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Arbites vs Dark Eldar. Can't wait, good luck

The IG codex will give you some more optios for those sentinels, multi meltas would be some good support.

Awesome simply awesome...Good luck against the Dark Eldar can you say City Fight haha really digging the Riot Squad

Well THAT certainly took longer than expected. I've been quite busy with work over the last few weeks and haven't had much time to even look at warhammer. However , I'm trying to get a 1000pt army together this week for our first proper attempt at a DE vs Arbites game, so here goes...

ARBITES BIKERS! These are the Arbites Bikers I've completed, I just need to build the bikes (which I'll do this morning). The heads and shoulderpads are GS molds using Instant Mold. I used the Enforcer heads as there's more variation, but the original shoulderpads, which have much better insignia. Bodies are from Cadians, everything else from the Scout Biker kit.

Six man bike squad with shotguns, one grenade launcher, one flamer, and a Proctor with a power maul.

looking very nice
When you make the head molds do you have a head that is already detached, left over from a head swap or are you just making the mold around a complete model?

Mr. S Baldrick wrote:looking very nice
When you make the head molds do you have a head that is already detached, left over from a head swap or are you just making the mold around a complete model?

Thanks!

I'm making the molds from a complete model, so the actual casting has a bit of the shoulders in as well, which I cut away. It's actually quite handy, as it means that the whole of the mold is 'flared' in towards the head, which makes it easy to get the GS in....

acab

Just charting progress. The bikes are almost done. Just dipped all the parts and finished the bases - I'll do the highlights this evening. In the meantime, I've been converting up a leader for the 1000pt game. Eventually he'll be a sergeant of a small Shock Team, but for now he can be a Marshall.

So, I've made lots of progress this weekend, spurred on by the game I played against Panic's new DE army. The Battle Report for that one should be up in a minute, but for now, here's the miniatures I managed to get finished in time.

This is the Veteran Shock Team leader, who I was using as a Marshall in the game. Converted the helmet so that he looks a bit more leaderly.




Then we have the bike squad! The GS sculpts aren't perfect, but I think they're pretty good for a first go...





The next thing I've started work on is the vehicles - it bugged me that they weren't ready on Saturday. There's quite a bit of conversion I wanted to do to these, as they could potentially count as a lot of different things. At the moment, I could take this army as one of four things - The BOLS Arbites Dex, a SM Scout army, a Sisters of Battle army, or an IG Veteran/Grenadier army. The vehicles could therefore be Rhino OR Chimera - based, depending on what army I use. Therefore the vehicles COULD be...

Arbites Black Maria could be a WH Exorcist / SM Whirlwind / IG Manticore
Arbites Repressor could be a WH Repressor / SM Rhino/Razorback / IG Chimera
WH Immolator could be an Arbites Rhino / SM Rhino / IG ??

I wanted to modify all the standard Rhinos to make them look a little less Rhino-ish, and make it a bit more believable that they could be Chimeras, especially with the addition of a hull gun point. I started by taking the front off of all the Repressors, and removing the distinctive vision slits with a scalpel.



I then found a useful angled 'cab' bit by cutting apart the undercarriage of a Leman Russ, and attached the vision slits and the Imperial eagle. I then attached this to a piece of 1mm plasticard and cut it to fit in the hole.




I then needed a gun port. There still wasn't a lot of space, but I ended up going with a vision slit from the old Leman Russ kit, which I've widened. This will have a magnet buried inside it, so it can either be a vision port or a gun port. I'll have to use slightly smaller weapons (maybe Flamers for Heavy Flamers) but that should be fine...



Now, this army will end up with seven or eight vehicles, and I don't have seven or eight Leman Russes to sacrifice, so I need to figure out a way of casting this part. At the moment, the only thing I have available is Instant Mold, so I squished together my remaining bits and press-cast the part (I also cast an Imperial eagle on it's own to make decals for the vehicles)




And here's the first attempt at a GS cast. It's not perfect - I've lost a bit of detail in the vision slits, and there is the odd chip in the front. I'm going to attempt to fix these with GS and give it another go, but does anyone think that it would be significantly better with a resin cast? Resin casting is the other option, but I'd have to order all the equipment as I've never tried it before...

ArbitorIan wrote:Now, this army will end up with seven or eight vehicles, and I don't have seven or eight Leman Russes to sacrifice, so I need to figure out a way of casting this part. At the moment, the only thing I have available is Instant Mold, so I squished together my remaining bits and press-cast the part (I also cast an Imperial eagle on it's own to make decals for the vehicles)




And here's the first attempt at a GS cast. It's not perfect - I've lost a bit of detail in the vision slits, and there is the odd chip in the front. I'm going to attempt to fix these with GS and give it another go, but does anyone think that it would be significantly better with a resin cast? Resin casting is the other option, but I'd have to order all the equipment as I've never tried it before...

Does anyone at your FLGS do resin casting? If not, it looks like your GS mold will work, but that is one heck of a lot of GS to use on each vehicle. Especially if the quality isn't so great.

Good luck!

Rawson

Hobbycrafy sell resin powder for casting if you're near one? Great work though chief!

Rawson wrote:Does anyone at your FLGS do resin casting? If not, it looks like your GS mold will work, but that is one heck of a lot of GS to use on each vehicle. Especially if the quality isn't so great.

inmygravenimage wrote:Hobbycrafy sell resin powder for casting if you're near one? Great work though chief!

Thanks guys. Panic has done a bit of resin casting, so I might be able to nab some of his stuff. I guess the question is - is the resin casting going to produce better results that this GS/Pressmold casting, considering the amount of time involved? I'll give the GS another try when I get back home, and see if I can mold it a bit better!

In terms of GS use, it seems an awful lot, but I've been ordering it 10ft at a time from eBay, so I've got quite a bit. I use about 3" of GS per casting of this (it's not completely solid at the back!).

Did / have you considered using milliput for your front press mould ? It's a darn sight cheaper and you can really force it into anything. I'm sure the detail would transfer and it will be nice and hard for you to get that sharp edge on the finished product with a file. Just remember to use a little talc or chalk dust to aid the release process

Cool stuff! An army of this guys should look astonishing on the table.

storag wrote:Cool stuff! An army of this guys should look astonishing on the table.

Thanks! I'm hoping they will....

Thorne wrote:Did / have you considered using milliput for your front press mould ? It's a darn sight cheaper and you can really force it into anything. I'm sure the detail would transfer and it will be nice and hard for you to get that sharp edge on the finished product with a file. Just remember to use a little talc or chalk dust to aid the release process

I've got some Milliput lying around - I've never really used it for miniatures, but I've used it for terrain. Are you suggesting that I use it to make a new cast, or that I use my existing Instant Mold cast, but with Milliput instead of GS? And talc would work as a release agent from the Instant Mold?

Exactly. Using the milliput as a greenstuff replacement and talc as the release agent. You have the mould. Just change the casting material. It's equally as effective for the purpose as greenstuff

Wow, they're good. They remind me of 2000 AD (if people know what that is).

Nice stuff. I might get some of that stuff when I pass through Darksphere. Good store that, and free postage for Warmahordes.

Thorne wrote:Exactly. Using the milliput as a greenstuff replacement and talc as the release agent. You have the mould. Just change the casting material. It's equally as effective for the purpose as greenstuff

Great. Thanks. I'll give that a go for the next version. Any idea of the curing time for Milliput? I usually leave GS like this overnight.

VenerableDreadnoughtKroak wrote:Wow, they're good. They remind me of 2000 AD (if people know what that is).

Thanks - and well they should. The original GW Arbites were basically direct ripoffs of their 80s Judge Dredd miniatures range. I've got some of the more current Mongoose JD range which I'm going to try and include as characters..

zilegil wrote:Nice stuff. I might get some of that stuff when I pass through Darksphere. Good store that, and free postage for Warmahordes.

Glad you like, but... which stuff do you mean? GS and Milliput are in Darksphere, but they won't sell any of the miniatures, since they're either Direct Only or long OOP..

Miliput takes about 2-3 hours to not totally rock hard but hard enough to be popped out of the mould without many problems. Depending on the size but I have gotten away with putting 20 sand bag sized objects in the microwave for 2 minuites to Finnish of the curing. This also makes the components quite hot so if you try this it's worth leaving the components on a microwaveable plate for 5-10 minuites afterwards.

Just posted our recent Battle Report with this army. Here's some photos of them in action. Report is at http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/404694.page#3459364

Awsome man, looking really sharp there. The display board really makes the whole thing come together.

First Repressor painted. I've magnetised the gun port and the Siege Shield, so that it can either play as a Chimera or a Repressor.

Repressor - pintle mounted hvy flamer and Dozer


Chimera - hull mounted hvy flamer (and the turret weapon suddenly becomes a Heavy Bolter)



Convincing enough? The actual base colour, dark blue, is bluer in real life, I'm just taking this photo late at night in poor lighting, but they still look a bit bland to me. Any suggestions as to what could make them pop a bit more?

Very inspiring!
I really like what you've done here.
I also downloaded that Codex and it looks like it'll be a lot of fun to play.
Maybe I'll try building some Arbites out of Scouts in the near future.....

+++Mr.M+++

That's a pretty sweet conversion! And it's certainly convincing to me do you have any other WIP pics other than the front? I'd like to do something similar for a chimera that will be toting ogryn around.

Keep up the great work!

Mr.Malevolent wrote:Very inspiring! I really like what you've done here.
I also downloaded that Codex and it looks like it'll be a lot of fun to play.
Maybe I'll try building some Arbites out of Scouts in the near future.....

Thanks The codex is a lot of fun, but bloody difficult. I haven't yet cracked how to win with it..! It's very low on AT, which is understandable for an Arbites force, but it makes life difficult when facing mech.

Rawson wrote:That's a pretty sweet conversion! And it's certainly convincing to me do you have any other WIP pics other than the front? I'd like to do something similar for a chimera that will be toting ogryn around.

Thanks! Though none of the rest of the vehicle is a conversion - only the front (and the odd thing like the eagle on the side). The rest of the vehicle is just the Forge World Repressor kit - http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Witch_Hunters/REPRESSOR-COMPLETE-KIT.html

They are cracking mate, although I think you'll have a tough sell against sticklers with those as Chimerae. I have a spare front hull half of a chimera you could have, if you want?

Loosk quite convincing to me. Maybe a sharp edge highlight if you want it to pop more? Or some danger stripes on the dozer blade? Failing that, emergency lights (like on police cars) with OSL?

Inspiring work. I may have to think about arbites as a later project

Awesome figs...

...so are you going to run these as necrons or what?

necron warriors have 4+ armour
those new elites have 4++ reflective shields
dex is looking to be better than WH

I love the way your doing your tanks they look sweet, you should post a tutorial on the next one