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monkeytroll wrote:Great work so far doc, that postioning of the fern doe a good job of capturing him bursting through....

Thanks MT. It will also be exaggerated in the painting as I'm thinking of giving the leaves differently coloured faces.

hk1x1 wrote:That conversions coming along nicely, and all the work you've done on the weapon has really paid off as it looks great.
As does that base, It's all going to look really atmospheric when it's done .

Thanks hk. Good to hear. All in the name of telling a story.

Casey's Law wrote:Whoa, I've been away for almost half of you blog! Last time I checked in you were hinting at the coming Predator! I've got myself back up to date now so I'll be here, watching, always. Like a stalker.

On my trek through the last 11 months of posts I've saved quite a few of your little tutorials for future reference. It's lovely that you take the time to do that, very helpful!

Keep it coming, bud!

Ha Yeah, half my blog, but only one model (until the past month or two).

Nice to hear and I hope they prove useful. I'm learning these things as I go mostly, and the scientist in me has to report my findings somewhere...

Galorn wrote:Looks fantstic so far man!

Thanks Galorn.

I have now added the grasses to the base and I think I'm done (there's not really any room to add any more ).

Here's some pictures of the base by itself and with the Mantis (with a plainer background so you can see what is what).

There are 4 lengths of grass; the longest (white) are taller than a SM, the next (black) are about shoulder height and then two lengths of paintbrush bristles at knee height and ankle height.
You can also see the sprue-plants and the un-planted mines.

And all together:

While the grass is leaning outwards it still is pushed aside by the model to give the real feeling of him pushing his way through it.

Next job is to start on the painting.

I like the way it looks as if he's bursting through the foliage.

Love it. Really dynamic piece, ya scallywag.

Gitsplitta wrote:I like the way it looks as if he's bursting through the foliage.

That was the aim (Striking like an unexpected storm), glad it comes across even before paint. He is now primed and undercoated (black), colours will be added from tomorrow.

inmygravenimage wrote:Love it. Really dynamic piece, ya scallywag.

Thanks Graven.
After my Wych, which I went simple with on the modelling but got nowhere in that competition (well, not top three... but the top three were very worthy), I thought I'd put a bit more effort into this one.

That's coming together really nicely, mate.

Mantis in the brush! LOL!

Great composition and thought put into that! i'm impressed dude, the idea of having him pushing his way through is brilliant :-)

Wow Doc, that is an impressive base for the comp. Looking forward to seeing it completed!

Casey's Law wrote:That's coming together really nicely, mate.

Thanks Casey.

shasolenzabi wrote:Mantis in the brush! LOL!

... is worth 2 in the... wait a minute...

nerdfest09 wrote:Great composition and thought put into that! i'm impressed dude, the idea of having him pushing his way through is brilliant :-)

Thanks NF. It's down to the theme of the competition and was the first thing to come to mind.

GamesEtc wrote:Wow Doc, that is an impressive base for the comp. Looking forward to seeing it completed!

Thanks Games'. He's getting there... well, I've done the green at least... mostly... may still need some touch-ups...

As I say, I've done the green, on the armour, mostly...

Yep, gone with the bright green that Gitsplitta uses (or as near as I'll get anyway). The brown on the shoulder pads will be... (you can probably guess, can't you?)

Onwards...

Made ya laugh!

Nice work on the green Dr H.

Very nice green.

Not commented in a while. So better make it worth it I suppose.

Catch those finger grooves. Beautiful posing, and all the little details as always spot on.

The base is spectacular, brilliant work.








( my 3000th post, blooming good place for it, love your thread, always fun.)

Thank you Shas.

Gitsplitta wrote:Nice work on the green Dr H.

Thanks Gits'.

Camkierhi wrote:Very nice green.

Not commented in a while. So better make it worth it I suppose.

Catch those finger grooves. Beautiful posing, and all the little details as always spot on.

The base is spectacular, brilliant work.

Thanks Cam.
Grooves, holes and recesses will be deepened when I get the black out. Need to do the yellow first as that will have some black over the top...

( my 3000th post, blooming good place for it, love your thread, always fun.)

Thanks. Fun is the aim.

Loverly green. Let's call him Brother Stardust

Looking good so far

The green looks to be a prety good match for Gits' MW's.

Nice strong green, very nice.

Great conversion, good pose, amazing base.

Nice work on the paint so far, too.

Waiting to see it done!

Thanks Chaps.

And after many layers, the yellow is done and I've added the black bits (and blackened various other bits that still need other colours, such as metal).

A few notes here on the mantis:
The studded shoulder pad "should" be on the other shoulder if it was to be true to the older 40k (and Gits' MWs). I chose to switch it so that he matched with the other marines in my army and have his chapter symbol on his left shoulder.

I read somewhere that the MWs from the Badab campaign keep their tranquillity pattern camouflage as a mark of pride (amongst other things). So while this mantis has had his armour refurbished (while still an older mark of armour) and re-painted to green to work as better camouflage in a green environment, he has kept one shoulder pad in the camo' pattern. I do realise that on the original pictures from GW the studded pad doesn't have the pattern on, I wanted that pad to be yellow to balance the other yellow pad and couldn't see any other part of the armour working in the camo' pattern. So while that pad is yellow, I decided to add the pattern (the studs will be metallic when I get there).

The chapter symbol (thankfully) went on well and required few touch-ups.

In other news (not had one of these for a while):
My mum had her birthday the other day and I decided to make her something. She likes earrings and flowers and plays a lot of short-mat, indoor bowls...
So I bought a load of earring blanks off ebay and set to work with my tools of the trade:

The flower is all milliput, sculpted and carved/sanded to shape in 3 stages from outside to inside.
The "flat" bowls are 3 layers of plasticard to give a pseudo-3D effect.
The last bowls are again, milliput, but this time I used a mould of Oyumaru (the wonder stuff!) of a suitably sized lump of scrap resin (a drop of which I left to set in some water while casting). A bit of sanding here and there and the jack is pinned to the side with a piece of paperclip.

I'm now wondering how much money I can make from selling earrings on ebay...

The flowers are beautiful. I'm not sure what the "bowls" are supposed to be IRL, so it's hard for me to pass judgement.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
The flowers are beautiful. I'm not sure what the "bowls" are supposed to be IRL, so it's hard for me to pass judgement.

Thanks Gits'. They were well received.

These are bowls:

How interesting. What are the larger balls made of?

You should make some bowls cuff links, I can definitely see some of the old chaps that play near me wearing something like that! Great stuff.

I worry for your poor mantis warrior. I mean he's got all those grenades attached so close to the ground and he's running through dense foliage. All it would take is one lousy twig to snag on the pin and you have a one legged mantis....albeit he'd be a flying one legged mantis...for a second or two. But think of him trying to explain to the inquisition why he failed his vital mission and now needs bionics. I mean do you think they are going to believe him? No, he's just trying to get some bed rest during their 100 year crusade. They've seen millions of draftees trying to duck service by shooting themselves in the foot, this marine just takes it to the next level .

Looks great by the way .

Looking good on the MW, and nice to see you branching out into jewellery - I expect a trendy etsy store soon!

Gitsplitta wrote:How interesting. What are the larger balls made of?

Real ones?

Wikipedia wrote:They were originally made from lignum vitae, a dense wood giving rise to the term "woods" for bowls, but are now more typically made of a hard plastic composite material.

So your guess is as good as mine.
This is the version that my parents play =>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_mat_bowls

Gogsnik wrote:You should make some bowls cuff links, I can definitely see some of the old chaps that play near me wearing something like that! Great stuff.

One step at a time. I could corner the market...
Thanks.

Theophony wrote:I worry for your poor mantis warrior. I mean he's got all those grenades attached so close to the ground and he's running through dense foliage. All it would take is one lousy twig to snag on the pin and you have a one legged mantis....albeit he'd be a flying one legged mantis...for a second or two. But think of him trying to explain to the inquisition why he failed his vital mission and now needs bionics. I mean do you think they are going to believe him? No, he's just trying to get some bed rest during their 100 year crusade. They've seen millions of draftees trying to duck service by shooting themselves in the foot, this marine just takes it to the next level .

Looks great by the way .

Well he is lucky number 13. Maybe that's the habit that "landed" him in The (Mad) Scientist's army.
Thanks.

inmygravenimage wrote:Looking good on the MW, and nice to see you branching out into jewellery - I expect a trendy etsy store soon!

Thanks. Yep, maybe I will find a way to make my millions yet...

Today's progress finds the Mantis mostly finished. I still have the base to finish though.
I've finished off the black areas with a bit of dry-brushing and edge highlighting,
I've added the metals, keeping them relatively muted (can't be too shiny if you're trying to hide),
Lenses/eyes and purity seals (only just painted so have to let them dry before adding the squiggles),
And a round of tidying up of the yellow and green.

The top view here shows the reconstructed knee nicely, and the underside view shows that there is some painted on shading.


Also; I am canvassing thoughts on the Hellbrute model with a view to making a unique (improved) version that I can sell. I would like to get as many opinions as possible before I start.

Thanks.

Coming into focus nicely. Beautiful work on the insigna too.

And yes... the real ones.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Coming into focus nicely. Beautiful work on the insigna too.

Thanks.
And respect where it's due, while it's not the most complicated of insignias, it is a tricky one to get right. So for the many in your army.

And yes... the real ones.

Yeah, as it says, a plastic composite. Probably similar/same as for 10-pin bowling balls. These are smaller though and weighed to one side to aid curving.

Lovely work, good sir.

Nice work on the mantis, he's loking pretty cool.

And nice pressies too, good job

You've totally inspired me to make the wife some petri dish earings reconstructive knee surgery is most impressive, orthopaedic Dr H