Legion Rising

[Subtle Discord]

Thanks guys. Always appreciated.

 

Have a look on page 3 of this thread, there are links to the first three Rhino trim templates.

 

I'm far too addicted to the process of mould making and resin casting. There is a learning curve, for sure, but it's worth it. It's a really enjoyable process, and I'm also making moulds for wax injecting to make jewellery. I'm happy to figure out such a useful process.

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Havoc_Launcher_10.jpg

 

I final got around to making a conversion plate to mount a Havoc Launcher. This is an example of a test mould that turned out to be near perfect.

 

Now I need to return to the Havoc Launcher itself, and make a new mould. The current one is made the old softer rubber, and it's starting to lose some detail. Can't have that!

[Biohazard]

Looking very impressive here SD, :huh:

[Subtle Discord]

The moulds for the front and back of the Rhino are done, and I do believe I'm getting the hang of this...

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Chaos_Trim_03.jpg

Left: Not too shabby for the very first cast. Too bad there's one bubble. At least it should be easily filled. Right: And the fit is excellent!

 

It's one thing to think a concept will work. It's another thing to actually see it work just how you hoped it would. I'm always a bit nervous when I'm making a new mould. Last thing I want is to overlook something, and have bubbles or voids that could have been avoided.

 

I learned the hard way to always have the detail side 'facing down' in the mould. That way, if small bubbles do form, they rise to the flat back of the piece where they'll never be seen. It's not perfect, however, as the large bubble in this first casting shows.

 

If anyone is curious why my casts have changed to a grey colour, it's purely cosmetic. I haven't changed resin, I just added a bit of pigment to the resin. The grey colour photographs much better.

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Chaos_Trim_04.jpg

The top, riveted and ready for an RTV mould.

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Chaos_Trim_05.jpg

And the sides, also ready for some final clean up before their date with the pressure chamber.

 

In the end, it's going to take six moulds to produce one trim kit. I was was hoping to do it with less moulds (more moulds = more labour), but in the end I wanted quality over quantity. (/rant You hear that GW? Take the time to do it right, and trash all massively flawed casts. Your profit margins are large enough, and your customers deserve it! /rant) I will only produce something that I would be willing to use myself. Period.

 

Once these are done, the complete kit will produce an exact copy of this Chaos Rhino...

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/From%20the%20Wastes%20Blog%20Photos/Rhino_01_01.jpg

It's hard to believe how far my designs have come since I first posted this picture. *Sniff* They grow up so fast.

 

As I had mentioned, since these parts are cast flat, they will require some greenstuff work to fill some seams. Any greenstuff seen in these photos will need to be done after attaching the parts to the Rhino. Thankfully, it's not very difficult to do, since you just need to use the hard edges of the parts to guide the greenstuff.

 

As always, I hope this post is as well received as all the encouraging comments. There's much much more to come. Stay tuned.

[Dorns Padawan]

Mate your stuff is certainly very inspiring! Having just read our last post I have the urge to go to my nearest hobby store & acquire me my own mould making kit! Of course such luxuries are a long way off yet due to living in such a small space but you have certainly given me the bug :P . Kudos to you mate for near perfecting your own technique & unique pieces that certainly make your stuff stand out. Do you have plans to cast parts for any other transports?

[ShinyRhino]

Nice casts. Are you using simple, open-faced, one-piece moulds for these? How are you levelling the rein, if so? My open-faced moulds I can never get properly flat, so they always have that slight hump on the back side.

[EmbattledSoul]

i would buy the hell out of those ammo drums! perhaps we'll be seeing a new ebay store shortly?

 

impressive work, i now know why there are so many uncreative and uninspired hobbyists like me... the dark gods must've stolen it from us and gifted it to you! :P

[Bat33.1]

Some fantastic work here :D

 

Do you have any plans to offer the resin parts for sale? I'm sure you could shift boxes of them...

[Subtle Discord]

I considered open-face, but knew it would do exactly what you mention, ShinyRhino - surface tension is a major pain. I settled on full 2-part moulds. It takes one extra cure in the pressure chamber, but the added control you get from two solid sides is worth it.

 

I have heard of people having success with open-face moulds by using a sheet of acrylic as the second side. Spray it well with release - pour the resin and give it a little extra - place the sheet down slightly tilted to squeeze the air off. It will cause a mess, but if you can use non-stick pans and/or spray the overflow area with release, resin can be removed. It should produce a flat back, but I've never tried it.

 

Message received - note to self: Get the damn Ammo Drums and Weapon Clips done. The main reason why I haven't made moulds for them is my sudden 3D modeling fascination. At that size, I can make them so much better with software than with my hands. All of the clips I've done in 3D are based on the plastics, but nicer in every way - so very pleased. But there's another added 'price of admission' to get things 3D printed. I want to have several things bundled before I start spending even more.

 

The second reason is, I need to contemplate using split moulds for things like drums and clips. Haven't done that method yet, and it requires you to cut the master object free from a block of RTV rubber. But, maybe I can figure out a preferred 2-part mould way... *Ponders*

 

As for the vehicles I plan to do, for the time being it will center on Power Armour Chaos. So for the foreseeable future I plan a Land Raider, a return to the Predator, several more Rhinos, and I really want to make a very Chaos Storm Eagle conversion kit, since it would give my army some true Air Cavalry units. I would like to do some Loyalist Marine kits as well, but I have so much groundwork done for Chaos, I'll focus there and use what I've already got. That said, things could change with the right incentive.

 

And yes, once I'm positive I can make them to a good standard I'll be setting up something to sell them. For now I don't have the time to add site setup and design to my list of things. I think it'll need to start with an eBay store to keep it simple, and see just how much interest there really is. *Fingers crossed*

 

Thanks everyone, as always, for letting me know I'm on the right track. With your encouragement I hope I may continue to do what I can to please the Dark Gods.

[Lachdannan]

Very cool casts, and love the detail on them. Can't wait to see what else your up to.

[ShinyRhino]

I considered open-face, but knew it would do exactly what you mention, ShinyRhino - surface tension is a major pain. I settled on full 2-part moulds. It takes one extra cure in the pressure chamber, but the added control you get from two solid sides is worth it.

 

I have heard of people having success with open-face moulds by using a sheet of acrylic as the second side. Spray it well with release - pour the resin and give it a little extra - place the sheet down slightly tilted to squeeze the air off. It will cause a mess, but if you can use non-stick pans and/or spray the overflow area with release, resin can be removed. It should produce a flat back, but I've never tried it.

 

Gotcha. I'd seen the acryilic sheet method done on a Russian tank modeller's blog ages ago, but wasn't a fan of the wasted resin.

I wish I had a pressure chamber in which to cure my molds and castings. Too much expense for a rank amateur though ;).

 

Keep up the good work!

[Subtle Discord]

I tried to do casts without the pressure chamber, and just couldn't get acceptable results. My designs have so many rivets, and on average 50% refused to form correctly with every casting. I'm more than willing to admit I'm picky about the results I deem acceptable, but I didn't need to convince myself in this case. Bad casts = wasted resin. 'Nuff said.

 

Then, a local hardware store had a medium-duty 5 gallon compressor go on sale for 50% off. That was too good a deal to ignore, and helped considerably for the cost of getting the equipment. (Not to mention, having a compressor opens the door for all sorts of other things, such as an airbrush.) Another $250-ish for the pressure-paint-pot and the fittings needed to convert it to a pressure chamber, and I was good-to-go.

 

In the end, the only way I could justify the cost was to keep reminding myself that I will produce product for sale, and they will pay for the equipment... eventually. The encouragement from the community (Thanks again, everyone.), telling me I had something people really like, reinforced that I should give this an honest try.

 

Time will tell, but I hope know it's worth the gamble. If not, I still have some great 'toys' to play with. :P

[Subtle Discord]

Two more down, one left to go...

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Chaos_Trim_06.jpg

I was a bit worried the middle half-star would have trouble forming, but its turned out clean almost every time. *Whew*

 

I've found that resin prefers long straight runs to flow - makes sense, really. It has a harder time spreading out when the channels are narrow, like mine. In this case, the resin only needs to make one turn before running the length of this mould, so it's performing really well.

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Chaos_Trim_07.jpg

It took me several failed casts of this piece to figure out how to get acceptable results.

 

This mould is pushing the limits for my method, because of what I just mentioned. Since the resin needs to spread out much more, and make 2 S-turns while it fills this mould, it takes careful clamping to keep the casts clean. Once I figured it out, however, my success rate has gone up significantly. Lesson learned however, and I will split this part for future sets.

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Chaos_Trim_08.jpg

Bit of poster-tack to do a quick test for fit.

 

The fit on everything has been really good. I'm very happy with how little the parts have changed from the originals.

 

Now there's just one more small mould to make, and this set will be ready. While I'm at that, I'm going to build a rack for the pressure chamber and change my process with some slower kicking resin. I should be able to cast several moulds at once to save on some time. Always a good thing.

 

*Considers his next project...*

[Boomsly]

considering these will be up for purchase at some point, id be very interested in these as they pure quality and do deliver the chaos theme well without the spiky bits GW are so fond off.

 

that being said, i think shipping and the such to england would be the stumbling block, keep up the good work and future casting as me eyes are firmly on this :cuss

[Jofus]

Man you resin casting looks like it is coming along very well. Keep up the good work.

[Badaab]

Nice looking stuff here. When you're up and running with additional casting, I'd be keen for a set of these for my renegades force vehicles.

[Subtle Discord]

The bad guys don't always wear black. But in my case, my guys make a point of it.

 

After flipping through the old Realms of Chaos books the last while I was reminded of how Black Legion was first depicted. They had no Icon - they just wore Black to represent their grim existence. I've become tempted to lift the idea and limit painted Legion icons in general, but I don't know if that's me just trying to avoid decals and freehand. :) Everything is starting to look so good and cohesive, I wonder if it can stand on its own and make it a running theme. Black flags, Black banners, Black shoulders, Black armour. A sea of Black.

 

With the final mould for the trim finished, I've turned my gaze back to my Rhinos, Predator, and Obliterators. The Obliterators are nearing complete, and I'll get some shots up soon.

 

My Rhinos are close to being done their first clean-up...

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Legion_Rhino_14.jpg

Next up, detailing and highlights.

 

And, finally, the second Predator is done.

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Legion_Predator_15.jpg

So... many... rivets. Errr... Yeah, but it was worth the effort when it ends up looking like this.

 

When there's not primer on it, you see it for what it is. It looks good, but it all still stands apart - model - plastic - greenstuff. That's why I still think primer is my favorite step in the process...

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Legion_Predator_16.jpg

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Legion_Predator_17.jpg

 

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j332/SubtleDiscord/WIP%20Thread%20Photos/Legion_Predator_18.jpg

The unifying power of primer is so gratifying.

 

With just a few sweeps of a can or air-brush, and all the components that stood apart are merged into one object. It's great.

 

More to come...

[araekyus]

I am humbled by your work, good sir:)

 

Eagerly awaiting more!

[subtlebrush]

Yeah I'm gonna have to purchase your kits once your well into production.

They'll definitely help with a Chaos project I have planned.

Keep up the awesome work my friend.

[AlexCrute]

Gabberflasted.

[Cheex]

Do want. This stuff looks amazing, and I'd imagine you'd make a killing when the new Codex eventually comes out!

[Soulblight]

Sure are gonna order a couple of them when they are done and ready for sale! They seem to be more "true" chaos then all GW;s spiky bits and pierced skulls...

 

Keep those pictures flooding!

 

Best regards!

[Snejk]

Absolutely wonderful!

 

And as others have asked, will you sell these on eBay in the future?

[Gitsplitta]

Love that Predator. As you stated... well worth the effort.

[Biohazard]

I will definitley be looking for a landraider kit to use on the top of my Titan when you get round to that. :lol: The detail this adds is unreal.

[Aqui]

Having the Realm of Chaos books myself, the icon-less aspect of the Black Legion was one of the things that I loved about them so much that I had to get them as an army all those years ago :lol:

 

I love what you've done with the vehicles. They make the GW versions look so bland in comparison. I just wish I had the time and money to be able to do such a thing myself ;)