Salamander Army WIP

[Evicerator]

This is a compilation of a buncha posts located on another forum I post on regularly. Figured I would share my amateur work ;)

 

 

Well it's been 4 years since last I was seriously active in the hobby. I started playing an MMO (Final Fantasy XI) and it pretty much left me with no time to do anything else.

 

At the time, the hobby in the local area was pretty stagnant. Local gaming stores were closing up shop. Hobby stores (Rider's) closed down and the closest GW store was 60 miles away in a mall in a 200 sq.ft. corner shop (hardly the place to have a game...) So I (and many others) lost interest.

 

I have since quit playing MMOs on a regular basis (strictly weekend-only and even then only a few hours, much more relaxing) and my love for this hobby has been rekindled. When last I left the game I was building a Salamander army. It had only just been started with only a full Tactical assembled and pained and another one painted, minus their guns (I paint guns separate so I can give better detail to chest eagles.) along with a Landspeeder (waiting on some AC assemblies and then a squadron will be done.)

 

So over the last month or so I've been busy making some savvy purchases and have got about 2K points' worth of stuff sitting in my apartment (or on a plane in the mail on it's way here.)

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/paintingtime.jpg

 

and here's what I've been working on:

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallysergeant1.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallysergeant3.jpg

 

I am planning to steal the sergeant power fist from the assault squad (the one with a finger pointing out giving orders) to finish this up. This was a WIP from back when I first started (and the last pic shows the sally icon I moulded.)

[Evicerator]

and here's everything else:

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallytactical01.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallytactical02.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallylandspeeder01.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallylandspeeder1.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallylandspeeder2.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallydevastatorsquad.jpg

[Evicerator]

and the shoulder icon gets removed from the to-do-list

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallyshouldericon.jpg

 

which I used in continuing with my progressive day:

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/shouldericonmouldmaking01.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/shouldericonmouldmaking02.jpg

(yes some turned out funky, but when I cast the 60 or so I needed, I only used 3 of the molds.)

 

now, I see a few people looking at this and thinking , "Pam?". I normally would have used a teflon spray from the hardware store, but was lazy and wanted to get this done before I lost my nerve/gumption.

[Evicerator]

well I sat down and decided to get to making the shoulder insignias.

 

so I made a HUGE ball of GS and went to it.

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallieinsigniamassproduce.jpg

 

it went A LOT smoother than it did when I first did these a few years back and now I have something like 50 of them.

 

I ended up with a good amount of GS leftover (as I don't think I will be needing more than 50 shoulder insignias) and decided to start working on Salamander Hide loincloths. For my first time making them (and having not ONE single modeling tool...) I am pleased with the result and am sure that when I add the scales for the hide I will have a good looking effect.

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallieloincloths.jpg

 

I still had a decent amount of GS left over even after making those and thought, "hey a Salamander hide cape would look pretty killer on the sergeant I have that's all epically posed." so I made one. Was another first and it took... a fair amount of time to make, but in the end I am VERY pleased with the end result.

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/tacticalsergeantcape.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/tacticalsergeantcape02.jpg

[Evicerator]

Well seeing as my immediate family are currently 900 miles away. Celebrating a holiday alone needed some distractions.

 

They came in the form of a Dreadnought

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/salliedreadnought.jpg

 

A Rhino and razorback (didn't picture the rhino as it is identical to the Razorback sans the TL weaponry up top.) I also made it so that it's possible to model and mount both the Storm Bolter and Missile Launcher (obviously can't have both at same time, but nice to have the option.)

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallierazorback.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallierazorback02.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/sallierazorback03.jpg

so all I have to do is flip the Storm Bolter over and 'wallah!'

 

 

And finally the piest de resistance a Drop Pod

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/salliedroppod.jpg

 

This guy took a lil over 2 hours to unsprue, de-mold-line, and assemble. While I can appreciate the detail, I think they overdid the complexity of this model. Either way... 1 down... 1 to go... 'ugh'...

[Evicerator]

Now I didn't finish this mini today, but forgot to snap a pic (or 2) of him when I did finish him.

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/salliesergeantfinish01.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/salliesergeantfinish02.jpg

 

I am undecided about GSing scales onto the cape/loincloth. I dont think I will be able to properly pull it off and will make a general mess of things. But we'll see.

[Evicerator]

Decided to try the scales on the loincloths.

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/assaultsergeantscales.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/tacticalsergeantscales.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/devastatorsergeantscales.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/dreadnoughtscales.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/salliesergeantscales.jpg

 

 

That's 'it' for now. Working on magnetizing an LR atm, just taking a break from it.

[DuskRaider]

Nice stuff so far! I love Salamanders, they're starting to tempt me...

[wokkers]

subscribed! ;)

[IronDuke]

Very nice work so far, looking forward to seeing more of these. One question though, how did you make the strap for the sergeants bolter stay on!? I have been messing with a similar pose for ages with one of my sergeants, but can't get the bolter strap to stay! I either put it on too early, which leaves with me with massive finger prints, or let it cure too much in which case it just falls off! Any tips?

Cheers

[Evicerator]

Very nice work so far, looking forward to seeing more of these. One question though, how did you make the strap for the sergeants bolter stay on!? I have been messing with a similar pose for ages with one of my sergeants, but can't get the bolter strap to stay! I either put it on too early, which leaves with me with massive finger prints, or let it cure too much in which case it just falls off! Any tips?

Cheers

 

I ended up having to glue it. Using CA (Cyano-Accrylic) glue with an accelerant (instantly dries/cures CA)

 

Well here is last night's Magnetizing endeavor. I was *really* hesitant about doing this as a single, very *minor* screw up would mean a ton of work to dig out a magnet and flip it over >.>; I had two such possible situations (grabbed magnet in a hurry and glued in place) but lucked out extremely both times (after realizing I hadn't checked polarities and proceeding to have a panic attack while checking if I hadn't screwed up. ^^; )

 

I blame having started at 11pm last night for this taking as long as it did. I didn't finish the LRaider and DPod till 3am.

 

but without further a-do:

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/droppodmagnetized01.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/droppodmagnetized02.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/droppodmagnetized03.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/landraidermagnetized01.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/landraidermagnetized02.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/landraidermagnetized03.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/landraidermagnetized04.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/landraidermagnetized05.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/landraidermagnetized06.jpg

 

 

have to say I am pleased with my first attempt.I did have a few screw up moments (yay superglued fingers >.>; ) but in the end the effort was worth the while to be able to get everything 'customizable' the way I wanted it to be.

 

Next project will probably be Terminators (magnetizing arms, loincloth-ing sarge, *possibly* adding scales to right shoulder pad or knee pad)

[Evicerator]

Operation: Vulkan He'stan conversion commences today =D

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/vulkanstarted.jpg

 

major thanks to LaundryHamper for THIS awesome tutorial.

[Evicerator]

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/vulkanstageII01.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/vulkanstageII02.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/vulkanstageII03.jpg

 

finally had a day off (last two weeks have been nightmares at work and have put in over 130 hours the last 2 weeks @.@. So have basically come home drained and just watched anime and played WoW for relaxation.)

 

So today I wanted to get some more work done on my Vulkan conversion (as amatuer as it will be xD.) I wrapped a purity seal on the halberd and built the Gauntlet of the Forge (still need to GS blend the 'fins' on the back of fist.) Also worked on the flaming halo (total rip off from GW, no design accredations on my behalf...). Thinking about 'scale'ing the Gauntlet, but unsure of the end result...

 

I had thought to try to GS the cape, but until I dremel the head off (and the back a bit) it'd be a wasted effort. Just need to procure a dremel for a day and this conversion will be close to done =D

 

(btw, the GS 'clump' I have him standing on is merely for pic-taking. When finish he won't be leaning back like he is now xD. also the yellow stuff holding the arms on is, obviously, temporary for pic taking too ^^)

[Evicerator]

update on the GotF:

 

Decided to 'scale' it after smoothing the spine into the gauntlet.

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/gauntletoftheforge01.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/gauntletoftheforge02.jpg

 

pleased with the result.

 

(many thanks to AngryJohnny for the idea for the flamer canister.)

[MEanBOb]

I don't know what it is with the scales now, they just look like warts growing out of the clothe to me. I believe they will look 100x better painted though.

 

Otherwise keep up the good work!

[Evicerator]

I did a tiny bit more work on Vulkan today. with the 3 day weekend I had time to recoup from a 54 hour (5 days...) work week, see friends, and have time left to model minis some more.

 

I won't say this is an amazing piece. I've honestly seen better and a lot of this looked better in my mind's eye. I can come up with and think up great ideas, but it's the execution via Green Stuff where-in lies my downfall. I imagine I'll get better at it and I have improved a great deal from when I first started using GS.

 

Anyways, I am pretty much done with this mini aside from finding some horrible mistake and reworking it to fix the error. I know that with some paint this model will greatly improve.

 

In general, for all that was done to it and the very fact that each modification was my very first foray into such a conversion, I'm ok with the end result. I know that I could have shipped the parts off to someone else and dumped a bit of money into it and it would have come out simply stellar, but I wanted to be able to say, "yup, he's mine." in the end.

 

So here's the pics.

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/vulkancomplete01.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/vulkancomplete02.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/vulkancomplete03.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/vulkancomplete04.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/vulkancomplete05.jpg

 

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/vulkancomplete06.jpg

 

Need to assemble one last Assault squad and everything will be ready for paint.

[Evicerator]

http://www.evicerator.com/evicerator/pictures/warhammer/vulkancolored03.jpg

 

finished today. took a few weeks off from doing anything 40k related. Pleased with the results as amateur as they are.

 

Just need to finish the base and seal him up. First time using Vallejo paints and Windsor brushes, but I can safely say that I am a fan now of both.

[Slyfox1990]

Everything here looks really nice so kudos on that one :(

I ve just started/will very soon be starting my Salamander's army and was just wondering what steps you do when painting them up? Your models look exactly how I hope mine will look :)