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Wicked cool stuff Meade. As for the river of molten gak... Spackle mught not give you the finish you want... Honestly I'd say use hotglue (if your substrate would take it.) then you would have those odd crinkles like the magma/slag river has.

 Galorn wrote:
Wicked cool stuff Meade. As for the river of molten gak... Spackle mught not give you the finish you want... Honestly I'd say use hotglue (if your substrate would take it.) then you would have those odd crinkles like the magma/slag river has.

Thanks dude,

The nickel tailings river is currently mothballed not molten, just like orange from chemical/rust. I did the secret weapon mini's tablescapes kickstarter and am waiting to get the terrain set, at which time I figure it will be more efficient to do a nice board based around those plastic tiles... that I can easily pack in the car and cart around to the club and stuff. I will most likely transfer my wrecked crawler onto those tiles as well and build some more industrial ruins.

Jeebus, these look good! Lovin' the continued creativity, Meade!

thanks Moltar!

So in other news, I've started converting a Leman Russ tank for the Renegades... of course I am not happy with the way the model looks as it is, so I'm doing some modifications. First off the tracks will get lengthened, extra rivets and armor plates will be added, and I'm going to install a special assault cannon in the turret. Because the battlecannon just looks goofy, and chaos likes to use bullets for some reason... rather than pew pew lasers. So more bullets the better.

Rather than some other solutions, such as using a malcador body and sticking a leman russ turret on it, I think this method of lengthening the tracks works well.. it is just enough to achieve that WW1 look and at the same time you only need to use the parts from one kit, and there is no need to change the body of the tank at all... merely lengthening the tracks makes the tank look a lot better. And Meanwhile it helps the tank look slightly bigger than the chimeras around it (as it should), and slightly smaller next to a Malcador (I am restricting myself from buying Malcador until I get 2-3 normal tanks finished!... it helps to curb spending)

So I'm posting pics here that document the steps I'm taking, maybe it will be a good tutorial in the end and if anyone has any tips that can improve this conversion feel free to share!









The mutants are also coming along nicely... I made some changes and I'm pretty close to finishing 8 of them at once.

Looking good man.

The mutants are looking awesome mate and I'm looking forward to seeing the end result on this tank.

thanks bio and I galorn,

So here is the latest batch of progress... another commission job that I thought I would post because I got to paint some of the HiTech Terrorizers.

My review of the model: I had only ordered one thing from HiTech before, and wasn't that impressed with the details, they were clunky and ill-cast in a way that you can easily tell how they had been sculpted, which are inferior to GW's old metal or new plastic stuff.

However, after getting a chance to just paint them (they came pre-primed) I must say I think some of the details on them are pretty cool... I like the way the gun-arms are constructed, I like the bald head, the screaming faces on the armor, and the legs are well done with the robes. I don't like the clunky looking gigantic bolts and there is a skull on the one guy's pauldron that has metal sunglasses... not my speed... and also there are faces built into the robes that I couldn't tell whether they are trophies or just like weird stylings or spirits trapped in there. But here's the thing.... these guys would look awesome with a little love... they're good bases for conversion. They were a pleasure to paint however I also painted up some Oblits I had lying around in the same paint scheme because why not... so it's interesting to compare.











I also did a Daemon prince that I tried some tattooed skin on:



In other news, the 8 spawn I've been working on are done with the building, and painting is underway... here is one guy that I have been pioneering some of the style I want to use on them... he just has a basecoat but I'm really trying to modulate the skin tone with the airbrush to get that mottled, color mapping effect and creating more vertical patterns of shadow. I want these guys to come out very moody. I converted them to all wear different kinds of gas mask with glowing eyes... to be more in line with the FW style chaos Ogryn style.





I also bought some minitaire paints and I'm in love... with the ghost tints in particular and oil discharge in particular! However, I can tell already there will still be some Vallejo colors I prefer... and even some GW things once in awhile.

At first I had wanted them to look kind of cyborg-like, but it's difficult to get across.... now I'll be happy if they look like bizarre science experiments. I'd like to do some kind of tattoos or barcode on them kind but haven't decided what to do yet...

Also the latest WIP shot of the tank:

Back with another update!

The 8 chaos spawn models are nearing completion... and I had a nice photo shoot today outside, it was a cloudy day and I made a background so I think the pics came out better. Enjoy, and remember I'm still in the process of painting these spawn models... any input is appreciated. I am happy with how they are progressing and currently I was experimenting with using the airbrush to spray some tiny droplets of mud (pigments mixed in water) onto the model... that will probably need some cleaning up but my philosophy here is to give these models the same treatment that I would give a tank, trying to make the feet look like the terrain and to express the effects of the terrain (a dusty, muddy, toxic, polluted industrial ash wasteland) on the model... I am still conflicted on how to do their robes however, so they are mostly just black at the moment but the skin tones are coming out well I think.

Wow, sooooo awesome !!!

Love your use of the Chaos War Altar muties... And your personal touch adds so much to them !!!

Keep it up mate !

Not loving the Hi-tech minis but good grief, that's some awesome painting. The skin tones on the the fat lad are just fantastic - is that done with the ghost tints? I was looking at getting a set of those. I also love the Giger-esque tattoos on the daemon prince (although again, not so keen on the model).

For the robes I think you are best off keeping them black, maybe with a hint of brown. The almost monochrome colour scheme looks amazing and it would be a shame to distract from it with any other strong colours. In fact, I think the rust on the chains is possibly slightly distracting as well. Your glowing eyes are a fantastic focus point, but the chain draws attention somewhat.

By the way, the armpit hair is perfect. Is that done with flock? I love the excess of wires too. You are really making the models that I want to be making here, inspirational.

 Yggdrasil wrote:
Wow, sooooo awesome !!!

Love your use of the Chaos War Altar muties... And your personal touch adds so much to them !!!

Keep it up mate !

Thanks Yggs!... yes I have to say I enjoy working with those chaos warshrine models. And thanks again to Biohazard for giving me the original idea and trading the models. It pretty much follows the same pattern as most of the new stuff GW has been coming out with. Conceptually the kits are derpy, but the detailing and craftsmanship of them is excellent, the bits taken discretely are great. Therefore they need conversion work to be good.

Whereas stuff like the Terrorizers, it's the opposite problem... OK concept (taken as a base) but crappy detailing that needs a lot of work to mend it.





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 Bruticus wrote:
Not loving the Hi-tech minis but good grief, that's some awesome painting. The skin tones on the the fat lad are just fantastic - is that done with the ghost tints? I was looking at getting a set of those. I also love the Giger-esque tattoos on the daemon prince (although again, not so keen on the model).

For the robes I think you are best off keeping them black, maybe with a hint of brown. The almost monochrome colour scheme looks amazing and it would be a shame to distract from it with any other strong colours. In fact, I think the rust on the chains is possibly slightly distracting as well. Your glowing eyes are a fantastic focus point, but the chain draws attention somewhat.

By the way, the armpit hair is perfect. Is that done with flock? I love the excess of wires too. You are really making the models that I want to be making here, inspirational.

Thanks buddy! Yeah the Hi-tech and DP were from a commission... I was just doing the paintjob! Nevertheless It was interesting to do so I thought I'd put it up here.

The robes will be blackish/grey I think... its true I don't want them to distract too much from the rest of the model but I need to put highlights on them. I struggle with that part sometimes, I find flesh easier for some reason. I also agree with you about the rusty chains. I constantly move back and forth from trying to put color into my models in these ways but for now I like the bright red eyes the best...

I would recommend the ghost tints, although due to the way I work I don't think I could say I did it with ghost tints alone, when I work it is never by formula and I pretty much put whatever I feel like. There are layers of ghost tint in there, but also a lot of the Vallejo Model air colors, especially the grey-greens and such, and also secret weapons miniatures washes.

If you get any minitaire ghost tint just get a bottle of oil discharge. It doesn't really look like oil (that would be more brownish)... but really it is a dark bluish color that is perfect for adding dark moody color to an otherwise monochrome scheme (especially the shadows) and therefore enriching it. I would compare it to prussian blue but it is transparent and extremely rich. I'm really trying to put every color of the rainbow into them, except it's all in the shadows and pastels and some focal points.

Armpit hair... I used some of those little fuzzy pom-poms you get at the craft store, cut it up a bit, superglued it on and then primed over everything. I figure with all the random hormones that are being pumped into these guys some of them will be growing hair... and some will have it fall off... I probably could have been even more liberal with it

The converted warschrine mutants are so fantastic that I want to run out and grab that warshrine kit right away! Brilliant!

The Terrorizer models are not my cup of tea, because I think they just rehash an idea that was not that great in the first place, but your paintjob at least makes them look presentable Would choose any of your custom body-horror/tech mutants over these any day of the week, though.

The paintjob on that DP is nicely to the point, although it has to be said that the bog-standard model seems completely out of its league and, dare I say it, totally pedestrian on this thread of conversion madness

Always a joy to read your updates, mate! More please!

These all look fantastic Meade, I think the one with the multiple arms and the rusted chain at the back is my favorite .

All looking great. I like the chap holding his head.

The mutants are looking awesome buddy. Far better than anything I could have done with them. Excellent work.

Creepy. Those miniatures are what I imagine would happen if Resident Evil and Silent Hill had kids.

Thanks for the comments guys!

 Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:
Creepy. Those miniatures are what I imagine would happen if Resident Evil and Silent Hill had kids.

Haha thanks!


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 KrautScientist wrote:

Always a joy to read your updates, mate! More please!

more updates coming... gives me motivation to get these guys finished quickly...


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 hk1x1 wrote:
These all look fantastic Meade, I think the one with the multiple arms and the rusted chain at the back is my favorite .

It's the dark mechanicus philosophy... two arms are great but why have two when you can have five? and one with a buzzsaw?

I hope this isn't a thread necro because the models shown here are awesome. The skin on the mutants is absolutely fantastic, I really like those muted, sepia-like tones; not sure how I would go about replicating them with ordinary GW paints but I am inspired to try on the Chaos Cultists I've just got with Dark Vengeance box. Really like those colours.

The orange/red OSL is great too, the exact sort of colour I've gone with on some of my own models although I don't know if they 'glow' quite as well as yours. One tip I picked up on another forum was to use Tamiya clear and I've just used the red version on some ork eyes and he looks alive! Would I be correct in assuming that you've only used two or three colours for your OSL? Having had a go, I found that limiting the amount of shades used enhanced the effect.

 Gogsnik wrote:
I hope this isn't a thread necro because the models shown here are awesome. The skin on the mutants is absolutely fantastic, I really like those muted, sepia-like tones; not sure how I would go about replicating them with ordinary GW paints but I am inspired to try on the Chaos Cultists I've just got with Dark Vengeance box. Really like those colours.

The orange/red OSL is great too, the exact sort of colour I've gone with on some of my own models although I don't know if they 'glow' quite as well as yours. One tip I picked up on another forum was to use Tamiya clear and I've just used the red version on some ork eyes and he looks alive! Would I be correct in assuming that you've only used two or three colours for your OSL? Having had a go, I found that limiting the amount of shades used enhanced the effect.

Thanks Gogsnik, I think I described it before elsewhere here but my method for the glowing eyes is quite easy... paint on top of a white background so the transparent paint goes over it, and I only use Vallejo scarlet red and occasionally mix in light red if I want a fiery red. And airbrush! Thanks for the compliments!

Hey, so... What's up Meade ? No WIP at the moment ?

 Meade wrote:
I only use Vallejo scarlet red

Not more stuff to buy! Thanks for the tips I don't have an airbrush, out of my price range, but I will certainly give this a go as the effect you have achieved is pretty damn good.

 Yggdrasil wrote:
Hey, so... What's up Meade ? No WIP at the moment ?

ehh.. holidays at work were crazy and sort of put me out of action... starting to recover now!

So a bit of an update, It's been awhile but I've been swamped by work and superbowl and other random things. This is a teaser:



It's for a project I've been working on but things are super secret right now. And I might eventually start posting stuff there before here...

In other news I've been busy at the club, playing x-wing! I'm very fed up with standard 40k at the moment and it's refreshing to play a fully functioning ruleset in that other universe we all know and love. Here is a link to the battle report on youtube, that's one of 6 the rest are there on Fritz's channel. We played a scenario I designed myself, and my brother Phil is also featured on the rebel side:

Wow, really moody and atmospheric creature. The dirty, oil stained skin is great and the little stencil tattoo on the back is a nice touch. I really, really like the gungy, rusty tool/weapon parts and then there are the mottled mutated sections... So much detail both in the sculpt and the painting, just such a great piece.

Thanks! The little tattoos were done with micron pen. I have remember to get a red micron pen now... and I added lighting to it of course, because it is a teaser and eventually a sort of banner

I'm pleased to announce a new blog, a collaboration between myself and Bruticus (who also posts here on Dakka). It's called Ex Profundis, please click on the link in my sig to go there!

I'll write a little about the blog, and my plans for it. It's a collaboration, which to me means the same as being in a band... except with minis! We've been trying to develop a shared background setting for our miniatures, and a general theme the blog will be based around. At the moment if you click on the gallery, you can see I have two galleries set up, my forge thralls and shock mutant, while Bruticus has the rest of his stuff up (the minis with the white backgrounds).

I'm excited to be working on this, Bruticus has been a great help with the blog (thanks buddy!) as his trade is in web design. I've been hard at work for the past month or so trying to get all my dark mechanicus force done, and I really feel it's nearing completion, I'm happy to say... anyone tuning in to this blog, I apologize if I've been neglecting Dakka recently!

In the future I hope to do more graphical type stuff based on my minis, using photoshop to place them in context and with cool lighting, background and special effects (you can see the beginning of my efforts on the blog). I think it helps bridge the gap between what is in our imagination and the miniatures we have crafted.

I also plan on focusing more on skirmish games in the time ahead, especially try to get some Necromunda/Inquisimunda games going... and anything I can do with the guys at the club to play a detailed setting for the miniatures I make, and sharing my exploits on the blog. It's been tough cranking this stuff out while working a full time job, and dealing with winter in general, but eventually I'll get my time to really focus on artwork. Here on dakka I will be posting stuff too, probably focusing more on the crafty, WIP side of things and other random shiny things. Think of it as the blog is my art gallery, and this is my meeting place with peers.



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Enjoy!

Wonderful mini - as I commented on your (shared) blog, the model is as grim dark as the painting.

Even an Astartes would know fear with thing bearing down on him...

Thanks Lamby!

"In their constant search for the perfect weapon, no twisted possibilities are forbidden to House Tekslav. This example, nicknamed 'threeface' by survivors, sports three heads: one head for main decisionmaking and locomotion, one to control the massive buzzsaw arm, and one to control the 4 servohands. The servohands are used to immobilize and distract the enemy, while the buzzsaw arm is used to eviscerate.

This subject's efficiency rating was sub-optimal. The head controlling the buzzsaw arm, despite conditioning and a neural link with the other heads, still has a tendency for independent thought."

For me, these models capture a feel for 40K that is expressed with difficulty in the background and almost not at all by Games Workshop in either their models or the way they paint and present them. Over the years I've written a little fan fiction which has tried to tap into that aesthetic but it isn't something I find easy to do so, to see it expressed so well in model form is something that I really get and I've really enjoyed reading this thread.

If you are going to use photoshop to further the characterisation then that will be really great to see. I know Forge World do something similar but it seems like something peripheral to me and that those images are not taken as pieces of artwork in their own right. I definitely think you're on to something with this though.

Bruticus has some pretty nifty models too, noticed them I the gallery section over the last few days. I like that his models have warmer skin tones which contrast nicely with the sickly, polluted look of the mutants and Dark Mechanicus figures you've done.

So, a micron pen, I've seen people saying about the use of them before. I've used pens on models in the past and found the ink to look a little out of place but then, that is just using a regular pen. Does the micron pen put ink onto the model fairly straitforwardly or do you have to use something else over the top of it to set it in place? May I ask what colours you use generally for your flesh tones and metals? I don't do much painting, I prefer sculpting minis and converting, but I'm building up the supplies for when I finally get around to actually finishing some models and I want to do my best with whatever colours are out there, other than just relying on Citadel as it doesn't seem fair in the model to put loads of effort in to making it, only to spoil it with a basic paintjob.

 Gogsnik wrote:

So, a micron pen, I've seen people saying about the use of them before. I've used pens on models in the past and found the ink to look a little out of place but then, that is just using a regular pen. Does the micron pen put ink onto the model fairly straitforwardly or do you have to use something else over the top of it to set it in place? May I ask what colours you use generally for your flesh tones and metals? I don't do much painting, I prefer sculpting minis and converting, but I'm building up the supplies for when I finally get around to actually finishing some models and I want to do my best with whatever colours are out there, other than just relying on Citadel as it doesn't seem fair in the model to put loads of effort in to making it, only to spoil it with a basic paintjob.

Thanks for the great response Gogsnik!

as for the micron pen, I think it requires the same trick as with transfers... I lightly paint over it with an airbrush, go back and pen it again, then go back with the airbrush again.
as for painting, I've been dipping into a lot of the vallejo military colors, which are giving me lots of earthy or grey tones and I've been working with grey, then adding different colors and washes to it. The minitaire oil discharge has been very helpful though.

so yeah, i'd recommend the airbrush to anyone... especially those not into painting, but I think there's no right or wrong way to paint, experimenting and allowing yourself small mistakes is key, if you believe there is a right perfect way you will only end up doing one boring thing fairly well.