I am seriously thinking about repainting and starting again. I know that there are a number of steps in this project to get it to look right, but I am just not happy with some aspects of this paint job. The main part being the abdominal sections, I may redo these and see what that leaves me with. But then again, I don’t want to waste any more time on this avenue if I am going to paint over it.

Anyway, what do you guys think:

I like some areas of the backpack, but the marine himself, I think I actually hate…

Hmmmm indeed.

Then a salt mask was applied using water and a brush.

Then once dried, a coat of Vallejo Dark Blue. Once that was down, added a little GW skull white to the mix and did some highlights. Let this dry through (probably best left overnight, but I didn’t wait). Gently rub off the salt with an old toothbrush and some COLD water.

Here are the initial results, I like. It could have done with an intermediate coat, as in, take of the salt mask between the colours, then add another in different locations a little lighter, but hey, everyday is a school day right?

Next step, is to highlight various areas with a brush and pick out some of the edges. I may add in some additional areas of a mid blue with a sponge, just to get a little more variation in there.

This has also taught me that I really do need to get some proper lighting set up.

N

Anyway, weird intro over, onto the model. So after a bit of slight planning and some scratching of heads, decided to do this one as the hybrid I feel it’s meant to be. The backpack is not featured strongly in the artwork that this build is based on, so I hope I have done it justice here. Of the parts that I can see, I have tried to recreate.

Make with the images I hear you say:

So the main part is made from some plastic stock from B&Q, a long thick strip of some kind of plastic. A bitch to cut, but can finish it quite nicely. The vent on the back was from some tubing cut to length and then some preformed plastruct sheet trimmed and inserted into the tube. Some miliput around the outside and filed to get the chamfered edges.

The cowling over the top was some alluminium sheet, cut, drilled whilst still flat (much easier that way!) and then formed by rolling it over the xacto blade handle. I still need to add some rivets and maybe a skull on there.

For the big Tau style parts, just some plastic square tubing, cut at various angles to fit together and then have used some sheet to get the notched in detailing. I need to trim the excess here and there and to get the boosters in the bottom section sorted. I may need to scribe in some panel lines yet too.

As usual, thanks for looking!

D

Also did the Tau inspired plasma pistol. Needs a little filler here and there to really sharpen it up, but am pleased with how it came out. I added a quick layer of white primer to disclose any issues so I have some areas that need  attention.

Overall, not too far from the finish line from a sculpting point. I need to add some filler here and there as some of the fimo has split in parts, I suspect that has something to do with repeated bakings, but have not got enough experience with it to say for sure.

After this stage, onto the backpack that will be a scratchbuild rather than a sculpt. No concept sketch for this area so will have to wing it.

Not completed but wanted to share it with you:

Hope you like, I am pleased I think!

N

Anyway, worked on the helmet, which took far too long to do, but there you go.

 Also, as a result of some feedback on the various forums etc. I re-sculpted the knee pads. Much better now I think.

N

As you may know, I got some of the Perry Miniatures British Napoleonic Minis to use as crew with my Thudd Gun build. I wanted to make them a little more 40K, but the competition deadline was looming so I had to ditch the idea.

So have revisited this one, and started a test mini. I will be adding a DKoK style breathing unit and something more like a lasgun. Have also shaved down the lower legs as I wanted them to have those lower leg type spats (?) type things…

So from this:

to this wip:

N

Mean….hehehehe

N

Knocked up these bad boys from some 2mm piono wire and some various aluminium rod. On reflection, I would prefer to make the handle out of some nice wood, but can’t find any.

In the style of the famous wax carver No.5, here’s one of my first efforts:

Also, made these ones. One is a knife style tip and one a straight spatula style:

So anyway, if you fancy doing these for yourself, here is a link to an exceptional guide of how to do it!

http://sculptingtools.blogspot.com/

If you don’t fancy that, I may and I mean MAY, make a few extra for sale at some point. Depends largely on interest…