Monday 11 December 2017

'nids part 230 - Greenstuff Rippers BABY!

So I'm currently painting my Trygon and  Broodlord, but my focus is supposed to be on what I need for GT3 and having not yet decided on what I'm taking, or coverd it on the blog I really thought I should focus on one of the two things I will need - my Rippers, just two bases of them. Now I've had a bag of Rippers for ages that always came as extras in ebay auctions and much like the Trygon no reason to do anything with them all this time, my four current bases have always been sufficient.


I've also wanted to make my own Forgeworld inspired Ripper kitbash using press-molds to bulk out the bases. But for one of the bases I rooted out 4 of the Spinemaw variants, because I won't be using any of them as Spinemaws and quickly made a base up. I won't be taking the biomorph but it doesn't bother me, whereas they would if it was mixed in with a normal group of Rippers.


With the Spinemaw Rippers done it was time to look at the stop-gap solution to my Forgeworld inspired Rippers. I have some Oyumaru 'plastic clay', it's exactly the same as Blue Stuff press mold material. You heat it up in boiling water then squidge it on your item and hey-presto - instant press mold!


Now at first I tried squeezing some plaster into this but it all crumbled while trying to extricate it from the two test molds I used, so resorted to Green Stuff. you can just about see the Ripper heads encased in the mold.


Here they are removed. Obviously they are far from perfect but they really don't need to be as all I'm after are ground bursting Rippers to make the plastic Rippers look more interesting.


You can also make out some little bits of plaster I couldn't get out of the mold, but it should be clean now ;)


Having cleaned the flash off the green stuff I glued them on to the base with the three plastic Rippers. I also threw in a cut down Warrior face/head that is almost Ripper sized and just adds yet more effect to the base.


The other side. Again the Green stuff casts are pretty mushy with detail but I'm hoping it won't be too noticeable when the ground is built up around them.


I then added some plaster/filler to buid the ground up. Little did I realise I've put exact copies of casts directly adjacent to their progenitors - doh!


Sand will be added next and I'll have to find a way to make it look like they're bursting through the ground a bit more than it looks at the moment.


As it stands the debate rages about Rippers - 3 or 4 to a base ranges. I love the models, the rules are rubbish but they're cheap troops that can get on an objective, unlike Necron Scarabs which are actually useful as well as eveything the Rippers do. I already have three bases with 4 Rippers on, and one with 3 but thanks to these press molds this base of 3 looks far more interesting, which was exactly what I was after.

The Forgeworld bases, which I adore, actually don't seem worth it considering just how bad the rules are. What I've done makes more sense, but I may consider creating a more dense version, with yet more press molds built up to the scale of the Forgeworld versions. For now, finish the base and get them painted.

No comments:

Post a Comment