Dreadtober Talos 2nd Week Progress

Painting has commenced on my Talos with legs conversion. There's still a long way to go, but it's starting to actually look like something!

In terms of the work so far, I began by painting the bulk of the gloss red areas, as getting the high shine effect is quite labour and time intensive. It worked well though. After that, I basecoated the flesh areas with Rakarth Flesh, and painted the base too.

Personally, I like the mantra "bases and bases" when it comes to painting. Often getting a basecoat on your mini and painting their base gives an impression of the final model, and also gives a decent tabletop level finish. That's prettyour much where we're at now.

Next steps will be finishing the smaller red gloss details, and then washing and detailing the skin. Somewhere in there I need to start on the metallics too, so there's plenty to be getting on with.

Dreadtober - Dark Eldar Talos with Legs Conversion

I'm quite proud of this conversion. My Talos with legs is complete and ready for paint!

I looked at different options for kitbashing, but in the end I decided to sculpt the legs myself. It was a bold move for me as I'm not that great at sculpting, and normally I'd intentionally avoid a project like this. That said, I really wanted the legs to match the style of the model as well as the rest of the force and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on the conversion. With that in mind, I set to sculpting the legs I wanted.

In the end, it wasn't that difficult. I built an armature out of some large paperclips. I bent them to the correct shape for the legs, and then set them into a spare block of wood to work on. After that, I built the basic structure of the legs with some white milliput. I actually just shaped it with my fingers and then smoothed it out to get a basic design. It didn't take that long to get a decent look (maybe half an hour?).

I let the basic leg shape dry and then I used an engraving tool to smooth out and reshape what I had. After that, I etched in the lines for the muscle fibres (designed to sort of match the look of the Wracks). Once that was done, I stuck it all together and then it was just a case of adding spare armour from the Talos kit and using greenstuff to make the straps and add details to the feet etc.

That pretty much sums up the work. I'm quite happy with how it looks, but I think it'll be a challenge to paint! So far I've added an undercoat and a little extra white to the mask and skin areas, but there's still a long way to go.

Dreadtober - Dark Eldar Talos

Just a quick update on my plans for Dreadtober this year. As I've started working on my Dark Eldar again, and given the Haemonculus Coven theme, it seemed fitting to do a Talos for the event. I've got the kit and have started constructing it, so work is already underway. 

As with most Dark Eldar kits, it's a really nice thing. Just great details all round, from the grizzly flesh-hooks that hold its carapace on; to the emotionless mask head and all the tanks and vials. That said, as I started building, one thing struck me as odd - the lack of legs. Sure, it floats, but the Talos has a perfectly formed hip section with ports just screaming out for a suitable pair of legs to be added. So, in the interests of science, certain conversion works will be conducted.

Luckily, here at Tabletop Apocalypse, the design department were able to sketch out a rough idea of what a futuristic space elf monstrosity with legs might look like:

Don't rush yourself, just take it all in. Obviously, this is just an impression of what the final piece could look like, but I think you'll all agree it has great potential...

Dreadtober - 40k Skaven Dragoon, Complete!

Well, I really wasn't expecting this to be my first proper update. I had planned to do more work in progress shots, but I kept thinking "I'll keep painting and take a picture tomorrow". At some point, I realised that I was too close to finishing, and that I might as well just get it done and do one final post.

Anyway, here it is; the final product of my labours:

I've painted it up to match the rest of my 40k Skaven, so I went with the same teal/blue colour. It was pretty challenging in the end, as it is quite a big thing with a lot of details. I was quite inspired by the conversion though, so that helped. As usual, I started flagging towards the end, but somehow made it to the finish line without getting too distracted by all the Chaos that I've been working on.

I could probably go on and on about this thing, but I figure pictures are probably more interesting than my rambling, so here you go:

Well, that finishes my entry for Dradtober. See you all again next year!

Don't forget to check everyone's progress on the Dreadtober Blog: http://dreadtober.blogspot.com/

Dreadtober - 40k Skaven Dragoon - The Build

I've done it again, and I'm rather proud of this one. As with all of my work, I wanted the Dragoon to still be recognisable for what it was whilst also being rather different (and with a rat-man riding it obviously).

I decided beforehand that I wanted to change the Dragoon to have an upright body, and that it would probably have arms and a rider. Other than that, nothing was set and I went into this one knife in hand and ready to carve out the model one piece at a time.

With only a rough idea of where things were going, I built the legs stock as I wouldn't be changing those. I then cut the torso to remove the hip section and added all of that together to make a base to work from. I cut off the servitor driver as I wouldn't want him in there and then I flipped the body section so that the saddle actually formed the stomach of the beast. It also gave a nice neck form and a bit of shape. Overall, it was way too skinny though, so I kept building and adding parts to bulk it out, and his chest plate is made from the gun shield in the kit.

Sorry the photos aren't better, I was in a bit of a rush after spending so much time building it!

Overall, the conversion uses about 70% original parts from the Dragoon/Ironstrider kit. The largest part borrowed from another source is the front of a dreadnought (well it is Dreadtober after all!), which I used to build his shoulder pads as well as the command throne. There are also a few Killa Kan parts in there to build the arms and for some of the additional details. Don't ask me what else though, as it's a bit of a blur and I'm not sure I could name everything I've used. It was also quite a lot of work trying to shape the rat-pilot up top, but I like the big lever now that it's done!

In the end, the model probably took about a day to build, but I actually worked on it over 2 days to spread out the work and to give it time to dry in the middle there.

Style-wise, I've tried to keep it true to the rest of the force with combined Mechanicus, Skaven and Ork parts. I always try to give the models a bit of an evil look or edge to them too, as Skaven should look pretty bad to the bone. I'm always wary of keeping it looking futuristic though, and not going too all-out Skaven on things, as I never want the army to look too much like their fantasy counterparts.

Originally, I had thought of mounting the pilot lower down on its back, but after I added the exhausts I knew he wouldn't fit. I quite like the face that having him "up top" sort of echoes the position of the rider on the Doom Wheel for fantasy, so it adds a little throwback too. It does make the whole thing quite tall though, and I'd be interested to see it side by side with a regular Ironstrider.

Anyway, that concludes the build, which should give me about a month to get it painted. Hopefully it shouldn't be a problem, but it is a rather detailed model (and quite large now!)

Entering Dreadtober 2018 - 40k Skaven Dragoon!

If there's one thing I love it's a community hobby challenge. Despite that, I've never entered Dreadtober (the annual dreadnought/large model painting event).

I started thinking about the challenge, and I realised that I had the perfect project all boxed up and ready to go. A few months ago, some of you may remember my really successful 40k Skaven project that I completed during Squaduary. For that challenge, I completed 15 infantry, my Dominus, and a converted Dune Crawler (the "Doom Crawler"). Around that time, I also picked up a Sydonian Dragoon kit, but I ended up shelving the project for a while as I didn't have a clear idea of what I was going to do with the kit and I also got a bit burned out and switched project.

Time to add some more models to the force!

Well, inspiration finally hit, and I've started hashing out some ideas of what I'm going to do. With any luck I should have a really cool and interesting.

For more on the event, it's all available at: https://dreadtober.blogspot.com/

I hope you'll enjoy following my progress, it should be great!

The doom crawler was a big success. Hopefully the next walker will be as nice when it's finished!