Legion Rising

[Subtle Discord]

Odds are the Terminators will be a block all their own. They include a Terminator Lord, his Terminator Guard, a Terminator Sorcerer, and a Land Raider. And, maybe a second 'lesser' Terminator squad. But, the 'Guard' squad is already partially built, and the others are nothing but pieces, so I'll see when I get there.

They are planned to be my first major project after I finish the core army. So maybe block 4 or 5. Buuuuuttt... another thread here has given me a really good idea for some TVL Air vehicles, so that might come first, since it fits the overall theme a bit better. The Air vehicles will only be for fluff and show really, so the Terminators might win out, since they can actually be fielded as-is.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Subtle Discord

[subtlebrush]

That blue works so well with what your doing here.

Love that dread by the way.

Cant wait to get my hands on one of those.

I'm going to play around with those templates.

Thank you for posting them!

 

+++Mr.M+++

[Subtle Discord]

 

Happy to provide Mr.M. Right now I'm pleasantly surprised with the subtle changes I made, to better match the theme. I was worried they wouldn't be as noticeable as they're turning out.

 

I'm still painting messy highlights on other miniatures in the squad, but I figured I'd toss up a before and after picture of the miniature with the highlights cleaned up. The difference is slight, and yet significant.

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Highlights_07.jpg

One down. Many more to go...

 

Still might need to touch up a few places, like the ammo belt in the Bolter, but it's close to being done this step.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Subtle Discord

[subtlebrush]

I love it!

I especially like how you decided to paint the elbows silver.

Little changes here and there to the standard color template is a plus for me.

You've definitely got me bitten by the Black Legion bug again.

Though when I start on them I will be going for more of a charcoal zenith highlighting and then some battle damage with weathering powders.

I absolutely hate line highlighting haha

Right now I need to step away from it and come back later if you know what I mean.

 

+++Mr.M+++

[Subtle Discord]

Yes! With Chaos, changing up the colour scheme is almost... essential. Even one as static a Black Legion.

Funny thing about silver. I used to avoid it and use it sparingly. It always seemed almost like cheating since it's simple to master. But since I've gotten better at it, I've been falling back on it more-and-more. At this point it's become a 'utility' colour, able to be a stop-gap or used to break something up. If you try to keep it mostly to 'mechanical' areas, with just odds hits of it here-and-there, you can use it a lot and it doesn't seem to feel overdone. The fact that a simple wash and bit of blending make it look really nice is an added time saving bonus.

I think I'm getting close to how I'll be doing my weathering, but I keep over doing it in my tests. I'm trying to keep it modest, like they're just starting the crusade and haven't see that much action yet. Light chipping with little or no corrosion. I'm even cleaning the Gold a bit so it's not quite so tarnished looking.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Subtle Discord

[Subtle Discord]

 

Since there was some interest in my Terminators, it got me thinking about them. I haven't looked at them in quite some time, so I pulled them out.

 

These were converted before Chaos had a plastic Terminator kit. I had been buying metal Chaos Terminators here-and-there for awhile (so... bloody... expensive!), and was finally up to a full squad, when plastic kits were starting to find their stride. The newer plastic Loyalist Terminators got me thinking how I could steal their wider leg stance and 'lifted' arm poses, to better match the larger base size. I didn't want to give up the Terminators I had invested in, but they were so small and static feeling on a 40mm base.

 

Well... a Jeweller's Saw and a Dremel (with flex shaft) loaded with dental drill bits are your friend, and a group of these kids were born...

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Terminators_01.jpg

There's a fourth one still in pieces with plastic legs like these, and I also have a Reaper Auto Cannon and Heavy Flamer to fill out the squad.

 

Back when these were started, they were very close to being done. But, as usual, I got distracted and they sat for quite some time. Since then I've bolstered my Terminators with a plastic kit and a bits order for more arms and shoulder pads. I figured, since the metal sculpts are so nice and more unique beside the plastics, these will become my Terminator Lord's personal guard.

 

This was one of the first times I was really pleased with my greenstuff work, but it was agonizing to get it that smooth. I had only just started using improvised 'soft' sculpting tools made from thick rubber bands wrapped around old brush handles. Since then I've purchased a few rubber sculpting tools, and I plan to get a few more. I haven't sat down with them yet, but I think they're going to help immensely working with greenstuff.

 

Sooo... since I have many more bits, techniques, tools, and improved skills, I'll be revisiting these and kicking them up a notch or two. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet, but they seem worthy of some extra treatment. (Ideas and links to sculpting tutorials area always welcome.) One thing I do know, I have enough bits to give every single Terminator in my army a Power Fist or Chain Fist, and I plan to. Expensive? Yes, but my logic is, who is going to have the best odds to survive long enough to swing an expensive and powerful, but slow, weapon? Terminators. Plus they are going to be so intimidating on-and-off the field, I can't help myself.

 

They can't be Armoured Cavalry without a ride, so they also have a Land Raider dedicated transport that I'll build up to match the rest of the vehicles, but I haven't even started on designs for that.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Subtle Discord

[Dammeron]

That's really impressive; the "glowing" effect makes the black armour look distinct and very dynamic. Beautiful stuff.

[alejandrinus]

Fantastic army Subtle Discord, the painting after all the detalide conversion work really worth the effort you are doing, and thanks for all the tutorials you are doing, the effort and dedication you put on them are more than welcome :lol:

[alex567]

Hey, Alex here, great mini's my local hobby group have never been a big fan of the black legion cause their colours aint that nice, but this army is what makes people go "hmm, I was wrong that the black legion don't look great" it's a lovely army and you should be proud (and kick anyone who sais otherwise :lol:). But yeah continue the greeeeeaaaaaaat work!

[LeeMXT]

Awesome work on the termies - I've always liked the metal minis, but felt the same way as you, the poses are far too static and 'huggy' for 40mm bases.

 

The GS work looks tight as too, I've nearly finished my WE termies, you've just inspired me to get the last one finished and get some pics up!

 

Looking forward to the Land Raider - those rhino templates were like Christmas come early to me! :lol:

[subtlebrush]

You are sick man!

Love the work you've done on the Old Terminators.

 

+++Mr.M+++

[teku]

That's very outstanding!

Damn you have the guts and the talent to make from a old mini a whole new epic mini!

[Brother Oryx]

I was never happy with GWs, 'Just Add Spikes' solution for many Chaos vehicles.

 

I hear you!! That's spot on. And I think what you are showing here is also spot on!! The vehicle adaptions are very very cool, well done. I like the blue hue on the marines, it gives them something ghoulish/spectre-like. Keep it up will follow your progress!

 

Looking at you marines again I thought maybe you can make the plasma grill emit orange light instead of blue, to break the overall blue a bit and have it stand out more. It'll contrast nice with the colour scheme. Maybe even a hellish purple with pink highlights. for what its worth.

Edited December 12, 2011 by Brother Oryx

[Grimdarkness]

Wow just wow look great.

[Alpha PTP]

I love the use of the old terminators, mate. I had about fifteen or twenty of them at one point (along with a ton of other metal models from an old chaos army) in a box, and when I was clearing out my room I pitched them on accident. Regretted it ever since. :teehee:

 

Keep up the good work. Stuff looks fantastic thus far.

[Subtle Discord]

Distraction! Sheet plastic is your name!! Oh why do I have the attention span of a starving squirrel?

Ok, so I've been painting highlights. My least favorite task. I want to continue, and the 'first block' of this force will all get them in due time, but to save my sanity I need to build to break the monotony. Sooo...

I've been thinking about replacing my Chaos Sorcerer for the core army. For ten points more, I can take a Daemon Prince, and I even have one of the older metal cast miniatures. But, I want to give him 'wings'. I don't want to sculpt actual wings, and don't have any large wing bits on hand, so I might just need to consider another option.

I've stated to see a theme in my army of miniatures being 'fused' with their gear and weapons through mutation. I didn't start this theme on purpose, but I've chosen to make it something I'm going to do purposely going forward. To that end, I want to 'fuse' a jump pack to my Daemon Prince model. Inspired by the new ForgeWorld Space Marine jump packs, I scratch built a larger jump pack engine for this purpose...

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Engine_03.jpg
The plan is simple enough, but material thickness and curved surfaces make it a bit tricky.

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Engine_01.jpg
Before anyone asks: The 'turbines' are made from some special washers (top left) that I got several years ago for this very purpose.

This is what I've come up with so far. It's not done yet, but I'm so pleased with the progress I figured I'd use it to bump my thread. There's still a bit more plastic to go on, and I need to do 'putty work' to fill some gaps and finish things up.

When it's finished I plan to use it as a prototype and start learning how to make moulds and try my hand at resin casting. I'll need two of these to use something like this...

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Engine_02.jpg
This is a really simple mock-up of what I have planned, once I use a resin cast to make two of these engines.

I plan to use a Dremel to carve a resting spot for the engine and shape the ends of the current 'backpack'. From there I'll use greenstuff and/or milliput to 'meld' the engine to the model. Then I'll add some pipes and hoses to finish the effect. When I'm doing this, I'll also do the greenstuff work that will be needed on the second Predator that I've shown earlier in this thread.

I'm also taking this design, and will scale it up, for the engines that I'm going to need for my VTL fliers (Inspired from a thread here at B&C and Vietnam War era Huey Bell helicopters) that I'm starting to design for the army. More on that a little later.

I've got the materials I need to start making moulds and casting on order, and will update once I've progressed some more with this. I'll also continue to paint highlights (*Shutter... Twitch-twitch*) and should have an update on that somewhat soon.

As always, questions, comments, suggestions and all general musings are most welcome.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Subtle Discord

[Emperor's Instrument]

Aah-May-Zing

[jimmimellows]

I've just stumbled upon this and i have to say im really impressed. I'm planning on doing some pretty major "chaosification" of a contemptor dreadnought and the new pre heresy rhino from forgeworld for my world eaters army. By coincidence im doing the same thing as you but with a mixture of some brass etch and (cheating somewhat) i have access to a laser cutter and CNC machine at work. I'll do a lot of preplanning in autoCAD and cut it via machine. Utmost respect to you for cutting all that by hand, you've done it so well that it actually looks as crisp as machine cut plastic. Really well done. Needless to say, i've been inspired by this thread and ill be watching it intently now i've found it.

 

I also have the black legion forgeworld dreadnought from my old black legion army, but i like the head so much that ive pulled it off the dreadnought to use on my contemptor once it arrives. I must say yours is very well painted, i love that you dont go mad with the black highlights, the metalics really speak for themselves.

 

Awesome stuff

 

*edit* i skimmed the prince jump pack text and ive just re read it and realised that you actually made that from plasticard!! I thought it was resin and have now come to the conclusion that you are both a genius and mad! (not in a bad way)

Edited December 21, 2011 by jimmimellows

[Tyrannicide]

I never saw this log before. Very impressive work!

[blackbabyjesus]

that jump pack bit is just incredible, you made that out of styrene sheet! :lol:?!

[alex567]

Hey, alex here, like the idea for the daemon prince and the jump pack is cool, I have a suggestion, mabe the jump pack will look better mounted on his back then on those extended parts, you could remove them and mount the pack where the extended parts are supposted to go and then mabe do some sort of sculpting onto the back of the daemon prince to show that his skin has grown into the pack but part of it is still there. Just my thoughts!

 

Also, jimmimellows I believe the forge world dread heads are to big to fit onto the contemptor, those ones are quite big and the contemptor one is marine sized (bit bigger mabe?), but yeah I dont think it will fit.

 

Keep up the good work!

[Dark Scipio]

Very inspiring. Excellent Black Legion. Perhaps the best I saw.

[Subtle Discord]

 

First, as always, thanks everyone for the kind feedback. Sometimes I honestly wonder if what I've made is as cool as I think it is. I guess I have my answer, and I'm on the right track.

 

And yes, this is my insanity. I've been called crazy by more than a few people, and now just accept that I'm an eccentric. I'm sure anyone can do what I do, but I've learned that my brain 'visualizes' 3D objects really well. Since I can 'unfold' things in my brain, CAD becomes a wonderful outlet that lets me make real what I can see in my brain. Draw it flat, transfer to plastic, cut from plastic, and then reassemble. I would love to have access to CNC or laser cutters, and I know it would make the process much faster, but I like to think I've got a good poor-man's technique. Maybe someday. For now, I need to learn mould making so I can at least replicate prototypes.

 

Sooo... If everyone liked that, you might just like to see an update on the engine, and a few of my other distractions. I'm still considering just how these engines will be attached to the model. I'll really start to worry about placement once I have a few that are replaceable. I might need to shape both the engine and Prince model to get the right fit. I might even bend the actual metal of the miniature. We'll see.

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Engine_04.jpg

I've finished up the hydraulics caps and added the rivets. Next up, greenstuff to clean up a few things.

 

It started with a piece of 1.1cm styrene tube and notched it at one end. I built the exhaust on a post of plastic to sit inside. The intake sits nicely on the tube - it's just a lucky fluke the washers fit so well, but having many sizes of tubes helps. Then I made a rounded 'cap' from a slice of the same tube for a nice lip. Trust me, when I start these things, it's this stage that I'm doubting it's going to work. All that work and I have a tube with washers in it? *Sigh*

 

Bending the sheet layers was... less than enjoyable. I tried heat to soften the plastic, but I think only the boiling water method (Shape the plastic and dip in boiling water, let cool) was going to get the right heat. My heat gun was too hot, my hair dryer not hot enough, and boiling water was too much work. So, I shaped/bent the plastic as much as I could, and then glued it down the center 'spine'. Wait for that to dry a bit, and build other bits. Then I would glue the 'wings' of plastic down in a rolling manner and hold/clamp it until it dries. It was far from perfect, but I got the job done.

 

Super thin glue is your friend all the way. Even a tiny amount will pull itself under the edge and along seams, and as you close the gap it seals edges clean. Go back with the glue brush just a little damp and you can smooth and clean edges, seams, mistakes, gaps, etc.. Capillary action pulls it where it's needed, and it evaporates very fast so it just makes the surface smooth, not melted goo.

 

As I said, these will be cast in resin. But, if I'm going to do that, I have another item I really want to built along with it. I've mentioned before that I hate the current Chaos Havoc Launcher, so I'm going to build one something like this...

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Havoc_Launcher_02.jpg

I like to think 12 missiles says 'Havoc' much more than 6, yes? ... Yes. Top right - Actual size.

 

This should fit perfectly in the current Havoc Launcher pintol mount, but still needs a bit of tweaking. It will have more spikes and banding, but this is the base that I can build before that step. Next up is a monster that keeps calling to me...

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Heavy_Predator_01.jpg

I call it a Chaos Heavy Predator - Pattern Unknown. I've shown it in another thread, but I figured it deserves to be shown here too.

 

I shouldn't have even bothered with starting this beast, but the idea wouldn't let me go until I built it at least this far. I have so many other projects that need to be done that I can actually field from the Codex, but this Frankenstein begs to be worked on. This is a very early mock-up, and it will undergo many revisions and changes, but at its simplest it's a Vindicator + Predator. It's going to be disgusting, in a wonderful way. I have no rules for it, but it will be magnetized and will have a wide range of weapon systems. Time will tell where this ends up. Naturally it will only be for show and/or friendly games. Expect to see it on-and-off in the future.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Subtle Discord

[jimmimellows]

I cant argue with your technique, im quite lucky to have access to the equipment i do. I'm going to experiment with some styrene in the lasercutter, as we normally mainly cut acrylics.

 

That triple lascannon looks awesome by the way.

 

@alex567 - someone mentioned that the heads are quite different but with the amount of sculpting ill be doing to the contemptor torso, i may end up dremelling out the head rebate in order to take a larger head. I'll compare it better once i have the model, im just crossing my fingers for now. Thanks for the heads up.

[LeeMXT]

And yet again... I'm just left with my jaw wide open!

 

Honestly, the level of raw talent in these chaos armies here is unbelievable. Between you and jimmi here, you've got it sown up!

 

 

I finish work for christmas tomorrow, and I've got your templates for the rhinos all waiting to go.... Excitement is not the word! Plus I've gotta take some photos of where I'm up to with my World Eaters too!

 

Really looking forward to sweing how this DP comes out... The jetpack idea looks fantastic, though I agree with alex's comment around putting it closer/ attached to the back directly. Plenty of scope for sculpting and adding more scratch built goodness around it if you pin the angle right...

 

Again, awesome work, I'm sure I'm not the only one who envies your ability! I'm half tempted to start bribing you with bullon now :tu: