines to date, but I think I’m going to be moving toward larger chest plates in future. This is also big enough a chest eagle to fit a scaled up Terminator. Note: the gap between the wings is to allow a different things to be added, like a blood drop or skull or whatever, and adds to the amount of possible variety.

Miscellaneous, Work in Progress Chest Eagle, Red Scorpions

Just a quick update on the Chaplain conversion I recently did for my own Grey Knights. I decided to scrap the backpack and make a new one (thanks to those on the forums who called me out on the cop-out on the original).

Work in Progress Grey Knight Chaplain

I gotta admit I’ve never been a big fan of the plastic Space Marine bikes. Not sure what it is about them, maybe they’re too “blocky” or something they’ve just never appealed. Now I’m not saying this to blow my own trumpet but I’m genuinely surprised by how much I like this bike conversion I’ve been working on. When I started it I had no real idea or plan on how to do it, just a pile of assorted SM and Ork bike bits. It’s come together very nicely so far (note the rider is temporarily tacked together, but he’ll probably end up with the sword), I may add 2 or 3 to my own collection much later on.

Work in Progress Actual Scale, Bike, Salamanders

Just a quick update on the second Red Scorpion captain I’ve been working on. I’m not certain about the scorpion sculpted onto the jump pack, maybe it’ll look better painted up. I have two more captains in progress which should be ready for pics pretty soon.

Work in Progress Red Scorpions, Regular Scale

Spent quite a long time painting up my Inquisitor. He’s not varnished yet because I’m thinking of painting some kind of pattern around the edges of his cloak/coat. I’ve always had a thing for NMM gold, and whilst this ain’t perfect, it’s also not too shabby.

I think the hellpistol need a little more work as it doesn’t quite look as golden as his artificer armour, but other than that I’m really happy with his final look. Although I really like the idea of pure Grey Knight forces, I just can’t bear to leave such characterful models out of my army. I’m already thinking about giving this character (who I’ve yet to name) an alternative model (ie: in Terminator armour) using the Hector Rex mini but equipped with psycannon and null rod.

I’ve made a start on my Vindicare Assassin and whilst searching the net for a decent paint scheme for inspiration I found this awesome piece of artwork. I really want to make a Eversor conversion now, one that doesn’t look like he’s trying to take a crap. In fact considering most of the Assassins are a similar points value I may just opt to have one of each, but they will of course all have to be converted.

Only other thing I’ve been thinking of to do with Inquisitors is whether to use the Witch Hunters codex to induct one. The WH seem to have better psychic powers than the daemonhunters, but the DHs bring Mystics to the battlefield. Something to think about while I work on the Grey Knights. I’ve redone the backpack for the Chaplain so it’s not a bodge-job anymore, and started work on 5 Grey Knights in power armour. Will post some pics later today.

Work in Progress Inquisitor, Non Metallic Metallic (NMM)

Hi all. It’s been a while. The last week has been a major pain, trying to clear out about 20 years worth of junk from my home (I’m a terrible horder), and so I’ve not had a chance to get much done. On top of that I ran out of greenstuff today and my latest order of the stuff seems to have gotten lost in the post (aaarrggh!!!). I’ve got a bit of an update here, but until I can get some fresh GS I’m gonna be flexing my paintbrush for a change.

First up today, SIlicone Putty!

I’ve mentioned this a few times over the last few months so I figured I’d give an example. As I’m working on a Grey Knights army, I decided to make a mold of a special purity seal for them. In some of the GK artwork they can be seen with really long flowing purity seals, which I think not only look really cool but are especially useful for hiding less than perfect sculpting.
So here I sculpted a long flowing seal onto a piece of plasticard.

The silicone putty comes in two parts, both of which are of, well a putty consistency (obviously).

Take two small equal sized amounts. They are very easily mixed just using fingertips and takes probably no more than 20-30 seconds. It’s not exactly messy, but you’ll want to wash your hands afterwards.

It hardens very quickly, so as soon as it’s mixed into one colour, press it onto whatever it is you are molding, being careful to sort of spread it over the piece so as not to capture air bubbles.

Give it a minute to set, and pull it off. It captures details very nicely (you can see my fingerprints on the putty in the photo above). Whilst normally on larger objects the mold has some flexibility, on small pieces like this there really is none. It’s very easy to cut and will break if you use too much force, but the beauty of this material is that Greenstuff will not stick to it at all, so there’s no need for any kind of release agent.

When making the cast a soft mix is highly recommended (ie: at least twice as much yellow as blue) and you’ll need to press it into the mold with a wet tool, otherwise it’ll stick to the tool and be pulled right out of the mold.

I’ll be using this particular mold to add flowing purity seals to all my Grey Knights, which will certainly add a sense of movement to a fairly static pose that most will have.

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Actual Scale bike.

This is the bike for an Actual Scale Salamanders character (will count as Khan). The rider is currently in bits, but the main structure of the bike is built as you can see. The exhausts might be a little bit flared. The whole thing is about half as long again as a regular bike, hence the need for a custom base. The front of the bike is a little rough but I’ll be sculpting a large imperial eagle on it as soon as I can get some more GS. The plastics are a combination of Ork and Space Marine bikes and I think the exhausts may have come from a Baneblade (I’m not too sure).

Work in Progress Actual Scale, Grey Knights, Purity Seal, Salamanders, Silicone Putty, Space Marine Bike

Durendin’s about 99% done. It’ll be a while before I paint him because of other work, but it’s nice to see him realized. I had a lot of trouble finalizing his pose, but eventually settled on a crozius resting at his side rather than the usual held aloft pose common to all Chaplains. It helps give an impression of weight to his mighty hammer, but also allows the fitting of the shoulder pad to look far less awkward. Although this model has 9 pins holding him together, there are elements that are definitely fragile (the iron halo for example) but there’s not much I can do to improve that. Guess I better not drop him.

Work in Progress Actual Scale, Chaplain, Grey Knight Chaplain, Thunder Hammer