What a week!

So, after years of suffering from nothing more than the odd "change of season" cold, a viscious stomach virus decided to take a liking to my innards! It ran roughshod over my daughter and her daycare family too (all the kids, all the parents), which means it was a miserable week in more than just our household.

So, very little hobby time as I lay cramped up in bed or doubled over the porcelain throne. I'll try to get some new stuff done this week and up for you to see. I might even get the Hellblade completed (fingers crossed).

Anyway, I'll leave you on a brighter note. A buddy of mine in Massachusetts is starting his very own Indy GT, the Boston Brawl! On May 15-16, in Cambridge, MA (a very nice part of Boston in my opinion) you'll be able to play in an absolutely great event! Alex is one crazy, enthusiastic guy. I remember when I first met him, playing in the 2003 Vancouver GT while he was wearing a tiara and feather boa (apparently he lost a bet the night before), good times, good times.

So head on over to Alex's website, check out the details, and please, forgive his spelling and punctuation ; )

Making Feathers Tutorial

UPDATE: For a nice and quick tutorial on making cloaks, check out Col. Corbane's Veteran squad cloaks here.

Earlier this year I posted a pic of a couple of Ravenguard character conversions I did as a commission. Quite a few of you were interested in how I did the feathered cloaks. I finally got a chance to throw some putty on a sheet of plasticard and push it around for you. What follows is how I made the feathers for the cloaks on the models above.

Step One: Roll out a thin "sausage" of greenstuff. Lay it down on a flat surface. Ceramic tiles are quite good for this purpose.

Step Two: Use the burnishing (circular, flat-ish) end of your sculpting tool to flatten out your "sausage". You don't want this to be too thick or too thin. Practice will tell you which thickness works best for you. Use plenty of water on your tool.

Step Three: Carefully score a thin line down the center of your flattened greenstuff. Make sure you do not cut all the way through, and that your hobby knife is lubricated (I use my painting water to dip my knife in before scoring). Then start scoring in the "feather vanes" with your wet knife. Keep these small and tight together, and do not cut all the way through.

Step Four: Once you've scored the length of your flattened greenstuff, put it aside to dry completely.

Step Five: When the greenstuff has completely cured you cut start to "cut out" your feathers with your hobby knife. From a strip like the one shown in the pictures above you can cut about four or five. Once you've cut out all of your feathers you can start to glue them to your cloak. Glue them on in layers, starting with the bottom row first and adding feathers so that there's an overlap, the bottom of each row covering the top of the one before.

I hope you find this helpful : )

Cheers

Dave

The Knights who say MORR!

Just a quick one today. Last (k)night I took a break from painting the next five flagellants and decided to start in on the Knights Of Morr. I now have four more steeds converted, and the beginnings of a First Knight and Standard Bearer. I'm looking forward to laying down some grim and grimy metallics on the barding for the horses and contrasting it nicely with the purple for the feather plumes.

The bases are from the Dragon Forge Designs Temple range, found here.

Cheers
Dave

Painting Purple.

A few posts back I showed you a Pre-Heresy Lucius, Fabius, and an Emperor's Children Standard Bearer. I added a few pieces of greenstuff work and here's Lucius painted, descending stairs, his paired swords held ready to skillfully deal some death!

I tried to match a blend of the Sam Wood artwork from the Horus Heresy Artbooks, the Lucius the Eternal miniature (note the black studded gauntlets), elements of the Fulgrim I worked on, and a couple of new ideas. Most notable are the signature Emperor's Children wings on the shoulder pads of Lucius and Fabius.

I could have used the Dark Angels Commander wing that I used on Fulgrim, but I wanted something different, still stylish, but not the same as their hallowed Primarch. I glued a feather from the Empire Foot Soldiers sprue to the shoulder pad and then built up the EC wing symbol from greenstuff. Once painted, I think it adds a certain opulence.

And as it looks like the Rapid Assault Force will take the prize as my next Blood Pact Project™ (unless, of course, the Ground Assault Force can garner 170+ votes over the next six days)

I figured that sitting down to lunch with Thomas would be a great idea. Here's a shot of the initial "sketch" of a Locust vector fighter we'll be building making heavy use of the Space Marine Drop Pod wings.