Miniatures WIP Blog!

Figured I might as well start up a progress thread for my various little projects, heh. Comments and feedback always welcome!

First up, I'm customising some MkIV armour from Forgeworld to make one of my Deathwatch characters; Jahi, a Raptorae discipline Librarian from my loyalist Thousand sons army. I've made a book out of plasticard and greenstuff, and it'll be hanging from a chain around his waist. I've also carved a khopesh-style force sword from plasticard, and I've started on the greenstuff modifications like the tabard and helmet.
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Here's a bit of a closer look at the book and khopesh.
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I've also finally put together a model I got from Games Day back in 2012 - a Blood Angels captain. Not sure if I want to customise him up for my own army, or leave him as is and paint him as a proper Blood Angel. Decisions, decisions.
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Finally, something I'll be working on in the background when I don't feel like doing anything else... Part of me wants to customise the terminators for my Thousand Sons, but part of me is reluctant to mess with SUCH NICE MODELS hnngh. DILEMMA. Either way, I'll be doing the 'nids in a snow/ice theme to go with that fething iceball planet. XD
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Blood angels, mud angels - more epic sons!

That scratch made Kopesh makes me a little envious.

And damn those termis look good in a group.

Got a bit more done on Jahi! I've tidied up his tabard a bit, carved the nasal crest for the helmet, and made a chain for his book. Waiting for the greenstuff chain to dry so I can tidy it up and then stick his arms on.

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Planning on doing a bit more detail work on him too - mainly drilling out the center bit of his chestplate and greenstuffing a scarab or something in there, hopefully that will work out. Thinking of getting rid of the skull over his abdomen, too - thoughts?

I've added the scarab to the chestplate and decided to try an Inqusitorial =I= on the abdomen thanks to some feedback from elsewhere. Had to trim down the top of the skull to give some room for the top half of the symbol. This is just the first pass, waiting for the greenstuff to dry before I tidy it up and stuff.

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Opinions? What does everyone think of the Inquisitorial symbol so far? Keep it? Ditch it? Any other comments?

Keep it, It will tie in well with the whole Deathwatch look. Make him stand out as far more than your average marine!

Haha, yeah. Let's just hope he LIVES long enough to become more than your average marine!

Ehh, that's what fate points are for

Its more about wheather or not you make it there in one piece

Very true! XD Fingers crossed that he manages to keep all his bits!

Some more progress! Now that the greenstuff's dry, I tidied up the Inquisition symbol a little and finally finished putting this guy together. On the hunt for xeno scum!

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I think he's just about ready to prime and paint! As always, comments and feedback are welcome! Oh, and would anyone be interested in seeing a step by step of how I made the sword?

Yes on the sword! Cant wait to see him fully painted up

Hehe, no kidding! Man, it'll be a nice change painting mostly black instead of red or blue! XD

Just made another sword, for an assault marine this time. Temporarily tack'd together for now!

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What I'm wondering is if I want to keep all the studs on his armour or not. I'll definitely be taking them off the helmet and modifying it with a nasal crest, as usual. I'll also add a tabard and other detailing. I'm just not sold on all the studs. :\ Thoughts?

Well, the studs represent the age and make of the armor. I've always liked the studs... but I have to say the ones on the helmet don't look so great.

Or maybe if you just kept the two in the middle, and shaved the ones off the side of the helmet?

I totally agree on the helmet part, ugh. I've taken all the studs off the helmet, including the two in the middle, 'cause I'll be doing my usual nasal crest thing on that at some point.

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These are the images I'm gonna be basing my assault guys on. They have the studs, but I'm still not entirely sold on the stud thing. Hrmm. I think part of my issue is the studs on the model are just so LARGE. Maybe if I took 'em off and then replaced 'em with smaller ones... along with modifying the rest of the armour a bit as well. Thoughts?

Got started on Jahi's paint! Haven't gotten far yet though, so it still looks terrible, heh.

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Besides that, I've also been working on converting my Storm Talon to something slightly less lumpy-potato-like. XD I've managed to get the assault cannon up higher into the nose while still keeping a bit of rotation/elevation movement, so I'm pretty pleased with that.

However, I have a problem! As you're all most likely aware, I am terribly indecisive, so I need comments and opinions on where to put all the OTHER weapons!

Version 1 - Lascannons on the wingtips, bolters flush against the nose, missile pods under the wings up against the engines. I'd also trim off those extruding bits where the weapon pods would normally mount either side of the nose, so the nose profile will be slimmer.
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Version 2 - Missile pods integrated into the roof instead of mounted under the wings. If I do go with this, I'll actually be sinking the pods more flush against the roof so they're not sitting up quite so high. I just don't want to cut anything off yet until I finalise what I'm actually doing.
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Version 3 - Lascannons flush against the nose and extending far out to the front, heavy bolters mounted on the outside. If I go with this, I'd modify the extruding bits to better suit having the bolters mounted in them.
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Version 4 - Bolters flush against the nose, lascannons mounted on the outside. If I go with this, I'd modify the extruding bits to better suit having the lascannons mounted in them.
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Or any other ideas that y'all might have! I don't want to mess with the wings/tail too much though, 'cause I actually quite like how they are (and I still want to be able to fit this thing into the custom foam I have for it! ) I mostly just wanted to trim down the nose as much as I can.

Help me, Obi-Wan! You're my only hope!

Finally got my milliput in and have been playing with it! Used straight up milliput first, then tried a 50/50 milliput/greenstuff mix. Adding the greenstuff makes the milliput easier to work with, I think! Gonna hafta wait until it dries to see how hard it is and how well it sands down.

So here's the current state of Chapter Master Akil Amari - missing his right hand atm, I'll need to sculpt that once I've finished the rest of the weapon.
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And a better view of the blade on Ahemit:
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Still a lot of tidy up to do, but progress has been made!

Heh, so Akil runs around in artificer Iron Armour. Nice!

Only when he's being SUPER FANCY, I figure! That's probably just his ceremonial armour - inherited from Sefu. XD I figure in actual combat, when he's not stomping around in Terminator armour, Akil's got his own battle plate of MkIV.

Some more progress!

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I'm experimenting with the gold at the moment, using a purple wash as well as a brown wash to shade it. Still need to finish highlighting the gold, using a lighter gold and silver. I think I also need to work on the red some more, darken the shadowed areas back down again.

Opinions?

Stick a fork in him, he's finally done! At least until I decide to tweak him, anyway. XD

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Comments and feedback welcome!

On to my next project! Right now I'm kind of bouncing between a few different things until I settle on what to focus on next. Here's one of the things I'm playing with at the moment:

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Experimenting with a bit of true-scaling, along with making a few robed characters for my pre-Heresy Sons army. This is still very rough, I need to do more greenstuff work on him, especially around the torso/waist area. Also going to add the usual book hanging from a chain around the waist thing. Here's a size comparison with some regular marines:

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I'll be making five of these guys, I think! They'll most likely be either squad sergeants, or a five-man squad of veterans or something, I'm not entirely sure yet. Still deciding on what weapons to give them all, and whether or not to magnetise their arms for loadout swapping. Any thoughts or suggestions?

And something else I'm working on occasionally - the 25th Anniversary Crimson Fist model. Sometimes it's nice to paint something different!

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Let me know what you all think!

Got a little more work done on my robed guys this week! Here's the five in varying stages of progress - waiting for greenstuff to dry is such a pain. XD Still a lot of work and tidy-up to do on them all!

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This guy's testing out a weapon idea I'm considering:
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Better look at the actual blade shape:
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Also, I've decided I won't be using the hooded heads from the DA box for these guys - I'll be customising helmets for them like I've done before.

Let me know what you all think!

A little more progress! They now all have their book chained to their belt, and a bit more greenstuff detailing! I've also started on a couple of the helmets, though there's still a long way to go.

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One day I'll figure out consistency between all those winged scarabs... one day. But today is not that day!

Here's a bit more progress! Working on all the weapons at the moment, though I'm still trying to decide what ranged weapons to give some of them - bolt pistols or storm bolters or plasma pistols or grav pistols or what. I'm also trying to get my hands on a storm bolter or two, but no luck yet. All the arms are magnetised - not so much for actual weapon swapping, but more so I can play with poses and also make painting easier later on.

This guy's weapons are almost finalised, I think! I'm gonna chuck a holstered pistol on his belt as well. Head and pauldrons are just there for the moment to give a better idea of sizing. Still not sure if the blades are a little too large or not. Thoughts?
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Still working on this guy's glaive - testing out the arm positioning at the moment before I actually start greenstuffing in the other hand, etc. What do you all think? Does this pose work?
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In-progress heads, blargh.
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I'm gonna be giving one of the guys a one-handed mace + pistol or stormbolter combo - here's a rough design I've come up with for the mace. Now to see if I can actually MAKE it, heh.
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One guy's gonna have a khopesh+pistol or stormbolter combo, the other's gonna be given a big ol' two-handed staff (which I still need to figure out a design for).

Let me know what you all think!