Update: Fimir Helmet and Tail Conversions

We're back with an update to last week's project, converting helmets and bladed tails onto Forgeworld Fimir.  Last time, the helmets were finished, but there was still work to be done on their tails.

They're finally complete, so let's take a look!

There were a ton of interesting options for creating the blade-tails, so I really let my creativity run wild.  Hooks, crescents, cleavers, spades, barbs, and daggers are all the styles of weapons I used to make them.  Each weapon was fabricated from plasticard and then accented with green to create straps, bolts, and rope to hold the blades in place.

I roughed up the edge on most of the blades by making simple "V" cuts with an xacto blade to make them look worn and notched from hard use.  It's nice to add a bit of wear and tear to weapon pieces, especially to those wielded by the disciples of chaos, too much their time is spent maiming and killing to keep their weapons shiny and new!

This is one of my favorite weapons, a truly vicious sickle big enough to cleave a man wholly in two!

These three got spade tails.  The tails and each of their blades were notched and then fitted together to form a snug fit before being finished with a dab super glue and some green stuff.  

The top left tail is a nasty set of barbs that was made out of three pieces of plasticard, one to form the main section with an arrowhead end and then two pieces that were fitted to the sides to give the weapon barbs on all four sides.

This guy's weapon tail has a spear-tip fitted on the end of his truncated tail and then simple rope bindings to hold a row of blades.

All of the fimir sacrificed part of their tail to augment it with something sharp and killy, this guy went the extra mile and grafted his blades onto his tail bones, requiring no binders at all to hold them in place.  Besides having two nasty spikes for slamming down into an enemy, his weapon also has a axe head for side-to-side sweeping cuts.

The nine fimir are finally done and will soon be in the mail to Michael for his chaos force, I'll be showing off more conversions he's requested soon; a demon possessed fimir giant and two ascended demon prince fimir!

Before I sign off for the week, I'd like to make a quick plug for Between Two Beards, a video project my brother, Andrew, and our long-time friend, Dave, put together.  The bearded duo have been doing game reviews and are starting to branch into live coverage and "let's play" content.  They're putting a lot of work into their channel and are really excited for the great projects they have planned, check them out on YouTube and stay tuned for even bigger and better content coming soon!

Tutorial: How to Build a Skethar Alpha

This week's tutorial is for all you DGS Freeblades fans out there and those looking for insights into green stuff modeling.  Word has it from rules designer Jon C that a special mission is coming out involving a ton of Skethar demons and a few very bad ass Skethar "alphas."

For his latest commission Jon set me to task to building him one such demonic raiding party and I'm going to take you along as I take two Skethars and turn them into one alpha.

This tutorial is going to be broken into two distinct parts: basic and advanced.  The basic portion will involve no major resculpting to create the Skethar alpha, whereas the advanced section will give you a complete run down of how to really knock your conversion out of the park with a bit of green stuff.  I'll also be linking to the Gale Force 9 store page when a specific tool is referenced, you'll probably need to scroll down the linked page to find the exact tool in reference, but they're all there!

Ok, let's get started.

Here's the little devil who's going to be getting an upgrade to alpha status.  What really makes an alpha is a third pair of arms.  For our conversion we're going to do that, plus add a second tail.

On most Skethar sculpts there's a significant amount of flashing in between its left leg and tail, we're going to need to remove that.

A pair of trusty sprue cutters or wire cutters does the job.  Make your first cut parallel and flush to the tail, then a second cut likewise with the leg.  Bend the flashing up with your cutters/pliers and wiggle it to loosen it where it meets the thigh.  Twist the flashing with your pliers to loosen it further and then cut off any excess hanging on.  

It doesn't have to be the prettiest bit of cutting because we're going to take out an xacto knife and file the areas smooth where the flash connected to the thigh, leg, and tail. Pare your knife along the thigh taking off large chunks of excess like you're paring an apple.  With all but the smallest of leavings removed, take a concave file and file along the contour of the thigh, tail, and leg, smoothing off all excess pewter.

We're left with a nice clean area where the flashing used to be.

This is where the tutorial branches into advanced and basic techniques.  Where we're at, we want to add two extra arms and an extra tail, this can be achieved by simply cutting off two arms and a tail from a second Skethar model and gluing them to the one we are currently working on.  We'll get to that, but first the advanced route:

ADVANCED

Start by grabbing your bone saw (hobby saw) and cut the Skethar for conversion in half just above the hips.

ADVANCED

The idea is to put in a "riser," something to increase the alpha's height and give room to the new pair of arms and tail.

BASIC & ADVANCED

Here are the two Skethars being used: on the right is the one for conversion to alpha, on the left the donor of two arms and a tail.

BASIC & ADVANCED

To gather the needed arms cut the two top arms off the donor Skethar at the shoulder joint with a pair of hobby/sprue cutters.  Cut the tail likewise.  To complete the basic conversion simply glue the extra arms below the corresponding lowest pair of arms on the alpha conversion model.  Glue the second tail next to the first.  A bit of minor green stuffing may be needed to smooth the transitions between arms/tail and body, so I highly recommend that you continue reading on with the advanced tutorial to see examples of the arm/tail positioning and the green stuff transitions.

ADVANCED continues to tutorial's end

We're going to take advantage of the space created by the riser to make room for the new arms, so let's lay him out and get an idea of how much space we need.

About 1cm looks good.

The foundation for our riser is going to be a metal pin with a green stuff abdomen sculpted over, so the next thing we need to do is drill a pilot hole in both ends of the Skethar with our pinning vice.

I'm using a drill bit that fits a paper clip (.85mm I think..), which is super handy because clips are a dime a dozen.

The new tail goes right next to the old one.  I bent both in novel ways to add a bit of variety as well.

ADVANCED & BASIC tail and arm positioning

The extra set of arms is best placed snugly under the armpits of the lowest set of original arms.

We can get all of that done without the use of green stuff, but now we need to break out our sculpting tools to build the alpha's abdomen and create transitions between his new arms and his body.

Let's take a look at some helpful tools.

I just picked up these Colour Shapers today, and man, they are sweet.  What they are exactly, is a set of rubber tipped smoothing and edging tools, excellent for finishing details.  I bought mine at Creative-Coldsnow in Overland Park, KS and the company that makes them is Royal Sovereign Ltd.  Each tool comes in an option of sizes, firmness (ranging from soft to firm to extra firm), and shape.  For my uses I picked out an extra firm 0 flat chisel, a firm 0 chisel, and a firm 0 cup round.

The Colour Shapers are great for finishing and crisping detail, but the real bread-and-butter work is done with a selection of GF9 metal sculpting tools.  My favorites are the narrow spade/wide spade tool and the curved knife/flat round tool.

The narrow spade is excellent for applying green stuff, smoothing it to the model and building the shape you want your sculpt to take.  The curved knife is great when pressing into narrow cracks and making sharp lines.

The wide spade excels when you need to flatten a piece and the flat round is likewise, but when you need to get into a nook or cranny that the WS won't fit.

To begin  sculpting, I mixed up some green stuff and pulled off a blob that would wrap completely around the model, flush with both the torso above and the hips below.  Don't worry so much about clean lines now, we'll take care of that in a bit.

Next, I applied a bit of 'stuff to give some ribs to the alpha and bulk out its tall core.  This is a great time to get in there with your rubber tipped tools and create ab lines and rib contours.  Gently draw the tool (I suggest using the angle chisel) across the 'stuff deepening the grooves you're making with each pass until they begin to take shape.  The cupped chisel is great for rounding out the edges you've created ensuring they don't look boxy and contrived.

On the back I'm placing little balls of 'stuff and then smoothing them into their surroundings to create more spines.  While I'm working I'm also creating transitions between the new arms and body.  Notice how the left lower arm's transition is a bit bulkier than the right?  That's because the muscles there would be contracted and flexed to have the arm back in withdrawn position.  Use your own arm/shoulder for reference!

The main thing when working with new sculpting tools and green stuff is to experiment.  Take the instructions here as a general guide and see what works for you.  Play with the green stuff at different stages of setting (drying) to see how it reacts to you manipulating it with tools.  Sculpting is a learning process, don't be afraid to mess up to come back later with an xacto to cut off what you did and start over.

That's it, an alpha to lead the pack.  I hope you found this tutorial to be both helpful insightful and takes your hobby to the next level!

Come back again next week to see what else we're creating at the Monster Lab!

Boatman/Black Coach WIP: Sculpting Crew

Progress is coming along on my Boatman of River Styx counts as Black Coach conversion.  This week I started sculpting the crew and laid down the foundations for the base, let's take a look.

The "crew" is going to consist of a dead passenger and Charon himself, piloting the boat.  GW's Black Coach is modeled transporting a vampire in the process of regenerating and driven by a wraith, this is great because mine will stick close to both the spirit of the original model and Greek mythology (the boatman transports one soul at a time across the River Styx into the Underworld).

Like most custom sculpts I do, I started with a wire frame base for the skeletal structure of the passenger's body.

A little blob of green stuff for a head and he's 50% done!  We'll see the finished model down below when I add his funeral shroud.

Next up was Charon.  Like his passenger, the foundation for his body was a wire frame skeleton.

Where the boat's passenger will be seated and static I want Charon to look a bit different in that he'll be floating and more airy.  Charon's model will give the whole piece a strong sense of movement.

With a pin vice I made a hole in a decking board and attached Charon to the boat.  When his cloak is finished I'll cut this piece to make him look like he's floating.

With both crew models in place I set to work making their shrouds/robes.  Using the same technique I outlined in February's article detailing the WIP of my vampire lord, I rolled out two pieces of green stuff.  I stopped periodically as I rolled to stretch each shroud by hand, a few holes formed in the thin areas when this happened, but this is a good thing.  I'll work around the holes that formed to make the shrouds look tattered and worn.  To further the worn look I used a tool to cut and drag out the ends of each piece.

This is an in-progress pic, but Charon's robe/shroud will be much more tattered than his passenger (he has been doing this for all eternity after all, whereas his passenger is newly dead!).

After cutting their garments to the final shape I draped them over the wire frames I made earlier.  To depress the shrouds to their frames I used a cupped tool, gently pressing the green stuff first to the frame, then pushing it into the negative space under arms, heads, etc.

Green stuff will sag while drying, so to keep the upward curls in Charon's cloak I hung the model on its end by a clothes pin.

The passenger is hunched over and covered ominously by their shroud I was hoping this would give them a suitably depressing look.

Next week I'll go back and resurface a bit of Charon's cloak to smooth out the areas that bunched undesirably on his back.

There are three connection points between Charon and the boat: two edges of his cloak and his scythe haft.  Now that his paper clip frame piece is cut he looks like he's floating! 

To represent its other-worldliness and the Coach's in-game ethereal rule, I used the broken pillar as the boat's connection point to the base to look like its flying and phasing through intervening objects.  The final look will be achieved after I add a piece of column inside the hull.  The final touch will be a few spirits whirling about the hull.

A last touch will be two lanterns, one hanging from the bow of the boat and one from Charon's scythe.

After a little basing work, some touch-ups, and a few last details, the Boatman will be done!