The Justice Keepers - Dr. Ruminahui's heretic guardsmen

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Just a quick midweek update - its stands!

 

[Bonehead]

Now that is just straight up badass from start to finish

[bloodhound23]

It looks like it skitters, so I think we count this as a win!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

@Bonehead, glad you like it.  Its not quite done - though, I'm hoping to get it done to pledge it as part of my first vow for Call to Arms.  Lets see what the cat and my sleep can let me get done in 2 weeks!

 

@bloodhound23, it definitely does, and I definitely do as well.  It should fit right in next to my two venowcrawlers.

 

Got the second arm on, but not without dislodging the first - so if its in a slightly different position, that's why.  It looks pretty much like I hoped it would - the claw arms are a little weedy and thin, but more in a way that looks unnatural than one that makes it look like it wouldn't work, so I'm fine with that.

 

 

So, that's the end of the structural elements.  Now its all detailing, other than a touch more work involving the top hatch options, the left side heavy bolter option, and the construction of the flail weapon option.

 

In terms of detailing, I see myself faced with 2 major choices for which I would love your feedback:

 

1.   What do I do for a face?  My thought was to put one on the front right where the driver's port is (its hidden in the above picture behind the claw).  The question is what to put there.  Some options are:

 

           a) put one of the flat plates with faces on them from the chaos rhino kit.  Here are the options:

 

 

And here are pictures of them in place (note, each of these will be actually mounted a bit higher, as I will be cutting off the hinges for the hatch off the russ which will allow me to cover that area with the face plate):

 

- i) the melty face:

 

 

- ii) the demon face:

 

 

b)  a bunch of eyes

c)  another mouth; or

d) my own scratch built face - suggestions as to what it might look like appreciated.

 

Personally, I'm inclined to go the easy option of the demon face plate, which has a similar visual aesthetic to the original defiler, so creates a nice visual link there.  That said, it might not be the best fit with the rest of the model.

 

2)  What to do with the spaces between the outer and inner hull?  The big decision there is whether to put on the track guards on the top - here is a rough picture of what that might look like, though it wouldn't stick off the back like that but would instead be cut down to fit the size.  As well, I would model some spikes breaking through them like I did the legs through the hull.

 

 

And here is an older picture without it - I had taken a newer one, but it looks like I didn't upload it.

 

 

Note, this is an option where I could do different things on different sides.

 

Where there are no track covers, I intend to build up some stringy flesh connecting the mechanical elements and maybe put some eyes here and there poking up over the edge of the hull.  On the front, probably some eyes clusters on one side, and spikes on the other.  On the bottom, its going to be less detailed with just some lumpy flesh and a couple of cables hanging down.

 

So, poll time:

 

1.  What should I do for a face on the front area beside the front sponson?  Options include:

            a) i) the melty face plate

               ii) the demon face plate

            b) an eye (either a single big one like this guy or a cluster like elsewhere on the model)

            c) another mouth; or

            d) a scratchbuilt face - if this is your vote, please give suggestions as to what it might be like.

 

2. Trackguard or no trackguard?  Options:

           a) trackguards.

           b) no trackguards

           c) a trackguard on one side, but not another.

 

3.  Other suggestions you might have as to what to do with the space between the outer and inner hull (so, between the track wheels), particularly for the front of the model.

[Bonehead]

My suggestion would be

1) an eye or eyes on the driver's plate area. I think once you've gone full custom on everything else, you'll kick yourself later for not doing it here. I'd also add another horror spike mouth at the bottom of the hull if possible: the front is where you want maximum impact and I think this deserves to be a full-on slavering monster.

2) Trackguards up top. Simple easy win, spikes notwithstanding. Means you have to do less to fill the space below.

3) To the fore in between the two hull sections, have you considered just having tracks there? If they emerge from under the trackguards and then hang loose once they go past the vertical on the angle at the front, you'll suggest it was a working vehicle right up until the posession burst out of it. Plus, again, it'll cover up a lot of space leaving you less work to do filling it.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks for the suggestions, @Bonehead, they were very useful.

 

This one is going to be pretty picture heavy, as there are a lot of details I'm trying to show - you've been warned.

 

Finished the bulk of greenstuffing on the hull - really, the only thing that is left in that regard is the front.  After that, just have the flail and one of the side heavy bolters and the beast is done.

 

Before I did the actual detail work, I glued some paperclips to act as a scaffolding for the greenstuff on the top - I don't want it to break off and fall into the model where it couldn't be retrieved, which I was worried of happening as its connection points to the model is otherwise only as much as I can smoosh it against the two hulls.

 

 

Decided to go with trackguard on one side (with a tiny bit on the front of the other) and tracks on the other and the back on side with the guard.  Here's a picture with the tracks - wanted to make it look like the tracks were getting broken up and absorbed as the thing continued to mutate and really happy with the look,

 

 

And here's the tracks on the backside, drooping off.

 

 

And here is the side with the track guard with the spikes breaking through - also show some of the green stuffed "muscles" around the arm sockets.   It also shows how I put a ram bar on the front - I decided I didn't want a mouth up there so that fills that empty space, and helps replicate some of the look of the original defiler, which has a similar structure on the front.

 

 

Here's some eyes I added to the left side (so the side with the trackguards and without the mouth) back by the smoke stacks.

 

 

And here's the bottom - less concerned with what it looks like, but I wanted to fill the spaces between the rollers.  It also shows where I added some cabling to the middle left leg (the bottom of the photo) and hanging below the hull on the front right (top of photo).  It also shows the cabling on the rear right leg, but that isn't new.

 

 

Finally, I've built some cabling/piping for the combibolter/weapon to explain how its fired without a gunner.  Its magnetized so I can swap it between the two guns (bolter v weapon) or swap it with a plain hatch.

 

 

I've also been working on tongue and front options, but will put those in another post as there are enough photos in this one already.

Edited June 3 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Bonehead]

Aww yeah. This thing is going to look just super-evil in a very cool way when it's done. An absolute mostrosity.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks @Bonehead - your praise and encouragement through this project has been a big help in keeping me motivated.

 

As it turns out, I made up my mind (mostly) as to the front and the tongue and didn't need to post all the pictures of the funky options I tried as part of the decision process (I can still share those if you guys want).  Hopefully you guys like what I came up with.  So, asides from whatever Sitnam may convince me to do with the cannon (he suggested in the WIP forum that I add some fleshy bits to it) and if you guys convince me to go with the alternate tongue, the build is done. 

 

So, here's what I ended up doing on the front end.  This picture also shows the flail option I built (the whisk of doom).

 

 

Basically, I decided against the eye cluster as most of the time (except when I was fielding it with the reaper autocannon) I would already have a cluster on the other side on the front gun mount (as seen here) and I wanted to avoid that symmetry.  I still thought an eye there was a good idea, though, so I made an eye stalk with the eye being held by an arm, as I thought it would be creepy. 

 

A bunch of you also wanted a 3d melty face, which I thought was also a good idea but wasn't sure if I could really pull it off.  So I had a go at it and made the arm come out of its mouth.  Not totally happy with my work, but its probably fine with the arm sticking out in front of it and kind of obscuring it.

 

Here's a picture of the flail from the side - incidentally, the claws on the end are some of the oldest bits in my bit box, and come from my earliest conversions - they are knives from the plastic goliath models from the 1st edition necromunda box. shaved to put the main cutting edges on what was the back of the knife.

 

 

Here is the tongue that I've mostly settled on - building it out of a plastic twist tie allowed me to make it forked, something I don't think I could have pulled off effectively  if the tongue had been made of greenstuff.  There is some greenstufffing on the back to flatten out the ridge made by the metal wire inside the tie.  I'm not gluing it on until after its painted, so its position isn't finalized yet.

 

 

Here's the other option - if I were to use it, I would greenstuff the transition between the head and the cable to make it more natural.  Went with the above largely because the tie is a lot easier to position and deal with than the guitar string.  The head of the tongue is from the new demon prince kit - and the blue tac is obviously temporary.

 

 

I suppose there is also the option to go no tongue at all - anyway, let me know what you think.

 

Other than that, the final bits of the conversion were pretty minor.  I built a second eye cluster (actually, the 3rd, to replace the 2nd which went missing) as I need two if I put the reaper autocannon on it as I need one for each side sponson - don't think it warrants its own picture unless you guys want one.

 

The final change was carving the ejection port out of a heavy bolter and then flipping it onto the other side so both sponson heavy bolters (if I use that option) eject away from the hull.  Kind a real nitpicking thing, really.  Probably doesn't warrant its own photo, but you are getting one regardless.

 

 

One final picture of the defiler with all of its magnetising bits.

 

 

All that is left now (other than any last minute changes arising from you guys' suggestions) is the painting - I'll be making it my first vow for Call to Arms.

[Bonehead]

Just brilliant. A hulking great malevolent beast. Hats off to you. Best defiler I've yet seen, I think. Can't wait to see what you do with the paint scheme.

It does seem to be just you, Gnasher and me in the traitor guard trenches most of the time, but it makes it homely, somehow!

[danodan123]

This is coming along so well! I can't wait to see the final product, even simply priming it will pull it together fantasticly 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks, @Bonehead & @danodan123!  And yeah, it does sometimes seem its just the 3 of us holding the fort here - though that's pretty much what the Realm of Chaos has always been like, with (almost always) at least one or two people showing their stuff, but rarely many more than that.  Drop by Chaos Knights if you really want to hear the crickets chirp.  

 

I thought you guys might be interested in some of the photos I took while trying to decide on the "face" of the model, before I settled on the creepy eye-holding arm.

I've already shared pictures of the 2 rhino "face" plates, so I won't post those again, but here are some of the other things I looked at:

 

A single giant eyeball:

 

 

Multiple eyes in a chaos pattern

 

 

Multiple eyes in a more random pattern

 

 

I also tried a couple of action figure heads to try doing a 3d "melty face" effect with - the idea was to glue the face on, then green stuff it pressing its way into the armor as if trying to escape the tank.

 

The first was from some unknown action figure - found it in a field decades ago and its been in my bits box since.  It would have needed to have been cut down.

 

 

The second is from an action figure I specifically bought from the dollar store for this project - it was the smallest head I could find with an open mouth.

 

 

Here's the action figure its from:

 

 

Ultimately, I discounted both of them as options as they were really too big for the space I had - they didn't give me enough room to do the greenstuff work for the stretching armor effect I wanted.

 

Anyway, I'm happy with the choice I settled on, but thought you might want to see what I also looked at to get there.

 

The process also left me with the ability to do an anime-haired demon prince should I ever buy another model:

 

[Bonehead]

Oh man, that anime figure is genuinely disturbing to look on. But I tell you what, his hair on that demon prince head actually kind of works.

I did also really dig the 'loads of eyes' options for the defiler- plenty of potential there, although it's easy to understand why the final decision got made, and the defiler looks better for it.

 

[danodan123]

Please do a super saiyan daemon prince! 

 

I think it's quite here as it's harder to find when looking through the forum, in my opinion at least.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

@Bonehead - Yeah, the other front options kind of grew on me as I looked at them, but I'm still happy with the choice I made.  That said, some of the others would have looked fine too, so I'm not sure there is one "right" answer here.

 

@danodan123 - If I buy another demon prince model, I'll definitely give it a try - the one I have already has the slannesh head on it, and the hair doesn't really fit on it. As for the traffic here, yeah, its a bit hard to find but its also a really niche army.  Luckily, at the moment we have several posters with projects on the go, so traffic isn't bad, comparatively.

 

I don't normally post pics of my WIP painting, but given the interest in the build, I thought I might as well.

 

 

This one is kind of an overall view - done all of the flesh except the legs and from eye stalk, done the central hull except for some edge highlighting, and figured out what I'm doing on the side - the purple there at the moment is really rough and basically just for me to see if it would work (it does), it will be cleaned up and the rest of the side will be dark purple like the central hull with the same edge highlighting.

 

 

Here's a picture showing the finished bits of the central hull, including the chained chaos star (well, almost done - the edges nearest the hatch still need highlighting, which will happen after I finish the flesh.

 

 

When painting models, I often hit kind of an "uncanny valley" when blocking out the main colours where it just seems to look worse and worse to me.  This is especially the case when I am struggling with how (or whether) to do something, as I was in this case with the purple chaos star on the side.  As its the detail work that I enjoy, I got myself out of that by painting the flail - plus, the above photo shows the mouth I gave it, which I don't think is in any of my other pictures.

 

 

Bonehead, we were compairing our deferent takes on how we make our guard and their vehicles match - this isn't the best WIP picture, but gives you an indication of what I was talking about, where the dark purple armour is the connecting piece with the tank, and their fatigues and boots, etc are a more motley mix of grey's a browns.

[Bonehead]

Yeah, I'm very familiar with that halfway feeling that just goes 'this is a total mess isn't it?'. It's only uphill from here though- every stage after that just makes it look better. I do like how the infantry match the defiler. It's a strong colour palette- it's going to look great as an army on the tabletop.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks!  Its nice to know that I'm not the only one with my painting foibles getting in the way of finishing models.

 

I've been doing the "dark purple with light purple edge highlighting" thing with the guns of my chaos marines since the beginning of that army, but the first whole model I did this way was my knight tyrant, where I quite liked the effect.  After CtA, I think I will return to my renegade guard - I had been working on them late last year, but then stopped when I had an "I'm an idiot moment" that I needed to decided to go back and fix or proceed regardless.  The problem lay with the 1/3 of my guard that are kitbashed Kriegs models - when I built them, I didn't like their chest boxes for their gasmasks (they are too central to the Krieg aesthetic - same reason I don't use any of the Krieg heads or backpacks) but basically figured that they would mostly be hidden by the arms - which is true.  However, when I was painting them, I realized that they also didn't fit in because of a lack of chest armour, and if I sawed off the boxes I could put little plasticard plates and really improve the look of the models.  Which would require that I cut off their arms first, to be able to properly saw/shave off the boxes.  Not really having the energy to do that at that time, I just kind of shelved the project while I mulled over that effort versus trying to push ahead painting models that I wasn't that happy with.  Plus, if I had come to this realization earlier I could have skipped a whole bunch of effort in greenstuffing in the square holes in their backs (normally covered by their backpacks) and sculpting the strapping on their backs - by simply covering the whole thing with a backplate.

 

Anyway, with more energy now and my spirits (and enthusiasm) lifted by my successful defiler build, I've decided that I will make the models I actually want to have, regardless of the extra effort.  Seeing them half finished next to the defiler is a good motivator, as I'm eager to see what they look like completely done - I imagine that it will be the edge highlighting on both that will really tie them together.

Edited June 25 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Bonehead]

Definitely going to be worth it. I'm a firm believer that stisfaction comes from making models that look cool just as much as making units that do well in the game.

Edited June 25 by Bonehead
spelling

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Despite it being a long weekend (Canada Day), that didn't mean as much painting time as I would normally have as I was busy from 9-4 all 3 days.  Luckily, I knew that ahead of time, so focused on painting in the evenings during the week, so was able to able to make good progress.

 

So, here is where the bulk of my work is - I finished this side of it (I'm considering the mouth part of the centre, so it isn't yet done).

 

 

So, this gives a pretty good view of what the finished model will be like.

 

Some other details that I finished:

 

One of my 2 eye clusters (well, I have 3, but one has wandered off somehow)

 

 

The reaper autocannon (missing the fleshade wash on the skulls so they are a bit darker and richer than here)

 

 

And the fleshy bits on the underside of the track and legs.

 

 

I'm guessing I have 2-3 weeks of work left on it.

 

Edited July 2 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Bonehead]

It's really starting to look awesome now. Once it's this good all over it's going to be a triumph!

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks, Bonehead!

 

As you might have guessed with my last post being 3 weeks ago, life happened.  Had a really stressful and busy week at work the week before last, and between that, some other general stress, and really struggling with the stripes on this side, I didn't make a whole lot of progress until this past week.  That said, when it started to come together, it came together pretty quickly.

 

So, I finished the side I was struggling with:

 

 

And the front:

 

 

And the back:

 

 

Which included finishing the mouth.  Tongue isn't yet glued in place - there's a final technique I need to practice and, if it works, I'll do it and glue the tongue in place.  I should have that all done this weekend.

 

 

Finally, some details of and around the front eye stalk -

 

The face I sculpted into the front plate - not bad.

 

 

A close up on the eye - I'm really happy how that turned out.

 

 

Anyway, next pictures you'll see of it should be the finished deal, and probably this weekend or early next week.  Just have the final work on the tongue, the turret, the 2 turret hatches, the 2 hatch gun options and the havoc launcher left.

[Bonehead]

Absolute masterpiece. No other notes.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Does anyone need anything that needs defiling?  Because I have just the unit to do that, now.

 

In other words, my defiler is now done (well - almost - I'll get into that).

 

First, here are all the painted magnetised options - 2 hatches, 2 weapon options for the armed hatch (combi bolter and combi weapon),, 2x lascannon, 2 heavy bolter, reaper autocannon, 2x eye plates and the flail.

 

 

Then some pictures of the various options grouped together into "variants"

 

Flail variant:

 

Havoc variant - I suspect this is mostly what I will field, with havoc launcher, lascannons and combi-bolter:

 

Heavy flamer variant:

 

And some just other assorted pictures:

 

Flail from the side:

 

Havoc from the side

 

Note, I decided to go without the tongue - I tried working on a technique using a hot glue gun) to create droopy saliva between it and the sponson but that didn't work (I didn't work on the technique on the model, so didn't mess anything up).  Then, looking at it both with and without the tongue, I decided the model was busy enough without out it and looked better if I left it off.

 

The back

 

The other side

 

The "almost done" bit is that I learned that the eye plates don't actually fit on the left side sponson - when I twisted the side plate to fit the legs, I must have warped the sponson such that the plates are now too big to fit.  This is only an issue for the reaper autocannon build (where the sponsons have the eye plates on them and the gun is on the front), which I am unlikely to field, but it will bug me until I fix it.  Not sure if I will try to cut down of the eyeplates to fit (only need to take about 1mm off the top or bottom) or build a new one - probably the later, as they are easy to build and paint.

 

Anyway, its the end of a rather amazing journey of discovery and development in terms of my own skills as a modeller.  I want to thank you all once again for all your comments, advice and criticism - they both helped me keep going through the hurdles of the construction, and helped me produce a better model overall.

 

For my renegade guard, this is a start rather than an ending - I've pledged a bunch of models as my next vow for call to arms - so you guys will be seeing a bunch more posts here before the summer is over.

 

 

[Gnasher]

Oh man that is sweet! Top job that man!

 

I was never a great fan of the tongue & I don't think that it's omission takes one iota away from the model, it's so original (I've not seen anything remotely like it anywhere). My only criticism is the flail, I think it needs some texture on the tendrils, atm they look a bit "flat". Don't get me wrong I think its still bloody brilliant!

 

Good work!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks!  I'm glad you agree with the "no tongue" look.

 

And you are absolutely right about the flail tendrils - they are kind of plain and unexciting.  Not sure what to do about - my previous attempt at greenstuffing a wire for interest was not a success.  So I think I'll probably put up with it, since its a relatively minor issue with a part that I'm unlikely to use anyway, at least under the current rules.

 

 

[Bonehead]

A masterpiece. An evil master piece. A... disasterpiece? Ahahahhahahahahahahaha hahahah hahahahahahah hahahahaaaaaaah! etc.

Totally brilliant.