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Hey everybody,

It's that time of the year again, time for my sixth Adepticon! I am more excited than ever before, as I am doing two armies this year rather than one. One for 40k and one for Fantasy. So let's get started on the basics.




Let's start with the 40k army. One of the things I do when making these armies is try and find interesting objects to turn into a display. I had an idea to use an egg chair when watching ALIEN and having seen one of these earlier in the week on a pawn sort of show. I looked to ebay and found this (these are the actual Ebay auction images).

This one is very unique because it is a prototype from when they were designing the chair in the 60s. As a chair it's not so great, there is no padding, and there is a big mold line around the center. But that extra bit of character and backstory was perfect to me.



I bought the egg, and it was shipped via freight to a local Yellow Cab of all places. I got a phone call from a very confused cab driver. We picked it up in my Dad's van and brought it back to their house.





My mom sits in the chair. And she's not THAT small! It's a huge chair.





Obviously being inspired by Giger and ALIEN, I want to do something similar in design to the egg. This is a rough sketch I did just to map out something in my head.




I drew a bit on the raw plastic, to get a better idea.





The Space Jockey is the primary inspiration for the chair, although all of Giger's work is pretty inspirational. I want to copy the biomechanoid lines, and the fossilized flesh tone of the Engineer. One of the things that makes Giger stuff so creepy, is in terms of lines it is very mechanical, but in color it is exremely organic and sickly.








The first thing I did was wrap the egg twice over in fiberglass. Fiberglass is a woven mesh of glass fibers that is then coated in resin to create a hard shell. A HUGE problem with the egg as-is, is it is extremely wobbly. I am afraid if I did not do the fiberglass, in transport it would shake all the putty off.



Once the resin cured, I cut away access, drug it to the backyard and washed it out. I had to use a bucket because my hoses were frozen!






Once dried, I atached piping to the lip. This took about 2 hours, as the cut down the side of the pipe never seemed to be enough. I didn't even have to glue it on, considering it took a hammer and chisel to get on and my plans for putty later will secure it.

That's it for this time around! I will be taking some time to work on the throne next, so stay tuned!

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the chair, always love your displays.

This is going to be very interesting.

The even more interesting bit is the time frame for TWO armies displays heading to adepticon. little over month and half away and knowing how awesome your boards are...hat is off to you sir

Not much time left at all. Still I'm really excited to see how these turn out. You really go the extra mile.

Definitely looks to be an interesting project, chief.

I started last years on march 23rd. A month and two weeks is a long time in my world. But certainly no time to waste regardless.

Ill have another post with progress tomorrow. Throne is about halfway built up to where ill be adding terrain.

The frame of the original derelict from ALIEN

There has always been something very romantic about traditional model building. I am an old soul in the sense I prefer traditional effects to computer generated. It's not an argument of skill, but in my opinion one of charm. I grew up with movies using traditional effects. We all have seen the Death Star trench and the ALIEN xenomorph. The fact that these were framed with wood and sculpted with clay or model parts makes them more interesting to me.
Ill never be able to work in a movie studio back in the 70s-80s of course. But this is my opportunity to try and experience that for my own and in my own way. Ill never own a piece of the Death Star trench, but if I can get a feel for what it was like to work on something like that, that to me is just as valuable as a creative person.



The model is giving life with Plasticine and plastic strips

It has always been one of those dream worlds of mine that an artistic person tends to have - Industrial Light and Magic sort of work space where you have all the model kits in the world to work with, and the freedom to create an original work that is more than the sum of its parts, and the parts are no longer visually recognizable as their original form.



The orginal model used to film the famous Death Star trench scene. Models like this were traditionally made in a workshop with a massive hoard of model kits to rip parts from.

Prop and effect construction has always been one of those hobbies similar to Warhammer, in that you either know of it and what it's about or really haven't considered it. I follow several prop blogs and auction sites on twitter and like to see what comes up for sale or some new discovery. There are a lot of really great prop reproduction and collection forums out there as well worth checking out.



Kuksi's likely most famous work in the Warhammer world - the church tank.


This brings me to what I hope to blend this technique with visually - the style of artist Kris Kuksi. He would be best known in the Warhammer world for his church tanks, but these are really the least of his works. He is best known for his huge baroque assemblages of random toys, statues, appliqués and found items. When I first found his site I spend an entire evening looking for as many images as I could, and I remember vividly trying to find close ups.



Kuksi signing books at a show.




One of his regular works - the church tank is not what he normally does.


Same with a Death Star trench, I will never own a Kuksi. However this is also a chance to live a few weeks in his shoes, and have something while not likely as wonderful, possibly as meaningful as a souvenir of the journey.




Li 1 - One of Giger's earlier paintings. A surprise present for his girlfriend Li Tomblin. She did not take it well.

The third and most obvious influence is H.R. Giger. Everyone knows Giger from his paintings and the ALIEN movies. His work is very unique in so many ways, and his influence is so broad we can see it in Warhammer in the Tyranid army. He also did plenty of physical movie effects himself with the ALIEN movies. The Space Jockey and many other elements were sculpted in clay and cast in either resin or foam rubber. The derelict ship was a huge foam armature covered in plasticine and stock plastic.





Giger works on the orginal Space Jockey. This carved of Plasticine and cast in resin. The mold was destroyed along with most of the sets in ALIEN.

So hopefully all of this I can blend together into something interesting and a fitting homage to these great artists. It should be a fun adventure and I hope you enjoy it with me and the final result in the next month or so. Thanks for following along!

Looking good so far, and I completely agree with the preference for traditional model effects in movies. As a kid I was fascinated as much by the 'making of' movies like Jurassic Park and Star Wars as I was by the movies themselves. I would spend hours poring over spaceship concept art and sculpted dinosaurs.

Have you seen this? You might enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAzQr3Ml0UI

Anyhow, I look forward to seeing this progress and really hope it means that a GMM Tyranid army is in the works!

I subbed with the first post, but your last comments over the art of modelling got me fully hooked now!

Looking forward to follow the evolution of this project(s).

 Littletower wrote:
I subbed with the first post, but your last comments over the art of modelling got me fully hooked now!

Looking forward to follow the evolution of this project(s).

I fully agree

Love the start of this, and I hope the chair will still be usable as a chair after all this, it will make a very commanding throne!

A bit of pre-post note: If you would like up to the minute updates on my projects, please feel free to follow me @GMMStudios on twitter. Thanks!

Hey everyone! I have made a good deal of progress on the throne over the past two days, so let's catch up with that and also give a bit of history of the parts involved. This project won't be as intellectually stimulating as the egg, but I think it will be more fun in ways, as I love to build fantasy terrain, and I think it will still be just as over the top as the egg. But let's get started.

The image above I took last summer. While I have just now started, I owned both the skeleton and the throne for a little while. The throne itself I have owned for a couple of years. It is a legitimate antique - a prop from a play of Henry VIII - from the 1930's or so. Although this story is word of mouth, it is from original owner to antique dealer to me. The antique dealer is more of a very large curiosity shop who has had real Warhol's, enormous walls from monasteries, and furniture from every century so I do trust his word. I did not buy the egg chair from him, but I definitely looked.




This is the skeleton in it's natural habitat taken right before I bought him. He looks so happy! But I had plans for him.



Time to go to your new home! And so he sat in the throne in the garage until now, where he gets a more fitting and permanent seat.





So time to get started! I cleaned up the throne, took the skeleton off, and took the back pad off. While I am obviously going to be "destroying" it as an antique, I would like to keep the throne relatively intact. Other than removing the pad and adding wheels, I do not want to alter the chair much. It doesn't really matter, it's just sort of a personal OCD respect for antiques thing. I have to add wheels to get it around, and I have to remove the pad to secure the skeleton.




First things first - off with his head! The skeleton has a MASSIVE amount of hardware. This giant rod runs all the way from the top....



...to the bottom. But it also makes a good giant pin to secure it.




Here I used cords to secure him in the pose I wanted. From here I could simply drill the heck out of the skeleton and put pins in wherever I want.



Pins in the back of the head going to the chair will secure it in place. There will be many more things that will secure the skeleton in even better, but this is to hold it for now.



This would hurt!



Here the leg is in place and I am eyeballing the arms which are not secure. I know this is what I want for the left arm, but I am still working out the right. I do like this pose for it's "Jack Skellington-ness."



Here is a view of the terrain I will be using. I basically bought everything from tabletop-world since it is just so dang amazing and it would take me a month if not more to make something as good. I will be magnetizing these so that they can be painted separately and used for gaming.






Here are a couple images of me goofing around trying to figure out the best looking and efficient placement of everything. This takes a bit of time each year, but it is one of the things I look forward to. It's a small thing but it's like a puzzle you have to solve. Each one of my armies has a LOT of thought put into layout and placement.



I decided to add tiers to the city street. Small enough that it doesn't look silly with chariots, but large enough to make a visual difference - 1/2"



I made a decision, glued and pinned the foam. I decided to have the foam cover the seat, and I will add trim to the outside of the sit to make it flush. Although I still need to go buy that..




No problem! Also, a plug for ziterdes.de - amazing terrain, and great for things like this since it is foam!



Now I am starting to try and wrap my head around the top part. It is going to look a lot worse before it gets better!



Working out how to place the castle took a lot of brain wrestling. I pinned it to hold it up temporarily.



My solution for the biggest problem - the visual exit to the back of the city and entrance of the army - is a GW castle face.










And here we have a LOT of blocking in. This is basically just throwing in a ton of putty and foam and then coming back and adding and somewhat subtracting later. This is all about filling holes and giving stability and support.

So hopefully next time I will have some more refined work done on the mountain. Stay tuned!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Pekel wrote:
Looking good so far, and I completely agree with the preference for traditional model effects in movies. As a kid I was fascinated as much by the 'making of' movies like Jurassic Park and Star Wars as I was by the movies themselves. I would spend hours poring over spaceship concept art and sculpted dinosaurs.

Have you seen this? You might enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAzQr3Ml0UI

Anyhow, I look forward to seeing this progress and really hope it means that a GMM Tyranid army is in the works!

I had not. That is awesome! Even though it is so goofy, I am still so much more impressed by that than any CG. That is problem solving and creativity at it's finest.

 Littletower wrote:
I subbed with the first post, but your last comments over the art of modelling got me fully hooked now!

Looking forward to follow the evolution of this project(s).

Thanks!

 Sheep wrote:
Love the start of this, and I hope the chair will still be usable as a chair after all this, it will make a very commanding throne!

No, it won't be usable. I honestly sat in it to play XBox for about a year, a year or so ago. So that is out of my system

Wow o.O

That skelli is fantastic!!

I bow my head to that unique idea!

Awesome!
Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Given the graceful nature of our people, I'm nervously expecting "Oblivious Nerd Sits on Army Display...TWICE!" gaming news headlines following Adepticon.

Hopefully I can make it tough and poky enough to deter even the most legendary butts!

Hoooooooo Booooooy! *whistles loudly and admiringly*. Now that's talent. And dedication. And maybe just a teeny touch eccentric. All of which adds up to "inspirational" in my book.

P.S Chicken Wire perimiter with a suitably spooky iron fence "spear-tip" effect. That should keep even the most oblivious lard ass away from your models.

Dude, when i looked at the first part with the turning an egg-chair into an alien/tyranid display, you had me hooked.

When i saw the second part, of destroying a ancient chair, combining it with a skeleton, and building a whole medival city around him....you cave me a heartattack.

But, dammit man...just looking at this, i know it's going to mindblowingly awesome.

Goodluck with both projects, really!!!

And thank you for introducing me to Kris Kuksi.

Amazing concept. Can't wait to see it develop

Don't stop there pictures! NOOO!

That is 1000 shades of amazing. Really looking forward to seeing that finished.

Hey all!

I have made a lot of progress the past two days. Enough that I feel somewhat more comfortable with the time left. It is possible! Let's start with the progress I have made on the egg.






Wheels added.



This is the average dip into the putty buckets...









Progression on the skull. The eye sockets are the last major rework needed.



Giger cords.



Beginning the structure on the stem.



Larger ribs in the back.




On to the throne, which is easier to move from spot to spot on. It does not require massive sections to dry before touching it whatsoever like the egg does.



Modelling on the army has started. Tzeentch BSB on demonic mount. It's officially a GMM army!



$400 model, no pressure.



Pre-hacks.




Ideally I want a 50x100. But that isn't going to happen, so I am shooting for a 100x75.



The start to a perch.



I add trim around the seat and block in major portions of the back. Most of this material will be subtracted as I go along.







Perch continues to take shape. CSM for scale.



A walkway along the neck of the skellington.







A very complicated chunk to take out. I just wasn't happy with this side of the chair.






Perfect!









Added arch supports to the walkway.



Filled gaps, added structure to the new building, and generally used leftover putty to add some form to the mountain. It's starting to come together. I would say it's roughly 50% formed out over the back of the chair.

That's it for this time, I will have more updates soon. I will be doing the inside of the egg and the modelling on the armies as these wrap up. Thanks for reading!

WOW, this whole thing is amazing.

Subbed.
So subbed
So subbed it's not possible to be more subbed than I am
That is an INSANE diorama!

This already is AWESOME turned up to eleven.

Can't wait to see them finished

Thanks guys!

The derelict primered today!

Hello! Welcome to another installment. More good progress was made, so let's get caught up on the newest section - the ship. This part is the "Kuksi" flavored interior of the huge egg chair.





First, I started with a rough frame based in foam. I wanted something that felt architectural in design, like a lot of the Kuksi stuff, but also a lot of early traditional ship models. If you look to the darker side of early science fiction, you will see many ships are based around a tower sort of design. The ALIEN mining vessel is a good example, and most other ships are simply a tower turned on it's side.



I started with symetry as a base and then started to tear into that. When I build things I like to make something solid and then tear back into it about 25%. This creates something that is more realistic and doesn't have the "Oh, that's a model" feel. When you do this it takes away the visual markings of a step by step process. I also do this with the rocks on the throne.






Here I start adding detail and more structure as I go. Again, doing a chunk of structure and then detail back and forth helps hide the steps. I do not simply build the whole thing and then do the detail work.




The center is my favorite part of the whole piece. For scale, those are 54mm miniatures.







Images from the net morning of additional structure I had added. The left side is a sort of radar tower, and the left a very mechanical cannon. I am very happy with how the right side cuts off visually into a very dirty and exposed mechanical section, a lot like how the Millennium Falcon or other ships would have missing sections of hull with exposed workings. The radar dish is an homage to all the traditional gothic looking spires of antennas we see on every single science fiction ship ever designed.





Added Mozart as some sort of strange hydraulic door. I don't claim to understand or have an ability to explain how this thing works, but I think that is one element to the magic of early ship designs - they didn't really either.




The right side comes into shape. Very happy with this side, I can hear mechanical beating of gears and steam as I work on it. It also has that weird cold war Soviet juxtaposition of "we are very proud and happy" with "soulless, dirty machines."







My living room is not happy with me, but it is nothing permanent! The "bridge" is shaping up.





















Some finished shots pre-priming. Again for scale the miniatures are 54mm, and the hole in the front center gear is about a 60mm (dreadnought) base.



And finally, a quick priming of gray. I am excited that the primer alone looks halfway decent, as it means the time I thought it would take to paint this will go down considerably.

I have also made a lot of progress on the throne, so watch for the next update!

This is amazing. It somehow kind of reminds me of the machine from the silent film "metropolis."

Subbed.

Theres probably some subconscious inspiration there too.

What a outstanding piece of art you have created there. This is hands down one of the most..nay, THE most gorgeous centre piece of any display table i have ever layed my eyes upon.

(i literally took out my eyes and pressed them against the screen ).

The amount of detail is ridiculous. It all fits together perfect, like all those individual parts were made for this piece.

The female buste on top,The Faberge eggs on the pillars, the mozart door, the engine with the toy soldiers, the whole engine part on the left with the tower, so hard to point out 1 favorite part.

Awesome work GMM

Why thank you! I can't wait to get it painted and inside the egg...but I am saving "best" for last. The detail on the ship will be the most fun and easiest part of everything, so I am putting it off

Dude, you're officially crazy - but in a good way. That thing is fething nuts!