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There is a little something I always found odd about Space Hulk. Yes, it's inspired by movies such as alien in which we have clausterphobic ships filled with monsters and what not. But 40k ships (and Space Hulks) tend to be gigantic, with halls big enough to fit entire armies with Titans and what not.

Which makes me curious, are you also going to include chambers and such in your project as in halls containing gear/vehicles/etc?

My plan for the time being is to just create the same set of corridors and rooms as the core Space Hulk game contains.
If I still have the will to go on after that, I want to add the board sections for the Genestealer and Deathwing expansion, maybe, just maybe, some of the separate card pieces from the White Dwarf, etc. as well.

If I need a bigger chamber, I can just build a surrounding corridor and have a door give acces to the empty space inside it. (Since such a thing won't likely be needed in a SH game anyway.)

The way I see it, those big halls are things like cargo holds and gun emplacements, maybe a chapel or such. the remaining 90% of the ship is still near-solid machinery/superstructure with small corridors worming their way trough. Those big carverns will be first ones to get crushed when ships gets mushed into a larger Space Hulk. For the real big caverns, you could use an entire regular 40K or Necromunda table and just state it is inside a space ship.

GW art and fiction is also responsible for the image of 40K space ships being big opera halls floating in space: Such large cathedral arches are just cool to paint/describe. They add a sense of surreallism and convey the Imperium's bizarre attitude towards technical practicalities.
A dank, narrow corridor doesn't allow you to show of a gazillion depressed ratings, and I can imagine that a writer will puke if he is forced to find a novel way of describing "dank, narrow" for the 20th time. Especially if he is only at the second page of his 300 page novel...

Just a tiny little update for now...

I've started work on the next (set of) corridors:
So far I´ve only just started on one corridor sections, further progress was hampered by a lack of tubing and a nearly full bottle of superglue that decided to self-destruct...


(yes, the top tube in the first picture is crooked, it's all just stacked together for the picture..)

They're inspired by the piece of artwork that Tael posted about 2 pages back in this topic:


I intend to add an overhanging piece to the top 2 cm of the wall, to hint at the narrowing of the corridor towards the top. I'm curious to see how that turns out. If it works, I may be using it in more corridors.
The floor will be a mesh floor, similar to the vent stack corridor, but without a hollow space underneath, just glued straight to the base.
Both the floor and the "wainscoting" (best way to describe it, really) wil have their regularity broken up by the odd access panels or interface ports and readouts. The same for the centre section of the wall, but that will have to be raised detail. These pictures don't show it, but there are recessed "screwholes" in the corners of the panels.
I'm still undecided about the overhanging section of the walls, wether to mimic the style from the artwork, or to make small pointed arches backed with mesh instead.
For the latter, combined with the floor, I'm a bit worried about a "mesh overkill", but then again, the arches may just add that needed gothic touch...

Looks great as always mate.

I think the lowered roof section should be arches with mesh so that you can still see through it. A finer guage for the flooring (or the roof ?) would help differentiate them.

You could always do the flooring as it is in the illustration, a sort of ribbed piping effect. I'm pretty sure textured plastic card is available like this. Alternatively you could get the same effect using carefully spaced strips.

Looking forward to the details being added!

Cheers,

Dante

Really interesting to get some close ups on the section and how you place pieces. I do like that lower edge wall with the pipes on it, bulked out in plasticard. Dante has pretty much covered my other thoughts

I spy a bulkhead there.. any Trek 'Shhtuum' SFX?

~ Tael.

What is that round thing?

I've got an idea, well...maybe you've already considered this but I thought it might be cool to mention. I was watching Alien 3 the other day and while the movie doesn't really have any space ship action or anything like that, it does offer a very interesting atmosphere/location. The prison/mining/foundry facility has all sorts of corridors but what made me think of your project was the ventilator. I guess large ships and space hulks need some sort of system to supply the whole thing with air. So what about a corridor with a "dead end", that end being a big rotating blade (ventilator) which spread the air/oxygen across a certain part of the hulk. Maybe add some sort of control console at the end of that corridor meaning it would offer an interesting potential. It could either blow (pushing stuff away) or suck (pulling stuff to it)...imagine some lonely human being pulled into that ventilator and getting ripped into pieces!

By the way, did you ever see the Space Hulk terrain made by Iron Hands? Check Part 1 and Part 2. You might also want to check out his other Industrial Terrain. While I personally think that you're stuff so far is looking tighter and thus better, I still think the guy made some inspirational stuff!

Thanks for the input!
The arches are definately in now. I don't have differing sizes of mesh available (apparently it's only the size I have or rabbit hutch mesh that's for sale locally...).
But, I could change the orientation of the mesh, that may create just the visual difference I am hoping for.
I that doesn't work out, I've still got enough of the textured plasticard you describe, Dante.

Tael, that bulkhead was really only a size tester for the doors, the way I made it means it will strip the paint off the door with the first use... So now it sees use as a template for placing the doorrails on the walls!

Malika: Controls? Hmmmm, I think I know just the place: How about on the other side of the doorrails? (No use if you can only use the controls by standing in front of the fan now?)

I did see the stuff made by Iron Hands before. I like to leaf through his site every once in a while for inspiration. He's certainly got the dank and derelict atmosphere nailed.
And you just have to respect someone with that kind of recycling skills!
Somehow his stuff has a vibe that reminds me of the Rogue Trader era artwork.

Whoops! Malika, I completely overlooked your question...
The round thing is taken from inside a "Senseo"-type coffeepad. Not the regular ones though, I believe this one is from a Cappucino pad. The Chocolate ones are nice too, a bit deeper. It's a bit of a messy job extracting them from a used pad though...

Oh, and I've started work on the core of a second warband (this will be one of the "loaner warbands":*

These four will most likely form the militant part of the warband.
They will be the escorts for an Ecclessiarchy Priest and his personal scribe, maybe I'll add a proclaimer as well.
The Priest will be made from the WHFB Empire Wizard kit. Background-wise I intend him to be a "Priest Reclaimant". A member of the Sacred Order of Blessed Reclamation, it is his duty to seek out and reclaim lost or captured relics of the Imperial Faith. I consider these priests to come in two kinds: The diplomatic ones, who are sent out to retrieve/acquire Relics from other Imperial organisations. And the explorer ones, that venture out into the galaxy, trawling old battlefields and such in the hope of recovering new relics. A bit Indiana Jones like.
This priest will fall firmly in the former category: a big-hat-wearing orator, almost drowning in his pompous robes. His objective will be to bore you to tears, in the hopes that you will give up the Relic he wants just to make him stop talking... Not a combatant type at all!
His scribe will be the rotund priest with parchment and quill from the Inquisitor henchmen, the orator will come from the Inquisitor henchmen as well. Basically they're just nobodies whose primary function is to raise the status of the Priest and provide 2 more warm bodies for the Sororitas to worry about keeping intact.

I used the start of this warband as an excuse to prep the rest of my Sisters as well:


Here are some samples of the bases:
Canoness and Heavy Bolter Sister
Sister Superior and regular Sister
Two more Bolters Sisters
Flamer Sister
And final Bolter Sister
I intended the bases to mesh nicely with the Space Hulk, but still retain a clear Ecclesiarchy theme.
Aside from some extra purity seals to denote their Celestian status the miniatures are unconverted. I couldn't bring myself to hack into such lovely sculpts.
As far as painting goes, I want to try and mimic the colourscheme on the codex cover. For some reason it makes me think of the Renaissance, I like it's blend of richness and ferocity.

Oh, and I've got another week off coming up, but unfortunately this won't mean more progress: I'm going on a camping trip with the family.
So, no new goodies to show the coming week (unless I can convince the misses to let me take my painting kit along ) and I won't be able to respond to you folks.



*: You'll see me switching gears like this regularly... Hobbywise I'm a bit like a butterfly, constantly flitting from one thing to the next and then back again...

Arise my thread! Return from oblivion like R'Lyeh rises from the depths!

Not immediately related to my boarding party, but still, there's enough of a sidelong relation to warrant it's inclusion...

After a bit of a distraction I'm once again gearing up to work on my Space Hulk terrain.
I've not actually done work on the terrain itself, but I did collect all the terminators I'll need (except for a Captain or two). And I've started assembling a few:


I don't much like the fact that the modern Cyclone Missile Laucher lacks a proper designator. So I set out to fix that. I had some trouble figuring out how to build the designator, and was working up the courage to scratchbuild one when my eye fell on a Terminator lightning claw. Inspiration struck:


Here's how it looks from the business end:


My intentions is to paint these Terminators up as Howling Griffons. I want to give them detail and ornamentations comparable to the 3rd ed Space Hulk Terminators.
Ideally I'd like to hang some Griffon talismans on their armour. So I set about making a few:

I still need to do the last heraldic shield, and then I'll make a mould of either greenstuff or milliput, so I can make casts of them.
To give you an idea of their size: The grid I scratched into plasticard they're on is 4x4 millimetre, the same size as the loose Crux Terminatus* talismans on the Terminator sprues. The grid on the background is 1 centimetre square.

*: What's the multiple of Crux Terminatus anyway? Crux Terminatii? Crux Terminatuses? Crucii Terminatus? ???

nice. Just noticed this threads. I will watch this thread.

Nice work mate ill be watching this thread to!


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Also whats the neck armour as the kroot one looks to small to be it?


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on the first boarding party?

Thanks!

It is in fact the Kroot shoulder armour...

Woul; it work on guardsmen in any way without having to greenstuff it?

Sadly, I don't think it would... As you can see it still leaves a fair bit of gap:

(Unfortunately I don't have a clearer pic, but you can see it reasonably welll.)

Thanks mate i was thinking of making some as stormtroopers that have that enclosed flamer helmet and added front armour like that using the kroot shoulderpads.

Why haven't I seen this blog before?

Awesome terrain and great figures; really inspiring! Keep it up!

Wow those miniatures look really good!
Keep up the good work!

I don't know how I've missed this thread up til now! There are some really original, fantastic conversions here, and a lot of character added to some great miniatures. I'll definitely be stealing an idea or two, so thanks so much for sharing!

Well, I got the final shield done and made the moulds:


(The green one is, well, greenstuff, the other one is green-grey milliput. It's non-flexible and moderately heat-resistant, so hopefully I can use that one to make casts with heated sprue...)

One row didn't mould quite as cleanly as I'd hoped on both moulds, but luckily nothing that can't be corrected during cleanup... All in all, I'm impressed with the amount of detail that actually transferred. Now to get the stuff cast and plastered over my marines!
The first three testcasts are also included in the pic, those were (hastily and impatiently) pulled from the greenstuff mould.

Thanks guys!

This is the squad I'm getting ready for paint at the moment. They're from the 4th edition starter set. To compensate for the fairly basic poses and details I've sprinkled parchments with Oaths of Moment and some of my press-moulded icons over the squad:

The bases are a bit of a rush job. I originally wanted them to have resin bases like the Sarge and squad leader, but I didn't have enough of them.
When I get the chance to get more bases I'll likely rip these off again and put the whole squad on resins.

This is the sarge up close:

You can clearly see the parchement with his Oath of Moment and his little heraldic shield with the griffon.

And my Terminator Librarian:

The heraldic shield was practically the only way I could add some Howling Griffon-specific detail to him.
He is absolutely plastered in bling....
I'll not be adding his "bookstand" to his head, I think it makes the mini too top-heavy. I still need to find/make a fitting icon to put up there instead.

Hi Modhail

Only just now found this blog, apologies I haven't had time to read every post yet but I love your salvage team. They are awesome.

Thanks!

I didn't much like the huge lectern the Terminator Librarian has to lug around, so I made something a bit more subtle and stylish:



A lot easier to move around inside a Space Hulk with...

Whoops, totally forgot about this thread.....

I've (finally!) got the first combat squad of my Howling Griffons painted:


This pic shows their actual colours a bit better:

The paint is a bit thick in places, as I used these as guinea pigs to find a way of painting the yellow and red that I liked best.
They're not meant as high end paintjobs, just a good tabletop standard...

The second combat squad is currently on the painting table...

Looking great man! Whatever happened to your terrain? Are you still working on it?

I'm still thinking about working on it....
At the moment I'm figuring out how to proceed with my Terminators and I'm assembling some genestealers (and looking at piccies of Genestealer Cults). So, in a way, I'm active (again) within the larger "Space Hulk" project, just not with the terrain itself (yet).

Put another layer of paint on the second half of the Howling Griffon squad today.
Oh, and I made a careful start on their opposition: a Genestealer Cult...
(The Howling Griffons army was a spin-off from wanting to build Howling Griffons Terminators for my long suffering Space Hulk 3D project. Because I want to use that for all possible editions of Space Hulk, I needed to build some Genestealer Hybrids anyway. Enter snowball-effect. I'm intending to keep the Genestealer Cult as small as possible, nothing larger than a Necromunda gang or such.)
Anyway, pictures!

Magus and friends

The magus has only the basic assembly done. I still need to make a top for his staff for example. I also want to add a ribbed shouldersection and ribbing to the back of his collar in greenstuff, to tie him in to style of the classic hybrids and the rest of the cult.

Speaking of the rest of the Cult, here is a test I made for my intended Genestealer Hybrids:


He'll be a 4th generation, so he'll be mostly human, with maybe a single vestigial Genestealer arm coming out of an armpit.
He still needs his arms, a genestealer cult icon somewhere and ribbed kneepads ofcourse...
Which I don't intend to sculpt over and over and over for each Hybrid. So I turned once again to the pushmould:

I sculpted these today, once they are fully cured I'll make the mould(s).
The lower half is a little test. I want to see if I could make a mould useable for the collar and rebreather for my hybrids. I'm a little afraid that I made the collar bit to small though.

Pushmould for a collar... *astonished* That's so clever! I'm building a genestealer cultist army and this would be an reasonably fast way to complement my ancient metal hybrids. Thank you for the idea.

And your work is looking good as always :-)

Very cool stuff here, I'll definitely be watching this.

You(r stuff) are (is) epic!

Eric

Very cool! It is great to see SH work of this quality, esp on the hybrids!