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.

That depends on your playing surface. I imagine that bare foam would have enough friction to stay in place, unless you're using something slick like, I dunno, linoleum or something.

Wow, that worm is just crazy good man. Fair play. Your blog output and quality has just been on a crazy upward trajectory since when I stumbled across it!

@boundless08: Thanks boundless, I'm very glad to hear that. Seems like joining Dakka has been good for me, I've learned a lot and I push myself a lot harder for quality. The only downside is that everything takes a lot longer to get done now

@JoshInJapan: Okay, good to hear. My playing surface is currently an old bed sheet I paints in a camo pattern, but I hope to have the room to build a game table with PVA glue and sand in the same style as my terrain.

Speaking of the purple worm, I've mocked up a few different variations with blue-tac on where I could go with the design if I don't leave the head plain. A special thanks to Pneumo for suggesting some of the designed I'm trying out.



I hope the blue isn't too distracting, but I was trying out what smaller armor plates would look like on the head. There won't be huge gaps between the plates and the head if/when i attach them for real.


Here the plates plates on the head have a row of spikes along the edge of each armor plate.


Here there are a lot of spikes added to the last design. I originally envisioned having forward facing spikes to help the purple worm break up and tunnel through rock. If you do an image search for a Hades Breaching Drill from Warhammer 40k, you'll see some of my inspiration.


Another idea is having the entire head/mouth area covered in spikes, here I have them all forward facing, explained in the caption directly above this one.

So let me know what you think of the different ideas please.

I think my favourite of the designs is the one with the spikes plus small plates, but I think the front plate needs some sort of smoothing or way to integrate it back into the texture of the rest of the worm. Maybe the rows of teeth could come right up to the plates, or it could have "lips"? Not sure but at the moment that front part looks a bit un natural.

I think I like more spikes rather than less as well, though a halfway point between the two might be cool.

Your worm is so awesome. Man. I really wish I had more time to do some work atm, but reports are due at the end of the week and I have to go on legal training since I am now a union rep...keep it up though, super inspiring stuff.

Your trench systems look the bomb- and have the most important quality for most of us modelers: cheap materials! Flexible, solid work. If you're feeling ambitious you can add a dugout or redoubt for a heavy weapon team or even an artillery piece or mortar.


From what I've read of WWI in Mesopotamia (British and Turkish forces) corrugated iron was far more common than wood in many fortifications- even in France I think the soldiers preferred it when they could get it. The card pieces you've made look very good. Another method to making corrugated metal sections is to cut aluminum foil to the width you want, lay it on a piece of foam core (or anything a little bit soft) and run a hair comb over it. Prime it, rust it and bingo- corrugated iron. It crumples nice too, if you use it near where your shell hits occur.


All in all great stuff- still can't get over how good the 'cast' scales look ont he Purple Worm- all made from glue!


Always look forward!

That worm is getting better and better! My favorite would be scales an many horns, but I agree with Da Boss, it does need some kind of lip in between horns/scales and teeth. Maybe you could run a thin line of hot glue around the mouth? I'm not sure how well you could blend it into the head though. Another idea might be to use tin foil again, roll a small sausage and hammer/push it in shape already so that one end is flat (hope this makes sense), that should be easier to blend in then.

All in all its looking more epic than before, so keep up the good work!

And I think Meer_Cat has a good point too, if you would want bigger models to fit into the trench system you could always make dugouts or sections where they could fit in. After all it is modular already, so adding sections shouldn't be to hard.

Edit:
I hope you forgive me for nagging you picture and defacing it with my paint skills. But have you considered adding triangular scales? The way I picture it then is that the front scale closest to the mouth could almost be used as a giant tooth to crush rock. Plus when the mouth would be closed the front of the worm would be completely sealed with scales.
Hope this picture helps to explain my idea.

Wow, it's very flattering how many of you and frequenting my blog so often. Thank you.

@Da Boss: Thanks, I'm glad you like my worm. I'm looking forward to seeing yours when you have time to start. Congratulations on being a union rep, I hope there are benefits and not just extra work for you because of it. Thanks for letting me know which worm designs you like and giving suggestions on improvements. I have a lot of thinking ahead of me.

@Meer_Cat: Thanks Merr_Cat, that's really interesting about the trenches in Mesopotamia. That's a cool trick with the comb on aluminum foil, even with all the work I do with aluminum foil, I wouldn't have thought to do that. I like your idea to add a dugout and/or redoubt, and I hope to eventually, but I'm not going to have time to make them before I try to finish what I've already started on it. Cam has given us pretty much the entire summer to work on this contest, but in less than a week I have to leave for some schooling close to 3,000 miles from home (and my crafting supplies). So I'm trying to bang this out and finish it before I leave.

@Pneumo: I appreciate the suggestions, and don't consider what you're doing nagging. Doing paint on a copy of the pic makes a lot of sense, really let's you show your idea clearly. Good thinking. I haven't decided what to do yet, but I really like your idea and may just go with it. Thanks for thinking of it.

I'm still mulling over what I want to do with the purple worm, while I work on the LoER terrain competition. Last night I finished making another purple worm in the pottery class I was taking. I started it before I made the purple worm out of foil and hot glue, but there's a huge backlog on stuff to be fired, so I wont be able to pick it (or any of my other pieces) up until mid-August since I wont be around. I also finished priming the 4 grick minis I made, plus the grick alpha, I hope to get those painted soon.

I've primed all the trench sections for my LoER piece, and have been base coating them before I apply the sand.


While walking on the beach today, I saw the weathered remains of the inside of a sweet gum seed pod. I think it looks kind of like an asteroid, so i was wondering if it would be any good for Battle Fleet Gothic. What do you guys think?



I unfortunately don't play BFG, but if the rumors are true that it might be re-released in the next two years, I'm definitely picking it up. In my usual craziness, I've also been tempted to try to sculpt all he parts for a fleet by hand, since it's so hard to get now.

Trenches are coming along nicely! Interesting to hear about the pottery purple worm (P2W)- were you able to sculpt the same level of details into the scales as with your hot glue veersion?

"While walking on the beach today, I saw the weathered remains of the inside of a sweet gum seed pod. I think it looks kind of like an asteroid, so i was wondering if it would be any good for Battle Fleet Gothic."


That's no moon....

Thanks Meer_Cat, I've posted some more progress on the trenches over on the contest blog, but i figured I get a big more progress and then post several of the updates on here. Thanks for your interest in the P2W, it definitely doesn't have the same level of detail as the hot glue purple worm, it's hard to keep lots of little fiddly bits attached with the clay (for me at least). The main body of the P2W is more like a hard edged earth worm with segments kind of like like that. I made some much smaller less detailed armor plates running up the back, but they only cover about 1/7 of the circumference of the worm (if that), where my hot glue purple worm's armor plates cover 2/3 of it. Lastly, the mouth area splits apart into 4 equal mouth parts unlike the three of the hot glue purple worm. I wish I had remembered to take a picture to show you, in 2 months I'll post it, if it didn't explode in the kiln.

All in all, I like the hot glue purple worm and think it's made in a superior way on all accounts, but I still like the P2W even if it did come out looking rather phallic

Makes a great asteroid at BFG scale, or a Tyranid seed pod, or chaos warp egg in 28mm. Or even a small meteor.

For the purple worm I like the plates and spikes combo best.

Trenches are looking very good.

Syro_ wrote:
Here there are a lot of spikes added to the last design. I originally envisioned having forward facing spikes to help the purple worm break up and tunnel through rock. If you do an image search for a Hades Breaching Drill from Warhammer 40k, you'll see some of my inspiration.

So let me know what you think of the different ideas please.

I'd say that in my HO this is best. And the worm in the grass is just aww-some! Plate-and-tooth combination is working, apparently, even if it is a bit questionable from evolutionari point of view. These armored fishes somehow did not succeed...

Syro_ wrote:While walking on the beach today, I saw the weathered remains of the inside of a sweet gum seed pod. I think it looks kind of like an asteroid, so i was wondering if it would be any good for Battle Fleet Gothic. What do you guys think?


I unfortunately don't play BFG, but if the rumors are true that it might be re-released in the next two years, I'm definitely picking it up. In my usual craziness, I've also been tempted to try to sculpt all he parts for a fleet by hand, since it's so hard to get now.

Spore pod. Definitely a spore pod. After all this is what it is. But as an eaten in and out by some mining asteroid it is good too. You may also try painting it in white and yellow-green and claim that it is a heart of a dead comet, evaporated after too many encounters with its star. Very porous...

And trenches are shaping up nicely too! Thumbs up!

Thanks monkeytroll, thanks Wirecat. I'm looking forward to when I can get back to those. Thank you both for suggesting which purple worm idea looks best, too.

You have been very busy. Wonderful work all round.

As to the worm, besides being truly brilliant, I think I like lots of spikes with the odd plate or two. But they all look good.

So great to see you pushing boundaries, trying new things, you are inspiring bud.

Thanks so much Cam! That especially means a lot coming from you. I appreciate knowing your preference for worm too, I'm looking forward to when I can go back home and get back to work on that stuff.

 Syro_ wrote:
...While walking on the beach today, I saw the weathered remains of the inside of a sweet gum seed pod. I think it looks kind of like an asteroid, so i was wondering if it would be any good for Battle Fleet Gothic. What do you guys think?

Spoiler:

Syro, you just triggered anyone with trypophobia.

Hi everyone! I am finally back home and am able to return to working on projects (though I still have very little time). It might not feel like I was gone, as i stayed active on DakkaDakka in other people's blogs, just not my own.

My pottery purple worm (or P2W) has long since been fired, and I was able to pick it up. Two answer Meer_Cat's question from close to two month ago, I don't feel there is the same level of detail from working with the clay, but you can judge for yourself from the pictures. I don't like it as much as the hotglue purple worm, but other than being a little phallic looking, I still like how it turned out:



I originally started compiling a list of all my unfinished/unpainted minis from talking with bunnygurl about it, but I lost the list before finishing (I swear my collection isn't that out of control ). Fango is working on getting all of his collection painted, to no longer have the huge backlog of minis that so many of us have. Fango has been making nice progress, and painting up cool looking games that I hadn't heard of. It's worth checking out if you don't already:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/180/491523.page#10117204

For my 40k stuff:
Things that need assembling:
"The Burning of Prospero" board game - 47 minis on sprue
"Sedition Wars" - 50 minis to use and convert for 40k
57 space marine minis
2 Dark vengeance helbrutes (one I am in the process of converting heavily)
8 chaos cultists on sprue
6 Tyranids
Ork Mek Gun kit
Defiler kit
Necron Warriors with Canoptek scarabs kit - 15 models

That really doesn't seem so bad, but below is my unfinished sculpts, conversions, scratch builds, etc.
36 nurglings ( 9 bases worth)
2 nurgle greater daemons
4 big squiggoths
4 ork planes
1 forge fiend
5 dreadnoughts
a vehicle design rules super heavy tank
the weapons for 4 scratch built ork warbuggies
3 Valkyries

Getting stuff painted is where I really fall behind. for 40k I need to paint:
My real GW dakkajet
scratch built dakka jet
3 scratch built stompas
1 scratch built gorkanaut
3 scratch built ork trukks
5 scratch built ork warbuggies
1 scratch built ork scorcha
6 scratch built ork killa kans
1 scratch built ork deff dread
3 scratch built deff koptas
1 big squiggoth
60 ork boyz in need of some amount of paint (including slugga boyz, shoota boyz, burna boyz, storm boyz, lootas, and nobz)

22 Space marines

20 Necron warriors

3 scratch built chaos vindicators
2 scratch built heldrakes
2 VDR chaos vehicles
A small chaos walker (counts as warpsmith)
2 converted obliterators
3 chaos marines
15 homemade chaos spawn/possessed
31 cultists
28 homemade mutants

If you take other games into consideration:
I have 16 unfinished models made or gotten specifically for D&D
I bought the three magic the gathering board games as a quick source of minis to sue for D&D - 63 unpainted models total
And because I'm not very good at reducing my unfinished mini collection, I recently bought myself "Wrath of Ashardalon" to use for D&D. - 42 minis


In honor of Fango's hard work, I said I would work on actively trying to finish more of this backlog. I'm very bad at staying focused on a single project to completion, and jump around to whatever interests me during my limited hobby time (something that happens to many of us). But I will try to devote half of my hobby time to competing things on this list.

Welcome back, Syro! I like the pottery purple worm better than the hot glue one in the first photo- but in the second- phallic indeed! Regardless, they'll both paint up well, I'll betcha!

Thanks Meer_Cat, it's good to be back.

Today, I was too tired to do anything that I should be doing, so i spent much of it reading, playing computer games, and on hobby time. I've returned to working on my remaining helbrutes. As usual I am making things more complicated. I decided rather than just have one helbrute that is heavily converted, I should do that for both. Then I decided it would be even better to see if I could make three helbrutes with some sculpting and building from the part of the two. So I spent most of my hobby time dismembering helbrutes.



I used a razor saw to cut out the exposed spinal cord area of one and replaced if with chaos spikes from a vehicle sprue.

Some more progress on one of the helbrutes:


I want this dread charging forward, so I've built it with quite a forward learn, with wedges of foam in the basic style of the wedge of concrete that comes attached to its foot. I like the look of the chaos vehicle spikes on the dread's body.



With a collection of different colors and sizes of wires, I've built the upper arm to look like the helbrute is lunging forward to grab someone with its power fist. Any requests for what space marine chapter the trophy helmet should be from?

A bit late with "welcome back" m but still - welcome back!

PPW (Pottery Purple Worm) looks not that bad in white to, just begging for wash or directional spray. Sometimes simple big monster is just as scary as a very elaborate big monster.

Good luck with these brutes, weird things they are... and that list of stuff... Painful. I know. The path is still chosen, isn't it?

Thanks Wirecat! I haven't really decided what direction to go with PPW, so thanks for the suggestions. I hope to really get creative with the brutes, and make them into some very original models. And I agree the list is painful. So many plans and ideas remaining not started for years, it really sneaks up on you how much stuff you can accumulate.

I had a friend refer to their stash (and the concomitant decisions on what to work on) as: MTML- More than (I can finish in) My Lifetime. We all suffer from this dread syndrome to one degree or another. My wife wonders sometimes where all my 'junk' came from (she strongly supports my efforts, saving bottle caps and such- even keeps an eye out for interesting bits) and her eyes glaze over when I can recite from memory the story for every. single. thing.

Thanks Meer_Cat, and wow that you can remember the story behind where you got each crafting material. I'm not very good at this "finishing and painting up your current collection" mindset. I was watching Blandco on Youtube, and ended up buying a bunch of new miniatures

I have also finished the modular trench system that I was making for the 26th LoER terrain contest. Enjoy the highlights of it:

Great trenches- realistic and game-able!

Don't get me wrong: I buy new stuff all the time- discovering Kickstarter is one of the great joys and downfalls of my life ( I now officially have more things than I can paint in my lifetime). So far, I'm pretty good at keeping myself to one project at a time though

Nice work all around!

The trenches look like they'd be a lot of fun to play on. They look like they have been surfaced with sand-- is that right? Did you seal it down with something?

Thanks Meer_Cat, thanks Josh! I am happy with how they turned out, and setting up that little fake battle did make me really in the mood to play a game using them. Maybe I'll try to play through the siege of Vrakks sometime.
@Meer_Cat: That's good to hear, I should learn to focus on fewer projects at a time and see them through like you do. I'm currently returning to some stuff I haven't touched for 2-3 years. If I actually focused on painting and stopped buying and making more minis I do wonder how quickly I could paint up my collection.
@JoshInJapan: Good eyee, I did surface them with sand. I then went over the surface with a half PVA glue half water mixture, at least once, but maybe twice. Luckily they're pretty solid. I appreciate you checking to make sure they weren't going to fall apart and leave a huge mess. If you think it could use more, don't hesitate to tell me.

Looking excellent, should make for some proper WWI trench warfare action !
Experimenting with sealant could be interesting, but I guess you'll see how well they hold on the long run, PVA is still quite strong on its own...

 Syro_ wrote:

That is fantastic work! As a military history enthusiast, it reminds me of the African Theatre during World War II ...

@KernelTerror: Thanks for the visit. I unfortunately bought a big jug of washable PVA glue that I've been working my way through, so it probably isn't as strong as it could be, but so far it has been holding up on the basing I do. So fingers crossed.
@Private Benjamin: Thank you! I'm glad you like it. I find trench warfare fascinating, and researched for a while when starting this project (honestly read a lot more than I needed to ), so I tried to find a balance between some realism and making it modular and more playable.

Since I already had my painting station set up from finishing the trenches, I'm trying to stick to painting up things that have been waiting. I made these scratch built chaos vindicators about three years ago, and that is how long they have been sitting with just primer. They were in the end of the year group army shots back on page two of this blog.



I don't have any WIP pics of them, and I only even remembered to take finished shots of the first one before priming them. Joining DakkaDakka has made me much better to recording my progress. These vindicator tanks are made almost entirely from cut up water/milk jugs. The toothpick spears are self explanitory, and necessary for spikey chaos boyz, and the barrel of the cannon is made from the mouth of a contact lens cleaner bottle. A thin strip of paper glued around the threading gave it more of an appearance of nested barrels for recoil (I think). Two days ago, I removed the red coiled string and replaced it with jewelry chain.



Here they are from the end of the year group shot.

I'm planning on painting them mainly with the not so great craft smart red that I started the one in. Probably leaving other details in black, and having copper or bronze parts too. I'm guessing I'll have to do several coats of paint to get a smoother red. Suggestions welcome, and thanks for stopping by.