Happy New Year!

I've got a quick update. First off, I've added some flying buttress and landing supports to the Landing Pavillion. I'm happy that they ended up looking both like gothic architecture and fins on a midcentury style rocket ship:



I've also added tons of details but those are harder to see. I think I'm getting close to finishing the bulk of the construction, and can move on to more fun details. And for fun here is what the ship might look like flying through space:



Didn't realize I was making a federation starship complete with warp nacelles!

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I've also started painting the two headed Navigator, and done a few more touches on the tech gangers. I often go months without painting because I keep coming up with new ideas for models to build, and my desk gets overrun with bits, and then it seems daunting to clear off enough space to set the paints back up. But I'm always glad when I do. It's so fun and satisfying, and relatively fast compared with the types of conversions I've been doing lately. I'll should be doing a lot more painting over the next few months.



I've only just started the Navigator (mostly just begun on the faces and done the tarnished gold) but you can start to see how the he will come together. I'm still debating color schemes, and put together a photoshop mockup to test some ideas. Feedback much appreciated! The obvious/smart choice is to go with some combination of teal, dark grey, reddish orange, and ochre to tie into the rest of the household but I'm always tempted to try weird new colors and make them fit into the larger project.



ps. yes my kitchen floor and cabinets match my army's color scheme

I like 7 and 11

I like 7, or possibly 8, but with a darker body.

N 7 looks the part tome too.

6 or 10 would be my favourites. love that aged looking turq. Super work as ever

I like 6, 7, and 10, although they all have interesting color palettes. I'd like to see a little bit of that regal maroon in the future, although I would probably hold off on it for the two-headed navigator.

Thanks so much guys!

I went ahead and base coated the Navigators bodysuit and hoods last night, and decided at the last minute to go with something like option 7. Now I see more comments suggesting 10 or 11 and I'm having second thoughts!





It's just one layer of fairly yellowy orange on the body so I could probably drybrush and glaze my way to an interesting and rich greenish yellow like on 11, but a very light turqoise woudl be harder to pull off, but not impossible. Or I stick to my guns and keep building up and enriching the orange. Hmm...

And here we see a cluster of family members and their Landing Pavillion, ready to explore the ruined wasteland that is my desk:



@youidiotkid: good point about the maroon. could be perfect for the Courtly Envoy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and speaking of spacesuit color schemes, here is a great photo is supposedly every spacesuit that's been worn in space:


I saw this last year when painting my second exo suit navigator but hadn't realized how much I recreated it with my grid of color options until this morning!

I just spent a ridiculous amountof time staring at those spacesuits!!! Great work btw

Thanks Januine!

Here is the current state of the bicephalous buddha:



Very happy with how he's coming together. And I get to do fun weathering and detailing soon. The face sculpting isn't the cleanest but I think when i finish detailing with purple, red, and green inks and washes I will be able to make the irregularities work as scars, warts, etc.

+ + +

For a while now I've been focusing on building larger-than-life freaky characters (and vehicles), so I decided to take a quick break and throw together a quick kitbash, representing a much more humble servant of the household. Although I have my tech gangers, my rather unorthodox Magos Genetor doesn't have any traditional Mechanicus servants. I can't picture a doctor of his stature treating his navigatorial masters without assistance, so I present his Acolyte Attending / Orderly / Nurse-mule:







He's almost done, just needs a tool on his servo-arm and maybe a second arm coming from his back. You can see he's laden with vials and canisters of drugs and unguents, ready to dispense them to his magos at a moment's notice. His mouth has been replaced with a much more useful clamp-beak. Maybe if he proves to be a devoted enough student he will be given the privilege of having his head removed and added to the gestalt mind/body of his master.

+ + +

Also, RIP David Bowie. Such a sad day! I was just listening to this last week while working on these models:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw

The video includes a conclusion to the story of Major Tom, of particularly relevance to this blog. I love the spacesuit / bejeweled skull combination of course.

2 lovely conversions! Great use of that Empire Huntsmen body which I haven't seen in many Inq28 conversions. The Nurse-mule is great too. Did you feel bad using up so many great heads in one go? :-p

That's more than a little creepy. Nice work


Loving the ship.

I feel if a jury existed in the Imperium courts they'd look like that. Freaky.

Oh, yeah. This just keeps getting better.

Looking good with paint on. I like the colour scheme you've picked , the orange works really well.

I'm blown away by the spaceship you've made, super mad skills!

EDC

Love that ship, your art concepts, and I am very, very disappointed that I lost my subscription somehow to this thread. I want to see that ship primed, might learn something from how you've added the bits to it.

Thanks so much!

I've made a bit more progress on both of the mechanical freaks:






You'll see the Doctor now has weaponry, and I like that they could all be sort of medical in nature. A shock-prod (for battle-field defibrillation), a needle/vaccine gun or some sort, and an arc-welding hand for cauterization or mechanical repair. The Nurse's buzz-saw was originally supposed to go on his mouth, as a reference to Rogue Trader AM artwork that also features the horse-skull magos and the super-cool double-face magos (that actually inspired the doctor).

The doctor looks overwhelmingly busy in these shots but I plan to really unify and simplify everything with paint. I'm considering going for a very old-school blanchitsu approach, without my typical cool colors. Rust-red body and hoods, off-white, ochre, and brown skins, dirty black details, and glowing yellow-white eye-lenses? We'll see.

I love where this is going, but I'm not sure if the Doc's legs are quite enough to support him. You could bulk them up with a couple of armor plates and maybe a piston to attach the thighs and back of the calves. Also, though I like the shape of his feet, they seem too small too keep him balanced without constantly correcting his position.

Wow, this is like the insane love children of Froud and Jodorowski. Love it

Thanks!

@youidiotkid: I actually took your advice and bulked up his legs and feet quite a bit. I was worried about losing the gangly wierdness but now he looks like a mini-titan and I'm happy about it. Pics soon.

@mastiff: perfect! Two of my favorites. I'll have a pic of my updated Imperial Envoy Navigator soon and I think he's got a pretty Moebius vibe going on that you may appreciate.

And here is Doctor Paracelsus Takwin's with his new bulkier legs and feet:



The toes and groin-plate are cut from the armored plates that come with the Kataphron servitors, and there are other Kataphron bits on his thighs and mechanicus autocannon barells on his shins. I was worried I'd miss the gangly oddness of his old legs, but I actually love the result. Now he looks like a mini warlord titan or Knight, and I think it's better to have his mechanical body be more grounded to contrast the central weirdness of his many heads. The thigh plates are on the big size but that just makes me think of Landmates and other large thighed mecha which is fine by me.

I've also done more work on the Courtly Envoy:



The crystal ball / navigation globe ball is a pin-head, which just happened to fit perfectly in a random hand in my bits box. It's hard to see but he also now has fancy ornamental platform geta shoes! Couldn't capture the gothic arches from my sketches but this will do. Next up I need to do putty cleanup on his legs, and maybe try sculpting him a head-dress or visor of some type, something to exaggerate the height of his face (and body). I've tried lots of bits on his head, and none really work, so if I sculpt something that works I will just leave his head in the simple astronaut hood, which I think looks good with his built up shoulder armor. I'm also currenty planning on not festooning him with tons of detail and bits, but giving him a cleaner and more elegant finish, which at least gives me the options of a crazy Moebius / Ziggy Stardust color scheme with freehand patterning if I decide to go that route.

You make some uniquely interesting and creepy stuff The bigger legs are nice.

The creepy ring-claw on the bony hand stroking the globe... is creepy, in a good way. Cool.

I expected to prefer the heavier legs on the Dr... but I have to admit I quite liked the marionette quality of the spindlier legs. It had a graceful quality like a giraffe, and was a nice contrast to the really solid bulk of the rest of your troops. The new legs look great, mind you.

The finger tapping the cane is a wonderful touch, and the regal head absolutely screams Moebius. My god, you have some wonderful touches in every model. I need to look at the rest of the blog, I just hopped in to the last page.

For the visor, you could use some blister pack style clear plastic wrapped into a tube then some kid of rounded piece to use as a top/lid with a Green Stuff tube/pipe to cover the join from making the tube. Obviously it would need to be painted separately and glued in very carefully but it wouldn't hide or obscure his face, it would be as tall/long as you want and with it being a tube it would exaggerate his features, wouldn't have excess detail and goes with the astronaut look.

It's a shame the gothic arches for his boots have been difficult to transfer into model form, I suppose you could exaggerate the whole thing by making them a bit like those spring running stilts you can get?

Your conversions are stunning as always.

Doctor Paracelsus Takwin is stunning, but I have to say that the Courtly Envoy is becoming one of my favorite miniatures you've built. He looks like he leapt out of Moebius' sketchbook and rolled around in a pile of that classic Weirdingway flavor. I think it'd be really interesting to see you adapt a flashy Ziggy Stardust color scheme into your gritty style.

The bigger legs on the Dr are definitely an improvement.

The crystal ball dude looks great too, I'm glad you revealed it was a pinhead, as I immediately wondered where you got a small sphere from.

EDC

Whilst the new legs look fine, I did prefer the spindly ones. It reminded me of the tripods from War of the Worlds.

Thanks! The bulky legs are a bit divisive but I'm happy with them. I'll have to make a truly graceful spindly legged cyborg later.

Here's a detail of the Envoy's shoes if anyone was curious. @Gogsnik, I like your leg extension idea but not for this guy. I may add a few more bits to these shoes but I actually like how they're turning out.


The shoe supports include cross-guards from greatswords and some fun little loop bits from the Kataphron kit.

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Gogsnik's excellent clear visor suggestion got me thinking about my old sketches that included translucent space helmets:



I eventually gave up on the idea because it seemed tough to implement, and discovered the gold chrome foil which i love and have used instead. Since then Mars Attacks miniatures with perfectly shaped clear plastic domes have come out, but somehow they seem kind of incongruous with the painted surfaces and "fake" the same way Necron glow-stick do. Much more successful is the clear resin approach that Meade used on his Witch Engine.

So now I'm thinking it might be worth the effort to try to encase the envoy's head in a dome-shaped block of clear resin. I could do a push-mold of his face so i could do multiple attempts. The end result would hopefully look like this:



Or I forget the dome helmet, and stick with my original plan of just an ornamental fore-head piece.

A third and somewhat radical option occured to me last night. i was testing helmet sizes using a half-built helmet I made for my Lodge Warriors and discovered I kind of love the result:



Would it be completely insane to remove the long-face head entirely (saving it for another body down the line) and instead give this Navigator a gold chrome mask? I am really into the aristocratic glam grimdark astronaut effect. And it's certainly more mysterious. But the long-face was a big point of this conversion. Then again, kill your darlings, right?

Any opinions? I'm not sure what to do. Options are:

+ long-faced head, maybe with an ornamental forehead or head piece
+ long-faced head encased in clear (or tinted) resin dome
+ opaque, gold chrome dome helmet

Thanks!

My vote goes to the Meade pattern, the shape of the torso would really nicely fit this kind of helmet and easily hide the resin's entry point.

I love the idea of the resin dome. I feel like it could come out looking amazing.

I miss the long face of the model with the completely enclosed helmet. I wonder of you could carve away the faceplate part and add a clear visor so we could still see that head get used?

I'm also in favor of the clear resin dome. If you were to go with a tinted, translucent look, it might actually look even more enigmatic than the reflective one would. The gold foil could instead be used on the globe in his hand if you'd still like to include it somewhere.

Or cut a piece out and use some clear plastic or resin in there.
More unsettling conversions please!

I'd hate to see the face go. It just drips with aristocratic disdain.

Resin Dome or opaque.

It is probably silly to ask but, knowing the quality of your work and how odd (that is a compliment,) and how unique it is, perhaps you could squeeze in a David bowie refrence somewhere?

I think the (gold) dome looks good, and the head will of course find another home - depends how good you think you can make the resin option look. Could you have swirls of 'smoke' inside with a little carefully poked-in ink?

Thanks so much for all the help! The feedback is so helpful.

The face will definitely stay! It would be a shame to lose the long face, and an opaque mask would rob the Beaconites of their uniqueness. Speaking of Beaconites, I'm making good progress on them and I'm very happy with how they're looking. Pics over the weekend most likely.

I'm going to give the resin dome a try — with casted copies of the head for sure. If it works it could be amazing. Maybe I'll even be able to tint the resin an amber so that it looks like he is in a melange rich atmosphere . I'll have to do lots of tests with different ways of tinting the resin, different ways to paint the head, etc.

Also, if anyone has a Mars Attacks fig I'd be very interested in exactly how big the plastic helmet is, and perhaps in buying one off of you if it's the right size.

I've got a source for dome helmets! A kind reader sent me this link:
http://store.bombshellminis.com/36026-plastic-dome-sprue-t8/

Bombshell minis make a range of different bubble helmets, if anyone else wants to make spacemen. I just put an order in for a few different sizes and I'll see how they work out. I think they could also be useful as molds for my resin pouring if the size is right ...

In the meantime, the tech gang! I've been painting them in little spurts but finally made some progress last night, and I'm finally starting to like them.



Still lots more to do, including fun stuff like picking out details and adding metals and weathering. The yellows will probably be desaturated a bit, and the pink clothing made lighter and more of a salmon color. The red/orange armor will be partially worn away to bare metal, and everything filtered with a with a rusty glaze to tie it together. We'll see ...

Oooh yeah those are really coming along nicely

Wow, I'm loving those reds! Not too garish.

I was wondering if you could quickly explain your process for making those bases? I'm in the process of upsizing my SM bases from the 25mm to 32mm and I'm sick of the sand+patch of grass look. Yours look so much better!

You really take conversion work to a whole new level, awesome work .

Really a beautiful red.

The guy with the servo arm is a new favourite, he looks like a completely new Van Saar sculpt or something, there is not a single bit of him that I recognise. The others are all excellent too, but I can detect the occasional part and so they are merely amazing conversions, rather than some fantastical model from the future.

Servo arm guy is ace.

Love the crisp red. Sweet squad overall. Thanks for linking that website btw!

They make me think of GW's Confrontation. Solid work.

Tech gang looks amazing. I think either the clear resin dome or gold dome would look awesome. I like the idea of glam-dark.

EDC

Thanks so much everyone!

The guy with the servo arm is a new favourite, he looks like a completely new Van Saar sculpt or something, there is not a single bit of him that I recognise. The others are all excellent too, but I can detect the occasional part and so they are merely amazing conversions, rather than some fantastical model from the future.

Nice, he's definitely one of my favorites too. If I remember correctly he is made from: Sicarian ruststalker torso, skitarri pelvis and legs down to the knees, cadian boots (spaced out away from the sktiarii knees), sicarian bionic arm, flagellant muscled arm, kataphron backpack, and Onager dunestalker servo-arm. Oh and the gun is a modified skitarri gun and I *think* the head is a very cut-down WHFB empire archer, after floppy-hat removal surgery.

The red is beautiful... no complaints but a helpful tip might be go for some Bluish violet and blue green? Especially in the metal parts and shadowy areas. Or different parts for instance of the suits like the trim, metallic parts can be done in a verdigris, etc. But you are also probably already doing that Also i think i see a purple shoulder pad.

Thematically, I'm thinking that the salmon color pants and stuff are just like scavenged parts of the standardized space suits of the vessel their on... that would be mixed in with various scavenged elements

Thanks guys!

@Meade: my original plan was to avoid my normal cool/warm pallete and not bring in turqoises, except maybe in eye-lenses, but I played around with it some and added some turquoisey grey accents, and it actually looks pretty cool. I'll also try some cool shadows on the warm colors (I generally like warm shadows on cool colors and vice versa). Overall I see these guys as relatively practical and cyberpunky so the metals won't be very rusted or tarnished, except I think leader's ornamental shoulder gear piece, which will be tottaly verdigris.

I was wondering if you could quickly explain your process for making those bases? I'm in the process of upsizing my SM bases from the 25mm to 32mm and I'm sick of the sand+patch of grass look. Yours look so much better!

@PiPaPo: I save all the trimmings and off-cuts from my conversions, especially the tiny little plastic bits. I started building up the bases by gluing on a mix of larger random plastic off-cuts, thin plastic-card sheets, and little chunks of cork. I also included a few other industrial style bits (press-mould from a Taurox's hood, gears from inside a fire-alarm I took apart etc). Then a few random blobs of scraped on gap filler putty to build up some height. Then I "flocked" the whole base with my smallest plastic shavings, followed by selective sprinkles of course coffee grounds, and a more overall covering of baking soda / bicarbonite of soda, which is really fine and gives a nice dusty texture and fills in gaps.

I keep comming back to this, a goddamn you never dissapoint me! Great stuff.

Thanks tarnish!

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Praecho IV is a blasted, semi-derelict hive moon. Once home to thriving ore mining, mass manufacturing, and towering spire-ports*, much of its surface is now choked with lifeless dust and rubble, punctuated by the occasional shanty-town or abandoned hab-shelter. Below the dust lie miles of forgotten and compressed hive rubble and infrastructure. Grav-tectonic forces will sometimes thrust whole chunks of this techno-strata to the surface, exposing ancient forgotten technologies and the promise of secrets from ages past. Surface-dwelling techno gangs and scavengers lay claim to these fault-zones, and can occasionally be seen working as guides for off-world visitors with their own inscrutable goals.

*the foremost of which is thought to have been under the control of Navigatorii House Alcatani.

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This will be my display-base for Adepticon as well as being a usable terrain feature. I don't have much time to spend so am working fast and rough, but having a lot of fun.

I heard adepticon and was a bit concerned, isn't that technically in March this year? Good luck to your efforts, looking forward to the results. Just seeing all of that scrap and it's interesting shapes and sizes...very excited to see what you do.

And now I realize that the shape is already assembled, but I'm sure there will be more gubbins and paint, very much looking forward to seeing the base and its denizens.

@grimdork: 40k friendly is April 1st so I don't have much time! I may not finish a lot of my favorite models in time, but I'll see what i can do.

So I think I should explain this big pile of junk a bit more. I wanted to make a display board for my Adepticon army, and my first thought was to use some of the hive terrain I started a few months ago. But after much deliberation I decided that the terrain would probably distract from my army, especially when crammed on a surface that is small enough to easily carry. And especially when I realized how huge my Lander had grown! It's basically a huge terrain feature in it's own right, so I decided to make a display base that can take a back-seat to the army and frame it in the best light.

But I also wanted to make more fun hive-world terrain, particularly something that looks much more ruined and ancient than a lot of typical Hive scenery, hence this layered slab idea. The plan is to continue bulking up the layered sides of this slab with more bits and bobs, and then cover the top of the slab with a fairly unadorned, mostly flat surface. That top surface will get textured to match my army's bases (ie small plastic trimmings, tiny cork bits, coffee grounds, baking soda), and include a few step-like levels with more underhive rubble sticking out here and there, but save most of the detailing for the edges of the slab:





That piece of foamcore on top is just to get the idea across; when I do it for real I'll cut it to match the shape of the slab, and break it into a few layers to get some different heights; the right side of the board in particular will be lower and more eroded away, revealing more hive strata beneath the dust surface.

--

I've also been busy detailing the Lander. It's hard to know when to stop but I think I can't add any more detail without going insane, and I've managed to leave a few relatively open spaces for freehand paint detail. Excuse the grainy photos, taken at the living coffee table where I've been adding rivets while watching tv.

The"Do not Eat" signs are something else, you should leave one of those unpainted !

The sedimentary rock made of ages of the hive's waste is an awesome idea to propperly frame, for lack of a better word, the display!

Agreed. "Do Not Eat" needs to somehow be a feature somewhere on the lander.

The background of your army is as cool as the terrain and models you make for it. I really love the idea of compressed, pancake layers of techno-rubble. It's like you've created future history of a far away place's post apocalypse. And then strove to create models and terrain to evoke that distant impossibility. Really awesome project.

I love this thread. Equally disturbing and fantastic. Your imagery takes me back to the origins of 40K, and the John Blanche art from Rogue Trader. Very Frank Herbert, and a even little H. R. Giger. Awesome.

Oh, and you're a fellow Peter Watts fan too!

That board looks like it'll come out nicely! I'm looking forward to seeing it complete!

Thanks so much everyone!

Maybe I can work some "nolite manducare" text into the paint job

That ship is looking beautiful.

EDC

 weirdingway wrote:
Thanks so much everyone!

Maybe I can work some "nolite manducare" text into the paint job

I assumed that meant "do not eat" in Latin, so I did an online translation which came back as "deer". I assume because only the King was allowed to hunt and eat deer.

God that lander is amazing. Perhaps some kind of compression spring ontop of the legs? So when she sets down it acts as a shock absorber? I also think several vertical antennae for the main body. I love it so much! Cant wait to see more

@Fifty: Interesting about the deer: it's been many many years since I studied Latin so I had to resort to google translate for nolite manducare.
@Lorax: compression springs on the legs would make a lot of sense and would've been a great idea, but I may be lazy and not rework anything at this point! Impractical technology is the name of the game after all.

The hive slab is coming along nicely, although its turning out a bit more complicated than I originally intended, with one side eroding away to reveal more exposed hive junk. I'm hoping lots of texture goop will tie it all together. Pics tomorrow probably.

In the meantime, I took some quick photos of my two-headed Navigator (or conjoined twin Navigators). I need to clean up detail or two and dust-weather his feet, but he's basically done. I'm really happy with how he turned out even if his suit ended up darker then I originally intended. The face is pretty blown-out in these photos; in person there's a lot more variation in the skin.

Aethertwister Praenat Yume Merz-Itano: favored child and transcendent dreamer

The two-headed navigator is amazing.

The whole thing just has an otherworldly vibe. I can almost imagine swirly things and magic portals and I can't even try to imagine him sullying himself speaking with something so coarse and vulgar as his mouth - of course he would speak directly into someone's mind. Mind you, he might not want to pollute himself with contact with inferior minds. I can imagine him instead speaking into bowl-head's mind, and bowl-head speaking out loud on his behalf. Now, would bowl-head sound like a robot, or an angel?

Incredible! I feel like you've taken John Blanche's works, and some sort of insane sculpting talent, and created something which is simply grimdark incarnate. I completely agree with Fifty, it does seem like he would need a go-between simply because.

Looking good. The Navigator turned out great.

EDC

Deeply, deeply disturbing in the best kind of way. That shade of orange works perfectly with the rest of the color scheme.
What's up next? Have you started some test runs for the new navigator's dome helmet?

Thanks so much! Love all your takes on this.

Real life demands and only 1 month until Adepticon mean I may not be able to finish the lanky Navigator, especially if I follow mu plans and do some clear resin pouring.

I'm going to try to finish the display base and the lander first, then paint the multi-headed Genetor and the baby-faced ghost navigator, and then if I have any time left I'll return to the navigator ... but that's not likely at this point!

Wow that display base looks cool, love all the nooks and crannies and all the stories that they can tell.

Can't wait to see what you come up with on a bigger canvas.

Thanks Two Spartan. I just slathered lots of texturing goop all over the base last night. Quite a mess and maybe I used too much but I think it's going to look awesome.

In the meantime, I uploaded some clearer photos of the navigator's faces that show more of the face details:

Here is the current state of the Beaconite Lodge Warriors. Really happy with them, particularly the heavy gunner, but I may not be able to finish them in time for Adepticon. First I have lots of painting to do ...

It was a crazily warm 64 degrees fahrenheit in Chicago yesterday so I took the opportunity to do some back-yard spray priming. I'm very exciting to get painting! A scratch-built model like the lander looks so different when it's primed, and I'm really happy with how the parts are now melding.

Before priming I added 3 magnets to the top of the lander that will eventually mount antennae. Magnetized and removable to make transporting this thing easier, and so they can also function as markers for how many void shields are up and running.

Everything looks so nice primed. That was always my favorite part of everything, as it makes the model uniform and you can get a sense of all the individual components. Congrats, everything is looking fantastic.

That lander looks great! The primer certainly helps make it look cohesive, rather than a pile of random junk.

Superb stuff - that lander.......absolyely cracking. Amazingthe differnce a lick of primer can make to how you see it. Great work all round, as per usual

I've always loved that part where a coat of primer suddenly takes a gaggle of different parts and turns them into a model...


Looking fantastic so far.

I knew that was going to look fantastic with paint but damn!

Chicago? Who know I lived so (relatively) close to greatness

OH MY GOD THIS IS SO COOL!

 insaniak wrote:
I've always loved that part where a coat of primer suddenly takes a gaggle of different parts and turns them into a model...

Someone - and that someone may have actually been you Insaniak - once said, "Paint covers a multitude of sins." In the lander's case, I guess those are all those freaky DO NOT EAT labels

Everything is looking superb, best of luck with the Adepticon deadline!

- Salvage

Thanks guys! I started painting the lander last night. Already wishing I hadn't included so many nooks and crannies.

@GrimDork: yes, down in Hyde Park to be precise. I take it you're in the greater chicagoland area?

Nah, I'm down in southern Illinois but when you're around here you get excited about other gamers even being 4-ish hours away

This entire project is INSANE. I absolutely love the character you've put into every model, well done, really well done.

That lander really does look fantastic, and I love the display board idea. Looking forward to seeing how this all comes together.

That's some fantastic work man. You have inspired me (inflicted madness upon me) and I have started collecting heads from random little dolls my daughter breaks. It isn't serial killery if you use them to make little man dollies!

Awesome. I can't wait to see the lander painted.

EDC

Thanks guys!

I've been painting the lander a bit each night this week and it's finally starting to come together. I've been using mostly old tube acrylics, and the basecoat color is primarily based on phtalo green. I've done all the highlighting with bits of sponge used like a drybrush. Soon I get to start the fun work of picking out details and the assorted panel in gold, brass, black, white, dark orange, and ochre. I'll do some proper masking to clean up the freehand (and add warning stripes and chevrons), then move on to my favorite part, giving the whole thing a patchy silver edge-highlight / drybrush / weathering with scraggly old brushes and foam.

Can't wait to see the weathering take shape, it's looking pretty awesome so far.

Looking really good on that lander. With something that big, and with plenty of surface space, have you considered any color modulation? I saw this technique on armorama, and have included a link below. With such a large surface area it would look fantastic. Just food for thought. Loving the lander, as I said before, it looks like Machinen Krieger to me.

http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=2006&page=2

Looks great, maybe a little subdued, I was hoping for something more like out of Jodorowsky's Dune. As you have painted it, it looks really awesome and very fitting with the rest of your army.

Looks fantastic, although as has been said, perhaps considering breaking up the large areas of one colour a bit?

That was fast, but I do feel like some more color is needed. The details such as doors and tubes and aquilas could use some metals IMO, that should break it up enough.

Beautiful work. This is probably too big of a request, but would you mind putting up a quick list of paints you've used throughout this project? Even just to know how you do that wonderful blue-green would be helpful.

John Blanche is that you?

simply gorgeous!! I dont think it needs muc more bling clout ot it all - the subdued tones really work I think. It's a lander after all. Any glitz n that would have been burned and worn off long ago. Absolutely fantistic work - cant wait to see the finished piece

Thanks so much!

@MajorTom: oh I wish. Clearly I am a big fan of his though, and I'm proud to say he even purchased one of my models!
@youidiotkid: no problem. Unfortunately I tend to mix all my colors and don't use a lot of paint straight from the pot. The blue-green on the lander is mosty tube acrylic pthalo green (yellow-hue) mixed with some space wolf grey and black paint. Then I washed it with a mix of yellow ochre, red, black, and lots of matte pigment, and then some seraphim sepia ink. In general I use a lot of the Sybarite green color, often mixed with blue or brown ink depending on how I want to tint it.
@OneManNoodles: quite right! I love Jodorowsky's Dune but decided to go for something a bit more subdued, although you'll see I am trying to push it in a more Chriss Foss direction.

I've gotten more work done on the lander. I love the Maschinen Krieger look, but wanted to bring in some more detail and Chriss Foss style. I also lightened the main green color quite a bit with a few rounds of highlights and light-colored washes; I liked the old color a lot but it made it hard to appreciate all the detail in the model.











I had some trouble with masking tape and primer that didn't stick to slick plastic, so I'll have to repaint those areas, but I'm going to incorporate that into the paint job — I want the paint to look layered and palimpsestial as much as the ship itself.

Next up I need to introduce some finer detail work to contrast with the overall painterly approach, then metal edging, rusty washes, gold, verdigris, etc. Oh and I will do the golden domes with my Hasegawa mirror foil.

--

I also finished building the display base / terrain slab. I added tons more detail, including a multi-layered semi-eroded right side that includes a lower area at the back to take the Dropship's flying stand. Then I covered everything in a mix of gesso, matte medium, coffee grounds, baking soda, plastic trimmings, and saw dust. I think next time I'll leave out the saw dust because it was too clumpy.









I wish I had more time for detail work and more careful texturing but this will have to do. Next up I'll see how it looks after lots and lots of spray-painting.

Holy Terra! This whole project is just gorgeous!

Your ship is beautiful, the navigators are just the right amoount of creepy, I love it!

Wow, amazing to see the lander finally complete and it looks incredible!

That lander looks fantastic! The new colours really make it pop. Great work!

Lander is looking really really nice! That display base is going to be amazing.

Every time I fall into an artistic slump (miniature-related or otherwise), I always check this page. You've managed to inspire me yet again.

Just look at that Lander! Look at it!

Beautiful.

EDC

Wow, that lander looks amazing, beautiful work mate .

That lander looks great with some paint on it. For that proper Chris Foss look, it'll be needing more stripes and checkerboards though.

Thanks everybody!

Got some more painting on the lander. Nota bene: Almost all of the painting was done while sitting at the living room coffee table (and watching House of Cards and the many US presidential debates), hence the messy living-room in the background of these quick snapshots.









I think I'm almost done! I decided to embrace the type of painting I most enjoy doing, which is less subdued and realistic than you'd see in military or movie prop modeling and less technical and careful than you see in most warhammer stuff. I kind of like that it looks more like a painting of a spaceship than a real spaceship, the type of hazy suggested structure you might see obscured by atmospheric perspective in the back of one of John Blanche's huge old battle paintings.

Next is hasegawa gold foil on the dome view-windows, and then some selective ink washes to bring out details. Maybe some letraset rub-on letters and shapes, and then the big question is if I do semi-opaque rusty orange wash in the recesses or let it be. I should probably start painting the terrain! And then there's the magnetized antennae arrays to do ...

Awesome! I like the Blanche-esque colours and style. Keep up the good work!

Whatever the style, looks good to me!

Dear lord, this is incredible. Out of all of the amazing details, that freehanded "MERZ" alongside the pin-striping is what really sells me on this.

I could look at that thing for hours. Totally mesmerizing!

EDC

I feel like it's 1987 all over again!

Great stuff

That lander looks very awesome.

Thanks guys! Added the gold foil last night and just need to a few final touches before taking some new photos.

@youidiotkid: Glad you like the Merz lettering! The slanted bar on the E is a graphic design history reference to Kurt Schwitters' Merz magazine logo:
http://www.dadart.com/dada-media/Schwitters-Merz-ensemble-p.jpg

That lettering also relates to a font I quickly threw together*, inspired by my Navigators and the 40k aesthetic in general, aka weird, brutal ahistorical postmodern mixing:



One of these days I'd love to draw a proper 40k inspired typeface, but for now I'm considering this the house font for my Navigators.

*I've written about parallels between graphic design and this hobby before, but this font is basically a conversion, not a "scratch-build"; I took a fairly conventual sanserif I had already drawn, and did some character swaps with anachronistic forms pulled from historical models (medieval, 19th century, and early 20th century). It's also pretty germanic in nature because I was working on it along-side a related font for a book about Berlin.

Anyway, back to models!

Some rough spray paint work on the terrain slab/base:





I'll go darker from here, but this should be a good basis. The sides will get more color and tone and the top will get shaded/highlighted but will remain the color of ash and dust.

Awesome! The base looks great! I can't wait to see it in all its grimdark glory! May I recommend scattering a few corpses around in some of the gaps and little holes, to add a bit of character?

Some really inspirational stuff in here!

The ship is stunning, but that base will put the whole thing soooooooooo far over the top it's nuts.

That's funny, I had thought the name "Merz" sounded familiar. I've only encountered Schwitters's work indirectly through Dadaist film, but I can appreciate the reference. Is there any chance that we'll get to see that font again? It might look at-home on a plaque or a stencil somehow integrated into that display slab (then again, you don't want to make the board too crowded with details).
I might be getting a little bit too excited about seeing the finished lander, so please update soon!

That dropship is beautiful.

Truly amazing stuff.

I love how the boards coming along, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how you paint this up.

Thanks guys!

@youidiotkid: at the very least the font will find on a home on my army list print outs!

I've started painting the board in earnest! I have no time at all so I'm working fast and messy, but I kind of love it. Very, very fun to do in any case.









That's mostly done with phtalo green tube paint thinned out with liquitex flow aid (and water and matte medium). I really love the flow-aid and it's perfect for terrain like this. I think tonight I'll go over most of the base with a rusty wash, then move on to sponging and chipping and other accents.

And here is the completed Landing Pavilion (barring any eventual aerials and other minor details if I have time):

Fantastic, I can not wait to see this all together. Many Kudos in advance!

I was right about the paint making this thing stand out, excellent start.

Awesome! That paint job really ties the board together. I look forward to seeing the entire thing painted!

Thanks!

Added a lot more color accents last night. So fun to do. The real display will have lots more figures on it, but that gives you a sense of the range of the colors in the army:





But I'm not sure what to do next. I'd love your advice. The top and other horizontal surfaces will be painted to match the bases, and I'll add some more rusty washes, which should look something like this:



But I could also go further and wash everything with more turqoise, or brown, orange, or even black. Any opinions on which approach would look best?

I think the black test looks the best of all of them. Really highlights the minis on top and gets that gritty sort of baroque feel that fits your models to a T. The brown would be my secondary choice (a very close secondary)- Darkens the sides to bring attention to the top of the board.


Really excited to see this army in person... Ill have to find you over that weekend and check it out!

The first one looks too washed out. The second and third are both good. I think the second one is more striking. The third one is too similar in colour to the lander.

Phenomenal stuff. I like the orange or the brown most myself. Orange most i guess. Gives a nice bright rusty look to it

Personally I'd go for the orange, it definitely lends more to that red 'martian' feel. It also fits more with the disused and boken feel of 40k.

Amazing space! The weathering is absolutely gorgeous

I like how the orange looks, but it might draw attention away from the models on the display. I would go for either the second or the fourth option, although I'm leaning more towards the second.

I would vote for either the brown or black, although black has my preference.

Thanks for all the feedback. Here and on ammobunker opinions were mixed, so I ended up doing a series of different color washes and blotches. I may still darken everything with a final black glaze, but for now I am liking the result. You can see I've also started painting the dusty top surface, but it will need at least another wash:



It's so hard to photograph (and paint!) this thing because it's too big for my desk lights.

PS: I love Japanese kitbash modelers and have been really inspired by their approach to both building and painting. I just started following Katoya on twitter and they post the most amazing stuff: https://twitter.com/katoya01

Everything is looking phenomenal so far. That display board just oozes character!

words cannot express the awesomeness of these models, so have a

Thanks!

So much painting! I keep thinking I'm close and then I find a dozen more small details that need to be done and things to be repaired and tweaked ... but I should be able to finish tonight. Just in time for the 40k Friendly tomorrow, and an exciting Inquisimunda game on Saturday against Meade!

I'll post more pictures after the weekend, both from games and featuring some newly painted models I'm very excited about, including Aetherseer Larua Kodom Merz-Itano (Augur Regent and Prognosticantress) and Beaconite Lodge Warrior Laika.

In the meantime, here is the (mostly) completed Doctor Genetor Paracelsus Takwin and his Nurse-Acolyte:





I debated how to paint these for a long time. Play up the medical aspect and paint them in surgical gown and srub colors? Would've looked awesome but very similar to my Navigators. Ultimately I decided to make them stand out as Mechanicus agents within the larger army, and tried a new approach (for me), removing cool colors and shades and going for a a classical Blanchitsu homage. Looking at these pictures I made add some selective hits of black ink for improve contrast, and perhaps shade the optics with either orange or yellowy green ...

ALso, I had lots of fun making some magnetized antennae arrays for the top of the lander. Only halfway painted:

Your paintjobs are, as always, spectacular

The group shots in the display base look amazing!

EDC

Awesome new addition. Looking forward to seeing them all on the base.

Thanks for all the nice comments!

Unfortunately I ended up not making it to the Adepticon 40k Friendly at all. My dog got really sick and I spent most of the weekend at the animal hospital with him before we had to put him down on Monday. He was an old guy who had a good life but he will be sorely missed.

Obviously it was disappointing not getting to attend the Friendly after all the work I put into the army, but I did manage to make it to Adepticon on Saturday night to play a really fun Inquisimunda game with Meade. More to come on that front including lots of photos.

And I will eventually get a good photo of the army on the display base, but now that I have the time will make a few final adjustments.

Very sorry to hear, WW. My condolences. The furry friends always leave us too soon.

Quite a shame to hear of the circumstances, The added bonus (if you consider it a bonus) is you have more time to work on it for the next event you could unveil them at.

My deepest condolences on the loss of your dog, my friend. I totally understand your priorities.

I'm so sorry to hear about your dog. I've lost a few over the years and it's never easy nor are they ever forgotten.

Condolences about your dog. Losing pets is never easy.

EDC

I'm terribly sorry to hear about your friend, I understand what it's like to lose a loyal mate.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate that.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your four legged pal, as a dog parent myself I'd be absolutely crushed.

Maybe you could model a tribute pooch to join the Navigator Household?

Thanks foostick. As a matter of fact I actually sculpted a model of my dog as a gift for my wife years ago. Not quite 28mm scale but still very tiny. In memoriam:


OK, back on topic. I just signed up for a Necromunda campaign that's starting here in Chicago! I'm very excited and will be running the Tech Gang. Photos to come soon. But as my thoughts turn to Necromunda I can't stop thinking about terrain.

I like thinking of the underhive as a ruined, kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland; not just abandoned industrial facilities or crumbling cities, but the collapsing ancient innards of thousands of years and miles of spire and hive above. One of my favorite parts of post-apocalypse settings is the way survivors build new civizilations out of the leftover scrap, something that you see on Shibolleth's tiles for example.

Anyway, if I had time I'd love to build a bunch of terrain that represents partially collapsed chunks of hive infrastructure, huge industrial towers jutting out of the hab-floor at crazy angles, covered with ramshackle platforms and shanties built on top of them. That combined with more features that seem like they were cobbled together by underhivers on top of (and out of) decayed tech could make for a fun table. So here are some very rough doodles of things I will never have time to build but would love to make:



In terms of models, I built my gang with a few magnetic mounting points to allow me to upgrade them throughout a campaign. But I need some more weapon options so have started putting together more kitbashed guns. I actually built a very cool plasma gun before but it was too small and I seem to have lost it, so here is a new even smaller (and less standard) version, as well as a heavy bolter, start of a flamer, and either a larger plasam pistol or a full on plasma gun:



And I finally got my hands on the amazing Deathwatch Genestealer Cult miniatures. Such great designs with so many wonderful details. And they are tiny! I forgot how much taller my tech gang is (a byproduct of my proportion tweaks), so the hybrids may need some reconstruction. And most of my navigators are even bigger, so it should be a fun challenge to integrate the new bits.

Here's a very quick concept for a tech gang juve (taking advantage of the smallness of the 3rd/4th gen. hybrid to make a youth):


And a crazier option for some type of hulking tek brute, maybe a new ganger to recruit or a possible upgrade to replace a model who get lots of stat increases:

(his feet would of course be replaced with bionics).

I really like your terrain ideas and doodles. Would you mind if I tried my hand at making one or two of those pieces? I'll credit you with the inspiration.

Not at all! I probably won't get around to realizing the terrain ideas so I'd especially love to see someone else do it.

 weirdingway wrote:
Not at all! I probably won't get around to realizing the terrain ideas so I'd especially love to see someone else do it.

Awesome, thank you.

Necromunda was very fun, although I forgot how terrible I am at any game I play. Between bad tactics and worse luck my gang is off to a rough start. After two games I already have 3 old battle wounds! Guess all of my tech gangers' elective bionics are prone to malfunctioning. Poor territories aren't helping either, but it's just the start of the campaign of course.

WS upgrades on 3 models may mean some model swapping and a definite drafting of the tech-brute model as a skilled hth ganger.

But playing the game made me really excited about building terrain, so a couple of late nights over the weekend resulted in a start of a leaning tower (as well as 2 smaller pieces yet to be photographed) meant to look like a fallen chunk of ancient hive infrastructure. Inspired, as always, by Antonio Sant'Elia, Lebbeus Woods, and Richard Diebenkorn.

Making terrain is so fun! Texture, detail, and eventually retrofitted platforms and support struts will be next. But I'm going to try to balance brutal featureless surfaces with moments of detail rather than an overall coat of greeble.

Really excited to see what you can come up with for Necromunda Terrain. Loving the shape already.

Very sorry to hear about your dog.

Oooh, that looks interesting... can't wait to see what you do!

You've totally inspired me to try something in this build style. Your work is extraordinary.

Amazing! Just went through this thread on the edge of my seat

Thanks guys!

--

It's been a while. I've been really busy with "real-life" responsibilities, but I do have some exciting updates.

I've been working a lot on the Necromunda terrain, and am aiming to have a few big pieces completed in the next month or so. Pictures soon. The Volt Oxides, my tech gang, have managed to do pretty terribly so far in the campaign (4 losses, no wins!) but are starting to rack up lots of advances to due to under-dog experience bonuses. My leader now has a WS of 6 so I may switch models and use this brute as the leader:



---

I'm also thrilled to announce I've joined Ex Profundis!

I'll be posting various projects and articles over there, and I'm honored to have my Navigators be featured alongside such wonderful models. I think it's a great fit with my views on the setting and hobby and I'm excited about the possibilities. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here are some out-takes from my first post at Ex Profundis, a showcase of the newest completed members of my household, two new(er) Navigators and some of their bizarre attendants. You've seen these models at various points before (but for the most part before they were completed) but this is the first time I've really managed to photograph them in a way that captures all the details.











Check out Ex Profundis for lots more photos and background (and a Beaconite Lodge Warrior!).

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I've got a few other things half-started but most of it isn't ready to share yet. Mostly I've been having fun exploring uses for the amazing Deathwatch GS hybrid models. Great off-the-rack, but like the Skitarrii before, wonderful material for conversion. It's been a while since I made a simple henchman, and it's always important to contrast the outlandish freaks with more grounded models, so here's the start of a simple kitbash. I've been wanting to use that upside-down space marine torso for a while. Not sure how he'll end up but I'm currently considering a leopard cloak and either a shield or battering ram arm ...



Finally, I've been drawing more lately. Theoretically this is a way to explore ideas when I don't have time to sit down with models, but more often than not it just gives me ideas for more models to build instead of getting it out my system. Here's a doodle that turned into a youthful Navigator :

Cool start with the deathwatch minis, looking forward to see what you do with them all.

EDC

It's great to see those models completed, and I'm excited for what's coming on Ex Profundis.

I absolutely love the new cultist models. I wish GW would make a proper, multi-pose plastic kit for generic cultists that could be used for multiple armies.

I can't wait to see what you do with them!

Sweet Emperor, this is beautiful!
Truly artistic and creative bizarre content. Subbed and exalted!

Thanks so much!

--

I'm almost done with the hive tower. Basically just need to add some rivets and textures using my standard mix of gesso, baking soda, coffee grounds, and plastic trimmings.





I had a lot of fun adding platforms and ladders, thinking about how this will work as an actual game piece. Lots of potential for fire-fights around corners, and tactical decisions about which paths to take.

I love that random stick you've got going all the way up one side there and out the top. It also looks like some fun terrain to play over, I remember that Necromunda was always great to play, mainly due to the terrain, especially when characters accidentally fell off.

Thanks! I've already had my share of models fall and receive serious injuries, so have actually included a railing or two on the tower

I added some texture last night and documented the process:



I've been using combinations of coffee grounds, baking soda, and the plastic trimmings I save from when I clean off my cutting boards. I do a lot of fine trimming and shaving of bits so I tend to have a lot of trimmings saved up.

I've been trying different ways of applying the texture and last night I started by dabbing white glue in areas where it would make sense for detritus to collect, thinking vaguely about underhive weather including not only dust-storms and acid rain but junk-hail and scrap-deluges. So in this case mostly on horizontal surfaces, unevenly distributed:





And on a simple industrial style walk-way I made out of left-over illustration board:



Then I mixed up a slurry of gesso, white glue, coffee grounds, and baking soda (normally I include matte medium instead of glue but I couldn't get the bottle open and gave up):



And then applied this heavily on the lower parts of the tower and the undersides of platforms:





And then finally I used a piece of spongey foam to dab it around everywhere to try to tie the different textures together.



In the past I've used more baking soda in the mix which makes the paste puff up and expand, and then shrink down when it dries, causing a very cool rusty texture that looks a lot like a coral reef. But for this terrain I wanted things to be a bit less corroded so used less baking soda and tried to keep some surfaces clean. It's very tempting to cover everything in sludge! Now to see how this will look when primed ...

Prime it now!

fantastic build. this is going to look the bomb when all finished and painted up in that unique weirding way

This hive tower is a pure work of art, excited to see how it turns out once painted up....

Thanks for sharing your texturing process. Coffee grounds and baking soda, eh? That's a very interesting idea. I do have a coffee grinder with variable grind... hmm, opportunities.

Looks fantastic already.

EDC

Awesome! Truly. Fantastic stuff. Thanks for sharing your gunk slurry method, got a ruined factory coming up that will appreciate it!

We're not worthy!

That plastic trimmings idea is genius, I'm gonna have to start doing that!

Tower looks really amazing, very awating for color version!

I know it's been a while since the last post but I had to comment on this thread. I hadn't really visited this thread in a few years but I just went through every page since my last post and wow. This army is inspirational. You've captured that perfect blend of Gothic surrealism and early science fiction in a brilliant combination of creepy, whimsical wonder. The conversions are top notch and every single character has a ton of...well, character!

I would really like to know where this army has gone since your last post! I certainly hope you haven't abandoned it, because I really want to see more stuff!

Seconded, and thirded, and however many times is socially acceptable to recommend something

This is one of the armies that drew me back to 40k and I owe it a debt of gratitude! Such an awesome army in concept and execution

Would also love to hear what's going on hopefully there's more!

Thanks so much guys! I've been lax in updating this blog — i've been posted more over at the ammobunker inq28 section, with the occasional post at Ex Profundis.

First off, some in-battle shots of the hive tower from a game a few months ago. Very quickly painted for that game and I really need to go back and finish it off.





My big project since the last update here was a warband from a new Navigator house that I built for an Inquisimunda game in california, The Curse of the Alabaster. You can see more about that at The Ammobunker.

Here are some casualties from my gang with a lovely game card put together by the game's host, Shibboleth, featuring a John Blanche illustration.


And the warband's leader, Navimancer Thanerrat Akuhm.


More detailed pics to come soon!

I also built a huge terrain piece, a crashed chunk of a cursed ship, fused into a hive worlds depths:




(I added more weathering and shading after those photos. I'll have to post better shots of the finished ship.
Lately I've started a few new Navigator household models. A new sculpted navigator head:



And a combat drone and handler:

I have seen a lot of your posts on FB and have to say you really have inspired me to do my own builds, that and collect every empty container bottle lid in the house hold lol

Anyway great to see you back with your strange and twisted creativity as always nice to see you push the boundaries of our minds.

Your mad skills never cease to terrify. Wait, I mean impress.

...
Also terrify

Awesome as always. Here I am, jealous of your trimmings. I should trim more stuff. : )


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And have I mentioned that I really like the overall color "feel" you get with your painting style? Reminds me of some of my favorite sci-fi old school oil paintings. (But not Blanche, actually - better).

Crashed ship is first class, so impressed whenever you post updates

Loving the subtle conversion on the handler's arms/gun. I think I have all the components to build the legs of your drone too, I might see if I can reverse engineer my own!

Wow! That crashed spaceship almost warrants a thread of its own, and you seemingly just threw it together?

The drone and especially the handler look great. Only question is if the drone isn´t a bit lightly armed?

More pics of the tower and spaceship please

Love this thread! That crashed spaceship is just bonkers, well done sir!

EDC

I'll second (third? fourth?) the praise for the crashed spaceship fantastic piece of work!

Also, I'm really liking the new Navigator Household. Feels like you're expanding a little further into the whole 'ancient cosmonaut gear as sacred relics' idea which is one of my favourite that you've come up with

Can't wait to see more!

Is it just me, or are none of the pics showing anymore?

They're appearing for me. I've had that happen before and it turnout out to be a browser issue my end. Try it on a different device if you can

Thanks!

Looks like photobucket went down yesterday, but it seems to be working now, so I hope the images are showing up for you now @Malika2.

The shape ship was a big project and took a lot of work. Some things that helped put it together fairly quickly were basing everything around a repeating shape, in this case an rectangular prism with one corner sheared off at a 45° angle — based on the octagonal hallway structure I new I wanted to use so I could stand models up on flat surfaces despite the ship being pitched at an angle. I used a lot of 45° corner cuts on the surface greeble to tie everything together. The other big breakthrough was I discovered I could take apart old 3.5" floppy drives, and use the inside surface as surface greeble. And even better, it turns out, those disc cases are made form plastic thats soft enough to cut easily with a knife.

Here are some wips. First, the basic structure, made mostly from foamcore and illustration board:



[URL=http://s1370.photobucket.com/user/weirdingway1/media/spacecrash_zpstyveo4fo.jpg.html]
[/URL]

Greeble explosion! Here you can see how many floppy discs I used, along with plastic card, and assorted other bits (many of them kindly donated by Shibboleth).


And the painted ship, minus oil weathering/shading and charcoal burn marks:





And some in-game shots featuring Shibboleth's amazing Sump terrain and many beautiful models by other players (:





These last two spoilered for size

Wow, that swamp slum village looks amazing. You should really start doing some battle reports from those gaming sessions. Once again, the ship is incredible, and insane that you just knocked it out.

Wow, that's a lot of greeble. You did a great job bringing that huge thing to the level of detail of the rest of the terrain. I especially like the little airlock on the side.

Thanks for the WIP pics of this amazing creation I wouldn't know where on earth to start with something like that, but knowing it's mostly made up of floppy disks is just the insight people need to realise they might just be able to make something cool too

Once again, it looks stunning!

Thanks guys! To be clear, I only made the white spaceship; all the amazing swamp and hive terrain is by Shibboleth.

If you want to read more about the Alabaster event and games, check out: http://s3.zetaboards.com/The_Ammobunker/topic/9000321/1/

Between the Bolter and Me also have a great set of battle reports:
http://betweenthebolterandme.blogspot.com/2016/11/curse-of-alabaster-game-1b-secure.html
http://betweenthebolterandme.blogspot.com/2016/11/curse-of-alabaster-game-2.html

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And, if you're interested in Inquisimunda battle reports, I've got one more to plug! Last year at Adepticon I played a great game with Meade and a fancy battle report of the game is now up at Ex Profundis.

I really love the look and feel of both your conversions and your terrain. I can't heap enough praise on you, honestly. Great stuff, always inspiring.

Every bit is awesome. That ship is magnificently monolithic.

Agreed with all the praise for Shibboleth's rusty city too. Great terrain all round

Also, it's really cool to see your Ad Mech gang all in one place. They manage to look both ragtag and unified, which is perfect for a small squad of tech-augmented mercenaries

Thanks!

So lately I must admit I have been focusing on Aos28, but I have not forgotten about Inq28! I'm going to try to finish the Ambassador Navigator and a second walking drone (this one is turning out very Boston Dynamics) in time for Adepticon. Famous last words. I've also started to repaint the old archeo-slab display board and I'm liking it much more now. I'm even considering repainting the bases on all my old Navigators. Pics of all that soon.

But in the meantime, I finally took photos of my House Akuhm project, the warband I built for the Alabaster game:





You can see lots more (and some background text) over at Ex Profundis.

Which events are you rocking at Adepticon? I want to check some of these dudes out in real life.

Nice! I'll be playing Inquisimunda on Thursday and then doing the 40k Friendly on Friday.

Sweet, I'll try to find you and say hi. I'm doing the 40k doubles and Titan events, and just hanging around the rest of the time.

I've just recently read through the battle reports for these guys on the INQ28 forums

I must say, I'm enamoured with your Void-farer chappy with the weird head-mounted jetpack thing. Brilliant piece of oddness

I also like the Dune reference of your chap on the far left with his 'ritualised knife fights', and I'm a sucked for alternative Guard cultures so the guy on the far right is right up my street

Amazing models as always weirdingway.

Do you have a link to those battle reports Ynneadwraith?

I got to meet weirdingway by chance at AdeptiCon, and man was his stuff incredible!! I saw it about to go to a paint judging table and got to talk to him for several minutes about it, and he's a really cool and humble guy to talk to, too. Here's the quick pic I took:



I'll totally be following you here, and would love to check out the Inq28 forum you mentioned, too! Well done counts-as is my favorite thing about this hobby

Cool! I know 'never meet your heroes' is the idiom, but for 40k I've never known that to be the case

The batreps are here: http://s3.zetaboards.com/The_Ammobunker/topic/9000321/1/ , I think they start around page 12 or so but the buildup prep is amazing and well worth reading through too

Loads of great work on that forum as well

Excellent, thanks I'll check it out!

Hey RiTides, it was great meeting you! I didn't put it together that you were the RiTides I've read on Dakka (love your ModCube project) -- at conventions we should all walk around with pictures of our username and avatar on our chests. Also thanks for sharing that photo of the army — I somehow forgot to actually take any good ones of them all set up.

And thanks for sharing those links Ynnedwraith.

I managed to build and paint 3 new Akuhm models (the Drone Operator, the stilt-legged drone, and a dog drone I haven't posted yet) in time for Adepticon:







Empire of Ghosts ran an official Inquisimunda tournament/campaign, the first of it's kind at Adepticon, and it was tons of fun. We played 3 games with post-battle advances in between each one (not including any territory or income), and there were maybe 12 players in attendance? It went really well and it was so fun meeting other Inquisimunda players. I wanted to use all my new models so brought a large gang of mostly juve-level fighters, and this had the unintended consequence of helping me win games (the secret to Necromunda is of course to have more bodies on the field because pinning matters so much, and having armor, toughness, or extra wounds doesn't stop that) and I ended up "winning" the event. I was too busy playing to get good photos, but will try to post some later.

After a day of structured Inquisimunda I met up with Rob / Meade (also of Ex Profundis) and Vince / Dark Tech and we played a looser more improvised Inquisimunda game. We basically wanted to use as many models as we could and came up with a fun scenario where my Merz-Itano Navigators had gone warp-mad after being marooned on a crumbling Hive World, and were starting to tear a whole in real space and causing massive psychic distortions. This attracted the attention of a powerful inquisitor, a mutated Tzeentch cult, and a Navigator from House Akuhm. But the native mutant inhabitants of the planet had other ideas ...

You can see tons of photos of this game at Ex Profundis, including a sneak preview of Rob's new Inquisitor warband.















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I also played in the 40k Friendly, which was very fun. I was worried about playing "real" wh40k but it went well, largely because I made myself cheat-sheets with all of my unit and weapon profiles and kept the army list very simple. As much as I love skirmish wargaming getting to use so many models at once, particularly the big stompy robots was very satisfying. Everybody was very friendly and the event was run well. And I was fortunate enough to win best painting/appearance, which was great! It was tough competition, with second place going to a beautiful death guard army by The Lonely Havocs (https://twitter.com/3dgreg/status/845444204511854592) oddly enough also mostly white and yellowy greens. Too bad we didn't get to play each other, our armies would've looked great together.

Here is another shot of the army, a joint conclave of Houses Merz-Itano and Akuhm. This photo courtesy of the wonderful and super nice Greggles / Greg:

Looks like a lot of fun! What was your army list? I'm curious to see what counts as what with all those awesome conversions.

The friendly tournament didn't allow allies so I went with a simple Grey Knights list:

Big headed navigator on throne: ML3 GK Librarian w/ book that gives an extra Santic power. This was an attempt to cast gate of infinity and vortex, together representing a Navigator's powers.

Two headed navigator: GK Librarian

Large-based multi-color freaks: GK Terminator Squad

Large-based white+orange Navigator, Drones, and Ogryn: GK Terminator Squad (Ogryn had a hammer)

Small-based white+orange henchmen: strike squad

Big robot: Dreadknight w/ psycannon, sword, teleporter, incinerator (mini missle launcher firing itano circus style)

Smaller robot / Navis Abominus: Dreadnought w/ heavy flamers (simulating a warp-eye gaze)

Flyer: Stormraven

Lander: Void Shield generator. Built to match the rough size of the model, it even includes 3 magnetized antennae to help me remember how many shields are up.

Fantastic army and great ideas for repping.

Awesome pics dude!

EDC

As always, fantastic. Your army looks great and that tower is simply marvelous.

Man, I know giant scratchbuilt terrain projects, and this crashed ship is among the most amazing projects I've seen! Well done!

Hi everybody,

It's been a long time. I'm sorry I've abandoned this blog; when photobucket went down and I lost most of the images in my thread it was just too disheartening, and so much hobby content has migrated over to instagram.

But in case any people who enjoyed this thread are still reading, I'd just like to let you know that I'm auctioning off my unit of mercenary Space Marines for charity! I've never sold any of my painted models before, only done 3 conversion commissions for friends, so this is a rare opportunity.

All proceeds will go to the National Bail Fund's emergency fund:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/114250926297

Just stumbled on a picture of your Navigator army on dakka frontpage.. First time I see your work, and what you have accomplished is beyond phenomenal! Your conversions are the stuff dreams are made of. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours, thanks for sharing your work

Indeed, very cool to see this thread resurface. Everything in here is amazeballs.

In case there is anyone still reading this long-abandoned thread, I've got some news to share! A few years ago I started sculpting some large scale busts of Navigator ancestors. I was going to cast some up to build a table of terrain for an Inquisimunda game at Adepticon (representing 28mm monumental statues). Then of course the pandemic arrived and Adepticon was cancelled.

With that time-pressure gone, I went back to the sculptures and refined some of them further, adding enough detail to make them work as large scale busts, not just as "statue" terrain. And now I've got a proper resin casting set-up, and have produced some high quality reproductions of the busts. They're now for sale at my shop!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WeirdingWayMinis





So if you ever wanted to own some of my work, here's a chance. I do have some actual 28mm scale wargaming appropriate figures under way, but it may be some time until I have them complete and cast.

Thanks! — Weirdingway

Well, good to see you're still around and still... Weird.

Exciting news!

I'm not really in the market for Navigator Busts (Arbites are my obscure faction of choice) but 28mm minis sounds exciting!