Small Update

Not much but I had a few minutes to mess around so here is what I worked on:

Worked on the top half of my Grey Knight Hero's robe






And got the next part of the bottom half on





And patched the air pockets on the female mini I cleaned up the other day





Again, not much but hey, it's something.

Weekend Updates

So as most of you know, I purchased my Cryx army this weekend and it will hopefully arrive by next weekend so I can get stared on painting them up.

In the mean time, this is what I was able to work on over the weekend.

This is the base I will be making a mold out of and casting for my count as. I really liked how it came out and can't wait to see what it will look like once painted:

Re did the masked cowl. I have a little clean up work to do on it but all in all, I'm pretty happy with it. You can't see the eyes in this shot, but they are there:

Progress on the shoulder pads. I still have a lot of work to do on this, but this is what it looks like for the time being:

Worked on closing up the chestpiece for my Grey Knight Hero. I Will probably be duplicating this one for the rest of my guys once I get the robe on it:

Grey Knight Hero bottom half. Don't laugh. I know it looks a bit silly right now. This thing is just being built up in layers, so this is a progress shot:

Also, I decided to clean up one of the female casts to see what I could get out of it. Looking at the before and after shots, I am pleased as to how it is comming along. I might just opt to use this frame to add on too.

Before:

After:

Mold Results

It is frusterating when you spend so much time on something and it just doesn't work out...

1) Removing the mold from the mold box

2) Cracking open the mold

3) Clean up

4) Results from first cast. This is the only model that came out pretty good.

The rest ended up like this. They would be good for an undead army >.>

Everything is on hold till I get this figured out. The life of the resin makes it extremely hard to get into place before curing. 25 seconds of mixing leaves about 20 more seconds to get it into place before it starts to react.

Options: 1) chill the resin making it's life expectancy increase, or 2) do two 1 Part Molds and glue them together which will be a real bitch.

Thoughts on the New DVD Set

So I watched almost the entire first disc of the 2 disc basics set, and let me tell you, wow…

This DVD is pretty intense. I have already picked up a lot of tips. Pinning models on corks for painting, using iron wool and sand paper to clean up your mold lines and flashing, getting the chemicals off of your model before trying to work on it (iron wool on metal, soap and water on resin), wet paint pallets and seeing what people mean when they say a “milky” constancy. Another thing was priming. Very little primer on the model, just enough to get the paint to stick. On the model, you can still see a lot of the metal, but with the painting method used, it’s not a problem.

Imo, this DVD set is for people who want to become competition painters, not gaming table painters. Using a 75% dilution ratio and doing 20 layers (literally) of color to blend 4-5 separate colors from shadows up to highlights is intense. I think some common sense can be added and time gained by lessening the dilution they use and make a really nice gaming model. This is not an Iron Warboss production where you are done in a few hours with an entire squad. Their model takes hours to paint just to get half way done. Again, I think there is some common ground between the Warboss painting method and this painting method that can produce some damn nice models.

Some of the things I like about this DVD so far is the closeness of the model. It is extremely clear and right in your face. You see the paint going on the model with each brush stroke and you can literally watch it dry and the color change. A lot of what is being done right now in the video is stuff that Mike and I have talked about but seeing it while someone is talking about it just makes it way easier to understand. They talk a lot about color harmony which is just a fancy way of saying each color is complimentary to each other or part of the same family. At this point in the DVD, I have not seen anything related to extreme brush control which is good because that is my biggest problem atm. With as many thin layers that are going on to the model, brush control isn’t a big part due to the dilution. Another thing to note is the camera barely ever leaves the model so having one consistent shot is very helpful so you can start seeing the results.

One thing worth noting is the painter is a French guy and he struggles with some of the English words he is trying to use. It’s a very minor thing to me and will still recommend this DVD to anyone wanting to learn to paint but thought it was worth noting. The main commentator or interviewer sounds like an American as he speaks English with no problem and helps fill in the gaps where the painter struggles.

The Beginning...

So I have finally aquired most of the items I need to start this army. This weekend ended up being really short as I was hoping to have more done. Oh well. Here is what I did:

Model Murder!!!

Refering to a previous post, I needed to cut up some metal models and mold them so I can cast them in resin so I can cut away at them more effectively to get the pieces I am wanting for my models.

1) Setting up my model vice and lining up the models to be cut.

2) Using clippers and a small hack saw, I cut them up.

3) The end result.

Converting Cut Models to Resin Copies

This took up most of my time and I still don't know how it will turn out. I will be able to crack the mold toorrow and cast the first resin pieces after work.

1) Creating a mold box from Legos. Golden Lego FTW! lol

2) Since this will need to be a 2 Part Mold, I have to set the models half deep in non-hardening clay.

3) Key holes so the recasting molds will line up again and again.

4) Dry measuring. Casting can be very expensive, so you don't want to waste any material you use. I found this tip to measure volume with dry rice. 2.5oz of rice to 2.5oz of RTV Silicone Base.

5) Weighing 10:1 ratios of RTV Silicone Base and RTV Catalyst.

6) Chemicals ready for mixing and pouring. The cup on the right has been preped with a hole in the cup for the all important "Bombs Away" method. I'll explain later

7) Ready for the garage and yes that is Pam. I'll explain that later too.

8) Setting up the "Bombs Away" method. The "BA" method is a cheap way to avoid acquiring a vacume chamber to suck the air out of the mix. When mixing the chemicals, it is like trying to mix white glue with water. The base silicone is extremely thick and the catalyst is as thin as water. Mixing causes air to get trapped in the silicone. This will cause air bubbles to appear in your mold and on your cast pieces. So you want to get all the air out. Without a couple hundred dollars set aside for a vacume chamber, the only reasonable solution is the "BA" method. Take a paper cup and cut a hole in it about 1/2" diameter near the bottom of the cup. Take a piece of tape and cover the hole. Mix the chemicals together using the 2 cup mixing process and pour the contents into the cup with the hole. Place the cup now holding the chemicals over the edge of a table about 30"-36" high and set your mold box on the floor directly underneath the hole. Pull off the tape and let the contents fall into the mold box below. The silicone comes out in a 1/2" stream but as it falls, the 1/2" stream streaches into about a 1/32"-1/64" stream pushing all the air out. What lands in the mold is practically air free.

Here I used a string with a small weight to place the mold box in the proper location for the pour.

9) "BOMBS AWAY!!!"

10) The result of the first pour. Now I get to let that sit for 24hrs before I can flip it over and remove the clay and pour the other side.

11) THE GOLDEN LEGO HAS FAILED ME!!! The non hardening clay did exactly what it said it would do, not harden. I think the heat from the chemical reaction of the silicone and catalyst caused it to soften more than it should have. I will have to look at alternatives to this brand of clay. Although it came with the kit, you can see the ammount of work that needs to be done to get this shit off.

12) After about 1.5 hours of scrubing with a tooth brush and water, I think I was able to salvage the mold. My concern was that I had to break the mold box pre-maturely and make another. On the plus side, making another one out of Leogs isn't hard and will be the exact same size. The Pam plays a role in this portion of the mold. I need a mold release agent so the fresh silicone does not mold to the exising bottom half of already cured silicone. Pam is a cheaper alternate than official mold release chemicals.

13) Repeate "BA" methond on the other side.

14) The result...won't know until Moday. I have to leave this sit for another 24hrs and since I finished cleaning the mold around 2am Sunday, I won't be able to crack it and cast anything till I get home frome work tomorrow. So stay tuned! I will post more pics tomorrow with the results.

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OTHER THINGS I WORKED ON

1) Grey Knight Hero. My GK Hero will be standing upright for his dramatic pose and thus I had to cut up a terminators legs and pin them in what would be a standing straight pose.

After dicing him up, I had to go back in and strengthen his joints with "green stuff" to make sure he doesn't fall apart when I sculpt a robe on him. Don't judge the sculpting job here ok guys? All of this will be covered when I get his robe on.

Here he is next to a typical Grey Knight Terminator. He's going to be a BIG fella! lol

2) Other pieces in the works. One problem I ma having is trying to decide how best to divide my time. I have chemicals curing, "green stuff" drying and glue drying on 5 different things at once. I am constantly hopping back and forth from one item to another. Here in this picture you can see my start on scratch building a correct size shoulder pad with the open book on it and the dagger that will lay on the open book. The two small skulls are for the Arcanite Reaper axe that I am redoing. The first attempt was too big. And you can also see the first layer to the masked cowl that most of the army will have.

3) My wife just checked the mail and my DVDs came! I will be watching these here in just a little bit. Super stoked about these =)

4) I did play a bit of WOW too. I got my troll shaman a level, my alli hunter a level (yay lvl 40!) and played in a few BG's with my lock. I actually played in a WSG match and didn't die a single time!

Gotta start small

So still waiting for some of my shit to get here and getting more pissed every day it's not here... There are a lot of things I cannot do until I get the rest of my stuff, but I did manage to make a small conversion. The backpacks for my Knights will be too big and bulky for the females. So here is what I did.

I took this...

Cut and moved a few pieces to get this

Here is a side by side comparison

I also thinned it. Here is a picture of both again, but propped up on their sides. You can see the one on the right is thinner.

This already looks better when you hold it up to one of the female models in my previous post. Much more discreet.

My New Female Models

LEAVE COMMENTS OR I EATS TEH KITTENZ >=O
lol

Turns out my camera has a macro feature! woot!
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So I finally got my Reaper models in to start converting the female paladins. Unfortunately I am still awaiting my model vise which should be here on Friday. Why a model vise? To keep the cuts small, straight and clean.

Out of the batch I got, here are my nominations for the "parts" of the female paladins.



The nominees...


Picture of one of the models next to a Grey Knight for size reference.

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Best legs go to this model. I will be able to work with most of her lower half and possibly the base.

Close up of her bum.

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Second place for Best Breast goes to this model. Only cuz she's naked. =)

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First place for Best Breast goes to this model. They have the best shape and a fair ammount of skin showing.

Close up! B( . )( . )BIES!!1!!one!!********************************

Thinking about cutting down the backpacks for the females, other wise they will be too big. Thinking about going from this...

To this... Simply put, cut the bottom half off, and moving the side stablizers inward. Yeah I suxorz at photoshop. =(

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Off topic fun stuff...

Saw this and thought Lady Vash

Saw this and thought Sylvanas I think I have a theme for a while lol