Awesome Helldrake. it looks so much better that the GW Dinobot!

subscribed

@Gitsplitta - Thanks bud, it's nice to have your opinion, sorry for the prodding

@ Kvit Ghost & FutureTense - Thanks guys, I laid down some paint last night but am not quite ready to take pics.

@Solar Lion - Cheers, funny thing is I loved the Dinobots as a kid.... but not on my gaming table!

Great to have you back at the cutting board! Like your hellbrute - I think actually its quite impressive how this one gig has inspired such wide-ranging, fascinating (and in your case pustuley) conversions. Liking your drake, most impressed by the legs, though the whole thing's a corking job. Well played sir!

@Graven - Thanks bud, I was a bit iffy about the legs but now I have a coat of paint on them I am much happier with them.

...speaking of a coat of paint

















They both need a bunch more washes and highlighting and the metals need to finished off on the Helbrute but they are coming together.

And here are the DV Chosen I mentioned earlier



And if anyone else is wondering why the Chosen Champion from the DV box is swinging a powermaul while holding his helmemt in his hand.. it's cause he is a dumbass.

But happily once you convince him to put on his helmet he looks pretty badass, like this



And yes, I did have that conversation with the model while I cut of his face.

Cheers

BLACKHAND

Looking good Blackhand! Really love the colors and tones.

I'm always in awe of your GS skills Black, top notch mate! Hows the little one?

@Gits - Thanks bud!

@Knightley - Cheers Bro, I don't think I will ever get a crisp a paintjob as yours... part of the reason I moved to the more forgiving Nurgle paint style edit: Oh and the kids a great!

Wicked stuff man!

Holy gak, that helldrake is awesome.

@hobofisherman & Big Boss Grimbad - Thanks guys, I was a little worried about how the wings would go with the skeletal body but he is starting to come together.

Speaking of the transition between the busy and intricate body and the broad flat planes of the wings, I tried to merge them physically with the rocket engines and "knuckles" at the base of the wing plates. But after painting all I could see were the big green wings so I thought I would try something I have almost never done... freehand designs*shudder*

So here he is with his new nurgle tatts.





I went for a classic Nurgle three ring symbol with a few barbed arrows to show he is all about chaos as well, tried to weather it a bit and I will probably keep adding washes to break up the green a little more. Oh and don't worry the skull isn't that dark it is just in shadow in that pic unfortunately

C&C is welcome as always

Cheers,

BLACKHAND

Very nice weathering and rot. I think you are correct .. the green does need to be toned down a bit. IMO. Although it may depend on what other colors you use for contrast.

Blackhand, that really looks fantastic, but there is one thing that keeps nagging at me. The green you chose, especially the squigglies around the spine and the base of the wings... looks like the same color as bare green stuff. It's really distracting... makes the whole model look unfinished.

Love the pattern on the wings though... wow.

Show me a different picture of what you cut off and did to the inside are of the choosen with the Powermaul. I hate that helmet off pose!

SL

Excellent work on the Nurglebrute. And have to agree with the others that I prefer your 'drake

The wings needed the symbols on to break up the bare green, good choice there, looks fantastic.

But I'm with Gits on the tendony stuff, that green does look like bare GS.

@Solar Lion - I haven't thought of adding another colour as the rest of my army is Nurgle green and Bone but I could look at adding an orangey rust maybe?
As for the Chosen Helmet, the helmet and hand are separate so all you nee to do is carve off the hand, you lose a little of the helmet edge on the lower left side but that tucks into the collar so you can't see it. then you shave the back of the helmet to get a flat edge and shave off the face to match and voila! I will try and get a few closeups for you today to show what I mean.

@Gitsplitta - Haha, I know what you mean about the green, my "alienesque" bases suffer from the same problem.

My thoughts ( and I talked with my mate about this too) is that the fluff for the Heldrake is that it was an aerofighter that has been warped by the daemon inside it into the shape it is now. So the logic of the paintjob is that everything is made up of the original substance of the plane. It follows that the body of the "zombie" part of the Heldrake will be the same green as the wings because it is made of the same stuff.... at least that was our logic

Maybe I repaint the muscles and such to a rusty metal? or just work over the green with more washes to alter the colour?
Or do I go the whole hog and repaint the entire body as flayed muscle? the issue there is that it introduces a whole new colour to the model which I feel I will need to add to the whole army to tie them all together... or am I just being a bit anal about colour symmetry?

@Gits & Monkeytroll - Glad you both like the symbols on the wings, believe it or not that was pretty nerve wracking to do! They are normally something I would do in 3d with plasticard but the other day I saw some of dave taylor's Blood Pact army again and the 8 pointed stars he paints on his vehicles are so cool that I thought I would give it a try. I especially like the way he puts them off centre, even to the point of only a quarter of the design being visible yet still being recognisable.

Sorry for the longwinded replies but they have given me something to think about so I will head back the painting desk and experiment with alternate colours for the "flesh" part sof the Heldrake.

Cheers,

BLACKHAND

I love the beastie, although the exhausts seem relatively pristine? Maybe fester them up a bit eh?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Re: green - Devlan mud it. Just tone it down and get it grubby, I do think it's the right pallet.

The exhausts are plastic tube that has been slightly melted with a lighter, maybe I should go back over them with the lighter and perhaps crack them a bit with a knife blade.

Wil revisit them when I am deciding on new colours today, cheers Graven!

Seriously? Burn baby burn!

Although my first thought was to make it more flesh-like, it would stand out from the rest of the army. Now without seeing it I wouldn't want to speculate on whether that would be good or bad

I think it just needs a bit of work to take it away from the GS look, maybe bring the highlights up a bit and add a red wash to the depths - that might tie in well if you were tempted to add some rusty orange to the scheme?

Yeah I am tending more towards the rusty orange, it will be a great contrast to the green and an easy colour to add to the corroded parts of the Plague marines armour so it will tie everything together nicely. Will probably make a wash of Devlan Mud and Blazing orange and see how that works to begin with.

@Graven- Yeah I used to carve,drill and GS Sculpt my Spore Chimneys and then I say a blog where a guy used a lighter to do exactly what I was doing in a fraction of the time! Sometimes you just need a fresh look at a process I guess

Those models are frickin' sexy. I would like to link to them on my scoop.it, do you have a blog / step-by-step of them?

Sorry Nicebel, no step by step and this P&M blog is the extant of my posting I'm afraid

Yes. an lean towards the reddish spectrum would help. it doesn't have to be overpowering just something to " break up" the green. My suggestion would be to do the " entrails around the engines in a black, then highlight with the red brown ( like the color of dried blood) then do a light green wash to tie them together. you ten could go back over with a brighter red brown as a drybrush.

You could do the same where the spine attaches to the flesh,

Just a suggestion... carry on with the fine work.

I was aiming for the entrails to look like the chromed pipes that literally cover the outside of any jet engine you see, but they have become mutated so that in patches they were still metal but in others they were a prehensile tentacle in green.

Hadn't thought of moving them in to the red spectrum as well though , it might be something to look at.

I did a heavy overpaint in a lighter green on the muscles then washed it with devlan and a mix of devlan mud and blazing orange and they definitely don't lok like GS anymore. I highlighted then ran a devlan mud wash down the spine "flesh" as well to give it some more depth and finally have given all the rusted and corroded areas on the wings a wash of the devlan mud + blazing orange mix as well as a blazing orange highlight.

Whew

Will get some pictures up tonight hopefully as I am back at work so painting has to slow down, damn work getting in the way of my hobbies!

Cheers

BLACKHAND

It seems I have missed far too many updates on your thread, time to catch up!

Latest Chaos stuff is fantastic, the dragon is far better than the GW one, even a great paintjob to round it off!

Looking forward to seeing the fruits of your labors my friend.

 BLACKHAND wrote:

Hadn't thought of moving them in to the red spectrum as well though , it might be something to look at.

Will get some pictures up tonight hopefully as I am back at work so painting has to slow down, damn work getting in the way of my hobbies!

Sounds good.. oddly I thought; what if the pipes were flesh only at the ends and metal in the middle. They are slowly turning,, ect

Something to look forward to tomorrow!

 Solar_lion wrote:

 BLACKHAND wrote:

Hadn't thought of moving them in to the red spectrum as well though , it might be something to look at.

Will get some pictures up tonight hopefully as I am back at work so painting has to slow down, damn work getting in the way of my hobbies!

Sounds good.. oddly I thought; what if the pipes were flesh only at the ends and metal in the middle. They are slowly turning,, ect

Something to look forward to tomorrow!

I think I will have to take some close up pics of the pipe/tentacles, they are a mix of fleshy/green ends and metal in the middle just like you are saying but it may not be that apparent in the pics I have put up so far.

Sorry for the delay with the pics people, sister's birthday and all that.

Here is a side on pic of the Heldrake to show the silhouette, am quite happy with hoe he looks compared to the GW version.
Read today on a blog that it has now been named as the "Helduck" tragic!



And here are some top views showing the rust and weathering I tried... still not the best I a m afraid







And some close ups of the jet engines and their tentaclular pipes





And here is a couple of shots of the helmetless chosen for Solar_Lion, hope this helps in your conversion





Please pardon the lump of yellow in my GS, my last lot of Galeforce GS has a hard outer shell on the yellow which is plagueing my sculpting.

Thats about as far as I am willing to paint the Heldrake, I am happy with how he looks and I worry that any more may wreck him!

Let me know what you think guys.

Cheers,

BLACKHAND

Brown and bubbly, just the way I likes it my only niggle (nurgle-niggle?) is that maybe add a white/pinkish tinge to the tentacular pipes so they're a bit more intestinal.

Nice idea, will look at adding a pinkish wash after the Combat Patrol Tournament I am running tomorrow

That looks amazing BH, the weathering and rust look really excellent!

Also, now that the tentacles are finished, it makes a lot more sense than from thw WIP pics before (i ahd a feeling this may be the case, hence the lack of comment....) I do agree with graven on adding a bit of pink/white (or yellow, intestines are very much yellow/blue as opposed to pink....) if thats they way you want to take it...

Is the weathering supposed to be rust-like or some sort of biological corruption?

Wow, BH, that's really stunning work...

Heldrake looks darn great ! About your "rust / weathering" issue, I guess you could emphasize them by going as far as orange dots / stipples...

Also, +1 on the Chosen champion, I definitely agree with the "kinda silly" look of the "stock" version : yours is wayyyyyy better !

Thanks to Gitspiltta for pointing me towards your thread

That Helldrake is awesome, good job sir. I can't fault an inch of it. I like the rust and the faded/chipped freehand on the wings.

@Gitsplitta - I was going for rust on the Heldrake's wings and engine parts, I figure it is pretty safe to wash the rest of the model in almost any colours as Nurgle seems to like algae blooms and fungus There is a blogger who does some amazing work on deepsea chaos and his rust and corrosion effects are quite an inspiration....I will try and dig up his blog address at sometime so I can show you all the way he uses sugar and superglue to show bubbled and corroded paint which is something I hope to try soon.

@Yggdrasil - Thanks for stopping by! I still lurk your blog like crazy And yeah the whole pose of the Chosen is a bit off though I have seen a conversion by Goatboy where he used a hand holding a book from the fantasy to replace the helmet and added a few more scrolls and came up with a a great Dark Apostle, might be something to consider as they will come in handy with the new Cultist squads.

@Dr H - Thanks, I am pretty stoked with him too!


Well, due to the relative success of the Helbrute and Heldrake ( such inspired naming convention GW ) I am looking at scratchbuilding a Forgefiend ( has something like 8 str 8 rending shots a turn) I want to do something like the Heldrake with zombified parts attached to mechanical. With all the talk of the new models looking like "dinobots" I am sorely tempted to whack a few big guns on a T'rex skeleton and GS the crap out of him but I think I will ponder the issue a bit more. Biggest problem is size, damn thing is as big as the new Nid Hqs!

Oh and in case anyone is wondering, I had restarted work on the Daemon Prince but am now kind of meh, the new rules require me to spend a LOT of points to get the Prince I want to field so he has returned to the backburner for now

Cheers,

BLACKHAND

The 'drake looks great with the rust and corrosion and the changes to the gs green.

Very cool indeed.

Maybe a touch of powders around the rust on the wing areas? That would add a nice further layer to the corrosion.

I love what you've done with your Heldrake!
And it looks even better with your scheme

I second some weathering powders on the wings! I use that stuff so much, rivals devlan mud for being pure skill in a bottle.

I have some ancient Tamiya weathering powders, are those something you would suggest? I haven't got the little sponge applicator that came with them any more so would have to use a brush, any suggestions on technique?

There's a whole bunch of things to try with powders, seriously just start playing with them and discovering stuff.

For the wings I'd suggest just dabbing a tiny amount near the edge of the rust and then use a dry, clean brush to spread it out and work it in. If it looks a bit harsh at first you can just keep at it.

Making a thin wash from them is great for rivets and panel lines, once the wash has dried you can get at it with a dry brush and blend it a bit.

If you're planning on sealing after the powder I'd suggest trying it on some painted scrap first - a few very light sprays is normally fine, but some powders - normally when heavily applied - can change tone under a varnish - again, normally when heavily applied.

I find that with light application of the powders and light sprays with the sealer it's all good. Some folks leave the powders till after sealing - seal it with white-spirit or leave it unprotected - not so good for gaming use though.

There's a whole ton of tutorials out there, I think I've seen some on here too, just get stuck in and have a play, if you go easy you're not going to ruin anything, and if you apply after one coat of sealer you can just wash it away if you don't like it.

Make your own out of pastels too if you run out, although I find they last for ages - my two rusts, which get the most use, are still pretty much full after a few years use (OK, fair point a few years with me isn't a hell of a lot of paint, but...)

Obviously, feel free to completely ignore everything I say - except for the have a play stuff

I was going to recommend powders on the rusty areas as well. The current paint is just too slick and shiny to be convincing as rust (thus my earlier question). I mix it with airbrushing medium. Keeps it fast (i.e. the powder won't rub off) and dries dead flat.

Mr. Blackhand, love your work here. If i may ask a question though (i am hoping you could help me out) What is the size difference of the actual heldrake and the zombie dragon. i wanted to combine the two (more zombie then drake) and give it a nurgle/undead mechanical feel but not unless the wings are not overly huge from the zombie dragon. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

It's probably been explained before, but how did you make the Icon of the Black Hand on your models? Is it sculpted?

@ Arrathon - Thanks!, and in answer to your question I simply have no idea I cut the wings out of Plasticard and bought the head and torso of the Zombie Dragon as bitz from an ebay site so I have never seen the Heldrake except in pictures and also haven't seen the Z Dragon in it's entirety. My only suggestion is that the wings on the Zombie Dragon kit are quite folded up as he is sculpted to rest on the ground, it would probably be wiser to buy the torso and head by themselves and pick up a set of the Balrog wings from LoTR as they are more outspread ( and they look fricken cool)

@Enozone - Hi, and yep I sculpted the Blackhand and then cast a lot ( a LOT, a lot) of copies in resin, if you are interested in the process check out my casting thread

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/307451.page

Cheers,

BLACKHAND

it's an ambitious project for sure, but you pulled it off nicely! Very convincing without being cartoonish, Kudos

Came for the loyalists, stayed for the AWESOME Khorne Apoc stuff! Skull tower, Jaws on land raider, dakka defiler! Mind blown!

@Solar_Lion - thanks bud

@Color Sgt. Kell - Ummm Thanks? Might be the wrong thread there... though it sounds like a damn cool one!

Congratulations on your Helldrake making the front page BLACKHAND!! That's just an amazing model... so nice to see it in the forefront again.

Well played indeed sir! Let's have some more of that dirty great black hand of yours (ahem)!

@Gitsplitta - Phew almost missed it too, thanks! Thats the beauty of tagging your pics with labels I guess, I did a search a while back on Heldrakes and mine didn't show. Since I labelled it correctly the views on that pic have jumped up quite a bit.

@Graven - Thanks you sir! I am tempted to post up some pics of a cake we made for my little girl's fifth birthday but I have a feeling a Barbie Princess cake wouldn't go down nearly as well as your Optimus cake

Oh and pardon the long absence we have had an exciting time over the last month. My partner and I discovered we are expecting a third child! I am secretly hoping for boy to balance out the two girls but whatever we have we will be happy.... and sleepless for another few years

Cheers

BLACKHAND

Congratulations man!

Let's be honest though, real reason you want a boy is so you can have someone to play Warhammer with, amiright?

Terrific news BLACKHAND!! Congratulations!

Grats mate! Always good to hear news like that

Thanks everyone, and yeah a captive player in the house would mean I would get more games in... but my nephew and niece are already asking about the game so I may have some converts already.

Like I told Gitsplitta the real reason I want a boy is a legitimate reason to buy all this cool new Lego... they have frikken Ninjas now!

I must confess boys' toys are awesome. Ninja lego is top, as are the transformers. Many congrats matey! It's that moment where every guy secretly goes, "It works!" Or in this case, "It still works!"

The Dragon is amazing. Totally unique and yet clearly recognizable as the flyer it's used as.

@Graven - LOL, being a survivor of testicular cancer I have been VERY surprised each time But you know how it is, we are blessed with these incredible wargamer physiques that all women are incredibly attracted to and its more effort than its worth to keep fighting them off!

@ Anung un Rama - Thanks Rama, it really is a pleasure to have you comment on my work, I always value it. I am glad you like the Dragon, don't be a stranger!

Congratulations BLACKHAND! Great news hearing your Heldrake has made the fro-.....wait a second......

I kid, congrats on the new little one mate!

Must have missed your last updates BH. A lot of the things I see in the blog section is quite intimidating. I need another big project to get me back in the game.

@Reiko - Cheers mate, they are both acheivements that require a relatively small amount on my part and a fair amount of random luck so I am happy with both

@Anung un Rama - I know what you mean but the beauty of the P&M section is that it is filled with people who just like to read about and look at peoples work, whether your last post was a year ago or yesterday you will still have people commenting which is gratifying to say the least.

Just been perusing your thread and I have to say, your stuff if pretty inspirational to say the least! That Heldrake is frickin' awesome dude! Subscribed!

Hi people, pardon the long silence! No real excuse, just Real Life(tm)

I have been working on my Chaos Marine list slowly surely and now have 40 something zombies painted sans blood and gore and will be finishing the last of them in the next few weeks.

My main modelling focus has been getting prepared for our local tournament in early May and both mine and my friend's armies have evolved a lot over the last couple of months. I have gone from a termie heavy nurgle list to a mix of chaos marines and Plague marines backed up by a ton of Havoks to at one point a list containg a mix of the above and 4 chaos bikers with a pimped out Khorne Lord ,weird!

My final list is pretty much locked down now and looks like this



Yep thats right, 3 Heldrakes! The cheese will rule !

So I have had to construct a couple more and decided to build them in the same lines of my Nurgle drake from last year ( google search heldrake conversion, mine is sixth just sayin)

Of course the first thing I thought of was the alternate Terrorgheist head for the Zombie Dragon, unfortunately with the change in the USPS prices lately have meant that my normal Ebay route has got very expensive ( or thats the excuse they have anyway) the only seller I could find with the head I wanted didn't have the torso and tail so I decided to work with what I had.

I have used Compressed foam board for the wings for it's ease of use, the Terrorgheist bat head and neck and a glow in the dark human skeleton I had lying around















I had built pretty much all of this guy before the head and neck arrived and the neck just fit perfectly, all it took was a it of GS on the neck to meld the long hair on the neck and upper back.

Then I had a dilema, what to use for te base of my last Drake! I was rummaging through my bitz box and found 90% of another glow in the dark skeleton ( I have been using them for years for scenery) this time a Trex. I flipped it upside down and really like the curve of the spines on the upper side of the tail section and had this vision of a front heavy beast with tiny Trex arms and it's back half literally rotted away to nothing but bone, but I really didn't want to use the Trex skull and it was pretty underwhelming as it is a mass produced plastic model with very little detail, so i got to searching on the 'Bay again....

... and found the Slaughterbrute!

(this pic is from a blog called "jambot Industries" by the way, he does some nice work, really nice work)

So I thought I had found head, and he also had those great little Trex arms sprouting from his nipples ( an evolution in GW's nipple fetish methinks?) so I order the toothy head and the little arms and...

... turns out the head is massive and the arms are big enough to mount on a Daemon Prince :( I have gone ahead with the sculpt but I reall wish the head ws about 90% to 75% of its actual size and that the arms were proper small but hey, he still looks pretty tough

















So there they are, two more rotting, plagueridden Nurgle Drakes to join the first.

C&C welcome as always guys.... those of you still subbed anyway!

@Elnibbus - Thanks!

Cheers,

BLACKHAND

Totally still subbed and good to have you back! Build looks great, will have a proper read later as off to do school run.

Okay, so the first one looks just great. The head fits really well with the rest. I'm curios about how bat-like it will look once you're done painting.

The second one is... hilarious. I'm sorry, that was probably not what you wanted to read. The huge head is quite scary on it and I wouldn't call it to over-the-top. I've seen beasts like that in D&D books and Final Fantasy games. Though the head does look a bit out of place next to the almost flesh-less ribcage. Though I am currently out of ideas on how to counter this.

The bat one is just horrific... with the skeletal legs and all... yech!

@Graven - Thanks bro.

@Anung Un Rama - I am pretty happy with the Bat too, will be using the green from the rest of the army as well as dark brown on the fur and more bone then last time. I am still building up flesh on the back and shoulders of the Brute-Drake and will fill in the chest cavity with organs and machinery ( which the bat drake has as well) and then will see how he looks.... may still add hip bones and hind legs but it is dissapointing how far from my initial vision he has gone.

@Gitsplitta - Cheers bud, I shouldn't reveal my secrets but the back legs are just the arms from the human skeleton with the hands switched


So here are my thoughts on the Brute-Drake,



* Build up the back and chest with GS muscle ( did some of this last night)

*Add in the exposed guts and internal machinery of the drake, will still leave the bottom of the ribcage exposed to show the organs.

* Perhaps switch out the front arms for some smaller ones that will help reduce the amount of weight that is hanging off the front, right now he just doesn't seem very aerodynamic.

* Perhaps, reluctantly, add hip bones and a pair of skeletal back legs. This would be in keeping with the other two but not with the idea I had for him

Suggestions and C&C is very welcome at this point, I still have a month or so but would like to get to the painting stage soon!

Cheers

BLACKHAND

Hmm. How about Landing gear/ robo legs? I'm thinking the ones off a sentinel.

Great looking beasties dude! As always your creativity really shows in your models.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Hmm. How about Landing gear/ robo legs? I'm thinking the ones off a sentinel.

That sounds like a good idea.

It really needs something below the waist line. I don't how how and if they land, but IMO it should have legs that at least look they could carry the weight of that giant head. Sentinel legs might be a good idea. The one's from the Forgefiend might work as well.

I like that he has engines under the wings, but they could be better incorporated into the model itself. Though you're probably already working on that.

@Commander Cain - Thanks!

@ Graven & Rama - I am starting to think legs will have to be added, The Heldrake fluff has them latching onto Chaos Carrier hulls while they travel through warp and then detaching when they arrive at a planet to wreck the place so they do need some kind of clawed appendage but not so much "legs" for walking. I will scratch through my bits box tonight but my current thought is to add a proper T rex hip arrangment then some bony legs with the hands from the current "arms" as the feet. I will then sculpt some new smaller arms for the front in an effort to even out the sillouette. I want to stay clear of robo legs for now because they don't fit my idea of Papa Nurgle "blessing" random alien creatures and daemons with the ability to fly and creating his own style of Heldrake but I do have a pair of sentinel legs spare if I need them.

Cheers,

BLACKHAND


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and yeah the engines will be connected to the wings and body with various tentacles and pipes , maybe even a piston setup that mimics where the muscles in the "wing" might go, but that is all waiting till the body of the drake is done so it is easier to handle

How about four legs? The two smaller ones in front and the two large ones in back to balance the model?

Possible... will have a look at some leg concepts tonight.

I have always loved the sillouette of the T Rex though. A complete, uncompromising, design for killing. The whole "screw arms and claws that can grab prey, I'll just evolve a long heavy tail to counterbalance my huge skull and jaws and make do with these stubs for arms"

Was kind of what I was reaching for in my first design, What would a daemon who's only aim to kill and eat be shaped like? I first thought of a whale as they are just a mouth with a propulsion system ( a tail ) but I kept drifting back to the TRex model I had, and was hoping to pull it off without looking goofy....

.... and it looks like I didn't quite get there


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So after a flurry of cutting and pinning ( helped by my two year old) I have a rough draught of the back legs. Oh and don't worry the Nid arms are just stand ins to give you an idea of the scale and placement of the T Rex arms not the shape.











I initially had legs with a "human" style knee and ankle set up but it looked weird so I cut up the legs and added the elongated ankle bone to resemble a dog or cat leg, they may be a bit long compared the legs of my first drake but in order to balance the head they need to have a bit of heft.

C&C welcome

cheers,

BLACKHAND

Very cool indeed, and exactly the shape I had in mind.

too ... much .... win .... urgh *collapses*
but really this thread is fuq'n haxs.
1) dat dreadknight, WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY better than the baby carrying gw alternative, that is how dreadknight should look like. I fuq'n applaud you sir.
2) dat(dems) helldrake, i love it when people successfully put whf models into 40k, and holy mary sh*t did you do it well.
Love this thread, subscrived.

@Graven - Thanks bud!

@Novelist47 - Thanks for reading! I am not actually as happy with how the Dreadknight came out in the end, the shape is pretty much right but I wish I had built it in a more dynamic pose with heavier legs, but hey what can you do?
Oh and yeah I like bringing WFB models into 40K as well, its been my thing for a while

I like it. Much more balanced.

Good to see you back up and running....

Batdrake is outstanding, very cool indeed.

Brutedrake is improving, and the shape you have now works, but that head just looks a little too large at the moment...hopefully once the build is finished and colour is applied that won't be such an issue.....

O yeah BH is back! Great work as ever, the new Drakes are as much (if not more) intimidating and bad-ass looking that the first one!

I have to say the Dino-Drake still looks a tad overbalanced to me, sorry...Just Googling a couple of pictures of T-Rex and i can see that the neck and even torso could do with a bit more....well, muscle! (odd i know, but its the head itself that appears overbalancing as opposed to just the front half of the model)

I do think the tail, even skeletal, is amazing and a great addition! Can i just mention again how much i love your plasticard wings as well?

Good to see you back BH.

@Gits - Thanks Gits, even if he is a filthy Heldrake huh?

@Monkeytroll & Reiko - I know, the Brute-drake is a real dissapointment and I will do my best to bulk up the torso but at this point I am stuck with what I have as I don't have the time or budget to start again.

I will be doing a bit of sculpting this week but not too much as I am still waiting on my new glasses to arrive ( broke a lens a couple of weeks ago, gotta wait for a new lens to arrive from germany) in the meantime I am wearing contacts that are a couple of levels below my prescription and I can't focus for crap, really don't want to look back on a ton of work I have done and realize it needs redoing!

Woah Woah Woooooooooooah! i wouldnt say disappointment at ALL! I love it, i think it would just...do well with a bit more bulking out thats all, keep doing what you are doing and i can see it coming together nicely

Also, i love that you got your kids involved in this, inspirational...

That Drake looks immense! I for one cannot wait to see this one finished!

Frantically trying to catch up on everyone's blogs, but my .02 cents is that it's the rib cage that's throwing you off.
The balance is the major skew factor. I would flesh out the cage a little to bulk it, then drop the baby trex arms, then put in larger/bulkier hind legs section only.. Think muscled reptilian bald eagle style. Once that balances add your tiny trex arms back in. Keep the bone elements of the centre section and tail to nurgle it up still but I think it's just too short to be missing back legs entirely.

@Reiko - No worries mate, I am just a bit jaded by the whole thing, the other two came together like they were meant to be and this fella just didn't come off they way I wanted. Add to that the fact that the people I am playing against aren't really loving three Drakes on the table and I am pretty sure he will get one outing at the tournament and then spend a lot of time on the shelf

@ Knightley - Thanks bro, I know I should post more often on your blog I still follow it daily but your consistancy puts mine to shame

@Monkeh - Thanks for your 2 cents bro, they are all welcome. I will be getting more muscle and flesh on the toroso soon and hopefully he will get to a point where I am happy to bring hi out to play

Cheers

BLACKHAND

Yeah i know how you feel, sometimes you can see something so clearly it should be easy to replicate....but it never is

I dont think 3 Drakes is the worst thing people will have seen, Necron air wing is still a lot tougher (afaik, i havent been keeping up to date with 40k recently), it might not be nice as such, but i doubt it is the worst thing lol

Hopefully once the (amazing) sculpt comes together then you will fall back in love with it, i have confidence in you.

Ok people, I took a week out to assemble some Infinity models ( Steel Phalanx Whoop!) and came back to the Heldrakes a bit refreshed. I have layed about 95% off the paint on the BatDrake, he just needs a few more splashes of wash, get him a bit more oily and grimy. With the BruteDrake I decided to add a Keelbone to his chest, thats the bone that anchors the chest muscles on a bird so I though it would suit and it helped deepen his chest and give me something to build the neck skin onto.

Like this!





And I had a play around with some postules on the under side of the wing, somthing to meld the engines, wings and body together.... may have to add a couple to the skin I have sculpted as well though





I know he might be kinda a bit all over the place but I decided to enjoy the sculpt by trying things that come to mind rather than agonize over him not being exactly what I first envisioned.

C&C welcome

Cheers

BLACKHAND

That's much better.

Agreed, more coherent. How did you do the pustules?

Ahh...definitely improving there...

@ Gits and Monkeytroll - Thanks guys!

@Graven - The postules are a mix of GS that I pressed various sizes of tubing inot while soft and a bunch of hemispheric stick on pearls that my wife uses for cardmaking and doesn't know I stole from her bitz box

They look like faux pearls someone missing any jewelery?

Still very large, but definetly better. Too bad your T-Rex idea didn't come out quite as you hoped.

@Knightley - I have not quite fallen so far as to cut up my wife's jewelery.....but anything else left lying around is fair game

@Rama - It's getting there, my hope is that the paint will sort out a few of the problems

^Ah, when hobbies collide well played sir, well played.

So have had a small hiatus while I painted up a friend of mine'sSedition Wars minis ( paying him back for a used case I blagged off him when I was rebuilding my puter)
But was able to throw some paint at the two Drakes













They still need work but I think I have had enough of them at the moment

With the release of the Chaos Daemon codex I have been pondering how much fun a detachment of Nurgle Daemons would be. Nothing fancy a squad of Plaguebearers and a Great Unclean One with level 3 Biomancy and a couple of Gifts.

Problem is I am not excited by either the GUO models that are out there or the comical Plaguebearers so I will be converting a box of Bloodletters in to Bearers and have made a start on a GUO that will match them.

My plan is is to show less of the spilled entrails, weeping sores side of Nurgle and more of the unrestrained cancerous growth facet, as well as play around with asymetrical sillouettes..... hope it makes sense!









I will probably add more bulk to the feet tonight and once the face has dried will work more wrinkles in, I plan on GSing over the eyes on the Plaguebearers so will echo that on the GUO.

C&C welcome guys!

Cheers,

BLACKHAND

Ooh, now that's quite exciting! Nice to see different interpretations of things. Can I suggest a single, cyclopean eye for this bad boy as that'll lend a degree of plaguebearer-esque aesthetic to him ("Carncinomax, Greatest Plague Bearer of them all!") - I think it'll make it more visually obvious where you're coming from with him.
I find the helldrakes quite vibrant, which is not necessarily a negative, just an observation, but very cool to see them painted up regardless.

Thanks Graven, the reason the Drakes are so bright is I had to adjust the the pics in photoshop cause they were so dark, they are not so bad in real life.

As for the eye.... they are are part of the GW interpretation of Nurgle I don't like! Plus out of all the nurgle creatures ONLY the plaguebearers have a single eye and horn, nothing else so its not such a stretch IMO. Hopefully my paintjob will be enough to suggest rot and cancer and nurgle's touch, fingers crossed

Back to some scratch-build sculpting! Wonderful! I like where you're going with this one.

Nice to see some paint on the drakes BLACKHAND. Do you have a due-date for them?

Okay, fair enough. Horned fly skull?

Awesome stuff, impressed!

Only problem with the sculpts is that they all need *really* long beards!!

I forgot how skilled you were with greenstuff! Very impressive work.

@ Gitsplitta - Thanks, the Drakes need to be done by this time next month so I have time for more touch ups.

@Graven - I have often considered doing a fly- type helmet for m marines thanks for reminding me! but honestly, once I have a prototype for the Plaguebearer face you will see where I am going with this

@Jehan-reznor - Thanks!

@Gits - I know what you mean but it doesn't seem to be an issue for "male" daemons. Daemonettes all wear loincloths and have boobage but all the guys have ken doll syndrome. Says some Interesting things about the hobby no?

@ Commander Cain - Thanks, good to see you here!

I hate to do this but I threww some paint on the GUO last night and decided he is just too upright and his legs are not in the correct proportions to match the Plagueletters

I will pick up some more Fimo today at work and will try again ( don't worry the GUO only took a day to sculpt so its not too much of a drag) this time he will have a deeper rather than broader chest and a much more hunched pose. I think I will accentuate the smaller arm by giving it a wizened little ghoul arm. I have also decided that paper clips are just too flimsy to use as a base and will be getting some heavier wire, I hope this will let me spend more time in the Fimo phase ( you can do alot of the sculpting then, saving on GS) Usually I try and bake it as soon as possible so I have a more stable shape to sculpt on to, but with astronger wire skeleton I think I can avoid this.... sorry babbling after a sleepless night ( pregnant wife = no sleep for Blackhand) spent thinking about how to improve the design and process

Actually... I was referring to the rather "beardy" nature of some of the chaos rules.

Oh... hey! Ok maybe the Heldrake is a bit much, and the Soulgrinder seems to be an autoinclude but a lot of the other codex entries are kinda balanced.... ah I give up trying to defend Chaos, at least we don't have deepstriking Landraiders

Loving the sculpt so far, cant wait to see moar

Whats wrong with deep striking land raiders? Makes perfect sense!

"These transports are nearly indestructible! Someone fill them troops and throw them at the enemy! Brilliant!"

Hey BH, love the Heldrakes...now with paint!

I cant wait to see more of your take on Papa Nurgle's less...mechanical minions....

@Styro - Thanks!

@Ice - Of course, why didn't I think of that

@Reiko - Thanks, hope you like the new GUO

So my plan was to add more dynamism and movement to the GUO as well as reduce the size of the right arm to make it appear more wizened and wasted, adding more Asymmetry to the sculpt.

This is where I am after last night















and while I was planning on wizended little claw/arm for the right side I couldn't help but try out a flaming mace-whip, what do you think?





So there he is version 2.0, I am cleaning him up now as well as glueing together the Plagueletters, busy night!

C&C welcome as always

Cheers

BLACKHAND

Pose is great, reminds me a bit of the aberration from Confrontation, and flail arm works a treat. I think I'm more sold on this version all round.

Very interesting BLACKHAND.... I think the sculpt looks good!

That is just a wonderful bit you got there. I want to use it as a weapon for a Contemptor Dread.

Your sculpting is depressingly impressive, as usual.

Wonderful work!

That truly is amazing work, but i'm not too keen on the flail arm. Though thats just my opinion. Its your model so do with it as you please

Hmm 2 votes for the flail, 1 against, I will leave the final dcision till the end of the sculpt either way

I also sliced out about a cm of forearm as well so the arm is more balanced now.

Tonight I will make a start on the cancerous growths and buboes, yay!

Looks a bit strange, but I'll wait to see it finished to decide.

What did you do with v1? Might I recommend a raffle, with my name as the first in? Eh?

I can try.

You are welcome to him, he will only end up on my shelf of shame

Pm your address and I will flick him off to you

So I have GSed up the skulls on the Bloodletters as well as the tumours and buboes on their backs. Was able get a couple of coats on three of them today after my girl's second birthday ( have never seen so much Dora the Explorer merchandise in one place, Nickleodeon did well today)

Was a pretty simple converion in the end, as well as the GS work I also replaced the the sword blades with rusted and pocked cleavers, will do my best with some rust effects



and a couple of close ups





They will get more blending, a couple of washes and the tumours will be a glowing yellow with green inks.

I have finalized the design of the GUO, I went a bit drastic with the leading arm and cut off the hand ( have kept it so can always replace it) added a big rusted blade fitted to his forearm stump Also removed the whip from the flaming ball and mounted it directly to the arm, I no this leaves him "armless" but he is a level three psyker daemon so screw it










and here is a comparison shot



What do you all think? I am pretty damn happy with him at this point, and since I only have a month left to paint the GUO, 10 Plaguebearers, 10 more zombies and repaint my 10 havoks to closer match the rest of my Nurgle boys, I think I will start painting him tonight and live with him as is.

C&C welcome as always,

Cheers,

BLACKHAND

Very nice, and very clever conversion on the blood letter. Also, I feel a plague-Dora is required as an aspiring champion!
Still obsessing over eyes - what's the plan? Something I always thought was missing was 3-eyed nurgle stuff, and I know how much you love that csm helm...

The plan is to leave them exactly as they are Think alien eyeless head style

Wow Blackhand! I really like the angle you've taken with the Nurgle Daemons. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the corpulent fatty image of Nurgle, but this is a very cool spin on famine and disease. The plagueletters really give the impressions of Gremlins (Have you seen the film?) with the pustules and buboes on their backs. I think the green could be a bit darker, maybe slightly mottled too.

Big guy is very, very cool. I preferred his giant hand as opposed to a blade arm, but whatever you think looks best! The head is possibly my favorite bit about him; the eyeless stare is creepy!

What happened to your previous sculpt?

Impressive. Love the blood letters... very nicely done.

Dora is everywhere... even in our house back when the boys were young enough.

This is interesting. Very Alien-ish, which is not something I would've thought would work with Nurgle. I'm looking forward to the finished models.

Love the cleavers.

I like the removal of the whip, it's more like a magic ball, or pokeball of doom, or similar now versus a weapon. The stump axe is an improvement I think as well. You should call him GUO Merle.

Also, Woo! Pm incoming!

Hey anyone who is still subscribed to this thread, I have a new p&m blog here
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/688803.page

I'm all over it! Welcome back my friend!

:O outstanding!

Time to necro an old blog to promote a new one!

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/740992.page

Cheers

BLACKHAND

Hurrah!

Yippie! More Blackhand!