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Thanks Casey.

Today has mostly been taken up with thinking about how to achieve this arm and so this is all the actual, solid, progress.

It's nice to have had an immediate use for the tubes that Camkierhi sent me (because he's a bloody nice chap).

If you can guess which weapons these will end up as, then I've done my job right.

They will all be bulked up to match the Multi-melta and therefore give me the same "footprint" to allow them to be swapped.
The plasma and the power fist will require the most work though. Still I've had practice of making a fist already.

So top to bottom we've got twin Las, twin HB and twin AC? A second power fist would be great, I wonder if there is anyway to easily reverse a mould of the other hand. I can't think of one...

Indeed they are.
While I could have scratch-built the Las, I had the turret of my Predator sat there unused, and so cut off the barrels and mounted them over-under (although I spent quite a bit of time making sure the join line disappeared).

It would probably be quite easy to mould the power fist and then cut and move the thumb. The hand and fingers are very symmetrical. This is an option I'm considering.
I also have the armour plate that I didn't use on the left hand that I can use here.

Aah, that's always the issue, the asymmetry of a hand. If it's quite symmetrical then go for it I say.

Hands is ard.

Glad they arrived safe and sound.

Casey's Law wrote:Aah, that's always the issue, the asymmetry of a hand. If it's quite symmetrical then go for it I say.

Nothing a little extra putty and/or shaving can't solve.

Camkierhi wrote:Hands is ard.

Glad they arrived safe and sound.

Hands are indeed tricky buggers to sculpt/carve. Although, the less like human hands they are, the easier they are to achieve (uncanny valley).
They did, and are proving very useful. Thanks again.

So, I have been quiet for a little while, but I have been busy. The problem is that with parallel construction, lots of work = little progress on any one thing. So I had to save up the various steps of each weapon to give you all something to look at, and not a billion updates of "I stuck a piece of plastic to this bit" and "I added some putty here".

What has happened?
Heavy bolter: I changed how the barrels attached to the bulk of the gun (just some spacers) and I've positioned the ejector ports. Much more to do to detail this up.

Las Cannon: I made a 2-side cast of 2 sections of the Predator turret Las cannon battery (this gives me a hollow inside) and I've stuck the top parts of two SM backpacks together to make a vent section. Gaps will be filled and some cables added.

Reaper Assault cannon: The body was built by "skinning" a skeleton (just to get some practice in this method. Took a few attempts) and I made two ammo' pods out some some rod (also from Cam). Added some putty here and there.

Power fist: Made a cast of the original power fist, using Oyumaru (I could kiss the person that invented this stuff), minus the thumb. Then made a cast of the thumb separate. Attached thumb on other side. Some of the casting didn't come out perfect, but a tweak here and there will sort that out, makes it unique. I may fill in the mouth that I couldn't cast.

Plasma cannon: The coil was made by wrapping some wire around a piece of sprue and then casting that. The cast was then assembled with sprue and some plasticard. Filled gaps with putty and now the "mouth" is being worked on. This is made from the front piece of the original Helbrute model, cut as shown and glued into a ring. Why not just use the ring in the middle? It was too big and the teeth were too small, and I still have most of the ring, for the use of, later on.



Still more to do...

Kudos, the DV hellbrute is a sweet model, but a nightmare to convert. Well done!

Now there is a good looking armoury if ever I saw one.

That is turning out to be the most well equipped dready I ever saw!

Awesome work Dr H
Cant wait to see this bad boy painted up
Grtz
Mark

Pretty slick work Doc. You're a natural at this! (That's not to discount all the hard work of course)

Great looking work on the brute Dr. H.

Really like the add on bits to the ends of the tentacles, really gives the extra character. How about a nice big circular/chainsaw blade CCW for the right arm? You know this guy might turn Khorne at any time.

Thanks, Da Big Mek. Yeah, it's not the easiest model to work on. At least being plastic, it's easy to cut and glue.

Thanks Casey. Hopefully it gets better looking as I go.

Thanks Shas.

Thanks Mark. Once I've got this arm and it's weapons done, and decided what I will finally do with the "face", it'll be time to paint. I even have a vague idea of a paint scheme already (this is a rare occurrence).

Thanks Weety. I almost feel as if I've found my calling, if only I could get a decent wage doing this sort of thing...

Thanks Theo. I've got enough work to do on this thing just making the official set of weapon options, without adding anything it's not meant to have. While it would be nice, not this time.

So, I now have the main bulk of the weapons assembled and the first "layer" of details added (some more than others).


There are many gaps to fill, chaos detailing to be added, and something to tie these into the arm that they are to be attached to.
That last part is what is next. I will need to find a way, for each weapon, to attach to the arm (that needs building), so that the arm can be built to attach them to...

Much head-scratching to commence...

Lovely, particularly nice job on the heavy bolter.

Thanks Casey.
They all need work, here and there, to bring them towards the same aesthetic. Some have diverged a little at this stage.

But, before I can start playing about with how they look, I need to know how they will all attach to the arm.
I aim to have them all overlap the end of the arm so that they hide the join.

You can see at the rear of the Heavy bolter the shape I have cut into the plastic. I can do this on this one as I have a nice attachment point inside the body of the gun and so the overlap is already set. All the others have pretty much flat rears and need building outwards to surround the arm...

...But before I can build something to surround the arm, I need the arm so I can get the shape and size right.
I also need to know how these will attach so that I can get the length of the arm right...

In short, I needed to build both first, so that I could build the other...

I have been thinking about this for quite a while, and in the end I decided to just go for it and adapt as it goes.

So, arm build.
I was hoping to keep a fairly robotic look to it, but as I was adding the putty and building it up to the existing shoulder where the stubby arm originally attached I found that I had to extend the flesh all the way to the elbow to keep it looking natural. However, I can keep the new elbow mechanical looking.

A couple of things of note;
I did shorten the upper arm a bit, before I added the putty. The arm though, is still very long once you add the various attachments. But then there is nothing to say that a Helbrute isn't a knuckle-dragger.

I will be adding armour plates over this and there will be some wires/cables. This is just the base shape.

Now I can start to fit the weapons to the arm...

Almost fully formed I see, not much left to go.

 Casey's Law wrote:
Almost fully formed I see, not much left to go.

So near and yet so far.
Still have to finish detailing the weapons,
Make the flamer and combi-bolter attachments for the power fist,
Finish the elbow joint off,
Add armour plates to the upper arm,
Rivets all over the place,
And the face...

Then paint...

Speaking of the weapons, this is the current state of affairs:

The heavy bolter is the nearest to being finished. A couple of little additions, probably wires, and that's it. (not including rivets and battle damage)
The power fist needs the inside armour plate and then the attachments making.
The Auto cannon needs it's chaos detailing and some wires.
The Las Cannon needs some chaos detailing added to make it look less standard.
Then the plasma cannon and multi-melta both need their rear halves built just to bring them up to the rest of the weapons.

Let me know what you think.
Thanks.

Is the hand just tacked in place right now? It might be the camera angle but I'm just not sold on it right now.

Otherwise another good step forwards.

The hand is quite permanently attached to the forearm (pinned, glued and now puttied), but it is all putty and so can be carved/modified. What don't you like about it?

I know it looks massive, but it is the same size as the original and I hope it's just the whiteness of it that makes it look huge.

I love your work here, it really is amazing.
How are you going about casting your own parts?
I'd love to try some of my own, particularly for scenery pieces (I could never have enough bits!)

gotbugs wrote:
I love your work here, it really is amazing.
How are you going about casting your own parts?
I'd love to try some of my own, particularly for scenery pieces (I could never have enough bits!)

Thanks.

I'm no expert, but I have covered my exploits into casting in this blog and in my other blog:
Here is where I first started with my sculpting/mould-making/casting in my original blog: You will need to scroll though to see all the process. But I do talk about every step as I come to it.
The process then switches to this thread...

Page 2 here: for the start of the mould-making process.

Page 9 here: for the whole process of making my sinks, baths and hand-dryers.

But in short;
I make the original piece from whatever materials are necessary (and cheap/free so that many attempts can be made at little cost),
I then make a mould of that piece with Oyumaru,
From that mould, I make a putty cast (or many),
The putty cast is then cleaned up to as near to perfect as I can get it, This is now the master,
I then make a mould of the master(s) with silicone,
Then I use those moulds to make resin casts.

It is deceptively simple, put like that. I would recommend reading/watching as many tutorials as you can find. Learn as much as possible about the process, before buying anything. Being prepared before you start is very important when it comes to moulding and casting, and that includes having all the equipment ready, not just knowing what you are doing.

Once you get into it though, and you are prepared, it is quite easy; just mixing and pouring liquids. Designing the moulds is where I find my brain is really used.

I can send you a PM with more info in (such as the materials I have used, etc), as I have sent that to a few people to help them start.

I can send you a PM with more info in (such as the materials I have used, etc), as I have sent that to a few people to help them start.

That would be great thanks!

I'll certainly read the blogs you've posted. I'm excited to try it all out!
I have a ton of ideas, but lack in the necessary pieces.

Yeh I'm not sure what it is, maybe just the white as you say.

Looking almost ready for the paint work

Looking awesome Dr H
The bolters are my personal favorite on this bad boy
Keep up the good work
Grtz
Mark

The arms, other than the bolter, seem too long.

Casey's Law wrote:Yeh I'm not sure what it is, maybe just the white as you say.

Will have to see then, I have made some minor changes about the thumb and have filled in the inside of the arm. I'll add some of the details to it and then prime it so that we can see...

shasolenzabi wrote:Looking almost ready for the paint work

One step forward, and sleep-walking back again...
I wasn't pleased with how the plasma cannon was shaping up, so I've cut that up and have started again.
The Las cannon may be following it...

ayoku wrote:Looking awesome Dr H
The bolters are my personal favorite on this bad boy
Keep up the good work
Grtz
Mark

Thanks Mark.
Considering it is just based on a box, the heavy bolter has turned out quite well.

YourIntestines wrote:The arms, other than the bolter, seem too long.

I know what you mean, and that is reason I posted the pic's back-to-back, to see if anyone picked up on it.

The power fist is exactly the same as the original one (in dimensions at least), but the elbow joint is slightly larger, so overall it is slightly longer from the back of the elbow to the hand. However, I can't fix this without sculpting a whole new hand, and that's too much work.

The Auto cannon, is meant to be long (especially compared to the bolter and melta). The box on it is also a little too large, but again would be too much work to re-make from scratch again (this one took 3 attempts). I've now detailed this weapon up to match the heavy bolter.

The las cannon suffered from a couple of problems in it's build. It is meant to be long and this was how I was building it, the length of the barrels only add to the length. However, the body of the weapon turned out to be too narrow to fit over the arm (as all the other weapons do), and so I had to build out and over the arm join. This meant that the gun didn't get shorter like the others. Also, I got carried away with the detailing of the gun's surfaces and forgot to add the edging that can be seen on the HB and AC, I've tried adding some extra plastic to the front edge, but it's not as neat as it could be and would be just as much work to get it right as to re-do the whole gun... this means...

As I said, the plasma cannon is being re-built, and while I've been cutting plastic for that, I've cut some for the las cannon also. If I build that from the arm forwards, I should be able to keep the length manageable.

So that means I have 2 weapons ticked off, 2 weapons progressing, and 2 weapons being re-built...

The autocannon might look less unbalanced if you extended part of it back over the elbow.

Plasma cannon was looking "stumpy" maybe a bit longer?

The Twin linked Las-cannon does have a boxy looking main body, but I think some angled edges as opposed to 90 degree box patterning will help

YourIntestines wrote:The autocannon might look less unbalanced if you extended part of it back over the elbow.

Ah yes, I did add some more at the rear since that last photo, but only squaring it off really (see below). but I like that idea, I may add an armour plate sticking out the back. It's the only weapon that has the width to do that on anyway.

shasolenzabi wrote:Plasma cannon was looking "stumpy" maybe a bit longer?

The Twin linked Las-cannon does have a boxy looking main body, but I think some angled edges as opposed to 90 degree box patterning will help

Yeah, the plasma cannon was to be extended back to meet the arm, but the more I added to it, the smaller the plasma coil looked and whatever I did to it, it just didn't click for me. The mouth was off centre as well.

The various Las-weapons seem to have a technology-in-a-box look to them, and I wanted to keep that feel. Will see how it progresses though.

Both the Plasma cannon and the Las cannon have been cut up, ripped apart for pieces and are in the process of being re-built.

Here's some pictures to show the "finished" Heavy Bolter, the nearly finished Auto cannon and many angles of the power fist.
Also notice the added armour plates on the upper arm, these still need some tidying and sharpening of the details, but the added bulk helps with the balance of the whole arm (no longer large blobs on the end of a stick).


Until next time...