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Hi everybody, been a while since I’ve posted, so sorry for that. But, seeing as tomorrow's my 13th birthday (Sep. 21), I thought I would go for a nice, interesting (hopefully), picture filled, birthday bonanza!

……Not really. But I did feel like now would be the best time to show off my WIP truescale, MkV heresy era loyalist Dark Angel! (That was a mouthful) I’ve refrained from sculpting the second leg and finishing sculpting/attaching the cloak before I get your critiques.

As you can see he is completely magnetized at the feet, waist and arms. I have two left arm variants: A Dark Angels helmet and a knife held behind the back (with WIP lion head), and three left arm variants: a powerfist, a bolter, and another bolter. This is just a temporary base, I'm going to give him one something like this:http://coolminiornot.com/221539

Here are the pics:















Left arm variant #1, with a knife held behind his back and a WIP lion head.


Another picture of the knife arm.


Left arm variant #2, with a Dark Angels helmet held in his hand (sorry for the crappy pic, forgot to take an updated one for this)


Bolter arm #1


A close up of the shoulder pad for bolter arm #1 (still needs to be cleaned up, and I'll probably remove the Roman numeral I/1)


Bolter arm #2


Lightning claws/power fist. This will probably be turned into lightning claws if someone has an easy way to do it.


Thigh detail.

I suppose I should give credit to the two most involved:

Lamenter ( masteroftheforge*dot*com )

RetributionAngel ( http://www.youtube*dot*com/user/RetributionAngel )

BTW, the links have been edited so they don’t get spammed.
Sorry for the (again) crappy pics, I am serious when I say it looks a lot better in person.

Well, the GS work is definitely impressive. I'm just kinda torn about the left side of his chest having a different pattern than the right and the bottom. Maybe I'm just a sucker for symmetry, because, overall, I really like the model.

Happy early birthday, too, you whipper-snapper!

That's some fantastic converting, good greenstuffing. On the whole, very nice. I'm loving the lightning claw housings.

BUT are you going to do something with his extra crotch armour? Because at the moment that unadorned circle over his junk is really distracting. ATM it doesn't so much look to me like armour as it does a target for one of those carnival strength-testing games.

I was mostly going after Lamenter's Mkv marines as I like the look of them and he has a really good truescale tutorial. What do you think I should do with it? Maybe put some rivets around the outside or remove it altogether?


BTW I'm not sure if I should turn the powerfist into lightning claws or not. Lightning claws are kind of fidgety to do and don't really seem Dark Angels-ish to me.

Great work with GS. Looking good.
Stokleplinger, Symmetry is sickness

^Thank you! I have to agree about the symmetry, as Mkv armor was made and distributed during the heresy, while heretics were running around crazy, and loyalists were trying to keep Chaos at bay. No one would have had time to put on armor, let alone put time into making it look right!

Wait...you're only 13? I would have killed to have half this talent when I was your age! Looks good overall, but I still got a little to say about it. First off, is the symmetry. I know you've already heard this, but maybe if we all team up we can beat it into your head But then again, it's your sculpt, do with it as you please. For some reason I really llike the arm thats holding a knife behind his back, just seems like somethin a Dark Angel would do. All in all, keep up the great work and have yourself a good birthday.

Theres always some really special young tallent that makes me wish i had started that young and so bloody well, i hate to imagine how disgustingly good you will be when you hit 26 X_x *whimpers* fantastic work there chap... really....

Crash is right, I would look at using Thin plastic card strip to base lay any strong lines your going to add first, as it will give you definite direction to sculpt over and hold onto, over my years i have taken alot more plastic card and things suck as micro balls and what not into my work to replace the hap hazard sculpting of said pieces.

I actually did use a piece of plasticard to help sculpt the vents. They're more defined than they look. Thank you all for the compliments.

I have also added a poll to see which backpack option you like more (cape or no cape). Also, I agree that the symmetry would look nice but seeing as it is venting, not armor, I feel it would only be where it needs to be and I am trying to create the impression that it is only there for function, rather than looks.

Please keep the comments coming!

First up, happy brithday for tomorrow.
Secondly, I'm loving it so far, but agree that the Power fist should be turned into a Lightning claw. Ironically I just finished fallen Angels yesterday.

kk, sounds good. In case you all haven't realized, I am modeling the powerfist/lightning claw after this:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/LUGFT-HURON-CHAPTER-MASTER-OF-THE-ASTRAL-CLAWS.html

Anyone have a good way to model lightning claws? Greenstuff vs. plasticard, etc.

The cape would look cool -under- the backpack tho

Nice work!

I love it already. It's well proportioned and posed, and has the potential to become badass.

Thanks!

Keep commenting and voting everyone!

Thanks everybody for the feedback, I've updated the toopic with new and better pictures.

As for updates, I have none but have decided to keep the cape and make the chest symmetrical. I am looking for ways to magnetize the cape as well as a way to make lightning claws? Could anyone give me tips on how to scratchbuild lightning claws? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Keep the commenting and voting coming, please! If the votes change drastically enough, I may change my mind!

If you're going to go for the cape (not what I voted for) I'd recommend adding some more folds and details to it. Right now it looks a bit flat.

I feel like the major folds are visible at the bottom, while the minor folds would be at the top and are therefore covered by the lion skin. I'll consider adding more though, and if you think they should be somewhere else, please tell me.

It could be that you meant for the cape to be really heavy, like a tapestry almost, in which case your deep and strong folds might be more right. I'm going to assume that you meant for it to be a lighter type material for the rest of the post.

You've definitely got the basic folds and curls, but one of the keys to sculpting is remembering that what looks good based on memory pales in comparison to using a reference.

Take these flags, for example...



Turn them on their sides and they more or less mimic the same thing you're trying to do with the cape. Now, I'm not saying that you can expect (or should even try) to copy all of the details on a mini, but with the reference, you can better understand exactly what the fabric would actually do when being swept by the wind.

i love this model!! all the various choices look great!

^^Do you recommend that I restart the cloak or just sculpt additional folds onto the existing one?

I dunno... I mean, don't get me wrong - the cape you've got will look good painted up. Plus, at this point I think it would be hard to add folds and wrinkles without it looking weird. You've got the basic forms, it's just the fine details that are missing.

If you're happy with it then use the one you've got. However, and don't take this the wrong way, if you're wanting to add more detail to it, it'd probably be easier to start over.

Alrighty, I think I'll continue with the cape I've got now. Once it's all painted up, I may love it or I may toss it immediately. Thanks for all the tips along the way! I hope to have some updates soon, but now I'm into hockey and soccer/football season so..... may take a while but I will work as fast as I can.

Thanks for all the replies!