The black project

[mcjomar]

So I'm really inclined to just pint the holsters and glue the backpack on and focus everything on the sword, but I'm wondering if I should do anything else with the chains first?
Like are they good as is given the time remaining (I also need to paint this guy), or should I try and maybe run another strip of GS over the top and use my knife to go through it into the holes to add more links to the chains?
Or just not risk it, and get everything glued, pinned, and painted?
Thoughts?
Sword just needs crossbar doing, and then after that it's all rivets.

[Lord Borak]

You can always source some real chain from somewhere. You can usually buy it for fairly cheap and in good quantities from hobby dealers. If you want to sculpt chain I did a tutorial on it AGES ago here...

http://www.librarium-online.com/forums/completed-tutorials/300754-sculpting-chain.html

otherwise, you could leave it as is and go back and re-do it later once you have figured out how you want to do it.

[mcjomar]

Ahh nice, cheers.
That's probably the best one I've seen.

I was using the GS rope trick, and then putting holes in them. I guess I'll do what your one suggests for the bit over the top though for the links.
Once that's done, I think the holsters are looking good enough to attach, so I'll get those on, and glue on the backpack, then either do rivets, or finish the sword (including rivets) and pin it, and then do the other rivets.

E: I've ordered some metal chain, so if I still can't get it looking good enough then I'll just carve it off and replace in metal.
Which looks like exactly what is going to happen the more I look at the chain.
The chain will supposedly arrive in the middle of the coming week, but that doesn't give me much time to really get this done.
I'll have to really pull some serious heavy lifting to get it sorted I think.

[mcjomar]

Okay, so the sword, backpack, and holsters are "done", and the chain has arrived (1.5 is 40k scale it turns out, but 2mm or even 3mm works fantastically at 54mm scale).
Now I just need to replace and rebuild the chain, pin everything in place, and finish riveting the armour plates on the arms, plasma pistol, kneepads, and I think that's it?

[Lord Borak]

Sounds good

[mcjomar]

Okay I've never worked with chain before.
I'm using this larger (either 2mm or 3mm) for the belt, but I'll revert to the 1.5mm for the dangling skull.
I'm considering that probably the best thing is to use the 1.5mm for the grenade/holsters, and maybe the larger chain for the sword?
I think there's an excruciatingly tiny bit of chain on the bolt pistol also so I'll look at using the 1.5mm for that maybe.
either way, it has begun, belt first.

[mcjomar]

Okay, so here's my next update.
Image heavy (ish).











So all that remains is:

5 rivets on the right shoulder pad
10 rivets on the right elbow pad
8 rivets on the right wrist
4 rivets on the right hand (knuckles)
9 rivets on the left elbow pad
8 rivets on the left wrist
10 rivets on the plasma pistol

I think there's a rivet on the gorget so I'll need to do some careful GS work there to tidy that spot up.

Once that is all sculpted, I can undercoat this fella, and get painting.
Prime white, base black, begin shading with grey washes, edges with dark angel green up to maybe snot green.
Do skeletal bits and metals, finish up face. etc.
Wash, and then complete.
The list grows ever shorter.

[Lord Borak]

  That's awesome.

[mcjomar]

Okay, so progress report.
Shoulder pads are fully riveted, and plasma pistol is just over halfway done.
It's slow because it's a lot of rivets, and I've gotta be careful to not squash 'em as I make 'em.
Bit of a pain in the rear end.

[mcjomar]

Nearly done.
I think a little LGS might help tidy up around where I sculpted.

I maybe need to re-do the rivet on the underneath of the plasma pistol, but that's it.
Painting.
I'm going to have to work fast. One week left

[Lord Borak]

Looking really good man. With your rivets, have you tried just rolling out some small little GS balls, letting them dry and then slicing them in half? It's an easy way of doing it.

[mcjomar]

Gotta admit i didn't think of that.
For the sake of brevity I'll have to stick with my bolts for now.
Otherwise it won't be painted in time.

[Lord Borak]

No worries, I didn't mean re-do your work. I don't normally do that method as I use little balls* to represent rivets. Although the GS needs to be wet when you push them in obviously, or you drill a little indent for them to sit it and glue them in (FIDDLY!).


*From the inside of a water filter.

[mcjomar]

That makes me wonder if I could use LGS as a sort of adhesive when applying those things to other greenstuff bits?

[mcjomar]

I knew there was a reason everyone suggested painting black might be difficult.
This picture right here covers what I'm trying to replicate for my paint scheme (mostly) and damn if getting that blended look is next to impossible.