I like the K’daai Destroyer. Your first sculpting attempts are good, much better than my. Is it BFSP Dwarfs hidden beneath the green stuff? I like the tank, and have a some suggestions: The chimney need to be less smooth and need to belong to the fantasy setting. Some rivets up the long pipe, some symbols or chains and hooks and skulls, and some spikes around the top exhaust may work. I think you shall have at least one brazier on top of the tank, and a waving flag at its rear. Some Gnoblars or other slaves scurrying about will look fine, too.
Perhaps you can pick up some used wrist watch cogs? If you do, you can cut out a narrow rectangle on the tank’s roof, and let one or three cogs protrude from the vehicle’s top. Some ornamental armour plates might also work towards CD-fying the tank. It should be simple enough to make two or four: Just cut them out of plasticard, glue them on top of some existing plates, and then make rivets from green stuff, chopped off plastic rods or glass beads glued into holes made with the sculpting tool. Then sculpt runes or patterns or daemonic faces or whatever on the plates.
You can also add a coal wagon behind the tank, a bit similar to the rear wheels of WWI tanks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Little_Willie_early_design.jpg), and perhaps some chained captive being dragged behind it. You can have corpses caged or chained to the tank’s sides, similar to those on Drazhoath the Ashen: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/DRAZHOATH-THE-ASHEN.html A small, elevated platform for the tank’s spotter or slavedriver might work well, too. It need not protrude from the roof, but could be fastened on one of the tank’s sides. You might also want to add a periscope somewhere for the crew inside, just because it looks funky.
Finally, I think you should make a little scenic base for the tank from the unit tray kit, but only if you plan to base your other FW warmachines.
Thanks Admiral, there’s some great ideas in there. I’ll definitely be using some of them. I like the cogs and coal trailer idea in particular.
I hope to base it on the big 10x15cm base, same as the K’daii Destroyer. I want to put my Iron Daemon on the same, but make need to make some from movement trays.
And it is not a BFSP dwarf hidden underneath. In terms of sculpts - I enjoyed doing these, and learning the chainmail technique was useful, but I don’t think I’ll take it further. I’ve come across some stuff called blu-stuff that I hope to use to make a GS mold, and make a load of heads to convert the FW models.
I’ve just done a quick list of my meagre force, just to gauge where I am upto. This includes -
L4 Sorceror Prophet on Lamassu
L2 Daemonsmith Sorceror
Infernal Castellan
Hobgoblin Khan on Wolf
10 IG with GW and FC
10 IG with BB and FC
10 IG with Fireglaives
10 Hobgoblin archers with FC
Deathshrieker
Iron Daemon
Dreadquake
K’daii Destroyer
9 Hobgoblin Wolfriders with spears and FC
Nothing has magic items. I was shocked to see that this came up to just over 2.5k points! I was hoping to make the list, bulk up with magic items and plan what I needed to make 3k…
Hmm… I need to rethink before I plan future purchases…
I’ve finished my Lumassu! I’ve added a seat to its back, and I have also converted a Sorcerer-Prophet (BeeZharr the Obnoxious) to ride it, largely from the Chaos rider bits from the manticore box, plus green stuff and a large hat.
Here are the pics, without rider (he’s not painted yet) -
These are the best pics I could get before my camera battery rain out. My charger is still buried in moving boxes… The Lumassu really isn’t so shiny in real life.
I was intending the use the FW special character to use as BeeZharr the Obnoxious, and mount atop the Lamassu, but I got fed up of waiting and can’t afford the thing right now.
So… the Chaos rider from the Manticore kit has a plethora of bits so I cobbled some together, along with a dwarf head, a big ogre club and some green stuff. I messed up my big pic by cropping and clicking save rather than save as, so I’ll bring that to you later -
The votes are in for Golden Hat 16, and alas I did not win but it’s hardly surprising considering the standard was so high, and my entry just involved a little bit of green stuff and a basic paint job. Congratulations to ryanamandanna on taking the win - my personally favourite, Herby’s entry, was joint third, so congratulations to you too (and also Ishkur Cinderhat and Tjub).
Anyone who had seen my destroyer may have guessed which was my entry, but here are the pics of it if you didn’t -
As with the Destroyer I’ve gone for the daemonic taxidermy approach, with the body of a sabretusk replaced with a malleable metal and its fur replaced. As it’s launched into battle, the binds that keep the flames encased are relaxed and the K’daii begins to burn away.
I use green flames because I assumed enscorcelled coal, or warp stone infused fuel, would burn green (and also as I find it easier to paint!). The base is also temporary for the competition, as I am a collector before a gamer, I will rebase it onto a chariot base. The rock he stands on is just a big lump of PVA glue - I have a Johnson’s Baby Buds lid that I use to pour glue into before painting it onto bases to flock. After some time it has built up and it looked just right for this after a little shaping.
Annoyingly I noticed the horrible gap in the join on the back left leg when I took the photos. Also the PVA for the leaked molten whatever got a little thick and went milky… It’s all a learning curve. I’m looking forward to Golden Hat 17.
These are the first two ranks of what will be four, Infernal Guard with Blunderbuss -
Some closer shots (sorry for the blur, I’m a rubbish photographer) -
An old Big Hat Sorcerer has been transferred from the forges of Zobo1942, and will be put to use as a Sorcerer Prophet when Beezharr the Obnoxious can’t be bother (ie, is too expensive to take…) to lead his troops.
Hope you like them. I’ll be happy to hear any comments and answer any questions.
I find them very nice but i think they could be better if their bases wasn’t in the same kind of colours (ie red-orange), and maybe you could enlight your armors a bit with some brighter red on the edges of the armours.
And, the varnish. It seems very very shiny. Maybe you like it this way, and if so i won’t debate but have you ever tried mat varnish ?
Thank you for your comments, I appreciate the feedback.
I’ve been using gloss varnish for years and it’s only become a problem now I’m taking photos of my models - it just makes them a nightmare to photograph as they just come out so shiny. 'Eavy Metal never use gloss varnish for this reason. When seen ‘live’ they do not appear anywhere near as shiny, and using matt varnish would not achieve the effect I am after.
I’ve been wondering about the bases for a while. I might add some static grass to them to break them up a bit, but I find that after a year or two the grass looks really tired.
A big no no for snow, I think Highland tufts from army painter. That would be a keen contrast and give it the look of an invasion army out of it’s comfort zone.
That’s stuff looks good, but not sure there’ll be enough room on the small square bases to fit them on - have you tried it? I’ll have a look in some of the model shops next time I’m in town to see if I can find anything suitable.
Is it BFSP Dwarfs hidden beneath the green stuff? I like the tank, and have a some suggestions: The chimney need to be less smooth and need to belong to the fantasy setting. Some rivets up the long pipe, some symbols or chains and hooks and skulls, and some spikes around the top exhaust may work. I think you shall have at least one brazier on top of the tank, and a waving flag at its rear. Some Gnoblars or other slaves scurrying about will look fine, too.
but have you ever tried mat varnish ?
