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Beautiful sculpting and painting. I can't imagine how much time you put into each miniature. Very inspirational stuff you are doing with all the interesting details and the obvious attention to scale.

-Rids

Thank you all for the comments it is much appreciated! Happy to know people are enjoying my little blog!!



Lately I've gotten pretty fixated on another Astartes... Yes, I was supposed to be focusing on the PDF and sidelining the marines, but I'm easily excited and not very disciplined :[ I've accidentally made some quite ambitious plans, and there's a lot of sculpting work I've been doing so I figured I'd share a little instead of just not updating until the thing is done!


I've been experimenting with filigree in a few areas; the first example is a little older and will eventually become an axe for a Master of Executions:







It is a big damn axe - made out of plasticard. It definitely needed a little detail so tried my hand at some filigree work to fill out the middle section. The first attempt was with green stuff. This... failed. I find green stuff really good for creating volumes but damn, even after a few attempts I really couldn't get a good result for this kind of detail work. It looks much too mushy, and in person much uglier than even in the photo. My next attempt I used copper wire and two pairs of tweezers to bend it. MUCH better. And something that doesn't require a whole lot of skill, just a lot of patience. This is my first attempt with that technique on the axe, and whilst there definitely are improvements to be made, I think it's a perfectly adequate bit of detailing.





Next up is some work for my upcoming marine; some leg armour. I want to have some much more slender armour for this particular miniature (for reasons that will become clear when I post the finished mini ...Ooh suspense!). I originally planned on using Reiver legs, but despite them being a good deal more slender than intercessor legs, they are still much too bulky. The only choice then, is to put a bit more effort in. I used the legs from a Blood Bowl Elf miniature as my starting point, which are FAR too skinny but perfect in length for Primaris-scale marines. So there's our two goalposts; I am aiming for something that is bulk-wise somewhere between Reiver legs and Elf legs:





I really like the plated armour of the Elf leg, and I wanted to retain as much of that as possible while making look a little more like power armour. I took cues from the Reiver legs for this, copying the shape of the armour panels on the rear of the calves, the little ankle-ball-thing that is common across Mk. X armour, and the classic space marine knee pad. I also beefed up the existing shin armour and the thigh area to be more in-keeping with the additions. I applied some of my filigree learnings too to add a bit of decoration, blended into some green stuff trim to get a semi-normal space marine armour trim feel. There's still work to do on the thigh area, but from the knee down it is mostly done I think.

Overall it's maybe a little too 'medieval plate armour' and not enough '40k power armour' but I looks nice enough so I think I'm happy. I will take suggestions though on how to 40k it up if anyone has ideas?





Aaand a second little detail for my next marine; another slender thing, a sword. Again, I couldn't quite find something that was the right balance been slender and astartes-bulk. Finding the bit for the hand was the spark for this (not sure what it's from; some kind of AoS banner holder - maybe an Idoneth). It's a really nice hand pose, with the extended forefinger looking like some quite proper rapier-holding form (some careless cutting meant I had to rebuild that bit...).







The guard isn't overly fancy or cool looking, but fits the vibe I am going for. It is made from two pieces of copper wire glued together and bent with tweezers. Again, this is a pretty forgiving technique for creating this kind of thin curved detail, and I something I think most people could have some success with. The blade is cut and carved plasticard, and while I like the overall shape of the blade, the sharpness of the bevel is something that is lacking. There isn't really that nice crisp line between the flat of the sword and the start of the cutting edge (sorry to any sword-aficionados; I don't know the correct terms!). I've had trouble with this when attempting to make blades out of plasticard before. Maybe there's a knack to it? Or a better material to use? It might just be my skill level limiting me; regardless, I think I will try to simulate that detail in the painting stage instead.




Thanks for looking all I hope there is something of interest here! Next update will be more exciting, honest. Any feedback or suggestions on how to improve would be appreciated!

Some very cool stuff you're working on, shmvo. I'm looking forward to seeing what these slender marine parts will be used for. Cool work with the axe also.

Thanks, Syro [:



Today, another Astartes! This time, a concept taken from a very different angle:


The last marine I posted represents a pretty grounded and definite character, with (hopefully!) a pretty clear and readable story. We know where he has come from quite specifically, and some of the other marines in this force will be similar in that regard. However, I think there needs to be some mystery in the mix; I want to work in some characters that don't have a clear or definite origin, but at the same time are obviously unique. This is where the stranger side of the renegades can show itself; the misfits, the freaks, the outcasts. There are all kinds of strange and esoteric things in 40k, and I want to tap into that slightly alien and disturbing feeling that the setting captures so well.

This might an army of renegades, but it is definitely not a full-blown warp-tainted chaos host. Whilst they don't share the strong prejudices of the Imperium, mutation and other warp-born oddities are definitely viewed with suspicion and unease - mutants can find a place among these outcasts, but they do well to not show their deformities too obviously. So here we have the next Astartes on the list, an Aspiring Champion. A mutant, but an unwilling one. Maybe a bit of mutation is all it takes to turn an Astartes into a reluctant renegade; after all, what place would a mutant have in the Imperium? You haven't got to be a Chaos worshipper to suffer mutation, there's any number of things that could cause someone to become deformed. Even a minor mutation as a byproduct of unsafe warp travel or exposure to empyrean energies in battle would be roundly condemned as a sign of impurity and heresy. Where do those Astartes go? Well, they probably wash up with all of the other dregs of their kind, in scrappy little warbands like the one on this here blog ...That or they get shot in the head by the nearest Chaplain.

This guy has taken a lot of work, and was originally sparked by this piece of art:



It concept artwork from Dark Souls III's Sunset Armour set. The Dark Souls games are full of strange, dark, miserable things, and I love the feeling this artwork conveys. Whatever is underneath that armour doesn't quite look human, and I wanted to stretch that concept a bit and apply it to an Astartes.

I mainly wanted to focus on the general form and silhouette of this miniature to achieve this, with a lot of focus on elongated forms and flowing shapes. I was going for something kind of wraith-like, almost ghostly. I made a little turnaround GIF - check me out!. With one really off-colour frame for some reason. lol.





Between his long neck and tall helmet I think you can see there's clearly something atypical and deformed about his body, I want that to be immediately obvious without you being able to put your finger on exactly what's wrong. Another big part of that is the cloth wrappings; the less you can see the better. There is nothing you can specifically point at and call a mutation, but he supposed to look not quite human. I tried to keep his sword and his armour as long and lithe as I could get away with, to emphasise the his strange form. Same goes with the chest piece (another carved up intercessor bit), which has a very low neckline, exaggerating the tall neck and head. I don't really think it's a neckline, but I don't know what else to call it: the big curved edge at the top of the torso with the studs lining the bottom side of it.

I had a lot of fun playing with the style of the armour, I want it look like something specific, without you knowing what that specific thing is. I guess kinda like if he was from some kind of different original space marine chapter, with its own design cues and stylings that distinguish it from the other chapters, but obviously it's not a chapter that exists or ever will exist; just a visual identity of its own that no one can really pin down. Does that make any sense? It does in my head, but typed in words I think it doesn't... There's definitely some fanciness to his armour; it was probably some form of fine artificer armour from when he was loyal. Maybe another little fall-from-grace story brewing with this guy; it's a theme I enjoy greatly.

His head is a bit of an experiment. I think my intentions can be explained a little more clearly with the help of some DRAMATIC LIGHTING. You can kinda see it in the other photos but this one is a bit more clear :



Lighting the miniature from above simulates my plan for painting him, and hopefully makes what I tried to do with the head more obvious. The brim of his helmet casts enough of a shadow that the area where his face should be is in total darkness; this pitch-black area is framed by the cloth shroud around his face, and the only things coming out of the gloom are a couple of ocular enhancements. I'm not sure if the head entirely works, but I think I will have to wait until I've painted the thing before judging it... Hopefully it'll have the right amount of mystery and it will be obvious where is face is supposed to be. Otherwise it might just be a confusing mess!



This is probably the miniature I have spent the most time on yet (which is saying something!) and I think I like the fella, he definitely pushes the look and silhouette of the Astartes pretty far (maybe too far to be recognisable?), which is something I wanted to achieve. He is very different to the other marines, perhaps too different, but I am hoping cohesion will come once he's all painted up... fingers crossed I guess!



Thanks for checking this out folks let me know what you think! Is this Champion a little too weird to work as a space marine? Does the head make sense?? Any feedback would be appreciated!

When I saw the hat I though... Is that a traffic cone? It wasn't.
Will you make a model with a traffic cone hat?

Also, lovely stuff you do.

Wow! You did a really great job giving that figure the same form and feel as that concept art

Very impressive sculpting. You captured the feel of the art, for sure.

Thank you all for the comments!

 Hawky wrote:
Will you make a model with a traffic cone hat?

Hmm, not a space marine, no! Maybe a cultist somewhere down the line though...



Somewhere between failure, regret and moving house, I have found some hobby time! Not all that much to show, but I've done a couple of bits.

First up, a rework of an older model:



In the spirit of amping up the character and individuality of the astartes, I think a bit of modification was in order. Hopefully now this guy has a little more 'personality', and more of a wealth of detail to paint.



I spent a while looking for some decent bare lower legs for an astartes conversion, and whilst there are a few that are okay (Kairic Acolytes being chief among them), nothing really fit the posing that I wanted, and the selection was pretty small. I have also been trying to push my sculpting skills lately, so I begrudgingly accepted that I should probably scratch make some. I was pretty intimidated by the idea of sculpting some 28mm scale bare legs - particularly feet - from scratch, but then a thought crossed my mind...

"feth it, I've seen enough Tarantino movies to know what feet look like; how hard can it be?"





I am pretty satisfied with the outcome I think; definitely some roughness here and there, which I have this far been too lazy to clean up, but it shouldn't be too hard to smooth out. What are these legs built in service of you ask? Well, this mess...



I think 'mess' is definitely a good word for this guy at the moment ...It will work out in the end though! I promise. I think he'll be cool. Prizes for anyone who guesses what unit he is supposed to be, lol.



Thanks for looking and let me know your thoughts!

such a fresh take on he space marine theme .. really inspiring work.

Hello all, it's time for another meagre update! Firstly, the image in my previous post is apparently broken, so I will repost it here:




Secondly, I have made some progress on the first HQ choice for the Astartes... This guy has been somewhat of a marathon; it seems each new model I spend longer on than the last!

I have been wanting to make a sorcerer for a while, but it's been a little hard to find a concept that I really liked. There's a very 'classic' image that I think can be associated with a 'sorcerer', and I wanted to avoid as much of that as possible. It is very tempting to go with flowing robes and a big staff, but that has been done plenty of times before, and I don't think it fit very well with this army. My version of a sorcerer was sparked by the unfortunately now OOP Magos Dominus from Forgeworld:
I love the weird metal cowl-thing coming out the back of its head, the skulls lining its underside are really quite unnerving I find, and I wanted to try something similar with human faces. There's definitely precedent in the 41st (or 42nd...) millennium for physical augmentation of psykers with strange arcane devices and I wanted to tap into that angle of the whole 'sorcerer' thing.

I have made quite a lot of progress, but there's still some work left to do, particularly in the head area:




The sculpting on this guy has definitely been challenging, and I've attempted to sculpt faces for the first time. I figured this concept offers a good opportunity to try it; it demands many faces in differing stages of decay, so I think I can get away with some of them looking sub-par! All of the faces used a plastic skull as its base/ armature, which is DEFINITELY something I would recommend if someone wants to try this; it makes such a difference having the scale and proportions already mapped out for you, so you can just focus on the face itself.

^ The first face I sculpted is at the far left of the above image (tactically semi-obstructed by some cabling later on!!) I think it turned out okay, but a little alien looking? I don't think I really got the brow or the nose right. The subsequent attempts are to the right of the first face, and I think get quite a bit better.


^ A few unfinished faces on this side, but my most recent sculpt is the one on the middle-right. I think definitely my best attempt so far, and it goes some way to showing some emotion, rather than just having the vague likeness of a face. I still have a LOT of improving to do, but it has definitely been fun to practice, and I will probably try some more corpse-faces in the future to build my confidence, hopefully I will eventually be somewhere near good enough to sculpt a face that can serve as the focal point for a miniature!


Thanks for looking all let me know any thoughts or feedback!!

Well darn, that's some nice gs work. Very inspired!

Exceptional.

Really grotesque and wonderful!

Just when I thought this thread couldn’t get any better! I really love how the faces get more decayed the further they get from the sorcerers head, it’s almost like he’s grown the metal out like a horn and added more fresh victims! Perfect for this time of year!

Some really breathtaking dedication to details here, lovely stuff! Makes me wanna jump right back into the hobby full-time again.
Keep up the good work and please grace us with more of these fantastic conversions

A belated thank you all for the comments, it is appreciated!


It's been quite some time since I have posted here and for that I apologise! Whilst I have not been idle since my last post, I do not have as much to share as I would like. I've done a lot of modelling and experimenting, which has helped me develop quite a few things related to this little project, but I've not got much worth showing from those experiments.
 
Instead, I will be making a return to this project with a reinterpretation of another of GW's miniatures; this time with more arrogance, hubris and vitriol than before! Strap in and get ready for some reading! Or just skip to the pictures... your choice [:

_______________________________________


I hate the current Chaos Raptor miniatures. I think they are awful. I think they are mainly awful because:

1. GW's miniature designers can't pose flying miniatures for gak; they all look awkward and floaty and BAD.
2.They have no unique identity; they're normal chaos guys with jump packs strapped on




Raptors are a great example in microcosm of GW's BAD POSING. 

 

What are these guys supposed to be doing? What direction are they moving? How fast are they moving? These questions are either poorly answered or left completely unanswered by the above sculpts. In classic GW style they have one or more feet off the ground, which is supposed to be our indicator that they're flying, but none of them look like they are actually travelling through the air. There is no clear sense of direction on any of these. There should be a line of travel; they should be /flying/ not floating like jellyfish. Partially as a result of the problem of direction, there is a big problem of speed. These are jump infantry that move twice as fast as footsloggers on the tabletop and even faster than that in the lore. The sculpts should capture SPEED. Flying miniatures should have a strong sense of fast, forward motion. They can be landing, taking off, flying through the air - it doesn't matter, but they need to be clearly moving at pace. This is problem number 1 that I am trying to solve.

The current Raptors kits has a serious identity issue in my opinion; they are extremely boring miniatures. The kit can build Warp Talons too, who are even WORSE and I have already made a little sketch mini to try and improve on those (earlier on this blog, but doesn't fit with the theming of the army so it's shelved for a different project). 



I don't really know what the design intention even was with the detailing on these guys; they've gone with this wobbly, chunky and just plain ugly armour trim all over. I think it's an attempt to sell the demonic element of the Warp Talons whilst keeping the DEMON restrained enough that it doesn't make the Raptors look too demonic. It completely fails in the case of both kits builds though; they just look like they have ugly 3rd party knock off chaos marine armour design. I could bash on this for ages but I'll stop for the sake my - and your - sanity and just say this: To explore the full potential of Chaos Raptors in miniature form they need unique defining characteristics. They are not just Chaos Marines with jump packs and funny armour trim. This is problem number 2. THEY SHOULD BE UNIQUE.



Okay so, moving on from things I don't like onto something a little more positive: There are a couple of things GW have done that I do quite like in relation to this project:
Arco Flagellants



Great sculpts with some actual MOVEMENT to them. Theses guys and gals really capture the look of 'sprinting maniacs'. I will definitely be taking some cues from the posing in this kit. Also worth noting is the bare feet. I think an often unappreciated way of conveying real, organic movement is through little extensions of fingers and toes. It really makes a big difference when you can show the toes on a running person being outstretched or curled in as they move; it goes a long way to capturing natural-looking movement. 

Inceptors... sort of
Controversial sculpts I think it's fair to say, and not a sculpt to my taste. BUT, there's a little detail I really like in concept:



Bouncy boots... also controversial but this time I really quite like the idea. Unfortunately their execution on the Inceptors does not work. I think they don't work for 2 main reasons: 1) the legs look way too bottom-heavy. The bouncy bits in combination with the classic flared greaves just makes the feet look so wide, awkward and - most damningly - heavy. 2) there's no real visible shock absorber. It's not easy to visualise the bouncy bits actually moving and absorbing an impact. There's just a little circle connector at the ankle, which also doesn't make a lot of sense to me when thinking about it; the bouncy bits absorb the shock and transfer it to ...the ankle? Where the shock would have gone anyway? I dunno man doesn't work in my head. ANYWAY, I like the baseline idea of this detail and I want to steal it.


_______________________________________



Enough of what GW have done, what have I done?!?!?! 



...I started by modelling some bouncy looking shock absorbers. I knew I wanted to take inspiration from the world of Oscar Pistorius. No, I won't be murdering my wife in cold blood - it's his legs I'm interested in:



His prosthetics are basically springs, and I think the curved profile really allows you to understand that easily. It LOOKS like there is a lot of bounce to them, like they can absorb an impact and also spring off after. That's exactly what I want to be communicating in my miniature. I may go with some actual prosthetic lower legs for a future Raptor, but for now it's just that shape and feel that I want to capture and use for some shock absorbers:



Quite a lot going on here so I'll address it in a list:
- Curved profile to the bouncy feet bits, intended to look springy and lightweight.
- An attempt to create some kind of shock absorption mechanism that you can read visually. Hopefully it's easy to imagine how the mechanism would move in order to absorb an impact. It also feeds into the knee joint, instead of just stopping at the ankle like on the Inceptors.
- Bare feet and lower legs. Capitalising on one of my favourite parts of the Arco-Flagellants sculpt. In addition, not having full armoured greaves helps the lower legs look in proportion, even with the shock absorbers. Again, this is a response to the very bottom-heavy looking legs on the Inceptors. The bare legs also segue onto the next element...



To help give the Raptors a unique identity of their own, I wanted to lean into the bare legs element: The logic is that these Raptors want to move FAST. As reckless Chaos idiots they want to increase their speed and hit-and-run capabilities at the cost of all else; a contrast to the more measured and reasonable approach a codex-reading loyalist might have. As a result, they've opted to strip down their armour to remove as much unnecessary weight as possible. Protection is focused around their centre of mass, which their extremities left unprotected to allow as much speed and freedom of movement as possible...

No armour on the lower legs:



No amour on the arms:




Exposed cabling where side armour plates have been removed:







Aaaaand onto the full model as it stands, still very much WIP:













He's a little awkward to photograph but hopefully you get the idea. The chainsword is unfinished and the head is a placeholder. I like the Unmade masks a lot so the final head will most likely be based on that bit, maybe just as it comes maybe with some modification; we'll see how lazy I get. The jump pack is clearly missing, as that is a part that I am working on and have plans for. I am petty happy with this guy and excited to explore the unit further - after all there are special weapons and champions to deal with, and if you've followed this blog for any length of time you'll know I like to do things a little special with them...



Thanks for looking and let me know what you think! I welcome comments and abuse [:

I kinda get where you come from on the Raptors.
Kinda.

That said this one here looks quite nice.

The legs look great, awesome idea. Always nice to see your updates!

Great attention to detail shmvo, and you’ve certainly captured more of a sense of speed that the stock raptors display. Will you be using a standard raptor jump pack or switching up to something more custom?

Thank you for the level of detail you went to in that post - it is both informative and impressive. Your Chaos Raptor is coming along nicely too .

Not Online!!! wrote:I kinda get where you come from on the Raptors.
Kinda.

You like the Raptor models then? I am curious to hear your opinion!!

gobert wrote:Great attention to detail shmvo, and you’ve certainly captured more of a sense of speed that the stock raptors display. Will you be using a standard raptor jump pack or switching up to something more custom?

A something more custom for sure!! A great segue into another bit of over-explanation!

...The normal Raptor jump packs as well as the standard assault marine ones have a lot of sideways projection - they restrict the posing of the arms quite a lot. I based my Jump Pack on the single-thruster style ones used in the Heresy and by blood angels. I like that design a lot more for it's less intrusive size, but it has the shortcoming of being a little too slight; not enough of a profile when viewing a mini from the front. I took inspiration from Fallout 4 to fix that issue:



I like the retro sci fi feel and the kinda ramshackle look of the big side jets, so I stole them...







Partly scratch-built, based on a single thruster from a FW Ashen Circle (I think?) jump pack. It's quite rough looking, but should look a lot better with a coat of primer. The side jets on this particular jump pack are my baseline; I am planning on varying up the shape and number of them for future models, to feed into a bit of a ramshackle/ DIY aesthetic that I want them to have. As mentioned earlier, the main aim of the extra jets is to give the jump pack a noticeable silhouette from the front:



Nothing too exciting here but you can definitely see it!!


So with that part done and a bunch of other much smaller details knocked out my first Raptor is looking pretty much fully built:




One down... many more to go! Hmm... How many times have I said that in this thread I wonder? Maybe I'll finish a unit this time!!!! My ambitious plan for the champion tells me other wise... Stay tuned I guess!!!!!!!


Let me know what you think. Cheers!

Wow, that thing is crazy in the best way possible! A lot of work, I'm sure, but it's wonderful for what you're doing. Can't wait to see it painted up!

That is some really impressive work! I like the bouncy boots, and also like that you call them that.

Extraordinary. Your craftsmanship few of us can hope to emulate, but it's fascinating seeing your process and hearing how you've thought things through, step-by-step. Thank *very much for sharing!!

What's particularly impressive is that, unlike (I assume) GW sculptors, you are working at "real" 28 mm scale. Mind-boggling, really.

Aye, the raptor is brilliant and I particularly appreciate hearing your thoughts behind the design choices. I daresay you've put far more thinking into this one raptor's design than GW did for any of theirs, which amount to slapping bat wings or all-the-filigree or whatever to some CSM and giving it a SKU.

Good luck with the next one

Can't tell you how much I enjoy your rationale, process and results for your raptor conversion. Marines of any stripe are way down my to-do list, and I'd probably just stick old jump packs on one of the primaris types, but this is getting mentally bookmarked for reference!

Also, your sculpted surfaces and details (styrene as well as putty) are excellent. I'd be very interested to check out any complete sculpts you do, if they don't exist already. Looks like you already have a good handle on pose, proportion and finish. Only other thing is the rough bulk, and that's a doddle in comparison!

Simply stunning work there! Not simply is the execution flawless, but the the ideas you have for your models are on another level too. Can't wait to see more!

You like the Raptor models then? I am curious to hear your opinion!!

Raptors accordingly to the fluff are trying often to impersonate daemons and they share their models with warptalons.

For that they fit excedingly well, HOWEVER, and this is why i kinda agree with you, the mixture is in some cases a bit wierdly in the ehhhhhhh territoriy atleast for me.
As in, i believe that they could've gone with a better mixture personally.
$
Also flying stands,.. as you said gw isn't great with them and the most recent exemple with the new marine autocannon jump troops comes to mind imediatly.

GW should hire you to do this redesign. This is a brilliant Raptor, and it really feels like the "light but elite assault troop" that I think the Raptor should!

Gosh that is a fantastic re-do of the Raptor! Great conversion