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Looking good, they work really well as a group.

EDC

They all look really good. Super paint work

Cap'n Facebeard wrote:Excellent work, they are brilliant individually and even better as a group.

Thanks Cap'n!

Dr H wrote:Great looking group. Well done.

My favourite is Inquisitor Kallatar, then Ms. armour-legs.

Thanks Dr.H!
- I'm still not sure whose my fave - the stomping Wild Child was an easy paint, things just worked on her paint-job - Kallatar was a labour-intensive love/hate relationship, had to repaint bits of 6,7 times!

evildrcheese wrote:Looking good, they work really well as a group.
EDC

Thanks EDC!

Alaricuk wrote:They all look really good. Super paint work

Thanks Alaricuk!




And so, with the femme fatales of the Ordo Xenos complete, it's onto a (sort of) new project:

And... I made a vacu-former!

*knows nothing about casting and doesn't understand what's going on. Still impressed*

So this thing will remove air bubbles by creating a vacuum?

EDC

 evildrcheese wrote:
*knows nothing about casting and doesn't understand what's going on. Still impressed*

So this thing will remove air bubbles by creating a vacuum?

EDC

A vacu-former uses a vacuum to suck a softened sheet of plastic over a positive form, thus creating, rather quickly, a formed plastic part. In this case it looks like either a ship hull or an Imperial knight shoulder pad, but it could really be anything. I haven't really been following this blog very closely.

@Lamby: How did you make it, I'm curious to know. I've been meaning to make one myself but keep putting it off. How did you heat the plastic sheet?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, I can't believe you finally finished the Wild Child. I remember when you started that project, months and months ago. She looks great!

evildrcheese wrote:*knows nothing about casting and doesn't understand what's going on. Still impressed*
So this thing will remove air bubbles by creating a vacuum?
EDC

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:
A vacu-former uses a vacuum to suck a softened sheet of plastic over a positive form, thus creating, rather quickly, a formed plastic part. In this case it looks like either a ship hull or an Imperial knight shoulder pad, but it could really be anything. I haven't really been following this blog very closely.
@Lamby: How did you make it, I'm curious to know. I've been meaning to make one myself but keep putting it off. How did you heat the plastic sheet?

Also, I can't believe you finally finished the Wild Child. I remember when you started that project, months and months ago. She looks great!

EDC - WW is correct - another great explanation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXhJHArFsrM

WW - the vacuum box is an MDF box, I drilled holes into it, plus a hole in the side to take the vacuum cleaner hose
- the styrene sheet holder are 2 halves of a metal drain cover which I cut in half, clamped together with bulldog clips
- I hold the metal thing in the griller with a pair of tongs, watch the styrene deform, then place it over the buck (vacuum cleaner on, obviously)

Works like a charm - I even found some cheap PETG plastic sheets and formed a clear canopy - which was the goal of the whole exercise anyway

Cheers all!

Oh baby awesome. just a regular vac can do that?

 Desubot wrote:
Oh baby awesome. just a regular vac can do that?

So long as the vacuum box is small - mine's about 15 x 15 cm, about 5cm high


Meanwhile...
Kroot are cool - so one of the Rogue Trader crew is going to be a Kroot!
I just really like making guns...


Took an old Kroot shooter rifle:



And the corresponding Tau rail-rifle bit:



Chopped off the front of the Kroot rifle, and the back end of two Tau rail-rifles.
Added a holographic site-ring (watch part), a techy bit (Admech) on the side, and a magnet/pin combo:



Which allows the Kroot operator to employ a rail-carbine...



Or a rail-rifle:



More soon.

Thanks for looking!

RAIL. RAIL rifle. >:T looking cool, though! Hopefully with this new age of "mini codexes" we'll see the Kroot get a similar treatment and some new models.

P.S. - the "barrel" of the rail rifle is upside-down on that last pic.

 Kepora wrote:
RAIL. RAIL rifle. >:T looking cool, though! Hopefully with this new age of "mini codexes" we'll see the Kroot get a similar treatment and some new models.

P.S. - the "barrel" of the rail rifle is upside-down on that last pic.

haha - so it is!

- I thought GW was going to retcon Kroot out of existence? hopefully not

More WIP work on the Kroot - who really needs a name...

Frankensteined together Kroot lower legs and Admech Skitarii upper legs to get this:


Sculpted in the missing upper leg sections (where the robes cover on a Skitarii), disguised the leg joins and the waist join:


Added a holstered Tau pulse pistol, decided it was a bit boring, so added the suppressor (whole thing is pinned for pre-painting removal).
Also added GS belt strips, and the start of the chest-harnesss:


2nd pin added to take a knife, and more harness work:


Chest pouches in place, battle-bra style harness completed - the right shoulder had to be reduced to allow the carbine's butt to fit:


GS/epoxy-glued a small power-unit into place, later there'll be a cable to the shooter's weapon:


Obviously some sanding/clean-up required:


Progressing well, me thinks...

Frakenkroot!

Nice job on the Vac-former. Very interesting.

Good start on the latest.

inmygravenimage wrote:Frakenkroot!

Hahaha - well, it's not a bad name...

Dr H wrote:Nice job on the Vac-former. Very interesting.
Good start on the latest.

Thanks Dr H - a bit of trial and error, but I got there in the end


Working on the Captain again - new arm, new gun, and new name!

When we last saw Illyria Winter, she looked like this:



First job was to re-profile the blade into a thinner shape.
Then it was onto the surgical table for a new cyber-mechano arm - mostly due to the developing fluff, which is taking on a life of its own... but that's another story - also, because I didn't want to have to sculpt another sleeve:



Chopped the old arm off at the wrist, connected it to the new arm:


Made a slightly better version of the HandCannon - I always wanted a revolver-style weapon for her, and the Admech bitz once again have come to the party - don't worry about the extending piece of brass pin, it'll get the chop later... unless I decide to add a cable running to a power-unit elsewhere on her:



Also note the sculpted/brass chain-link webbing buckles, front and back - and here's the arm in place too:


Currently trying to decide if I need to smooth out that shoulder armour plate...

Cheers, me hearties!!!

Been a while since I posted here but once again all inspiring, love the way you manage to pull everything together and blend it so well.

However I do find it so frustrating that you manage to acheive that space pirate vibe so well, just with a hint of SP thrown in for good measure.

Take this current incarnation the perfect posture of power and leadership, but somehow you still manage to invoke a sense of anarchy and rebellion.

That's what I love about your miniatures the story they create in my mind, just by their attire and weapon they create a story and history.

Nice. Both the Kroot-mech and Captain are looking brilliant.

EDC

Your GS sculpting skills are only matched by your creativity and clever use of bitz for conversions. I'm in awe. Great job, can't wait to see this painted up too.

Amazing stuff as per usual dude

lone dirty dog wrote:Been a while since I posted here but once again all inspiring, love the way you manage to pull everything together and blend it so well.

However I do find it so frustrating that you manage to acheive that space pirate vibe so well, just with a hint of SP thrown in for good measure.

Take this current incarnation the perfect posture of power and leadership, but somehow you still manage to invoke a sense of anarchy and rebellion.

That's what I love about your miniatures the story they create in my mind, just by their attire and weapon they create a story and history.

Inevitable_Faith wrote:Your GS sculpting skills are only matched by your creativity and clever use of bitz for conversions. I'm in awe. Great job, can't wait to see this painted up too.

JoeRugby wrote:Amazing stuff as per usual dude

evildrcheese wrote:Nice. Both the Kroot-mech and Captain are looking brilliant.

EDC

Thanks guys!



Behind her the Rogue Trader dropship leaped raptor-like back into the sky...

That single phrase from the Ordo Xenos retinue story sparked a desire to create the raptor-like dropship.

A healthy dose of Aliens, Halo and Firefly pretty much assured that the dropship would have to be VTOL.

When designing ships in 3D, you start with the engines, so a bitz-bargain Hemlock fighter hull became the first donor kit:


Engine internal support structures from styrene tubing (these intakes have since changed):


The engines on their own looked a little plain, so I decided to build a wing-nub for the outside edge.
Styrene tube made the starting shape:


Sculpted the wing-nub as symmetrical as I could over the tubes - here's the 'master' in place after drying and some vigorous sanding:


Vacuum-formed it twice, one for each engine - it's not quite symmetrical, but I'll fix that later with putty:


Back to the VTOL thrusters - you can see the wing nubs in place now, and the at-right-angles part is the putty 'buck' form for the rotator:


Here's the buck on the vacuum chamber, ready for forming:


A perfect pull!


4 x parts were made, then glued over the grey plastic parts (from the Hemlock kit):


Glued, sanded, puttied and awaiting 2nd sanding - also, the dark green parts are the wings (from a 1/48th Apache kit, modified heavily):



While ship parts dried and set, I finally got the arms to fit Krooty McKrootFace - I somehow ended up with the incorrect left arm, so a bit of jiggery was required to get it into place - going to hide the left shoulder with armour:


And tried a test run of another hair design for Illyria Winter:




Thoughts?

Thanks for looking!

Amazing work on the drop ship, I like you so casually decide to make something and it's already jaw dropping.

I'm digging the ponytail on Illyria, looks really good.

EDC

Wow! Some awesome converting going on in here!

I also like Illyrias new ponytail.

Nice work. Liking what I see.

Really cool stuff, your thread is always an inspiration

evildrcheese wrote:Amazing work on the drop ship, I like you so casually decide to make something and it's already jaw dropping.

I'm digging the ponytail on Illyria, looks really good.

EDC

Thanks EDC!
- Don't be fooled, there's hours of work in the transport so far... and I having keep going back and rebuilding stuff because I don't forward-plan enough...

aku-chan wrote:Wow! Some awesome converting going on in here!

I also like Illyrias new ponytail.

Thanks aku-chan!
- I'm still wavering back and forth between plait and pony-tail

Dr H wrote:Nice work. Liking what I see.

Thanks Dr H!

JoeRugby wrote:Really cool stuff, your thread is always an inspiration

Thanks JoeRugby!


Probably the last thing I need to be doing is creating yet another character - but another character means another weapon build!

Conversion progress in pics:








Thanks for looking!

That looks awesome. Barely recognisable as a Tau weapon originally. I'm really glad you post the wip pics.

EDC

Newest iteration of Captain Winter is looking really good.

Nice job on the gun.

evildrcheese wrote:That looks awesome. Barely recognisable as a Tau weapon originally. I'm really glad you post the wip pics.
EDC

Thanks EDC - those pics do nothing to reveal the exercise in applied frustration that build was

Heretic Tom wrote:Newest iteration of Captain Winter is looking really good.

Thanks Heretic Tom!

Dr H wrote:Nice job on the gun.

Thanks Dr H - hopefully the completed character will be less of a struggle and equally worthy



And so - Onwards!

After lots of building, tearing down, rebuilding again, the drop ship has her VTOL thrusters and wing-mounts!

Mounted those 1/48th Apache wings - I can't seem to saw straight, so a lot of time is spent repairing bad cuts:


Remember those vacuum-formed halves from a post or two ago - here they are glued and puttied into reasonably symmetrical rotators.
Two different sizes of brass rod run through the mid-line of the rotators and pass through the spine for support:


Same position as above, different angle - note the new styrene card construction forward of the wing-mounts to blend the flightpod and hull - some 1/72 Cobra parts will go there next.
Also shortened the flight-pod rear part (under the styrene curved piece) and the Tau Devilfish 'spine' by about 5mm each, bringing the flightpod back 1cm - just looks little better, though that Devilfish part reminds me of a Cylon raider...


The original concept had a matching wing-mounts behind the rotators, but it was just too thick for the overall design - so after playing around with some cut-offs from a 2nd Helmock hull, discovered this covering bit - needs blending work, but I like it!


Cheers all!

 Lamby wrote:
... I can't seem to saw straight, so a lot of time is spent repairing bad cuts:..

I have the same problem. I can use all manner of rulers, measure everything as much as you like, mark it all carefully, and as soon as the saw comes out it all goes wonky.

Looks great though.