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OST here with a Heldrake conversion I have been working on. I haven't been posting regularly, but I want to get this and some other projects up and in this log so I can start keeping up with the project here. Here is the model in the initial conversion stage. Basically some Maulerfiend parts kitbashed with a terrorgeist






Please let me know if you have any questions, I would love to help people make similar builds.


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Alright, so with the basic build done, I added some Green Stuff work, to include some cables using Green Stuff Industry's Tentacle Maker. Basically, I liked how the Mauler was made of a bunch of fleshy cables bound together and wanted to keep a peice of that aesthetic while getting away from the silliness of the Dino-bots.





I like how the cables thickened up the waist.



Here is the Tentacle Maker I used:




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Here is the first wave of paint:



The fleshy parts were painted using the first half of the steps for my corrupt flesh tutorial ... and I might leave it here or take it up one more shade. I am super happy with how the wings and back are taking the paint so far and can't wait to see where it goes tonight.



I guess saying it follows my corrupted flesh tutorial (http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/2012/10/corrupted-flesh-tutorial.html) isn't completely correct. I am using some of the new colors. So, I primed it Valspar red primer, then brushed on a mix I used to paint blood on my ogres (2 parts Mephiston red/ 1 part black/ 2 parts Carroburg Crimson). I just covered the flesh parts in that color, then heavy dry brushed Genestealer Purple, then I came back and drybrushed less area Pink Horror, then a smaller area with Emperor's Children Pink. That's where I left off there anyway.



The cables right now were based in Snakebite Leather (I have no idea what color that is now) and then washed with Leviathan Purple. This give me a really good base to lay down the brass colors (If you have never used purples for your brass, you will see what I mean when I am done, promise). The armor is ... funny. I followed Ron's Word Bearer method from FTW and primed the model black and then zenithal sprayed the Valspar Red primer at angles to achieve a zenithal highlight. I then tied it in using Corroburg Crimson heavily washed all over the armor.

Here is a size comparison:





Being Word Bearers and a model with a huge base, I wanted to use a ruined basilica on the base to create a diorama. Between this desire and the fact that I wasn't using a flyer model with a sweet pre-cut flying-stand hole, I had to get creative with the actual construction of the flight stand. I ended up using my dremel to drill down deep into the stanchion on the base and also to drill a massive hole for the clear stand in the chest of the Helturkey. It was scary but also kind of fun. I thought the risk of potentially destroying my hard work was exciting, but I guess I am a little sick that way!


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Here is where I am right now:



I basically added some bone and some silver lining.





At the moment, I am still working really hard on this model, but the end is in sight. Then I will get to paint up some of the Hell Knights (counts as WB bikers) and some of my other WB conversions.

Since we are on the topic of Heldrakes, I want to share the Nurgle Heldrake I made in October for Halloween. It is a scratchbuilt model for the most part and is one of my pride and joys. I call it the Hell Worm:









Here is how it started:



Yep, a plastic eel and some balls. Pretty much how anything great really starts





And this is basically how it turned out in the green work. This is for sure my biggest project in terms of man hours sculpting and converting/ scratch work and the first time I ever built anything in PVC (rotors). I am thinking of a Nurgle Maulerfiend next. Please let me know what you think or give me some feedback on the other drake as I am a little stuck on that one at the moment. Not sure if I wat to add some script to the red armor.

More.

Thanks for the encouragement, HS. Here is the finished Heldrake. I am very happy with how it turned out, myself, but would love to have some feedback as this will be the color scheme over my Word Bearers army.



This project has been a hell of a lot of fun and is probably my favorite model that I have painted yet. The way it looks on the table is outstanding and I can't wait to put some more word bearers and even some daemons on the field with it.



The parts from the Forgefiend/ Maulerfiend kit really fit together perfectly with the Terrorgheist kit and made for a continuity of theme across the model that made painting it a natural process. The "finger jointed mouth" coming out of the armoured head for instance, really supported the idea that this is daemon flesh bound into armor to serve as a daemon engine.



The cables and everything also fit themes found across the new CSM daemon engines. If you look at the actual Forgefiend/ maulerfiend kit, you will find that under the armor, the beast is just a core of corrupted cables. I chose brass colors because they fit well with the fire and brimstone of evil armies, but also because it complimented the color patterns across the model.



That same continuity of machine and daemon was something I wanted to preserve in the back end as well. To do so, the flesh from the original Terrorgheist and the Maulerfiend tentacle tail and legs were brought together with Green Stuff and once painted, give the illusion that this model comes out of the box this way.



From overhead, the model has a huge wing span and on the table-top, it adds to the menacing theme of it being a daemon engine and also lends the terror that a 360 degree baleflamer deserves to the battlefield.



The bone was painted in three shades, beginning with Graveyard Earth, then Karnak Stone and finally a light drybrush of Ushabti Bone (I think that is what they call the new Bleached Bone).




I almost took the wings up a couple shades, but in the end decided not to as they look perfect to me in combination with the other colors on the model. I also don't want to step out of the dark, Gothic theme the model has taken on.



From the underside, the same process applies, but we also get to see the large Chaos emblem and more exposed wire and bone. Which, while I wish it could be seen from above, is still a nice touch that I imagine strikes fear into the heart of even the Astartes. All in all, the Drake itself is seriously my best effort in terms of painting and is sure to be a centerpiece in my army in the future whether the Word Bearers are joined by Traitor Guard, Daemons or any other bad guys that could join up with the bearers of the Primordial Truth.



No model is complete without a good base. Here is the final product for the base, which really came to life on it's own with just a little coaching from the brush. As stated in previous posts, I wanted it to look like this either was a world where the Word Bearers had already destroyed the false idols of the corpse god or perhaps were even on a world they had once "Enlightened" in the Crusade Era and have come back.



Originally, I thought about putting slaves inside the building, cutting down the sanctuary, but in the end, the model is already really busy and I just wanted to keep the base simple, but effective in the end.



One thing I paid special attention to in the basing was also the little details like the bullet holes here. I have this pile of rubble down in front of the wall with some bullet holes in it, along with the shots all over this side of the wall. I made sure that those two elements went together to help create the scene. Even though most people would never notice something like this, it gives me a small piece of mind.

Ultimately, the project was a great break from the commission projects I have been working on and a huge confidence booster as it really looks way better than I really imagined it would turn out. I really can't wait now to get some more Word Bearers done up and on the table.

As always, please let me know what you think.

Holy Hell, that is vicious stuff. The Helldrake is head and shoulders above the standard model, and the worm is absolutely revolting on a physical level I've really never seen in another miniature.

Thank Makaber. Right now, I have basically a full Maulerfiend kit sitting around and I am torn between three options:

1) I could make another converted Drake.

2) I could make a Mauler fiend and just turn the modelling up to 11 in a couple places.

3) I want a Bloodthirster and I could use the parts as a base for a kick ass Bloodthirster conversion.

The part that has me torn is that I really like all three ideas. The only one that doesn't seem really great is #1 because I feel like 3 drakes is a little crazy.

As i saw your unpainted heldrake for the first time i was amazed and instantly went to my fantasy bitzshop to recreate him. This is such an easy coversion and looked so good. (But at the end i decided not to do it as it's too organic to fit into my army.)

Now painted he looks even more awesome. Great work.


And for your mauler kit i have a crazy idea for you. Why not go with options 2 and 3 both. Magnetize him so that you either have an armored bloodthirster or a reared and pimped up maulerfiend of demonic goodness. It's probably very hard to do but quite an interesting idea.

That is disgusting. I like it!

That Drake is so much better than the GW one, much more how a demon engine dragon type thing should look like. When I get my chaos army going I'd love to make something like this. Don't know if my skills are up to it as I don't often do conversions, but looking at how good that looks it might be worth the risk.

Fantastic work!

Outstanding, and beautifully done.

Consider myself waiting for your Word bearers.

The Heldrake is looking amazing. I particularly like the way you painted the wings, they look awesome.

Sh*t me a medal and pin it on that drake. Very nice.

They both look awesome! Well done to you Sir! Well bloody done!

Thanks for all the support guys. I know it he been way too long since the last time I posted here, but let me get you up to speed on what I have done the I will show you what I am working on now.



So I made Perturabo to go with my old Iron Warriors a few years ago. He is the Pro Turbo model from Hi Tech Miniatures, a company I frequently mention on my personal blog. I was reading Angel Exterminatus at the time and all that inspiration came right out onto the model.



Next up is a Typhus conversion thAt I made to go with my Next in allies in my tournament army. I call him the Canoptek Overlord.First off, let me say that this is my favorite plastic clampack model. This model is very convertable and I have seen so many unique and creative takes on this model and I really have to credit the original creator for doing such a good job on this sculpt.

With that out of the way, I wanted to play with colors on this model. I knew the armor was going to be Yellow and Rusty and I knew that there would be flesh and also bone colors ... these are all going to be very boring by themselves, so I wanted to make sure I had a plan to included a lot of high contrasts into the paintjob to really help grab the eye. I also wanted to create a contrast conceptually between the grimdark aspects of the original model and the bubblegum-ish style of the paint scheme being carried over from my Necrons.



That said, I used my original Corrupted Flesh method to paint the flesh and based all the yellows on Tau Sept Ochre. From there, I washed the armor is Sepia and then came back and ran an initial highlight in Tau Sept Ochre. From there I worked in a rust effect using layers starting with Scorched Brown, then Vermin Brown and Mecharius Orange, which then got a little Leadbelcher added in on the edges to create a rust effect. I used that effect on the chainmail loincloth, the scythe and all of the other rust effects on the model.





Across the entire model, I used the new shades and glazes to create bruised and irritated flesh, pus, boils and more. Many times, the Orange Shade (can't remember the name) was used alongside Bloodletter to make blood effects that had different colors to them, as if some fresh blood ran over the old scabbed blood. In the front, you can also see more bruising effects and various shades of pus.



The base itself is some random thing I got from Chris Vinton after Adepticon and he has no idea where it came from, but it does have skulls in it, which worked well for this model.
The greens in the Nurgle symbols are actually pretty simple: Base- Goblin Green, Highlight- Snot Green, Edge Highlight- Scorpion Green. The Blues are Base- Ultramarines Blue, Highlight- Hawk Turquoise, Highlight- Ice Blue. The guts were painted with a special blood mix that I made when I painted my ogre kingdoms army, then highlighted with Genestealer Purple and then (the legendary) Tentacle Pink! All these colors together with the yellows and oranges really make this potentially dark model, much brighter ... and in a strange way, I like it.



That is all for now. I hope that I was able to give you something a little different today! I am liking this bright scheme and I really like the idea of theming allies together. I would love to hear what people honestly think about the model in terms of painting and conversion and if you would like to see more. 



When Chris Vinton and Chuck Groff and I went to our last tourney together, I was joking about how my army had robots, UFOs and zombies and dragons, disease and Daemons all at the same time. We joked that it was like all of the theories on how the world would end wrapped up into one idea. Well, I really liked the idea and I REALLY like the yellow scheme! SO, I painted this Daemon to match this concept and as you can see with the Typhus model, things are starting to come together. I think it is a good opportunity to have some unique models and paint schemes, themed allies and a lot of fun bafoonery all in the same concept while still bringing some serious lists to the tables.



In terms of models to use as a base for a bio/mechanical daemon, the Helbrute from Dark Vengeance is pretty much where it is at. It as this sweet spinal column exposed from it's back, banks of flesh around the exhaust stacks, hoses, pistons and tons of extra details worked into the model that are going to bring the finished look together better than I really expect (or so I think now, we will see). Also, this model is the first I have ever worked with where I had to sculpt the BOTTOM of the feet ... which is an odd thing to highlight, but there are some nuances to sculpting them and I spent a lot of time online looking at the bottoms of animal feet (like elephants) and even some human feet. Hopefully it translates in the final product.



I'm just going to throw a bunch of images here and if you have any questions let me know, I really wAnt to talk about my Next project.









Despite three months overseas with no hobby whatsoever, I picked up the tools and laid down this latest effort, complete with pinning, green stuff sculpting, conversion work and all manner of skills I had worried would have atrophied while away. This is the back of what will be my Keeper of Secrets/ Boon table DP/ Destroyer Lord/ Whatever I feel like it being at the appropriate base/ size for it.



So the idea came to me while deployed that I wanted to merge my Necrons, Deamons and Chaos Marines into a single force that would meet all of my aesthetic loves of machines, monsters, big conversions and creepy color palettes with contrasts into bright colors like yellow. I know I want to run the flying circus, not because it is the new sauce, but because I can put a bunch of big conversions on the table with some of my best work, like my Hell Worm. I then thought, what the hell, I want to use this stuff for many different purposes, so what the hell, let's make something I really like that I can use whenever I want, to hell with norms and such, I just want badass gak on the table. Before I go into more of a tangent, I will move on ...



As I made this bad mama, I started looking at the creepy head and vox-grill mouth I had given it and decided it needed to be more creepy, so I ran some eyeballs down the back where the orbs usually go and the added some more near the head. I then came back and gave them some veins and creepy eyelids.



I really liked the idea of the tentacles, but wanted to make use of the claws that I own from collecting bits for so long and added rows of various sized, creepy claws. I then added a lot of GS flesh ribbed in down the side like it is bursting from the most vulnerable seams in the machinery it is invading (a concept I really love from books like Ahriman: Exile and other accounts of daemons taking over objects in 40k literature.



That's it for now. I will post more photos once this thing is finished.

Love your "Keeper of Secrets/ Boon table DP/ Destroyer Lord/ Whatever" conversion! And your sick, twisted stuff generally!

Thanks Tinfoil, I have been a huge fan of yours for a couple years. I am humbled by kudos from such a good modeler!

Got it painted!



For those of you who saw the last post, you know how much GS work went into it, but I did leave the question hanging as to what parts went into the beast and they are as follows:

1 Almost whole Necron Wraith
2 Vents from the back of the Plastic Daemon Prince (two for arms and one actual vent end for the vox grill)
2/3 the tentacle bits from the Mutalith kit from WHFB Warriors of Chaos
1 arm from a Chaos Spawn used for the tail
2 claws from the Chaos Space Marine Possessed box
6 claw parts from the Tyranid Trygon kit
1 head from a Chaos Daemon Screamer of Tzeentch
1 Resin base from Iron Heart Artisans
1 oz (give or take) of Green Stuff



I had a lot of fun painting the various textures of the model, ranging from slippery tentacles to slime to smooth ceramic surfaces to corrupted flesh, spikes and eyeballs. I think everything I needed to test the rust on my skills was in place.



One thing that came across after I finished the model was that the screamer head with its small eyes and vox mouth could actually be the inside of a larger mouth, whose head would the flesh with the large eyes around it and the teeth would be the trygon claws. I didn't intend it when I built it, but it makes it even creepier in my mind. I layered the eyes from Ultramarine Blue all the way up to Bone and blended the tentacles from black up to a mix of genestealer purple with a little lich purple (it sounds easy but it was a million little steps and a wet pallet of work. In the end, the purple is exactly what I had hoped to achieve.



I painted the slime in greens and yellows to stand out and while there was already a lot of color on the model, I took the risk. Hopefully nobody calls me on it (Looking at Chris Vinton, the DFG paint connoisseur).



Again, this will be a stand in for a number of possible models depending on what allied combo I run. This isn't to power game. I run Necrons, Chaos Marines and Daemons and really want to use the allies matrix as a platform to explore themed armies within that matrix. Also alien machine possessed by daemons and in turn robot aliens trying to use the daemons as a means to live in flesh, all the while there are zombies and dragon machines and all types of menacing one-eyed machine stuff running around ... pretty much all of my boyhood fantasies that didn't include women!

I really enjoyed using the wraith as a base for this conversion and I have a number of ideas to double the number of wraiths I have by cannibalizing my (easily broken) current wraiths and bashing them with some stuff I have been holding onto to create a base for wraiths/ Spawn/ beast of nurgle (or fiends, whatevs).

My next project is going to be pretty nuts. I will post some pics here in a few minutes.



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As promised, here is the start of the next project - The Minotaur. Let's take a look at my crappy iPhone pics, hahaha ...




My idea here is to make a rushing, gatecrasher effect that also is consistent with the action found in my Gorilla Daemon Prince "Bananas" while having a unique look all in its own.



A looooooong time ago, I bought the Cygor/ Ghorgon kit from Fantasy with the intention of making Angron and I never really got around to it, but it was screaming out my name the other day, so I have re-purposed the original conversion and (basically tore it apart) gave it a make-over.



The Ghrogon makes the base of the torso and the head. I gave it some Necron Wraith faceplates over its eyes which will play into the final look. The chest plate it wears is from the Fantasy Chaos Warshrine and that bit has been begging for use! The arms are from the Helbrute kit from Dark Vengeance (one has had all the digits on its hand reversed) and the legs are from the Maulerfiend.

I have a lot of work ahead of me, but am happy to take your feedback. Let me know what you think.

Awesome work, especially on the Nurgle worm.

Thank you. I really love breaking that model out for games!

Hey all, I have an update! I have had the opportunity to paint up some more minis, so here they are:

First off is the bull:



Here is a look at the other side



and behind



and from underneath, a look at the chest plate



I took about 50 or so photos and posted them on my blog already and will save myself the time, and for those of you who don't want to see more, the effort and just post a link to the post here: http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/2013/10/minotaur-daemon-prince-greater-daemon.html

For details on how it was constructed, my Linkdwithn links at the bottom of that post should take you to the construction posts.

I also painted up some oblits from Hi-Tech Miniatures. If you ever get the urge to grab these models, they are well worth it!



The group shot!



Oblit 1


Two, my favorite ... and



Three! Again, for those who are interested, I took a ton more photos and wrote a huge write up on these models on my blog here:http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/2013/10/hi-tech-obliterator-alternatives-painted.html" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/2013/10/hi-tech-obliterator-alternatives-painted.html

I also banged out a ton of my flesh hound conversions. I really liked the colors on these and how they turned out!



I was nervous at first, trying to apply the same basic principle colors to the hounds as I have been using in the DPs, but it really came out nicer than I expected.



The greens on the bases really popped and I have to give credit to my boy, Chris Vinton, for sculpting them up!



Again, tons more photos and a write up here: http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/2013/10/flesh-hounds-for-end-of-days-army.html

Up next, I have my take on the Fate Weaver, this bug/fairy/giant was fun to put together and really took the paint scheme pretty well.



He is a little different, but was made from the top half of the necrosphinx and some miliput robes I made.



Funny as it may seem, he is the only daemon so far with an actual dedicated symbol to one of the Dark Gods.



If you look to the bottom of the robes, there are a ton of mechandrites I made from the Green Stuff Industries Tentacle Maker. I did this to give the model a little of that Dark Mech vibe.



Once again, more pics and a huge write up here: http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/2013/09/fateweaver-lord-of-change-part-ii-fully.html

Finally, I want to show you the Soul Grinder I put together from a Todd McFarlane Spawn toy and some defiler parts ... and a whole ton of green stuff!



I found the toy in my junk drawer during Spring cleaning and knew I could use it.



It wasn't until I got a little pissed about seeing some badly done toys being used as models at a tourney (Skylanders just glued to bases) that I decided to show people how to make toys work correctly!



Anyway, this was a beast of a project, but turned out pretty cool!



As usual, for more, check out the post: http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/2013/11/completed-soul-grinder-conversion-from.html

I hope to share my projects a little more regularly here. I would love to get feedback as I am working on something, but sometimes I get so focused that I forget about some of the great places I communicate at until way after I am done. In any case. I would love to hear what you think of these models.

Wow, they all look fantastic! You've got some mad Green stuff skills.

That helghast into heldrak is awsome!

ThAnk you, Shedder and Lockark.

Fantastic conversion all around. Loving all of this.
Initially the first Heldrake looked very 'weedy', but those wires really bulked it out to look convincing.

Thanks Sparkadia, the wires are made of green stuff that can easily be sculpted to look like cables like these using the Tentacle Maker from Green Stuff Industries, which is one of my favorite tools for converting and modelling.

I am back f4om deployment and ready to drop some work here that I havent showcased on dakka yet. First up is the Mammoth Maulerfiend! Lotsnofmconversion works here, drawing bits from fantasy and 40k with plenty of green stuff. Enjoy.





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All ofnmy thoughts and conversion work for project mammoth can be found here
http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/search/label/mammoth

TJ here again with a Lamprey Maulerfiend based off of the Glottkin arms.




Looking at the model from above, it really came together and the large sculpted mid section blends very well with the parts from the Glottkin.




I loved the details and the textures of this model. GW gave me a million little boils to paint, crazy veins, teeth, horns, metal and torn muscle tissue. I added some great textures as well with the cables (courtesy of the GSI Tentacle Maker) AND one very large wound ...





The gaping hole in the model's side was sculpted in layers and that really came out when it was time to paint. I got to play with all kinds of colors as I blended the wound together. It is a great way for me to highlight the amount of sculpting effort that went into this model.



The real new paint for me was the GW technical paint Blood For The Blood God. BftBG is a simulated blood mixture that stays glossy and lends the appearance of fresh blood.



he mouth was a prime target for my initial BftBG work and the teeth are a perfect example of the type of realism you can achieve with careful application.



For more on how this model was painted and more, larger photos ... or to find more of my stuff, check out my blog post on painting this model:

http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/2015/04/glottkin-lamprey-maulerfiend-conversion.html