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Hmm all true. There just seems to be some kind oof hammer that gets dropped around here if someone mentions it. Either way, I think I've come up with something a touch simpler! Pictures forthcoming but not till I wake up at the very least.

 Azazelx wrote:

 GrimDork wrote:

@Azazelx; Hey now, isn't it technically breaking some kind of copyright laws to use instant mold to make forms of anything you didn't make yourself (and that's actually copyrighted, probably ok for simple geometric shapes and such)? I'd seriously consider using it as such but it always seemed a bit dodgy, as they say.

Not sure. I don't think so, though. I first learned about (and how to) press mould from an article in White Dwarf where they showed and encouraged hobbyists to do it to customise their models. I figure if GW says it's ok, then it must be. Not sure if anyone will break down your door for doing it, though.
More seriously, I don't think it's an issue that anyone would take issue with. GW has shown off models with press-moulded details many times and described them as such, including GD reports. Scibor's whole thing is being "inspired by" GW designs. And you'd be making.. I dunno? A couple of faces at most? It's more of an advertisement for Scibor than anything else. And you'd not be selling them as "conversion kits" so there's no "for profit" involved.

As long as your not selling it your golden . You can make 1000 copies of your 1 space marine and claim the chapter all look identical, but you put it up for sal on eBay and watch your doorstep for the good lawyers from GW to come and knock.

Love the little details on your terrain. Rust patches, warning signs, all that stuff, breathes so much life into it.

How long do the pieces take to put together?

Simple, but it looks fairly dwarf like to me.

Ugh, I don't even want to paint one space marine . Let alone shoddy copies I've made!

Da Boss, assembly to game table? Probably 2-4 hours per building. Mostly simple airbrushing, dry brushing, and so on. I'll try to time one sometime, I'm curious myself now.

That looks plenty good, conveys the dwarfy feel and makes it notably not a Rhino. Given that it's fairly simple, there's also plenty of scope to go a little more detailed on Command/Elite units without overdoing it.

How long did it take, out of interest?

I reckon that's a decent addition to the rhino, makes it look less like a direct Space Marine port. I reckon it will look especially good if paired with an Iron Ancestor.

2-4 hours eh?
This blog is a great advertisement for the terrain. Mantic should be paying you commission!

Probably an hour scouting the internet and coming up with nothing better than the iron ancestor. Cut about five pieces and tried some things before settling on two, cutting takes seconds. The top is just made from cut outs of the beard sections. Maybe half an hour but it'll go down moving forward. Rivets came from a mini hole punch.


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@Da Boss wouldn't cost them anything... they'd just get it back in the next kick starter!


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Hrmph... I was gonna do a showcase with all of my corporation guys but i can't find one of them... I found one that had fallen and broken off of his base, but the other is totally missing at the moment. Such good lighting right now too.. I guess I'll hold off, wait till I get the Z-corp onto clear plastic bases too.

That looks really great, much larger than I expected, and as others have said makes it look far less instantly like a rhino. The only thing I'm not 100% sure on is the form over function factor - not to be a negative nancy, but the length of that beard might interfere with the tank driving over cars and such.

Though it does look like it could easily be turned into a cattle-catcher for the entire front of the tank.

Yeah it hangs down a bit. Its not a template though, others maybe different. Going to incorporate some similar plates elsewhere on my vehicles. Some of my rhinos will need some fixing. I've got parts of 8, but only 6 complete kits. Or well almost 7. One needs a bottom and top, but I've got the sides and front/back. Two need tracks I think. I may try to improvise something out of plasticard. And I'm pretty light on legitimate hatches for the top. Think I may build a platform onto some of them for a dwarf to shoot the 'storm bolter'. Gonna see if i can improvise a double barreled hailstorm rifle.

Also considering adding braces to hold the rhino side ramps at 90 degrees on my predators. Then I'll add a couple of hailstorm auto cannon toting stormrage vets standing there. May or may not add guard rails. Maybe just a support tether to the dwarfs belt?


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I was thinking about an even bigger dwarf face for a dozer/ siege dozer thing like vindicators have.

So I'm a little late to the game, Grim, but I like what I see, especially the FF tank. I like Azazelx's idea of casting something to put on the front. Especially those dwarf banners. I would think you would want them to be relatively flat, as anything much thicker protruding from the front would start to look kind of silly.

Just to throw my hat in the ring, I am almost 1,000% certain its not illegal to recast things as long as you don't redistribute them.

Yeah I dunno about the whole recast thing really. Just seems like certain posts get a ridiculous amount of heat over it. Maybe it's a GW C&D thing.

I'm pretty liable to stick to my plasticard dwarf faces on the tanks for now. Just as long as they don't start chattering in bad English accents about being 'Really Useful War Machines', and chuffing about. If I ever make the forge fathers their own terrain, those dwarf faces will be in for sure. To the point that I'd look into silicon and resin, or at least plaster to make plenty.

I'm still planning to add some shields and hammers to adorn them, kind of like wolf pelts or long scrolls/purity seals on space wolf and dark angel rhinos respectively. Might also do some "gritty makes it look like it's actually being used" items like tools, stowage for gear, and the like.


I've just finished enough forge fathers to make the second squad of steel warriors (tactical marines). I only had to make 8 since I'll be borrowing a couple of those stormrage heavy weapon guys to go into each squad. I made 2 flamer guys and the unit leader to lead this second squad, and 5 more grunts. I did one modestly clever repose which I'm... i wouldn't say proud of.. but pleased with, and I've festooned (great word, simply do not use it enough) them with bits and bobs from the Eisenkern accessory sprue. Mosty extra pouches medkit canisters, and so on... help to make them look more tacticool and less fantasy

Still gotta get them on nails and get to painting. I think I'll finish this second squad of troops, then do a rhino for them and a predator. They need a leader. I might wait till things get a little closer though. Seriously considering doing a conversion with mechandrites just so a MotF stand-in would look the part.

I might even sneak the Helfather in at some point, same color scheme. He'd have to be a count-as MotF with conversion beamer or something... he's too big to hide as a heavy weapon guy, too small to be a dread or terminator. Maybe a terminator captain/librarian/chaplain, but none of them seem to have an option for "overpowered multimelta equivalent" so... yeah.

I gotta say... the half-fantasy nature, moderately soft detail (one of the poses has a rifle that kind of melts into the armor), and fairly limited pose-ability of these guys aside... they're starting to grow on me Don't even get me started on how cool the legit sculpts are, and especially the stuff coming from deadzone. These guys may continue to grow and demand full attention from the WP KS, for lots of FF tanks.

 GrimDork wrote:
Yeah I dunno about the whole recast thing really. Just seems like certain posts get a ridiculous amount of heat over it. Maybe it's a GW C&D thing.

I think that's really only when people are recasting whole figures, or buying armies from Chinese/Russian/etc recasters.

Now let's see some pics of these new conversions!

Yeah. Well. Let's just say if I get something that's suitable for use with instant mold, and I suddenly seem to have even more that something... we'll assume I "did the right thing" whatever that is

Anyway, only one of these really counts as a minor conversion, the rest of them are just accessorized to the gills


To the gills!


Even more stuff crammed back here!


Cut the second arm off the rifle to make it a 1-hand grip, added unit leader command/communication glove thing and trigger thing. Detonator maybe? Then I gave him those weird little drum magazine things from the Eisenkern kit to suggest explosive charges. This is the squad's demolitions and comm officer, surely that mixing of tasks won't cause any issues


The squad leader is just a caring soul with a second medkit so he can take care of any wounded soldiers (the little round things), he also appears to have a second side-arm. Note how the dragonbreath (flamer, possibly melta sometimes) gunner has been festooned with pouches. I assume these are filled with various gear-- explosives, tech gadgets, snacks, hell some of them are probably empty and intended to hold loot and souvenirs.


I'm not 100% what the leader is planning to do with his second hand, possibly draw a tech gadget from his shoulder? Too bad he isn't toting that second pistol!

I realize a lot of the pouches are very obviously shaped to hold modern or even slightly dated magazines for various not as high tech weapons, but they were fairly inexpensive and more or less all I had access to. I think they still give them a similar look to modern soldiers who are covered with useful gear and actually look like they're going to be doing something for awhile... and have enough bullets to shoot more than a couple of badguys. I wouldn't mind coming up with some spare dragonbreath tanks, or hailstorm drum magazines. If I come up with something, I'll probably go back and add them in.

Thoughts? Have I made the not-fantasy dwarfs a little cooler and higher tech, or was this a fail? These guys are all on nails so I'll rattle can spray them as soon as I get the chance. I've got to get another can of white Krylon though. I'm probably gonna paint them in my new favorite yellow and hit them with the Tudor, so they'll more closely match the tank than the first two iterations of yellow. Not gonna be quite as orange, and definitely not as dark as the stormrage vets. I figure that with as many more dwarfs to come as there are (awkward sentence), I may as well try to 'get it right' one last time. The others can get distributed and will hopefully blend in later on.

*late to the party*

Maybe... maaaaaybe, if you did some strips along the Rhino's 'beard', it would make it look a bit more beardy.

I have to say, first impression looks like it drove through someone's tighty-whiteys and they got stuck on the front.

It could just be the color in comparison to the Rhino itself though, and once it gets some color on it it'll look fine.

I think the additions to the Steel Warriors work quite nicely. Certainly taking the edge off the Fantasy-in-Space feel.

Just a thought, if you've got an Eisenkern accessory sprue, don't those things have dozens of spare heads on? Have you tried them on the FF to see if you can manage to get rid of the non-enclosed Dwarf helmets, as those strike me as the most fantasy part of the models?

Hmm. Every head on these guys is one from the steel warrior box actually intended to look scifi. The open faced helmets are part of the torso and would be a bear to remove.

The Eisenkern sprues do come with leader/specialist heads, they're all human heads with berets, they'd be a lot thinner (and possibly taller than) the dwarf heads currently in service.

The first unit probably has some of the fantasy heads, the ones you have to "fix" with a generous allotment of goggles and headsets.


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@Shas, Its got a little paint, I'll put it up later.

Ah, I see how it being one piece would be a pain to remove, and I thought you got enclosed helmets on the sprues. Never mind then.

Its all fantasy legs but the SciFi half has two torsos. One is just the front with a place for arms and choice of head. The other has the head and gun sculpted on. The single piece torso has an open face. They include non enclosed heads you *can* put on the other half, with goggles and headsets, but I like the enclosed variety.

I may use some of my full on fantasy dwarfs with spare pistol hands from the steel warrior kit to improvise a squad of 5 assault marines.

Well if you need any thoughts or ideas...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/586811.page

Definitely check out this guy's spacedwarf/squat conversions. Killer stuff.

@Grim liking the work on the Forge fathers. Did you go big on them for your 2nd Deadzone shipment? If so you should have quite a few coming soon.

@cc I looked, those are pretty killer.

@ToT I reigned it in on the 5th and 6th factions... just the starters and booster bundles. So probably way more than I could ever use in DZ. I think its like 2x plastic not-terminators squads, probably upwards of 10 brokkrs. 2 bikers.. I hope they do a retail set. No iron ancestor, got one coming from DBX and I might just order a few some time.

Forget if I said.. I got those last 8 undercoated and based, and got sense enough to do the red on my marauders with the airbrush too. I may cut out a little shapes wand and try to do the red and leather on the dwarfs with the AB as well.. maybe black for metal... not metal though. It gets all over.

I think the Iron Ancestor is my number on favourite mantic model, but I have yet to pick one up myself. As you know my 2nd shipment order is non-existent.

So Grim what do you find useful about using an airbrush? I have no experience of using one.

While looking for close ups when seeking inspiration for my tank-face, I got to see the ancestor kit's bits. Looks pretty ball-joint-having so making more than one wouldn't be so terrible, I think the torso and arms are on balljoints, the legs may be even. I would have to get the Doomstorm kits because, awesome name, and also because $5 for another primary weapon arm is better than you ever get for dreadnought arms etc.


Oh my airbrush, how do I love thee! Let me count the ways:
Or well maybe not a list, but yeah here we go.

I first got a cheapy knockoff set and since then they've been terribly useful for basecoats. I lent out the compressor and it didn't make it back alive, but I replaced it quickly with something better anyway. I've managed to break or discombobulate both of the useful guns from the set (one was a super cheap plastic job that worked with cans, ick), but I've moved on to a SOTAR 20/20 that I found on amazon for something like $70 (supposedly they MSRP ~$400, but that's just bloated to make sales look good imo).

Ok history aside, just wanted to point out that I am using one of the better quality (imo) brushes that badger makes so that's where my experience and frame of reference live.

Also using Minitaire airbrush paint (and a little vallejo model air), which could probably use a wee bit of thinning for some colorss... but are mostly fine out of the pot and that's how I used them.

List anyway!

*Applying basecoats! Smooth and fast, this is just way more fun that any kind of brushing on. Overspray is not an issue. You can undercoat too but I find that the airbrush paint is usually more likely to scrape/rub off than a solid coat of Krylon or the like.

*Painting anything bright. I realize I could basecoat these by hand with a white undercoat too, but I've been using way more red and yellow since I got the thing. May be a coincidence though. Though... in the winter you *can* use it for undercoats to get by. And if you're going to just display the model, I think it would be fine. But I prefer rattlecan priming for durability in game pieces.

*Stencils! I'm just now getting into them, but holy cow there's a lot you can do with stencils. Crisp lettering and numbers, make your own cut-outs for symbols and the like. This also bleeds into masking stuff off for camo or airbrushing more than one color.

As my control improves I'm working on learning to mask things off by hand so I can paint progressively more of the model with the airbrush. There are tons of videos on youtube but I'm too lazy to peruse them. Maybe in the winter or something.

It's a totally different feel from painting with a standard brush. I can get tired of either of them, but I'm usually not burnt out on doing one or the other *at the same time*. Edge highlights or detailing getting me down, Basecoat some fuggin tanks! And so on.

I think the strongest aspect is that it's another way to paint, and that helps me get stuff done.

sorry for rambling

I bought a really nice airbrush setup nearly a decade ago, and I still haven't gotten around to figuring out how to use it

All the terrain you do? I'd be hitting up youtube howtos if I were you!

Like the temporary thread title, which color?


Speaking about the two in the middle, the finished dwarf and the one to his left. The dip i'm going to use on these guys moving forward is the same one I use for everything else now. It isn't as dark, that is. So, keep medium leather for boots/gloves/etc, or switch it to solid black with light grey highlights (basically exactly what the belts/pouches/boots are for the marauders so far)? I'm somewhat torn, the leather is a bit earthier and goes along well enough but the black maybe helps to scifi them up a little bit? I'm also not sure how I feel about using the leather as abundantly as I would be on this second squad with all of the bits and bobs floating around.

Thoughts?

I think I'd go with the black- leather doesn't seem that sci-fi, and when you consider how high-tech the FF are, they're probably using kevlar or something like that for the pouches, something durable, hard-wearing and synthetic rather than leather.

Yeah. even modern soldiers don't use leather. Brown leather pouches in 40k and not-40k is a holdover from fantasy and certain parts of historical gaming.

+1 for black. The FF are too advanced to use "basic" material like leather.

Sounds good to me, I think I just did it that way on the first batch because of the fantasy legs

Heck, this should probably make them slightly faster to paint too, woot. Hopefully get that unit done this weekend then! maybe their tank too... but I want to do the converting to it before I spray.

Also need to put some hours into a...ah... certain project.

@TDL, Having watched that show, I now see your avatar never *really* changed, did it?