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.

Well, I went through 3 mails to them without any reply... Until I filed a paypal complaint, then I magically got some answers!

Isn't that surprising! And I didn't get my bit either, just a refund of the missing item value : not the actual cost of the item + any shipping it will cost to order it from another bits site. Plus, of course, he filed a paypal complain too, as if being an awful firm wasn't enough...

So, those fething scums? I won't stand any positive comment about them!

But, of course, if you can get your items, all the better for you!!!

Sounds like a rough spot to be in, I hope it turns out okay...

I really dig the amount of conversion work you're doing. Keep it up!

Don't give up on greenstuff yet, though. Sometimes you just can't get what you want without it! With your Vostroyan-esque hat, try creating small, raised bits to represent fur instead of indentations. I have found it tends to look better (and I've made a lot of gs fur hats)

Good luck with everything!

Cheers,
Rawson

Man, you're painting a depressing picture there, yggdrasil. Guess i will bombard them every couple of days and see what happens. Fingers crossed, you may have just got unlucky (my natural pessimism says that isn't so but still.......)

Cheers for the encouragement Rawson. I'm certainly keen on carrying on with the GS cos although the hat i made was pretty poor, I liked that i was creating something individual. And boy do i know you make a lot of fur hats! I should go and study yours some more for inspiration.

Right, onto that cursed heavy

Greetings people

Been struggling to get my hands on a working camera lately but this should be sorted now so hopefully tonight I can post pics of my next squad member, the gunner. Also been working on my squad leader but am still stuck between making him a telion counts as or as a power fist to take out my mate’s dreadnought. As I’ve mentioned we don’t really play too often so its more of an aesthetic quandary really, but it is bugging me. I’m now planning on giving these guys a rhino too so it seems to me that the powerfist is more fitting but i think I am leaning towards the stalker bolter.
Any opinions would be appreciated.

Thought I would also give an update on something I mentioned earlier regarding a bits order. I emailed Bits and Kits on a Friday to report that I had not received my order. I then received an email back over the weekend, expressing regret that I hadn’t received it but asking that I allow a full 14 days for delivery. The gent said he would hold back a rhino and the other bits til that date in case my order didn’t arrive. On the said date (the next Friday) I still hadn’t received em so emailed him back and he replied to say he would send a second set and that I may have to sign a form saying I never received the initial order. Fair enough. The Monday afterwards this second order arrived. Overall I was pleased with the way they handled it and thought, in light of Yggdrasil’s bad experience, that it was only fair to point out my own outcome. Hopefully, Ygg, it was just an unfortunate one off that you went thru and I hope you don’t think I am trying to undermine here!
I guess this is the bit where I point out that other bitz site ARE available

Anyway, hopefully I’ll have a pic or two to post later – its nice to have some kind of update!



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Actually managed to sort out the camera issue and am able to reveal a WIP of the fourth member of the squad, the Heavy.



And before you say it - yeah the dodgy GS hat head is back!!! Though i've been working on it. Its still i hat though it now resembles an afro. Gonna keep on working on it. Back when i built the "cannon" i envisaged it being slung low at hip level however after going thru my bits i couldnt find any that could make this work. In the end i settled for this higher grip which i actually quite like. What every good heavy needs is a chaos marauder right arm and a catachan lefty . I also chose to have his eyeline not following the barrel but to have him at rest.





Whilst putting the torso together I was struck by how tall and athletic the pose was. Obviously the hat gives the extra height but somehow he just looked "sleeker" than the others. Originally i intended to make him a proper "heavy" loaded down with pouches, extra ammo and sidearms etc but from then on i just pictured him as a rangy dude and i didnt wanna destroy the image. I guess adding the gun has ruined the effect but its locked in my head now so i'm leaving him fairly unequiped, perhaps just adding a grenade or two.



Anyway, any C&C would be much appreciated about this and my sergeant issue. I've also been working on another member of the Scythes of Dorn with some bits that arrived with the rhino but will show some WIP next time

Happy hunting

New pics in last post. Couldn't create a new post for them last night as I'd already posted earlier in the day - lesson learnt!

Lol... I'm glad you had a nice experience with.... them, you must be among a lucky few...

That heavy gun is quite original, I like it! I think adding a handle on the right-top side of it would be nice...

HeHe - he looks quite funny - nice conversion

I'd say turn the heavy's head the other direction. Right now he kinda looks wrong footed. i.e. "Oh, feth! The 'nids are on that side of us!"

Thanks for the comments guys

@Optio - thanks for the compliment, i think! He's not really supposed to be funny but the fact you added its a nice conversion makes you alright in my book I'm not sure if its cos he looks like he's got an afro. Whatever it is, i hope once he's finished and painted he'll look like the cannon totting "mutha-crusher" he's supposed to be.

@Yggdrasil and Rawson. Cheers for the suggestions. I did originally plan to have a handle on the barrel. Not sure exactly when i dropped the idea but it was probably just forgotten in the fuss of finding arms that would allow me to pose him in anyway at all. I chuckled at the scenario with the tyranids but i still like the pose i came up with. However, since you guys took the time to look at this guy...........



Whoa, that GS mess shows up a lot more on camera. Will clean it up. The handle will need attaching properly but I reckon it looks good. What do you guys think on the head repositioning? I just think that looking the other way adds a bit more action to the model.

Was too long a day to get cracking on anything else this evening but may have some sergeant goodness for you tomorrow

So i've had a bit of a sojourn lately thanks to a holiday and a lack of motivation but ready to get back on with the task at hand. I've decided that my sergeant will be able to act as a telion "counts as". Have decided to try and take the spirit of the telion model but reinterpret it for my own chapter. Got the basics in my head but need to sort out how i'm gonna make it work as i may need to do some minor drilling/gs-ing and as you can see i aint the master converter! Still, i'm quite excited about cracking on with him and hope to have some WIP pictures on soon.

On a side note, i am currently working on another part of the Scythes of Dorn and need to ask if anyone has any good tips for painting white hair? Basic instructions will do. I'm wondering if a technique of codex grey undercoat, lighter grey drybrush, near white highlights is the way forward? would a wash of badab black fit in there anyway or is that just nuts?

That should be alright for the hair...

And the heavy looks better that way!

Its about time I made some more progress on these guys so its time to post a couple of pics of the last member of the squad - the Sergeant. Had been debating whether to go for a telion counts as or a power fisted brawler. In the end i went for the telion clone, so here are a couple of very wip pics





And yes yes, before you say it, that GS wrist IS a thing of beauty! First thing i fix, i promise. It was going wrong and i just left it there to keep the hand attached. Lol, i just noticed the left arm has slipped down too. The eye patch will have to be cut down too - gs is so darn fiddly. How do people feel about the pose? I hope its clear from the pic but he is resting the axe on his shoulder rather than aiming an overhead blow. I intend to add the left hand to be gripping the strap of the slung bolter. I made a conscious decision to veer away from the more obvious pose with the stalker pattern bolter being brandished. I suppose technically he doesnt come with a bladed weapon in his profile but, hey, he's also stated to be an awesome hand to hand fighter and he must be using some form of close combat weapon when he's rocking that BS 5! I like that he appears to be surveying the situation calmly but is ready to kick off. I think he ties in well with the rest of the squad. I'm not sure if i need to add anything to differentiate him from the rest of the squad. He has a cloak which might not be too clear in the photos and am thinking of adding a gold bullet to his chest as an honour marking. Any ideas of what to add would be appreciated.

Finally, a quick look at the stalker pattern bolter



Brap brap! Its the classic conversion, tho i used a chaos bolter (need to file down the chaos marking a bit more). I also added a stock to beef the weapon up a bit and to tie it in with
the scaled down bolters in the squad.

Thats it for now. Any help or opinions would be a great help.

Axlbush wrote:


And yes yes, before you say it, that GS wrist IS a thing of beauty! First thing i fix, i promise. It was going wrong and i just left it there to keep the hand attached. Lol, i just noticed the left arm has slipped down too. The eye patch will have to be cut down too - gs is so darn fiddly. How do people feel about the pose? I hope its clear from the pic but he is resting the axe on his shoulder rather than aiming an overhead blow. I intend to add the left hand to be gripping the strap of the slung bolter. I made a conscious decision to veer away from the more obvious pose with the stalker pattern bolter being brandished. I suppose technically he doesnt come with a bladed weapon in his profile but, hey, he's also stated to be an awesome hand to hand fighter and he must be using some form of close combat weapon when he's rocking that BS 5! I like that he appears to be surveying the situation calmly but is ready to kick off. I think he ties in well with the rest of the squad. I'm not sure if i need to add anything to differentiate him from the rest of the squad. He has a cloak which might not be too clear in the photos and am thinking of adding a gold bullet to his chest as an honour marking. Any ideas of what to add would be appreciated.

I LOVE custom characters! They make sweet projects and really add a lot of character to an army! (pun intended )

I think his feet are a bit too dynamic for a "resting axe, gripping strap" pose. I'm not super familiar with SM scout legs, but I think he should be a bit more squared up. I also think the torso twist should go away if you're going for a static look.

An arm holding the strap will be cool, but I think you might need to cut the arm and reposition it to be more bent. When I hold the strap of my stalker pattern bolter the top of my hand is just below the top of my shoulder. He might look like he's snapping his suspenders if you model the strap out where his hand is now.

Keep up the good work! You're putting a lot of love into these guys!

Cheers,
Rawson

Cheers for the feedback mate. I was stuck with a last set of scout legs and they weren't the set i'd have chosen originally but as i played about with it I felt the vision evole in my head and reckon it doesnt look too bad. It may look better from other angles - or maybe i'd just poor at visualising poses! :-)

You might be right on the arm. Obviously its slipped in the photo but i may well have to do as you say, tho i am loathe to as it means breaking out some more of the classy Axlbush-pattern GSing....

Getting worried now cos its time to start thinking about painting. Did a bit on another model the other day and i still paint like it's my first attempt ever.

Axlbush wrote:Cheers for the feedback mate. I was stuck with a last set of scout legs and they weren't the set i'd have chosen originally but as i played about with it I felt the vision evole in my head and reckon it doesnt look too bad. It may look better from other angles - or maybe i'd just poor at visualising poses! :-)

Well, in the end, you are the artist and they are all your models. Dakka is just a good place to keep your motivation going and pilfer/solicit some ideas. Do what you want to do!

Axlbush wrote:You might be right on the arm. Obviously its slipped in the photo but i may well have to do as you say, tho i am loathe to as it means breaking out some more of the classy Axlbush-pattern GSing....

Getting worried now cos its time to start thinking about painting. Did a bit on another model the other day and i still paint like it's my first attempt ever.

Painting is like public speaking: the only way to get better at painting is to paint. If you're worried about messing up the models you put so much time and effort into, pick up some cheap models that you don't care about. You can get stuff for REALLY cheap on eBay if you don't care what it is and just want some painting practice. And sometimes, game clubs/shops have some cheapo bins around also. Just a thought.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Rawson

Not done much on my scouts lately, the Space Marine video game being partially to blame for that. I have been doing some hobby work, namely a car crash of a paintjob on one model and an even more laughable attempt at lengthening the legs with greenstuff on another. The only work i've done on the scouts is a new smaller eye patch on the sergeant which may now look better, though i can't be sure til i get new batteries for my camera. However, there is no denying that they are near the paint stage so I'm naturally now considering the scheme. First up I need to point out that this is our CHapter's colour scheme



Not sure how accurate that actually translates to the actual models - think sepia washed bleached bone as the main colour. My original colour scheme on the first scouts i built was a dark grey chest and arms, black shoulders and bleached bone legs. To be honest, i was pretty happy with that, but with my new look scouts I'm thinking i prefer a more covert dark scheme, perhaps with dark greys or even some dark brown in there. Am a bit worried that a totally different scheme will make them too detached by from the chapter so am just after peoples opinions/ideas?

Cheers in advance. And now you've seen the colour scheme, look out for me in the Space Marine multiplayer battles! I'll be the dude smashing into walls with a jetpack

Axlbush wrote:Not sure how accurate that actually translates to the actual models - think sepia washed bleached bone as the main colour. My original colour scheme on the first scouts i built was a dark grey chest and arms, black shoulders and bleached bone legs. To be honest, i was pretty happy with that, but with my new look scouts I'm thinking i prefer a more covert dark scheme, perhaps with dark greys or even some dark brown in there. Am a bit worried that a totally different scheme will make them too detached by from the chapter so am just after peoples opinions/ideas?

Cheers in advance. And now you've seen the colour scheme, look out for me in the Space Marine multiplayer battles! I'll be the dude smashing into walls with a jetpack

I think you can get away with a little bit of non-scheme patterns on your scouts. If you're going with the sepia washed bleached bone, what about a brown/tan/bone camo pattern for the cloth? That would look more covert and still tie into your marine color scheme.

I think that colour scheme looks great man

@ Rawson -I'm glad that you've suggested camo because it has brought back in mind my initial ideas when startign this project. I definately DO NOT want camo colours! And i hate the idea of having a brown uniform. Now dont be offended by my response mate, cos its awesome of you to draw out my original thoughts! I am leaning more towards a (perhaps boring) grey toned scheme though perhaps with some browns. The feel should be for a covert squad that move in undercover ahead of the battleforce.

@ San76 - Cheers. I expect nothing more from a fellow son of Dorn *clashes fist to chest in salute* (sorry, got carried away there). Your Fists are coming on great by the way.

Would still appreciate any further ideas on the colour scheme

So been off the scene for a while. Have gone back to uni after many years to do a second degree - man, i forgot how much i hate studying. Anyway I finally getting adjusted and need a bit of dakka to get away from the terribleness that is academia.

A while back I discovered something shocking whilst postign a thread over on P&M questions - priming and undercoating aren't the same thing! Probably sounds laughable to anyone reading this but back in the day there was no such thing as priming so i assumed it was an americanism for undercoating. Needless to say I was soon put in my place.

Its with this happy revelation in my head that I now ask, has anyone used B&Q plastic primer before? Theres a store near my office so is the most convenient way of gettign my hands on some primer.

Axlbush wrote:Its with this happy revelation in my head that I now ask, has anyone used B&Q plastic primer before? Theres a store near my office so is the most convenient way of gettign my hands on some primer.

I can't say that I've used it, but I can recommend the Matt Black Paint spray [ http://bit.ly/sqjhp1 ] from Halfords, sprayed some buildings and troops with it and it hasn't done anything detrimental to them, best thing is it's £2.01 less for 100ml more than GW spray .

Edit: Forgot to add that for the scouts I was going for either a Camo or dark colour pattern on mine (got 5 sniper and 5 standard scouts to paint when I get round to it ), I think it's a bit ostentatious if you paint them up in a bright colour as they're meant to be all sneaky and covert , but each to his own I suppose.

Cheers mate, thats a gratefully received recommendation, especially as I have a halfords 5 mins from my house!

And i defo going on the dark scheme for the scouts. Shying away from camo cos my skills probably aren't up to it Will just have to dive in and see what happens, i suppose.

Axlbush wrote:Shying away from camo cos my skills probably aren't up to it

Nah! If you want it, go for it! Go online, find a pattern you like, and try it out on a piece of paper a few times. Then camo the crap out of those scouts!

Rawson wrote:

Axlbush wrote:Shying away from camo cos my skills probably aren't up to it

Nah! If you want it, go for it! Go online, find a pattern you like, and try it out on a piece of paper a few times. Then camo the crap out of those scouts!

I agree, Camo pattern isn't all about repeated patterns, its all about making it look as random as possible, just paint with random strokes with whatever colour you need to blend in with your "terrain", you're not even forced to stick with variants of greens and browns, you could even have greys or blues, and as Rawson says use a scrap piece of paper to do some random patterns then choose one that you feel fits best and just give it a go

Long time no see!

So been in the background for a while keeping an eye on things but not feeling inspired enough to work on my own stuff. Actually thats a lie. I've been working on lengthening a set of legs - not truescaling them, just trying to make a marine taller than his brothers. As usual with me its a massive failure, but i persevere.
At the same time i Have to push on with the scouts. I'm feeling an urge to do some painting and a bit of a revelation - primer is not just a white or black undercoat - i've bought myself some halfords white plastic primer. Although i am planning on painting the scouts in a dark scheme, my main army colour is a washed bleach bone so a crisp light prime is needed for them.

I'm also wondering about a good but fairly basic technique for painting flesh. I've had a go at using cattattafish's technique and i like it (not that i can do it justice) but its almost a cartoonish style and just wondering what other techniques are out there that people recommend?

Partly for sh*ts and giggles, and also to give some warning of my painting, here's a wip in progress of my Scythes of Dorn librarian, Miroslav Baev.



Obviously lots of work to be done. That unpainted shoulder pad has been "sorted" since the pic was taken. From a normal distance the face looks much better, the white bit on the forehead has also gone. He even looks like he has a pupil in his real eye, i swear! However that bionic eye is a nightmare. I think i may have undercoated it too much and lost some details on it. Anyway, anything i produce from now on will be an improvement and i will be fixing him soon. Just thought i owed people a pic, shabby as it is.

Time to march on. For Sevestaan! For the Scythe!.......now get that xbox controller out of my face

Good to see you again!

Besides the Libby, what do you have going on over there?

Since you ask, I've got a few things in mind, tho all to do with my Chapter. Am keen to be making some progress again.

1) Finish converting and then painting the scouts

2) Building and painting The Scytheguard, which is more or less the Honour Guard for my Commander

3) The Commander himself, Fyodor Dyatnikev. The lengthening of legs mentioned previously pertains to him. Got a few bits together for him and a rough idea how i want him to look

4) I have a rhino sitting in its box winking at me.

Now over the last couple of days I've been mulling over my last post and where to go from here and have come to a decision. Before I crack on with these squads I really need to try and address my awful painting skills. Under the flash of a camera my entire army looks shabby.
To this end i'm excited, in a rather pathetic way, to vow to build a new basic tac marine and to the best of my ability. It might sound dreary to all you guys but i reckon just by concentrating on this one model I can improve my technique and will stand me in good stead to paint my more "exciting" models
Of course I will probably build stuff in between but my main aim will now be to paint this dude. And I'll be asking you guys for your hints and tips along the way.

Which brings me to my first query :-)

WHen it comes to painting, i prefer to paint the model with its arms and head off. What i wanted to ask was how do people usually prime and paint arms and heads when they aren't attached to bodies?

Cheers in advance!

Axlbush wrote:
WHen it comes to painting, i prefer to paint the model with its arms and head off. What i wanted to ask was how do people usually prime and paint arms and heads when they aren't attached to bodies?

Cheers in advance!

Hi again, for me I do the same as you, the way I approach it is by using Blu-Tack, it will hold while you prime the model as well as being reusable, then I use it to pose the figures in the style I want before I stick it down, just a suggestion

Cheers mate, was thinking of doing exactly that about half hour ago. Was hoping to have got cracking on it already but some heavy drinking got in the way :-). Thenone thing i was a bit worried about was whether there were problems with the paint drying drying at the joints?

Well I usually put it together with the Blu-Tack then prime it, disassemble and paint all the parts separately then use the Blu-Tack to pose it to give me chance to adjust it so it "looks" right, so far I haven't had any problems and have been using the same blob for about 35ish models, it's good for masking the areas so it allows you to use plastic glue, or use super glue if you like, also it comes in handy for just getting something on the table if you have it partially painted but not quite finished