BCK's Thread of Stuff: Symphony of Destruction

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The muzzle brake was printed separately. The barrel was going to be even longer than it is with a larger section that necked down to the current barrel size but it made the guns laughably long and I just ditched that section.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Finally got around to assembling the cadian bodies from the new box and seeing how the new kasrkin hellgun arms fit on them.

 

 

Not a bad alternative to the absurd prices kasrkin are going for right now.

[Elzender]

I've read there is a significant size disparity between the new regular cadians and the kasrkin, do you see it in your minis or is it just internet being the internet and blowing things out of proportion? 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The kasrkin are bigger but I don't have any of the new plastics to do a comparison myself and I was worried that the hellgun arms would look like gorilla arms on the Cadians but they're fine.

 

This is the best comparison shot I could find on the internet.

 

[Chaplain Raeven]

Man, those new kits look great, the printed helmet fits like a glove.

 

I didn't notice the bended barrel untill you pointed it out, and even then I had to look real hard. It's better than most FW-barrels.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I spent over a week heating and clamping them to a table edge to get them where they are now. I'm glad it's not that noticeable because they were so bad at first I didn't even take pictures of them.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I finally got around to putting paint on the Kasrkin after trying out the Inquisition auburn and black scheme and deciding not to do go with it after all, which became the bright idea of doing a camo scheme and spending far too long looking at camo patterns, watching youtube vids of people painting camo on minis, and then coming up with a "simple" scheme of my own when I completely failed several times to make random blotches of paint look like a coherent camo scheme.

 

This was the test figure because his open stance would let me get some good viewing angles of the pattern as I painted it.

 

 

I have this vague memory in the back of my head that I can't seem to solidify into where I remember seeing something like this before. I thought it may have been the Russian paratrooper camo from Red Dawn (the original), but it's a dark green with white blotches. Invented for the movie and recycled numerous times in other Hollywood films for Russians/Eastern Europeans as recently as 2014.

 

 

But the memory was that old; I was in single digits of years on this rock when the movie came out. I think that made it click, reaching back that far, and I'm pretty certain the "new" Storm Shadow figure for the GI Joe toy line is the dark corner that was hiding in.

 

 

And of course, it looked better in the comic book.

 

 

Which, btw, is one of the best comic book issues I ever remember reading. There wasn't a single word spoken in the whole thing! Lots of sound effects, but that issue made such an impression that it has stuck with me since 1989. If you can find it online, I highly suggest checking it out.

 

And I actually did try to paint some tetris-like shapes initially, inspired by a Sonic Sledgehammer youtube vid  before I went looking for Storm Shadow, but I was having trouble getting the shapes to look good to me. I am happy with what I ended up with and think these seven figures that have the camo basecoated look good in a group shot. :)

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by Brother-Chaplain Kage

[Chaplain Raeven]

The delicate balance of painting convincing camo, without making it too good so your models disappear in the background. They look great, but I feel the white shapes could use a darker contour, maybe blacklining it, so it doesn't fade into eachother. Have you done a complete testmodel yet?

Edited January 27, 2023 by Chaplain Raeven

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look OK to me 

 

If it's of interest/help, Warhammer TV have a couple of videos on camouflage, as does Darren Latham.

[Rusted Boltgun]

They look good to me too!

I like the idea of a Storm Shadow inspired camo. I don't remember that cover as we had re-prints in the UK, was the episode Silent Interlude? 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

On 1/27/2023 at 6:36 AM, Chaplain Raeven said:

The delicate balance of painting convincing camo, without making it too good so your models disappear in the background. They look great, but I feel the white shapes could use a darker contour, maybe blacklining it, so it doesn't fade into eachother. Have you done a complete testmodel yet?

 

I haven't painted a single figure to completion, no. I just finished the assembly line painting of all the fatigues and camo stripes a little earlier today.

 

On 1/27/2023 at 6:37 AM, Firedrake Cordova said:

If it's of interest/help, Warhammer TV have a couple of videos on camouflage, as does Darren Latham.

I watched those along with many others in the past couple of weeks, but thanks for the suggestions. :)
 

2 hours ago, Rusted Boltgun said:

They look good to me too!

I like the idea of a Storm Shadow inspired camo. I don't remember that cover as we had re-prints in the UK, was the episode Silent Interlude? 

 

The issue was simply called "SFX".

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

A detour into what I believe is the most work I've ever done for the bases of a squad. I freely admit the basing aspect of the hobby is the part I enjoy the least and that I'm the worst at... gone are the golden days when you could slap some Goblin Green on a base and call it done. The idea I had was for some sort of urban terrain and I had visions of a city that wasn't completely destroyed for the bases but I couldn't come up with a good way to represent that. I considered Necromunda bases, but that was more mechanical than I wanted. With the event deadline looming and no solid idea I picked up some sheet cork and acrylic texture paste and set about winging it. 

 

 

This was supposed to be cracked concrete roads but ended up looking more like a wasteland. (sigh) They look ok. Not great, not terrible.

 

Now I need to hurry up and get the troops finished.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look good to me, @Brother-Chaplain Kage - you've got some texture on the sides from the cork, and you've added items to the top (cracks, tufts, skulls, "dirt" from texture paint I assume) to give some visual interest to the top. 

 

If you felt a bit more variation or variety was needed, you could have a look at adding some different colour washes in splotches to represent fluid staining (oil, etc) - obligatory Duncan -era WHTV example video.

[LameBeard]

I think the camo and bases look excellent - I am certainly getting the “cracked concrete” feel, which can be very difficult to pull off. The only thing that occurs to me is it seems suspicious that every base has exactly one skull on it?

[Bryan Blaire]

1 hour ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

They look good to me, @Brother-Chaplain Kage - you've got some texture on the sides from the cork, and you've added items to the top (cracks, tufts, skulls, "dirt" from texture paint I assume) to give some visual interest to the top. 

 

If you felt a bit more variation or variety was needed, you could have a look at adding some different colour washes in splotches to represent fluid staining (oil, etc) - obligatory Duncan -era WHTV example video.

 

1 hour ago, LameBeard said:

I think the camo and bases look excellent - I am certainly getting the “cracked concrete” feel, which can be very difficult to pull off. The only thing that occurs to me is it seems suspicious that every base has exactly one skull on it?

I agree with both, they look great!  You’re too hard on yourself, bud, you pulled off a convincing basing scheme that didn’t make it too complex and frames your models well.

 

LameBeard - let’s just chalk it up to very methodical tank-jackers.    They placed things on a grid system or something.

 

You’ve got good stuff going, BCK, keep it up and get ‘em finished!

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Yeah, the skull on every base is one of the things that I committed to at the last minute to try to tie them all together but ended up looking odd. If a little bit of context helps, what I was seeing my head is an old battlefield (or one that's been going for a very long time) and this is some of the debris pushed to the side of the road by current traffic.

[LameBeard]

I like that idea

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I finished the squad in time for the event, but I've been sick the last week and turned in my entry early because I was coughing so frequently it was becoming difficult to paint. I do want to continue working on them for some final details and clean up (base rims in particular), and here's the blurry completion photo I took for my finished post.

 

 

And a better one, minus the three running poses that I hate.

 

 

If was to do this kitbash over again, I would pick up at least 3 other bodies if to be rid of some of the running ones, if not all four.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks good to me 

 

Hopefully you can banish Nurgle's influence soon! 

[GhostMalone]

Imagine re reading this entire blog to pick up tips and inspiration again, good to see you still killing it BcK!

 

Hope you recover soon bro!

[Chaplain Raeven]

They look great!

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Over the last few years I've been reducing my backlog of models by selling off things I know I'll never get to. Almost everything Chaos I had, a bunch of resin stuff, including the Fire Raptor that I gave away in a contest, and in going through all the various boxes where all my 40k stuff is spread out (have I mentioned I'm terrible at organizing my model stuff?) I found a box the other day of a handful of completed models and quite a few that never got out of the conversion phase of an idea.

 

One was simply the axe of this old Khârn conversion (no idea where the rest of the figure is) I was doing for a friend as a birthday present based on his wishes, but was never finished because we jumped to a different game for a while. I will admit to some dragging feet on my part because I wasn't crazy about what he wanted his idea of Khârn to look like, which has been the downfall of me not doing a lot more commissions.

 

 

There was also this old Bloodthirster conversion I did for a challenge with Augstus B'Rass. It was one of those things that started with the idea of a simple update to the old pewter 'thirster model and I kinda went nuts with it.

 

How it started.

 

 

How it was left before going into the "maybe someday" box.

 

 

That might be my most "off the rails" conversion ever. My dissatisfaction with my ability to make some good looking axes for the big crocthirster as it came be known was one of the main reasons I quit working on it. But the 3d printer revolution is here to help with both a new axe for a Kharne conversion I want to do and some axes I shamelessly stole from a 3d model of a much larger Bloodthirster (21" tall if printed at 100%) for my modest, almost juvenile-sized greater demon. And it is on plywood base because I tried securing this massive hunk of metal to a regular plastic base way back when and there was no way it was going to stay upright.

 

 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

That alternative Bloodthirster is looking good

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Gathering the ingredients for some Kharne chowder. As is tradition for me, I hit up the interwebz for some art inspiration and found some good stuff.

 

With my love of trying to convey motion with a mini, my first instinct was something very action-y like this:

 

 

But I've done a lot of those kinds of poses and wanted to do something a little more old-school like the original metal figure and found these two pieces I really liked the look of.

 

 

This second one is actually very close to what I in mind with Khârn standing on a pile of skulls and raising his axe high in triumph.

 

 

Since I have very little chaos stuff anymore, and it would have all been short marines anyway, I'm using primaris parts. Here's the initial sketch.

 

 

I'm still looking for a possible left to use as a base, but I think I'm going to end up using a plastic hand then sculpting the rest. >_<

Edited February 18, 2023 by Brother-Chaplain Kage

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I wanted to this be further along in the time since the last post, but you know, stuff happens.

 

 

Not as dynamic as the image in my head, so there's probably going to be some tweaks done to it.