BCK's Thread of Stuff: Symphony of Destruction

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Thanks, Honda, but after picking up a Tooth and Claw box today that might be changing because I didn't realize that the acolytes were a good bit larger than the neophyte models. And until I can figure out what to do with my 6th plague marine, I'm going to keep going on the GSC. Here's the new version of the acolyte leader with his new bonesword and lash whip configuration (the whip is being worked on and absent for the moment). 

 

 

This particular fellow is something of a PITA to photograph due to the arrangement of his arms.

 

One thing I'm changing on this guy and any other acolytes is reducing how much they're hunched over. I highlighted the edges of the torso and leg bits where they would normally meet since everything is the same color and was hard even for me to make out at first.

 

 

I still have no idea what I'm going to do for my list with the cult, but I definitely want at least one aberrant beatstick simply because the models are so damn cool. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

And speaking of the aberrant beat stick, I was dry fitting one together and my mind was quite blown at the shockingly bad gaps on this figure. (click to enlarge the pic)

 

 

I very lightly glued the legs and torso bits together while the arms and head are blue tacked on, so the gaps on the arms are exaggerated a little by the extra space taken up by the blue tack but still! The join line of the left foot to the leg, right leg to the hip, shoulders to the back, and whatever that thing is supposed to be on his back to the flesh are all terrible. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

After much fiddling with the arms on the aberrant, I realized I needed to cut him in half at the waist to get the pose I wanted of making the hammer look really heavy. I also decided not to use the goofy back plate thing or the spine-like tail he comes with (you can see the flat spot on his backside in the pic above for the attachment point) and incorporate it as his spine protruding to a greater degree than the other aberrant figures. His back muscles are going to get a lot of work with the greenstuff shortly. 

 

 

This technically being the one aberrant hypermorph model in the bunch, there's only 2 heads made to fit him and I didn't like either one of them, but the Jason Voorhees looking one I've blue tacked on works for what I had in mind for this guy. 

[Subtle Discord]

! I love to hate your work. I always avoid and/or struggle to make even subtle changes to models because I know that I won't be up to the task of cleaning it all up in the end. But you... you just go in there and chop that model up so you can make slight tweaks, assemble all the wrong parts in the right places, and then go an make it seem almost easy. And before you say it, yes I know I have my own mojo that's envy-inducing, but I guess I just wanted to put it out in public that even when you've got some lightning in a bottle of your own, it's very possible to be jealous of someone else's spark of creativity and talent. As always, It's a pleasure to be annoyed by your abilities and how you're putting them to good effect.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I completely understand how you feel, SD, believe me. I have my thing and I'm pretty good at it, but when I see people doing amazing stuff that I can't pull off myself, I have the same feeling. I think maybe my interest in wanting to be a comic book artist when I was younger helps me focus on getting the pose of a figure just so because that's such an important thing in the comics.

 

I'm a builder, and as my skill with GS has grown over the years, I get to pull more things out of my imagination. The people that make me love to hate their work are the scratch builders who make it look so easy: "I built this Baneblade over the weekend completely out of sheet plastic and tubing and it will be practically indistinguishable from the real thing once painted". Or in your case, make awesome addons to models we all wish GW would do. Then the people who can not only do decent kitbashing/converting, but can also base and paint them to a high level in a time frame that seems like sorcery to me. 

 

I take it as compliment of the highest order that you love to hate my work, and I yours. 

[Subtle Discord]

If it's any small consolation, it never, and I mean never, happens that quickly. It's more like, "I built this Baneblade from scratch with every waking hour of 43 weekends, and when my wife began threatening to leave me, I figured it was done and time to take a break for a while." However, I respect where you're coming from, in many more ways than one. I really do think it's one thing that can be exchanged through the wires of the interweb from such a long distance; anyone who has the courage to take part in the community and show off what they are good at can, in turn, feed off of the positive energy and inspiration of those who are skilled in other ways, and use it to drive them to experiment, push boundaries, and improve. Despite having a knack for creation, I'd never be able to do what I can today without being driven to improve by the hobby community.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

At last, here is the promised video on smoothing greenstuff and the tools I use. Apologies for the time it took and how simple it looks, but the free editor I was trying to use was really convoluted and then when I got Adobe Premier in my school package, I had to do some learning on it first. Oh, and I'd get interested in working on figure instead of the video. So here it is and I've also starting putting links to this and any other tutorials I do in the first post at the start of the thread. 

 

 

It was originally a lot longer, but I realized I don't like seeing a 15+ minute video when I'm looking for something and cut it down to just what was really needed. Let me know what you think of it, if it was helpful, what you'd like to see in other vids, etc. 

 

Edit: Some things that came up in the Tutorial forum where I also posted this is that I use the firm clay shapers that are black in color, and not the softer grey ones. You will also need to remove any excess oil from the figure before painting and I use some soap and a soft bristle toothbrush for that. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Along with finishing up the video today, I got some more work done on rebuilding the aberrant's back and I'm done except for a little clean up around the neck and the small of his back. 

 

 

And the back in all its horror glory. 

 

 

I based it on the real anatomy but exaggerated it some to emphasize that's he's a mutant or has had vat grown muscle added... or both. Either way, I wouldn't want to turn a corner and see this guy coming my way. 

 

[Subtle Discord]

"Then Mung stepped up for his turn at the Whack-a-Mole game..."

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

"Pa says I'm good at this game. Let's play."

 

Or maybe it's a 40k version of John Henry who's upset at those machine-men. 

 

As much as I like this guy, what I've been reading about Kill Team tactics and the math hammering (haha) of weapon viability is that a power hammer or fist type of weapon with a high strength is less useful than lower str weapons with good AP modifiers since only Plague Marines have the highest innate toughness of 5 and a str 10 weapon is overkill. 

[Doghouse]

Fantastic job on the video mate, knew you could do it. :tu:

[ElDuderino]

Great video. Concise and to the point, it's so much better gett by these sort if things by video, now I'll get me some clay shapers and oil, didn't realise it was such a difference before. Any more coming?:)

 

Hearing the pronunciation of Kage was a bit of a surprise too, i always read it as 'cage'

[Hungry Nostraman Lizard]

i've bought a 5 pack of size 0's and size 2's off Amazon after your video. Please definitely start a whole video series up, will you? Your stuff was great to watch. 

[Gederas]

Very good video, I'm in agreement.

 

Hearing the pronunciation of Kage was a bit of a surprise too, i always read it as 'cage'

Well, if it's based on the Japanese word for 'shadow', which judging from the pronunciation, it is, that would change it :lol:
 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Thanks, brothers, I'm glad the video is helpful. I am planning on doing more, and one of the big chunks I cut out of this video was how to do some more smoothing after the GS is cured and that will become a video of its own to keep the run time down into manageable chunks and will try to have that one up on Monday.

 

 

Very good video, I'm in agreement.

 

Hearing the pronunciation of Kage was a bit of a surprise too, i always read it as 'cage'

Well, if it's based on the Japanese word for 'shadow', which judging from the pronunciation, it is, that would change it
 

 

Yes, it's the Japanese word for shadow. I remember reading a battle report in one of the first White Dwarf magazines I saw back in the late 90s that had Imperial Fists in it and there was a little sidebar of fluff after they won where it described a marine with obvious Asian facial features. I was immediately in love with the look of a Fists army and set about building my first marine army led by - you guessed it - Brother-Chaplain Kage. Problem was, yellow was a complete nightmare to paint and I abandoned the Fists for Blood Angels but kept the chaplain's name and used it as my screen name when I registered here. 

[KrautScientist]

The sculpted back on that Aberrant is looking absolutely fantastic! However, I think it actually serves to aggravate a problem that was already present on the stock model, that is the neck and head seem weirdly "stuck on", especially since that collar covers up the way the muscles in the shoulders and neck are connected. Is there maybe a way of integrating the head a bit better with the rest of the body and make it look more organic? If that makes any sense...

[Marshal Rohr]

Really great tutorial, Kage! Thanks for sharing.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The sculpted back on that Aberrant is looking absolutely fantastic! However, I think it actually serves to aggravate a problem that was already present on the stock model, that is the neck and head seem weirdly "stuck on", especially since that collar covers up the way the muscles in the shoulders and neck are connected. Is there maybe a way of integrating the head a bit better with the rest of the body and make it look more organic? If that makes any sense...

 

That's going to be fixed, don't worry, and I appreciate you bringing it up. :)

 

Really great tutorial, Kage! Thanks for sharing.

 

My pleasure. I really hope it can help some folks and wish I had done it a few years ago when I first thought about it. 

[Augustus b'Raass]

Excellent turorial, BCK. Thank you! 

 

Also, I now realize Kage is pronounced Kah-Gay, and note like 'cage' spelled with a K. 

 

Anyway, about your brute, the GS work is impressive as always, although I wondered about two things:

 

 

First, the muscle groove in the red circle doesn't meet the groove it's about to cros, making for a weird looking muscle pair.

 

Second, the spines look great, but it seems to me that a lot could be gained if the spines protruding in the pale blue circles should be linked by sculpted spines in the dark blue circle area, no?:)

 

Just my two cents, though. 

 

Thanks again for that excellent tutorial - I'm so glad I have all those tools - hopefully my sculpting will improve even more, as it has over the last couple of years - mostly thanks to your inspiring work!

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

So impatient! I'm still working on the back and the spine will be extended, but I'm trying to do an Oyumaru mold from a genestealer's back and it's giving me trouble. 

 

On another note, the plague spewer you sent me showed up in the mail yesterday and I did a test fit on the bloat marine. Thanks again!

 

 

It looks great! But now I'm not liking the position of the left arm and am considering redoing it. 

[DuskRaider]

I'll admit when I first saw this guy I was not a fan... but now? Now I think he looks great. I especially love the bloated arm ending in the Plague Drone "claw". The arm position works well IMO, to me it looks like it's swinging as he walks. Almost like a balancing thing.

[hushrong]

Big hurt looks great! How do you think you'll reposition the arm?

 

Your genestealers also look big an nasty. Nice to see some sweet conversion work being done on them!

[KrautScientist]

 

The sculpted back on that Aberrant is looking absolutely fantastic! However, I think it actually serves to aggravate a problem that was already present on the stock model, that is the neck and head seem weirdly "stuck on", especially since that collar covers up the way the muscles in the shoulders and neck are connected. Is there maybe a way of integrating the head a bit better with the rest of the body and make it look more organic? If that makes any sense...

 

That's going to be fixed, don't worry, and I appreciate you bringing it up.

 

Teehee, I thought you might ;) That being said, I should have realised that you were already aware of the problem.

 

I'll admit when I first saw this guy I was not a fan... but now? Now I think he looks great (...)

 

It's the exact same thing for me! The guy reminds me of some of the early, abandoned, enemy designs for Bioshock. I''d suggest maybe having one or two elements that hint at the armour that used to cover his bloated parts, such as shards of armour or torn cabling where, for instance, his left pauldron used to connect to the armour. And maybe a metallic socket or two, in between the folds of mutated flesh...

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I'll see what I can do about some bits of armor for the bloated marine. 

 

Here's the start of what should be a more tactically flexible aberrant with power pick for my GSC team; he's got a slightly tweaked pose to give him a creepier, more ghoul like feel to him. 

 

[Augustus b'Raass]

So impatient! I'm still working on the back and the spine will be extended.

Sorry! I thought you were already finished :) Looking forward to your Oyumaru work.

 

 

On another note, the plague spewer you sent me showed up in the mail yesterday and I did a test fit on the bloat marine. Thanks again!

Hurray! You're most welcome! I hope you also appreciated the coincidentality between the packaging and the Genestealer brute. ;) The marine looks great, though - although I'm glad you're redoing that arm. It looked a bit off. Not the posing, mind you, but the musculature/way the elephantitis evolved around the 'forearm'. Incidentally, how did you do the texture of the scultped flesh? It looks fantastic!