Hola,
Finished my take on the Storm Talon this morning, the wings showed yesterday but I didn't get a chance to get to it. They are two Storm Raven tails with the fuselage section removed and have been mounted in the same position as was intended for the wings.
If I had the tools I would probably be chamfering the leading edges but I don't and I am happy enough with this to let it slide without feeling guilty, I still think it's a vast improvement on what we were issued with anyway.
I am calling it a Mars-Pattern as the design is quite different as is the configuraton of the weaponary. This would be more of a 'flyer' than the helicopter that GW intended it to be, climbing and diving, strafing ground targets and being a general menace. The main engines/wings will still go up and down but only for take-off and landing so the position of the Assault Cannons is perfect. 'Hover Strike' will be coming from the thrusters on the underbelly. Game wise though I am still going to use the WD issue rules.
I got a bit lazy on the tutorial side of things this time as I was distracted by other stuff this week (Tartatros Terminators showed up, 25 of the sexy beasts!) but if you have any specific questions about the project drop me a line in the comments and I will answer there.
Hope you have enjoyed my take on the model and until next time,
'Crises Precipitate Change'
Cheers,
Redscorps
P.s. Painted pics up on my Red Scorpions blog ASAP.
Showing posts with label Redscorps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Redscorps. Show all posts
Friday, June 8, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
WIP Storm Talon Conversion [REDSCORPS]
Good afternoon everyone,
I'm going to write a bit more about it once the new wings arrive (2x StormRaven Tails), for now though note the shaved and extended tail (I wanted to use the original but it didn't get removed well), the lack of a bulky and unattractive front end through the use of a StormRaven Typhoon Missile Launcher mounted on the chin in place of the AC's turret, (cut narrower with a plasticard housing), The StormRaven Assault Cannons mounted on the engines (spaced out with the HB ammo clip from this kit, shaved down and glued on).
I used the previously tail mounted landing gear in the rear, made a plasticard housing as though it extends from the fuselage. Widened the front landing gears stance by mounting them on the previous weapon mount positions.
What do you think?
I'm going to write a bit more about it once the new wings arrive (2x StormRaven Tails), for now though note the shaved and extended tail (I wanted to use the original but it didn't get removed well), the lack of a bulky and unattractive front end through the use of a StormRaven Typhoon Missile Launcher mounted on the chin in place of the AC's turret, (cut narrower with a plasticard housing), The StormRaven Assault Cannons mounted on the engines (spaced out with the HB ammo clip from this kit, shaved down and glued on).
I used the previously tail mounted landing gear in the rear, made a plasticard housing as though it extends from the fuselage. Widened the front landing gears stance by mounting them on the previous weapon mount positions.
What do you think?
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
[REDDDDDSCORPSSSSS!!!!!!] The Storm Talon, uhh, really?
I had secretly hoped that the BoW guys were just terrible at drawing the new Space Marine Flyer, I was close, but as demonstrated by the cheeky preview photo below from BoK earlier today it seems that the culprits were in fact the designers in charge of the latest creation.
The proportions are a mess and the weapon systems on the front are really poorly positioned and make the model look cluttered. I think even the Stormravens weird little servitor turret was a better look than this weapon arrangement.
Once again they have ignored all basic aerodynamic principals and mounted the tail rudder in the dead air behind the fuselage, one of my main gripes with the Stormraven actually and the reason I cut and mounted my tail section higher and further back.
Someone needs a kick in the butt, it's not likely to happen and would actually really be pointless at this stage in the game but it's a bit of a shocker that this design made it off the drawing board. I doubt we can rely on Forge World to bail us out this time (Stormraven -> Storm Eagle) but I already have a few ideas of how to fix it ...AND... I actually think it's great that we have a new addition to the Vanilla SM Codex line-up, even if it's mediocre I think it will have it's uses if only in friendly matches.
So with that in mind, I have just ordered the bits from eBay I think I need to convert the model into something that looks at least a bit better and it won't take a whole lot of extra money to get the job done.
My plan is to extend the wing area and maybe change the orientation of the engines a little, I am going to use the assault cannons from the Stormravens turret that I have left over from the piece you can see above and mount them underneath the new wing sections next to the engines. I'm going to cut the tail section apart, extend it as long again and mount the vertical stabiliser in the airstream and not behind the fuselage.
I will document and photograph the process and with the parts ordered now, I'm hoping they will be here in time for the release weekend and I can get to it right away.
So, never fear, MWC is here! We've got your back on this one and hopefully you will be inspired to attempt your own conversion on the model once you see what I'm up to. Plus going off my other stuff you know I'll be after a 'factory finish' so it's not going to be out of the SM style.
Stay tuned.
Redscorps
The proportions are a mess and the weapon systems on the front are really poorly positioned and make the model look cluttered. I think even the Stormravens weird little servitor turret was a better look than this weapon arrangement.
Once again they have ignored all basic aerodynamic principals and mounted the tail rudder in the dead air behind the fuselage, one of my main gripes with the Stormraven actually and the reason I cut and mounted my tail section higher and further back.
Someone needs a kick in the butt, it's not likely to happen and would actually really be pointless at this stage in the game but it's a bit of a shocker that this design made it off the drawing board. I doubt we can rely on Forge World to bail us out this time (Stormraven -> Storm Eagle) but I already have a few ideas of how to fix it ...AND... I actually think it's great that we have a new addition to the Vanilla SM Codex line-up, even if it's mediocre I think it will have it's uses if only in friendly matches.
So with that in mind, I have just ordered the bits from eBay I think I need to convert the model into something that looks at least a bit better and it won't take a whole lot of extra money to get the job done.
My plan is to extend the wing area and maybe change the orientation of the engines a little, I am going to use the assault cannons from the Stormravens turret that I have left over from the piece you can see above and mount them underneath the new wing sections next to the engines. I'm going to cut the tail section apart, extend it as long again and mount the vertical stabiliser in the airstream and not behind the fuselage.
I will document and photograph the process and with the parts ordered now, I'm hoping they will be here in time for the release weekend and I can get to it right away.
So, never fear, MWC is here! We've got your back on this one and hopefully you will be inspired to attempt your own conversion on the model once you see what I'm up to. Plus going off my other stuff you know I'll be after a 'factory finish' so it's not going to be out of the SM style.
Stay tuned.
Redscorps
Monday, May 14, 2012
[Rudeboy Redscorps] Red Scorpions Praetorian, a Space Marines Predator variant.
Hey hey,
I thought I would showcase a conversion I did a little while back for the MWC conversions comp. As staff we couldn't really enter, Ron and I might have had some sort of a battle for a staff favourite but we never really got around to it so I thought I would just do a quick showcase here and give a short explanation of what went into it.
The idea came to me because I have been building a few WWII 1/35th scale models plus playing a TONNE of World of Tanks lately and I love the silhouette of things like the T-34, Panther and the Tiger, iconic shapes for armoured fighting vehicles of WWII. I wanted to recreate the predatory look that they had, forward turrets, sloped armour (T-34/Panther) and long barreled main guns with a big beefy engine in the back.
I was rummaging around in my bits box and found a few Land Raider engines which if mounted inline it actually almost fit into the rear hatch of the Rhino chassis perfectly, I only had to cut down the sides a little and it mounted flush. I then went and cut down a Predator hatch so the air vent section sat in front of the engine area (am imagining this to be the air intakes/filter), it's displayed in this pic as hatches but I changed my mind and flipped it. With all that space taken up I then moved the turret ring (cut from another Predator hatch) forward, cutting out the right shape from the drivers hatches, recessing and gluing it in place ready for greenstuffing around the edges:
I probably need to say at this point that I don't measure, plan or sketch anything, I just mock it up then start cutting so I can't give you exacts on how much you have to take off or anything, one side lost a bit more than the other but that's easy for you to figure out with a test fit. You're better of not cutting enough than cutting to much.
So with the engine and turret positions sorted, the next bit I wanted to work on was getting the rear mounted exhausts (similar style to a Panther or Tiger tank) sorted, I cut them from the sides of the Rhino chassis (cutting in from the outside-in along the edge and shaving them flat underneath) and fitted them onto the back hatch. They actually needed to have a plasticard spacer mounted underneath them as they didn't sit flush, you will see the white plasticard under the exhausts in this pic coming up. Loved this bit, at this point I was really excited about the shape!
I also got to work on the gun barrel. I went down to my LHS with the Autocannon barrel measurements (I lied, so I measured once!) and found an appropriately sized alloy tube. I then went about getting another two thicknesses of alloy tubing to sleeve over the top of the barrel to give it some visual interest and realism. I test fitted all of these parts in the store and was pretty happy with how it went together, the OD's and ID's matched up perfectly.
While I was there I also looked at some turned 1/35th alloy barrels but I wasn't happy with using something that was $45 for this conversion and the DIY approach suited the conversion contest anyway. The new barrel was seated using an appropriately sized drill bit to bore out the hole from the old Autocannon barrel (6mm in my case), inserted and glued in place:
I will follow that pic up with some other stuff I did, I made the perforated hatch to the engine bay from the remaining piece of Predator hatch, I cut the guts out and turned it into a frame backed up with some hobby gauge mesh from my LHS. I also GS'd the drivers hatches flush around the turret ring and the top was almost done at this stage save for detailing.
Next on the drawing board was the front end. I wanted something that looked like AV13+, something that had a bit more slope/bulk and a drivers hatch. I was always intending to build this kit without sponsons or side hatches and the crew needed some way to get in. I cut the existing front plate up and combined it with some custom plasticard bits. I then made a plasticard lower glacis plate to meet the new slope and more forward armour. I made a custom drivers hatch and cut down the normal two window plate into a single window and shaved the back down so the angle looked right for the front plate.
After this stage I filled the sides with GS and sanded it all flat, here is a pic of the front though:
Onto the sides, a lack of hatches/sponsons and exhausts meant I could just add a flat plate over all of the holes I had cut, then add my detail onto the top of that, nice and simple but I had to match the sides up to eachother a few times to make sure the dimensions were the same.
Side note: If I did this conversion over I would probably add a few stepped down plates to mix it up a bit underneath the stowage but I am still happy with what I have done here and only really thought about that once the model was completed and primed.
I added all the stowage (tracks, fuel tanks, back packs, storage containers etc..) and recovery cables plus a few spare details from 1/35th kits to give it a bit more visual interest than a standard kit would allow, not really required but you can always benefit from doing that little bit extra. The recovery cables were made using the ends from the Space Marine kit but with bicycle brake cable wire and brass etch tie downs to give it some more realism. The track hangers were made from bits of brass etch with paper clip pins through the tracks:
I could have probably gone further with the baskets for the jerry cans, making some brass ones, but I wanted to keep the conversion as simple as possible so if people were to attempt it they would be able to use what they had in their Predator Kit, plus plasticard and some alloy tubing.
You can see the sanded down front with some more detail added in this pic also:
So that was pretty much it for the conversion! Add your chapters logos, salt to taste and you're ready to paint! One thing I forgot to photograph before paint was the addition of handles, I added handles to the cupola, front hatch and tool box, you can see them below.
Here are a couple of WIP pics of the paint work so far, I have painted the engine first as I wanted to see how it looked through the mesh and have just started the block in the yellow prior to the rest of the normal paint work and my usual dirty/damaged/dusty look that most of you know. I went pretty bold on the highlighting and detail of the engine so it shows up a little better through the black mesh, normally I would have spent a bit more time making it subtle but in this case it would detract from the look.
To see more of my work and check in later in the week/early next week for the finished product, head over to my Red Scorpions blog and hit follow: REDSCORPS' HOBBYWORKS
WIP paint pics:
Thanks very much for reading if you made it this far. Get brave and start cutting some stuff up, if you have any questions about this or there is something I have not covered please feel free to get in touch with me via the comments section on either of my two blogs.
Regards
Redscorps
P.s. Total conversion time would have been under 6 hours including the build, not a huge job.
I thought I would showcase a conversion I did a little while back for the MWC conversions comp. As staff we couldn't really enter, Ron and I might have had some sort of a battle for a staff favourite but we never really got around to it so I thought I would just do a quick showcase here and give a short explanation of what went into it.
The idea came to me because I have been building a few WWII 1/35th scale models plus playing a TONNE of World of Tanks lately and I love the silhouette of things like the T-34, Panther and the Tiger, iconic shapes for armoured fighting vehicles of WWII. I wanted to recreate the predatory look that they had, forward turrets, sloped armour (T-34/Panther) and long barreled main guns with a big beefy engine in the back.
I was rummaging around in my bits box and found a few Land Raider engines which if mounted inline it actually almost fit into the rear hatch of the Rhino chassis perfectly, I only had to cut down the sides a little and it mounted flush. I then went and cut down a Predator hatch so the air vent section sat in front of the engine area (am imagining this to be the air intakes/filter), it's displayed in this pic as hatches but I changed my mind and flipped it. With all that space taken up I then moved the turret ring (cut from another Predator hatch) forward, cutting out the right shape from the drivers hatches, recessing and gluing it in place ready for greenstuffing around the edges:
I probably need to say at this point that I don't measure, plan or sketch anything, I just mock it up then start cutting so I can't give you exacts on how much you have to take off or anything, one side lost a bit more than the other but that's easy for you to figure out with a test fit. You're better of not cutting enough than cutting to much.
So with the engine and turret positions sorted, the next bit I wanted to work on was getting the rear mounted exhausts (similar style to a Panther or Tiger tank) sorted, I cut them from the sides of the Rhino chassis (cutting in from the outside-in along the edge and shaving them flat underneath) and fitted them onto the back hatch. They actually needed to have a plasticard spacer mounted underneath them as they didn't sit flush, you will see the white plasticard under the exhausts in this pic coming up. Loved this bit, at this point I was really excited about the shape!
I also got to work on the gun barrel. I went down to my LHS with the Autocannon barrel measurements (I lied, so I measured once!) and found an appropriately sized alloy tube. I then went about getting another two thicknesses of alloy tubing to sleeve over the top of the barrel to give it some visual interest and realism. I test fitted all of these parts in the store and was pretty happy with how it went together, the OD's and ID's matched up perfectly.
While I was there I also looked at some turned 1/35th alloy barrels but I wasn't happy with using something that was $45 for this conversion and the DIY approach suited the conversion contest anyway. The new barrel was seated using an appropriately sized drill bit to bore out the hole from the old Autocannon barrel (6mm in my case), inserted and glued in place:
I will follow that pic up with some other stuff I did, I made the perforated hatch to the engine bay from the remaining piece of Predator hatch, I cut the guts out and turned it into a frame backed up with some hobby gauge mesh from my LHS. I also GS'd the drivers hatches flush around the turret ring and the top was almost done at this stage save for detailing.
Next on the drawing board was the front end. I wanted something that looked like AV13+, something that had a bit more slope/bulk and a drivers hatch. I was always intending to build this kit without sponsons or side hatches and the crew needed some way to get in. I cut the existing front plate up and combined it with some custom plasticard bits. I then made a plasticard lower glacis plate to meet the new slope and more forward armour. I made a custom drivers hatch and cut down the normal two window plate into a single window and shaved the back down so the angle looked right for the front plate.
After this stage I filled the sides with GS and sanded it all flat, here is a pic of the front though:
Onto the sides, a lack of hatches/sponsons and exhausts meant I could just add a flat plate over all of the holes I had cut, then add my detail onto the top of that, nice and simple but I had to match the sides up to eachother a few times to make sure the dimensions were the same.
Side note: If I did this conversion over I would probably add a few stepped down plates to mix it up a bit underneath the stowage but I am still happy with what I have done here and only really thought about that once the model was completed and primed.
I added all the stowage (tracks, fuel tanks, back packs, storage containers etc..) and recovery cables plus a few spare details from 1/35th kits to give it a bit more visual interest than a standard kit would allow, not really required but you can always benefit from doing that little bit extra. The recovery cables were made using the ends from the Space Marine kit but with bicycle brake cable wire and brass etch tie downs to give it some more realism. The track hangers were made from bits of brass etch with paper clip pins through the tracks:
I could have probably gone further with the baskets for the jerry cans, making some brass ones, but I wanted to keep the conversion as simple as possible so if people were to attempt it they would be able to use what they had in their Predator Kit, plus plasticard and some alloy tubing.
You can see the sanded down front with some more detail added in this pic also:
So that was pretty much it for the conversion! Add your chapters logos, salt to taste and you're ready to paint! One thing I forgot to photograph before paint was the addition of handles, I added handles to the cupola, front hatch and tool box, you can see them below.
Here are a couple of WIP pics of the paint work so far, I have painted the engine first as I wanted to see how it looked through the mesh and have just started the block in the yellow prior to the rest of the normal paint work and my usual dirty/damaged/dusty look that most of you know. I went pretty bold on the highlighting and detail of the engine so it shows up a little better through the black mesh, normally I would have spent a bit more time making it subtle but in this case it would detract from the look.
To see more of my work and check in later in the week/early next week for the finished product, head over to my Red Scorpions blog and hit follow: REDSCORPS' HOBBYWORKS
WIP paint pics:
Thanks very much for reading if you made it this far. Get brave and start cutting some stuff up, if you have any questions about this or there is something I have not covered please feel free to get in touch with me via the comments section on either of my two blogs.
Regards
Redscorps
P.s. Total conversion time would have been under 6 hours including the build, not a huge job.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
[Redscorps] Counterfeit Forgeworld Models - The Pros and Cons - Part 1
Earthlings,
I'm writing today about the subject of counterfeit/recast Forgeworld miniatures and my experience with one that I purchased.
A little while back I saw a link from one of my Facebook contacts to a site where you could get EXTREMELY cheap recasts of popular Forgeworld sculpts, direct from China. The price for a Blood Slaughterer was low enough to get one just to see what it was like (it was also the only model they offered that I already had) so I placed my order and after a whole heap of comically nonsensical emails I had one in the post.
I'll just say before we get any further, that I had no intention at any stage of switching my purchasing from Forgeworld to this website(They had a lot of World Eaters stuff that I could have bought up on sight) as I am a big fan of the Forgeworld as a company, the customer service of the staff and the ORIGINAL designs that these great sculptors create. I just wanted to see what the recast was like and to be able to do a comparison to the legit items.
I'm writing today about the subject of counterfeit/recast Forgeworld miniatures and my experience with one that I purchased.
A little while back I saw a link from one of my Facebook contacts to a site where you could get EXTREMELY cheap recasts of popular Forgeworld sculpts, direct from China. The price for a Blood Slaughterer was low enough to get one just to see what it was like (it was also the only model they offered that I already had) so I placed my order and after a whole heap of comically nonsensical emails I had one in the post.
I'll just say before we get any further, that I had no intention at any stage of switching my purchasing from Forgeworld to this website(They had a lot of World Eaters stuff that I could have bought up on sight) as I am a big fan of the Forgeworld as a company, the customer service of the staff and the ORIGINAL designs that these great sculptors create. I just wanted to see what the recast was like and to be able to do a comparison to the legit items.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
[Redscorps] Thunderbudgie early stages WIP.
Morning/evening all,
Today I've got about the earliest stages of WIP I think I've ever shown before but I wanted to give you an idea of what I am working on at the moment. About 6 months back I built up a Stormraven to use as part of my gaming board's terrain. The standard model is decent enough if you're a 'build and paint' type of character but I wanted to give it a little aerodynamic freshen-up via an easy tail extension.
I read a while back about the Antanov 225 aeroplane and how when they wanted to transport the space shuttle on it's back, they found that the drag created by the shuttle infront of the tail section was making a pocket of air around the tail rudders which would have caused the plane to be unable to steer properly.
Looking at the SR you'd probably think, 'why bother, I doubt it would fly looking like that anyway' but still, the tail sitting in behind the fuselage of the plane was bugging me a little so I wanted to extend it back and up. It's actually a really easy conversion as there is an obvious line on the tail section you can trim at. All I did then was mock up a stepped piece with the right angles from several thicknesses of plasticard, drill some aero-style rivets into the plasticard to replicate the style already on the tail and pin it in place.
With this model I have also chosen to go weapons free. I am painting it up to be part of of my table which is an exploration station on a desert world, I wanted to make a little cargo freighter that would be going from the RT ship to the FOB. I've added a few other bits and pieces from my bits boxes to fill in the areas where the weapons and top intake would have been.
As far as paint goes I just wanted to block in a few of the primary colours tonight and see how it looked. Being a neutral vessel I painted it a seafoam green colour and the yellow areas you see I have blocked in around the VTOL jets and the edge around the turbine intake are all going to be hazard striped.
The rest of the vehicle is going to undergo a fairly heavy weathering but be mostly damage free due to the nature of it's non-combat role. I think it's going to come up pretty well and I'm quite excited to keep working on it. I'll have it sitting on top of a skyshield landing pad which is joined to a custom bastion, should be able to get a photo of the whole lot together in a week or two.
Then it's on to making some accessories and crates that can go around it on the landing pad to further cement it's role in the narrative. I've already got a little forklift done up in a 40k style but I'm thinking some cargo and a few containment cages with xenos in them ready to transport.
Super early WIP, so yeah, apologies for the crapness but you might be able to imagine where I am headed. Checkit:
Today I've got about the earliest stages of WIP I think I've ever shown before but I wanted to give you an idea of what I am working on at the moment. About 6 months back I built up a Stormraven to use as part of my gaming board's terrain. The standard model is decent enough if you're a 'build and paint' type of character but I wanted to give it a little aerodynamic freshen-up via an easy tail extension.
I read a while back about the Antanov 225 aeroplane and how when they wanted to transport the space shuttle on it's back, they found that the drag created by the shuttle infront of the tail section was making a pocket of air around the tail rudders which would have caused the plane to be unable to steer properly.
Looking at the SR you'd probably think, 'why bother, I doubt it would fly looking like that anyway' but still, the tail sitting in behind the fuselage of the plane was bugging me a little so I wanted to extend it back and up. It's actually a really easy conversion as there is an obvious line on the tail section you can trim at. All I did then was mock up a stepped piece with the right angles from several thicknesses of plasticard, drill some aero-style rivets into the plasticard to replicate the style already on the tail and pin it in place.
With this model I have also chosen to go weapons free. I am painting it up to be part of of my table which is an exploration station on a desert world, I wanted to make a little cargo freighter that would be going from the RT ship to the FOB. I've added a few other bits and pieces from my bits boxes to fill in the areas where the weapons and top intake would have been.
The rest of the vehicle is going to undergo a fairly heavy weathering but be mostly damage free due to the nature of it's non-combat role. I think it's going to come up pretty well and I'm quite excited to keep working on it. I'll have it sitting on top of a skyshield landing pad which is joined to a custom bastion, should be able to get a photo of the whole lot together in a week or two.
Then it's on to making some accessories and crates that can go around it on the landing pad to further cement it's role in the narrative. I've already got a little forklift done up in a 40k style but I'm thinking some cargo and a few containment cages with xenos in them ready to transport.
Super early WIP, so yeah, apologies for the crapness but you might be able to imagine where I am headed. Checkit:
| Bwarrk! |
| Bwarrk! |
Haha, a seafoam green Stormraven, can anything be more pleasing on the eye?! Surely not!
Monday, January 16, 2012
[Redscorps] Back again to smash your face in with my Crozius
I'm back and my hobby works this time around are either going to wreck your face like my main man here with the Crozius just did to your HQ choice (Obviously not in a game of 40k though with my vanilla codex, I'm talking about his performance in a BL novel), get your girl/mother/daughter pregnant or be totally uninteresting and a massive wet blanket on the rest of the blog team.
Haha, I've actually got no idea. I'm no Rictus in the conversions, I'm no LuckyNo.5 in the paintshop and I'm certainly none of the other guys when it comes to creativity.
I do know how to chip the hell out of everything and add bucketloads of semi-realistic weathering pigment placement on my models though so there is that!
Cheers
Redscorps
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
[Redscorps] Kharn-o-saurus WIP Part 2 & Daemon Prince WIP
Hello Earthlings!
Not sure if I'm breaking the rules by posting so much (Your not - Other Crew) lately but I figured I would actually share some conversions as opposed to just posting pics of my Red Scorpions junk.
Well after the last post where I posted my initial WIP of my Kharn the Betrayer conversion I had a look at the photographs and decided I wasn't quite happy (Photos have a great way of doing this, showing your errors, showing scale differences and off angles etc..).
I went back to the model and had a look at some of the areas I wanted to change. For starters, the front belt buckle area and the back pack icons are a touch to big for the model in their standard state. Also the squareness of the icon vs. the round surrounding area of the belt buckle looked out of place. On the back pack I'd just done a quick trim and file of the area thinking the icon would fit but it didn't so I went back, broke it off, trimmed both the area and the icon down a bit and fitted it again.
What else did I do.. I added a few more little icons here and there plus a few skulls and trinkets from my bits box... Anyway, I think if you compare the photographs between this post and the last one you should agree that this is a much more cohesive 'factory' looking conversion. More so when you throw some primer on and unify the colours:



Something else I am working on conversions wise is this Daemon Prince. I like the new kit a lot, I think pretty much every aspect of it looks sweet, though a little cartoonish in its proportions. I think the chicken legs have a lot to do with this and though they look pretty sweet on Tzeentch and Slaanesh, Nurgle and Khorne need something a little chunkier.
This is where the old kit reigns supreme in my opinon, I think also that it better represents the DP's Ascension to daemon-hood and his roots as a Lord of Chaos. The other guy seems a little too daemon oriented to be hanging out with the boys on the reg, where as I think this power armoured behemoth doesn't look out of place at the front of his warband during office hours or meeting the boys for a couple of brews after work.
Parts so far:
Old DP Legs
New DP Upper Body
Old Blood Thirster Belt
New High Elf Dragon Wings
Defiler Face Mask
Pics bro:


What do you think? Coming along alright?
Cheers
Redscorps
Editors Note - We got in all the entries for the September Open Conversion contest. Almost 20 in all! So, we will get those up ASAP with all the excellent descriptions everyone also submitted in the next day or 2. We want to thank everyone that has entered and ask everyone that hasn't, please do check back often and vote!
Not sure if I'm breaking the rules by posting so much (Your not - Other Crew) lately but I figured I would actually share some conversions as opposed to just posting pics of my Red Scorpions junk.
Well after the last post where I posted my initial WIP of my Kharn the Betrayer conversion I had a look at the photographs and decided I wasn't quite happy (Photos have a great way of doing this, showing your errors, showing scale differences and off angles etc..).
I went back to the model and had a look at some of the areas I wanted to change. For starters, the front belt buckle area and the back pack icons are a touch to big for the model in their standard state. Also the squareness of the icon vs. the round surrounding area of the belt buckle looked out of place. On the back pack I'd just done a quick trim and file of the area thinking the icon would fit but it didn't so I went back, broke it off, trimmed both the area and the icon down a bit and fitted it again.
What else did I do.. I added a few more little icons here and there plus a few skulls and trinkets from my bits box... Anyway, I think if you compare the photographs between this post and the last one you should agree that this is a much more cohesive 'factory' looking conversion. More so when you throw some primer on and unify the colours:
Something else I am working on conversions wise is this Daemon Prince. I like the new kit a lot, I think pretty much every aspect of it looks sweet, though a little cartoonish in its proportions. I think the chicken legs have a lot to do with this and though they look pretty sweet on Tzeentch and Slaanesh, Nurgle and Khorne need something a little chunkier.
This is where the old kit reigns supreme in my opinon, I think also that it better represents the DP's Ascension to daemon-hood and his roots as a Lord of Chaos. The other guy seems a little too daemon oriented to be hanging out with the boys on the reg, where as I think this power armoured behemoth doesn't look out of place at the front of his warband during office hours or meeting the boys for a couple of brews after work.
Parts so far:
Old DP Legs
New DP Upper Body
Old Blood Thirster Belt
New High Elf Dragon Wings
Defiler Face Mask
Pics bro:
What do you think? Coming along alright?
Cheers
Redscorps
Editors Note - We got in all the entries for the September Open Conversion contest. Almost 20 in all! So, we will get those up ASAP with all the excellent descriptions everyone also submitted in the next day or 2. We want to thank everyone that has entered and ask everyone that hasn't, please do check back often and vote!
Monday, September 19, 2011
[Redscorps] Hi, My names Kharn. I'm new here, can you show me around?
A nice and easy conversion for all of you World Eaters players out there. I love Kharn the Betrayer but the model is really old now and not overly imposing. I've always thought the SM Jump Chaplain was a great basis for this model with the cool pose and ancient looking armour but my previous attempt to make a custom Kharn with the metal one was rather unsuccessful (I also managed to chop an almond sized chunk right off the end of my index finger while trying to cut it, BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!).
I've not worked with the Finecast range before and had read a lot of bad publicity, but I have to say that working with the material is great. The level of detail is superb plus the fact that there were only a few minor mold lines and only one small bubble meant I was pretty stoked!
It's really easy to cut which afforded me the ability to remove the shoulder pad, head and scrolls from the purity seals without much of a headache. It's actually so soft I was able to really easily re-sculpt the leg sections once I removed the purity seals and add the detail of the armour joints back on.
So the parts I used for this conversion:
GW/Finecast Space Marine Jump Chaplain Body
Forge World World Eaters Head and Shoulder Pad (From the WE Upgrade set)
WHFB Chaos Marauders Arm (The one with the dagger)
Possessed Chaos Space Marine Backpack
Forge World Chainaxe Head and Handle (I cut the pole out as it was too thin, I used the handle joined to the head of the chainaxe, joined to the Crozius handle as the thicknesses matched better)
Some bitz from my girlfriend's son's CSM bits box (Couple skulls, some chain, a tooth thing)
Forge World World Eaters Brass-etch Icons
Some barbed wire from Armypainter I think
The conversion is nearly done, a little cleaning up to do here and there but it's finished enough to show you what I managed to achieve in about 2hrs with the above parts. I think it's a much more impressive model to represent the mad-dog Kharn with and I can't wait to hit him up with some blood effects.
Click to enlarge:
What do you think? For the base I am intending to add a small pile of skulls from Secret Weapon Miniatures and probably a cheeky Red Scorpion Helmet.
Thanks for checking in,
Redscorps
Ps My Kharn's tougher than the normal Kharn! Power armour gauntlet to hold your Plasma Pistol OOP Kharn? Yeah, not on my watch sunshine..
I've not worked with the Finecast range before and had read a lot of bad publicity, but I have to say that working with the material is great. The level of detail is superb plus the fact that there were only a few minor mold lines and only one small bubble meant I was pretty stoked!
It's really easy to cut which afforded me the ability to remove the shoulder pad, head and scrolls from the purity seals without much of a headache. It's actually so soft I was able to really easily re-sculpt the leg sections once I removed the purity seals and add the detail of the armour joints back on.
So the parts I used for this conversion:
GW/Finecast Space Marine Jump Chaplain Body
Forge World World Eaters Head and Shoulder Pad (From the WE Upgrade set)
WHFB Chaos Marauders Arm (The one with the dagger)
Possessed Chaos Space Marine Backpack
Forge World Chainaxe Head and Handle (I cut the pole out as it was too thin, I used the handle joined to the head of the chainaxe, joined to the Crozius handle as the thicknesses matched better)
Some bitz from my girlfriend's son's CSM bits box (Couple skulls, some chain, a tooth thing)
Forge World World Eaters Brass-etch Icons
Some barbed wire from Armypainter I think
The conversion is nearly done, a little cleaning up to do here and there but it's finished enough to show you what I managed to achieve in about 2hrs with the above parts. I think it's a much more impressive model to represent the mad-dog Kharn with and I can't wait to hit him up with some blood effects.
Click to enlarge:
What do you think? For the base I am intending to add a small pile of skulls from Secret Weapon Miniatures and probably a cheeky Red Scorpion Helmet.
Thanks for checking in,
Redscorps
Ps My Kharn's tougher than the normal Kharn! Power armour gauntlet to hold your Plasma Pistol OOP Kharn? Yeah, not on my watch sunshine..
Sunday, September 11, 2011
[Redscorps] Forge World Contemptor Dreadnought - Review
Hey guys, I'm writing today to from underneath the Mulberry Trees in my front yard on a beautiful spring afternoon with a review of the Forge World Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought.
Being relatively new to Space Marines in 40k and having just finished my first novel from the Black Library I can't really comment on it from a fluff/background stand point but I can give you my opinions as a hobbyist on building and painting the kit.
Lets start out with the build:
First up, WHOA! What a sculpt! Can you remember the first time you saw the published images of these kits?! The Blood Angels one and the Astral Claws one both blew my mind when I saw them, there was no hint of them coming out and I loved just how staunch they look! I knew at that point, when the time was right I just had to have one of these for my Red Scorpions army!
As with all Forge World kits I have had experience with the detail and poseability is second to none but this comes at a price, A low price at least and one worth paying anyway. The mold release on this kit was on pretty thick and a lot harder to get off than most of the stuff I have been working with recently and it required a few scrubs in hot water with detergent to get it all off. It also took a good while to build and pose, not so bad because of the result but I doubt you'd be able to build this kit properly and magnetise it in the space of a few hours. I spent about 5 hours building, pinning and magnetising.
Building the kit is actually pretty straight forward, I over complicated the process a little by going for such a dynamic pose (I wanted him to look like a charging running-back) but you should easily be able to get this done with minimal pinning assuming you have gotten the bulk of the mold release off. Another trick I have worked out for helping joints to bond is to sand the ball and socket (or drill some fresh surface into your socket) then using your sculpting tool or knife scratch a hatch pattern into the surfaces of both. You are increasing the surface area by doing this and adding a bit more area for the glue to bond to.
I figure as well breaking a leg loose will probably be the least of your worries if you drop this kit once it's painted so you don't need to worry so much about pinning everything.
With mine though, having him pushing off the 'toes' of a single foot I drilled a 2mm hole on an angle through the resin base and up into the foot. As a lot more weight is on this leg and the joints I then pinned the foot to the shin, the shin to the knee, both of the upper legs with a single pin through the hips and the hips to the 'abdomen' section. While the weight of the whole model is on one leg, the other leg isn't having an easy time of it either so I did a fair bit of pinning here as well. Due to the raised position I gave it a bit of reinforcement with pins in the ankle, knee and as I mentioned before, the hip.
I then magnetised the Abdomen to the Chest using 2x 5x2mm Neo Magnets so I can alter the pose slightly if I want to fit gun arms in the future and needed a slight re-position.
If you want to magnetise the arms like I did you need the following components per arm:
1x 5x2mm Magnet
4x 2x1mm Magnets
2mm & 5mm Drill bits
Marker Pen
First drill a 5mm hole about 2mm deep on a 45* angle up into the shoulder pad, insert the 5mm magnet after filling the hole with a little CA glue. The easiest way to do this accurately is to drill a pilot hole with your 2mm bit first then enlarge it with your 5mm one. Once the glue has dried, you need to attach your string of 2mm magnets together, then mag them to the 5mm one you have set in the shoulder. Mark the outside end of the string with your pen so you know the polarity, now getting the 2mm bit again, drill a 4mm deep hole into the top of your upper arm section and inserting the marked end first, glue your magnet string into the arm.
Now that's sorted and dried you should be able to get a pretty good bond out of them and have your arms hold in the place you want them. With mine I wanted the arms out so I roughly worked out the angle before I drilled the holes. If you wanted them set in close to the torso for a more conventional 'braced firing stance' you would probably be able to get away with a few less magnets as the bond required to hold the weight of the arm out wouldn't be as strong.
I might mention when talking arms that I pinned mine in pretty much all of the joints for a little extra strength save for those in the fingers as the area is small and I doubt they will take any strain.
On posing your models:
One thing I noticed while I was researching Contemptor builds and waiting for mine to arrive was that a lot of folks have had trouble getting what I deem to be a dynamic yet natural pose with their Contemptors. A lot look like they are falling backwards for some reason and others seem to have an uncomfortable stance with no real definitive pose attached to it (Looking at the GW flickr pool today I see another one posted in the last few days that is sporting fantastic paint but another 'falling over backwards' pose... Oh dear!). There's definitely a lot of scope to make something cool out of it though with the parts you get and the poseability!
I loved the hands on this model. I think that they were probably my favourite bit when building it as they helped to convey the narrative of my chosen pose. On the right arm I had the fingers in a natural shape that a hand would make while relaxed while on the left arm sporting the Heavy Flamer I have them out stretched giving maximum clearance for the bursts of Promethium as he charges into combat.
On this as well, the Heavy Flamer is the focus of my Contemptors 'energy', everything he has is going into torching those Xenos scumbags so I have appropriately angled the chest piece for maximum reach (Think about a boxers punch) and the head to show he's focussing on what he's about to burn to a crisp.
It's probably best you dummy it up with the parts first (some use blu-tac) and see how they go together, see what the ranges of movement are and test out what's possible.
I think your best bet is to research some poses of mechs in combat and/or firing weapons in Anime/Manga, or, look to photographs of athletes and warriors/soldiers to find a pose you like that conveys movement or action.
Painting and Weathering:
For me this is pretty straight forward and if you had seen my article over on the official GW blog the other day there probably isn't much more to say.
If not here are a few basic rules I abide by:
1. Above all, I am a realistic painter. I am not overly creative so everything I paint is as I can see it in real life. My experience working with heavy duty machinery is that unless you have a curved surface, there will be no shadow related colour transitions on a flat panel that you can see. The natural light you view your model in will provide these things for you so elaborate full panel blending is not required in my opinion.
2. After base coating with my primary colour I apply shading to all of the recesses in the form of a black wash. I then go back and highlight all of the upper and outer edges with a fine line-highlight of a lighter colour before applying my damage then adding the detail to the model. After this comes the weathering!
3. The Contemptor is curvy like a sexy lady! So take everything I just said and the simple version I had posted on the GW blog and throw that out the window. That said you don't need to over complicate the process but if you can get hold of an air brush or spray gun and spray a zenithal highlight of your base colour over black(In my case) or whatever your shadow colour will be it speeds everything up a lot and you will get a nice smooth transition over the armour panels where the shadows, mid-tone and highlights are.. Air-brush: Work smart, not hard!
4. Weathering pigments are fantastic, they are easy to use and the results are really worth while. They really get you one step closer to a completed model in my eyes. Start at the feet and work your way up. Imagine areas that would get contact with the terrain and weather to suit. Start out small and you can always add more to get the desired effect. If you start out too heavy it's almost impossible to go back to clean armour again without damaging your paint.
I did paint this model in slightly less than 5hrs (10hrs work total), partly because I'm getting quite efficient at my scheme but also because the kit itself has a lot of room to work with and basically being a big marine/terminator the recipe is not too dissimilar.
So that's about it really! I love this kit, having the options to alter the pose so much means that there is no reason why you can't convey a story with yours as well and get something unique. It's also such a cool sculpt and the rules are pretty solid, there's no reason why every marine player shouldn't get at least one!
Until next time,
Redscorps.
Ps Congratulations if you made it through all of that dribble!
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