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Yes, I know. It's not like I need more half-finished projects, but staring at a baneblade all day can get bothersome and this is one of those conversions where I just happened to find a bit and the idea started running on its own. You don't need to remind me about all the other stuff I still have to finish.

I found a mask from the fantasy orc model, Wurrzag Ud Ura Zazubu. I've been looking for a replacement head for the new weirdboy model for a little while now, and this fit the bill pretty well, I think - you'd have to be pretty weird to pull this look off.

Well, the good thing is that the head is easy as all hell to light, too, so off I went.



No fancy SMT LEDs in this - just a simple 3mm green. I had to do a bit of dremelling to the body to get the head to sit right, but I think it looks pretty good when it's all matched up.







I have a couple more ideas for this model. Instead of holding the staff overhead like on the new weirdboy, he's going to have it outstretched at his side. It'll be lit, as well - the nice thing about it is that I don't even have to hide the wires for it, because from what I've seen from the concept art weirdboys tend to wrap stuff in wire to try and keep their heads from exploding.

The pose I'm going for with this weirdboy is 'hanging in the air' - if I can figure out how, he's going to be posed about 30mm off the base in the air, suspended by Waaagh! energy, with a bunch of grots on the base holding chains trying to anchor him down. I think the new model's actually a pretty good base, as he's nearly in that kind of position to begin with if you cut away the terrain that's sculpted into his feet.

More to come whenever, this is just a kind of spur-of-the-moment thing.

As an aside, I didn't really have a name in mind for this guy yet, but 'Wurrzag' or 'Zazubu' isn't bad, based on the fantasy miniature's origins.

Heh.

I haven't followed all your projects, but have you ever
included lights for things like lasguns? It would be insane
to try it, yet very fun to see.

That extended hand's going to look even cooler when he's floating- like he's really conjuring the power to do so. Awesome.

and again, I am in awe, looking at your project.....

Pretty nice . Ill watch this.

That's awesome! Look forward to seeing the finished job.

I can't see the picutes of the WIP at work. However, did you guys see the Thousand Son army in White Dwarf where the guy put LEDs in all the troops so their eyes lit up? It was really awesome.

I'm working on the weirdboy staff right now, but I thought I'd throw this question out as I'm looking for some solutions.

I have a lot of different chain, most of which would work for the project. Like I said earlier, I want the weirdboy to be floating in the air and chained down by a number of grots on the base. The smartest way of achieving this would be to have the chains themselves be the mechanisms that hold the model up in the air, but I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with a way of doing that.

Gluing the chain links in place will not hold strong enough to support a metal miniature in the air. I tried it, not even close to strong enough.

I grabbed a blowtorch and attempted to melt the links together at the joints in the hopes that maybe that would do it. I ended up with something... close, but still too fragile. It's brittle - the chains stay straight till you apply just a little bit too much pressure in the wrong direction (as I am likely do to just through handling!) and then one of the links gives.

I tried threading wire through the chain links to make them stronger, but doing so requires that you bend the chain in strange ways to get the holes in the middle of the links to line up and it doesn't look right.

I've looked through the GW model lines, and the closest thing I can find is the chains hanging off the Dark Eldar Jetbikes, but those are not individual pieces (multiple chains cast into eachother) and i don't think they'll work.

I could just cop out and have his lowest foot standing atop a clear flying base peg, but I'm sure there must be a better way of doing this. Anyone have any ideas?

well ,my first suggestion would have been, to use any sort of gw chains....

Like I mentioned, I haven't been able to find any suitable for the job, which is why I am asking for help.

how about making his coat longer, so that would still be partially on his base?

What about building the chain as one peice from modeling clay that hardens? Get 3 or 4 chains to hold him up on and it might be enough.

Does it HAVE to be chains?
Maybe it could be steel-wire/tow-cable instead, I'm thinking a few of the ones in the Tank Accessories sprue...
Even twisting two or three, thin real steel wires with a drill, should do the trick.
I haven't tried it for holding stuff floating in the air myself, but those I've made for other stuff seems to be sturdy enough, just an idea...

Try looking at the Harbinger of Menoth (a Warmachine figure. If you click on the picture in this link you'll get a rotating view). I think most of the weight is actually held up by the chains (I know a guy who built one), but the robes underneath added some extra stability.

Maybe instead of robes you could have weird electrical energy from the Weirdboy to the ground? Maybe some kind of clear resin?

Viperion

on the harbinger of menoth, the chains are not actually supportin' her at all...the robe is doin' all the work...the chains are glued on after the whole thing is painted, or they can be left out completely(some people don't even use the acolytes)...

for the wierdboy to float, a few strong pins can be run down to the base fom his feet, and then covered in green stuff...then wrapped with sperate thin wire to suggest columns of cracklin' energy...like viperion said...

this guy is a heavy piece, and needs somethin' that won't snap if ya look at him hard...

for chain with support, order the bits from the harbinger...they are available on the privateer site, and they are very solid pieces...

cheers
jah

I've watched several of your builds, always thoroughly impressed with the results. Would like to give a possible solution,

In the fluff for wierdboyz (codex imperialis, i think) it says that wierdboyz carry around copper staffs in order to 'earth' the volatile waaagh energy, so I guess any conductive metal object such as a chain would work as well, my suggestion is to get some very stiff wire and wrap it around/in and out of (or both) the chain and glue the chain to the wire in places, which would give the illusion that the chain is flailing wildly with the energy it is earthing, then simply run the wire into the base, paint the wire in a cool green crackly energy color and you done.

I've seen wire used to represent energy crackling several times (particularly in a jain zar conversion i saw a while back), but that was around a weapon. However you would have to use a bloody strong bit of wire (perhaps even carefully bent brass rod of a suitable thickness).

sorry to ramble, just having my two (insert lowest amount of money available in your currency here)

EDIT: Looking at the title gave me another brainwave. You could probably get away with wrapping the wires from the LED around a chain and paint it as well, then you can hide the battery on the underside of the base (or on the base in a cleverly made bit of scenery)

How about a wire armature bent into lightning bolt like shapes to hold him up? Paint it all green and Orky-fied, and then use the chains to stabilize/dress it up...

Leigen_Zero wrote:EDIT: Looking at the title gave me another brainwave. You could probably get away with wrapping the wires from the LED around a chain and paint it as well, then you can hide the battery on the underside of the base (or on the base in a cleverly made bit of scenery)

This is the general plan, yes. I'll be running wires down the tethers and into the base, and I'll probably be building a hollow rock or something on it so I can properly house a couple of hearing batteries in it from the underneath of the base.

Twisted wire to serve as ropes looks like it will do the job. I went to Home Depot and grabbed a package of the wire they use to suspend drop ceilings for less than $2 - the stuff's a bit thick, but very strong. One big, main rope and a couple smaller ones made out of floral wire should actually be enough to keep this bad boy in the air.

On a slightly related note, I urgently need to know if anyone has Goblin Doom Divers.



I need the rope-pulling grots badly to tether him down and I will happily buy or trade for them.

how about posing him in mid-air, holding his staff, and the other end of the staff is jammed in the ground? Or one or more of his assistants/minders are holding onto his limbs (i.e directly rather than via chains)?

but personally i think the GW plastic chains from the Chaos vehicle accessory sprue or the new ork trukk would do the job fine and be way easier - but then you're a glutton for punishment, Ein, as soon as I saw the thread title I just knew it would be you

I got to working on the staff a bit more yesterday and after hashing out a couple ideas, I think I have come up with something I like. On the new Ork Boyz sprue, there's an ork skull with the mouth open - with a bit of creative fiddling, I was able to fit an LED into there and rig it so that green light will emanate from the eye sockets and mouth!



Now some of you might be saying 'Ein, I see what you're trying to do with this, but I can clearly see the LED in the mouth there'. You would be right, but I'd like to direct your attention to the fact that I have brownstuffed the skull closed from the back and underside. Why, you might ask?

It's simple! I have some Woodland Scenics Water Effects that I will be able to pour into the mouth - once it dries and hardens, it will become a clear 'lens' over the LED that fills the mouth up and diffuses the light so that you can't tell the LED's behind there. I did something similar on a Necron Lord I was prototyping and it worked out fairly well.

The nice thing about a weirdboy staff is that I don't have to go to any real, absurd lengths to cover the wires up. If you look at some of the concept art for Weirdboyz over at at Wargaiming.net, you'll see what I'm talking about.

I feel as though I should mention that to coincide with the writing of some of my Ork army's background story, this Warphead's name is now 'Wurrzag da Weird'.

This is going to be so cool!!

Maybe use a flying base to hold him up. It won't look as cool but it won't snap(probably)

have you ever included lights for things like lasguns?

Well, first you'd have to work up some nasa grade plexiglass...

I think your the first guy from a forum I know who managed to get himself into a webcomic. that is so cool.

love your story so far btw. I would love to see a model for boomer some time

I can't work on the staff any because the water effects I put in are still working on drying, but I've started planning out the base a little bit.



I think I'm going to use a 60mm and do a lava-esque base. My general idea is that the energy he's channeling is so powerful that it is cracking the surface of the ground underneath him and it's bowing up towards him - this is partly also so that I can properly angle the grots that will be holding him down. I did the lava up red, though on the actual thing green might be a better choice to represent waaagh energy. I'm using the new Nob Biker arm for the staff, though I'll probably be hacking the chain part off... I'm going to have to sculpt a new sleeve on that arm.

The pin is only a temporary measure while I work on figuring out how high he'll be in the air.

I would keep the chaine. the orks can't afford to let the weird boy loose the one item that enables the weirdboy ti channel his destructive nergies a little more precisly

I'm definitely going to pick up some Night Goblin Fanatics for this. If nothing else, I've been wanting to put wrecking balls on my Killa Kans, so if they don't work for this project I'll at least have an alternate excuse to get 'em.

I have had a LOT of trouble with this miniature today. Firstly, the eyes in the head inexplicably stopped working. I spent a few hours today swapping out LEDs and re-soldering connections and generally messing around until I realized that the metal in the miniature itself was causing a short circuit! I've lit metal models before and never had any trouble like this - I think GW must be using a new metal formula that conducts or something, because the older metals I have definitely do not. Anyway, I wrapped one of the LED leads in electrical tape to avoid any trouble for the time being.

The whole thing isn't completely wired together yet because I've got a bit more work to do.



I wasn't sure what to do with the staff but I doodled up a couple ideas and this is the one I went with.



There's some sort of tau drone bit backing the skull that needs some detailing, too, but I think I like the way the thing looks. It's large, but it looks as though he could whack something pretty decently with it if he has to.

I like to picture him having conversations with the skull on his staff.

Anyway, more work to come.

Its looking very cool my friend

Been hard at work on the base for this guy today. It's been an interesting time so far.

First I stopped by Home Depot to pick up some of their expanded polystrene foam housing insulation. You can get about 10 feet of this stuff for which isn't all that bad considering I could probably make an entire board out of it.

I cut a circular cylinder out of the foam that was about the same size as a large 60mm base, then cut out the 'rocky' parts. A bit of sanding later and I had the general shape of the base that I had illustrated earlier. As before, I'm trying to make it look like the earth is buckling upward beneath the weirdboy where he is floating.

Housing insulation foam by itself is not a worthy base material. It melts when you spray it, and it is relatively fragile - two things I hate. With that in mind, I took a trip down to my garage and cracked open a can of Bondo, an automotive repair putty. I slopped that stuff on the base after I had mixed it up and with a couple sticks started working it over the foam in an effort to both fully coat it and encase it in the rock-hard stuff. It was messy work - bondo sticks to prety much everything, even the tools you use while you try to work. These were my results:





I needed a decent texture for the top of these supposed 'rocks' so I mixed up a batch of Apoxie Sculpt - it's a gray, two-part epoxy that comes fairly cheap and can be smoothed into a lot of different shapes. I put a thin layer of apoxiesculpt over the tops of these rocks and some of the problem areas on the sides and grabbed a flat bladed sculpting tool and just starting having at it. After haphazardly gouging a couple lines all over the surface in a feeble attempt to give it some sort of rocky texture, I came up with something passable.



I will be the first to admit it's not all that phenomal. It's also fairly hard to photograph, as some of the pink bondo goop that needs to be removed from the base is blending in and making the edges hard to distinguish. Still, it's not bad for a first try, and I'm really looking to make a surface I can properly pin miniatures into.



My photos are rubbish right now because I've been rearranging a lot of the lights in my room and I don't have my tripod right now. Still, you get the idea.

I ordered a box of night gobbo fanatics this afternoon because apparently every store within driving distance has decided they don't want to stock any. Until then, I'll probably be entertaining myself with a bit of sculpting on the actual model, much as I hate to do it.

This is the first time I've posted on any of your threads, but you are the man. I love it.

Stormtrooper X wrote:I can't see the picutes of the WIP at work. However, did you guys see the Thousand Son army in White Dwarf where the guy put LEDs in all the troops so their eyes lit up? It was really awesome.

I think I remember seeing that one...

Nice that people still remember it.

I do like that weird boy though. Excellent idea and great execution. Can't wait to see the final product.

Vale,

JohnS