Hey guys! This is my first blog, so bear with me. Hopefully it'll inspire me to push my painting a little faster, because I'm slacking off a little more than I'm used to. Lately I've been in a Fantasy Battle kick so most of the recent+future progress will be dwarfs. If y'all want I'll post some more pics of my orks too.

My first few posts will be very pic heavy, as I need to catch up to now with my progress.

Anyway enough gab, here are some recent shots:

Ok, now for some CoD tiles:

Now that you're (mostly) up to speed with my work, here's my latest build:

A scratch built bolt thrower! I know they're not great in game, but I saw someone do this on another forum and the inspiration was too good to pass up.

Nice dwarfs man they could do with some lighting effects or spot colours to brighten them up but other than that, they are really nice.

What are those bolt thrower arms from?

They are from the BFSP pony cart. It's painted now, I'll get pics up soon.

Major shift in progress... I've started working on my orks again. I've caught the scratchbuilding bug, and I've always wanted a flier. Thus, I started building a small fighta to see where my abilities lie. This is gonna be my first entry into the ork vehicle bildin' kompetition- http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/381018.page

Did a little more work on the nose:

You have some considerable scratchbuilding skills! I was a little skeptical when I saw your construction methods (using some sort of foam for the body and duct tape to hold it together ), but it looks like it's shaping up okay! How solid is it?

Keep up the great work!
Rawson

Well the duct tape is not what holds it together... It's just strengthening the wings and tail, which were stuck in with tenon joints. I just wanted to put a little more tension on both sides to help keep them from wobbling. Now it's pretty solid, I could easily drop it on the floor without the wings bending or moving.

Thanks for the comment!

Sentinel wrote:Well the duct tape is not what holds it together... It's just strengthening the wings and tail, which were stuck in with tenon joints. I just wanted to put a little more tension on both sides to help keep them from wobbling.

Ah, that makes more sense

Well, I've made some tremendous progress on the fighta over the last few days. Have a look. It's almost completely covered over with plasticard, which means I can start doing the gubbins and worky bits. So far it's been an awesome ride, I hope you enjoy!


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Yeah, sorry for the junky pics. You get the idea, anyway.

Great job overall! Nice mix of pre made and scratch made terrain. Your dwarf's faces look like they are nicely done. Keep up the awesome work.

Mike

Thanks for the comment! I took a look at your thread, some nice stuff in there too...

Wow, you really need to get out more! Really nice job on the plasticard! ( Love the jet engine!)

fighta is looking good so far

Those jet blasty gubbinz are looking good. I admire your abilities with curved surfaces, I'm still learning how to deal with them.

Thanks. It wasn't too difficult, but it had a few issues during assembly. The problem was the materials I used. As a base for the jet I glued on a washable marker that had been cut in half. That was a huge mistake, because the superglue I used did not stick to it at all. Pre-bending the pieces helped a lot, as did reinforcing the plates with extra patches like a scab.

Looking well orky

That dwarf bolt thrower looks nifty, thanks for passing on the idea.

The fighta looks also promising, waiting to see it finished.

Thanks for the comment. The BT was pretty easy to make, problem is now I don't have any crew for it.

Fighta progress: I added some cabling and wiring to and then started riveting. Anybody out there have any tips for efficiency? It's a naturally tedious process: I'm cutting up styrene rod and gluing on the little individual rivets.

That fighta kicks ass! I love the detail you put into each panel with scratches and everything. Really good stuff. For rivets I just use dabs of wood glue using a toothpick and it comes out pretty nicely, and is also pretty forgiving if you mess up--you just wipe it off. If you're interested in trying something new I recommend it...not too tooo tedious.

A word of warning though, when you do it, the rivets don't look very substantial at all when the glue dries, but as soon as you get the undercoat on it you can tell just how much they do actually stick out. Also I sometimes will go over rivets twice if they really don't look very raised after the glue dries the first time. Just a thought!

PS how are you planning on making the cockpit? I'm interested to see how that turns out

That's a sweet idea 'sauce, I'll have to try that out. I wonder if it will mix well with the rivets I have already though. How well does the glue stick to styrene?

The cockpit is on: it's open, there's an ork sticking out, and he's got sort of a cage-y thing around him. I'll let pics do the talking, as soon as I can get them up.

Ok, here are some pics of it halfway riveted. I'm using cut up styrene rod, but on the underside I used dots of glue (thanks Awesomesauce!) because it was a little faster to do. Anyway I'll let the pics do the talking.

Edit: forgot the pics

Btw, I know I need to fill the gap in the shoulder.

Ooh, also, threw some paint on an evil sunz nob:

Lol no prob. That sucker really does look awesome! All of the detail that you put into it really does make it look great. And the nob looks pretty shnazzy too, What colors do you use for their skin? I like it better than what I do, though my method is admittedly very lazy...

Looking great, Sentinel! The cockpit and especially the cabling turned out excellent. Very convincing!

Keep up the great work!

Rawson

fighta is looiing better and i like your sheme as well, keep up the good work

@awesomesauce: the skin for this guy was actually a little more complicated than what I normally do. I basecoated in gretchin green, highlighted with camo green, then washed it twice with watered down devlan mud, then finally highlighted it again with streaks of camo green. I might hit the really raised areas with an even lighter color.

Thanks for the kind words guys! Glad to see some people following this thread.

I love the flames on that choppa!

I hope one day I can manage something that nice.

You've done an amazing work here Sentinel.

Your paintjob is clean and your plasticard skills are really good!
Now I want to steal your fighta

Rivets everywhere! I really love your work with plasticard, I soon will be doing Grot tanks, so I am keeping this on file.

@fox: the trick, water down the yellow. More than you would normally.

@Hyena: thanks! I can't wait to get paint on the fighta. Any ideas for patterns/where they should go?

@Nathan: let me know when you start, as grot tanks will likely be my next project too. I'm always interested in other people's take on things!

Very nice work on the fighta, I especially like the use of the boyz ammo belt and the wires.

Will Do!

Hey, sweet looking fighta you got there

Dude.... Really nice job. Love the rivets! I also really like your nob. Is the flame freehanded? If so, great job

Sorry I did not post sooner, been at work.

Ooh, nice Dwarf.

Sentinel wrote:the skin for this guy was actually a little more complicated than what I normally do. I basecoated in gretchin green, highlighted with camo green, then washed it twice with watered down devlan mud, then finally highlighted it again with streaks of camo green. I might hit the really raised areas with an even lighter color.

Interesting. It came out really nice. I think I'll have to try it, at least for the models that are more of a centerpiece for the army

Awesome scratchbuild. Love Orks and just parted with my Bad Moon army after several years....some times you just need the money! What colour scheme are you going for?

Hehe, shoot, it's already been a month in this blog without any updates. Sorry folks. Hopefully I'll have some more done soon for y'all.

@Kaine Larson: My army started as Bad Moonz as well. However, I like painting other schemes and I like the fluffy idea of a Waaagh! drawing from all the clans. Thus, the majority of my painted units are Badmoonz, (cause that's what the boss is) and then the special units are painted clan-specific (i.e. lootas as Deffskullz, trukk boyz as Evil Sunz, Kommandos and Blood Axes, etc.)

Back from the dead! I'll try to resurrect this blog with some juicy new pics....

So, without further ado, here are three kommandos that I am entering in Unlucky Guardsman's P&M competition!

And some individual shots.....

Oh, and a bad moonz nob for good measure

very cool stuff going on here, loving the 3 komandos and the bad moon is pretty cool too

Really like the orks, you definetly have my vote!

Love the bad moon ork

I'm really loving the Ork kommandos. Your Orks are awesome!

Thanks guys! Unfortunately, due to lighting/camera issues, I couldn't get good official competition pics... I could enter these but the rules say white background, but UG has been pretty flexible with the rules so we'll see whether I enter these or not...

Fox Box wrote:I love the flames on that choppa!

Absolutely seconding this, they look fantastic and they're really eyecatching as well.

Yes the German Fleck in awsome, and the custom hats are to cool.

Love those kommandos. And the camo came out awesome! Are those IG backpacks on them?

Quite correct. From the Heavy wpns. sprue.

*blows dust off of thread*

Whew, finally, an update. 'Ere we go.

Unfortunately it's been too cold (oh look, it's December. How 'bout that.) to do any undercoating. Thus the fighta's paintob will have to be postponed until I take a trip to Florida in January.

But, I caught the inspiration bug again. *cue triumphal encore* A grot tank!!! It has a kannon, so I can run it as a big gun or as a rokkit grot tank.

The first of at least three. I had a wartrakk body laying around, so for the first one, I just used that.

The turret swivels and is removable.


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Btw, these pics are WIP. I still need to rivit the whole thing.

What's the main body made out of?

It's the back of a wartrakk.

WOW, those are some exeptionally beautiful orks, I really like your conversions!

Thanks Merlin!!

very well done... but instead of rivits, why dont you try welds?
just something to consider. looking Good though

Well, I really like rivits. How would I go about doing some welds?

Fantastic kommados and looove the grot tank.

page 19 of the how to paint citidel tanks book has a pretty good way of green stuffing them on. you could still use rivits but use welds to break them up?

Hmm, I might try that; sounds like a good idea. Thanks!

Wow! Im glad you finally decided to take this off the shelf! LOL really nice job on the plasticard work. I envy your skills...... you should try and add som barbed wire when you go to paint.. Nice job!

I did the riveting and the turret of the second one last night. I'll post pics tonight!

Hey guys! Come check out my new and improved pics, using my new lightbox setup! Tell me what you think of them!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/417843.page

Ok. Last night I promised pics of the *almost* completed grot tank numero dos.

Well, here they are. With a pro background because that's where my camera was atm.

Everything is done except the rivits on the turret.


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Wow, I didn't notice before. Those pictures are crap. I can get better ones if you want. :L

Grot tanks looking great a real chibi Russ. The Kommando's are awesome a great update of the original style.....

i really like how you have done the tracks, really effective. also Very nice plasticard work you got going on there with the pannels. All in all very nice

Can you go in detail how the Grot Tanks are made?
I'm particularly curious about the internal scaffolding of the thing.

Bloody brilliant work!

Augustine: Here goes.... Maybe I can supplement this explanation with mspaint drawings or something if this sounds overly complicated. None of it was really planned or anything, so I'll do what I can to explain. I got a lot of my inspiration from Kanvass1 on youtube; he does a complete tutorial of how he built on of his. Literally, it's a complete tut, he basically recorded every little cut he made from start to finish. Great vids. Anyway....

The first one was the back half of a wartrakk. It took pretty much half as much work as the second one did, so I'll give you a rundown of what I did for the second one. I used 1mm plasticard for most of it, and stuck it together with superglue (ideally I would have used plastic cement but I'm out of stock atm).

I started with the turret. First I cut out a footprint of the turret for the bottom. It is a tad bigger than a BW grot big shoota turret. Then I cut out a strip of plasticard that was as wide as I wanted the turret to be tall (about 1.5 cm). I cut the strip into panels that matched the sides of the footprint, then glued them on. At this point it was like a box with the lid off. Then I cut out another footprint for the top and glued it on. For the front kannon assembly, it was so fidgety and complicated (I made it so the kannon moves up and down) that I won't go into that. Then I added details like a fantasy dwarf shield for the hatch, a bosspole, and a trukk spotlight; as well as assorted armor plates.

Then I worked on the body; separate from the tracks. I cut out two sides and then plates that would match for the front, top, and bottom. I glued it all together (oh and don't forget to cut out a slit for the driver).

Then came the tracks. I cut out four large separate pieces to be the sides. Then I used sprue to make a gap between two of them, and wrapped super thin plasticard around the sprue to be the basis for the tracks. The track links are simply small plates with small bands in between them. Also I added the track guards on the top and back, mainly because I got sick of cutting out tiny track pieces.

Then I glued the tracks to the body, and covered the entire thing in random armor plates. The corrugated metal is from the little cardboard sheath from a starbucks cup (make sure to cover it in thin pva to protect the cardboard). I also added gubbins from my bits box, and an exhaust.

The turret rotates around a plastic tube.

It's difficult to explain all this without pictures. Would you maybe be interested in a tutorial when I make the next one?

Anyway thanks for the comments everybody!

EDIT: Yeah, as for internal scaffolding, there isn't any. These are small enough that the 1mm plasticard holds up well without bending or stressing joints or anything.

Nice work on those grot tanks, that second one's excellent

It's difficult to explain all this without pictures. Would you maybe be interested in a tutorial when I make the next one?

Most definitely! Meanwhile, I'll check the guy you mentioned on the tube

Where did you get the 1mm plasticard?

Really like the second grot tank! Nice job!

Warmastersolon: It came in the GF9 plasticard variety pack.

Ok, here are some more pics of recent projects! I got in a painting swing, so I dropped the grot tanks and painted up this BW that had been staring at me from my desk for months now.

It's aaalllllmost done. These are slightly WIP, but there really won't be any substantial changes in the finished model. I still need to do the grot turret on top and drill out the exhaust. Do you think it needs anything else? Pics aren't the best, I know; the lighting was terrible.

Kinda looks like a fire truck LOL I like the flames and the checkering. Are they all freehanded?

Orks don't use templates, so neither do I

Whaddaya think of the ork skull on top?

Looks like a pro painted it! It is very well done, I did't even see any brush strokes!

very nice, liking the dirt and mud, all done very well

Thanks Bigfish!

So, the most recent update: Today was unusually warm. Warm enough, in fact, to spray minis! So, guess what I undercoated? Yes, it's what you've been waiting for! The FIGHTA! Finally, right?

Expect some wip painted pics in the next few days!

BOOSH!

Just for Awesomesauce, fresh off the painting desk,

PIP fighta pics! It needs metal, highlighting, details, and weathering still... How do the flames look? C&C please!!

Nice!

Really nice!

Merry Christmas!

Yeah, flames are looking good

Can't see any issues with the flames - looks good!

nice merreh christmahs

Very nice

Thanks guys! Merry Christmas!

Really nice job! Merry Christmas!

*blows dust off thread*

Time to resurrect it! a month later, yes. Excuses are all I have. Well, besides vacation. But anyway.....

No pics right now, but I can let you all in on a seekrit projekt. It involves plasticard and bits. Oh, and PVC pipe, a large yogurt container, and a spray can lid. Confused yet? Wait and see......

Hmmm... Sounds interesting, do I hear a stompa klanking in the distance?

Not yet you don't! Hehehehehe.....

Ow crap.........The imperium is going to ..........wait for it..........DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And by "hush hush" I mean: I'm really going to need to scrounge up the time to start (and finish) this project. Otherwise it will be perpetually a secret plan. Lol.

Ok! Supa Seekrit Updatin' Time!

Yup, it's a stompa in the works. Trust me, it may look simple now, but this puppy's gonna get as much detail (well, almost) as the fighta and grot tanks!

I made the body-shape to be like that of a killa kan- rounded front, boxy back. If you have the new kans you know exactly what I mean. As far as the main skeleton of the thing goes, it still needs feet and arms. Then I can plaster it over with gubbinz, platez, rivitz, faulty wirin', and every other bit essential to an ork construction!

This is going to be so cool! I need help with my project though, Im stuck on were to start.

Pm'd you my thoughts on the Harridan.

Eventually I might change the title of that apoc blog I have going to simply an Apoc blog to encompass all of our projects for the big game.

Sounds good!

I did not know you had a blog! Great stuff Sentinel as always!

You hadn't been here yet? No way. Well here I am.

Ha Ha Ha thats funny. I though you knew about that mike. Pete give me a call. We can discuse the Harridian.....I have part of it built now. this is going to be fun.......call me.

Lol, PM me about stuff like this. I want to keep my blog uncluttered (unlike yours and HONAW's) hehe

Hey....... You posted in Imp Renegades to tell us how awesome you were! ..................................lol

Yeah.......What he said.......Thats fine will do.

Stompa update!

Arm skeletons are up. This guy's gonna be a bad moonz stompa- lotsa gunz. Specifically, a lifta droppa, deth kannon, and deff arsenal. LD and deth kannon are on, and the deff arsenal is going to be a whole bunch of kannons around the DK.

Oops, forgot the pics:

Do I detect a large red magnet in the stompa's near future?

Love the thread mate!
Great paint job on the BW and some orky conversions that inspired me.
Keep posting, can't wait for the Stompa!

Subscribed

@ Monkeytroll: You better believe it! Nothing's better than a big ol' magno-tractor beam for some tank-tossin'!

@ SelvaggioSaky: Thanks! Hop on! It's gonna be a wild ride....
Glad that I inspired somebody

This thing is going to be the orkiest thing I have seen yet!

duck tape... with any one else i would be worryied, but considering what you did with that fighter... this is going to be sweet

These look awesome ayye! Gives me inspiration for my free booterz that I hope I can do.

Thanks Ninja!

Haha bigfish, I only ever use duct tape to hold it together while the glue dries! Haha!

a stompa? this is gonna be cool!

The feet are on! I'll see if I can get you some pics soon....

Yuss! Lookin good so far... Very excited to see how this turns out, especially after that fighta!

That reminds me- the fighta is 90% done being painted; just needs a little weathering on the bottom side.

So I'll have to post pics of that tonight as well, along with the stompa progress

Ok, the pics are in!

You'll notice a little project in here that I haven't told you about- a burna wagon. It started as a cheap 1/35 scale tank by Testors (I don't remember which) and it has almost the exact same footprint as a battlewagon, which is really cool.

The fighta is, like I said, 90% done. A bit more weathering....

Oops, the browser failed mid-upload. Here are the pics. Btw, the scorcha wagon is in really early WIP.

I like it! Really like the fighta, the weathering looks perfect.

I agree on the weathering awesomeness and the wagon is a bit like my idea of the 'alf truk! Nice model for the base!

Subscribed!!! I love ork projects.

That fighta is just so freaking cool! And seriously great job painting it.

Also that's a great idea for a skorcha, I hate the models that they have out for them right now. If I end up finding myself wanting a skorcha I'm prolly going to steal that idea Where did you get the tank from?
I'm still very new to playing orks, how are skorcha wagons best used? (you can pm me if you don't want your blog to get off topic)

I'm using the scorcha wagon to transport a mob of burna boyz. At least, that's how I want to use it, in theory. That's up to 13 templates coming from the single vehicle. Hehehehe.....

Btw, to clarify- when I say scorcha wagon, I mean looted wagon with scorcha (and a big shoota). Not scorcha wartrakk.

The tank started out as this http://www.testors.com/product/145038/650023/_/Classic_M3_Lee_Tank_132_Scale

It basically was almost pre-assembled and had some decals on it. It had a bottom hull, top hull, bogeys, and tracks. I cut the back out for the transport bed. Other than that, and cutting off the weapons (humie gunz is weedy) All I've done is add plates.

Ok, some work on the scorcha wagon, just needs rivets now:

Lets get thoughs rivets on their quick! Looks Good!

Get dem rivets done! I wanna see this bamf all painted up good an proppa

Sorry awesomesauce, it's too cold to spray, so I haven't painted up the wagon yet...

But I have been working on the stompa!

The lifta-droppa arm is almost finished.

I dig the lifta droppa arm! Now finish the stompa! we're waiting

Dude....an update finaly! lol. Love the lift arm. I really like those hydraulic lines. Really adds to the efect.

Cool stuff on here Keep going!

Awww mannn (about the painting)

BUT that sucker is lookin good so far! That Lifta droppa is coming along very nicely, and his face is awesome haha

That harm is sweet mate!

I am.............and always will be................a fan!

Thanks guys! hopefully an update soon- since this is a big mek stompa, I'm making a big glyph for the belly....

Awesome looking Skorcha Wagon, lots of inspiration from it!!!

Keep up the good work on the stompa.

Haha, thanks Mortalitas!

Wow, it's almost been a month since an update on anything. I'll have some pics up before the 24th... Can't let it go that long.... Hehe...

@^