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Tigershark is looking sweet mate, a vast imporvement on what it looked like coming out of the box . Im not looking foward to seeing that beast on the other side of the table. Tau project is comming along nicely lets see what the next challange has in store ... .

@Rawson, yeah I really like the idea, i'm still going to use the vespids but I shall add in another squad of jump packers. I didn't get much sleep last night with all the ideas floating about in my head!

@Evaelc, pretty sure I know where you're coming from with this one. Will have to have a good dig through the bits box!

@El, thanks mate, you're really not going to like that bad ass once he gets on the table!

Ok so got a little done last night, not sure how happy I am with it but it's a start.

Went back to basics and got the drybrush out! Reason for this is because I wanted less extreme highlights on the skin as what I usually do on armour and weapons. Hopefully this will look more natural looking. I think that makes sense!

But here he is:





Thoughts?

Looks great on the higlighting but maybe needs a bit more shadow in the recesses. I like the look so far though.

Evaelc wrote:Looks great on the higlighting but maybe needs a bit more shadow in the recesses. I like the look so far though.

You might be right there, i'll prob give him a wash or something, maybe just keep it to the recesses like you said.

I have a slight problem in that i'm now icthing to do my HQ but I shall try and get these guys done first and set the HQ as my "reward"!

Well as suspected I got a little side tracked with my new HQ. Don't worry, the vespids haven't been packed away and i've been busy ordering parts for the jump infantry!

But here's a couple of shots of the Hq!



The arms are magnetised (not sure if the head will be) so that I can swap out the weapons with the other 3 XV9s I have. It also gives me more options in the future depending on what happens with the new codex.



So thats all I got done this week :( but i've got plenty more planned included a custom made Space Hulk team for a friend (still BA termies) so that should be fun!

Anyway, hope you enjoy and stay tuned!

Very cool. Is that a Forge World model? I haven't been keeping track of new releases lately.

Everything looks awesome. I especially like the tau, not a big fan of ba's. But they're still awesome

Just found this thread. Outstanding job all around! I'll have to read back through everything but so far my favorites are the objective markers...not to say the rest isn't top notch.

Keep it up!

P.S. Are the chips on the Tau armor straight black? What is you method?

@Disjointed, yes mate he's Forgeworlds Commander R'Alai. He has been out a while now but don't seem to see him much, one of those hidden gems I think!

@ninja, thanks mate, more BAs coming soon...ish!

@coyotius, welcome along glad you like. The chips are really simples, on the smaller stuff I just kept it easy with one colour, GWs foundation granite on the orange armour and neat chaos black on the purple stuff. With the larger more interesting models I just put in an extra highlight. So with the Commander (up next) I used the same colour as the final highlight (mix of gaunt purple and bleached bone), dab that on in various places (usually keeping to the edges) then neat black over that. Using the lighter colour first gives the chips a more raised look. It's a little more time consuming hence why I didn' t do it on all the smaller stuff!

So up next, the finished (minus some flock) Commander R-Alai!









Hope you like, as always c&c very welcome!


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P.s still got his drones to do!

The paint looks great, but not real sure on the pose. Looks a bit off to me.

whalemusic360 wrote:The paint looks great, but not real sure on the pose. Looks a bit off to me.

I agree on both points! Great paint, especially the blending on the gun (I'm not a tau guy, so I'm not entirely sure what he's armed with )

Also the pose. I think it's the front foot: maybe it should bend in towards the body a bit?

Thanks for the reply B_C. I like the highlight effect around the chips...gives them the appearance of a rubbed, worn surface.

Good job on R'Alai. The floating left leg does look a little off. Its probably too late but what if you pulled the calf under the thigh and raised the thigh a little? It might give it that bounding from rock to rock look.

I get what you are trying to do with the pose as in the leaping of the rock but it just looks as if he's crouching. The paint looks great, really like the detail on the gun.

Thanks guys for the feedback!

I knew the pose would be a talking point, for some reason it just looks odd. At least you guys got the feel of him leaping off the rock. I think maybe it's because his feet are at the small height? Hmm? . . . Well I think I might see if the leg parts come apart without snapping all together and see if a little bend in the leg will sort the "oddness"!

Anyway, thanks for the c&c, keep it coming and hopefully i'll have some more updates soon!

Hey EC. The awkwardness of the pose doesn't appear to me to be coming from the legs but the angle of the actual torso. If you look at it, it appears he's leaning back - almost like he stepped on a banana peel and is about to wipe out falling backwards. I think what would fix this is if you had the torso leaning forwards a bit more, as if he's intentionally jumping forward.

BTW, you really need to get back to your BAs.

Stick to the tau my man.

@Egg, I had a look last night and I think you're right about the waist not helping either. Problem I have is that in my ever growing quest for perfection I went and built him rather well!

So basically, before I take my razor saw and do the classic magicians trick of sawing my subject in half i'm going to take level, side on pics of him without his arms on. Then before I commit we can all have a second look at exactly where the issue is and hopefully i'll get it reglued/pinned in a better position.

As for the BAs, they are slowly making their way back to the project table, there's a slight glimmer of red on the horizon!

@Evaelc, don't worry mate, plenty of Tau still to come. Still got 3 XV9s, vespids, drones, jump-packers and of course the XV99. Hoping to get them all finished before any new releases!

Ok then, while we await new pics of R'Alai I thought i'd share a couple of random projects i've got on the go at the mo.

First up, Grey Knights, just as a little side project (i'm not intending to do an army).

I picked up a box of GK termies. The models are really nice and you get shed loads of extras so my bitz box has had a decent resupply!

I also thought it'd be a good time to try out a different technique for my power swords as the lightening effect I did on my BA vanguard I have grown to dislike.

So here's the progress so far...

The group, decent spray of black undercoat, light spray of metal and a wash of blue gave me this:



The armour will get a hightlight and some damage but otherwise i'm happy so far.

Next up I tried out the power swords:

This is without a wash,



With one wash & re-highlighted,



And with 2 washes and re-highlight,



I'm happier with this method than I was with the lightening but i'm not sure whether it's too dark? Maybe it just needs a gloss? . . . But i'll prob leave the blades for now until i've done more of the model so I can see how it all works together.

Right, next up is rather random but heh, it's all good!

Bit of a long(ish) story but bere with me!

A friend of mine gave me a ton of Space Marines of all different eras and conditions and all he wanted in return was for me to fish out a load of termies for him to use as a Space Hulk team. No frills or frollocks, just basic termies armed the correct way.

Sounds simple, and it was! There were about 25 termies in the box, some metal, some AOBR and some of the current "proper" ones. So I quickly dug out enough to make all 12 of the S/hulk dudes.

But in typical style I looked at what I had and it was just too simple! I know he said he wanted simple but we're talking Space Hulk here. And not only that but we're talking Blood Angels! We can't just have basic smurfy looking chaps wondering the corridors of a deralict space craft. How's that supposed to intimidate those pesky stealers of the genes!

To the plan (and hopefully to the point of these ramblings)

Right then, i'm not much of a sculptist so i'm gonna have to rely on good old kit bashes, lucky for me I have a few spares lying around! So off to my collection of bitz boxes (which just had a nice load of funky GK bits delievered! ) and time to start turning these basic squadies into to hardened veterans proud to call themselves Blood Angels! (cue dramatic music).

First up, my personal favourite, sgt Lorenzo and the L/claw dude! (still got a few gubbins to go on all these guys but you get the idea!)



And the Assault cannon and chainfist guys, (lots to do still on this two)



Also started fishing out the bits for Gideon and the Librarian but they're in piles and not very photogenic!

As well as building some custom termies I thought i'd exploit the skills and creativity of my younger brother who has been busy over the last couple of years getting to gribs with casting his own bits and pieces (sounds a bit weird that! ) but has also started to make and cast his own bases.

My friend was more than happy to have these guys running around on standard 40mm bases but with the squares on Space Hulk being only 30mm the rooms do get a little cramped when you've got more than a couple of your guys bundling about trying to get themselves on overwatch!

So basically, i've cut some 30mm discs from plasticard and my brother is going to decorate nicely with various tiles, mesh and maybe the odd bit of pipe work and make me, well my friend, some nice custom bases!

Here's a snap of how the a 30mm base measures up to the termies!



Pretty good me thinks!

Phew, I think thats it for today. I hope you didn't all drift off too much! As always, c&c welcome and always taken on board!

Hopefully get lots more pics up on the weekend!

Stay tuned!

Got a little more done last night!

Started putting together the libby for the s/hulk termies;



He'll need a little gs'ing to fill in a couple of gaps but thankfully even with my basic gs skills this shouldn't be too taxing!

Also got my paint brush a little wet putting some details on the first GK;

Tried to do the whole glowy thing with the eyes and light, let me know how it looks!





So not much but its still progress right?

Keep watching!

(Sunday will be the next day I can sort out new pics of R'Alai so stay tuned for that! )

Dude... Amazing. I just went through your blog and i loved it!! I'll be going through it a few more times soon to see if i missed anything. Seriously, amazing! I'd feel bad picking out any particular model to congratulate you on because i'd be neglecting all the others.

Not bad at all, but Lorenzo and the Librarian need helmets! The terminator armor has the 2+ armor and 5+ invul, not their faces. I'm really liking that Apothecary though.

Tau looking really good mate the Tiger shark looked awsome on the table from our last game , not the greatest pic but I like it.



Grey Knights??? Should you not be working on our next challenge there looking good the power swords are a big improvement over the ba style ones you painted defo go with this style.

@LostSoul, thanks mate glad you had a good look through but don't go looking too close at my greenstuffing attempts! I have got a little to do on the space hulk dudes so I'll be popping back to your blog for tips!

@kepora, know what you mean about the helmets! Thing is I wanted to try and keep the space hulk feel as much as poss which i'll probably regret when it comes to painting them as I really hate doing faces!

@El'J, great pic mate (apart from the unpainted imps! ). Glad you prefer the swords, hopefully with a bit more practise I'll get the colours more seemless! I put gloss on the apothecary blade but I think it looks better without so i'm not doing that again!

Right then, only a bit of progress over the weekend as the wife had to work and I had the little'un!

Pics taken last night so the lighting is a bit naff!

Got the 2nd GK 90% done, just needs some scribble on the scrolls and stuff and something added to the bases!



Also took some more pics of R'Alai to help solve the oddness of his pose!









So basically, looking at him again, is the issue his leg or his waist?

Thoughts?

Emperors_Champion wrote:

@El'J, great pic mate (apart from the unpainted imps! ). Glad you prefer the swords, hopefully with a bit more practise I'll get the colours more seemless! I put gloss on the apothecary blade but I think it looks better without so i'm not doing that again!

oooh below the belt not my fault that youv'e not set me a painting challange for me troops unti now. What you cant see is the rest of my painted army. As for the gloss on the swords have you tried a satin gloss i used it on my imps commanf squad on the armour it just gives that very slight metalict smooth contrast, might be worth a try.

With the Tau battle suit i think its the leg what about adding some smoke/exhust to the jet pack to reinforce the look that he is jumping or maybe he needs to lean a little more forward??

Emperors_Champion wrote:@LostSoul, thanks mate glad you had a good look through but don't go looking too close at my greenstuffing attempts! I have got a little to do on the space hulk dudes so I'll be popping back to your blog for tips!

I think your green stuff work looks good, man. I don't know if their are any tips i could give you really, i'm just learning it myself. If you have any questions though just ask and i'll see if i can help.

Emperors_Champion wrote:So basically, looking at him again, is the issue his leg or his waist?

I like the pose, he's firing up his jet pack and kicking off the rock yeh? If you are intent on altering it i'd suggest turning his torso away from the rock a bit more and maybe angling the torso back somewhat. Use the lines of the kicking leg as a guide i think:
The lower leg would be your vertical so thats the direction of travel. Have the torso matching that(imagine a line running through the centre of the torso and another through the centre of the lower leg.) You could actually adjust the line of the leg in your head to account for the knee pulling back. So the line would actually run from the centre of the ankle past the back of the hydraulic tank thing(back of leg).
As for the horizontal movement use the upper leg as your cue. The imaginary line running through the centre of that component should be matched to the horizontal plane of the centre of the torso.
The arms should also try and follow the flow of those lines.
Take all of that with a huge pinch of salt! It's how i'd do it but i'm no expert and i wasn't taking into account the jet pack's effect on movement. It should help you avoid the underwater suspended feel a model can have but it's mainly about trial and error. Focus on these imaginary lines and planes and try and follow the flow of movement. If your struggling google pictures of animals and people in similar poses or watch action films which have the vibe you want to achieve(Thats the way i prefer to do it.). Anyway i'll stop trying to teach granny how to suck eggs! Haha.


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Just to add: that will,hopefully, give the impression of a quick direction change. If you do it and the model ends up looking too far learnt back or something then i'd suggest removing it from the rock(intact) and re attaching it in a more upright position. That should enhance the uprightness of the pose without losing the flow. Again, no expert, it's just how i do it.

R'Alai looks great in the 1st, 3rd and 4th photo’s, It’s in the 2nd one that he looks off. It looks like he is leaning backwards. From that angle, even if you tilted the torso forward, it would then look like his bum is sticking out. But he looks great from the other angles, and I am not sure if moving him would make a difference.

The R'Alai model posing looks better. I don't think the issue stems from your pose but just the way the model is designed. It's back-top heavy taking away the balance of the model so if you do try for a really action oriented pose, it will always look a bit off-balance give the huge "backpack" or whatever it is he's carrying. Just don't take any side pics and you should be fine

Very true, the battlesuits i've done in the past always look dodgy no matter what i do. GW need to completely overhaul the design when it's Tau's turn for a codex. (Fingers crossed it'll be soon.) As i said at the beginning, i wouldn't change it if i were you, if you decide to, then following the instructions i laid out would be a good bet i think.

I think the Battlesuit will look fine if you put an Ork or SM infront of him being kicked!
Gotta love Martial Arts.

Thanks guys for the feedback!

@lostsoul, thanks for all the pointers, I'll definitely refer back to your line advice when I build the next one! And if (more like when) I get stumped with the gs'ing i'll be bugging you for help!

@Mordain, glad you like him mate, or at least 3/4 of him!

@Egg, glad the pics gave a better idea of what he really looks like, was so close to chopping him up! btw, very very nice job on Tycho, you sir truly are a master! (little plug there for your blog! )

@disjointed, I like that idea mate! I might even make a seperate marine that sits nicely in front of his foot for when i'm kicking some marine butt!

So I think the general concensus is that the oddness of the pose is mainly due to the obscure proportions of the model itself rather than the way I put him together and the best way round this is to not let anyone see him sideways!?

I think I prefer this option to the "chop up with razor saw" option!

So i'm going to put him on the completed pile for now and get back to other projects. Thanks again guys for the replys!

Will hopefully have more updates soon!

Emperors_Champion wrote: I shall add in another squad of jump packers. I didn't get much sleep last night with all the ideas floating about in my head!

Emperors_Champion wrote:i've been busy ordering parts for the jump infantry!

Okay, Champ. Time to get back on track! I want to see some jump infantry!