Shadow Force Dragomir - A Raven Guard Army

[Brother Agrippen]

Very nice resin sculpts,

 

thanks for sharing and taking the time to review them for us

 

 

cheers mate

 

BA.

[Lachdannan]

Been curious how these bits looked. Thanks for the review. Can't wait to see you apply your magic to them. All your models look amazing.

[Tyrannicide]

Had no clue these were out. They look fantastic, but will look even better being held in the hands of the Raven Guard. :cuss

[AlexCrute]

Yeah, what those guys said.

[Cyrox]

I know i've posted it before in tis thread, but your Raven Guard are stunning.

 

Bravo dude.

[Marius Perdo]

@SSC: Thanks for sharing those AI mags with us, defenitely sold on those. Gotten a few capes and helmet crests from them but I had no idea about the gun add-ons. As an aside inspiring work as always. Edited October 20, 2012 by Marius Perdo

[SCC]

@Everyone: Thanks guys, I figure it's a hobbyist's duty to review things like this so we can support the good stuff and skip the naff gubbinz :)

So, today's update:

I hate Brother Argos sometimes I really do. He's busy doing other things right now but even so I could hear him nagging me about this guy, telling me that even though I had a perfectly serviceable miniature I could do better. I could have a better mini and learn more about the one side of the hobby that's always daunted me - conversions (not just kit-bashing, but chopping things up, re-posing and sculpting things to create unique new poses/bitz).

So, thanks to yet another case of 'What Would Brother Argos Do?' I've spent the last few days trying to work out how to make a two handed magnocular pose work for #2 here. The (not quite, but very close to) end result is below:

Look Ma! Two hands!

As you can see I've taken the arm from a Mk.II assault Marine and absolutely butchered it to create the right angles for a two handed grip on the magnocular.

There's still some work to done smoothing things up, especially the upper arm I'm terrible with GS, no matter what I do at the sculpting stage or after it never seems to end up smooth but I'm hoping this one will at least be passable...

You can see the Tigrus pattern bolter mag-locked to his thing clearly here. The Tigrus is the shortest bolter I can find and it still feels too long. The alternative is a slung bolter I guess, but I've tried that before and the results weren't much better than 'meh' (you can see it here, the guy with his hand raised to ask a question halt the squad) and I've spent a long time on this guy (and the various other incarnations he's had) and I think it's close to the point where I need to paint him and move on - 'play not display'!

From here you can just about see the extra 'control panel' I've added to the top of the magnocular to fit his right hand better. It's a regular bolter left arm with the thumb chopped off and stuck on the other way around and it's a fraction larger than the FW hand on the 'nocular already. It's a small strip of plasticard with some brass 'buttons' and a 'control strip' of some kind too. I also need to try putting some tiny rivets on the back of the right gauntlet to match the left now that I think of it...

Comments, especially criticism and advice for getting smooth GS on that arm, gratefully received!

[Dosjetka]

The magnocular looks like it's pointing ever so slightly downwards. Maybe you could lift it an inch?

 

Ludovic

[SCC]

The left arm is just tacked on and there's wiggle room in the grip on the right so I should be able to balance everything up once the paint is on and I'm ready to glue the left arm on...

[Toxichobbit]

This thread is one of the few times i've taken the effort to read through all 22 pages ... and it was worth it. I love the posing, converting and character behind your Ravens and this is one of the threads that's inspiring me to put more effort into making my own Marines more unique and characterful, even though they're from a well established chapter.

 

With regards to working with epoxy putty, have you tried using clay shapers? I find that it's easier to get a smooth finish and manipulate the putty without ruining the surface texture than when using a traditional sculpting tool. As hobby supplies go, they aren't cheap (i shudder to think what the price would be like if GW decided to brand some!), but i think it's a worthwhile investment if your going to be doing a lot of sculpting. They are a traditional art supply, rather than one of the more modern hobby supplies, so hit up any decent art supplier and you should be able to get hold of some.

 

Also, there's some nice press moulds out there that might help you. Well, not exactly press moulds, but something similar - i duno exactly what they're classed as, stamps maybe. Anyway, check out Masquerade Miniatures tube making tools - they make industrial tubing and rope really easy to make with putty, which opens up new possiblities when converting. Other companies do similar things, i know that Micro Art Studio do some press mould types for fur amongst other things and Happy Sepuku Modelworks do a nice selection of base stamps. I've got the tube making tools myself and they are very easy to use and give excellent results.

 

If you want links to any of this stuff, feel free to PM me (i'm not sure on the exact board rules for "advertising" products, so i'm erring on the side of caution).

Edited June 22, 2012 by Toxichobbit

[SCC]

Thanks Toxichobbit, I'll Google those tools and stamps and whatnot (although our policy is such that as long as you're not just blatantly advertising, but rather helping a fellow hobbyist links are fine :) ).

And another brief update:

Battle Brother Zalman, First of the Fourth, Raven Guard Chapter:

A Fourth Company veteran built from the new FW Mk.IV Assault Squad kit which I absolutely adore and must by more of. Again, it's the little details - like the inset of the left leg - that really make these kits, wonderful stuff <_<

RG etched brass on the knee and I actually remembered the Fourth Company marking on the other knee for a wonder! For more of a wonder, the painting time for this guy was a mere 2.5 hours. Practice really does help you paint faster, who knew? :lol:

[Dosjetka]

He looks gorgeous <_<

 

Ludovic

[The Yak]

Another great addition. I like your recipe for the yellow eye lenses consider it swiped!

Those MKIV legs work well. It is hard to get legs that have got the weight spread equally on space marines but those give the impression of him just standing there confident in the knowledge he is hard as nails.

Cheers

[chaplain mortis]

congrats to you as you just keep churning out the most menacing looking marines!

 

great work and a pleasure to look through

 

still loving the stealth black

 

thanks for sharing

[Pulse]

@Pulse: Two hands? Interesting, I wonder if a ML right arm will fit...

Seem as though you have done a fine job - glad to see the bolter mag-locked to his leg as well, or at least will be! :yes:

Edited June 22, 2012 by Pulse

[SCC]

@The Yak: Yeah, the variety the FW armour is offering in poses is great...

@BBL; Chaplain Mortis: Thanks guys :lol:

@Pulse: I'm waiting on some clay sculpting tools to try my hand at getting a smooth finish to his arm before I can paint him right now, but I'm pretty happy with the pose now.

OK, progress report - my wife has snaffled the DSLR for a visit back to Perth to see the family so all I have is the ol' camera phone:

I've used the body and a shoulder pad from the FW Mk.IV Apothecary - I kept the other bitz for my next army - either a restart of my Brazen Claws or some Wolves - and added some some plastic arms to make Andros here.

I kept the colours simple, as always - black, silver, red and white - and resisted the urge to get too clever or bright. I'm particularly happy with how the loin cloth turned out with the FW decal. I had to remove a fair chunk of decal to get it to fit around the medicae symbol and then paint back the missing details :P

I'll get some better photos on the weekend so you can see the detail better, I'm also pretty happy with how the base turned out, I learned a fair bit about weathering powders on this one, especially the rust ones...

[Marius Perdo]

Lovely. Very lovely in fact...almost worth get terminally shot for so he can take your Progenoids.

 

*scampers off to looking at his unpainted one from FW lamenting how unlovely it looks*

[Pulse]

Really awesome looking model - all the pictures from this log make up a folder on my desktop called "inspirational models"- keep 'em coming! :lol:

[the damned artificer]

That apothecary is awesome :) Great job!

[Captain Juan Juarez]

It's obviously a given you've done awesome work again SCC, but the shoulder pad makes it look kina' like a winged skull a la Night Lords.

[Dosjetka]

Very nice Apothecary :D Just enough colour not to make him too dull.

 

Ludovic

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The black paint jobs on these are incredible. I hope my Angels come out as well.

[SCC]

@MP: Thanks mate, those FW Apothecaries are too nice a sculpt to leave in the packet, go put some paint on 'em!

@Pulse: :D That's pretty much the ultimate praise any modeller can hope for I think :P

@TDA, BBL & BCK: Thanks guys ;)

It's obviously a given you've done awesome work again SCC, but the shoulder pad makes it look kina' like a winged skull a la Night Lords.

I thought that exact same thing once he was finished actually. I think when the army is 'complete' it may be one of the things I go back and change, likely for a FW RG shoulder pad of some kind <_<

Now, update time:

OK, so given SFD now has two Apothecaries and will shortly have a TechMarine (well, TM trainee) and is led by a Librarian I thought I'd better add a Chaplain to round out the cast neatly. Whilst I have many metals Chaplains lying around none of them really did much for me so I thought I'd try building one:

I like to imagine Uirroth is standing on these steps declaiming the foulness of the enemy and the righteousness of the sons of Corax, but I'm not quite sure the pose says that just yet.

I like the legs and torso, though the right knee still needs some work of course, and I'm pretty happy with my Crozius as well. I'm wondering if I need to point his wrist down a little more to get more of a pointing feel to the crozius or whether I can shave the back of his helmet so I can tilt his head further back to align his eyes with the head of the crozius so it looks like he's calling on the Emperor to smite the foe.

Speaking of the helm, I'm also wondering whether to make sure he's obviously a chaplain whether I need to find a skull helm from somewhere rather than use the 'Corvus Corax' helmet I've got there now. I was thinking about painting the 'beak' in bone rather than white in a nod to towards his chaplaincy, I wonder if that will make it obvious enough he's a chappie.

The final concern is the left arm, I've tried a variety of arms/hands there and this is the best I've got so far but if anyone has any suggestions as to pose or what he should be holding (a holy relic of some kind, a censer?) I'm all ears...

[sheep]

Brilliant force, It makes it really easy appreciate the amount of work you put into each figure because of the write ups explaining your processes and feelings behind each selection of each component. It makes for an intriguing and compelling read and one that I have to constantly check for inspiration. Bravo.

 

As for the chaplain, could you try your hand at sculpting some ocular cavities around the brow/lense region, turning the whole helmet into the typical skull motif, but with a ravenguard twist.

Edited June 29, 2012 by sheep

[Deathwing70]

Nice chaplain. I'd try to keep the beaky and look for other parts to reinforce his look as Chaplain. Painting a (bird)skull like figure on his helmet should go a long way but if you change his helmet for a skull helmet you might lose too much of the Raven Guard identity he currently has. (All Chaplains wear black armor and seem to have some sort of skull helmet).

 

I'm not quite sure what else you could add.

 

Nice work on the Apothecary, I've got them sitting on my desk aswell trying to decide whether to continue with my current AoV or (re)start a DA army.

Edited June 29, 2012 by Deathwing70