Orange beard and hair on necrons would be quite the sight (but as I imagine it would look awesome; sorry that’s how I read it at first 
). Tufts, stumps, and OSL lighting will look awesome. I love doing OSL with lava bases (which can never be overdone 
). Cheers!
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Yeah, the world is surely a better place with bearded necrons in it 
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Secret Zhanta 2021
As per the request of @Reaver :
This is the story of the gift I prepared for the Secret Zhanta exchange 2021, that amazingly made it to @Antenor in time for Christmas Day.
Also throwing in some tags here: @Zoddtheimmortal @MichaelX @Oxymandias @GhraskDragh @Admiral @Habitual_Lurker . Thanks for all the nice comments!
Around Christmas 2020 @Loidrial presented a quick Christmas themed sketch to the forum:
No matter how quick the sketch was, one thought stuck in my mind: “This is soooo good!!! Someone has to make a miniature of this!”
I had been doing some sculpting that year and decided: “Why not me? I can always make a one off and send it to Eddy as a surprise… or maybe learn moulding and make a limited run?”
I quickly started sculpting the miniature out of Super Sculpey (my preferred material as I want to do a tonne of things in one sitting), I’m sorry I don’t have any WIPs of this first stage of sculpting. Sadly Christmas and New Years, and then family quality time cut the sculpting short and on the last day of January 2021 I went sledding with my family - I went for the famous last-ride-of-the-day and broke seven ribs and punctured my right lung… so long rehabilitation makes the story short: Zhanta Claws took a step back and hid away in the back of my mind.
During summer we moved house and a few more hobby projects grabbed my attention. Fast forward to October 15th 2021: Secret Zhanta 2 is announced.
This made me remember the sculpt I started the year before and I immediatly decided it would make a perfect exchange gift for whomever I was paired up with (sorry Eddy, this time it wasn’t you). When I got paired up with Antenor it felt even better to send a sculpt of my own since he had been sharing his own sculpting endeavors on the forum. I managed to finish the sculpt, find time to paint it and somehow learn how to make a snow base (the first one I ever made - it just had to be a snow base for the Christmas theme, didn’t it?)
As I contemplated how to package it safely I decided I wanted to incorporate Eddy’s art somehow and the idea of the blister pack was born. I have saved all boxes and blisters I ever bought (nerd aint I) in case I ever wanted to insure the collection (still haven’t done that though), so I went through the boxes and found an old Micro Art base blister pack. I knew I had sold the bases earlier and decided to use it as a base for Zhanta’s blister. I took measurements of it and made a mock up back and front in Adobe Illustrator. Since Eddy didn’t know about the sculpt I wrote some witty things on the back of the blister "In unknown collaboration with… " etc. I also used the CDO logo on the blister but made sure to write on the back that the use was anauthorized:
The colours on the blister were taken from old army pics of @Loidrial 's army as a nod to the creator of the character (plus they are classic CD colour so there’s that as well).
All this was delayed by me trying to finish the Artisans Contest entry and getting distracted by other CD projects (I’ll get to them at a later point in time) but somehow I managed to turn the package over to the swedish postal service on the 19th of December. Somehow it made it to Antenor in time for Christmas Day, and if that’s not a Christmas Miracle I don’t know what is.
Some two days before Christmas @Lodrial presented a picture of Antenors original sculpt - the other way around from my own process with Zhanta Claws! Oh and did I mention I was paired up with Loidrial in the Secret Zhanta exchange as well? On the receiving end no less! And as I opened my gift on Christmas I received the perfect Zhanta’s helper - with a snow base as well:
Well the only thing that could make this Christmas exchange any better would have been me being able to make some moulds and send one copy of Zhanta Claws to Eddy and keep one copy for myself to stand beside Zhanta’s Little Helper (oh @Loidrial and a picture of Zhanta’s helper in the same style so I can make a blister for him as well 
). But sadly those skills are yet beyond me and Super Sculpey doesn’t hold up well to moulding… So I’ll just have to make another one all in Epoxy clay and we’ll see where it ends up. ^^
'nough chatting, here is the reason you’re reading all this anyway:
Greens
Base Coat
Painted
Blister
Happy New Year to all of you! May Hashut keep you in his chaotic embrace!
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Awesome with the chimney and blister and all
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I’m in awe and I need some proper time before being able to reply
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It is such a great job, such a shame you couldnt make copies at the time. Definitely will be watching out for your future sculpts thats for sure. Very talented.
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Dear @denelian5, let me lavish praises and gratitude upon you once more for this exceptionally generous gift. I was absolutely amazed when I opened that box. As far as my opinion is of any value, this is professional-level sculpting, to say nothing of the beautiful paintjob. This unique gem shall have an honoured place in my collection and I shall look upon it as an inspiration for furthering my own humble efforts. May Hashut’s flames forever illuminate your paths! 
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This gift, its work and its blister and its miraculous swift delivery, is all a wonder of the season. Outstanding creation, @denelian5 ! 
Those broken ribs and punctured lungs were surely Hashut’s sign for you to wait until the proper time before finishing this marvel. I hope you healed well.
Enastående!
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Simply blown away by this. It’s executed to the highest quality.
Looking forward to seeing more Denelian5 originals. 10/10 would pay for moar
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I love this so much. So creative, with the skills to back it up!
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That is just mind boggling. So good. You are surely a chosen of Hashut!
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What a treasure trove. This thread has been completely under my radar so far. The bull centaurs are insane. I would never have guessed that those were boars in their former life. I’m also impressed by your super sculpey stunties and the fact you did those in a single sitting each. This shows a high level of artisanship. Hope there will be more in the future. Having only had experience with oven-baked FIMO clay (which I did not particularly like) – how does super sculpey compare to green stuff on the handling side?
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Thank you! I’m not updating the blog too often as I’m not a fast hobbyist in the slightest. 
Super sculpey is a lot less sticky than GS which for me is a pleasure! On the other hand it doesn’t really harden at all until baked so your always at the risk of ruining what you’ve done so far. Another perk is that it doesn’t really dry out (for loong periods of time), so you can start a sculpt and then just leave it until you are ready to continue with it, and just pick up where you left off. In theory, you can bake it several times to “quick save” your work and continue later on but it’s not something I’ve tried. I rather make the bulk work in super sculpey, burn it and then add final details with green- or grey stuff.
Sadly it turns out quite brittle so I don’t think it would stand up to moulding. But for one offs or practice it’s a great material! It’s also a great material to make your own shale rock for basing. Flatten to desired thickness, burn it and then crack the edges of with a tang while it’s still hot and you’ll have good basing material.
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Sounds like a great material. I rarely do sculpting on weekdays mainly due to the effort it takes to set everything up using GS or Procreate. Just taking something from the shelf to work on it for half an hour is nice.
I would not worry too much about mouldability, though – if I understood @Admiral correctly, you pretty much have to say goodbye to your greens the moment you send them off to your caster, no matter the material. Perhaps that comforts you.
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Nice insights into super sculpey!
Aye, pressurizing and such during moulding will damage the original green, while creating a fine mould for casting. I don’t always get sculpts back from casters, though then again I don’t often ask for them. When they are sent back to me, the greens will have lost their pristine sharpness, and parts will be missing as a rule. They look beaten up.
No matter. The professional caster will immortalize your work in metal or resin for mass production, and one should always order some master castings to keep around at home.
A green sculpt is nice. Castings are better.
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I might have to ask for some tips as to were to get that moulding done then.
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It might be advisible to break this out into a separate topic, but I don’t have energy for it now:
There should be more casters to turn to here than I know of, so it would be sweet if others could fill in with tips, but here goes my casters.
Oh, and always order both a master mould and a production mould. All moulds are stored indefinitely by casters. And when production moulds wear out, the caster will create a new one from master castings.
Always order some master castings for yourself so you can recreate your range even if the caster somehow would go under without sending you your moulds or offer to ship them to another caster. Not to worry: The one time a (new) caster had to close, we arranged for him to ship all Tjubling moulds to another caster company on my expense.
When ordering metal casts, always choose leadfree whitemetal. It doesn’t matter if metal alternatives containing lead are cheaper. Go leadfree, since lead is a tad poisonous and can even whither away with lead rot if fortune disfavours a miniature in the long run.
Also: Since I burnt out over two years ago, metal prices have increased bonkers amounts. My usual rough estimates of costs will no longer be relevant (and I need to check new rates with casters and raise prices accordingly on AM stuff, but I don’t yet have the energy for it - anyone planning on ordering metal AM minis would be wise to do it before I find the energy). Still, higher prices for metal castings looked feasible when I ordered some restock from Czechia half a year ago.
Griffin Moulds JJP: British whitemetal spincasters. Spinmoulds can take something like 5-10 28mm infantry sculpts, so you want to maximize use of space per spinmould. Either by sending them numerous sculpts to fit into one (and send back any that may not fit), or by asking them to take multiple master casting copies in resin of your sculpt/s, as many as can be made to fit.
@Sjoerdo can vouch for Griffin’s quality. Shame about Brexit, though.
When ordering from Griffin, order spins. 1 spin = 1 castings of all models in the mould.
Zealot Miniatures: British resin casters. Great casters as well. Shame about Brexit.
When ordering from Zealot, order casts. 1 cast = 1 castings of all models in the mould.
Kazrak Miniatures: Large Polish whitemetal spincaster. Strange standard terms (apparently their normal customers are companies that order X amount each month!), but ordinary casting orders can be arranged if you talk to them: I.e. occasional bulk orders only when you ask for them, often with many months or years of intervals.
Order spins with Kazrak, just as with Griffin. And fill out the spinmould with content.
Custom Made Miniatures: Czech firm, run by Jan Kral. Metal caster, not centrifugal spincaster. Currently in fallow since he concentrates on other things, though he do take orders from existing customers since he have all gear and moulds at hand. I can put you in contact with him in a private message, or at least ask him for you, if he’d be willing to take onboard a new customer.
CMM is the cheapest casting company I know of, but usually with long random waiting times since it’s run on the side of other stuff in Jan’s life.
Order casts from CMM. 1 cast = 1 casting of all miniatures in a mould.
And then there is another large UK metal spincaster whose name escapes me since we only were customers there a short while, following another caster’s end of business. We then had most of our spinmoulds shipped from there, to @tjub , then to Kazrak Miniatures, when dark omens about Brexit started forming. I can check their name once back home on the PC if you want.
Cheers
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Didn’t really publish anything here for ages… so here goes nothing. 
I really should have painted my GH entry today but my brain was too tired after work to figure out paint combinations. Therefore I stayed up way too late to finish this piece, my “Seat of Authority” for T9A. It’s a War Platform to boost my Hobgoblin/Vassal units. Thank you @Admiral for my new awesome Vizier model (with toddler, or is it… with mother/servant?) and the statue parts for the build:
Still missing some GS work but otherwise I deem the conversion finished, and a success. 
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Excellent build! Love the choice of model for this particular army list entry. Nothing says “authority” quite like a rolling-pin with a person on the other end who does not seem to plan on making pastries in the immediate future, at all. 
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Wow, that is an amazing conversion, @denelian5 ! Outstanding work. 
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