Imperial Knight - Cerastus in manufactorum pt 1

So I obviously left this hanging, indeed that's a Cerastus torso on the left, for a Lancer. My mate Ben donated it for one reason or another and so I've been working in tandem on this with the Errant/Paladin, although actually it's been ticking away for a good few months. In part this was because I lost a piece and had been holding out on the off chance it would resurface. Luckily it did, so I wasn't forced to use a hollowed out 25mm base as the waist joint. 

I also utilised some more parts donated by PeteB's absent Space Wolves to make the base a little more interesting. I added ripped up mounting board to make it less flat. I also smoothed in some left over Milliput to try and hide the Space Wolf runes. I want it to look more like an underground pipeline than a buried Fenrisian super gun.

I then used Valejo Red Oxide paste to cover over the mounting board. In truth this was overkill, I probably could have gotten away with PVA and sand or even tile adhesive [I think I still have some about] but it was to hand and I hardly use it so why not?

I saw this pose on one of the Forgeworld open day pictures and thought it looked really cool. I suppose with the Lancer you would normally emphasise it's speed but this thing is braced, squatting low, with it's shield raised ready to receive some unG.O.D.ly monstrosity before it Shock Lances it into submission. It's sacrificing height too, because who doesn't want to show off how much taller this is compared with a Paladin. However, quite often when it's upright at full tilt, it looks a little gangly and daft - like a baby giraffe so I think this is a better choice of pose, it's different at the very least [even if it's a copy ;) ].

Once I'd played around with achieving the pose unglued I worked on the feet, given the slope I had to raise the right foot which gave it a bit more dynamism.

Obviously pinning is an absolute necessity for a model like this. The ankle ball joints came with sprue/vents attached so I could use them as natural pins, just drill out the socket in the foot to accommodate. Then I drilled and dry fit pins in the knees and also the waist. Then I was able to move things around to get the pose right. I made marks in places so I could see where things lined up. Then I super-glued the waist, this made the legs behave like a marionette. I glued the foot sockets and once dry I removed the pins from the knees, separated everything, glued and then rejoined the knees and pins. Or pins and knees...? It was only once everything was dry and solid did I realise my mistake... the pistons from the bottom of the groin have to reach the inside of the thigh..

Luckily I was able to shave the ball joints down sufficient to allow the piston [once extended with lollipop stick rods] to join directly to each mounting socket in a straight line.

I also failed to take into account the cabling, this required a bath in boiling water so I could reposition the cables. I also forgot that a second dunk doesn't allow more pliability it just reminds the cable what it's original shape was and reforms that.

I did snap one of the thinner cables in the process as it was such an extreme reshape, but some super glue gel has repaired the break.

There was a whole lot of progress in one night and without having all the armament options as the Errant/Paladin progress will be much swifter on this so it's become my focus for the last few nights.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 

Avro Vulcan says - "SIGN THIS"!

Given the title of my most elusive but exciting fluff creation I really hope you can sign a petition to ensure the Avro Vulcan continues to fly in our skies, the link is here:

And this is the awesomeness, how does it stay in the sky?

I actually walk past the original home of Avro most nights when I leave work. So if you can sign the petition please do.

Imperial Knight - in manufactorum pt 2

This looks like progress has been swift, but in actual fact this has been 'in manufactorum' for a few weeks now because I've been flitting between projects. The magnetising doesn't help progress but it does add benefits down the line so I'm persevering. As you can see the Knight will be sporting Dark Angel chapter symbols, not Imperium or AdMech. I know this isn't strictly correct but I've seen plenty of other Dark Angel or Space Wolf aligned Knights, not that that inspired me. My inspiration comes from the fluff. This is an Imperial Knight owned by the 'Order' and was used on Caliban to help supress the bigger monsters that roamed the forests. How it ended up on Ferron Proxima is another story but I think the Dark Angel fluff pretty much allows, nay encourages the use of Knights

The magnets have worked on the missile launcher pretty well, the autocannons are also doen. I'm ganetisinge the launcher to do both  missiles but if I'm honest I probably will never use the anti-infantry option and as the positioning of the sprue [not shown] inside was a little too far forward I may well just glue the cover on instead and save the hassle and magnets.

I finally got the throne supported, but snapped one of the hand controllers in the process. I'll paint this separately and then glue in place.

Here's my test pose, that's a mangled old Termagant with no head or weapon so I'll have the Knight squashing it flat, it fits perfectly between it's toes so I have to do it. Hopefully I can put the other foot on some slate but I don't have a piece to fit it whole so it'll require some tweaking of the foot so it stands right.

I also attached another Dark Angel icon to it's ion shield. I threw on some liquid green stuff to try and blend the icon to the shield and add a bit of texture, this shield is awfully smooth. It probably won't be noticable when it's done but I'm happier with it.

It's funny how big the Warden carapace is to the Cerastus.

Yeah, that's right.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |

PeteB's Harlequins

As I sit here awaiting the delivery of my 40k man-cave and bemoaning a lost ['errant'] piece of an Imperial Knight I thought I'd share some of PeteB's Harlquins. I'm not sure how many time's Pete's put faith in these clowns but it's nice to see the old skool metal ones which I had myself way back when.

It's interesting how the choice to continue a theme from the rest of the Craftworld actually makes them all look like they've been plucked from a B&W movie. Anyway, he's got just a little to say about them...

Not sure about the name for the masque, but due to the cold conditions I thought the Masque of the Shrivelled Weenie?

I've also included a pic of Fuegan, who I will be using as a fire dragon exarch, mainly as he has to be the most over compensating elf I have ever seen!!

Imperial Knight - in manufactorum

And here's the beginnings of the Google AdSense funded Imperial Knight. Now, as you can see there's a Space Marine in here and Knights don't pilot them but I have some really good fluff in my head about why this is the case and one day I'll be able to put it down on the blog, alongside some cool fluffy images and you will find out about the Shards of Caliban and their impact on Ferron Proxima. It'll also feed into the background behind the Mechanicum Knight order that resides here too, and there involvement with the Ferron Titan Legion.

Now I had to do some serious cutting and shaving of his kneepads, legs and waste so this old plastic marine is a shadow of his former self, and you should see him now he's got the shoulder pads in place he looks like a mushroom! Anyway, the throne manages to fit in with easy so I'll paint that separately, I know I should fit out the cockpit but I don't think you'll be able to see half of it once the carapace is on so I'm going to leave it as is and just paint the interior pretty vague. The marine should be black but I'm not sure that'll stand out in the dark confines so I may paint him Bonewhite as if he took the Deathwing reason - white being the colour of the dead and painting themselves as dead men, might fit with the pilots choice to inter himself in this machine. It doesn't quite fit as this guy is Heresy old [hence the reason to go black] but his armour isn't quite Heresy legit so I can do whatever the hell I want.

Followed Alex's tutorial on making the legs and body detachable although I may not have shaved down as much of the little stump as I should have, it rotates a little too freely now, I'll probably add some spots of glue in places to try and thicken it up to add some more friction.

I'll have to look closely at his magnetising tips as I'm at that stage now and keep looking at inferior guides. It's not helped by my choice of magnets, I've some 4.5x3mm and 5.5x3mm magnetix magnets that are super strong. Then I have some tiny 3x1mm magnets that aren't very strong so I'm struggling a bit with the process.

I also wanted to have a slightly dynamic pose and chop the legs a bit but I've got enough obstacles to progress at the moment I really don't want to slow things down.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |

Dark Angels Scouts - MOAR pics.

Sorry to eek this out [money for old rope?] it just seemed far too many pictures for one post but moving on the scouts are perfect for shooting from cover :)

So here's some individual close-up shots so you can pick out all the detail.

Quite pleased with the tread on his boot. And yes, I think the camo does look like leaves.

Notice I did three types of chevroned cable, back-slash, vertical and forward-slash, just to add a bit of variety. can't decide which I like most.

Company markings on the missile launcher scout, really like how the mix between brass and bronze worked on this.

And his oversized camo cloak doesn't look too bad now.

I also did some litany scripts alongside the chapter symbol poking out of the camo cloak.

Interestingly the Bolt Pistol is from the Space Wolves but I actually think that wolf on top look more like a lion

That'll be handy because it looks like there are Space Wolf Plasma Pistols that do the same thing and as Space Wolf weapons are going for buttons on ebay I may well use some Plasma Pistols to make Plasma Talon upgrades on a spare set of Dark Vengeance bikers so I can have more Ravenwing Knights.

 

Another visor, the Tamiya Clear Orange X-26 manages to rescue all my lens effects and it's further augmented with Vernidas gloss varnish, it still shrinks a bit but it's much thicker than acrylic gloss varnish.

OK, so more of the same but as I've mentioned things are a bit disrupted at the moment. I am still getting to do little bits of hobby, some really exciting things but I am flitting from one project to another. Snip bits of sprues here, scrape mold lines there it's all stuff that needs doing, it's just not particularly photogenic so please understand if things go a bit quiet over the next couple of weeks. 

Also, the man cave is due on Monday so I will be fitting it out with insulation and the electrician will make it powered, then I'll be painting it and transferring all my hobby stuff to the shed. Following that there'll be DiY in the vacated back room to make it half decent as a dining room so progress will be even slower but then hopefully the new space will allow me to crack on with things.

In the mean time I've a couple of little WiP posts to whet your whistles but we'll have to see how things progress from there. Stay frosty!