Marco does something

[Koval]

For things that are personal to Marco, I'd argue against getting them cast, as I think that would just cheapen the whole idea of Marco having wanted to make something for himself and then doing it.

Given his collection, I can't think of many things to which that doesn't apply.

[MarcoSkoll]

Pretty much as Koval said. Cloning models I want to be uniquely mine would be counter intuitive (but that is not to say that I do not plan to do some sculpts that will be for reproduction).

However, even if I were to suddenly decide I did want to, these models are sculpted in a way that would be a total nightmare to cast. There's too many deep undercuts and really thin pieces.

[MarcoSkoll]

As the metal bawx finally appeared at the IGT on Saturday (and helped me to a Best GM victory), it's time to post some pictures.

Front right:


Front left, Rear left, Rear right

Interior from rear:


Interior from right, Interior from top

I'm guessing you know it's mostly plasticard, but there are also some wooden pieces in the track assembly; some cheap PVC pipe as the wheels, reinforcing spacers between the main body and side panels and the basic skeleton for the top hatch; and some procreate/milliput mix for gap filling and the actual shape of the top hatch.
And then add in a few LEDs*, a couple of resistors, a switch, two AAs and an old marble to make up the electrical side of things.

I'll get some painted shots in natural light sometime soon, probably after I fix a couple of not entirely painted control panels inside, but here's a couple of pictures of it from the IGT, proving that players cannot resist climbing over vehicles:





*As an aside, I could have used white LEDs for the headlights, but I felt yellow would be more striking and make their illumination stand out better under normal lighting.

[Radu Lykan]

i do like to see 54mm vehicles and that is a stunner, great job
any ideas to add a big gun at some point? a heavy stubber or webber would look good and as i dont tend to use big guns due to the practical side of lugging a heavy weapon around vehicles seem like the best place to incorporate them?

[MarcoSkoll]

The side hatches, rear roof hatch, driver's roof hatch and roof are ultimately all removable, with the intention that I can build alternative parts.

The rear roof hatch will get a turret mount, to let it later be more heavily armed for scenarios - things like Razorback turrets, an artillery mount something like a Whirlwind or the Forge World Exorcist, or less dangerous things like the Damocles command variant.
The side hatches might later mount sponson type weapons, the driver's hatch might get a pintle weapon option... and the roof might get an outright swap for something like a Repressor variant - which might well mount webbers or water cannons.

[greenstuff_gav]

so was all of it's rules made on the fly as it were?
gotta love remote-locking APCs .. bwoop-bwop! 

looks great tho; i loved that guy's comment:
"so d'you use the Land Raider tracks?"
"no, it's all plasticard"
"what about the tracks?"
"they're plasticard with plastic detailing"

[MarcoSkoll]

Yes, I was making the rules up as I went along. I may formalise its rules more later, but I find with vehicles, it helps to be able to scale them to the situation and reward players for creative approaches.
After all, it's not very "action movie" to give the players no chance against a vehicle because they've not got the right heavy weapons.

And that guy didn't seem to quite grasp that people can completely scratchbuild things. Or that I was a little bit madder than building a 54mm Land Raider.

I have previously considered a Land Raider, but having now seen the size of the Rhino next to the WHW terrain, I think one would be impractically big and of relatively little use in comparison to more versatile chassis like the Rhino, Chimera or even the Leman Russ (which can be things like the Atlas).

I know that kind of thing is odd to say in the context of the Warhound, but that's a project I'm chasing down because it's something really different and I love the look of the Mars Warhound. A 54mm Land Raider isn't more than another tank as far as the actual game-play goes, except more awkwardly sized, less versatile and way further out of the realms of being plausibly combated.

[MarcoSkoll]

Having come home from Saturday's IGT with a 2nd place and Best GM win (partly due to finally finishing my 54mm Rhino), I've got £20 worth of vouchers that need spending. (It's not much, but we had the lowest GT turnout I've yet seen, so the prize fund was hardly spectacular).

Mind you, it's more than I normally get to spend on new GW stuff (given my general thoughts as regards pricing policy), so it's worth thinking through.

Hence, I've been rifling through the ranges ("rifle range" pun not intended) to see what might appeal.
I've looked at some of the models people have been doing lots with recently, but I don't feel I have anything sufficiently original to do with models like the Chaos Cultists or Nurgle Lord.

Which is why I think I'm looking at the DE Succubus, GK Death Cult Assassins and, if that's not in stock in my local, possibly a Kasrkin 2 to get the whole lot above free delivery.

What I have in mind is that the Succubus - with her armour de-spiked and extended over the rest of her body, probably head and weapon swaps and maybe some reposing - could become an apprentice for Inquisitor Virasson, taking after his own less than subtle manner.

The Death cultists - I've got a conversion in mind for one of them (probably the one with the sword), another agent of Virasson.
The other is less clear in my mind, but the torso is not dissimilarly styled to that in the art I based Lady Riemann on. If turned into parts, maybe there's the opening for the corset being use on a model of a similar style.

The Kasrkin - mostly just because I love the models, but have never owned any. There's no certain plan involved.

However, I've also glanced at the Citizens of the Empire sets - Duellists and Merchant & Scribe.
I have concepts here... but not so much ideas regarding how to use them.

The pistol duellist, with his weapons updated (probably swapping the powder tubes for grenades), might turn into a troop styled after the Swiss Guard (at least in appearance, if not in role, given the fluff issues there).
The sword duellist might turn into some officer, possibly Naval.
The scribe would most naturally remain an adept type.
And the merchant puts me somewhat in mind of the old 54mm Crime Lord, and could do a nice turn in a similar role.

These are interesting ideas, but I fear the problem is a lack of plans for them, as opposed to the more focused ideas I have regarding how to fill out Virasson's warband.

Anyone wish to share opinions?

[DapperAnarchist]

If you want Grimdark Swiss Guard, move them from protecting the Grimdark Pope (the Ecclesiarch, of course) to protecting a Grimdark Cardinal (... a Cardinal. Well, that was original of them ). Offworld troops moved in to protect him, not Ecclesiarchy troops, but instead either hired contracters or 'volunteers' who happen to be paid through some other means.

[MarcoSkoll]

Post 1:
I headed over to my local on Friday. Given the scale of the place (which has now moved to much tighter premises up the road), I wasn't exactly surprised to find they didn't have even the non-direct models, and thus placed an order for the Succubus, Assassins and Kasrkin. (Ordering the Kasrkin separately wouldn't have been very postage efficient).

It seemed better to go with the more solid plans I had in my head. I know a lot of the 28mm community are very content with the "make model first, decide who it is later" approach, but that's not so much my style. I prefer to be more confident about who I'm dealing with before I begin. (Maybe as a side effect of many of my models being tens of hours of sculpting? Not that I never kitbash, but it's not my normal manner).

Upside is this gives me some of the gender balance I wanted for Virasson's warband - and should I want to use the Empire Citizens as inspiration later on, I can probably quite effectively imitate them with leftover plastic parts and some putty work.

~~~~~

Post 2:

In the interests of actually working more on Virasson's warband, I've been playing around with the old metal shotgun scout I had designs on turning into an Arbitrator.

Thing is, while a headswap and maybe a bit of remodelling on the shoulders/back would be functional, it also feels a bit simplistic. A bit dull for an Inquisitor model, and not really enough to stop it looking like a lazy scout conversion.

So, as it wouldn't be one of my warbands without arbitrarily emasculating at least one of the concepts halfway through or some unnecessarily involved modelling work, I hit Photoshop to see if there was any merit to the possibility of doing the same here:



This would be quite involved, requiring slimming down the torso on the model (between the various pouches/equipment), probably replacing the hands and shotgun, and acquiring a new head (the placeholder there is cut and pasted from a Statuesque head, but in reality it would be too small for this model - but I can sculpt heads at this scale, so this isn't too problematic)... but I think it would make for a pretty unique version of the model.

Mind you:
1) Do you think it'd actually work?
2) Am I just being over the top here?

[Heroka Vendile]

a little of column a, a little of column b. I don't think there's anything wrong with a straight headswap on the old metal scouts, perhaps remove the bulky backpiece and replace with something more... non-space-marine?

[MarcoSkoll]

There's not strictly anything wrong with it, but it's not anything special either. A basic headswap is hardly stretching my skills or producing something distinctly "mine".

[MarcoSkoll]

Well, I decided to give the scout's gender realignment surgery a go.

The model divided into its main pieces:

There are a few other bits I've saved (like the pouches and shotgun shells) but I've put these somewhere harder to lose them.

Main cuts were:
- taking the pouches/shells off. This was done with a craft knife given the very narrow cut width. (However, it should go without saying it's not actually a recommended technique for that much metal cutting).
- down the left side of the torso, to cut away the left arm and front of the shotgun. (Now using the razor saw).
- across from the right side of the torso, on a 45 diagonal plane between the middle of the back and underneath the shotgun, separating legs and upper body
- cut shotgun away from top half of torso, angled at about 45 degrees down. This had to be two cuts, one from each end, as it wasn't a straight line at the wrist.
- After that, just trimming away waste metal.

This gives me 4 to 6 pieces (depending on the eventual fate of the webbing, I may just GS it) to reassemble into a miniature, so probably my most intricate dissection yet.
Upside is that I saved all the major details, including the arms and shotgun that I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep. The only real casualties were a couple of frag grenades on the belt, but these can be restocked from plastic bitz if needed.

After the torso has been slimmed and reattached to the legs:

Sorry, not the best photo ever.

There's two pins and a scrap of 0.5mm plasticard as a spacer. The two halves should be in roughly the same position as before, and be strong enough to stay there.

And the start of GS shaping:

This is far from finished and it's going to need some filing after this is set (some of the metal wasn't quite trimmed back far enough and got in the way), but it's reasonably promising so far.
She's clearly going to have some meat on her bones given she's based on a (heroic) male miniature - but I think her shape should work out fine if I can tweak her hips and waist a bit more. (The hips are high at the moment).

The face is still going to be entirely make-or-break, and she'll probably still get mistaken for a he by players anyway, but I'm at least trying to fulfil my quotas on feminising my characters and overcomplicated modelling.

[MarcoSkoll]

Photos of yesterday's work, as promised (on Ammobunker, anyway):


I'm not sure where that scrape on the stomach came from...


Reshaped bum. Yay.


And with a test pose of the shotgun. The narrower shoulders do need me to check I'm not making the upper arms too long, but I think this should work.

~~~~~

And today's arrivals:



Almost tempted to complain - although I quite like the effect, the webstore picture leads me to doubt the dimples in all these studs are intentional:

And the sword... well I don't know how that's supposed to have happened, given it's all sprued up.

Her friend's not great either, with some bubbles in her armour and nose:


And the Succubus seems to be some kind of Eldar/shark hybrid, with a back fin:

(Even without the fact her right foot is snapped/otherwise unattached to the base tab)

And the Ksarkin (sic, see base tab) has some "growth" on the leg and shoulder that appears to be the result of a damaged mould.

Mind you, I'm probably too impatient to actually try and sort all this out with customer service and will likely end up just fixing it all myself, but it still shows that Finecast isn't exactly entirely up to scratch yet - nor is metal casting flawless either. (Mind you, the Kasrkin is probably going to be the least time to fix).

[MarcoSkoll]

Anyway, heads. I don't have any GW female heads (at least that I want to use) going spare, and I think most of the ones from 3rd party manufacturers are butt ugly.

But I think we all knew from the start that I'd just start cheating at this point, and sidestep the problem in my own idiom.

So, here's one possible head:

Apologies that it's a dash out of focus, but even my old camera and its crazy supermacro mode sometimes struggles.

Obviously, there's no back of the head, neck or hair yet. Right eye is also unfinished (sometimes it's easier to not put the eye in the socket while sculpting, so to speak). The cheeks were also a dash asymmetrical as of this photo, but that's been tweaked.

I'm not sure I'll use this one, as I'm quite tempted to go closer to the appearance of the Statuesque head or just have a more adventurous expression, but it at least gets my hand back in and will let me check the scale.
Heads often don't have to be much out in size to not work for the bulk of a given model, and that's more of a risk here given converting a male miniature for the job makes this model's bulk a bit unusual. I've defaulted to 6mm tall which tends to work for heroic 32mm, but I'll need to be sure on that.

I've also done a little more sculpting on the main body, but not really enough to bother photographing yet - just the first stage of belt and some tidying up.