Monday 4 April 2016

Intermisshun - da uvver stuff

As I mentioned in the previous post, in the time between it and the previous post, I did make a thing or two outside of the Gorkamorka project. Since the last intro text was quite long, let's just jump right into it.


First up, the objective markers. Somewhere around September last year I was contacted by Kromlech, who asked if'd I'd be interested in making some models for them. It came as a bit of a surprise and I guess I was equal parts flattered and excited, so after a quick e-mail back-and-forth we've settled on a set of junkyard-themed markers.

The idea was simple: 40mm bases with a bunch of junk and numbers on them. It was a fun challenge to make something completely from scratch, while adhering to the requirements of the molding process.


I started by making a bunch of assorted junk pieces, some cogs, wheels, tread links and such, that I made a mold  of, so that I could easily have access to a large amount of stuff to decorate the bases with.


The first attempts were simple flat markers that would be easy to mold, but rather unintersting. The second try had a vertical plate, but still was single-part, which was limiting the design choices available that would keep it mouldable. Finally we've settled on two-part markers, with a base that can be cast in a single-part mould and the vertical sign with a number to be cast in a two-part mould. After gluing in the structural elements, the base had a layer of putty applied to it, forming the base shape of the terrain, which I then pressed all the junk into. Once that settled, I would build the signs, add detail, cables, etc. The final step would be filling all the gaps and crevices to prevent silicone from seeping in and possibly causing the mould to tear up and adding sand texture to the bare putty. In this case I used semolina, glued with PVA and sealed with several layers of water-thinned PVA.


This is what the final product that you can purchase looks like. Go ahead and buy yourself a set or two. Or maybe a dozen. Not because I'm telling you to, but because you like them so much and really need some for your army, hah. No marketing at all here, nope.


The second thing was a quick relax project to rest a bit after I finished a sleepless marathon of trying to wrap up all my classes in time, before I continued finishing my thesis. I've had this old deffkopta conversion that was the first thing I started when getting into the hobby. I got the tail, wings and rokkit pods done and it just kinda sat there ever since. I decided to try and finish up building it and paint it in time for a challenge over at my country's 40k forums.


It had the original tail, exhausts and rokkits cut off. The tail was scratchbuilt, the rockets turned into rocked pods to be installed under the wings, magnetised to be swappable with the shootas, built out of spare barrels, old warbike dakkagun body, chimera road wheels and plasticard. The rotor got some scratchbuilt stuff as well.


The front where the rokkits were was built up using warbike parts and tanks, which source I'm not aware of, found them in my bits. Some other miscannelous bits were added, as well as rivets and greenstuff welds.


The whole thing, test assembled on a flying base.


Going with the chipping method, the model was primed black and airbrushed with Warplock Bronze wherever the metal areas were supposed to be. Depending on whether I wanted regular or bronze finish I sprayed zenithally and/or stippled Leadbelcher or just went on to Brass Scorpion. Washes and drybrushed of appropriate colours followed, along with some actual edge highlights. Once that was done, the whole model received a coat of chipping medium, hence the glossy look.


Next step was airbrushing all the base colours, alond with zenithal highlights, gradients and whatnot. Seems that this time I finally got the transition from red to orange and into yellows I was going for since I started painting. Really happy with how the colour turned out. Also some black on several parts that actually is really dark grey, highlighted to blueish grey to make it more interesting and contrasting nicely with the warm tones.


With the base colour done, I went on to freehand all the checks, dags spirals and other small stuff in white. With that done I went in with a wet brush, chipping the paint back. It was at this point that I stopped, realising I didn't have the varnish I needed. Have yet to finish it up due to thesis and more important projects. Namely Gorkamorka.

Here's the same on a white background. Guess it works much better for painted stuff and vibrant colours.


Also did a small highlighting attempt on one of the objective markers I made a year ago as gifts for my gaming group.

That wraps up this intermission post. Next time it's back to Gorkamorka. See you until then and thanks for reading!

2 comments:

  1. Cool! Do you make models often as commission? I might be interested in hiring you for something...

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    1. Well, the Gorkamorka is my first model commission I took and it's not going as well as I it should. And by well I mean fast. Then there were the Kromlech markers too. While I'd love to, I really cannot allow myself to take any further commissions until I'm done with the current ones and have reorganised myself for any future work. That and seeing as you're from the US and I'm EU, the shipping costs alone would bump the cost unreasonably most likely.

      Loving the progress on your Fury Road army.

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