BCK's Thread of Stuff: Super Heavy

[Vazzy]

Ahhh. Dusk Raiders then. Interesting.

[Grizzly_bear]

Imperial fists

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Imperial fists

 

O_O

 

Ahhh. Dusk Raiders then. Interesting.

 

Yes! Early XIV before Morty got hold of them and ruined everything.

[GhostMalone]

One of us one of us one of us

[Barabbas Sogalon]

Good to see some Dusk Raiders on the forum.

 

We are the voice and the clarion call; we are tyrant's ruin and rival's fall.

[Grizzly_bear]

Hehe you know me BCK loyal son of dorn. But what ever you do it'll be awesome.

 

Did you get my PM btw? My phones been playing up lately. (Only way I get on here too)

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

So, I'm not dead. My toy soldier muse has abandoned me of late, but teased me a little today and I made some progress on this guy:

 

http://i.imgur.com/w5USGzT.jpg

 

What progress you may ask, given that it's been some times he was last seen? I sculpted the thigh plates to bring the legs more in line with the FW MK III models, and I also removed about 95% of the cape that used to be on there because I plan on doing one of my cloth capes and possibly using this guy as the model for a tutorial. I also bought some stuff off of eBay last night, so reinforcements should be arriving in the near future. For the time being, I'll see if I can get a Rhino or two put together, as well as the rest of my jetbikes, and then God-Emperor willing, the airbrush will cooperate.

[Hyaenidae]

Badass. That dude looks like he could hack through Cataphractii plate.

 

Glory to the VIII Legion, brother.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Mmmm, yes, counts as Nostraman Chainglaive, so it should take care of some Cataphractii just fine.

[The_Chaplain]

He's looking good BCK- I can't imagine how difficult a hackjob it was removing the cape off of that miniature though. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

He's looking good BCK- I can't imagine how difficult a hackjob it was removing the cape off of that miniature though. 

 

He was already quite the hack job at this point:

 

http://i.imgur.com/mGqFXPe.jpg

 

It used to be this(not my WS guy, but I have no more untouched versions of the model left to photograph):

 

http://i.imgur.com/hjZd4as.jpg

 

Basically, just cut him in half, and resculpting the top half of the cape and getting it to line up properly with the bottom half was proving to be a major PITA. It wasn't as bad as you might think, removing the rest of the cape, thanks to a Dremel and a rasp I bought out of a clearance bin in a hardware store last year. Errr... I mean, 2012. All that's left is a very thin, very narrow stripe of material just wide enough to cover the gap between his legs. It leaves some parts of the back of his legs bare, but that will be covered up when I add the new cape.

 

I'm going to try to do the tutorial tonight, but no promises.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Here's my tutorial for making a cape or cloak out of facial tissue(Kleenex, etc).

 

 

First up is some basic tools:

 

http://i.imgur.com/ZcQcDQc.jpg

 

*The tissue, of course. The kind I have is a name brand, so it's relatively sturdy and is actually two thin layers.

*Scissors, to cut the tissue. Trust me on this - even a brand new, razor sharp hobby knife isn't up to the task.

*Long tweezers to help with positioning and moving the delicate tissue, and even more so once it's been soaked.

*Clay shapers, the handle of a paintbrush, small plastic or brass tubing, etc. You'll want some kind of tools to help you shape it and get the folds you want.

*A paintbrush you don't mind possibly ruining by soaking it with glue. I prefer the flat type pictured.

*Hobby knife, to cut the tissue once it's partially dry if you wish to go for a distressed or tattered look.

 

Not pictured:

*PVA or white glue, and ensure that it's water soluble.

*Dish of water and another smaller one for the glue.

*Cyanoacrylate (CA) or "super" glue

*Tape of some kind that's got a strong adhesive. I used packing tape for this.

*A straight edge or ruler, preferably metal, but any with one smooth surface will work.

 

 

1) Prepping the tissue

 

I pulled the two layers of the tissue apart and set one of them aside.

 

http://i.imgur.com/OsmMuMe.jpg

 

I folded the single layer of tissue over on the crease that was already there and used the smooth surface of a my metal hobby ruler to press the crease flat, like you would if making a paper airplane or some such.

 

You can see the difference in the flattened piece and the other layer:

 

http://i.imgur.com/rBmeEix.jpg

 

Next, I set the figure on top of the tissue with the feet at the crease. This is important because the cape will be one thin layer folded in half, and the bottom edge will be the crease, so it won't separate while you're working it.

 

http://i.imgur.com/xR6c0XZ.jpg

 

I drew a rough shape in pencil of how big I wanted the cape to be, and it actually turned out to be a touch too long, so once I cut it out, I trimmed from the top, not the bottom! Remember, we need to keep that crease as the bottom edge of the cape!

 

 

2) Anchoring

 

In my previous attempt at this, I just used super glue to adhere the top of the cape right to the figure, but removing it to paint separately was a pain and tore the cape in a few spots. A few days ago while thinking about how to do this tutorial, I had an epiphany on the subject of removing the cape and a way to make it easier. This is where the tape comes in! I cut two small rectangles of packing tape and attached them to the back of the figure, and used a clay shaper to smooth it down and really make sure it was secured to the figure. Since the tape is clear and didn't show up very well in the photo, I outlined the pieces in this pic:

 

http://i.imgur.com/C8b3ckj.jpg

 

Put a little dot of super glue on the tape and carefully press the tissue onto it with the tweezers, and add another dot from the top side if you have to so that it sticks. Be VERY careful about getting anything stuck to the super glue except the tissue at this point(finger tips in particular), or it will destroy the tissue and you'll have to cut out a new one and start over. Here's how it looked after each side was anchored to the tape:

 

http://i.imgur.com/2TykuJu.jpg

 

As you can see, the two layers are separating at the sides a little, but don't worry if that happens - it only matters if the bottom edge comes apart.

 

At this point, I will use my fingers to move the tissue around, pushing and pulling gently, to see just what I can do with it. Sometimes the idea you had in your head for something doesn't come out as planned once you get into doing it. Think of this as the sketching phase of a drawing. Here's my rough idea(and this was quite a pain to photograph with only two hands).

 

3) Glue

 

Put some of the glue in a dish and thin it 50/50 with water. Load the brush with the thinned glue and starting from the top where the cape is anchored, slowly start soaking the tissue. Don't rush this part because it can tear easily.

 

http://i.imgur.com/KRM1kK5.jpg

 

Once it's completely soaked, it starts too look a lot more like cloth, holding close the figure with creases and folds.

 

http://i.imgur.com/BXV1vVz.jpg

 

At this point, I put the figure on his base and secure it to one of my paint bottles, because you want to make sure you don't make the cape hang below the base of the figure.

 

Next, I start moving the tissue around to make sure I cover up the the small remnant of the old cape. To do this and have it look accurate, I imagine that the wind is coming at the figure from behind him and to his right, which would press the cape against his right side and billow out to his left side. With the tweezers and the paint brush loaded with more glue at the ready, I press the cape against his side, holding it with the tweezers, and then using the paint brush add more glue and hold it in place:

 

http://i.imgur.com/BsxJHRf.jpg

 

Important tip: Always have the paint brush handy - I'd load it with thinned glue and hold the handle of the brush in my mouth - because the tissue is so thin that the glue will start to set relatively quickly and you will sometimes need to wet an area down again to keep it supple.

 

To get the left side of the cape to look how I want, I wet the tips of the tweezers in water and grasp the tissue, carefully pulling it out and away from the figure.

 

http://i.imgur.com/m2gIZ5e.jpg

 

Go slowly, and if you start to feel tension, back off, because it doesn't take much at all to tear it. I almost did just that because I had secured the right side of the cape to his side so well, I nearly ripped it in half when I first started pulling on it. Go slowly and easy. Once I had the cape flowing out to the side, I used the tweezers to grab small areas and twist or tug on the tissue, and clay shapers to move it around, to start putting folds into it. Since I couldn't really take photos of that, I marked out the approximate areas in red where I used the tweezers and shapers on it:

 

http://i.imgur.com/Z7Umd7d.jpg

 

Here's a look from the front side:

 

http://i.imgur.com/R4QtPvA.jpg

 

Once you get it to where you want it, put it under a lamp to help the glue dry faster, but be wary of putting the bulb too close and possibly doing heat damage to your figure. If everything goes well, in about 20 minutes, the glue will have dried and then you can go back in with a heavy dilution of glue, around 75/25 or a little more, and put a thin coat over the cape and then stick it back under the light again. Once this second layer dries, it should really stiff and you can then pull it away from the figure.

 

However, if things don't go well, as they did in my case, then you might have to go back and do some clean up. Normally, you can simply soak the bad area with thinned glue, fix the problem, and let it dry again. Since the glue is water soluble, you can do this as much as you want. If the problem is more severe, more drastic measures might have to be taken. Here's how the cape looked after it dried:

 

http://i.imgur.com/ZUOkzLc.jpg

 

Like a temperamental souffle, it collapsed on me while it was drying. The left side fell inward because I didn't use enough glue to hold it in place before drying, and the middle part adhered the remnant of the old cape, smoothing itself out and taking most of the folds I had worked with it. i didn't realize it would do that, and probably would again if I softened up the area and tried again. What to do? Patch it! I cut a small piece of tissue to fit in the affected area:

 

http://i.imgur.com/UTACjBZ.jpg

 

Holding it in place with the tweezers, I used the brush to soak the top of the patch until it stuck. This was another one of those things I couldn't photograph, having only two hands. Here's a shot showing where the top of the patch is, just below the red line:

 

http://i.imgur.com/oSUeEsp.jpg

 

 

Now, I knew that if I soaked the patch completely, it would probably do exactly the same thing again and smooth out against the underlying area, and I also wanted one of this big hill-and-valley type folds in the back of the cape, so I held the bottom edge of the patch with the tweezers and soaked the sides of it, leaving the middle dry and standing out away from the rest of the cape. As it's difficult to see what's wet and what's dry, I used the middle pic of these three to outline the area I soaked:

 

http://i.imgur.com/MOhYuq0.jpg

 

When the glue on the sides of the patch dried, I went back and used a 75/25 dilution to soak the middle, and it's done!

 

 

[nhaunter]

Great, looking forward trying this.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Great, looking forward trying this.

 

Let me know if you do! I'd like to see how other people do with it.

 

 

I also forgot to add a final pic of the cloak once it was dry, so I slapped the figure back together with bluetac real quick:

 

http://i.imgur.com/OaabF6r.jpg

[The Nephilim]

Nice! Thanks, BCK.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Nice! Thanks, BCK.

 

I hope it's useful to some people.

 

Also, be very careful when removing the cape, because it's quite fragile and basically glued to the model in a some places.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The cape I put on that for the tutorial was just for the that, but I really wanted to do something else for him, more like what this guy is wearing:

 

http://i.imgur.com/PHKxZIM.jpg?1

 

Due to the difficulty of photographing the tissue capes, I hit the torso with a quick zenithal spray to make it easier to see:

 

http://i.imgur.com/LlfU7py.jpg

 

I also started working on a Rhino, and while I wish I had the funds for a FW Deimos kit, I decided to see what I could do on my own using parts from the current and previous versions of the Rhino.

 

The first side with my version of the round door, showing a before/after:

 

http://i.imgur.com/yeuYFdn.jpg

 

Fitting the old bolter... humps... or whatever, to the new chassis:

 

http://i.imgur.com/FPVFboF.jpg

 

 

[The_Chaplain]

BCK, Desnyder<?> has a download link for templates to make a mk2 rhino into a mk1 chassis, and also- there is a pair of articles here:

 

deimos predator sponsons:

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2012/09/converting-deimos-pattern-predator.html

 

demios predator turret:

http://www.fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2012/09/building-my-own-deimos-pattern-predator.html

 

How did you do the side plating? Razorback/predator top plate with a plasticard round?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Yeah, I'm using the extra plate from the Rhino kit to make the new side.

[GrandMagnus]

Great work BCK, but I have a quick question: The capes with tissue look great, but how are they to paint? How does the end result look like? Other paint related questions.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Once you seal them with primer, they take paint just fine. There is a very fine texture to them, which will show through a little bit once painted, and that will vary depending on the brand used.

[Kronus Stormbringer]

Ive used the tissue effect on other projects not related to 40k, I found a light coat of gloss varnish after priming helped with the texture issue.  I used Vajello paints and it came out fine.  Top notch work as usual Brother Chaplain Kage :)

[TearsOfTheRaven]

whilst i love cape on him i cant help but wonder how his arm is gonna fit on. perhaps a picture of him with it attached might help? that chain glaive arm is looking epic now. all my earlier doubts have ( as always with your work) have disappeared. Edited January 24, 2014 by TearsOfTheRaven

[Brother Heinrich]

http://i.imgur.com/LlfU7py.jpg

 

Sorry I haven't commented until now Brother, my brain is horrible at multi-tasking and is easily distracted. I have been skeptical of the whole tissue method of doing cloaks, but seriously man, the brooding menace coming form this guy is freaking perfect, and it's all thanks to that cape. Ace work man, I'm really looking forward to paint on this dude. May have to incorporate this technique on my new Plague Marines.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Ive used the tissue effect on other projects not related to 40k, I found a light coat of gloss varnish after priming helped with the texture issue.  I used Vajello paints and it came out fine.  Top notch work as usual Brother Chaplain Kage

 

Oooh, I hadn't thought of that - good idea if you don't want the texture showing through.

 

whilst i love cape on him i cant help but wonder how his arm is gonna fit on. perhaps a picture of him with it attached might help?

 

If you mean the left arm, it won't be visible. I couldn't find anything Ireally liked for it, so it'll just be hidden under the cape.

 

that chain glaive arm is looking epic now. all my earlier doubts have ( as always with your work) have disappeared.

 

Most of the time, I have a pretty good image in my head of how I want a new piece to look, but this guy threw me some curves along the way. I really like how he's turning out though.

 

 

 

Sorry I haven't commented until now Brother, my brain is horrible at multi-tasking and is easily distracted. I have been skeptical of the whole tissue method of doing cloaks, but seriously man, the brooding menace coming form this guy is freaking perfect, and it's all thanks to that cape. Ace work man, I'm really looking forward to paint on this dude. May have to incorporate this technique on my new Plague Marines.

 

 

 

I don't plan on using this technique as a replacement for greenstuff(originally it was just going to be used exclusively for my scouts), but it does come in really handy for some specific applications. I really like the more natural appearance it offers in this case, and also how the thin tissue makes the shoulder pad trim and rivets beneath it visible. It's also really fast, and quite easy to do once you get the hang of it, and I think it would work beautifully for some plague marines. :D

 

I'm glad the brooding menace came through, as I'm trying to convey that sort of thing without resorting to the cliché stuff like severed heads and spikes to get that across due to them being set very early in the timeline of the 30k period.