The Oppo: Bonehead's Lost, Damned and in all likelihood Disappointed

[Tallarn Commander]

….or at least stick a bloody hand print on the side.  

[Bonehead]

That one's going into the goodies army. But the spare wheels left over may make an appearance in this log yet.

[Bonehead]

Green stuff has gone on the final member of the Immortals. Surely we aren't far away from finally finishing them? Surely.

Ok, so the base needs detailing. and I still have to sort out the leader guy's bolt pistol. But we're close.

 

[Bonehead]

Arrived at a solution for the leader guy by total accident.

I was sticking them down to a stick for undercoating time. Double sided tape for the easy win. And I suddenly remembered the big gun issue. I took the bolt pistol off and discovered the back side of it was a horrible miscast. Chucked it in the bin. Then I figured I'd just give him a pistol off the necromunda sprue like all the others, so I got the box of guns out and saw this old rogue trader hand flamer. It seemed a perfect choice. Bosh, job done.

As photos were being taken I chucked them on the desk in front of the other things I'd undercoated, and didn't think about it at all at the time. On loading the photo onto my computer I discovered this image. On reflection this is probably a pretty accurate reflection of their actual destiny:

So long as they're keeping someone busy, they're doing their job, I suppose.

There, that's the last of the ordinary Immortals with paint on. Just the leader and the banner guy to go, and I think I'll probably take a little more time on them.

 

[Gnasher]

Looks likes its gonna be the rough riders who'll be busy ... cleaning that traitor scum blood off their spears!

[Bonehead]

Yeah, they really haven't got long left in this mortal coil.

Meanwhile, I have allowed scale creep to take over my life, and the tauros project is getting dangerously out of control:

For the record, this is absolutely, definitely happening now. And I'm mentioning it here because it's making me take a long, thoughtful look not only at the two tauroses I've already done, but also the russes and malcador. To be honest, I'm pretty sure they're going to be dramatically easier to get done.

Also, you can't see it but I pinned the wheels on this so I could pose it for photos. It actually rolls a bit before they fall off. So I guess I'm looking at ways to make that permanent too.

I swear, I didn't mean to do this. But now I've started, the potential for eerie not-quite-right glow effects on chaos models is undeniable.

[Tallarn Commander]

Yay! Lights!

[Bonehead]

Well that's that satisfactorily taken care of.

It turns out that the same solid-core wire I was using to make the chaos stars on the tanks is a super-material. It's also just the right gauge to match the LED leads and also durable and strong enough to form a battery cradle underneath the vehicle that operates more or less as a switch. In that if you put the battery in, the lights go on, and they go out if it does. Needed minimal soldering, too. Just six joints. Very few on a two-LED system; using the 3-volt coin cells means that the LEDs don't need a resistor to protect them, so there's almost nothing to it. Just a couple of inches of wire in the whole thing, too: continuous lengths from the LEDs all the way to the cradle.

I also lined the underside and rear of the LEDs with foil, to try and simulate real headlights. Just an experiment. Shot to nothing because I had to close off the underside of the lights anyway to stop them lighting up the mudguards like a grimdark version of the fast and furious. Probably doesn't make any difference, but it took about a minute so who cares.

Will I get back to actually doing the whole Lost and Damned thing in this Lost and Damned log now? Possibly. Maybe. A bit. But two more tauroses arrived from Wayland this morning, and I'm ordering more LEDs. Sometimes you just have to follow where the fun leads you..

[Tallarn Commander]

The LEDs look great. It's nice that your wire is dual purpose.

 

I bought a soldering iron this week. Hopefully soon I can install an LED in my Maulerfiend.

[Bonehead]

3 hours ago, Tallarn Commander said:

The LEDs look great. It's nice that your wire is dual purpose.

 

I bought a soldering iron this week. Hopefully soon I can install an LED in my Maulerfiend.

Thanks Commander, much appreciated.

If you've not soldered before, i strongly suggest you watch some youtube videos and get some practise in before going anywhere near the maulerfiend- or the LEDs. It's very easy to burn out LEDs. Also, if your iron isn't a minimum of 30 watts, dont even try soldering the LEDs. Perversely, a low power iron is so relatively cool that it takes too long to melt the solder- so you have to hold it on the LED leg long enough to burn out the LED. Higher-power irons will melt the solder very quickly, so it flows onto the joint quickly and cools quickly because you can remove the iron in a couple of seconds. Practise making good joins between two wires until you can get it done by holding the iron on the joint for a maximum of three seconds. It should only take a couple of hours at most- and if you're still not getting it, it's almost certainly the iron and not you. Not that you should have the iron turned on for more than half an hour at a time- I learned the hard way you got to let them cool down every once in a while or they blow. Unless it's a proper fancy self-regualting one with adjustable temperature, in which case you're golden.

 

[Tallarn Commander]

Thanks for the tips. I shall practice on test components before soldering tge real thing.  Also, I shall definitely watch videos, get books from the library, and call and chat with my cousin who is very experienced in soldering.

 

 

[Gnasher]

Mate,

 

That looks abosolutely spiffing, looking forward to see how it looks painted.

 

Right, that out's the way the $64000 question, what's the plan for the other vehicles? cut down or more Tauros' with headlights & flicker LED lasers? If it was metal you could maybe incorporate a little lighter gas fueled real flamer ((seed planted ), you seem like the type (read nutter) that actually might try that! ). If nothing else it'd be a great fag lighter!

 

I reckon it will be near impossible to retrofit the LEDs, looks to me as if you should include them into the build from the get go. I'll be writhing on the floor if you could coz I'd copy the crap out if it!

 

Nice one chap, top to see that you are upping your game once again!

Edited October 20 by Gnasher
(s

[Bonehead]

Thanks Gnasher, you're too kind. Seriously appreciated mate! The plan is, as you guess, three total smaller tauroses all with headlights and rolling wheels. On which subject, I have to admit, the prototype is suffereng quite badly. I tried driling from one side to the other on the front axle so I could just do another axle from one side to the other like I did in the rear, and it did not work out well at all. Not at all. It's looking quite mangled now. The problem was that there's much less actual plastic in the middle of the front axle for the drill to bite into and keep it going straight, so I ended up drilling miles off course. I'm now looking up m2 threaded rod on eBay because I'm down to my worst idea...

I also tried an option that resulted in the plastic melting a little from an attempted (bad) plan involving solder. So the lighter/flame thrower is sadly off the cards for the moment.

As for retrofitting them into my existing tauroses, you could be right there too. I'd at the very least have to pull the wheels off. Don't fancy that. Still reckon the tanks are going to be a piece of piss though. Tons of room on those models.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I've actually got the final Immortals models all in basecoat now. Not got a photo though, but you've seen this colour scheme enough. I'll post them when they're looking a little nicer.

[Bonehead]

Ok, few washes and a couple of highlights and they're up to a half decent state more or less worthy of showing. With a bit of luck they'll be done this week!

Flash

No Flash

[Gnasher]

No chaos stars on the robes or is that to come?

 

Could always do with a rebar icon bearer as well!

[Bonehead]

Yeah, you got it- going to do the stars on these and the other six I started last month all at the same time.

As for the icon- I actually got a standard bearer guy from the old regiment of renown set, so the immortals are going to have a conventional banner. I'm going to keep the rebar star for the traitor guard, to distinguish them. That'll go in the hq unit. Still keeping my eyes out for a suitable base model to start my main commander with.

I did pick up some armour pieces from VM, enough for five models, so I'm also going to try a baddie storm trooper unit at some point. Need to work out what guns to give them though.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Liking your latest batch of nutters - they are looking great.  The hand flamer is much better fit for the squad leader, so that was a great find.  I do think the tentacles arm needs a bit of purple or such on the tentacle to help emphasize what it is... otherwise there's a risk it just looks like he has a giant sausage for an arm (especially from the front for the guy with the "free" tentacle not using it for support for his gun), which probably isn't your intent. 

 

Love your cut down buggy and its lighting - very well done.  Sorry to hear your more recent conversion attempts on it have been less successful - hopefully you can fix the harm done without too much effort.  Is this for your LotD army or your imperial one?   To put my mod cap on for a moment, if its imperial you shouldn't be posting about it in this thread - though you can certainly post a "I have been working on this for my imperials" type comment here with a link to direct the eyes of those here (who are obviously interested) to the correct place.  Or, if it for your Lost and Disappointed, carry on.  

 

Oh, also congratulations for your Malcador getting into the Best of Chaos Call to Arms vote - even if you didn't win, its entry was well deserved and it was my own personal favourite of the 3 contestants.  Also note that the Chaos vote was the closest in terms of vote spread between the 3 contestants, which shows the particular excellence of the 3 chaos entries.  You should be very proud of your work, especially with your impressive recovery from your frosting problem.

Edited October 23 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Bonehead]

4 hours ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Liking your latest batch of nutters - they are looking great.  The hand flamer is much better fit for the squad leader, so that was a great find.  I do think the tentacles arm needs a bit of purple or such on the tentacle to help emphasize what it is... otherwise there's a risk it just looks like he has a giant sausage for an arm (especially from the front for the guy with the "free" tentacle not using it for support for his gun), which probably isn't your intent. 

 

Love your cut down buggy and its lighting - very well done.  Sorry to hear your more recent conversion attempts on it have been less successful - hopefully you can fix the harm done without too much effort.  Is this for your LotD army or your imperial one?   To put my mod cap on for a moment, if its imperial you shouldn't be posting about it in this thread - though you can certainly post a "I have been working on this for my imperials" type comment here with a link to direct the eyes of those here (who are obviously interested) to the correct place.  Or, if it for your Lost and Disappointed, carry on.  

 

Oh, also congratulations for your Malcador getting into the Best of Chaos Call to Arms vote - even if you didn't win, its entry was well deserved and it was my own personal favourite of the 3 contestants.  Also note that the Chaos vote was the closest in terms of vote spread between the 3 contestants, which shows the particular excellence of the 3 chaos entries.  You should be very proud of your work, especially with your impressive recovery from your frosting problem.

Thanks for pointing this out, Doctor! I had in fact completely failed to notice due to being roughly on a bag of hammers-par. Yeah, the tauroses are in the loyalist army that doesn't actually have a log, so I probably ought to just give them a works in progress log of their own.

So far, the progress is mostly backwards. But we'll not go into that here. It's enough to say my new bunch of tiny LEDs arrived today and I learned a lot of ways to fit them that don't work, instead of painting cultists. Bad move.

And on to the tentacle guys- they're just in a basecoat. There'll be lots of washes of probably blues, reds and purples, and hopefully a little bit of contrasting highlight work- I think it's worth doing some experimentation and taking a little more time seeing as there's just the two of them. I'll be doing more mutations in the other cultist mobs so practise is going to be well spent. Building a few more traitor guard here and there, too. Nearly enough for a couple of squads.

[Bonehead]

Actually managed to tear myself away from the LED funtimes in order to get my last dozen Immortals into a state where they're all just waiting for chaos stars and finished bases. And the two tentacle lads need special attention, of course. I decided to paint the leader guy with the hand flamer as if the grotesque mask had just become his face- he looks pretty messed up.

Pretty happy; not sure how many total this is going to be but it's plenty! After this I'll do the overall leader and his banner guy, and I daresay it'll be time for some shots of the whole army so far.

Photo with flash for better detail but less true colours:

[Bonehead]

And they're done. I thought I was going to need hours and hours, but the tourette's twitches were kind and I was able to knock them out really quickly.

Not too shabby at all. The weapon teams came out particularly nicely from above:

Managed to get the direction of the street paving more or less co-ordinated for once. I'm going to be making significantly more of an effort with this as the cults go on- the khorne cult already enjoy a drastically more co-ordinated basing situation. Talking of who, I've been thinking that the paint scheme is going to want a bit of a different approach. To suggest a certain respect for military discipline I won't have any colour variation on them. And the skin will be a warmer shade, to suggest anger and raised emotion. The Immortals are a pale shade to contrast with the warm colours of the robes. The khorne cult will enjoy the same red undercoat and zenithal white, but I'll ease up on the white and go with a black contrast for their half-robes. Then probably use a good old traditional brass for metal trim and the same dark red as on the Mari gaurdsmen (guardsmonsters?) as a spot colour. Simple and classic should do the trick.

Meanwhile here's some more of the rather more chaotic colour combination the Immortals enjoy:

Some leaning more red, some leaning more purple. Spot colour and accents in different places, and mismatched gear and outfits.

Tried getting closer shots of each team, but despite plenty of bright daylight only this one came out even remotely in focus. You get the picture.

On to the individual foot-cultists:

Again the focus was off but you can at least appreciate the ugly frog-like state of mutation in the leader's appearance. Painting the cultist's grotesque mask as a mutated face was an easy way to add another mutation to the group, in a relatively subtle way.

This view shows how the washes have worked on the tentacled idiots- not too badly at all. I might revisit both of them with a little more blue wash for the very ends of their new and disgusting appendages but overall the simple method -my favourite kind- worked out pretty nicely. Start with yellow, lay it on thickly. Before that dries, lay on some red, overlapping. Then the same with purple, and then with blue. Before they got washed there were some highlights put on in sort of stripe patterns, but broken and irregular. Under the washes they create a certain mottling effect.

Just for completionism, here's a shot of the backs:

Definitely good enough for a horde.

I've got the big leader man (the redemptinoist leader model with a meltagun) and banner guy based up on more street bases, so they're next. I was sure I had a right hand holding a scroll in one of the Anvil sets I'd bought, but it turned out not to be the case. Very irritating. I don't want him to be just waving a meltagun, he should be a demented, manic preacher far more than a heavily equipped fighter. Going to have to cast around for something better to put in his hand. A sceptre of some kind, or maybe a staff? Somthing arcane, or just grizzly. Or perhaps just a megaphone might do.

Hmm. Suggestions welcome.

[Gnasher]

The cultists with stars look great, well done that man! Need an army shot you must have loads now,

[Dr_Ruminahui]

They are looking very nice - particularly like what you've done with the "ugly face" former-mask and the tenticles.

[Bonehead]

Thanks both! Still mulling over ideas for the leader at the moment. Also I don't have nay terrain, so I'm going to have to work out something creative for army shots- but I've managed before. If nothing else, a green towel over a table with a load of stuff on it will do. But it'll probably be easier if I just slope off down WW on a non-busy day.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I like the megaphone idea as it best reinforces his role as leader/rabble rouser (literally), though something like a staff with speakers on it (like this gal or this guy) might also work.  Or something like a book or map.

Edited November 7 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Tallarn Commander]

Perhaps a whip would work.