I wasn't sold on the foam, shame on me for doubting the Doc. Very successful.

Meer_Cat wrote:Man, that tree technique came out nice! I should have realized that the foam would take the paint solution in at different shades depending on how much you dabbed, but there's some real depth of color here- great stuff!

Thanks Meer'. It also helps that I used 4 different mixtures of brown and green for the various layers that I added to the foam. But yes, I wasn't aiming for an even colour tone across the whole.

Big H wrote:A nice addition might be to litter the floor with leaves, you can buy these from model outlets , or better yet get a similar thing from the "Catkins " of Silver Birch trees, they will be on the trees soon-ish, go to the woods for a lifetimes worth of model leaves !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betula_pendula

Thanks H'. I already have some prepared from a couple of years ago and planned to add a few to the base once the grass is on.

Red Harvest wrote:Effective. I wonder how well the paint will 'stick' to that foam. Time will tell, eh? Enough paint in all the air ockets and that foam will harden nicely.

It looks very convincing.

Thanks Red'. I've grabbed a lump of foam and dunked it in the last of the PVA/water/paint mixture. Once that's fully set I'll see what it takes to remove the paint; squeezing, rubbing, keeping in a pocket for a week, etc... For science!

Shadenuat wrote:Should have made her look angry, because rawr rawr humans are evil scum.

https://pre00.deviantart.net/832b/th/pre/i/2016/351/4/5/_commission__chibi_princess_mononoke_by_kelsa20-darw5go.png

Add some kodamas! They're awesome.

Thanks Shadenuat. If the plastic she's made from was easier to work with, I may have been tempted, but carving the mask was enough hard work. Maybe this is before the evil humans have started to desecrate the forest.

And yes, I had intended to add some tree spirits and had even put some thought into how to make their heads wiggle. With the work I was doing over in my other blog, and the foam work here, I had forgotten about them.
I loved them from the first time I saw one in the film.
=> In progress... stay tuned.

inmygravenimage wrote:I wasn't sold on the foam, shame on me for doubting the Doc. Very successful.

Surely, you know not to doubt me and my crazy ideas by now... Shame, Shame...
Thanks.

No further progress to report. Tree spirits in progress.
Just thought I'd pop in an appear to be a know it all that's already thought of everything...
Thanks for any and all feedback.

Just discovered this blog, very cool stuff!
The way you're making the trees is inspiring as well as useful as you're kinda presenting it here as a tutorial. Thanks!

"Big H wrote:
A nice addition might be to litter the floor with leaves, you can buy these from model outlets , or better yet get a similar thing from the "Catkins " of Silver Birch trees, they will be on the trees soon-ish, go to the woods for a lifetimes worth of model leaves !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betula_pendula

Thanks H'. I already have some prepared from a couple of years ago and planned to add a few to the base once the grass is on. "

Haha, fair one Doc, erm "great minds....." etc

Use this foam all the time, looking good bud, think it takes your paint better. Nice wee scene.

The foam idea is inspiring. I have a lot of old Woodland Scenics trees that I keep meaning to buy some flocking for. Now I think I'll just tear out a cushion from the next abandoned sofa I see on the roadside.

Oops, sorry another blip of time lost to the warp.

Lo Tim, and welcome. Thanks too.
Yeah, I've learnt a lot from reading how other's do things so I like to give something back by sharing my processes so that other other's can get tips or inspiration.

Indeed they do, Big H.

Thanks Cam'.
Actually this is (rare for me) water-based paint I'm using. My paints won't mix with PVA.
I have a few pots of Revell Aqua color for the odd occasion when I need to use water. And a big bottle of brown craft paint for basing work (sticking down static grass mixed with PVA.

Thanks Skalk. More on the foam below.

We'll start with the foam.
I said I would test the paint retention of the foam and I'll now share the results.

Top picture: I took a piece of the soft yellow foam and soaked it in the paint / PVA mixture.
2nd picture: I cut it in half to show that, with a squeeze, the paint penetrates the foam completely, and because I needed 2 bits of foam coloured the same.
3rd picture: The piece on the right was subjected to abuse that I hope no model will ever endure: I crushed, rolled, scrunched up into a ball, and scrubbed it on my wooden board and my trousers...

...and the result you can see there. Just a slight loss of paint on the tips of the foam. In a way it looks more realistic as foliage.

4th picture: As promised, I kept the other half in my back pocket for a week of being sat on...

...the result? It kept the paint but is now flat and has remained flat. The original yellow foam would return to shape immediately.


So there you have it. Does the job.

As to the Mononoke piece... I've been slacking. But not entirely...

I said I had plans to make the Kodamas jiggle their heads, and I've been trying out various ways to make it work.
Unfortunately, on this scale I can't get it to work: Anything firm enough to hold the head in place vibrates too quickly, and even the long length of 0.25mm plasticard (in a spring-like coil) is not bouncy enough. Anything that may produce the desired jiggle would be far too flimsy to hold the head together.

So no jiggling heads.

But I do now have some Kodamas


I think we're off to the paint desk next...

Very cool!

Liking those tree spirits! I have to ask, when you first picked up Mononoke was the plan to do all this?

 Dr H wrote:
...I kept the other half in my back pocket for a week of being sat on...

...the result? It kept the paint but is now flat and has remained flat...

I'm guessing that the glue/paint had not fully cured. The other trick with this sort of foam is the glue+paint then roll the foam in various sizes and colors of flock. I've seen that done to nice effect to create shrubbery. No idea of the durability. Maybe I mentioned this somewhere.

Drybrush some lighter green and some yellow on those 'leaves'. They are a bit too monotone. Or, you need better lighting for the photos. I know all about needing better lighting. I am a master at badly lit photos. It's nice to be good at something, eh?

How true to the original colors of the princess do you intend to stay?

Another break from this project to work on things with shorter deadlines.

Thanks Gits'.

Thanks York'. Well, I knew I wanted to make a proper display base for her, and especially after I saw the base it was "mounted" on ("" as the rear feet weren't even touching the base).
The simple display base did however grow a bit as it progressed though, as happens with my projects. Just go with the flow and let the model take you to where it wants to go...

Thanks Red'.
The glue/paint mixture is fully cured and even now, weeks later, they and the trees are still flexible but firm.
Rolling in flock would be good for a fine texture on this yes.

Also, on the subject, look what popped up in my YT subscriptions:
Terrain tutor


Gives much useful advice and ideas, and a name to the foam I used as the backing of my display base; composite foam.

Oh yeah, painting of the foliage is soon to happen. This was just the basecoat for colour and structure.

I intend to stay pretty close to the Manga colour scheme. We'll see as it progresses.

And primer has happened.

Just a quick spray over while I had the airbrush set up.
Painting will begin soon...ish. I have a robot to get painted this week as a priority.

The robot is done (see my other blog for that), but I now have a LoER terrain competition piece to do (also in the other blog), and now Nerdfest has fired up another Nerdcademy competition (see below)...

However, I have started throwing paint about.

I decided to start on the backdrop as that will then give me something to use as a backdrop for the wolf and San photos...
First things to do are the wood bits, but to keep with the theme I can't just do it in my usual wood method (mainly browns), no... it has to be all blues and greens and yellows... (see below)

Still needs more work, namely more greens and yellows. But it's a start.
I've included my reference picture so you can see how far I have to go with just the wood, and just how bright the green of the leaves is going to be...

Just need more life to the wood before moving on.

And, as I mentioned, Nerdy has a new Nerdcademy comp' up, and at the very least it inspired me to build a new member of the army.

This is based on a very old idea (just have a look back at how long ago I last built a Dire Avenger, the idea was ready back there) but has solidified from Nerdy's competition theme.

The original idea was nothing more that to use a spare Tyranid warrior head piece as a shield strapped to the arm of a Dire Avenger. That is all I noted down.

The competition theme is to paint (being a painting contest) a member of one army as another army.
Therefore, rather than paint this chap as the usual Dire Avenger blue, I'll paint him up in Tyranid colours, to match the head he acquired...
...that then leads to him being a 'nid hunter and therefore he now has a spear and using the colouring as a kind of camouflage.

Which scheme? I don't know yet.

Here he is from bits to blu-tacked together (arms are glued).


I'm going to re-pose the legs to match the arms and the "yet to be decided" basing.

Not long to get him done for the contest, so he's on a fast track to painting.

Forest looks great. Also intrigued by the Avenger. Looking forward to seeing how he turns out.

Thanks Youwashock.

Trees now looking more alive.
Although quite yellow at the moment, I'm hoping that'll be fine once the foliage is greener. It'll bring out the green in the "wood".
I have also started by darkening the dark areas of the foliage.


And only a minor change to the Dire avenger's pose, bringing the left leg in and forward, straightening the lower leg to get the foot (mostly) flat.
Now looks like he's stepping rather than presenting his crown jewels.

Also strikes me how much he looks like a classical Greek / Hoplite / Spartan soldier.

Fantastic repose. Love the hoplite, very effective Well-greaved

Thanks Graven'.

And he's now primed and ready to paint... just not decided on which scheme.

And and, you can also see the first stage in "green-ing" the foliage of the Mononoke base too.

Two updates in one photo montage


This heat is really sapping my motivation though... <= imagine that to be sweat.

I've settled on Leviathan for the scheme on the Dire avenger.
Kraken was going to look a bit too "normal" for an Eldar with bone and red.
Behemoth (Red and blue) was a close 2nd, but the scheme of Leviathan appears to work better on an Eldar model, with the contrast of the white (with pink gaps) and purple, and red weapons.

With that in mind, I started with the white.

Not terribly exciting at the mo', but it's a start.

And the Mononoke base got some more work on the green foliage; some brighter green, some green/yellow to really make it jump out, and some pale green for some highlights.

And while I had the white out...

Still more white to add, not quite as smooth as it needs to be in places... such is white...

Lovely shading there squire.

Thanks Graven'. The photo helps this time (for a change). I've "finished" off the white now, but it's not drastically different enough to warrant another photo here (eyes. mouth and claws to do).

However, I've also added the purple to DA #3.

A little tidy up required on some of the highlights, as usual... *sigh*
Then pink bits, red weapon, and any additional details left to do...

I have been lurking around waiting for progress on this. Love how the base for the princess is turning out, that foam for the trees and back drop is ace.

Being an old eldar player I can't wait to see how the avenger turns out. So far its all good.

Love that eldar model... a real beauty. Trees are fantastic...

Monotone base is looking good, nice work on the eldar

Thanks York'.

Thanks Gits'.

monkeytroll wrote:Monotone base is looking good, nice work on the eldar

Ahh, the irony that the wolf, at least, is currently monotone. Thanks.

Pink and red added.


Browns to finish (just a highlight), and metals to do, and the base.

Eldar, eh? It needs some pansies on the base. For it to sniff of course

<hint>The shield has potential for some interesting freehand. </hint>

Looks good so far.

That was actually my cursed auto-correct switching out Mononoke whilst I wasn't looking...... Occasionally it does it's stuff and still makes sense, most of the time it just throws some garbage into the equation

P-Niddy still looking good (that's me, not my auto-correct)

Thanks Red'. No flowers or freehand, I'm afraid.
As the contest theme is to paint as a different army, this Eldar is painted as a Tyranid, and 'nids don't have freehand designs painted on their armour.
Had I not been sticking to this, I may well have added some tribal design to the shield.

No plants because he's hunting 'nids, and they've nom'd them all.

Thanks MT.

With that, many photos, some tidying up, many more photos, He's done.

The concept, to keep it all together, is an Eldar 'nid-hunter.
He likes to get in close to his quarry and so uses a Tyranid warrior's head / crest as a shield and has painted his armour to match the colours of the Leviathan hive fleet. While not a perfect disguise, it helps to give him a few extra seconds in low-light, at distance, or out of the corner of the eye.
And maybe there's a little Eldar pride / arrogance in there too.

The actual painting was just a matter of deciding what pieces of armour to paint white and which, purple.
Then add the pink into the joints and use it to pick out the plume and eye-lenses.
The weapon, of course, had to be red. Made the shaft a darker / browner red to make it look like a different material to the head (which was made to look like a fire-axe, with the metallic edge).
I picked out a few other things in metal (the clearly Eldar tech'); who's got time to paint every grenade that you're just going to blow up anyway. The straps for the shield and the grenade belt are brown leather, and I went for yellow gems and camera lens to contrast with the purple.
As mentioned, the base is devoid of plants due to the only place you're going to be hunting 'nids is on a planet they are eating. If you are around plants, the 'nids haven't got there yet.
I did add a 'nid toxin sac to the base to be a little 'nid slug thing, there to pick up the final scraps of bio-mass.

All round views:


and some fun shots (with a nod to Barry Chuckle. RIP):

But you can make your own mind up about how it finished...

Ah, but Doc, 'Nids are based on insects, many of which have all sorts of very interesting patterns on their wings, or carapaces or what have you.

I nearly went on to say that while 'nids can have insect-like colour schemes, and can therefore include various chemical wave patterns (also the reason for how the Zebra gets it's stripes), the Leviathan hive fleet doesn't.

I know what you mean, Red'. If not for my vision for the contest theme, I'd have put some kind of marking on the shield.
I do have a few more Tyranid warrior heads left over, so maybe next time...

In other news...
I broke San's spear. Caught the tip on a finger and snapped it off at her hand.

There's no easy way to glue that back on, it'll always be weaker than solid plastic, and that has proven to not be very strong.

So I drilled it out and re-made the spear from a paperclip and a new tip epoxied on.
Stronger and looks better than Mk-1.


Got my LoER terrain entry to get painted, this will get attention as time and paint permits.

I guess it's my turn to say: Good job replacing the blade spear,

And, as you said, stronger and better. Well done.

Mononoke's base is looking ace, and serves as a nice backdrop to boot

Another gap in work here, but I've finally pushed on a bit...

Thanks LT. Yeah, the base is proving to be useful for small miniatures. May have to make myself a large one for larger models. I had hopes to make use of the UFO crash piece more, but it's a bit busy for most models.

I've been putting off starting on San; that "new technique fear" thing.

However, I actually had a look at some tutorials and examples of "Chibi eyes" online and thought I'd try it out on the wolf first, as San really needs the skin doing first.

From examples of the anime, the wolf's eyes are not as white as his coat, so I went for a cream (with a very slight touch of pink to them) base,
A black outline of the eye,
Then a brown blob, that I attempted to make darker at the top (not that it shows),
A black dot in the middle of that,
Finished with a white reflection dot.

I also finished off the mouth, nose (blue in the anime) and claws.
Reference:


Steps:


Final look:


I'll see how San's eyes look before deciding to gloss them or not.
Until next time...

Nice work. Interesting to see how the nose brought the face together.

Really well done Dr. H!

Superb. The eyes particularly.

Really beautiful.

I'll just bring this one over to this page...


Thanks MT. It's all in those final touches, every time.
and thanks Gits', Graven', and Cam'.

San's skin and eyes are done...ish.

These eyes didn't go as smoothly as they did on the wolf, but they are on and look good in the hand (i.e. when she's 30mm tall).

I think I will go for a gloss finish to the eyes, will give them a bit more life.

Just the hair, clothes, weapons and jewellery to do.
I might also trim her ears down to more human-looking ears.

A bit more tweaking to San's face and eyes, and a better photo too.

Hair is just basecoated there.

Soon.
Just the grass to add to the base.

Soon.

Brilliant work, love the eyes and really makes me want to look at some chibi stuff again.

Wow. The shading is astonishing. Some of your finest work, sirrah.

Sweet work.

Very nice

Thanks chaps, here's the final photos.

Cam', I only picked this up as I Love San and had to have a model of her, the original of this model being so close, I jumped at it. As I said before, I'd only jump "higher" if I saw a model of Saya... anyone would think I've got a thing for badass primal, sword-wielding, girls... Although, Motoko doesn't use swords... Still badass though.
Anyway, enough of my Waifus...

Too kind, Graven'. See the imperfections below.

On the display base:


and off the base:


Can't say what'll be next in here, I have a couple of things to make for presents this month, but there will still be a constant stream of things over in my other blog.
Stay tuned.

That looks flocking good, man.

Indeed. Visually stunning, the entire piece. Well done, Doc.

Lovely, fun piece

I'm loving the contrast between the 'realism' of the forest and the anime feel of the mini itself: Not to mention the little guys in the trees

The chibi girl and her wolf look fantastic, and I love those trees!

That is very cool.

Awesome! You really nailed the anime look

Thank you all, I'm pretty pleased with the whole thing. It now sits just under one of my monitors so I see it more often than my other models.

Graven', I see what you did there.

Red', yeah, the display base does it's job of framing and contrasting with the miniatures, as I intended and hoped.

Ta MT.

CK, I tried to go as anime as I could on the display base, but without sculpting the whole thing in the same way as the wolf's fur. It's "real" enough and yet matches the model, I think.

Aku'. Ta. The trees were a bit more work than buying pre-made ones, but easy enough for anyone with the time.

Ta Gits'.

Ta C'Cain. Was a nice break from my usual modelling work.


Nothing more to show here yet, just wanted to say thanks.

In other news; I have changed around my Signature down below to make it clearer (?) and to highlight my FB, Twitter and Etsy links more.
Took more effort than it's probably worth. *shrugs*

You certainly have a knack for brilliance. I would say that this is your niche. Producing these pieces really brings out the best in your style. Excellent work.

And sig was worth it bud.

Thanks Cam'. Appreciated, even if it did take me months to reply to your comment. I like to have something to show when I comment and I've not done anything personal for this blog since...

2018 done. Tough year it seems.
Only 2 things for myself, and one of them was for a contest.
Many things were done in my "pro" blog, so I've not been idle, but the added desk space hasn't really increased output this year and it's sad to see this blog only move on 4 pages since last year's round up of the previous year.
I work at the speed I work at, and nothing, it seems, is going to increase that.

Still, time to celebrate the year's production and not get down on how slow I work.

In order of appearance:
Mik's Mech Shop (scratch-build terrain for Infinity):




Intercessors Squad B - the elements team (painted up to represent Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and the Fifth):




Multi-ped Forklift (Scratch-built, to go with the workshop above):




Scythe miniatures (for the board game):




Pox Walkers (half have been converted for uniqueness):




Robby the Robot (scratch-built):



Dire Avenger 'nid hunter (for Nerdy's painting contest):




Ruined statue shrine (scratch-built, for the LoER terrain contest):




Hellblasters (from Dark Imperium):


Princess Mononoke, San on wolf (converted from SDE figure and scratch-built display base):



1:12th scale dollhouse painting:


Earrings, Red marble drop:


N-gauge (1:160) Train shed (repair and repaint):




Noxious Blightbringer (mild conversion):


N-gauge (1:160) Bungalow (repaint with scratch-built interior and garden):




Earring display and matching earrings (scratch-built):




Noisy Cricket (1:1 prop replica):


Bard the bowman on display base tower (Scratch-built tower with LED fire effects):




There's 2 more projects from Dark Imperium that are on the go, they'll be in next years round up.
18 projects in total done (down on the 20 last year), but a few large batches of figures and quite a bit of scratch-building to make up for that.

Still, hope to do more next year (but I'm also going to be pushing for a "real" job in ernest this year, so that may eat into time if I'm successful...in even trying let alone getting said job), and some more specifically for this blog, for me.
Time will tell, and I'll be back here next year complaining that I've not managed any of that.

Oh yeah, I also finished off my Fallout 4 Greygarden settlement build.
Video here:



Or you can download the blueprint and add it to your own game and walk around it yourself (only for PC, via the Nexus and "Transfer Settlements"):
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/36662


Thank you all for sticking with me.
Happy New Year
May 2019 be good to us all.

A year of exceptional quality. I think the forklift was my personal favourite.

A great collection of projects. The variety is astounding. I wish I was that creative.

Awesome projects all round bud, been a good year, you have done some amazing work this year. Great stuff.

Some cracking stuff this year

Thanks chaps.

Graven', yeah that was a fun build.

Solar', they all use the same skills for the most part. Each have their own particular problems to solve, but that's no barrier.
Coming up with the ideas; that's just a matter of searching for inspiration.

Let's see what this year brings...

An amazing display of modeling and painting acumen. I look forward to 2019.

Thanks Gits'. Who can tell where this year will take us...?

Nothing to show over here as yet, but I do have an idea that's bouncing around my head, so that may need to be made a reality soon...ish.

Not soon-ish enough, but the next thing to happen will happen here.

But what to do?

I want a large and a small project.
I would like your opinions
A single comment may swing my choice, this is not a vote. I may well just ignore you all.

It's late at night, it's the weekend, and this blog has been quiet for a long time... I don't expect many replies to this anyway.

Small project options in no particular order:
a) Kroot combined with either Ork or 'nid bits.
aii) Or a flying Kroot.
b) Hormagaunt converted to a scorpion-like.
c) Ork with transplanted mass of 4-6 mechanical legs.
d) Brutal / scary / bestial Ork (they are often seen as comic relief, I want to create one that is scary)
e) The Victoria Miniatures female flag bearer mini'. (few mods, but a nice paintjob).

Large projects (all to be heavily modified as per previous vehicles here):
1) Ghost ark modified to be a floating factory.
2) Dark Eldar Ravager to be a land-ship sort of thing.
3) Ork truck... no plans, but modified.

Your thoughts gratefully received on this matter and then the work can proceed...
Stay tuned.

There is absolutely no question at all.

aii & 1, though I must admit b sounds really good too.

I've loved watching your huge terrain projects... but I'm really jonesin' for small, single model bits of your brilliance. I used to do them a lot too and don't really anymore (not appropriate for Bushido), so I miss them. Would love to see you attack some of these yourself.

Well, you'd think I'd plump for the cybork - lots of legs, bioniks etc, but the two ideas I like the most there are flying kroot and a landship ravager. Flying kroot just sounds fun, and a dark eldar ship marauding the wastelands sounds excellent.

Oh, new page for a fresh start eh?
Quoted for ease of seeing...

Dr H wrote:Not soon-ish enough, but the next thing to happen will happen here.

But what to do?

I want a large and a small project.
I would like your opinions
A single comment may swing my choice, this is not a vote. I may well just ignore you all.

It's late at night, it's the weekend, and this blog has been quiet for a long time... I don't expect many replies to this anyway.

Small project options in no particular order:
a) Kroot combined with either Ork or 'nid bits.
aii) Or a flying Kroot.
b) Hormagaunt converted to a scorpion-like.
c) Ork with transplanted mass of 4-6 mechanical legs.
d) Brutal / scary / bestial Ork (they are often seen as comic relief, I want to create one that is scary)
e) The Victoria Miniatures female flag bearer mini'. (few mods, but a nice paintjob).

Large projects (all to be heavily modified as per previous vehicles here):
1) Ghost ark modified to be a floating factory.
2) Dark Eldar Ravager to be a land-ship sort of thing.
3) Ork truck... no plans, but modified.

Your thoughts gratefully received on this matter and then the work can proceed...
Stay tuned.

Thanks for the quick responses, Gits' and MT.
Both of you liking the flying Kroot idea. Well there's a turn up for the books.
The Kroot ideas are all stemming from the incorporation of DNA thing that they do. Coupled with The Scientist's knowledge to speed things along, this would be a Kroot that has evolved wings. My question for this one was "how would it handle weapons if it's arms became wings?" We will find out together.

Can't remember where the scorpion-nid came from, but I think it is intended to make use of the talons to create the pincers. And then replace the legs with many scorpion legs.

Yeah Gits', it's been a while since I've had the chance to really have a go at a troop-sized mini '. Just can't afford the time when it's for something to sell (hence only being left for things like the Helbrute and Drone tripod).

And the Ghost Ark factory for you?! With The Scientist breathing his special kind of special on it, why just pick up broken Necrons, why not a mobile factory of more minions. Picking up whatever is laying about the battlefield and sticking it together into something new. Why wait to get back to the lab?
Maybe the floating pyramid thing would be better mechanically for the gameplay implications, I'll need to have another look at what a ghost ark actually does to see how I can twist it to my needs... But visually, think of a cross between a garage, science lab' and an operating theatre, that floats across the battlefield...

MT, the cybork will happen one day anyway (as will all these ideas).
The ravager will, of course, make use of your old-skool piece you sent me for the Predator's dozer-blade and wasn't used.
And I'm seeing it still floating, a bit, and now skimming the ground (mostly so I don't have to use a flying stand), churning up said ground. What other modifications I make to it, I don't know as yet. It'll remain a Ravager, in game, but with added (Mad).

Any further ideas/thoughts from anyone still welcome.

Love where you mind is going on all these projects.

Waaagh. That is all.

Ta Gits'. Many of these are old ideas that have sat on my "list", ready and waiting. Some have been so long that I barely remember what I was planning.
Things will be fleshed out as it happens. But yes, some research is required on some points just for memory's sake if nothing else.

Graven' calls for Waaaagh. What Orkses do I have there?

Due to Ork physiology they receive robo-transplants well, so why not some robo-legs. But why just a boring pair of legs when you can have a mass of skittering spider-like robo-legs? I believe this is due (again I can barely remember how these multipart kits go together, it's been so long) to kits having more bodies than legs, so I need to scratch-build some legs to make use of all the bodies.

And, as mentioned there, I want to create an Ork mini' that cannot be confused for comic relief. How I will accomplish this, I do not know.
Some added sculpting to beef him up a bit, and careful posing, equipment choices and basing. Anyone know of good examples of "scary" Orks?

And the truck.
I have the kit, and not build a (mostly) Ork vehicle. I do plan to create proper suspension (I have a lot of springs not doing much at the mo), and just to have fun building a unique Ork truck (definitely can't have something like this in my army and it resemble anything that has gone before). What it includes, depends on what I find in my stash.

Keep the thoughts coming.

I decided to start getting bits ready for the flying kroot and just so happened to pull out some parts for the Ork Nob... naturally that's what I started with.

Bits pulled out for him,

First modification to the axe; added blade and Eldar battery.

Had to get this arm on first to start preparing the pose.


Legs are the next job.

I do have the basic bits out for the kroot and I have some ideas of how some of it may progress.

Nice chopper

Thanks Graven'. There may be more to do on it yet, but that's the little details for later.

Y'know, the left leg may be fine as it is.
Maybe a slight twist, but that will depend on the eventual position of the right leg.

Charging pose with that leg raised as it is here:


Time to cut up the right leg and stick it back together.

important to make sure you have the right choppa....

As you're 're-posing legs I'm assuming this is 'scary' ork?

Choppa's gotta feel "choppy"

Yarp, MT, Scary spi.. Ork.

There will not be any spice girls references on this mini'.
Although I won't rule out creating the rest of the group at a later date. I would be surprised if this hasn't been done before though.

Right leg required the hip and ankle cut.
The hip was completely cut off and has been rotated and straightened under the body.
The ankle was only partially cut through and just straightened to get the foot flat on the ground.
Using my usual prism/block of plastic to attach, with putty later, method.

Vis...


And then the right arm required a right arm (as the klaw is on a left arm).
That arm was cut above the bicep and rotated outward, and a block of plastic was used to bring the arm out farther.


Now that's the pose, but it's not done yet.
The face will (hopefully) make the model, and will be modified to be screaming and look really angry. Will see if I can do this.
And the arms, at least, will be bulked up to create an imposing figure worthy of this pose.
Various small details to give a story,
And the paint should bring it home...

And while filling gaps I had enough putty for the extra muscle.

Beefcake!


Striking silhouette, I think.
Will likely bulk up the trapezius as I add the head.

Now to modify that head...

Nice work on the bulking up!

Very impressive, and it's interesting watching the prism method in action.

Thanks MT. Lots of weights and protein.

Thanks Graven'. Ja, I felt that it's been a while since I've shown this method off.

This week I've mostly been isolating:



Didn't have a chance to go in blind (I've watched "let's play" videos before), but still an intense experience, especially on Hard difficulty. Well recommended.

Anyway, you're here for models.

Head modified.


Was tricky to get the jaw back on, probably would have been easier to stick the top of the head onto the body first and then sculpt the jaw back on: would have given a solid base to work from. But it's done now and will hopefully look good once painted.

Details added.

Decided against some of the things. Spiky shoulder pads didn't really fit, physically and aesthetically.
And the metal jaw piece, I wasn't really happy with how/where it attached.

But I did add some skulls. It appears this chap is a skull-taker.



Can't really see much more room for more details, so just need to construct a basing for him and it's on to painting...

Big, charging ork monstrosity? Check.

He looks a very angry chap. Quite rightly. I think he needs to be angled forward ever so slightly though, he's a bit... skippy. I mean I like taking skulls as much as the next guy

Thanks MT.

Thanks Graven'. It may be a combination of blu-tack and camera angle that did it. He should be leaning slightly forward, we will see when I attach him to a base...

...Oh look, I attached him to a base.

I dd try to make sure he was leaning forward, but can't go too far and the front foot almost looks like it touches the ground, so it is only slight (see the boss pole). Photo angle can make a difference and I took a few to get these; I'll have to keep this in mind for final shots.

Added some hob-nails to the front foot and some (but not all) plant-life to the base. Not a lot more I can add to a small base (I had thought a Nob may get a larger base than the basic troop), but going for a "rushing through the grass" look.
Did add some mud to the soles of his boots after these photos, but you'll see that once primed.

Now about this kroot...

That's coming along swimmingly!

Nicely done Love the idea of rushing through the grass.

Thanks Gits' and MT. Yeah, I've been getting vibes of the Mantis warrior I built for Gits' competition, but I didn't want to go quite so OTT with the plants for this one.

As I said, time for the Kroot you asked for...

How to solve a problem like holding a weapon when your hands have evolved into wings...?

Pictured below are the various stages.
I picked the most boring set of legs as I knew I'd be chopping them up.
And I picked the gun for how close the hands were. I nearly chose the one with just one hand, but "felt" this one more.
4 cuts for the right leg and 3 for the left.

First, cut off the arm from the gun, at the wrist (handy wrapping there to hide the join).
Also, cut off the right foot. Technically, just the toes, cutting the foot in half: The "backwards knee" that you see in animals and beasts is actually the ankle and the long final length of leg is the foot.
Glue what remains of the foot into the wrist.

Then cut at the knee and remove some material to bend the leg up a bit (and add a bit of inwards twist).
And cut the ankle and bend that up as well.
This is to bring the second hand in reach of the left leg.

As with the knee and ankle, cut at the hip and remove enough material to bring the gun up and in so that the left leg is possible.
Notice the change in angle of the hip/waist piece.
Also cut off the other leg to gauge the position (and because the foot was actually getting in the way at this point).

Cut the hip of the left leg to angle it outwards and line up with the left hand.
Also cut above the ankle and rotate inwards slightly to line up with the wrist.
Leave a gap as the hand here has less arm attached (it's from below the wrapping), so some extra foot is needed to be sculpted.

Add putty to fill the many gaps and sand down to taste...


Now to think about how the body is going to be posed...

Sometimes the old hand-foot swap is just what the doctor ordered.

Yeppers... very clever.

Thanks chaps. There's no telling how these things will turn out until you try them.
Any awkwardness will be hidden with feathers.

Next stage was attaching the body and head.

With the way the legs worked out, the stock body position would have had the gun lowered.
This is not a problem as I could use it as part of the flight stand as it drags through a bush.
But it was close enough to horizontal that a minor adjustment would mean it could be aiming...

Rather than a simple wedge for this job, I elected for layers of plasticard. Needed 3 layers in the end, each slightly smaller.

Body was positioned and the head attached.


As it says, time to research some wings.
I have some "how to draw wings" tutorials that I came across on Twitter a while ago which should prove useful.
Then I'll hate myself for needing to sculpt a ton a feathers...
But I look forward to deciding what colour to paint the feathers.
And then hating myself for picking some ridiculous and difficult colour scheme...

Ooh, it's gone all Sebulba.

My advice (depending on exactly how you plan to go about things): don't fret about marking out every barbule on every feather, not at this scale. And take advantage of the nice, neat rows that wing feathers are laid out in.

Love the foot adaption to firing the gun. Frees up the arms for flapping.

To be honest, with the feathers on these guys being more like barbs anyways, half wonder if you could build more bat style wings, possibly with some heat bent plasticard for membrane, then just style them with the stub bits...

Flying Kroot is looking ace already!

Thanks Vermis. Yes, I should have thought of Sebulba when describing my plan.
Yeah, makes sense. It will certainly be the "idea" of a wing made of feathers, rather than sculpting a wing made of feathers. I will, no doubt, get carried away and try and sculpt in ALL the details... because that's how I do.

Thanks Theo'. Ja, birds have been doing it for a while, why re-invent the concept?!

Thanks Veiut. The idea for this chap is that he's further along with evolving to flying, and hence evolving feathers (the barbs being primitive feathers after all). With the Kroot nature of incorporating foreign DNA and being force-fed feathered birds of some kind. I may also do a bat-winged version at a later date.
I may use some card as a base to sculpt upon though.

Thanks aku'.

Research done, wing style decided upon, plan for going forth ... roughly thought on...

Frame added to get an idea of where the "arms" are and the leading edge of the wing.
"paint"-job to show rough outline of eventual wings in relation to frame.

I may even drape some tissue over the frame to create the base for sculpting, that may be easier than fitting a piece of card to it. I've done that before for robes, it's basically the same thing, just feather-shaped.

The tissue worked fine as a base for sculpting.

First, lay over pieces of tissue and soak in water/PVA.
Add a few layers for strength. You don't want to poke a sculpting tool through it (you will be using water for lube' after all).
Cut to rough shape.

Add a line of putty: I used GS for some flexible strength" during sculpting. This is the line of the limb, potentially where the wing may bulge. Also as a guide to where the feathers originate.

Lay on a strip of putty, segment into "feathers" and add "V" shapes along them for texture.
Clean up wing edge.
Work your way up the wing with each layer of feathers overlapping the previous.



Add claws to give him a bit of
I also added some feathers to his "ankles" while I was at it.


Now he needs some items and then basing...
Oh yes, and a tail...

Those Wings are stunning and I love the use of tissue.

Lovely wings!

Thanks Graven'. Tissue and PVA are very useful for quickly (not including drying time) forming a surface for sculpting.

Thanks aku'.

And another use for tissue/PVA... I don't think I've shown how I made the large leaves that I used for my "Mantis maker" challenge piece or crashed UFO piece.
Last time I made a load, but have since used them all up and had to make more for this, so...

Fold up some tissue and cut out your shape.
Unfold and separate the leaves.
Glue a twisty-sandwich bag-tie-thing to one piece of tissue.
Glue the other piece of tissue to the other side of the tie (so you have a sandwich).
Use water/PVA to glue the loose sides of the tissue pieces together and create a single leaf. Let it bend over a little and try to keep some sections separate.
Once dry, flatten out a little and then bend into shape.
Attach to base.

Can be used to hide a firmer piece of wire for model attachement.
Due to the wire in the tie they remain flexible and can be posed about the model (as I did for the Mantis Maker).


Attach your model.

Also note the new tail.

A few more details are required for model and base.

AND...
The Nob has been primed and blacked.


Although it's a bit hot today for painting.
Until next time...

Got distracted for a bit with some classic (DOS-era) computer games...

Too much to catch up on in all your blogs today, but will swing through soon.

The Kroot's base is now fully furnished and I've added the last of the details to them too.
Got a knife in the scabbard, positioned in such a way that I can see it being reachable with the left leg.
Also got some grenades on the gun's stock (not going to be putting it up to the shoulder so may as well use it for storage), and a pouch around the back (that is unlikely to be reached, but you can't have everything...).

I also added half a metal washer under the base for ballast as it was only just balanced within the confines of the base.



A little tidy up of the putty mess and it's over to the painting desk. I should get started on the ork too.

I like the archaeoperix (sp?) tail. Nice touch.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
I like the archaeoperix (sp?) tail. Nice touch.

Close enough. Yes I had feathered dinosaurs in mind with the feathering. Thanks.

And primed:

Very cool, but those leaves overhanging the base, a bit fragile? Especially if you're like me and pick up minis by the base to avoid getting dirty finger oils all over the paint.

Going to go with the classic multi-colored Archaeopteryx plumage?

What a cool project. is this a one off project or are you doing a unit of them?

love the extra girth on the ork.

Thanks Red'.
Baring in mind I haven't played a game. I wouldn't say the leaves are fragile. They are re-poseable, even after paint.
Tissue paper (not bog-roll) soaked in PVA/water, with a twist-tie thing down the middle and coated with Enamel paint. ymmv depending on treatment and paint/glue/tissue used.
Try it out and report back, they are easy to make and as cheap as can be.

I wouldn't make a habit of sticking these on every model in an army or even a squad (mostly because of space), but good for hiding wires for flying models (I used the same for my Necron on a jetbike). As my models are going to be spending the majority of their life on shelves I don't worry about wear and tear during gaming.

Haven't decided on colouring the Kroot yet. Probably won't be monotone, but maybe not quite as colourful as rainbow-archaeopteryx.
Hopefully the plumage will be beautiful though.

Thanks Solar'. More than likely a one-off. Though variations on the theme may happen (I plan Kroot mixed with all manner of things).
Ta. speaking of... thicc ork progress:

Skin painted.
and with the teeth painted you can better see the result of my re-posed jaw (lip ring to be painted).

Again, subtle painting is subtle, but the contrast does show up in the hand (and will hopefully show up in the final photos).

And now with painted clothing.


Straps and belts will likely be a combination of brown and black leathers.
and I'm thinking pale brown boots.
Metals, fairly beaten up, but not too rusty.

Very dynamic. Liking the darker green skin color.

Thanks Solar'. Yeah, I spent a fair amount of time deciding on how dark and/or green to go with the skin.
I went with mostly green, as opposed to my previous orks that have a bit more flesh-tone adding in.
And I didn't go too dark (thinking of the orks getting darker and larger as they age), as he's bigger than the average, but not huge. So he's darker than average, but not DARK.

Black bits finished, brown bits done, metal bits base-coated.


I'm playing with a tripod for photos, so still getting lighting etc. positioned correctly.

All really cooking nicely. Tasty angry ork.

Thanks Graven'.

Bit more work done on 'im.
Metals mostly done (just some black-lining and highlights to do here and there).


There's still things to do:
Some coloured plates on the banner/klaw/etc.
Horns and skulls
base
cables
and a sprinkling of blood...

Very nice. The leather bits look very realistic.

Thanks Solar'. I have my leather technique down and just need to vary the starting brown to get a different tone; as I did for the boots.

And with a splash of blood, he's done.
Many pictures follow, I couldn't decide which pictures to use from which set (low or high angle) so you have both sets.
Click through to the gallery for a better view (and maybe vote while you're there).

Before that, more pictures. Before blood splatter:


And then he got messy...
Low angle:


High angle:


Very high and low angles, and a comparison to your average basic Ork boy:


I had a good idea as I sat down to add colour to the boss pole etc...
Due to the operation to open the mouth of this head the lower jaw ended up with only one tusk intact and what ended up as a lip ring.
So I painted the boss pole (both at the top and on the shield) with the teef (l to r) white, black, black, gold. To represent the sole tusk, 2 missing teef and the gold lip ring.
Just in case you don't recognise him by his bulk, you can't mistake "One-Toof" on the battlefield. Just look for the white and gold.

As stated at the start of this project I set out to create the most un-funny Ork I could.
Not posh, sporty, baby or ginger, this is Scary Ork.

Does he bring the Ork race into the grim dark without a hint of comic relief?

Thanks for stopping by and painting of the flying kroot will begin shortly...
...and the Raider is out and ready to start being chopped up...

Really, proper threatening. I love him, he's a bloody nasty piece of work

Thanks Graven'. I see what you did in there.

I think I have a colour scheme for the Kroot. You'll have to wait and see when I get around to painting it.

And, as I said, I have bits out for the Raider build.
I've just been through the rest of my bits and the plan has changed a little;

I was planning some kind of land-ship, with it ploughing/churning/digging up the ground as it goes (as a way to bypass a flight stand) with a wave of mud as you might get with water.
I thought about how I might change it's motive power to fit this theme, as a bottom-intake jet engine doesn't sound sensible when digging up dirt close to the ground... Briefly considered some kind of Ork-built propeller, and then spent a bit of time looking into legs that might look like rowing oars. I imagined it moving along like some legged animals do underwater; floating along but pushing forward with the legs occasionally.
But there is not a huge amount of space to mount legs and rule-wise it would have to slow down quite a bit, making it slow and lightly armoured. Not good.

And then I was rummaging through bits and found a range of weapons that I thought would fit on nicely... High fire-rate machine guns and the like (see below), and I thought that a range of missiles would be a nice compliment to these... and ...

Now it's going to be an attack helicopter equivalent. I even found some small wings to attach the missile pylons to.

Here's the various potential bits that may find their way into the final ship (not everything will be used):
Favoured weapons I found,
I'm determined to use the old ram for this (supplied by MT),
Potential crew; pilot, mascot, engineer,
Wings; I found top and bottoms of these, probably won't use full length.


So now I may put the basic structure together and then see what fits where and what other modifications are "required".

A little bit of painting before assembly (curious that GW instructions never mention painting anything before gluing the whole thing together).

I can now get a hold of the thing and play about with offering other things up to it and start forming a shape.

First order of business is that nose...
Some minor alterations were needed at the contact points; just shaving down for a better fit/contact point.


More work required to fully integrate it and firmly attach it. But yes, nice fit... Muahahaha...

And progress on the Kroot.

Inner feathers are to be yellow.


Outer will be brown, but with hopefully interesting patterns; so not plain brown.
Gives a shock value to such a display, but can also camouflage when necessary.

Colours look great, can absolutely see where this is going.

Thanks Graven'.

Progress on the Raider this time.

The ram is now more integrated into the structure with the underside filled in and some putty-work to smooth out the joins, and a little buttress at the top.
I also re-shaped the lower edge of the ram so that it's no longer a flat, chunky edge. Now it has some bite...

And the winglets are on.
Ended up using the majority of their length.
And stuck them on (technically) backwards wrt aerodynamics. But I liked the shape they make in this positioning.
It's not as if they are actually being used for lift, just for holding weapons, I don't actually know what the result would be for having wings that are backwards; would they just be inefficient (they are the right way up, with the bulge on top), or would they be actively destabilising?!



Still more work to do about this area and I will find a way to make the wings look like a later addition (by The Scientist) as they are not meant to be Eldar in aesthetic, and I don't want people the think that was the intent.

Some more paint is on the Kroot. Still much more to do...



Onwards...

So... if the Raider's Aethersail is only there to harvest energy from the webway portal, as I read in the older Dark Eldar codex.

"Aethersails to harness the multidimensional shear energies that flow from the Webway portal from which they emerge,"

And The Scientist doesn't use the webway to get about...

It doesn't need the sail, yes?

I'm looking for anyone that has further information on the purpose of the Aethersails.

If I don't need the sail, I could build a canopy over the steersman instead... yes?



Incidentally...
The Tau gun fits in the gun mount pretty well.
Just needed to remove a couple of lumps and drill a rod through and it works as the vanilla weapons do.
I trimmed the top of the mount just for looks.

Thoughts. On the sail.

It might look a little too much like Jabba's barge from star wars without it and with a canopy, but not necessarily a bad thing.

Ooo, there's a thought, Vejut.
*Immediately goes researching Jabba's barge...

Rule of cool - it looks ace.

So much goodness going on here Doc !

Barge looks great! liking the Tau weapon looted and added on.

Thanks Graven. Indeed. I just have to achieve "cool" for the finished piece. We will see how it turns out, together.

Thanks Big H. I try.

Thanks Shas'. Yeah, I was really impressed at how easy the Tau gun fitted.

I started on a canopy...
Build a frame for the support structure (central are with the 3 rods) and then add the fabric support to that.
Then add the fabric.

Will be made a bit tattered to make it more interesting.
Still got to create the support to attach it to the raider.


But before I can create the support structure for the canopy (and therefore set it's height), I need to know what it's covering...
The pilot... driver... captain... steersman... needs to be built.

I found the perfect right arm; no modifications needed to be resting on the steering thing (I'm sure it has a name, but I know nothing of boats, really)
The left arm had many options, could have been a withered limb, or a stump... it was almost a bare arm, but then I have a lot of these tyranid arms spare. It'll be made slightly less 'nid-like, but I'll use it for wiring him in to the ship (It appears as if all the armies' vehicles will have wired-in drivers).


I shall attempt to leave both him and the canopy separate for ease of painting... will I succeed in this?!

Speaking of wired in pilots in my vehicles...
I took some new photos of my Wave Serpent (as finished on page 12!) for Twitter/FaceBook and thought I'd share them here as well.
All together in one mega-collage for your ease of voting while you're in the gallery for a good look...


Until next time...

The Krootiest of the Kroot is done.

Force-fed a diet of birds from a young age (together with some growth hormones) by The Scientist, the kroot quickly formed wings in place of the usual arms. The legs and feet also adapted to the change and became more dexterous.

Kroot #2; the flying kroot.


Click for closer, gallery, views and votes.

That's immensely cool. I get a classic dnd/lotr giant eagle vibe from the wings, really like it.

They are proportioned perfectly for the model. Very cool conversion.

Love those last to efforts Dr H!

Thanks Graven', Solar', Gits'. Nice to hear my attempt at sculpting wings/feathers has been a success.

Progress on the Raider has been slow of late. Got a kink to sort out before the next update, and I'm planning a couple of presents to try and get them done early for a change.

In the mean time I've finished my latest Fallout 4 settlement build at Tenpines bluff.

These do take a lot of effort, and this one has taken a long time to produce.
The save game for my first character became too unstable to be able to continue building with her and I've switched to my second character.
But she didn't have the right perks required for building, as I didn't intend to build with her, and I have had to level her up to unlock and then claim the perks.
Then build the settlement, record the tour and edit the video.

But I do put as much of my creativeness, as you know from my models, into these settlement builds.
90% of what you see in the video (over 1300 items) has been carefully placed (as a rivet with tweezers).


And if you still play Fallout 4 and want to walk around this settlement, the blueprint is up on the Nexus: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/47193/

Thanks
and back to models soon...ish.

Soon...ish became not so soon...ish.
You've not missed much, motivation has been lacking.

I think it's largely the combination that is 2020:
The orange fart in the west and the emboldening of white supremacists making me feel ashamed to be a white human.
The climate crisis, the pandemic and the deniers. Really hurts me in the scientist.
Job worries (unemployment, searching, etc.). The careers advice has also suffered with the low motivation. But there is the constant niggle of shame for my laziness.

And the modelling has been getting harder for a while anyway. As you may have noticed, I don't post updates anywhere near as often as I used to.
I've tended towards doing tiny bits of work on a model and then taking a long break away. Rather than making a large amount of progress at each sitting.
I've felt my quality drop a little, it's been harder to achieve the same results. This hits the motivation.

But, there may be some hope. The problems I've been having may be due to the difficulty seeing what I'm doing...
Yes, 2020 is the year that I have got glasses.
I've only just picked them up today, so will take some getting used to. The world is a little clearer.
There's only a slight change and I "only need" them for close-up things, my prescription is not huge but does include a little astigmatism along with a little long-sightedness.
You can tell how this may have caused problems with building and painting tiny, close-up, things (and my long-standing joke of not being able to cut straight lines).

Plus, recently I've rearranged my room to give me more space and better access to things. Although this did mean packing up the current project here. 2 weeks later and the room is at a stage that I can start work again, and now I can see what I'm doing.
But the Raider will be staying in the box for a while longer. I'm going to start with this year's Christmas presents and get them done early and then I'll return here to the Raider.

I did make a couple of presents before the move, but you'll have to visit my Twitter or FB pages to get a look at one of them (another dollhouse-scale painting).
The Christmas presents will appear over in my other thread once I've decided on what I'm going to make.

And to not leave you without pictures here:
Before and after the room rearrangement.
Main changes are the bedside table / drawers was moved out the way and the painting desk (right) was moved into the space.
This allowed the building desk (left) to be pushed into the corner leaving space for the drawers to be placed far left.
Everything else was shuffled about these changes.


I haven't been checking in on DDakka either recently. Hope you are all doing ok. I'll try and visit your threads soon as they should be easier to read now.
No sympathy needed here, just and explanation of why I've been quiet.

Until next time. Stay tuned.

Well it's lovely to have you back old bean. Take as long as you need.

Wow, that's quite the creative space!

A lot of us have been on hiatus. No worries. I should at least post photos of the 6 (geez, only 6?) minis I've painted this year. In my defense, I have 2 Jack Russell terriers ( Parson jack russells in the UK?) now, and they take up a huge amount of time.

A point of correction. Climate change is too generic. Let's call it what it is. Global Warming.

On the subject of deniers... We now have the anti-maskers here in the US. I have no idea about the UK.

The white supremacist thing in the US is highly exaggerated by the US media. Their numbers don't even amount to a rounding error in the grand scheme of things.

Plenty of jobs in the US for an educated man. Something to consider. You'd have to learn a new language though.

Thanks Graven'.

Lo Gits'. Yeah, let's see if it works.

Ta Red'. Post them up, I might even comment on them (once I get through the backlog).

I correct your correction: I did say "crisis" not "change". Indeed it is much more serious than just a change in the "weather".
Also, global warming can be misunderstood (honestly or intentionally) to mean everything's getting warmer, either with "how is warm weather bad?" or "but it snowed today, where's the warming?".
No one can misunderstand a Climate Crisis.

Yeah, there's anti-maskers about (I don't think quite as bad as the US). There's so much misinformation about, it just drowns out the simple evidence.
Wouldn't be so bad if it was just going to infect the anti-maskers, but it makes it worse for everyone, mask or not.
The sheer level of selfishness is unbelievable. "I don't want to be uncomfortable for a short period, but it's fine if thousands of people die"

It's true that the white supremacists (as well as deniers etc.) are small in number, but they are loud, as well as getting the attention you mention.
I do know this, but it's exasperating. These people just drag the rest of humanity down with them, for nothing; they don't gain anything, we all loose.
Just spend your time and effort with the things you enjoy, and everyone will be happier. Why is that so hard?

I'm still trying to find what job it is that I can/want to do. Nearing an answer to that, but searching and applying comes later.

Still, good news today (for anyone that cares about other people and not just themselves).
Let's hope it's the first step towards a better planet.

Thank you all for waiting patiently. Something soon...ish.

Ah, I read climate change. So much for my ability at close textual analysis these days. :(

If it is the good news I think you mean, be patient. There are still bumps in that road. It'll be settled on 14 December. A nice early Christmas gift, let's hope.

I can dredge up my ol' thread and post some photos. I'll just need to take the photos first.

Stay safe.

I've still not found the time to catch up on all your (gestures at DDakka) work...

I have now posted up my Christmas present creations for this year over in my other blog (https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/2910/549077.page#11015278), have a look for some modelling-related work.

I have one more project to do and then I can return to the Raider over here.

Depending on how much I get distracted with Cyberpunk 2077...

Anyway, for more of my creativity you can check out my latest Fallout 4 settlement build at Greentop Nursery:



Happy Christmas and a safe New Year to you all.

Work-station is as cluttered as mine!

Hi Shas'. Yeah, it doesn't matter how much space I have I always seem to fill it.



Hello. Yes, I'm back over here. Things have started to happen again.

As it turns out I did get quite distracted with CP2077, and then with the final DLC of The Outer Worlds, and then with more building in Fallout 4.

Speaking of building in Fallout 4, I have completed a new build.
This time something different; an idea I had a while ago from when they added the ball tracks.
In a normal settlement build, they just don't really have a use, but I wanted to make a large marble run that sets off lights and fireworks etc.
As my YT channel recently hit 100 Subscribers, I thought it was a good excuse to put this idea into effect.


Give it a look for some more of my crazy creativity.

Life has mostly returned to normal here again after the scam thing, but I am still fairly absent from online: I have remained active on Twitter, but FB has had little input, haven't touched my kofi in ages, and not been checking my (closed) Etsy shop. And you may have noticed my absence from here too.
Until Covid drops to an actual background level I won't be opening my shop, and I'm considering moving it to kofi altogether as the Etsy (and Brexit) fees were getting silly a year ago, never mind what it may be now. When? who can tell.

Without a need to build for the shop, and everything else, motivation for models waned. But I have recently had new ideas for how to progress with the Raider.
As you will remember... or can just look up the page a bit... I had added wings and was considering the canopy.
I had also put the pilot together and I had created a thing for him to plug into for additional control. But I didn't like how that thing looked just sat in the middle of the floor.
And that's where I left it...

I have new plans for where the control thing may be placed, and I may make some changes to it before that.

But the main ideas were around the wings.
These are to hold the weapons, and I had planned to attach them on top of the wings as the raider was going to be close to the ground... And I planned to have one wingtip in contact with the ground (to do away with the flight stand). But this was going to place the raider either close to the ground/table, or at a steep angle (just for balance if nothing else).

But then I had a thought... how about another appendage to contact the ground, like a hydrofoil; and I could even have the base with dirt being tossed up like a wave.
I didn't have another wing of the right size, so I had to scratchbuild one and with it's length I recon I could now put the weapons under the wings (mostly) which should be more pleasing.

So I set about adding the more sturdy attachment for those wings (with rivets an' all) and installing the 3rd fin.
This also makes it easier to handle the model.


I'm going to turn up the tips of the wings, to make them more interesting, and then I need to remember where I was going with this and what is the next job (I have the feeling I was leaving the canopy off for now to make it easier to do other jobs... but I don't know what...).

Onwards...

Oh yes, the turned up wingtips really does the job for me.

And I've also attached a few of the blades, but not all in the "intended" positions; a couple of the big ones nicely finish off the curve of the hull at the rear (plus a little putty to smooth them into the shape).

And I added a rotating camera blob to the underside too.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooh that's Slicey dicey. Lovely.

Ha! Another first: although it makes perfect sense, I've not seen anyone add a camera balun to _any_ 40K model before. Well done.

I like it

Though Dark Eldar would probably just duct tape someone to the underside of the skiff to have them be the look-out, It would be a position of honor

Thanks Graven'. It now has a little more spice to add to that slicey dicey, see below.

Thanks Meer_Cat. I had one laying about, just had to find a use for it. This point on the Raider is almost made for it, AND it fits the "attack helicopter" theme I have in mind.

Thanks Theo'. The Scientist is not one for such barbaric practices... any wetware has to be properly wired into the system.

I thought about just adding the pylons and leaving the various weapons off, but one thing led to another and we all get a full picture of what the Attack Raider is going to be.

I did say the wings were for adding weapons...


We have a pair of Air-to-Air long range missiles (white) on the outer pylons,

On the left wing we have an over/under fixed gun arrangement; Top, boltgun half of an over/under bolter from the newest SM sprue I have, and under is an actual Dark Eldar weapon, from the jet bikes.

Then on the right wing there is a rocket on a sled launcher (as seen on the Hind-D helicopter) on top,
and a rocket pod (under) of some description; I don't know where I got this one, or what it actually is.

I toyed with including an extra fuel tank and/or a gizmo thing (probably for laser-guidance) but couldn't find a good place for them.
And these are the smallest of missiles I have in the collection...

Quick extra wip from today's early work.

I've installed the Targeting Tyranid.
Still needs wiring in (as does everything), but I'm pleased with how easily it sat in place.


Also installed the loudhailer (from OMN) so that I can recreate the Apocalypse now! Flight of the Valkyries scene.

Thanks for linking this on your other channel. Had totally missed this! Love the conversions!

" I've installed the targeting Tyranid" Now that's not something you hear everyday. Nice.

Thanks Gits'. Yeah, with my posting so infrequently of late I think that people may find one of the threads and not know that I have a whole 2nd blog full of my builds. So when I switch I think it's a good idea to add a quick note/link on the current thread.

Thanks Solar'. That's how you know it's one of my threads.

I've now added the chief engineer...

This one has moved about the model, but I liked having them on the wing, banging away on the jury-rigged gun.
But if the thing is flying, how are you supposed to hang on?
It's not easy to re-pose such a small figure with almost non-existent legs, but the idea came from nowhere to have a belt thrown around the missile; it's so obvious and so "greenskin" in thinking.

Need to remember to add the top of the hammer's handle... note to self...

That's awesome. You should add some smoke effects to that rocket as if it's getting ready to launch with the little guy still attached...

 Gitsplitta wrote:
That's awesome. You should add some smoke effects to that rocket as if it's getting ready to launch with the little guy still attached...

I think you should swap the mallet out for a hat a la Dr. Strangelove

Yeeeeehah!

@Theo... you're a genius!

Thanks Gits'.
My thinking is that, while it's an "accident" waiting to happen, it's not guaranteed to happen.
To add smoke would take away from the "will they or won't they?" feeling.
On a purely Ork build, absolutely. It'd be done on purpose, and all greenskins would embrace the moment.
For this army, I like the feeling that this (the belt) is something that happens regularly, but the chance of "accident" is on the roll of a dice, so to speak.

That said, Thank you Theo'... I might sculpt a hat for the little lad's head, just so it's ready in case...

Still, progress has been some steps forward, some back, and more in another direction.
I created the canopy as a replacement for the typical Raider sail.
I finally got around to mounting it:

I tried to carve some nice thin supports (from sprue) in an interesting shape and all that.
But one got slightly too thin and snapped,
So I tried to cast some copies of them in Milliput,
But that didn't work out.
So I made some casts of the Raider's sail pillar, and with a little extra pressure, even made them oval (rather than round) for uniqueness.

They worked and I mounted them up (see below).

But with the canopy mounted on the Raider... I'm not feeling it.
It blocks a lot of the views of the pilot area, and takes the shape of the whole in the wrong direction (up, not wide).
Even with modifying the shape, cutting holes in it, etc. I can't see it working.

I don't want to revert to the typical sails. But it needs a replacement for the sails, as they are the power source.
I want something "science-y"... And what's more science than a nuclear reactor...!

So using the "failed" first attempt air filters from my Lynx helicopter build, and a OMN fan, I made a reactor that fits in the hole.
In a way, the fan represents the blades of an attack helicopter, which it what this build has become.



I don't think there's much more major additions to make, so I can now work on integrating and wiring up all the bits, and make it a "whole".

That's a mighty fine build, and I really like the generator.

Thanks Graven'.

And now some wiring...



Not much needed to be said; wires for all the things, and some cable-tidies with rivets.
I'm out of practice with rivets, these were tricky to stick on... at least more than I remember. Might just be because they are 0.5mm.

One more look over for any more details I'd like to add (including the hat for the mechanic, I've not forgotten) and then basing construction.

"I think we need a bigger Boat! "

sips coffee "It's okay, the Dr H is building one "

Grabs the popcorn and sits to watch

Ah DrH is still as nuts as ever.

And Theo, come on you could never use a boat like that, you would have someone's eye out with a pointy boat like that. No good for fishing. Or cage diving!

Thanks Theo'. You also wanted missiles on your boat, yes?

Thanks Cam'. I still have the spark, yes. It was just in a box for a bit.

Progress on the Raider.
Basing:

Ended up cutting pieces to affix around the "pin", rather than drilling/cutting a hole.
It's leaning slightly more than I intended, but not so far as to be a problem worth "fixing"; I'm often too subtle in my modelling, so this is definitely deliberately leaning.



Interestingly, I was worried that the base I'd cut was going to be too small to support the model, but as it turned out even the small pieces that clamp the keel were "almost" enough to stand the model up, the large base is more than enough for stability.

There's still a few more small details that I will add, and the base needs details too.

Spot what's been added since last time (above)?

It's been so long since I've even looked at a scratch build that I need to re-train my eyes. Sigh. Looks very interesting Doc. I need to drop by P&M more often.

 Camkierhi wrote:
Ah DrH is still as nuts as ever.

And Theo, come on you could never use a boat like that, you would have someone's eye out with a pointy boat like that. No good for fishing. Or cage diving!

Now, now Cam, a pointy boat like that would be perfect for catfishing... the real kind not the internet kind. Theo lives close enough to the Mississippi river to make it practical.

Of course we want missiles. Ones with laser beams for eyes because every missile should have a warm meal.

Nice work H

Frickin' laser beams on the head for that matter

Heat seekers or sidewinder I don’t care, just as long as they are ill tempered .

No lull in conversion madness I see. The additional cabling is excellent and really brings the model to a different level of realism to scale.

Thanks Red'. Yeah, I've still not found the time to visit anyone else's P&M. I keep saying "soon" but another day comes to a close every time.

Thanks Theo', Graven'.

Skalk! long time no see.
Thanks. That's what I'm here for.

And good timing; progress...

The base had some polyfilla (old, needed water added, scraped/cut into a paste again, and added PVA just to be sure) to create the basic shape and hide the wood join.
Then I made a tissue paper slurry with water/PVA to finish the height of the "wave".
Then covered it all in my usual mud'n'rocks mix.



The effect will be sold more when the base is painted and static grass etc. added to certain places (not in the hole).

It may be time to move this to the painting desk...

Yeah looks ready to rumble. Do love your random.

Oh yes, and hat.


Thanks Graven'. a little bit of random is what makes things interesting.

I should probably clear up the sawdust from the model before painting it...

Awesome-sauce... pure and simple.

Yee-hoo! Yee-hoo!

"Inflight Missile Mechanic" was a joke I heard multiple times when I was in the service. I didn't know it was a position I could have actually applied for.

Following the twisted paths of stimuli, now all I can think of of when I see that grot w/ his hat is Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore.

edit- and thanks for Graven, add Slim Pickens to that list.

Your blog is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get but it's gonna be sweet...

 Guardling wrote:
Your blog is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get but it's gonna be sweet...

sooo true.

Thanks people. I aim to please. It's nice to see that you are all still interested in my (mad) creations.

I got the airbrush kit out and gave it all a spray of primer.


Going to do the black with a hairy brush as there's a lot of enclosed areas that the airbrush doesn't get into well... and I'd cleaned the airbrush before thinking about black paint and couldn't be bothered to clean it again.

No plan for what colour the outside of the Raider will be.
I think the interior will be "bone" with gold/brass metals for the Eldar metal bits.
I'll paint the pilot first though and install him once the interior is done, and then maybe decide upon the exterior.

We'll all just have to see how it turns out.

How about a starfield?
But instead of the beautiful nebulae you see on many elder vehicles its like a child (or a grot) drew the stars

You have achieved grey...

 Gitsplitta wrote:
You have achieved grey...

It's still a color...

Did someone say grey....

LOL!

Thank you all for stopping by.
No progress beyond making the grey, black.

I was um-ing and arh-ing over the marine's scheme and then got distracted by something, and then October came and I had presents to make.
To see what I made pop over to my other blog: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/2970/549077.page#11247018

Thanks Guardling, it's a thought. I may incorporate that somehow.

Gitsplitta wrote:You have achieved grey...

It's always good to see it all tie together.

Thank you Solar', the validity I require.

Hi Knightley.

In the absence of something of this project to show, here's an old Eldar in new photos.








I may try and get some work done on the Raider before starting on Christmas presents.
Thanks for sticking around.

That's a lovely model.

Have you reposed that? Legs look great.

Thanks Gits'.

inmygravenimage wrote:Have you reposed that? Legs look great.

He was, yes. Back on page 38 https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/1110/471119.page#5970654 Just before the toilets and boxes.







Etc...


And the sword and the hand that holds it are carved from sprue...

Wow, long time ago looks amazing.

Loving the raider, but that just might be 'coz wires

Feeling you on the glasses thing (I know, that was last year, but I'm playing big league catch-up here) - realising my close up vision had gone when I started painting again last year was a blow - I actually use a magnifier for those odd hobby moments I get these days, a massive improvement, although I was always struggled with them when I was younger.

Also, just to say I stumbled across your settlement videos a while back and enjoyed them as I love settlement building.

Apologies for radio silence again.
The start of my 40's has not been kind; with an attack of gout (not as medieval as I thought) and a lingering eye infection that meant I couldn't do anything that involved looking at it for more than 4 seconds at a time for most of November. There's also not a lot you can motivate yourself to do when you're always a hour away from putting (or have put) another drop in your eye.

That means I've not done any modelling since last I showed up here (nor any reading of your blogs).
So much so, that I've postponed my usual Christmas present creating until Easter and bought the annual Easter boardgame for Christmas instead.

Now that the eye is clean (or should be after 3x antibiotics + steroid), I can get back to "normal".
First thing was to finish the latest Fallout 4 settlement (see below).

And I should soon get back to the Raider...

 monkeytroll wrote:
Loving the raider, but that just might be 'coz wires

Hi MT. Well, if it can't have tentacles, give it wires... ta.

Feeling you on the glasses thing (I know, that was last year, but I'm playing big league catch-up here) - realising my close up vision had gone when I started painting again last year was a blow - I actually use a magnifier for those odd hobby moments I get these days, a massive improvement, although I was always struggled with them when I was younger.

Yeah, I'm pretty used to using the glasses now; my ears no longer ache from unnecessarily trying to keep the glasses on and they are now part of the usual daily routine. I still use a magnifier, with the glasses, for modelling: Big AND focussed.

Also, just to say I stumbled across your settlement videos a while back and enjoyed them as I love settlement building.

Thanks, good to hear.
And as if planned, my latest Settlement build is up on YouTube.

Still at Abernathy Farm (after the 100 subscriber special), I've now built a "proper" settlement.
Have a look. You don't even have to watch all 40 minutes at once...



The blueprint is also up on The Nexus for those that still play Fallout 4. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/56377

I'll hopefully be back soon with some actual models to show you.
Thanks.

Starting one's 40s is immensely rubbish, but that's particularly crappy. Look after yourself brother and great to have you back.

Ta Graven'.

Painting has begun.
It's been so long (since October) that a paintbrush feels weird in the hand, but the muscle memory still seems to work.

Starting small (and as planned) with the pilot of the Raider.
Armour base-coated, shaded, black-lined, and highlighted:


Shoulder pads in progress, then metals.

I should manage an update in less than a month this time...

Well, so far, so armoured.

Hi Graven', ta, thanks for dropping in.

And now with additional colours:


Now to do head and 'nid arm.

Ooh, hadn't realised realised how nice that bionic arm was either. Bone is particularly well done amigo.

Model is definitely coming along. Strong, bold colors laid in. Looks good.

Thanks Graven'. That bionic arm is just the tyranid devourer (I believe) left arm. Now painted, see below.

Thanks 'boss.

This chap is mostly done now.
Just a transfer or 2 to add.

I used a base of dark blue for his skin, rather than the usual brown, to give him a cooler "not getting much sunlight" look.
Carried that over to the arm to show that it's a modification of his arm instead of an addition of a robotic arm.


I may get his transfers on before moving on to the Raider proper.
I have decided on an interior colour for the Raider, will wait and see how it looks before thinking more on the exterior.
Once the interior is painted, I'll mount this chap and we'll see him in situ again.

The tyranid arm looks good on him!

If you can mount that chap, you're obviously a lot smaller than I imagined Doc....

Yay, always nice to see your wierd interesting creations...

Well, hello again. Blowing the dust off as I had to do with the Raider...

Thanks Aku'.

Thank you MT...

More progress, Guardling. ta.

I've finally got around to getting back to this project for a bit and settled on the colours for the interior.

I was going to go lighter, all the way up to "bone" on the interior walls, but I liked this stage and it fits with the pilot (that lighter might not).

And the "floor" will be brass, and the additions can be steel/silver to contrast the Eldar to Scientist tech.

Little by little, this will get done...

Slight delay as I wait for a paint delivery.

But I think I've decided on a colour scheme.
I've been playing on https://paletton.com/#uid=1000u0kllllaFw0g0qFqFg0w0aF to find some colours to go with the interior.

If we take the internals to be an Orange/Brown tone with the cream/brown blend and the brass...

And I'd like the underside to be sky blue (as camouflage against the sky) as will be likely for most of the aircraft I will create for this army.
It's not terribly important for low-flying craft... Does anyone know what sort of altitude these can get to?
Still, as an attack-helicopter substitute, it doen't need it, so I will see how it looks once the rest is on. But I'd like it as an option...

Then looking at my previous vehicles for this army, I have a Blue Wave Serpent, and a Green Predator...

That means a "Red" might be a nice choice for variety...

Plugging those colours into Paletton above, I can get:
A slightly magenta Red,
Blue underside,
With Yellow accents.
Together with the already painted interior.

So I took to MS Paint...

The line placement, number, size and shape are subject to change, but general "Racing" feel seems to fit.
The blue on the bottom fin doesn't seem to break it.
And it seems to match the interior fine.

So I wait for some red paint to arrive.

Sharp!

I like the scheme as it is, but I'm not sure on the flow with the yellow lines.
I think they need to be flowing in the same general direction rather than colliding...

Interior looks ace though and a similar effect on the hill will be brilliant!

Gitsplitta wrote:Sharp!

Well, that's what Dark Eldar stuff is all about, right?!

Ta, Guardling. Ja, I agree. I just wanted to spread the yellow across the red to see what it looks like.
There's plenty of options of where to put the yellow on the front, not so much at the back.
Could even alternate the colours of the front end plates, and only have lines at the back.
We will have to see what I end up with when I get there...

I think I'll do the yellow first, mask it off and then paint all the red, then peel if off the reveal the crisp lines.
Will make a change from free-handing straight-ish lines.
And I can try out different patterns if something doesn't work.

Shock... Horror... Gasp!!!

The Raider continues...

I started on the yellow lines not long after the last post (just over a year ago).
I blocked out the areas I wanted yellow in a base tone and then planned a nice yellow/orange blend along them.
I got the paints out ready...

...and the model and paints have sat there for a year as other projects (seen in my other blog) came and went.

But I recently got a feeling for painting (after an unseen 2D painting present) and put those paints to use.

Here we have the positioning of the yellow stripes.
Imagine the grey areas as red for now.


These will be masked off before spraying the reds over the rest of the body.
This may or may not take another year...
Sorry.

Im going to try and check in on some blogs now, got to start sometime but it's a daunting task to catch up on over a year of all your work...

Welll... We're still here to watch you... Keep going... Cya in 2033

Thanks Graven'.

I just have to get out the airbrush and booth to do the red, after a great deal of masking... and then I plan to do some model dusting while I have the AB and booth set up...

So sometime before then.

Love the stripes!

Ta, Gits'. They will get even better once sharpened up with masking.

I have set up the airbrush booth and spent today dusting models and shelves.

Now I've blown the dust off (see what I did there) I can think about masking up the raider.

So nothing new to show yet.

While I have you here I'll remind you that I have a Mastodon account if you should want to check on my signs of life, etc.
Find me at @DrH@warhammer.social from any instance.

My account there (206 followers) has now surpassed both my abandoned Twitter (170) and recently my YT channel (196 sub's), all leaving my rarely-updated Facebook page (98) in the dust... ahem!

Thanks.

The Raider is now masked up and ready for spraying.



Tried to keep as much of the outside available for paint, which mostly made this more difficult than it needed to be.

Some areas don't hold all that well so I will need to be vigilant while airbrushing. Check for gaps before each spray.

And any issues can always be touched up or become battle damage.

Off to a wedding tomorrow, so nothing can be done then. Over the weekend? who can say...

Ha HA, Oh Ye of little faith...

Air-brushing done.

The red mixture (because of course I wouldn't accept any of the particular red paints that I had as they were) went on nicely, and covered well...
...and any overspray isn't too bad
...and there's only a few minor areas that will need a touch up... or battle damage.



Now you should see my vision for this scheme (although the red looks darker IRL).

Next is touch ups, black-lining, highlights, etc.
And there's the underside to do,
and then the details,
etc...

Still. Looking spicy.

Thanks Graven'.

Progress on the Raider.

Tidied up the red... as much as I will; I think I'll keep some of the roughness of the paint-job to give it some character (there is a grot for maintenance after all).
And I have done the black-lining. Albeit with a dark brown rather than black.
And I installed the turret at the front.

At least the red looks more like it does IRL here.


Highlights still to do.
Underside to do.
Details to do... so many of all the things...

Underside of the Raider is now blue.

And the red, yellow and blue are all highlighted.



Just need to do all the detailed bits now...

That's looking soooo good!

Thanks Gits'.

I've now painted all the additions in white to keep them distinct from the existing Raider vehicle (so you know they have been added by The Scientist).
At the moment they all look a bit bland, but weathering and transfers will break up all the surfaces eventually.

I've also painted the other occupants of the Raider; targeting 'nid, and mechanic grot.

I also gave the grot some shorts to keep his dignity on the breezy aircraft.

It was really difficult to get good angles for a paintbrush on the grot, everything had to be done from the side or by holding the brush at the far end.

I'm now working on the cables that snake about the place.

Then it's transfers, weathering and base to do... I think that's all...

Turns out that was all.
Yes... it is done, complete, finished...

Come bask in the glory of a new Dr H project.
I may do some smaller projects next...

Behold, the Raider Gunship (looking at the rules, to add it to my personal "codex", it's more of a Ravager).
These are pretty large pictures, so well worth blowing up the largest version you can open.



Closer views of some of the added details, and the base:


And finally the crew:


Feel free to ask questions about anything that catches your eye.

Also, as is tradition, I have a small piece of fluff for this build.
Not worth blowing the dust off my fluff thread, so just in here for now:


And finally, Big thanks to Monkeytroll for the gift of the front end of an old Raider.
While I didn't use it for it's intended purpose at the time, and it did take a long time to be put to use, I think this has worked out well.
Thanks mate.

That's absolutely bangin'. Love it.

Thanks Graven'.

I also noticed that I started this build just over 3 years ago, in August 2020. So that's a nice coincidence.

And all the individual photos are now up on Facebook, should anyone be more interested in viewing that way.

All looking good!

Whew! That was quite a project. Happy you've finally finished it. Looks great. Looking forward to seeing what you do next!

Absolutely love that raider!

Thanks Shas'.

Thanks warboss', None happier than I to have it finished. Just need to find the time/motivation mix to start the next project.

Thanks Gits'.

Nothing to show here, but prepare for an upload on my other blog... Here

edit: link now to the post in question.