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Hello everybody

I am planning to paint the Wraithseer model and i want it to look spectacular and i will probably enter it into golden demon next year.
atm it is sitting in pieces as i want to have it in the stance that it is running up a big piece of slate.
my problem is i cant seem to find anywhere online to buy a big piece of slate for the base of my model (6cm base) so i ruffly need 2inches piece of slate.
does anyone know of a website where i could purchase something like this or anything similar to it?

Also because i am having the model running up the rock i need to bend the Wraithseers legs so that it suits the pose, can you please gimi tips on how to bend it properly
atm i have seen on you tube melting the model and bending it but that destroys the detail of the model so not sure i trust it.

p.s. once i acquire this rock piece i will start to show WIP of the model on dakka so look out for them in the next month or 2

I know this isn't the answer for your question, but have you considered doing the slate out of milliput? I think it would be much easier, and get you the exact shape you need.

I think GuitaRasmus has a good idea. Layering sheets of mulliput would give you the great texture of slate and still be easy to drill and sand compared to actual slate.

As to the posing of the model, it's likely to require delicate trimming of the joints to allow them to bend properly and since the model is resin, it's possible to soak it in warm water to make it more pliable to bend without damaging the details. Direct flame is always a bad idea with plastics of any kind, but heating the item with water, sand, or salt can be very effective.

Yes i have considered that and will probably end up using it in the end but would just like to see if there is any model slates out there
and atm im not sure what exact shape i want for the model so would be nice to see some shapes and then design my own shape from the inspiration that i found.

i have bookmarked this tutorial which shows you how to make slate from multiputt is very good tut

http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1367

and referring to the legs bending i forgot to mention that the legs are plastic as there exactly the same as the Wraithlord legs

thanks for the comments so far will probably buy the multiputt tonight and try it out

Magee wrote:
my problem is i cant seem to find anywhere online to buy a big piece of slate for the base of my model (6cm base) so i ruffly need 2inches piece of slate.
does anyone know of a website where i could purchase something like this or anything similar to it?

Go outside.

Seriously. Slate is just lying around and free.

is there a place around you that wholesales slate? maybe ask to buy their broken bits for cheap?

Grimtuff wrote:Go outside.

Seriously. Slate is just lying around and free.

Even though he's probably trolling, I have to say that this is the best form of way to aquire slate. Plus, you could possibly go outside, and find a pice of... I dont know, Quartz, and you really like the idea, then just pick it up, walk away, and put it on the base.

As for the leg bending, you could take an exacto-knife to the back of the knee. If you cut out a 90 degree angle from the back, then glue it up without those 90 degrees, then the leg will bend at a 90 degree angle, and you could use other angles to get varying degrees of bend. Hope I could help.

Rennoc215 wrote:

Grimtuff wrote:Go outside.

Seriously. Slate is just lying around and free.

Even though he's probably trolling, I have to say that this is the best form of way to aquire slate. Plus, you could possibly go outside, and find a pice of... I dont know, Quartz, and you really like the idea, then just pick it up, walk away, and put it on the base.

Not trolling at all. Slate is everywhere, all you have to do is be on the lookout when walking around.

Thanks for all the comments guys

I know it normally is a great idea just to walk outside and look for some slate but unfortunately i live in the centre of town and
also in a flat that has no front or back garden so therefore be pretty hard to find some slate unless i stole it from my roof.

So i decided to go ahead and buy some of that sculpey and super sculpey to give it ago and
see how it turns out so hopefully it will arrive soon and i can give you some pics in about a week or 2.

Grimtuff wrote:

Rennoc215 wrote:

Grimtuff wrote:Go outside.

Seriously. Slate is just lying around and free.

Even though he's probably trolling, I have to say that this is the best form of way to aquire slate. Plus, you could possibly go outside, and find a pice of... I dont know, Quartz, and you really like the idea, then just pick it up, walk away, and put it on the base.

Not trolling at all. Slate is everywhere, all you have to do is be on the lookout when walking around.

Heck I got a big box of slate that I collected a few years ago. All you have to do is drive down a highway or an interstate and look for sections where they cut mountains away for the road. Usually there is tons of slate right there on the side of the road. Of course if you area is flat, then you might want to take a road trip...

There are places like this everywhere in my area:

Grimtuff wrote:Slate is everywhere, all you have to do is be on the lookout when walking around.

Only in areas where you can find metamorphic geology. Try finding it walking around Florida and you'll have no luck. Sure, we have more sand than we know what to do with but slate not so much. That said, I've always found mounting miniatures to actual rock or stone to be a PITA. My wife got the Fantasy basing kit last year for Christmas and I had no luck attempting to pin models to the large slates included.

Lord Scythican wrote:Heck I got a big box of slate that I collected a few years ago. All you have to do is drive down a highway or an interstate and look for sections where they cut mountains away for the road. Usually there is tons of slate right there on the side of the road. Of course if you area is flat, then you might want to take a road trip...

Or be in an area where the mountains aren't volcanos and the dirt isn't residual lava flows. In other words, not Washington State where I live. :(

B&Q or similar garden centres have big bags of shale / slate chunks. You can also pocket pieces from plant pots outside pubs. Don't buy 'modelling slate'. Get the garden stuff and smash it up with a hammer till it's the right size. It's usually not actually slate (natural slate is hard), it's usually some form of soft stone. The benefit of that stuff is it really doesn't bugger up your drill bits when pinning your model on.

hey guys thanks for all the great comments, last wknd i bought some sculpey as they can be
made into pretty nice pieces of slate so i have some picture below of this attempt
the first picture is a test piece just to see how exactly the material looked like and how to use it.



I basically use it as a piece of (line of sight blocking) terrain can easily hide of a unit of termies or 5 man squad behind it, 10 dark eldar if you lucky to lol



2nd one is an actual tester of the base i want for my actual Wraithseer model



I haven't painted it yet and i realized it wasn't long enough so made some more and then stuck the two together with pva glue and green stuff to smooth it out
please let me know what you guys think of it is it decent enough to look like slate and will it look good on the base. (will have painted the slate by 2mrow so shall load up another pic then)



i have also linked below a few more pics of the overall project on my photobucket, im not putting them in this
topic as want to save them for my WIP project of the overall model which will be up some time in the
future depending on how hard my final year at uni becomes.
http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p198/dmagee692/Eldar%20wraithseer%20Project/

I'd suggest cutting the joint and repositioning it. The bending will look very odd as the different parts of the legs are rigid on the Wraithlords, so if they suddenly turned into a banana shape...

I'd suggest cutting the joint, pinning fuse wire (it bends) between the two until you're happy with it, cut off any extra material (at the back of the knee, probably, if it's bending now) and then fill in the gap with greenstuff.

It's a bit hard to tell (rather blurry pic), but your test piece looks off, to my eye. It seems that the cleavage for the bulk of the stone is horizontal, but there's a smooth slope running up the diagonal edge - slate doesn't work that way. I'd either leave the slope rough, with cleavage lines carrying through the entire width of the stone, or tilt the whole formation, using the smooth diagonal slope as your top layer (you could keep the gradual curve up by embedding the formation in soil, snow, etc.). A slightly more natural shape wouldn't hurt, either (looks like someone took a masonry saw and sliced out a wedge - there are cleavage lines, but the face is too straight), unless the formation is supposed to have been carved.

They sell slate pieces here http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/wargames-bases-basing/basing-materials.html

An alternative you may not have considered could be bark. The layers of wood mimic rock strata very well and it's much cheaper, and easier to find and work with.

An example of what can be done with bark, and a great article as well, can be found here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Making_Dynamic%2C_Craggy_Hills

Good luck with your masterpiece!