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I shall watch this awesomeness. I am doing Cerberus for my Aleph

Ghostflame wrote:Devabot looks super sharp B. Great prep-work, as ever! I'm away for a few days now but I pray to the gods of miniatures when I return my order will be there!
Also on a side note I've been re-thinking my scheme a little. I too have been playing quite a bit of Borderlands 2 and have a bit of a thing for that Hyperion yellow ATM

Thanks mate! I'll include your package in my evening prayers, or sacrifice a chicken or something those religious folks do.
Hyperion Yellow, hhm? I can't see it tbh, but that makes me all the more curious. I liked your first concept, but I'm sure you'll make this one work too.
There was a moment when I unlocked the "maliwan elegance" skin for my Zero, when I thought "Hey this is basicly the missing link between my D9 theme and the blue stuff I've painted on the naga and zayin, maybe I should go that route..." But I'll stick with what I have in mind, no Maliwan theme. I don't like to be influenced too directly, it's often just a craze, that wears of a couple of days later, at least for me.

dsteingass wrote:I got a t-shirt with the artwork from those figs at GenCOn!

Cool! I actually got the miniature from an incredibly nice guy, for free even!

ghostmaker wrote:I shall watch this awesomeness. I am doing Cerberus for my Aleph

You've probably seen that I've considered that too. And to be precise it's quite close to what I'm going to do, so I'm very very curious to see your attempt. Make sure to mention it here or send me a pm, where I can find it.

Aw yeah Boi! My girlfriend informs me a parcel arrived today and I'm 99% sure it's my Aleph! Finally!

As I said before its not great timing due to work exams but hopefully get a few things built and primed this weekend.

B I'm really feeling the Borderlands Hyperion theme. Might even make my Deva Lieutenant Handsome Jack? Hehe

My only concern is OSL is hard to achieve on a bright coloured base, and you can't get much brighter then yellow!

R

 Ghostflame wrote:
Aw yeah Boi! My girlfriend informs me a parcel arrived today and I'm 99% sure it's my Aleph! Finally!
As I said before its not great timing due to work exams but hopefully get a few things built and primed this weekend.
B I'm really feeling the Borderlands Hyperion theme. Might even make my Deva Lieutenant Handsome Jack? Hehe
My only concern is OSL is hard to achieve on a bright coloured base, and you can't get much brighter then yellow!

No worries, it will all work out. I'm looking forward to see your approach.
Regarding OSL, if you go for red or blue lights it's simple enough, just layer it over the yellow and it will look good, just avoid bright colors.


Update:
I'm almost done with the sculpting on my Asura conversion now. Pics soon.
To shorten the wait, I figured I could release the next batch of pictures. This time of my netrods.
I didn't like that they are supposed to stick in the ground, so ordinary. I imagine them to float and slowly spin like a satelite.
They are not glued to the base yet (obviously for painting purposes), once they are painted I'll decide it what angle I'll glue them on, they look quite cool when tilted.

Jesus Fking Christ!

Baiyuan I think these minis may be out of my league dude!

Ok the Infantry are pretty small and fiddly but man-alive those bots?!

How did you even get yours to hold together! Just tell me one thing please...Devabot; torso to legs...how?! How!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bit worried now...

P.s. No Net-rods or Yudbots with my order...got refunded...so will have to get them at later date

R

Mate, as much as I hate to be the one who says "I told you!"... nah just kidding, I love saying that, that's why I became a teacher and don't have any friends. So...
I told you!

Now to get serious again, it's not that bad really. You just have to accept the fact that almost every part needs pinning.

For the devabot for example I inserted the pin into the little knob (the one that goes into the little pit) and drilled through the part connecting the legs with each other. You got to be careful though, once drilled through there is no more bending the legs as the bridge between them becomes quite fragile. Glue it in place and it should all be fine.

Do you have Dakinis yet? They are even worse, depending on the specific version.

Looking forward to your first batch of pics!


Update:
I hope I'm done with my Asura now! I'll see tomorrow, if I'm still happy with my sculpting I'll take pictures, otherwise I'll rip it off again.
Which is basicly what I've been doing in my hobby session for the last two days. Trying to get the emblem on her shoulder pad right, that is.

Phew!

Ok panic over...Devabot built, lots of mold-lines, tried my best with it but I'll 100% guarantee mine won't be as neat as yours dude...

I put together minis like I build hot rods. Just slap 'em together and fix any 'problems' in the paint job...

P.S. I've never built a hot rod...hehe

R

Oh man having the worst time here!

So yeah A. Order was late...very late!

B. Damn things are very difficult to put together but managed to get all parts to hold ok and even got most of the mold lines and surfaces to a pretty smooth finish. Little rushed but I was happy with it after a tough start.

C. So go to prime and haven't used White in years. I thought maybe my can wasn't working so went in close ...so now primmers a bit too thick and I sprayed the girlfriends table! ...but it's ok at least its smooth...right?!

D. Come back to check and there's a tiny hair sat on the freash paint ...tried to get it off and clumsily scratched off the base paint...so all that work getting it smooth gone in a flash...*sigh*

Lucky I was going to paint them battle damaged anyways eh?!

I don't think I'll be doing anymore of these once I'm done here haha

R

So, err, off to a flying start then?

Haha yeah Monkey...flying straight into the bin at this rate!

Nah it's all fixable stuff just annoying after all the work last night. I do feel I'm rushing a bit here...will try to take my time when painting...pics soon

R

Sorry to hear that, mate. But gak happens, take it easy.
I mean there is no guarantee that I won't ruin my carefully prepared minis with a stupid priming accident too. It happened with my PMW mini and I had to go through so much pain to get the primer off without ruining all of the gs filigree.
Anyway don't rush it or you'll regret it, take your time...
And now hurry the fukk up, I want to see some progress you slacker! Just kidding, take your time.

In the meantime I'll provide some more images.

First of some of the new stuff that arrived this week:
Liquitex acrylic ink. I can't wait to test it, but today was too busy, so tomorrow after work


Scarface & Cordelia. LOVELY!

And now to some "serious" news, my Asura is finished (the conversion part anyways) and now ready for primer.

Before I show you the pictures let me explain what I did here, because this is not the intended use of the model, as you might already know.
I didn't use the actual model for an Asura with spitfire, which would be this:

Instead I converted the Mk3 proxy with spitfire, which is imo one of the most lovely models of the range, but it will not see much action in my army, due to its inferior statline and skills.

If you look at it closely it even represents the rules of the Asura better than the actual model, because it is more heavily armored and has a visor on it's helmet, that perfectly represents the MSV.
What I don't like about it are the cockroach elements of its armor and partly the pose.

So I didn't use those strange design elements, like the antennae, the crazy hair and the abdomen.
The hair was replaced with the plait from a Dasyu hacker, that I bent to follow the model's contour a little better.
The slots for her original hair and antennae I sculpted over. I tried to find solutions that made sense and stayed true to the designs on the rest of the model.

The original pose I kept except for her left arm, which turned out to be what put me off.
The way she's walking towards her enemy casually and slightly desinterested, firing her wrist mounted nanopulser, is actually quite cool, but the way the spitfire sticks out is odd.
I mean she's a machine, she can do it, but keeping the gun at that angle is still unnatural. Barrel up or barrel down, but not sticking out to the side.
So I took away part of her shoulder and arranged the arm at a more natural angle. Then I added a new shoulder pad, with a little additional detail.
I didn't have to worry about symmetry, as her right shoulder pad is hidden under her equipment.
The shoulder pad now looked like it was made for a unit decal lateron, but I thought it would be cooler to sculpt the asura symbol instead. Took me multiple attempts, but came out ok in the end.

Without further ado, my version of an Asura with spitfire:

HOLY Krap Baiyuan! You are a master with the smoothskins!!

I look forward especially to seeing your magic with the scarface!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
..You seem liberated from your earlier funk, it's good to see! Roll On!

 dsteingass wrote:
HOLY Krap Baiyuan! You are a master with the smoothskins!!

Thanks, but I'm actually awfully frustrated at the moment! I sprayed the netrods white and it showed that I shouldn't have been so rash in their preparation.
So instead of painting them right now, I distract myself and try to decide whether to go back to filing, or leave them as is.
Tbh it's more like waiting for the realisation that there is only going back, or else I'll hate every second of painting them, which would be quite counterproductive...
Netrods SUCK! stupid mouldline all around and to damn small to get to it without taking away every hint of detail.

Sorry to hear of your issues with the netrods, but your asura is kick-ass (kick-ass-ura ). Great job on the shoulder pad, and looking forward to scarface - that looks very cool.

 monkeytroll wrote:
Sorry to hear of your issues with the netrods, but your asura is kick-ass (kick-ass-ura ). Great job on the shoulder pad, and looking forward to scarface - that looks very cool.

Kick-ass-ura, I like that and it's so fitting, because well... she kicks ass.
Took care of the stupid rods already, hope they are passable now. Tomorrow's primer will show...
Even though Scarface has no priority at all, it's floating around in my head. And since I decided that for christmas I'll put a new/better airbrush on my wishlist, there is a good chance that I'll tackle this project after christmas.

Your conversion skills are truly amazing, kick-ass-ura looks so much better for it.

 GiraffeX wrote:
Your conversion skills are truly amazing, kick-ass-ura looks so much better for it.

Thanks, mate!

She looks great B. I don't know how you do it...I struggle to even fix the damn things together as they are!

While in other news my Infinity 'bad luck' continues...half-way through my Devabot paint job and I sit back to take in what I've done so far and I DROP the fking thing! Life imating art and he explodes into bits on impact!

He's back together again now...I guess that's some more battle damage there then too

R

Sweet looking stuff!

 Ghostflame wrote:
She looks great B. I don't know how you do it...I struggle to even fix the damn things together as they are!

As usual it's mainly patience and meticulousness. That and ripping your hair out and sobbing and stuff...
No seriously it's also a lot of trial and error.
I messed up so much while building/converting these few models, but I managed to safe most of it.
The Mk1's leg is on the verge of breaking from trying to bend it into the right shape. The crotch of the devabot is just the same. In both cases I made sure to fix it with super glue before it's too late.
In general I'm extra careful and try to prepare for the worst case scenario, so I rather pin everything than having to commit suicide/homicide/genocide, when the fully painted model gets dropped.
Better to be safe than to be sorry.
Some assemblies are just crazy and I'm not always happy with my solutions, then I wonder how others do it, just like you. Do they take painstaking care of every little mouldline too, or is it just me being overly concerned? Do they care to pin as much or are they taking chances?
When I look at the studio miniatures from CB I think I can spot some that are incorrectly assembled, but as long as it works, who cares?
In summary, don't worry, Rob. I'm sure they'll look fine.

While in other news my Infinity 'bad luck' continues...half-way through my Devabot paint job and I sit back to take in what I've done so far and I DROP the fking thing! Life imating art and he explodes into bits on impact! He's back together again now...I guess that's some more battle damage there then too R

That sucks! At least my Mk1 wasn't painted when I dropped it.
Did you pin the arms? They shouldn't have come off if you did. Do you have a good type of super glue? And different types for different jobs?
And on the flipside what do you mean "half-way through"? You're putting me to shame! It was only right you dropped it, being half-way done after all the headstart I had... pffff!

Then may I suggest adding wires or conduit or some other extra detail that will cover the mold lines and keep the detail?

I don't know what "then" refers to, but your idea is of beautiful simplicity! I thought about filling everything with putty instead of filing it off, but putting additional details on it, I like that. It's noted, I'll see how well it's applicable to the Aleph range.

 Baiyuan wrote:
Tbh it's more like waiting for the realisation that there is only going back, or else I'll hate every second of painting them, which would be quite counterproductive...
Netrods SUCK! stupid mouldline all around and to damn small to get to it without taking away every hint of detail.

I was replying to this post, sry.

Ah, now I got you, Dave. I already took care of them, but for the netrods it wouldn't have been an option anyway, there wasn't much space for a conduit or anything and symmetry forbade it too.
But the idea in general is a smart one, I'll keep it in mind.

Didn't pin arms...my bad. He's re-attached now and luckily it doesn't show but can't believe my luck so far...I just use Loctite Super Glue, its quite thick stuff so fills gaps quite well, not sure if it's the best for metal minis but it worked well with my plastic bits before...I should have GSed the joins too but couldn't be bothered haha

Yeah, trying to do justice to those awesome borderlands 2 graphics...coming on ok, they will have to be a bit dirtier/worn then I had first planned (to hide a few errors) but overall look should be cool and very different from that classic studio look which we both wanted to get away from

My only regret so far is I wish I'd gone for NMM now. I feel my use of metalic paint was a bit lazy in this case but we'll see how those parts look when they're dirtied up a bit and matt varnished.

Peace out!
R

Oh no dood, Metal minis always need pinned. Paperclips and good gap-filling CA and accellerator are your BFFs with metal

I hate using accelerator, seems to weaken the bond a lot, i just use industrial strength super glue from industry

Btw, im very eager to see what infinity looks like painted ala borderlands

My only regret so far is I wish I'd gone for NMM now.

I wouldn't regret not doing NMM if I were you, most of the time people do this it just looks like matt grey and nothing like metal.

trying to do justice to those awesome borderlands 2 graphics

Borderlands has amazing graphics, almost a cell shaded look. I'd guess to emulate it in painting you would use a lot of lining and stark contrasts?

Good to hear. I can't wait for pictures, man! How about a WIP?

I'm with Bruticus, NMM is only worth it, if it's done perfectly, which 90% of the best painters don't achieve. I prefer properly done RMM any time.

In other news, the netrods are primed and I'll pop in the new O-12 podcast and get painting right after finishing this post. Which is...now!

I'm making slow progress (better than none) on my netrods.

The paint scheme is still giving me some trouble, but I think I've settled on the main colors (i.e. what paints exaclty I'm going to use).

The real problem is finding the right color for the osl. I've tried "MC Blue Green" and the color is nice, but it pops too much and makes the whole thing look like a manga, which is fitting but not the look I aim for.

So today I went shopping for a better color and brought home a bunch of new paints, two of which are light blue tones, that I'll try for the osl.

No pictures yet, but once I've got the basic scheme covered on the netrods I'll take a pictures. Until then I hope Rob get's around to show us what he's been doing with his Devabot.