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Hi all, I'm in the middle of building a squad of Purifiers and hit a snag. I wanted this guy to be lunging forward and stabbing something but the arms won't allow it, so I ended up with his halberd way up in the air. I thought I could maybe pull it off by saying he's stabbing a huge Greater Daemon or something but wanted feedback on the pose I'm picturing. The heads arn't glued so I can spray them white (as opposed to the rest which is sprayed black) so I can edit the pose as need.

What'ch'all think of this at the minute?







Is this ok or should I change the head to face the other way?

Thanks in advance !

To be fair it looks fine as it is, I doubt the head would change much about it but he still looks pretty cool nonetheless.

Oh man, I struggled trying to make my GK Strike Squad Marines have cool poses. There is only so much one can do with those bits (and I can't GS if my life depended on it so forget that).

However, with that said, I think your posing is perfectly fine. If he's actively stabbing something he should be looking at it. If anything (and this isn't necessary at all, just a suggestion) tilt the head to have him look further upwards. If you instead turn the head so he is looking away, it will be a good pose too, but no one will think he's stabbing anything.

Maybe try and have him look the other way as though he is ready to charge.

it seems off with him looking that way unless he really was poking a daemon in the kidny

Looks good, but facing the head the other way (looking left, not right) makes more sense to me. Right now, he could be poised for a stab or at the end of a swing - either way, it's at a target above his head... which he isn't really looking at (gaze is too low). The pose is quite natural, I just wouldn't say entirely sensible, at least not without further explanation.

Turn his head left (and rotate the weapon head just a tad, so the blade is properly aligned - in the first pic, both blade edge and face would be pointing straight at the camera) and he's poised for a downward slash - the sort of thing likely to enter some lesser daemon's shoulder and exit at the opposite hip. Again, the arms and legs would be perfectly natural - he'd even have the proper position for the "slope step" that helps power a good strike. It would mean a slightly more passive pose, though. It's a combat stance that can be held, as opposed to a "snapshot" position only ever seen in the midst of an attack (that's a lot of italics, but they felt necessary).

This may just be the bias of someone who really likes to think about shot mechanics (done a bit of pseudo-medieval sport combat (SCA/Markland, including polearm work) and some cursory study of medieval fighting manuals (primarily Talhoffer)) wanting to nudge him towards the 40k version of something you might see on a plate in a Fechtbuch, but that's my $.02.

Thanks for all the quick replies. As I have mentioned the head won't be glued untill its all painted up so I have plenty of time to readjust things.

Oadie, really do appreciate the extra advice on the weapon modelling itself! However, that singular pose appears about the only one that works for that particular set of arms and is already stuck in anyway :(.

Anyway, to everyone, I took another pic with the head going left




Do people think this works better?

I prefer the head going right.

With the head going right, it looks like he's just chopped of some monster's head.
With the head going left, it looks like he's stomping those pesky Nurglings with the hilth of his staff

Rotating a blade is easy on weapons like this - just chop the haft, either above the hand, in that groove, or under the weapon head (helps hide the seam), rotate the loose bit, and reattach. That said, IGNORE MY INITIAL SUGGESTION TO DO SO.

Camera angle in the first pic threw me (was still a bit groggy when I first posted), initially, but the blade is actually perfect - leading edge aligned with the middle knuckles, back edge with the fleshy bit at the base of the thumb. The way the light caught it, I mistook the next set of knuckles for his fingertips, which shifted my perspective and made things look wonky. My bad!

Having seen both poses, now, my initial stance is reaffirmed. The second pose feels more plausible and natural, to me. If you ever do a diorama with a tall Daemon enemy (providing proper context), though, the first pose would look great.

 oadie wrote:
Rotating a blade is easy on weapons like this - just chop the haft, either above the hand, in that groove, or under the weapon head (helps hide the seam), rotate the loose bit, and reattach. That said, IGNORE MY INITIAL SUGGESTION TO DO SO.

Camera angle in the first pic threw me (was still a bit groggy when I first posted), initially, but the blade is actually perfect - leading edge aligned with the middle knuckles, back edge with the fleshy bit at the base of the thumb. The way the light caught it, I mistook the next set of knuckles for his fingertips, which shifted my perspective and made things look wonky. My bad!

Having seen both poses, now, my initial stance is reaffirmed. The second pose feels more plausible and natural, to me.

Thanks again for the help!

If you ever do a diorama with a tall Daemon enemy (providing proper context), though, the first pose would look great.

So you suggest the 2nd pose for a simple, stand alone gaming model?

I prefer the first pose, but they are both fine

With the head facing to the right it gives the appearance of him just finishing a strike. From my limited experience, a strike like that (think upper cut with a weapon) is a common technique in many Southeast Asian martial arts wherein the wielder has brought the blade from potentially the crotch up to the chin/neck. I agree with the previous poster who felt that facing the head to the left makes it appear like he is stomping on nurglings.

I vote facing to the right

Poll Added, thanks for the feedback guys!