Deep Impact

I finally got around to sprucing up the base of my Stormwall a bit. This guy looks heavy, but apparently the ground hasn't gotten that memo. He's a big guy and big guys make big footprints, so I decided to give him some. I cut out some cork in a shape around his foot and carved away the excess to leave a nice little impact crater.

I also added a little more dirt around the anchor to emphasize its mass.

So there you have it. A short little update, but one that's been a while in the making. I'm finally pleased with how the base is turning out. I've got the cork primed up but I'm still a little unsure of how to break up all the flat space behind the anchor, so get at me in the comments with your suggestions! 

Voodoo Cryx - Dr. Death

Hello gentlepersons of the internet, today we're going to be discussing my slowly growing alternate army, Cryx. As you know, I like my armies to have a unique feel. I thought long and hard about what to do with my Cryx while still keeping them close to their badass origins. I chose to center my Cryx forces around the dark and mysterious concept of Voodoo. I'm still working on the details and color choices, but some suggestions may be required.

Like all good things, It starts with a Deathjack.

Despite initially knowing nothing about Cryx, It became apparent that Deathjack was too good to ignore. He was my first purchase and probably the only one I ever needed. His stats, point cost, and shear volume of abilities place him in the rankings for best Jack in the game. Like some coked out Frankenstein, I decided to rip him apart, mash pieces together, and reassemble him into my version of a voodoo-machine gone wrong (or right?). The result is a model that will represent my entire army as the Papa of Voodoo himself, my Witch Doctor Deathjack:

Now you may be thinking, "Wait a golly gosh darn minute! Deathjack has 2 open fists, not some shaman magic stick!"Fear not! Years of conversions that some find "distracting" has led me to consider alternative design features. Because of this, Deathjack features a magnetic wrist section for snapping between full-on voodoo badassery and hilariously massive robot hand.

So If you're anything like those hard-ass tournament junkies that can't appreciate someone's creativity in a hobby that encourages it, now you too can enjoy what I've created.

You'll notice that I've stripped away some of Deathjack's original design features. The most obvious of which is the head. While Deathjack's head is awesome in it's own right, I wanted something that screamed Voodoo. The resulting design was taken from an old GW Warriors of Chaos standard I had lying around tweaked with some extra bits. 

A lot of traditional tribal voodoo mask feature skulls and feathers. Since feathers would look kind of silly on a robot, I decided to go with iron protrusions reminiscent of feathers instead.
I included more chains throughout the model as ornamentation  similar to old bone charms and jewelry worn by tribal Witch Doctors. I decided against including one of Deathjack's signature pieces, the so-called "skulls of hate" which originally come in the form of 2 cartoonish skull shoulder pads that I did not care for. I chucked these out and replaced them with my interpretation of "skulls of hate," a ritualistic pile of skulls topped with candles. To me, this tells a better story and immerses the model in my Voodoo world.

Skulls of Hate (Actual hate sold separately)

Another of Deathjack's staples are his 2 spouting exhaust funnels of death and  his massive shoulder-neck-plate-crest-majigger (if unfamiliar with this scientific term, reference Deathjack image at top of post). I've completely fucked with these pieces and i'm prepared to get some hate for it, but I wouldn't hack apart a $55 model if I didn't think it would look decent. I moved the massive neck-plate to his back providing a shell-like feature that helps bulk him up in the back where he needs it, and less on his shoulders that are already huge. Moving this piece exposes a fine piece of detail that most probably don't even know Deathjack has- A SPINE! Once I discovered this design feature, I knew I couldn't cover it up.

I ended up moving almost all the pieces designed to go around his neck to the back, providing him with some extra protection back there. I choose to attribute this design choice to his 360* front arc. Since his ass is now well armored, he can't easily get stabbed in the back by bad guys (or good guys. or girls. or other giant flailing demon robots).You'll also notice I shrunk his 2 massive smokestacks down to 1 moderately sized exhaust pipe. With fewer emissions, Deathjack can focus more on murdering his enemies and less on murdering the environment. What a good guy.

Deathjack: Now made from 70% recycled demon souls!

So there you have it my friends, Voodoo DJ. I still have A few things I want to mess around with before he's complete but I can't start painting him until I nail down my paint scheme. If you guys have any painting suggestions, I would genuinely appreciate it. That's all for now, stay tuned!

Back From the Deep!

After a long hiatus and a move half way across the country, I'm happy to say that I am breaking my silence! Despite what it may seem, I've actually made quite a bit of headway in the hobby front, but haven't had much time to post about it. Now, enough of the nonsense. Onto the models!

First up is my monster of a project, Dr. Stormwallis. He's undergone a bit of a color transformation but there is still much left to do. His base has taken on some color and once i get his legs fully painted, I'll begin the water effects securing his leg to the ocean.

Doesn't look like much yet, but it will blend nicely with the added water effects.

I'm starting from the legs up since I'll need to plant the legs before adding the water effects. All painting right now is done only as a base coat and all weathering, shading, and washing will be added afterwards.

Hand and anchor pieces (all magnetized) with a bit o' paint.

When I assemble everything I've got painted up so far, he starts to look a bit more like what I had originally envisioned. My towering behemoth takes his first steps on dry land!

"Get over here!!"

And so, Dr. Stormwallis looks on into the future where a full coat of paint and an ocean of water effects await him. Fear not, this project is very much alive and well and I should be updating more frequently now that I'm settled into my new Texas home!

Overdue Updates

The Titanic model has been in display quality for quite some time now but I haven't updated the blog in a while! allow me to show the Titanic in its current state. While there is still much more work to do, it finally at least looks like a completely model. For now the model is still in several pieces, which will eventually get glued together, so the minor gaps in the model will be fixed later.

Comparison shots for good measure...

All in all, some of the accuracy was difficult to achieve due to my limited resources and, in some cases, lack of historical record. Either way, I'm pretty happy with the way it's turned out so far. The rest of the work mainly lies in the display base, which is mostly staining wood and painting details, but I need access to home depot before I finish any of that. Stay tuned! :)

Stormwall Conversion Update

The beast is taking shape. I've managed to get him all magnetized in a state that i can field him whole (goodbye to just legs on a base)!
I started by magnetizing his torso. Because this was an important joint to keep flush, this required some finagling. I drilled two holes in the torso piece first. These holes were determined after I decided the angle of his pose. this explains why they are slightly askew.

After that, I filled in the waist piece with putty. the next part is the best way to ensure that magnets are flush with any model. simply connect them! I placed 2 magnets over the torso magnets and pressed th etorso piece against the puttied waist piece. this results in 2 perfectly positioned and flushed up holes for the waist magnets to sit. Then after the putty was dry, I applied glue (putty or greenstuff alone may not always reliably hold magnets in place).

Something was missing, however. As you can see, there was too much space on the base. So i began to brainstorm and then I decided to throw in the anchor...what could POSSIBLY be more badass than a hulking metal monstrosity swinging around an old ship anchor!?! Trick question. The answer is clearly, "nothing."

I started by drawing an anchor on a post it note, getting a relative size down. then found an old lid with the right angled arc for the anchor bottom. I cut a piece from this and formed putty around it, freehand, until it vaguely resembled the slight taper of an anchor.

It needed a post, so I cut the inside inkwell of an old pen and connected it to the newly fashioned anchor. I cut little triangles out of plasticard to act as the anchor blades and fashioned them in place. all that was left were the support rods on the side which i threw together with toothpicks and a dab of putty on the end.

The end result looks pretty good for having been thrown together with scraps. Next was altering the hand. I connected the anchor to the hand using my girlfriends old necklace chain. I used his already "fist" hand and altered it to appear as though clenched over wrapped chains. this way the anchor is implied to be an epic weapon.

To add a sense of dynamic awesomeness, I decided to sink the anchor into the earth a bit as if Dr. Stormwallis had just hurled it ashore. to do this, I cut a small chunk out of the base for one of the anchor blades to occupy and formed up a bit of "earth" that the anchor displaced upon impact. the result is exactly the kind of dynamic space filler i had envisioned for the base and adds a bit of character and yet more nautical theming to my creation.

I magnetized the anchor to the base as well as the hand to the wrist, so that the entire contraption can be removed for storage OR as a failsafe if the chain accidentally catches on something.
The close-to-end result is something I am very proud of. Behold the mighty Stormwallis!

 

The Base-ics

I wanted Stormy to be hulking out of the water onto some sort of bank. This base is going to take a lot of time and consideration if i want it to look as awesome as I've got it pictured in my head. the concept is simple...

Pretty much this but more epic and awesome. if that's possible.
So far, I've got this:

Stay tuned for updates... they are sure to be frequent as I've basically done all my Stormwall converting within the past two weeks, driven by my excitement for the project! Thanks for checking it out :)

A Knee-t Little Trick

One thing plaguing all robot like models since the dawn of time... LACK OF BENDY KNEES! seriously... check out this Khador Kodiak jack:

He's got squatty knees. WOW! SO DYNAMIC!

Or this Tau Battlesuit:

Man! Hope he doesn't have to tie his shoes!

 Without the ability to separately pose the legs, these models lose the war on dynamic posing (a war that, to me, is more important than the battle on the actual tabletop). You need cool looking models, people! otherwise, we would just be playing our wargames with pieces of paper and crayons.

So  my stormwall needed bendy knees. This meant an enormous undertaking, having to remove both halves of the leg without compromising the leg itself. I decided to cut along the area shown below:

The fruits of my hour or so of delicate xacto sawing...

Step 2 was to shave down all the crap still left in the joint.

once the joint was relatively smoothed out, It was time to ensure that the piston "achilles tendon" would align properly with my leg adjustments. This required hacking off the bit altogether and shortening the piston as it would be if the heel was retracted and leg was bent.

The end result represents and entirely retracted piston, allowing enough headroom to fit the bent thigh section in. The next step was to grind out the square holes in the hip connection to allow for free rotation while I found the proper angle to prop the leg up. This was then glued in place with the other leg resulting in the torso piece as shown

Dr. Stormwallis was now clearly ready for a base on which to perch himself!