Iron Warriors 49th Grand Company "The Iron Hounds"

[Warsmith Aznable]

It's hard for me to sit down and work on my projects right now, even with the pressure of the ETL. I did manage to get some work in this evening, though.

My Daemon Prince for the Boon Table is about 95% done. I need to do some touch-ups and paint the base, but this is pretty much what he's going to look like finished:

The pictures is not good; the colour of the background washes everything out. I tried to get some decent colour back with PS, but I'm not really good at it. The final picture will be my usual white backdrop, though, which will bring out the blue and orange a lot more.

I'm so excited! I've now got all the components for my second Heldrake conversion, and I started the assembly tonight while the DP was drying:

I'm doing this one a bit more carefully, so it's going to be slightly different than the first. For starters, I sawed off the old tail section before I assembled it. The first conversion was a bit more haphazard and required lots of putty and pushed my dubious sculpting skills to their limits. This should be cleaner and easier. Which will be nice when I get around to making my third Heldrake. The wings will still probably require lots of putty; I can't think of how they wouldn't. I don't think I'm going to cut off the little nubs that the weapon pods mount to on this one. It was a pain on the first one, and I really don't think they would detract from anything.

My idea has always been that my Heldrakes will pay homage to SDF Macross. The first one is Fokker's Skull 1, and I've been thinking the second should be Hikaru's version of Skull 1, but now I'm waffling. I will need to think on whether I want to do the characters or try to do the squadron as it was coloured under Fokker. I will need to think about it and look up images and rewatch some episodes of the DVDs.

[Quixus]

Very nice Daemon Prince. Was it difficult to attach the defiler head to the torso?

 

I think the claws on its hands could use some white/grey like those on its feet.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Very nice Daemon Prince. Was it difficult to attach the defiler head to the torso?

 

I think the claws on its hands could use some white/grey like those on its feet.

 

Just a little blob of putty stuck on the end of the neck, and then jam the Defiler mask onto that. After that, use a tool to pull the putty down onto the neck and blend it in. Make sure you don't stick the mask on the putty so hard that it bulges out of the eye sockets...

 

I have to do the white colour on the back talons of the feet since I forgot it before. I may add some to the fingers, I don't know.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Heldrake #2 progresses.

I did some putty work after the plastic cement dried. This method is a lot easier than before, for sure.

The big engines and wings obscure the lumpy and unsure putty work on the first one well enough, so after I do just a little bit of sanding I will have a completely clear warpsmith's conscience.

This is enough to put on a flying base and use in games without feeling like a cheesy power proxy player, so I'm going to leave off the construction for a while and concentrate on my ETL painting vow. Or that's the plan, anyway. Whenever I'm doing a painting vow I always get distracted by build projects...

[Warsmith Aznable]

The Forsaken, whose legend is recounted here, is now complete. In the highly unlikely event that a Champion of Chaos rolls ascension on the boon table, I now have a finished model to put down.

I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. One out of eight down for my first vow of the ETL III.

[Warsmith Aznable]

The Maulerbot marches forward! Or at least his legs do:

I really wasn't sure what I was doing with the colouring on the girder. I started with copper, dabbed it with leather here and there, and then did my best to dry brush leadbelcher over it. I may do more to it to try and get the colouring right.

I'm pleased with how the base turned out physically, though. I wanted to make it look like the maulerbot was making big, muddy footprints, and I think I pulled it off. I think maybe I should have tried to do a footprint where I put the little blast hole, but hindsight and all that. I do like the little blast hole, though. The olive drab sheet of metal is supposed to be the outer armour of a fortification. I ended up sticking it between my teeth and chewing on it for a bit to get make it look like battered metal. The I-beam I bent around a little bit, and then used a lighter to melt one end.

I still haven't washed and highlighted this, and the upside-down Defiler head needs details painted. That space was really empty, is why the Defiler head is there. I figure that maybe it's a servo-skull type thing that figures out most of the walking, so the pilot just has to push the control stick forward and the machine doesn't fall over on rough ground.

Once again, my hazard stripes are hit and miss. I'm going to do an Iron Warriors skull device on the black armour plate. Maybe a transfer, or a freehand if I think that the transfer isn't big enough.

I'm thinking of putting a glossy finish on the light brown mud. I guess I'll figure that out when I get there.

[Brother Ambroz]

Wow man that base looks amazing. You did a great job with everything there. Especially love the way you did the mud, looks great. Chuckled a bit when I read that part about you chewing on the beam but whatever works! I lick my paintbrush to get it straight so we all have our weird modeling ways. :P Keep it up!

[Warsmith Aznable]

@Tanith Ghost: Cheers! I was surprised the mud turned out as well as it did. I was sure it was going to look wonky. I molded putty into the raised squished muddy areas, but didn't put glue on those bits before I dipped the base in my fine sand mix, then painted the sandy parts "graveyard earth" and the squished mud bits "snakebite leather". I'm thinking I'll put a shiny glaze on those areas after I dulcote everything else to further enhance the mud effect.

I decided to get my Terminator Sorcerer done this weekend. I haven't got him done yet, will probably finish him up this Sunday, but I wanted to post some Friday progress.

I tried something different by doing several layers of shading in the undercoat before putting a top layer on, instead of trying to shade after the top layer. I'm speaking of the blue on the cloak, not really anywhere else.

Though it does have wash on it that is still drying right now.

The full view of my cloak experiment,

Also did committed a rare dry-brushing attempt on the fur mantle. I'm pretty happy with how he's turning out so far. It looked like poop before I put the two or three thin coats of Ultramarines Blue over it, so I was very worried I was making a huge mistake as I was going along. I also used Agrax Earthshade instead of Nuln Oil to wash the figure, which is something I don't normally do for these guys.

Still working on the arms. I've got up to the orange on those, but didn't feel like fiddling with the gold on them tonight. Will tackle that Sunday and try to finish up the whole thing.

- Thanks for reading -

[Warsmith Aznable]

The Sorcerer is pretty much done; I'm waiting for the final wash to dry before I do the fancy pictures of him. In the meantime, here's a WIP for the Icon of Excess from the Chaos Terminators squad in my vow:

I am now officially out of Skull White.

This guy pretty much just needs the basing and he's finished.

I started mucking about with him while the Sorcerer was drying between washes last night, and ended up doing about 90% of him. The rest of his squad is out-fitted for Termicide, and maybe I'll do them after I get done with the Maulerbot.

Tomorrow I'll have good pictures of the finished TDA Sorcerer, and maybe this Friday I'll get done with the big robot.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Had to go out of town for a couple of days unexpectedly. Here is the Terminator Sorcerer finished for the ETL:

Not too much different from the WIP, just that he's got his arms on and is based, pretty much. And washed and highlighted and all that. Anyway, that's that. I have a doctor's appointment early in the morning, so I'm off.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Instead of working on my ETL vow of course I have been converting a Chaos Relic Predator instead...

I'm pretty excited about where this is going, bu the fact I have to wait for some putty to dry at least gives me a reason to put it down and pick up my paint brushes tonight.

[Brother Ambroz]

Apothecary looks good, like the way you did the red there. Sorceror is great too, that the burning brand you've got on him?

[Warsmith Aznable]

Apothecary looks good, like the way you did the red there. Sorceror is great too, that the burning brand you've got on him?

That is indeed the Burning Brand. I no longer remember why I wanted him to have it, but it puts extra points into my ETL vow, so there is that.

In other news, the maulerbot is still waiting for me to get over this:

Every painting competition I get an idea for a model I really need to build, and this time it's this thing. I woke up today, rolled out of bed, grabbed my parts and started going. After worrying about how to do the turret I went to a craft store and walked around looking at things. I originally had some 2" diameter wooden balls (sold as "doll heads") but I figured that smooth-foam would be a lot easier to work with. I maybe should have cut it shorter, but the seam around the "equator" was too easy to follow, and I was having problems working my foam cutter. I think I need to add just a little bit of plasticard to the turret support piece so there isn't a gap there.

I also learned today that super glue does not stick to foam. The more you know...

[SCOTT_FRANCIS]

Loving the honesty of your predator, working well to make it original. Demios? Is it? I will have to check FW, keep it up, should look great when finished.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Loving the honesty of your predator, working well to make it original. Demios? Is it? I will have to check FW, keep it up, should look great when finished.

Thanks! Honesty is one way to put it. I'm going to be using Chaos Relic Predators on a regular basis, so I want them to look like the Deimos pictured on the datasheet. And I want my opponents to feel the sudden panic and dread when they see it come out of the bag . Also I have wanted to do an old school style conversion for a tank forever now. Originally I planned on doing a MK I style Rhino for my Death Guard squad, which now I know will be easy to do when I get around to it. The hand rails should be the hardest part.

Since I last posted I decided that the turret was too tall. Looking at pictures of the original it's a lower profile, so I experimented with sawing some more off of another hemisphere I had laying about from a test cutting. My hobby saw worked better than my foam cutter, so I'll know that in the future

Will post another picture when I've done some work on mounting the gun and adding the power unit and cupola to the back.

Will also try and bypass my manic obsession with this conversion and try to get the maulerbot done this weekend...

[Warsmith Aznable]

The Maulerbot is finally done!

There's a little white spot on his face that I fixed after I took these photos. I may add blood effects on the claws later, but for now this project is closed.

[Quixus]

Reminds me of the conceptual flaws of the Dreadknight. Otherwise it looks great.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Reminds me of the conceptual flaws of the Dreadknight.

If by that you mean an exposed pilot, I worked that into the fluff part of its entry in the Daemonic Pact competition. Basically they were rushed into production in the middle of a siege, and are so dangerous to pilot that a new pilots job is usually hosing the old pilot off the control deck of an otherwise minimally damaged machine. I'll copy the full entry over to this thread when I'm not on my mobile.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Haven't forgotten the ETL, just been in sort of a thing.

I think I can still get done if I do some assembly line style painting every other night or so. Here's my three remaining Terminators in progress:

It doesn't look like much, but I start with black and work up to that orange in four layers of colour, so it's pretty time consuming and sometimes really, really frustrating because of the quartered and interchanged scheme.

I'm doing the arms separately, mostly because I didn't want to bother priming a bunch of loose bits today.

[ElDuderino]

Cool maulerfiend! I like how you've made the legs kinda short, makes it look more powerful and less spindly most upright defilers

 

Edit: doh, just realised that it's based on a dreadknight. Well it looks good anyways:)

[Warsmith Aznable]

Progress has not been as steady as I had hoped...

No washes or anything yet, just base layers. I don't even know what to say at this point, except that I will be wearing the badge of shame until year's end unless some kind of magical time thing happens.

[Biohazard]

Excellent Maulerfiend, I used the Dreadknight to build my Fiend as well. I didn't think of using the Defiler claws though. Nice touch.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Thanks! The Maulerbot is one of my favorite conversions so far.

[Dragonlover]

So what's your plan for your CoC vow, get the Shadowsword out of the way and then do the rest?

 

I'm liking the orange and black, by the way. I'd never have the patience to do such a patchwork scheme, I'd forever be forgetting to paint a foot or something.

 

Dragonlover

[Warsmith Aznable]

So what's your plan for your CoC vow, get the Shadowsword out of the way and then do the rest?

I'm liking the orange and black, by the way. I'd never have the patience to do such a patchwork scheme, I'd forever be forgetting to paint a foot or something.

Dragonlover

I think I'm going to start with Typhus. He's primed and ready to go now. After that maybe do half of the zombies, then the Plague Marines, then the other half of the zombies. I still need to work some more on the Shadowsword, so I will be putting that off for a bit. The Daemon Prince and Rhino aren't even built yet. Actually I don't even have a kit for the Rhino yet... I also need to build five more of my Plague Bearer conversions.

The quartered orange and black is kind of a nightmare, really. I was sort of happy that this CoC was dedicated to Nurgle so I had the excuse to do the small Death Guard force I've accidentally collected. It will be a nice change of pace.

Here's the WIP "before" shot for Typhus and the 20 Plague Zombies:

Also in the shot are some Robotech Destroids which I'm painting concurrently with my CoC vow. I have the structure of a Knight Errant primed to go too, so at some point I'll probably be working on that as well. Because there hasn't been a painting competition yet where I haven't done side work and made things harder for myself...