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I’ve only been playing for a few months, but I’ve been really intrigued by objective markers and have been diving through friends’ bits boxes to come up with things to use to make some because I love the little scenes you can create, be they poignant, dramatic or just a bit comedy. I've found that different armies in my head lean themselves to different styles, I tend to prefer poignant for IG, silly for SM and Orks, and so forth.
I appreciate my painting isn’t particularly up to scratch and modelling isn’t yet my strong point, but I thought I’d put up my current offerings, a set of markers for my snow-based guard army.

Now I just have to hope I've attached the photos properly

Casualty Dave – the first one I made. I had an idea of using figures that were vaguely based on characters in a sci-fi larp I played, so I used a Cadian casualty figure and gave it a headswap with a cowboy from some other model range that had a hat that made him look a bit like my friend Dave’s injury-prone reporter. He was the disputed objective in a game against Tyrannids where I got hammered, leading to a crowd of people around the table watching Dave’s last few colleagues attempt to rescue him, or at least shoot him cleanly rather than leaving him behind for the monsters.

The Duckwalker – The first one where I had an idea and just had to make it, so it’s the one that started it all really. This is an old scout sentinel I found in husband Alan’s collection, broken up a bit so it becomes wreckage, with an injured tank crewman sheltering behind it. I have no idea why there is a figure for an injured tank guy, but it was just perfect for what I was looking for. I’ve had a lot of compliments and attention on that marker, so I’m pretty pleased with it. Also, I know the correct name for this is an egg on legs, but I thought duckwalker worked and so that’s what’s stuck.

Grave markers – Quite a traditional one, Alan mentioned that he liked the idea but wasn’t sure how to make the guns stand up. The answer was to use a slotted base so you could glue the tips of the rifles in. I’m quite pleased with the painting on the helmets and the stark lines of the rifles.

Plasma dude – Inspired by a picture online, though the skeleton in that was a lot better cut since this one snapped across the ribcage when I started work. I’m still very pleased with him, particularly the change of bone colour on the burn, and I love the line in the snow that’s scorched through.

Snow Days – The original inspiration online was a hand holding a chainsword pushing out of the ground, which transmogrified in my mind into a hand reaching out of the snow, which then turned into this guy when I found the model - another of the tank crew figures. I figure he’s using his gun as a flare to grab people’s attention. I also added some of the not-injured, not-stuck tank crew to my IG army to tie the markers to the army.

Something else I'm working on - Necron objective markers for my other army, though finishing them is delayed because I wasn’t keen on the basing I started using and I’ve not finalised what to change it to. The game board we have is snow, but I’ve done snow for my other army and I want to do something different for this one.
My Necron lord is Trazyn the Collector, who pops in up fics and fluff text collecting anything at all that takes his fancy, so I wanted to make him a bunch of things to collect. I may also do some more generic, more serious, necron ones, but I’m not sure what to do for them as yet.

I initially asked if I could use Alan’s original spike trophy, which I had assumed came with the bloodbowl box set, but apparently it was a prize from a specific tournament and he wasn’t particularly keen on the idea, so I made my own instead. This is the hand from an inquisitor, I'm going to try and make a sword in the stone with the blade I cut off, with the rest done in green stuff.

I really like your creativity you show here. The pieces are very characterfull and the conversion for Dave is looking extra good. I like that you choose to paint hazard stripes on the rim of the bases, that makes totally sense for me on the context of objective markers.

The very thought that you used a collective item like the old sentinel makes me shudder but that looks cool as help too. One minor suggestions tho...try to get rid of the lil moldlines...the helmets I think could have looked way better without them.
Looking forward to more of this, cheers vik!

Thanks Vik, and you are totally right about the moulding lines, I hadn't really noticed them until I'd painted it and now I can't not see them. I'll probably shave them down and repaint it at some point because it is really rather telling.

That was the whole reason I used the old sentinel (not to make you shudder, obviously, but because it's old and lovely), because it was the only way I could get such a great model onto the gaming table. I didn't actually damage it - the "breaks" are at the joins and so all it would take is some work to dissolve the superglue - but I wanted to get to use it in some way since I really like the figure.

Well, I have the a bit youger version of the sentinel on my shelf of shame sitting and waiting to get some paint...that walker style is so good-looking that I live in fear of ruining it with my lack of skill
Your necron stuff looks promising, smooth gs work I say. I like that you make those o.m. from a fluff perspective, that helps to make a game like an adventure.
Usually peeps just make another monolith and be done... But if I could suggest ...try to make some archeo- tech stuff...doomsday machines and the likes...pieces of interest for these creepy robots so that they can get rid of all living things. I think that would be their main drive in everything...

That's a pretty nifty idea, I may well use that. Thanks! I'm also working on some space marine ones for a friend and random others for armies as I think of them or find cool bits, so the necrons isn't high priority at the moment and I've got time to find just the right piece of archeo-tech stuff. I'll have a look.

I had a look at your gallery, and the sm stuff looked funny, the one with the hurt knee especially...reminded me of my kids
Tho more pics of different angles wouldn't hurt to better appreciate the work...


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I had a look at your gallery, and the sm stuff looked funny, the one with the hurt knee especially...reminded me of my kids
Tho more pics of different angles wouldn't hurt to better appreciate the work...

Good start.
Lots of character and it's nice to have a model with a backstory.

I look forward to more.

Thanks! I have some half finished SM ones I'm hoping to put up once I get them based and phptographed properly - I tend to make whatever idea world best at that time, so it's a bit of a mixed bag atm.

oh and I gotta ask...where did you get those tiny teddy bears from?

This is my "Relic" marker. apparently, it's the last 55 gallon drum of beer.

I bought a little box of 28mm WWII weapons and ammo crates and stacked them all up on bases. Who wouldn't want to capture a bunch of WWII guns? Heck, even Eldar couldn't resist that.

 Viktor von Domm wrote:
oh and I gotta ask...where did you get those tiny teddy bears from?

Www.etsy.com, it was a few pounds 12, so my kids now have teddy bracelets and my friend has one tied t the front of his leman russ.


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 Viktor von Domm wrote:
oh and I gotta ask...where did you get those tiny teddy bears from?

Www.etsy.com, it was a few pounds for 12, so my kids now have teddy bracelets and my friend has one tied t the front of his leman russ.

of course... teddy bear shaped beads...

thanks pluckylass!

Hah, brilliant, I love it when people make the effort with objective markers. Intrigued to see what you'll come out with for the Marine ones.

You might want to shave off some of the mold lines on the plastic parts. Look good so far, though.

Looks good.

I use the burning oil-drums shown here

Thanks for the great comments, pictures and links guys! These are the ones I'm working on - better pics and description will follow when I get my camera back but it's away with a friend for the weekend.

The space marines are based and posted now - annoyingly my camera seems to suck at close up shots so this is the best I can do, but I'm pretty pleased with how the marines turned out.

These are a gift for a friend of mine. I’d never tried reposing models and I figured SM were a good place to start since the armour gave obvious cutting points and being smooth and bulky it avoided issues such as folds of material or trying to make spindly figures stay in shape. Maybe that’s something to try another time, but for now I think I’m sticking to SM for remodelling experiments.

Tripped – I saw someone online mention the idea and I wanted to see if I could. This was my first attempt at reposing any model and it involved a lot of cutting and green stuff, and I’m very glad that marines have those huge shoulder pads to hide my work, but I love him. And his little rock that he fell over. I tried to do a hand swap to give him two open palms cradling his knee but I couldn’t get the left hand on the right arm look right, even with an attempt at remodelling a thumb with green stuff. So eventually I gave up and just gave him a fist.

Roshambo – My friend Paul mentioned that all the marines had their legs either running or boldly astride, which gave me the idea. The idea of 7 foot eunuch killing machines in power armour playing roshambo amused me, since it’s a real exercise in futility: you can’t kick through power armour, and there’s nothing there to hit if they do. It’s not perfect, I couldn’t get the victim’s hands to go exactly as I wanted because it turns out space marines can’t actually reach their own crotch, but I was still rather pleased with how it worked. Both marines involved a fair bit of remodelling, particularly the victim.

Shot – I was trying to work out how to make his arms go cruciform as he fell, but I couldn’t get the right arm to do that which is why he still has hold of his gun. Maybe that’s because he’s still only wounded, hence why the unit are trying to reach him.

thanks for sharing your motifs behind these cool looking objective markers...

I have a nagging feeling that there is still a right arm for a marine out there that would have made the "both arms outstretched pose " possible...tho for my sins I can´t say atm which one...

and the tripped one is my favourite still...

Good work. The tripped one is also my favourite. Reminds me of the various occasions in Family Guy.

For your photography. I don't know what you have tried, so sorry if you already know about these.
Try and find the "macro" or "close-up" setting on the camera. Often looks like a flower icon.

Then don't get the camera too close to the model. There's a limit to how close a lens will be able to focus even with a macro setting. If your photos have a lot of blank space around the model, just crop it off on the computer afterwards.

There's lots of "photographing your miniatures" tutorials here on DD alone. So it's also worth a look at those too if you want to get the best out of it.

I'm far from an expert though when it comes to photography. I just take lots of pictures and then pick the ones that look the best on my computer and crop them to post.

Also, what's the eagle stamp thing you have there with the marines? That looks nice.

Thanks For The advice, I'll have a look at the tutorials and see if i can do any better next time.

Other than "it's a solid metal purity seal", I have absolutely no idea what the stamp is or where it came from. I would guess it came out in the early-mid 90s since that's where most of my random stuff comes from - my husband collected gw since the 80s, but that was the period he was a staff member and thus got an 85% discount and just bought random stuff that interested him.

Some Necron objective markers for my other army, though I’m planning on making a couple more. Preferably larger ones I think, since they’re all short and on small bases and that makes thema little hard to see when they’re behind objects.

My Necron lord is Trazyn the Collector, so I set about making a set of things for him to collect which I could use as objective markers. I may also do some more generic necron ones, but I’m not sure what to do for them as yet.

Teddy – I just saw this idea online and had to try it, though he rather lacks the pathos of the original. Rather than sculpting one myself which would never have gone well, and after a failed attempt to find a way of knitting small enough to make one (I just couldn’t make needles that make stitches sufficiently small, even using cocktail sticks, and bits of wire just bent), I used some charms that I bought from a jewellery supplier. He’s got a tiny silver stud in one ear marking him as a steiff bear, the real collector brand.

The holy grail – It’s one from Spacehulk that my mate Paul wasn’t using, but I was rather pleased with how the painting turned out.

Spike trophy – I initially asked if I could use Alan’s original spike trophy, which I had assumed came with the bloodbowl box set, but apparently it was a prize from a specific tournament and he wasn’t particularly keen on the idea, so I made my own instead. This is the hand from an inquisitor (no idea which one, I only found his sword hand), with the rest done in green stuff and modelled after the original trophy.

I hadn't been planning on making any more for a while, but my youngest daughter mucked around with some green stuff the other day so I had to use it before it went hard (I was impressed, it was really old stuff so I didn’t think she’d actually manage to mix it, hence why I let her have it) and so I’ve made a void tunnel – or whatever it is that necrons use, I know it’s not the warp but I can’t remember what it actually is – with a necron dude getting out. The base is too big for it to be a regular model so it’ll have to be another objective marker, but that’s no bad thing. It’s a bit bigger which is something I thought the other three lacked.

The other thing I made with it is a space marine being yoinked by the warp - you can see the thumb prints where it hardened as I was trying to work with it, but what the heck, it's better than throwing it out. I changed his stance a little just so it didn’t look exactly like every other space marine on the field, and I’m rather pleased with how it looks like he’s kicking in surprise. Modelling was tricky because of the age of the green stuff and I think I made the warp gate too thick, but I was worried about the balance if it wasn't weighty and overall the lumps and bumps that the bad mix caused do look kind of cool and chaos-y.

Nice work. The trophies are good.
The metals look like they could do with a black or brown wash to give them some depth.

Like the teddy.

With a suitable, swirly paint job, the portal things could be nice too.

What are you using for the stone slabs? Work well. Maybe a light dry-brush of light grey to make them look more stone-y.

I was also planning to make a teleporter soon...free standing portals... there is a cool idea... I could imagine a tabletop game based on the video game portal... that needs to be planned....

Dr H, they're just cheap craft foam left over from my kids' art projects. They drink paint but otherwise I'm pleased with how they work.

Pluckylass wrote:
Dr H, they're just cheap craft foam left over from my kids' art projects. They drink paint but otherwise I'm pleased with how they work.

The kids or the foam?

A labour of love this one, in that I have no need for it and no idea what I'm going to do with it, but I needed to see what it would look like. I'd still like to see the same idea done by a better modeller because I think it looks a little flat but overall it's one I'm quite proud of.

Is that supposed to be a gaming board? The minis look like epic pieces? Cool...saw that idea somewhere else...I have no minis for that, otherwise I would give it a try...