With the exception of the bases the Primarch twins Alpahrius and Omegon are now finished.

This has probably been my most challenging project to date. The whole thing is about 90% self sculpted with a few bits used as armature to sculpt over. Alpharius especially is one of my favourite ever and I’m tempted to model a Space Marine Captain for my own collection based on him.

Starting off from where I left off last update, I detailed the back of the cloak with similar hydra iconography that I’d previously added to torso, three on each side. After this I then molded the cloak with a big chunk of Blu-Stuff ready to make a replica for Omegon. There is just enough flex in that mold to remove it from the model even though it is partially wrapped around it.

I then filled the mold with soft Green Stuff, smoothing it out with a large round cup soft clayshaper on the inside of the cloak. I waited 1 hour for the Green Stuff to firm up a little but not too much. This allowed me to carefully remove it from the mold without wrecking it and also fit it to the Omegon, shaping it more to my liking.

I wasn’t entirely certain how to pose Omegon so I was going to just see how it evolved. After attaching the new cloak I thought of doing somthing similar to GW’s Master of the Fleet model where he’s gripping his cloak in one hand (sort of pulling it back. Whenever a model has a cloak, purity seals, banner or other fabric item I always try to imagine wind blowing in a specific direction. In this case the wind is blowing his cloak from behind and to keep it out of the way he’s pulling it back with his free hand.

Next up was shoulder iconography. The client specifically requested a design for the shoulder pads to emulate this piece of artwork he forwarded to me. As you can see Omegon differs from Alpharius in that he bears the Omega symbol. Because the icons appear on right and left pads I made life easier on myself and molded both in Blu-Stuff. I then filled the impression of each icon with Green Stuff and pushed it onto the opposite pad (rather than letting it cure and gluing it in place after). The tiny chains around the outside of each icon were added later on. I did these chains in sections, doing the loop parts first, and after they had cured adding the tiny links between each of the loops. Anyone sculpting tiny details like this might want to ensure a more yellow than blue mix to keep the Green Stuff extra sticky and help it adhere to the plastic/resin surface better.

The final element was to replicate the head (again using Blu-Stuff) and redesign the backpack into something more akin to Mark 6 Power Armour. To replicate the head I made a cast of the face and after it had cured re-scupted to rest of the head. For the backpacks I used my standard approach of cutting the ends off of two backpacks and gluing them together to make one wider backpack (an alternative is to cut one in half, add a plasticard spacer and fill the gap with Green Stuff). I sculpted the layered style of armour on top of the plastic one layer at a time, starting at the bottom. After I had done this and added an extra layer of armour to the top and made a copy using, yes you guessed it, Blu-Stuff. The copy needed a little cleaning up but nothing major. The final step was to add rivets (from the Grandt Line product range).

This final pic is kind of how I imagined the finished models in my minds eye when I started the project with Alpharius in his commanding pose and his secret twin brother skulking in the background. I’ve not done anything more to the bases than provide platforms (supposed to be discarded/wrecked metal of some kind) for them to stand on. I may detail them up but at the moment I’m assuming the client will want these to match the bases on the rest of his army. On the subject of which, when these two models are stood next to regular Space Marine minis they do look suitably “Primarchy” (see previous update for size comparison pic).

I was slightly concerned at the beginning of the project as to whether I could pull off that “Primarchy” look without super detailed and stylised armour. I can’t help but admit I’m very pleased with these, and I’m rather looking forward to my next Primarch (Sanguinius) and some very ornate and detailed armour, I think that’ll step up the challenge to new heights.

I’m sure I’ve left out huge chunks of detail and obvious stuff so if you have any questions about this project please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Just a quick update on the casting of the feathered wings I made for my Doombull Champion. Here we have a photo direct from the caster (Battlecast service at Anvil Industry) of the first production casts. Even though the master was very difficult to mold and cast the quality looks to be top notch.

If anyone is interested in purchasing a pair of these wings I’ll be pricing them at £11.99 and £1.99 for shipping and I’ll be putting them up in the site’s Store. I’ve placed an order for a small number of casts in the first run because they are expensive to produce, but if they are popular I’ll certainly order some more.

These should be in next week and I’ll be working to finish my own Doombull just as soon as I can.

In other news I’m a bit behind finishing the Primarch twins (big surprise, eh?) but I should have the final post in the next couple of days.

Apologies for  the lack of posts so far this year. I had the pleasure of being hacked last week (this site and a number of others) which is one of the reasons this post is so late. Although the actual damage incurred was quite minor and cleaned up within about 3 hours I decided to tidy up and remove any other vulnerablilites. Unfortunately I mistakenly deleted the wrong database, effectively destroying this site. It took me a further 2 days to repair the damage I’d done myself but thankfully I was able to recover everything.

Anyhow back to the work at hand…

I don’t have any work in progress shots of the arms and shoulder pads being added so the best I can do is describe my methods. I first opted to use a sword from the Grey Knight Terminators kit (great kit!) with the power generator bit carefully removed from above the hilt to make it a bit more traditional looking and also make it the correct height for the pose I wanted. The sword was re-assembled from 4 bits: the blade, the guard, the right hand and the handle (grip & pommel). The handle was pinned on but the rest of the parts glued with liquid welding glue to make sure the bond would be clean. With delicate parts superglue can be a nightmare if you’re not careful. I cut out a little gap in the base to rest the tip of the blade in and filled this with Green Stuff to make sure the tip would have a perfect fit when pushed in.

The arms started out as standard plastic arms. I basically use them to ensure the size of the arm is always accurate. Spacers (about 1mm) were adding to lengthen the forearms, and the upper arms were replaced with wire (paper clip wire is perfect) which I used to pin the arms to the torso. I then began the process of sculpting a thin skin of Green Stuff over these arms, trying to keep edges as sharp as possible. The forearms, hand, elbow pads and upper arms are all done separately and allowed to cure before moving on, otherwise you are guaranteed to mess something up.

The shoulder pads are resin casts of a single pad a made some time ago. They are pretty much a perfect size for this conversion although I had to do a little repair work on the corners. Whenever I try to repair imperfections in smooth armour I always use a soft mix of Green Stuff (as much as 3:1 yellow to blue). This helps to smooth the Green Stuff into the existing shape to keep it as clean looking as possible. Positioning of the pads took sometime to get right. It might sound like a simple thing to attach shoulder pads but the pose of this model can make them look awkward. I did a lot of trimming and shaving of bit of the model that wouldn’t be seen to get the fit just right. Now might be a good time to mention dry fitting. One of the reasons my conversions take a long time is the shear amount of testing and dry fitting of components I do during the build process. I probably spend more time looking at and thinking about a model than actually making it, but (at least for me) it’s all part of the process of getting things just right.

At this point I added some more detail to the head, an ear on one side and the usual space marine headset/plugin set up. I knew when I started the project that the swords position in the pose would likely cause some problems obscuring the face. The simple solution was to very slightly angle the head to be facing to the side. Essentially the direction of the head determines the front of the model as it’s the automatic focal point (it’s a human thing for the eye to look to the face first).

Next up was the cloak. I’d been playing around with using some wax sheets to help me with the cloak making process but it just wasn’t panning out as I had hoped so I reverted to a more standard approach. I took some of the plastic that Green Stuff comes supplied in and mixed a large amount (2:1 ratio, yellow to blue). After pressing onto the plastic as best I could with my fingers, I took the handle of my large clayshper, wet the handle and used it in a rolling pin fashion to spread it as thinly and evenly as possible (as shown above). I left this for about 1 hour before applying it to the mini.

Leaving the plastic in place I pressed it into the back of the model and tried to shape it into something well “cloak shaped”. This was then left for a good few hours before peeling the plastic off. I deliberating made this rough cloak too large, because at the end of the day you can always trim is down, but adding new Green Stuff is a lot harder. Even though this was pressed into the back of the model once it was fully cured I was easily able to remove it and the dry fitting process began.

I slowly whittled down the edges of the cloak with a scalpel making sure the overall shape was what I wanted by continually testing it on the model. Once I got the shape right I then set to work on it with “wet & dry emery paper” under a running tap, cleaning it up and sharpening edges.

Looking at it so far, I’m at the stage now where I can start detailing up, I just want to be careful not to go overboard. The back pack definitely needs work to make it more fitting for a Mark VI suit. I think the cloak needs some more work for sure, either decoration like the hydras on the chest plate or maybe more folds and flowing shapes (or both).

So far I’m really really liking how this is shaping up.

Also, here’s a quick pic of Omegon (Alpharius’ twin). As I’ve said before, I want to try and make Omegon a bit more stealthy/shadowy posed. At the moment I see him in a sneaking forward pose with him in the process of drawing his sword from a scabbard. However, we’ll have to see how that evolves.

I put the finishing touches to the Gabriel Angelos conversion a few days ago.

The two main parts of the conversion that I think require some explanation are the cloak and the Thunder Hammer (which I’ve been informed is correctly called Godsplitter).

Originally I had tried to sculpt a cloak using a sheet of wax I’d been given (basically candle wax in a 2mm thick sheet). Using metal tools and a lighter to heat and shape the wax I tried making to make something resembling natural cloth. However, I couldn’t get it to work as intended so I’ve shelved that idea for the time being.

Instead I made a partial mold of a chaos warrior cloak, sculpting the top half to fit the rest of the model. Having it made from Green Stuff allowed me to trim it down and shape it to fit much better.

The hammer was made starting with the trimmed down Grey Knight Thunder Hammer (the power armour version). I started by filling in the central part to make it into one large block. I wanted to make the head of the hammer look like it was made from something like a chunk of ore or volcanic rock, that then had a metal casing riveted onto it. I put a thin covering of Green Stuff on two of the faces of the hammer and then added a texture to it by pressing a piece of sponge into it while still soft.

The rest of the faces of the hammer head were done one at a time and rivets added (Grandt Line product) while the Green Stuff was still soft (no glue required).

I wasn’t sure whether to add the reinforced plating to the legs or not, but it did seem like something was needed. I wasn’t sure about this conversion until it was in the final stages, something I find happens quite often in the process. I usually feel that the project isn’t working out as well as I had hoped until it is in the final stages when everything seems to just come together.

Steady progress on Alpharius and his twin brother Omegon. The tricky thing with this conversion is to make them obvious Primarchs, but also not have them too decorative, as their own modus operandi is to make sure they and all the Legionnaires are largely indistinguishable from one another. At the end of the day I’d rather make them too decorative than not decorative enough, but I’ll try and stay away from flashy details.

Since I took these photos I’ve rebased the models (Omegon will show up in the next update) on 40mm bases as thats far more appropriate to such a model. I used Aerion the Faithful’s excellent depiction of Alpharius as inspiration for the sculpting on the chest plate. To do this I added Green Stuff in the approximate shape I needed (see above photo) and pushed it about with size 0 clayshapers and a needle’s pointy end.

I also knew I didn’t want to use a stock head for this miniature, but at the same time I don’t feel confident enough that I can sculpt a head from scratch. My solution was to take one of the very nice Grey Knight bare heads and strip it down (removing all details but the face) and use that as a template to sculpt my own face (no, not my actual face) with stronger features.

I did this face in four stages, forehead, jaw, mouth and nose. Each stage was a case of creating larger bolder features over the existing plastic. The eyes were left as they were. The end result was a slightly larger than standard head with strong features and I have to say I’m rather pleased with the finish, and is a good halfway measure considering I can’t sculpt heads from scratch yet. On the pics below I’ve desaturated the Green Stuff in Photoshop to make the results easier to see.

I still need to add the usual headgear and bionic plugin bit to the rest of the head. Because Omegon is Alpharius’ twin I’ll be casting this face using Blu-Stuff as the mold, along with other artificer details so both models look identical except for the posing.

I need to run it by the client, but I’m quite keen on giving Omegon a cloth hood pulled over his head, as suggested by someone on one of the forums.

I’ve kept the client of this conversion waiting a very long time for this piece, but I promised I’d have it finished in time for christmas and I intend to stick to that.

Originally the brief was for an Artscale Gabriel Angelos based off of specific pieces of artwork. However, because this model will be used in competitive play the brief was changed to a regular scale conversion. Even so, I decided to take the liberty of altering the size of the mini ever so slightly but still have him fit nicely of a 25mm base.

First I removed the legs from the groin section on a standard pair of plastic legs and pinned them back on with a bit of a space left between each component. I then filled this with green stuff to lengthen the legs ever so slightly. I’ve seen this done many time before with plasticard, but in the end I just use the material I’m most comfortable with.

I then added a thin skin of Green Stuff over the legs to add a little extra mass. The thigh, knee pad and greaves were bulked out separately, each time allowing the Green Stuff to fully cure. You can see on the above pic the difference this small amount of Green Stuff can make to the overall look of the leg when compared to the unaltered “thin” leg. The final conversion will stand about 4mm taller than a standard Space Marine but at the same time won’t look in any way out of place.

I added a Green Stuff collar to the torso, in an effort to simulate the artwork I was basing the conversion on, and also because I like to see a proper gorget on power armour. The brief required Angelos to have a half mask on his face, bionic looking but more akin to a mask than the usual bionic skeleton. To do this I cut away a part of the plastic head (a trimmed down Grey Knight head btw) and added a tiny eyepiece. I let this eyepiece Green Stuff cure fully before adding the actual mask around it. I may still add a few tiny tweaks to the mask, I’m not entirely sure yet.

The final mini will be holding Godhammer (his personal Thunder Hammer) out in front of him in a 2 handed pose. I’ve built the basic hammer from some Grey Knight components but have yet to remake the actual hammer head, which needs to be one solid block rather the way it is now. I’ll probably opt to use plasticard to do this.

Finally, other than adding artificer details to the armour itself I need to add a cloak suitable for a chapter master. I’m currently experimenting with a couple of different methods to do this (as I also need to make cloaks for a Primarch project) but I’ll be showing a “How To” guide on it once I figure it out.

In my last post I showed my attempts at making a cast of my long time coming Primarch project. I filled the silicone rubber mold with Green Stuff and the cast I got out of that the next day was actually pretty decent considering. Perhaps because the Green Stuff wasn’t exposed to air when it was curing but the cast was a bit sticky when I removed it, still hardened, but oddly sticky. After a thorough washing I gave it an inspection. There were slight gaps on the legs along the mold line where I’d not added enough Green Stuff, but other than that the cast came useable (with a little attention).

I then decided (as these components aren’t for sale as they are) to get a professional to cast them (go see BattleCast). I’ve had a handful of these made, and Joel at Anvil Industries was happy to use my own mold to do so. Below is the comparison pic to show the quality of the casts next to one another. Now that I have these I’m able to detail them up and attach the arms, heads, etc. I’ll be making more of this type of thing to build up my own Space Marine force.

On an unrelated topic I’ve started work on a regular scale Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Raven chapter and should have an update on that in a few day.

DISCLAIMER: Please don’t view this as a tutorial or guide. This particular venture is really just showing what I’m working on right now. It’s most certainly not the best approach but I do it this way because I’m a bit weird sometimes.

So I wanted to make a mold of the torso and legs of a Primarch conversion I’m currently working on. I’ve done similar molds with models of mine in the past with the initial intent of using them to cast in resin. However, my casting skills with resin are even poorer than my mold making skills, so I quickly adapted their use to casting in Green Stuff. I don’t recommend this approach to others, but I figured I’d show how I do it anyway. For some reason it does seem to work for me.

I start by deciding the size of the mold. I bought a selection of lego bricks (direct from the online store) that are perfect for building the box on which to mold in. In this case I have the torso and legs as one piece and a single shoulder  pad with trim. One I know the dimensions of the box I’ll build it up and fill the bottom with plasticine. Plasticine is all I have on hand but I’m wondering if something softer like Play Dough might work better.

I continue to add Plasticine until the model is embedded half way in it. I ended up using a clay shaper to get as clean a line around the edge of the mini as possible. The pad was just laid flat on the plasticine and the underside filled in. Once it is all cleaned up I used the handle of the clay shaper to push small holes all over. These will help to locate the two side of the rubber mold together properly later.

After spray the inside of the box with a release agent (nasty toxic stuff) I then filled the rest of the box with RTV Silicone Rubber (approximately 120grams of it). I couldn’t get any photos whilst pouring at this stage, though I did for the second half which uses the same method. The box is held with one of the corners held lower down than the rest. The rubber is mixed and poured slowly into this corner allowing the whole box to fill up from that point. This helps reduce the likelihood of air bubbles forming. I spent a few minutes tapping the underside of the box to help loosen and potential air bubbles and then left if overnight (about 12 hours) to cure.

Once it has cured the box is easily disassembled and the plasticine removed leaving the parts in place. A little bit of cleaning up is required at this point just to take off some residual plasticine. Upon examining this half of the mold I found only one air bubble on the edge of the shoulder pad, certainly nothing that would cause any issues. I then rebuilt the box placing this half of the mold at the bottom and respraying release agent into it.

Again holding one corner lower than the others I poured rubber into that corner and allowed the box to fill up slowly.

Once it has cured (again, left overnight) the box can be disassembled and the two halves of the mold pried open. This didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped as it seems I’d not used enough mold release prior to the second half being poured. Whilst most of the two halves came apart relatively easy an area around one leg of the mold was stuck and ended up ripping. Note to self: in future use lots more release agent (in fact I’m tempted to try a coating of vaseline on the actual mold, not the model though). This rip isn’t as bad as it sounds as the two halves still fit together perfectly.

If this had been made for casting in resin I’d have used plastic rod to create flow channels for the resin to move through. I’ve not had a lot of success with resin though, so I only intend to jam Green Stuff in these. I start by mixing a large amount of Green Stuff at once and estimating how much to use to fill the space on each half. The Green Stuff has to be really pushed in (with lubricated tools so as not to pull it out again) to make sure all the detail is picked up. Once the space on each half is filled I then add a bit of extra Green Stuff. Too much will create some flash round the mold line, too little will leave gaps.

Both halves are then wedged together and left overnight for the Green Stuff to cure (preferably with a heavy weight on top to help apply force).

At the moment of writing this I have no idea how the cast will turn out. It might be a horrible tradegy, or it might be a reasonable cast. We’ll have to wait and see in the morning….

First up I have to apologize for the lack of content recently. The last few weeks especially have been manic to say the least and I genuinely couldn’t set aside any proper hobby time. I know some of you are waiting on projects and many more just want to see some new content and tutorials, but it’s been impossible recently.

The craziness has settled down a bit so I’m hoping to get back on track this week (fingers crossed). I’ve managed to tinker now and again with ongoing work but don’t have much of anything to show off at the moment.

The wings I’ve been working on for my Doombull are now complete and I hope to get them cast very soon. Also if anyone is interested in using the same method to make their own wings (casting individual feathers and attaching to a template) I’ll make molds of the original feathers available for the cost of the Blu-Stuff itself (100g is just about enough to mold all 18 feathers).

The torso and legs of the primarch conversion I’m working on have been tidied up and refined ready to mold (as I need to make Alpharius’ twin brother). I did attempt a 2 part Blu-Stuff mold but the rapidity of it’s setting and the undercuts,especially around the neck, proved too problematic. So I went to move onto my original plan of RTV silicone rubber (pourable rubber mold). Except my own supplied had dried up, so I had to order a fresh tin. That fortunately came this morning, so tonight I’ll do the first part of the two part molds for the body. I’ll try to show how I cast these in Green Stuff (and why) rather than resin.

I’ll try and post an update on this tomorrow.

One final thought, the client who requested a set of Flesh Tearers iconography never got back to me, so the masters have been sitting on my desk since I finished them. First person to email me willing to pay postage costs can have them, so long as it’s for their own use. EDIT: icons already taken.

I got to admit I am so pleased with how this model is finally taking shape. The wings are near completion. I’ve spent most of my free time (which I’ve had much of lately) working on filling the gaps under each of the feathers to ready them for casting. There’s still a bit of filling and the top edges need detailing, and I intend to resculpt the details in one or two places where I’m not entirely satisfied with them. The whole wing making process (shown in my previous post), is pretty straightforward and the gap filling process wouldn’t be necessary if I wasn’t going to cast them. I still need to sculpt the skin of the “limb” that actually attaches the wings to the model but that should be a no-brainer.

Only thing left to do now is the hands and hooves and maybe a few accessories.