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I think you should avoid the problem with the side plates by either draping them with rolled or unrolled camo netting, hanging stowage off, or just make side plates of your own design. Any combination of those three would make your vehicle represent something more immediately utilitarian in a way different than a chimera might be.

A quiet night last night, sleep was high on the agenda. I had decided after seeing lots of pretty pictures of the newly released hellhound images that the changes to the side plates would be annoying. The reason for the annoyance would be that I would have OLD looking vehicles, even though they were newly made with lots of custom work, basically they would look dated within two months of being made.

So I came to the conclusion I could do something very simple to make sure I was compatible with the future style, here take a look at the new Hellhound side plate: -



Changes to notice are the side plate has been thinned, and recessed detail has been added. Well we might not be able to do the recessed plates, but we cut the our larger side plates down to a similar size and very easily make out vehicles look more modern. One can observe that the plate has been reduced to the same depth as the strange piston like thing on the front edge, therefore giving us something to measure to work out the new depth. Basically after measuring the side plate has had 2.5-2.6mm cut off of it, therefore armed with a scribing tool and a ruler, I marked out a cutting line along the top edge. Then with my Dremel vice holding the side plate securely and the Games Workshop Razor saw in hand I started to cut.

I must admit at this point a particular weakness of mine, I am terrible at cutting a straight line with a saw, and try to avoid doing so most of the time. However this time I managed by being careful and slow and managed to hold the line! Here you can see the reduced thickness side plate with an old style plate next to it for comparison: -



As you can see any sensible person at this point would be happy, and have basically ensured their vehicles match the new style, but I have a curse, the curse of being a perfectionist. It can occasionally be a benefit, and lead me to learn and expand my abilities as a modeller. It encourages me to purchase any interesting tools I see, even if I cannot use them at the time I buy them, because I might need them later. It makes me have a well stocked plasticard collection, just in case I need a particular shape and size. Sometimes it rewards me with some stunning work, that I look at and think, Wow, did I do that?

However most of the time it drives me to do things I don't really need to do, and wastes my time chasing things I can never achieve. As I am sure you noticed in the picture above, I looked at the newly reduced side plate and thought, "Hmmm, It doesn't match the GW one, I need to keep working on it till it does". What a waste of time, in 2-3 months time GW will release the hellhound pictured above, and I could just reproduce the side plate from that. But the curse kicked in, and I started thinking about how to add the recesses and cut outs shown in the Hellhound picture.

Firstly I needed to cut out the column of three small slots on the right as we look at it. Small slots like this close together are a real pain as the thin remaining pieces between them need to be perfect or the whole thing will look a mess. So I started by grabbing a stencil and a scribing tool, these tools are made by Hasegawa and I purchased them a while back from a hong kong dealer on E-Bay (notice the curse again): -



This tool is useful for scribing shapes into plastic/resin to add surface detail, or to mark out places to cut. I particularly wanted the row of shapes just up and left of the bluetac, as they fit perfectly the size and shape of the cut outs on the hell hound. So I scribed the shapes onto the surface and used them as a guide for cutting out carefully with a scalpel and a drill. Any small slips or mistakes I corrected with procreate putty, which helped keep the sharp lines and edges required.

Once this was done, I marked out using the templates again a larger rectangle in the next panel. The aim this time was simple, I would remove the entire panel, round off the corners with pro-create, and then use it as a template to make the panel to fit back inside it. I cut out the panel successfully, trying hard to keep the lines straight, and once complete, I padded the corners with Procreate putty. A while back I had worked out a method of rounding corners easily, simply pad the corner with green stuff or Procreate and use a plasticard circular rod pressed into the corner, make sure it is touching both edges on either side of the corner, and whatever remains will be a nice smooth rounded corner made of putty, although protruding both above and below the opening. Once set the putty can be cut flush with the surface on both sides using a scalpel, leaving a virtually perfect rounded corner. It takes a little time waiting for it to set, but I can always get on with other things while waiting, compare this to trying to cut out a perfect flush rounded corner and it is much easier and sometimes quicker.

Here is a picture of the work so far on the panel, I went to bed soon after this point for a nice early night with Mrs Argos: -



More tomorrow, when I will be finishing the frame under the brass etch on the gun platform and adding the remaining panels to this side of the chimera side plate.

Looking good so far

Just in case your interested, a very nice guy called Wodon over at Boot Camp told me the following about the "Strange Piston Thingy"

The strange piston thing on the front of the Chimera hull and the matching brother on the Leman Russ is actually the adjustable position Tension Idler for the track assembly. Basically the front wheel is on a fixed axle, as opposed to the Roadwheels which are spring mounted to "float" over the terrain. The rear position is the Drive Sprocket. Of course against all logic the Leman Russ has a Drive Sprocket on the ground, but that is another story.

The "Strange piston thing" allows the crew to move the Idler's axle to change the tension on the track. When doing suspension repairs the first step is to release this tension be sliding the Idler back to the rear. Once repairs were done and the track refitted the Idler would be forced back into position. As this is mechanical tension it was the work of many hands or a specialized tool.

It is cool to find this kind of stuff out, so I thought I would pass it on

That is cool info. I know modern tanks use a similar mechanism to loosen the tracks when they have to do maintenance or replace tracks.

Also those modernized sidings are looking really nice.

wow cool anyway kepp up the perfectonism. (i think thats a word). anyways keep us updated!


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perfenctionism maybe


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also could you tell me how you paint your steel legion just so i can try it out as i go for a darker colourscheme

BrotherArgos wrote:Just in case your interested, a very nice guy called Wodon over at Boot Camp told me the following about the "Strange Piston Thingy"

The strange piston thing on the front of the Chimera hull and the matching brother on the Leman Russ is actually the adjustable position Tension Idler for the track assembly. Basically the front wheel is on a fixed axle, as opposed to the Roadwheels which are spring mounted to "float" over the terrain. The rear position is the Drive Sprocket. Of course against all logic the Leman Russ has a Drive Sprocket on the ground, but that is another story.

The "Strange piston thing" allows the crew to move the Idler's axle to change the tension on the track. When doing suspension repairs the first step is to release this tension be sliding the Idler back to the rear. Once repairs were done and the track refitted the Idler would be forced back into position. As this is mechanical tension it was the work of many hands or a specialized tool.

It is cool to find this kind of stuff out, so I thought I would pass it on

aka_mythos wrote:That is cool info. I know modern tanks use a similar mechanism to loosen the tracks when they have to do maintenance or replace tracks.

Also those modernized sidings are looking really nice.

I don't know how they release the tension in the IG in the 41st century, but many modern vehicles, at least those that use hydraulic tensioners, have a release mechanism so that you can bleed the grease out of the tensioner. When you need tension again, you use a grease gun to inject grease through a fitting on the tensioner. Checking track tension is a daily requirement in a mech unit and every one of my drivers had a grease gun with his bag of tools. I've considered building my technical servitors with a grease gun as one of their tools. Now that you bring this up, I'm getting an urge to work on servitors again. However, since BrotherArgos can do it better, perhaps he should give it a whirl? Surely, the Steel Legion must have servitors.

Regarding new vs. old Chimeras, you're doing fantastic work but I remain nostalgic for the older style. I figure that most FWs won't even get the new Standard Template and my vets are using their old equipment until the techpriests cannot keep the blessed vehicles running any longer. Hopefully the Omnissiah will not let them fail!

Hey Argos I was just wondering were you found that new Sm painter beta? I'm a B and C member but can't find it anywhere.

* Press SM Painter button on the main page ( right upper corner)

* Press Imperial Forces Recognition [Painters]

* And press The Space Marine Painter Beta V5.0

Thanx I know how to find the Sm painter what i mean is how do i find the colour matcher version that Argos has used.

Are you going to make a full army of these guys? because right now there is only one, out of many.

Must you not start with one step, to march 1000 miles? I'd say that he'll be able to produce plenty more once he gets all his special different casts made.

Bloodthirster wrote:Thanx I know how to find the Sm painter what i mean is how do i find the colour matcher version that Argos has used.

After finished painting but before wargear press finalise

Continuing work on the side plate took up most of my saturday work time. the first thing I noticed when working on the side plate was the change to the last panel (the one at the rear), when compared to the new images. In the new images its much larger and fits snugly, however when you look at the old one the following is evident.



Its too short by about a 1mm, so removing all the bolt heads, I set about extending the panel by 1mm, I used two sheets of 0.5mm plasitcard laminated (glued) together. When they had set I stuck them to the sideplate and trimmed them down to match.



I also took this time to widen the hole I made to match the changes, I also saved all the rivet heads so I could reattach them later. There were some gaps where the rounding of the edges of the original sideplate caused "dips" between the extension and the original. If they were small I filled them with a thin layer of super glue and filed them flush. If they were large I then went on to fill them with Pro-Create and smooth them with a Clay shaper. I also loaded up the corners of the hole with procreate and used the same technique as the previous hole to round the corners, I then left this to sit and dry for a couple of hours while I went out with Mrs. Argos.

Upon my return the Pro-Create had dried and I set about filing it once more to get back to a smooth level surface, most of the time any form of advanced modelling seems to be about filing!!



At this stage I noticed that the edges of the hole needed a little more tidying and did so.

I went on to try a test fit of the plate to see if my extensions had worked and I am pleased to say it was an accurate and tight fit. Although its funny when I look at the following picture the point which captures my eye every time is the large plate bottom right hand corner, where I had over trimmed the recessed plate and had to retouch the corner with Pro-Create. The difference in colour immediately catches my eye every time. It will be fine when I reproduce the side plate, and all the colours will homogenise.



After cutting and trimming the small recess plate I fitted it, returned all the bolts to the their rightful place (using the image of the hellhound side plate to show me the new locations for the bolts as they had moved) and lastly placed some of the Mig Productions brass etch rivets (0.5mm) into the holes on all the plates.



I have two remaining tasks for the side plate, one is to trim and tidy the edges on the small side plate a little more, and then to work out how to do the recessed handle on the large plate. The handle is going to be troublesome as it has square ends. I might leave that till after I had reproduced the plate and I have a more dense material to work with.

In answer to SonsOfLoki, I have a female torso and a new pair of legs and 2 sets of arms to mould and cast, this will then significantly add to the amount of variation I have for new figures. Obviously I will continue to increase the army size as I get more components finished, however sculpting your own army takes a fair amount of time

This is looking great. I am a dental student, and I must say I find that the instruments used in dentistry come in very handy!

The side plate is coming along better, keep it up!

Looks good, but seems like an awful lot of work for panel lines. Why don't you just scribe it?

BrotherArgos wrote:As you can see any sensible person at this point would be happy, and have basically ensured their vehicles match the new style, but I have a curse, the curse of being a perfectionist.

Wow! I am impressed by your tenacity . Keep it up!

It's about you being happy with the model, not anyone else . I have this trait as well, and sometimes it is wonderful! Sometimes I spend too long doing something... but most of the time, in the end, to me it was well worth it

Great work! This has been an amazing project to follow.

Its not over yet !! .. and most probably take forever!

Well I have had a good modelling day today, and put together this Female Steel Legion Sgt. I am very pleased with the female torso and it seems to work well with the new running legs.

There is still some more sculpting on the legs to do, but the style worked!



I was happy with the use of the small FW Elysian pistol in holster, although I feel the chainsword arm is positioned incorrectly, but as its only held together with Blu-tac I am not worried.



The rebreather on the female torso will be added after it is reproduced, as will the webbing based ammo packs, from observation almost all female soldiers wear items on webbing below their chest, so thats where I will be sculpting them, instead of on the chest as the men do.



The running legs are turning out ok, only one boot left to go, but with the new arms it will dramatically increase the variants I can make.



This is the angle where the chainsword arm looks incorrect, I think the once the arm is closer to the body (no blu-tac) and the green stuff added to mix it into the shirt, it will work.



The last is my favourite pose, leading her troops in the charge towards the Ork enemy, head tilted forward as she runs!

It was good today to get the urge to do some sculpting again, and do some more figure work!

Look good Brother!

Awesome! You're going to have an impossible combination here... a steel legion army with a variety of poses

not sure if its any use to you, but if youve got a copy of "art of warhammer 40,000" (who dosnt) page 84 and 85 are more steel legion pictures.
its scary how much yours looks like one of them!

I did have a look at the book, thanks for the reference!

I am pleased that my sculpting is holding up to the style shown in the artwork. I really need to get more sculpting done, to increase the variants possible and get a squad done!

This is my first comment on your work, though I've been lurking a while; all I can say is that you have really done justice to the imagery of the Steel Legion.

Your conversion work, sculpting and painting is superb and I thank you for putting such detailed descriptions of your process up, as well as nice clear photos.

Keep up the excellent work,

Earl

Good to see a female miniature that looks female and not cartoon female

Are you planning to do any female heads? like with ponytails and the like?

Ponytails? I don't think it'd quite work with helmets and gasmasks.

Oooooh ! Looking very good mate that femalguard
worked out really well.

Wolf

BrotherArgos wrote:I did have a look at the book, thanks for the reference!

I am pleased that my sculpting is holding up to the style shown in the artwork. I really need to get more sculpting done, to increase the variants possible and get a squad done!

its great mate-i couldnt believe how good the likeness was!