I gotta echo the "wow they look great all together on the tabletop" sentiments. Amazing as always.
I do have one observation, though. Have you done anything to more clearly differentiate the Beastmasters from the Hellions? From the pictures, it looks like they would be hard to tell apart on the tabletop other than by the whips.
Thanks so much for the gaming pictures. It's been a long time since I had a game of 40k, too long, and those pics serve as a great motivator to get some more stuff finished and finally into gaming again.
This is my gaming OCD nature showing through, but I get a huge sense of satisfaction looking at how well everything fits in these three trays ! I was fiddling around for hours with the Battlefoam custom tray creator to try and fit as much of my army as I could into a P.A.C.K. Air case. I finally hit on this arrangement which let me fit in all of my vehicles while taking advantage of the depth of the trays to get my Reavers in as well. A key point is to have the sails removable so you only need 3.5 or 4 inch trays instead of the 6 inch standard ones. This lets you pack in more trays for infantry. With the trays I have, almost the whole Kabal fits in the P.A.C.K. Air, minus the Hellions and the Razorwing.
I'm happy to see all the responses to the last couple of posts! I typed out fairly long responses over the lunch hours our two days at work last week but forgot to bring the word file home and I haven't been back to the office since last Thursday because we've got a public holiday and I took a couple of extra days off! As much as I love you guys, I'm not going into the office on a holiday to get a word file !
So, everyone who I don't mention here will get a response this Wednesday ! This includes army lists for the games I posted photos for in the previous post.
@leohart: Glad to see you made it over here from the batrep! My friend got the Hawk Lords commissioned in the local FLGS and they did a great job! He loves the game and the fluff but he was never a big fan of the hobby side and his job leaves him no time for it anyway. I'm glad he's back playing 40k after 8 years or so and that I get to enjoy playing against (and with a couple times since we've swapped lists for some variety) his awesome looking army!
@Dark_Gear: I always dreamed of playing 40k like this when I was a kid, and thought that that would only be possible if I visited GW headquarters in the UK. It's funny that it was only after I "grew up" that I was able to finally play with my toy soldiers properly !
@Lysenis: I don't know of anyone who comes to the local FLGS regularly who has a similarly painted army so that might have been when I was playing with a few of my Raiders just sprayed with the shiny turquoise basecoat! Or else my army is ridiculously photogenic and actually looks terrible in person .
@Spyguyyoda: You're right about the Beastmasters blending in with the Hellions. In addition to the whips, they all have a skull shoulder pad and a different style of skyboard from most of the Hellions, but it's not super noticeable on the table. I thought about painting the skyboards differently but got lazy!
@monkeyh: I did have fun! As I said to leohart above, it's great to have an opponent with a great looking army (also helps that it's 100% WISIWYG).
@migsula: I read your thread religiously as well. Just don't drop out of lurking mode that often .
@Vanq: At first I was worried that the sails were too bright to fit in with the bodysuits, but I'm glad I went that way now. I won the Hawk Lords game by one quarter.
@S'jet: It looks even better now that I've finally based everything on the custom rocky bases. Last week's photos are the last you'll ever see of my Raiders with clear bases!
@Cameron Baum & prime12357: The army's on a bit of a hold while I wait for 6th Edition. I'm also working on the Infinity Challenge right now. Once I finish the Infinity Challenge I'll probably be painting a few more Blaster Trueborn since that's what I'm missing in the army. There is also likely to be a Talos sometime in the future because ever since I saw that model I thought it would look good in Drowned Gardens colors ! I'm also planning on painting up a few more of the old style Dark Eldar minis for fun.
Love the PACK Air setup, Jon. I am also very OCD when it comes to maximizing the usage of those foams.
I think it is awesome that this hobby has many levels to it. From kid, to teenagers to adults, there are always different ways one can enjoy the hobby. I guess that is why we have people staying with/coming back to the hobby.
Here are the responses to last week's comments which I forgot to bring home from the office !
RE: Comments on the Hellions
@Vitruvian XVII & Vanq: Thanks!
@Dark_Gear: A great analysis of why I like the Hellion models so much! On Infinity I’ve found that I don’t have as much time as I would like so my entry won’t actually match how I eventually want to paint my models. I’ll leave that slightly cryptic since I don’t want to break the rules.
Unrelated side note on Hellions:
I’ve recently been thinking that Hellions should have really been Strength 3 and Rending. It fits their fluff much better since I don’t see Hellions as slamming through armor (as Strength 4 suggests) but rather them toying with you with lots of superficial feints and cuts before making a surgical slice at a weak point to finish you off. It would make them a lot more viable on the table as Marines and FNP models couldn’t just shrug charges off. As it stands, Razorwing Flocks were been added in instead and have taken that role.
@S’jet: The vehicle bases take a lot of Milliput! Even with the Maelstrom Games sales I’ve still spent about 40 UK Pounds on the stuff! On the Infinity Challenge, see my response above. But also, the model I really wanted to paint hasn’t been delivered yet so I had to settle for something else.
@alabamaheretic: Glad to hear you enjoyed the Batrep! Take a look at the actual Codex since sometimes AB can be confusing. Each Beastmaster you buy can take 2 Flocks. I usually run a unit of 1 Beastmaster with 4 Khymerae and 3 Beastmasters with 2 Flocks each for a total of 4 Beastmasters, 4 Khymerae and 6 Razorwing Flocks.
RE: Comments on in-game photos and mini batreps
@Prime 12357: Here are the lists we were playing with hidden in spoiler tags so I don't blow up my own thread !
Game 1 Drowned Gardens VS Hawk Lords @2000pts
Spoiler:
Drowned Gardens
Baron Sathonyx
Haemonculus
3 Trueborn w/Blasters in Venom, Grisly Trophies
3 Trueborn w/Blasters in Venom, Grisly Trophies
5 Warriors w/Blaster in Raider w/DL, FF 5 Warriors w/Blaster in Raider w/DL, FF, SP 5 Warriors w/Blaster in Raider w/DL, FF, SP 5 Warriors in Raider w/DL, FF, Aethersails, SP 5 Warriors in Raider w/DL, FF, Aethersails, SP 14 Hellions
@Vanq: I had a lot of people in the FLGS come up and admire the case. One guy who didn't know about Battlefoam thought that I had cut the foam out by hand! That being said, he did know that I had spent an ungodly amount of time on the army, so it wasn't really a bad guess !
@leohart: We've also got people who just like the fluff or videogames and only do a little modeling and playing (they don't have more than 500pts from any list).
John, yea you are right about army builder being confusing. but i will have to keep that in mind and steal so more of your ideas (like the flying rippers) and apply it to my silly dark eldar army. either way looks great hope to have another report from you soon! and I hope your infinity project is going well also.
@alabamaheretic: I just sent the final photos of my entry for the Infinity Challenge in a couple days ago! I'm hoping I do well but don't have huge expectations since the model I *really* wanted to paint didn't get in until yesterday !
Back to rounding out the Drowned Gardens while I wait for Sixth Edition. So, Blaster Trueborn are obviously very popular with Dark Eldar players, but these are going to be the first ones I paint up. Part of the reason is that it's taken me this long to collect a critical mass of Blasters. After buying over 3000 points of Dark Eldar models I finally have 5 whole (real, unconverted) Blasters to call my own ! I didn't like the bare arm on the Scourge Blaster so I took the opportunity to cut it off at the grip and stock and attach it to a splinter rifle arm for a more unique pose.
Ooooh. Trueborn Good idea for the scourge blaster.
And though I am a little upset at infinity for stealing you away from us, I'm looking forward to seeing the model.
Awesome Sauce. sorry to hear that your infinity model didn't get there till late im sure it would look cool. I am pretty sure your "replacement" looks just as cool too.
I have to tell you jon, yours is one of the most inspirational blogs I have ever seen. Keep it up, because this is the blog I always check every time I'm online.
Would anyone find it interesting for me to keep an approximate record of how long I’m spending painting these three Trueborn? I thought about trying something new since I’ve posted a lot of step by step progress posts of similar models already. Also, a few of you have asked me how long it takes me to paint models and I’ve always responded with wild guesses!
I’ll be fairly casual with the timekeeping, but I’ll pause the timer when I take a break longer than 5 minutes or so. I’ll also be painting at my usual leisurely pace while listening to an Audiobook. i.e. I’m not treating this like a race or time trial but as a normal low stress activity . I might do another timed event later to see just how quickly I can paint something up if I put my mind to it however (probably on some less important models such as Raider crew).
So here we are at 1 hour and 3 minutes. That's 18 minutes spent undercoating and 45 minutes on the paint chipping. I did the undercoat with several thin coats using a hairdryer in between to speed the drying. The paint chipping takes longer than you might think because I need to spend time adjusting the amount of chipping. That's done by wiping off some of the grey paint with a q-tip and some rubbing alcohol if it looks too heavy, and then re-applying it with a sponge and paintbrush.
So here they are at the eyeball-melting shiny teal/turquoise/whatever-shade-of-greenish-blue-my-army-actually-is-stage, with extra glare for the camera!
@Farsight's Lieutenant: Thanks for posting, it always nice to see someone new has discovered this thread!
@prime12357 & alabamaheretic: Just a few more days until the Infinity Challenge mini's get posted and I see how far I've been blown out of the water !
@Dark_Gear: I like how the back blade makes my Trueborn look a bit more savage, in-keeping with the weathered-look of the army. Although I'm also a fan of the Reaver helmet style and the Corsair style.
@BossSlurpee: You should see the IG build I've been running recently, at 2000 points it's got 14 Chimera hulls!
It's probably been said before but I'm lazy and you're such a lovely person....*bats eyelids over puppy dog/ baby seal hybrid eyes* that you may point me to a description of your weathering method...*bats eyelids again in a final vain attempt* They look good, love your stuff. What is your IG list/ models (I want to see more!!!!!!)?
Here we are at 2h 40m and I’ve finished basecoating the bodysuit brown, the skin, and the brown basecoat for the copper parts and the hair (painted in that order).
On an unrelated note, I’ve now painted so much Dark Eldar stuff that it barely fits in the FLGS’s display shelf. I’ll need to take some out if I want to put anything new in!
@Imperial Monkey: Here’s the “recipe” I’ve typed up to PM people when I get asked. You’ll have to look though the previous pages of this thread for step by step pictures (if you threw a kitten into that hybrid I might have done it for you, assuming that the Inquisition had not already moved in first to Purge The Mutant With The God Emperor’s Cleansing Flames).
@Casey’s Law: Next is whatever 6th Edition makes me want to paint. Either by being a good enough edition with interesting new choices, motivating me to paint new models. Or by being terrible enough that my gaming group to moves to 5th edition house rules and codicies, motivating me to paint new models.
@Farsight’s Lieutenant: I’m still thrilled at being at the top of that list, especially since it seems to bring in new readers all the time!
On a related note, I’ve noticed one thing in common with all the P&M blogs on that list. Whenever I check one I’ll generally spend a second or two scrolling through comments and then an amazing picture comes up that makes me smile in appreciation.
Agreed. I've actually bought a can to try on something, not sure what yet though! Possibly some craftworld eldar. Cool that you're timing it Jon. You mentioned how much dark eldar you've painted..... do you not ever get bored of it? =)
At 4 hours and 10 minutes I've painted the metal parts to complete the basecoat. I've also highlighted up the bodysuits (the photo doesn't show that to good effect though).
@Dagirlz & S'jet: The blue is like Devlan Mud for my Dark Eldar, it's makes anything look good! So I'm not bored with it yet!
Am I being extremely obtuse? You said "Here's the recipie" then didn't give it, or were you just saying to look back over the thread...(a good motivation if ever there was one)?
Imperial Monkey wrote:Am I being extremely obtuse? You said "Here's the recipie" then didn't give it, or were you just saying to look back over the thread...(a good motivation if ever there was one)?
You're not being obtuse. I just forgot . Here's a link to the page in the thread:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/60/378881.page I'll be taking step by step photos on these Trueborn which you can use as another example of how the scheme develops.
You said you used black milliput, could you use super glue or pva glue to stick it to the bases, or the models to the bases? Sorry, not really fimilar with black milliput but it looks awesome.
At 7h23min I'm surprisingly close to my mental estimate of taking 3 hours to paint and base a Dark Eldar Warrior. At this point I've applied all the washes and highlights. So basically everything is done on the miniature apart from the rust and the coat of varnish.
@unmercifulconker: I've found that you can just use more Milliput (of any color, I'd recommend the standard yellow-grey since it's the cheapest) to sick the slabs of dried milliput onto the base. Depending on how lazy I'm feeling I either drill pins into the model's feet and base and then superglue them together or I just superglue them together. However, just superglue by itself doesn't tend to be strong enough in the long run and I've had a few models break off their bases during games. Although that might also be because I dropped them off the table .
Going off topic, I am very very excited about seeing the entries into the Infinity Painting Challenge and am checking Dakka frequently for the voting thread to pop up! I don't have any great expectations of winning but it would be cool if I did since it would help me convince a friend to start playing. As in, "I've built an army for you, how about a game?" . Right now no one in Hong Kong plays so it would be nice to start something. Otherwise, Dust Warfare is sort of calling to me as well. As is Dystopian Wars .
The Trueborn are ready for deployment ! Not much to say today, so enjoy the all the Strength 8, AP 2, Lance goodness you want from up to 18 inches away.
If anyone is interested in buying or trading for my Infinity Challenge entry please send me a PM by Friday, May 25th, Midnight GMT. I knew I wasn't going to have time to develop a new color scheme in time for the challenge, so I fell back on my trusty Kabal of the Drowned Gardens colors. However, since I already have a huge Dark Eldar army in this scheme I'm keen to try something new for my Aleph. So if there isn't any interest in her, she'll be going into the paint remover and some enterprising Kabalite is going to steal her base.
So this post isn't 100% off topic:
@monkeyh: Thanks for dropping by with the complement .
@Vanq: You know a fellow Dark Eldar fanatic by the questions they ask . The third back blade design is from the trophy racks that come with the Venom model.
Jon, that Infinity model looks nice, but I'm a little disappointed that you didn't have the opportunity to stretch your capabilities. I get that you were in a timecrunch, so I'm eager to see what direction it goes in once you settle on a different color scheme.
I guess it did make it easy to tell which model was yours, though
Ahh, of course! I cut all mine down for Incubi back banners, should have recognised them!
The Aleph is pretty decent, but I think it would be a lot better without the brown body suit...maybe something lighter and cleaner looking. That said, if you want to abandon the blue, I'd love to see you go nuts and see what comes out afterwards
Lovely weathering on the infinity model, though I'd go for lighter skin tones - at the moment it's kinda drowning in brown and that gets lost in the gun too.
So yeah, for me just use a lighter "white-man" skin tone.
I hope to Christ that doesn't come across as racist.
I must say Mechanicum Jon that your work here has been very inspiring. I like the colour scheme and details you put into your work. I have been lurking in the shadows here on Dakka for some time now but seeing your progress in this blog has really lit a fire under me to get back into painting. Keep up the great work and I do thank you for the motivation.
The manager down at my local FLGS is helping me to organize a professional photo shoot for the whole Kabal of the Drowned Gardens with his photographer friend. That should happen sometime in the next few weeks and I'm really excited about the prospect!
However, although you can all look forward to some great photos, updates to this blog are probably going to be a bit sparse until 6th edition gets released since I'm putting it on a short hiatus to work on an exciting new and shiny project which you can follow here:
"With enough dedication, even an iron rod can be ground into a needle. – Chinese Proverb (paraphrased)
So, as someone who lurks more than posts it’s always exciting for me to start a new thread on Dakka. This one, as the title suggests, will be about my efforts to improve my painting and modeling skills by trying new color schemes and techniques on models I haven’t worked on before. I’ve been very grateful for all the comments, complements and constructive criticism I’ve gotten on my other long running P&M Blog, “Mechanicum Jon’s Dark Eldar” (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/378881.page) and hope that Dakka and I can continue the same mutually motivating relationship in this thread!"
I'll be really pleased to welcome any current readers of this thread who decide to follow this new project!
@CalasTyphon216: Thanks! I'm looking forward to playing another game with you when you're back in Hong Kong soon.
@spyguyyoda & Vang: You'll hopefully enjoy watching me really stretch myself in the new thread then!
@Casey's Law: As tempting as it is to turn everything into Dark Eldar, I think it's time for something new.
@kitch102: I was using an old pot of Ogryn Flesh wash for the skin!
@endofanubi: Thanks! I also lurk a lot more than I post so it's great to hear someone new has found the thread useful enough to warrant "de-cloaking" and leaving a comment!
First a question. As you know I've been trying to get some professional photos taken of the full 3000+ points of Dark Eldar I've painted over the last two years. I've found one photographer who's willing and able to do it. He'll bring the whole necessary setup down to my FLGS, lights, background etc. The only catch is that it'll cost about US$160 to US$180.
Basically, what I'm trying to find out now is whether anybody would be willing to help me out by making a donation to support this project.
The Kabal of the Drowned Gardens and this blog have been my favorite hobby endeavor ever so I'll probably to go ahead despite the cost, but I'm hoping that you all can help my wallet pass it's Feel no Pain save ! As an added incentive, I'll do something like emailing anyone who gives $5 or more the full set of high resolution images. Let me know what you think or what you'd want as an incentive (signed photo, nominate something for me to paint/blog about etc.) But to be honest, I'd be extremely surprised and grateful for any support at all !
Of course, I've also gone and asked for this without looking into how people would get the donations to me so any suggestions on that would be great as well. Right now I'm thinking about Paypal but I haven't done any research since I don't know if there's any support for this yet.
Now back to some proper painting and modeling content!
I was going to wait until 6th ed. But the Ovion sent me this Talos as part of a trade and I couldn't resist the urge to start painting it! So he gets all the blame/credit for this ! I've been building various sections of the Talos and magnetizing it. It made sense to paint the carapace first since it was relatively easy, and more importantly I've always thought the Drowned Gardens colors would look good on this particular part. Also, am I the only one who thinks it looks kind of...cute ?
Over the past two years YOU have motivated me to paint over THREE THOUSAND points of Dark Eldar by commenting in, or even just by lurking and moving the view count up for, this thread! I’d like to have some professional photos taken of the entire Kabal of the Drowned Gardens to share with everyone, and I would really appreciate your support in funding the photo-shoot .
The photo-shoot will cost about US$160, anything over that will let me take more photos of individual models and squads. If your generosity overflows and the total donations go above $200, I will first buy DCM status for a year and then spend the remainder on more Dark Eldar models to keep this thread going (I will have to pick my jaw off the floor if this occurs) .
To keep it simple, I’ve created these two PayPal buttons for two levels of support (because the donate button function is not available in Hong Kong). As soon I get the first donation I will commit to the photo-shoot even if I get nothing else.
Push this button to donate $5 and I will email you high resolution (or at least as high as the camera takes it) digital copies of a few of the full army photos.
Push this button to donate $10and I will email you all the photos I choose to keep from the photo-shoot.
If any of you billionaire super-fans out there want to give more, send me your email and the amount you want to give via PM and I’ll send you a PayPal link. If you donate even a mildly absurd amount I will send you something physical in thanks.
I will, of course, upload all the photos to Dakka since that’s the point of all this but they will be in slightly lower resolution. The photo-shoot will probably take place in about a month and a half once I finish this Talos and arrange everything.
Now to see how the Talos is coming along:
At this point the Talos’ body reminds me vaguely of a lightly grilled morsel of chicken on a shish kebab, albeit with a few metal fittings stapled into it.
Talos, the new white meat.
I prefer to start with healthy looking flesh because it makes the subsequent bruising and other discolorations look more painful. A warmer flesh color also contrasts nicely to the army’s signature teal color.
Mechanicum Jon wrote:As soon I get the first donation I will commit to the photo-shoot even if I get nothing else.
Done!
Not sure how to link my paypal donation to my dakka account - didn't see anywhere to put comments or anything... If it shows my paypal account/email though, it should be obvious
Exalted and Sbscribed. I apologise, but I won't be donating (shoot me evil looks everyone) because I'm a kid with a very limited budget. Regardless, I've seen several pages of this Plog unfold and have been inspired on several occasions by the awesomeness of your painting and Kabal. Keep up your great work, and I look forward to seeing even more of your bloody raiders!
A huge thanks to Arakasi for being the first to fund the Drowned Gardens photo-shoot donation drive! Please see my previous post for details on how to contribute, I really appreciate the support. I'm trying to avoid spamming my own thread with donation pleas so that will be all on that for today and we'll get straight to the painting progress !
Here’s the main body of the Talos, now suitably beaten, bloody and bruised. I mainly worked with washes: Baal Red with some Blood Red mixed in to brighten it up for the bloody parts and Leviathan Purple for the spine and around the metal implants. Also, it just occurred to me that a lot of my painting advice has become a bit out of date because of the new Citadel colors (of which I still haven’t bought any because I stocked up on the old ones) !
@CalasTyphon216: Thanks! I'm looking forward to playing another game with you when you're back!
@Capitansolstice: I’m lovin it too!
@LadyCassandra: I saw it more as a baby seal, but I can see small bird as well . Thanks for your PayPal suggestion, I’ve gone with it.
@CalasTyphon216: Thanks for your support! You’re my first backer (in spirit), Arakasi beat you to official backer status.
@Begel Dverl: Now I’m tempted to paint a yellow smiley face under it!
@KrautScientist: You’re right, the mask is actually more cartoony than the bare face. Of course, the image of a face with skin covering the eyes, nose and mouth is a fairly standard horror trope.
@Arakasi: Thanks! You’re the first backer! Your email came through fine so I’ll be sending everything there unless you send me an email to say otherwise.
@Urien_Rakarth: No need to apologize! I’ll happily take kindly worded and/or well thought out comments instead of donations! Welcome to the thread!
Hey Jon... somehow I got unsubscribed... *sigh* Ah well, means there are many pages of your brilliance to go through! Love that torso... Wow! (and yuck!)
I’ve decided to magnetize my Talos slightly. Mainly because I think it’ll be fun to have a few interchangeable options. In particular, I’m having a real hard time choosing between the Heat Lances and Haywire Blasters on the tail. This way I can keep my options open for both.
Having magnetized the tail I've discovered that it also has the added benefit of being pose-able! I’ll admit to having spent more than a few minutes playing with it. The last photo shows where I put all the magnets for anyone who wants to recreate the build.
I’m also really happy with how good the carapace and fleshy bits look together.
@Gitsplitta: Welcome back! I’d just assumed that you had gone into super lurker mode like I’ve been doing in a lot of your posts.
Been sick for a few days but that couldn't keep me from getting at least a little painting done ! I botched my first attempt at the pods on the bottom of the Talos. I tried to use the "stippling pattern" I used for my necrotoxin missiles on some of them but it didn't look right (possibly because I couldn't keep my hands steady enough due to the cold ). So I went for a more conventional green glow. Quite happy with the way it turned out. I'm also really pleased with the giant arm blade. The two giant arms are really an integral part of the Talo's silhouette. The forearm is magnetized so I can swap weapons if I want.
Also some exciting Photoshoot donation drive news. I just had a very kind email from a non-Dakka member who discovered this thread via the GW Facebook page and has been following it ever since. I don't know if he actually wants a shout out by name so I'll just say that he's been incredibly generous with the offer of a $50 donation ! I woke up before 6am probably because I couldn't breathe from a stuffed nose and that email made my day !
@Gitsplitta: Thanks! I'm hoping to at least build another one of these things so maybe I can do a sort of Talos ballet on the tabletop.
Looking good! Sadly I can't donate as I am too young for a Paypal account or a credit card (damnable youth) and I need to concentrate on my own army, but anyway, I love it so far!
Jon that Talos is looking beautiful (in a weird kinda way) to me it's shaping up to be some of if not your best work yet! seriously love the skin and bruising etc... and the blade arm is really nicely done! you should get sick more often if you're gonna keep painting like this :-)
Oh, and wait until payday and i'll help you fund your pics dude!
Slowly, but steady progress in painting bits of the Talos. I've just finished the bone horns/racks (and hence couldn't resist this post's title ).
@Squigsquasher: Thanks for the complement! I gladly accept all forms of support for this thread, especially enthusiastic comments! I'm going to go with the chain flails on the other arm for now, but all the weapons will be magnetized so I may end up painting most of the options eventually.
@nerdfest09: Temporarily trading health for increased (painting) abilities, sounds like some sort of ability for a berzerker class in a MMORPG . I'll be looking forward to (your) payday then !
@spyguyyoda: Thanks for the donation! What kind of direction are you deciding on? I mean paint-scheme or weapons?
Nice work! Horny Big Racks... You naughty boy! Really like the carapace, bones and flesh, really weathered and 'bloody'. One thing, on the head you might want to tone down the gold, as its abit out of place IMO.
Automatically Appended Next Post: On second thoughts, after another look, the gold's fine
Color-wise. I'm working with a darker Turquoise/black color scheme, and I'm not sure what color the carapace should be. Most of my larger models (venoms etc) are black with turquoise highlights, but all of my infantry models appear mostly turquoise. :/
It was only on seeing this photo that I realized that I forgot to paint the bruising on these. I'll have to do that quickly before I stick them on the Talos for its inaugural game today! I'll take some "in action" photos of it then.
Oh, almost forgot the main reason for me posting this photo. I found the easiest way to paint the arms was to attach them to bits of sprue using a tiny bit of superglue. I drilled very shallow holes into the sprue so that the round ends of the arms had something to fit in.
@Urien_Rakarth: Actually I will be toning the gold/bronze on the helmet down a bit to match the rest of the metalwork.
@spyguyyoda: I'd go with the vehicle scheme since visually the Talos has almost the same amount of surface area as a Venom.
Looking amazing Jon! and that is now one of the best thread titles i'v seen! only one sleep til payday and i'll throw you some monetary fish for your Orca like photo project!
Outstanding work on the Talos there Mechanicum Jon. The bruised and irritated flesh parts came out very nicely. I was hoping you would delve a bit more into the Coven side of the Dark Eldar.
On second thoughts, after another look, the gold's fine
I concur with this revised thought lol. The Talos is looking fantastic Jon, cant wait to see it all together. the only critique i had was the lack of bruising on the arms but thats already been caught. looking forward to the action shots.
Just took a alook at your blog and I must say it is very inspiring. I am a fairly new painter and purchased an airbrush when I got into the hoby. With practice I hope to make painting this good look as easy as you do. My neighbor gave me a bunch of his dark eldar. They are painted purple at the moment and havent really done anything for me.
After looking at your blog I'm really wanting to do something that pops a little more. I have my necron first, but will be following your blog for further inspiration! Thank you!
First, a quick update on the donation drive for the full army photo-shoot. We’re currently at $65 dollars with $15 dollars coming from generous Dakka members and $50 dollars from a super generous non-Dakka renegade (he’s showing us up, come on Dakka )! Several more potential backers have expressed interest but need to wait until pay day or until they meet me in person.
Here are the donation links again to make supporting easy:
Push this button to donate $5 and I will email you high resolution (or at least as high as the camera takes it) digital copies of a few of the full army photos.
Push this button to donate $10and I will email you all the photos I choose to keep from the photo-shoot.
Now back to your usually scheduled Kabalvision programming:
“Heh heh heh, look at all these comments,” I thought as I scrolled down the thread. Then I actually laughed a bit at having thought that. The takeaways being that I’m easily amused and that comments are nice to have.
I took some photos during my game down at the FLGS but they didn’t turn out too well. So I’ll wait until I finish the base to take some more. But, here are a couple of photos of the gristly parts for you to chew on until I get those taken.
@Gitsplitta: I’ll add an additional tip to this. Use the same drill bit you used to drill the holes into the sprues to very lightly drill out the attachment point sockets on the Talos’s body. Making the attachment point sockets just a touch bigger gives you more freedom in posing the arms.
@Dark_Gear: It’s how I’d imagine a Haemonculus would do it.
@wickedcarrot: Thanks!
@nerdfest09: Looking forward to all the fish !
@endofanubus: I’m working on it!
@BossSlurpee: I only noticed that I had forgotten the bruising after I took the photos! I’ll try to take some better in action shots this weekend.
@Phototoxin: I’d really prefer a donation towards my photoshoot over a tire iron to my kneecap .
@MeatShield: Hope they help!
@spyguyyoda: I showed you my pain engine, so you show me yours .
@FatBoy: Thanks for the complement! Just to be clear I don’t use an airbrush at all while painting these. The basecoat is from a spray can but from then on it’s all by brush, so it shouldn’t be too hard to replicate the techniques! That being said I really need to get an airbrush at some point since many people have been telling me how much faster it is to paint with.
Awesome as always. I'll see what my situation is in a few weeks (moving country currently!) and see if I can match that non Dakka renegade if the rest of Dakka pikes out
I love this model. It's like it was sculpted for my army's color scheme with just the right balance of armored and fleshy surfaces to play off each other. I'm especially pleased with how the vestigial arms and the glyph on the carapace turned out. Now that it's done I'll start working on scheduling the full army photoshoot date, thanks so much to the people who have donated! If you'd like to have the high(er) quality photos from the photoshoot (or just want to show your support for this thread) please consider making a small donation using the links in my post above .
The fleshy part of the tail really grabs my attention in this photo. I'm glad I took the time to pick out the spines in a bone color.
This is the best photo of the set. It shows all my favorite bits (well except the chain flail).
A look at the other side.
Finally. what the Pain Engine might look like from the viewpoint of someone about to be smashed.
@nerdfest09: I make appreciative Orca sounds and gestures at my monitor (whatever you'd imagine those to be) .
@Begel Dverl: Thanks! What's next depends a bit on how 6th Edition shapes up and on what gets released. The photoshoot is my current priority for the army. Apart from actually playing games with it!
Damn, that's beautiful! I wanted to get this model when it came out "just to paint". You have saved me from having it sit on a shelf in its box forever now. Since I don't think i could do it more justice than you have.
Everyone's words of praise for the Talos is are much appreciated !
I've spent the last few days digesting the 6th edition rules, including an inaugural game, but the most exciting thing in them related to this blog is all the modelling and conversion opportunities the allies rules open up. To be honest, I'd prefer letting everyone ally with everyone but limiting the number of allied units even more (e.g. you can take 1 troops slot and 1 slot of something else from almost any other book as allies). But the rules as is do give me more than a few ideas. The first of which is an allied Jetbike Farseer or Autarch (haven't decided which yet) to use as a Reaver Archon. The ability to mount your HQ on a bike is one rule I really miss from the old codex and this gives me a chance to proxy a similar character into my army.
I happened to have an old Reaver Jetbike model lying around which I thought would be cool as an ancient heirloom jetbike owned by the Archon. I never really liked the old Reaver models because the always looked a little too chunky. But I spent the day messing around with the old bits and found that I could make the bike a lot more aerodynamic simply by cutting down the rear splinter rifle fin and remounting it on the bottom of the bike. I decided no to use any new bits on the bike so that it stayed more unique to the new models.
I haven't thought too much about what bits to use for the rider yet so any and all suggestions are welcome !
I am pleased to present the latest addition to the Kabal of the Drowned Gardens, the Huntress! She'll act as a proxy for a Jetbike Farseer with a Singing Spear to lead a unit of Reavers. I see the Divination psychic power set as representing her preternatural hunting abilities rather than actual psychic powers. I don't expect the unit to do wonders in game, but I do think it's a really cool concept that I'm excited to be putting together. I used a warrior body to give her a more armored look. I think that look, along with the beefier looking classic jetbike helps justify the 3+ save. I thought about using a un-helmeted female head, but she ended up looking too much like a warrior on a jetbike. The Reaver helmet helped a lot to present her as an expert Reaver.
The pose took me most of the day to get right. I had to do a lot of fiddly tweaks to all the bits simultaneously to get her to both stand on the fins of the bike, hold on to the handlebar, and look like she's about to throw the spear. The spear itself is two bits painstakingly pinned into a splinter pistol hand. Given all of that, I'm still a bit surprised that all held together reasonably well ! I think she still might need a little something to make her look a bit more like a "fancy" leader model, but I'm not sure what. Any ideas?
@CalasTyphon216: Revitalizing dated models is one of the most satisfying things about modeling for me .
@Gitsplitta: I was surprised at how a little conversion work did a lot to improve the overall look.
honestly i reckon a slight variation in the paint job, maybe a bit more gold here or there, would be enough to make her stand out
the spear and the different bike already stand out in a reaver unit anyway
True, but can yiu imagine an archon with 2+ inv save moving 24" across the board, dropping a wwp, then bladevaning, caltroping, before finally getting stuck intocc with agoniser or huskblade? Whilst having a blaster on his bike?!
kitch102 wrote:True, but can yiu imagine an archon with 2+ inv save moving 24" across the board, dropping a wwp, then bladevaning, caltroping, before finally getting stuck intocc with agoniser or huskblade? Whilst having a blaster on his bike?!
I played a fun game of 40k against CalasTyphon216 today (using 5th ed. rules)! Thanks for being a great sport even through the run of bad dice . Also, even more thanks for your donation towards the full army photo-shoot for the Kabal of the Drowned Gardens. This makes you probably the only Dakka member able to show his support in cold hard cash delivered in person ! As a more general note, I'm trying to set a date with the photographer for the photoshoot. We're aiming for a Wednesday or Thursday when the FLGS is relatively quiet. So look forward to the shoot taking place tentatively before the end of July.
Initiative seized, Turn 1, night fight, the flotilla advances.
Sometime during Turn 2 with a Raider ramming a Chimera into immobilization while only being stunned itself. The basilisk is a proxy Medusa, there is another one just out of sight in the near corner.
My victory was to a large degree due to night fight, seizing the initiative and horrible luck on his part . I’ll give some examples.
- He rapid-fired five plasma guns at a Venom under a successful “Bring it Down” order and managed not to destroy it.
- He had three heavy weapon teams run off the board due to tank shock (out of 4 tank shock attempts during the game).
- He had three sentinels outflank onto the board behind a Ravager (in the open, no flickerfield), didn’t do anything to it with shooting or close combat.
This game also featured a horrific meat-grinder scene which showed what happens when a unit of beasts hits 51 Guardsmen (the photo illustrates the melee after the first turn of combat when 18 men got shredded).
@CalasTyphon216: I agree with you from a tabletop viewpoint, but I still feel that she needs a little extra something for when you look at her up close.
@SnakeByte: The twin banner/streamer is what I’m actually trying out right now, so thanks for the idea!
@virtualonmars: “An expert is someone who has made every mistake possible within a very narrow field of inquiry.” My painting and modeling efforts often seem a lot like that .
@Drk_Oblitr8r: A cloak might get in the way of the spear but I do think that a Shinobi style scarf would look very cool although I’m not sure my GS skills are up to it.
@Ovion: Congrats, I think you got the 1000th post in this thread! I had a sort of vague interest in making it myself but you guys have been commenting too quickly (which I’m honestly very happy to see). Epic hair would work I think, but again my GS skill level isn’t quite high enough to pull it off yet!
@Sasa0mg, kitch102 & CalasTyphon216: I actually think that the 3.5 codex for Dark Eldar is a lot stronger than the current one. Although mainly for enabling gratuitous Dark Lance spam.
@Foolish_Hyena: Glad to be a source of motivation !
lol thanks again for the game
your luck was pretty gak too hahaha
i think what really killed me was my poor deployment and botching the first round of combat with the blob squad
when you have 15 power weapon attacks you expect more than 2 wounds lol
it was tourney-standard 1750
my list was something like
CCS with creed and kell
10 man pbs in a chimaera
pcs with auto cannon
5 infantry squads with plasma and power weapons, 1 commissar with power weapon
4 heavy weapon teams, 3 with 3 autos and 1 with 3 las
10 man melta demo vet squad in chimaera
3 scout sentinels with multi lasers
2 medusas
If you don't mind my asking, how did you do the weathering on your models? I love the look and feel of your army, they really remind me of the Dark Eldar backstory.
I added a couple of streamers to her shoulders. They're a minor detail but I think that they do a lot to complete the look. I thought about using longer ones but it seemed unwise to be wearing anything that could get caught around yourself or sucked into an air intake somewhere on your own bike ! I'll paint the bike first, mainly because for some reason it feels more satisfying to have a finished bike ready for it's rider than the other way around.
@endtransmission: I'm up for a game of any edition of 40k as long as my opponent is a good sport ! Maybe not 4th ed. though .
@CalasTyphon216: I'd say that overall my luck was fairly average, although that may be because I'm used to thinking of my Darklight weapons as firing with BS3 (because that's how they usually act) .
@Imperial Monkey: Yeah the skin on the Talos was a lot of fun to paint. It's why I'm looking forward to converting up some Grotesques.
@baneofmorgoth: You can find a tutorial on Page 3 of this thread:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/60/378881.page I think I've described it a few more times with step by step pictures over the course of this thread but you'll have to do a bit of digging yourself .
Cool Work! With the reaver queen, I think she shouldn't have a helmet and have a sort of screaming face, like the wych one, but that's my opinion. I love those Kymerae conversions yet again!
@kitch102: I forgot to reply to your question about building your own version of this mini. Go right ahead! And show us some pictures once you're done!
@Urien_Rakarth: I thought about that, but the bare Dark Eldar heads are already strongly identified with basic troops in my mind. So they don't really work as character heads for me. This is probably just an odd perception on my part though.
@SnakeByte: The spear is pinned with brass rod through both its halves and the gripping hand.
Finished painting up The Huntress' Reaver Jetbike this afternoon. What surprised me (in a good way) about the Jetbike is that it actually looks a little bit creepy. The turquoise and bronze scheme combined with the slightly "softer"detail of the old model reminds me of those brightly colored Southeast Asian statues of gods and demons, some of which I've always found to be a little bit unsettling. Or in an another unrelated way, the huge blue demon face from D&D's Tomb of Horrors. Anyway I threw together a step by step image for those of you who are interested in trying something similar out yourselves.
@Ovion: There are already excellent examples of classic Reavers in that color scheme in the Dakka Dakka Gallery (no bell or streamers though) . Just filter by highly rated images. The painter has posted in this thread but I've not got time to look back through right now, so give Ovion a shout-out if you're lurking somewhere out there !
I'm quite simply inspired by your wonderful work. I stumbled upon this looking for a good idea for an Archon conversion with an old Reaver bike while also pondering painting Wraithkind Dark Eldar. I mean, it was almost perfect. I just wish I was
a) a better painter
b) able to get that spray (and possibly in potted form)
I really have to learn how to control sprays, but they always end up too thick.
I know you have posted about possible mixes to create this color (Ice Blue + a hint of Scorpion Green/Hawkeye Turquoise I believe it was?), but I'm conveniently uncomfortable with mixing. I used it on my Grey Knights, but I never got good with them, if that makes sense. ANYWAYS, point is: Do you have any idea if it is any easier to mix this with the new GW line? I'd assume not, but I guess it doesn't hurt too much to try as Google has failed me.
Oh, and an actually constructive point. I think it would look great to have an awe inspiring glyph on the Farseer/Hunter helmet to kind of make her pop.
If I hadn't painted so many Dark Eldar mini's before in this way I'd probably be thinking I'd screwed up the paint job at this point . Shiny teal speckled with gray, accented with purplish brown and golden brown doesn't exactly sound like a winning color combination.
@Xethik: I haven't actually tried ANY of the new GW colors so I can't help you there ! I'll consider the glyph, but I'm leaning towards painting the helmet to match the rest of my Reavers.
@Gitsplitta: I've found that one thing about this scheme that I'm appreciating more and more is that it gives me more time to spend on converting models (which I actually like more than painting). The fact that the scheme works at least decently well on most things means that I don't have to stress about painting stuff.
@Vitruvian XVII:Maybe it has hit 88mph and turbo-boosted Back to the Future .
Jon,
I wouldn't expect you to even consider doing what I said unless you were in love with it. You're here to record your army WIP to inspire and help people by answering questions (and maybe get some constructive criticism), not appease them by doing what they want!
Anyways, I think at this point, the "Farseer" stands out enough, with the spear and the special bike. I really love the motion on the model; it really looks like it is zooming forward with the "hair" on the helmet and the scrolls or whatever you call them on the shoulders.
Keep up the beautiful army and good work!
Worship the Goddess of Speed!
You mean Nike? Um, then Worship the Goddess of the Hunt!
You mean Artemis,Diana,Neith or someone else? Mistress of the Spear?
That sounds a bit like a Wheel of Time reject. Anyway, the most important thing is that we have a good looking miniature here that I'm really happy with !
Wait come to think of it, isn't the Huntress a Batman character?
The professional photoshoot session for the entire Kabal of the Drowned Gardens (about 3000 pts now) for has been confirmed for this Thursday!
If you'd like some higher res photos from the session, or if you just want to show your support for this thread, please consider making a small donation towards this effort!
Or you could also consider it a birthday present for me since my birthday's this Friday !
Here are the donation links again to make supporting easy:
Push this button to donate $5 and I will email you high resolution (or at least as high as the camera takes it) digital copies of a few of the full army photos.
Push this button to donate $10and I will email you all the photos I choose to keep from the photo-shoot.
@Xethik: I may not take up everyone's suggestions but I definitely appreciate all of them since they often give me ideas for later models.
So, the 3200pt Kabal of the Drowned Gardens photoshoot took place last night and I thought I'd post a couple teasers while the main photos are being processed. A huge thank you to Fun Atelier, my local FLGS here in Hong Kong, for letting me stay very late after hours to use their gaming space as a photo studio. We were there from about 8pm until midnight yesterday!
I hope to get the raw images in this weekend, but it may take a week or so for me to post the actual photos because there's a bunch of photo-shopping to be done by the photographer. Stay tuned !
The Kabalites put on their costumes, do makeup etc. in their cardboard dressing rooms :
Here's the FLGS gaming area with all the tables folded up and shoved aside to make room for the photographer!
@Gitsplitta: Thanks Gitsplitta!
@Gutsnagga: Glad you like this thread! Correct on my Reavers! There are also some more photos of my stuff on the GW Facebook page. Nothing that isn’t already here though.
@elliot the black Templar: Feel free to introduce your friend to this thread!
@borneo424: Thanks! I’m looking into getting some Eldar allies.
kitch102 wrote:Very excited to see the final results, I bet you are too huh? Would love to see what you'd do with Eldar allies too, if I could subscribe to this thread for a second time, I Would.
I've been checking my email constantly . I've got some thoughts about Eldar allies but that's for a later post since I'm still working things out.
asmodai650 wrote:Looking forward to seeing those photos! Jon, the gaming tables at your FLGS, do they convert from 4x4 to 4x6? Do you know where your FLGS owner got them?
The tables were custom built here in Hong Kong. If you pull the two sides of the tabletops out a middle section rises up to expand the table to 4x6. It's really convenient because when the store's not busy everyone can have a bit more room. I'm not a huge fan of the bright green but I think there weren't too many color options available for durable and easy to clean tabletops. Fortunately the local community has built a wide variety of alternative surfaces that we can lay on top of the tables when we're playing 40k. The Fantasy guys don't seem to mind the lime green fields of war however .
So credit where credit is due, these miniatures have been inspired by many similar "Island of Blood Rat Ogre to Grotesque" conversions by artists here on Dakka and elsewhere. I really, really like how the Rat Ogre and Talos parts look together and much prefer the conversions over the stock GW model. That being said, it took surprisingly long for me to work out the posing for the models because the Rat Ogres actually have a more restrictive stance than I had at first thought! In particular, the cable on the Rat Ogre with an upraised "punch dagger" arm is a challenge to incorporate. I finally decided to stick it into the bottom of the hook arm by using a cable from a spare liquifier gun.
I'm particularly pleased with the tentacled Grotesque, because halfway through the conversion it was looking really awkward. But after a few hours of noodling around with adjustments, most importantly adding the "drug pods" to the four-tentacled arm, I somehow managed to pull the whole look together.
I'm going to work my way towards building 5 to 10 of these guys but a lot will depend on how reasonably I can get the necessary bits for the conversions.
The photoshoot photos are coming along, I've just been having trouble choosing which ones I want to keep and send on for Photoshopping .
Speaking from experience, you ideally want the Grotesques in squads of 3-4 in raiders (or Squads of 10 out of the WWP / walking, though I haven't tested on-foot in 6th yet)
The Raider gives them the speed to get into the fight and either smash or tarpit something quickly, before getting shot all to hell.
Mechanicum Jon wrote:So credit where credit is due, these miniatures have been inspired by many similar "Island of Blood Rat Ogre to Grotesque" conversions by artists here on Dakka and elsewhere. I really, really like how the Rat Ogre and Talos parts look together and much prefer the conversions over the stock GW model. That being said, it took surprisingly long for me to work out the posing for the models because the Rat Ogres actually have a more restrictive stance than I had at first thought! In particular, the cable on the Rat Ogre with an upraised "punch dagger" arm is a challenge to incorporate. I finally decided to stick it into the bottom of the hook arm by using a cable from a spare liquifier gun.
I'm particularly pleased with the tentacled Grotesque, because halfway through the conversion it was looking really awkward. But after a few hours of noodling around with adjustments, most importantly adding the "drug pods" to the four-tentacled arm, I somehow managed to pull the whole look together.
I'm going to work my way towards building 5 to 10 of these guys but a lot will depend on how reasonably I can get the necessary bits for the conversions.
The photoshoot photos are coming along, I've just been having trouble choosing which ones I want to keep and send on for Photoshopping .
They look great. My only concern is that if you try and make so many out of the same 1 base models they are going to start looking very cookie-cutter, even if you do have different weapon attachments. I've not compared them, but how do the standard Rat Ogre models match up to the IoB ones in terms of bulk and size?
@Ovion: I'm thinking of sticking a counts-as Karandras in the squad to give them the ability to deal with Terminators and Dreadnoughts. Unfortunately GW has ruled that you cannot assault out of WWP's now so that option's non-viable. Four Grots in a Raider or Ten on foot seem to be the best choices now. Karandras is somewhat vulnerable to a new Eldar Codex coming out next year so I'll probably hold off on him for now though.
@Gitsplitta: I really have all the other people who did this first to thank for the idea!
@warpcrafter: I was actually considering putting a lot more tentacles on all over it's body but I couldn't quite figure out how to integrate them.
@CalasTyphon216: Should be a fun unit. However, just like Ogryns, I wish they had the option to take a powerfist in the squad to allow for HULK SMASH moments.
@kitch102: Oi, quit stealing my stolen goods!
@endtransmission: I thought of that but I'm really not a fan of the "normal" rat ogre sculpts. Which brings me to:
@SlaveToDorkness: YES! I totally forgot about that one! Thanks for reminding me. The only problem is that they're sold out in all the bitz sites I can find. I've put a bid in for one on ebay but that's always chancy. Anybody have a spare one lying around?
I was at a bit of a loss on what to do with the big flat areas of "fur" on the Rat Ogre models so I tried painting on a fur pattern to give the area some added texture. Came out looking pretty good I think! The toughest part of painting this guy so far has actually been the attachment points for the metal wires on the tentacles. I love the Cronos tentacle bits but painting them can get tedious .
Just Dave and Foolish_Hyena are correct on Phoenix Lords due to the exact wording in Codex Eldar, Page 54, "Phoenix Lords cannot join Aspect Warrior squads that are not of their Aspect."
I finished painting the first big guy! And promptly bought six more Island of Blood Rat Ogres off ebay for conversions! We'll see if I can manage to make them all unique .
@Gitsplitta: Can't require nearly as much patience as your dedication to painting checks on all your Orks !
@Urien_Rakarth: I like the competitive attitude shown by that "..yet."
@Yggdrasil: Welcome back! Your newest horrors are looking great!
Awesome stuff Jon, as usual your scheme when applied to any mini in your DE force just pops will a vibrant malice I haven't seen elsewhere on the web! you have managed a great colour for the flesh tones and the scarring in particular is nicely done as well as the painted fur, not the easiest of things to do with a flat surface! I really am looking forward with anticipation to see your next one looks like..... and all the others!
Fantastic work Jon (man I sound like a broken record). I need to come up with some kind of new accolade to describe you work. How about... "I used your work as a major part of the inspiration for painting my son's Necrons and they're turning out bloody fantastic!"
Very well done Jon, your paint scheme triumphs again. Not only have you found awesome ways to use the Taloii bitz on the Rat Ogres but your paint job has solved the one question about the next phase in my own conversions, namely, would the fur need to be GS'ed over to look more fleshy or would it work fine as is.
Here's the second Grotesque fully basecoated. I did this one completely flat for a change with no weathering, washes or highlights yet just to see what it would look like.
@Nerdfest09: “Vibrant Malice” gives me an idea for a “Visit Commorragh” tourism campaign, among the many attractions featured in adverts and banners would be:
"The Drowned Gardens: Vibrant Malice"
@Gitsplitta: As someone who is a very slow and reluctant writer I actually really admire your ability to keep up a steady rhythm of cogent posts, not just in your own threads, but in many other people’s. It’s about all I can do to keep up with my own thread and still have time to paint !
@SlaveToDorkness: It doesn’t show up in the pictures but I actually repainted the “staples” with Boltgun Metal once I was done with the washes exactly for the reason you mentioned.
@MrMerlin: But how about lightly battered and deep fried with a squirt of lemon and some tartar sauce on the side? Or maybe I just feel like eating some fried Calamari right now…
@monkeyh: The bruising is particularly fun to do because you get such a great effect for very little effort! It’s just washes thickened slightly with paints.
@Dark_Gear: I also had a hard time figuring out what to do with the furry parts because of the strange flat parts. I’m glad the painted on texture worked out. In fluff terms, if anyone asks why they’re so furry I’ll say that they used to be Space Wolves .
@Foo: They've got to earn that free pain token somehow!
Presenting Grot #2 for your viewing pleasure. Watch out for this one's wicked left hook . I'm also putting a general request out for Talos arm bits if anyone has some spare ones lying around to donate. I can see myself running out fast and the bits sites are mostly out of stock as well.
@nerdfest09: Most "tours" of Commorragh are free. The problem is most "visitors" didn't choose to go (on the end of a chain snare) .
As beautiful as a gen enhanced killing machine could be! I love the crazed wounded shoulder it looks brilliant! can't wait to see more of the likes of him and his ilk!
This has been a long time coming, so without further ado, here's the The Kabal of the Drowned Gardens in all its glory! It's an amazing feeling to be looking over about a year and a half of painting and modeling effort and seeing the result. I figured out that since I painted 122 models in that time, it works out to be about one model every 5 days (of real time, not painting time)!
I've have a bunch more photos to sort out but I figured everyone would like to see something ASAP ! This army has been (and still is) my favorite hobby project ever! I still think it was incredibly lucky that I managed to work out a color scheme that is both fun to paint and looks good on the tabletop. Many, many thanks to all of you in the Dakka community who have provided tremendous amounts of motivation in this thread! The points cost for the army here is a minimum worked out on a purely WYSIWYG basis as a legal 6th edition army.
Before I forget to admit it, the style of the photo and text were shamelessly ripped off Gitsplitta's Mantis Warrior thread. In my defense, he's made off with my color scheme for his son's Necrons !
I'll have much more commentary on the army this week as I start uploading more photos! A huge thanks to everyone who donated to fund the photoshoot, I'll be sending out the high res photos to you later this week!
This army is what other Dark Eldar players aspire to. You have my props, sir: this collection is a testament to your hard effort and dedication, and it is damn beautiful to look at.
Well done Jon, seeing a labor of love bought to life with beautiful pictures is worth every effort, blood drop and tear you shed bringing them to us! and judging by the comments throughout the build so far they've felt like we've watched our very own force grow over the months! I can't wait to see what you can lavish upon us next!
again, great job you should very deservedly feel proud as punch!
Quick question for you Jon. Now that you've had your Hellions all complete for a few months, how do you find transporting them? Have any of them come apart from their skyboard?
If given the chance, (and the patience ) would you magnetise them to the skyboards or are you happy with having glued them to their boards once they were painted?
Everybody who supported the photoshoot donation drive should have some high-resolution goodness to look at now! I just sent the full sets of photos out today. The set of 25 photos is over 50mb (i.e. you can zoom waaaaaaaaay in to see all the details! Please let me know ASAP if you didn't get the photos so I can try another method of sending them.
If anyone would like the set of photos I'm still taking contributions. 10 dollars and you'll get the full set in thanks, 5 dollars and you'll get a selection of 4 shots. Send me a PM if you're a super-fan and would like to show your support ! I'll be putting more photos up in this thread tomorrow but they'll be in a slightly more conservative resolution .
Habitual readers of this thread may have noticed that the pace of updates has dropped a bit recently. This has nothing to do with 40k and everything to do with Civilization III. I had never played a Civ game in my life and bought Civ III during the Steam Summer Sale. Civ III instead of one of the new ones because my PC can't handle the newer ones. I didn't quite believe all the people who said that Civ is incredibly addicting because you always want to play "just one more turn." Then I started playing and found out that it's even more addictive that I was led to believe. I may have put 50+ hours into that game over the past two weeks in lieu of sleeping. But fortunately I think that I've got it under control now after playing two and a half complete games so look forward to more frequent updates again !
@Lord of Nonsensical Crap, Gitsplitta, nerdfest09, Foo, Urien_Rakarth, disel24, monkeyh: Thanks x1,000,000 ! I'm actually just as pleased with this Dakka thread as I am with the army. I'm not sure if I'm capable of explaining the feeling. I've been lurking in Dakka for over a decade and have always only taken inspiration and advice from the site. It's kind of surprising, and really cool, that I now find myself in a position where I 'm contributing something people find worthwhile and seem to follow regularly .
@Dark_Gear: I actually haven't transported the Hellions much because they're on display at the shop! In general I'd say that I'm less worried about them coming off their skyboards than the Hellglaives breaking off. I've actually replaced and repainted a couple weapon arms because that way easier than trying to pin them. Afraid that I can't give any useful advice since so far I've pretty much dodged the transport issue.
Your donation dollars at work! My shipment of Isle of Blood Rat Ogres arrived a few days ago and I've been starting to work on them. I've got ideas for four of these but am still trying to come up with ideas for the other two. Any off the wall suggestions? I'm already considering doing one up with some Tyranid bits. Particularly the crushing claws from the Tervigon kit.
And I've held out and haven't played Civ III all day today...yet .
Really nice Rat Ogres man! Love the bruising effects and the scarring.
Have you tried using lightning claws as powerfists for these critters or something? I mean, i can easily picture one of these rippinbg apart a termie-smurf and stealing his arms to enhance his wrists
Good to hear you've finally discovered the joys of Civ3. I'm also a long time addict of Sid Meier's games but my favourite has to be Alpha Centauri, which is even older. The wealth of strategic and tactical options in that game as just mind-boggling since you actually get to terraform the planet to make land bridges to an opponent's continent or sink your opponent's cities by lowering surrounding terrain.
As for the hellions, every little bit of feedback helps so thanks.
Regarding your Grotesques, I'd see what I could do create some more dynamic poses, such a leaping Grotesque, both fists above his head in a "Hulk smash incoming" type of pose. Also, depending on how you plan on ferrying them across the field, maybe building one that has a grasping hand that looks like it's either crushing a skull or holding onto the a Raider's side rails would look cool. All you'd have to do is magnetise him to his base so you could use him as a transport token and a squad member at the same time.
Old School Terminator did some rather nice Grotesques over at Dark Future Gaming some time ago. While they are mostly converted from different models than Rat Ogres, these might still give you a couple of good ideas:
You're getting a lot of cool suggestions there Jon.
Hope you don't if I steal for your inspiration. What with the Dark Eldar Corpse Cart in progress I'm realising I'll have to sculpt a few Raider Grotesques to tie the whole piece together and these extra will definitely do the trick.
Wow, a lot of great Grot suggestions are coming in! I'll be looking and responding to them in detail but first I need to switch back to posting more photos from the photoshoot. Also, thanks to Gitsplitta for his recent contribution !
You can zoom in quite a lot into these photos to see more of the details.
Here's the whole Kabal again taken from a higher angle with some "mood" lighting.
Some angled shots, I really like how these show off the models:
Some Drowned Gardens HQ Elites and Troops:
Some Drowned Gardens Fast Attack:
The Razorwing Jetfighter (in evil Comorragh lighting):
Finally, my favorite photo, Suvarsara and her Talos. All this photo needs to be perfect is a good Metal soundtrack (I'd recommend the one from Brutal Legend) . Actually, some good Metal would improve just about anything, excuse me while I visit Youtube...
Thanks for posting a sampler of the series. The pics really came out looking fantastic. Sara and her "Pet" are becoming worked on for a new background.
Do any of you write out longer posts in a word processor before you post them? I should probably copy my posts into Word once I've got a fair bit of text written so I don't lose the post if the computer decides to crash .
I'll retype the commentary on the Grotesque conversion process in a future post, but for now enjoy the WIP progress shot. I'm strongly leaning towards giving the "knuckle-dragging" Grot some Scourge bat wings. Mainly because it reminds me of the "Winged Ape" monster from Chrono Trigger!
@Dark-Gear: I'd be interested in this image when you're done!
@Gitsplitta & Foo: Thanks! It was really surprising how tricky it is to take nice whole army photos!
@Arakasi: I'll be taking some brighter and "flatter" images of the army at some point in the next few months so look forward to that .
Jon, you're doing a pretty damn good job making the Grots individual considering the static nature of the originals! they each look excellent and i can't wait to see the whole squad painted up, it'll look epic!
I got sucked back into Civ III for more than a few hours . A word of advice, do not play Civ III intensively and then try to go to sleep. I ended up lying awake in bed with my thoughts running wild about the astounding majesty of human endeavor (i.e. Civ gets me high or something). I distinctly remember thinking to myself, "holy f*ck, the Industrial Revolution, that was only two hundred years ago. Two hundred years for all that, two hundred, wow."
@nerdfest: The Rat Ogre models have ended up being a bit more restrictive in their posing than I had first thought, but I think I've worked out enough posed for the squad now.
@Eggroll: I'd love to have a Red VS Blue match up against your Blood Angels someday!
@KrautScientist: Why thank you sir, I've never won an internet before. On the topic of games, if I had the choice for one game to get a really good total remake or sequel it would either be Chrono Trigger or Skies of Arcadia. Chrono Cross unfortunately doesn't fall in the "really good" category .
@prototype_X: It's the "angry" face-mask that really completes the effect.
@whalemusic360: I love the examples KrautScientist linked earlier in this thread. The Minotaur models give off a great "hulking slab of flesh" vibe. But like I said, I underestimated how hard it would be to get unique poses out of the Rat Ogres. Still, I think the squad gains a nice coherent look by using the same base models. I'd want the squad to either be consistent (as I have it now) or be made up of completely different base models to create a more chaotic look.
@KrautScientist: Why thank you sir, I've never won an internet before. On the topic of games, if I had the choice for one game to get a really good total remake or sequel it would either be Chrono Trigger or Skies of Arcadia. Chrono Cross unfortunately doesn't fall in the "really good" category
Ah, Skies of Arcadia! What a fun ride that was! The game really gave me a vibe quite similar to Chrono Trigger, as a matter of fact. The early Grandias also count. On a related note, if you liked Skies of Arcadia, give Valkyria Chronicles a try: It was done by the same team and it even features Vyse, Aika and Fina. It's a completely different genre, though, but easily one of my favourite games. Oh, and Chrono Cross can be really enjoyable too, if taken on its own merits and not as "Chrono Trigger 2".
Ahem, sorry, back to topic: Another great option for converting Grotesques are the Vargheists/Crypt Horrors! Logan did a really nice proof of concept here.
I'm really pleased with this whole conversion. The concept is that this Grotesque is one method for a Haemonculus to "stress test" freshly grown wings for Scourges. The idea being that if the wings are probably good to go if they can survive a battle on the back of an over-muscled flesh golem on a berserk rampage. Particularly when the Haemonculus has decided to amuse itself by giving the Grotesque the strong urge to fly along with wings that are just a bit too small to actually do anything. I can just picture this mob of Grotesques with one in the back that keeps jumping up and down, furiously flapping its wings and getting angrier and angrier . I would not want to be the poor enemy squad that this Grotesque decides to take out its frustrations on.
It took me at least two hours to work out a position for the wings that I liked. Sanding, pinning, gluing and ripping them off to try it all again several times really ate up the hours. That's why I'm amazed that the conversion came out looking so clean, the photos almost look like a CG render!
@KrautScientist: I thought about Vargheists but decided that I liked the much bulkier, armored look of the Rat Ogres more. Logan's conversion is incredible however ! I doubt this is true for many people, but for me, Valkyria Chronicles was actually the "killer app" system seller for the PS3 ! It's a huge shame that Valkyria Chronicles 3 looks like it won't get an English version. But at least that made me put the three years of Japanese I took in college to good use!
Whoa, that Grotesque really looks like the bigger brother of that winged ape in Chrono Trigger! Great job! The connection to the torso also looks really smooth. Excellent!
Oh, and I totally agree about Valkyria Chronicles! Defintely a killer app! I also loved the sequel: While certainly less opulent than the first installment, and frought with obvious high-school animé clichés, I found it to be a well-paced and even somewhat addictive experience...dang, drifting off topic again...
Nice! My favourite of your grotesques so far, I can't wait to see it painted.
If you want to, I think painting in some veins on the wings would look great, to give it a more fleshy/operated on/haemonculi look.
Here's a quick and somewhat haphazard masking job to get the blue sprayed on in roughly the right areas. It also has the benefit of making this Grot look like it's on its way to a toga party. For some reason peeling masking tape off post-spray is still one of the most satisfying modeling activities I know of.
I'm really not sure what color to paint the wings yet. I was leaning towards painting them like my flying rippers but veins as suggested by Gutsnagga sound cool as well. We'll see how I feel after a bit more time rummaging around online for inspiration.
Yeah I'm not sure that the 'spotty' wings as seen on your rippers would suit these larger wings, unless you could make them look scaled. Perhaps the veined look will be less time consuming and ultimately detract less from the face of the model, which is where you want the focus drawn to
Thanks for the suggestions on the wings! I went for a hybrid between the spotty and veined look, with the veins being dominant. I think it's come out much better than if I had gone with the ripper swarm colors! Having the wings the same general color as the Grotesque's skin ties them in better by making them look like they could have grown out of its back. I'd like to do another with wings that are just "sprouting" so I may cannibalize some ripper or bat swarm wings.
These wings may be the creepiest things I've ever painted . The photo understates the shading so it might not be that noticeable, but I've shaded the wings a bit more so they don't look as "flat."
Wow Jon, that is spot on mate! excellent shades for the flesh and you've bloody nailed the veins throughout without going into too busy territory! looks vile, creepy, and realistic so you've succeeded hands down, would be kind of interesting to see one with skin all done like that? almost translucent as if he's suffering a side effect etc....?
I haven't posted in almost two weeks! But I guess playing 36 hours of Terraria would sort of have to cut into hobby time . I've always been a sucker for 2D Metroid/Castlevania style games. And in this one you also get to build Minecraft style structures in addition to fighting off goblin invasions and screen spanning bosses!
But getting back on topic. This Grot is really shaping up nicely. I'm a bit worried that it's looking a bit too "fleshy" now that I see the wings together with the skin but I've got a feeling it'll be fine once I get the skin bruised up properly. If not, I'll consider giving parts of the wings a purple wash.
@nerdfest09: That would look really cool, but I think I would go nuts trying to paint even vaguely anatomically correct veins all over a model !
@Dirronjay: My flying models are based on normal GW flying bases, look earlier in the thread for tutorials on how I made them (basically they're made by breaking up slabs of putty, drilling holes in them, and stacking them onto the flying base)..
suitably nasty and Grotesque Jon! I think perhaps a slight wash on the wings will help differentiate? speaking of the wings, what's your method for the veins and skin again? after looking at your grots i bought a friend of mine a Hellbrute that i'm going to paint up for him and I plan on using the pale veiny skin look on him! you make it look soooo good! :-)
Not sure how it would affect / if it would wreck the paint, but the wings actually look like they might let it take off (not that high, but certainly for a good 5-10 feet of lift ) and I can't help but feel that heating the ankles and angling the feet down a little, and having it mounted on a flying stalk coming up between its legs might look quite good, and intimidating, in a hulking death from above kind of way....
Ah Terraria- the hobby-killer. I succumbed to that about a week and a half ago, myself xD
Absolutely Amazing work. Im in love with the weathered turquoise color. I think the Grotesque looks great as is- no need for any real major changes, although Im very interested in how the bruising turns out!
This Grot's done! But, I've run out of 40mm bases so that'll have to wait. I'm thinking of waiting until I have a couple more Grots painted and then base them all at once. Mainly because it's tough keeping the colors on the bases looking consistent when I do them one by one.
I eventually did go with a light purple wash on the undersides of the wings. It doesn't show up in the photo too well but it really helps differentiate the wings (as nerfest09 observed). I've also found the fur texture to be a really neat effect that's relatively easy to do.
Ovion's idea on bending the feet was tempting to try out. It would give a bit more visual interest to the squad to have one higher up. But ultimately I was a bit too worried that I'd mess up the pose, break the wings off or accomplish something else equally disastrous .
On another note, I find myself being really excited to see the new Chaos Codex. Not because I especially want to collect Chaos Space Marines but because it opens up a whole bunch more modeling opportunities to create some proxy Haemonculi Coven constructs!
@Moltar: Thanks for acting as a (working) Siri for this thread! I'm sure Gitsplitta has this problem x10 but I sometimes think that if this thread gets much longer most of my posts will be page references telling people where to find stuff !
@Ramos Asura: I finally managed to detach myself from Terraria only to find myself stuck fast to the recently released FTL, "a spaceship simulation real-time roguelike-like ."
@MeatShield: Thanks !
@Foo: To quote Stephen King: "People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy... and I keep it in a jar on my desk . "
Also, I'm not sure if it was mentioned earlier, but in the photo on the previous page with the three WIP Grots, the one on the left looks like he's playing a mad air guitar solo.
Simple but effective. I knew I wanted a Grot with a Talos blade but just couldn't figure out what to pair it with. The answer turned out to be another blade. Surely two gigantic cleavers are better than one!
I'm reworking the other two unpainted Grotesque conversions slightly. I'm much happier with how they look now, but the greenstuff and putty is still drying and in need of sanding so pics will be up a bit later.
Really liking how freakishly, well, freakish your Grots are becoming. The wings in particular are very well done and quite fitting. If you keep up the quality of work you'll need to devise a suitably souped up Raider to carry the Emo meatheads.
Eye of Error posted up a great conversion a few days that might stir up some ideas for you as well.
More images can be found on his blog if you're interested (as I don't want to highjack your thread, just inspire).
The over-sized Crushing Claw actually looks great! When I received the Crushing Claw bits in the mail I was surprised that they turned out to be slightly bigger than I had inferred from the pictures online. I've had them sitting on my desk for weeks, occasionally trying out poses, but generally thinking I'd have to write-off the conversion and come up with something else for my seventh Grotesque. The claws were simply too big, to the point of looking comical. But the idea of a Haemonculi trying to graft Tyranid parts onto a "research specimen" was too compelling to let go. Especially since it fit in so well with my Kabal's interest in Tyranids, complementing my Beastmaster squad. So I put a couple more hours into the conversion this morning, and thanks to some inspiration from Hellboy and some Fiddler Crabs, I've come up with a model I'm really excited to paint.
This is a rough initial assembly of the model before the greenstuff goes on. I'm also planning to implant a whole bunch of the little Talos drug pods into this thing. Mainly because without some serious drug induced distortions of bodily processes I can't imagine any result other than catastrophic transplant rejection.
Now a request for reader creativity:
What color should I paint the Tyranid parts?
I'd be grateful for any suggestions as I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with something that looks good yet fits in with my army's color scheme.
@Dark_Gear: Thanks for the blog recommendation, there is some amazing stuff on there. I had actually found it before but hadn't checked it out for a couple months. That method for enlarging Raider sails is brilliant. I'm struggling with the temptation to go back and redo a couple of mine.
Hey John, I'm happy to share the wealth of ideas floating out there. There's just so much great work it's hard to find it all.
Ragarding that Grot with the Crushing Claw, I'm liking the fiddler crab vibe going on but he seems rather unbalanced and static. Have you thought of maybe reposing him so that it looks likes he's dragging the claw behind him, kinda like he's winding up before landing a very heavy swing?
Colour-wise, keep them muted for the fleshy bits but the chitinous armour plates on the two clans could be bright contrasting colour, based on a triad of the colour wheel as shown here on Colour Scheme Designer. So in this case, I'd say bright red or "wing vein red" claw with randomised dots of orange towards the edges.
Good question... Again, neutral would be good I guess, but hell VERY DARK PURPLE OR TURQUIOSE. I dunnow. Love it tho! Maybe a sickly green? granite? deep black?
Great work on the next Grotesque models! It's really nice how you make all of them look so different, even though they're using the same two base models over and over!
I guess it depends upon how much you want to lampshade the fact that they are Tyranid parts. You could go with established Tyranid colour schemes, as suggested, to show how the Haemonculi had been grafting on Tyranid limbs. Or you could use your usual paints (i.e. Turquoise for the parts that are recognisably carapace/armour, fleshy colours for - well - the fleshy parts and bone or black or metal for the actual "blades"). That way, the Tyranid parts would look more like something the Haemonculi had genetically engineered themselves. I think I would prefer that option to introducing completely unrelated colour schemes into your models.
The Grots are looking great jon, the way you have managed to vary the poses from such static models is testamount to your skills! and they each look fantastic and very nasty! if you want my 2cents then I would like to see the nid bits in muted natural colours akin to what you would see on crabs usually found on or near the beach in rock pools etc.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, and i tried the vein technique on my mates Hellbrute! worked out pretty different to what yours looks like but still not bad, he's now named the HellScrote! for obvious reasons if you see him!
It feels really satisfying to get back to painting after some time off ! Being busy at work meant that I hadn't been able to get much hobby time for over a week!
Here are the Grots with the basecoats done and ready for all the fun detail work to begin. Except for the mask on the first Grot which I painted a few stages ahead first. I wanted to see whether the Cronos mask worked and whether I needed to switch it out for a Talos mask to be consistent with the rest of the squad. After seeing it painted, I like the way it ties in with the various glass vials on the model so it's staying .
@Gitsplitta: Thanks!
@KrautScientist: Converting the same models multiple times has been interesting because I've started getting familiar enough with the models to have a good idea what will and won't look right before actually do it.
@nerdfest09: Your Hellbrute is an unnatural fleshy monstrosity! Looks great !
Small bits of progress this weekend. I painted and weathered the copper parts of the models over the brown basecoat and also put some time into the fur. No pics yet since these aren't huge changes.
I would have done more but succumbed to XCOM: Enemy Unknown .
@Gitsplitta: I've been putting these two in the same box with the other three I've painted to keep the dust off them. They already look pretty good together as a squad despite the varying stages of painting and basing.
@Urien_Rakarth: My free time is under serious strain right now being stretched between wanting to see these Grots done and saving the world in XCOM .
Mechanicum Jon wrote: Quick Christmas Eve update before the festivities. I ordered a PACK Air case from Battlefoam during the Black Friday Sale (shipping fees for bulky items to Hong Kong are pretty rough otherwise) but it''s taken me a month to settle on exactly what I wanted. I've heard that you can just send them your model traces and that they would take case of it but playing with the tray creator was kind of fun.
I just sent an email with the details of my order in, so fingers crossed that they can do this. If it works I'll have managed to fit a whole 2000 point tournament army, plus an extra 200 points or so to swap out, into a case that can be carried onto a plane. That's including 12 vehicles (3 Venoms, 6 Raiders and 3 Ravagers)! It doesn't hold everything I've got but sometime down the line I'll be getting separate trays for my Hellions and Reavers to swap in and out.
Thought some of you might find these tray designs to be useful references, keeping in mind that I've gone for larger cutouts than is usual because of my bulkier bases.
Merry Christmas!
Hey Jon could you post a pic of your beastmaster units in the foam? I'm doing something very similar to what you did. Thanks
Finished up these two Grots! Well actually they still need a matt spray varnish and some gloss on the glass parts, but close enough to done for a post ! I'll base these two guys as well as the winged one before I take some better photos of the squad of five all together.
The fur was the most time consuming area to paint, but the back shot shows that the effect came out nicely! I'm thinking about giving the glass mask a bit of a bolder green highlight.
@Squigsquasher: That was my first thought, but the problem is that the flesh on my Rippers is blue and it would get confused with the armoured bits.
@Dahlberg66: I think there's a zoomed out shot of all the trays with mini's in them a bit later in the thread. My mini's are in the FLGS and my trays are at home so no promises for a better photo yet.
@Urien_Rakarth: I messed around playing tray tetris for way too long .
Those look tremendous Jon. Something about the way you've done the fur... the very crisp black edges against the skin color... then brought up to white (or nearly so). Very nice.
Replace "alive" with "painted" and dub some echoing evil overlord laughter in and you'll have a pretty accurate representation of what I was thinking while I was lining up the Grotesques for the photos . I've put more time into this squad than I have into any other five models, but I really think it's been worth the effort! Can't wait to get them on the table smashing things to bits !
WOW just WOW Jon, freakin' amazing dude! that shot of them all together is brilliant! if you need any more cash for more pics hit me up! i'd love to have a pic of them like that with front and back in poster size hanging in the Nerd Bunker! you have done an outstanding job on all of them! with such static poses you have changed them so dynamically and honestly they look better than the GW Grots by about 600% my favorite is the tentacle grot! man if he came after me I'd shoot myself!
Didn't realise before but your wings half cover up the skaven scar in the winged one. It looks much better now, doesn't look like a scaven symbol, but still nice and gory =)
Lovely stuff, have been following the whole process intently. You've combined two of my favorite models from the last couple years - talos + BfSP rogres - and come up with some fantastic results
Brought the Grots down to the game store today to put in the display cabinet and they got a really good response ! Didn't manage to get a game in since I hadn't scheduled one and there wasn't anyone up for a pickup, but I'll hopefully get one in soon.
@nerdfest09: Thanks, I obviously prefer these to the GW one as well. I've heard rumors that we're going to get a box with different poses but I'm pretty confident that I'll still be happy with mine ! If you'd like some higher-res copies of these photos send me a PM with the email you'd like them sent to. Of course any contributions to the Drowned Gardens will be much appreciated as well!
@Two Spartan: That was an unexpected benefit.
@Foo: GREAT!
@Gitsplitta: Got a few more coming up!
@Boss Salvage: Thanks, the Talos and Rogres (love that contraction) are some of my favorite models as well!
Sometimes getting into character as a narcissistic Dark Eldar Archon prone to occasionally searching for his forum handle on Google really pays off! In this case, I found this extremely complementary article Old School Terminator wrote about this army on Dark Future Games which instantly made my day:
Aside from the copious amounts of praise, what I found to be really motivating was the fact that he had clearly taken a good look at the miniatures and appreciated all the work that I had put into the details. Anyway I'd better quit gloating before I get even more of a swelled head, so that's it for today !
Just so this isn't entirely self-congratulatory, a quick note on the grots. I've converted the final member of the squad who is armed with a liquifier gun. I'm currently working on the greenstuffing for that Grot as well as the two others (The Crab and The Cleaver). Photos soon!
This Isle of Blood Rat Ogre to Liquifier Gun Grotesque is the Grotesque conversion that I've seen most often on the Internet and is also the conversion that inspired me to use Rat Ogres as a base. The tubes, the little shoulder "boiler," and overall pose work so well together with the Talos Liquifier Gun bits. So while I briefly considered trying something unique, I eventually went with path of least resistance converting . This is the last Grotesque I'll be converting for a while as it brings the Grotesque count up to eight. I can run them either as one big "Grotstar" on foot or two slightly more nimble troubleshooter squads in Raiders. Time to get painting then!
@Yggdrasil: Thanks! This blog really helps me get a lot more modeling done since I know that if I just play videogames in my free time I'll have nothing to post !
@Casey's Law: Good to see you here again ! I'm still the friendly Internet hobbyist you know and love !
I love your conversions Jon. I enjoy them so much that I've been using them in my dakka fluff. I may have to make some drowning garden references, if you're okay with that.
Jon he looks wicked as usual! and thanks for the pics! ;-) have you thought about using the new mutants from the chaos warshrine as Grots? suitably bloated with a good chemical feel to them, you could sink a mask into the bullish neck and go nuts!
@nerdfest09: Great idea on the warshrine mutants, it never occurred to me! Those would make perfect Aberrations. I immediately looked on bits sites for them but no one seems to be stocking them yet. I’ll keep an eye out on ebay.
@IceAngel: So what you’re telling me that you’re writing Drowned Gardens fanfiction ? Just make sure we don’t suddenly become buddies with Ultramarines or fist bump any Blood Angels !
Automatically Appended Next Post: Quick picture of the three newest Grots undercoated and ready for paint. The white undercoat shows off the models better than the bare plastic to give you a better idea of how the conversions look before paint.
So, here's the carapace color I've come up with after spending a couple hours looking through insect, crustacean and Tyranid photos for ideas. I was seriously tempted to use the hive fleet Leviathan scheme but I felt that the purple clashed a bit too much with the turquoise. This scheme quite a bit more naturalistic and echos the army's main colors. Right now I'm thinking that the actual "pincers" of the claw will be bone colored and the fleshy bits will be a pale pinkish color. So, does this sound like it would work ?
Oh, and colors used were:
Vallejo - Turquoise, Light Turquoise & Ice Yellow
Citadel - Chaos Black
The carapace definitely looks good, but I think its overall impact on the model will depend on how much other parts of it will be given your turquoise treatment. Too much turquoise may detract from the overall look of the model.
I'm really pleased to have gotten the Grotesques onto the tabletop last night. They did okay :
Top of Turn 1: Shrug off shooting with the help of night fight.
Bottom of Turn 1: Try to charge 6 Nurgling Swarms that landed in front of them. Roll five inches for the charge and just fail to get in .
Top of Turn 2: Nurglings form a roadblock in front of the Grotesques.
Bottom of Turn 2: Charge the Nurglings. Kill three swarms. No losses.
Top of Turn 3: Kill two swarms. No losses.
Bottom of Turn 3: Kill last swam. No losses.
Top of Turn 4: Get charged by Chaos Lord with Power Maul and 14 Chaos Marines with Mark of Khorne. Kill four Marines. Squad gets wiped .
However they were soon avenged by a healthy shower of Splinter Cannon fire and the Talos .
It was a good game overall, real "beer and pretzel" type 40k played on a Friday night after work. Hence note the rather unconventional army composition and "push everything to the front deployment" . The game was at 1750 so there's a Razorwing in reserve and a bunch of stuff lurking off the right hand edge of the photo. I took the time to set up the terrain nicely but only took a few photos ! MVP for the game has to go to my Ravager who blew up a Maulerfiend on Turn 1, blew up a Rhino on Turn 2, stunned a Hellbrute on Turn 3, took a hull point off a Vindicator on Turn 4, and wrecked the Hellbrute on turn 5.
Wow, thanks for all the comments on the trial carapace! Glad everyone seems to like it!
"Like" it? pfft! Such weak words are reserved for Facebook
I do believe that "enamoured with", "inspired by" or "gobsmacked" would be more appropriate expressions to describe typical reactions to your chitine paint scheme, myself included.
Great job as always, even if only on such a small part of the model.
The multiple brush strokes that compose the chitin's colour are very well rendered indeed and, even with just a cursory glance, it's hard to figure how much time it took to achieve such a great result, suffice it to say it looks amazing and is suitably organic for such a model.
I LOVE the way this claw is turning out ! It took me a couple tries to get the right bone color, the first attempts were too light, but I think it the right shade now. Ditto for the flesh as I want the claw colors to stand out from my usual flesh tones.
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! I'm also planning on painting up a few more of the old style Dark Eldar minis for fun.
. Here's a link to the page in the thread:
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!
WOW just WOW Jon, freakin' amazing dude! that shot of them all together is brilliant! 
! It took me a couple tries to get the right bone color, the first attempts were too light, but I think it the right shade now. Ditto for the flesh as I want the claw colors to stand out from my usual flesh tones.
