Sternguard [Update 09/02]

[Cornishman]

So after months of using my most recently (and thus best) painted Tac Squad as my Sternguard the time has finally come to actually make and paint my sternguard squad. Although very nice models the GW Sternguard models do have one problem for me, two boxs of sternguard look like the start of a bizzare cloning experiment. So I've started going at them with knife, file and drill bit (not to mention using the spare parts making some plastic ones) to make each model an individual. I haven't go far but here is we're I'll be updating their progress. C&C is most welcome.

 

De-Cloning Exercise I. Weapon Swap, bolter for Combi-plasma. This I think is a good start to de-cloning the weapon swap looks neat with only a few small gaps, the most noticable being the small gap between the strap and back of the combi-plasma. Despite the weapon swap still look like twins so more work required.

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/Sternguard/IMG_0219Small.jpg

 

Decloning II: The Second Weapon swap, this time for a combi-melta. As can be seen this requires the rebuilding of the fore arm, which requires a bit of green stuff espically under the shoulder. Given the the main pin holding the weapon in place is in the supporting hand of the weapon I was thinking of ditching the plastic fore arm and making a bionic arm out of green stuff and guiter strings

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/Sternguard/IMG_0213Small.jpg

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/Sternguard/IMG_0215Small.jpg

 

New Guard: By carefully extracing the weapons from the combi-plas convernsion I ended up with 2 spare bolters, so I found two spare bodies (almost my last :D ) to rig up the arm set up before decorating the bodies. Haven't decorated the bodies, but both bolters where easy to get in place, requiring little more than snipping of hands and an arm.

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/Sternguard/IMG_0229Small.jpg

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/Sternguard/IMG_0232Small.jpg

 

 

Decloning III: Having run out of weapons to swap, and with the pointing vet being one of the more distinctive poses I needed to be a bit more creative. The first thing to change was filing one of the beaky helmets down into a crusader style. Inspiration then struck me which promptly resulted in a pointy finger being removed and filed, and a servo-skull being grasped in the fist, with the cables wrapping around the arm being added. Admittedly this isn’t quite the Eagle or dragon/ exotic beast perching on the fore-arm that was the original idea, but has the distinct advantage of having needed bits to hand. I think the models still look fairly clone like, but it’s a start. Next stage I think will be adding loin cloth, and some cloth over a shoulder pad to on of them.

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/Sternguard/IMG_0226Small.jpg

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/Sternguard/IMG_0223Small.jpg

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/Sternguard/IMG_0224Small.jpg

[Daeothar]

Good work so far. Things that might help could be the filing smooth of studded shoulderpads or the swapping and reposing of heads. For instance your last Mk6: why not saw off the head of the Servoskull one and twist it to look along his left arm? This instantly changes the entire facing of the mini. This will also work for your second combibolter marine(s). Also, bending outstretched arms up will have some effect as will cutting off bolterstraps (regrettably, as those are the cool parts).

 

On the last one again: cut off the hand holding the scull and reposition it in the same place, palm up, still holding the skull's cable. More natural that way. The trick with reposing minis is to make sure the new pose is at least as natural as the old pose.

 

Try cutting into the back of a knee and creating a small open wedge, then bend the leg to close the wedge, resulting in very different poses (looking/pointing up or even kneeling. Mind you; this will require you putting quite some force onto the mini!).

 

Keep it up; I'm sure the end result will be a very unique squad... :tu:

[Shortsonfire79]

All looks pretty good.

 

You should make a slight tutorial on these things, it'd be VERY useful information. =-D

[War Angel]

its going to take alot of work to make them look differnt, its a real shame that GW didnt make these guys plastic, then it would be alot easyer.

 

Daeothar says:

"Try cutting into the back of a knee and creating a small open wedge, then bend the leg to close the wedge, resulting in very different poses (looking/pointing up or even kneeling. Mind you; this will require you putting quite some force onto the mini!)."

 

that would probably be the best way to do changing, even adding things like lioncloths or robes there still going to look alot the same because of there extended limbs and facing direction.

[Cornishman]

All looks pretty good.

 

You should make a slight tutorial on these things, it'd be VERY useful information. =-D

Really? Well lets see how they turn out first. Have provided a brief description of what I've done as an intermediate step.

 

Daeothar, War Angel thanks for the tips, heres the latest update. Have done one metal leg repositioning, and hand some fun with the plastics which I have nicked named posey and jumpy for obvious reasons. This applied the tried and tested technique of taking legs, cutting them, pining them and finishing off with green stuff. The 'rocks' on posey are nothing more than sprue filed and cut to look less sprue like.

Here are jumps and posey:

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0308small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0307small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0309small.jpg

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0310small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0311small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0312small.jpg

 

Whilst playing with the plastics I also came up with this guy. Not complex I know but I like it

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0306Small.jpg

 

Combi-Melta Vet: Green Stuffed space between elbow pad and shoulder. Given the pain it will be to swap heads etc... due to the large intergrated shoulder pads I have decided I will be swapping the plastic fore-arm for a DIY bionic arm as given the conventional pose I can differentiate him from the stock model in subtle ways

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0325small.jpg

 

Combi-Plas Vet: Repositioned leg into a running pose (need to work on trailing foot), and did a head swap. This was simple enough, used the razor saw to cut off the previous head at shoulder level, reconstructed the neck guard (which was surprising easily) with green stuff and fitted the plastic head. For those wanting to head swap Sternguard this is one of the few models with which you can get a clean cut with the saw. The orginal head is now on Skully (see below).

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0328small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0319small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0321small.jpg

 

Skully: So named due to his 'pet' servo skull. Cut off most of the existing shoulder pad, cut out the death watch pad to fit around, green stuffed gaps. Head swap didn't go quite as straight forward, cut at the wrong angle so cut the helmet in two. Though you should be able to cut it off ready for re-use. After smoothing off and cleaning up the area attached the head from Combi-Plas-Vet and green stuffed the small gap.

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0317small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0314small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0313small.jpg

 

Here's a little group shoot of the ones I've put the most work into

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtII/IMG_0330small.jpg

[Cornishman]

So after some time painting some other things (namely my couple of razorbacks/rhinos and a predator), I've been continuing my de-cloning Sternguard experiment. I haven't added much more in the way of green stuff, or been carving out chunks of metal, I've been seeing how a simple weapon swap and slightly different paint scheme work. Here are the results

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIII/IMG_0332Small.jpg

 

Details of the Combi-Melta

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIII/IMG_0344small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIII/IMG_0340small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIII/IMG_0342small.jpg

Detail of BolterDude

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIII/IMG_0346small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIII/IMG_0347small.jpg

 

I haven't stuck to good painting practice as the main body of them still needs 1st- a chestnut ink glaze to bring out a nice redy colour like these guys, and some highlights (which I'm still working on...)

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/IMG_0145_Tac4.jpg

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/IMG_0153_Tac3b.jpg

 

Not Sternguard I know but here's a dreadnought

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/IMG_0168_dread.jpg

[cathar the great]

Why exactly yellow and gold?

[Cornishman]

Why exactly yellow and gold?

 

Cather the Great, why this colour scheme: I got inspired by a particularly beautiful sunset where the sky was an amazing riot of colour. This is my attempt to recreate such vivid dawn/dusk colours on the marine. The working name for my chapter is ‘Heralds of the Resurgent Dawn’.

I would describe the finished colour as a rich bronzy/red colour for the body of the marine, rather than gold. As can be seen I used gold for helmets, and eagles etc… This is shown much better on the dreadnought and tactical marines, rather than the sternguard. The sternguard as photographed look extremely golden as I’ve only applied a yellow ink glaze over the dwarf bronze, and awaiting the chestnut ink glaze which restores and enhances the bronzy-redness. As can be seen this glaze differentiates the ‘bronze’ areas from the ‘gold’ areas really effectively.

[sgtNACHO]

I would work more on your eyes. Your tacticals look a little crazy in the face! Perhaps add a black drop for a pupil?

 

Other then that not bad, I don't really like colored weapons casings but not mine to judge!

[Cornishman]

After getting distracted magnetising a predator, and striping some rogue trader era minis, I finally got around to adding some green stuff to my sternguard. I painted the sternguard to a reasonable standard then greenstuffed them as this avoids issues of creating areas that are unpaintable.

 

Coverted Plastic (minus weapons)

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardWithGreen/IMG_0109small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardWithGreen/IMG_0110small.jpg

 

After some issues of getting the servo skull to stick, I decided to go for something a bit easier get to stick, here he is

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardWithGreen/IMG_0093small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardWithGreen/IMG_0106small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardWithGreen/IMG_0107small-1.jpg

 

After repositioning the legs I decided to do some minor green stuff to combi-plasma dude. This was reinforcing the armour at the wrists, and adding a small plate to the groin.

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardWithGreen/IMG_0091small.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardWithGreen/IMG_0092small.jpg

[Alys Dwr]

All very nice conversion ideas, but 'Posey' has a mould line left on hs foot... I realy like the 'former servo-skully' vet and might nick the idea of the long purity seal wrapped around the arm.

 

As to the painting, what recipes are you using? The colours are nice but seem to be coming out a bit too shiny and a little washed out. I guess you are priming white? Maybe try adding a darker base coat over this to give the colours a bit more depth. The foundation yellow under the yellow (lyanden darksun??) and (seeing as you're capturing a sunset) maybe Mechrite red or similar under the gold, then the chestnut wash. I usually use bestial brown under golds but this might not be the right choice given the effect you are going for.

 

Keep it up though!

 

Al

[Cornishman]

All very nice conversion ideas... I realy like the 'former servo-skully' vet and might nick the idea of the long purity seal wrapped around the arm.

Thank you. :)

As to the painting, what recipes are you using? The colours are nice but seem to be coming out a bit too shiny and a little washed out. I guess you are priming white? Maybe try adding a darker base coat over this to give the colours a bit more depth.

My colour recipe:

1. Cathan Brown

2. Dwarf Bronze (several coats)

3. Yellow Ink glaze

4. Chestnut Ink/ Yellow Ink glaze

5. Chestnut ink wash for the cracks and recesses

 

For highlights I'm finding a combination of layering shining gold and drybrusing chainmail combined with a further yellow ink glaze works okay. I'm still experimenting as I find that to much 'silver' for the hightlights doesn't keep with the redness.

I'd agree that the yellows for the most part aren't looking fantastic. This is probably as I've only done a single coat or so of sunburst (or was is golden) yellow, so need to go over it again, then shade and highlight.

[Cornishman]

Here's the latest update. With the 2 plastic conversion I've got 12 Sternguard so will present them in two squads of six. In other news the veteran formally known as skully has been named Lothar, and the Combi-plas weapon swap has been named Kyntar.

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0162_sm.jpg

 

Lothar

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0140_sm.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0146_sm.jpg

 

Posey

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0147_sm.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0149_sm.jpg

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0151_sm.jpg

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0154_sm.jpg

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0156_sm.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0158_sm.jpg

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0159_sm.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0160_sm.jpg

[Cornishman]

Here's squad 2

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0163_sm.jpg

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0167_sm.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0168_sm.jpg

 

Jumpy

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0170_sm.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0172_sm.jpg

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0173_sm.jpg

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0175_sm.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0177_sm.jpg

 

Kyntar

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0178_sm.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0179_sm.jpg

 

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0180_sm.jpghttp://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh342/Cornishman/SternguardPtIV/IMG_0182_sm.jpg

[Drizzt1985]

Some very nice conversions. Some of the poses you have come up with are original and very well done. But it seems like you have overshadowed all that nice conversion work with your color scheme. Seriously Im not nitpicking or trying to be negative but it justs seems like all that hard converting work has gone to waste.

 

I would suggest changing the yellow as it just doesnt seem to be working. Maybe another metallic colour or red would be a better option. Also try and pick out the details like the chest eagle to break up the mass of bronzish armor you got going on there.

[Terminatorinhell]

red weapon casings would look MUCH better in my opinion, and more like a sunset.

[True Thorn]

Is it just me, or does that yellow seem realy flat? especialy compared to that deep burnished bronze. Tis enchanting. literally if you do a librarian is those colours.

[AlexCrute]

I've enjoyed this thread, you're doing a good job on these.

 

Here's some advice on effective de-cloning (I hate clones too - it's an artiste thing). The secret is pose change. Since the power armour means all our models are clones anyway (more or less), the pose is the primary thing that differentiates them. Weapons is the second thing, and armour details is third - in terms of creating a different look for a model.

 

The easiest form of pose change is twisting and/or replacing the head to look a different direction. Other pose change elements are waist-twisting or leg swaps (running legs etc).

 

Your head-swapped combi-plasma gunner is the most effective de-cloned marine.

 

Good job!