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Have a look at Keratis Warriors from Confrontation; their helms and bodies have mandibles and pincers; my suggestion would be that you could press mould the pincers, which would give you a flat edge that you could then attach to Mk6/7 SM helm. Generally, Dirz/Scorpion bits might work well for the project. Just my tuppence; good luck and looking forward to blog!

Another faily quick and easy way to do mandibles could be using bits off Tyranid sprues: was rummaging through junk sprues at Conflict and thought of your project.

I agree with Malika2 on toning back the colour palette. Maybe a sort of classic Boba Fett, muted, scratched and damaged.

Click the subscribe button at the bottom left of the screen, bud.

Oh, and if cannon has them turn to chaos - maybe it's almost easier, yours are the last true MWs.

Press mould, possibly with grey stuff rather than green for a clean sharp edge. I'm telling you, tis the future!

Vaseline. Girly lip-balm tin versions are convenient as (1) you can open them one-handed (2) they're easier to store (3) the pinkish tint means it's easy to tell whether you've completed scrubbed it clean.

My press mould routine is use Grey stuff (Gale Force 9 make some; Hobbycraft over here stock it, I imagine they would in the US also, but standard GS is fine too).

1) Press whatever kneadite you're using into an upside-down small or medium base (not large, I'll explain in a minute).

2) Then lube up the piece you want to make an impression of; place it on the surface of your putty.

3) Get a base one size larger. Put a little film of lube on its top surface; use that to press your original into the kneadite. This ensures its flat and the impression is even.

4) Remove the larger base and leave the gs to cure. To be completely absolutely utterly rock solid green stuff in a standard mix needs 3 days but 24 hrs is usually fine. You could also up the yellow:blue to 2:1 for a quicker set I guess.

If you're only making small pieces, it's worth using standard small slotta bases, then you can set up a mould in either side of the recess.

When doing the actual moulding, rub lube into the mould, add a blob of gs that's roughly the width of your mould, and again, press down with the larger base. It's good to have excess around the piece as it makes it easier to extract. As Horn says, leaving 10 mins or so allows you to peel it out to curve (I've done this with vehicle aquillae on my home-made deathriders; I'll try to get pics up) but watch your gs ratio as it can stretch as you remove it, typically if there's too much yellow in the mix.

One last note: I do this with my 2 1/2 year old, and he loves it, so imagine the fun your Things could have at their advanced stage!


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Addendum: it's just occured to me that you could press the toothed edge of a chainsword down into gs to create your point bits. Then you'd be able to mould, maybe leave an hour for extra rigidly, and bend/cut to fit.

Only caveat with that (though pics good) is that, personally, I really dislike cooking oil as a release agent; much harded to control quantities, messy as anything (particularly with a small child!)

Sorry, just read your post Gits. You might need to use a deeper recess than a base for shoulder pads. Screwtop plastic juice bottle lids are pretty good for that I find. Also, really fine detail is unlikely to come out (press moulding from resin, say, isn't going to produce great detail). On the other hand, if you made a mantis face for your shoulder pads, you could very rapidly and reliably replicate it for press moulding.


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Argh! We are posting at the same time! No, Milliput isn't the same as Grey stuff, though some modellers use them to the same ends. Milliput is denser, harder, but also can flake. I'd avoid it for press moulds; a friend who is far more ambitious modeller than me found it really problematic.

I wasn't suggesting necessarily moulding the whole shoulder pad: you could just do the symbol and that would allow you to drape it round corners, curves etc whilst still pliable.

Your note on the detail: this is part of the reason I prefer grey to green for this; it tends to take hard edges better, in my experience.

As for resin casting: it's certainly doable, and there's articles such as
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Simple_Two-Piece_Mold_for_Casting_with_Resin.

Wives are surprisngly helpful in that regard. Mine has total lack of gaming interest but real insight which is most valuable and sometimes remarkably innovative.

One other thought on spikes: carve them. I had a long chat at Conflict to one of the GW sculptors (Gianni?) As well as beautiful work on Empire footsoldiers (I think), he had the master of an Ork Nob (Goff maybe?) with enormous pyramidal spiked shoulder pads. He said that he'd done them with shaped blobs green stuff left to go rock hard (3 days, plus time under a hot bulb) and then shaved them down to the desired with a brand-new scalpel blade. But, perhaps, I'd stick with the moulding option, if only from time's sake.

Looking good! How did you do the scopes?

Beautiful stuff mate, gorgeous work. I had this random idea that if you had a spare mk6 torso you could half one waist high in swamp (very Martin Sheen)...

I lurve that hf conversion, not to sound like I'm just jumping on the battle/band wagon.

I think ultimately tread the path between pseudo-realism and looking good. One thing you could do is an option (4): totally different camo. They're dreads - they're ancient - even more variety.

Tasty biscuits. Maybe we should start a separate great miniature trade blog?

You gotta have a doom eagle in there

Well, they'd get a good home here! I imagine I'll keep them for the nephews to use when they come play, and mine when they get older (daddy ain't for sharin').

1 word: Tempest. Marines so have jet bikes (well, ish). LS Tempests are solid, fun, and fluff tastic.

Lordy. Blackhand's gs skills FTW.

I have a couple of spare jump packs - which you're welcome to - but I also have some interesting insectoid wings from a Rackham Scarab-thing; want me to mock you up a giant buzzy jumpack which, ultimately, you could cast?

Had a look at the wings alongside a jumppack this morning in between getting kids up. My plan is to use the lower section of a standard jump pack largely unmodified and a cut, filled and gs'd upper part thereof, but keeping them separate from the wings so that you can cast the wings and either cast the jump pack or acquire standard ones and trim yourself. This should lend the model more stability, as the wings are actually slightly longer than a marine is tall; however, an assault marine on a standard base should be tall enough.
Here's the source model:


Anyway, I'll photo and blog the process, and do side-by-sides with conventional jump packs.

The Mandigorn is in bits anyway. I never really got round to building a Scarab army :( My vast Scorpion horde was always more interesting... anyway, OT, I have the Torso/head piece still, if anyone wants. I think I stole the legs a while ago for an aberration. Wings are currently soaking in Fairy Power Spray...

Okay, here goes; apologies for shanghai-ing your blog mate

Only packs I had were BA ones, so needed iconography removed and section trimmed out:


Here you can see it alongside the wings:


GS with a higher than normal amount of vaseline was moulded in and pressed to fit:




The imperfections in the metal are really apparent from this; having loving smoothed the gs with newly-acquired paint-shapers, it's now all bumpy from being impressed:


For casting purposes, they are now separate. Yes, this makes for seriously chunky jump packs but, hey, this is grimdark, and the sanguinary guard ones are hardly more sensible! C&C folks?

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Hmm... pictures not loading...

[edit] fixed

Waiting for gs to cure...

I agree, they're vast, but no more so than Sanguinary wings. To remove the swirly-ness would be complex and messy, though certainly doable with patience and a jeweller's saw; I'd rather leave that option open to Gitsplitta. Still, your point is valid, and much appreciated! A further idea is to shift the pack section so it's more vertical, thereby making it protrude less, though that could be tricky.

Another possible source for wings might be:

Fairly sure I've got one somewhere...


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Oh - you don't need to find a copy of the wings. I'll just send you mine. I don't plan on making a army any time soon.

Further stream of consciousness: you absolutely could mount the bottom half of a jet pack flush to them. This I also can provide (be filthy angels though).


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I second the dibs!

Heretic! No, wait, that's what everyone else thinks of them...

@ Blackhand - love the head spike!

Here's an alternate set of wings, from the Rackham Maeri fig, side by side with that chopped up jump pack:


My temptation would be cut in half and mount them on the jets. What does the assembled wisdom of Dakka think?

Hey mate, I have a couple of these if'n you want after using my cephalyx for parts:
https://store.privateerpress.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=8287
(one on right)
And
https://store.privateerpress.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=8244
(one on left)

@gits: that's exactly what I was thinking. Also, have a look at rackham scarab/mantid warriors as I can savage mine happily for bits.

I spend almost all my dakka time in p&m. I've made some great mates globally and learned a heck of a lot too.

@gits/blackheart - if you're amenable, bh could send me a mantis head and I'll model up a full marine with insectoid jump pack.