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I sharpened them up a bit.. and put a notch in the back so it seats on the top of the jaw a bit more to look more solidly connected. I don't think it looks bad, and with L-brackets on either side of the tusks I picture it working..







Edit: The more I look at this, the more I think this is going to be the final jaw. The tusks fit well when I hold them up to the model itself.

oohhh yeaah.. I like that latest look a lot

You truly are an Ork among Grots. Looks Great

The latest mock-up looks pretty good, but I'm afraid I still must stick to my guns with regards to the tusks. I really think you should make them look like someone (such as the Mek that built this thing) had slain a Gargantuan Squiggoth and used its tusks. See below for Forgeworld's model.

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/snapdragon.htm

At the very least, I'd say you should make your "sharpened tusks" thinner and not so stubby looking.

Now that they're thinner, they definitely look better. I like it.

Good 'n propa!!!!!!!!

WWWWWWAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I think once you add the little strips that 'bolt-on' the tusks to the jaw (like in the concept sketch) this current design will look absolutely wicked.

I'm glad that you tried out the bladed look. It looks so much meaner and matches the original concept better.

Just noticed the gun arm in the background of the head pics (I think they look good too).


I must say, I think it's a nice orky touch to have the round "bullseye" sight on the top of the cannon. "Good 'n proppa" indeed.

the tusks look like they are angled too far out. In the concept sketch they appear to still be facing forward.

This is really amazing. I am stunned of the talent, that makes the making of this model possible. I even registered at the forum, with the purpose of replying at this thread.
As said i think it is marvelous. The head with the tusk facing diagonally to the jaw looks, in my opinion, by far the best. So keep to the head as it is now. The only complain that I got to this model, is that you have decided not to use the circular saw on the gun weapon. I really think that is a shame. I see the circular saw as one of the most important features on the model, as is break the monotomy of an otherwise bulky and quite square model. But is it a small complaint. Overall, this model is the best scrathbuilt I have ever seen. Really good work, keep it up. It is an inspiration.

So... I... went back to the original jaw, and added bolts in to the teeth.

Don't judge me!



The biggest reason for it is that I think it'd be a better surface to paint than the tusks (chipped bare metal edges, etc), plus the tusks looked awkward from certain angles. I slept on it and I think this is the best choice. In any case, I need to move on to something else, as I think I could waffle back and forth on this all day. Let's never speak of this again.

I was thinking about the base.. I'm going to use the urban basing kits from GW for this, as they fit the bill nicely, but I'm wondering how I should set this all up exactly. I've been thinking that the entire diorama needs a sort of avenue for running up and down the middle - like some sort of path that the gargant follows. I'm considering having him walking down the middle of the road or something to that extent, but I'm not sure.. whatever it is, I'm thinking there needs to be a dip in the rubble running down the middle for a bit of a running path. Not a big one, just a small worn-down trail or something..





I put an ork in where I plan on having the running guardsman at just for conceptual purposes. Right now the chainsaw arm is holding it up, as well - the arms aren't posed as they will be in the final version, I just attached them for scale. I'm thinking of putting some street signs sticking out of the ground here and there.. and there's going to have to be a footprint (as shown in the pictures) where the gargant just lifted it's foot from. I'm also thinking I'm going to have it stomping down on the turret.. but the turret's going to be behind a small wall of sandbags, so the heel of the foot's going to be sticking through the wall. Probably have a few strewn sandbags here and there around the foot where it stomped down, and some torn and leaking bags spilling piles of sand around the turret...



I also managed to get some cheap pillars from a craft store. These are usually used on cakes and stuff, but I figure it'd make good debris if I chopped the tops off and left them sticking out of the rubble.

On the manner of tusks, I always thought that the tusks were like this:
Top view of jaw:

Bent, cut, and sanded some clear plastic down to fit into the eyes.. the sanding was done over the front face of the eyes to make the surface foggy and diffuse the light from behind the eyes. The light I used for this test picture is one small red LED, but the final version will have two green ones located directly behind the eyes to provide a nice sinister glow. Sorry that it's slightly out of focus - setting the timer on my camera so I can hold two things removes my ability to manually focus on objects.

Still, you get the idea of what I'm aiming for. I need to putty around the edges of the eye lenses to make sure there's no gaps.

That looks absolutely awesome...and vaguely like something I saw at a GWAR concert.

Feed them to the maggot!

you went to see GWAR?
lucky...
i love the new mouth though,its the best one you made so far.
Its getting more and more interesting to see him go up from nothing too.Good luck on your next step

So a few people joined me on IRC and we brainstormed a bit about the model. I planned out the base, and hope to have an illustration of the overall plan online by tomorrow. It'll be urban, and hopefully pretty interesting.



I added a bit of armor trim around the eyes.. eyebrows will be attached once the greenstuff dries to break up some of the symmetry of the eyes. I try to avoid using greenstuff where possible as I'm really bad with it. Still waiting for the things I need in the mail to be delivered, but I don't expect them to arrive tomorrow as it's Sunday, so I'll be working primarily on the base then.

A rough base diorama plan:



The wall behind the gargant will be majorly busted down - like the gargant just walked through what was left of the already ruined building. The street in the back corner's just for a little bit of interest, and there'll be rubble scattered ahead of the gargant here and there. I'm shifting the whole thing to an angle.. (gargant walking from corner to corner) because I think it'll be more interesting on the whole than a simple profile diorama.

If you guys had a choice between the flattened grot being stuck on the bottom of the foot or in the diorama base's footprint, which would you go for? I've decided to greenstuff the bottom of the thing's foot anyway to get a proper tread, so I can include it on there if I want to.

you know,you should make it as if the gargant was running straight but then turned to the right after noticing the guardsman.
So thats->straight down the road->guardsman->turns to face him and stomps a grot in the process.
Grot should stay in the print cause i dont expect him to be seen under the foot.
As of rubble,you can even make some paint chips left on the structure and a few rocks or tiles still stuck on the gargant.
That would r0xx0r

I'd go for the grot in the in the diorama base's footprint. Would really add something to the diorama. The gargant is already way beyond cool.

Grot in the foot print with a sign stating "ouch" a la Wilie Coyote "super genius"

This project is f'ing amazing.

I've been considering how this works.. for the standing foot (the front one) I'm not adding tread as I'm going to pin the gargant to the base through that foot anyway, and tread wouldn't be noticed as it's going to be against the ground. So, I'm only adding tread to one foot.. but the diorama base may require more than one footprint. The best way to do the footprint is to press the treaded foot into putty.. but if I had the grot on the bottom of the treaded foot, there would be a grot imprint in every step - and since I'm using the same foot and tread for all of the steps (both left and right feet) a grot imprint on each wouldn't make sense.

So, I'm putting him in a single footprint behind where the back foot is lifting out of.

I gotta tell you guys, working with this foamboard stuff to make ruins is harder than I would have thought. I'd appreciate any suggestions or advice on this sort of thing!







There's two footprints - one with the grot, and the other on the very top edge of the base. That 'low!' comment written on the board is so that I remember to keep the wall section at that height basically knocked-in - some rubble and bits of wall will be strewn towards the center, where the gargant is, but mostly it'll just be knee-high wall left. I need to make 4 more sections of gothic-esque wall, then buttress and detail them.. I've no idea how the detailing's going to work. Also, I assume I have to seal the foam with some sort of watered down elmer's glue..? I'm not really interested in melting the thing when I spray prime it I got a street-paving 'kit' thing from my local hobby store meant for dioramas - it's a brush-on asphault texture sort've thing.. I think I'm going to lay the street down, then the curb, then build the rest of the diorama's base up to match the curb's level.

Any general construction tips would be appreciated, in any case.

what kind of foam do you use?
i would recommend insulation foam (blue or pink colour,its the same but just to let you know) since its easy to use and seals easilly when painting.Oh and there's no bubbly things left,unlike your typical TV packaging stuff

A foam cutter would help avoid the bubbly leftover bits in cutting up the foam. You could probably quickly put together one with a Jeweler's Saw frame, some thin wire, and a battery. Of course, this is only applicable for external cuts to the foam (would be hard to cut out windows with it)

You can buy a foam cutter in most hobby/crafts stores.

So this has been an interesting experiment. I've never done any large-scale basing, so of course jumping in with both feet for a diorama is leaving me a bit surprised with every attempt, but I'm not dissapointed in it yet.











I found some putty-esque substance in my garage, as I was looking for interesting material to do the base over with.. I put the curb and sidewalk, and proceeded to heap some of this stuff on and then start shaping it with a sponge brush and my hands into some rough geography. The pictures don't quite show off any tremendous contours, but I didn't want to get too adventurous seeing as I don't have the walls that'll be going in yet. I'll hopefully be going out to try and get one of the new imperial cities of death buildings tomorrow to turn into rubble and wrecked building walls, as my attempts with foamboard have proven frustrating and unfruitful throughout the course of the day. I'm about to go down into the garage and try and drill a hole in the circular base where the main front foot is going to be standing - I'll probably 'pin' it with a thick nail or something of that nature. I'm also hoping to put a slight elevation on that foot - it'll dip into the ground at the toe, to show that it's 'digging in' to take it's next step as it moves forward, and will elevate the back foot up a bit to prevent it from 'dragging' as the gargant walks. I'm hoping all the extra rubble and walls and stuff I want to add in won't be too challenging - I figure worst comes to worst I can dremel myself an adequate space in the putty once it hardens, add extra rubble in (or the walls, if I didn't leave enough room), and re-putty around it.

Interesting so far.

To seal your foam try some textured paint from your local hardware store/warehouse...basically latex paint with sand in it. It wont mess up the foam plus it adds texture. It the propellant that eats the foam not the paint so no worries.

As a side I cant believe you do your modeling an that expensive marble counter top. Holy crap. You must have SERIOUS $$$...

I only take pictures there. Most of the time, anyway. I do the modelling in the garage, although the paste I'm using required a sink handy so I just threw down some garbage bags and had at it.

There's something really more important than my countertops that I noticed that I need to share with all of you. I found one major problem with Imperial Guard.



Deys too easy ta crush!!

I did the gargant's gaming base up. Hopefully they'll be rock-hard when they dry by tomorrow, but I have a sneaking suspicion they'll be a bit crumbly around the edges and need some sort of reinforcing coat of.. something. Maybe watered down elmer's. I tried to match the contours of the diorama base's geography on the gaming base.

Please also note that since these pictures went up, I noticed mold lines I missed and cleaned them up.





The rubble per square inch factor is about the same as I hope to have on the final diorama base, once I get walls set up and figure out how they'll crumble (and make suitable plasticard tiles). The guardsman's reaching out to his running buddy(s) for help, as his lower half is pinned beneath the gargant. One can only assume he's having a bad day.

You can see the stepped spot in the footprint - this is to angle the gargant forward about 10 degrees, and lift the back leg up into the air a touch so it's not dragging. It's also a good effect for the gargant walking anyway, as I imagine the foot digs in at the toe to lever the whole monster forward.

There'll be some spilling sand around the sandbags to suggest they've been knocked over - I didn't want to do that on the base at the moment, as only the bottom layer would stick to the paste I'm using. I drilled a hole through the gargant's foot and the base - when I'm ready to attach the gargant down to the gaming base for good, a screw'll do the job nicely and thread into the foot to hold it securely down to the gaming base. A screw covered in glue, most likely. But I think I'm going to paint the base first before I make any final attachments like that, as reaching underneath the gargant to drybrush terrain isn't my idea of fun. For now, I'll use a nail to pin the gargant - that is, when everything's had a chance to dry overnight.



I think this has been a successful first go at something bigger than an infantry base. Or, will be, when I get some imperial building walls to stake in there. And the thousand other things I want to do. >_>

Comments, advice, crits, whatever welcome.

Re where to put the squished grot, I think it should go on the base rather than stuck to the foot underside, simply to make it easier to see - unless of course you just love the idea of having a subtle detail which most viewers won't see at first.

And the presence of the grot (on the foot or on the base) means you shouldn't have treadmarks on the foot's underside, otherwise logically the grot itself would also be pressed into the tread pattern, if you see wot I mean? That wouldn't be impossible to model, but sounds like a lot of work to me. Instead of tread, I'd suggest the feet should have a row of small downward-pointing spikes along their outer edge (sort of like the lower jaw but upside down) for general road-holding and Toes Of Death squishyness.