I have noticed that there appears to be a different crowd that hangs around this area of DDakka, and thought it would be good to get some different views/opinions on my work.
My background in modelling goes back to the '80s with plastic model kits (such as Airfix) and did not include tabletop miniatures until 2012. Since then I have learnt a great deal about all areas of model-making and here I shall present the results of my hobby work.
I will start at the end, and with the latest model I have finished. This should give you a good idea of what to expect from this showcase. Although you may have to check my main P&M blog for explanations of why I do what I do.
I present to you, T-01, a modified Predator for my own army:
I also paint models to sell: Dark Angels Tactical squad Raphael;
Dark Angels Terminator squad Barachiel;
Spoiler:
Dark Angels Ravenwing Squad Arion:
Spoiler:
Sergeant Arion:
Unnamed biker number 1:
Unnamed biker number 2:
Dark Angels Librarian Turmiel;
Dark Angels Company Master Balthasar;
Chaos Chosen;
Spoiler:
The Cultists of Sect Tetchvar
Spoiler:
Cultists of Sect Anarkus;
Spoiler:
Kranon the Relentless; ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And I'll finish this first post with some terrain (both made for competitions here on DDakka); A junk pile (made from household junk);
And a wooden hut (made mostly from sprue);
Spoiler:
Thank you for your time. Comments, Critiques, thoughts, ideas and Votes are all welcome. I will add more things to this thread as I come to finishing them.
I am loving a lot of this stuff, I really like what you did with the Guardians they have so much more Character than they do in the stock poses and setup... I've always felt they made Eldar seem so plain and boring in comparison to some of the others kits, though that's probably because they came out fairly early on in this edition.
Cult of Slaanesh wrote: I am loving a lot of this stuff, I really like what you did with the Guardians they have so much more Character than they do in the stock poses and setup... I've always felt they made Eldar seem so plain and boring in comparison to some of the others kits, though that's probably because they came out fairly early on in this edition.
Thanks. Yeah, I didn't like how the Eldar models were all so static. Especially as you read about them being athletic etc. and then the models are all standing still with their legs WIDE apart.
Those two are both fairly simple conversions too. The sniper only had the inside of the right leg sawn out and then it was bent down to be straight. Filled the gaps, smoothed it over and that was it.
The other chap is also only a one leg modification. But a bit more involved; the knee was chopped into 3 and the back of the calf was carved out to make the leg bend more natural at the knee. The hip was modified slightly and the foot was removed and replaced with less heel and the top of the foot was filled in to make it point more. I also straightened the shin of that leg (as they are all so heavily bent on the models) by chopping two slits into the front and then gluing wedges (of sprue) into them to get a straight leg.
queen_annes_revenge wrote: Love that wave serpent.. The pin up in the crew cab. Love the idea of totally dispensing the fluff and goin crazy.
Thanks. Yeah, I'm a collector and modeller and didn't fancy painting the same colour, over and over, and so decided to build and paint each model differently. I did, however, make up some fluff to "explain" it, which brings me to...
Is there a story behind it?
The WS in particular or the whole army? All the army fluff that I've posted (there is more that is written but I've not built the models to match them yet) is collected together in this thread. The short short version is a scientist is driven mad by an experiment to absorb the knowledge of the population of a planet (everyone but him dies in the process), he then decides that the order created by civilisations is going to destroy the universe and he must rectify the balance by creating more chaos (or increasing Entropy, hence the name; The Army of the Second Law, after the second law of thermodynamics). The army he builds to spread chaos is therefore, chaotic (and I can build anything I like ).
I didn't actually write any specific fluff for the WS. But I see it as a crashed/damaged/abandoned vehicle that The (Mad) Scientist has acquired and then repaired and "improved". He replaced the engines, for example and gave it some aerodynamic tweaks (I didn't like how the nose was cut off). The troops are then left to decorate the vehicle, some are more accomplished artists than others.
Oh yeah, i remember reading that in the blogs a while back.. Gotta admit i wasnt massively digging the story, but i do like the work on that ws haha. Looks sweet.
Ha, that's all right. I don't take my fluff very seriously. It's there so I can have something to tell people when they ask why my models are all painted differently. Thanks again.
While these are actually made of metal, in spite of the subject title of this thread, I have just finished painting some Hobbits.
These are obviously not for my army and will be for sale soon.
This is the latest addition to my personal army.
Put together from some loose bits I had out to try something else with and was only left with an arm short.
And my first Kabalite warrior (I'm going though all the new boxes I acquired while building the tank, so there's quite a few "firsts" at the moment)...
Thoughts, comments, critiques, votes, etc... are all welcome for any of my work.
This is the Mechanic (to be used as a Techmarine equivalent), that I made mostly from scrap.
The legs I made ages ago from spare putty parts and sprue, I then had to find a use for the legs and started adding arms... and more arms...
Mostly made from scraps of sprue and plasticard. See if you can spot the few (7 in total) actual GW model parts...
Dark Eldar Warrior: Great job on the highlighting. I always struggle on getting those fine lines, but they really make the armor pop.
Mechanic: Nice conversion! Very creative with lots of interesting bits and details picked out. I like the weathering, though I wish there was a little more dust and grime on the model.
Firewarrior: Simple, straight-forward painting. I've never been a big fan of the desert Tau scheme, but to each their own. Good job on the symbols on the gun.
Dark Eldar Warrior: Great job on the highlighting. I always struggle on getting those fine lines, but they really make the armor pop.
Thanks. I went back and fourth with those highlights 3 or 4 times, trying to get the colour right and then tidy them up (Painting the base colour up to the highlight can sharpen them up nicely).
I have a new found respect for anyone that paints a whole army like that.
Mechanic: Nice conversion! Very creative with lots of interesting bits and details picked out. I like the weathering, though I wish there was a little more dust and grime on the model.
Thanks. Considering the way he was built (in two stages, mostly from scraps), he turned out really well.
As he is slow moving, I decided not to get him too dirty. As opposed to the tank at the very start of this thread, and even then I don't want to go too dirty with my models.
Firewarrior: Simple, straight-forward painting. I've never been a big fan of the desert Tau scheme, but to each their own. Good job on the symbols on the gun.
Thanks. Yeah, it's not the most exciting of schemes. I aim for at least one of each model/race/scheme in my army, so he is the one T'au scheme model.
The symbols on the gun are only a transfer. Had there not been one to fit, then I would have had to paint something.
Keep them coming man!
Will do.
Actually, I can show the model I painted for this year's Nerdcademy award painting competition:
The theme was grey-scale with one spot colour (vis. Sin City).
As a basic Necron warrior is pretty boring to look at in isolation I've also got a Space Marine to show.
Slight re-posing so that he looks like he's on the correct sized base (and not one that looks too small), and that he is aiming at something (and not just hanging about, staring blankly into the distance).
And this is a Mantis Warrior I've recently finished for Gitsplitta's Mantis Maker Competition.
I have recently finished this as an experiment in magnetising, how much my style of customising is worth, and how long this sort of job will take.
Starting from the Dark Vengeance Helbrute and making a Chaos Dreadnought/Helbrute with all the options.
Spot the additions/changes...
Calibanite Lion wrote:Some cool stuff, the vehicles are great, the wave serpent, the predator and the mechanic! The circuitry on the wave serpent looks good.
Thanks for the comment Calibanite Lion. Glad you see so much you like.
The circuitry was as an alternative to the Wave Serpent spines.
This is my latest set of models to be up for sale.
I received these from my friend to fix up and paint before selling them on.
They needed to have their arms, a lot of excess glue, and all the mould lines and sprue tags removed before I re-built them and painted them.
Due to a lot of surface damage already on them, I decided to paint them with (and add some more) battle damage.
The bases are scratch-built.
The arms were re-posed (I couldn't really do anything about their legs or waists due to time constraints) and I made a light/camera fixture for the Assault cannon bearer.
Well done on finishing the building, it looks awesome.
I can't help but feel the metal container on the side of the building could do with a bit of oxidation or at least dust or grime, I know you have done some on the top, but it could do with a bit on the sides, maybe some streaking. a slanted roof might indicate a not too arid climate.
still a fantastic build that I really enjoyed following in your blog
Thanks OMN.
I wanted to keep the outside tank as aluminium (just for a change to all the rusty steel that we see in models, and it is actually made of aluminium), and as such it wouldn't oxidise (actually, the surface of aluminium is a layer of the oxide, but it's so tough a layer that the metal doesn't corrode like Iron does) has had washes of black and the supports were painted as steel with "rust" washes, but being actually metal very little stuck to the tank (and would probably wear off if I painted more on and then look odd).
True on the roof. Maybe we could say that there are many dust storms and you don't want that building up on the roof either...
Thanks for the feedback.
O'connell wrote:Awesome work bro! Why is there an ork and a tyranid in the predator?
Ah well, that is due to my "army's" fluff (treating the term "army" in the loosest possible way). You can read more about it in my (Mad) Scientist thread, or my fluff thread (see my signature below for links), but the short version is a mad scientist brainwashing and reanimating the dead bodies of all the races to create a truly chaotic army that will fight against the spread of order in the universe...
In reality, that is just an excuse for me to do what I like with the models I have.
Thanks FoxPhoenix135. I hope it will be (fun to play), I haven't actually got around to playing the game yet, too busy building the army (and doing commission builds).
This is an objective marker I made to make use of the marine-in-a-bag that was originally going to go on my Predator tank (but there was not enough space).
Thanks Kestral. Only problem with the jet bike is that I have to match (or better) it with all future bikes...
Thanks Niatona. Yep, that was the idea. While taking wip shots I found that that kind of lighting was pretty cool, so had to do it for the final photos.
Thanks Singleton Mosby. Glad you enjoy my work. There will always be more to do.
Something a bit different this time (this is the "random things I do with plastic" after all), a 1:48 scale model from Airfix.
This is a Westland Lynx HMA8 in it's folded configuration.
I made a few minor additions to the kit, but this is largely unaltered.
This model was salvaged from a Tau Firewarrior that I acquired covered in a thick layer of paint and solidly glued together.
As I only had the single model to work with, and intended to sell him, there was little point in just painting him nicely as who is going to buy a single Firewarrior?! However, a single Ethereal is worth doing.
Without changing the base model (keeping all attached limbs etc.) I added some robes and a naginata-like weapon, and added a lick of paint... one Ethereal.
OneManNoodles wrote: I think the closest I got to paint on my earlier model kits was glue, lots of glue!
Ah well, my models got more paint than that. But they only got the paint that was noted in the instructions. no shading, highlighting, blending, weathering, etc. If something was labelled "Dark gull grey" or whatever, that's all it got. The lynx got the full works.
Very nice Ethereal, really nice painting on the cape and the face looks exceptional.
Thanks Mordian'.
No, it's a kit.
Look for the Kenbishi Heavy Industries HAW206 Prototype.
I have the 1:35 kit from here: https://hlj.com/product/KBYKP-259
And I've just finished the pilot to go with the tank.
This is actually a szalamandra pilot from Infinity that I've painted to match the tank's scheme.
and I can actually show the cockpit of the tank that I didn't show previously.
And another piece of terrain. This time it's for the current League of Extraordinary Riveters terrain contest (check it out if you like terrain); we were tasked with using tubes to create our terrain, so I set about using as many tubes as I could while using up some of the larger pieces from my junk collection.
I give you, "The Refinery?" (question mark is due to me not knowing where the model was going from the start, but used the term "refinery" as inspiration).
Worth a zoom-in.
Fractional distillation towers, larger pipes and their support structure:
Another re-paint of an old mini', Tactical Marine number 3.
Just a basic job, but a great improvement over that he has looked like until now.
And this is my first Necron Deathmark.
I wanted to represent the moment of him stepping through the phase/portal from the hidden dimension. I used some clear plastic to create the "pop" or "tear" in dimensional space and then painted his rear dark to show the difference between the hidden and revealed.
It started as a potential 1:1 oddity, making a cube from small pieces of junk.
But I wasn't pleased with where it went for the application and sidelined it for a while.
Then I had a burst of inspiration and turned it into this... whatever it is...
Many angles to give you a good idea of it's shape:
The new 40K box set is out and I, like many, have picked it up to try out the new models.
My first miniatures from the set are the first squad of Primaris Intercessors.
I chose a paint scheme that would set them apart from any existing chapters and let them stand out from the crowd.
I placed an empty circle in place of a chapter icon to show their lack of allegiance. But it also allows whoever buys them to place their own icon over it to make them belong (the same reason for not adding the squad number).
I cut off the legs at the hip to swivel them downwards.
The knees and ankles weren't cut through, but were opened up to straighten the legs.
I also raised the neck to bring the head up a bit.
I use scrap plastic, glued in with poly' cement, to fill the majority of the gap and give a strong join.
then a layer of putty (milliput in my case) to tidy up and blend it all together.
Like so:
I've now finished the second set of models from the Dark Imperium box; The Death Guard Plague marines. I made a few changes, here and there, to make these unique from every other Dark Imperium set, but still recognisable. I made the bases to show the grass dying as they walk though it.
The squad:
#1; the grenade guy. Mostly minor changes; fixes to casting limitations (something done to pretty much all of them, as was adding / improving the damage to their armour), added a 3rd "eye", some smoke for his grenade, and changing the metal tabard for part cloth. If you look under his rear foot, there is something that looks just like a cigarette butt. Not intended, but it just goes to show how disgusting these guys are; not only are they filthy, disease-ridden, plague carriers, they also smoke and litter with reckless abandon.
#2; the champion. Quite a few changes; the fly was moved from attached to a horn to sitting on his shoulder, the things dangling from his hood were removed and many tentacles added, and his arm was reposed.
#3; "there goes the hernia" guy. Repositioned the gun arm to be aiming, changed the tentacle / tongue from the belly to spilling flesh and removed the teeth from the armour break, changed the smiling face on the left shoulder to a skull, and added some tentacles.
#4; bell guy. Reposed the sword arm, added a tentacle and swapped backpack to make him less bell orientated.
#5; plasma guy. Added plasma flame, swapped backpack, moved sword, and added tentacles.
#6; Spiky dave. Changed tongue from shoulder pad mouth, changed tentacle on left leg, added tentacle with bell to backpack, moved sword to stick through (new) hole in cloak, and changed horns on helmet for spikes.
#7; Smokey pete. Moved a few minor things, and added smoke.
And I've finally finished my first HQ miniature for my (mad) army.
Re-built from a dead/dying, captured or found Tau commander. The (Mad) Scientist has repaired and "improved" the suit, as well as brain-washing the occupant.
While generally looked after, and re-painted from what it may have originally looked like, it does take occasional knocks in battle. So, dirt and chipped paint, but no rust.
While carrying some Tau tech', the suit also carries a Bright lance and a signal broadcaster (works similar to the Tyranid synapse thing, for The Army). Rules to be ironed out in time.
Other ideas explored here were to make the body larger so that it actually looks like it can house a body, and incorporating the jet pack into the body.
Mostly in cardboard, in spite of this tread's title, this is a scratch-built "mech" workshop. Designed for the near-future Infinity ttg aesthetic; hexagons and bright colours.
The inside is heavily detailed as you would a diorama, however the outside is built for gaming and should fit in with any other terrain and gaming mat/table arrangement.
The roof and walls are removable from the base and interior, for access, a better view, or to make the interior suitable for gaming use (without the details getting in the way).
There's also a set of scatter pieces that can be placed about the roof or around the building for a variety of cover situations in-game.
This has been a long ongoing project, constantly being put aside for more time-dependant projects. So show it some love.
And here we have a set of Intercessor Space Marines.
Squad B from the DI box set.
I swapped some bits about (including legs) to give them all a little uniqueness as the vanilla set of miniatures comes with 2 pairs of identical marines.
They were then painted as an early, emergency squad for the introduction of the Intercessors. Hastily brought together from the various chapters.
While they keep their chapter colours, their chapter markings are covered to show that they are not affiliated with any chapter at this time.
Brought together under extreme circumstances.
They are the last, best hope for all humanity.
Each with his own special skill set.
Together they form a force greater than the sum of the individual parts.
As different as they are, they work together against a common foe.
Thanks Kestral. Yeah, the plagues were a fun change of pace (the first Nurgle miniatures I've painted). And, well tentacles have got to be purple, haven't they.
And now for something completely different... a forklift.
This was designed to match the workshop I've shown earlier, in answer to the question "how did those boxes, crates and pallets get on to the roof".
To show rotation and separation of the top and bottom sections:
The pallets:
Scale shots and closer views:
Note the "no step" and "hand hold" signs in the above photo.
Closer views of the cab, it's lights, and the osl:
Interior of the cab, or at least the best photos I can get of the interior...
A total of 25 miniatures split between 5 factions: Each faction has one character figure with animal companion, and 4 mech miniatures.
I stuck close to the official artwork for these to maintain ease of recognition on the gameboard.
Character figures.
Together with the mechs of their factions.
Individual character figures (including official artwork for each) :
Olga and Changa (the Siberian Tiger).
Gunther and Nacht (the Dire Wolf).
Zehra and Kar (the Great Steppe Eagle).
Anna and Wojtek (the Bear).
Bjorn and Mox (the Musk Ox).
And the Mechs of each faction (with a tree on one of each set for scale).
Another large group of miniatures. This time it's Pox Walkers.
Not a lot to say about them. Half of them are converted to make the unique from the first 10 (as the box comes with 10 pairs of identical mini's).
There's a nice mix of matt, satin and gloss finishes across the models; e.g. the biohazard suits, the black commissar coat, and a few boots are finished in satin. And, of course, the pus dribbles are finished in gloss.
I hope that they disgust you.
Group photos:
Individual shots (vanilla models paired with the conversions):
1 and 11
This time it's Robby the Robot.
Couldn't find a quick way to produce a clear dome this time (had a tight deadline), but may revisit it in the future.
Until then, I painted the dome using NMM techniques to show a reflected landscape.
The dome, however, is removable and magnetised.
Better views of legs and close-ups of the head and dome.
Thanks darkstar6783. I'd settle for more sales, but an award would be nice.
The latest model completed is all Sigur's fault. He showed off his painted SDE wolfrider figure, and I immediately saw the obvious inspiration they took from Princess Mononoke (the Anime from Studio Ghibli).
I like San so much that I just had to get that miniature and convert it to be a proper princess Mononoke model, and not a copyright-dodging inspired-by miniature.
I also felt that it needed a display base, and that became quite a project in itself.
Well, ok these are not entirely made of plastic, in fact you could say these are made of clay,.and the only plastic in both of them is the bases, that you can't see, and the shapes are bulked out with polystyrene foam, which you also can't see... but they are random...
Maltese Falcon (1:1 prop replica):
Raiders of the lost ark, golden fertility idol (1:1 prop replica):
Both sculpted in clay with some details in epoxy putty.
Scratch-built Robo-dino.
Inspired by the theme of Horizon Zero Dawn,
Based on the Deinonychus (big brother of the Velociraptor).
At approximately 1:14th scale.
Based on a bookshelf insert I saw on the internet a long time ago and added to my list of thing to do one day...
I discovered after I had finished it, that these things have become popular and are known as a "book nook".
Using a pair of Mithril LotR miniatures that I didn't otherwise know what to do with.
There is also a LED at the rear of the piece to cast light from where the path is leading.
I present my Mirkwood Book Nook, with Elrond and Thranduil.
As if to answer the questions; "what would happen to a Kroot if you fed it birds?" and "how do you handle a weapon if your arms have evolved into wings?"
And the latest thing finished that I made with plastic.
The Raider Gunship conversion.
3 years in the making (most of that was not spent making).
These are pretty large pictures, so well worth blowing up the largest version you can open.
Closer views of some of the added details, and the base: