Confessor Finished and a New Project

So I've finished  the Confessor (minus the base). Only had his mace to do so I just needed to find some free time to do it. It wasn't anything too taxing.

I think this ranks as my best painted model ever and didn't take that long to do. Its a stark contrast to the first model I painted (sadly no pictures available as I stripped it a couple of weeks ago).

Also, whilst routing around in my bits box I found an old metal figure that I bought when I was using the Citadel Journal Genestealer Cult rules (so probably around 10 years or so ago). I think its an old Empire Light Wizard model (I ordered it when GW still had its bits service). The model was supposed to be used as a special character in the Journal rules but I never really got round to finishing him off. So after digging him out, I rustled together a few bits and made something that will hopefully fit into my cult.

Basically, I've replaced his sword with a fancy bolt pistol, and created an ornate staff head out of a cocktail stick, genestealer claw and genestealer head (the claw is supposed to be holding the head and it will all be a nice shade of gold). I also trimmed off the Egyptian bear that he was sporting. Not sure how he's going to look at the moment, I think I need to get some paint on him and hopefully he'll come to life and fit right in.

Sidecar - Driver Complete

I've just finished the driver for the bike to go attached with the sidecar. He's pretty much just a Catachan that has had a decent amount of Greenstuff work done.

Unfortunately my Bronzed Flesh paint that I had been using to paint skin for the past 15 years had dried out when I went to use it this morning so I had to go and get a replacement (Ratskin Flesh) along with some of the new Citadel paints.

Here's some shots of the rider on a bike (obviously I'm still painting the bike).

I also did a little tidying yesterday and realised just how much stuff I have to paint which means I need to do a lot of work to get my backlog down. This means that I might have to push anything that will require sculpting / conversion work to the back of my list so things like the other bikers and the Patriarch throne. It doesn't mean the Cult is on hold though as there's plenty of that to do which doesn't require too much work.

Sidecar - Complete

Well I've just finished my sidecar (but not the bike or the rider) and thought it deserved an update.

However, I've not started painting the bike yet though I've almost finished modelling the rider (I just have the sleeves to do).

I've got a little bored with painting Shadow Grey at the moment so I'm also working on a Space Marine Captain (painted red) to mix things up a little.

Sidecar Construction Complete

Part 2
Part 1

After waiting for the greenstuff to cure, I got round to finishing the construction of the bike and sidecar (the rider still has a lot of work to go).

The final steps I made also meant that I didn't have to modify the Hybrid passenger so I just put his arms back on.

To do some work on the sidecar (and for later painting) I needed to detach it from the main body so the shape may be a little crooked (I've just placed it together to get a rough idea of things).

And here's the pictures:

I decided to use one of my resin wheels instead of the plastic Space Marine wheel to match the rest of the bike (and also use some of them up). I did some greenstuff work to make the hub cap and improve the tread.

I used another wheel for a spare tyre doing similar greenstuff work to the other wheel I added. I also wanted to have some method of attaching the wheel (other than just having it glued on) to make it look more realistic. I initially tried modelling a strap but that didn't work well so I used some stiff wire to build a bracket.

I trimmed down the cockpit and added a greenstuff cushion to finish off the sidecar.

The next stage is to give it all an undercoat to check that all my surfaces are smooth and that there are no marks with the greenstuff. As the rider is detachable, I can work on him at a later date.

Attempting to Scult a Hybrid - Completed and Painted!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I've finally finished my sculpting and painting of my Hybrid for a sidecar and I'm pretty impressed with the results.

Here's an example of what I was aiming for:

Here's my results:

I only needed to do his upper half as he'll be sitting in a sidecar (which I'm still to make), though should I wish to give him legs, I'm pretty sure some Catachan or maybe even Cadian legs would work with minimal conversions.

I decided to give him a bolt pistol and power sword, giving him one Hybrid arm and one Catachan arm.

His bolt pistol is from an old plastic Ork (the ones that came in the 2nd edition 40k boxed set) and the power sword was a Catachan sword with the 'saw teeth' filled in and some wire glued into the groove for the power line.

I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to do for the sidecar but I've got too much on my plate to worry about that at the moment.

Attempting to Sculpt a Hybrid (Part 3)

Part 1
Part 2

Looks like this project has become my main project at the moment with the Heavy Weapons squad hitting the back burner.

I think I've hit the last part of my working with greenstuff and milliput for this project (excluding cleanup etc).

All I've simply done is add a backpack with wire and extended some of the ribbing around the sides and a jewel to the front.

Here's the current state of things:

The backpack needs a little cleaning up and a few minor details (like gems etc) may be added later on. I'll also probably have to tidy up some of the body work and edging.

For his arms, I'm going to use one Catachan arm and one of the single Hybrid arms (without the claw). He won't be needing legs as he'll be in a sidecar.

Before the major cleanup begins, I'll be undercoating it black as I find it easier to see where non flat edges and mistakes are.

Attempting to Sculpt a Hybrid (Part 2)

Part 1

I've managed to spend a little more time on the sculpting of the Hybrid, though due to my impatience, I don't think the outcome will be amazing but will still have a decent look to it (hopefully a decent paint job could make it look good).

First up is the torso. The white areas are the milliput whilst the green are the greenstuff. The carapace (white areas) were made by cutting squares of milliput and impressing the sharp edge of a knife blade (as opposed to the blunt edge used in the lower ridges in the previous stage). This was then placed on the body and cut to fit. The edges were simply rolling up bits of greenstuff and molding around the carapace. I felt that I perhaps was a little rushed when applying the carapace so the ridges aren't as defined as I'd like.

Next is the head, very simple and just extending a Catachan's head with some greenstuff to look a little more like a Genestealer head. I also added a small strip across the nose and applied a few ridges to mirror the 'bridge' of a Genestealer.

And finally, here's the reference model I'm using. I don't think I'm too far off for a first attempt....

Attempting to Sculpt a Hybrid

So I've been a little busy recently working late and on some Imperial stuff so I haven't had much time to work on the Cult.

However, I've decided to make a start on my Hybrid in sidecar project, beginning with the Hybrid passenger. The passenger will just be the upper body of a Hybrid poking out of the sidecar wielding some sort of weapon (as opposed to manning a heavy weapon like the Space Marine attack bike). The easiest options available to me were to simply use the upper body of an existing Hybrid model but I decided against this as the metal ones are tougher to work with and, as they are about £7 - £8 a model, the project could get quite expensive if I messed things up. The other option would be to use a plastic Hybrid but they are all Second Generation Hybrids in my force and a more 'primitive' Hybrid in a sidecar wouldn't seem right to me.

Instead I decided to take a bit of a leap and build one using plastic Catachan parts and heavy greenstuff and milliput sculpting and, as I'd only really used greenstuff and milliput for small parts or gap filling previously, this would be my biggest sculpting project to date.

At present, I've only really started on the torso (waiting for the greenstuff to harden at the moment) but its not looking too bad for a start.

Using a metal Hybrid as a base, I decided that the first thing to work on was the 'ribbing' that can be shown beneath the armour plates which I made by filing down the abdomen of a Catachan torso and then covering with greenstuff and rolling the rear of my knife around. Its not perfect but I plan on tidying it up as it dries and most of it will be covered up.

The armour plates will probably be made using milliput (as it holds an edge better) and the arms will  be a collection of Catachan and plastic Hybrids.

The Unwashed Masses Part 2

So after a few days converting, greenstuffing and painting, I finished my Brood Brother militia. Whilst the conversions are probably nothing award winning, I'm pretty impressed with the results especially since I was using what bits I had available and had never used greenstuff before.

Standard Militia

This militia was made from removing the pouches from a pair of Catachan legs and covering the tops of the boots in greenstuff (to extend the trousers) - this technique was used for all of the Militia. A standard Empire Milita torso was then added along with a head with a bandanna which I sculpted a face mask for out of greenstuff. I then sculpted some sleeves which I added to standard Catachan arms before adding a Necromunda autogun.

Flamer Militia

This was one of the more complex conversions. The torso was cut from an old plastic sentinel pilot that I had in my bits box along with some arms with all the Imperial insignia removed and repositioned.

The welding mask was created by cutting out part of a drinking straw and sticking it to a filed down head (the front of the face was smoothed to make the mask fit better) with the detail created out of greenstuff.

The flamer canister was cut down from the Cadian flamer pack with extra detail added out of greenstuff. The strap was created out of some green garden wire and more greenstuff for a shoulder pad. The fuel cord was another piece of garden wire.

The flamer itself was a cotton bud, cut down with extra bits added to it and greenstuff detail.

Molotov Cocktail Militia
 

This militia was simply a Catachan torso with Cadian arms attached to it (after having their shoulder pads trimmed off) with a greenstuff satchel. The Molotov was created by extending the grenade from the arm with more greenstuff.

Heavy Stubber Militia
 

A very simple conversion of trimmed down Cadian arms on an Empire militia torso and an old Catachan captain's backpack. The heavy stubber was made out of bits of a Cadian grenade launcher, a cotton bud and bolt pistol.

Shovel Militia
 

This militia was basically a Catachan with added sleeves and balaclava. The balaclava was made by piecing greenstuff over a Catachan head, leaving some space around the eyes. The shovel was added from an Imperial tank sprue and I think the backpack was from Necromunda.

Flag Bearer

This militia was a last minute addition, very simply Empire militia arms and head on Catachan legs and torso with added laspistol and pick (on back). The flag was made by cutting a piece of cheap notebook paper, folding to the correct size and soaking to soften. Once soaked and dried the paper was molded into shape and painted red (to represent a 'socialist' movement).

Unfortunately, I cleaned out most of the parts used for making militia so it may be a while before I manage to create any more. I'll have to pad out the rest of the squad with Necromunda and other non-military looking figures.

The Unwashed Masses

One of the core parts of a Genestealer Cult force are the Brood Brothers - ordinary humans fighting alongside the Genestealers. The easiest, and most common way to represent these are through the use of Imperial Guardsmen, representing military defectors, but the background also includes regular civilians such as miners, office clerks and so on.

Unfortunately Games Workshop do not provide any 'Imperial Citizen' models (or at least that I can find), with the closest 'non-military' models being those from Necromunda (which in turn have their own flaws as each gang has its own unique look so an entire army of these would look a little odd).

So I decided to attempt to create my own 'patchwork militia' from some spare parts I had lying around.

The main components consisted of Catachan legs, trimmed and modified with greenstuff to look less militaristic, Cadian arms, with the shoulder pads trimmed off, and Empire militia or Catachan torsos with assorted heads.

To keep with the non-military aspect, I tried to keep the weaponry the militia were armed with as low-tech as possible, instead of grenades they have Molotov cocktails, autoguns instead of lasguns and very primitive flame throwers.

I've still got a little more work to do on them but they're one of my first major projects (and my first using greenstuff) so I don't think they're too bad from cobbling a few parts together.

Scratch built heavy stubber

More heavy stubber

Primitive flame thrower and welding mask

Rebel with Molotov cocktail

Greenstuff Satchel

Running rebel

Balaclava hooligan