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Absolutely love the tentacles. Thanks for the tutorial!

Moltar wrote:Fly looks outstanding!

Thanks Moltar. It's the best kind of fly (it doesn't buzz about my head).

Shrapnelsmile wrote:Absolutely love the tentacles. Thanks for the tutorial!

Thanks. Always glad to help and share useful tips.

Do you think this will be enough grass?

From the top, that's spring, summer, autumn and dead (they do do winter, but I wanted a browner grass for the final bag).
Look good in the bags, will have to play with them soon.

And progress on number 3.
This is one of those things on these type of model (single pose etc.) that I feel I have to "fix".
When the models are cast it's not easy to have the mould, that approaches from one angle, get behind a hanging or overlapping feature.
This leads to a stretched superposition of the hanging feature.
Like mouldlines, I can't un-see these things and have to correct them.
However, points to GW for making these almost ("almost") appear like slime.

It's not just on this model, or even just the tabard, many of the hoses about their bodies have this kind of thing that I'm correcting as I go.
Unlikely that these things will show in the final models, but I know they are there and now so do you.

Other work on this one consists of removing the teeth from the hole in his torso armour to make it broken, not a mouth.
One tentacle changed to a mass of flesh "pouring" out the hole, and one tentacle added to hide more casting stretches (with a triplet of boils added near it's base).

The sword arm has been rotated outwards a little.
I cut around the arm, with a saw, where it meets the shoulder pad. Not all the way through and then twisted the remaining plastic to the desired position. Chucked in some poly cement to fix it in place. Filled the remaining gap with putty.

This is a good model to repose as both arms are separate from the body, at the shoulder. None of the others from the box are like this.


The gun arm is going to be changed from a relaxed pose to raised and aiming.
Minimal cutting and some putty work.

Nice haul, I've been looking at various colours and lengths on ebay - must put an order in soon

Camkierhi wrote:Magical work, Plague are looking fantastic, love the tentacles.

@ Ruglud, Wonder what they would find in Davy Jones (the Monkees) Locker?
Oh and @ Ruglud, just ask, I can make you tufty bits no bother bud.

OK Static grass. Nothing wrong with Ruglud's suggestions, though I find them expensive.

Watch this...


This guy has some great ideas, worth checking out, though like every other Youtuber, seems to be out for the magical millions, puts me off a little.

Their website:
http://www.war-world.co.uk/

2mm will give you realistic normal grass, 6mm is more like a meadow. I have only ever applied it with PVA and sprinkled it on, and give it a little blow to give it some look of direction of the wind type of thing. It goes everywhere all the time. You could get fancy applicators, but to be honest unless you are doing vast areas it is simply not worth it. Talking of which, If you were to get say a 100g bag as above, that will be close to a lifetime supply for the likes of you and me. Beware of the colour, have a good close look at some of this stuff, for instance the summer mix for all companies tends to have some really blue fibres in, I am being stupid finicky, but when I look closely at the model (like on my monitor after taking a 14Mb pic) you notice it. Want to go through and pick them out, but must resist, for there lies madness.

For your footsteps idea, good old fashioned twine, dirt cheap at the hard ware store, snip it with scissors and sprinkle on as like a separate coat in the footsteps, will look like dead grass.




"Borrowed" from Luke Towan youtuber.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjRkUtHQ774mTg1vrQ6uA5A

As usual, disclaimer, I am no expert and will happily bow to better knowledge on the subject, certainly I should imagine Dave or Red, are what I would class as experts for this type of thing.

Hope this helps.

@Camkierhi - Great advice mate. I've been subscribed to Luke Towan's vids for a while, some absolute gems in those... Especially the DIY Flowering Static Grass Tufts - these will be perfect for what I need on my Bolt action bases... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBzGuAtOIxQ)

 Ruglud wrote:
Nice haul, I've been looking at various colours and lengths on ebay - must put an order in soon

Ja. As I said, I found WWS on ebay and I prefer buying from actual shops than random people (even though there's a minimal distinction on the internet and I, myself, am a random person trying to be a proper shop online).
Woodland scenics grass didn't look as natural from the pictures (more homogeneous in colouration), were more expensive / seemed to only come in large tubs.
Noch grass looked as good as WWS, but you could only buy direct from them (or randoms on ebay) and have to pay postage.

Final pose for number 3:

I remembered to change the smiley face to a skull after taking most of the photos so the only updated picture is the one without the base.

In other news; new scalpel blade, cut finger. Took about 30 seconds.

Ah yes the fun of a fresh blade, the worst bit is you don't feel it ... until its stopped bleeding and you run it under hot water.

With the tentacles try mixing the miliput and green stuff together in equal parts. You get a putty that shares properties with both, better able to hold a shape, especially an edge but more plastic and easier to sculpt without water, just a clay shaper will do.

Nice work, definatly a good improvement on the original imo.

These are looking great Doc, much better than the originals. Sorry to hear about the scalpel incident, but all artists have to go through some pain before they create masterpieces.

Love the gribbly goodness.

Lovely work on tge Plague Marines. I especially like the Fly-boy.

EDC

I'll go ahead and say, that the fly is easily one of the best conversions, that i've seen this year. Simple, yet outstanding. The tentacle tutorial is also very insightful, i will certainly make use of it along the way.

You've me hooked, i'm really looking forward to whatever mad vile creatures you create next!

OMN: Not the first time and won't be the last. I felt it this time as I was looking at it when it happened. Details: I had to immediately get a plaster on it. Nothing drastic, was just amusing at how short the time between installing the new blade and drawing blood.

Ja, I do mix milliput and GS for these things. I rarely use GS pure.
I only add GS to the mix if I'm making something that has a risk of being snapped off. The added flexibility of GS means it will bend and not snap.

Thanks.

Thanks Yorkright. Yeah, I'm used to getting minor cuts from modelling (been building models since... the early 90's). Always from new sharp blades, usually on the tip of my thumb from shaving sprue tags etc. (tut tut, shouldn't cut towards oneself )

Thanks Graven.

Thanks EDC.

Thanks VyRa and welcome to my corner of DDakka. (I have another blog that covers my personal projects, if you want more of my work to look through)
Glad you liked the fly. I had to paint him up just to see how effective it looked.
Good to hear you like the tutorial. I've learnt so much from what I've read on other's blogs, and like to give something back when I can.

No pic's today.
The next chap is the tricky one of the bunch. Active pose, bells all over the place... Not much room to change. Thinking...
I've rotated his sword arm (a common occurrence for this squad), cut off a couple of tentacles (that I'll be replacing, don't you worry), and... thinking.
I may switch his backpack with one of the others; one of the "body-twins" probably, will help to distinguish them from each other.

In other news;
2 sales in one week. Has been a good 6 days.
"Hide" is over in Japan, on it's way to it's new owner,
And the Primaris intercessors are to be posted tomorrow to join some of you (dear readers) in the US.

Lots of goodness to catch up with, will come back with proper comments later, but looking great!

And congrats on the sales!

Lo LT. Good to see you drop in. Ta.

Onwards.
Another tentacle:


And, all around:

That's a rotated sword arm, swapped the backpack (and removed the attached sword), general tidying, drilling the damage, and added tentacle.
Not much more I could do with him really... Should appear different from stock and match the rest of this group.

On to the next...

I love all the tentacles! My headcanon is that they're actually a squad of squid that have been bluffing their way through the SM ranks. Of all the places to hide, a nurgle army is pretty good, right?

In all seriousness I'm very impressed with how well you've integrated all your new mutations into the models - lots of possessed and mutated changes tend to have a 'tacked on' appearance in my view, but yours just seem a part of them. Nice job!

Awesome stuff Dr H

Those tentacles are seriously impressive

Scarper wrote:I love all the tentacles! My headcanon is that they're actually a squad of squid that have been bluffing their way through the SM ranks. Of all the places to hide, a nurgle army is pretty good, right?

Ha. Thanks.

In all seriousness I'm very impressed with how well you've integrated all your new mutations into the models - lots of possessed and mutated changes tend to have a 'tacked on' appearance in my view, but yours just seem a part of them. Nice job!

Yeah, I've seen a lot of chaos (and nurgle in particular) models with blobs of GS pressed on with a few dimples in. They just need a little more effort and thought put in to incorporate the additions into the model; blending it in or creating breaks in the "original" armour.
These are fairly easy in comparison as I'm just adding to what is already there (extending tentacles etc.). There's only a few parts where GW hasn't done a good job with things that should be sprouting through the armour.

Thanks JoeRugby.

Number 5 is alive done...ish.

The usual drilling on holes and adding breaks to armour, and then beating up the horn on his left shoulder, adding the sword and the straps and tentacles to hold it, and giving him the swapped backpack.

I may, when I come to it for the last marine, add "smoke" to the plasmagun to match the thing on his backpack.

The next one will have many more changes, as he's the "body twin" of this one. The left arm and backpack need significant changes as they are identical parts, as are the legs.
Until next time...

And progress on number 6.

Removed a couple of tentacles and spikes (that have remained on the previous chap), removed the mass of horns from his head (that meant it would only fit in one way and couldn't turn),
Moved the sword (cut it into 3 pieces and only used the two ends) from the backpack and placed it on his hip, poking through a (newly created) hole in his cape,
Replaced a dangling nurgle symbol on the backpack exhaust with a tentacle holding a bell,
Added tentacles,


Still a bit more to do; some tidying, drilling the holes, modifying the added tentacles, etc.

Smoke work:
Difficult to really see what's going on with it green, but progress.

Number 5:

Glow-y, smokey plasma smoke...

Number 6 (not a huge change from above, but finished):


Number 7 (in progress):

Having to add to the smoke bit by bit and let it cure, then add more or carve some and add more... slow work.

Much more to do on #7, stay tuned...

Looking good and rotten Dr H.

GSd plague flames are aces.

Loving the flames, now back to lurking!

I've tried (well .. failed at) flames & smoke a few times and I think you've got the idea, you have to be patient and build up adding a bit at a time. Yeah it's slow, but it pays off.

Thanks Theo, Graven, Yorkright.

Thanks OMN. Yeah, it then doesn't help when one batch of putty doesn't want to stick.

Barring further changes upon priming, the building is done...ish.

Here's number 5 again with the final wisps of smoke on his plasma and his backpack on.

I'm not overly concerned with the smoke not matching the angle/movement of the smoke from the backpack as that from the plasmagun should be hotter and therefore will rise quicker. It will be painted up differently from the other smoke.

And number 7 also has all his smoke:
I've also added a nurgle icon to his gun from one of the others.
And drilled all the damage etc.

Hopefully painting will solve all the chewing-gum looking problems.

There may be a brief interlude while I chop up a Tau suit for my other blog...

The plasmagun vapour wisps look really good.

It wasn't sticking so you used superglue right?

If you are worried about it, give it a wash of some diluted black paint and you can always carve away & re-do part of it, way easier at this stage.

 OneManNoodles wrote:
The plasmagun vapour wisps look really good.

Thanks. Yeah, the pointy end worked out well.

It wasn't sticking so you used superglue right?

Ja, I did get it on with superglue, but then it fell off when I carved into it. Took off what was left of that stage and re-did it.

If you are worried about it, give it a wash of some diluted black paint and you can always carve away & re-do part of it, way easier at this stage.

They'll all get primed at some point soon and then I'll have a look over for anything I want to change before moving on to painting proper.

Smoke looks cool, have you considered drilling and fitting a copper wire as an armature for the putty to be built on in one go ?
Worked for me, but either way nice work !

Thanks Big H.
Yeah, I did use the wire armature for some of the tentacles, but I've found it difficult to sculpt in putty when it's one fresh lump; you poke one bit and the whole thing leans over, wire or not.
Building the shape up like this means you can work on the sculpting without deforming anything else.

But then, as with all my past sculpting efforts, I always end up going back in a carving more details than I managed in sculpting.

We will see how it all turns out once primed.
Which will happen once I've finished modifying a tau suit in my other blog.

Lovely work on the flames Dr H. Very excited to see them get some paint!

Thanks Gits'.

The time has come...
Primed:


Now to decide on how to progress with whatever colour I'm going to decide to paint them...

I think it would be really interesting to start death guard from an orange base and do the greens over that - pre-rusted.

That is a good thought, Graven. maybe next time (there are more Nurgle models to come), these have been basecoated already...

At the top you can see the 4 pots of paint I've used on these.
As I mentioned at some point, my thought for these was to have them all slightly different shades of "nurgle" (to avoid the word "green") and here you can see the various tones.


They will now get a wash of black to get into the recesses and then some lighter tones on the upper surfaces before I revert to hairy-brush painting.
The aim is to bring them together, but not too much... I will likely be too subtle as is typical of me...