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only one small issue still with the sward... let the blade rest as upright as you can on the shoulder... OR... have it poited forward...

the new rope looks waaaaay better than before!

and the new heads have been worth the wait every minute... the character set i need to have in my bitzbox for sure too... are they almost the same plastic material GW uses? looks like that... also the scarf for necktransplantation on willis is brilliant and top notch!

and i agree... like dave said... the more the merrier^^

 dsteingass wrote:
Fantastic! I really love all the V vor Victory fingers up!
I think maybe the Commissar needs a formal Jr. Commissar or Color guard companion..maybe?

Servo skulls with blaring loudspeakers...

very good idea!

Hi all,
I hope you had a nice weekend.
I had a very productive and busy weekend.

Based on your feedback I took the Commissar apart again and looked for better arms and poses.


One possible option is the arm with the cane form the Command Squad sprue.


Looks rather natural.


Another option was this sword hand from the Forgeworld Tallarn sprue (but it's a right hand)


I finally settled on the sword and hand from the mechanical arm out of the IG Command Squad sprue.


Satisfied with the pose I added more ornaments.



And then the crew was ready for priming and painting!


I started with the road as this piece determines the light and most of the situation of the scene.


After the initial coat with (Vallejo) Khaki, I added streaks of Terracotta and Green.


The ornaments were painted in Terracotta, Dwarf Bronze, and Bubonic Brown.


Time for washes!


I then positioned the tank and the Ork to determine the shadows.


While the troopers received their first licks of paint, you can see the road in the background with the shadows of the tank, gun barrel and foot soldiers.


Since I goofed up the flag while priming, I decided to start with the flag.


It took me most of Saturday afternoon and night to do the flag


Especially since I had to do both sides.

But I'm very pleased with the result.

Sunday saw detail work on the troopers.
Base colors applied,


and ready for washes.


The first to be completed was the tank commander


"Hey Bruce!"



Next was the loader.



And finally I completed the bow gunner.



I hope I can make more progress today.
What do you think?
Cheers
Klaus

Awesome - I'll need more practise before I can model and paint so well at that speed!

This is turning out to be monumental. Really liking the "Bruce Willis", one o my favorite actors, looks like he's saying "I get o drive because my cholesterol is a little high." (Guess you have to see the new gi joe movie) I know it. Little late, but maybe you could add a guy sitting facing the back watching the ork, or a little kid on the street throwing one thing at the losing force. I was thinking the kids from this GW set, either the one with the slingshot, or th girl with her arms crossed, have hem staring at the ork like "so you thought you were so tough"


It may not fit since our having he crowd off board, but the kids could have gone onto the street incentive mom and dad were killed by the war.

Excellent work indeed! I like the cane arm, as you say it's very natural looking. The flag looks stunning, btw, and I'm very jealous of your Vallejo layout!

That's unfair... No Orkz have a possibility to defeat a tank commanded by Mr. Die Hard in person

Great job so far, I'll wait for the end piece ready to be amazed again

to say this is an awesome sight would be an understatement...
the commissar is now truly the man he was meant to be... you did the best on him... and that is not easy said... he is one of a kind!

bruce is very cool looking... tho he could look a bit more older in years

the current rest of the crew is also looking spiffy as it gets...

but where you burst through the roof is when you showed the banner... man... that is some clean lines... so cool looking... i am over and over green with envy....

You work so fast Klaus! One minute you are putting the finishing touches to one diorama and the next time I check your blog out, there is a whole other one nearing completion!

Great work as always, incredibly characterful and all the little details on the tank are excellent.

Looking good Klaus! while the picture that inspired it is a Russian T-54/55 series tank, the Tank Destroyer you made looks more awesom with "Not Bruce" all braided up and medal covered in command.

fantastic work klaus!

Hey guys,

sorry for the lack of updates....but I've been busy.
Really busy

The Victors - or "this is why we need such a Long gun"
The ACTROS heavy tank destroyer 331, also named Nachtmahr, of the 758th heavy tank hunter detachment belonging to the XIX Dencaran Guards returns to Xanthium after successful participation in Operation Sawdust.
Commandeered by CPT Robert zu Wilhelms the Nachtmahr scored 20 verified kills against mechanized Ork forces. Most kills were scored at night when, due to its superior night vision equipment Type UHU the Nachtmahr was able to secretly prey on its enemy while remaining itself invisible.
The Nachtmahr inflicted considerable fear among the enemy – especially at darkness, when with each destroyed vehicle its name was whispered among the ranks of the Orks:
Der Nachtmahr – The Nightmare!
The vehicle is lead back into Xanthium by Commissar Albrecht von Lucke, a member of the noble house of Drachenstein. He received his Commissar honors traditionally via heritage among the noble families of Dencara.

amazing.... i knew if you wouldn´t show up with more updates for any length of time you then would come up with a finished peice...and i was proven right

the nachtmahr looks very good...i specially like how you did the nightvision equipment... the red lenses looks simply stunning!

and i like your fluffy background to the tank and it´s crew!

amazing!

It's the simple things like the bolt on plating behind the guy walking that do it for me. The orks got in a lucky shot but these guys overcame the battle. Excellent execution.

Just ..>STUNNING...I'm at a complete loss for words Klaus!

Brilliant, nothing more to say!

Thanks guys!
I can tell you the new project already begun (wow, so much energy these days).
I think it will be a lot of fun.
Can you say:
"Raid on St. Nazaire"?

amazing stuff as usual, Klaus! everytime i look at your thread, i'm stunned!

What a great diorama Klaus, really good storytelling here, as all your other stuff. Looking forward to the next one especially if it's based around the Raid of St Nazaire...

Klaus, you know the only evolution for you is stop-motion video now right?

 Klaus, not Santa wrote:
Thanks guys!
I can tell you the new project already begun (wow, so much energy these days).
I think it will be a lot of fun.
Can you say:
"Raid on St. Nazaire"?

ohoh.... this sounds as if it could be something really big again...

Raid on Port Corinth (1)
Hello all,
sorry for the long silence, but the last week went by in a frenzy.
I got so much done, that I'm sure some of you will accuse me of witchcraft, elven slavery, magic or the like. But really the model almost built itself.
I worked completely without plans, really building on the fly, simply working off some reference photos of a German Schnellboot S-100.

So what is it all about?
The "Raid on Port Corinth" will be a diorama displaying the raid action of a special team of Dencaran troopers and sappers at an old underground mining facility that was captured some 150 years ago by the Stachelnschweinz Orks. Some of you may remember that Dencara has absolutely no rivers or sea, but lots of lava streams
So the attack will be delivered via a special boat, that can travel these lava streams and thus catch the Orks hopefully by surprise...

Operation BLACKOUT
When Port Corinth was captured by the Orks of the Stachelnschweinz Clan over one-and-a-half Centuries ago it wasn't of great concern to the High Council of Dencara. At that time Port Corinth was an already aged underground mining facility located at one of the major lava streams that traversed most of Dencara. The power plant, utilizing the heat of the lava was never really state of the art, but sufficient to power the entire underground facility.
The ores and precious earths mined at Corinth were precious, however the loss of the facility was more of a mercantile nature.
Over the last decade Imperial forces on Dencara encountered more and more Ork vehicles and aircraft that used new and very effective alloys as well as new armor piercing ammunition's.
The Dencaran intelligence service has identified Port Corinth as point of origin for these new ammunition's and alloys, where the new Mek of the Stachelnschweinz seems to make very good use of the power plant and the mining and processing facilities.
To remedy this situation Operation BLACKOUT will target the power plant as well as most of the mining and processing facilities of Port Corinth. Participating forces in this operation will be the 1st Fast Attack Craft Flotilla, 272nd Combat Engineer Battalion and the 11th Infantry Battalion.
The attack will be delivered via the 10 special THALASSA attack boats that will travel up the Xantha Prime lava stream to the northern entrance shipping docks of Corinth. There the forces will split up and each boat will deliver a team of sappers from the 272nd that will position demolition charges at their assigned targets while the boats and troopers from the 11th will provide covering fire.
Once all demo charges are positioned all teams will retreat to their assigned boats and move to a safety perimeter awaiting the explosion of the charges. While in the safety perimeter the boats will provide covering fire with their heavy stubbers and MEDUSA gun turrets to ensure no Ork will be able to disarm the charges.
After the successful raid the flotilla will head back to Xanthium.
So much for the fluff
The diorama itself will show a team of sappers carrying a heavy charge, while the THALASSA attack boat and troopers provide covering fire.
As mentioned above I used a German S-100 Schnellboat as reference.

I had a nice sheet of wood (that perfectly fits the DETOLF cabinet) as base, which also determined the size of the THALASSA. I created a crude plan based on the available space.


For the port facility itself I wanted to use my true and tried HirstArts bricks.
Styrofoam for the base - on the right you can see the area that will have some machinery, while on the left will be some steps leading up to the dock.


Based on my little plan I cut the basic ship shape from plastic card, as well as the upper decks.
The upper forward deck will have a little bunker from where the heavy stubber can be fired.


A boat that can float on lava?
Hmm...
I decided rather early that it will have heat tiles to protect it from the lava. Initially I planned to use hexagons, but that was too much work, so I rather went with a diamond shape instead.


Since it will be partially open, I started to add details, like an observation platform and doors. The rear deck will accompany the turret for the MEDUSA gun turret, a launcher for water bombs (or mines) as well as the access to the lower decks.
To ease access for later detailing and painting, all sections are removable


A view from above along the dock.
With the MEDUSA gun turret.


One of the final tasks was to add guardrails. And a forward pylon.


Everything is detachable for painting.


With the THALASSA completed I switched my attention to the dock area. Here you can see the "orkified" piping. Some crates and boxes complete the dock area.


To provide some good lava I positioned several bubbles (Greenstuff balls cut in half) and then filled the area with GW Water Effect. Unfortunately my construction wasn't tight enough and most of the Water Effect leaked out :(
So I will have to re-do this...

While the base is now waiting for the initial Water effect to cure I began to work on the troopers.
Here you can see the troopers figthing on the steps to the dock. One trooper is down and being dragged to safety by a fellow trooper while the other two provide covering fire.


On the bridge we have an observer as well was the officer in charge (hmm...he somehow reminds me of Sly Stalone)


A sniper also provides additional firepower from the THALASSA.


Viewed from the dock area.


Well, that's as far as I got within the week.
Now I still have to do the two sappers carrying the demo charge, a lot of cleanup and greenstuffing, as well as a second attempt with the Water Effect for the lava.

So, what do you think?
Cheers
Klaus

Klaus,

It looks FANTASTIC!

Is there going to be an Ork in the scene? At least one would heighten the tension and allow the viewer to immediately recognize the foe.

Perhaps one Stormboy jumping in from above, anchored to a pipe, column topper, or box? Or maybe just a fallen Ork in front of the boxes on the right side?

Oh man, Klaus, this is fantastic. The scratchbuilt boat is beyond awesome. Really excited to see where you go with this one.

What Ruglud said! ^^

What Ruglud said! ^^

Eheheh

This build really does look excellent already. And I can just imagine Sly lighting a cigar of the lava somehow! More importantly I'm really excited by the osl possibilities there.

Thanks guys

I added a quick walkaround video of the raid diorama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD_O6rJOEZw
I hope you like it.
Cheers
Klaus

hmmmm! enjoyed the vid... that is often the only way to fully apreciate your stuff mister!...

already so much cool details amassed there...

also... seeing all these bitz and masses of PC... what was it again what you did for a living? whoa... fortunes of PC on that table already!...

aside from all the praise and envy ... a question...

the bow of the ship.... you choose to do in a rather strange way... what are your ideas and plans for this? that plating is something i haven´´t seen before.... is it to get the ship through the lava? also the bows shape is more suggesting a structure that goes down way more than i would have thought for such a rather smaller vessel...my brain needs more explanations^^

cheers, vik