Never turn your back on the Empire...

Here are the promised group shots!  The overall shiny steel effect comes together much better in these images.

Looking at them now, it reminded me of why I chose the red and blue Altdorf scheme.  The blue and red can be dark enough to provide contrast against the lightest parts of the armor, while the reds can be warm enough to get me the temperature contrast as well.  Most of the other possible schemes had a tendency to give only one of those benefits.

Besides, those Altdorf dandies are supposed to be the ones with the spare cash to have fancy, shiny stuff like this!

There's lots more Empire on the way!  Stay tuned...

A box of bones: An Empire banner bearer from Forgeworld

Finally, we have the last member of the command staff!  For those of you who have seen the previous posts, you know I have been painting all these in the Altdorf color scheme.  I have also taken the opportunity to do some SE-NMM.

You can especially see the Sky-earth in these views of the helmet and chest plate.  It is a lot of fun getting to do that!

What was less fun was the inevitable resin issues.  The pistol of the captain was broken off from the start, so I had to sculpt one.  It was made more difficult by virtue of its octagon shape.  I modeled it after the pistol on this figure.  I was nearly done painting this figure when somehow my finger touched the muzzle and snapped it off!  I still have no idea where it might have gone, but I was not going to waste time looking for it.

So, I made another one.

I will post the group shots tomorrow!  I hope you like them. :-)

Blasting more bases...

Hey there folks!  This is not the post I was expecting to do, but Forgeworld high 'quality' resin had other ideas (long story).

Anyway, I am working on more 80 mm inserts.  There are many designs that have to be done, including the "building bases".  All of these are on the CMON site (Groundwerks bases?).

These designs have wall pieces which are separate, so that they can be moved around in various combinations, or even as bases themselves.  As with most of these big bases, I am trying to keep the 'footprint' relatively large and simple, since the big stuff that will go on them (such as dreadnoughts, big critters, etc.), need lots of space!

I did this one in black sculpey so you might see the carving a little better.  The same method was used to make the craters as the last set yesterday.

I added some oxide paste to finish off the rest of it...

Here is the lava/marble set.  I started out with cork and sculpey...

And then finished it off with oxide paste!

This is what it would ultimately look like...

Stay tuned for the last piece of the Empire command group!!

Finishing your blasted base...

OK!  We are just about finished with our base.  We have the blasted concrete  section, and our deck plating.  I want to add a few more details...

I have various sizes of  polystyrene tubing that I use to create rivets and nuts.  You need a super sharp blade, and some patience.  I sliced away at the tube, trying to create narrow "coins" that I can glue onto my plasticard.  Sometimes they are too thick, or not even.  It is possible to file them down once they are glued, so all is not lost if they are not perfect cuts!

I put a dot of glue on my platsicard with a pin, and place the chips on the edging.

A bigger piece of tubing is used for a larger conduit/pipe.

Some oxide paste helps cover up the seams...

More oxide paste completes the base insert.

Yea!

Having a blast with basing... part ONE

It has become necessary for me to create some 80 mm inserts for the base sets that I did for CoolMiniorNot a while back.  That's over a dozen types of bases, but let's begin with this one.  Since these are meant to be cast, I need to work a bit differently, avoiding undercuts and open 'holes', where mould material could work through.

I set up as many of the materials and tools as I thought I might need...

What I am trying to replicate is the existing 50 mm base from the set (the grey piece in the upper left).  I didn't have any thick pieces of baked sculpey, so I glued a few thin layers together.  I am using the white variety, which is the easiest to carve.

I start carving out my 'blast' patterns, this time using a 'v' shaped wood carving tool.  You could use a variety of other tools as well.

This view really shows what it looks like.  You can see the spider web like cracks...

Now I have to build up the 'tech' part of the base.  I create an edge using some polystyrene tubing... in this case square!

Once the edge is set, I get my plastic deck plating.   It is traced out, and cut to shape.

Deck plating in place!

I add a few bits of polystyrene tubing to simulate conduits, etc...

The rest of the process will be posted tomorrow, so stay tuned!

To the beat of a different drummer... more Forgeworld Empire

Here is part two of the Forgeworld command staff.  The banner/icon bearer is next!

Another Incubus conversion...

Here's one last Incubus conversion using a Raging Heroes bit!  I will be doing the rest with all GW pieces and plasticard.