WIPs in the Warp - A focus on kitbashing

[Raptorsaurus13]

A contrarian by nature, is a kitbasher at heart

As a very pure contrarian I can almost never help changing something about the kits I have, but the great part of warhammer is that kitbashing is as part of the hobby as anything else. And so, here I'll be attempting to at least give evidence to that, up until when they're finished and painted hopefully.

 

Much of this collection is parts I've found cheap online, and have been a project over several years so inevitably there is some inconsistent quality, however these are all projects that I am happy with. This won't be specifically focused on any one faction, but by the nature of it Chaos will be a ever present part.

 

A couple of examples of my finished kitbashes.

Spoiler

Here for posterity to show that I can actually finish projects.

 

A Bloodthirster

This is my main project here at the moment.

 

After coming across an absolute steal on Ebay for all the bits for a bloodthirster, except the body and wings, I knew that this had to become another project. Definitely the largest greenstuff project I've done so far though, and so, I have been as slow and methodical as possible.

 

I got to this point a couple days ago. I managed to find a cheap sprue of Hive Tyrant spare bits (another example of having everything but the body, but that is a project for another day) and importantly wings, which I have been greenstuffing muscles, so that it fits in with the daemon aesthetic more. No magnetizing can be done here, but thankfully the pose does good for painting so when it comes to that it should be simple.

 

As it had no body, I used straightened out paperclips, with greenstuff on each end, placing them into each of the limbs and head. With the pretty long curing time of greenstuff I did it over a couple days as it allowed for me to keep shifting the proportions. Starting with the legs so that they held a position I was happy with, then probably a day later I started and positioned with tinfoil wrapped around them to make some bulk without making it too heavy. 

 

The challenge now is the finer details and proportions of musculature.

 

WIPs within 'The Roboutian Heresy'

As a big fan of the Alternate Universe fanfiction, 'Roboutian Heresy' by Zahariel, I have had several WIPs floating around for a while. For the moment these aren't the focus, but as parts of the same army - Chaos, they sidle nicely alongside the bloodthirster, being finished whenever I find parts.

 

Spoiler

These projects are largely all primed, or nearly primed (some need better priming) - some are simply waiting for a piece here or there.

 

Chaos Rhino turned Warshrine

Spoiler

Magnetised, this chaos rhino turned warshrine is a central piece in my Chaos army - the top is taken from the Chaos Warshrine, unchanged it fits quite well.

 

And just like that, its a normal Chaos Rhino

 

 

 

Chaos Legionnaries - from each Chapter of the Roboutian Heresy a champion is chosen:

Spoiler

 

Overall I'm happy with these as single characters from their chapter.

These two are certainly the most busy, but I'm hoping that a paint job will do some justice.

 

A White Scar on the left, with an Iron Hand on the right

 

From left to right: 

Ultramarine - Imperial Fist - Dark Angel - Ravenguard

 

Salamander - Space Wolf - Blood Angel - Black Templar

 

The Arch-Traitor himself - Roboute Guilliman

Spoiler

 

I'm happy with this one - it took a lot of work to get his right arm right, as it is a completely different arm in an attempt to signify his chaos corruption.

 

I thought the placement of the chaos logo was too perfect, I just had to do it.

 

Ravenguard Daemon Prince- these traitors are known for their warp monstrosities and this one is no different

Spoiler

 

Trying to go for a more Raven looking daemon prince, the Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear wings worked great with a cheap Lord of Change head I got off ebay.

 

Blood Angels - Fallen to Slaanesh

Spoiler

Herald of Slaanesh - or perhaps even The Sanguinor

New arms, head and extra bits - this AOS Celestial Spear has been changed into a true Slaaneshi herald that I can be happy with. 

 

The Sanguinary Guard

What horrors of the warp does to once loyal astartes, compared to the legionnary the size of the AOS Stormcast tower over all their enemies.

 

 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice work on the Bloodthirster.  I like the Raven Guard daemon prince, too

[BadgersinHills]

Great work! Guilliman looks quite nice with the lightning claw. Agree with @Firedrake Cordova, the RG Daemon Prince is very cool.

[Raptorsaurus13]

Thanks, it great to hear, the Lord of Change head can look a bit oversized from some angles, but in real life it fits quite well. 

 

Now for the bloodthirster, I'm happy with the wings, probably needs some slight bulking out I'm not sure about that, definitely needs some smoothing out here and there but putting it altogether it's starting to come together. The angle and exact shape of the wings will need to be sorted, but I'm trying to keep it to this height else it wont fit in my display case. 

 

For the wings themselves, the edges are very rough and as I say, they need to be smoothed out, but the general musculature is coming together.

Spoiler

Once finished, I've got khorne stuff to stick here and there.

 

[BadgersinHills]

Great work!

[W.A.Rorie]

Lovely models and can't wait to see more. 

[Raptorsaurus13]

Well I've gotten a bit further now, a lot quicker than I thought which i'm happy about. I really underestimated how much anatomy I would be learning about, funny that a daemonic being from the mind melting unreality that is the warp just kinda looks like Conquest from hit show Invincible.

 

Two things were the focus this time, first the frontal musculature, or abs, which I used my new milliput superfine white. New used the stuff before, but absolutely amazing stuff, I treated myself to some AK silicone brushes that all in all made this sculpting so much easier. The stuff gets absolutely everywhere though as you can see by the mess, and very quick drying time meant I couldn't wait around like i'm used to with greenstuff.

 

Used to fill some gaps too. I had a bunch spare, so I started on the upper body, where I realised that his neck was too small and slightly offcentre (not that big of a deal, but just didn't look right). So off the head went, makes sculpting the upper body much easier too actually.

 

Spoiler

With some abs to die for, this little guy coming out well. He is a tad bit too tall in the torso (honestly the biggest mistake so far has been positioning of the chest piece) which means he's real skinny, can't do anything about that unfortunately, but when he's in his slouching pose it's barely noticeable.

 

Secondly, the back was to be done. After doing the front I figured I had time to go around and do his tail, but more importantly the plan was for some 'guides' for the wings so I didn't need to worry about positioning later. 

Spoiler

His buttocks, tail and lower back might need some more layers but as you can see from the top, I used some short bits of paperclip, drilled some holes in my wings and basically made a way to guide the wings on and off. I think it works really well, very satisfying certainly.

 

You can see the wing slotting on there. And you may see that mess of greenstuff on the wings, well wing. The wings just looked rather silly, as it has a rather small wing to body connection as you can see compared to the bloodthirster's actual wings. That'll be all cleaned up and made proper, just to wait for it to cure.

Spoiler

[Brother Christopher]

That's pretty ambitious! I like your work a lot. Good luck!

[Raptorsaurus13]

Well since my last update much has been done, didn't realise it had been nearly a week. But over the weekend and yesterday I managed to get to a point that I can say that I'm finished!

 

Compared to last week, the wings are a lot higher up, but I'm very happy I extended the wing-body connection, more akin to the normal bloodthirster.

 

Or at least finished the building part of it. I could probably sand it down more, but at a certain point you have to put your tools down. It's a lot to paint afterall, and I think after this I'm probably going to move to finish painting my genestealers. This has been great fun, but the mental load in the constant umming and erring on proportions, anatomy and trying my best not smush something I just did with my fingers (Which was rather constant)

 

Closeups abound below, (If you think it's rough in any place, remember it's purposeful scarring). I tried to get my thought process down too, definitely some things I would do differently if I were to do it again, some things I don't think I could have planned for so I'm overall very happy about this.

Spoiler

I think the most important part was getting the anatomy looking natural. I had shown the abs I had done prior, and I was happy enough that all I did was widen his stomach. Bit more bulky. 

 

You may be able to see the connection between their abs and loincloth, I attempted something similar to the waist on Be'lakor as I had no interest in hiding his waist behind a belt like the normal bloodthirster. I really love his skin hooks, attempted something similar here (Very difficult to get a photo of), but it's similar on the other side too.

 

His back was difficult, I really underestimated how much bulking up I would need to do. This is where tinfoil really became useful, being able to bulk it up without adding too much weight really helped keep this model manageable.

Again, a lot of looking at anatomy for this, I think it worked.

 

You may see some gaps, that's because this wing isn't actually stuck on properly, and is able to come off still. I am very conflicted on whether to keep that way or just stick it on. I feel like it would make painting it so much easier, but I don't know honestly. I might just end up stick it on and let future me deal with it.

 

My camera is so much better than my eyes, it makes it look so messy. The grey by the way is AK modelling putty, great at the small gaps I would miss. Oh and I made his butt a bit more pronounced, he looked weird so flat.

 

From above I'm pleasantly surprised how it came out, hard to see in the photos but the musculature was something I though really important to get right as if real. So many layers of milliput just building those neck muscles, the wing muscles going into the back was difficult because compared to the normal bloodthirster, my wings are a lot closer together.

 

Last update I had taken the head off, and here I did quite a lot of work to really make the neck thicker and longer. A lot more natural now.

 

All of this makes this guy HEAVY, right now they're pinned to the base as I plan to paint them separate from the base. It's a lot heavier than before, however, not as bad as I thought. Yesterday I was thinking that I might have to prop them up with the other leg as well. 

 

Some comparisons for the final height.

Spoiler

Wow thats tall.

 

 

 

So here we are, all that's left is some sanding down. Oh and painting it. That won't be soon I think, I haven't actually even got a daemon paint scheme. I'm torn on doing pale flesh like below (not mine pictured).

Spoiler

I believe these are by a '1ksons', very ghoulish, very 

I need to find a mixed daemon force paint scheme I'm happy with either way. My tzeentch guys need to fit in with the single metal bloodletter I own (I'll pick up a bloodletter box at some point). I've got time, after this is my genestealers, then my Roboutian Heresy guys, and lately I've been very interested in both Elysian Drop Troops and I think I can make some great beastmen guard if I can get a cheap selection of Ungors (I prefer the more humanoid beastmen tbh).

 

But we'll see. I did treat myself to a cheap primaris librarian for an easy loyalist Thousand Son librarian conversion as a palette cleanser.

[Tallarn Commander]

Wonderful conversion! Your greenstuff and milliput work is quite good.

 

For what it's worth, my small force of daemons features bone bodies and red heads

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Raptorsaurus13]

That's a lot of fun, the bone tones are very nice. I have a feeling that I'll take a lot of inspiration from the flesh eater courts, that near bone thin flesh is rather unsettling