Posted By Clayman on 07/09/2006 6:17 AM

and can i say 'Someone set up us the bomb'?

 

 Good one.. haven't seen that one in a while

Please don't go cold on this one Jamsessionein!!! Lots of motivation comming your way from me! It is so good, you can't stop now...

I'll bet the platform for the Grot-bomb / Earthshaker on the back will take up ample space to fill your gap. Why not start on the platform and machinery for that?

Orkified shoulder-guardsare also a good idea. Protect the moving parts from incoming fire.

Also don't get too crazy comparing your scale to the art you've based it on. What will be important in the end will be how awesome and orky it looks (so far, so good!), not how close to a single concept art sketch it becomes.

I'd try pulling the magnets off that connect the head to the body and just mocking it up moving the head back a bit. To me the head does not look too big, just too far forward.

I would like to also send my motivational psalms.  If you have to take a break to regain your inspiration, then so be it.  You have done a great job and it has been great to see all the creativeness that you have applied here.  Thank you for doing such a great job!!!! 

Well, here's what's going on.

I tried out making a shoulderpad sort of setup for it where both arm joints are a bit more protected, but the problem I'm encountering is that the arms are in completely opposing positions - meaning that the shoulder guards end up turned to match the arms (for example, so that the 'klaw' arm can point backwards for the running pose, the shoulder guard has to be angled way forward) , and look completely off because they are in opposing positions. Instead of bulking it up (which it would do nicely if the arms hung at the sides in a neutral position) it ends up making the entire thing look lopsided.

I've considered a sort of gunner's platform across the back of the gargant's shoulders as well, but there are issues with that, too - namely, the angle I would set it at. It could be parallel to the top of the head, but it'd end up leaning forward pretty hard and would look a bit silly.. or it could be parallel to the ground, which wouldn't make sense as when the gargant isn't leaning so far forward the platform'd be tipped back.

Everyone seems to have their own ideas for 'fixing' the head - I've had suggestions to move it up, down, backwards, forwards...

I've not mentioned this in any sort of previous post here because I thought it'd be a nice surprise, but the content manager from White Dwarf and I have had a few interactions over the past few weeks wherein I was working to arrange getting the model into the publication for the Orktober issue. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I'd be able to make that deadline - next Monday I'd have to go down to Baltimore with a completed, painted model and diorama base. It just doesn't look like it's going to happen as I'm both burned out and stuck on the upper half of this project. I'm thinking I'm going to set this aside on a shelf for a while until I feel the desire to come back to it and try again, when I will most likely remake the head to some degree and work on the back and engine. As it stands, even if I just stuck random stuff on the back (which would look like garbage) I'd only have 5 days to paint both the model and the base, and I don't see anything good coming of that. The past few days have been me attempting a rush job, and I think it's starting to show. I'm at the junction now where I'd rather have a proper model, painted over however many days it requires, with proper modelling to finish it off, as opposed to.. well, what I have now.

The nice thing is that taking a break'll give me time to order a forgeworld grot bomb and save myself the headache, too.

In any event, there you have it. This doesn't mean I'm done - it just means I'm taking a step back and redoing some things that have been bothering me about it without the time constraints I've been trying to work with for the past week or so.

jamsessionein, thanks for reminding us why we love orks.

To bad about the WD thing. Meh. Oh well. Mabey another day.

Take your break and when you get the urge to pick it back up, let us know. ;~)

For your shoulder and neck issue- how about a couple of scratch-built glyph plates with appropriate orky stuff on them. Position them such that they act as armor from the back/side of the head and block-up some of the empty space.

Also do you have any ideas for the grot who will ride your bomb (if you even have one)? Would be funny if you had him swinging a cowboy hat in the air like Slim Pickins in Dr Strangelove. It might not be so Orky but would be hella funny for those who got it...

Sounds like a good plan, you did a lot of work in a short time, I always find it best to take a break if I'm working on something that hard, I'd imagine when you're fresh you'll figure it out in no time.

I've worked out a bitz trade for a grot bomb at the moment, which should help a great deal - I'll probably modify it with a saddle and chain reins so that a grot can go Dr. Strangelove style on the top. I like the idea of that a lot, as it'll look like the grot's actually riding the gargant when the bomb is mounted on the top, which is just a fun thought. I think when it comes time to redo the head, I'm going to try and pin it down a bit more accurately on the concept sketch.

In the mean time, I've been bitz ordering stuff for my warboss on warbike, which should help a lot.. and I've had a really interesting idea for a Big Mek model that I think I want to give a try, but I'm going to work up some concept imagery before I commit to anything.

Don't worry, though. The gargant is definitely getting finished - I'm ordering some stuff for it as we speak, and when the grot bomb gets here I'll pick back up on this and finish it off with a new head and a reworked upper body.

In the mean time, I'll be making some orks for the base of this thing. Here's what I'm wondering: You guys may remember my normal orks (as I run a Kult of Speed, they're Trukk Boyz) - they wear goggles, streetsigns, tires, and chains as extra armor, typically carry shotguns, etc.. The orks that I decorate on the base as following the gargant up, I see going one of two ways. I can either armor the ork up to reflect that little ork in the gargant's concept drawing (With the beakie shoulder pads and a bit more of a 2nd-edition look to him) or I can go with my normal Ork boy design and make them a bit junkyard-esque - goggles, chains, the likes. The stormboy's a bit of an exception as I think he'd have the goggles and such anyway, though.

Right now I'm sort've leaning towards my junkyard orks just because I think they'd match the gargant's walking-scrapheap appearance better, but for the original art's sake I thought I'd consider the design there as well.

I gotta' say, I didn't wanna say so earlier, because I thought I'd be raining on everyone's parade, but I second your plan to re-do the head. I really like the project but I kinda' felt the head didn't quite live up to the rest of the body. I think it might be cool if when you redesign it, you would do the lower jaw kinda like two sheets of metal cut to make jaws with a space in the middle, kinda like their mandibles. It kinda' looks like it's that way in the picture, AND it makes sense as to let the flamer have more space to fire. Also, I think it'd look pretty cool if the teeth were actually like 3-D, like harvested teeth from a squiggoth or something. Big fan of the project, thanks!

and once you finish your Stompa Gargant, we insist you start on a MegaGargant

I think you're doing damn well so far.

I think the proportions seem fine according to the original concept sketch.

The head looks out of proportion whenever the gun arm is not in the pic. that really balances it out.

Here's something I mocked up to show one possible head position using the head you have already created. Sorry if I'm slightly off on scale here, these pics were the closest I found. I've shown the head back further into the body and a tiny bit lower. The jaw has been extended a long way out, similar to the original concept. I think one problem you might be having could be caused by the fact that there's an extra bit of armour on the concept between the shoulders and the head, which might be throwing the positioning off,  I've added that in. To me, the ears look good but they will have to lie fairly flush to the head rather than sticking out, to avoid the "jughead" look.

I can see that this might mean taking another look at your wiring as putting the head where I've shown it here might not allow room. One possibility for the electronics could be housing them under the grotbomb and just using a little jumper wire to connect them to the head?

ETA: obviously this is just a little 2D jiggery pokery and it is easier to muck about with it here than in real life. If you need a break, take it - the results may well please you more when you come back to it with a fresh head.

That little extra extension of the torso armor up to around the neck area was part of what I thought would help the body look a bit larger in proportion to the head, but I believe that you have the head set lower down than it is in person there. I don't really know if I can shift it down all that much more without impeding the grotpit area, but I will take a look at that. Also, that little shoulder armor extension was being problematic when I was trying to make it - in a 2d sketch it looks fine, but when you actually try adding an additional plate there the shoulder area where the chains are wrapped around and the magnets that the head uses to connect impede where the plate needs to go.

Also.. I'm not sure, but it does look like the head is a bit smaller in that image, if I'm not mistaken. Still, that is very useful, and before I remake the head I'll toy with modifying the current one into place (It'll end up being just a useless thing I have laying around if I rebuild the head anyway, so I may as well experiment with it). The majority of the wiring inside the head is out of the way, but I was a bit silly and stuck the switch in a stupid spot to work around - it interferes with any back-mounted weapon I want to put on there, and it prevents me from moving the head down as it's in the way.. but unfortunately, it's stuck in tight. Even if I remake the head just a touch smaller and with a relocated switch I think it'd work better.

Oh I don't know, you could use the head as a bit of terrain for the battle field, it would be quite cool I would think, you could go for a planet of the apes statue of liberty type effect.

Also I would go with your speedfreaks/junk yard orks on the base, I mean the gargant is part of your army, it only makes sense that it would be your army on the base.

If you end up making a new head, you could put the current head that you have on the end of a stick and use it as a WAAAGH! banner.  I think it would be cool to see a group of grots charging into battle with a giant Gargant head on a stick to rally da boyz.  What could get them more charged up than following a big Gargant head into battle!!!!  Of course, you'd have to make the banna wavas look like they're stuggling to keep the thing in the air.  I think it'd be awesome. 

I am very impressed with this and eagerly await the finished model. Some feedback for you.

1. I followed the link to the_waargh forum, there you were encouraged to replace the guard officers pointing hand with a laspistol. This would be a bad idea because:
a. A pointed hand nicely indicated the hopelessness of the guardsmen. Even the officer has let his fear overcome him. A laspistol is too defiant.
b. Dioramas incidate things that the rules might not. Your gargant is not vulnerable to small arms fire, but it looks open topped (frunted?), so a short ranged aimed shot may well kill the grot at the wheel and save the day. You want the attention on the gargant, not an imperial hero in the making.

2. You think the head is wrong. I agree, but its not the back thats the problem. The trouble is that the gargant has a high forehead, it looks too thinky. Give the gargant a more neanderthal slope at the front and it will look fine.

3. Adding shoulder plates is a good idea, as they will better define the shape - but they dont need to be big.

4. I think your gargant will be better off more or less as it is, it has enough gunz and klose kombat weapons as it is. Save the grotbomb and looted earthshaker as optional add ons. Think about haveing a detachable shoulder/backplate with two hardpoints on it so you can have both the weapon options. Its also an excuse to add an extra structure point and orky field. This way your gargant can be cheap and nasty and part of an army list, or a (small) army of itself - which is what you orignally wanted, yes.

5. I like the grot controlled gargant idea, as this is a small gargant. But it only really works if the gargant is alone or has a bigga more killy gagrant nearby. If you use this in your games you will have a legal H.Q. and that will be a problem. I cannot see a warboss or nobz on foot playing hangers on to some uppity grots! So I suggest you make an ork kaptin figure for the grotpit. As you dont want him there most of the time - especially as a diorama - adds two pins to each foot and suitable holes to the grotpit for him to stand in or be removed as needed.
He need not be impressivly armed (he controls a gargant) just give him a kaptins hat, hip mounted slugga and a loudhaila. So long as he is suitably big as an ork he can claim to be da boss and your warboss on foot, in a battlewagon or whatever can more readily follow him. Otherwise it will just look wrong.

 i think the orcs would probably listen to the grots, since they are in a giant death machine...

or make this model the HQ of an all-grot army

Looking at the two next to one another in tabs helped me figure out some suggestions.

The sketch and your head are actually almost identical in proportion from the side. Therein lies the issue. You think it is too big because it is too wide from the front. The 2-D sketch can't really show you the depth you need to get the correct feel for a proportioned head. It hints at it a little, but you have to see it the way an artist does.

The bottom of the jaw starts further in than your jaw does. They both have about the same extension, but the sketch will be smaller than yours and more in proportion because it does not actually try to cover that spot in front that you have for the grots. My only suggestions are to either drop the crew (which I don't believe many people are in favor of) and make the lower jaw smaller or to give up on the crew being protected by the jaw. This can be so taken care of with Orky technology. Power fields protect crew all the time. Putting something like a plastic film to protect the crew might work... Not sure how to handle that.

To make it more in proportion you have to make the head about 1/2 to 1 inch narrower. This is not going to be easy. The The eyes are more narrow and that increases the menace of the sketch. The problem you will meet is making the battery stuff work with that.

I look at the belly of the stompa and see armor plates coming forward. Those actually push the lower frame of the model forward and give it more gravity and depth. Maybe adding stuff there would help.

The only other thing is that mounting for the grot bomb. If you attach it to the head (to the left and right of the toggle along the housing for the circuitry) and have a small platform rest ON the engine on the back so that it looks like part of it, you will get a much bigger looking back and it might just bring it right back to where it needs to be.


Some small suggestions from a person that believes you have made some art and I can understand losing the muse.

I joined this forum 'cos of this thread...my son (an Orky-type) has been going nuts reading this article...amazing work!

With regards to the head....I disagree...I think the voiceover from DoW says it all:  "We'll make it Orky!!!"

Head too big?  Naw....it's all good...it's s'posed to be big 'n intimdating. 

Holy christ that thing is rock the freak out AWESOME! Jaw droppingly so. Good god, I hope you're able to grind your way through your burn out and get back to it, that is quite the impressive scratch build. It's tough to not let construction frustrations get the best of you and I truly wish you the best of luck pushing through them. Fantastic work and thanks for sharing it with us! Love it!

THis is outright the most impressive thread I have ever seen!
That is all I can utter at this moment. Simply Perfect.

I hope you are a God at painting as well. If not you really should consider commissioning the painting. This artifact must not be tainted by even a single brush stroke that has not been carefully executed with the skill worthy of (for lack of a better superlative) your conversion skills.

You can trust he's good at painting, those orcs he painted were pretty super. Hopefully one day I too can be decent at painting

Oh yeah, he's good at painting his ork vehicles.

Check out his first modeling contribution (to my knowledge anyway) here on Dakka.


An Ork Battlewagon with lots of grots doing stuff. See a pattern?

Ein, I wanted to wait till the WD deadline was gone and past, because I didn't want you to have any more hair splitting on my acount, and I think is this is a great conversion project.

The only input I can give is based on that latest picture with the extra shoulder plate, etc. You have already probably considdered this, but I will toss it to you anyway. The gob in that picture is much bigger and it looks good! I don' know that you have to change the whole head... Maybe you just need a bigger gob.

Ok, that's my two cents.

Wow, this model just keeps getting better and better. Congrats on the amazing build, i hope to see it finished and painted, yuo are a very talented modeler, keep up the great work!

dude thats amazing!!!!

i bet it wasnt easy.

How is it coming these days? Any advancements?

Some. For the sake of my own sanity, I've decided I'm not really going to be putting the model online for the time being, as everyone just has differing opinions on the build of certain features and it ends up getting very.. conflicting. I'll put some shots up when the model's fully finished being painted, but until then, you'll all have to cope.

Even though I enjoy watching the Stompa grow, you are wise for not letting our squabbles taint your artistic flow. I can not wait to see it!

Could you still throw the wip pics for the advances between the last pics and completion up on the site once you're done? It's interesting to see it grow and progress.

It might be too late, but I just stumbled across this. I even registered on the board just to make this post.

Would it be possible to add a little yellow LED in the mouh? If that flamer has the 'pilot light' on, there'd be light there, too.

I know it's cheesy to post for this purpose, but I'm just reminding jamsessionein that we haven't forgotten about the gargant and we're looking forward to seeing the finished product

I concur.

Any word on the finished product?

Let's get some new momentum going, shall we?

It's been an interesting past few months for me. I won't bore you with the details, but the important thing is that I have recently been liberated from my obligations towards work and school for the winter, which leaves me with enough time to finally finish this. I'm deeply saddened that it's taken me this long, but I'll be happy to get this thing done and painted and stompin' on da closest fing dat moves!

My general first order of business is to finish the construction and fine details. The gargant now has a ramshackle grot bomb launcher that slots in on the center of the shoulders once the head is attached. The grot bomb has been pinned to the ramp - magnets proved too difficult to use for that application, so instead it slots onto the ramp nicely on a metal post. In the course of the past few months, the captain, who is the one grot in the grotpit that I did not pin in place, has managed to escape from my slaver. This means I will need to make another, which is alright with me because I wasn't 100% fond of him due to the ackward way I had him holding the ship wheel.

Here's some pictures of the grot bomb ramp:











I apologize for the picture quality, it isn't my usual camera.

The new ramp badly evidences the need for some proper shoulder armor, which is the next thing on my list to build after I magnetize the grot bomb properly.

I was originally messing around with a curved and streamlined shape to the shoulders so that they would not impede the motion of the arms.

Then I came to my senses and realized that 'streamlined' and 'orky' do not go together. At all. So I am working on making some nice, big, chunky shoulders.

I'm trying to make the shoulders out of reasonably thick card so that it'll be sturdy. The back is open so that I can properly pose the claw hand aiming backwards in a running position. Also, orks have no need for rear armor! As long as it's a walking wall of death, nothing'll get behind it. It'll get riveted up and a plated a bit, as well.

I'm thinking I'm going to put some spears sticking out the top of the shoulder pads - maybe a grot tied to a stick and some beakie heads on a pike.









I've just been working on the 2nd shoulder... I found the head is a bit asymmetrical in back, which makes the attachment of that shoulder pad a real pain because it interferes a bit with where the head wants to rest. I've been trying to make up for this by removing a decent impact blast chunk of armor in the corner where it pokes into the back of the head, and I think that took care of it.

I'm going to rivet around the edges, and probably plate the tops.. I think the gun-arm shoulder pad would look pretty decent with a chain hanging across it and heads tied to it for detail. I was considering those poles as spikes atop the shoulders, so I sketched it up real roughly. I only have two poles I can think of using - one with the grot tied to a spear and the other with the heads, which looks remarkably asymmetrical and a bit unbalanced.






With the poles:



I figured it looks a bit different when it's full on posed, so I propped it up using stuff on my desk in the running pose to match the concept art. I may tone the backwards-tilted arm a bit down, since it's already leaning forward.

I fixed your image links.

Dakka doesn't currently utilize the [ img ] UBB code, you just need to click on the little 'photo' symbol in the text editor and paste the URL directly into the window that pops up.


I haven't read your post yet, so I'll comment on your progress in a bit.

Haha. Yeah, I only just realized. I started to go back and fix them but you beat me to it. Thanks.

This is superb work. I really like the diorama scene with the Guardsman reaching out to his comrades from under the Gargant's foot. I can't wait to see the finished product.

CK

Speaking of that guy underfoot, I did a hand swap so he would be outreaching towards his comrades but the damnable thing won't stay glued on. He's actually got a stump presently because the hand seems to have fallen off at some point, and I have no idea where. I may simply try reworking it into him reaching out with a blown-off limb, depending on if I can find a new hand or not.

Yeeehaaa!!!!

I'm happy just to see this moving forward.  I can't wait to see the final product.

Looks great Are you able to take it apart though? I'd imaging painting is gonna be a real pain in the pills if not love the light up eyes

Head, arms, and launching ramp are all removable for my own sanity. Transporting it would be impossible, let alone painting.

I'm so glad this is back. I'll be able to sleep peacefully tonight. Keep up the great work.

Any thoughts yet on a colour scheme, or at least klan? I don't know whether you intended this model to fit an existing ork army or be the start of a new army, or indeed maybe it's just a standalone model...

Rusty and red. I'm going to have the occasional off-color plate to emphasize it's looted-ness - I'm thinking of making one of the new shoulder pads ultramarines blue with the U decal on it to suggest that they blew something up and just bolted it straight onto the gargant. I will be primarily aiming for a dull rusted boltgun and faded red, though.

It'll probably be fielded alongside my army, which is still working on defining it's shape and theme.

YAY!
This thing is so totally kicking rad! Glad to see you've had a chance to get back to work on it. Don't beat yourself over the time frame either, I've had conversions I've started work on years ago and still only manage to get anything done in occasional fits.

Just as a word of caution, whatever you do with the rest of your ork army, try to keep it generic until the new Ork dex is out, supposedly by this time next year. GW has a nasty habit of eliminating unit entries, severely nerfing things perceived as overly powerful and generally ignoring most weaker units.

Wow.

I may have wimped out a bit on the shoulders, but this is how they currently stand.

I skipped the spears idea on the shoulders for a couple reasons. First and foremost, I took a look at my other ork stuff and noticed a pattern of me continually repairing any thin, pointy bits that tend to protrude off the model. My battlewagon alone, for example, has had that grot-on-a-stick fall off and get reattached more times than I can count, and I really don't want to repeat that with this model.

Second, it was a bit distracting. Honestly. I drilled a few holes in the claw shoulder pad to prop the spears and trophy poles up in, and gave it a look, but they diverted attention away from the face and the head, which wasn't quite what I was going for. I patched them up as bullet damage.

Spikes would have interfered with the head's attaching and detaching. At the moment, I am actually considering making the shoulders and the grot bomb one entire removable piece to go on after the head. It'll depend on if I can get the angles to line up right, I think.

I riveted the shoulders and face.











Gotta work on it a bit more when I get home later. I don't know what else of the basic gargant construction needs doing aside finalizing how the shoulders attach - I know it needs a new grot in the grotpit and some orks running around on the base, but aside from that... any final touches you guys might suggest?

a grot or ork with a captain's hat seems fitting for the cockpit. can't remember if you've decided on something along those lines or not.

The base looks a little empty, maybe if you put one of those half-smashed buildings from the new city fight on it it might look less empty. It would need to be small though.

Wow, it's really come together.
A fantastic and inspiring piece of work!

Posted By erubus on 12/22/2006 9:51 AM
The base looks a little empty

You did notice the 'uge stompa, right? :S

But I think the base looks great as is, lots of bitz but not enough to clutter up or pull attention from the main stomping event.  The stompa looks fantastic too, love the rivets and plate work on those shoulders.  I'm glad you didn't go with the spears, as I felt they'd detract and be unneccesary, as you note too.

Really looking forward to paint on this bad boy.  I think we'll be very very lucky if GeeDub's plastic stompa looks anything as good as this.

- Boss Salvage

I agree. The stompa is where everyone's eyes will be anyways. Of course, having said that it's always neat to have tons of little details to keep the audience looking. If it where me I'd leave it as is and start painting.

..Of course, if it was me I would have stopped long ago and just glued four popsicle sticks to a toilet paper tube with "Stompa" scrawled in crayon across it.

Freaking sweet!

It is a pretty busy model as it is, very convincing, no need to keep adding. If you really feel the need to add a couple extra touches, then what do you think about adding some burnt tree stumps in there? Either way, this is a swank model! If you ever feel the need to get rid of it, I will trade you my pet rat or one of my room mates for it!

Glad to see you resume your work on this !!

I just wanted to add that I think the shoulder pads really make the model look orky. I had previously thought that something didn't look quite right about the head, especially when compared to the original drawing, but with the addition of the shoulder pads the head fits much more nicely into the torso and the whole thing looks properly 'orky' to me.

I agree that you don't need the spikes at all.

Are you thinking about making the shoulder pads/grot bomb removable so you can take them off if you don't want to use them? Because I really believe the shoulder pads should be a permanent part of the model.


Great, fantastic work as always!

Erebus: The base looks empty? I don't really agree, but I guess perhaps it doesn't have as much impact in pictures. There is the foundations of a ruined building tacked into the base - I spent a lot of time aesthetically planning the scene out so that the gargant would be the focus of the scene. The general idea is that guardsmen had set up a heavy weapons entrenchment behind the ruins of an old building aiming out at the street (the street is actually partially modelled onto the corner behind the gargant).. and the gargant, after taking a few shots from the lascannon there finally directed itself that way, smashed through the remaining front of the building, and proceeded to squish dem 'umies inta da ground!

I'm honestly inclined to say that the structure of the model itself is done. Left is the grots, and some orks trailing the gargant on the base, and that's about it.

Shoulders have been attached and anchored onto the main torso through the use of a favored construction method of mine - putty! It's a very-fast drying two part putty I found in my garage that I believe is used for plumbing purposes. It's horribly ugly, and smells awful while it's drying - not meant for sculpting at all! It does, however, have a remarkable knack at holding parts together and when it dries it is literally like cement.

I applied a bit on the underside of each pad and basically pressed it onto the torso till it stayed.

Component pictures!



And assembled!



I'm not going to lie to you guys, it is ugly when it is in pieces, but once all the parts are on the structural points are all covered up and it comes together pretty nicely.

I really wish I could sculpt. I can only imagine how much greenstuff I'm going to make trying to create a decent grot captain hat.

EDIT: I almost forgot, I have to put the mouth burna back inside the head.

Its a christmas miracle!

Looking great as usual, thanks for the updates. Glad to see it getting the attention it deserves.

Your kitchen countertop is beautiful.

The Stompa is too, I guess.

You have nice composition on the rest of the diorama as well. Equal parts humor and horror.

Horror is humourous! So its 100% humourous!

Breaking your humerus isn't very humouous.

Sorry about that I thought that the base was alot bigger than it is! Any way this is one of the best models I have ever seen profesionaly done or no. The only problem I can see is that it will make you want to convert the rest of your army so that they look as good as this guy.

On a side note you do have nice countertops

That's realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, realy, cooooooooooool!

And I agree about the counter tops. Very nice!

Not quite a spectacular leap of progress, as the majority of what remains is small details, but I come bearing many pictures.

A friend of mine has very gracefully volunteered me a few ork Kommandoz, which is spectacular, and I cannot thank him enough. I think they fit the scene pretty well, as they are in triumphant and aggressive poses and work very well in an urban setting like this. Of course, the more models I add to the base, the longer painting will take! They currently just pin into tiny holes I drilled in the base, so I can take them out and paint them easily, just like the guardsmen.











Like I said, I wish I could sculpt. I'm going to cut the top of the hat flat and try adding a brim.. I also found the old captain, actually, but I'm not too fond of him so I'm going to give this a go.




And some neat scenic pictures:






The eyes are off in the last few, but they're getting dim. Going to need a battery swap pretty soon.

Finally- a thread resurection that doesn't make me die inside!!!

Fantastic work Jamsessionein. In my opinion the scenic base is a little too big for its own good. The kommando with the stikk bomb should probably have that replaced with something else as it looks like he's lobbing it in front of the stompa

Grot Captain v2.0





The grots need a bit of touching up, as I can see mold lines and the likes, but I like this captain more than the older one.



He just looks meaner.

Golden Demon should be in your future. Open category. This has been a fantastic build. Thanks for sharing with all of us.

Found and attached the mouth-burna. <!--emo& --> <!--endemo-->



I can't think of anything else I'm missing or have yet to do, aside from a general cleanup. I think it's complete - I just need to take hi-res pictures and prime.

Any last-minute additions?

I say stick a fork in it. . .it's done.

I agree with the yak. Maybe stick an orky glyph on the front of the captain's hat, but that can always be done with paint if you don't want to sculpt it.

grot captain is excellent. Congratulations on finishing a great build!

Merry Christmas.

yes you are missing something. Dials and buttons in the grotpit. You need at least one big red button in front of the kaptin, and the kaptin should be poised to press it (rather frequently I imagine).

Because I know the most pressing question on everyone's mind:

But how does it stack up compared to a Forgeworld Gargantuan Squiggoth?

(Okay, so maybe not. But I just had to.)




As if I didn't have enough to paint, along comes the most phenomal christmas present! And speaking of paint...



The gant's just a bit taller than the gargantual squiggoth is without the howdah.

All I can say is that my opponents are going to be crushed directly into the ground.

All I can say is, 'Merry effing Christmas Ein!'

Ewww, gross! Da stompa dun choppa'd da squiggoff's 'ed off!
Now prime that bad boy so we can see if there's any last embellishments to be added. *salivates* =)

I'm hoping to get some advice as to how to paint my baby. I have this model (and diorama base) sitting in front of me waiting for primer and paint, but I've no idea what to do with it now. I wish I was good at painting, but I am sadly a relative novice. Part of me wishes I would just find some professional to do it for me, but I wouldn't be able to enter it in any sort of competitions if I do that, and I've invested so much work into it's construction that it just wouldn't be right. I do have an airbrush that I have used with varying success that I imagine I'm going to have to look at using..

Really, though, I don't know how to paint this up. A majority of my orky constructions are red, but I went for a very scrapheap appearance with the construction of this gargant, so I'm thinking something metallic and rusty might be cool. I've also had an interesting idea in mind for a little while - I want to make it look like it's made of very looted and scrap parts, so I'm thinking of finding a good panel, painting it up an ultramarines blue, and putting the ultramarines logo on it... to sort've suggest they blew a tank clean up, and just ripped scrap metal straight off it and bolted it on as extra armor without even an extra coat of paint.

It's a large task, and very intimidating, so I'm not entirely sure where to start aside from a coat of black primer. Faded and rusted metal would look good, but I'm not sure how to achieve the best effect, or where I should apply this to. Since I've just come into ownership of a box full of every Vallejo Game Color paint, this entire process should be much easier, but I'm really not sure how to best paint corroded or worn metals, and I'm also not sure of the general scheme I should utilize, so I'm more than open to advice for both colors and technique.

Finaly finished building? IT looks amazing.

For paint here is what i would do: I would paint the mjaority of the plates and spaces red and rusted metal and faded metal abnd make the occasional plate like the ultramrine you described. also i think that you should just go for it. do what you think looks good. and not worry so much about what we all think. >.> well thats my 2¢

Good luck and keep it up
Cheers
>Chaoshound

The good news is that this represents a vehicle made/repaired/scavenged from lots of other bits anyway, so for example the left arm can look quite different to the right arm without the overall model looking odd. That said, I personally wouldn't be practising paint finishes on the actual model until I was confident - you DON'T want to be stripping paint from a great model like this if you can help it. Do you have any other unpainted ork models to prectise on? Or, build some orky barricades from spare bitz, and practise painting them? (Maybe even use some of those barricades for the stompa's base?)

As for paint finishes, personally I've had good results with combinations of:
- drybrushing with a colour like boltgun metal
- priming with a very dark brown, then heavy drybrushing with a rusty brown , then lightly with boltgun metal - this gives a nice 'unpainted but heavily used bare metal' look
- washing with thinned down black

Well my advice would be to go with the looted and scavanged parts. A piece from an Ultramarines, a piece from a Guard regiment(iconography will do the trick as the guard painting is barely recognizeable when compared to a Space Marine painting).

And as Chaos Hound said, atleast more than half of the model should be red. The first thing an Ork will do once they build something that actually works will be to wash it red(either with blood or paint )

And dents thru the paint will look good too I believe. This vehicle probably goes thru buildings and stomps other things that go BOOM! under his boots so its painting will probably get damaged regularly and Orks are not the kind of people that will re paint their vehicle between every engagement. And as the base has a little story behind it that the Stompa just went thru a building to crush the IG heavy weapons position a few fresh dents on the frontal armor paint would be characterfull.

But if you ask me "How will you do it?" I can't answer that. I'm very happy if I can paint a model at the right colors I was trying to.

Posted By jamsessionein on 12/26/2006 1:02 PM
I wish I was good at painting, but I am sadly a relative novice.

Who are you and what have you done with Ein?!? Your basic technique is very clean and more than suitable, though it would benefit from more layers on the bare metal and flesh. Seriously, the risk here is over-complicating the paintjob and obscuring the heapings of orky goodness.

Posted By Construct on 12/26/2006 11:58 PM

Posted By jamsessionein on 12/26/2006 1:02 PM
I wish I was good at painting, but I am sadly a relative novice.

Who are you and what have you done with Ein?!? Your basic technique is very clean and more than suitable, though it would benefit from more layers on the bare metal and flesh. Seriously, the risk here is over-complicating the paintjob and obscuring the heapings of orky goodness.

I fall in and out of practice, depending upon how much I've painted... and it's been a long, long while since I've last held a brush for anything, let alone something this large, so I'm trying to prepare myself a bit.

Hey there Jam.

I've been a lurker around here for as long as I can remember, but god knows why, i never took the time to register. Finding your thread on this awesomely built model i just had to register and say this: DUDE THIS MODEL ROCKS! I just wish i had your skill to try and have a go at building something like it.

About painting it: I have a few forgeworld models lying around and i have been entertaining ideas of painting them for a while now but not having an airbrush was putting me off. I recently bought one so i have no more excuses so i started looking around for tutorials and ideas on how to achieve what i wanted, a weathered and worn look on my valquirie and vulture models.

Orc vehicles are different on the sense that they have a crude patchwork look but I think you can use some of the stuff i compiled on the gargant as well, anyway here are the links i have right now (the most useful ones at least to me):

http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=34&page=1

http://codyscoop.com/ht-building.html

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/aw_wx.htm

I tried a few of the techniques described for the first time on a SW Dread and was quite pleased with the final result given it was a first try (you can check pictures of it on the following link: http://paintingfrog.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A8E51C1B7B4B83E1!460.entry ).

I really look forward to seeing this baby of yours painted up bro. Congratulation on what is a wonderful job so far.

I've been wanting to put these on the diorama for a while, but I finally got my hands on two stormboyz.

They're pinned in to be suspended in the air. I imagine I have to sculpt rocket fire to help conceal the pin, but I'm not looking forward to that.

Those rock dude!

As for painting, I would go for a similar look that you did on your kicking rad Battlewagon, however, use several thin brown Magic Washes* to shade the red (and other bitz). The real key will be proper weathering. Put plenty of fresh and old nicks in it, with the fresh ones being painted in some sort of metallic tone, while older ones ranging in "new rust" (a ruddy orange) to "old rust" (dark red brown), including appropriately colored rust streaks. Also use thinned down black ink + a touch of brown (or purple even) for leaky hydraulic fluid and such.

Lastly, if you're sweating the paint job, start on the diorama base first or some other orky stuff to go with the army (like some buggies or something) to get back into the swing of things. That Vallejo Game Color paint set is great (I bought the whole line several years ago). Just remember to very thoroughly mix the paint up (it's verrrry pigment heavy, a good thing), use a pallete and thin with a mix of water & Future (aka Future Flow Aid)*. Like before, you might want to try these out on some other stuff to get the hang of it, but it's really not hard at all. Enjoy!



*Search the modelling forum for "Magic Wash" or "Future Floor Finish", there were a couple threads relatively recently with loads of info on using the stuff for washes & what nots, including at least one really long post by moi. Happy painting!

I don't mean to nitpick, but I would resist the lure of adding a whole bunch more minis to the diorama. You run the risk of people saying that it's too busy. (not me, though. It's bloody amazing)

The only thing cooler than your Stompa would be if you made one that was riding on the back of the Squiggoth. That would be pants-wettingly sweet.

Wow. I tried sculpting myself some fire a bit earlier, and it's pretty awful, so I just pulled it off. It's impossible for me to produce anything but what appears to be a gouged-up lump of putty. =\

Any suggestions? I didn't even take pictures of this one, it'd be too embarassing. I'm starting to think maybe I shouldn't even bother with the fire and just leave them pinned as they are.

Maybe try using fantasy horse tails? The ones from the Mounted Fantasy Khorne Chaos Lord and Archaon look like flames.

Cheers
>Chaoshound

or female sculpts hair, or from my not-very-experienced-attempts at sculpting fire, find a tool that the greenstuff will stick well to, then poke it and pull it away, creating that flame look that you want, and after it dries, break off any parts that got too thin etc.

hey bub, i really dig what you're doing with the base! one thing a lot of minis and sculpts these days lack is a story! and my have you got one there- i say keep it up, looks great, and once someone starts looking at it in person, they're going to read through it as though it were a book, joyfully analyzing each little tidbit!

you are one of my inspirations for the hobby, jamsessionein, this whole project is so amazing :-D

I gave it another go this morning. Results are better than last nights, but I don't know if I should leave it or not. What do you guys think?

I would hold back on the extra minis. Less is more.

If you insist on putting them on please only loose pin them so that you can have the diorama with or without exrtra orks.

The guardsmen on the other hand add to the model.

Finally while the above Stormboy looks well done painting flames and flying models is always difficult . It may well detract from the overall quality. I would be inclined to put your rather good Stormboyz on normal bases for normal gaming. They would be a delightful part of your army, but a very mediocre addition to your Gargant.

You have produced a near perfect model. I doubt the Forgeworld kit will be any better. You cant improve on perfection you can only risk mucking it up. If you keep on adding sooner or later you will. Time to stop (though DO add the Big Red Button missing in the grotpit).

Works for me!

Seriously, I am in awe over this whole project.

Amazing stuff!

Those flames look fine. Take your time with green stuff and be sure to only mix up and try to sculpt as much as you can do in an hour or so. Also, be sure to keep your tools lubricated, with vaseline, water or spit (seriously), so they don't stick to the gs. A few of these guys won't detract from the total awesomeness that is the gargant, it's going to already be a huge focal point, having some stuff going on around it is going to enhance the diorama, not detract.

So, that guy that's being squished by the stompa kept losing his hand. A lot. Probably because the old one was too thin I couldn't even pin it. This eventually led to the hand falling off and going missing.

I've since dug through my parts and replaced it with the one other human right hand bit I had, which happens to be holding a grenade. I pinned this one properly, I'll greenstuff around the wrist just a bit to close the seam.

I think it changes the dynamics interestingly. Humie gettin' squished has a grenade? Will he be able to set it off?





And I pinned the Stormboyz back in for the time being. They don't look awful, but if the fire turns out looking stupid with paint on I can always remove them.

I don't think the fire looks too bad at all. It does look a tad thick - which may have something to do with how short the flame burst is compared to its width - but not horrifically so or anything. I like the grenade too, and it looks like the guardsmen is struggling to bring his arm in and pull the pin with his teeth. Works for me.

Also, love the pose on the stormboy to the 'front' of the diorama, with the knife. Very nice.

- Boss Salvage

Went ahead and tried to fix the tail end of the guy swooping in with the knife on the guardsmen a bit more, so it's no longer too huge or blocky.



I don't mind having that much of the pin showing at this point, really.

Tomorrow, I'll be painting test panels for practice and to see what effects I like best. 

This conversion/diorama cured me of multiple fatal diseases. It is now my desktop and I have a shrine burning with incense as we speak. It is a beacon of light and hope.

Personally I'd only add a bunch of Stormboyz (or any other models) to the base if they're dramatically related to the Stompa in some way, e.g. launching themselves from the Stompa, protecting it from an anti-armour close combat attack or whatever. Enemy models running away would be fine, for example. The thing to avoid is anyone thinking 'hey why are those extra models there?' - it should be immediately obvious that they're there for a good reason.

Whatever you do with them, I think those GS flames look fine. But you won't know for sure until you paint them - in theory a base coat of dark red, then heavilty drybrushed through red, orange and yellow should look good.

So, I feel at this point I should mention that my choice of basing material might not have been a great idea - in future, I'll try and base properly, rather than finding a wood-putty paste in my garage and using that. The general reason is evident once you look at primed pictures of the base - the overall appearance is a bit 'muddy'.









Even though this has been left to dry for a very long time, some spots appear very slick and shiny, and some appear smooth - apparently areas where I may have skimped a bit on the surface sand and gravel detail. The only way I can figure out working with those spots is painting them up a bit muddy, I guess - particularly the footprint area. I did try and go light on the primer, but Citadel's new Chaos Black is a bit finicky. I think the ruins will look fine, but some of the open, bare patches that are supposed to be dirt look a bit screwy.

I'm open to ideas as to how to paint this. I don't know if flat-out drybrushing it terrain colors will do with the 'muddy' spots.

Ack! DO NOT SPRAY YOUR STOMPA WITH CITADEL! EEEK! Seriously, do not use any GW hobby spray paint, including their "Purity Seal" matte and gloss varnishes. Repeatedly people have posted over the internet the last several months with tales of woe when using GW spray paints despite explicitly following the directions on the can. It's happened with both older cans and the "new formula", with some folks even reporting that not only was the spray botched but it also ate through and damaged the plastic underneath.

Instead, try Krylon, Testors or Armory's sprays. I personally use a mix of Gunze Sanyo "Mr. Primer" (really good stuff, but very expensive and hard to find), Krylon Ultra Flat (white, black and Kamo!) and various Testors Model Master military colors. It's also very important not to spray when it's humid out. As humidity can seriously screw up a spray job, the lower the humidity the better. Cold and heat can also affect the spray, so be sure to spray within the tolerances listed (usually between 55 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit).

Anyhow, terrors of spray paint aside, none of that is actually still sticky? Just glossy looking, right? (which sometimes happens). If so, I really would not worry about how muddy it looks. Once you start painting everything, there is plenty of detail to make it look more like dirt and drybrushing will go over fine on the flatter spots. If you still think it looks too muddy, you can always put patches of burnt out grass (ie: grey or yellow colored static grass/turf) or even green toned grass/turf. You could probably even get away with not putting any grass/turf at all as blasted out dirt is going to look similar after the first light rain. Enjoy!

Listen to Nyarly!

Do yourself a favor?find someone handy with an airbrush to prime that monster model. I can't imagine that a capable airbrush artist would refuse to help you out with such an awesome model. And like Nyarly said, watch the temperature?if you live somewhere cold, wait until spring or at least heat up the garage and do it in there!

Regarding the mud, start by using a thinned paint slightly lighter than the darkest color you want, then hit it with a brown wash all over. After that drybrush on lighter and lighter shades of thinned brown, working your way up to the areas of highest relief, washing over with a thinned brown ink in-between the paint layers to keep the texture visible.

After a fair bit of deliberation, I've decided to go with the current appearance. A few extra hours to dry helped improve the look a bit, though I don't think I'll be using Citadel's black sprays ever again. I was feeling a bit adventurous, so I began the tedious process of drybrushing the dirt and soil areas with Scorched Brown, and it started to look a bit better. I'm not going to post pictures until I get the entire coat of scorched brown down properly, but I'm going to brave out what I have there.

I think you have happened across a bit of serendipity in my opinion.

You may not have intended the muddy look for the base, but I think the muddy dirt is a sigh of fresh air for the realism of this piece.
In the third picture in the post above, you notice some dirt clinging to surfaces that dry soil wouldnt normally clicng to without it first being wet at some point. I think that the paint scheme could benefit from a muddy to a muddy with some dried mud effect done to it.

Wars in rain and mud. The conditions could not be more bleak unless it is in subzero winters.

Posted By Hellfury on 01/01/2007 9:45 PM
I think you have happened across a bit of serendipity in my opinion.  You may not have intended the muddy look for the base, but I think the muddy dirt is a sigh of fresh air for the realism of this piece.

I agree with Hellfury.  Keep the "muddy" look and run with it.  You'll need to use some gloss finish on the parts that are still "wet" from rain or runoff or whatever, but it could really look nice if you take the time to do it right.  I mean, you're making a Stompa, right?  What better place to stomp than in the mud?

The desperate struggle within the confines of war...your diorama screams getting down and dirty. You've captured the Ork 'feel' even more than GW has. This thread should be stickied to never go off into oblivion. Fantastic piece. I can only imagine how good your armies look.

Hey Jamsessionein,

First of all I'd like to thank you for creating a post that has been a highlight in 2006 for not only me, but the Dakkaites in general I guess. Marvelous work! I've not before witnessed such inspired converting.

As to the base, I think the first coat and drybrush looks great.  So great even, that I'd refreign from doing too much more. You allready have a detailed and intreiging diorama, but the centrepiece is the Stompa itself; making the base too busy in colours would distract. A bit of redish drybrushing in the sandy areas would be OK, as well as a light grey or even bone color to highlight and drybrush the areas you marked in grey. The buildings? I'd avoid metalics, just go with grey tones. As I said, reserve the accents in colour and contrast for the Stompa.

Everything you did thusfar has added to the whole. So I don't think anything you'll do will do from now on will in any way make this a less then perfect project. Keep us informed please, you make Dakka a very good place to be.

Thanx and greetings, Cilithan  

Incredible work.

May I suggest hitting the muddy areas with a touch of gloss varnish to make it look wet and shiny?

This is amazing. theres just no other way to describe it.

I think that it would add some more character to the scenery (not that it really needs more) if you put some of those imperial propaganda posters on the buildings. I'm not sure if your at that stage in painting yet but I think it would look really cool. keep up the good work!

Man.

I just got back from some airbrushing adventures, and wow. That is one fickle beast to use, eh? Getting the mixture just right so that it comes out properly is more art than science, I think - I made a proper mess of pretty much everything I sprayed near, including the board, which I then tried to clean up.

Anyhow, I'd started by drybrushing the buildings with a blackened fortress gray in the hopes I'd see something fruitful, but it was too inconsistent and wasn't making me all that happy - the 'gradienting' I wanted between the gray, concrete-dusted areas and the soil/mud was far too harsh with just drybrushing.

So, I whipped out the airbrush, and after a lot (and I mean a lot of trial and error) got it to spit out a reasonable darkish gray color.

SOME FREE ADVICE: ETHANOL AIRBRUSH THINNER AND VALLEJO PAINTS DO NOT A HAPPY AIRBRUSH MAKE - it seemed to clump all of the pigment in the vallejo paint up, which subsequently jammed my airbrush up all nice. It took me a few tries to figure out what the hell was going on before I decided that the bottle of thinner I bought maybe wasn't helping me, and switched back to water. Blissful water. I'll never take you for granted in airbrushing again, even if you do dry slower.

It's odd, too, because on my test sprays earlier with a vallejo flesh color the thinner worked wonderfully, but it flat-out globbed the greys up.

So, of course, having a working airbrush I proceeded to go totally overboard on spraying the grays down. This was mostly because I got a bit over-triumphant and started spraying areas I know I shouldn't have touched with grays.

The good news, for what it's worth, is that I came to my senses shortly after, re-loaded the airbrush with scorched brown, and proceeded to use a wide-angle nozzle to roll the greys back a bit into the rubble piles.











Now, I'm not going to lie - the browns and the greys are a bit harsh together at the moment because you're basically looking at completely unhighlighted soil on the ground - it still needs drybrushing to brighten it up properly, save for the muddy areas, which will bring it more in line with the brightness of the grey areas. I'm also going to drybrush all of the grey areas with a lighter shade to hopefully pop out the details a bit, and I'm thinking I may do a black ink wash over all of it as well - there's actually a bit of GW's roughcoat spray on the buildings at this point, as I put it on shortly before the initial black priming, which should help add a bit of surface detail.

I've not yet figured out what I'm doing with those busted-up floor tiles in terms of color.

Advice or recommendations appreciated, in any case. Think I've ruined it yet? It's got a ways to go, in all fairness.

This is a photoshopped color test, just to see what you guys think of this general idea. Please note that this is just me messing around with the top image in photoshop, but I think it looks good enough to pursue?

ORIGINAL:


Color test:

Looking excellent! Feel free to detail that base up as much as you want too. Keep it up and paint in as much as you want (or are willing) to do. Take a look at the stuff IPMS and other regular modlers do when creating dioramas: they strive for as much realism and detail on the base as possible, as it will only accentuate the awesomeness that is your stompy stompa of super stomping stompiness!

I think you should definitely drop a black ink on those grey ruined areas, the airsbrush appears to have pretty much just blasted those areas fully with a lighter grey, so you really didn't get any additional texture (at least not that I can tell from the pictures).

As for the ground color, I personally like the darker color, so IMO any ground highlights should go to more of an orangish hue than a greyish one as you portray in your photoshopped image.

did I already mention that your skill is really depressing. inspirational, but depressing. where did you get that picture in your signature?

Anung: The picture from my signature came from a free warhammer 40k comic teaser. I will try and find it for you, as I can't seem to locate it at the moment.

Yakface: I gave it a try, read on.

Played around with it a bit more. I drybrushed beastial brown onto the base, and it looked really bad at first, so I went back and went over it a bit with rotted flesh.. I also hit the ground up with an unusual substance - I found some 'old english' dark wood wax/stain/shiner whatever the heck it was and ran it through there. It made the ground look a bit wet and evened out the browns a bit, which was nice. I felt the buildings were a bit too bright to begin with, so I mixed up an unusual concoction of black ink, future floor cleaner, vallejo matte finish, and water - it worked surprisingly well in the airbrush to 'smoke' everything and darken the colors up without obscuring them. I then went back and drybrushed the color I'd originally based them with around the edges to try and bring out the surface details. I tried to leave them darker towards the bottom, which I think shows nicely in the little comparison animation above.











The base's overall color direction has probably gone a bit more orange than I was intending on with the drybrushing, but I don't think it looks bad, not yet. I want to keep that footprint with the grot in it a really deep earthy color, as it makes it look more 'sunk-in' the ground, if you know what I mean. The grot hasn't gotten paint on him yet, but he will shortly, I imagine.

I'm not sure what details to pick out on the buildings or in what colors yet, and I still haven't figured out what to do with the tiles - I tried a variety of colors in photoshop as a test, but nothing looked right.

Advice is, as always, appreciated.

Hehehe,

you keep amazing me with your brilliance (and the moving pictures). I'd say work on the details now! I can't wait to see the guardsmen and the squished and stomped grot in technicolor.

One thing that strikes me in the Older-Newer pictures, is that the building on the left looks darker in the older picture, that gives a sense of shade which is actually quite cewl. Maybe give the 'shady' areas another dark ink wash.

Keep us posted, marvelous work!

Cilithan out...

As for what details to pick out and paint, here are my votes:

On the actual Stompa base, the sunken half-barrel should be painted (I vote a deep green), the broken girders should be either painted metal or black with a metal drybrush (the same with the broken girders spread about the entire base). Also the sandbags and the broken IG weapons should be painted plus, of course, the guardsman.

On the ruins, I definitely feel that the "floor" pieces that come in the Cities of Death kit look very metal to me. You have a couple of those plates sticking out on the ruin in the top right, and part of one as the second story floor on the ruin in the bottom left. I think both of those should be painted black with a metal drybrush.

Also, I do believe that most, if not all of the details on the ruins (like the statues and skulls) should be picked out and painted unless you're trying to represent that explosions and debris have blasted away the paint/color from these walls.

Obviously you don't want to go overboard on these little details, but I really find that painting the few things in the base that look like they should be a different color suddenly makes the whole base look "finished".

For the tiles, I think as long as you paint them uniformly (since right now they're a mix of colors thanks to the airbrush) they'll look fine. Of course, you also probably want to highlight the edges of each tile with a lighter grey to make them match the look of the rest of the ruin.

It's looking awesome dude.  I'm sorry I don't have much else to say - you seem to have a good handle on it and I don't think I need to repeat the advice of other posters. 

It's great.  Keep up the good work!

looks great like it is,you could always try inks on your barrely and surrounding sand to darken it.Dont forgot you're probably going to drybrush the smaller details (barrel,sandbag,walls) so maybe the brightness isnt too important at this stage

If you give the barrel a nice green ink it will look suitably dark and cool, guaranteed.

Personally I think the sandbags are a little light. I would go with a darker color and then drybrush the lighter color over the top of it.

I could be wrong, but it seems like you've fallen in love with the idea of using the airbrush even when it isn't necessarily the best tool for the job (like IMHO, on the sandbags).


Lastly, for the tiles, I don't know what to say. They look pretty bad. Honestly, I think the best idea would be to cover them with a dark brown ink and just go for a much darker, dirtier look than what you were originally imagining.

Hey Jamsessionein,

How's the paint on the Stompa commin' along? Give us addicts another shot if you will!

Thnx and keep up da amazing work.

Cilithan out...

 

After a great deal of searching, I finally found Krylon black primer, on the recommendation of my friends. The new GW black just isn't a suitable primer, anyway. I hit the gargant up with it because recently I've been in the mood to paint this sucker, but I was immediately dissapointed by the Krylon primer - it was so watery, even a little bit would pool, drip, and run! I shook the hell out of that can first, too, and I even tried the other one I bought - they were both like that. Needless to say, I am super-dissapointed, and as a result of the poor spray I ended on putting the primer on a bit thicker than I would have liked. I am probably going to have to take some super-fine grit sanding paper to a spot or two that has paint on it too thick already.

Still, here we go. The grot rocket isn't primed yet because I forgot I had to wash it with soap and water, being a resin piece, and it's drying off for now.







Some all-around touchups needed to the base black, but nothing I can't handle with a brush. I am not recommending Krylon to anyone, ever, though. Stuff sprays like water.

Now, I've been considering the best way to paint this. I haven't been able to until recently as my airbrush compressor was on loan and needed to be returned, but I finally got the money to go ahead and get myself one of my own. I've been looking at this gargant and according to the general painting method of that one, the whole gargant was airbrushed intermittenly with a rusty brown color. I could try that out on mine, but mine has a whole lot more individual panels and such and I'm not so certain that would look good.

What I'm basically saying is I'm not sure how to proceed. Largely because I don't have much of a paint scheme in mind - all I know is that I want it rusty with the occasional mismatched red or blue panel - but I'm not sure where to begin.

Advice is much appreciated. " style="vertical-align: middle;" src="http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif" />

It lives!

I guess my first question would be, how many panels did you intend to colour, and how many to rust? You might try putting masking putty or tape onto the plates you want to put a colour onto, then rust up the rest with the airbrush? Then go in, do the coloured plates by hand, and then do a few blending passes with the airbrush to put a bit of weathering on?

Decent questions.

I mostly wanted like 1/3 of the gargant to look 'freshly looted', suggesting perhaps that some of the armor plating had only just been aquired - maybe some even with marine iconography still on it. The hanging plates on the skirt would probably make decent candidates for colored pieces, as well.

Tell more more about this masking putty?

One thing id like to know is where did you get that big enginey-thing thats on the back? the one with the fan-thing. and this model is outstanding, makes me want to start an ork army.

great to finally see this thing coming to an end. that's one damn amazing piece of work you did there

Masking putty: There's some specific masking blends you can get at R/C hobby shops or some truck supply places, but really you can use good old fashioned silly putty without much trouble as long as you're careful.

Paint your base colour (in this case, potentially you could even skip this step since you already primered and we're not trying to make a camo scheme), then just roll the putty out in to sheets or strips, press it over the surface you want to mask, and then paint over the entire thing with your next colour selection.

When the paint's dry, just peel the putty off, roll it all back together, and put it back into the silly putty egg. Repeat as needed.

If you're using full pieces of vehicle armour, though, I'd say that some model masking tape (Tamiya makes a nice one - also available at R/C shops usually) over the plates would work. Tape over the plates, paint, peel tape off, go to town. Easier to get the right-angles of the armor plates that way.

Edit: OH! If you use the putty, don't try to tear it! You'll just mess your hands up. Cutting it's much easier and faster.

"HEY GUYS HOW'S IT GOING"

Krylon has redeemed itself in my eyes. Though I was originally very upset with their black primer, as I felt it ruined a lot of the details on my gargant, they apparently make a rust colored primer that I discovered today. After a few preliminary trials, I am in love with this - it's the perfect primer for ork vehicles.









The color, of course, needs a fair bit of tempering. I think a decent inking will bring all the details back out and make them pop again, but I believe what comes next is the toning process where I carefully airbrush a more desaturated brown onto the parts. The nice thing about this rust-orange primer color is that it's really easy to go in the directions I want - that is to say, red on some plates, brown rust on the others. The parts I paint blue I think will have to be coated in a black and worked up from a dark blue again, as I don't picture blue will go on well over orange.

I am certainly going to use this primer for my other ork vehicles in future, though.

Nice idea, I can definatly see the orkish love affair with rust primer and a bit of a wash.

Did you strip the model or just prime over the black?

It just went on over the black. Stripping that thing down would be impossible, I think.

With all the little gubbins on it, I am sure youre right.

now dry-brush with 'vermin brown', very lightly drybrush with 'boltgun metal', let dry then add a thin black wash - try it on a small bit, should look fabulous rusty

Thats pretty damn Sweet!!

Cant wait to see the finished product

Shameless thread bump, we haven't forgotten.

Slogging through a couple commissions before I jump back to this, but I will be jumping back to this.

I'm going to get my two big projects - the Squiggoth and Gargant - done next, probably in reverse that order. I don't feel like building any new stuff with a possible ork release around the corner, but those two I can pretty much assume aren't going to be affected, so they seem like safe things to work on.

I have no comment on the Gargant itself, it just is a wonderful job.

I would not paint the grot on the diorama green. I realise that this is ficton/fantasy, but being stepped on by a giant thing running in the dirt all time, you expect under it's feet to be dirty and not leaving the grot clean.

I think your diorama base is uber nice with that muddy feeling. I also like the flame effect on the Stormboys you did with greenstuff.

I give up!<!--sizec--><!--/sizec-->

It seems like every single day, someone else mentions this to me, asking about what happened and when I'm going to paint it.

Well, I just finished updating my blog site's visual appearance, and I think it's about time to christen it with pictures of the Gargant itself being painted.

Which, of course, requires that I pick up a brush.

So I did!









I figured I'd paint it in the order I built it. I don't know why, it just seemed like the right thing to do... So, I started with the claw arm.

There's a couple of other pictures at the link in my signature of this piece, most of the earlier painting stages where I was trying out various things like simply drybrushing onto it, but I think it's improving to the point where it's time for me to add some splashes of color to it - I was thinking I'd pick that thick, chunky cable on the arm out in a yellow color, make the smaller cables a bunch of random assorted shades, and maybe paint ork glyphs or checkers on it somewhere, though I haven't quite figured out where there is room for that yet.

Anyway; yes, you guys win. It's being painted. Huzzah, hooray, and so forth.

God help me.

Cue the Divinyls - "When I look at that thing, I touch myself..."

Great looking site too.

OOH thats the sexiest big grabby klaw thingy i ever seen. finish it soon please i fear i might die in a freak accident before seeing this wonderful conversion finished.

an Amazing conversion, hands down the best i've ever seen.
You should like... send a picture to gamesworkshop or seomthing.
If it got mass produced.. (which would actually kinda ruin the magic of the awesome conversion)
i'd buy like 12 of them.

IT'S ALIVE!!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!

I am a die-hard Marines player.


Now wavering........... Great work. I also have to assume that if 10% of the effort with this piece was applied to your work.....

Are you a Macro-Biologist?
Neurosurgeon?
Test Pilot?
Rock Star?

You are in the Buckaroo Banzai fanclub. If not Buckaroo himself.

Great work.

By the dark powers of thread necormancy...... ARISE!!!!



Whatever happpened to this project? I just wanted to see what it looks like finished.

I'm guessing the usual thing happened.
Jam got bored of painting. Or he didn't and he forgot, due to bigger and better(don't know how/what) projects, to post.

I hardly ever take a look at pics anymore cause they wont load at work. Now that Im at home, I am completely in awe of the talent in here.

That is some mighty fine work, and I commend all that you have done.

Are we ever going to see this stompa finished? Because this thing SCREAMS for some nice painting! and i guess most people agree with me. anyway superb conversion skills, best stompa ive ever seen.

-Develain

wow that's some slick looking stuff there. each time I want to see more and more .. looking good

This beast is looking more beautiful everytime I see it... Keep it up!

Okay, I agree that this conversion is incredible. But considering the fact that James hasn't posted updated pics of it since July 2007, isn't about time that we let this go?

nope, we are just waiting for James to get a spark of motivation..

besides, why you trying to harsh our mello?

INSANE! god i wist i could do stuff like that! GREAT JOB!

Sorry to drag this one back up, just thought I'd bring this to people's attentions if they didn't know already...

James has been keeping up work on this, he's posted updates on his blog ( http://www.the-warforge.com/index.pl?gargant )

And, if that wasn't enough work for anyone, he's also got a dozen other projects on the go, all documented on his site.

YAY! This thread is how I first found Dakka, and I'm glad all the hectoring and pestering has finally made him concede defeat and finish this! YAY!

hrm, if you look at the dates on those posts, he hasn't worked on it for the last 5 months or so >.>.

So it is an update I guess, just an old one x.x....

I'd venture a guess that Ein's just keeping it under wraps. The Games Day season is fast approaching, and this thing has had "Open Category" written all over it from day one.

How much does this mother weigh? Would it kill a small child?
Is there a golden daemon for modeling? Cause this would definately be a contender

Teek wrote:I'd venture a guess that Ein's just keeping it under wraps. The Games Day season is fast approaching, and this thing has had "Open Category" written all over it from day one.

yeah...
Teek Looks like your were on the money with that prediction!

Finnished stompa

i wonder can the mods combine the two threads together?

Awesome scratch build!

Panic....

Awesome, makes my Stompa look like a pile of bolts, wait... it is a pile of bolts

I HAVE to see this finished work!

Oh wait, I'm missed the post above, lol!