The (Mad) Scientist and his Army of the Second Law: Beware of the FINISHED Raider!

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**Casey's Law**

Really fun blog, dude, bat gak crazy as intended!

I have one particular question for you and I may have missed you mentioning this already... Are we going to get to see a miniature for the Mad Scientist himself?

**Dr H**

Casey's Law wrote:
Really fun blog, dude, bat gak crazy as intended!

I have one particular question for you and I may have missed you mentioning this already... Are we going to get to see a miniature for the Mad Scientist himself?

Thanks CL.

Oh yes, I will make him one day

. He is the figurehead of the army and the way that all the rest of the army members are brainwashed, he'll be the only real "character" model and I want to do him justice. I have some pretty major plans already for him and his command "tank", but for the moment I'm just improving my painting and modelling... and keeping an eye out for possible bitz to use to make the classic mad scientist look.

**Casey's Law**

Sweet, well if I don't see a mechanical Carnifex steed I'm going to be upset.

**Dr H**

Casey's Law wrote:
Sweet, well if I don't see a mechanical Carnifex steed I'm going to be upset.

I have seen various mechanized and "looted" large tyranids about and it would fit with the army, but will have to wait and see what I'm feeling when I get one of those models.

I don't want to give too much away for far future models as people may get bored waiting for it to happen or dissapointed when it doesn't happen as expected.
Plans are afoot for many crazy models (rest assured), I have thought about something I could do for nearly every race and species out there but plans may change with time and I am open to ideas that people suggest on here, but even those ideas may get modified over time.

You (and me) will have to be patient with what is to come and enjoy the current crazyness. We were talking about motivation on your blog and for me, I think a large part of my motivation is the ideas I have for the next model... and the one after that... and the one after that...
I have to be strict with myself and finish what I'm working on before moving on. That's part of the reason I work in small batches, minimise the number of things I have going on and I will actually finish something as I don't have the space for many unfinished models.

**Casey's Law**

Sounds good man, i'm looking forward to seeing where your journey takes you. Stay motivated! Also a squat or two would be fun. Squats make everything more fun.

**da waaagh orkz**

YAAAAAAAAY! dat sounds like dem orkz arrre comin'. Cannot wait to see what crazy, mad contraptions come out of it. you know that in theory even after you brain wash a mek he will still be able to make machines because his all his mechanic (mekanik in ork speak) is programed into his DNA. so what i am saying is that you should have a great, big mek with a great, big, shiny mind control gizmo thing sticking out of his head leading your brain washed ork army.

just a thought...

**Dr H**

Patience da waaagh, patience. Their time will come.
They are near the top of my list (not that I've written a list), but there is another race that I'm sorley tempted by, as it was a choice last time to get them or the Eldar... but time will tell.

Actually, in my very early plans for the army I had a large ork in an HQ slot...so it is a good thought.

and Thanks C's Law, I am also looking forward to where this takes me.

**Dr H**

A pair of completed Guardians for you today.

There has been a bit of a delay with finishing these due to some severe chopping involved, a period of "what colour should I use" issues and a couple of days away getting drunk...

Without further ado...

I've done it again

...Guardian 7 is on the right (as you can see on her knee) and Guardian 8 is on the left.

I'll start with number 8: I wanted a two colour scheme but didn't want to do it as a simple half and half or quartered like the Space Marines and hit upon a diagonal split. It just took a while to decide what colours I wanted to use.
His weapon came about from finding a piece of bent metal that fitted nicely to the guardian back which led to me thinking of giving him a backpack of some kind. A further search through my boxes of bitz scared up a couple of rings that fitted nicely and the top of a pen (that bit that you push with your thumb) and all that became an ammo drum / backpack. This meant I needed a suitable gun to match the backpack and led to an Eldar equivalent to the SM multibarrel gatling gun and that led me to giving him a chainfist equivalent to go with it (like a SM terminator with assault cannon and chainfist).

So the gun, backpack and chainfist are all scratchbuilt using bits of pens, sprue, thin wires, cotton bud sticks and milliput.
Number 7, on the other hand, has had little added to her in odd pieces but has had some major surgery to her legs. I've seen many models from most of the other armies (alright only the Tau and IG) that have kneeling troops and I felt the Eldar needed one.

I also had a Adenal gland floating about, so added that to her. But I've not thought about what that might be used as yet, may be as it would be for Tyranids, or maybe just as an extra brain or something...

As number 7 was kneeling, my thought process was that "why is she kneeling?" and my answer was "she's hiding or using cover" and if you're doing that, you are a sneaky type of person and therefore need to be camoflaged. So I went with a fine scale digital camo' effect (I say effect, as it isn't made up of squares but I painted it to look like it has fine detail as you can get with digital camo'). I also used muted colours for everthing else on her for the same reason.

and for those of you that are after something "green" (not mentioning any names, da waaagh

) here's a bit of fluff to keep you entertained.
It's a little rough, but is only a bit of fun:

Spoiler:

Gobslag-Grimskab was usually a pretty miserable ork. He was always being told by the others to cheer up and "krump" something, and things were fine while he was fighting, but during the (relatively) quieter times his mind would wander slowly to darker thoughts. His depression meant he would throw himself at the enemy with reckless abandon (or at least more so than other orks) to the point that one day he faced a space marine dreadnought, one on one, in close combat, it didn't go well... or so Gobslag thought...

Gobslag woke up to see the opposite wall covered with lights and slowly realised that this was the ceiling and sat up. He was convinced that he had lost the fight with the dreadnought and been killed, he had accepted his fate as the last attack came at him, and he was definitely sure that it had been on a field and not in a small metal room. A thought slowly developed in his mind; was this what happened when an ork dies, is this where you meet Gork and Mork? Gobslag felt something he hadn't felt for a very long time and it took a while to realise what it was, it was excitement.

A door opened in the wall behind Gobslag and half an hour later he noticed it and walked though into a large room. In the middle of the floor lay a large "choppa" and as he considered the weapon a man walked into the room from a door to one side. The man cowered in the corner furthest from the ork, "Humie!" cried Gobslag and ran at the man, he was most of the way there with his arms raised above his head before he realised that he hadn't yet picked up the choppa... Gobslag stopped for a moment, the man looked up at him with fear in his eyes as Gobslag turned and collected the choppa, felt the weight of it with a pensive look on his face and then attacked the man as he had intended. A large squig fell from a small hole in the ceiling and Gobslag considered the turn of events while he ate lunch, not much happened the rest of the day and Gobslag slept on a small pile of clothing he found in one corner.

The next day, the same thing happened with a man to kill and a squig for lunch. Gobslag was getting used to this when the next day another man entered the room, but to Gobslag's surprise a voice called out from speakers and told him not to attack the man... He did anyway but was surprised when no squig was forthcoming. This continued for a few days, Gobslag lost track and, more importantly, was getting hungry when he hit upon a genius idea; he would not attack the man as the voice told him and see what happened.

So the next day, a man appears, the voice says not to attack and Gobslag remained in the opposite corner of the room (to avoid temptation). After 10 minutes the door that the man had entered opened again and the man didn't wait for an invitation to leave, once the door had closed a squig fell from the ceiling and Gobslag ate with a smile that said he felt like he had achieved something.

The next day however, there was no voice and Gobslag was caught in two minds when the man entered. Gobslag decided to attack the man as no one had told him not to... and as he raised his choppa to strike Gobslag was struck by a huge pain in his head, worse than anything he had experienced before. Gobslag waited until the pain subsided and tried again only to be struck by the pain again, he decided to leave the man alone after an hour of this and eventually the man was allowed to leave and Gobslag was rewarded with two squigs. The following days Gobslag left the man alone and was content to eat the squigs provided.

After a few days he was met by the largest of warbosses he had ever seen. The warboss explained that Gobslag had passed the test and was now free to join the army and would be free to kill and not have to worry about being killed as he could be brought back as he had been already and could fight forever. Gobslag asked if the warboss was either Gork or Mork but did not receive a reply, he decided that it was probably Gork and Gobslag was happy every minute of every day after that meeting.

Up next, is something different for all involved.
If I said it doesn't touch the ground you can probably guess what it is...
I want to do a fair bit of modifications to it but I don't have enough plans yet so I may put up some "thinking aloud" at a later date on here and see what people think. So this is also your chance to add some ideas to this next model... mad ideas are good ideas.

As always let me know what you think.

**weetyskemian44**

That guardian with the bloody great gun is a top job! Looks really sci-fi and smooooooth paintjob.

You say there are two guardians in these pics? One of them must be camouflaged cos I can't see it.

**Dr H**

weetyskemian44 wrote:
That guardian with the bloody great gun is a top job! Looks really sci-fi and smooooooth paintjob.

You say there are two guardians in these pics? One of them must be camouflaged cos I can't see it.

Thanks Weety and lol, yeah I did choose the background carefully to avoid trees and bushes so she would be easier to see, I guess the camouflage is too good...

Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, as I said, some thinking aloud about the next project. Designated WS0001 during construction for reasons that should be (or will become) obvious.

First off, allow me to grumble a little

. This is the first model that I've had to take a piece of sandpaper to over ALL the edges and surfaces. Mould lines are to be expected and that's fine, but the flat surfaces really weren't that smooth in places.
And I expect this little model will require more gap filling than any of my previous models.
Oh well, I did start collecting these models for an additional challenge and that is what I'm getting.
So enough of that, don't want to turn into a GW basher. On to making models and making them better.

and now to thinking aloud:
Starting at the top,
I will change something about the turret, but I don't know yet other than keeping it streamlined and it will depend on what I do about weapons...

Talking about weapons, I also don't know what I might do... Although the chin mounted weapon may receive some modifications if I find it can't actually see out under the front of the WS.
I am thinking of adding a HK missile equivalent using what I believe to be a Skyflash / AIM 7 Sparrow that should get good

reactions.

The rear extension (that the WS gets in addition to the Falcon chassis) I am intending to change as I don't see the point of the extra air vent / intake in this position; I'm all for ventilation for the passengers but it looks like it could collect more air than the engines

. I'm thinking of some aerodynamic wing / flaps affair instead.

This brings me to the engines. I'm going to remove the intake grills for two reasons: a) It will create room for the second part of the engine plan which is to build impressive looking engines to appear as if The (Mad) Scientist has had a tinker with them. and b) Because looking closely at the surface of the grills shows just how rough they are. So something shiny and possibly fan-related will be installed to replace them and some vents will be added to the top hull, so the engines I build will be (at least partially) visible.

And I'm going to replace the energy field spines. Not because I don't like them, just because I can and The Scientist would.

Other than a few little additional bits and vents and things I found in my bitz that's all I've got so far with the plan. I feel it needs more ideas though. So time to brainstorm DDakka. Let me know what you think of my plans and if you have any ideas to add. All are welcome, some may or may not be used (or may even be saved for later).

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Time to break out the SAW

**Dr H**

Some WIP pictures of the WS.

Before I could do anything else (read, start building the engines) which requires me to glue the internal framework to the lower hull, I needed to paint the inside of the engine exhausts.

This is just blending from white through yellow, orange, scarlet to crimson and then a dry-brush of black at the exit.

I then set about modifying the inside of the passenger bay (that looks like they gave up on designing) to more closely represent it being made of Wraithbone.

Shaving away the edges of the "ribs" to make them more curved.
There will be some putty of some description used to fill gaps and blend the upper and lower sections together and then further detailing of the interior.
Oh, as well as building some floor to fill the gap that is just randomly unfilled in the middle...

C&C welcome as always.

**monkeytroll**

Ok, looking forward to seeing where you go with the WS....

I do like that blue/blue scheme on guardian no. 8...pretty cool doc....

**Dr H**

monkeytroll wrote:
Ok, looking forward to seeing where you go with the WS....

I do like that blue/blue scheme on guardian no. 8...pretty cool doc....

So am I...

One step at a time and we'll all find out where it goes in the end.

Thanks, I'm quite pleased how he turned out. Wasn't too sure half way through painting.

**Dr H**

In the future there is only... Interior design and upholstery.
More WIP on the WS.

From this:

To this:

Starting on the left (furthest inside) you have;
A (soon to be) holographic display for data, battle planning and in-flight movies.
Next to that is a spare guardian aerial thing and a radio (that I made ages ago out of spare putty).
In the middle I have replaced the missing floor and added seats to take the total to 6 seated passengers.
You will also notice, if you zoom in enough) that the seats are upholstered with (currently) white leather.

And here you will see some trophies and a strange (currently) green box that will become a first-aid box as I have some transfers with red crosses on that say "first aid" and all transports need first-aid boxes.

Enjoy and Let me know what you think.

**Dr H**

OK people, I think the interior is done. Have a look and tell me what you think.

Overhead view. Shows pretty much everthing; The floor, seats, trophies, holo-screen, and some of the graffiti.

Far end. With the holo-screen, light, some wires and you can just about see a radio and spare guardian fin.

The view that you might just about see through the hatch.
You can see the trophies; a Space Marine helmet and a bleached GS skull.

Here you can see the first-aid box and some of the graffiti.

And the rest of the pictures you may not consider safe for work...depending on how good you think my painting is...
Warning. NSFW

I'm not overly happy with the face, but couldn't do better. The rest of her came out nice (I think).

Enjoy and C&C.

**ExNoctemNacimur**

Looks pretty cool!

**Dr H**

ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
Looks pretty cool!

Thanks. Glad you like.

**weetyskemian44**

Pimping a wave-serpent...? Amazing, who would have thought. Of course its important to have comfy seats in your ride, but don't neglect the sound system - subwoofers (whatever they are) and speakers and maybe a mini-fridge with some ice cold martinis (I'm not sure about this - what would brainwashed eldar drink? Some kind of fancy cocktail I'm sure).

I'm impressed you remember to paint the inside of the engine exhausts before sticking them together - its the kind of thing I would forget and then bodge.

**Dr H**

weetyskemian44 wrote:
Pimping a wave-serpent...? Amazing, who would have thought. Of course its important to have comfy seats in your ride, but don't neglect the sound system - subwoofers (whatever they are) and speakers and maybe a mini-fridge with some ice cold martinis (I'm not sure about this - what would brainwashed eldar drink? Some kind of fancy cocktail I'm sure).

I'm impressed you remember to paint the inside of the engine exhausts before sticking them together - its the kind of thing I would forget and then bodge.

Thanks Weety. Nothing is safe from The Scientist, everything and anything will be tinkered with.

Interesting thoughts. I like the idea of a sound system, but I'm not sure how I would go about it at this scale, as any speakers (even the large ones I'm partial to) would just look like small holes or dimples and there's not a lot of room for a substantial amplifier. I'll have a think and see if I can come up with something. If I can't do it here, I'll try it in something else in the future. *Goes to write it down*
I'm not sure how I could do a fridge in here, as space is limited it would have to be really small and then making it look like a fridge would be really hard. However, worry not, because I do already have plans for a bar-on-a-tank (with all the related bar stuff) in the future so that will be covered at some point.

It is really tricky working inside a Waveserpent as those arches get in the way.

Yeah, painting the exhausts was not the first thing I noticed needed doing, but I did in time. Building model vehicles is what I'm used to, so I'm further into my comfort zone with this over little people. And I've been moving very carefully with the building as the instructions you get with these things are rubbish, so there's lots of dry fitting, sitting back and chin scratching.

I'm now currently thinking about the engines and how and what to build them with.

**monkeytroll**

Coming on nicely doc...

I'd say a sound system was a fairly essential bit of kit too

Nice work on the pin-up....agree the face isn't the best, but the rest looks good...and reckon once the rest is in place and you're looking through the hatch it'll look great

**Dr H**

monkeytroll wrote:
Coming on nicely doc...

I'd say a sound system was a fairly essential bit of kit too

Nice work on the pin-up....agree the face isn't the best, but the rest looks good...and reckon once the rest is in place and you're looking through the hatch it'll look great

Thanks MT.

Worry ye not, I have had an idea about how to do the sound system so it should be making an appearance if it works out.

Glad you like her. Yeah, the face went from "oh dear" to "ooo

no" to "ok, it'll do" as I painted it. But, as you say, through the hatch it will look good and I do keep looking at her as I work on the engine and think "yeah, that's nice". It just doesn't hold up to close inspection, from a distance it does the job though.

So, I'm happy with her. I can still paint on a 2D surface (which is good to know) and it's good practice for future nose / tail / tank art.
and I will go the extra mile to get them looking good when they're on the outside.

**Dr H**

OK people. A very quick sneak peak at the current progress on the engine and sound system...

I'm not going to show you the inside work on the engine yet, because I'm a dirty tease.

The sound system now requires me to design and build the hifi unit and then install that, the wires and these speakers. So need a think about that.

**Dr H**

Progress on engine number 1.

From the outside you can see that I've extended the ridges of the vent above the fan and given the fan it's middle dome.
You may also notice that I've carved out the holes and slats in the body as I think it looks better with real holes and not just implied holes.

And this is a view from (not quite) the same angle to show where things line up inside.
At the top of the engine (just above a green thing that was part of a pen) you will see a tube that (roughly) lines up with a vent on the top of the body.
And you can see where the two side jets get their power.

And this is a better view of the inside of the engine bay.
The three things on a plate will be knobs for adjusting the engine.
You can also see a vent at the rear, bottom of the engine that lines up with the three small holes on the body.

I think all the pipes are done, but there is a few more wires I want to add once the milliput is set.

I hope you like where this is going so far.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
And in other news I have had an idea for how to build the hifi system.

**Novelist47**

DUDE KEWL SHET
and people say eldar are all pansies with them curves and sleeks, TO HELL WITH THEM I SAY
ELDAR SHOULD LOOK MEANER, MANLIER AND BADASS-ER
no more of that tolkien pretty girl crap
i just love ur warwalker and how you did that guardian, and ur falcon is looking pretty damn fuq'n badass to me right now
oh and that da, thats pretty cool man
friendly advice, read my signature but seriously i dig ur eldar

**Dr H**

Novelist47 wrote:
DUDE KEWL SHET
and people say eldar are all pansies with them curves and sleeks, TO HELL WITH THEM I SAY
ELDAR SHOULD LOOK MEANER, MANLIER AND BADASS-ER
no more of that tolkien pretty girl crap
i just love ur warwalker and how you did that guardian, and ur falcon is looking pretty damn fuq'n badass to me right now
oh and that da, thats pretty cool man
friendly advice, read my signature but seriously i dig ur eldar

Thanks Novelist. Welcome to the mad-house. Glad you like them.

I used to do plain white backgrounds to my pictures but I found a lot of them ended up too bright so that's why I switched to faded picture backgrounds, I try to select the best one to show the model and I do take many more pictures than end up on here, only the best pictures for my readers

. All my WIP shots I decided to do without backgrounds just to distinguish them as WIP from finished models.

But, if you (or anyone else reading this) want a better picture of any of the models, or even just a different angle, you need only to ask and I shall obey.

**Dr H**

Engine build complete. Painting started. Only a black base coat and gun-metal over that. much more to do, but I'm off to get drunk for a couple of days so progress will be delayed slightly.

Does this look enough like a jet engine to you?

**Dr H**

OK, I'm back and the engine is painted. I think I've finished, but I might increase the contrast on the metal of the front of the engine at a later date.

Let me know what you think.

Next up is having a look at this sound system...

**monkeytroll**

Yep...definitely approve of the engine...build and paint

Maybe a tad more contrast between the fans and the housing?

**Dr H**

monkeytroll wrote:
Yep...definitely approve of the engine...build and paint Maybe a tad more contrast between the fans and the housing?

Thanks MT. Glad you like.

Ahh, I see what you mean. Although you won't see much of the housing with the fan once the top's on, but maybe I'll give the blades a bit of a tint when I look at darkening the dark bits and lightening the light bits, while I'm there...

**Dr H**

Hello out there...

More WIP on the Waveserpent.

I did make the sound system and looked at installing it.

But, It proved too difficult to do in the way I wanted, so I'm afraid it'll have to wait for a future vehicle.
I just wanted to show that I did make it.

It does look a bit rough here and will be tidied up before use.

So as that was out of the way, I moved on to the second engine.

This is at a very early stage at the moment, there is much tidying to do once putty is set.

I want it to look similar to the previous engine in a way that it looks like it was built by the same person (shouldn't be too hard, as it is...) and works in much the same way. But there will be differences, e.g. on this side on the hull there is no vent on top, so the air intake will be absent and the "turbocharger" device will be different on this side (how different? I don't know yet).

Should look similar enough to the other engine on the whole though.

C&C welcome.