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Hey all, this is my first WiP thread on Dakka Dakka. I'm going to give a quick introduction, explain what this log is about, then ramble on about my workspace and give out general advice. you are free to ignore this fist post if you just want pretty pictures, I'm just feeling out what Dakkites look for in a thread.

My name is Mark. I'm 34 years old, and have been playing Warhammer for about seventeen years. I'm not a tourney player anymore, My main focus is usually on having my army look cool, along with story-line based games and the occasional Campaign. I currently play Orks for 40k, along with Skaven and Beasts of Chaos for Fantasy. I have played almost every army at some point for both systems. I can sculpt and scratch build.
here's my Greater Chaos Dragon http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n109/conversionman/finished%20dragon/
And my Blasta Bomma http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n109/conversionman/finished%20blasta%20bomma/
Here's a smattering of other skills, both related to Warhammer and not. http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n109/conversionman/awesome/
I am currently going to school for a fine arts degree. http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n109/conversionman/2-D%20artwork/

The only last bit about me is if you have seen the movie "Are you scared 2." I played one of the killers in it, and did all the special effects/gore make-up in it. Not the best movie I've seen, but I was a part of it so I like it. (aside from that, did you see the Elsa Lacaster My Little Pony?!? 'cause that's just the bees knees, my internet friends. Don't try to impress the girls with ACTUAL miniatures, impress them with what you can do with the skill set.)

What I'm going to do over the next two weeks is pad out my Orks for an apocalypse game against my roomie, who will be playing Tyranids. I'm going to be using my shiny new Blasta Bomma, so he's gonna need some AA guns for his tyranids.
For the Orks, I'll be making two Ruzz Bots (one from an actual Leman Russ, the other from a new Land Raider,) three Deffskulls looted Rhinos, a Bad Moons looted Rhino, A looted Medusa, and a vanilla looted Leman Russ.
For the Tyranids, I need to make some slug-like AA creatures, so he has something to shoot at the bomma with. The scenario we wrote only has the bomma in the sky for two turns (it has to land mid-game,) so three or four will suffice.
I'm starting with the Orks, because they're way more fun to build than sculpting Tyranids.

Before I start posting pictures and rambling on like the drunken grandpa at Christmas, let me talk briefly about my threads. I do appreciate all compliments, comments and questions, I just don't want to hear empty insults. if you have a beef with something I've done, speak up and explain what you don't like, and what you would have done differently. I have no use for "I don't like it," or "Its missing something....." Explain your point of view, and give constructive criticism.
I know I got mad skillz, but I would not be as good as I am without the gentle word of a friend in my ear, pointing out where I could have done better. Either you are that gentle friend, or you're a fishmonger. DO NOT make me break out antiquated insults to weave around the cussing filter on this board!

On to the project!
Basically, I'm working on a deadline. I'm very fast at mass-producing miniatures, something I've not really gone into detail about in threads before. This is that thread! I will be making eight Ork vehicles from start to finish, along with three or four Tyranid AA guns, all within a space of two weeks. There are two kinds of projects for me, the quick and the skilled. this is a quick one. The way I see it, if you have an awesome Blasta Bomma on the table, no one will notice your tanks are sub-par.
To give an example, my Skaven army has over 800 painted miniatures in it. When I started it, I had a lot of crazy ideas for unit conversions. I decided that what would be most impressive would be a huge FINISHED army, not a few well done units. so I cranked out 256 clanrats and slaves in under a month. To accompany them onto the battle field, I made a few army centerpieces, including a lightning cannon tunneler, and a screaming bell pulled by rat ogres and pushed by a giant. no one noticed my hastily painted slaves and clanrats, I can assure you that.

So by applying the tried-and-true method of misdirection, I'll be cranking out some tanks to pad my forces. (I had a very large Ork army at one time, but decided to redo most of it. in an effort to "inspire" me to get-er-done, I dipped the whole sorry mess. I'm talking two GALLONS of degreaser. man, I'm dumb.) at any rate, I started with my Ork "whole tank" bits box.



I settled on a Leman Russ, a Land Raider, three old Rhinos, a new Rhino, and a Chimera chassis.
You may ask, "how does one get sick enough to obtain a "whole tank" bits box?" (double quotations in the first post, kind risky if you ask me.) well gentle reader, I'll tell you. I do miniature work for free at my local gaming store. (well, my old one at any rate. started school when I moved to Sacramento, so I'm still the new fish at my new store.) At any rate, no good deed goes unturned.
"Do you have a mark VI beaky helmet?" they might query. "I do," I reply, and fetch it for them. "I'm having problems with these seams on my new Hellcannon," they say, as I grab my putty to fix it. "I glued these dragon wings to my Daemon prince, but the joint is quite unseemly. can you smooth it for me, post-haste?" I reply, "Why yes kind sir, I can most certainly fix your prince. Why, when I am done, surely he will be fit for a daemon king!" Perhaps I gain a chortle for my play on words, but then again, perhaps not.
What I do get, is the occasional "hey, I don't play space marines anymore, you want this Whirlwind?" or "My son quit playing after meeting girls, but he told me to tell you thanks for all the painting lessons, and he wanted you to have these models." Kindness can be virtuous. Although it is usually its own reward, it can sometimes be the reward of small plastic and pewter men, or the things that carry them to battle.

But I digress. After selecting the vehicles I will make, I write out what each one will need to be WYSIWYG. I clean up my modeling station, and lay them out.


Each one has a gear list, along with what Klan the vehicle is for. I actually like to start my conversions with the Klan in mind, so I can tailor the look to it. Bad Moonz are snazzy, Deffskullz are looty, and Evil Sunz are sleek. I also have a huge grot contingent, so I like ever few looted vehicles to be theirs. Grot vehicles are shabby.

At this point, I'm going to share pictures of my modeling room, so feel free to tune out if your just here for the models. I always slide between too much info and not enough. If I'm giving too much for you, just scroll down my posts till you see pictures, Then enjoy the pictures. If I'm not giving enough info, ask questions. If you're shy you can PM me, but chances are if you want to ask it, someone else will also benefit from the answer.

To start with, I go through all my bits and make a few special Ork vehicle bits boxes. I also lay out some empty bins, to ease the sorting process.


These contain my "tank parts" bits, guns, chunks of plastic, and various other curios I've collected through the years. I really like having tons of options while building most Ork stuff. The Blasta Bomma was an exception, I was re-creating a small scale vehicle into 40k scale, so a HUGE amount of time was spent on minute details. With general tanks, I have no such restrictions. I also don't really think ahead with Orks, I kinda build as I go.

Next up, I organize my shelves so all my Ork stuff is ready and accessible. If I need a bit, old or new, I want to know where it's at.



While building, I like to keep a second table handy. This is primarily my painting table, but its good for storage while I build. I also have two Dremels set up and ready to go, along with basic colors. If your making an enclosed structure with white plastic, its good to have black paint handy for the inside of the model. (trust me on this one.) I like the double Dremel action because I usually find myself only using a few bits for each project. By having both, I cut down on time by not having to change the bit. You can also see my clay, I use a product called "Magic sculp." Not only can you sculpt and fill gaps with it, its a great bonding agent for larger seams. The smaller tubs are "magic smooth," a thinner version of the clay, but just as strong.


While were talking about supplies, the next picture is my bulk plastic. The large sheet is a 2' X 2' sheet of PVC, courtesy of TAP plastic. PVC is very easy to use, though a bit heavy at times. you can buy it in tubes and odd shapes at most hardware stores that carry plumbing supplies. TAP sells it in sheets. It's great for terrain bases, or heavy building constructing. you can also order Magic Sculp through them. In front of the larger sheet is my latest order from http://www.indplastic.com/ Do You want good, cheap plastic? If you're in the states, try these guys. What you see stacked against my closet is four 1'x2' sheets of .080, eight 1'x2' sheets of .060, and thirty two sheets of .040 polystyrene plastic. I got all of that for about seventy dollars with shipping. I think you may have missed that, so I'll say it again. I got all of that for about seventy dollars with shipping. If you want a lot of plastic, these are the guys to use. The front two sheets are clear acrylic sheets. they're a 1/4th inch thick. At this point in the game, you need a table saw to cut it. great terrain/large model bases, if you have the hardware to work it. The acrylic is also from TAP plastics. The bucket in front is plastic remnants, along with sheets from PLASTRUCT and Evergreen models. Although indplastic whoops their asses in the sheet department price-wise, PLASTRUCT and evergreen have small-scale tubes, rods, H-beams, I-beams, tubes, half-rods, diamond plate, and a host of other model-building gubbins. Not to mention gridded sheets of styrene, which is how I do all my checkered prints for ork vehicles.


because I have already revealed so many secrets, I may as well continue the tour of my modeling room. here's the solvents, primer, epoxy glue, odd bits, water effects (used to make stuff ultra-glossy,) and used bourbon bottles. there's also a small TV. this is very important for maintaining focus. Speed painting is a marathon, not a sprint. (authors note: the TV is good for maintaining focus, not the bourbon.)


To that end, keep both inspirational books and DVDs handy. I'm serious about movies and TV. I also enjoy music, That works great in a pinch. (oh, and don't judge my taste in TV. a lot of that was chosen because its fun to paint to. especially Buffy, my entire Skaven army was painted to all seven seasons of it, along with all five seasons of angel. did I mention my huge Skaven army? and besides, I use to work in a rare/cult movie store. I have movies that would make you vomit and your hair turn white. I'm "cool," don't judge me. awww... who am I kidding?!? I'm just a nerd. Say, out of curiosity, whats the statute of limitations on the amount of words in parenthesis? I mean, seriously, I should just stop this.)




My second book shelf. It has more reference books, and a few miniatures.




And lastly my closet, which is filled with all manner of finished and unfinished miniatures. (whats sad is the "not pictured" stuff in the garage. I only keep stuff I'm working on in my modeling room.)





Well, I figure if you lasted this long listening to a longbeards grumblings, you should win an award. The important thing is to have a clean, comfortable space to work on miniatures. My personal preference is huge chunks of time, often ten to fourteen hours, to crank out models. Whatever your preference is, a good, clean, well stocked room or corner is your best bet. I like all my tools and materials easily at hand, I hate it when anything disrupts the artistic flow. You can look forward to random bouts of "wisdom" in my future posts, as I gear up to hammer out some models. Please, tell me how to make the posts to what you want to hear about. If you don't care for random advice, say so. If you do, say so. If you're on the fence either way, maybe its time to take sides.

I'm gonna crank this up into high gear tomorrow, I should have a large post by the evening.

Woah, what a post.
I think I remember seeing both your dragon and you bomma in other forums around the interwebs and thus I am quite excited to see some more of your work.

I do appreciate the time and effort invested into this post It got me through a tough part of the day !

Sweet stuff, its nice to see Im not the only addict with a room just for my modeling stuff ^_^

Excellent post - look forward to seeing more of your output, both modelled and written. Particularly intrigued to see what you're planning with the tractor (DVD shelf pic)!

Some real effort put into this post. Well done.

The models are incredible too.

Cheers,

Jack.

Great post indeed, and I'll be looking forward to seeing your Orks and Nids conversions!

subscribed!

Time for the midday update!

I woke up around six thirty this morning, got some breakfast and coffee, and started hammering away. for my viewing pleasure, I went with a smooth yet mellow Xena: Warrior Princess. I would be hard pressed to find a Sam Rami project that I do not like, and I have a special place in my heart for cheesy TV and movies. It really works to not have to think about what to watch next, I can just concentrate on modeling while Xena and Gabriel have some wacky adventures.

To start with, here's a shot of the two tanks I'll be working on first. As you can see, the Russ already has the beginnings of his carapace. (I meant to make one a while ago, but canceled it for some reason.) I'll start with the Land Raider to give you step by step pictures.



I need to have them both done before Sunday evening, If I'm going to keep the schedule I'll need to get everything done in time. I went with the hardest tanks first for two reasons. The first is They will require the most thinking, so I want to get them out of the way before my brain turns to mush around Wednesday. The second is they are the highest point cost models, so if I need to fill out points I can just drop the Rhinos, and my Deffskulls can just footslog Their lazy butts across the battlefield. besides, the smaller Ruzz Bot will be for them anyway.

The Land Raider will be a Badmoon tank. When I'm done it should resemble a smallish stompa, with a killkannon, 'ard case, grot riggers, armour plates, grabbin' klaw, regular kannon, 2 big shootas, and 2 rokkit launchas.

First, I drew the basic template onto graph paper, then taped it down to a sheet of .040 sheet styrene. When I tape it to the styrene, I also put tape along all the lines you are going to cut. this gives the blade a bit of bite when I use it, lessening the chances of slipping.



For most projects, I use .040 thickness. I only go for thicker if its needed structurally, or if the plastic needs to stand on its own without bending. The thicker the card, the more difficult it is to manipulate. As for the design itself, I just measured the tank, and sort of guessed at the dimensions I would need. You cant really do this for imperial vehicles and conversions, but we will let the tech-priests worry about such problems. This is a Mek garage, close enough is good enough.

Next, I cut the pattern out of the sheet, starting with the inside lines first. When you cut plastic, the goal is not to cut through the plastic, but rather score it, then snap off the pieces when your done.



if your crafty like me, you can even break it along the score lines without separating the card. this is useful for all the inside lines, so you don't have to tape it all together later.



(Turns out I'm not so crafty, I had to tape the inside in a few places.)

Next up, I glued it down to the tank. I wound up having to trim it a bit with cutters to make the angle what I wanted.



After I had the initial sizing, I decided to modify it a bit. I didn't like how it bulged out, and figured I could make it look less plain. I made the bottom plates fit a little better, and added a piece of plastic to the back.




At this point, I had my basic shape. With free-form projects like this, I tend to jump around the model a lot. once I have an idea locked in, I try and finish sections at a time, but I find breaking the tedium keeps me on task.

I decided to knock out the back first, so I added some diamond plate where a door is gonna be (its the white card, the detail got washed out,) and some new, better tail pipes. (damn Mars pattern engines sound like a kitten purring. who the hell wants to go to war in a quiet tank?)



You'll noticed my carefully posed shot. (I think I would make a find hand model, thank-you-very-much.) I did this to show off one of the coolest tools I use, Its a pair of reverse tweezers (pressing opens the tweezers instead of closing them.) These are super for doing fine detail work, I like them much better than regular tweezers.

Next up, I finished the back door and rounded out back details in general.



Next bit, I wanted a wooden ladder going into the hull from the side. The armored top gives three access points, one to each side and one to the rear. I know its not super necessary to have doors modeled on, but I like to look at it as an excuse to shape the project.



Those astute readers who haven't fallen asleep yet will notice I posed again for the shot. I just wanted to show the technique of gluing the whole wall together, than cutting out the hole I wanted with the Dremel. All you need is the flex-shaft attachment, and a nice cutting wheel. dont bother with the crappy sand cutting wheels, get a good thin blade. I do this because its WAAAAY faster then cutting out all the individual sized pieces and trying to glue them all together with a neat hole in the middle.

Once I had the hole carefully cut, I promptly forgot about it, and added a ton of detail to the front. I like the layered armor effect, I really want this solid looking. I also glued strips of plastic onto the teeth, to reinforce them and make it look cool. Strips of plastic are nice, you can buy them in all kinds of sizes.



next up, I started assembling the Killkannon from PVC joints and plasitc tubing. I also added the shoulder base plate. (the pictures a little whited out, the kannon is next to the tank, looking suspiciously like a crack pipe. I have a swing light I use that goes over my worktable, I need to remember to turn it off for pictures.)



I got the kannon set on the shoulder mount, and decided it needed a huge honkin' blade. I Cut it from a thick piece of .080, and shaped it with the Dremel bit that looks like a Christmas tree. (For those of you playing the home game, I pretty much use the Christmas tree but and a cutting wheel, 90% of the time.)



Alright! I have some errands to run, then its back to work for me! I should have another long-winded post sometime this evening.


Say, My long-winded approach and random thoughts interjected with modeling advice isn't driving anyone crazy, is it? I'm kinda trying a new approach to how I make threads. I'm going more for a "how-to" approach, rather than a "this is what I'm doing" approach.

@ mistress of minis: I don't have a problem, I can quit anytime. Yup, aaaany ole' time I want. I just, um... "choose" to be a model maker, yeah, that's it, that's the ticket. I'm more of a "social" gamer. I mean, yeah, I might have a game or two when I'm alone, but who doesn't?

@ necroagogo: The tractor is for my brother, he wants me to turn it into a killdozer for him. I'm waiting till Christmas to do it, I want to weasel out of getting him a present.

@ everyone else: Thanks for the support, and I'm glad you like the writing. I'm trying to have fun with posting, rather than just picture dumping.

Just looking up that film you did the make up for, are you this guy?

Yup, that's me. Keep in mind the only thing I had a hand in was the effects and make-up, along with some hammy acting. well, if you want to call stomping around in a mask acting, that is.
I sculpted the mask too, while were on the subject.

@ corpsesarefun: Hey, I just noticed your signature, do you still need help with how-to on low budget effects? I am the king of cheap gore.

Now that personal pleasantries are out of the way, I give you the (drum roll)

Evening update!

After running my errands, I'm ready to start modeling again. To start things off, I switch from coffee to Guinness. The main reason for the switch is this allows me to fully enjoy drinking Guinness, as I would not be able to otherwise. (because coffee does not take like Guinness, only Guinness does.)

Moving on, I continue to watch me some Xena, and add more detail to the back, as well as a breech loader for the Killkannon.



I decide that the honkin' huge blade is just a wee bit silly, so I tear it off. I'm sure I'll get some use out of it, so I put it with the other bits I made that have failed me. I also start building up the shoulders.



Once the shoulders are built, I make a turret and a stand for my two big shootas. In looking at the pictures now, I can see that some detail work is hard to see. I think I'm going to supplement the WiP pics with some more pro grade pics from time to time, so as to keep the apperance that I know what I'm doing.



I enclose the lower doorway under the Killkannon, and add some protection for our poor open air big shoota. I may or may not put an Ork up there, I'll see how I feel later. I have enough room to just place a model on top while fielding it, so I might be lazy and just do that. I also added a trap door to the other shoulder. I still need to figure out where the generic cannon is going, as I just took the prime real estate spot for it. (stupid trap door.)



After going over the logistics of actually making a grabba klaw from scratch, I decide to make a wreckin' ball instead. This decision is purely based on time. If I made a klaw proppa, it would take me about six hours give or take. Because this project is the modeling equivalent of speed painting, were gonna go for the quicker conversion. I locate a small Styrofoam sphere, and get my clay ready.



I also decide at this point that I need to start wrapping it up for the evening. I hate looking at a clock, so I throw on a movie. when the film ends, I stop working, easy enough. Tonights selection is one of my favorites, an independent french film called "In my Skin." This movie holds the number two spot on my top ten list of films that I love, and never recommend to anyone, ever. It's a really well done film, Its just not for most people. It's a really arty movie with lots of conversation, and at the same time one of the goriest films I've ever seen. (so no showing to the art house friends because they would throw up, and no showing it to the gore hound friends cause they would hate the boring "talking" parts.) At any rate, Its also on the top ten list of most disturbing I've seen, easily on par with Takashi Mikke films.

(I just don't want anyone watching it, then getting mad at me. If you got the stomach and you like art house movies, by all means, enjoy your movie. Its about a woman who starts to self-mutilate, and goes downhill from there. Trust me, when I guy who used to work in a rare/cult/foreign film rental store tells you a movie is disturbing, you should listen. We used to try and find films that would upset each other. The only rule was they had to be well made, none of that "Faces of death" crap. Most of that stuff is all fake anyway, it was always fun to tell the creepy customers that. Anyone found about about the statute of limitations on parenthesis yet? anyone? cause man, I can ramble. )

Thanks! This has been a Pox film review!

Back to our story, I mixed up the right amount of clay and covered the styro ball with it. I then grabbed my sculpting tools and got ready to do the wreckin' ball.



Awww yeah! more hand poses! I wanted to show off the two tools I use the most. these are clay shapers (I believe that's the brand name,) and they are made of rubber. They're so awesome, I can't even begin to tell you. I use these two, the small chisel and small round, 90% of the time. If you're serious about sculpting, I highly recommend getting some rubber tipped tools, and trying em' out. You can find them at most art supply stores.

After my long winded speech about clay shapers, I realized this job was best suited for a dull metal blade. I did the ball in the same way I made the ball turret for my bomma, I just cut out cool looking random metal shapes. once its dry, I'll have to sand for days and hit it with a file to sharpen the edges of the grooves.



Next up, I started on the head. I have an old epic Gargant head handy for reference. I figured a Land Raider door was a perfect base, so I got one out along with some precut strips of styrene.



That one plate sitting on the door was the front of the jawline. I glued it down, then just started to fill in the head one piece of plastic at a time. I used the epic head for reference, just to make sure I was on track. when I build without a plan like this, I just have a pencil handy to mark off the plastic once I know roughly what size I need it at. I cut, than usually trim or re-cut to make it fit. After doing that for a while, presto! you have a head! (well, no details, eyes, jaw, nose or eyebrows, but a head like shape in which to add all that stuff.)



Thats gonna do it for today, look out tomorrow for you midday update!

so far i like every thing alot

Nice work! I rather like your method of stompa locomotion. I still don't think that the standard GW gargant design would ever be able to walk anywhere

Also for your 'nid AA battery have you considered the Starship Troopers approach?

@ flinty: and the best part about using tanks is I field them as regular Ork vehicles. The one I'm building now is just a Battlewagon, and the smaller on will be a looted vehicle. I did think about the Starship Troopers approach, but I settled on what I could build the fastest.

Midday update!


This is just a quick progress update, I'm gonna save pictures for the evening update.

Plans have been changed a bit, which is radically modifying what I'm doing and the order its done in. My scheduled Apocalypse game is being moved up to next Friday, cutting out a week worth of time to finish projects. To this end I'm re-ordering my project timeline, so the things needed the most get done first. This means the tank mob will get thrown on the backburner for a few days, while I knock out the Tyranid AA guns, and make up the points for my orks a lot faster than building vehicles. I have previously built and primed Ghazghkull, Nazdreg, mad doc Grotsnik, ten mega nobz, and two Warbosses in mega armor. all told its around 1,500 points worth of stuff, so I'm gonna paint those fifteen models today, in between prep work for the AA bugs.

So, instead of tank progress, expect sculpting and speed painting for my evening update. I still hope to get a few tanks done before Friday, I just want to make sure everything else I need is ready to go by then.

I know what you mean about painting/modeling to TV... My Marines are being built and Painted (Mentors Chapter) To Stargate (own everything), helps you stay on track much easier =)

Great work bud! Looking forward to more

@ GammaTau: Its a fact. There's just something about a good distraction that helps the painting process. I use music quite a bit too, or painting with a buddy. My roomie is also shoehorning in a bunch of new projects, so I joined him in the living room for a few hours today, and we watched the burn notice marathon. not the best TV show ever, but good company can make any painting more fun. (we got to spit insults at each other, and just yammered on about ways to make the Apocalypse game smoother.)

Evening update!

My eye is on the prize, At this point Its all about what needs to get done by Friday. To this end, I started with the carapace pieces for my roomies AA guns. Xena is wearing thin, I forgot how bad the first season is. (you know, because it gets soooo much better, haha.)

First up, I grabbed a Carnifex from him to keep basic carapace texture and sizes in mind. I want the AA guns to be a bit bigger than a 'fex, more like terrain. My basic thought is a armor plated slug, with a symbiotic creature on its back. This will give it the appearance of being able to move, and is the simplest way to have the guns pointed up. We are going to use the artillery rules for them in the apoc game.

here's the plates measured out and cut. there will be three plates per slug.



I snapped them out of the sheet, and curled them by hand. The idea is speed, not precision. I'll have a lot of wiggle room in the sculpting process, so I'm being imprecise with the plates for now.



Next, I mixed some clay and covered the plates with a thin layer. I'll add a detail layer later, if I try and manipulate the clay too much at this point, I'll uncurl the plastic.



At this point, I need to let the clay fully set before messing with them more, so onto painting! all told, these bad boys are around twelve hundred points give or take, so this will be all the models I'll need to have ready, if push comes to shove.



How I speed paint: a tangent!

I'm gonna take a quick detour here, and talk about speed painting. Its something I'm really known for locally, but I've never done it in a thread before. I used to give lessons at my store on it, and I want to share some of my thoughts on the subject.
Back in the day, there used to be the idea of "table top" quality, which is to say painting your models up for the purpose of having them painted, and looking good on a tabletop. This style of painting is best viewed at three to four feet, and relies on a different style of painting than you would employ on a character model or tank. Even the old school painting guides talked about this, the philosophy was that if every model was painted to a golden demon standard, no one model would stand out. I still follow this thought, especially when its an army I want to play quickly, or if I just want some new units for a game. as I have said before, people are gonna look at the centerpieces, not the seventeenth ork in your slugga squad.

To this end, I try and keep in mind how a unit as a whole is going to look, rather than individual models. I shoot for a nice clean look That has very sharp highlights. up close it gives the model a cartoony look, but is very nice on a gaming table. In the case of the Mega nobs I really shouldn't rush them, but I can always add more details later. I'll see how far along I am by tomorrow night, and decide then if I'm gonna clear-coat them or not. (I'm rather guilty of doing this, I paint a unit to the minimum for a game, than go back and finish the models to a higher standard later.)

I have a few easy steps for speed painting. The first is a black undercoat. This allows any missed parts to recede into shadows, and if used right will shade the model from the get go. for this to work, you need a good, solid prime job, followed by painting in missed areas and deep recesses with black paint.
The second is attempting no more than two layers of paint over the primer in most cases. I try and base coat using the primer for shading when I can, followed by one carefully applied layer of paint for highlights. I'm sure some foundation paints would make this easy, but I haven't used them yet. (The bulk of my paints aren't citadel, I pretty much just use them for metallics and washes, and most of my washes are from 3nd edition, haha.) This is also one of the few times where you get the advice "don't thin your paints." If you apply them carefully, you can use the richer pigment to your advantage. There are exceptions, however. If you're doing any light, pastel, or white colors you need more than two layers, especially if its over a flat smooth surface. I'm gonna be painting up some Badmoons, so I'll go over the techniques I use later with yellow.
The third is metalics. It's one of the few colors I mix to speed paint, I like to cut mithril or chainmail with a few drops of water, and mix it with about 1/3rd of gray. I'll go various shades of dark gray, depending on what I'm painting. I do use bronze or burnished gold, as needed for highlights. Instead of highlighting the metal, I either just use one layer, or wash it. I use the old armor wash, or black ink thinned down just a touch. for grungier metal bits, I'll use brown ink, either strait or mixed with black.
The last step is minor details. once all the basecoat and highlights are done, I'll go through and paint the little gubbins as needed. things like pouches, necklaces, teeth and eyes, etc. if its on one model, its ona few in the squad, so as I find something I want to pick out, I'll do it to the whole squad.

On the subject of numbers, I like painting between five and twenty models at a time. as I go through each step, I do it to all of them and move on to the next one. more than twenty I find to be too tedious between steps, and less than five doesn't feel like I'm doing it fast enough.
Speaking of fast enough, Time is really the crux of the matter. you need to set whatever time you have aside, and crunch them out. make your painting space as comfortable as possible, and free of things that distract you from painting. movies, music, and TV are fine, cell phones and computers are not. (If I sound like your mother, I apologize. oh, and eat your vegetables.)

I'm sure I'll think of more tips as I finish these models, but feel free to add your own tips as the thread moves on.

Back to the pictures!

To start with, I add a spot of color to the tops of each model. I did this because its gonna be four Deffskull models, four Badmoons, and six Goff models. most are easy to tell apart, I just didn't want to think about which was which while painting them. I also wanted to make sure my base colors went on smoothly in one coat.



I then joined my roomie in the living room for some trash talkin', and painted all their faces. it was a dark green basecoat, followed by a light green highlight.



At this point I did all the Goff armor basecoat.



Unfortunately, none of the rest of my WiP pics came out, so I dont have step-by-step pictures. I'm still working the kinks out of my worktable camera set up.

I did take some good shots so you can see what the hell I'm talking about though. I edged the armor with a brighter red, added the metallic, and detailed the teeth and eyes. one quick tip about the eyes, if you cant see the actual eyeball on the model, dont bother painting them. I'd rather them look dark and brooding, rather than looking like they had too much coffee.
(linked for table breakage.)

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n109/conversionman/Ork%20WiP/bettergoffs_001.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n109/conversionman/Ork%20WiP/bettergoffs_002.jpg

All told, That's about five hours of painting. I'm hoping to get all of them done tomorrow, we shall see. I can't spend the whole day modeling, My other roomie is big into Burning Man, and I got roped into helping some friends of his work on an art car tomorrow. I should still be able to paint before and after we head out there. (well, assuming there's no party when were done workin'. I tell you what, burners know how to throw a shindig.)

awesome post man , I logged on to refocus my eyes and got roped into your thread which bit into my painting time . I guess thats why tv and radio is ok but computers are not huh ?

Anyway awesome stuff love the detailed posts keep at it well back to painting for me .

I followed you here from the "We Love Orks" thread at Warseer.

I batch-paint in much the same way (and there's a reason why 20 of my Sisters of Battle all have different colored anime-style hair) and am a firm believer in the "Tabletop Quality method of painting.

I appreciate the tools and supplies portions as well since once I get a suitable Man Cave(tm) I can start slicing my fingertips again in the glorious pursuit of kitbashing. Like that Stompa Mob made up of only Klawstompas I'd like to send running towards my opponent's Titans...

Looking forward to the Mega Armored Nobz, and how you differentiate the clans through painting and modelling. I've been trading for enough models to hopefully do a "MANz of all Klanz" list one of these days.

I had a blast yesterday working on an art car for burning man. All the people were really nice, burners are great folk. I was sculpting a Styrofoam nose for a golf cart mod. It's gonna be nose glasses and mustache to the front, and a hat with a beanie propeller for the top. should be interesting once its done, all grab some pictures.

Midday update!

I took the armored plates, and sanded them down a bit. I ten took the cutting wheel, and notched the back edges of the plates. lastly, I took a small square file (gale force 9 sells the best file kit on the planet) and expanded the grooves. I was going to add more detail and texture, but the race is on to get this stuff done.



I then lined up the plates and glued them together in an arc. for filler, I used aluminum foil. I just balled it up into the rough shape I would need, and lightly glued it to the shells. I then traced out some bases onto plastic, cut them out, and again lightly glued the aluminum to the bases.



Next, I covered the foil with clay, and then sculpted a simple texture onto it. I'm going to add a "ribbon" around the base once its dry, to give it more of a slug look. (As a bonus, it also makes to slug immune to status effects if it wanders into the "Final Fantasy" worlds. OK, just ignore that last comment, I feel it was too nerdy, even for me.)



I know the texture is simple, but my roomie paints his Tyranids using the "dip" method, so I'm keeping that in mind while I work on the AA slugs.

I cut some plastic tubes to length, and glued them down to the carapace.



Lastly, I put a little clay around the bases of the guns to hold them in place, so they don't snap off while I put detail on them.



They need to dry now, but I'm confident they only need one more layer of clay. I'm going to detail out the guns, and add the ribbon. I'll do this tomorrow morning, So I'll be spending the rest of the day finishing up my Meganobs.

I kept this post (mostly) tangent free, I should get a reward of some sort. I'll be back for the evening update, where I'm sure I'll be back to my usual method of yammering on about things that have nothing to do with miniatures, haha.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Whoa! Back to back updates, that's not a good sign. Whether you like it or not, its time for the

Evening update!

I got the final details on the Goffs done. I do believe I will be going back and touching up the two character models, but they're good enough for the table for now. All told about five hours to paint six good size models.



I decided I rather liked the metal without inking, so I left that at one coat. (It goes well with the red, methinks.) I added some very light gray power cords to the models, along with general touch ups, checker patterns, and dags. An easy tip for those (and any freehand really,) is to draw it onto the model with a pencil, then paint over your sketch. Just be careful not to scratch the coats you have already applied!

With the goff clan out of the way, I move onto Badmoons. I really like the old school all yellow look, so that's how I painted them. Unlike regular speed painting, you have to take a bit more time with brighter colors. One tricked I learned a while ago is that instead of several coats of the same color to achieve the desired shade, I work my way up through the color spectrum. this gives a solid appearance, and I don't really have problems doing whites, yellows, pastel purples, or what have you. because of this, I'm gonna need a whole four layers of paint, instead of the usual two. If I really wanted them to look special, I'd of course do more coats, but this is speed painting, baby.

So to start with, I apply a dark brown coat.



Next I hit it with an ochre yellow. unlike doing the red, I'm fully covering the primer. I dont leave the undercolors showing through, it makes the color look dull or muddy. I'm going for full coverage.



The last full coverage layer is a very bright yellow.



After that I hit it with a pastel yellow edging. My camera batteries need to be recharged, so hopefully you can just see the highlights in my pictures tomorrow.

The lengthy part of the Badmoons is done, so I should be able to wrap them up tomorrow and start the Deffskulls. I finally got to the part in Xena where Callipso shows up, so yay for me, I guess.

I love those old meganobs so much more animated than the standing bricks we have now if I knew then what I know now.

It all looks great
keep it up

ABH

Ah, those Tyranid gun slugs reminds me of the old school Armorcast Exocrines:

@ jin: I meant to mention that I was lightly basing the AA guns off of that model. I didn't have a picture handy of the Armorcast model, but there are drawings of it in the background artwork of the 2nd edition Tyranid codex. This will really become noticeable during the

Morning report!

I am really starting to pick up steam now. I didn't update yesterday, mostly due to wanting to get things done and not wanting to stop and take the time to update. I made a ton of progress, and I am currently ahead of schedule.

To start with, I got the metal on the Badmoons. I went with a darker gray mixed with chainmail, and then picked out details with burnished gold. (Badmoons love their bling.)



only thing left is the attack squig for Nazdreg, I'll paint it when all the big models are done.

Next up, I start painting the Deffskulls. I started with a midnight blue base coat.



Then a lighter blue coverage coat



Changing gears for a second, I add some details to the AA guns. I added some eyes, and started detailing the guns. I switched to the guns because I'm down to fine details, and the clay needs to set in between sculpting.



Back to the Deffskulls, I edge the armor with eggshell blue, and add add some metallics. for the Deffskulls, I add almost 50% sky gray. I really want to wash out the metal bits, and add a nice tone that goes well with the blue armor.



I add some dwarf bronze, which goes well with the blue and gray. I also paint the attack squig, along with nazdregs. (not pictured.) I have no idea why I stopped painting the Deffskulls and painted two squigs.



Xena was starting to wear thin, and it was getting on in the evening. this meant it was time for a movie!
Our feature film is "Versus." "Versus" is easily one of the best zombie action films of all time. made for next to nothing in japan, It launched its creators to huge success. calling themselves the versus project, they made a string of fairly good and popular movies, Including "Azumi" and "Godzilla: Final Wars". The director Ryuhei Kitamura even went on to direct "Midnight meat train" in the US.

If you like fist fights, knife fights, sword fights, gun fights, zombies, buckets of gore, and hate all that pesky "talking" weighing your movie down, this may be the film for you. It's not a horror film by any stretch of the imagination, although it can be pretty gruesome. There is a plot throughout the film, It's very strait and to the point, playing out more like a video game than a movie. There are a few versions of it floating around, try and get the "ultimate Versus" version. If you have the time, grab some friends, grab some beer, kick back, and enjoy the awesomeness that is "Versus." The final fight scene alone is twelve minutes!

Now that zombie goodness was playin' I add some checker patterns to my Deffskulls.



All that's left for the Meganobz are bases and banners. I knocked out the bases, I'll hit the banners today.



As my movie winds down, I add more detail to the gun. It should take one final layer this morning, and them I'm calling the AA guns done. I would like to have spent more time on them, but I simply don't have time to keep poking at them. My roomie needs time to dip them, so I'll add the final details and hand it over to him today.



Thats gonna do it for now. I think I'm just gonna be posting in the morning for the next few days, I only have Today and tomorrow to work on stuff. (as if it wasn't already bad enough the game jumped up a week early, we are now starting at two in the afternoon so we need to be at the gamestore around noon. no painting on friday!)

I see you're a Guiness man as well! Good show sir! Excellent to know there're others here that share the passion for fine beers

Also, the Nobz look great, and those Tyranid AA are simply amazing. It's a shame GW is so strict on casting even the smallest bitz - you could make a killing off of those things

metallifan wrote:I see you're a Guiness man as well! Good show sir! Excellent to know there're others here that share the passion for fine beers

Also, the Nobz look great, and those Tyranid AA are simply amazing. It's a shame GW is so strict on casting even the smallest bitz - you could make a killing off of those things

I'll make pox put up the nid pics today after i get them dipped and they are given time to dry.

Also, the Guiness was what left of what he owed me after drinking mine. Well ok he drank one of mine, but bought another six pack so i could have my Guiness, that fine wonderful draught.

One point of criticism on the Tyranid AA guns:

The guns are growing out of the exo-skeleton, which doesn't quite make sense. They should probably be more attached to the "body" of the slugs with the armored shell going around it.

metallifan wrote:I see you're a Guiness man as well! Good show sir! Excellent to know there're others here that share the passion for fine beers

Also, the Nobz look great, and those Tyranid AA are simply amazing. It's a shame GW is so strict on casting even the smallest bitz - you could make a killing off of those things

Life is too short for cheap alcohol. I enjoyed me a fine Stone Imperial Russian Stout the other night. Probably the best Russian stout ever made, Its just too bad its a seasonal beer from the good people at the stone brewery.

As for the casting comment, I'm just glad that GW graciously lets me use their IP for personal projects. I know they get a lot of heat for various reasons, and they have several business practices that I personally hate. However, allowing your customers free use of your IP for one-off projects (that can even be legally sold) is nothing short of amazing. If I ever make truly unique models, I'll cast the hell out of them. for GW models though, I'm stick sculpting in batches.

Morning report!
The gears are moving, time slowly creeping up on me. I'm really hitting my stride to fight it though, and I'm pretty happy with yesterdays efforts. I basically have just today to finish what I'm going to finish, I want to spend Friday morning getting ready to play, not doing models at the last minute.

To start with, I finished the AA guns and got them off to my roomie to paint. he's dipping them this morning, so I'll have pics for tomorrows update.

I then fixed a quick problem with the canopy on my Blasta Bomma. (thanks to migsula for pointing it out.) I turned the front and back windows from clear to opaque, added rivets to the frame, and painted everything red, to help the cockpit not stick out so much.



I also built a flight stand for it.



I followed this by putting the last touches on my skullhamma. remember when I said I got models to battlefield readiness, and then add details later? this is one of those times. here's the before shot. I needed to clean it, so I put it in the shower and set it outside to dry.



I detailed out the boiler engine, dirtied it up a bit, fixed some of the metal plating, and added the razorwire to the front. I always loved the old artwork and ideas of Orks using "rolling fortresses." This is my attempt to make just that.



I'm not gonna have time to finish any of the actual tanks for the game, so I'm just getting random models finished. Here's a shot of the old Ghazghkull and twenty skarboyz I'm gonna try and finish today.



Followed by three Deffkoptas with bombs. I'm gonna do the kopters first, they'll look cooler on the battlefield.



Thats it for today, I'm in a rush to get everything done today. once this game is over, I'll actually do the tanks, and thus fulfill the thread title.





Automatically Appended Next Post:

Maxus wrote:

metallifan wrote:I see you're a Guiness man as well! Good show sir! Excellent to know there're others here that share the passion for fine beers

Also, the Nobz look great, and those Tyranid AA are simply amazing. It's a shame GW is so strict on casting even the smallest bitz - you could make a killing off of those things

I'll make pox put up the nid pics today after i get them dipped and they are given time to dry.

Also, the Guiness was what left of what he owed me after drinking mine. Well ok he drank one of mine, but bought another six pack so i could have my Guiness, that fine wonderful draught.

Your kinda mouthy for a guy who just got four AA guns for his tryanids, buddy.

Jin wrote:One point of criticism on the Tyranid AA guns:

The guns are growing out of the exo-skeleton, which doesn't quite make sense. They should probably be more attached to the "body" of the slugs with the armored shell going around it.

It was going to take too long for me to build the shells going around the guns. My original thought was to have the guns as a symbiotic creature, riding on top of the slug. I suppose I could still argue that's whats going on, But I really didn't sculpt anything to verify that. Ahh well, The point was speed over quality.

pox wrote:
Your kinda mouthy for a guy who just got four AA guns for his tryanids, buddy.

Models are model.....but Beer, is Beer. Please note the difference. And thanks for the models, I'll buy you breakfast tomorrow


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Jin wrote:One point of criticism on the Tyranid AA guns:

The guns are growing out of the exo-skeleton, which doesn't quite make sense. They should probably be more attached to the "body" of the slugs with the armored shell going around it.

Really I sprung this on him with a week to do the sculpts. Pox finished his blasta bomma, and I said, we really need to get a game going, on a Friday to show off the leetness at the lgs. We discussed what I could do with my nids for some anti-aircraft, and we came up with him sculpting some slug like things with guns poping out of their backs, as a symbiote creature to the slug. So I then sprung a closer date to him than expected, and he knocked these out, while also getting his stuff painted and looking nice.

We talked about what could have done better, but with the time restriction I put on him to get that done, and again with the stuff he had to get painted and done, I think he did a kick ass job. And it looks like I get him to make more projects for me, yea me!

pox wrote:

metallifan wrote:I see you're a Guiness man as well! Good show sir! Excellent to know there're others here that share the passion for fine beers

Also, the Nobz look great, and those Tyranid AA are simply amazing. It's a shame GW is so strict on casting even the smallest bitz - you could make a killing off of those things

Life is too short for cheap alcohol. I enjoyed me a fine Stone Imperial Russian Stout the other night. Probably the best Russian stout ever made, Its just too bad its a seasonal beer from the good people at the stone brewery.

As for the casting comment, I'm just glad that GW graciously lets me use their IP for personal projects. I know they get a lot of heat for various reasons, and they have several business practices that I personally hate. However, allowing your customers free use of your IP for one-off projects (that can even be legally sold) is nothing short of amazing. If I ever make truly unique models, I'll cast the hell out of them. for GW models though, I'm stick sculpting in batches.

Agreed! Besides, cheap beer doesn't have a taste you can appreciate. Ever tried Hobgoblin or Fiddler's Elbow? Both excellent. Young's Double Chocolate Stout is also good, if a little too sweet for my tastes.

And good lord, that Tank looks like a Steam-era Superweapon. I can almost picture the Grots shovelling coal into the burner. Love the old peak style mouth on the smokestack too. Definately some great looking Orky Conversions. I think given all the steam-powered greatness, the Warboss could use a Napoleon hat

Great looking work! Keep those updates coming.

Truly awesome work! Looking forward to seeing more of this.