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Greetings one and all.
This thread will be one of my various conversion WIPs and the odd completed piece that I manage. Productivity isn't my forte at the moment.
I have quite a lot of projects on the go, so it should be fairly varied, and hopefully this'll provide me with that kick up the arse that'll get some more work done.
So, onto the meat of the matter, below are the projects that I have on the go at the moment:
- Luna Wolves 14th Company. If anyone is interested in the 14th Company's back story, here's the story so far: Exile
- World Eaters - Heresy/Scouring era
- Warhound Titan diorama (hideously behind on this...)

So then, pictures, I'll dredge up some more photos of the various things that are being thrown together tomorrow.

Here's one of my Luna Wolf veterans that I'm doing at the moment.




If anyone is curious as to how something was achieved, don't hesitate to ask; any comments, questions or criticism are more than welcome.

Whoa, that's one awesome veteran! Did a quick skim of your background: which is rather cool, too!

Also, welcome to dakka. I'll be following this.

Very very nice veteran!
Will definitely be watching this!

@thenoobbomb: Thanks a lot for taking the time to read it!
@HoeJarris: Thankie very much to you too

Be warned: This post will contain copious amounts of text, within which are the mad ravings of a certain modeller. Proceed with caution

This shall be a rather varied post.

First up, are more Luna Wolves. This is the first one I actually finished - he was the original test model. The shield is going to be redone in the future as I'm not happy with the blood and weathering, and it's a bit rougher than I'd like. Also...the list that I've just written involves no jump packs :/






Here's a scale shot between the marine and a Vostroyan IG (I don't possess any of the stock Cadians that people always seem to use for scale shots, not built at any rate). As you can see the top of where his head would be if you ignore the bearskin and the raised base of the marine is mid-upper chest. This is what I personally imagine a marine's proportions to be like, if anyone has any thoughts/comments with regards to this please put them to me. If there are any glaring issues I'd prefer that they were rectified as of marine numero 3 rather than someone saying 'oh by the way...' when I'm three squads in!

Grimdark Orks
The next project I've got on the go is an Ork war band. As of yet I have no real story outlined, nor a colour scheme, for now it will primarily be sculpting and converting until I'm back home over summer (leaving my paints at home this Semester to force me to do my dissertation! Though the GS and sculpting tools will follow me). For me, Orks should be terrifying creatures, as they are presented in the majority of the Black Library's publishings: huge, fierce, crude. To me, this isn't represented in the models themselves, don't get me wrong, there are some fantastic Ork armies out on the web, but to me they just seem a little bit tongue-in-cheek, and the models themselves are very dated. A fantastic paintjob can only go so far in my opinion.

To remedy this problem I am intending on converting my Orks (AoBR) to represent what I feel an Ork should look like - something to give even a Space Marine pause before diving in chainblade first.
The issue
This first image highlights one of the main things that I take issue with in the Ork models I've got myself. While I cannot speak for the entire range, I assume that the anatomy of the Orks was the same on Black Reach as in the rest of the Galaxy. What you see here in the first image is the back, bum 'n legs. While I appreciate there is something of a troll-like theme throughout the Ork range - long arms, shorter legs, the back is inexcusible. There is absolutely no depth to the model's torso: no chest cavity to speak of, it doesn't really come out from the legs at all; most significantly, to me, is that total lack of a back. As such, I am giving him one, this will also have the nice effect of bulking him up a lot as well.

The beginnings of this can be seen in the next picture - please bear in mind that this is a very rough WIP, it's merely bulking rather than shaping at this stage. I've built up some flesh to bring it more in line with the creatures boote.

This image shows my other problem with the Ork range. Those damn necks. I just do not like them at all, this is personal preference.

The fix (ish)
As such, I've began to build up more of a neck to the creature. I'm more envisaging those 'gym muscles' (Traps) that the gym bunnies get when they stay on the 'roids all year and spend their day shrugging and screaming at the gym mirrors. Big and bulky, but to me, more anatomically stable for one, and secondly removing a little bit of the hunchedness of the Orks. This can be seen below, along with the beginnings of some detailing on one side of the body (those finger prints will be covered up!). I've included a shot of one of my marines for scale. They're currently the same height (roughly) if you take the slant of the base into account, and when I stretch the legs a tiny bit the nob will be a couple of mm bigger, as the descriptions in various books state. Normal Orksies will still be slightly smaller than my Marines though.

Oh, and this is the PIP of the marine incase anyone was wondering. I tried some zenithal highlighting with the airbrush, I'm not sure how it's gone, so I'll have to wait for the finished piece for a true verdict, but it does seem a bit stark at the moment, though perhaps that's because of the pose not allowing much of the model to the light.

I'll have the WIPs of my Khorne Daemon Prince up tomorrow, he's in a delicate stage at the moment and I didn't want to move him.

Wow.

Now that that's off my chest I think I'll be able to get some sleep tonight.
If anyone has any questions, comments, criticism (but not a gag order!!) please fire away!!! It helps a lot to focus projects down to the nitty gritty.
-Blissful Brushes-

Great ideas for the Ork!
I like the Orks but the GW poses put me off them a little.
Are you planning to bulk up his neck a bit more?
I think that he should have either his head a little lower or more of a muscley neck," around the base near his shoulder area.

Just some ideas, keep it up!

only thing about the TS marine is that his legs look a little thin, that might just be the camera angle tho.

I honestly would have just swapped the orks out altogether for a 3rd party range. I'm sure there are some much more awesome orks out there that wouldn't require as much work.

@HoeJarris: Think I'll be bulking it up a bit more, the head was just tacked on to show the idea, though I do agree that more muscle is required. He been at dem shrugz
@Galorn: Perhaps, it's just getting the balance between terminator thighs (which I find too bulky), and these, which are evidently a little on the chicken side of life. Do the MkIII legs look more proportionate (Axe veteran)
@bossfearless: I already have these, and you're probably right, but I like the modelling, I think the only game I've ever played was 2 5 man tac squads, a captain and a landraider and a terminator squad against the Dark vengeance DA. I just like choppin' modellz!!!

So today I decided I'd work on the warhound a bit, I went from this:


To this:


I'm hoping to get this beast done by Gamesday 2014, though I think that's highly unlikely when the scope of the project is actually considered...still, it'll make a nice entry for vehicle/diorama I hope!

Below are some things that are currently on the workbench, a slightly converted Angron, a Vostroyan vox operator, and most of my tanks...still got a pair of 'raiders, a rhino and a 2nd ed Vindicator (think it's 2nd ed anyway...) in a draw.

Greetings one and all,

Daemon Prince
I've got a lot more progress done on the Daemon Prince, and more besides this since these photos - started on the legs properly now. Incidentally, the legs are an absolute pain to repose, so one of them may have to be tactically covered up by something...depends on how it turns out.

Anyway, here's the finished shots of its head, I don't think I'll add anything more to it, perhaps a symbol in the crest, depends on my mojo and if there's anything that strikes me at the time. Its got the butchers nails sculpted into the back of its head. Originally, it was going to have a Myrmidon gladiator helmet, but sculpting the brim was driving me crazy; so I pulled it off and settled for a more conventional helmet and kept the plume, 'cause I'm quite partial to it, and it should be quite fun to paint. Also pressed in a small chaos star, though whether it's very good or not is up for debate..

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Sadly, the one thing I've forgotten to do is weather the helm like I have with the rest of the armour; it looks a bit smoother than the rest of it, though I suppose one could argue that with the Daemon Prince being such a huge ...thing... it takes a long reach to hit him in the chops...

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Since this image I've got the main breastplate touched up and weathered, the beginnings of the armour plating for the right arm blocked in - nothing fancy at the moment; the leg armour is also proceeding apace: the shin plating is complete, it's just awaiting either straps, or a few incisions and a bit of GS to look as if it has grown out of the skin, it depends on what people advise/practicality of the sculpting itself.

Orks
I've made some more progress on the Ork, I've got a lot more of the armour and neck sculpted in. Since this picture the neck and the head are completed and more bulked out - I'll put up another image later today. The aim with the armour was to weather it heavily in the sculpting itself to make it look pitted; Orks don't come across as the kind of species who spend all of their time polishing their kit.


Off the image I've added spacers to the legs to stretch them out a lot more, so as it stands this bugger is massive, bigger than even my truescale marines, which is just how I picture them, the Nobs at any rate. The average Ork tends to be described as on a par with, if not larger than Space Marines so I've attempted to reflect this in the build. The one thing I'm not sure about at the moment is the legs - not the size, just how they're going to be dressed - should they have armour plating, or should they just be trousers with heavy boots?

Any comments, questions or queries are more than welcome, and if anybody has any ideas or suggestions I am more than open to them!!

So I suffered another bout of what I imagine many here are familiar with when walking past GW: a Resin/Plastic addiction hit.. I walked out feeling quite restrained, having only bought a single paint pot...and one of those new tactical squads.

Of course they'd be inappropriate for my Pre-Heresy what with being loaded primarily with post-heresy armour and prototype MkVI so I needed a Chapter. Chapter, feels like such a dirty word after focussing all of my attentions towards the legions. My original choices were Deathwatch or I Company Ultramarines.
So I ruled out Deathwatch...then while I was browsing the SM 'dex I stumbled upon my old love...Black Templars, which once more brings me to square 1...Templars or Smurfs this time.
 
To keep productive without making a final decision (that Ultramarine symbol can be scraped off easily enough and I can always make another..) I've started on the chest plate and the extra leg armour that those Sternguard sets have. One thing I've never seen is an ornate MkVI plate, so I've decided that the only logical thing to do is to make one. So I'm sculpting in a stylised Aquila, with the head and body of the eagle being the nexus of the cabling on the plate, with the eagle's wings following the curve of the cables.
The reference that I'm following is this image, which I believe is from the Lexicanum, though it's just the result of a Google search of Aquila...

 
The thigh plate has some tentative battle damage pressed into it so far, and I'm thinking about just leaving it at that, these marines, be they Templars or Ultras, will be a bit cleaner than my usual style. Though I will of course reshape the bottom of the plate to bring them more in line with the box-set ones, and I'll probably sculpt or freehand (if I ever touch a brush again) something pretty to keep it from being too bland.
So here he is, Dave the Marine, oh, and his head fell off and one of his GS eyes fell off and I can't find it, so he's down to a single bionic eye rather than the full suite that I was going to give him.

I'm working on the other side of the Aquila as we speak, so I'll probably stick that up tomorrow.
 
Comments, questions and criticism are welcomed as ever!

Very nice luna wolf veteran and the bulked up Ork is great. I'm most impressed by the demon princes armour, especially the weathering, keep it up!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news especially on such great work, but the XIV legion was the Deathguard, The Luna Wolves were the XVI 16th legion. I just rechecked the old codex and was reading the new Horus Hersey book "The wolf of ash and fire" (free download on ibooks right now) and it was vivid in my memory. I see you have sculpted it on the torso of your leader and painted it on the shoulderpads as XIV.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, just thought you might want to know before you get too far with the rest of the army.

I'm off to shoot the messenger now........Bang

@Mr Sighs: Thanks a lot Prince is back on the desk once this Marine is built up, so hopefully I'll get some decent progress on that front, though probably not a spot of paint.
@Theophony: Don't worry, it's a company marking not legion marking, Legion numerals don't feature that much when the symbol denotes their loyalty well enough.

So I've made a mock-up of his final pose and base, it's obviously very rough and the arms will fit properly when there's not 2mm of GS messing things up. Since this photo I've started sculpting in the body of the Aquila itself, I've got one side, the rest of the tail and a claw in now. My only conundrum is how to add some parchment to his left shoulder pad to get the Smurf symbol in because it's lacking on his studded pad, any suggestions to this end would be appreciated.


Hopefully the aquila will be finished tomorrow!

C&C is welcome as ever!

Righty then, my first Marine is finished! (Unless anyone can think of anything else that needs to be added to him anyway) After looking through Veteran Sergeant's awesome log I decided that I'd try adding an extra spacer mid-shin, and while it's certainly a bit more work, I'm happier with the results. The only issue is that because I suck so badly with plastic-card I have to just use it as a tiny spacer then GS around it which is a pain in the proverbial, but such are the problems of life.
Here's the obligatory scale shot, bearing in mind that the Ultra is in more of a squatting position than the standard marine, and the MkIII helms are quite tall. Compared against one of my pathfinders - the upright sculpt - he towers over it nicely.


Here's a few better images of him, the only thing that I'm not sure about is the positioning of his head, but that can be worked out if it's deemed a bit awkward.




I filed down the back of the combat knife and made it look a bit more deadly, saw teeth at the back and an edge at the rear. The paper towel is going to be the battered remains of a squad banner (his old squad) in place of the customary Chapter/Legion symbol on the left pad. How I did it comes from our good old GS guru BCK's Log, Page 47


Thought I'd throw in a close up of the aquila on his chest because I'm very happy with that, took me a bleeding age to finish though! I'm not sure if it can be made out properly, but where the GS is on the bolter I moved the skull down to the magazine housing, stuck the barrel in line with the cocking handle and in that thin layer of GS etched a small kill tally. It should show up with a couple of washes hopefully though!



I hope people like it, any suggestions would be appreciated, let's hope it's time to force people to like Smurfs again..damn you Ward...

C&C is welcome one and all.

Wow, it's been a while! I've not really done much in the way of Luna Wolves really, and my Ultramarines are a bit too close to post-Heresy to be anywhere but off-topic on this board.
Though I am thinking of Heresying them up, with the odd piece of MkVI being the highest armour denomination, and the rest just being Greenstuffed from the standard tactical box-sets, just because I like 30k too much...but I also want them to be First Company...dilemma!

Onto a couple of bits that I've been doing in my hiatus from this log then..

I got my mate back home to take a decent photo of the first completed Luna Wolf, and he certainly looks better in a decent photograph! I've written some fluff for him too, because I'm procrastinating (this essay is hurting..)

It’s been a while I’ve been this exhausted, I thought wryly as I bisected yet another soldier. That said, I suppose, as I mused to myself, it has been a while since I fought another marine outside the cages.
It was over in in a few short seconds, the rush of ex-Imperial Army soldiers petering out as they met our blades and bullets, my recently repainted pearly white armour awash with blood and smoke.
It was then that the fight would begin again in earnest. We all knew this. The soldiers hadn’t stopped coming because they’d lost momentum. They’d stopped coming because their mission was to hold us up. It was our mobility that was causing the traitors so much trouble. Even now, after having heard the reports of Isstvan it was hard to believe, hard to call warriors who had been our brothers enemy. Harder yet to believe that they were camped outside our city walls attempting to lay waste to all that we held dear.
Now they came for us. Warriors of Iron. The Fourth. A melancholy breed indeed, but good in a fight. They die hard. Out of all of the legions, other than the World Eaters, it was the Fourth who surprised me least, they were always bitter, always angry. They were given the bad jobs and Perturabo wasn’t popular, always overlooked, mocked. It ground at their spirit, and then Olympia…we’d all heard about that.
They moved with perfect economy, bolters sweeping around corners, grenades thrown through entrances, Salamander, Iron Hand and Raven Guard kill trophies hanging from their belts, keen to add the Luna Wolves to their collections.
“Steady lads, give ‘em a volley then get your iron into them.” Sergeant Artos spoke confidently down the vox. “You know the drill.”
As they rounded that last corner we were waiting for them.
“Fire!” Artos roared.
Three fell, dead. One dropped wounded, his arm seared clean by a melta gun.
“Into them Venatores, for the Emperor and the honour of the legion!”
I took the first shot onto my chest, knocking me back with a wince of pain. Then I was among them, goring my blade up through the groin cabling of the first, my oath of moment flapping in the wind. I felt the blood wash up my chest. A quick squeeze of my blade’s trigger cleaned it of the detritus of war: mangled ceramite and muscle. The next came for me, with a short-hafted siege axe, his bolter empty.
I took the blow onto my shield, allowing the softer metal to catch and hold the head while I butted him and twisted my arm away from him. My other hand released the chainsword and reached for his belt, drawing and stabbing him through the throat in less time than it takes to tell. I was screaming, my face awash with blood as I wrenched the dagger out of his body.
Then, silence. Just the eerie whistle of the wind blowing away the smell of cordite and blood.
Twenty short seconds had left twelve dead marines, two of ours. Ten of theirs.
As I crouched by the dying Iron Warrior, sucking in oxygen I gasped, “welcome to Aesir traitor.”

+++
Siege of Aesir
+++



Since this model a lot has happened with regards to how I approach truescaling. From now onwards the chest will be a little bit smaller, and the legs, specifically the thighs, will be broader (everyday's a leg day!) because a lot of the comments that I've had have been that he needs to get squatting a bit more, so squat he shall!

For the marines I have that are on foot, I will be organising them into a Reaver army, and with the advent of this unbound malarky, I should be able to field some nice fluffy lists without having to have the two least mobile HQ choices holding up my line (Malgohurst, and a Master of Signals; neither of which can jump pack, or do what I want).
The next FW order that I make will depend entirely on whether I have a job for one, and if I do, how feasible it is to truescale Bikes. If it is, I want 60 Outriders.

I've been working on two reavers then. The first is a fairly run-of-the-mill MkIV, though I need to see how he shapes up bulk-wise to the second.





The second is modelled on the Massacre Artwork on the Reavers' page:


This is my current progress on it. As yet, I'm a bit stuck on how to proceed with the Eye of Horus in the middle. I was thinking of a crescent moon perhaps.



Here's a couple of Ultramarines platebodies that I'm working on at the moment.
Tangentially, does anybody have any images of what 'Praetor' pattern power armour looks like. I'd like my Smurfs to mainly be armoured in that to be honest. It makes sense that they'd be in it post-heresy too as it was a locally produced pattern.



I'm not overly sure how I'd PH this up, but I'm sure that inspiration will hit somewhere along the way..



I'm thinking of 'MkIVing' that last plate because it would give me the room I need to sculpt something in the eagle's claws.
Incidentally, this is the image that this was based on:


If I leave the thunderbolts in there, that could be a Terran veteran perhaps. Also, because it's not the Palatine Aquila, it should be allowed right?


I think that by the end of this post, despite this having meant to have been primarily a Luna Wolves post, I've ended up deciding that the Smurfs will be PH Smurfs Lol.

That's all for now folks, there's a chance of a further update on the eagle chest plate, but the Reaver is doing my head in at the moment! Any comments, criticism etc. is more than welcomed!!

Right then, so it's been quite a while since I've done anything to this blog; much of the modelling that I have done has been fairly minimal and not really worth writing or photographing to be honest.
 
Now that I've got to get 600 points built and painted for a campaign at the end of September I've got back into the swing of things with 10 marines at various stages of completion. I present to you today the first of said marines.

Proportionally, this is what I'm settling with. The legs have been bulked up as suggested, and I've built up the arms so that the look a little bit less spindly. Whether I do anything with the hands remains to be seen. I'm personally not in favour of resculpting/buying a load of GK terminator hands to use because it'll be a right pain, but if it's necessary, it's necessary.





I've decided that I'd sculpt the lower plates of shoulder armour in because the terminator pad doesn't quite fit as snug as I'd like. To which end, I'll probably have to have a little play to try and make it a bit better. On a practical note, however, the pad would need to be able to move with the shoulder in order to be remotely effective and thus could not be as tight to the rest of the armour as the standard models imply. That's what I'm going with anyway.


 




On the whole I'm pretty chuffed with it, he looks massive compared to a normal marine/human let alone Tau. My biggest conundrum is basing: 25mm or 40. In gaming terms, is a 40mm ok for PA marines?

List-wise for the campaign my options are pretty limited. What I think is the best option is:

Master of Signal
naked 15 man Tactical Squad. (M.O.S will sit with these and give them his signum for the +1 BS) - 5BS Fury of the legion
15 man Tactical Squad with vex, vox extra cb weapons, artificer armour
naked Predator

I don't think I can do much with 600, but that's 31 3+ saves and a pred so should be viable if not awesome.
Any modelling/gaming comments, criticism and platitudes are more than welcome! I bid you all good evening

This is my Tactical Squad Sergeant coming along quite nicely now I think. The cape needs some touching up, though for a first go I'm pretty happy with it, a right pain in the...though!











Here he is now, almost ready to paint! Just a bit of tidying up with the cloak to go. Hopefully painting will start sometime next week Not sure whether or not I should sculpt something over where the cape attaches on his bolted arm though, maybe wrap it so it goes underneath the shield on his right? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!

There will be miracles today it seems...I have been painting! This is something that almost never happens...but I like tanks, it's just getting around to doing it...

This is the first of what is probably going to be an unhealthy fleet of tanks. As you'll see from the pictures there's still a hell of a lot of work to go, the sponsons, heavy bolters and the tracks need some more work as well as the roof and exhausts.















Any comments/criticism and suggestions or questions are more than welcome!!
Until next time I suppose - which, hopefully will be quite soon, getting into it all again now.