Space Marines? ... Iron hands

[Allerka]

@ Allerka : wow .. 3-6 months ??? what do you do to them?

 

You follow the basic paint brush rules right? ...

 

For those that don't know the basic paint brush rules ...

 

• No paint more than halfway up the brush and NEVER to the ferrule.
  
• I clean my brushes once a week (some do it daily) ... using brush soap or a drop of washing up liquid in a cup of water
  
• Never apply pressure to the brush that forces it to splay (stippling) or overly bend.
  
• Always reform the tip between your fingers after use (I use my lips/tounge for this).
  
• Never apply powder pigments with fresh active paint brushes .. thats what old ones are for.
  
• Never leave paint brushes sitting in the water (or out of it) tip down because they will deform.
  

Yep, all of that, practically religiously. Still have had a history of brushes rarely lasting longer than six months. Just part of the deal for me, I guess. :)

[Brother Argos]

Ahh a night of relaxation ... good food ... and I saw Tron Legacy :) ... but no Iron Hands were painted!

There is one small redeeming feature to the day as far as hobby work goes, I got to go to my favourite Modelling shop ... "The 4D Modelshop".

This shop has such an enormous stock of modelling materials it feels like being a child and going into Toys R Us, you name it and they seem to have it ... Plasticard, Glue, Tools of all kinds and so on. I had only one hour to shop, I was supposed to helping a large legal firm increase their security ... but I spent all morning looking forward to going to THE model shop :no:

I got a haul of new stuff in that hour ...

3 new types of plasticard treadplate

brass photoetch grid & diamond

2 sheets of plasticard with "tiling"

3 different sizes of plastic strip for "cogging"

2 variants of super glue (one slow set, one gel)

1 pack of UHU glue (for interesting blood effects - more later)

1 set of micro-drills (0.3 mm - 1.6mm)

4 pots of paint (they now stock citadel much to my surprise)

1 spray can of primer (black)

1 new retractable swan and morton scalpel

I also took the time to discuss getting some cutting time on their laser cutter, checking costs for an idea I have ;)

So even though no Iron Hands were painted, I still feel as though I replenished my stocks and moved forward!

Tonight should see the final purity seal decal on the bionic marine head finished, and work begun on his base hopefully to make sure he is finished for tomorrow.

Oh and making a few new decals for the next stage :tu:

[Cyrox]

Haha, its on Leman street

 

They should definitely rename it to Leman Russ street

[Allerka]

To paraphrase a line from Eurotrip, "Wow. You guys are, like, on a TOTALLY different level of modeling from us." :D

 

(In other words, you'd never see a place like that in the US)

[Brother Argos]

I got the base for Marine #5 done last night, I cut a circle of treadplate using the base template I made right at the beginning (about 22.5mm diameter) and then cut that again into 2 sections (roughly 2/3 & 1/3). To support the smaller section I used some 2mm high plastic beams and glued them to the base and then mounted the treadplate on top. I ran a strip of plasticard round the edge to hide the internal cavity and then added some corner strip to the "step" section. Once that had all dried and was solid I worked my way down the step adding small photo etch rivets using super glue. I used a thing superglue for this but washed the step with it and then dabbed it irregularly with a tissue to create a "corroded" uneven texture, this would give the rust pigments something to cling to and work with later.

Recently a purchase from eBay had arrived, oddly this came from a different section of ebay from normal. I had purchased a bag of TINY old watch parts, with lots of very very small cogs and wheels in. I took 3-4 of them and glued them into a heap in front of the step and one on top of the step, I then used the same trick as above to create a slightly corroded texture on the top of the cogs which the rust pigments could cling too as watch parts are often quite smooth. Creating textures like this adds significantly to the micro-detail of any miniature / base and if done sympathetically can really help the paint-job that comes later. As you will see in the following picture the step looks battered and worn, most of that is due to the irregular surface created by the superglue being dabbed as it dried.

I followed up the modelling work with a quick spray of black primer/undercoat and left well alone to dry. When it was dry I painted the whole base in a dark brown and set about using my rust pigments to create the feeling of depth I wanted. I use a rough brush for this as it destroys normal brushes. Using a stippling motion I added the rust in the order of darkest first (and consequently broadest coverage) ... building up with a lighter mid shade ... and then light shade sparingly on top.

After washing the brush out and drying it, I then got my Boltgun metal out and lightly dipped the same rough brush in to it, and wiped almost all the paint off as I was about to start drybrushing. With drybrushing its important to remove almost all of the paint first and then lightly flick the brush back and forward over the "textured" part of the model to highlight the text. I was doing the treadplate first, so I wanted the movement of my brush to match the directions of the raised flooring, so in this case up and down and left to right, importantly no angled strokes as that could ruin the effect I wanted. Once done with the tread plate I ran the drybrush back and forth across the raised step and rivets, this was done slightly unevenly to match the pattern of people walking, if you think about it no one will step over the large metal cogs on the floor to step up, therefore there would be little or no visible metalwork in that area and the rust would be solid. Thinking about usage like this really helps with all weathering work and makes or breaks the believability in my opinion.

Lastly I ran the brush lightly around the very tips of the cogs and lightly across the surface this then left me at the "consideration phase". This is the point where I review my work and decide if it matches my expectations, if not I go back and keep working till it does. This time I decided that I wanted to build up some rust in the areas where the model wouldn't be standing, so using the mid and light rust pigments I went back and touched up those areas again (on the left of the base in the picture and slightly around the cogs). I then considered again and decided I was happy with it, I grabbed the black paint and finished off by tidying the sloping sides of the base in black paint.

This may sound like a lot of work per base, but when you have done it a few times it can be done quickly :blink:

Here are a couple of pictures of the model and base ... once again I forgot to do the purity seal ... so looks like that has now been moved to the top of my to-do list.

From the side: -

and from the front: -

The rust nicely offsets the black of the armour and creates a suitable frame :)

Finally here are a couple of group shots :)

Next up will be the work on the Sgt ... although I am tempted to do the special weapons perhaps :)

[Brother Argos]

Wanting to do something original when modelling is always difficult, there are thousands of modellers all of whom have excellent ideas and do their very best to make them into reality. We all are constantly inspired by the works we see on-line and in the real world, to the extent that it shapes our thoughts and often strangely limits our ideas as we sub-consciously copy what we like. With my Sgt. figure I wanted to try and do something original (or at the minimum rarely seen) and at the same time appropriate to the space-hulk theme I had adopted for my Iron Hands. The initial idea came from the normal practice of making special figures somehow more pronounced on the battlefield, people seem to alter their height, often placing them on bigger / higher bases. With that in mind I decided to "raise" my Sgt. above the crowd and use the "Vertical" space on his base somehow.

It didn't take too long to combine "Vertical" with "Space-Hulk" and decide on a scenario where either my Sgt. was descending or ascending onto a new level. That then led onto ladders between levels and I suddenly had the image I wanted, he would either be the last man to leave the level and firing into the crowd of opponents chasing the squad as he climbed up, or first man down onto a new level scanning for and finding enemies to fire upon as he descended. Here is what I saw in my minds eye on Christmas day as I sat with my family: -

With that image in my mind I set about making the base ... I used two thick strips of plasticard for the sides of the ladder, I taped them together with masking tape and measured and drilled the 1mm holes through them for the rungs. I then rounded the tops to give the feeling that the ladder only stopped a little way above the marine, as it would be impossible to show a roof this would be essential to the illusion of height. Then putting some treadplate plasticard on a base and cutting through it, I pushed the sides of the ladder down into the base and glued them. The rungs were then added one by one and also glued but the ends were left with 2-3mm randomly each side, I did not do the last rung as I needed to thing how the hand would attach to it.

I then held my rule along the outside edge of the ladder and using that as a cutting guide, I used my flush cutters (the GW ones) to cut along the ruler, therefore insuring each rung would end at the same distance from the ladder, small details like everything being level help significantly to make the mind accept what its seeing. So with the base done I set about the creation of the Sgt. the first thing I would need would be an extended arm, if you think about anyone hanging onto a ladder while firing, the hand/arm holding the ladder is usually extended and taut as it takes the weight. The pointing arm with the index finger extended was my final choice, I drilled a 1 mm hole through the "fist" portion and then assembled it with the top rung through it and glued the run into place with an arm dangling from it. The chest and back plate were easy to find and I used the techmarine plate with the cog and skull on, I did add a small cog to the belt buckle after filing it flat to enhance the IH style.

Next came the legs, I knew the running legs would give me something close to what I wanted, but upon closer examination the position of the feet would wrong. The foot in contact with the rung would need to be compressed and the other foot would need to be extended either coming up from the rung below or descending towards it. This all involved some drastic foot surgery as I removed appropriate looking feet from another pair of legs, tidied them and then attached them to the set of legs I wanted. Obviously removing and reattaching feet also cost me the power cables normally found from ankle to foot, so using some of the dragonforge ribbed cabling I set about recreating the power cables. Once finished I was pleased with the result especially as the ambiguity of whether the figure was climbing or descending still remained. I then stuck the backpack on and gave it a slight angle to show the shift in weight while climbing, I had used this small trick before as it emphasises the figures movement without being very obvious.

Next came the arm with the weapon, I normally magnetise everything I work with and this would be no exception. I planned to have another outstretched arm and to sever the hand after the wrist joint. Having done so I drilled a hole into the wrist for a 2mm rare earth magnet. The magnets I use are strong enough to hold a plastic/resin weapon in place without it rotating and a matching magnet would be placed into the hand holding the weapon. The initial two weapons chosen were a plasma pistol and a bolt pistol, but my plans include all possible weapon options for a sgt in a tactical squad including powerfist. Lastly I chose the head I wanted, it had to have bionics and have some energy in the facial features, One of the Admins on the Bolter & Chainsword (SCC) had the excellent idea of using the Shadow Captain Korvydae head from ForgeWorld and I must say I think his choice was excellent (I also happened to have one in my bits collection).

After all this modelling I was left with the figure you have seen above, held together with blu-tac while I get the positioning right, I need to "assemble" him with glue now (all apart from the arm on the ladder) and start work on the magnetised weapon options. Once all that is done I need to go and fill in some areas with green stuff and make him a new curled index finger. Then I can start work on painting him!

I hope he meets my original conditions of being both themed and original, I don't recall too many marines in this position (apart from some really old GW dioramas).

[Master Melta]

:D

 

 

Man, I was getting withdrawls from your posts but I think this marine will give me the fix I need for a while.

 

Well done all around.

 

MM

[Allerka]

That most definitely looks awesome. However, two minor things come to mind.

 

1. The bolter barrel looks a bit too wide. If the bolt shells were really that big, his magazine would have two, maybe three rounds in it at the most. :) Obviously that's a fairly minor detail, and would certainly be a lot harder to notice once it's painted.

 

2. While the pose is awesome and dynamic, based on my own experiences I can't help but feel that's going to be a pain to transport to and from games, as well as suffer from potential breakage during play. Obviously, if this is just going to be a display case that'll never leave your home, then that's not a concern. B)

[Brother Argos]

With regard to the bolter barrel I merely took my example from Forgeworld: -

As you can see in the image above they also have a significantly larger hole than the bolt shell would appear to occupy also. Most likely the barrel actually terminates within the gun body and the exit point is larger to handle the rocket section of the "bolter" round igniting to stop pressure buildup in the barrel itself.

However what I truly suspect is we should not go around applying common sense to 40k :cuss

You are so lucky .. personally I only get to play 2-3 times a year and most of those times are in my gaming room where I only have to carry my figures from my display case to the board (about 10ft). The good news however is that I also invested in a B&C figures bag, so if I do venture from my sanctum sanctorum I should be ok!

[Marshal Rohr]

Bro Argos, the Iron Hands are impeccable. Well done on another excellent army.

[Master Melta]

Follow up questoin, what did you use for the tubing around his ankles?

 

Also, you made a good point in that viewing what others have done may limit our imagination and make us prone to copying. I agree, but I will say this. Seeing work like yours also motivates and re-energizes folks like me to be creative and think outside the box. I will no doubt have a less awesome iron hands army than what you are constructing, but it will be better as a result of exposure to your work than it would have otherwise been.

 

Now, drop whatever you are doing, and write those toutorials I demanded. :mellow:

[Allerka]

However what I truly suspect is we should not go around applying common sense to 40k ;)

Ha ha, that's certainly true. :mellow:

 

 

You are so lucky .. personally I only get to play 2-3 times a year and most of those times are in my gaming room where I only have to carry my figures from my display case to the board (about 10ft). The good news however is that I also invested in a B&C figures bag, so if I do venture from my sanctum sanctorum I should be ok!

I have two. :D But yeah, some of my more elaborately posed models break in transport on me more often than my more stock-type poses, sometimes just in the process of taking the model out of the tray! It's quite annoying, but, like I said, if you're just playing at home, it shouldn't be much trouble. ;)

[Cyrox]

In the words of that Craig Revell Hall bloke on Strictly come dancing:

 

Ah-Maze-ING!

 

That is great work on the conversion, the attention to detail is fantastic this will be one hell of a squad!

 

Personally i dont like the head you have chosen, but I know you will make it look great!

[Marshal Traben]

MaxMini just released a set of weapons that would fit nicely with your Iron Hands.

[Brother Argos]

I know, Freakforge (the sculptor/creator) PM'd me regarding the Bionics set and the weapons. I have already placed my order!

[Captain Juan Juarez]

You know, no one should have more than one beautiful army... *hint hint*

[Brother Argos]

Well its been a good week at home and I am back to work tomorrow .. however not much modelling work done but lots of relaxation and good family times.

First up are a couple of models I have been preparing for painting. Nothing special, just a running special weapons marines and a normal firing marine with a FW special hand: -

Here you can see the Special weapon marine with the hand magnetised to take Flamer, plasma or melta: -

This is using the FW heresy style melta weapon .. which I like a lot!

Next is the Plasma gun and finally the Flamer.

They are stuck onto their "painting" base where they get undercoated and then painted and finally decalled.

They then get transferred over to their final bases shown below, the first one is a half water with a grill over it kind of thing. I used a hollowed out 25mm base with a bottom on it, I got them from Australia at Back2Basix however they did not appear as deeply "hollowed out" as I would have liked and I had to work at it to get what I wanted.

I then poured and use GW water effects and placed the grill on top as seen below, however I still think it needs at least another layer which will be another 24hrs to dry.

There are small silver seed beeds (0.5mm) in the water mix which when the other layer is poured will look like rising bubbles under the water. Oh I also mixed green ink with the water effects (which I am fairly certain is just pva glue) to give a dark green murky feel.

The other base is a drain cover from a WWII resin pack embedded into some tread plate with edging surrounding it. I made the rivets out of thin plasticard using my "punch and die" kit and then just stuck them on. I also did a little corner work with 45degree cuts to make it look slightly more realistic (basic rule of modelling, small detail can really help).

Finally I am working on a left handed set for firing marines as I am getting tired of using the same damn sets of arms everytime.

Here is the initial work, in comparison mode for me while I am finishing off with green stuff etc. it feels fairly similar to the other arm in size and orientation and just needs some work done on the joints with green stuff and some smoothing on the top of the hand.

[Brother Argos]

Well its been a pretty poor week since I last posted (6 days), I have been working on the B&C Upgrade and dealing with a the kitchen roof having rotted and getting it repaired/rebuilt. All of which meant no time for painting or modelling which SUCKED.

Finally today I got to do some painting and decided to work on the special weapons marine I showed pictures of last time. I was thinking about the base I wanted to use for him and my time spent up on the roof had brought home to me that you have to move carefully in a dangerous environment. Well that was all I required to put together a very amusing base: -

The top right portion of the image shows a mine hidden under a loose floor plate, the other two pictures show the floor plate gently resting on top of the mine. With this arrangement I would use my running special weapons marine and position him rather unwisely about to run over the loose plate!

Here you can see him with FW old style multimelta in hand ... running forward over the now painted base: -

As you can see from the picture its likely he will catch the plate in passing, however lets not forget this is a Space Marine we are talking about and he may notice and evade at the last minute. I used the rust pigments extensively on the soles of his feet to make the figure feel "attached" to the base. In addition the end of the melta has "soot" residue around the end of the barrel, this was done with black MiG pigment and the MiG fixative to keep it in place (although I did wipe a little off to show a hint of metal).

I went for a two-tone metal solution for the gun as there was not enough visible casing to paint white, I then used badab black wash to add depth and shading and finally used Tamiya clear paint to "gloss" some parts of the gun and not others. All of this added enough variation to the weapon to stop it looking "bland" metallic. The Bronze used draws the eye to the Melta when your looking at the figure, which was what I was looking to achieve.

In the last picture you can see the mine under the plate waiting for the left foot to swing onto it. Also the rust weathering is staining the white tactical arrow on the leg, the large expanse of white leads me to do something to it on every figure I paint.

It was good today to get back into painting my Iron hands and as I am home tomorrow I will be doing another figure!

[Bannus]

As you can see from the picture its likely he will catch the plate in passing, however lets not forget this is a Space Marine we are talking about and he may notice and evade at the last minute.

Bah! He is just going to casually step over it - I mean, it isn't even hidden that well ;)

 

Great work as usual. I think I'll have to place an order for some of those FW decals - as they are really growing on me as I look at your pics.

 

A quick question: Can you post the height of the largest and second largest hands and the cog wheels from the brass etched set. I have an idea for them, but I would hate to buy the set and find out they were either too big or too small.

 

Thanks!

[Brother Argos]

Just for you Bannus, sizes of all hands and Cogs on the sheet: -

 

Largest hand 24mm

15mm

8mm

 

Cog 24mm

15mm

9mm

[Cyrox]

Awesome, as usual!

 

Great work on the base, it just gets better with every update

 

Those Forge World decals - do they work like transfers of are the adhesive?

[Brother Argos]

Normal water slide decals ... just like the ones in GW space marine packs.

[Bannus]

Just for you Bannus, sizes of all hands and Cogs on the sheet: -

 

Largest hand 24mm

15mm

8mm

 

Cog 24mm

15mm

9mm

Thank you kind sir! I appreciate that. Hmmmm....a little smaller than I envisioned them, but they may still work.

 

Hey - my 10,000 post!

[Brother Argos]

With the completion of two more marines (to be shown later) I once again returned to base making, so far the base making is giving me a chance to tell some stories and another outlet for my urge to create. I am happy with the "Rusty" hulk/spaceship feeling so far but decided to look into a more realistic looking rust theme last week. Rust to me always has "volume" and texture as well as colour, I wanted to try and capture the almost flaky/layered quality it seems to have.

Here are the two bases I did this week seeking that effect: -

The "Ducting Cover" base above is the one I think I am happiest with overall ... it captures for me the texture and "volume" I am looking for. Every time I look at it I can see layer upon layer of rust with parts chipped away and revealing metal underneath where the duct has been used. This "recent" usage feeling is something I try to put in most of the base work as an overarching theme, the bases are meant to look rusty and old, but at the same time with little clues that hint that someone or something has been here recently. Like leaving grate covers open, small scuff marks showing metal under rust, removed floor plates and mines placed under tiles. These should all combine to aid the story we are trying to tell for the squad, advancing into what they believe is an occupied space hulk and once again small details aid believability and help to support the background we wish to convey to the observer at a sub-concious level.

For the second base I aimed at slightly less rust, attempting to practice and gain control of the new technique I was using. As I had mentioned in an earlier post (the Sgt. post) we are often helped in many ways by what we see others do and this is a good thing, but unless we try and build upon what we see and develop our own techniques we can end up stifling our own creativity. Accepting someone else's "solutions" is a good way to learn new things, but it should not stop us trying to do better on our own, standing on the shoulders of giants so to speak. That was the reason for this new rust technique, seeing if I could find a way to get what I wanted in my minds eye.

When I made the bases, I was visually more pleased with the second base, I quite liked the small floor based "control panel" next to the conduits/cables, while the first base was quite simple in design and was sufficient for the task (having depth under the grate etc), it also felt a bit boring in some ways. However for me that turned around after painting and rusting, the complexity of the layers of rust brought the first base to life for me in a way which the second base didn't have (with its less rusty approach).

So .. before I post the new Space Marines on the bases, which base do you prefer ? ... and does the rust look more realistic than my previous work ?

[Cyrox]

You can't ask me which i prefer, they are both awesome!

 

You just have to paint 2 marines, and thats that ;)