Can we take a moment to note that Astragoth has disproportionally long arms compared to his dwarf-proportioned body? Compared to his taller mechanical body they’re fine, but now I can’t un-see the arms.
Anyway… attempt #2 is not quite done, but good enough as I head out of the country for work for a bit:
~N
I really noticed that (really long arms) with the fw infernal guard.
The model looks great so far, the legs could be the flying carpet upgrade
Whoo-whee!!! Lookie what arrived in the mail today - Cianty’s Black Dwarf warband from the Border Town Burning supplement… a little bit of Chaos Dwarf history from the Mordheim fan community 
~N
Thanks to @MrMelons over here for the reference images that helped seal the deal for me to acquire one of the Warcry Centaurian Marshall models (bought by one of my daughters for my birthday last month).
As usual, progress will be slow, but we’re off to a good start and I thought folks may like to see some of the progress.
For reference, the Centaurian Marshall has horse-like proportions to the lower body, that do not fit with the squat bull-like proportions needed for the model. Note as well that the model also has 4 upper limbs, which I am not down with for a Bull Centaur model. Additionally, while the rearing pose is dynamic, you can see in the second image from the 360o rotation from the GW site that the forequarters are torquing at a 30o angle. Doing some mock-ups in Photoshop, I think I’d be happy with a 10-15o rotation back the opposite way, then it’s not so pronounced. To avoid too much additional hacking and GS work I think I can slightly change how the hind limbs stand on the base to correct for some of this angle.
First things first, I did a bilateral fore- and hind-limb baloney amputation. It’s similar to a below-knee amputation, except that I want to still keep most of the limb, so what it looks like is a fat baloney slice that’s removed. I then used plastic cement to glue the limbs back together. I had to be careful to remove the slice from the centre of the lower portion of the limbs as that was easiest to hide due to the lack of musculature. I used extra plastic cement to smooth over the transitions.
Still have to wait a day for everything to set before filing down the small seam on each limb and will then smooth the rough filed areas over with more plastic cement.
Also need to hide the evidence of the extra limbs protruding from the abdominal walls. I removed some of the armour plating and chainmail on the right side, and although it’s still present in the left side image, there’s also some of the musculature protruding from the back (red arrow) that also needs to be removed.
The hands were a little too gentle looking for my taste. Looking through my bitz box I thought possibly that ogre or minotaur hands would be good, but based on the size of the arms (where are a little on the small side) I found that Black Orc hands were just about right! I needed to trim down the inside of the forearm armour plate and the back part of the wrist, but it seemed to fit OK, but will still need some Green Stuff work.
I also drilled out both hands for some brass rod (coming later). Note the gap in the arm that still needs to be filled with GS. I also trimmed down the protruding neck.
The Centaurian Marshall’s helm is far too small for a Bull Centaur, so I tested a few mock ups. I think the oversized Legion of Azgorh style helm looks good, but I wanted a Bighat model (excuse the crude Photoshop on that one). I think the Bighat head is slightly too large here in this example. Either way, I’ll need to commit to one and to my surprise I’m leaning more toward the helm right now!
He’s also going to need a custom weapon. I’ll need to think on that!
~N
Forgemaster, your step by step log for building the Indefatigable airship is an instant CDO classic. It is wonderful to read through and view it all, over a decade later. Impressive vision and execution! The crafting skills that went into it are stellar, and the results are amazing. The schedule was a clever take, and one wise to have for such a gargantuan project on a deadline.
It is a sad end for such a majestic titan of the skies, but at least you have now uploaded ample photographic records of its wonder to stand the test of time.
I especially love your designs, pulling on big hat, Hellcannon, Legion of Azgorh and even some 1980s Chaos Dwarf styles, to great effect. I’m an adherent of this jolly mixed approach, and seeing you bring it to life with all your myriad work on the airship and crew is a joy to behold. The cannon ports are amazingly wrought. Your use of choice parts for the airship is excellent, and the Warhammer Quest tie-in on the base is such a nice nod.
While the overall result is beautiful, what especially captures my eyes are all the little details you fashioned all over this glorious and maverick build. Truly worthy of a Forgemaster and Grand Imperious Sorcerer of the Forge!
Good background piece, as well. A fitting send-off to such a queen of the skies.
Furthermore, I am delighted to see your ongoing work here, both with the Necromunda Prophet-Astragoth counter-homage and your great fortune in being gifted Cianty’s classic Black Dwarf Mordheim warband. They’re in the best of hands now! And of course, I am particularly intrigued with where you will go with the Bull Centaur conversion. Good call on shortening the legs.
When I saw the four arms, one of my thoughts was to cut off half the upper body over the lower pair of arms to give the Bull Centaur’s dwarf torso more squat proportions, but I am sure you will make it all come together as excellently as with all of your golden projects.
You continue to amaze us, Nicodemus, and I am happy and grateful for it. 
Cheers
Wow, thanks for all the kind words! I don’t know what else to say!! It’s very flattering to know folks are still checking in every once in a while! My hobby productivity hasn’t been great for over a decade, but I’m slowly trying to get back at it as I’m much happier when I carve out time for fun stuff!
Given how inspired I feel looking at everyone else’s content and creations I figure that posting my own content is a nice way to share with the community!
I’m trying to clear the decks by getting through a major backlog of stuff so that I can tackle some truly epic-proportion projects…
First things first - making water transfer decals at home (my first time attempting) and building a photogrammetry rig over the next week or so I’ll keep you all posted!
~N
After obtaining couple of recent Oldhammer Chaos Dwarf models I went back through my collection to assess how my Chaos Dwarf Renegades collection is coming along and I noticed that I had two versions of Pulper Spikehead (catalogue #0310, Chaos Dwarf Renegades).
A quick search pointed me right back to CDO of course, to a post in 2011 by Mr Saturday
While the old CDO wiki (praise its continued existence!!) has images of these models I wanted a bit more photographic documentation to go along with the statements in the original thread (and thanks to Clam for those images and the Oldhammer detail-driven OCD)
Here’s images I took of the two variants, highlighting the differences:
My guess is that the shinier model in my photos is the original and the tarnished one is from a later update to the mold - removing lots of pesky spikes which may have trapped air bubbles or perhaps contributed to deterioration of the rubber molds over time as the metal spikes were pulled free.
As noted in the original thread the main differences are:
I notice that the spike on the top of the helmet on the darker model is also slightly rounded but I wonder if that’s due to the model being knocked around over the years which may have worn down sharper details. Related to this idea of wear: I can also see that the pointed ears on the dwarf head mounted to the top of the helm are less pointy in the darker model - question remains whether this was an actual modification in the variant or wear due to age.
If anyone has this variant I’d be very interested to know whether the helm and dwarf head are similar to mine or closer to the untarnished variant.
~N
[Update] Based on a few decent photos of the variant that I could see on eBay it looks like the ears and spike on the helm are just worn down on mine :\
After seeing the Cathay models that are coming soon I’ve been increasingly wanting to assess my Hobgoblin army before jumping in. This is the first time in many years I’ve had all the boxes and shelves cleared out to count up where we are…
6 Temple Dogs, although I only have 4 riders. I’ll have to decide if I want riders for the remaining two or perhaps use them as statues in a terrain feature.
9 Hobgoblin Heroes on Wolf. Not recorded in the CDO wiki are the metal wolf heads for these models. I’ve got 8 of these. I have so many standard bearers there’s no reason not to include one in a mounted unit. No idea what I’ll do with this many or how I’ll use them. I could just count them as mounted champions and sprinkle them throughout all the mounted units instead!
28 Hobgoblin Wolfriders with hand weapons, with the musician and standard bearer this brings me to a unit of 30 models. Perfect. As can be seen, there’s a mix of wolves here. Some need repair as their heads or tails were missing before they came to me.
30 Oglah Khan’s Hobgoblin Wolfboyz. I started collecting these at about the same time as I started collecting Chaos Dwarfs back in 2007. I had no idea I had this many. There are two Ghazak Khans in the unit, plus another with still in the original blister in the background. I’ve got the equivalent of 4 Oglah Khan boxes, which means there’s too many Oglah Khan, musicians, and standard bearers. I’ll use one of the Ghazak models as the champion, and use alternative arms for the musicians so they can fill in the ranks. You can see I’m all out of cavalry bases in my collection, although it looks like I have enough wolves to round out the unit!
2x 13 Hobgoblin Wolfriders with bows. With the musician and standard bearer this beings each unit to 30 models. No idea if a champion would be warranted in these units or not.
I’ve got so many spare musicians on foot I’ve been clipping the slotta tabs and remarkably these models can fit on the wolves just fine as-is! Nice.
25 Hobgoblins with hand weapons on foot. Some of the spares I haven’t gotten around to yet. Lots of full command options, that’s for sure!! Not shown are my other ranked up units of Hobgoblins with hand weapons… bringing the total count to 132. I’ve also got 68 Hobgoblin archers on foot, and 85 Sneaky Gits.
I’ve got two of the old rocket crews, and a number of the older Citadel Hobgoblin models from earlier eras knocking around in a box… plus hobhounds and handlers, a few of the AD&D hobgoblins, etc.
I’m honestly not sure where to start!! Some of these have been sitting for 18 years now!! I definitely want some of the wolfriders ready to field. Hand weapons vs archers?? Ugh. No idea!! Years ago during 8th Ed I had once fielded a unit of 100 Hobgoblins on foot with hand weapons in a friendly game… it might just be fun to finally get that painted along with several extra sets of full command models so I can split the big unit into smaller ones for various army lists. Finally getting going on these would help my BATG score though!!
~N
Wow thats an impressive haul!
Start small. Aim for a unit of 5 wolf rider archers then add a bigboss. Then a unit of 10 archers, then a warmachine etc. It helps if you have them base coated beside you so you can randomly add a colour or 2 while waiting for something to dry
My small cabinet where I have the Hobgoblins displayed/stored unpainted is not up to the task for the Hobgoblin army I have. Only about 75% are on bases and magnetized to movement trays. The rest are just jumbled up in boxes because there’s no space left on the shelves.
The cabinet also has fixed-height shelves and the glass shelves are trapezoidal… while I could disassemble the cabinet, drill new holes for mounting shelves and place a special order with my local glass place (which I have done once before), I feel like it’s time to go with something more scenic for the cabinet… some diorama displays that will do double duty by increasing the storage space.
I don’t have a lot of ideas for the setting for the dioramas - Hobgoblins in the hilly northern steppes is as far as I’ve gotten. With that one idea I definitely want a scene of Hobgoblin wolf riders charging down a hillside en masse. If I want more space for models then I need to stack the storage, so a cave in the hillside will definitely help…
Time to get started cutting multiple pieces of foam (I’m preparing several shelves simultaneously, but only focusing on the one idea I have so far):
The glass shelves don’t touch the sides of the cabinet, so I’ve got ~1/8" on either side, and at least an additional 1/4" of space off the front before the door touches anything. There, nice and snug:
On to the satisfyingly quick shaping and seeing the idea take form. I tend to cut each piece into smaller segments that can be trimmed with the hot wire cutter and X-acto blade and then I glue these back in later on.
So there’s the basic shape - hillside and cave. Time to check how much real estate I have for wolf riders next.
Here I’ve cut a piece of foamboard to check whether I can get a 4-model wide unit into the cave… and nope, too tight. Since nothing glued yet I can take each level and trace out the space I’m going to need and then re-assemble. In the final image you can see that the black foamboard fits all the way in now. So I can fit 8 in the cave, with an additional 4 sticking half way out.
Time to check the rest of the space, with more foamboard helping with some measurements. The ramp down from the overlook has space for a 3-model wide group, plus at least another 6 along the left side, and there’s room for a unit of 10 on the overlook and at least 7-8 in the foreground. I also have 3 additional models on the second/uppermost overlook. I was thinking these would be the command modes, but I’ll find out soon that there isn’t room for the standard bearer up there because of the upper shelf… unless I made this the top-most shelf in the cabinet. So that’s space for ~48 wolf riders, and I can probably squeeze in 50 if needed!
After beefing up the overhang above the cave I can fit on a larger movement tray, adding a whole additional rank of storange! Perfect. I can also position the Hobgoblin wolf riders who are aiming to the side along the outer edge of the ramp so it looks like they’re firing toward the viewer - great!
Checking the cave height for a standard bearer. This’ll work!
There was a lot of back-and-forth that I’m not showing with checking and re-checking angles and fixing annoying spots. There’s 7 separate pieces here at the bottom of the ramp as it forms the turn. I just kept adding and shaping until I was happy.
OK, time to add more storage space! Below this diorama I’m going to add a smaller space for a Hobgoblin on-foot unit, which usually takes up most of its own shelf! Before I start I need to know how tall this should be. Looks like as long as it’s 2 1/2" tall the standard bearer should fit. I decided to go with 3" just for convenience as I still need to get my hands in there!
Here’s the one massive unit of 100 Hobgoblins that’s going to go in this space.
Of note, I need that extra 1/4" of added space at the front so that I can add a back wall to the piece (something needs to hold up the upper diorama!!). Since the shelf is a trapezoid there’s wasted space along the rear flanks. Not ideal as you won’t see them in there, but I do have space for two Hobgoblin Bolt Throwers (and crews). I have 11 of these, so I’m fine with some being stored out of sight!
Getting the walls shaped up
Time to check the whole assembly - Grand! And you can see the shields I’m planning to use with the Hobgoblin wolf riders there too!
We have an unforeseen geometry problem - the front with the door is narrow, and the back is wide. By adding the extra 1/8" to the sides and with these being relatively large pieces height-wise, they can’t just be pushed in. They have to go in sideways and then turned 90-degrees. It is BEYOND tight. These definitely have to be kept as two separate pieces otherwise it’ll never fit without taking the cabinet apart! After a lot of agonizing, swearing, and trepidation I got it in! it’s hiding some sins though…
There are cleats inside the cabinet that hold the side glass in place. Of course they impinge on the pieces!! Ugh! There was lots of trimming and notching - and it was made more annoying because these weren’t in exactly the same position on the left and right or front or back of the cabinet. There’s also this one ugly cleat right in the way of the diorama…
Queue the artfully placed rock to hide the cleat. Perfect
So here we are… it fits and looks alright. If it’s not the top-most shelf then there’s only just enough room for the wolf riders on the overlook, but there’s enough space for a movement tray so that they can be brought out on a tray smoothly.
The next evening I sealed up all of the gaps and deficient spots with Polyfilla.
Another trick I employ is to use a spray can of stone texture which helps mask any remaining seams that the Polyfilla didn’t hide well enough. It also helps give some extra texture later for dry brushing! We had a nice warm day here to I left it to dry while I raked out the front yard.
And here’s where we are as of tonight - everything patched, primed black and ready for dry brushing. I’ll need one last application of black as I decided I needed a little more stone texture on two spots on the piece on the right as I had also applied a little more Polyfilla in those spots. You can also see on the lower level shelf pieces the vertical channels I had to cut on the sides so that piece would clear all 4 cleats in the cabinet when it’s installed.
Now I’ll need to finish basing my wolf riders and put them in the painting queue. I’m going to need to paint up some hordes - my BATG score just took a massive hit after acquiring a large number of Chaos Dwarfs!!
~N
Wow! Grand and inspiring as ever, Forgemaster. Lovely crafting work.
Today was magnetizing the cavalry bases and the slope. Unfortunately the spaces left beneath the cavalry bases were just a fraction of a millimetre too narrow for the diameter of the rare earth magnets I had. After carefully drilling them out the magnets were able to just clear the space, which also gave lots of surface area for gluing. I tend to use a urethane based glue for these kinds of magnets, with a drop of superglue on the back of the magnet which helps fix it in place, but then the glue needs several hours to dry. With my hypersensitivity to every superglue variety I have ever been exposed to it’s never a fun job.
I make sure all of the rare earth magnets are all similarly aligned for each base, but that also means I have to be careful when I install the magnets in any piece of scenery, one magnet flipped the wrong way would be a problem! My solution is always to glue the magnets into the base first, once they are completely set I put the corresponding magnet on so that the two magnets are aligned and then I mark the corresponding magnet with a Sharpie. Here I gave it a green dot so that when I install these magnets into the diorama I know that the Sharpie do goes face down. Before I started I also used one of these marked magnets to check every single base, luckily I didn’t have any where the magnet flipped around the wrong way so my initial glue ups were successful.
I stuck an extra magnet to the base so that the 2nd one would sit proud of the surface, then I aligned the bases with the ramp and gently pressed them down into the foam. This left an indentation that I carefully cut out with an X-acto knife, put in the rare earth magnet (Sharpie side down) and then glued the plug back to the top. Here’s the holding power of those small 3mm diameter magnets… a single one is keeping these plastic wolves with metal rider in place. On to the rest!
After getting everything glued in and using a smoothed over bamboo stick to press the plugs down flush with the surface, I added the tiniest bit of Polyfilla to each just to mask the edges better - otherwise the drybrushing later on is going to make these really stick out.
Once dried and after painting it black again you can still make out the grid pattern of the magnets but only with oblique lighting… When you’re looking at the piece front on with just over overhead lighting it’s not particularly obvious at the moment.
Onward!!
~N
…Aaaaaaand done.
As a bonus, here’s a standard I made up for one of the wolf rider units. It’s based off the artwork “The Mongol Terror”, by Joseph Feely. Except I put a giant wolf in, instead of the original horse (original on the left):
I also asked one of the AI tools for some assistance extending out the scene vertically. Most were garbage, but I got one decent image back. Once its shrunk down it should work for a Hobgoblin wolf rider standard bearer in a unit of archers:
~N
I am incredibly flattered and humbled to have won a Golden Hat competition. Having been a member of the community since 2007 I’ve seen some of what I would consider the very best painting and conversion work coming out of the hobby community. It may just seem like a silly on-line painting competition for fun (and it is) but winning GOLD in a Golden Hat competition is such an incredible vote of recognition from peers in the community that it is really meaningful - truly!
Without further ado… from the infernal depths of the Dawi Zharr Forgemasters’ Daemonforge, I present my entry for Golden Hat XLIV: K’Daai
These were all started back in 2011, believe it or not!! My first post was on December 31st of that year, showing that my entry for GHXIV (also a K’Daai themed contest) was incomplete and I hadn’t even finished painting, let alone finished the unit of K’Daai and the K’Daai Destroyer hadn’t even been conceived of at that point. I had continued on with some of the creation of the unit but the final assembly, wiring, and painting wasn’t completed until after GHXLIV was announced in 2025 
I’ve still got all of my WIP photos organized by date. This is an opportune time to walk through the whole of the creation process, from 2011 until now!
November 19, 2011
Woodland Scenics Water Effects. Get some. Tell your friends. It has the consistency somewhere between PVA glue and silicone caulking. It’s only moderately tacky and takes shape fairly well. I started experimeting with this more after using it to make flames for my Warhammer Quest board sections a few years earlier. Putting down a blob and sticking in a toothpick to draw whisps outward works really well. As it starts to dry (while you work with it) you can get more elaborate flame-like shapes… and things like look like splashes of water too.
It was at this time I started trying to use the transparency of this stuff after it dries to make more realistic flames. I tested out the idea with a green LED (all I had at-hand earlier on that day) as well as my idea for trying to supply power through the unit tray via magnets in the base of each model. Yeah… it’d work!! See:
I put in an order for some ‘grain of rice’ bulbs that very night…
December 2, 2011
Setting up some flames and waiting for them to dry. I added a little orange and yellow Citadel paint to the tip of the toothpick and stuck it into the Water Effects stuff so that it would have some colour to it when it setup.
Once it was cured I cut it from the bottle cap and hollowed out a cavity inside for the bulb - BRILLIANT!!!
I also raided some of my bitz collection and also disassembled by metal Daemonprince so I could start casting parts:
December 5, 2011
Casting of parts is complete and it’s time to start figuring out how to get all the wires threaded through the internal structure.
I was also testing with making very basic stick structures just to get an idea of poses and the general body shape as I wasn’t even sure exactly how I was going to use all those bitz in my creation…
You can see there’s some pretty janky resin casting going on (I still don’t have a vacuum chambre for degassing and I wasn’t very good at putting in venting in the molds at that point either).
And here’s where the idea came together for the heads…
So, yeah… I was on to something with this!!
December 6, 2011
Just a basic shape so far, but as long as the wiring was good it was go-time…
December 10, 2011
Finally got some photos after a few days of testing various ideas and not feeling confident enough to both photographing any of the less-than-inspiring ideas… but then it all came together:
Remember that liquid Green Stuff that GW released to help customers hide the sins of all those terrible Finecast botch-jobs? Well… it had its uses here too
December 11, 2011
Everything was still kept modular as I needed to be able to prime the model without getting primer over the light bulbs and the Water Effects flames needed to go on after priming as well, so it required a bit of forward planning.
Here you can see the head piece it separate (does on over one of the lights) and the bulbs were all covered with modeling clay for priming…
December 12, 2011
Primer was dry and I tested out some colours…
December 16, 2011
After a few more nights and blocking in some base colours I went to work committing to finally doing the flame effects… and I really felt the pressure to not screw up at this point.
Again, I used Citadel paints on the toothpick to add some colour within the flame effects, so even when these aren’t illuminated they still look like flames. ACE!! I surprised myself with how well this came together it was time to move on to making more.
December 19, 2011
Basic shape of the K’Daai Manburner/Champion model, intentionally looking more dynamic
December 21, 2011
Taking shape a bit more and doing the Green Stuff work (which I’m still not very good at, luckily flames aren’t too closely scrutinized)!!
December 22, 2011
Checking how well they rank up after getting farther along with the build of the second K’Daai
As you can see I also had roles in the top of the skull for a little more illumination to escape for the additional flames on their heads. I also added some extra trim to the shoulders of the Manburner, borrowing the carved wing details from the Warhammer Quest doorways (hiding in the background there).
December 24, 2011
Working on K’Daai #3. I decided to change up the pose a little more with this one part way through and decided that I was going to have lava on their bases and I wanted this third one to be scooping his hand through it like a psycho Daemon-powered suit of armour would! You can see the bits of clay I was using in various spots to test angles and positioning. These also needed to rank up, so I got wise and kept the other two close by!
December 30, 2011
Finishing off the poses and getting them ready for priming!
December 31, 2011
Blocking in some basic colours again and getting the Water Effects applied.
You can see here the flames made from the Water Effects material is opaque and what a white appearance. It also shrinks slightly when it dries/cures, as well as going mostly transparent.
January 5, 2012
Somewhere in here I dropped the Manburner and some of the bulbs stopped lighting up. There wasnt any hope of finishing them for the GH contest so I let it pass by… I then had to open the guy up for some K’Daai surgery. After locating the broken solder point I re-soldered it.
Manburner is alight again! Ugh.
January 8, 2012
WIth the Manburner firing on all cylinders again I covered up the spot I had cut open using Green Stuff and sculpted back over it with flames. I then used paint-on primer to re-establish the base.
January 14, 2012
A little basing and getting the lava established.
I decided around this time, since there was no rush to finish (not for another 13+ years!!!) I’d make another rank and incorporate the power source into the project as a 2-model unit filler. I wanted this other model to be quite different and settled on the idea of what the suits of armour looked like after they’re constructed by the Forgemasters but before they’re imbued with Daemonic power. It also needed to be raised up a little higher to hide the battery pack for the unit, so having it in a more squat position helped keep it looking level.
January 16, 2012
And of course there needed to be one more model to finish out the unit. I decided I wanted to capture the moment that one of the K’Daai burned itself out and exploded… at least the unit wouldn’t look boring!
… and look at those handsome Legion of Azgorh guys back there mid-paint job
January 17, 2012
The exploding K’daai needed something else on the base and I thought it was the perfect spot for one of the Daemonsmiths to go.
And he couldn’t be in a unit synonymous with fire and NOT be smoking… so I would end up coming back and take care of that glaring deficiency soon… Can’t remember where that shoulder pauldron came from!!
January 19, 2012
Starting to look better already! Of course he’s only seated on there with a brass pin and he’s removeable, so I can always transfer him to a single-model base for use as a stand-alone Daemonsmith instead of as part of base decoration if desired!
February 18, 2012
Only 1 month later… Who’s ready for some paint (in 13 years)??? LOL
September 6, 2012
Half a year later… finally back to working on the unit filler. The unit filler needed another Daemonsmith/Sorcerer who could be channeling the Daemonic essence into the suits of armour, and since there was power going to be right in that base it made sense for the guy to be channeling a flame toward the armour… and there needed to be a nice curly beard beneath all that heat-shielding
When opportunity strikes I like to include a few lowly slaves around, usually snotlings, grots from 40K, or the like, just so it’s clear it’s not just Chaos Dwarfs that are around.
September 8, 2012
I also smartened up and re-positioned the face so that it was facing forward instead of up. I don’t know why I thought the upward face was a good idea! You can also see the inner components that are usually hidden by the flames in the animated K’Daai: containment coils, exhaust pipes, etc.
September 12, 2012
Making broken versions of the internal components from the unit filler for the exploding K’Daai
September 13, 2012
Base colours on the non-animated K’Daai and more broken components…
And a bit more colour but still nowhere near finished painting at this stage for the unit filler
And that’s pretty much it for the K’Daai for over 13 years. I’ll post more pictures of the finishing work later… but first up will be the older content for the K’Daai Destroyer!!
~N
October 7, 2012
First steps toward a K’Daai Destroyer began with a large base with a recessed space for batteries. I knew I wanted some ruined remnants of some powerful Dwarf pieces - hence the destroyed throne and smashed anvil pieces.
October 8, 2012
The base taking shape
Working on the head and body taking shape, with some Tyranid parts for the head. The body is a combination of a Soulgrider and a Chaos Space Marine Maulerfiend body for the mechanical legs from the Soulgrinder to attach to.
The captured Dwarf - the Bloodbowl champion is a fantastic sculpt and he looks like he’s appropriately protesting being manhandled. The flaming sword was also wired up. I also had to drill extra holes and re-pose one of the legs so the wires could come up through a support leg.
October 9, 2012
Added a dead Dwarf body (from Cursed Company) to the base as well… along with more piles of skulls!!
Adjusting the placement of the legs. The feet will end up getting pinned with brass rod, but they’re only glued into the feet. The large metal skull pile also has a hole in it for feeding the wires up into the leg.
The rest of the K’Daai Destroyer is taking shape!
October 16, 2012
Working with Green Stuff is not my forte… but the first pass turned out OK
I also added a little Chaos Dwarf embellishment to one of the armourd plates
October 16, 2012
Experimenting with battery cases (pre-era of readily-available home 3D printing) and also increasing the number of batteries in the base to boost the brightness up to the top of the rated range for the bulbs. For some reason I made a video… this is just a screen capture
From this point onward it would be about 8 months (into 2013) before I did any further hobby stuff at all, and then I was back to being distracted with my land train (that I wouldn’t finish until 2024) and the massive airship. As for the K’Daai Destroyer - as you all know it would near nearly 13 years before I’d revisit the piece…
~N
February 2025 GHXLIV was announced and I decided it was time to finish off those K’Daai units!
March 30, 2025
I knew I needed to start by sorting out the base of the K’Daai as they’re still just bare contacts below the bases and no way of supplying power to each model.
I decided to make the tray out of foamboard and also setup spots for the corresponding magnets in the tray so the K’Daai would be held down securely.
April 2, 2025
I went back and filled in a few more gaps and air bubble artifacts in the resin casting with Green Stuff, gave everything a good wash with wet Q-tips (13 years of dust, after all). Then I started updating the base coats with a slightly different shade and applied a generous wash.
The exploding guy still had some exposed bulbs as well so they got covered up with Water Effects (still the same bottle from 13 yrs ago, LOL).
Finally got some paint on the Daemonsmith as well.
April 7, 2025
Painting and crafting desk is a bit crowded of late…
After getting the magnet positions in the movement tray I also cut channels for the wires. And I needed to make sure my holes in the bases also lined up with the channels. Still feeling a bit disorganized and hectic, but it’s coming together more-so than it has in years!!
After so many years I also needed to make sure everything was still working. Gladly, 13 years later I have a separate variable power supply so I don’t need to go hunting for 12V batteries!
Placement sorted out on the movement tray and wiring is good.
What the eye doesn’t see… the chef gets away with
April 8, 2025
Wiring finished and also confirming the K’Daai Destroyer is working as well… excellent!
April 9, 2025
Time to get back to work on the K’Daai Destroyer body… I wanted him to be disgorging lava onto the base, so I needed to start building that up. I also blew out some expanding insulation foam into smoke plumes and took the best of the bunch.
April 10, 2025
Preparing the pieces for the movement tray/sub-base for the K’Daai Destoyer so it matches the one made for the K’Daai/
I also roughed up the edges of the rocky terrain a bit more and wanted more skulls around. I also took the opportunity to cram skulls around the body of the long-dead dwarf so that the static pose wasn’t looking quite so unnatural on the surface it was on.
April 11, 2025
Wrapping up the last bits of detail and trim for the base as well as sneaking in alternate wiring for bypassing the battery housing (thinking about keeping it wired up in the display cabinet going forward)…
All of the components primed and ready for paint!
April 14, 2025
Making the first passes with the airbrush on the body, and also getting the base underway as well.
I started in on the separate armour plates and then checked the model and base together to see how they were looking so far:
April 26, 2025
Was away for a little over a week on a family trip, so once I was back it was time to get dialed-in and get a move-on! Blocking in more colours and starting on a little bit of weathering and shading.
April 27, 2025
Of course being paranoid that something would go wrong with the bulbs or wiring during painting (luckily it wasn’t dropped) I was still checking that the thing was working regularly!
There was enough paint on the model at this stage that I was ready to add the Water Effects for the flames. Although the stuff is still fairly opaque, with the added paint for colour the lighting is already showing through nicely… once cured it’ll be even brighter!
The whole thing is still a bit of a dog’s breakfast, nothing is secured, everything is kind of janky and I have to check and re-check everything to make sure I haven’t messed up. Just a little more paint to go and it’ll be ready!!!
April 28, 2025 - PICTURE DAY
The K’Daai unit + Manburner
The K’Daai Destroyer
And last, but not least…
The Final Entry Photos:
OK, that’s it.. time for something new to work on next
~N
An insane amount of work and amazed that you started these so long ago! I hadn’t realized just how much went into getting these done. Nice job logging the progress as well! A brilliant finish to the project and I like the final models all the more for seeing what has gone into them.
