Yes, I know. It's not like I need more half-finished projects, but staring at a baneblade all day can get bothersome and this is one of those conversions where I just happened to find a bit and the idea started running on its own. You don't need to remind me about all the other stuff I still have to finish.

I found a mask from the fantasy orc model, Wurrzag Ud Ura Zazubu. I've been looking for a replacement head for the new weirdboy model for a little while now, and this fit the bill pretty well, I think - you'd have to be pretty weird to pull this look off.

Well, the good thing is that the head is easy as all hell to light, too, so off I went.



No fancy SMT LEDs in this - just a simple 3mm green. I had to do a bit of dremelling to the body to get the head to sit right, but I think it looks pretty good when it's all matched up.







I have a couple more ideas for this model. Instead of holding the staff overhead like on the new weirdboy, he's going to have it outstretched at his side. It'll be lit, as well - the nice thing about it is that I don't even have to hide the wires for it, because from what I've seen from the concept art weirdboys tend to wrap stuff in wire to try and keep their heads from exploding.

The pose I'm going for with this weirdboy is 'hanging in the air' - if I can figure out how, he's going to be posed about 30mm off the base in the air, suspended by Waaagh! energy, with a bunch of grots on the base holding chains trying to anchor him down. I think the new model's actually a pretty good base, as he's nearly in that kind of position to begin with if you cut away the terrain that's sculpted into his feet.

More to come whenever, this is just a kind of spur-of-the-moment thing.

As an aside, I didn't really have a name in mind for this guy yet, but 'Wurrzag' or 'Zazubu' isn't bad, based on the fantasy miniature's origins.

Heh.

I haven't followed all your projects, but have you ever
included lights for things like lasguns? It would be insane
to try it, yet very fun to see.

That extended hand's going to look even cooler when he's floating- like he's really conjuring the power to do so. Awesome.

and again, I am in awe, looking at your project.....

Pretty nice . Ill watch this.

That's awesome! Look forward to seeing the finished job.

I can't see the picutes of the WIP at work. However, did you guys see the Thousand Son army in White Dwarf where the guy put LEDs in all the troops so their eyes lit up? It was really awesome.

I'm working on the weirdboy staff right now, but I thought I'd throw this question out as I'm looking for some solutions.

I have a lot of different chain, most of which would work for the project. Like I said earlier, I want the weirdboy to be floating in the air and chained down by a number of grots on the base. The smartest way of achieving this would be to have the chains themselves be the mechanisms that hold the model up in the air, but I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with a way of doing that.

Gluing the chain links in place will not hold strong enough to support a metal miniature in the air. I tried it, not even close to strong enough.

I grabbed a blowtorch and attempted to melt the links together at the joints in the hopes that maybe that would do it. I ended up with something... close, but still too fragile. It's brittle - the chains stay straight till you apply just a little bit too much pressure in the wrong direction (as I am likely do to just through handling!) and then one of the links gives.

I tried threading wire through the chain links to make them stronger, but doing so requires that you bend the chain in strange ways to get the holes in the middle of the links to line up and it doesn't look right.

I've looked through the GW model lines, and the closest thing I can find is the chains hanging off the Dark Eldar Jetbikes, but those are not individual pieces (multiple chains cast into eachother) and i don't think they'll work.

I could just cop out and have his lowest foot standing atop a clear flying base peg, but I'm sure there must be a better way of doing this. Anyone have any ideas?

well ,my first suggestion would have been, to use any sort of gw chains....

Like I mentioned, I haven't been able to find any suitable for the job, which is why I am asking for help.

how about making his coat longer, so that would still be partially on his base?

What about building the chain as one peice from modeling clay that hardens? Get 3 or 4 chains to hold him up on and it might be enough.

Does it HAVE to be chains?
Maybe it could be steel-wire/tow-cable instead, I'm thinking a few of the ones in the Tank Accessories sprue...
Even twisting two or three, thin real steel wires with a drill, should do the trick.
I haven't tried it for holding stuff floating in the air myself, but those I've made for other stuff seems to be sturdy enough, just an idea...

Try looking at the Harbinger of Menoth (a Warmachine figure. If you click on the picture in this link you'll get a rotating view). I think most of the weight is actually held up by the chains (I know a guy who built one), but the robes underneath added some extra stability.

Maybe instead of robes you could have weird electrical energy from the Weirdboy to the ground? Maybe some kind of clear resin?

Viperion

on the harbinger of menoth, the chains are not actually supportin' her at all...the robe is doin' all the work...the chains are glued on after the whole thing is painted, or they can be left out completely(some people don't even use the acolytes)...

for the wierdboy to float, a few strong pins can be run down to the base fom his feet, and then covered in green stuff...then wrapped with sperate thin wire to suggest columns of cracklin' energy...like viperion said...

this guy is a heavy piece, and needs somethin' that won't snap if ya look at him hard...

for chain with support, order the bits from the harbinger...they are available on the privateer site, and they are very solid pieces...

cheers
jah

I've watched several of your builds, always thoroughly impressed with the results. Would like to give a possible solution,

In the fluff for wierdboyz (codex imperialis, i think) it says that wierdboyz carry around copper staffs in order to 'earth' the volatile waaagh energy, so I guess any conductive metal object such as a chain would work as well, my suggestion is to get some very stiff wire and wrap it around/in and out of (or both) the chain and glue the chain to the wire in places, which would give the illusion that the chain is flailing wildly with the energy it is earthing, then simply run the wire into the base, paint the wire in a cool green crackly energy color and you done.

I've seen wire used to represent energy crackling several times (particularly in a jain zar conversion i saw a while back), but that was around a weapon. However you would have to use a bloody strong bit of wire (perhaps even carefully bent brass rod of a suitable thickness).

sorry to ramble, just having my two (insert lowest amount of money available in your currency here)

EDIT: Looking at the title gave me another brainwave. You could probably get away with wrapping the wires from the LED around a chain and paint it as well, then you can hide the battery on the underside of the base (or on the base in a cleverly made bit of scenery)

How about a wire armature bent into lightning bolt like shapes to hold him up? Paint it all green and Orky-fied, and then use the chains to stabilize/dress it up...

Leigen_Zero wrote:EDIT: Looking at the title gave me another brainwave. You could probably get away with wrapping the wires from the LED around a chain and paint it as well, then you can hide the battery on the underside of the base (or on the base in a cleverly made bit of scenery)

This is the general plan, yes. I'll be running wires down the tethers and into the base, and I'll probably be building a hollow rock or something on it so I can properly house a couple of hearing batteries in it from the underneath of the base.

Twisted wire to serve as ropes looks like it will do the job. I went to Home Depot and grabbed a package of the wire they use to suspend drop ceilings for less than $2 - the stuff's a bit thick, but very strong. One big, main rope and a couple smaller ones made out of floral wire should actually be enough to keep this bad boy in the air.

On a slightly related note, I urgently need to know if anyone has Goblin Doom Divers.



I need the rope-pulling grots badly to tether him down and I will happily buy or trade for them.

how about posing him in mid-air, holding his staff, and the other end of the staff is jammed in the ground? Or one or more of his assistants/minders are holding onto his limbs (i.e directly rather than via chains)?

but personally i think the GW plastic chains from the Chaos vehicle accessory sprue or the new ork trukk would do the job fine and be way easier - but then you're a glutton for punishment, Ein, as soon as I saw the thread title I just knew it would be you

I got to working on the staff a bit more yesterday and after hashing out a couple ideas, I think I have come up with something I like. On the new Ork Boyz sprue, there's an ork skull with the mouth open - with a bit of creative fiddling, I was able to fit an LED into there and rig it so that green light will emanate from the eye sockets and mouth!



Now some of you might be saying 'Ein, I see what you're trying to do with this, but I can clearly see the LED in the mouth there'. You would be right, but I'd like to direct your attention to the fact that I have brownstuffed the skull closed from the back and underside. Why, you might ask?

It's simple! I have some Woodland Scenics Water Effects that I will be able to pour into the mouth - once it dries and hardens, it will become a clear 'lens' over the LED that fills the mouth up and diffuses the light so that you can't tell the LED's behind there. I did something similar on a Necron Lord I was prototyping and it worked out fairly well.

The nice thing about a weirdboy staff is that I don't have to go to any real, absurd lengths to cover the wires up. If you look at some of the concept art for Weirdboyz over at at Wargaiming.net, you'll see what I'm talking about.

I feel as though I should mention that to coincide with the writing of some of my Ork army's background story, this Warphead's name is now 'Wurrzag da Weird'.

This is going to be so cool!!

Maybe use a flying base to hold him up. It won't look as cool but it won't snap(probably)

have you ever included lights for things like lasguns?

Well, first you'd have to work up some nasa grade plexiglass...

I think your the first guy from a forum I know who managed to get himself into a webcomic. that is so cool.

love your story so far btw. I would love to see a model for boomer some time

I can't work on the staff any because the water effects I put in are still working on drying, but I've started planning out the base a little bit.



I think I'm going to use a 60mm and do a lava-esque base. My general idea is that the energy he's channeling is so powerful that it is cracking the surface of the ground underneath him and it's bowing up towards him - this is partly also so that I can properly angle the grots that will be holding him down. I did the lava up red, though on the actual thing green might be a better choice to represent waaagh energy. I'm using the new Nob Biker arm for the staff, though I'll probably be hacking the chain part off... I'm going to have to sculpt a new sleeve on that arm.

The pin is only a temporary measure while I work on figuring out how high he'll be in the air.

I would keep the chaine. the orks can't afford to let the weird boy loose the one item that enables the weirdboy ti channel his destructive nergies a little more precisly

I'm definitely going to pick up some Night Goblin Fanatics for this. If nothing else, I've been wanting to put wrecking balls on my Killa Kans, so if they don't work for this project I'll at least have an alternate excuse to get 'em.

I have had a LOT of trouble with this miniature today. Firstly, the eyes in the head inexplicably stopped working. I spent a few hours today swapping out LEDs and re-soldering connections and generally messing around until I realized that the metal in the miniature itself was causing a short circuit! I've lit metal models before and never had any trouble like this - I think GW must be using a new metal formula that conducts or something, because the older metals I have definitely do not. Anyway, I wrapped one of the LED leads in electrical tape to avoid any trouble for the time being.

The whole thing isn't completely wired together yet because I've got a bit more work to do.



I wasn't sure what to do with the staff but I doodled up a couple ideas and this is the one I went with.



There's some sort of tau drone bit backing the skull that needs some detailing, too, but I think I like the way the thing looks. It's large, but it looks as though he could whack something pretty decently with it if he has to.

I like to picture him having conversations with the skull on his staff.

Anyway, more work to come.

Its looking very cool my friend

Been hard at work on the base for this guy today. It's been an interesting time so far.

First I stopped by Home Depot to pick up some of their expanded polystrene foam housing insulation. You can get about 10 feet of this stuff for which isn't all that bad considering I could probably make an entire board out of it.

I cut a circular cylinder out of the foam that was about the same size as a large 60mm base, then cut out the 'rocky' parts. A bit of sanding later and I had the general shape of the base that I had illustrated earlier. As before, I'm trying to make it look like the earth is buckling upward beneath the weirdboy where he is floating.

Housing insulation foam by itself is not a worthy base material. It melts when you spray it, and it is relatively fragile - two things I hate. With that in mind, I took a trip down to my garage and cracked open a can of Bondo, an automotive repair putty. I slopped that stuff on the base after I had mixed it up and with a couple sticks started working it over the foam in an effort to both fully coat it and encase it in the rock-hard stuff. It was messy work - bondo sticks to prety much everything, even the tools you use while you try to work. These were my results:





I needed a decent texture for the top of these supposed 'rocks' so I mixed up a batch of Apoxie Sculpt - it's a gray, two-part epoxy that comes fairly cheap and can be smoothed into a lot of different shapes. I put a thin layer of apoxiesculpt over the tops of these rocks and some of the problem areas on the sides and grabbed a flat bladed sculpting tool and just starting having at it. After haphazardly gouging a couple lines all over the surface in a feeble attempt to give it some sort of rocky texture, I came up with something passable.



I will be the first to admit it's not all that phenomal. It's also fairly hard to photograph, as some of the pink bondo goop that needs to be removed from the base is blending in and making the edges hard to distinguish. Still, it's not bad for a first try, and I'm really looking to make a surface I can properly pin miniatures into.



My photos are rubbish right now because I've been rearranging a lot of the lights in my room and I don't have my tripod right now. Still, you get the idea.

I ordered a box of night gobbo fanatics this afternoon because apparently every store within driving distance has decided they don't want to stock any. Until then, I'll probably be entertaining myself with a bit of sculpting on the actual model, much as I hate to do it.

This is the first time I've posted on any of your threads, but you are the man. I love it.

Stormtrooper X wrote:I can't see the picutes of the WIP at work. However, did you guys see the Thousand Son army in White Dwarf where the guy put LEDs in all the troops so their eyes lit up? It was really awesome.

I think I remember seeing that one...

Nice that people still remember it.

I do like that weird boy though. Excellent idea and great execution. Can't wait to see the final product.

Vale,

JohnS

While I work on scrounging up the right parts to make my Big Mek a proper Shokk Attack Gun, I've decided to work on my warphead, Wurrzag. I want to get him done so I can use my new-found will to paint on him, and while the model itself is mostly done being converted, the remainder of the work required lies in his base, where the electronics that power his lights will be stored.

I worked on a base previously, but I was never really happy with it - bondo over foam made one hell of a mess, and the base it was all mounted on gave me little to no room to work with for hiding things like batteries underneath. With that in mind, I set out to make Wurrzag a new base, atop the lid of an old container.





It's basically just thick styrene cut in a circle, then cut with a jeweller's saw so I had 'pieces' that I then roughed up with a knife. Glue them at odd angles, and you have the cracked earth base I was going for, with much sharper and defined edges than the old base had.



Here's Wurrzag floatin' above his base. I'm going to be trying OSL on this so that it's like a bright green lava - waaagh energy erupting from the cracks in the earth caused by the floating warphead.

I'll work more on it in a bit.

This is sweet.

That looks cool ein. How many hours would you say it takes for one of your regular projects to finish?

For the grot retaining chain holders, I know it's a bit late for a suggestion, but what about having them all bunched up in the middle, and using the chain idea still, but with a more direct line for the model to put stress on? You could elevated Wurzzag a bit and lift a few of the grots off as if his power is greater than the restraint the grots can anchor to the ground.

Seriously that is just some fantastic work man. Keep the pictures coming I cannot wait to see the finished product.

VermGho5t wrote:That looks cool ein. How many hours would you say it takes for one of your regular projects to finish?

For the grot retaining chain holders, I know it's a bit late for a suggestion, but what about having them all bunched up in the middle, and using the chain idea still, but with a more direct line for the model to put stress on? You could elevated Wurzzag a bit and lift a few of the grots off as if his power is greater than the restraint the grots can anchor to the ground.

I did have something like this in mind, sort've - that big shiny cord going out of his back is the main support 'rope' which will be trailing to the ground behind him (and pinned through the base to act as the main thing holding him up), and I was going to put either a grot dangling midway up the rope in the air, or a charred skeletal hand holding the loose end (as though the minder got himself fried. )

The rest of the grot retainers will just be night gobbo fanatics with their wrecking balls removed and the loose chain ends attached to points on Wurrzag to hold him down.

Unfortunately, I've just uncovered the horrible downside to picking up a project after not working on it for a while - missing pieces. The fanatics I previously purchased to anchor Wurrzag seem to know the hardship they're in for, and are currently in hiding, despite my best efforts at turning my work area upside-down. I'm going to have to go buy some more of the little blighters before this project's through, I think, unless I can find someone with some extras.

Again, it might be a bit late for chains, but I'm wondering if these http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/spiked%20chain/latest/03076_G might work for what you're doing. They are metal and enough of them might support the model; maybe a combination of chains and wires, sheer orky loota-style... "Grab whatcha can boyz, da warp'edz goin' gonzo!"

for chains on my stuff I use the chain linked necklesses you can get them at hobby lobby for almost nothing or somethimes you can get them in the mail.

So I managed to obtain the fanatics I needed, and I've been working on propping Wurrzag up in the air.







I've managed to hide one set of the wires - the ones for his eyes - by coiling them around the rope hanging from his back and down into the base. I thought I could do the same with the other set of wires required for his staff's LED, but they're proving to be a bit tougher to disguise. I thought if I threaded them into the chains the fanatic is holding, they'd look fine, but they're a bit... obvious.

I want the wires to be clearly exposed on the staff, and I'm fine with them being visible around his wrist area, since a lot of the art shows that Warpheads tend to cover themselves in whatever they can find to help channel the energy. The main issue I'm having is the transition from wrist to base via the fanatic. The wires are clearly showing, and I'm afraid that it looks like a bit of a cop-out. I'm looking for ideas at this point as to what might be done to disguise them a little better.

A few notes:

The main, supporting wire going out of his back will be better disguised. I'm going to put a big round spherical weight at the end of that rope to hide where it goes through the base, to make it look like they attached a ball-and-chain kind of thing to him for extra restraint.

I probably should have tried winding the arm wires down and around the rope on his back, as well, but at the time I thought I could hide them well enough via the supporting fanatic, and at this point it's too late to wind them around it because the underside of the base where those back wires go is plugged shut with glue and the likes.

I think I'll have one more fanatic hanging off his other side, but too many will clutter it.

Didn't Reaper put out a blister back of pewter chains? Those might work if you can find a pack or two.

Awesome, awesome thread. Very good indeed.

*edit*Never mind, I see that I'm late to the game with that bit of advice. But that's ok, because it gives me another chance to say how much this kicks ass.

It kicks muchly.

Change the fanatic chain into a rope, similar to your trailing rope.

V42nd has a good idea.

If you prefer the chain, however, your answer seems simple to me.

Use a lot more wire.

What do I mean? I mean you need more wire:

Have pieces coming off of the staff, shooting out in farious directions.
Have wire trailing down the chains on EVERY fanatic. Use more wire on the fanatics than you have already.
Make the wire more lookes fit and jagged.

When you paint it, paint the wire to look like bolts of elextricity shooting everywhere from his focus point... the staff.


Eric

Dude I'd add in a another gobbo or 2 to mimic Privateer press' Harbinger model for the Menoth faction =D

Awesome stuff...I wish I could do orks like you do!

Thanks,
Chappy P!

I think I'm liking the way he looks, but there's a few things that need refining, tweaking, and cleanup.











The main supporting wire now has a weight at the end of it, and there's a second fanatic hauling the warphead back down to earth, as well as a 'ball and chain' hanging from his waist for a bit of extra weight. The staff-arm wires were redone a bit, wrapped around eachother to hopefully look like rope and just strung along the chain as though there for extra support. The only thing I am having a problem with right now is that visually, the front seems kind've open and empty. I'm considering maybe getting thin flying bases or some other relatively invisible support, crumbling some cork, and suspending rocks 'floating' in the air maybe an inch to half an inch off the ground on the base, to make it look like there's a whole lot of power going on.

Another thought I've been entertaining is to have that non-staff hand clutching something like a fetish. I have a squig foot I've been saving for a while from when I removed its legs and replaced them with tires... He could have a lucky squig's foot charm in the other hand?

Just ideas, anyway. What do you guys think?

I like his off hand as it is...empty! I like the overall feel to the model as it stands, not too much, not to little...it just seems well balanced at this point to me at least.

If you could pull off some invisible support, then I think the floating rock idea would...well uh, you know...it'd rock (sorry could advoid the pun =D)

Thanks,
Chappy P!


PS: When you go to paint him up, maybe do some sort of Object source lighting in the empty hand as his power is flowing from both his eyes, staff and hand? Just a thought?

*edited for the post script!

I don't think you should add the floating rocks... It would distract from the model.
I think he's good as is. If you add the fetish, it won't hurt... but I like him the way he is.


Eric

how did you keep the wires from interefearing with the plastic/metal? I'm thinking of doing a similar type project with marines where the wires run down and through their body. but i'm worried about them shorting on the model.

eidt: I know its a bit late now but
http://privateerpress.com/WARMACHINE/gallery/miniature_pages/previews/harbinger_preview.html not o nly ar there chains but the robes flowing down around her for support. flouting rocks might look cool (even lava lamp type effect from the lava) could be very cool. this you could also use as a trick to help support him. make some styra foam rocks have a grot holding onto one (not crushing him but picking him up) and run the wire from the rocks down through them , the grot, and into the base to give you a nice balance point.

Thinking to myself that his base was a bit too tall, I grabbed my dremel and a cutting wheel and took a stab at carving it down to be slightly less thick. In doing so, however, I realized that I had made a bit of a mistake! I have coin-cell batteries which are basically the same dimensions as a quarter, and battery holders that fit them that I intended on concealing on the underside of the base. Unfortunately, I had cut too much of the base's height down to adequately fit the entire battery holder.

After a bit of swearing and contemplation, I hacked the battery cell holder itself apart and took the metal contacts out, resolving to build the battery enclosure into the underside of the base.

An hour later, I have this ugly little gem to show for my efforts:



Like all of my electronics work, it's pretty terrifyingly ugly, but damn if it doesn't still work. The gray stuff is a two-part epoxy called 'mighty putty', which can be obtained here. I would seriously suggest that anyone who does converting on a large scale grab some of that stuff. It mixes up easily, dries in under five minutes, and creates rock-hard holds. I used some of it on my old Stompa project as a structural support, and I have no doubt in it's strength. In this particular instance, I used it to hold the contacts stable on the underside of the base and to stick some of the extra wire down. There's a tiny switch stuck to the underside that you'll be able to see, as well, anchored by the putty. I put the switch on the underside for one simple reason: back when I did my old Guntrukk project, in the days of yore, I implemented the switch that turned the lights on and off on the exterior of the model, hidden inside a 'rocket'. The problem this led to was that every time I tried to transport it, the switch would get toggled, and subsequently run the batteries and LEDs down to nothing. What this suggested to me was that any time you work with electronics on a model, you want the switch to be recessed or tucked away somewhere that it can't accidentally be switched, hence its placement underneath the base.

When all the wiring is said and done... it lives!







The staff is noticeably dimmer than the eye LEDs largely because it's a different type of LED - the one lighting the eyes is a Surface Mount LED, which is a tiny square that projects the light in a decent arc, whereas the one that I was able to fit into the staff was your standard rounded-top LED, which projects light forward in a cone. The cone of light in the staff, however, is pointing upwards, meaning the light coming out of the eyes and mouth is mostly reflected off of other surfaces inside that skull first.

Despite that, it's only a tiny detail, and I think it looks fine. Certainly too late to change it now.

Anyway, the model's roughly 85-90% done, and needs a couple extra tweaks and additions. I'm very happy with how he looks currently, though - I got over the fact that the staff wiring was fairly obvious going down the chain by convincing myself that I'll make it look like rope come paint-time.

That's... amazing. It looks really has bags of character and is a great conversion even with the electronics.

Phazer

I was sold on mighty putty the minute Billy Mays started talking, but I could never bring myself to order it. Now that you've endorsed it, I must have some!

This really makes me want to drill holes in my cups just so I can instantly seal them with mighty putty. MIGHTY PUTTY!!!!

I figured I'd put a little decorative thing up on the front of the base, and after a bit of head-scratching I decided it'd be part of a marine. I hollowed out a power armor helmet, cut away a bit of one side, stuck a skull inside, and viola, instant zzap-fried marine. It'll be fun to paint the skull inside a nice charred color just to sell the point.



Now, the only thing really holding me back from priming him at this point is one area on his back that keeps troubling me. I am referring specifically to the big coil of chains on his back. On the stock model, these are points for the grots with chains to anchor onto, but I've obviously forgone using them with this conversion as the night goblins fit the weirdboy style a lot better.



I've been thinking about what to do with this area for a while now. I figure if I leave it as-is and paint it as just a coil of chains on his back that doesn't do anything, it'd be a bit silly.

Since they're chains, it would make sense that they're still used as a part of what would help anchor Wurrzag down. I found myself a length of miniature chain that would work, and then got to thinking - what would it anchor to? A big wrecking-ball type thing is already there, so that wouldn't really work. I considered maybe anchoring him to a metallic plate with one of those upside-down U's sticking out of it in the ground on either side, but that didn't seem to make sense to me from a gameplay perspective; something about the idea of a model that's 'anchored down' in place like that, yet walks around the table during a game is weird.

Instead, I have this little idea, which I thought I'd pitch at you guys and see what you thought. Instead of anchors or weights, I was going to wrap the ends of the chains around choppas that have been stuck into the earth to help ground the warphead.

I did a little doodle to help visualize it.



The way I see it, they could pull them out of the ground when he's on the move, and when he starts to get lit up with Waaagh the grots can stake him in to help channel the energy. It would also probably help explain why the earth beneath him is upheaving - they're acting as a conduit.

What do you guys think? This worth doing? I can't think of many other things to do with this awkward roll of chain on his back.

I really like the weapon and chain idea I say go for it. The only down side I see to it is it may clutter the model up too much =/, but you could just have dangling chains just haning there looking like he broke free of two more goblins trying to holp him back that might be kind of cool too. Thats just me though, Looks great keep up the great work!!!

The chains that come with the weirdboy have the grot's hands molded onto them already; they're meant to be glued onto the minderz at the wrists. I suppose I could cut them down and leave them hanging there and put a bone sticking out of the wrists of the hands as though they got blown to pieces and the hand is still hanging from the chain? I do understand the 'too cluttered' comment, though.

I really like the idea of the hand still gripping the chain that would be a pretty unique effect.

jamsessionein wrote:The chains that come with the weirdboy have the grot's hands molded onto them already; they're meant to be glued onto the minderz at the wrists. I suppose I could cut them down and leave them hanging there and put a bone sticking out of the wrists of the hands as though they got blown to pieces and the hand is still hanging from the chain? I do understand the 'too cluttered' comment, though.

My first choice is to leave it as-is.

I prefer the option above, however, over the choppas. Those minderz are going to have their hands full with what they are holding on to. They won't be able to take the time to manage the choppas, too.


Eric

So Wurrzag is, as far as I can see, done.

I went ahead and added two chains coming out of his back, but not ones that stake down into the ground. Instead, I left them both dangling in the air. One of them has a charred grot hand and forearm hanging from it, still gripping tight onto the chain. I sculpted the extra forearm with a bone sticking out of it just so I can make sure it's obviously intended to be a missing limb.

The other shorter chain has a bell I salvaged off of the original warphead staff's chain.





They're small details, and thus sort've hard to make out in the photos, but there you go.

I think it's time to prime and paint.

Now, there's just one thing I need help with from you guys. I want the base to glow, but that's obviously not going to happen via the use of LEDs, so I've decided upon trying to paint OSL with this to some tiny degree. I want to paint a bright green light glowing out from the depths of the cracks in the base, and maybe include some light green ambiance on the grots and Wurrzag's lower half. Thing is, I really have no idea how to do this, so I would appreciate help! I've seen a couple tutorials for OSL previously, but I'm not so sure I know what I'm doing.

I'm more concerned about the order things have to be painted in than anything. For example, I'm priming the piece white. After that, should the first thing I work on be the bright green in the recesses, or should I paint the whole thing up first and do OSL afterwards? Can you achieve an OSL effect with bright green by just making thin washes of something like Scorpion Green and repeatedly applying it to a particular area? Give me a hand here.

I really like the chain effect with the hand it worked out great. As for the OSl questions sorry I am still very new to this so I don;t have a clue

not sure if its too late, but I would try to add feet to the gretchin, they are the only things that don't look like you paid much attention to, just kinda stuck them on...

looks awesome, and really well done. It amazes me with the amount of "engineering" that has to be done to pull these things off.

Wow! First off I have to say you are a great inspiration Ein. I have been reading all your projects and am well impressed your really spuring me on to get my models done. Can I ask where you get all your leds and wires from.

What wires do you use when making well wires for guns etc on your models? As im using some but its really hard to bend and work with, its a right pain!

maybe have some trophies hanging from the back, the rest of the marine maybe?

you continue to produce top notch work and inspire people. keep it up!

an amazing conversion, i honestly cant wait to see it painted

I've been painting Wurrzag, though slowly, because I've also been playing the greenskin campaign in DoW: Soulstorm. There's a lot still to do, but we're getting there.





I'm mostly trying to get the basics on him, but it's a pain in the rear because there's so many nooks and crannies that I have to get at! I would have loved to be able to paint him in separate pieces, but I guess I'll deal with 'em as best I can.

Wurrzag himself is maybe 1/3 done. The grots and base haven't even been started yet. Ugh!

Wow. This is truly an inspiring build and one of the coolest conversions I've seen from anyone at dakka. Get it finished so we can see all the juicy details!

impressive!

More painting progress on Wurrzag, though truth be told it feels a bit sloppy. I broke down a bit towards the end there, on the spot behind where the ball and chain hang from his waist. I couldn't figure out what most of the details in that area were supposed to BE on that original model. They're not modelled particularly clearly, largely because on the stock model you have a grot hanging off the weirdboy right at that spot. Eventually I just figured the unknowns would get painted brown so they'd blend in with his cloak.











He's at what I would call a tabletop standard, at least, so I'm happy with 'em so far.

I have no idea how to paint his staff right now. I was going to do boltgun metal for the staff's rod itself and copper for the wires, but I don't quite know what to do with the glyphy sides around the skull. The fish'ead shield drone will probably be pretty stock looking (tau-ish tan), with the addition of some sort of glyph painted onto the smooth inner part.

Right now I'm thinking the staff's lightning bolt parts need to be done up in a red or yellow. Leaning towards red, because I hate painting yellows.

Anyway, I'd love feedback.

With the metal/copper colors on the rod I'd go for red on the side glyphs. I'm getting the feeling it'd look better than if you'd slap yellow on it.
Anyway, I think it's looking really good, and it's going to be even more killer with that lava base. Keep it up!

Aaand some work on the staff this evening.

Honestly, it's... okay. I tried to do black wraps on the staff between the metallic bits, but I don't think it came out that well (or clearly!). I figured if I did brown wraps, and then put copper wire overtop of it, the wire would be impossible to make out against the rest of the staff very clearly.

I also couldn't pick a color for the lightning bits on either side of the skull, so instead I figured copper made the most sense for them, since it might help conduct Waaagh energy a bit better. The skull is okay, though I'm still trying to figure out how to do them with the new washes without making them look too dirty. For the purposes of this, the skulls all looking a bit charred on the warphead makes sense, since he does tend to zap-fry enemies, but in future I would like it if they looked a bit neater.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the tau drone on the back of the staff. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, so I went ahead and just picked a random color to detail the rim. I wanted to sort've paint a glyph or something inside the white center, and a lightning bolt made the most sense at the time, but I think it looks kind've weak. (Not to mention off-center!) Still trying to make up my mind if I want to leave it as-is or not, since going over that with white again would be a monumental pain in the ass and I still wouldn't know what to put in its place.

Enough talk:









I also got a start on painting the grots' robes, which I hope to make a very dark grey/black with checker trim on spots.



I'd like to hear what you guys think. The staff so far has been a bit dissapointing, honestly, but trying to clean it up could do more damage at this point.

"Listening" to you talk down your painting makes me want to slap you. Seriously man, it's gorgeous, I wish I could paint my stuff up like this. I really dig the "dirty" skull. If I were to point at anything I didn't like, it's the Tau bit looks too clean and pristine. Something other than white might make it look better.

I agree with Aduro it looks incredible and if I could paint half as well as you do I would be quite happy. But that tau drone does look too clean maybe a brown/copper/bolt gun metal wash to make it look aged?

it looks great. Remember, you will always be your own worst critic, unless you're writing an army list, then stelek is your worst critic.

great work here. keep it up.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys.

Painted some dings and scratches onto it, and I'm content leaving it as-is.



I think tomorrow's task is seeing if I can't paint the ropes and chains holding him down, as well as the fanatics and the base.

I wonder if I'll even have the nerve to try painting the light coming out of the cracks in the base by the time I get to that point. It'd be a shame to screw it all up that far in.

Ah well. We'll see.

OH

MY

LORD.


So impressive, such attention to detail.....


I think I might go and slap myself when I look at my figs and say

"Yeah, they are well painted"

How wrong I was....

The concept is marvelous, the execution is fantastic, and the paint job is pretty good. Not a fan of the Tau bit on the back of the staff, I'd much rather it not be there (and maybe some skulls/charms in its place). I would also suggest adding some more yellow to your green if you plan to go in and highlight the skin a bit, which I hope you do. The yellow highlight will help keep the visual composure together when you turn on the yellow-green neon lights.

that is some amazing painting and modelling there, my only quibble is the tau bit still looks a bit out of place . otherwise this is some truely awesome work

It's an excellent piece, Ein.

That ork skull on the staff is SWEET.
I never liked that mak, to be honest, but you did a good job on it. Especially the feathers.
I think that the tau bit looks fine... except the lightning bolt. It's uber-meh. I mean, it's painted well... It just doesn't fit with the model.

Love the painted dings and scratches.

Eric

Alright, this is a bit of a mixed bag.

I washed the shield drone down to a decent, dingy greyish color and I think I like it.

I've been painting the rest of the model and it's looking okay. The fanatics are about 3/4 done - I need to pick out some details on them and the likes, and I'd like to put some checkers on their robes if I can figure out a nice way of doing it. These night goblin fanatics are such a giant pain to paint, though, because they're modelled terribly - there's no gap between the arms and the body, just big hunks of plastic, and the chains are one-piece molded rubbish in some places. I'm lucky I picked a dark color for their robes, because anything other than black or dark grey would look terrible with how these models are made.

The base, however, is proving problematic. I thought I could just use the new washes over a khaki color to achieve a nice little desert effect on it, but they've proven a bit unreliable as far as that goes. I think part of it is that there's very little surface detail on the rocks for the washes to grab onto, and partly because they're positioned at angles, so the wash pools in an unusual manner in unusual places.







Basically, the base is one big ugly mess, but the good thing is that since it's pretty simple, I can continue to paint over it until I get something satisfactory. I don't think washes are going to be much help with it, though. I'mma let all of this crap dry and then do a reasonably heavy drybrush of khaki to see what it does to things.

I rather like the way the base is looking, and still say you're being WAY too hard on yourself here. The Tau bit is looking much better as well.

if your unhappy with the base you could try the lord of end times one from fantasy, that looks sort of like your one. Awesome miniature, I might add.

The Tau drone now really fits in great, I personally like the base i thinkit looks pretty good. The base just seems to lack texture the raised section of ground look too smooth or maybe thats just the camera. I vote with the rest your painting looks great. Keep the pictures coming

I improved the base to my liking, so I'm like 90% done with this model, I think.







Also, I took this photo for giggles, but I have to post it because I love how it came out. I basically dimmed all of the lights around where I was shooting, and set the camera for something absurd like a 30 second exposure, and walked away. The shot that came out was actually truer colors than most of my others, which shocked the hell out of me. Not to mention it looked awesome cause the eyes glowed hard in the dark.



Untouched, aside from scaling and watermarking. I may start taking pictures in a slightly dimmer light.

All that aside, though, there's only a couple things needing to be done. There's a few details on the grots (like knives sheathed in little spots around their belts) that need to be picked out in a different color, and I wouldn't mind putting some checkered lines across their robes...

... Not to mention the OSL which I was considering. The whole 'green glow from the cracks' thing. I'm at the point now where I am afraid of doing that because I've both never done it before and I really don't want to screw the model up any! I may work up the nerve for it later - right now, I'm painting the old base I made for this model up in the hopes that I can use it as a test piece and try to figure out how it should all work. We'll see, though...

O M G. That last pick is just insanely cool. It's made of epic win. And it's not even finished yet.

Awesome.

Wicked mini. Thanks for posting your WiPs, it's always a joy to watch your progress.

Terrifically awe-inspiring model, as always.


Before you 'call it a day' I would strongly suggest that you go for the green light effect in the cracks. . .the base just SCREAMS for it because you need it to look like the energy *just* ripped through the ground so there should be some residual energy still rippling from the cracks.

GO FOR IT!!!

Yeah, if you´ve got the skill (and you obviously do), then go for the green light effects.

That would give this model that last bit of WAAAAAAGHness.

I'm with the rest... You need the green glow.

A suggestion:

Take a large piece of plasticard or some scrap plastic and attach a bunch of rubble or other detrius to it (I think 25mm bases would probably work) to simulate something similar to what you have on the existing base (cracked earth with flat area exposed below.) and use that to practice on. You'll benefit from the larger test piece by having more surface area to practice on.

One more thing; I'd put one more layer of white (ish) on the Space Marine skull. As it sits, the color is VERY similar to the color of the cracked stone on the base.

Eric

Yep, it's an incredible model - but the green glow from the ground would finish it off perfectly.

See, if you'd never even mentioned that idea on the board, you could be done by now!

The crowed goes wild!

Hawt.

Well, I was experimenting a little bit before mangling the actual piece. I painted up Wurrzag's 'old' base and just experimented a big with painting the lighting effect for about twenty minutes with a fair amount of drybrushing and washing just to see what would happen. The results below are a bit hasty, but they're just a preliminary test:





It's a little messy, of course, because I wasn't putting full-blown effort into it, but it's enough to maybe get a handle on things. It's particularly messy in the crack itself, where the brighter colors are coming from, but I actually think it might look better on Wurrzag's real base, because the space between the cracks is much smaller, so you can have a more concentrated bright green/white coming from it. I'll probably have to paint the inside of those crevasses with a syringe, though!

Anyway, wish me luck. I think I'm going to give it a go, though I'd appreciate any pointers before I start.

Uh sorry no pointers here because the first attempt looks awsume, I cannot wait to see this done on the real thing. Good luck and I hope it turns out well, it looks just amazing thus far.

Pointers? Hah! And bring you down to MY level?

I agree about the green glow, it's a must have. That is the single eeriest, most unsettling model I have ever laid eyes on. Ever. That shot with the 30 sec exposure did it. Now I'll have nightmares. Thanks. You mind if I avatar that pic?

The first attempt looks cool, but I think it looks more like liquid or green lava or something than just glowing cracks. I'm not sure what I would do differently to change that, but I think the much narrower cracks in the actual base might fix that anyways.

I've spent a good long while fiddling with Wurrzag, even to the point where I was trying to paint the cracks in the base with a syringe. (It's impossible!) However, I'm reasonably satisfied with the effect, so I thought I'd share some pictures. It's the sort of thing that looks okay in person, but I think comes out better through photography.

The next few shots were taking with a longer exposure setting, so they're a bit darker, but they show the colors a bit better as well.









I'm spotting a few areas that need some touchups, but I think overall Wurrzag is done, unless something huge is missing that I haven't noticed.

grizgrin wrote:Pointers? Hah! And bring you down to MY level?

I agree about the green glow, it's a must have. That is the single eeriest, most unsettling model I have ever laid eyes on. Ever. That shot with the 30 sec exposure did it. Now I'll have nightmares. Thanks. You mind if I avatar that pic?

Feel free to avatar it or do whatever, I don't mind.

The cracks look cool, dig the colors. Still seems to have kind of a liquid effect to it though. The one thing I might do is make the center brighter, it looks rather equal thru all the cracks, and you'd thing the center where it's bursting thru would have a stronger glow.

Aduro wrote:The cracks look cool, dig the colors. Still seems to have kind of a liquid effect to it though. The one thing I might do is make the center brighter, it looks rather equal thru all the cracks, and you'd thing the center where it's bursting thru would have a stronger glow.

I keep trying to do a thin white line down the middle of the cracks, but you have to appreciate how narrow they are to begin with. I was doing it with a syringe, and the needle of the syringe was not thin enough in some places to make it through the rocks, let alone a brush.

I think it looks phenominal, the addition of the glowing WAAAAAAAG! energy is the perfect accent for the piece. Are you just gonna have him as an art piece or do you intend to use him as well?

Zhetsuken wrote:I think it looks phenominal, the addition of the glowing WAAAAAAAG! energy is the perfect accent for the piece. Are you just gonna have him as an art piece or do you intend to use him as well?

Oh, no, he's totally a gaming piece. He'll be getting a couple coats of varnish once I'm 100% happy with everything. I've already played him a couple times, both pre-paint and while I was working on painting him. I love elements of random luck in my army.

jamsessionein wrote:I've already played him a couple times, both pre-paint and while I was working on painting him. I love elements of random luck in my army.

You have time to do all this excellent work AND fit games in.

I hate you.

Jerk.



Eric

Superb work as always Ein! Really good to see it finished.

What with the stompa finished and now the warphead, what are you planning on finishing next?

Ein: you are completely mad (the positive kind of mad) and I love you for that. Can I build a temple in your honour so that the next generations of wargamers can be inspired by your work.

/end praising


I want one to decorate my home

Count me in on that temple. Brilliant work Ein, as we're used to see from you

Super impressive work, inspires me to at least attempt to better my models!!

Freaka

Holy mother of Mary, Mark, Joseph, Jesus, Abraham, Buddah, Abraham Lincoln, Mohammed and her Highness the Queen of Spain, that's bloody damn well tremendous/incredible.

BRAVO.

Brilliant! You have done a fantastic job. Really, just "Whoa!"

Completely awesome job on all aspects. I love it.

I hadn't seen it since you added the glow to the cracks. It looks fabulous - seal that puppy up, man!

i'm very very very jealous... i actually had the idea to do this a coupla weeks ago thinking i was being really original... i don't think i'll even attempt it now coz it'll look like gak compared to yours lol

Hokey smokes! A 1-1/2 year threadromancy? That's gotta be close to a record!

In the case of quality modeling threads, there's no harm in a thread being dragged back up (as there is no contextual material that has gone out of date, as with rumor or tactic threads). In fact, it allows newer members to see good threads they may have missed.

I'm not suggesting that it should happen all the time, but we're not going to lock a thread like this for thread necromancy as frankly the work is so awesome that comments on it are appropriate no matter how long ago it was completed!

And in his defense, I did link to the thread in a different one where someone was asking about making a light up Weirdboy, and he might not have noticed how old it was.

P.S. I miss Jamesson, he made awesome stuff, but he's not posted anything in some six months.

And it is an epic fething model.