Ad mech WIP

Welcome to another installment of Aaron's procrastination from study, today I can present some more WIP shots of 3 machine cultists, a knight, and his base.

Firstly, the things that excite every Ad mech modeler, knights. I will be using this as a forge fiend in my current thinking, so another shoulder weapon will be added.

The base model is of course a dreadknight, and it still looks too much like one for me atm. I need to figure out a way to make a curved glacius plate of some kind, or some kind of sarcophagus like the SM dread. As a further tie in to the nids, hes posing in a suitably safari like stance on the body of his last victim. What colour blood do you think tyranids have?

No idea what the physiology of a tyranid creature should look like, so some random balls of putty and entrail like tubes will have to do. Blood effects and burns like its been hit with a large plasma discharge are what I see in my mind for the damage, once I figure out the colour of the blood.

Finally, 3 more machine cultists.

these have been made from the close combat equipped cultists and cadian arms. Alot of chopping and reposing went into getting the arms to sit flush, I used surprisingly little greenstuff on hiding the actual joins. They are suffering from a minor case of "gorilla syndrome" due to the difference in the size of the cadian and their original arms.

That's it for the moment, any suggestions on continuing the knight titan conversion would be appreciated.

Thanks for looking.

Legion of Everblight Gargantuan! Archangel.

I've managed to get a couple of commissions recently, I was approached to paint something for a system that I wouldn't normally look at because the models just don't interest me, Warmachine. However there has been one model I just loved from the moment I saw the WIP sculpts. The legion everblight Archangel.

Who's a pretty boy then?

It is a monster, gargantuan in every sense, and so cool I would have eventually gotten one for myself if I wasn't commissioned to do it.

WIP scale shot. Don't mind the mess.

The casting is big, the components are big, the stupidity is big. The only complaint (though it s big one) I have about this model is the way the components have been cast and the materials selection. There are 3 materials, resin, pewter/whitemetal, and restic. The breackdown of how the parts have been chosen for each piece baffles me. If you have the technology for resin, do it all in resin.

Big vents, with the detail cast into them.

All the extremities are metal (the hooks on the wings, the face/head, the spines on the back, and the tail. This is madness. The last 4 inches of the tail are metal, and are supposed to hang unsupported from the base of the resin tail section.

Apart from that annoyance, the model was almost flawlessly cast, with only one minor and one major mold slip, and both easily corrected, less then 10 total airbubbles, again easily fixed.

After washing the resin and greenstuffing the areas where the components mated I commenced with painting, using vallejo airbrush primer for the first time, it goes on like a dream, so smooth, good adhesion, and can even be done at night in the cold and damp with no threat of bubbling or roughness.

The scheme was not chosen by me being a commission, but I'm still reasonably happy with how the sons of horus green translated to the everblight.

I added some red glazes to the wings for interest, and blended them back into the flesh with highlights and a pass or two of the airbrush. The wings are also magnetised for ease of transport and storage, which is why they don't quite marry up to the shoulders.

Shoddy photoshop of the edges, didn't all fit in the booth.

As a last point of interest I added some OSL from the soul fire the Everblight dragon spawn breathe. It added a nice spot colour too and stopped the scheme from being too boring.

The base was left plain so the client can add his recipe for snow to keep it consistent with the rest of his collection.

Finally an almost identical shot, but showing the scale of the finished beast.

Thanks for looking. Hope you like it and found my ramblings entertaining.

Please let me know what you think.

Magos stabby

So in between studying and playing the good boyfriend, I've managed to compete in a tournament over the last weekend, where despite my massively hung over state on the Sunday I managed to pull a respectable 5th, and won best painted with the nids. The gift voucher went towards fodder for the Ad Mech, more specifically a plastic cairn wraith, and a box of flagellants.

And from that, and a dip in the bitz box I made my first Magos.

One of the features I'm most happy with is the gun on the end of the mechandrite on the models left, it looks suitably Mech-y to me, that strange mix of hi-tech and archaic that suits the Ad Mech so well. The stubber/support las and target in the groin mount are magnetised, so when I figure out the actual rules I'm using I can customise him for WYSIWYG tournament play.

I'm really happy with the design, I think the legs could have been better, next time I will vary their lengths more, and make them fit the base, not the base fit them.

Thanks for looking, let me know what you think.

A.D.D Mechanicus

So it happened again, another project restarted, Adeptus Mechanicus.

This time I blame Matt/Rictus from recalcitrantdaze, he has secured for me some of the new Ad Mech Thallanx models, and kickstarted my brain into thinking all things red and mechanical.

Also I have to thank The Damned Artificer/Steffan, of Warseer and Horus Heresy modelling fame. He has to many cool threads on Warseer so I linked to his commissions thread. I asked for some help, and he furnished me with an amazing new water mark, something I could not have developed myself. Unfortunately it has become necessary to water mark my pics because they were used without my permission or credit by another blog, which I won't mention because he doesn't deserve more traffic.

Enough house keeping on to the pics:

Re-tasked assembly line servitor and Ad Mech menial

The basis for all these conversions are the cultists from the "new" Dark Vengeance set. I bought a set just because on release, and have since bought another set of just the cultists from Matt. This means I have 40 bodies to turn in Cultists of the Ommnisah. 

"Clamps" and Ad Mech Menial #2

The idea behind these models is that they are the workers of the Mechanicum, pressed into service as my tyranid hive fleet invades the forge world and the whole planet is militarised to repel the invaders. As such, they will be heavily converted, and based to fit the tyranids too. The sparse foilage and the toxic looking sand I think fits the fluff, as the tyranids try to take over the ecosystem and push the biology to its maximum, but the poisons and polution mean that there is very little to actually grow.

Welder turned flamer guy, and re-tasked servitor #2

I have also bought several sets of the old OOP FW spore chimneys to populate the eventual table with, and COD buildings and tanks to ruin as well.

Welder turned flamer guy #2, and another menial

Eventually I will produce more Praetorians, Skitarri vehicles and tech adepts to fill out the list, but ATM this is simply a modelling exercise that's gotten out of hand in my mind.

Menial #5, and the Tech Adept SGT

I have made a promise to myself that I will make a minimum of 2 troops choices before I start on the "cool" stuff, but we all know how long that will probably last once the Thallanx arrives.

Group shot

Thanks for looking, let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions for units or models you think would be cool/fluffy

Finished Hive tyrant

Hey everyone, this guy took a little longer than I thought he would, but he's finished!

I'm quite happy with how the devourers came out. The pink to purple gradient I usually have on my guns didn't quite work out because of the amount of "flesh". To add some more colour and interest to the them, I added some glazes of red and purple.

Hobby A.D.D

I seem to find myself easily distracted by hobby projects, as the amount of bouncing between ongoing projects can attest.

New tyrant and base

Now I've been distracted from finishing the heirophant by another tyranid gribbly. This time its an Armoured shell Hive tyrant with 2x twin linked devourers. This guy is a beast, and very hard to shift from the table top, esp if he hits the jackpot and get iron arm and lifeleech for powers, topping up wounds at toughness 7+ is just mean.

Taking the normal tyrant, I removed the front smoke stacks, and replaced them with the spiny carapace piece from the carnifex. Some surgery to the underside was required to get it to fit, but it was minor and should be self explanatory to anyone trying it themselves.

Torso close

The next thing to tackle was the devourers. Now I've never been a fan of the S 6 devourers being the same size as the termagants S 4 ones, it just smacks of lazy sculpting. Also you only get one set per tyrant. Fortunately I've been collecting bugs for a while and have a stock pile of the termagant ones.

So I glued 3 of them together for each arm.

They looked less "testicular" when I was sculpting them

They were attached to one of the previous editions scything talons by a length of brass rod, the bulbous egg sacs/ammo were made from balls of 5 minute putty, and green stuff veins were sculpted onto them as they were blended together to form the sac.

They looked less phallic in my mind I swear.

Next update should have this bad boy either finished, or well on his way.

I also have a couple of commissions in the wings, so expect more A.D.D in the future.

It's alive!!

Hi everyone, sorry for the scarcity of posts recently, but uni has been brutal!

That aside i have managed to pick up a brush in my mid semester break. Many moons ago I was given a Tyranid heirophant at a song. it was a little worse for wear, and a bit bandy legged from being left in a car during an Australian summer, but after a Jesus like resurrection I can show you a PIP.

Not much of a pic, but as a proof of life I think it will suffice.

During my attempt at dis-assembly, the shoulders of both right arms, one for claw, and a couple of spikes snapped off. Most were minor fixes, though I had to get alittle bit creative with the basing to make the claw work (and even then I'm not 100% on it). Rumors of Apoc II has set me painting this guy, and I hope to crush Johns Imperial guard with him at the soonest opportunity.