Heya guys. I know there are a fair few Ad Mech armies out there, and i'm looking to get in on the action, but try not to steal too many ideas! =p i've been considering one for a while now and even did a test model or too a while back, but have finally decided to bite the bullet and dive in.

Here are a few of the plogs/images that have been really inspiring in terms of ideas whilst i have been looking around, all are spectacular are well worth a visit, oc, the first place to stop when looking at ad mech is the hoff's stuff:
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?11246-The-Adeptus-Mechanicus-Project

These are the others i have found really great too:
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?198681-Adeptus-Mechanicus-W-I-P -The damned artificer (Brilliant conversions, and one of the best knights around)
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/342824.page - Vitruvian XVII (Also has more links on his plog, and is a nice guy, cant ask for more.)
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?225861-Adeptus-Mechinicus-Skitarii - Cerebralerebus (Some of the conversions here are totally inspired!)
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/312615.page - Mechanicum Jon's loveliness.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1475-creating-your-own-titan -One day...
http://mordian7th.blogspot.com/2011/04/adeptus-mechanicus-myrmidon-assault.html - When i find the blog this came from, will be a good day indeed.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/220590-Magos%20Militant%20Spur.html
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/321/8/f/avatar_of_machine_god_by_proiteus-d4gg73f.jpg
http://leskouzes.blogspot.com/search/label/Adeptus%20Mechanicus -This guy's infantry can be bought.


The main aim of this army if to capture the creepy aspect of the ad mech, the wires and the whole doc ock/ matrix sentinel thing they have going. I did a quick draw up of what i wanted my magos to look like, (kindly photoshopped):

Secondly i wanted an idea for my basic skitarii, and thought the DKOK grenadiers had a nice theme about them, high tech but quite spindly. (A perquisite of being a cadian seems to be being a monster of a man.) So came up with this:


Now looking back i like the idea still behind it, the shoulder mounted servo skull included, but think it needs teching up a bit, what do you guys think?



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Here we go, double posting, for which i apologise, (You guys at Daka big disapprovers of double posts?) but i probably need to grab your attention, So here is the mkII skitarii, hope he gets more of a response =]
Like i say i'm trying to go all out as far as the wires and creepy aspect is concerned, when he gets his paint refreshed i'm going to give him much more extremely highlighed red clothes, the aim is sorta a rich baroque effect with the rest of the model kept quite dull apart from a bright green accent, let me know what you reckon. Anyway, you don't want to hear my babble, on with the pics:



Btw those are three lenses on his face, i absolutely LOVE that whole triangular eye setup they are often pictured having, you reckon its too nurgly though, was my only concern.

You guys at daka are a silent bunch =p but i will carry on undeterred =p No pics today, but i ordered some more servo skulls, the plan is to have every skitarii have one...needless to say the various bitz shops have pretty much cleaned me out. =p I know its not an original idea but i thought id run these guys as GKs...but without any GKs at all, coteaz and lots of counts as henchmen, zipping around in legged chimeras, with support from techmarines/dreadnoughts and dreadknights? what you guys reckon?

Nice AdMech! I definitely need to get my act into gear and get to work on my Skitarii, was also going to go the DKK greandiers route, they are almost perfect as is.

Love the three lens set-up, not nurgly at all. Also the folds on that GS hood look great.

The Coteaz list is definitely feasible, especially as you can have Dreadknights as Knight Titans! Its what i plan to use when i finally get enough skitarii to run a feasible list. Eg like mine

Praise be to the Omnissiah, fellow Magos

Interesting stuff so far, I wouldnt worry about the lens, they look great.

Very chuffed you've taken an interest vitruvian, when i was looking around to get some inspiration your blog had me staring for a good half hour. So please do give a little update, and i really apologise if some of my ideas are blatantly stolen from some of your stuff =p

Haha! Lol, steal away dude, thats what dakka is about after all! Ive kind of taken a chill on the AdMech atm, due to a re-ineterest in Warmachine, however, now i have my student loan and its nearly xmas it means i have me some FW money so things may change!

Lol i am in the opposite position unfortunately, my student loan is all but gone, hoping that subtle hints about how much i love the grenadier models havn't gone unnoticed for Christmas

and thanks tortured robot, i think your right, having slept on it i think after browsing some of the grimmer project logs on here i was just seeing the taint of the warp everywhere. =p

Are you at uni then? If so which? Im in 1st year at bristol, loving it!

I'm second year, at Norwich though. It's good fun, (who says uni is about learning), although the money side of things means that this DKOK thing is probably a horrendous idea in terms of me carrying on eating, we will have to see.

Sweet, money is a slight hiccough, but im afraid youll just have to bite the bullet and go hungry, these are too good for you to ignore!

Lol! so having said no pictures today i totally lied, i originally had this guy planned as a techmarine for my salamander force, but seeing how i seem to have wandered from that project i swapped his salamander shoulder for a more neutral one, (just imagine it with the salamander pad gone, replaced with a generic terminator one.) Im not really sure how these techmarines are going to work fluff wise, i'm supposing the simplest explanation is just they are just mechanicus chaps who have made their own armour, the fact that its terminator armour and not power armour making up for some of their superior stats? I have a nasty feeling this lens setup for the face is going to feature quite a lot in this army =p :

Those are really cool!

Now that sir, is cool!! Always loved the idea of a Skitarii regiment, keep up the good work!

Dude that is insane! Seriously sweet use of parts, especially the flamer, love it!

Inspired use of the librarian, very very nice!

If your using Grey Knights why not use it as a Tech Marine? It's looking brilliant as far as I'm concerened.

Sorry yeah, i wasn't very clear, I mean the adeptus mechanicus arent actually space marines, not wanting to go down the iron hands route really, i guess they do have all the junior ones who are on loan from their chapter to learn stuff, but that doesn't really work for a guy with full servo harness and extra techno-gubbins to account for psychic powers. Anyone know if techmarines sometimes stay with the ad mech rather than returning to their chapter?

Okay so havn't updated in a while due to various real life things but have some more mechanical goodness for you. I have finally finished the first of my skitarii so i'll start with some pics of him, the red is almost what i want but could be even more extreme:




Over christmas i was lucky and got the grenadiers i was pining for, needless to say i've defiled them by removing the beautiful gas masks, but here is the flamer for the squad:



I've also been on a cog raiding session, taking apart various wind up toys and was reasonably successful:


Ive already started putting them to good use, a smartie to anyone who guesses what this is going to be =p


And finally i've finished up s servitor, and im much happier with how the red turned out here:




c&c welcome as usual =] btw, anyone know if finecast is improving? after my first few experiences i'm a bit reluctant.

Nice servitor and skitarii. The cog staff (I think that's what it is) looks epic so far.

Red looks lovely, and the grenadier conversions are ace!

Thanks guys, and yup spot on with the staff guess, well, some sort of chain halberd thing, He's all done now so here you are:


Hopefully when i get the moneys i should be able more on to something a bit more exciting.

This is some of the best ad-mech stuff I've seen. Anxiously awaiting more updates!

Bottom of that chainsword blade could do with blending in to the rest of the weapon somehow, instead of ending abruptly.

Otherwise

I think your right, more wiring is needed! also the unflattering pic showed how rubbish that arm greenstuffing was, managed to fix that now. =]


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Here you are vitruvian, turns out as with all small gap issues on imperial models the best solution is whack a purity seal on it, but i did another wire as well, cant have too many wires:

So no updates for a bit dakkarinos, for which i apologise, but i finally have a few things for you, I have painted up the techmarine, so here are some pics, sorry abut bases, wont be doing any until i know what to do with them, still a bit unsure. Any suggestions are very welcome, i'm a bit stuck for inspiration tbh. Anywho, some picitures for you:




Please feel free to criticize, still feel like tinkering a bit.

Also i have not totally neglected the troops and am making slow progress:



(very slow). This may well be because i have been developing a serious love for the valhallans, but am a bit annoyed by the 2nd edition models so came up with this:

:O
The techmarine is possibly the best thing I've seen in a long time! Kudos to you!

Think the valhallan could turn out really well, interested to see how it comes along.

Cool stuff and nice paint jobs!

Small addition for today, I recently got these models which i love, and wanted to share with you. The casting is overall fairly good, but with a few flaws, but it was a fraction of the price of GWs stuff.





(The last guy i had NO idea how big he was, thought he was humanish size, was a bit of a shock that one.)

Just stumbled across this blog, great work! I'm definitely subbed. Love the librarian conversion and you have really got the red right! I'm not so sure about those last three models you posted, I'll hold judgement until they are painted. Keep up the good work!

Sweet, love the red blending

The valhallan concept is sweet, love a good face cloth.

Perhaps you could go with a desert themed base, although snow would be pretty pimping to be fair.

I have to admit im not a fan of Ramshackle's stuff though. Seems a tad amateurish/orky to me. (Barring the tunneling machine, which makes a sweet base for a Termite.

Thanks reaper man, I think you and vitruvian are right though, the new models are good, but i don't think they really scream ad mech, more steam punk. Think i will take the tracked seritor looking guy with some conversion work, but will leave the others out, especially the huge guy. And as for bases yeah you thinking red and snow would be a good contrast? or was it more aimed at the vallhallan?

Either/or, valhallans i would kinda like to see on some different bases, snow is over done for them.

Red and snow makes awesome contrast

Tbh i was kinda trying to veer away from the white for the valhallan anyway, was thinking greens and browns with maybe just a small amount of white or light grey for fur to make it stand out, i hadnt really thought about snow and ad mech tbh, it might look really good, definately put that in the good idea pile. Knew there was a reason i made this blog. =p

Afternoon all, have managed to finish up the leader of the skitarii, so here are some pics, slightly irritatingly all the reds on the guys so far havn't turned out looking exactly the same shade, never mind, cant be helped:



I havn't actually got a copy of the grey knights codex, tbh i don't really play, more in it for the modeling, but still would like this to be a legal army, so was wondering if you guys could tell me what sorta make up for squads i can have, just as a reminder, was going for a coteaz based henchmen heavy list, due to the variety. Also not sure how much your allowed to tell me without it all getting in the way of copyrights ect.




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Ah no love for the skitarii leader, never mind, taking everyone's advice i've ditched the new models except the tracked servitor who i couldn't resist converting a little bit, i think then end result looks a bit more 40k, and less ramshackle steampunk. Let me know what you reckon. (also first page is now fully decked out with links, including yours vitruvian.)

I think that the 'tracked servitor' already looks a lot better now you've converted it a little bit-all your stuff is cool cuz you put your own spin on it.

Will keep checking back to see how it turns out once painted!

The techmarine is awesome. And incorporates a libby! Amazing! (and ironic)

@Imperial Monkey - Haha its true actually, i hadn't thought about it at the time, too busy frenziedly chopping.

@tech-priest - Thanks very much! expect to see your wood elves up soon btw.

Anyway, just wanted to ask you guys a question, for a transport for these guys what do you guys think about a legged chimera? I was thinking maybe the chassis of the chimera with 3 defiler legs on each side? Wondered if anyone had any thoughts or links to anything similar?

Alternatively i wanted to make a knight titan out of a dreadknight, obviously not such a drastic one but obv would need a lot of meching up,

I'm unsure what to do next, so you guys can let me know which you'd prefer to see?

J-paint wrote:Anyway, just wanted to ask you guys a question, for a transport for these guys what do you guys think about a legged chimera? I was thinking maybe the chassis of the chimera with 3 defiler legs on each side? Wondered if anyone had any thoughts or links to anything similar?

Alternatively i wanted to make a knight titan out of a dreadknight, obviously not such a drastic one but obv would need a lot of meching up,

I'm unsure what to do next, so you guys can let me know which you'd prefer to see?

They both sound like interesting (and ambitious!) projects.

1) I think the legged transport sounds cool and sufficiently mechanicusy, though I'm not sure your concept would be as easy as you think. IMHO, it would be tough to construct and not have it look like a chimera with legs stuck on. Maybe a sketch would be helpful (or a MSPaint drawing). I think the two rear sets of defiler legs could be useful, but the claws wouldn't. Maybe you could pick up some extra legs on eBay? I'd also like to see an underslung turret if you do this!

2) Where do you find the stats for knights? I hear about them a decent amount, but can't find the stats anywhere. Good idea, and a super cool model! Again, I think you'd need to put a decent amount of effort in to making it look like something other than a dreadknight with bits stuck on. Filling in the GK text, coming up with a real cockpit, etc.

Can't wait to see what you pick!
Rawson

I really wish i knew tbh, havn't got the grey knights codex yet, so thats next on the purchase list, i will let you know when i get it, everyone does seem to rave about them though, ALOT! I'm going to do some concept sketches now, which when combined with my complete inability to draw will...well, will be interesting.

Aha! Knew i could find this somewhere! Deep in the bowels of my subscribed threads is a project madgrotbob did on automated walking chimeras, preety cool....


http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/342256.page

You sir, are a gem! christ that makes me feel inadequate though, his MOVED! I fear i may be slightly distracted in lectures today.

Haha i know, i freaked out when i first saw it, so cool!

This looks like its got the making of a one of a kind amazing army good luck!

I reckon do the Titan Knight! Maybe look at the epic models for inspiration, they are very cool. It kind of depends on your converting skills but from what I have seen you are up to it!

@Optio - Thanks very much!

@Reaper Man2020 - On your advice i've been having a little look around and your right, they are lovely! A few very nice ideas there!

As for update i'm being drawn in different directions with the next project, vitruvian and his damn links have got me hyped for the chimera, but i think if i did one i would have larger legs, much more spider-esk than the normal small scuttling legs. Although the knight has loads of potential, unfortunately for my bank balance when looking around i found this gem:
http://www.zealotminiatures.co.uk/#!__zealot-store/m2-assault-droid-ii-haz-op/albumphotos1=0
This to me looks pretty ad-mechy already, but obviously needs some general work, taking it from pretty cool to epic....the price tag is a problem though.

Just words for now im afraid, almost finished the tracked servitor today but had to do a little bit more greenstuffing to diguise some poor superglueing on my part.

What do you guys think though? Stick with dreadknight conversion or the pricey zealot one? Or go for the chimera? Incidently does anyone have a picture of a chimera next to a defiler i could use to get a grasp of scales?

Quite like the idea of a zealot one, but it all depends on your bank balance really! ^_^

Very excited to see the finished tracked servitor! Upload a photo soon please XD

Evening all, have some painting updates for you here, first up i have finished the tracked servitor guy- especially wondering what you think of the green paint on the tracks? was meant to look very scratched but i'm not sure if the overall effect is just a bit rubbish?

Second set of pics are of that test valhallan fellow, tried to do the green in the same over the top style as the red in the ad mech, you think its too much? anyway, heres some pics:






( I apologise for his face, i have very VERY little experience with faces and human flesh in general, never seem to get it loooking even vaguely right, any tips are very welcome.)

I had a feeling the tracked servitor was gonna look good but just... oh wow XD I think the scratched green paintwork looks AWESOME!!! Kudos!

I like the valhallan too btw ^_^

@tech-priest - Thanks very much! glad you like it. I'll admit at first i thought it looked a little bit like algae growing all over it

Not too sure tbh, i feel like a little more green would improve it nicely, ur choice tho.

The valhallan green is great, not ott at all.

For faces i usually do tallarn flesh, ogryn flesh wash, tallarn flesh highlight then tallarn flesh plus kommando khaki (skull white works too).

@Tech-priest - Thanks you for your enthusiasm!

@Vitruvian - Thanks for the input man, the green could do with being a little brighter but i think i might leave it for now, will try and fix it when i next get round to a 'fixing' paintjob phase which for me normally means systematically ruining all my minis with novel weathering techniques. =p

To give you a clue as to what i'm up to next, look what came in the post today:

Now just waiting on wayland games to get the chimera to me and the destruction can begin,

In the mean time i am going to try and a make another set of legs, from scratch...i fear it may go badly, but i'll give it a go, i have some plastic cogs and plasticard at the ready.

J-paint wrote:
To give you a clue as to what i'm up to next, look what came in the post today:

Now just waiting on wayland games to get the chimera to me and the destruction can begin,

In the mean time i am going to try and a make another set of legs, from scratch...i fear it may go badly, but i'll give it a go, i have some plastic cogs and plasticard at the ready.

Instead of completely scratchbuilding some, you could always try to complete the other halves of the legs you have. That would save you some of the trouble of measuring, scale, etc. Also this suggestion assumes that what I'm looking at is a sprue of half legs...

That is a very good idea! thanks very much Rawson, I'm currently in the middle of cutting up clothes pegs, so i'll try to make one scratch built leg then despair and resort to your, (much more sensible) idea.

I'm Not so keen on the vallahalan's green scheme, I would have gone for a grey color myself
but If you like it I'm happy

Really cool blog! I'll be watching this one

AWESOME WORK!!!

Seriously, this is all really badass. I also am in LOVE with the green, but it seems a little to clean and high quality for a grenade-launcher welding grunt with a "Russian Hero" hat.

But hell, thats just my to cents. Keep up the good work.

First of all thanks for the replies! really makes a massive difference in terms of enthusiasm!

@Capitansolstice - Funny you shoudl say that, was planning on trying another test model in grey, we'll show how that one turns out.

@prime12357 - Thanks very much XD

@Dangledorf2.0 - Thanks! i do know what you mean, the green is pretty intense, like i say above, considering trying a grey coat with maybe green shoulder plates and chestguard instead.

Annnyyyway, for tonight i show you the fruit of my crazed sticking and cutting (occasionally of my fingers) that i did last night: And in true decorating programme style have included a before and after =p

Before:



After: this is the basic frame of the leg so go easy on me =p it will oc need rivets and cabling, (eyeing up the low E of my guitar...must resist.)



In terms of the cadian communication backback, the theory behind it is this tank is going to look like a massive insect, and insects tend to use 'feelers' on their legs....(hopefully makes sense.)

oooh, im interested to see what the legs look like when they're finished! Hope they work out well for you ^_^

A bag of these off ebay might be a wise investment!




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About £8 if I remember.

Thanks reaper, at first i thought oh yeah, they would be great for the tank, then i realised that is in millimeters! Definately going to be grabing some of these, btw if you need any more i found these, seems like a pretty good deal : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220928605177?_trksid=p5197.c0.m619#ht_936wt_1270

Evening just a small update today i'm afriad, still waiting on my chimera to arrive. Have been having fun with florists wire and the cogs reaper suggested, (which are perfect btw.) and did a little mock up of how its going to look all together, obviously, the chimera hull will replace the wall section in the middle, but you get the general idea, my only concern atm is that the size of the chimera is going to ruin the insect effect, we will have to see, opinions as always:

I think it looks great! I can't wait to see the finished thing

It looks great, those cogs give it a real Mechanicum/Steam punk effect. I'm looking forward to seeing it with the chimera and of course the final painted model.

Nice looking stuff there, very sharp
Your techmarine is awsome. I also really like the green eyes you have it is very crisp.

Hellloooooo, I think the tank is going to look really cool when it's finished!! Have you made much progress since you posted the photo? xxx

Lol i have actually, as you know! But as i suspect your post had alterior motives for posting...And yes, i have finished the ewok for you. =]

Anyway, before my thread gets derailed with ewok and star wars talk, here is the latest ad mech progress: Unfortuantely wayland games aren't living up to their usual prompt standards and still not even a dispatch email from them yet. =[ But i have used the time to finish up a skitarii:





Right heres the ewok i made for bubble on here from greenstuff, shes been pestering me no end, and shes promised to do her very best with the paintjob, (shes new to the hobby, convinced her to make a P&M blog here, linky: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/428344.page ) You guys think i should add a spear before i hand it over?

These Ad-Mech are loooking really fine have you seen the Blighted Wheel and MicroArt models on a similiar theme?

Thanks llama, and yeah i really like them both, i am trying to resist buying any just yet though, if i finish all the grenadiers first i'll never get them done =p

Great pieces. And yes, it should have a spear.

Beautiful work here, I am in awe.

@CommissarBob - Thank you very much, and yup, he has one now =]

@ Ogryn - Thanks!


I have news, unfortuantely not ad mech related news, but hopefully you'll bear with me, my hobby mind is more fickle than....something...

The update is infact eldar related, or more probably dark eldar related, I've always wanted to do a harlequin themed army and looking around it seems the dark eldar codex presents the purrrrfect way to do it. Now fear not, i'm not abandoning the ad mech, its just the degree of work that goes into making each guy means that getting a workable army size could be a while

So i bought the finecast harlequin box....and have promptly discovered that even though i'm not converting the damn things, its still taken me about an hour to fix each of them, with 2 of them needing total weapon swaps, (they are holding...well, blobs of goo it seems.)

I phoned GW and said 'I am here to rant about finecast like everyone else, bla bla' and they did offer to swap them, but i'd almost certainly just be swapping one lot of flaws for another, so i've decided to go with them, here is the first guy, in what should have been out of the box condition.



Not to complain too much, i do like the weight and general opportunity for conversion much better with finecast


Anyway, rant aside, my plan is to do each with A colour, so individually they wont look overly harlequin-esk but a unit should look pretty impressive.

C and c welcome as always.

Harlequins are certainly cool models. Good luck!

I also see that you have joined the celebrated ranks of the ADD hobbyists

ADD hobbyists?

J-paint wrote:ADD hobbyists?

You know, working on one thing for a little while, then picking up something totally different before the first thing is finished.

...In which case i am guilty as charged....My kroot and salamanders have been waiting for a look in for ages now! ...and as for my skaven, well, we just don't go there.

It's just the way it is, we're all so damn easily distracted. I mean take my P&M Blog in here for an example; it was supposed to cover my Alpha legion army but now it's full of Dark Mechanicus, Eldar, Astral Claws and an =][= -munda warband too! its a damn unholy mess I tell you.
Good work buy the way, i like the idea to use Deathcorps grenadiers as a base for the skitarii.

I think Dakka doesn't help our natural fickleness either, since i've joined here i've been tempted to start just about every army under the sun due to one blog or the other. Funny that the thing intended to keep us focused on a project is just as likely to get you even more distracted.

J-paint wrote:I think Dakka doesn't help our natural fickleness either, since i've joined here i've been tempted to start just about every army under the sun due to one blog or the other. Funny that the thing intended to keep us focused on a project is just as likely to get you even more distracted.

Haha! QFT!

I'm afraid i have no progress for you tonight daka, the first harlequin needs a small amount of touching up, and still no word about my chimera, but i fear i may have distracted myself once more.

Now i remember a guy on here who made simply the coolest looking bolt guns ect out of nerf guns, and as i painted my harlies' shuriken pistol i thought how cool it would be to do a similar thing using the new-ish nerf guns that fire disks, unfortunately the mechanism on the only one that isnt MASSIVE is in an irritating place, but what do you think? it have potential? Here it is


*edit: I am definitely a kid at heart still.

Heya dakka so i actually have some progress for you tonight, i have finished up the first of my harlequins, i genuinely have not had a harder time with a model before in my life, god i hate checks! i don't think it turned out too bad, even though i was getting pretty annoyed with it by the end. The idea is all members of the unit will have 2 contrasting bright colours on them, so they are dazzling, but less soindividually.




Next up i thought i might as well chuck my kroot stuff in here as well, i started it in a seperate blog,but tbh it's never going to get enought attention to warrant that, so here is a sniper and a new clothed kroot that i like a fair bit, if you like i'll just throw up the rest of the finished pics from the other blog in here, there weren't a great deal, but might be worth it for completeness. Go easy on their paint, the kroot were only ever meant to be tabletop standard, just really liked the concept of them. The last guy is still WIP atm, needs a belt or something i reckon.

Omg, the harlequin looks fantastic I like that you've chosen to keep the design simple yet at the same time, you've managed to do something a bit different to the traditional look

p.s. You NEED to put your salamanders on here! xxx

J-paint wrote:Heya dakka so i actually have some progress for you tonight, i have finished up the first of my harlequins, i genuinely have not had a harder time with a model before in my life, god i hate checks! i don't think it turned out too bad, even though i was getting pretty annoyed with it by the end. The idea is all members of the unit will have 2 contrasting bright colours on them, so they are dazzling, but less soindividually.

Great job here! I think the effort you put into the checks really paid off!

My only CC would be to dirty up the base a bit. Right now it is too similar to the grey of the harly bodysuit.

Keep up the great work!
Rawson

I think your right, might add more browns to the rocks on the base, think that will help alot, and thanks, was my first time trying checks, absolute nightmare they are!

Wow J the checks look great! The kroot scheme is ace, ties in perfectly. Love that glade guard conversion as well

Cheers vit, hadn't seen you about on the forums last week or so, feared for you, thought you might actually be doing uni work, it wont stand i tell you. =p Thanks for the kind words though, here is the other kroot i've done so far, i have no idea what i plan to do with them really, i just enjoy the conversions:




And a homemade krootox i made from an old plastic gorilla:




Apologies to anyone who has seen these before. =]

I like seeing these

Looks great so far Only thing I'd have to mention is those non GW minis you got doesn't look too good imo, but I'll hold back on my thoughts on them till you've had some time to paint/ convert them or what your plan is

The techmarine is really badass! Great job, and the skitarii look really good as well

Dude thats some awesome cutting, would never have guessed that wasnt a gw krootox.

And no, not working, just being drunk for a week, no joke

Blood Angels are Red,
Force Weapons are Blue,
They both love Mat Ward,
And we all do too!

My heart failed it's 3++ and fell to Mat

lol! well then all is forgiven, you must go out as much as possible in first year, amazing how they pile on the work in the second year. -.-

WOW I love your kroots! Great conversions and easily one of the best paint schemes I've seen so far.

That kroot's sword is made out of Eddie Van Halen's guitar!!

@ Baiyuan - Thank you kindly! It took me ages to settle on that one, i pretty much ruined one kroot by trying out about 10 million colour schemes on him.

And haha your right Gitsplitta! Now that you've said that i cant see anything else. =p Thanks for dropping in btw, your quite the omnipresent character here on dakka, love your mantis warriors project, i must admit its quite daunting in size to look at the first time you stumble across it though.

Understand completely. You have no idea how many things are completely "lost" in all those pages... things I'd like to find again frankly. It's size is the reason I started to do the P&M summaries and linked everything from the OP. No other way to get new readers involved without an index and a "short cut" to get caught up.

And I'm delighted to be here J-paint... you do great work!

Lol why thank you, i must say the progress summaries was an inspired idea, helped me catch up in under a year. And lol! it says something when your plog is so large you need search and rescue teams to find your own ideas.

Truer words have nee'r been spoken.

J-paint wrote:@ Baiyuan - Thank you kindly! It took me ages to settle on that one, i pretty much ruined one kroot by trying out about 10 million colour schemes on him.

So he was your veteran trooper Smik:

@ Baiyuan, hahah! exactly! if not worse, mixing the GW foundation paints with the normal ones for highlighting is not advisable, they become a really odd consistency.

Anyway, i seem to be doing a fair amount of making lately, and none of it relevant to what this blogs meant to be about. But i've (almost) managed to get back on track, am currently reading titanicus and love the whole mechanicus/imperial interactions and thought i should have an imperial representive with a couple of grizzled guard vets as bodyguards to oversee what the ad mech were up to, so I came up with this trio....Slightly unexpectedly and totally unintentionally i seem to have made an astropath with bodyguard instead, but hey, close enough, let me know what you think? cant decide if i like the fatter bodyguards head.







Also would really appreciate it if anyone could help me with what colours they reckon were used on the forgeworld tank Here , mainly looking for that green colour, but the whole colour scheme is nice and was what i ahd planned for these guardsmen bodyguards, thoughts?

lol! You definitely don't stay with one set of models for long do you were the Harlequins stressful? haha

I really like the figure in the middle! Excited to see what you do with them, though I'm not sure what to suggest for a colour scheme, sorry I'm not too helpful today lol xxxx

I'd take a guess at Catchan green on that tank. I'm liking the trio too.

Forge World doesn't use Games Workshop paints most of the time.

Mate, your conversions are really cool, I really like your AM stuff!
Your paintjobs are also very good, please keep it up!

@Bubble - Lol! its true, i have joined the ranks of the ADD hobyists as Rawson so elegantly put it, i will return to them, just the checks are a nightmare!

@ Reaper Man 2020 - Thanks for the continued support reaper *bow*, thats the direction i was thinking as well really, will give it a try, see how it comes out.

@ Poipo32 - This suprises me! you would have thought that being an offshoot of GW they would be sponsoring their paints, hmm, do you happen to know what they do use?

@Mrmerlin - Thanks very much man, your orks are also really nice! keep meaning to comment, will when you update next =] And thanks, painting wise i'm really happy so far, but painting red and lenses are about the extent of my expertise =p (The harlequin was clearly just a fluke, my free hand is appalling normally.)

I think the 'fatter' (taller?) bodyguard's head works just fine. In fact, since he's taller than the other due to his stance on the base I think it fills out rather nicely.

Did you just 'happen' to have two forge world backpacks lying around for those two? If I even thought about taking one from my Krieg guys they would bayonet me on the spot.

Thanks for the reassurance on the 'fat' guy. Ahah dont worry, there are no poor unbackpacked dkok plotting my downfall on my painting desk, I got a heavy stubber team for christmas, which i plan on turning into ...well i'm not really sure yet, i'm thinking maybe make it walk on spider legs and have it for the ad mech, but the crew don't need the backpacks if they are to be ad-mechified. Thanks for the return comment btw. =]

Hey, I'm a mechanic, and naturally a huge AdMech fan! it's only natural. I've actually been following this for a bit now, but I've only just recently decided to take the plunge and get involved. No more lurking for me!

Your stuff is awesome, even if I am sick of red, I'm never sick of those crazy Mars folks and their insane machinery.

lol i know what you mean about the red, but before these i'd never had to do any red, so thought it would be a nice change for me (Even if it has been done to death for ad mech.)

I think GW are definitely missing a trick not bringing out something for the ad mech, probably forge world if anything, but they would definitely get a large slice of my overdraft.

Heya Dakkarinos, after finishing Titanicus i've been inspired to push on with my ad mech and skitarii. I have for you 4 new recruits, 2 with hellguns and 2 who I will count as crusaders.

The guys with the two hellguns were inspired by peewees from total annihilation (not sure how many of you used to play that, was a fair old while ago.)

The 'crusaders' have the deathmasks from the blood angel's sanguinary guard, kindly donated by Bubble And i think they look sufficiently creepy, you'll have to excuse the poor angles, will take better ones for dakka when they are done. (All my WIPs atm I'm putting on photobucket to stop it clogging up my gallery.)






After seeing these so blown up i can see alot of flaws i need to see to, but what do you think of them overall?

i just love the mechanicus altogether but this makes me love it even more. keep up the great work.

Loving this blog - so much cool stuff to look at - very inspirational.

Keep up the great work
Laney

I love the masks, very good idea

More great stuff! I really love your conversions and your greenstuff work are really top as well!

Exalted!

Deathmasks are an awesome idea, consider it stolen

Great new additions, I too like the Death masks though I am a bigger fan of the lense faces! What army list do you intend playing them as?

yaaay, the masks look good I like the guy with the huge shield especially! Have you painted any of your Imperial Guard yet? xxx

Some really awesome stuff here! Not sure how I missed it. Big fan of Ad Mech armies, especially when they are so well done! Subscribed and exalted.

@ Jet and @ 02 Laney - Thanks very much guys! the comments are really motivating. thanks for stopping by.

@ Captainsolstice - Thanks, thought they looked suitably creepy for people who want to come across human, when in fact there is probably just a bunch of wires behind them.

@ Mrmerlin - Aw thanks dude, my greenstuff needs work here and there, and it takes forever to get anything to look the way i want, nevermind. And exhalted? oh! reaching heady heights here! Thanks alot!

@ Vit - Lol! knock yourself out man, I've stolen a fair few of your ideas so your very much entitled =p i look forwards to seeing what you do with them, they are nice sculpts.

@Reaper - Thanks reaper, yeah I'm still going to stick with mostly the lens but i thought it would look good with a bit of variety, and as a way of clearly showing they are different to the others. In game (if i ever get that far) I'm thinking of playing it as grey knights with coteaz so i can have henchmen as my troops, So basically the army will consist of a coteaz conversion, a techmarine, 2 or three squads of henchmen (which will be these skittarii) and then dreadknights made to look like knights. Of course thats a long way away yet, and I have no idea if that would be evenv aguely competitive or not, (not that that is my biggest concern,) so it might have to be tweaked, but it seems to fit nicely with the fluff. The jokaero weaponsmiths provide some excellent conversion possibilities, with lascannon/heavy flamer and multimelta and the ability to make the rest of the unit upgraded somehow i think they are perfect for those magos who dedicate themselves to becoming fighting machines...can't remember what they are called at the moment.

@ Bubble - Lol thanks! He is going to count as a crusader (storm shield and power weapon). And i have actually got about half way through one of the guardsmen, been trying out a camo pattern on his fatigues, almost as fiddly as the harlequins damn checks =p.

@ Thatguy91 - Lol it's really easy for alot of blogs to just disappear within seconds of being posted, I know I have totally missed some of my favourites on here till they were on their 10th page. But thanks very much! very honoured. *bow*

Secutors? I believe thats what theyre called.

Thats the one Vit, cheers. They work quite well with the not modifying the unit weapons result they sometimes get as well, gels with the not tampering with 'divine' tech thing they have going on.

Does anyone have any advice about the list btw, was thinking if i had 3 units of skitarii, 1 could be close combat, have servitors (powerfists) and the crusaders and pos acroflaggelants/death cult assassins. And then a second with a more shooty orientation, melta/plasma guns and hotshot lasguns?

J-paint wrote:
@ Mrmerlin - Aw thanks dude, my greenstuff needs work here and there, and it takes forever to get anything to look the way i want, nevermind. And exhalted? oh! reaching heady heights here! Thanks alot!

Yep, exalted. Because of the details and the faces/heads on your guys. I love how you use these tiny cogs, and the lens-faces are awesome. I really want to build ome AdMech stuff myself, becaue of your work. Im really thinking about doing some of my IG dudes this way!

Do it, your techpriests need to practice talking binary or they get rusty. If you do please link me, will be interested to see how it comes out. =]

I will link you, but I guess It'll be some time till I can get around to it. There's so much other stuff to be painted before I get new minis.....

Yep worthy of Exalting, done!

Very good work

The guy with the double gun implants is really cool. Very simple, yet somehow convincing.

The crusaders look amazing with those deathmasks!!

I will link you, but I guess It'll be some time till I can get around to it. There's so much other stuff to be painted before I get new minis.....

lol i know the feeling merlin.

@ Reaper / celtic strike - appreciated guys, thanks.

@ Baiyuan - lol glad you like it, ofc there was a great deal of planning that went into those guys, it definately wasn't because i accidently chopped his gun in half with some clumsy tidy up work at some ungodly time in the morning.

@ Imperial monkey - Thanks for the bump!

I'm afraid i have nothing new for you at the moment guys, have a load of deadlines this week so am swamped in real life stuff, but on the upside the chimera has FINALLY arrived so when all this other stuff is out the way you can expect some more progress on the crawly tank. (technical terms.)

I just love your stuff. Any updates on them guard bodyguard yet?
Peace

Thanks for dropping by spud, but fraid not quite yet, managed to get most of one of their camo pattern done, (even harder than damn checks to make it look right.) but everything has had to grind to a halt for a few days, hopefully will update in a few days tops =]

Ok ladies and gentle beans i have finally started the legged chimera properly. These are very WIP photos so bear with me, but im trying to get the legs to magnetise in the right place before i go too far. I think it looks alright really! opinions on anything very welcome, i'm lacking in inspiration for it a little at the moment......



Which leads me to the other topic of this post. I regret to announce that the homeworld of the kroot i made has been overrun by the great devouror, their genes and biomatter have been assimilated and been reforged into hormagaunts, kick starting my tyranid side project. (I am getting more fickle by the day i swear.) I never was a fan of the standard gaunts, i just didn't understand their feet, always looked very strange, as though they would constantly be stubbing their toes.

..Annyway, here is a test paint job, that i really rather like, even if it is a carbon copy of the kroot.

That legged Chimera is awesome, I really want to see it finished!

Keep up the good work it all looks awesome!

Thanks guys, the support is appreciated, and i will try and get a bit more of the chimera done today.

Im also working on the hormagaunt design, the back of the head looks slightly strange to me. What do you think of the concept tho? it ok? or a bit naff?

I think it looks pretty darn good actually...

It looks good, but you need to maintain the lithe and fast look of the hormagaunts. As such I think that it should stay as a low pose, but with the kroot feet. That would really creepy. Kinda like a dinosaur.

That terminator with the servo harness is incredible!

Love the tank J, coming along great!

And that hromie is inspired, so cool.

@Gits - Thanks, your blog on your son's tyranids was very inspiring, especially the bases, love them so much.

@Imperial monkey- Funny you say that, the original idea was to make it look a bit more dinosaur esk with the kroot feet, the spines were an afterthought. And yeah, im going to try and get the next few in a running position, but a few upright like this guy, going for a velociraptor sorta theme.

@bibblles - Thanks alot! seems people really like that conversion, im suprised it hasnt been done more really

@ Vit - Thanks man, and lol I don't know about inspired, it was a ooh, lets stick this on here moment.

I made quite alot of progress on the tank today so i'll probs put some more pics up tomo at some point =]

Thanks J-paint. Been a while since he's done anything on them... perhaps it's time for a friendly kick in the pants!

Wow, that tyranid/kroot is awesome! Keep up the awesome work with your AD too.

I want to see your crusader guys finished! Tyranids look awesome though- can't keep up with your ever changing interests haha xxxx

oh and the chimera looks wicked of course

@Gits - But of course, its your obligation as a parent. =p

@Guardians eternal - Thanks alot! theve been officially branded krootnids, altho tyroot is pretty cool as well.

@ bubble - Lol i do apologise, i am going to get started on the crusaders tonight though so hopefully some progress there soon.

As for today, i have a few little bits of progress here and there for you.

first of all are the WIPS of the tank which has everything it will have, except for detailing, its basically just going to be coated in wires by the end =p and a few small extra bits, so here it is.



Next i have been practicing painting camo, and i think im pretty happy with the result on this bodyguard, obviously the rest isn't done yet.



And finally i have made the second krootnid/tyroot . This guy i wanted to look a bit darker cos i felt the first guy's carapace was good, but a bit bright, so i redid him to match, they arent the best painting ever but for tyranids it would be stupid to try. opinions on the darker green very welcome.

(p.s. this guy is running in a much more standard pose like imperial monkey suggested, hopes it gives the speedy dynamic back.)

I really like the slash-camo, it looks a little time consuming but I bet it looks great on the table.

Thanks cut-throat, fortunately its just for these two bodyguards, i think i'd go mad if i had to do it for a whole squad, let alone an army.

yeah, I liked the camo also. If it matches your table then for gods sake do a Marbo conversion with that painted on him. Please.

Fan-bloody-tastic I am very impressed with the camo you did, the scale is right and it looks very effective! so much so that i want to try and paint it now! :-)

and your Krootynids are brilliant! the scheme while the same works and looks really alien on them with the spines, I also like the fact that you can/will vary the poses using the Kroot feet so your squad will not only appear to be running forward but also rearing up and attacking it's prey!

looking forward to more!

Nerdfest09

Great camo, and the walking rhino is getting better and better!

Woah really really like the camo!

I really like the camo. The chimera is coming on nicely but I'm not entirely convinced with all the wires/hoses, particularly the really long ones. The hoses on the front legs are great.

@Imperial monkey - lol! don't distract me even more! i have enough of a problem sticking to one thing as it is. =p but its definately being considered =]

@nerdfest09 - Thanks man, always nice to get encouragement, and good luck with the damn camo, it looks good, but takes damn well forever! a tip is to try and make as many lines as possible overlap. And yeah that is the main problem with the gaunts, they are so static.

@mrMerlin/Maj.Winters - lol seems to be much love for that camo, if you guys want i can do a quick summary of how its done, not that its any different from the thousands of other versions online.

@Reaper - Unfortunately i am with you on the big long wires on the chimera, they problem is, altho it may be hard to see they are actually working as a scaffold to support the legs, so its a bit unavoidable, but i'm hoping when i add some smaller wires it will break them up and help disguise how totally without function they are. =p failing that i'll strip them off and try and make a more robust way of keeping the legs still/intact.

Anyway, recently i've only managed a small amount and it's all been on the tyranidkroots, having stumbled upon a good article on painting carapace using the streak method i thought i had to give it a try. The results are really impressive but i cant decide which i prefer. votes would be very much appreciated,

1st or second picture?



God photobucket puts these up in unflattering detail! will have to give those teeth another go.

I'd use the first one.... the texture looks like it belongs on the exoskeletton of a bug! well done!
The other one looks like de armor.....

and the winter camo; I dont think I'll be able to use it any time soon, but out of interest, and since you offered it: how'd you do it?

Merlin

What Merlin said.

Liking the Krootnids! - looking forward to a krootfex in the future

Streak, and where is the article for the method? Looks great.

@ Mrmerlin/Baiyuan - Sigh i was afraid you would say that, that was what i thought too but i hoped i was wrong because it took so much longer. I will try and see if i can't speed up the processs on the next guy.

@slice'n'dice - lol now that would be impressive, i think i've seen a similar thing done somewhere else before, try and find it. But i was actually thinking of doing either gargelys or shrikes next if i still find myself tyranidily inclined. =]

@ Vit - heres the article i used, http://www.necrotales.com/necroTutorials/tut_streak_painting_01.php

1st photo is phenomenal so worth the time it takes I think xxx

Yeah, it's official, you're going to be painting Gaunts for months.

But they'll look damn good!

1st.

I know your pain, J-paint! My orks take ages to paint, because I want them to look perfect..... Its going to take me years to finish the army!

But if you paint them in a way you dont like, you'll regret it later!

@bubble - thank you!

@ Chemical cutthroat - lol, i fear your right =s

@ MrMerlin - Lol horde armies are a horrible idea for a perfectionist =p

Anyway i have four all finished up in the new streak technique, zoom in in the gallery to get a good feel for it, think they look alright. =]

wow, they look great together! No doubt, that swarm is going to look epic!

Nice work J-p... wow. Stunning.

@ Mrmerlin / Gitsplitta - Thanks alot guys, hopefully you'll like these guys too

Evening daka, apologies for the total lack of progress recently, deadlines *boo, hiss* have been taking up all my time. I have managed to squeeze in a small amount this evening and have 6 more hormies reporting for painting. I tried to be a bit more adventurous with these guys to give the unit a bit more of a height dynamic.

...some of them i really like, others will do.

From left to right: 1) Boo i'm behind you, 2) Help, my claw is stuck, and 3) I am virtually lying on my belly.


and here: 1)generic pose number one, 2) Boiiing! 3) generic pose number two.

For me, the posing and modelling is the most satisfying aspect of the hobby. I'm always happy to see that others also take some time when assembling models, very well done!

Fantastic work on the modeling J-paint... you don't disappoint!

Love the first method - it takes longer but the effort looks fantastic! Wish I had the patience for that myself. The Krootagaunts are also really neat, I love Tyranid conversions with Xenos DNA. Saved for inspiration!

J-paint wrote:@slice'n'dice - lol now that would be impressive, i think i've seen a similar thing done somewhere else before, try and find it.

Is this the one you're thinking of? I was just thinking of selling it recently...

The newly converted nids look really nice. I especially like "Boo I'm behind you."

@Merlin - The fact you spend that extra bit of time on assembly really shows through on your orks, i think for me its what makes them so unique.

@ Gits - too kind, its just a shame its a bit limited by time at the moment.

@Pekel- Thanks for the kind words! and that is indeed the one! I really loved it when i saw it and then the window got closed and disappeared into the abyss of the internet, thanks for sharing. Damn i would really like to offer you the mental amounts its worth, but unfortunately i'm scraping the bottom of the barrel as it is. Let me know if you do put it on ebay or whatever though, will definately be interested.

@prime - Thanks man, hes my favourite too, i'm thinking of making a minimum effort diorama of him and the camo guardsman from a couple of pages back.

Pekel wrote:Love the first method - it takes longer but the effort looks fantastic! Wish I had the patience for that myself. The Krootagaunts are also really neat, I love Tyranid conversions with Xenos DNA. Saved for inspiration!

J-paint wrote:@slice'n'dice - lol now that would be impressive, i think i've seen a similar thing done somewhere else before, try and find it.

Is this the one you're thinking of? I was just thinking of selling it recently...

That thing is soo cool, looks like a small Krootifex. Krootish but looks like the older screamer killer.

I don't really post on Dakka but was just following a link from Vitruvian to check out his dark mechanicus (which is excellent) but noted your avatar - glad I followed the link because your stuff is superb, suitably creepy without losing cohesion.

The walking tank thing is great and your terminator conversion is fantastic. I really like the chain halberd as well.

Great nids too but hope you'll be back to the mechanicus soon.

Incidentally, I noted that you're at Uni in Norwich. I went over a decade ago now. They've demolished Waveney terrace which was my halls but I wonder if the legend lives on (it was modelled on a Swedish prison back in the 60s).

Thanks very much cerebralerebus! Its a real honour for you to have dropped by, your ad mech is one of the main reasons i really started looking into them in the first place. I hope you don't mind the link to your stuff on the first page, for me your stuff is the benchmark, its beautiful.

Thanks for the kind words though, The nids are proving a nice organic distraction from the ad mech but i'll be back at them properly soon, just making small progress on the tank atm.

And they may well have demolished the original but there is now a new Waveney Terrace building so the legend does indeed live on, albeit in a less prison-esk and a distinctly more stylised modern fashion. (personally i think the swedish prison sounds far more characterful.)

No problem at all, it's flattering to stumble accross links to my own work and great to hear more people taking on the mechanicus cause.

In fact, I've followed some of the other links you put up and came accross some new ideas which I may well incorporate into my army so it works both ways.

Looking forward to seeing the developments on the tank, but keep on with the nids as well because an army of those would look stunning.

i just stumbled over your great admech stuff in rawsosn thread...again... i already knew your stuff...saw them on the gallery months ago...why i didn´t subsribe to your thread... a mystery... great stuff here... the new additions of the bugs... well i am not that much into bugs... but credit where credit is due... they looks very cool!

your admech stuff tho ourshines them a zillion times^^.... what makes them really even more creepy and so fluffy looking is the wild combination of all that beatiful done conversions and then finsihing them off with that bright paintjobs... not what i would imagine but seriously a very strong concept! i like it very much...

with the big chimera like walker i have to add that giving it a boiler would just be the last step in giving it the steampunk finish^^...i know i would but then that bug has bitten me way back^^

also...the lil ewok... looks very good...! any chance to see it with a lick of paint soon?

Lol thanks for the revival Vik, unfortunately won't be any new goodyness till the 22nd, exams and all, but thanks for all the kind words!

Incidently when it comes it will be more ad mech and possibly valhallan conversions, the bugs were a bit of a side project, and an excuse to paint in hideously bright colours!

As for the ewok, i gave it to the girlfriend as a present, will have to investigate what became of it. 0.o

well... then i will watch out for any upcoming updates sir!^^ and i cross my fingers for you exams to be succesful!

Love the work in here! its topnoch stuff really like the creep yet simple feel of your Ad mech.

So dakka, this is probably a horrific idea as i still have a few days before the last of my exams are over but i though i would get the creative juices flowing beforehand.

So assuming anyone has been following this thread devoutly =p you may remember the test valhallan i did with my spare grenade launcher ages ago, for those who don't :
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/323806-Valhallan%20test%20model.html

Now i was never really happy with this model, i thought the cartoony bright colours worked really well on my ad mech but here the green just seemed a little overpowering and didn't really give the footslogger vibe as many of you pointed out at the time.
Also the face cloth thing was a little OTT, and combined with the hat looked a little big and rushed.

.....sooooooooooooooo i'm going to try it again, this time with the DKOK 'at ease' models because being a student means blowing your money on things you really can't afford and then compromising when it comes to food and heating. =p
I currently have none of my modelling stuff with me, excluding the new DKOK and some heads i got from hasslefree, so logically i cant possibly do any modelling.

...except for this very rough mock up using bluetack!
The basic idea is there, i'm keeping the front of the DKOK hats to act as a template for the front of the ushanka hat, because i think the last one turned out too big. Also when i get some green stuff they will get the compulsory bed roll across the chest that is the iconic valhallan look, this will also help with the bare look he has now he's lost his funny 'oxygen box.'




Thoughts are very welcome, need some guidance with this one, apologies for no admech progress, it will come when i'm in the same county as it =p

Looks like a good start to a fun project.

My only CC would be that his neck looks a bit long. I'm not sure if it's the blutac or by design, though...

Ugggh i know the exam feeling bro. Got my first on wednesday :(

Looks solid, and should be a good base for valhallafying...

lol Rawson that was a scarily fast reply! But i agree, the head is far too high up at the moment, its partly the bluetacks fault and partly due to me not having my proper knife and being scared of screwing up the detail on the collar, when i can do it properly the head will be properly attached to the body and not floating above it somewhat. =p

You too Vit?! very speedy! And ah good luck man, your a numbers type aren't you? Not sure where i got that impression from, think you might have mentioned it somewhere before, And thanks, looks reasonably promising atm, hopefully when i can give it some real attention it will look much better.

What exams are you doing? I'm currently 2/3rds of the way through my Advanced Highers...I know the modelling itch well! haha. I think I'd need to see him without the blu-tac to fully judge him as the proportions do look a bit stretched...

If chemistry counts as numbers then yeah! Although at this very moment i am doing some crazy chemical mathematics. Gah!

Actually feeling fine about them, and kind of enjoying learning all this gak!

2nd year Biochemistry at uni, funfunfun. -.-
Advanced highers? Thats the scottish equivalent of first year uni isn't it?
And Yeah, It doesn't give the best gauge for it really, just wanted to put up something as a token gesture.

That's it Vit, one of your posts had your minis standing on some algebra or something equally out of a mere biochemists comprehension. =p We do enzymes and nice basic maths, your stuff sounds pretty damn intimidating.

Hahahaha biochemistry!

I always take the piss out of my biochem mates, cos theyre not doing a proper degree. Failed chemists we call em....



Obviously joking, im actually doing 40 CPs of pharmacology this year, which is pretty much biology.


edit: 2nd year? Assuming you didnt take a gap year we're the same age! Sucks not being a teenager any more :/

Lol i really don't deserve to get a biochemistry degree, apart from the core modules i've almost entirely avoided the chemistry department. I'll stick with the nice 'name this type of cell' science, alot better for self esteem and grades.

Not quite, It's about A-level standard (a little bit higher than...for some reason the scottish and english systems are slightly off-set). But yeah, I feel for you man.

Yeah im very jealous that youve presumably avoided physical chemistry. God the schrodinger equation and gas collision frequencies and bleurgh. It sucks Although at least i understand it now.

I was revising from 10pm to 3am yesterday too. o.0 Why does my brain only work at night!


When do you get back to your supplies? I wants to see me some valhallans...

Lol i really don't deserve to get a biochemistry degree, apart from the core modules i've almost entirely avoided the chemistry department. I'll stick with the nice 'name this type of cell' science, alot better for self esteem and grades.

Also, speak for yourself, I still have 3 months with the excuse of being a teenager, (just). Of course afterwards i will don my obligatory tweed cords and become deeply concerned with the economic state of the country.

@Imperial Monkey- Lol seems slightly unfair, so do you apply to uni after? slightly overqualified? Or do scottish uni's use that as their minimum entry?

@ Vit, (again) - I finish on tuesday but might have to hang around for a bit after that, i might just get some new bare essentials and greens stuff, sure that would keep me busy.

I still want to see your Salamanders on here! I will keep petitioning for their right to be displayed haha xxx

Lol I'll put them up in the gallery at some point and link to them, in return you have to finish the ewok and put up pics, want to see how that came out.

No, we apply for Uni on our Highers, which simply means that we have no wish to work whatsoever for advanced Highers unless we are applying for an English uni. But we get our fees paid, so hahahahah

I see, I think, so mostly people do them to get into english unis? But then get the benefit of the Scottish government paying for their degree, even though they aren't in Scotland? Something seems slightly flawed there, but I doubt your complaining!

No, the Scottish gov. din't pay if you go to an English Uni, only a scottish one. Even then, the uni's are getting pretty pissed because the government only pays them a smaller fee. Yeah, people do them for English Unis or for the subjects they will study at Uni, just to get them into the mindset..

So exams are over now, *general celebration noise* and i can finally get on with some modelling.

So that valhallan concept got some actual green stuff attention, I'm pretty happy with it, but the front of the hat is bothering me, I cant decide if it is the shape of the face, but somehow it doesn't seem to fit right to me, maybe I've been staring at it too long, whats your guy's opinions?

Also i forgot to add the straps on the bedroll, so where its constricted slightly there will be proper straps in the future. Also should i put the usual small skull symbol in the middle of the ushanka do you think?

the mini looks very good... tho shouldn´´t be the flap of the cap look more flat on the forehead...like so:



other than that i can´t see any flaws there...

I think your right Vik, Will have another bash at it, I think just bringing the whole thing forward slightly and level with the face will improve it massively, we will see.

but don´t over do it... it looks good already!

Improvement? I know it's not really like for like, but it's to give a comparison

with the added starp for the blanket you certainly improved the mini...

and if you aim for that hat- look then i would call it finished...

The plan is for them to be able to blend together in a squad if i get too lazy/poor to keep up with the death korps versions. I think the DKOK are a bit slighter, but its not a huge difference, I think your right, hes pretty good, i might test out a logo in the middle of the hat but we will see.

Annoyed he won't be able to see any paint soon, I'll have to make do with defiling more death korps. =]

well you could always make a lil cap on the hat just a round thingy for to get some colors of your regimental crest on...

for me the whole modeling aspect is much more satisfing as the actual painting...

Yeah, thats a good idea, might give that a go, thanks vik. =] I think i prefer modelling too, but sometimes i just get an itch to get a model from start to finish as soon as possible, just to try and see if it matches the image you have in your head, unfortunately my hands can't keep up usually and it's not quite what i wanted =p

that is so true to my own problems/needs... sometimes you just have to finish a mini... i am currently in a painting mood but that might change even tomorrow... whereas if i have fresh bitz lying around i really have to restrain myself from modeling... i have way too many unpainted and assabled minis flying around already^^

and yes...my painting skills never live up to my imagination

Looks great J! So jealous of you finishing, i only started yesterday :(

J-paint wrote:

Friggin' sweet, J-paint! As long as you're okay with sculpting a million GS hats (I know I am ), I think you're well on your way to a super unique army!

I don't think I ever noticed just how distinctive the DKOK head was until you swapped it out. Your Valhallans don't look like "DKOK w/ headswap" at all.

Keep it up! Looking forward to seeing more
Rawson

Hat? I thought it was a 1970's "Tom Brady" style hairdo!

@Vik- Me too, far too many half-finished projects.

@Vit - You start late Vit, almost all of our exams are done here, when do you finish then?

@Rawson - Thanks Rawson, It's not to bad, a roaring success, i was worried it would look like a poor head swap too, but it really changes the whole character of the model, even if it is blasphemy to cut off those beautiful heads, i might keep a couple of the masks, just give them hats, not sure though, might be a bit much DKOK parts.

@Gits - Lol! unfortunately i am too young to appreciate that Gits, and my google-fu is poor, I only get a load of pictures of an american footballer, with a frankly fairly boring hair-do, most disappointing.

Yeah but i am in first year, i think the later years start earlier. Finish on the 7th of june. Also we only started the year on October 3rd

love the conversions, any chance of a group shot of the Cog boys?

I reckon that can be arranged when i get back to them, might be a week or so, but sure, will do that for you. =] Hopefully i can get the walker finished up soon too when i get back, think it will give the ad mech a bit more presence standing in front of a humongous walking tank. =p

Thanks for the kind words and for dropping by by the way! =]

Try googling "The Brady Bunch"... Tom is the dad.

Here you go...

Absolutely ace - I hadn't considered the DKoK boys for Valhallans, but you've really made it work amazingly! Your GS work is top notch, the hat looks brilliant. Where did you get the head from, btw? I can't wait to see a few more of these guys - have always had a soft spot for the Valhallans, and I reckon you can definitely do them some justice

@ Gits - Lol! there are worrying similarities!

@ Scarper - Thanks for the comment and kind words! The heads are from hasslefree miniatures, it's surprisingly hard to track down nice, totally plain heads. But i would highly recommend these, they are very well done, and don't cost the earth either.

So I've been slightly distracted but between getting acquainted with russian tanks, (great inspiration for this project,) I've got together another two of these valhallan chaps:

The hats are proving very hard to do consistently, and the bedrolls look ok, but I'm worried if they are detailed enough to be painted convincingly? I remember when i first saw the classic valhallans and I didn't understand why they all had such huge brown lumps.

i think those bedrolls look simply stunning... the creases there are very convincing... you have absolutly nothing to fear here!

I agree, great work J-p.

Looking sweet!!

Thanks guys! really does do wonders for the motivation to get encouragement, was wondering if i could pick everyones minds about a colour scheme. So far i have three main contending ideas:

1) First up is keep it very stereotypical soviet inspired and do olive coats with browns and beige and red accents?

2) Second is again olive green coats but with a white accent on the cuffs and fur of the hat, this one would look the most visually striking i think but also the least realistic.

3) The last one is boring, the standard green and white striped camo like GW have theirs painted up in on their store.

(I know alot of people think its wrong to do valhallans anything other than white, but a.) i hate painting in white, and b) i wanted to be a little different from the standard full on blizzard environment.)

having said that I will consider it if people think it would look best and have some good painting white tips. =p

well... for white definatly get the new "foundation" white color from GW... helps you keep all those ultitude of tideous coats of paint down a bit...


second.... winter camo scheme... naw... second shcme is also not my style... i would go for the first one... even if it is kinda standard soviet and a bit overused...

or...go black... with red aplications and gold... could be dificult but would look cool and unique i bet!


also you could go dark faded blue...like:

What about a serious camo effect? Like some of the modern camo schemes, all over the body?

hmmm... digital camo maybe even?

Those guys look great, I can imagine it getting exhausting to do all those hats though, but I guess some can wear caps or helmets like the metal Valhallans.

I think a dirty off-white would look good, without the vivid green camo. A bit like this guy: http://www.dustgame.com/products_d.php?nid=2&id=31

I think a dark Blue grey with brown fur!

These guys look stunning, JP! I wouldn't worry about the bedrolls, I think you've done a nice job on them. When will we see some lads giving the enemy what for? So far it's just been the guys standing around in the mess tent

Viktor von Domm wrote:

Loving this grey scheme! Great idea, Vik!

This is my vote (assuming Dakka is a democracy )

I stilll think something like this would be cool

@Vik - Thanks for those Vik, I really like the grey/blue actually, i think that will definitely be looked into more, as for black, although it would be awesome but painting black is even harder than white, so hard to not just look like undercoat. I've heard good things about the new GW white as well, might have to get that regardless of what scheme i pick.

@Vit - Lol! Not going to let this be simple for me are you The thing with camo is it's so time intensive, having already spent forever just making their damn hats i'm not sure i could face camo too, besides the guy i did a few pages back nearly killed me on his own, and the whole camo thing doesn't really gel for me with the valhallans, too elite.

@ Bruticus - Funny you should say that, I was going to try one today with the funny russian cap hats, if there are any history buffs around feel free to enlighten me as to what they are really called. As for the white I think it's what most people do so I'm going to try and steer away from it, thanks for the comment though.

@ Capitansolstice - Yeah the grey seems a solid way to go, thanks for the input.

@ Rawson - Lol unfortunately that is the problem with this set of DKOK, they do look incredibly chilled out, never mind, if they turn out OK I will get some more aggressive companions for them. I like that grey too, think thats the way i am heading at the moment.


Dammit guys, you've almost been too helpful! I like all these ideas, i think i will try to get it to a shortlist of 4 and then when I get back to my paints i'll try each on one of the original valhallan models. At the moment the tests will be:
1) Standard soviet: Green with red details.
2) Vik's : Grey/blue with red/blue details.
3) White accent: Green coat with white cuffs and fur.
4) Vit's: Some form of camo, relatively simple. (I know i said I wouldn't vit, but a test wouldn't hurt )

Anyway, I'm going to attempt a funny cap hat, will let you know how i get on.

My constructive comment of the day- paint them pink.

xxx

...Ah, the classic soviet uniform, neon pink, I'll consider it....


....I'm done considering.

Ha, great work on those valhallans!

and look, I've got a new flag!

testmodels is almost the only real good way to decide the future scheme! writen down i can see that all have much for them one way or the other... but one has to see if they can be done in a good way on so many minis...i cross my fingers for you to get this all done!


pink soldiers... yeah... i think this will be groundshattering then... so much in fact that said poor soldiers will be swallowed by the ground^^

Those Valhallans look awsome! Makes me wish my army of the classic models was a bit more modern.

I'm wondering where you got the heads for the conversions to?

Really nice conversions on the Valhalans! I would be happy with the bedrolls, they look great.

Started from page one just so I could catch up to this incredible work. I wish that the Valhallans looked similar to your models and were plastic! I'd buy an army of them! I know you took a break from the mechanicus but they were awesome as well, I'd love to see a combined army of Ad Mechs + Valhallans, I hope you keep working hard on this project. Subbed for sure.

Btw, Reaper Man 2020, why has your avatar's eyeball been ripped out of his head?

Battle Damage from the mind impulse unit! Actually the Blingee programme did it and I couldn't get it not to so I just gave up!

@Mrmerlin - Thanks merlin, and welcome to the country! hope you enjoy it here. =]

@ VIk - Lol I think i'm steering more towards the green at the moment, but we will let the tests decide. =]

@ Remmant_M - Thanks for dropping in! I know what you mean, I've always wanted valhallans but have put it off for the last few years praying for plastics, but it doesn't look very likely so I just bit the bullet. BTW I've put the link for the heads below. =]

@Reaper - Thanks alot reaper, I think it's just a case of seeing imperfection after staring at it too long, just need to hold them at arm's length for a few days.

@DemetriDominov- Thanks for taking the time to comment! That's exactly what I tell myself when I feel guilty for swapping between projects, I think so long as i keep all my side projects imperial I might eventually be able to cobble together enough to make a 'counts as' list....hopefully.

Lol reaper I admit I'd been wondering about that too. =p

So seeing as how a couple of you have asked now here is the link to where i got my heads, i have to say they are great, and the people who fun hasslefree are great so I have no qualms passing custom their way: http://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=human-male-heads~hfl102&category=accessories~converting

And to keep this rolling I have three more very lax looking valhallans. The russian cap (on the left) look is really hard to sculpt, hopefully the next one will turn out better, also the middle guy needs a bit more work now I see him this close, hat looks precariously tall! :

Gah, so are these Valhallans using the DKOK models? I may have to use your guidance to improve my own IG.

Looks good! XD

Thanks guys, I can do you a step by step if you want? They arn't exactly award winning but I will If it would be useful?

looking nice and Russian i have a hat just like that i were all through winter.

have you got and in-combat posed ones?

the russian cap looks actually top notch to me sir! try a spoonfull of selfesteem mister... it tastes yummy^^

J-paint wrote:Thanks guys, I can do you a step by step if you want? They arn't exactly award winning but I will If it would be useful?

I would love it if you felt up to the task. Additionally, I've been writing fluff for a very long time now and the Valhallan models you've made are almost exactly what I had envisioned my IG to evolve into. If I ever release /publish the trilogy I hope you don't mind your model's image made immortal under a different name in the fluff... at least how I envision them. PM me if you want to talk about it! (The color's of my version of their uniforms are different though, just fyi)

I will reply properly later, but am about to go out at the moment, as a sneaky tactic I've put a pic of the first valhallan all finished with paint on my facebook to thank those who have given me a like. sneaky.

Vaaaiirrr sneaky!

hehee xxx

You sure have a thing for green

@Stoned astartes - Thanks man, I will be getting some in combat ones soon fingers crossed. =]

@Vik- Lol thank you, I have you to thank for the grey on the uniform I went with in the end.

@ Demetri- Of course feel free to use the pictures for whatever you want, If you want better ones send me a PM and I'll take some more for you.

@Bubble - *bow*

@Rawson - Lol I cant avoid it unfortunately, I tried really hard as well, the parts that were green were red to start with, but it looked too much like the privateer press models, i forget what they are called. And when i made them blue the whole model didn't have any strong contrasting features really....so I had to resort to green,

Right well I think I might as well share on here for everyone else:

Today I have for you some pics of the Admech walker before undercoat, A group shot of the valhallans I've finished assembling and the very first painted fellow,As always comments are VERY appreciated.






These last two are in the dakka gallery so clicky click if you want a better look.

Awesome as always J-Paint. If I ever get published your army will surely be toted by more than just 9 pages of guests. Keep up the great work!

Looking great J-paint. That machine is simply amazing.

Could you do a small Tutorial on making the hats I love Valhallans and I would kill to learn to do this. Mainly the style of the second from the left in the pic of the squad.

Your stuff is so sick I <3 it all

@Demetri - Lol thanks very much. =]

@Gits - It represents far too much of my life though, =p hopefully i'll be able to give it justice with paint.

@Cajun- Here you go =]

So a couple of you have asked for a hat tutorial and who am I to deny you, Its not exactly groundbreaking, but hopefully it helps a little:

Step 1: First you need to do the heretical part, removing the head and the funny stomach laptop, like so:

Step 2: To the groove you made where the head was, add your replacement, whatever that might be, Here I'm still using the hasslefree ones but any will do fine:

Step 3: Get a blob of greenstuff and blob it on the front of his forehead, then sculpt into the general shape you want for the front of the hat, the best way seems to be a rectangle with the top two edges curving gently like in the second picture here:


Step 4: Then with any sharp tool go nuts and cover it in holes, It gives the rough impression of fur:

Step 5: LET THIS DRY! Its vitally important this step is at least fairly hard before you carry on because it forms the support for the rest of the hat and if its still soft it's far to easy to ruin it. Also after It's dried you can add more to it to get a shape you prefer, using the first part as a base to build on.
Step 6: Get a blob of green stuff and blob it on the back on the head. Then using a flat tool smooth out a circle on the top of his head like the second picture here:


Step 7: Then smooth down the sides and add creases, this helps it to look more like cloth and less like a strange square fleshy growth :


Step 8: Let this dry!
Step 9: Make some very small sausages of green stuff and loosely arrange them where you want the fur trim to go:



Then as before attack it with a sharp stick :

J-paint wrote:

Thats a good looking squad you have there, JP! At the risk of sounding repetetive, I love this project! I think you're doing a great job with it. I have always loved the look Valhallans, but not the 1992 molds (I haven't been gaming since 1953 like some folks on here, so I have no nostalgic attachment to them either ).

My only bits of CC:
1) Be careful with the heads that you choose to plop on those "at ease" bodies. You have a couple of guys in that squad whose body language and facial expressions don't really match. (e.g. third from the left and fifth from the left).
2) I think you need to raise the arms of your Sergeant a bit on his torso. The shoulder armor looks a bit wonky as is imho. I think the problem lies in the difference between Cadian and DKoK torso construction, but who knows

Keep up the great work! This is one of my favorite projects to keep tabs on!

Cheers,
Rawson

valhallans are looking super sexy

great work man

that step by step was worth all the time waiting for it... it is a guideline i think can be followed very good!

the goupshot shows a very cool bunch of fighters...i probably have never seen so many gathered soldiers that aren´t in a fighting stance at all...that alone makes this platoon so special...

and i am so sorry for your admech walker... this will take so much of your sanity away... this is going to be taking up so much effort and time of you... ages is a too short a time for this one probably^^ but i like it all the way^^ looks classy detailed so thouroughly!

oh and i forgot... the painted fella looks very good too... like the scheme and i feel proud to have had a small involvement with that^^

@Rawson - Thanks for the support Rawson, As for your CC your totally right on both points, the heads were unfortunately unavoidable though, I only bought 10 so had to use all of them, regardless of expression, a bit annoying, but what can you do. The shoulders on the sergeant are a tad too low, but again I think your right, Its more a problem with the cadians not matching the DKOK, the angle exaggerates it too, hopefully it will look OK painted.

@gwaahr - Hey whatever floats your boat

@Vik- The walker is indeed a mammoth task, I'll take it in little bits I think. sigh.

Now i know most people come on here to see Admech.....It being an Admech thread and all, and I am able to oblige you this evening, I FINALLY finished one of the crusaders i started months ago, Its definitely not my best but I think the overall effect is pretty good, comments as always welcome:

I just love the vibrant green and red with the slightly brownish steel as the go-between. Very nice work as usual J-paint.

Mask = Epic.

xxx

^that... is that a blood angel maks? that is one hell of a good use...! damn original of you!

and i second gits comment... the green and the red... those are truly your colors it seems...

Viktor von Domm wrote:^that... is that a blood angel maks? that is one hell of a good use...! damn original of you!

and i second gits comment... the green and the red... those are truly your colors it seems...

I apparently donated the BA mask, I just don't remember hahah xxx

Fantastic JP. I will order some of DKOK immediately after I get my paycheck... and automatically shove the rest of my army into the rank of Conscript. Thank you.

That chimera thing is awesome! and the dude with the sheild BOOOYAAAA

Ha Dude, the Valhallan Squad is looking great!

And as you probably know, your AdMech are the reason that I've put AdMach on my to do list (will take some time until I eventually get to it though....)

Greetings from Scotland!

Merlin

@Gits- thanks man, I really do need to start using some other colours

@Bubble - Ty, It is technically your mask, so it's partly your creation.

@It is indeed Vik, and hopefully I will try something more adventurous soon, yellow maybe =]

@ Demetri - Lol! I approve this ridiculously expensive idea! I would love to see how you do with it, please either make a thread for it or send me a PM with some when your done, I find when people take an existing idea they usually improve on it with their own ideas, would love to steal some of yours.

@ Cormadepanda - Thanks man, I'm hoping 'BOOOYAAAA' is good.

@ Merlin- Thanks Merlin, good to know I'm corrupting you to the cause of the machine god, but when you get back from your trip you need more Ork work, they are too good a project to stop anytime soon. =]

This evening I have the sergeant for the valhallan squad all finished up, as Rawson pointed out the cadian arms don't fit brilliantly, so ignore his unmanly shoulders. I don't think it is too noticeable in the end. The face was a bit of an experiment for me, the last valhallan I did was ok, but I felt the face was a little 'dead' it didn't look overly organic, so I've tried a much fleshier grubby tone for this guy. I think the highlights were a bit extreme on reflection, but have to learn somehow right? The side of his face, (second pic) in particular looks very wrong.

Why the feth didn't anyone tell me about this thread??

J-Paint, you sir have some of the most amazing stuff, and I haven't even read through it all yet!

The Crusader is awesome and I quite like the Serg, no problems with his shoulders especially now he is painted. Good contrast with the Green and the Red.
We want more!!!!!!

booya is epic win good sir! love the new mini nice flesh tone on him.

Your Valhallans are looking very nice, that unit shot looks fantastic.

Must resist adding guard to my list of things to do lol

Ah yes J-Paint, 140 dollars later, I have ordered 2 squads of my beloved IG. Yes. 2. Squads. 70 dollars each.

That was about 1/2 of my 34 work hour paycheck....

Nice work on the Sarge! I agree with your face criticisms, but the shoulder problem has greatly diminished with paint I personally would have liked an all red PF, but that's just preference...

DemetriDominov wrote:Ah yes J-Paint, 140 dollars later, I have ordered 2 squads of my beloved IG. Yes. 2. Squads. 70 dollars each.

That was about 1/2 of my 34 work hour paycheck....

Right? After seeing JP's work, I went to Forgeworld thinking, "Maybe I can do something cool with the DKoK troops" Oh, they're 70 dollars each? Nope. Can't do anything cool with the DKoK troops.

Right? After seeing JP's work, I went to Forgeworld thinking, "Maybe I can do something cool with the DKoK troops" Oh, they're 70 dollars each? Nope. Can't do anything cool with the DKoK troops.

LOLLLLLL

and *sobs*


and j-paint...stunning looking sarge...! the grey/green/ red combo looks very cool...very cool indeed!

seeing the state it is in i am at a total loss as to what to add to it... i am out of my depth here... good painting and cool mini... what more could a mere mortal ask for?


vik

Why no updates?! this thread must live.

@dsteingass- Your too kind, thank you.

@ Reaper - More you shall have =]

@ Giraffe - Lol, thank you, The list of things im trying not to do is huge too.

@Demetri - I am very impressed! I wish to see how yours come out!

@ Vik - Thanks as always Vik, I tweaked him a bit before thsi next group shot was taken.

@cormadepanda - Ask and you shall receive. =]

So..... with this thread being revived I though I shouldn't disappoint eeryone who clicked it, so here is an update of some of the stuff I've been up to. The valhallans have received lots of attention and the entire original squad and a few extras are all finished:



If you want to see more of these there is an individual pic of each on my facebook, I fear putting them all here would be a waste of space so I just have a select few to share with you:

This guy has some wierd flesh on his glove that i swear isn't there in real life.


I'm also currently about 3/4 of the way through a chimera for them, so stay tuned.
I also am working on some 'counts as' ogryns:
these need tidying up, I an currently waiting on some greenstuff to help out to this end, C&C welcome as always!

cool work mate!... specially love the bren gunner! that looks totally badass! and the peg legged soldier... wow... how did you do that? can´t remember him seen in WIP...

as for the count as ogryns... the guns still look a bit too odd on them and the faces i think could do with a bit of human touch to them to make them more abhuman looking then non human looking as they are currently looking for me...

How do they size up next to the orgyn model? Are they not a bit big. I do agree with both points made by Victor however...

Looks fantastic love the cigar!

The cigarette is a nice touch, and that weapon team looks really nice! Lovely base. Keep up the good work!

@Vik - The peg leg was just a few bits of crap i had lying around, it was actually a bit of an accident, i dropped him and his foot broke off, never to be seen again, so I improvised =p As for the minotaurs, I know what you mean, something isn't quite right, its a bit annoying really. I don't mind them not looking abhuman so much, but they just don't seem right, might fiddle around a little.

@ monkey - They are huge! I only realised once I'd made them, they tower over the guard, tbh they are a bit excessive, I might have to postpone that project until I can work out a good use for them. =[

@ Panda - Lol thank you! guard need lho sticks. =]

@Merlin - Thanks merlin, compliments are always welcome!

So I mentioned a chimera?? Well here it is all finished up now, i avoided the guns out of all ports look, I think its a bit too busy, be easy, this is like my third tank ever, the size of them always daunts me! Sorry, the first one is a little too exposed, cant see the grey on the front brilliantly. Btw if anyone has any tips for transfers id love to hear from you, especially how to disguise the shape of the transfer, they stick out so much, the first picture emphasises it alot in particular.




Also I have made the last two of my grenadiers into some sort of elite troops for my valhallans, I'm thinking maybe storm troopers or veterans? Fluff wise I thought they could be named after some cool arctic bird from Valhalla that they mimic, with their helmets and by swooping in on valkyries....

Not sure how to paint them yet, I was thinking maybe grey armour and greatcoats with bright red accents, would be different, but not too different from the rest of the army? Sorry for crappy pics, but you get the general idea.

Dood, I love the flamers! - ANd the paintjob is Ace too!

i see the problem with the decal... the only thing i could think of for fixing this is aplying a generous wash over the section... that should dull the glossy effect of the transfer down a bit...

that tank otherwise looks great... one minior issue for me is tho that it lacks those vibrant colors of green and red we are used to your troops...?

as for the ogryn/minitaurs... maybe you could add some GS masks... like they could wear half masks or cloth around their faces? i bet you could come up with a fluffy explaination...

and then the valhallan vets... i instantly thought of seagulls... and i really don´t even know why^^ but somehow that was my first thought even before i read your thoughts about them... the masked head somehow i associated with the bird...

Viktor von Domm wrote:i see the problem with the decal... the only thing i could think of for fixing this is aplying a generous wash over the section... that should dull the glossy effect of the transfer down a bit...

Shouldn't matte varnish do this just as well? IIRC that's the preferred decal solution.

See thats what i thought as well, but when i tried it, it seemed to react with the transfer, it sort of became flakey and white like dried out skin, this is using GW's purity seal? ideas?

J-paint wrote:See thats what i thought as well, but when i tried it, it seemed to react with the transfer, it sort of became flakey and white like dried out skin, this is using GW's purity seal? ideas?

Try using a brush-on gloss varnish first, like GW's 'Ardcoat, then sealing it with Dullcote. That should do it, since the gloss varnish will produce a hard, candy-coating shell for it!

Where did you get these heads? They look really good on the guardsman bodies!

And where do you get all these tiny gears? I've found a few in an old alarm clock and a CD-drive. Know any other places to look for them?

@SRM- Appreciated! Will have to give that a go for next time, the valhalla transfer on the top there is the second attempt, the first one became just a cracked mess after varnish and i had to paint over it.

@dstein - Thanks!

@ Vik - Hmmm, I might even try a valhallan style hat and see what it looks like, it sounds ridiculous, but i think it would make them seem more human, and even if it looks daft, a bit of humour is never a bad thing. As for the bright green and red, your right, but on a tank there weren't any obvious ways to include large amounts of colour, the periscope lenses and bloody bedroll are token gestures. The heads are very birdy aren't they, i like them alot!

@ Merlin - The heads are from the dark eldar scourges, the flying funny winged ones. As for gears, I found a load in wind up toys, but better still google watch gears/cogs on ebay, you can buy thousands of various ones in a bag by weight fairly cheap: for example:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50g-watch-parts-STEAMPUNK-JEWELLERY-ALTERED-ART-CRAFTS-CYBERPUNK-COGS-GEARS-ETC-/190663075704?pt=UK_Crafts_JewelleryMaking_GL&hash=item2c6467a778#ht_2293wt_1037

yep... those heads a a very good choice... and on vets they fit like bee´s knees^^

i see your point wth the tank and the vibrant colors... only suicidal tank crews would use such colors on their vehicles i guess^^

as for the ogryns... well everything the paintjob will set in line really... after all if you give them human like skin... then the brain instantly will see a connection to the human race... even an ork with human skin is a loaded trap^^

I like those heads and the tank looks good! if you feel like you have a steady enough hand then paint over the edge oft eh transfer, that would help blend it in...do the odd fleck of the Grey across it as well, so it looks chipped and worn. Then varnish it...that should (should) help ake it look a little better. Although if you have already put varnish of some kind on then it may not work quite so well.

Really loving all the stuff, and if you are ambitious you can use the transfer as a template. What i like to do is cut out the transfer along the edge with a exacto blade then place this on paper/ super thin plasti card trace it and cut out the plasti card bit. Not only do you get usable plasti card symbols you also gain a stencil to use you can then trace the shape onto the model and paint inbetween the lines like is 2nd grade arts and craft.

Just took a look at your work and this is some cool stuff
Really like the sniper you should add a kind of sight on the side
looking down the barrel to increase the accuracy even further.
Really good work. going to keep watching

Lovely grenadiers, the heads fit alot better then you'd think. Any tips on cutting forgeworld resin?

@Vik- Thanks for the vote of confidence on the ogryns, I've lost steam on them tbh, but hopefully I'll get that back at some point soon.

@Imperial - Thanks for the tippettes, have given the going around in grey and it seems to have helped a bunch so my thanks for that.

@comradepanda - Another good idea! I'll be giving this a try, maybe with something slightly easier than the 'valhallan' transfer first but thanks for the idea!

@hahli - Thanks for stopping by and commenting, as for the sniper, i was thinking he was more of a stormtrooper so no need to go overkill with the scopes, (dont worry, I have just such a plan for real snipers very soon) he does have a scope of the top of the gun, its hard to see but will hopefully come out clearer when he is painted =]

@ironbars - ty! I was very happy with the heads, was worried they would look far too obviously eldar, but i think they look ok, a bit exotic, but not too bad. As for the forgeworld resin, it's really very easy! as in it heretically easy to destroy such expersive stuff, i've found it to be quite soft and forgiving, but its not like plastic, it tends to 'give' suddenly, which if your not expecting it can mean you end up cutting too far, Hope that makes sense.

Nothing new for you yet I'm afraid dakka, the stormtroopers/vets/bird warriors are very almost done, just need bases doing, but i doubt i'll get round to it till Saturday, real life calls unfortunately. Can i have your thoughts on what i should do next?

My options are:

1) Buy and make a whole unit of the bird warriors.

2) Buy some more standard guys to turn into valhallans, (and turn a few into snipers whilst i'm at it.)

3) Or 3 go for something wild... either for guard, Ad mech or maybe some form of power armoured felllows? (alpha legion? raven guard? black templars?) Any ideas are very welcome, name whatever you think would make a good addition/you would like to see.

I think customized or kitbashed Valhallans would be a great idea!

1 vote for more valhallans, suits me fine, =]

I DEMAND YOU DO SKITARRII WARRIORSss RSRSAWDASDA WDOAWDNADONOANWNODASDNWADASDA *seizures* No really do skitarri warriors.

*leans against a brickwall in a dark alley, draped in a crockodile-skin cloak*

Go on.. go on then J-paint.. You know deep down what you want to do.

You know what's the right thing to do,.. Come now, take the step. It's sooo easy and it will feel sooo good.










You know you want to....


















The Legion is waiting...

J-paint wrote:
@ironbars - ty! I was very happy with the heads, was worried they would look far too obviously eldar, but i think they look ok, a bit exotic, but not too bad. As for the forgeworld resin, it's really very easy! as in it heretically easy to destroy such expersive stuff, i've found it to be quite soft and forgiving, but its not like plastic, it tends to 'give' suddenly, which if your not expecting it can mean you end up cutting too far, Hope that makes sense.

I foresee alot of resculted collars in the future.........

birdy ! definatly want to see at least a platoon worth of these painted!!!

ALPHA LEGIONNNN

but I think you'll do the birds xxx

@comradepanda - Lol, very well, i'm working on more skittarii atm actually, just the old ones that never got their paint quite finished. =]

@STC Logisengine - ....sly, very sly....just as the legion should be, I think you may well be instrumental in my downfall and turn to the primordial annihilator....I hope your happy.

@Ironbars - funny you should say that, thats exactly what happened with the firing version of the bird guys im about to post, you can see the collar is a bit short at the back.

@vik - The birds are very tempting, see what you think now the test guys are done.

@bubble - Lol, dont be so sure, STC has gone out of his way to lure me in.

So on I thought I'd start with some WIPS, which have been a bit lacking lately, things have just been showing up all finished =p

So here is the current state of the walker, its in the deepest darkest stages of the washes atm, soon highlights and bringing the colour back will commence:


Also in progress are a squad of the normal metal valhallans, I know its a bit hard to make much out with the paint already partly on, so apologies for that. I wanted to see how good I could make the normal guys look, after all the forge world fellas look good, but an army of them would cost the earth!


And as for finished guys, the Crows: (they will count as stormtroopers, and I really wana do a valk for them, so they can actually fly, a whole unit may or may not be coming, depending on if i can bring myself to give more money to FW.) Comments as always massively appreciated!

You don't know how excited I am to see the tank with some paint on it after SO LONG hehe xxx

Thanks bubble

For comradepanda and anyone else wanting to see more skittarii, today I have gone about tying loose ends, and that meant these two who never quite got finished:

whoa.... more than i would have thought they could look cool...they look totally awesome!!!... i like them to bitz!...

if you want i could send you two DKoK men i have sitting around... no big deal as i don´t really want to work with them... too frail for my own needs... but i see that you opened up a lot of potential with these... one is kneeling and the other is standing... tho i might be short of one arm...


seeing the walker spreadeagled lying on the desk... why did you leave the tank treads on? will they serve as a kind of fender?...duno if i had done it that way but i think it is interesting nevertheless...

Thank vik!

If you wouldn't mind that would be fantastic! You'll have to let me know if your after anything and I can send you some bits as a swap. I'll PM you about it. =]

As for the walker, I left the treads on because I was a bit lazy and couldn't be bothered to make scratchbuild fenders, my logic behind it was that the Ad Mech don't usually get into the thick of the fighting and so it wasn't designed to be very heavily armoured, and so they stuck the tracks on as a substitute for extra armour when they got involved in heavy fighting...I wish I'd done it properly now, but unfortunately I've commited, we'll have to see what it looks like all done.

well... you painted the in matching red to the rest of the tank... so this makes sense... and fluffwise...well not really that much of a sense... but i was just thinking about it as it is currently on spotlight... assembled it will blend in with the built just fine...

and yup... got your PM and answered