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The lightning on the fist is outstanding. All the other symbols and chevrons are knocking my socks off. Your freehand is highly enviable.

 youwashock wrote:
The lightning on the fist is outstanding. All the other symbols and chevrons are knocking my socks off. Your freehand is highly enviable.

Thanks mate too kind. Every attempt at freehand takes 4 or 5 restarts - but I feel I’m slowly getting closer to putting on the model the ‘ideas’ I see in my head

Ok - bunch of pics coming cos the squad is now done!

The Dreadnought








The aspiring champion w powerfist







Marine #1







Marine #2





Marine #3







And I thought I’d take some shots of the current army:

Downright striking. Love the Dread.

Awesome freehand work. All those little details rock.

Great freehand! The bit on the dread looks awesome, has a bit of an 80s Rock vibe to it. I missed the sparky power fist, I reckon it looks cool

 darkkt wrote:

 Don Qui Hotep wrote:
Oh hey! I missed this update. Glad to see that boxy boy is getting some stripey love. Once again, really good free-hand work, specifically on the powerfist - I see at least two tones painted neatly over very thin lines. Good brush control on display there.

Cheers mate Its white paint applied as fine lines of lightning with tesseract glow tech painted slightly wider over the top. I added a few more touches here an there to give the more of the fist a green tone without specifically having a highlight to stand out.

Oh that's clever; I'll have to give that a go when I'm back at my painting desk. I like that strategy because you don't have to perfectly get over the first layer.

Killer army shot! Looks great all together. Are those barricades scratch-built?

youwashock wrote:Downright striking. Love the Dread.

DJJazzyJeff wrote:Awesome freehand work. All those little details rock.

Thanks guys! The freehand can be super frustrating, But i do like the final result

gobert wrote:Great freehand! The bit on the dread looks awesome, has a bit of an 80s Rock vibe to it. I missed the sparky power fist, I reckon it looks cool

cheers mate - the boxy dreads are very retro - simpler designs yet somehow wildly overdone at the same time The powerfist has grown in me - I think the only thing I’d do differently is work on the fineness of the lightning strokes.

Don Qui Hotep wrote:

 darkkt wrote:

 Don Qui Hotep wrote:
Oh hey! I missed this update. Glad to see that boxy boy is getting some stripey love. Once again, really good free-hand work, specifically on the powerfist - I see at least two tones painted neatly over very thin lines. Good brush control on display there.

Cheers mate Its white paint applied as fine lines of lightning with tesseract glow tech painted slightly wider over the top. I added a few more touches here an there to give the more of the fist a green tone without specifically having a highlight to stand out.

Oh that's clever; I'll have to give that a go when I'm back at my painting desk. I like that strategy because you don't have to perfectly get over the first layer.

Killer army shot! Looks great all together. Are those barricades scratch-built?

Thanks mate - yes, the barricades are scratch built - they were the first thing I did at the start of lockdown here in South Australia. I posted a bunch of ‘WiP ’ pics as well as finished product pics at the very beginning of this thread: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/789728.page#10854152

New project - My 4 final death guard models. I forgot to take Early pics Of my current WiP so these ones are almost finished. Coming together quickly now I’ve Figured out my process for them. Almost at the finishing touches already lol
Given we’re getting a new Death Guard codex, I may have to finish off some green stuff projects I’ve been playing with...









Cheers
KT

Nice! I love to see these old Death Guard models. I don't hate the new ones or anything, but they are definitely turned up to 11; these guys looked definitely diseased but a little more grounded.

 Don Qui Hotep wrote:
Nice! I love to see these old Death Guard models. I don't hate the new ones or anything, but they are definitely turned up to 11; these guys looked definitely diseased but a little more grounded.

I think youre right – the new ones are somehow less… subtle? They divert further from the core space marine gone bad – the corruption is far more overt. Still, I would like to buy some of those new models…
Anyway – the plague marines are done, and here they are!

Did some more free-hand work, and here is the obligatory ‘shoulder pad focus compilation shot’:








I’m moderately happy with these – the skulls ended up pretty well, but my flies look a bit more like mosquitos than I had hoped lol
I am very happy with the weapons this time round though – the nurgle power sword and green glow plasma gun worked really well imho.



PM Aspiring champion with plasma pistol and power sword:




Skull faced PM with plasma gun:









PM - McStabby




PM with plasma gun (‘Squinty’)




Next up – My “Thousand Sons Painting Occult Symbols On Every Model Insanity Posts”!
Cheers
KT















Automatically Appended Next Post:
Quick follow up with some of the 1ksons freehand work that will almost certainly have me fondly remembering the good old days of hazard stripes.









KT

Those classic nurgle chaps look great, and I agree that the power sword came out well. Good luck staying sane with your Thousand Sons freehand, at least you’re getting a bit of variety with them!

Gorgeous, but must be very time consuming!

The Nurgle guys are fabulous. Love the plasma gunners. 1K Sons are going to be mind-blowing.

gobert wrote:Those classic nurgle chaps look great, and I agree that the power sword came out well. Good luck staying sane with your Thousand Sons freehand, at least you’re getting a bit of variety with them!

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:Gorgeous, but must be very time consuming!

youwashock wrote:The Nurgle guys are fabulous. Love the plasma gunners. 1K Sons are going to be mind-blowing.

Cheers guys - appreciate the encouragement
I've finished a single Thousand Sons Model as a Proof Of Concept. I wanted to test a few things here:
- aesthetics - all the cool ideas in the world don't work they look too busy or messy.
- table top look - these are playing models - would they still look good on a table top when a metre and a half away? In a group of 5 troops? 10? 20?
- capacity - could I do it? I've been doing more and more freehand, but the plan here was some to look at some seriously tiny work.
- sanity - hazard stripes already sent me perilously close to the warp, could my failing eyes and fragile mind survive such an assault?

I *think* I've managed all these (although time will tell about 1) the group aesthetics and 2) my sanity) but i'd appreciate any feedback . Feel free to point out any criticisms too - If I'm feeling open-minded*, I may even take your comments on board!







This photo is a close up of the Robe and the bolter - ive tried to add a green glow to the open chamber and barrel to show its an 'inferno bolter'.


Cheers
KT



*open-mindedness not recommended when viewing thousand sons. If opening your mind around thousand son occult symbols results in: headaches, coughs, susurrating voices just beyond audible range, strange shadows that leave faint traces of black corrupted taint, bloody stools - please seek the assistance of your local Inquisitorial representative.

Looks good to me. The glowing bolter rounds are great.

Yep they’re looking good to me too! One word of caution would be to not overload any surfaces as you might end up a bit too close to Night Lords. I think you’ve hit the right level with this chap though. Good luck maintaining the sanity when doing more

I'm blown away by the detail here. Really complements the kit here, with the newer kits being a little too overdesigned. You've got a lot of potential canvas to fill - I love the right shoulderpad and the runes on the tabard.

I can't really speak to the stamina/sanity issues for yourself, but I can say that your labor here really paid off with a beautiful model!

youwashock wrote:Looks good to me. The glowing bolter rounds are great.

Cheers youwashock, I’m having some fun with that Tessaract paint

gobert wrote:Yep they’re looking good to me too! One word of caution would be to not overload any surfaces as you might end up a bit too close to Night Lords. I think you’ve hit the right level with this chap though. Good luck maintaining the sanity when doing more

agreed. The scheme (set 7-10 years ago) is dark (goth 1ksons lol), and with the glowing thin lines It *is* edging nightlords territory. If i ever pick up
Nightlords models I’ll need to be careful fielding them together.

Don Qui Hotep wrote:I'm blown away by the detail here. Really complements the kit here, with the newer kits being a little too overdesigned. You've got a lot of potential canvas to fill - I love the right shoulderpad and the runes on the tabard.

I can't really speak to the stamina/sanity issues for yourself, but I can say that your labor here really paid off with a beautiful model!

thanks man, appreciate the kind words. I haven’t spent any time with the new chaos yet, but you echo some Other stuff I read. There’s a view that the new models are ‘better’ in level of Quality and detail, but don’t have the same Available space of the older ones and are more ‘fixed’.

I’ve continued to progress my little 5 man squad (and will post an update shot in a few days) but I’m interrupting my Thousand Sons with a new Project: a Kitbashed WarpSmith! I recently joined an iron warriors discord and will be participating in their monthly challenge. This October is a kitbashed HQ. Time to try out some ideas I’ve had floating about lol.

Some of the first night’s work:

Obligatory ‘beginning’ shot (fyi I’m @wildbilbo on discord & twitter, @darkkt_wildbilbo on insta)



The ‘core’ parts are spares from the Old Dark Angels company veterans sprue- termi legs, a bare head with bionics. Imma adding some other weapon bits as well. old CSM torso & arms. An IG sentinel chainsaw. Old guitar strings, dead Ink-gel pens, fuse-wire, plastic strapping, etc etc etc

My bits box is pretty eclectic lol

Started with the head & made the most basic ‘loyalist-to-traitor’ Conversion possible: I added a spike.



I then worked on the legs:







And kicked off the Axe:



So - long way to go on it, and I’m expecting some failures etc, but let’s see how we go!

Cheers
KT

More conversion updates:

Making a cobblestone base - little known fact: bread tags are made from a polystyrene plastic - the same as GW miniatures/bases - so they bond fantastically with regular Plastic cement.









Partial Assembling Of the kitbashed Warpsmith



Pen plastic? Many are also High impact polystyrene (The outside bit at least). Stuck a small ring in the middle to add a little height:



Adding head & backpack






Quick height comparison to some existing models (all older GW models not the new ones):

Moar updates! Moar!

Creation of the bionic arm:













Still needs tidying, gap filling, etc - but pretty happy so far
Cheers
KT

Great progress on the warpsmith KT. The guitar string works really well as a protected cable. The bread tag cobblestone base is great too, gives me inspiration for my bases. I’ll be watching keenly to see how they develop!

Nice work on all the occult symbols, you dirty heretic.

McStabby -

Great painting and converting, enjoyed everything you have done so far!

gobert wrote:Great progress on the warpsmith KT. The guitar string works really well as a protected cable. The bread tag cobblestone base is great too, gives me inspiration for my bases. I’ll be watching keenly to see how they develop!

Cheers - the guitar string is great for little cables, I'm just a little less sold on them as mechadendrites (see below). They 'kink' instead of curve as I would like. Still, might have to leave them as is - there is only so long I can be bothered mucking about with them!

DJJazzyJeff wrote:Nice work on all the occult symbols, you dirty heretic.

McStabby -

Thanks mate, death to the false emperor and all that

RobertsMinis wrote:Great painting and converting, enjoyed everything you have done so far!

Thanks Robert - appreciate the feedback

Another quick update showing some more guitar strings and some gardening wire, this time as mechadendrites:

Another update:

Cables, cables, moar cables!





Also - whilst I thought gluing on endless cables was time consuming... goddamn learning how to use greenstuff is a sllllooooooooowwwww process lol.

Ive done a tiny bit of green on the axe, which looked like this last time I posted it:



It has (slowly) transitioned to this:



then:


And now (on one side at least):


Cheers
KT

GS is tricky stuff, but you seem to be doing well with it so far! The bits on the blade look great (cool serrated/broken edge)

gobert wrote:GS is tricky stuff, but you seem to be doing well with it so far! The bits on the blade look great (cool serrated/broken edge)

Cheers mate, appreciated. I kinda cut the blade roughly just to get it done, intending to neaten it up afterwards. But I kinda liked it when it was done, so I just filed a couple of edges and called it done - I'm pleased at least one other person thinks its ok

and thanks re the green stuff, im glad the stuff Im posting is coming across. Of course, no-one sees the stuff I put on and scraped off a dozen times because I couldnt get it in the right damn place lol. I'm not taking many photos of my failures

Moar updates - greensuffing a butt covering and the insidious spread of chaos...



Not a good photo (camera just wouldnt focus on the right stuff) but it gets the point across. I wanted to change the transition from 'model' to 'cables' just a bit as the mechadendrites seemed to come from nowhere as they were glued in. I'm *mostly* happy with the cloth, but the GS chain is not working for me. Thinking I'm going to scrape it off and just use some real chain.

And some tiny tentacles




(this picture has a shot of the 'teeth' I added to the bottom of his breastplace too)


I'm hoping I havent gone too far (i.e. entered Nurgle territory) on this guy. I really wanted to get some real chaos flavored distance from the Dark Angels Veteran head that I used for this model, but once you start greenstuffing, Ive found it can be hard to stop!

Cheers all
KT

Wow. You are slapping that GS into line. Looks quite good.

Looking good, I think painting some of the bits as cabling will keep it clear of being nurgley

This is a really fun conversion. That model is full of character. Nice tips on the bread tags - I'll start saving mine for future uses!

Someone posted somewhere on here a tip that helped me with GS. Carve a tool out of wood. It absorbs water so it stays wet longer, and doesn't stick to the GS as much.

Really excellent work, though. The tiny tentacles are sweet. Love all the cables.