WIP Templar Crusade, Primaris Emperors Champion

[Rogue Crusader]

I do a fair amount of 3d modelling and I wanted to work on some conversion parts to use with my miniatures. This is just about wrapped up and I'll be working on a shield next. After I get a few more pieces built I send them all out for printing and then use the prints for duplication in resin. I have a bunch of other stuff I've done but it's mostly themed around Mechs or Tau so I won't post them here, but there's a link in my sig if you want to check them out.

 

I use Maya for my hardsurface 3d work, it's a bit overkill as it's intended more for animation but it's what I had access to. Sketch Up or Rhino would work just as well. Zbrush for doing organic models. 

 

Plenty of other parts on the way  

 

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/3d_renders/axe1.jpg

Edited September 30, 2017 by Rogue Crusader

[Fenbain]

A great start to the thread, the axe looks superb! :-) I'm looking into starting something similar. Most of my experience is with Cinema 4D, which is similar to Maya in that it is more aimed at animation. Do you think that would work?

[Rogue Crusader]

As long as you can find a way to export the files to STL or DAE format, I needed to install a plug in for Maya before I could convert to STL which is the format that most printers use. 

 

You'll likely need to run it through a program like Meshlab or NetFabb to make the model "water tight", which seals all the holes in the mesh and merges all of the edges together properly. (both are freeware) It takes a little bit of adjustment building models for display vs printing. The first time or two that you build a model for printing you'll run into some roadblocks and it can be frustrating trying to trouble shoot errors but once you work your way through the process you'll know what to look for when building future models and it gets a lot easier with practice. 

Edited January 7, 2017 by Rogue Crusader

[Fenbain]

Thanks for that information, that'll be super helpful soon.

 

What other Imperial projects do you have in the pipeline?

[Rogue Crusader]

I'll be doing some more weapons and a few upgrade parts for my vehicles. 

 

I recycled the hilt piece from the axe and experimented with adding text to the blade. I may need to thicken up the text but I won't know until I print a test piece. 

 

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/3d_renders/sword1.jpg

[Fenbain]

Looks great! Is there a reason you've decided to not add generators to these weapons? Assuming they are intended to be power weapons of course.

[NiceGuyAdi]

This is awesome. I'd never thought about being able to do this in a 3D animator!

 

Did you model everything from scratch or can you for instance take the handgrip "texture" (physical texture as opposed to CGI texture) from a library? I've got very limited C4D experience, but would actually be tempted to get into it a bit for this.

[Rogue Crusader]

I didn't add any power generators because I thought they took away from the balance and also took up space, the space on the axe head is a bit cramped and the blades would have needed to be altered in order to make room to add a generator. Decided that these can do without as they can always function as standard combat weapons and there's quite a few parts that are relics, force weapons, or arcane weapons that don't have generators, the EC's black sword for example.

 

These were scratch built, although once a component is built you can copy and paste it over to new models to save time. You can recycle or modify a lot of stuff from your current library which saves significant amounts of time provide that you've saved past work. As I work on files I save them many times at different stages so that I can go back and pull certain elements out of a file later if needed or backtrack to a certain point if I don't like the progress or I make mistakes etc. The final version is fused all into one unified mesh/piece so I always make sure to save a copy prior to the final stage that way I can pick out the individual parts rather than going back and trying to cut apart a finished model. 

 

There are a number of sites that offer pre-built models, like Daz or Turbosquid etc however most of them are intended for animation or built for display so they really aren't suitable for printing as offered. They do have some value though, I've gotten a number of models in the past that I use sort of like a template or guideline for building my own version. Basically what I do is use it as a reference which helps as I build a model next t it. Even though I have to build the model from scratch I find that it goes faster as it helps me visualize the shapes and I don't have to deal with measurements etc. 

Some of the pre-built meshes are viable, but still require some tweaking and repair before they are printable. There's a few sites that cater to stuff specifically intended for printing but their selection of stuff is fairly limited I haven't found all that many items that help with wargaming models. However depending on what subject you want to model & print there may be some good finds. There's tons of cars and modern day items, but not as much sci fi or robots for example. 

Zbrush is really good for adding textures as they have a stamping tool that you can pick from prebuilt textures or even create ones from scratch using photos. For certain aspects Zbrush is amazingly fast but it's much harder to use for hard surface or mechanical items, they can be done but it takes a lot of specialized focus and practice where most users do organic models with it and pick organic modelling up very fast. The hilt texture took me somewhere around 2-3 hours to make as I did a total of 4 versions before i was happy with the result, in Zbrush I could have made a milled grip texture from a photo and likely had it done within 10 minutes, but I'm not very familiar with their interface and I'm much more comfortable in Maya since it's basically the same format as Autocad. There's no one single way to do 3d models and there's a lot of options out there for programs and each one has their own strengths and weaknesses, I do know several people who sculpt professionally and others who do animation for movies and video games and everyone has to use at least two programs minimum to get what they want (and in most cases 4-5 programs) so going cross platform is pretty much standard practice. Zbrush even has one button hot links for transporting currently in progress models to other programs and switching between file formats. 

Edited January 9, 2017 by Rogue Crusader

[Joe]

I feel like both the hilt and the blade on the sword ought to be marginally longer; at the moment, it comes across as a one-handed longsword, unless that's what you were aiming for. ^^

 

Love these, though. Can't wait to see more!

[reckoning]

Awesome sculpts, can't wait to see what's next.

[Rogue Crusader]

The camera has a bit of a fish eye effect which distorts the render slightly when it's angled or viewed up close. Here's a side by side of the weapons from a straight on view which shows how they scale against each other. I've also printed out a couple of to scale renders to show how they compare vs physical models. I may need to make some slight adjustments to the grip, compared to the grip from what was a thunderhammer it's pretty much the same width, but vs the EC's blacksword it looks very over sized. I'm going to take some more measurements from other weapons and see if there a base line width I can work from. I think it's already pretty close but I'm also a bit OCD about small details so it's just some nit picky final tuning.

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/3d_renders/axe-sword.jpg

 

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/3d_renders/DSC04204.jpg

 

 

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/3d_renders/DSC04205.jpg

Edited January 9, 2017 by Rogue Crusader

[Rogue Crusader]

Some regular modelling, the start of a Chaplain's bike.

 

Using a jewelry saw I removed some skulls from some spare city fight terrain pieces. Then they were filed smooth on the back and carefully trimmed so they'd fit, I also had to do some minor trimming and clean up on the bolters so they'd fit in the Ravenwing front shield. It was fairly tedious work but I think it's been worth the effort as it has a much more menacing death's head look to it now. 

I have a few more bits to add and I'm waiting on a finecast Chaplain to arrive so I won't have to chop up my old metal one. I'll also be adding some relics to the rear  once I can test the fit of the rider. 

 

 

Zeal on Wheels  (WIP)

 

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/Templars/bike1.jpg

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/Templars/bike2.jpg

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/Templars/bike3.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edit: Rider is a place holder until the finecast chaplain arrives. I added some reliquary to the rear of the bike.

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/Templars/bike4.jpg

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/Templars/bike5.jpg

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/Templars/bike6.jpg

Edited January 23, 2017 by Rogue Crusader

[Rogue Crusader]

WIP Techmaine Biker.

 

The servo harness mount is made from Ravenwing assault cannon housings and head lights. It's held in place by pins so they can be removed for transport/storage. He'ss pretty much done and I'll probably give him a back pack from a devastator and a servo skull. 

 

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/Templars/DSC04253.jpg

 

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu334/paulsongames/Templars/DSC04255.jpg

[Rogue Crusader]

Now with 100% MOAR Skullz!!!

 

Chaplain Update: Finished converting the rider. Because skulls are a theme with Chaplains I added a skull backpack, little skull saddle bags on top of the skull armor, skull helmet and super skull covered weapon. Got skulls?

I need to do a few small touch up with greenstuff to fix the hacked up purity seals on the chest and he'll be ready for paint.

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the bikes.

[abadizzle]

Really liking the bikes as well. Mind telling me where the exhaust grills came from for the chaplain's bike? Also I gotta say, that's a pretty brilliant servo harness on the techmarine. Really promising start! CAD work is swanky too... But I don't know s'much if its worth the effort.

[Rogue Crusader]

The exhaust grills are from the ravenwing command bikes. I cut the ends off and transplanted them.

[Rogue Crusader]

I'm toying around with some options for the Command Squad. I wanted to see how the skull reliquary would look on the command unit but removed the spire and went with a smaller rear shrine. Because the squad has so many different load out options the rider arms will be magnetized so I can swap out the weapons. I wanted to place a good amount of equipment and bags on the bike so that it looked a bit heavier and more elite than the standard squad. I'm not sure if maybe I should move the large bags to the rear and the small ones to the front. I'm still exploring options so if anyone has suggestions feel free to post away.

 

[Rogue Crusader]

Bike Chaplain #2 WIP, he needs some attention with greenstuff and the skulls will be added to the front fender but otherwise he's pretty much done. I used a hooded interrogator head so he'd differ a bit from the first chaplain. Now I can get busy fixing up the rest of the command squad. 

 

 

[SW1]

Love the detail added to the ends of the exhaust!!!

 

Coming along nicely. ;)

[Rogue Crusader]

Progress on the bikes has continued, I have a 10 man command squad and 10 regular bikers all done save for adding the special weapons. A group shot will be added soon. 

 

I also picked up Celestine and her guardians on ebay as I didn't need Cawl or Greyfax. These are really great looking models but they have some very delicate parts which made assembly a bit tricky and I have some concerns about how they'll handle game play and transport. Very dynamic display pieces though. I may end up converting some basic sisters troops from Dreamforge Eisenkern as they have a really nice knight-like power armor look that's also distinctly non marine, but still blends in well with the Imperial style.

 

 

[Rogue Crusader]

I had a friend sculpt a Sword Brethren style pad which I'll be casting copies of to use on my command squads and honor guard. I also modified some old chaos banner poles into lance power weapons. The hand grips on the lances were converted from deathwatch power mauls and a veteran vanguard power axe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OakRiver]

That is a beautifully brutal lance

[abraxus]

Where is the added shoulder pad on the left from?  I always loved that look on the one metal Templar and never found a way to replicate.  Is it just greenstuff?

[Rogue Crusader]

Where is the added shoulder pad on the left from?  I always loved that look on the one metal Templar and never found a way to replicate.  Is it just greenstuff?

 

It's a custom sculpted pad made form brown stuff epoxy which is basically the same as greenstuff but it's slightly harder and keeps a sharper edge. Once I get the mold done I'll have extra resin ones shortly.