Chaplain's hobby misc. Red Gobbo!

[Argent aquila]

Thanks Argent Aquila!  As a collector rather than a gamer I can "afford it" so to speak because the game itself doesn't interest me that much anymore- but the universe lore and grimdark aesthetic keeps me buying models and working on things haha.  That said, I'm sure I'll play at least a couple games with these guys once everything is done.

yeah, i don't have the time to game, plus my nearest hobby center is a good ways away.... plus, very confusing at the best of times.

 

 

 Dont worry about it brother- to be honest, I went through about 4 different ideas for the chapter symbol before settling on this one; and even then I debated back and forth on it for a good stint.  But the imagery of the heroes of humanity only finding Dorns severed, skeletal hand and the tradition of chapter masters of the various successor chapters scrimshawing the bones  struck me both in the morbidity and the sacrificial symbolism it represented.  So the skeleton version of the Imperial Fist symbol came into being.   Long story short, it takes a while- but you will find a symbol you really like.  (That said I have NO clue what I'm going to do about the banner design. And it scares me)

 

i think that you made a good choice for a symbol, it's very fitting for the confessors!

and i'm sure you'll come up with some morbid, angel winged, skeleton-esque, fiery background and gothic scripture to put all over that flag, we believe in you! the astartes know no fear!!!

 

 

(woo page 9 BTW)

Edited April 1, 2014 by Argent aquila

[The_Chaplain]

(woo page 9 BTW)

Woo indeed! Sorry there was no update last weekend folks, my fiance finally got done with a major source of workload at her job- so for the first time in what seems like forever we had a nice weekend to ourselves, and also went to the birthday party for the person who has basically been a surrogate father to me all my life; so no real time at the hobby table.

 

But I am today, and for the next few days! So, I figure I will try and update with what I can, while I can, before I go out of town next week!

 

Added a similar icon to the captain's iron halo:

I need to move the icon a little to the right ("left" in the picture), hot water bend the halo forward, clean trim, etc. But one idea I've considered doing is using Microscale Industrie's Micro Krystal Clear to make a pane of glass in the iron halo, and using clear paints/inks make something akin to stained glass. Over the top? Probably. Potentially awesome? Undoubtedly.

 

Whipped up a crusader for the 2nd squad, really liking how he's turning out:

 

Helmet vent is off a legion of the damned helmet I had that was miscast, studs for the studs god!

 

Replacement torso on a command squad member, courtesy of the LotD:

I'd like to add a plasma gun fromt he bike upgrade set on there (because even reclusiam command squads need some firepower), as well as braided rope ala the captain/force commander in the dawn of war series. I have rope that will do the job, but I am at a complete loss for how to make the doodad the rope is fed through, so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

Speaking of reclusiam command squads, the sons of horus banner arrived this last weekend! Unfortunately there are 2 things wrong with it, right off the bat:

The resin is quite thin in areas, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to fix that: but between epoxy, liquid greenstuff, and mr. surfacer, Im sure I'll figure it out. The banner pole is smaller and thinner than i was hoping as well (compared to a standard banner pole above); but nothing that cant be fixed. Maybe I can use the sergeant haas bionic sword arm to hold the banner, since it is smaller than a regular arm.

 

I think I've figured out how to replicate the red scorpion dreadnought topper with the skull reliquary as well:

If I sandwich a sevrin loth backpack with part of the sevrin loth honour guard banner I will be able to replace the entire SoH top- including the wolves below the orb. I wracked my brain on that one, but I think the laurels on the RS banner will cover the join perfectly.

 

That's all for now folks, with any luck I might be able to bang out one more update before I leave. Have a good one!

Edited April 8, 2014 by The_Chaplain

[The_Chaplain]

Let's see if the broken pictures will work if I post them in a second reply...

 

 

Yep, that seems to have done the trick. 

Edited April 8, 2014 by The_Chaplain

[Squeaky]

Awesome! I look forward to seeing more :D

[Monstra Sumus]

That last Sergeant is very dynamic, I love action poses like that. 

[The_Chaplain]

...Judas Priest concert!

 

Studs, that's the subject of today's update- because I've been working on the models (so far) that have them.  I don't know about you guys, but those mk 5 shoulderpads with the couple of odd, blurry studs really piss me off. 

 

Well, that changed!

 

Gave a helmet vent doodad to this dude from a few pages back during his reconstructive stud surgery.

Poor bastich, found his head under my friends couch as we were packing up his moving truck.  He needs a bath in some simple green for sure.

 

Hit the beakies with the same treatment, had the command beakie by the camera so he got a quick glamour shot:

 

Everything was going good, totally hit my stride, and then came the tremendous pain in the butt that gobbled up way more time than it had any right to:

Leg Studs!  Oh my god emperor, what a nightmare! Here's hoping it gets easier the second time 'round.  In the meantime, gotta figure out a way to make the leg pipes/ a makeshift tentacle maker.

 

Gonna take a break for a bit, and then launch right back into things at the hobby table.  Thanks for lookin' !

 

Awesome! I look forward to seeing more 

Thanks a lot! I've got lots planned for the future, finances permitting. Hope I don't disappoint! 

 

That last Sergeant is very dynamic, I love action poses like that.

Thank you kindly! Yeah, I can't stand generic squatting marine posing.  I figure if they're ground troops armed with some chainswords- might as well model them on the move.  

 

Oh, before I go, one bit of life advice for fellow spicy food fanatics-- keep your private reserve of spices out of reach of innocent mothers and loved ones.  My bottle of ghost pepper flakes were mistaken for your average tex mex variety fajita pepper flakes.  It was a painful evening, especially for the uninitiated spice wimps, don't make the same mistake.  Hide your private spices. 

Edited April 10, 2014 by The_Chaplain

[helterskelter]

*insert dune jokes here* kudos on all the studs, that is true dedication to the cause!

[Monstra Sumus]

I approve of the JP, saw them do the whole of the Painkiller album in concert a few years back with support from The Scorpions. Was immense. 

 

I haven't branched into the proper DIY part of the hobby just yet, but I intend to get a bit funky with my upcoming SoM project so I may very well share your hatred of leg studs in the near future! 

 

I fear my dear old mum would explode if she got into any of my spices and sauces. 

[The_Chaplain]

*insert dune jokes here* kudos on all the studs, that is true dedication to the cause!

Thanks HelterSkelter! You know the old addage "if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right" 

 

I approve of the JP, saw them do the whole of the Painkiller album in concert a few years back with support from The Scorpions. Was immense

God I bet it was.  I always wanted to see JP in concert, and it just never came to fruition; which especially stings considering they've retired.  Oh well, hopefully my first concert will be with a band that's at least in the same league as the priest!  I'm envious to say the least.

 

I haven't branched into the proper DIY part of the hobby just yet, but I intend to get a bit funky with my upcoming SoM project so I may very well share your hatred of leg studs in the near future!

I actually have your SoM thread up in another tab, going to give it a look and comment as soon as I post a quickie update here!

 

So, bolter straps have not exactly been cooperating with me since I signed off yesterday, so I put them to the side and worked on other stuff.

Fixed the thin resin on the SoH banner using some ProCreate putty

here's the "before" under a light test:

and the "after" under similar light testing.

I apologize, one of the pictures isn't working no matter what I do. Better luck next time I guess. 

 

Then I moved onto the captain and his toga tabard...

So the toga is now an actual tabard- which I am trying to make as organic and natural looking in terms of flow and draping as I can- so I'm using leather rather than cloth as a reference; it makes life easier for the man sculpting with pencils, pens, xactos and vaseline.

 

I think it's turning out pretty well so far, certainly better than with liquid greenstuff, that's for sure.  Still, I'm taking Tim Gunn's advice to heart and I need to "Make It Work"  

 

Last up, my contest stencils came in! So I figured I'd give them a try after returning from the gym and mowing the lawns. A nice enough day for some spraying!

the smallest template next to a 25mm base. I'll have to do shoulderpads with freehand or sculpting, but this will make flat panels on vehicles a snap!

Not a bad result for a test! Next time I'll try taping the stencil down.  But that's mighty fine looking!

 

Until next time guys- gotta start packing! 

Edited April 11, 2014 by The_Chaplain

[deathspectersgt7]

Some Rock'n pieces going on here the studs look great. 

[The_Chaplain]

Apologies for the delay between updates, I went on vacation, and came back with a cold! But I'm back at the hobby table, and trying to kick as much butt as I can at in the process!

 

First up, our bionic banner bearer:

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/115/c/b/biker_bionic_arm_by_emo_catboy-d7fxxoq.jpg

 

Took the banner arm from the ravenwing knight, cut it at the elbow, rotated it, stuck it to another arm's pad which I had pinned into the torso, and pinned the hand to a custom made handlebar (which was cobbled together from part of a death company thunderhammer); the skull handlebar cap was from a space marine bike aerial/banner.

 

Something I started on on the Stormraven:

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/115/f/7/magnetizing_the_stormraven_wip_1_by_emo_catboy-d7fxyf2.jpg

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/115/0/5/magnetizing_the_stormraven_wip_2_by_emo_catboy-d7fxyul.jpg

added magnetized plasticard into the weapon mount; and added magnets to the back of the missile launchers.  And with some more modification, I will have the option to run it as a storm raven or...

 

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/115/2/8/magnetizing_the_stormraven_wip_3_by_emo_catboy-d7fxz8f.jpg

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/115/a/d/magnetizing_the_stormraven_wip_4_by_emo_catboy-d7fxzhp.jpg

 

A Storm Eagle! Obviously the lascannons need a second barrel; but I had these bad boys leftover from my dark talon to storm talon WIP, I couldn't resist. Never underestimate the power of a bits box.

 

And now, for something a little different...

Siege Vanguard Mantlet Marines!  (I would love to do a detachment of siege vanguard and some of the unique goodies they get, but gotta get through some of the current projects before I stack more onto my plate.  Still, something to tinker with on a future rainy day.)

 

 

[Monstra Sumus]

How many mantlets are you going for? I just can't justify shelling out FW prices for breacher shields. 

[The_Chaplain]

How many mantlets are you going for? I just can't justify shelling out FW prices for breacher shields. 

Well, in the end I'd like to shoot for 1 to 2 squads of 10 men.  Those 2 shields are actually recasts that were sent to me-- essentially to tinker and play around with.  I hear you about forgeworld prices, but at this point, GW is quickly gaining ground and the two are pretty much going to be price equivalent in the end.  There is just too much eye candy on the forgeworld site for me to ignore it! (Something to save up for with my various growler sized coin jars haha)

 

 

My chapterhouse Iconoclast land raider conversion kit was shipped this week!!!- so hopefully I get it by or around Tuesday of next week.  I'll clean it up, and give it a dry fit and I'll be sure to take some pictures and give first impressions as well.  

Edited April 26, 2014 by The_Chaplain

[Monstra Sumus]

 

How many mantlets are you going for? I just can't justify shelling out FW prices for breacher shields. 

Well, in the end I'd like to shoot for 1 to 2 squads of 10 men.  Those 2 shields are actually recasts that were sent to me-- essentially to tinker and play around with.  I hear you about forgeworld prices, but at this point, GW is quickly gaining ground and the two are pretty much going to be price equivalent in the end.  There is just too much eye candy on the forgeworld site for me to ignore it! (Something to save up for with my various growler sized coin jars haha)

 

 

My chapterhouse Iconoclast land raider conversion kit was shipped this week!!!- so hopefully I get it by or around Tuesday of next week.  I'll clean it up, and give it a dry fit and I'll be sure to take some pictures and give first impressions as well.  

 

Yeah, that's true, but the quality of GW's molds is becoming astounding with virtually no flaws at all while I still get something bent or miscast every time I order from FW, it's a fine balance for me right now. I just can't justify to myself spending £128 for 20 dudes from Forgeworld with no variation for my SAV when I can do it via GW and a third party for £60, which is a toughie as I do love those shields. 

 

I look forward to seeing what you can do with the Iconoclast kit! 

[Argent aquila]

everything looks great!

 

love the breacher shields, and i understand what y'all mean about the prices. me being a kid with no job means that i get to sit around wishing i can get stuff for a year and actually having 2 chances of actually getting something. birthday, and christamas.

 

 are there any 3rd party sites that have good looking shields to use? i've thought about using fantasy knight shields, but then i might end up starting a brettonian army....

[The_Chaplain]

Brother Tyrax: Thanks, I hope the iconoclast add on turns out well.  Yeah, price in this hobby can be prohibitive- but that's why it's a hobby, and not an "essential", haha.

 

Argent Aquila: Thank you. Again, I hear ya about price- I get the majority of my stuff on birthdays and christmas; but every once in a while I get a little hobby present either for helping someone out with something, not smoking for x amount of months (my fiance knows that a carrot on a stick works every time on me), gifts from friends, etc.  Once I acquire gainful employment and pay off those essentials (*cough* student loans *cough*)  I should have some serious capital to start saving up and using.  Sadly, I have no idea about 3rd party shields.

 

 

Well, my iconoclast kit arrived in the mail today!

 

Initial impressions:  no miscasts or air bubbles that I can see, which is a serious plus considering the failure rate I'm used to with GW's "Finecast".  However, there is some warping it seems on the side sponson armor, and some nasty flashing on the interior of a side hatch.  I will see how bad the model is as I start to clean up the parts tonight, and attempt a dry fit (using rubber bands and blu tac) this week-- fortunately for me my neck of the woods is supposed to get some serious, flood like rain the next few days... so plenty of time to stay inside and work!

 

The goal is to assemble the land raider with this Iconoclast kit, old metal style hurricane bolters (with a potential conversion that I'm not 100% will pan out), and possibly the forthcoming loyalist land raider armor kit Subtle Discord is working on to make the "command" crusader for a potential future tank formation.  

 

Stay tuned! 

 

 

 

[The_Chaplain]

Well, I barely slept! Too excited! Excited about land raiders!  Pardon the JJ Abrams levels of lens flare- photos were taken during the "golden hour" this morning. 

 

 

The Doors:

stock chapterhouse door

games workshop rhino doors fit on the inconoclast pretty snuggly as well; land raider doors won't however.

and what the kit looks like without a door on it-- so no real opportunity to do something like put a reliquary in there. 

 

If that is a screw, I would hate to see the screwdriver-- regardless, one of the details on the iconoclast which has to go in my opinion. Not a fan.

Likewise these little wheels on top of the sponsons are getting the boot as well. You can see that the sponsons don't sit 100% flush with the chassis either.  Gonna have to do some gap filling for sure.

 

"What the hell is that?" I wondered... brace yourselves, this isn't pretty.

...something tells me that is going to take quite a bit of tool work and elbow grease to fix.  

 

 

But hey, look what fits in the sponsons!

My notions of making a mk ii crusader might not be as insane as I initially thought they were! (Wow, that sponson is really not level, wonder how long that fix is gonna take...)

 

And lastly, managed to remove the premolded aquila from the assault door-- so now I have a blank canvas for a custom door sculpt/kitbash!

 

 

Any suggestions on what to name this future bad boy? Might help designing the door easier.   Anyways, thanks for looking- have a nice day everyone! 

Edited April 29, 2014 by The_Chaplain

[MagicMan]

 

Liking how that tanks shaping up.

 

Incredible amount of detail work going into the building of these guys, keep it up man!

[Argent aquila]

really cool, it's gonna be a work of art!

 

as far as names......

 

"herald of retribution"

 

 

oh yeah, NovemberwarriorIX has some kick a** shields on his thread you should see. they look really good.

Edited April 30, 2014 by Argent aquila

[Monstra Sumus]

Certainly got a lot of work ahead of you brother! 

[Vash113]

So am I right to guess I was right that your chapterhouse order would come in first?

 

Anyway looking good.

[The_Chaplain]

MagicMan: Thank you sir, I'm liking how the tank is shaping up as well; and I'll try to keep it up as well, haha.

 

Argent Aquilia: Like the name idea, and I will check out those boarding marines. Thanks for commenting!

 

Brother Tyrax:  Don't I always? But if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right!

 

Vash113: You mean between the GW terrain pieces and the chapterhouse order we joked about in irl conversations? Yeah, you were right.  Technically the forgeworld sons of horus banner beat both of them though, and the stencils.  Both from England too-- pick up the pace GW.   Thanks.  How's your army stripping going?

 

 

No pictures today folks, sorry-- I injured myself after my last gym trip, and need to rest.  But with any luck some Tiger Balm and aspirin will let me power through table time today and make some progress for next update! 

[The_Chaplain]

Only managed to get so far today with my arms hurting as bad as they are today- but I have gotten a little done today!

 

Removed my wip emperor's champion from his old stock base, and placed him on a secret weapon miniatures replacement, and put the ivanus enkomi rubble back on it.

I think he might be too high up on this new base though: any suggestions for making it look more even? (more rubble wouldn't hurt I'm sure)

 

I removed the shoulder pads which people said were too chaplainy (and in hindsight, I kinda agree- which is why they'll be going to a future chaplain project ;) ) Here is what I'm thinking of using for replacements:

Curadh pattern shoulderpads from Ivanus Enkomi.  They have the triangular arch that sets them apart from standard company champion shoulderpads-- and are a blank canvas to put things like chapter symbols, crusade emblems, etc. on.   Thoughts?  (I'd need to get my hands on a complete enkomi- especially if I wanted to use his cape on this guy- but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for rule of cool.)

 

To help convey the "Emperor's Champion" feel off of this guy, I added some laurels to the helmet-- removed from a mk 7 plastic helmet, sanded and glued and pressed into place.  Got some clean up to do but with some elbow grease it will help make the model a little more majestic looking.  I am giving the laurel treatment to my banner bearing biker as well, although it is a slow process.

 

With any luck I should be getting some model parts in the mail in the next week or so to expedite some of these projects along.  Until then- keep crusading!  (Especially all you ETL 3 peeps- hopefully I can participate next year! )

[Argent aquila]

Looking really cool!

I really like the secret weapon bases, wish I had the money to get myself some!

 

 

Keep up the great work.

[The_Chaplain]

Looking really cool! I really like the secret weapon bases, wish I had the money to get myself some! Keep up the great work.

Save your pennies brother, and you'll be able to. I cannot recommend these bases enough- although I wish there was some more variety in the sculpts.  

 

Come hell or high water I was gonna get my hands on this son of a gun- if for nothing else than bits harvesting.  So the mrs. and I navigated GW's new webstore and placed orders for what we could (amazing how much stuff was out of stock when we tried the new webstore. Wound up picking up a lot of tertiary project stuff, but hey- at least I have it for later!)

Case and point...

Emperor's Champion has himself the makings of a fancy new sheath for his Black Sword, replete with skully goodness!

Future magnetizable plasma gun arm for command squad beakie biker.  The plan is to use the plastic arm from the web captain to swap in the remaining grav gun, meltagun and flamer options.

Replacement arm holding a meltagun for this command squad biker.  I'm going to try and magnetize the arm at the chest join and pin the shoulderpad so the gun arms can slide in and out magnetically as needed.

 

A base model for a future Master of the Forge with conversion beamer.  Got tired of seeing all these loyalist models converted to the dark side- thought it would be a nice project to "redeem" what is a very kickass model at it's core.  The Valthex backpack is the route I'm thinking of going for the beamer.  A plus side is, I now have a crap ton of resin cables to cut and bend to fit onto projects as well as make press molds of!  Score!

 

I forgot to mention that I found these bad boys a couple weeks ago in a comic shop near my alma mater while I was visiting friends and former roommates during my fiance's spring break from work:

Sadly they're metal, but I finally got my hands on this magnificent bastard!

So much charisma, and so much potential. I had to have him.  (And netting some future bolter crusaders out of the box isn't bad either)

 

When I initially returned to the hobby, making the transition from collecting 3rd edition Tyranids to 4th/5th edition marines- I was drawn to the Black Templars; (personally I blame the absurdly awesome 3rd edition rulebook cover, which most likely planted the seed in my mind).  And while I eventually switched from the templars to make a homebrewed DIY chapter- that zeal never really goes away.  And now with chapter tactics, I can have my cake and eat it too.  And thus the sword brethren as sternguard project formulated in my mind, and is now planted on the table.  With the forthcoming forgeworld seeker bolter combi weapon pack-- I don't imagine it would be extraordinarily difficult in attaching bolter arms to these recent amputees and prep them for magnetized options.  Rather expectedly, the casting wasn't 100% and so one of the lot is getting a head swap.  Blessing in disguise really, I can give him a proper mk 4 head now.  Maybe I can track down a suitable bionic eye Legion Recon head for the job?

(hey hey!, ho ho! that crappy pre sculpted knife has got to go! I said hey hey! ho ho!)

Finecast version of the Mk 2 veteran squad, similarly amputated (sans the horse stance bolter marine) for conversion into a veteran, Devastator squad. The interesting one will be the one with the combat knife- a southpaw heavy weapon marine? Never been done before, but I'm convinced I can make it work.  If I'm lucky, I can get a hold of a Hamaath Kraatos model for some more Captain Morgan with a heavy weapon action, maybe use him for press molding armor filigree as well.

 

Used a pumpkin carving tool for today's hacksaw work on the resin:

It was pretty affordable- got it in a post halloween sale pumpkin carving book kit.  Honestly? I would recommend them for use on finecast and softer/thinner forgeworld resin.  It got the job done pretty reliably, and a hell of a lot faster than sawing with an xacto style knife.  Similarly, the inside of a cap of nail polish remover is pretty good for holding up minis for picture taking.  Figured I'd pass these nuggets along to whoever wants them.

 

I have no earthly idea when the next update is going to be folks-- I have to get my car repaired, the fiance's car looked at after a small fender bender we had this weekend, and I finally have some employment! Via a small "odd jobs" service I started- so all told, this will probably be a very busy week+ for me.  So, until next time, stay safe and happy hobbying!  Thanks for looking, C&C welcomed and encouraged!