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Ok, so let me being with the obligatory thanks to whatwhat, without his award winning tutorial I wouldn't have ever though to attempt this conversion. This is also my first tutorial, so please excuse me if I have skimped on particulars.

Now, with all that aside let's get to the tutorial.

What you'll need.

1 kasrkin troop (grenade launcher preferrably)
Greenstuff (either GW or Kneadatite) and Milliputt

Sculpting Tools:
wooden or metal clay shapers
bullet head silicon oil paint shaper
small woodworking nail

Stage One - Grievous bodily harm.

I found the best unit for this is the grenade launcher figure, as the barrel and forearm can be sawn straight off, which in trun allows for angled cuts to remove the vast majority of the grenade launcher left over. From here it's a simpe task of either filing, or in my case "dremeling" out all that remains of the weapon and bulk.



As you can see above you can be quite heavy on the filing as the left chest plate and shoulder can be rebuilt easily with greenstuff. Additionally, I cut of his index finger which will later be placed on the sniper rifle outside of the tripper guard, safety first and all that good stuff. Also, if you want to add any details to his belt now is the time, as it will become quite clustered very shortly.

Note: This figure will be joining my necromunda gang "hunde des kriegs" so I ground his head down to fit a pig iron militia cast.

Mounting the weapon

To prepare the sniper rifle for mounting is the following needs to be done. Firstly, the right hand attached to the weapon will need to be cut out entirely. Secondly, to allow a snug fit the small panel on the grenadiers right hand will need to be shaved down. At this point you can choose to cut the butt off and reattach it once you've set the weapon in place (I chose not to as I chose the rifle with a strap, and rettaching that seemed uber hectic)



The Cloak]



[b]The Offhand

Admittedly, this was a rather fiddly. But, once the gun was set and glued firmly I simply took a spare cadian left arm, then cut it at the shoulder pad. I began to shaving small sections off the top of the arm (the shoulder pad end) and would then hold in place with blu-tack to see if looked awkward, or inproportionate.



Finally, when I was happy with the dimensions I glued the arm in place, and filled any gaps with greenstuff.

Mounting the Head

Now, as stated before I am mounting pig iron heads, but now you can see the figure looks a little more whole and less brutalised



The Cloak

Now, whatwhat's tutorial gave the pointer of using milliputt as a precursor for greenstuff, as it dries harder and provides a stable bedrock to build up from.



As you can see I scuplted the rough shape out of milliputt, then waited for it to cure before applying "ridges" of greenstuff. The Milliputt offers enough support to use some heavier handed sculpting tools such as metal and wooden clay shapers. You can be quite crude during this earlier stage.



So, just keep applying more ridges. And remember to adhere to the basic of drapery, in that a heavier fabric hinged at to points (between two shoulders) will sag in long "V" lines that will become softer as you move from the bottom to the top.



All the ridges are laid out, and using a wet bullet head silicon paint shaper simply soften the edges near to the top of the cloak, and define some lines near the bottom. This simulates the bulk of the fabric cleating up on itself. Don't be too concerned with greenstuff flowing over the milliputt shape, as we are going to shave this excess off later.

Once your happy with the the look of your sculpt, put the model aside for about a half hour. After the putty has semi cured it will be off a consistency to some damage and detail.

Conclusion of Part One

Now, with all those steps covered we should have a fairly fim bedrock for some further sculpting and converting. In part two we will cover how to create a hood for our cloak, a tactical holster for sidearm. As well as how to sand and smooth out and "bumps and nastys" in our green stuff in preparation for painting.



Thanks for reading.

Archibald Jack

Once again, hat tilt to whatwhat.

Awesome green stuff job cant wait to see it all painted up

Thanks a heap, Death Gear.

For this stage we will need

Xacto knife, or a similar cutting stick of doom!
Greenstuff (either GW or Kneadatite) and Milliputt

Sculpting Tools:
wooden or metal clay shapers
bullet head silicon oil paint shaper

Stage Two - part 1 "Cleanup"

So we finished stage one with our kasrkin sniper sporting a freshly creased cloak, which as expected has been dragged and smeared off the milliputt bedrock we provided. Thankfully, greenstuff once cured can be shaved back using a sharp knife. Basically, we want to shear lightly around the edges of the original milliputt mould.



Remember - it's better to make a few thinnner slices with less force, than an uber powered mega slice - as this will reduce the chances of damaging your scuplt, and your fingers.

Stage Two - part 2 "Hood for the Cloak"

Mix up your putty and place a small triangle of it between the shoulder blades at the top of the cloak. This amount is relative to the size of the head of the figure you are sculpting for - the bigger the melon, the bigger the triangle. For this figure a small triangle was applied, and using the silicon ball point was slowly worked up and over the shoulders, and tucked in next to the head.



As you can see, the hood is formed by creating a "zig zag" pattern. Using softer strokes we want to create two trenches that run up to the left shoulder, and one that starts between those two that runs to the right shoulder. Once the hood folds have been established you need to "bowl" the inside of the hood. This is done using softer strokes that start at one shoulder and finish at the other.

If the soft touch isn't your cup of tea, you can leave the model sit for 15 minutes or so, and then come back to it when the putty has cured more.

Timeout

Unfortunately, I am losing light - and will need to stop. Tomorrow I will step you through finishing the hood creating the tactical holster, and prepping the putty for spraying.

Stay tuned.

Great tutorial! I've made up some Heavy bolter Stormtroopers but seeing this I think I will have to have a crack at it. How do you think a sniper rifle from the cadian command sprue would work? I kind of like the idea of having the stock tucked up under the sniper's armpit.

Kia Ora!

Well the stock under the arm would work, you would need to cut the stock off then glue the gun to the hand and arm. Secondly, this would change the angle of the weapon, so the offhand (left arm) would need to long enough to reach the correct part of the gun. Then finally with the gun glued down and the stablising hand connected you could slowly shave off pieces of the stock until you got a snug fit between the shoulder and the butt of the weapon.'

As I find my words fail me I attached "birds eye" Instructional Pictures below.



Yes, I know how to spell glue

thats looking cool.

Cool man, and Kia Ora!

Thanks for putting a bit of thought into the idea, of course now I have to do it!

heres a link to my heavy bolter conversion tutorial, tell me what you think

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/272951.page

Stage Three - Pre Paint Fillin



Ok, as you can see this stage is fairly simple. Index finger on right hand (it's barely visible) has been sculpted outside of guard, hood has been filled and smoothed out, and finally a coupling has been run around to resemble the gloved right hand.

Once this all sets I will do the quick once over with some wet and dry 800gsm to smooth out some of the bumps, before hitting it with some 1200 gsm and a coat of paint.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And Blackhand, that bolter conversion looks choice. Though, I would have shaved down the intake vents on the top of the ammo container as it sits too high above his back. Other than that the bigger version of the bolter with the sheathed munition looks wicked.

I'm gonna use these for scouts! Definatley subscribed!

Stage Four - Der Paintenfritzell pt. 1

Ok, so thankfully it was quite a warm evening, and with low wind. So, I took the trusty old cardboard box I use as a platform to keep the models up from the ground and away from any particles, dirt, dusty and nastys that will be stirred by the aerosol spray.

Using the "tap tap tap" process mentioned on other tutorials on the site I sprayed in short burts, turned the model 90 degrees then spray, turn then spray, turn then spray. Simple enough.

These pictures below show the final results. All in all I am quite pleased with this conversion, and he will in turn make a welcome addition to the Hunde des Kriegs.



So, that concludes my short tutorial. It's been a ball putting it together, and I hope I inspired some of you to add some pep to your Cadian/Kasrkin troops.

Once again, thanks again to whatwhat for the inspiration.

Note: Stage Five - Der Paintenfritzell will continue on my blog

Awesome. No hat tilt necessary.

Stolen

Rad!

Awesome. No hat tilt necessary.

Well, some credit is due chief. Expecially in light of the fact your award winning tutorial gave me some insight into how to use a material that could potentially induce a stroke.

I should have some paintings of the little chappy once I get some design work out of the way for a client.

Nice

Love it :3

LOOKS AWESOME!