Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Looking better and better...

@ Lennysmash : The tread plate is in 1:100 .. The metal I use Boltgun Metal for the base, then I have my own "Steel" mix I use which is a concoction of Tamiya Smoke, Badab Black Wash, W&N Flow Improver with a hint of Tamiya clear blue. The steel mix goes over the top of the boltgun to finish it off.

They look so good together. The bases bring them all together. Amazing job!! Keep it up, look forward to more.

I don't usually show my work at an early stage ... when I am fiddling and trying to get things right. However I am pleased enough with the pose (and story-telling) on the heavy weapon trooper to show this. Please excuse the very early stage in the work, the photography and the slight blur, its almost midnight and I am going to bed soon: -



Hunkering down behind a low partition, aiming under heavy fire ... shells hitting the steel partition with resounding impact ... but he only has one chance to get this shot right!



You can see him aiming at you ... time freezes as for some reason all you can see is the grey partition wall with rust creeping up it ... your eyes take in the bullet holes riddling the wall in hyper detail ... almost abstractly you see the arming light flicker on and and his finger pulling the trigger!



Sorry for the over dramatisation, but for this model captured my imagination more than most while he was in my head, and then when I made him the story/imagery enthused me enough to post him.

Please don't critique him, he is not finished yet in so many ways, nor is the base, save the critique for later when he has had the time and detailing he deserves. I just wanted to show you guys a glimpse into the beginning part of my "design" process that I normally don't get to show.

I hope you can visualise the fight going on around him like I can

So is this going to be for a second squad that is locked in a fire fight? Would be a cool to see a Space Marine with a corner shot device.

No .. the squad is advancing round the edges while he is taking the shot to clear the obstacle ... or thats what is happening in my head .. not sure about yours?

What a cheat, moveable cover, haha. Just kidding, has a great pose and an even better base. Thanks for the info on the styrene and the metals btw. I've heard a few people say they use a touch blueish wash when doing their metallics I shall have to give it a bash.

As I am going to be busy with work tomorrow and attending Relic/THQ on Friday for a day spent playing Dawn of War II Retribution I thought I would show something interesting to cover my absence and lack of work for 2 days.



These Bionics and heads were from Puppetswar and could make a nice addition to my Iron Hands.

A couple of the heads will work well on Space Marines, and all the rest of the parts too .. although I am not sure on the chest piece and the kneeling legs feels a little off (but not uncorrectable). The arms work nicely as does the power fist

I was looking at that set a while back but decided against it.

Why ? ... I am curious !

Not quite what I was looking for, and I had already ordered the Maxmini set.

and I really think the Powerfist is fugly. Also had worries about the chest peices.

Oh I so agree about the chest piece .. however I suspect the Power glove looks better in Real life ..

I was planning on adding a "covering" plate for it ... that will make it more 40k

Oh, and you should totally PM a mod to move this to the Blog section.

I am scared of Mods ... especially on Dakka <grins>

Looks around for that most evil of admins LegoBurner.

Finally moved this thread to the proper place, some people, honestly

<laughs> I wondered whether you would remember after our chat today

Those bits are great, I'm not to sure on some of those heads, two of them inparticular. But none the less good stuff. Keep it coming!

I did some more work on the Missile Launcher marine tonight ... specifically working on the servo arm attachment that comes with the "Missile Launcher" backpack from the Devastators box set. Looking at the construction it is intended to simply take a missile from the bottom of the pack and swing it up over the marines shoulder and drop it into his left hand so he can load the Missile Launcher.

I have to admit that was a bit disappointing to me ... the Iron hands had long been masters of the Servo Arm, so I decided to alter the basic arm that came with the pack and make it into a fully functional Servo Arm. The arm was a little short so I extended both the forearm and the upper arm sections so it could reach and reload. The new arm also needed to retract and extend, so I made the add on part slightly larger than the original forearm and structured it so the original forarm could retract into the new part.

Once done it looked a little "empty" so I added some bracing and some plasticard strip to the joint to make it more obvious how it fitted together. I was happy with the way it looked now and the added detail helped. I also cut the claw open and added in a missile to show it was ready to reload. There is still a little filing to do and some green stuff to fill small gaps, but that will have to wait till tomorrow as I stayed up till 1:30am to work on it.

Here are a couple of pictures taken in poor lighting and quickly before I go to bed.



Hope you like it

Absolutely love it, it just goes to show you don't need complex models or over-the-top paint jobs to give a force character. This P&M Blog shows how good a cohesive paint job can be combined with an eye for simple detail, that gives a flawlessly executed model. Awesome.

Also how good it can look if your willing to spend as much money and time on the base as the model itself (note to self stop cheaping out on the bases!)

Incredible.

Lovely stuff. Amazing modelling skills.

Subscribed!

@ mwnciboo : Thanks! ... I do sometimes spend an age on the bases, but I think a you can ruin a good picture by putting it a bad frame and ruin a good figure by putting it on a boring base.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Iron-hands-Iron-warriors-Mechanicus-power-axe-40k-/320644725343?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item4aa7ea3a5f#ht_500wt_928

Just saw these on Ebay no idea where they're from but they may work for you.

those are from maxmini.

No pretty pictures today ...

Now that I got rid of half of you and the ones who are intelligent are still reading we shall continue. I got quite a few things done at the weekend and its about that I wanted to write this morning. I encountered what I shall call "Stalling points" for want of a better word, those times when you keep putting off particular tasks time and time again till you "Stall" the entire project.

I found myself stalling at the weekend, I had the following streams of activity for my Iron Hand project all running concurrently: -

Sgt. Powerfist - Rebuild and restructure for magnets. Green stuff to repair slight damage to the armour casing.
Sgt. Hand - Tidy up wrist. Green Stuff the "sub-armour" between wrist and hand.
Hvy Wpns. - Green stuff small gaps in plasticard on Servo Arm and build the other side of the "sphere" at the joint to the backpack.
Hvy Wpns. - Build sole of shoe with plasticard strip.
Secret. - Green stuff secret helm for command squad.
Ven Dread. - Think about magnets and fitting together.

So ... guess what I did out of that list ...

That's right I played with the Venerable dread arm and weapon fittings till I got a solution for magnets and put plasticard strip on the sole of the Hvy Wpns marines foot, I then stalled!

Its quite amusing how our minds play tricks at this point ... I went and spent some time with my daughters, cooked dinner, watched a movie and then read a black library book before bed. Strangely however when I awoke on Sunday morning and went back to my desk, the "Stalling Point" was still there, forcing me to think of other things to do, even to the point of considering an Iyanden Ghost warriors army and how to paint yellow.

Finally my wife asked how the Iron hands were coming along and I had nothing to tell her ... It was then I broke through and applied some thought to what I was doing and made the list of things you see above (well actually just the bits I had remaining). It didn't take long after I had the list in front of me to realise I had been putting something off ... doing the green stuff work. My mind then went on all kinds of acrobatic attempts to avoid the self blame ... my favourite of which was ... "Its just common sense to gather it all up and do it all at once" ... which is of course complete rubbish.

I realised that this had happened often in the past as well ... saving things I didn't enjoy doing up into a large pile of unpleasantness which then makes me not want to do the project and finally kills it for me. Now I am a reasonable sculptor, you can see that from my work on the Steel Legion, this wasn't even complex work, it was just filling and tidying up. However now I had identified what was putting me off, I could do something about it, so I sat down and did ALL the green stuff work I needed to do and felt so much better about it afterwards.

I then started thinking about other things that caused the same reaction and came to the conclusion spraying black primer was another stalling point for me, where perfectly ready to proceed models sat there for days while I "got ready" to spray them. So from now on, I am not doing that, I am spraying as soon as I am ready ... and sculpting as soon as its required.

This is a project I want to finish ... not fail to complete it just because of stalling over something ridiculous.

Awwww no pics today :(

You did however inspire me to start my relictors via showing some god awesome conversions!

The biggest stalling point for me is "I have to spray stuff and now then I can't do X,Y and Z before the rooms smells okey again".

Also had similar woes about green stuff so I have started to use almost only grey stuff since it doesn't make my hands itchy as green stuff sometimes does.

I have found that blocks are easiest solved by doing something else like a random figure with no real goal and modify it or scratch build something with not that detailed goals..

But keep up the nice marines! They that even I might like something from the imperium

Great stuff, I'm always happy to see more Iron Hands! I really like the basing, keep it up and push on forward!

Love the servo arm; had tried something similar, not as successful as yours so might pinch some of your detailing ideas. Also, I feel your stalling pain; sculpting gs pads is tedious work, but like you focused and did a bunch. Strangely nice to hear how other folk struggle; one of the great things about Dakka, I feel, is that honesty.

Inspiring work. I haven't read everyone's comments, so somebody else may have said this already, but the work with the bases shows that you totally know what the Iron Hands are about. Great paint work too, especially the details