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The commissar's base looks MUCH better. Some sort of rotating turret for the hydra would be a little better. That way you can have both horizontal and vertical motion rather than strictly up and down.

That commissar is great, the second base is much better.

The Hydra kinda needs a rotating turret, how else could it shoot down flyers? not really sure how you would make it though haha,

maybe take the chimera top and arch it up a bit, making it took like it can move up and down?

Viktor von Domm wrote:the commissar now looks fit for painting in my opinion... the base is perfect...it was the right decision to look for something else... and you did find the proper details then...

weetyskemian44 wrote:Love those little gs wings on his shoes, they are so very very small.

Barksdale wrote:The commissar's base looks MUCH better.

Sageheart wrote:That commissar is great, the second base is much better.

Thanks, guys! Just a few last little GS details and he'll be ready!

Barksdale wrote: Some sort of rotating turret for the hydra would be a little better. That way you can have both horizontal and vertical motion rather than strictly up and down.

Sageheart wrote:The Hydra kinda needs a rotating turret, how else could it shoot down flyers? not really sure how you would make it though haha,
maybe take the chimera top and arch it up a bit, making it took like it can move up and down?

You guys don't ask for much, do you? I had thought about that earlier, but had settled for the appearance of horizontal mobility: there certainly is room back there. I couldn't figure out a way to do it and keep the cool manticore launch system. I'm planning on keeping the launch assembly seperate from the chassis just in case someone gets all rules-lawyer-y on my (though I think they changed the "if the model can't physically do it, it can't do it" rule in 6e). Not quite sure what you were suggesting, Sageheart, though not for lack of desire. Having horizontal mobility would be awesome!

Viktor von Domm wrote:the hydra... well there are some gaps and details that need to be filled to obscure the look of the rocketlauncher look... then it should work...
as for the mentioned problem... why not assemble the barrels in an asymetric look all four on the one side that is not blocked in a 0 degree angle? so all four on the left side of the turret? with the side benefit to have a hatch on top of the turret?

Don't worry, Vik. I haven't even gotten out the GS for it. I might even pick up some liquid GS, since everyone raves about it and I have a bunch of small gaps to fill. Asymetrical, huh? That's something that I hadn't thought of. I'll have to see how it looks once I get all the ACs assembled. BTW, thanks for the babt advice

Thanks for looking and for the comments!
Rawson

Rawson wrote:
I had thought about that earlier, but had settled for the appearance of horizontal mobility: there certainly is room back there. I couldn't figure out a way to do it and keep the cool manticore launch system.

Just fint a spot to the front on the launcher where you can throw a nice size magnet. Level it out and wrap it with some greenstuff. Grab your favorite turret, and magnetize that up to fit on top. Fit the hydra autocannons on the turret however looks good. Nothing stopping you from magnetizing these as well.

This way you could even swap the turret out, with a hellhound variant turret, for example. I'd also highly recommend not attaching the launch pad to the chimera chassis. Then you can switch the whole thing out for some sort of ordnance battery. All this is a little extra work, but once its done it really multiplies the options you have.

In any case, I'm sure you will pull out a nice looking mini. Looking forward to updates!

Could've sworn i was subscribed to this, apparently not.

Having just gone through the filtered version, i have to say you've got some really great work here! Its cool to see how much you've progressed both in terms of painting and modelling as well, since the beginning of the thread!

Keep up the good work buddy!

 Vitruvian XVII wrote:
Could've sworn i was subscribed to this, apparently not.

Having just gone through the filtered version, i have to say you've got some really great work here! Its cool to see how much you've progressed both in terms of painting and modelling as well, since the beginning of the thread!

Keep up the good work buddy!

Well, welcome to the club, Vitruvian And thanks! I really appreciate the comments I guess I get so focused on the current projects, I don't really stop to think about the ways that I have improved. Thanks for the reminder, super encouraging!

No worries! Its actually one of my favourite things to do, to go back to someones thread beginning, and marvel at how they have improved. Because its certain with a community like this that they will have improved.

 Vitruvian XVII wrote:
Because its certain with a community like this that they will have improved.

How true that is! I've been playing 40k for over a decade, and I've never improved as fast as after I joined dakka and started a PM blog!

If you look at my blog, I go from not being able to paint in the lines, to at least tabletop standard in about 3 months. Such is the greatness of dakka

 prototype_X wrote:
If you look at my blog, I go from not being able to paint in the lines, to at least tabletop standard in about 3 months. Such is the greatness of dakka

Keep it up, X!

On a serious note: I think I've finally finished the sculpting on the Commissar! I'll prime him today probably, and get to painting sometime soon.

Ok, so that wasn't a new picture, but the sculpting I've been doing was on the backside

Still working on the Hydra: After I finished up the Commissar last night, I started cleaning up the longbarreled ACs (read: make the ML bit not look like a ML ) After the comments from Barksdale and Sageheart, I've had the rotating turret idea stuck in my head, so we'll see what happens with that. I've run out of steam on the flak barrel idea. It's on the back burner, if not off the stove completely...

On deck: The Valdor Tank Hunter!

I have a Leman Russ that I never field and that I wanted to do something fun with (and =]_,= worthy ) I've got some good pics from Dave and the web as well as a template that I haven't fully checked out yet. Should make the conversion work go smoother.

Thanks for stopping by!
Rawson

Looking stunning rawson! I'm excited to see this conversion.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and by the way, my comment earlier wasn't a shamless promotion of my blog... I was merley contributing to the conversation.

commissar looks amazing, cant waite to see him all painted up!

Great Commissar, and I can't wait to see your Valdor!

Commissar is looking fantastic, looking forward to the conversion and good luck

Looking forward to the valdor, ive always wanted one and may just have to blatantly copy you when it turns out amazing like it surely will

Can't wait to see you have the commissar all painted up.

I gues I meant in my previous comment to find some way to make the turret have vertial and horzontal motion like Barksdale was saying. It is really great stuff though, and I am looking forward to seeing more

Oh, goody.
Can't wait for the painted Commissar!

Thanks for all of the comments! Super encouraging!

prototype_X wrote:Looking stunning rawson! I'm excited to see this conversion.
Oh and by the way, my comment earlier wasn't a shamless promotion of my blog... I was merley contributing to the conversation.

Thanks, and promote away! Referencing another thread doesn't qualify as thread jacking in my book

Rogue Wolves wrote:commissar looks amazing, cant waite to see him all painted up!

Thanks, RW! I hope to do justice to the multi-month conversion/sculpting phase

dsteingass wrote:Great Commissar, and I can't wait to see your Valdor!

I'm getting more and more excited for that project! I think I might have to work on it a bit, otherwise I'll rush the Commissar paintjob and Hydra build just to get to it

lone dirty dog wrote:Commissar is looking fantastic, looking forward to the conversion and good luck

Thanks, LDD!

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Looking forward to the valdor, ive always wanted one and may just have to blatantly copy you when it turns out amazing like it surely will

Blatantly copy? More like learn from my mistakes I've never attempted a project like this before...

Sageheart wrote:Can't wait to see you have the commissar all painted up.

I gues I meant in my previous comment to find some way to make the turret have vertial and horzontal motion like Barksdale was saying. It is really great stuff though, and I am looking forward to seeing more

Thanks, Sageheat! I totally get your previous comment, I'm just trying to come up with a "not too difficult" way to pull it off whilst saving the parts of the model that I really enjoy.

Joshua Von Wolkestadt wrote:Oh, goody.
Can't wait for the painted Commissar!

You'll just have to wait like everyone else, Josh

Even though it was my day off, not too much warhammering. Tons of painting done, though it was of chairs instead of minis

Anyway, I did manage to prime the Commissar (though no pics, since that wouldn't be very exciting), and disassemble the old Russ. I have recently been turned on to a product called "Spirit" that is available here in Denmark. I don't know if it is the same thing a "mineral spirits" like we have in the States, but it works like a charm to strip minis (including plastic) and even softens up glue that is several years old. Here's where we came out:

No broken pieces except the shovel (which I think I can just glue back together if I want to). So we're off and running! Now that most of the raw materials are here, we can get started! I will probably order a few choice bits that will be difficult to scratch build. The Holy Grail for this project will be a suitable barrel end. I was thinking the tip from the shadowsword cannon. Anyone have any advice on that? Or better yet, have one they want to unload?

Now I just need to hook up the new printer and check out those templates that I found.

Thanks for looking!
Rawson

ah! recycling as it was meant to be^^

and i have a tiny nitpick i want to be cleared... the one knee of your commissar looks as if it has still a bubble hole in the middle??? or am i seeing things here?

 Viktor von Domm wrote:
and i have a tiny nitpick i want to be cleared... the one knee of your commissar looks as if it has still a bubble hole in the middle??? or am i seeing things here?

Once again, your eagle eye comes to my rescue! I had assumed that it was the sculpting of fabric, but I could be wrong. I'm not really motivated to go back and fix it If it looks terrible once the first washes are on I might do something about it.

The Commissar is a good conversion, I really like the imperial eagles on his boots..

 PDH wrote:
The Commissar is a good conversion, I really like the imperial eagles on his boots..

Second that!

 Rawson wrote:

 Viktor von Domm wrote:
and i have a tiny nitpick i want to be cleared... the one knee of your commissar looks as if it has still a bubble hole in the middle??? or am i seeing things here?

Once again, your eagle eye comes to my rescue! I had assumed that it was the sculpting of fabric, but I could be wrong. I'm not really motivated to go back and fix it If it looks terrible once the first washes are on I might do something about it.

totally see your point here mate

Well, after no painting updates for many, many months, here's something that everyone seems to have been waiting for:

I started painting the Commissar! I warmed up to painting with a few troopers and then got into it. Here's where we are after a few hours work...

Sorry for the crappy lighting. I really need to figure something out...

What I'm most afraid of is highlighting the jacket and hat. I've been looking at some reference pics and reading some tutorials. The trick seems to be not using grey to highlight, but a different color. I saw some good results with a flesh tone. This one from GW uses blue...


Any great idea's out there? Comments? Criticism?

Thanks for looking,
Rawson

Progress however I am surprise you went for the traditional commissar look, I kind of saw him wearing a lighter colour coat or even red in my mind.

I have to say the pic is a bit on the dark side, but the general look I get and like it.

I dont know why but he makes me think of Black Major from the Action Force series

 lone dirty dog wrote:
Progress however I am surprise you went for the traditional commissar look, I kind of saw him wearing a lighter colour coat or even red in my mind.

I have to say the pic is a bit on the dark side, but the general look I get and like it.

Progress is good!

I hadn't even really considered a different color coat. I figured I was pushing the fluff envelope already with how Vostroyan-esque he was. Once this guys is all painted up, I'll have to do some fluff for him...

Like I said, sorry about the bad pics, I need a better work lamp

I'm excited for the Commissariate Contigent for the 104th: I just won an OOP Commissar on eBay! (Not that I have any plans in my list for another commissar, but I love the model and have wanted one for a long time) My husky commissar with PF and powersword should be arriving between Sept 19 and 25. Just for fun, I've been thinking about doing a cadet commissar as well...

I usually use hawk turquoise mixed in with my black to highlight. Gives a nice shiny leather look.

 Vitruvian XVII wrote:
I usually use hawk turquoise mixed in with my black to highlight. Gives a nice shiny leather look.

Thanks for the tip, Vitruvian! Is the result similar to the GW Commissar above or something different? I perused the first few pages of your gallery, but I didn't find an example. Pic?

I like him, the idea to make gloves instead of hands is great. Since the only skin I see is his face he looks really cold, like a commissar should!