Ed's Heresy Kill-Teams: Custodians and ruins

[JAFisher44]

I know that they are just test minis, but, "AAAARGH! MOLD LINES!!!!"

[KrautScientist]

I know that they are just test minis, but, "AAAARGH! MOLD LINES!!!!"

 

Haha, my reaction exactly: I had to actively tell myself that these were just test pieces, and my mold line alert still kept going off -- I think it's something that you just cannot ignore, once you've started to notice it -- that's actually a good thing, though, because it means you'll be more likely to scrape them off on your own models, right? ;)

[FuriousFerret]

 

And here's (a rather WIP) Amenhotep himself, showing why it's not always a good idea to plug yourself into interesting looking bits of golden archaeotech...

 

 

 

 

OK, so, this gets my vote for "Best 40k Image Ever"

[EdT]

Glad people found that helpful! I have to say, I was never keen on how the HH books started adding white as an accent colour for the Emperor's Children, but if you made it pearlescent then a model version of this would look seriously cool and also tie in quite nicely with what the Legion eventually becomes. Speaking of which, it strikes me that this is also a very good way of going for ridiculous colour clashing armour on the post-fall III while still tying the whole force together; giving everyone a coat of the purple would give them a similar sheen that complements but doesn't overshadow the polka dots and zebra stripes below. Hmm... might have to try that.

 

Oh, and on the mould-line front; in my view, anything that adds texture on a test model is worth keeping!

 

I don't like posting without some form of picture, so here's where I am so far with my month's March of the Legions entry; he's a member of the Vakrah Jal named Urtu...

 

[EdT]

Quick update; Urtu is now done and based! Here's a crap photo to give a sense of him. Tomorrow I'll take some proper shots and post the background...

 

[HighGothic]

Thats really cool, nice conversion

[malika666]

Hmm, a non true scale Ultramarine on his base? Oh la la! :P

[ChromeZephyr]

Mmmmm, squishy.

[EdT]

They aren't true-scale Ultramarine legs, no- I have to use them somehow, and converting a terminator set would be a bit pricey... Anyhow, here's some better photos and a bit of background;

 

 

[Pict Capture AR/184-13D-116]- Cleromancer Urtu of the XVII Legion, II Company, Consecrated Iron Chapter, formerly Castellax #348762-Delta, “Ignea Sidus” of the 8^th Maniple, Carthage Cohort. Pict captured during final stages of Armatura engagement.  [Rembrancer’s note: The ceremonial inclusion of battle-automata into the Astartes units was not uncommon and had precedent within the XVII. The structural alterations to this Castellax unit (crossref: Latros Sacrum/Brazen Head Myth) indicate that it may have had religious or symbolic significance to the Consecrated Iron Chapter alongside its military utility.]
 
 
Lost in thought, Bel Shadrak walked the halls of the Fidelitas Lex, ignoring the hushed awe his presence provoked in the crew members he passed. One robed adept, weeping with devotion, knelt in supplication before him, hands raised in; he briefly paused, inclined his silver-visored helm and gently touched her head with his massive gauntlet. She cried out in ecstasy; he swept on, the act reminding him of the time he had sparred in the practice cages with Luitpold of the VII and, genuinely curious, had asked him why he styled himself a Templar when he owed the existence of no deity. Luitpold had given no answer save his fist, and the memory made Bel Shadrak smile. I am now a true Templar, he thought, a Paladin of Primordial Truth, taken from the martyred of Isstvan and clothed in the revealed glory of the Octed.
 
Confessor Zuuthusu was waiting at the Gate of Malebolge, his great crozius maul drawn to guard the sanctum within. Seeing Bel Shadrak, his solemn bearded face cracked open into a smile. “Welcome, friend,” he said, clasping the other astartes’ gauntlet in the traditional greeting before standing aside to allow him through, “I shall join you presently, when our congregation is complete.”
 
The Hall of Primordial Truth was a place of dim lighting and quiet contemplation, one of many such places on the Lex set aside for the Paladins. Under the great iron-wrought glyphs of the Octed mounted on the vaulted walls, the Vakrah Jal gathered; some knelt in silent worship, others checking their weaponry or cleaning their armour. A few talked amongst themselves, sharing old stories or discussing the campaign, and Bel Shadrak moved to one of these groups, removing his helm as he went.
 
Gol Kudur glanced upwards at his approach. “We were just discussing the purge, brother,” he remarked, gesturing to the others in the conversation. “We have removed the infidel from the Legion, but when will we remove the reprobate?” He clenched his fist in anger. “It sickens me to tolerate such a disgusting orgy of immoral ambition and greed within our Legion.”
 
Bel Shadrak sighed; this had been a familiar refrain amongst the less patient members of the Chapter. He placed a calming gauntlet on his comrade’s pauldron. “Peace, brother, and have faith, in the Legion, and Aurelian, and the Octed. The eightfold path is a treacherous one, yet it is the nature of the path that the dross is sluiced away and only the pure of heart remain. Our father has already sent the worst to die at Calth. The others will be winnowed away soon enough; many will sully the soil of Armatura with their blood in the coming days, and by the time we topple the throne of Terra only a few will still live.” He raised his left arm to display his wrist-mounted alchemical projector; “And then we shall cleanse the remnants with the jade flame.”
 
Gol Kudur made to respond, but his reply was cut off by the tolling of the great bell. The assembled Paladins fell quiet as its echoes faded away; then Zuuthusu’s voice rang out through the hall.
 
“The Primordial Truth is the light of wisdom that pushes back the darkness of the Anathema!” he proclaimed, crozius raised in benediction. “It is the life-bringer, just as the sun brings life to the world, just as the forest fire fosters new growth in its wake! Flame cleanses, the jade flame even more so.  And is it not written in the Book of Lorgar that all souls will be submitted to fire and molten metal to purify them of wickedness? Goodly souls will pass through unharmed, while the souls of the corrupt will burn in anguish. We of the Vakrah Jal have been passed through the flame, and our souls have been purified.”
 
“So be it!” the astartes bellowed in unison. The Confessor lowered his crozius, and favoured the congregation with a smile.
 
“Brothers! This day, as we prepare to fall upon mighty Armatura, we are uniquely favoured; for Urtu the Cleromancer joins us.”
 
There was a collective intake of breath amongst the Paladins; the Cleromancer was almost legendary amongst their ranks, and seldom emerged from the Command Bridge, where it was said that the Primarch himself consulted him on strategic matters and the course of the War. Zuuthusu turned to the door.
 
“Brother?”
 
There was the dull rhythmic clang of metal on deck plating, and the Cleromancer strode into the room. He towered above the Confessor at his side; purity seals covered the crimson of his massive hunched pauldrons, and a massive copy of the book of Lorgar was proudly bound to his side. A huge, daemon-mouthed bolt-cannon hung inactive on his shoulder, and huge claws whirred as they made endless minute adjustments. Alone of all his brothers within the Chapter of Consecrated Iron, Urtu’s faceplate was not silver but brazen, fashioned in the likeness of the Latros Sacrum. Yet even without the embellishments worked into his form by the Legion’s artificers, there was no mistaking his origins; Bel Shadrak met the emerald gaze of his cyclopean, unblinking eye and shivered in a strange mixture of wonder and unease.
 
Was it an abomination or a miracle, he wondered? He quickly realised it had to be the latter, for only godly power could spontaneously breathe intelligence into a battle automaton, and this could not be regarded in the same way as a machine being constructed to be self-aware. Anything else would be impossible to bear; even after having cast aside the entirety of Imperial Truth, he still felt instinctive revulsion for the concept of Abominable Intelligence.
 
++HAIL THE OCTED, BROTHERS++ the Cleromancer growled in its mechanically modulated voice, its crab-like claws raised like a preacher,  ++MAY THE SONS OF THE URIZEN BATHE IN THE BLOOD OF THE INFIDEL. I KNOW WHAT IS AND WHAT WILL BE. I AM WILLING TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU++
 
There was a long pause, the assembled congregation of Paladins too occupied gazing at the wonder before them to consider its words. Eventually Zuuthusu stepped forward, laughing. “Do not be shy, friends! The Cleromancer is here for catechesis, for he is your channel to the Octed and speaks the revealed Truth. Please, satisfy your curiosity! It is Aurelian’s gift to his favoured sons; do not be ungrateful.”
 
Chastened, the congregation muttered its praises for the opportunity given to them. Presently, a voice came from the congregation; Bel Shadrak turned to see one of the Thurifers move forward. “It is an honour, brother. Might I ask; how has the attack on Calth progressed?”
 
The Cleromancer paused for a second, making a sound like grinding gears. ++SYNTAX ERROR. PLEASE TRY AGAIN++ it blurted.
 
Zuuthusu cleared his throat. “You must ask questions that can be responded to with an affirmative or negative, brother,” he said, gently, “this is how the Gods have given the gift”.
 
The Thurifer bowed his head, checking the settings on his flamer as he thought. “My apologies, brother. I shall ask differently. Has the assault on Calth accomplished the majority of its objectives?”
 
The Cleromancer blurted code, and stepped forward slightly. ++OUTLOOK GOOD++ , it replied.
 
There was a murmur of excitement; several of the Paladins knelt in thankful prayer. Presently, another voice called out. “Is Guilliman dead?”
 
++VERY DOUBTFUL++
 
Bel Shadrak nodded stoically; he was not surprised. Gol Kudur was the next to speak. “Can we trust our cousins in the XII to accomplish their objectives on Armatura?”
 
Several of the Paladins nodded in agreement with the question; it had been a common topic of conversation in the last weeks. The Cleromancer considered for a second; ++AS I SEE IT, YES++
 
The questioning continued for some time; the Paladins asked about military strategy, the course of the war, even regarding theological interpretation of the Book of Lorgar. Occasionally, the Cleromancer would not, or could not answer a question, but for the most part his answers were clear, precise and plausible. Bel Shadrak remained quiet; unlike the others, he could think of nothing to ask. Then something came to him, and he raised his hand.
 
“Cleromancer,” he began, “Will I live to see the Throne of Terra toppled and the false Emperor put to the sword?”
 
The living automata paused at the question for some time, opening and shutting its claws. From time to time a clanking noise emerged from within its hulking body. Finally, it raised its great brazen head and emitted a mechanical blurt as if clearing its throat.
 
++DO NOT COUNT ON IT++

 

[Combat_Vet]

That is one scarey/beautiful Magic 8 Ball, Brother. Kudos for being able to not only write a wonderful story but knock out such a"fluffy" miniature that fast. I'm really digging the red/brass combination.

 

Overall how was the tissue banner/cloak creation? I'm thinking about trying one (maybe next month).

[KrautScientist]

Hmm, I wasn't even completely sold on the chracter at first, but the background you've provided really clicked with me -- that was some excellent writing there, mate! Regarding the modeling side of things, that is a very clever use of the warshrine effigy's head!

Great job! More please!

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

Any chance for a turotiral/paint list for the pearl? If I get round to repainting my Thousand sons I'd like to try something similar if that is okay, I'm also thinking a similar effect could look good on dragon princes for fantasy.
All Hail the Chaotic 8 ball! The is an awesome model, and a great bit of fluff.

[EdT]

Glad people like him; Urtu's been sitting around half painted for absolutely ages so it was nice to have a reason to finish him off. It was also my first time using a Tamiya weathering set (A, if you're interested) which I bought ages ago but had somehow never got round to trying; I really like what you can do with it. The Warshrine head was a happy accident really, I had it lying around and it happened to fit perfectly. Amazing how much a simple head swap can add character to a model.

 

I found the tissue/cloak method really easy and satisfying (you might notice I used it on the tabard as well). I ended up using some really cheap toilet paper rather than the high quality stuff that BCK suggests, and while it still worked ok, it gave me a very rough texture which was fine for Word Bearer sackcloth, but wouldn't have been right for a cloak of finer material. I'd suggest investing in some kleenex, as will I next time. It's definitely a technique I'll try again on a larger scale; it'll be interesting to try and do a cloak blowing in the wind.

 

On painting the pearl, it's quite easy. Basecoat ushabti bone, then wash heavily with agrax earthshade. layer on some ushabti bone again, then a mix of ushabti bone and skull white, then a light highlight of skull white. The aim is to get a light cream colour, deathwing style. Once that's done and dry, I added a layer of purple interference paint. When that was dry, I sealed it with a gloss varnish; I then finished it off with a drybrush of the green interference paint. Hope that helps!

[EdT]

Oh, and while I'm here; I've made some progress on the Barque. Sort of. I'm still waiting for the flight stand, but it should hopefully be despatched in the next few days. Once I receive it I’ll be able to get on with the project properly, and finish the construction of both the barge and the scenic base it goes on; while there’s not too much I can do in the time being, I can at least talk about my plans and get the base ready to receive the stand.

 

So what am I hoping to achieve, base-wise? Well my initial starting point was a fairly simple desert base, which I thought would work well with the small grav sled sarcophagus I was meaning to build. When the sarcophagus evolved into the barque and I had the idea that it should travel through the warp, I began to think about how best to represent this on the flying base.

 

After looking at some third party 'daemonic' bases and dismissing them as too obvious and insufficiently creative, I decided I'd make something myself. The Warp is often mentioned in the fluff as being a pulsating mass of bright colours, and I thought I might do something similar. I always liked how it was done with oils in Flash Gordon;

 

http://www.mingocity.co.uk/flash51.jpg

(click the pic for a youtube video of the effect, from about 2 mins in)

 

While it’d be fun to try this sort of effect, after some thought I decided this was a bit busy and might distract from the barque itself. Something a bit more subtle would be more suitable. Egyptian funerary barques were meant to carry the occupant along the river of souls to the afterlife; this also fits in quite nicely with the Thousand Sons’ belief in the ‘Great Ocean’, so it seemed to be a nice opportunity to do a water effect. My first thought was Doré’s drawing of the River Styx; I liked the idea of the barque floating above a calm river with hundreds of desperate, clawing hands reaching out to it. Not a threat if you’re safely in the craft, but if you fell in…

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Dor%C3%A9_-_Styx.jpg

 

I looked a lot at some of the zombie models available to produce this effect; but then I figured Raiders of the Lost Ark -style ghosts would do better as minor warp predators. Which is where these guys (remember them?) come in...

 

So that’s the plan! A dark, inky river, threatening shapes moving in the deeps, occasionally resolving into screaming faces. More creepy and threatening than immediately dangerous. We’ll see if I can achieve what I’m after….

 

So, on to making the base. A normal plastic base wouldn’t cut it for what I had in mind; I needed something with a lip, so I could use the depth to do some interesting water effects. After a bit of pondering, I realised that the top of an ice cream container would be perfect, so I set out to find one. Here's what I came up with;

 

 

The only problem with it was that, being plastic, it was a bit flimsy to serve as a flying base. The resin I'm going to to pour in would weigh it down a fair bit, but that didn't seem enough to stop it toppling over, and I wanted something a bit more stable.

 

This meant I had to splash the cash- all 30p of it. Who says I'm not a big spender? It's worth it though to avoid the cost of grief counselling if the whole thing tips over and smashes. I took my fifteen 2 pence pieces and made sure they'd fit in a nice even pattern across the base to distribute the weight. You could really feel the difference they made. You'll see in the photo that I initially decided to put them inside the base, but when I realised that the other side had a lip just a bit thicker than the coins, I decided to relocate them there to maximise the amount of room I had to play with on top.

 

A couple of dabs of pva glue later, and the coins were stuck fast. Once this dried (or near enough), I mixed up some plaster of paris, poured it in and scraped a plastic ruler along the top to make sure the surface was flat. Here's what it looked like when done;

 

I left this for an hour or so. Plaster has some heft in itself even without the coins, so by the time it was nice and dry it was also a hell of a lot heavier than it was when I started. I then painted everything black and gave it a nice sealing coat of varnish. The base was nice and solid, which means that when my flight stand comes I’ll be able to get going on the stuff you can actually see knowing the ground work has already been taken care of.

 

Here's photos of both sides of the base; now it's ready for the exciting stuff!

 

 

[Red Skullz]

That's a great hobby tip for making large bases! Thanks for sharing :)

[Battybattybats]

Love the story behind the automata.
Pure gold!

Great work in the conversion too. Sets a solid standard for Dark Mechanicum Castellax.

[EdT]

I'm still waiting for my flying base, although happily it's now winging it's way across the Atlantic to me. Not being able to get on with the Barque means that I need to scratch my hobby itch in other ways; so the last few days I've been fiddling around with something I've been meaning to do for some time; a biggerised Terminator to go with my power-armoured guys. I've investigated various methods to do this over the years, including using Centurion legs as a base (which doesn't work; they're too fat) and adding spacers to regular Terminator legs (that didn't work either; they don't look different enough from their power-armoured colleagues). One route that did look very promising however was Apologist's method, which used Obliterator lower legs as a base and gave a very hulking, powerful appearance to the resulting Terminator. I'd bought some Obliterators cheap on ebay ages ago to try just this conversion, but had always found the prospect of cutting up all that finecast a little intimidating.

 

The photo below shows my progress so far. Trying not to be put off by how poor the sculpt is compared to most other GW stuff, I removed a fair bit of the more chaosy surface detail, particularly the fleshy bits, trimmed the back of the torso, and then cut each leg at the knee and thigh. Because the pose of the original model is so weirdly squat, I also had to remove one of the feet and repose it to make sense for a more upright stance. My original plan was to follow Apologist in using a conventional terminator upper legs and lower torso for the remainder of the legs, but I just couldn't make it work for me; even though I know he bulked out the part quite a bit using greenstuff, I couldn't work out how to begin that process. Instead, I just reused the upper legs and lower torso of the obliterator, meaning that my Terminator is going to be a bit taller than originally planned; it also means, thanks to the quality of the original sculpt, that I have some real work to do sorting out the groin area.

 

 

Here's where I've got so far; still a fair bit of tidying up to do, particularly on the thighs (I need to add some thigh guards and trim, as well as maybe some cabling) but it''s getting there. It might not be obvious in the photo above, but by reposing these legs I've added a lot of height to the model (why are the Obliterators in such a weird squatting position?); here's a photo I took quite early on in the process that shows how my biggerised terminator will tower over an unconverted marine and will still be significantly taller than one of my biggerised astartes. I still want the armour's occupant to look like he's the same size as his power-armoured comrades, though, just with a lot more padding- this will be a challenge when I come to the torso.

 

 

I got to this point without really having any definite plan for the rest of the model, particularly when it came to legion background; a little unusual for me, as I normally come up with the concept before setting out to make it. But something was lurking in the back of my mind- if I was going to do a biggerised terminator with a Heresy feel, I should do it properly. And that can only mean one thing; REVENEBO...

 

I still haven't quite worked out all the details, particularly regarding the torso, but it's gradually cohering. I'm using the old Jes Goodwyn sketch as my base and intended pose, and will probably aim to do a scenic base to recall it. I think I have a combi-bolter made that has the right combination of impractical clunkiness; it's a vehicle storm bolter with some Grey Knight clips added on top and on the bottom. 

 

 

And finally, the big challenge with doing one of these guys are generally the distinctive shoulder pads. I think I have a solution in this Scibor part, the model for which I have no memory of buying, but nonetheless seems to have appeared in my bits box. As the model seems to be meant to be a true-scaled terminator, these pauldrons are absolutely massive (easily twice as wide and high as normal plastic termie pads) and should completely overshadow the result of the model, as they're meant to! A spot of press-molding later and I had two WIP pads, the left one further along than the right. The satisfying thing about these is that when the greenstuff was curing, I pressed some regular terminator pads into the reverse side, meaning that they can just slot over normal terminator arms. Or at least that's the plan.

 

 

Current plan is for this guy to be Mr Revenebo himself, a Terran veteran of the XIII who adopts the motto, Douglas Macarthur style, after withdrawing from the surface of Calth to begin the Underworld War.

[EdT]

So, a fair bit of progress on the Terminator! First off, I've continued working on the legs, which are now looking a bit more done, particularly the groin area. The whole abdominal area still needs to be built up to meet the torso properly and (hopefully) recall the original; I also need to do some more detailing and add some hip plates, although the latter might have to wait until the torso goes on.

 

 

Perhaps more interestingly, I also started work on the torso. I always thought that the rounded lines of the Phoenix Guard Terminator torso might work as a good base; so I trimmed off some of the filgiree (I'll replace it with some pointy decoration to tie things into the legs) and then, to give the egg-shaped appearance of the MK1 Terminator armour I rounded all the corners off the top of the shoulders, making the armour follow the round head aperture much more closely, and also hopefully reducing the distance between the big shoulder pad. This process  put years on me; I really didn't want to cock things up with a bad cut and ruin the whole torso! A bit of filing later and it was looking fairly smooth, which was a massive relief. I may add a spine or some cabling on top to recall somer versions of the original, but we'll see; certainly the basic shape seems there, and with less effort than I feared.

 

 

Getting the torso to this state had the happy consequence of letting me test fit everything to see if it actually might work properly. The torso plus shoulders looked promising...

 

 

....and then when I put the legs underneath and placed the arms in vaguely the right position, I may have let out an involuntary giggle.

 

 

Ok, so the shoulders need to be a bit higher in the final version and the torso-leg connection will be pretty involved if I want it to look convincing, but I think this is getting there!

 

 

One last thing; you know when sometimes you're really puzzling over finding the right bit, then suddenly you look down see something perfect and unexpected just sitting there waving at you? Well I just had that with this guy's head. I'd decided that whichever head I used, it'd have to sit rather low in the torso, a bit like how the cataphractii heads have no visible lower half. This would increase the hunched appearance of the Terminator and also emphasise that it's just a normal marine in there with lots of extra armour, not a giant.  The obvious solution was a cataphractii head, and this looked ok; but it was pretty clearly a cataphractii head on a modified tartaros body, and didn't look much like the original, rounded and fairly featureless helm. As a result I thought I'd dig through my bits box; and as I topped all the heads out into a bowl, I saw the below lurking there; it originally belonged to a not-Sontaran from Heresy Miniatures, and to my amazement it not only looks just like the original concept, but is nicely recessed. It even fits pretty well into the head aperture on the torso, although a little filing will be needed on the sides. I do love serendipity...

 

 

[Atia]

Awesome! can't wait to see him finished and painted =)

[KrautScientist]

Aw, man, there I was all proud of my own Mk 1 Termie, and then you go and one-up me like that -- not cool :(

 

Seriously, though: The WIP's looking amazing! Brilliant stuff! If I can make one suggestion, though: Please don't use that head! It just doesn't look interesting enough, and you've deviated from the original artwork in other places, after all, so why not here. I'd suggest using the same Skullcrusher helmet I used on my own Mk 1 model -- it would look equally good on a Thousand Son, I think.

 

Keep up the amazing work!

[EdT]

Glad people like this chap, it's just a side project really but I've really enjoyed making him. It'll be fun to paint an Ultramarine too; I've decided to stretch my scenery-building skills by making a little diorama to place him in, as per the Jes Goodwyn concept sketch; he'll be taking a quick breather before moving onwards into Calth's Underworld War.

I've wanted to do a MK1 Terminator for ages and I've been pleasantly surprised by how things have fallen into place; @Kraut Scientist, your guy was a major inspiration, and if I'd been able to source the shoulder pads you used (Forgefiend ones, weren't they?) that would probably have been my starting point. I also loved the Consecrators Dark Rage did; wish my greenstuffing was that good!

Since the last post I've done a fair bit of extra work on the torso. I've added a spine which will peek out between the shoulder pads, and also a couple of hip-guards (Those Kroot shoulder pads are some of the most versatile bits out there, and work for all sorts of things). I've also put on the head. Sorry @Kraut Scientist , I went with the one I mentioned earlier (although I completely agree with you about the Skullcrusher head btw ); this was for several reasons. Firstly the 'angry pea' look was one of the things I've always associated with this type of Terminator Armour, and something more complicated risked losing the signature look of the thing. I also liked how the helmet looked a little like a prototype version of the helms used in Tartaros armour. Lastly, and most pressingly, when I put the helmet in the socket to test fit the thing, it got properly stuck in there! Rather than force it out and risk damaging the torso, I thought it was better to commit myself and put a little bit of superglue in to hold it in place.

As you can see, there's still a fair bit of work to do around the waist; it's now at the point where it needs a final layer to blend the lower and upper torso together as one component, plus some detailing. Looking at the rear, I'm probably going to give him a rounded bum rather than the corners there are at present. Overall, I like the idea of this guy not being able to twist his waist; the idea being that he won't need to, lumbering down a corridor towards you. The one thing I feel a bit bad about not including is his back banner, but then again that's not really a practical thing to have on if you're fighting yiourway through corridors underground, is it?

I'm conscious that at this point his legs are looking a bit large for the body. This is generally the case when I make biggerised marines in power armour too; but here's where he looks like when the arms go on...

I'm fairly pleased with that. At present, because it's all tacked the arms and shoulder keep drooping under their own weight; while the arm pose is about what I envisage, the shoulder pads will be stuck on higher and with the tops further on. Satisfyingly, I'd been aiming for this guy to be taller than a marine, but through padding rather than being bigger inside the armour; comparing him to a power-armoured cousin, I seem to have just about got that part right...

Oh, and one last thing; my flying base came!

The masking tape is where I'll saw it in half; no need for the barque to fly that high up...

[KrautScientist]

The model remains a commendable effort -- in fact, I don't remember anyone building a true scale Mk 1 Terminator until now ;) I'll be honest, the head still doesn't sit well with me, but I can appreciate the fact that it's the look you were going for, and it's your model, after all.

 

The one thing I think needs a bit of attention is the right leg: It somehow makes the entire pose seem a bit wonky, now that he's upright. A towering guy like this should look like he's really sure on his feet, and the somewhat pidgeon-toed look seems a bit problematic -- maybe this could be solved by moving the right lower leg back a bit, so the tip of the foot is actually flat on the ground -- does that make any sense? In fact, the very early mockup in your previous post seemed like a much better pose, even though nothing was glued together at that point.

 

I'm sorry for all the nitpicking. Maybe it's just the fact that there's something really special about this model, so I just want it to be the best it can possibly be ;)

[Argent aquila]

Kraut hit it right on the money, still, awesome work on him.

how do you plan to base him? I'm assuming space ship interior....? (hopefully with a corpse or two? )

[Kizzdougs]

Awesome Castellax and the MkI style terminator is very nice indeed

Ps. just saw the pearlescent colour scheme on the previous page. Wow! A really creative paint job, top work.

[EdT]

Thanks all. On the Terminator's right leg, I'm very aware of it and it's irritating me too! It happened because initially I only attached the legs to the groin using greenstuff; once I was reasonably happy with thigh connections and everything had cured, I took each leg off and then glued them back on for extra strength. Unfortunately, in gluing them on I clearly got the positioning of the right leg very slightly off from what it was originally. I think I have two options; I can either cut the leg off and redo all the greenstuffing (which is a pain, but doable) or make sure the base is built in such a way that the right foot is resting on something, like a small step or a trailing cable. I think the latter should work fairly well, so it's my preferred choice; however I'll have to build the base first to see if it actually looks convincing...

 

As for the base, I'm trying to make the whole thing rememiscent of the concept sketch, so like that it'll be in a corridor in front of a bulkhead door. Rather than making a gaming base, I want to stretch my skills so I was thinking of something a bit more diorama-y along these lines; it'll be during Calth's Underworld war and he'll be about to move into traitor-held territory within one of the archologies. It's a fun opportunity to try my hand at some scenery building, and I'm looking forward to getting started!