Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos to Wolf Lord Conversion

[sbarnby71]

I managed to get hold of this mini from Artel W before it went OOP - I'm guessing copyright infringement as he is Gabriel Angelos from the Dawn of War video games series:

As soon as I saw him I knew he would make an excellent Wolf Lord just look at that hammer and it's rare to find a mini in Terminator Armour in a convincing running pose!

 

First adjustment was to the sole of his boot, there is no grip on it and as it will be on display, that had to be changed:

Thought about where I could get a decent cast from some tread, could I do my own and then I remembered the inside of most Rhino\Landraider hatches:

Took a cast from this and got a decent tread pattern:

Trimmed it down and glued it to the foot, trying to make sure the tread was flowing in the right direction:

Bit more trimming to keep it flush with the boot:

And then finished product:

Next up was the cape, I either wanted a massive Wolf Symbol or a lot of fur added to it, after a rummage around I saw the Wolf Head from the new Forge World Landraider doors:

This was glued in small sections, working our from the centre to allow me to press each part of the muzzle and pelt pieces down, as the cast was made from green-stuff, quite recent and fairly thin, it can be bent into shape:

You can see a pencil line around the piece, I did this as I wanted to get the position right before gluing it, so use some blu-tac, get the position right, draw round it, then when you come back to glue it in place, you know where it needs to go.

Next step was the base - yeah I know I'm jumping ahead but I recently got the Celtic and Runes rolling pins from Green Stuff World and was trying them out and liked how my first rubbish attempt worked out, so it became the base:

Next thing was to get some wolf fur made that will cover the loin cloth on the mini.  This was made using the Fur Mould again made by Green Stuff World - I'm not 100% sold on this mould, I think some of the detail is a bit hit and miss

Hope you like so far.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by sbarnby71

[Kasper_Hawser]

Holy guacomole, that looks like its going to be an awesome Logan. or alternatively, a new Chapter Master for a Space Wolf successor chapter.

[Pearson73]

Nice start to the project, press-moulding is certainly a great aid for adding specific details.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

He looks promising. I'm genuinely impressed by your efforts, especially on the cape.

[GrFlur]

I'm jealous and envious 

[Wolf Guard Dan]

This is great. I am looking forward to the finished product.

[Krakendoomcool]

Put my name down on the jealous, envious and looking forward to this list.

[sbarnby71]

Thanks folks for the comments, I hope I do this figure justice.

 

Thought I'd add some pics of what he would look like without conversion, show more of the dynamics of the pose:

Edited April 18, 2018 by sbarnby71

[TiguriusX]

Thanks folks for the comments, I hope I do this figure justice.

 

Thought I'd add some pics of what he would look like without conversion, show more of the dynamics of the pose:

That action sequence looks awesome

[sbarnby71]

Started work on the loin-cloth (don't know why but that word always make me laugh)...

 

I would normally remove something like this with a pair of side-cutters, but the resin this is made of is so brittle, I really thought it would split down the middle when I started:

 

With the aid of a Dremel and Scalpel I clean this up:

The eagle-eyed of you will see that I ended up removing a few studs from the shin-guard in the process.  Well I figure that might happen, so I took a cast from them before I started, so I can add some new ones:

 

I had intended to make the wolf-pelt from the Green Stuff World cast, but I thought I'd see if there was something better lying around and this is a bit of a cast from Ulrik his furs on his back:

 

With a bit of chopping and thinning the cast it fits pretty well:

I glued each section of the pelt down a bit at time so it moulded nicely to the contours of the armour.

I'm really happy with this as it flows well and does give more of a sense of movement in the model.

 

Next step will be to add the studs back onto the shin-guard.  Then I want to look at adding some runes or scroll work to the inside of his cape.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

 

 

[Krakendoomcool]

This is coming together really nicely. Casting is such a great idea. I must give it a go.

[The Saint Ragnar]

Where can I learn about casting? The results look fantastic!

[mercbat]

Where can I learn about casting? The results look fantastic!

I join to this question. Results looks great, and something tells me that it was achieved  a little simplier than I've suspected

[sbarnby71]

The casting is really simple. Let me get some pics together over the weekend and I'll post how I do it. It's been a game changer for me.

[Deadnaughty]

Press Molding (which this seems to be) is really easy. You need a material for your mold, most often its a Thermal plastic like Oyumara (you can get it off ebay or amazon and is cheap). When you heat it up in warm water it becomes soft and you can press in what you want to copy. As it cools (which is fast) it hardens but stays subtle so its easy to pop the shape back out.

Use greenstuff to create copies using the mold, waiting a few (I do about 3) hours to remove the greenstuff, so it can harden out a bit to not warp but is not completely solid. Again for easy of removing it from the mold. No need for lubrication, the greenstuff won't stick to the plastic.

And voila you have a copy of your piece.

 

The Oyumara can be reheated and reused over and over to make different molds.

full 3d shapes are technically possible but 2 part molds are a lot more complicated and you can get pretty bad mold lines down the split. But anything with a (mostly) flat back is easy.

 

It transfers a lot more detail then you would expect at first.

[sbarnby71]

Only had time to apply the shin-guard studs this weekend and also I added tread to the other foot - yeah you'll never see it, but I would know it's missing and it would bug me, plus his left foot would be half a mill thicker than the right, etc.

Edited April 23, 2018 by sbarnby71

[sbarnby71]

Press Molding (which this seems to be) is really easy. You need a material for your mold, most often its a Thermal plastic like Oyumara (you can get it off ebay or amazon and is cheap). When you heat it up in warm water it becomes soft and you can press in what you want to copy. As it cools (which is fast) it hardens but stays subtle so its easy to pop the shape back out.

Use greenstuff to create copies using the mold, waiting a few (I do about 3) hours to remove the greenstuff, so it can harden out a bit to not warp but is not completely solid. Again for easy of removing it from the mold. No need for lubrication, the greenstuff won't stick to the plastic.

And voila you have a copy of your piece.

 

The Oyumara can be reheated and reused over and over to make different molds.

full 3d shapes are technically possible but 2 part molds are a lot more complicated and you can get pretty bad mold lines down the split. But anything with a (mostly) flat back is easy.

 

It transfers a lot more detail then you would expect at first.

 

Yep this is the process I'm using, one thing I would say is I'm not 100% sold on the use Oyumara type moulds.  For me they are not soft enough during the moulding process to get very fine detail, a good example of this is if you took a mould from a GW skull, the Oyumara will not go completely into the eye sockets, so you end up with a very shallow imprint.  I use Blu-Stuff, it's a two part putty that is very, very soft, this allows it to be pushed into all the cracks and lines in the piece you want to copy, it has a longer working time, but only up to about 1 to 2 minutes max. 

 

The downsides of Blu-Stuff are:

• Can't be reused.
• If the item you are moulding from has very deep holes and a void behind it, you can end up with a plug of Blu-stuff that fills the void and can't be pulled out - to combat this, use some blu-tac to fill the void.
• The shelf-life is about 6 to 9 months - not the 12 months as stated by the producer.
• The mould can be broken if handled too roughly, that said I've made hundreds and only snapped 1 or 2, but that was my bad for making the mould to small.

I started off with Blu-Stuff, then went to Oyumara as it is cheaper and can be re-used.  I would recommend that people start with Oyumara, get used to how to make a mould, then if you want real fine detail, use Blu-Stuff.  With Oyumara when you re-use it you need to be careful with getting it real smooth again and try and avoid getting air bubbles in it otherwise your moulds have lines left over from the re-heat, reshape process and worst of all an air bubble that then bursts when you try and use the mould.

Edited April 23, 2018 by sbarnby71

[sbarnby71]

Started work on the right shoulder pad, looked at some of the Pop Goes the Monkey and Puppets War pieces I had, but I really like the beading around the edge on the original:

So I removed the Blood Raven symbol (went a bit too deep on the left hand side):

And I will be adding this cast I took from an OOP Board shield made by Pop Goes the Monkey:

 

Now to remove the Blood Raven symbol from the right shin-guard

This was not a nice clean job as it goes over the ridges in the armour, so I had to scrap it away, then create a new ridge:

Next I added some purity seal from Anvil Industries to cover up the not so great work:

I'm never 100% sure if I like purity seals on SW, I feel they would stick runes or wolf teeth on instead, but it helps cover rubbish bits, so it's all good.

 

Now onto the chest plate, remove that skull:

And add a cast taken from a Wolf Cavalry Shield:

 

I wanted to add some detail to the inside of the cloak, so using the scroll work from the Storm Fang:

I added 2 of these:

They should look better once painted (hopefully)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2018 by sbarnby71

[sbarnby71]

Added a small Wolf Skull to the shield on the belt after removing the Blood Ravens symbol:

 

The skulls on the Hammer handle have wings, like most of the skulls on the figure, so they were removed:

This has made the handle really fragile now, was sure it was going to snap as I finished this off.

 

Next it to start work on the hammer head, those wings need to go.  I don't think I can easily remove them without messing up the skull, so maybe easier to just fill the area with the skull and then I have a flat surface to apply whatever I like:

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Edited April 27, 2018 by sbarnby71

[sbarnby71]

I was going to leave the crux terminates on the left shoulder pad:

But nah, it had to be changed a little:

 

I'm in two minds on giving him a standard or totem, the way his armour is moulded, their is a nice slot for one, so I did try out a few ideas and this one is the best I could find, it's from Puppets War.  Does give a more feral feel to the model, but I'm still not sold on banners/totems I always think in a fight they would slow you down.  I think I'll try out the trophy rack that comes with the Wulfen:

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Edited April 27, 2018 by sbarnby71

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

I love and hate you right now

[GrFlur]

I can't write anything here, each time I come I start drooling like crazy and I must run to not soak  the keyboard

[sbarnby71]

Next for the head, this is the one it comes with and I kinda like it, the jaw line looks good and solid, but not very SW:

 

Other options that work are from the normal SW box set:

 

And from the Wolf Cavalry set:

 

Option one would need some work to add a beard or a braid.

Option two looks too young to me.

Option three is grizzled old veteran, like a chapter master/Wolf Lord should be. 

 

Any preferences???

 

 

Edited April 28, 2018 by sbarnby71

[TiguriusX]

I like 3

[NightHowler]

3 is best IMHO.