Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Discover the age-old techniques of painting...

Moderators: Layne, xFallenx, cultofkhaine

Forum rules
Remember that picture file size should be no larger than 256KB.
For the full Painting and Modelling rules, visit [url]http://www.druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=27440[/url]
User avatar
Darkprincess
Chosen Babe of Slaanesh
Posts: 2625
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2003 10:20 pm
Location: Wales

Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Darkprincess »

Hi Girls & Guys;

As many of you will know, I have all sorts of painting & modelling projects on the go at any given time, in addition to my two main armies (DE Cult of Slaanesh and my Lahmian VC - both of which have their own threads in this forum), so I thought the time was right to start a thread in which I can share some of my other minor projects with you that wouldn't otherwise fit into my other P&M threads. These cover some diverse topics such as miniatures, conversions, terrain pieces and so on. Some of this stuff will be directly applicable to Warhammer Fantasy, other stuff to games like Mordheim, Frostgrave and so on, and some of it might even work for WH40K, even though none of us play 40K, we do have a lot of ideas that may well work in that environment. Some of these projects will be a bit wacky, and others will be downright weird, but hopefully they will all be interesting in one way or another. Even if my projects wouldn't work in your armies, the techniques I've used should be adaptable to almost anything you care to put on the table.

Where possible I will also go into detail about how I made the various items, with step by step instructions as and where they apply. As most of you know, I'm something of a professional cheapskate, and so the vast majority of the ideas I'll be presenting you with will be extremely cost effective, often using simple crafting skills, but hopefully good enough to be used on the tabletop (at least in private games, if not actual tournaments - GW in particular wants everything you put on their tables to be sourced from GW, so a lot of the stuff I'm going to show you would not be legal in a GW in-store game)

So to kick off this thread properly, I'm going to show you two models that probably wouldn't fit into any normal Warhammer game (since when did I ever do normal stuff anyway?), but may have some appeal to anyone out there who enjoys a good roleplaying game, especially D&D and/or Call of Cthulhu...

The Yithian & The Mind Flayer
Image

OK, starting with the Illithid (Mind Flayer) - This was a very simple conversion of a plastic Empire Wizards kit. I replaced the wizard's head with one taken from the Genestealer sprue. Before fixing it in place, I cut off the lower jaw with an x-acto knife and then stuck four small tentacles (made from green stuff) in its place. Once these were fixed securely, I glued the head onto the body. The creature's skin was painted light grey and given a dilute purple ink wash. Once that was dry, I gave it two or three coats of 'ardcoat varnish to give it that wet, slippery look. I used the same varnish technique on the globe to make it look like glass. The cloak was just painted black while the inner robes are Liche Purple with a Shining Gold edge highlight. I think you'll agree that this is a cool model, made even cooler by its simplicity and would be awesome in a D&D encounter.

OK, while the Illithid was simple to do, the Yithian was considerably more involved, though none of it was particularly challenging to do. The most complicated part of the build was its distinctive conical body. One of the biggest issues in building Lovecraftian models is that while HPL spent a lot of time and effort telling you exactly what something wasn't, when he did actuall describe something, he tended to do so in very general terms. As a result, those Yithian models that exist - as well as all the Yithian artwork - exhibits a lot of variation, though pretty much all of them follow the basic description of a hefty cone with four stalks, two with claws, one with a head and one with a bunch of trumpet-shaped, funnel sort of things.

After doing a lot of research online, I settled on the design featured in the short movie of "The Shadow Out Of Time" made by The Lone Animator - if you haven't seen it, search for it on Youtube, as it's great and the guy has done a superb job on his Yithian puppet - with one important variation, the head (more on this later).

So, starting off with the cone;

I recently bought a pack of polystyrene crafting eggs from Poundland (for our US members, that's sort of like the equivalent of your Dollar Stores - except that everything costs around $1.60, depending on the current exchange rate). There were about 20 eggs in the pack, of three different sizes. To make my Yithans (yeah, that's plural - I have three more in the works, with varying details, until I find the version I like the best), I used the largest ones, of which there were four in the pack. These were roughly 60mm long and 40mm diameter.

Step 1
I started by cutting the spherical end off, leaving the more pointed end which I would use to make the cone. I kept the offcut as I can use that for something else later.

Step 2
The next step was to slice off the sides of the egg shape so that there were seven "faces" on it.

Step 3
Use the long knife to carefully carve out a concave "hollow" to the side on each face. This needs a bit of care but isn't really difficult to do.

Step 4
Wet the surface of the cone and apply a single layer of toilet paper to it. This will give a nice texture.

Step 5
Apply a 50:50 mix of PVA and water to the surface. Be careful not to tear the toilet paper here. Use your finger to dab it in to all the recesses. Try not to rub the surface as this will undoubtedly tear the paper. (A big shout-out to DM Scotty for the tips on using toilet paper like this - check out his Youtube channel, The DM's Craft)

Step 6
Draw on the "ribs" using a 3D paint pen. You can get these in various colours from any good art & craft shop - I got mine in Hobbycraft ages ago. These come in two forms, either a metal tube like you get artists' paints in, or a plastic bottle - I have the bottle type but both come with a thin applicator nozzle and they're designed for doing 3D writing in craft projects but they have loads of uses.
Be careful when making the horizontal ribs that you keep them level so that both ends of them meet properly as you go round the model. The vertical ribs just follow those on the actual egg once you have carved out the concave segments. This stuff can take quite a while to dry thoroughly so I left mine overnight.

Step 7
Add another layer of toilet paper as described in Steps 4 & 5. Try to dab it in place in such a way that the ribs are not obscured too much. It will shrink slightly when it dries, and will thus pull a bit tighter, improving the definition. Once the model has been painted and drybrushed, these ribs will stand out nicely.

OK, that's the main body completed. By comparison, the rest was easy to do;

The "Arms"
Or stalks, whatever you want to call them...
These were simply rolled out of a lump of Milliput - each one is around 2" (50mm) longand around 5mm thick. Try to roll them evenly, ensuring that the thickness is not only the same for all four, but also that it doesn't vary over the length of the stalk - it's OK if the ends are slightly fatter than the rest, as this will assist in blending them into the appendages, but try not to let them get thinner as that will make more work for yourself later on - I did that with the neck one and I had to add more putty to blend in the head...

While these look OK, I think I'll try a different technique for my next one - the stalks look a bit too smooth and lacking in detail, while a lot of the Yithian artwork shows them with concentric rib detail all the way along them. I think for the next one I'll try using some stiff wire (a coathanger, maybe), posing it, then wrapping thinner wire tightly around it all the way along. That should look great once painted and not as bland and featureless as the current ones

The Claws
These have been in my bits box for years. Not sure what kit they're from - maybe Chaos marines or something. I don't have any more so to do my other Yithian(s) either I'll have to take a mould from these and cast up a couple of extra ones in epoxy, or find some alternative. These claws are probably a bit too big anyway.

The Head
This is where I deviated from the original artwork. As some of you are aware, I have a small Illithid army that I've used in games of Warhammer Fantasy (No reason they couldn't work in 40K either) I wrote the unique army list and rules for this, with the invaluable help of a few other members of d.net as well as asur.org (as it was back then) many years ago, and although the list isn't properly balanced (or sufficiently playtested), it's fun to play. In my version of the fluff, the Illithids inhabit the dark recesses of The Underworld (deeper than the Goblins, Dwarfs, Skaven and even the Drow (Yep, I'm working on a Drow army too :mrgreen: ) and the Yithians, who were originally created by The Old Ones, were stranded in the WFB world following the collapse of the Polar Warpgates. They are the overlords of the Illithids, and in the army list they fulfil a similar function as a Greater Daemon in a Chaos army. My fluff is intentionally unclear whether they created the Illithids before or since the collapse, or if they are just two related species that were both made by The Old Ones, but I wanted to convey a very close relationship betwen the two in the models, and so, rather than giving my Yithians the original design of head as hinted at (rather than properly described) by Lovecraft - ie. a round yellow head with three eyes and stalked antennae - I decided to give it the same sort of head as the Illithids themselves. (The original description did say something about tentacles hanging from its face, so it's not too far removed I think, and Gary Gygax did kind of rip off Lovecraft when he designed the Mind Flayers anyway).

In order to make them slightly different while maintaining the look and feel, I gave my Yithian six, rather than four tentacles, and made them much longer. I think the effect works really well, and definitely conveys the idea that these two creatures are somehow related. I did originally put four antennae on the head too, but they looked stupid so I cut them off :)

The Funnel / Trumpet Thingy
Again, I'm not 100% happy with the way this looks. Basically I made it out of four pieces of Milliput, shaped into cones then stuck together once they were cured. I drilled out the mouths of them and glued the assembly onto the rear stalk. While it looks OK, I'm not really happy with the shape of the funnels - I might try using a few of the spare trumpets I have from my DE warriors (the Musician arm). If I stick 4 of them together I sould get a nice shape - then I can take a mould from it to make more if needed.

Painting The Yithian
Apart from the most cursory of details, Lovecraft neglected to spell out what colours this thing should be wearing this season, and so this is another aspect of these enigmatic beings that is left very much to artistic licence. In part, this is annoying as it's nice to have an idea what you're going to do, but also it's a real boon as it means that you can't really do it wrong. A quick search for "yithian" on Google Images turned up a wide variety of colour schemes, many of which were either too bright, too varied (maybe they're supposed to be a riot of different colours but I think a limited palette always looks better on a model), so I went back to The Lone Animator's efforts and started from there. I liked the basic brown for the big cone, though he went for other colours as well - not least the bright yellow head, but in the end I decided that a drybrush of Raw Sienna over the black undercoat should look pretty good. I'm not convinced that it does to be honest - in fact the whole thing looks more green than brown, and the application of the purple wash (an attempt to match the skin colour of the Illithid model) on the head and elsewhere has not been altogether effective I think. I do quite like the Scab Red on the claws though. The purple skin looks OK on the head but I still need to buy a pot of 'ardcoat varnish (my old one has gone rock hard now) to get the slimy look though. I may try a different scheme on the body though - maybe Khemri Brown or something. I have three more of these to make - so far I've only made the cones - so I can still experiment a bit until I get it just how I want it...

OK, that's it for this first installment of my random P&M projects. I hope you liked it (or were at least sufficiently interested to read it all the way through :) ). Please feel free to comment / suggest / ridicule / slag it off etc as much as you like. All constructive criticism is welcome of course.

My next installment will most likely be a nifty bit of 40K-ish terrain that will (hopefully, if I don't rush it) look great and save you a ton of money at the same time - watch this space...
The Dark Princess
High Priestess of the Cult Of Pleasure


Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nighmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
User avatar
Darkprincess
Chosen Babe of Slaanesh
Posts: 2625
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2003 10:20 pm
Location: Wales

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Darkprincess »

EPISODE 2 - TYRANID CAPILLARY TOWER

OK, it looks like a lot of you guys & girls read my previous post here, but nobody has actually replied to it yet. To be honest I'm not surprised, as the subject matter (being mostly D&D stuff) was probably not the best choice to kick off this PLOG so, as promised, I have something that will hopefully be a bit more relevant to you and yours.

Now I don't play Tyranids, and neither do any of our group, as we don't play 40K, but I was looking at Tyranid-themed terrain a couple of weeks ago, with a view to creating something cool for my Illithid/Lovecraft themed stuff and while I was going through some forums (not to mention Youtube), I noticed that a lot of people were trying to craft a cheap and simple alternative to the Forge World Tyranid Capillary Tower which is apparently no longer available. Now I don't know how much FW used to charge for this item, and I dread to think, considering the sort of money they're asking for their other stuff, but it was certainly a beautifully-detailed model, in keeping with their other amazing products.

One thing that I noticed was that most of the efforts that are online have, quite frankly, not been all that inspiring. This is not to criticise in any way the efforts of those people that have attempted this sort of project, but I couldn't help feeling that a lot of these projects were more complex than they needed to be, and in many cases, did not really look much like the FW original. There are a few exceptions to this - including one where a guy made 6 of these holding up some sort of mutated landing platform, that would give FW a run for their money, but on the whole, I feel that most of the efforts were a little lacklustre.

Now I'm not going to claim for one moment that my effort here is even going to get close to the quality of the original, but I do think that the overall look and feel of the piece is closer to the FW one than a lot of the others, and it does have the advantage of being insanely cheap and simple to make.


So, let's get started...
You will need this stuff;

Corrugated cardboard
Heavy cardstock
PVA glue (aka White glue, Elmers glue etc)
A hot glue gun - preferably with a "low" setting, though this isn't essential. Mine doesn't have this and the project still turned out just fine
Toilet paper
An old CD for the base
Masking tape
Water (ideally in a small plant sprayer, but if you don't have one, a dish will do)

Step 1 - Cut out the parts
The first thing to do is to cut out all the sections from the cardboard and the cardstock. If you print out this template full-page borderless A4, then everything should be the correct size.

Image

Parts A and H are cut from the heavy cardstock, while all the other parts are corrugated cardboard. After cutting them out, each part should be folded along the dotted lines (scoring them with a knife helps, but be careful not to cut all the way through). There's nothing tricky here, as the fold is on the exact halfway point anyway. The idea is to fold them in half, and then Part A will form the spine of the model, while the corrugated cardboard bits are going to be the chitonous plates on the back. Once cut out, the main parts should look like this; (Note: Part H not shown in this photo)
Image

Step 2 - Glue Parts B-G to Part A
Image
For this I used PVA glue (undiluted). Try not to use too much as it will soak into the cardboard and cause rippling and/or warping. Start with the pointed end (Part G) and work backwards to Part B, making sure that you have a slight overlap at the joins. Try to space out the parts as evenly as you can. If anything, the lower sections can be larger than the top ones, but not the other way round, as this would look odd. PVA takes a while to dry so you can slide the parts around a bit until you are happy with the way it looks. You can use clothes pegs or spring clips to secure the parts until the glue dries. Make sure everything has dried fully before moving on to step 3.

Step 3 - Adding the back spines
Image
Going back to the template, cut parts B1-F1 from corrugated cardboard, and fold them in half in the same way that you did for parts B-G. A tiny drop of hot glue is used to stick them in the folded position, and then a bit more hot glue is used to glue the part to the back edge of the chitinous plates. Stick them at the top of the plates if you want to replicate the look of the original model. This step is very quick and easy - the only thing to watch out for is that you should keep checking the alignment to ensure that they are all in line with each other when viewed from either end.

Step 4 - Texturing the surface
Another big thanks to DM Scotty for this technique... First of all, if your glue gun has a "low" setting, then you should use it here. If not, then once it's hot enough, unplug it and let it cool a few minutes before doing this bit. Different glue guns have different thermal masses in the heating chamber, so some will cool down faster than others. Mine is a pretty large one and takes ages to cool down, making this easy to do. Smaller guns may cool down faster. As with all things, your mileage may vary, so you'll need to experiment on a bit of scrap material - particularly if you've never done this technique before. It's not hard to do, but if in doubt, check out the way that DM scotty does it on his Youtube channel, The DM's Craft - Nobody does glue work like that guy!

OK the basic technique is to slowly extrude glue onto the surface while dragging the gun back and forth over the surface, thus creating a texture akin to tree bark. It takes a bit of practice, but isn't genuinely hard to do - just be careful not to burn your fingers :)
Don't forget to texture the back spines as well.


Step 5 - The front section
Image
Cut out Part H from heavy cardstock and fold it along its length as per the dotted line. This will form the front part of the tower. Fix it in place inside the model, as shown in the photo above. The exact position is not critical, but do try to ensure that the wide end will be touching the ground when it's standing on the base. The hardest bit about this step is trying to make sure that Part H is fixed squarely and that neither the top or bottom end stick out too far - the whole point is that this part needs to be slightly recessed inside the outer chitinous plates. As ever, a picture paints a thousand words, so check the photo to see if that explains it any better than I'm trying to do here :)

Step 6 - Front Section Texturing
Image
Once again, we will be using the hot glue texturing process from Step 4, but this time, we'll be doing the surfaces on the front (Part H) and the bit where it joins the inside of the tower. Again this is not difficult, and there's no right or wrong way to do it, but I knew that I wanted to get a nasty, gribbly look, making it appear as though we are looking at its internal fleshy tissues and so on. When you're using hot glue, you often get thin strings forming. Usually these are a nuisance, but in this case they give a nice effect (though you can't then brush-paint it easily without damaging the fine threads - an airbrush will make painting this stuff much easier). It's up to you how much or how little of this texture you apply. Once again, try not to have the glue gun too hot, otherwise the glue will stay molten for too long and the whole mess will tend to flow together rather than forming discrete strands.

Step 7 - Making the base
Image
Take the old CD and cover the surface with masking tape (I didn't do that, and I had trouble getting the toilet paper to stick to it) and then wet the surface with water (a small plant sprayer makes this much easer than brushing it from a dish). Immediately place some toilet paper onto this - because the surface is wet, the paper will stick to it instantly. While this is still wet, drizzle some PVA glue onto the surface and spread it around by dabbing with your finger (I should have watered down the PVA about 50:50 and this would have been WAY easier). The main thing is that you shouldn't rub the surface as this will tear the toilet paper. Now add another sheet of toilet paper and wet it with the spray again. Repeat this step about 3 times to build up about 3 or 4 layers. By dabbing the glue in and spreading it, you will be creating a cool texture. You can also soak bits of toilet paper in a mix of water and PVA, scrunch them up and apply then to the base as mounds and other details. Bear in mind that the thicker this stuff is, the longer it will take to dry - and this drying time is measured in days, rather than hours. My base had just 3 layers of toilet paper and two slight mounds, and it took 3 days to fully dry. You can always put it in a warm, dry place to accelerate the drying process, but it's still not quick. Don't be tempted to move to the next step until it's fully dry or you'll end up tearing up the base.

Step 8 - Fixing the tower to the base
Test-fit the tower onto the base to make sure it will sit properly, then apply hot glue to the bottom edges of the tower then press onto the base. Hold it there for a few moments for the glue to harden, then you can go around the edges of the tower and the base itself with hot glue in order to make it more secure. You can also use the hot glue to blend the tower into the base at this point if you wish.

Step 9 - Painting the tower
I spray-painted my tower matt black, then used Mechrite Red as a basecoat on the inside parts. This was given a wash of Dark Flesh and then a wash of diluted purple ink. The red basecoat had not fully dried when I applied the washes, giving a wet-blended effect. also, some of the wash ended up soaking into the base, giving a sort of bloodstained look - this was unintentional, but ended up looking good so I left it. The outer chitinous plates were basecoated with Dheneb Stone, then given a diluted brown ink wash. The base was drybrushed with Dheneb Stone.

Image
Image

And that's it. I think it looks really cool considering the minimal cost, materials and effort that went into it - apart from the 3-day drying time for the base, the rest was done in one evening. Just look at that texture on the tower - that's nothing but hot glue dragged over the surface!

Anyway I know there are some 'Nid players in here so hopefully you guys will like this terrain piece. Of course you can always expand on this idea - add a few spikes around the edges like the Forge World one has. Or how about mounting three of these around a lotus seed pod to make an ultra-cheap Spore Chimney?

Have fun :)
The Dark Princess
High Priestess of the Cult Of Pleasure


Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nighmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
User avatar
Amboadine
Miscast into the Warp
Miscast into the Warp
Posts: 3510
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:07 am
Location: Investigating Mantica

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Amboadine »

Really nice work on the tutorial. Looks fairly simple to follow with a nice result.
User avatar
Malys the younger
Beastmaster
Posts: 301
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:25 pm
Location: Fayetteville, NC

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Malys the younger »

Gross.....but in a good way :D I really like the mind flayer, some times conversions are really that easy to make a great model.
Image

Image

The Grim Host of Malys the Younger: http://druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=75760

Overall W/D/L: 5/0/3
vs Empire: 1/0/0
vs Wood Elves: 2/0/2
vs Beastmen: 2/0/0
vs Vampire Counts: 0/0/1
User avatar
Shadowspite
Bronze Khaine Winner
Posts: 1413
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2002 5:32 pm
Location: The black ark Arhathalau

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Shadowspite »

Don't be disheartened by the lack of replies, DP. Druchii.net is usually pretty quiet at the weekends. I've learned never to start a new thread on a Friday.

Your work looks fantastic, as always.

The Lone Animator's adaptation of The Shadow Out of Time can be found here: LINK, just to save people the trouble of searching.
"Sometimes, Brother... I dream that I am sane." - Uros the Faceless

Some of my minis - now on Imgur rather than Photosuckit.
User avatar
cultofkhaine
Chief Cultist
Chief Cultist
Posts: 1993
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 6:45 am
Location: Being tempted by the Cult of Pleasure!
Contact:

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by cultofkhaine »

Nice write up DP - I like the illithid, have done a similar conversion myself.
User avatar
Darkprincess
Chosen Babe of Slaanesh
Posts: 2625
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2003 10:20 pm
Location: Wales

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Darkprincess »

Pyramid Head

Just a quick post today - this is something I've been wanting to do for quite some time now - everybody's favourite Silent Hill monster - Pyramid Head (aka The Red Pyramid Thing). No particular reason for this, other than the fact that I like Silent Hill - it has some really cool looking monsters in it, and few are as iconic as this guy.

Image

This model is based on the movie version of Pyramid Head, rather than the one in the game series, as I think he looks much cooler in the film. The mini was mostly sculpted in Milliput, though the arms are from the GW zombie sprue, as I'm still nowhere near good enough at sculpting to be able to make the hands. The helmet is not quite the right shape - the back piece is all wrong and it's not quite tall enough, and lacks a lot of the required detail so one day I may try again to get it right. I'm fairly pleased with the Great Knife though - this was made from a sheet of thin plasticard which was filed down to give the sharp edge. The handle is just a piece cut from a spear shaft.

The butcher's apron was left for about an hour after sculpting then I scored the lines into it with the tip of an x-acto knife to make the "joins", and then used the very tip to press the stitching pattern into it. I think this probably turned out as the best feature and looks really great on the model now that it's painted.

In terms of painting, there's nothing particularly complex here - the skin is bronzed flesh over the black undercoat. The apron is bleached bone. The helmet is Tin Bitz (aka Warplock Bronze, or whatever GW are calling it this week) then drybrushed with Brazen Brass. The knife was also basecoated with Tin Bitz then lightly drybrushed with Boltgun Metal. The blood was just watered down Blood Red (I was going to use red ink but mine has all dried up). After this, the whole model was given a couple of very thin washes of diluted brown ink.

Overall I think he looks pretty good. Suitably dirty and messed up - the knife in particular looks really old and rusted, like in the movie. Despite the inaccuracies regarding the helmet, I'm pretty happy with the way he's turned out.

As for his gaming potential, I guess he wouldn't look out of place in a game of Mordheim, or perhaps as some sort of Chaos character. Having said that, I made him more because I wanted to make the model, rather than with the intention of using him in a game.

I just need to do a better job on that helmet...
The Dark Princess
High Priestess of the Cult Of Pleasure


Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nighmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
User avatar
cultofkhaine
Chief Cultist
Chief Cultist
Posts: 1993
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 6:45 am
Location: Being tempted by the Cult of Pleasure!
Contact:

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by cultofkhaine »

Love it!

how cool is that - very well done :-)
User avatar
Fr0
Trademaster
Posts: 3170
Joined: Wed May 25, 2005 7:32 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Fr0 »

Hey DP;

I haven't really been around much for the last few years, nice to see some familiar names when I do though. Cool job on the spine, reminds me of Tyranid spires. I might use this for some objective markers, seems pretty easy and cheap. Thanks, appreciate the nice write up too!

*edit* nevermind that, the page wasn't displaying all the pictures for me. I can see them all now.
User avatar
Darkprincess
Chosen Babe of Slaanesh
Posts: 2625
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2003 10:20 pm
Location: Wales

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Darkprincess »

[WiP] - Bubble-Head Nurse

Image

Keeping with the Silent Hill theme, this is my very first attempt at sculpting a complete figure from scratch - usually I sculpt some parts then convert things like arms etc by using bits from other kits, as I did with Pyramid Head. I decided on this particular model simply because she has no actual facial features that I would have to worry about, which makes for a much easier project. She still has a bit of work needed and I need to get a small-tip clay shaper to get smoother surfaces - I'm currently using the stock GW metal sculpting tool which is actually very good, but perhaps not ideal for this sort of mini as it has a tendency to move the putty around rather than smooth it out.

After building the basic wire armature (I used cheap steel gardening wire bought from Wilkinsons - 90p for a 30-metre length! - it's plastic coated so I stripped that off and then twisted it into the required shape), I used Milliput for the initial putty work such as holding the armature together and building the basic torso and head, then did the rest in green stuff. I'm still experiencing some issues with getting the green stuff to stick properly to the armature - I've had a couple of cases where the putty has come away from the wire, despite keeping the tools wet. If anyone has any tips of getting the putty to stick securely, please let me know...

Anyway, I'm fairly pleased with the progress so far - I don't think she's too bad for a first attempt. Hopefully I can improve my skills enough to be able to go on to make more complex miniatures. The process has been fun, though very time consuming and at times frustrating when things haven't gone according to plan and I've had to go back and redo some areas, but it's all a learning curve and I must say, not as difficult as I had feared that it would be.

As ever, I'm keen to learn from those who do things much better than I do, so I'd welcome any practical tips and advice on how to improve my sculpting technique...
The Dark Princess
High Priestess of the Cult Of Pleasure


Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nighmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
Vulcan
Malekith's Best Friend
Posts: 1012
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 12:13 am

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Vulcan »

Careful use of CNA glue on the trouble spot usually works.
User avatar
Shadowspite
Bronze Khaine Winner
Posts: 1413
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2002 5:32 pm
Location: The black ark Arhathalau

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Shadowspite »

I found it helped to roughen up the armature wire with abrasive paper before applying the greenstuff.
"Sometimes, Brother... I dream that I am sane." - Uros the Faceless

Some of my minis - now on Imgur rather than Photosuckit.
User avatar
Darkprincess
Chosen Babe of Slaanesh
Posts: 2625
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2003 10:20 pm
Location: Wales

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Darkprincess »

[WiP] - Yochlol Made Simple

As some of you know, I've been experimenting, on and off, with a very WiP Drow army list. As part of this list, the player can field Yochlol - effectively the Lesser Daemons of Lolth, in much the same way that Daemonettes are the Lesser Daemons of Slaanesh. The D&D fluff (in particular the AD&D 2nd ed and D&D 3.5 ed books that I'm working from), describes these as shapeshifting creatures whose natural appearance is that of a waxy brown blob, rather like a partly-burned candle (They also have the ability to morph into beautiful women, but that's harder to sculpt so for these I took the easy approach)

Glue Guns At The Ready...
Image

These cute little blobs are nothing more than hot glue carefully dripped onto a 25mm base (in keeping with other Lesser Daemons in Warhammer). The trick here was to build it up fairly slowly, so that it didn't just slump into a big round blob. Holding the base upside down while the glue was still fairly fluid and then turning it the right way up when it started to get too tall was all part of the process. The results were largely random, yet similar enough to build a unit of these that would look coherent together on the table.

Painting The Yochlol
Image
I painted each of them with a fairly heavy coat of Scorched Brown (That's Burnt Umber for those who save money by buying their acrylic paints in craft shops rather than GW). The important point here is that I didn't undercoat them first - this has resulted in them appearing a bit waxy and translucent, which suits these daemons really well. All I need to do now is to give each one a single large red eye, which I will craft from a plastic bead painted red, with the cat-like pupil drawn on with a black Sharpie.

A nice, simple miniature to make - if only Witch Elves were that simple :P
The Dark Princess
High Priestess of the Cult Of Pleasure


Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nighmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
User avatar
Darkprincess
Chosen Babe of Slaanesh
Posts: 2625
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2003 10:20 pm
Location: Wales

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Darkprincess »

Very Simple Warpstone / Wyrdstone Markers / Tokens

Just a very quick post here of an idea that I had a while back to craft some wyrdstone markers for our Mordheim games. Until now, we've been using little round bits of card for this purpose, but I think you'll agree that these look much better;

Image

These are insanely simple to make. I started with a round base (I made about 7 of these on 25mm bases and two larger ones on 40mm bases) and applied a layer of Milliput onto the bases in order to stop them appearing too flat. Almost any modelling putty would work for this purpose (you could even use scrunched up aluminium foil if you want) but I like Milliput as it's easy to work with and much cheaper than Green Stuff, though it is more messy to use.

Next, I took some acrylic plastic crystals (I paid 79p in Home Bargains for a pack that had about 100 or so in it, so this is a very cheap project) and pressed one into the putty on each base. For a few of them, I cut the crystals in half with a small hacksaw (that stuff is much tougher to cut than you would imagine) to vary the appearance a bit, and on the large bases I used two or three cut pieces.

Once the Milliput had cured (I left mine overnight), I painted the crystals with undiluted Dark Green Ink (I also made one purple one as a test using undiluted purple ink). You need to be careful to spread the ink around smoothly and try not to let it pool in certain areas which will lead to dark spots which kind of spoil the crystalline effect.

Once this had dried thoroughly, I applied PVA glue to the bases (be careful not to get any on the crystals) and flocked them with sand (I use a mix of Wilko Bird sand and Bird Grit to get the varied texture - my mix is about two thirds sand to one third grit - Wilko sells these products at £1 each for 1Kg bags, so it's really dirt cheap). Once this had dried, I applied a 50:50 mix of PVA and water on top of the sand to seal it and thus prevent the sand rubbing off through handling. All I need to do now is to paint the edges of the base in Khemri Brown or Graveyard Earth or some other similar mid-brown tone.

I think the result looks good, although if those chunks of wyrdstone were in scale, it would take a couple of guys to pick up and carry them :)

Those green ones wouldn't look out of place on a Necron or Skaven table... (Note that they look darker in the flesh than they do in the photo - the camera flash has caused them to look much brighter than they really are, especially the green ones)
The Dark Princess
High Priestess of the Cult Of Pleasure


Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nighmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
User avatar
Amboadine
Miscast into the Warp
Miscast into the Warp
Posts: 3510
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:07 am
Location: Investigating Mantica

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Amboadine »

Nice idea on the markers. Look simple yet effective.
User avatar
Darkprincess
Chosen Babe of Slaanesh
Posts: 2625
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2003 10:20 pm
Location: Wales

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Darkprincess »

Well it's been a month since I posted anything in this thread, so I guess it's time for a quick update. I've been quite busy with a variety of things over the past few weeks, including doing more work on the reconstruction of our old Mordheim table, as well as working on some Egyptian-themed terrain stuff for our TK player (more of this later).

Back in the day (around ten years ago), we had a fabulous Mordheim table that was made almost entirely from scrap cardboard, and based on the Town level from the 2004 PC game "Painkiller" - something that's inspired me for quite a few Warhammer-related projects. Anyway, it looked great but was flimsy and needed almost constant running repairs to keep it in playable condition. Sadly, no part of it (aside from a few odd bits and pieces) still exists today, so we have finally decided to go ahead with a complete rebuild. This is an ongoing project that will undoubtedly take a great deal of time but fortunately, there are a few of us working on it. We've been planning this build for a couple of months now, and last week I finally started to assemble things. The timing was mainly due to my mum having some new patio furniture delivered which came in three huge, thick cardboard boxes. Inside each one was a second heavy cardboard box, so we now have enough material to build the whole table :)

Anyway this is a very early Work In Progress pic of the small corner of the table that I've agreed to build;

Mordheim Resurrection - Stage 1 Begins
Image

As you can see, this is nothing more than some (very) heavy cardboard stuck together with hot glue. I used white acrylic filler to fill the corrugated edges (and hot glue in some cases) and stuck a few matchsticks on to represent timbers. As in our original table, the "painting" will be mostly done by printing out texture maps from the Painkiller game and sticking them on to the buildings. Unlike the original table though, this one will be a modular construction, to make storage easier and safer, so that it doesn't get wrecked when someone walks past it. Each section will be no more than about 12" x 18" in order to fit them into our plastic storage boxes or onto normal-sized shelves. Anyone who's ever played Painkiller should immediately recognise this build as the gatehouse section at the start of the Town level, where there's an old cart just in front of the archway.

Here's a screenshot taken from the Painkiller Editor to show you what this section will hopefully look like once it's finished;
Image

I probably won't bother with the area to the right of the gatehouse as it's not accessible in the video game and is sparse in detail. I may do part of the wall though just to add a bit of interest.

Anyway, moving on...


Nurgle's Giant Armoured Slug Of DOOM

This is something I made for our Skaven / Nurgle player. The project was to make some big, nasty beast of Nurgle (we've started calling him Morbus these days, to try to break away from GW's IP - Actually the term "intellectual property" is a bit laughable when applied to GW since pretty much everything they've ever made is a blatant ripoff of other people's IP anyway, but that's another rant for another thread)

Anyway he had asked for something that would fit on a chariot base. He hasn't decided yet whether this thing will be a standalone monster or will one day have a rider or maybe even have "handlers" in the manner of a Druchii Hydra, but anyway here it is;

Doomslug Stage 1
Image

This was an incredibly simple build - take a piece of aluminium foil (I think it was about 12" square), scrunch it up tight and form it into a rough slug shape. Then cut some pieces of cardboard and hot-glue them onto the foil body. After this, I textured the cardboard with hot glue, DM Scotty style.

The Completed Doomslug
Image

After undercoating with black spray paint, I used Catachan Green for the slimy foot, followed by a wet-blended highlight of Gretchin Green. Then I drybrushed the armour plates with Khemri Brown followed by Dheneb Stone. I've run out of 'Ardcoat varnish, so I used clear gloss nail polish instead, to get that slimy look for the soft body parts. I haven't based it yet, simply because I don't know what else he wants me to add to the model, if anything, but for now, this is just about completed. I may go back to it and add a mouth and feelers at some point but I think it looks pretty good just as it is, especially when you think about how incredibly simple and cheap it was to make) I think it could maybe do with a couple of dirty brown washes to set it off - it is a Nurgle thing, after all, so it should be as manky and disgusting as possible...

Anyway, got to go - I'll pop back later to post stuff about the TK terrain piece and another nasty beasty that came about as an offshoot of the Doomslug build.

Catch you later...
The Dark Princess
High Priestess of the Cult Of Pleasure


Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nighmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
User avatar
Darkprincess
Chosen Babe of Slaanesh
Posts: 2625
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2003 10:20 pm
Location: Wales

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Darkprincess »

OK, here's a quick update on a few ongoing projects;

Firstly, following on from the Doomslug build, it occurred to me during the construction that the beasty was starting to look like one of those old Epic 40K Tyranid heavy things (Exocrine, Malefactor, Dactylis - and I think there was one other one whose name escapes me for the moment) that all had the bodies of big armour-plated slugs with different heads, arms and guns. With this in mind, I decided to try a quick (about 15 minutes) Exocrine build - just for fun.

The Cardboard Exocrine

Image
Same basic construction as the doomslug - but about twice as long. Scrunched up aluminium foil covered in cardboard armour plates. The triceratops-style "head" is also just a sheet of thick cardboard and the whole thing is textured with hot glue. The only interesting points of note here are spines on its back, which were made from part of the packaging you get with a box of six Iceland chocolate eclairs (there are two plastic spikes holing each eclair in place, so a box of 6 will yield 12 cool spines for your projects) and the gun, which was made from a few parts of a discarded pen barrel. The flared end of the gun was made from scrunched up foil and the ribbed tubes along its side are toothpicks wrapped in thin wire taken from a length of scrap ethernet cable.

Underside View
Image

With Black Undercoat
Image

Still not decided on a colour scheme for this yet - I may just paint it to match with the Tyranid Capillary Tower I described above, or I might go with a more grungy, slimy Gigeresque look for it which I think would look really cool. Overall this thing is about 20cm long including the gun, with the body accounting for about 16cm. Not sure how this relates, scale-wise to the old Armorcast resin version, but I think it looks pretty good considering the minimal effort and zero cost that went into making it...


And so, To Khemri!
OK, moving on...

I mentioned earlier that I (and others in our group) had been working on some Tomb Kings terrain (our TK player's birthday is coming up in a month or two). My part in this project was to build the Egyptian pylon-style wall section, so here's an early Work In Progress photo of part of this project during its construction;

Image
The wall structure here is made from double-corrugated cardboard and the textures are printed on heavy paper / thin cardstock and stuck onto the wall with double-sided tape to avoid soaking it all in PVA. The statuary is 3D printed by our Skaven player on his home-made 3D printer using 3D models ripped out of Unreal Tournament 2003 (which is also the source of the texture graphics). The wall is about 60cm (24") long, about 5" (13cm) deep and roughly 7.5" (19cm) tall. This piece will not only look great as part of a larger TK table, but will also form the backdrop to his army display shelf.


And Back To Mordheim...

Quick WiP update on my effort towards the reconstruction of our Mordheim table;
Image

The textures used here were ripped out of the Painkiller PC game (as was the terrain design) and glued onto the cardboard model. While the location of the texture printouts don't exactly match the original pixel for pixel, they're pretty close and give a nice effect with minimum cost and effort. The wooden parts are lolly sticks and craft matchsticks. There were stained with a thin wash of burnt umber and then weathered with an even thinner wash of black. Overall this is really starting to look good now but one thing I've noticed is that the model appears a lot brighter and cleaner than it does in the game. This, I have determined, is down to the yellow-filtered dynamic lighting effect used in the game - the actual textures (which are, for the most part, actual photographs), were quite obviously shot in clear daylight. A judicious application of earth colours using a weathering sponge will undoubtedly go a long way towards making it look more dirty and unkempt...
The Dark Princess
High Priestess of the Cult Of Pleasure


Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nighmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
User avatar
cultofkhaine
Chief Cultist
Chief Cultist
Posts: 1993
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 6:45 am
Location: Being tempted by the Cult of Pleasure!
Contact:

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by cultofkhaine »

nice looking terrain - how long has the castle taken you to build so far?
User avatar
Amboadine
Miscast into the Warp
Miscast into the Warp
Posts: 3510
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:07 am
Location: Investigating Mantica

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Amboadine »

Love the Mordheim city scape.
User avatar
Malys the younger
Beastmaster
Posts: 301
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:25 pm
Location: Fayetteville, NC

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Malys the younger »

Amboadine wrote:Love the Mordheim city scape.


I second this! Novel idea using texture files, it looks really well. Like you said, a weathering sponge could really tone the buildings down to your desired level of grime, but I think it looks great as is.
Image

Image

The Grim Host of Malys the Younger: http://druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=75760

Overall W/D/L: 5/0/3
vs Empire: 1/0/0
vs Wood Elves: 2/0/2
vs Beastmen: 2/0/0
vs Vampire Counts: 0/0/1
User avatar
Darkprincess
Chosen Babe of Slaanesh
Posts: 2625
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2003 10:20 pm
Location: Wales

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Darkprincess »

Thanks for the positive comments guys. It's always nice to think I'm on the right track with my projects :)

Cultofkhaine wrote:nice looking terrain - how long has the castle taken you to build so far?


Just a few days really - on and off. I started with the archway piece (which is still removeable from the piece until I finish it at which point it will be glued in place) last week, then gradually added the bits around it - first the wall and the house bit, then the opposite low wall, and then the raised wooden walkway was added yesterday. There's also part of another house-type building on the other side of the arch - you can just see the edge of it in the photo. I'm hoping to get the rest of the wall texturing done in the next few days, along with the tiled roof over the walkway (ideally this piece will be removable to assist gameplay - it's one thing to recreate a terrain piece in detail but it still has to be playable, after all, and that's particularly true of games like Mordheim where your battles are taking place in a confined area compared to an open battlefield.

I'll be posting further updates on this piece as I add more to it, but once I start getting pics of the other Mordheim table sections from the others in the group, I may actually start a new thread on the Mordheim project - time will tell. I need to see what the others come up with - we're all reasonably experienced terrain builders of similar skill levels and we're all working to the same basic plan and using the same basic techniques, so that the whole table will look cohesive. I think I chose the most complex part to be honest - those arches and crenelations are taking a fair bit of work to get them just right :)

The section that joins directly onto this part is basically a narrow street - dead easy construction but lots of door and window cutouts not to mention lots of timber detail on the surface, but the advantage there is that it will be able to be made as a flat piece before attaching to a base.

Anyway I digress. Hopefully I can get the bulk of my current section done within the next week or so...
The Dark Princess
High Priestess of the Cult Of Pleasure


Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nighmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
User avatar
Daeron
Malekith's Best Friend
Posts: 3975
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2003 7:36 pm
Location: Belgium, Brussels
Contact:

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Daeron »

This is a terrific, and inspiring thread. It makes me want to try some scenery...
I love me a bowl of numbers to crunch for breakfast. If you need anything theoryhammered, I gladly take requests.

Furnace of Arcana, a warhammer blog with delusional grandeur.

"I move unseen. I hide in light and shadow. I move faster than a bird. No plate of armour ever stopped me. I strike recruits and veterans with equal ease. And all shiver at my coldest of whispers."
- The stiff breeze
User avatar
Darkprincess
Chosen Babe of Slaanesh
Posts: 2625
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2003 10:20 pm
Location: Wales

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Darkprincess »

Quick Update on the Mordheim table;


I've added a bit more to the other side of the castle/gatehouse section;

More on the Gatehouse
Image

Added wooden planking to the top of the structure - still more texturing to do up here but it's getting there (slowly)

Into The Town
Once past the Gatehouse (or whatever you want to call it), we get into the town itself. As with most Mordheim-themed tables, I see this as a late medieval style jumble of half-timbered buildings, slightly crooked and partially ruined;
Image

Nothing too complex here, but the extensive timber work took quite a bit of time. The basic process was to build the cardboard structure first, then to glue the texture printouts to it, followed by glueing on the wooden bits, then painting them with a thin wash of Burnt Umber - that's Scorched Brown to those people who don't mind getting fleeced every time they buy paint - personally I get tubes of Burnt Umber acrylic paint in Home Bargains, rather than GW - it's exactly the same stuff, except that HB will sell you a 120ml tube for 97p, rather than GW's offering of 12ml for £2.55. It's ever so slightly thicker than the GW stuff but that's great because when you thin it down, it goes even further - even without thinning, you're getting ten times the quantity for just over a third of the price, so quantity for quantity, GW is charging more than twenty-six times as much! (it would cost me £25.50 to buy the same volume of this paint from GW - personally I'd rather spend that money on models rather than paint)

Anyway, I digress...

After the brown wash, I gave the woodwork a thin wash of black acrylic (same price, from the same source), which gives a really nice, dirty and weathered look. The washes I used were thin enough that it kind of stained the wood rather than actually painted it, thus preserving the fact that it's actually real wood (albeit matchsticks and stuff) underneath.

More to follow as soon as I get more done :)
The Dark Princess
High Priestess of the Cult Of Pleasure


Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nighmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
User avatar
Amboadine
Miscast into the Warp
Miscast into the Warp
Posts: 3510
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:07 am
Location: Investigating Mantica

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Amboadine »

Coming along nicely. Great project.
User avatar
Shadowspite
Bronze Khaine Winner
Posts: 1413
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2002 5:32 pm
Location: The black ark Arhathalau

Re: Darkprincess' Random Creativeness Thread

Post by Shadowspite »

Looks lovely, DP! Terrain building is something I'm afraid I've never had the patience for. I'd always rather convert or paint more minis. Hell, I still have the old GW plastic fortress from (IIRC) 5th edition sitting unassembled and unpainted in a box somewhere. I keep meaning to turn it into a Chaos fortress with banners and skulls and bodies nailed to the walls and so on, but I never seem to find the time. :oops:
"Sometimes, Brother... I dream that I am sane." - Uros the Faceless

Some of my minis - now on Imgur rather than Photosuckit.
Post Reply