Topic: Shadowwolf's stuff (Very Pic heavy)

[Shadowwolf]

Ok, ok, I joined the dark side. Another thread in the B&P beginning Shadow*insert-cool-sounding-obbject-here* telling the tall tale of a member's devotion to his minis. Or so.

I thought that I'd just go easy on myself and collect all my work into a single thread, simply not to fill the B&P to the brim with a new thread for every thing I want to show off on the forum with. However, this may of course prove contra-productive, as we might end up with an active thread for every player on the forum, netting us 5000+ threads updating on regular basis. Let's see how it turns out!

So, starting with the oldest stuff, this is a goodie from 2006:

At last!! After half a year of work it is finished!! (yes, I have too much free time...)

With blood, sweat, wood glue and tears (mostly over ruined water effect) I have transformed six big chunks of frigolite into a full Warhammer terrain board! No more games on scrappy kitchen tables or the floor! It's going to be inaugurated this saturday with a full scale Orcs & Goblins VS Empire battle! I'll post pictures from that when the orcs are wiped out!
Unfortunately this comes very timely as Gothenburg's GW is closing their gaming room and sending it all to Denmark  
No more talking! Pictures say more than a thousand words!




I used a HUGE amount of static grass to this board. I calculated it to be 12 bags of GW static grass. I then went to my local hobby shop and bought the BIG bag. If I had bought GW grass the same amount grass would have cost me 32 ( ) times as much!


A corner cliff

The gorge, carved out of the frigolite with a heat gun

A hill with impassible slopes. The reason the slopes are so steep is for gaming purposes.
Standard bearers and cavalry are hard to get to stand up in slopes.

The posing cliff. The right place to rear your horse, swing your sword and shout your battlecry.

A cliff, jutting out of the ground, surrounded by various shrubberies. Made from polystyrene and real rocks.

The large stone circle, a little inspired from stone henge. Probably a rally point for Beast or life mages.

The river turn. Close to the water the grass vegetation is replaced by small plants.

The ruins of the former toll house. Apparently, someone didn't like paying taxes.

The river is made with a heat gun, the same as the gorge, wich was filled with plaster to make an even bottom.
This was textured with paint and sand.
Then the whole riverbank was inked with watered down brown paint and the bottom with flesh wash.
Then I poured two layers of Woodland scenics realistic water. It's the same stuff as the one they sell at GW, only cheaper.


A small cluster of trees. Not enough to make a forest. They're made from small twigs, sprayed with paint and Woodland scenics underbrush.


And with some more terrain pieces the board gets a little less flat. The reason for not making any woods on the table is due to the tree singing spell. No good to have static trees then.


My watchtower. One of my later terrain projects.


The Dragon takes control of the posing cliff!  

To make reeds, you could of course go to your GW and buy long grass. You could also go to your local warehouse and buy a set of cheap brushes in the right colour!  

And now, with a project this big, finally finished, there is but one question;
What am I supposed to do now?  

Well, that question didn't stand unanswered for too long. A few members suggesting making a board for them, but creativity took off in another direction. Although the fun of creating large terrain pieces, landscapes and such may be overwhelming, it is the tiny dudes in the cabinet which determine the outcome of the game! An idea I had lying for a while surfaced, and I was off ordering Gors through our local GW.

Hia all!
I felt I needed to post some of my pics of my latest work! The Wild Centaurs!

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE FINISHED MODELS and if you want to read fluff and rules, scroll down a little more

The warhammer world (Not the one in england) has a big problem, in my opinion. There are Centigors, a chaos mockery of the proud race of centaurs, but there are no real centaurs! So I made a few myself.
Rules-wise, they're wood elf wild riders. Bits-wise they're part woodie horse, part gor/ungor with hairy heads from the empire WW sprue. I scraped away the saddles and cut the gor/ungor body to a nice size, chipped of the hips and glued the headless horse and the legless gor/ungor together. Then a lot of green stuff made the crest and mane. The manes are not really finished in these pics, but you'll see them in their full splendor when I get them painted.
I am going to paint them soon. I promise. And then I am going to build a steam tank out of polystyrene.
Enjoy!


Starting with the champion. An elven sword and a Gor's axe? Fluff--wise, they live to the north border of Athel Loren, and are nearly extinct due to Orcs and Beastmen. They are nomads, and when they find a nice weapon, they keep it. Although, they have a certain love for big axes and clubs.



Next the standard bearer. The Gor body makes him look big and muscular and more than able to wield an empire great sword with one hand. I guess he found the weapon, thought it looked good and made sure the current owner wouldn't need it anymore so he could take it for himself without having a guilty conscience.
The banner is the gor sprue banner, piffed up with a gor head and the gor cranium from the glade rider sprue.



I must say the musician looks a little sluggish on this picture, but in reality he looks a (little) bit better. I carved out the nether part of the axe, to get rid of the meat-hacker feeling. And he's horse legs look weird, but that is the GW horses fault...


And now over to the younger centaurs. As you can see they are not as big as their older comrades, but still more muscular than me. They prefer spears and, sometimes, shields, as they do not have the toughness of the older ones. And out of practical terms. (The gor arms didn't fit to the ungor bodies AND there were no more gor left arms!)



The other one got the sneaky looking face, so I posed him to just have caught the arrow in his shield. He got one of the most dynamic poses, as the horse legs look just right for him to lean a bit and stretch out.

I am pondring about making more, but I am out of horses and gors. So I guess that is another project for another day.

Ah, *sigh* those memories the nice old plastic dudes bring back   My very first project using Green Suff. Had never beheld the substance before, but I had read the sculpting article of the ol' GW site (may it rest in peace)

But there's more to come! They were finished also!

They are FINISHED!!!!

Yeah.

Here goes pics for the finished centaur models. Hope you like 'em  
If you wanna see the rules, scroll down


Here they are ranked up as a regiment. I had some problem ranking them up, as all the arms are in the same place.



Here goes the champion! He was based on the centaur Phoulus from the Peter Pan comics by Regis Loisel.

And the standard bearer, my pride and joy   Probably the best banner i've ever made

And from behind. Not as pretty as the front, but I thought you should see the mane properly.

The a bit brother Tuck-ish musician. None the less dangerous  

One of the younger centaurs (just about 60 - 65 years old), with Ungor arms and armour.

And the other younger centaur catching an arrow in his shield.

A close up at the banner. I tried to do it like the Wood elf BSB in their army book, but I ended up pretty far from that... The picture got a little dark, I can't imagine why, as I had four strong lamps shining upon it...I must have blocked the light with the camera...

Last pic, and a preview of things to come   It's only a matter of time, will and mood.

Shadowwolf

And what have we here? A pinkish scratch built something, not very hard to mistake for an unpainted Steam tank right out of the foam box. Indeed it was. Quite a bit of work on that one. It later funneled out in the Scratch building article which can be found in the Workshop of the site. Finished, it looked like this:

So, it is finally finished! My very own scratch built Steam Tank.   Although with the new rules it will maybe not be as much fun to use
Much credit to Imperialforge and his wonderful decals! If you haven't, check out his home page!


The left side of the STank, featuring a helblaster and steam gun. All weapons are removeable.


And the right side. The big pictures on the sides are not hand painted, (although I wish I could say that ) they are Imprialforge's decals  


An dragon-view-pic. The last thing a goblin doom diver sees before impacting the ground beside it.  


And a rear pic.


Here it is in "Sigmar's hammer" version, without any weapons. You can see some of the scratches and bruises I didn't manage to cover up after an unsupervised friend of mine picked on it without asking first.  


And the "normal" conqueror version, with a great cannon as steam cannon.


Here it is taken apart. The pieces fit together with pins. (and I kept the inside pink, just for you, McKnight   ) When the new parts come out I'm gonna make a fighting platform for it as well


And here is the pink version, unpainted, and without most of the decoration. The measure tape ended up looking pretty good on the finished model  
To completely ruin the apparency of the finished stank, I'm going to list all the parts I used  
The base shape in styfrofoam and you see whats measure tape, and whats not. The roof block is a piece of balsa wood with more measure tape glued to it and the turret is made of foam, balsa and tape. The steam gun is made of plastic tubes, as well is the helblaster piece. The boiler is a piece of foam with balsa glued around it and the wheels are from a plastic toy cannon. The smoke stack is made by sawing of the joint part of a bamboo fishing rod and gluing it to a piece of tush pen. The cannon is (pretty obviously) a great cannon and the plow is the bit I had to cut of to fit in the cannon, strengthened with some measure tape.
The very tip of the steam tank is the head of the trumpet from the Knightly orders sprue. The two foremost pennants are made up of tape and the skull from the Knightly order's banner pole was added to the topmost pennant. The hatches are made up of more measure tape and on the sides are Imperialforge's fantastic decals. Then, there are soldier's shields, with various iconography. Two from the shield sprue and one made up of a cavalry hammer. The pennant on the right side is also from the KO flag sprue and on the left side there is one pennant from the glade rider sprue and one from the KO. The rolled-up blanket on the roof is made by rolling up thick card and gluing sewing tread around it. The pipe system on top of the boiler is made from a soft air gun bullet and sprue plastic.

That's it folks!
You'll see more of it when I start the fighting platform!

Shadowwolf

Now that was a scratch build! I was a few weeks later outdone by LiuZheng's Cathedral of War. Timely, the new Empire book was released, effectively cancelling any and all modifying of the steam tank, rendering my work undone! However, we got another nifty rare choise in the bargain, the Rocket battery. As the model wasn't released yet, I decided to go make my own. How hard could it be?

Ho, there!
Although there has been many posts like this, I'd like to popst a picture of my barbeque stick launcher. Er... Helstorm Rocket battery.
It is made from a artillery kit, some plastruct and wooden barbeque sticks. Not painted yet, though.





Tell me what you think!

Shadowwolf

Once again, the flame of creativity struck, this time triggered by the enthusiasm of starting our Border Princes Games mastered campaign, and sent me into manical constructions, ending up half drowned in wood glue, balsa wood and small pieces of cardboard. But the results speak for themselves as my failing stamina left me panting beside the table.

We have had our Border princes campaign issued and we will start it on tuesday!
That is a great feat of management by our standards! To celebrate the rules completetion and the longed for start of the campaign, I devoted two days to constructing this pallisade fort.

This is the kind of fort you have your troops make two days before the chaos horde bears down on your lands.
So 307 9cm and 12 cm sharpened sticks of hazel (honestly stolen from my neighbor's garden) and 191 balsa wood planks later, four sections of wall, four towers and one gatehouse are finished for painting! This makes it very versatile, as you can position the walls and towers to either incorporate a town inside the walls or make a up fort of itself in the classic warhammer style. And makes it easy to pack into a box and move.  

Maybe I'll post a pic more when painted. I'm gonna have to use gallons of paint...

Shadowwolf

Question : I notice a hot glue gun in the picture , does the hot glue hold the pieces together sufficiently ? . Ive never had much luck with hot-glue guns , maybe i'm using inferior quality glue-sticks .

Weeell, it doesn't stick together as good as I want it to, but it's well enough. And it is 900 times faster than any wood or PVA glue ever produced!

I made a gate yesterday. It is not fasterned to the gatehouse, so it can be removed in case of destruction or troops passing through.





A lot of people (not just here) have thought it to be an orc fort. It isn't. No orc would ever build a ladder, if it didn't justify beating somebody to pulp.  
I based it upon the pictures of the border princes fort in the general's compendium, but added more pallisade and a heftier gate. The fort is supposed to look like what the local population could come up with in a two weeks or so. Not to remain to the author's grandgrandgrandsons. Really just to fend of would-be-councerours. (like Crom and Grom)

Shadowwolf

Aaaaaand....
It is finished!

Painting it black took three quarters of the painting time, but once the damned thing was black, it was just to dry brush (with a citadel castle brush!   ) the whole thing, paint the tops of the logs and Vióla!

I packed in a few pictures with it full of men as well,( just for you, thabear   )
Enjoy!






Shadowwolf

[Shadowwolf]

I also did a few commisions for my friends during the campaign. One noteable was the huge tentacle-covered chaos monolith I made for the Chaos player.

Hi!

I took to building this huge piece of rock for one of my friends, who is playing chaos in the border princes campaign I'm games mastering. He's not very fond of making terrain, and so I asked if I could make his Supply Center (I had such a load of nice ideas for what it could look like) and off I went.
The idea of how it works as a supply center is: It channels magic, allowing the chaos player to draw upon daemons and followers outside the realm of Chaos. So, naturally (or chaotically), it had to represent something which has a pretty large stream of magic through it. Which means lots of fun things to add
Normally, a supply center is made up of a building (which may be destroyed in battle and so on) but in this case I had to make up a few special rules. Instead of giving shelter to troops, I gave it monolith powers, from the Generals' compendium. That added a lot of flavour to it and gave the chaos player lots of inspiration for both gaming and fluff.



The rock is made up of styrofoam, adding tentacles of cable and a few teeth and eyes.
A tiny Star Wars figure can be seen at the base of the rock, just for perspective. It's huuuge

Shadowwolf

Another commision work, another Supply center, was for the Dark elf player. He needed a slave center in which to funnel his claims to his harbor and back to dark Naggaroth in order to bring in reinforcements. So I took on the challenge to build it. He liked the frst scetches and asked me to make the towers like those of the Dark elf Watchtower in the 6th edition Dark elf book.

Tally ho, fellow chaps!

Once again I've been over-productive and constructed scenery for my fellow campaign players (although they should do that themselves...). Some of you might have seen my Chaos monolith which I posted here a while ago, and now it's time for a piece of Dark elf scenery. The piece itself is to represent a dark elf slave center, where you gather your slaves for work and for shipping to Naggaroth. It is complete, with a Cold one pen (with gangplank, of course!), a small field for food (you need something the slaves have to work with! Who would be able to call themselves slavers if their slaves could just sit around, doing nothing??), guard towers (huge and menacing! NOT inspired from LoTR), zoo-fences (just large enough so that you could crawl through, although you would be filled with crossbow bolts for trying! Escape is within reach, but very well guarded  )

The two towers (haha) are made out of foamcore. Ideal for constructing features like these! There is room for exactly one model at the top of each tower. I'll try to get some shots of the piece with a few dark elves and cold ones in it. Perhaps even working slaves

My pal Axel, who is the dark elf player in question has two cold ones to put in the pen. We tested the look of it earlier, when it was not painted, and it looked just marvelous! The crouching lizards looked just as if they were peeking through the bars at the tasty slaves!  Also note the bite marks on the gangplank!

(Oops, the family board game of murder in the dark sneaked into the picture! "Kill Doctor Lucky". If you haven't tried it, do try it!)

So, what do you think?

Shadowwolf

At this point, I had started University and was taking an unusually boring class of Computer moduling. During this period, creativity took it's hand to another part of the warhammer hobby... Whether I liked it or not.

I did it. I admit.

I colored it. 
You can all find the uncolored version of it at http://uk.games-workshop.com/apocalypse/wallpapers/1/

Don't ask why, don't ask for how long.

How? In short periods of fanatic boredom.

It's done. Or sort of.



Now tell me: Was it worth it?

Shadowwolf

I also had quite a few modeling projects working. One made up from spare bits boxes bought from GW resulted in this minotaur, merged from parts of all of them, I believe. My green stuffing was getting better as well, as I effectively both got the head right and trimmed the joint with fur.

A head swap, sligt tilting, a little bit of bending of the left leg an Vióla!

Still WIP, though...

Together with two river trolls and the guy below, he made up the Talabheim Zoo squadron, effectively Irongut mercenaries to add flavour and punch to my army. My greenstuffing skills improved (according to me  ) with every project I used it.

Well, this is how the greenstuffing came out! I'm pretty satisfied with it as it's the second time I use the stuff
Tell me what you think! Add anything?

I've filed his nipples down to simulate wearing a shirt.

I wanted him to look like he's been hired for a battle and been given a ogre size uniform so the troops wont shoot the wrong ogre. If the battle goes wrong, he can always tear it of.  I played a little with the thought of making it multicoloured, as in having been dyed many times, thus to symbolize a mercenary campaign through the empire states.
And the hat is supposed to look a little bit too small 

The photography of minis interested me as well. How to make the perfect photo of a mini? I saw a professional use a glass slate for a very cool effect, which I tried out on my brand new Gotrek and Felix minis. Didn't turn out very well, though...

Hiya!
I tried to set up equipment for making a good photo of a miniature, without too much distractions. I have seen lots of successfull results with blue-white gradient backgrounds, but I had none to use, so I went for white.
What I tried to acheve is a picture which could be displayed in a book or presentation, focusing on the miniature. So I got this idea when staring at my glass cabinet  What do you think? I know there is a BIT more to ask of the light, but I had no proper light source. Would it be feasible? Comments are always welcome

I had got quite a fixation on the single models now. I had a pretty finished Empire army and was looking for the ultimate painting experience, taking interest in rare or unusual figures, often from other suppliers than GW. This is one of the dudes who came out on the other end.

I came by this mini on the swedish version of E-bay and bought it at once! It's the old Ral Partha mini "Rumblunder, the complete warrior". Do notice the resemblance to Sylvester Stallone.
Rambo/Rocky is painted and finished and reday to come out to play! Beware, Old World!

I'm gonna run him as either a Wardancer Lord or as Gotrek. Both roles would mean a lot of hacking and slashing at foes. 


I might have made the skin tone a little lighter, but I guess he got a tan from running around like that all day!
What do you think?

Yet another burst of creativity, this time working through the university, in recesses and lunches. After a while I ended up with a collection of over 500 Imperial themed Smileys. They are still waiting to be implemented in the forum by Calvin. I won't bother posting them all here, but here are a few examples.




       

A while later again, creativity took the path of computering, this time editing existing images, adding magic for the Magica tactica.

I just sifted through the images....


And I had to! I couldn't help myself! They are just sooo nice!! 





Ok, three more 



Magic aura! Might change that into something more like white flames...



Magic missile fireworks!!  A little magic and enhancing of the highlights on the soon-to-be-fried-by-a-halfling-warp engineer! I kept the background already made for them.



Perspective depth darkening and evil eyes!  I erased the bases as well, as they seem to come out of the soft hill so nicely. Surely a burial tomb underneath! Why they have imperial shields, though, is beyond me 
I've got momentum now!  Two more!


Not very much on this one, just a little Waaagh! energy




Von Carstein marches his undead host to battle under the clear moonlit sky! Glowing gosts, light aura on all KB weapons, stars, moonlight and glowing eyes. Now who wouldn't die just to be able be THIS awesome? 

Well, one last... I decided not to pour more time into this image... It is after all only a low resolution internet picture.

But...


Did someone say IRRESISTIBLE FORCE?!? 



This is how Kentucky fried chicken was founded 

Ok, I found a giant lightning bolt I just had to use, and this was the last good pic to use it in. The mage doesn't seem like a heaven's one, but what the heck! Individual hand-made highlights on everything and some magic aura to mark the caster. And a huuuge lightning bolt!

This looks much more colorful than what you'd normally see in a situation like this (heck, you wouldn't see anything against that incinerated pillar of air!  ) but bringing the image to such contrasts would ruin it, I'd say.

What are those vietnamese-looking guys in the left of the picture?

Ok, stamina at end and creativity burst satisfied.... 

I can rest in peace... 


...for a while. 

Shadowwolf

And that's how it is  Creativity comes, puts me into a burst of manical speed and leaves me dry until the next time.

And I love it.

This was the blast from the past. Soon, new things will start appearing here, my growing collection of Imperial houses, A few things I missed, Siege equipment, The Von Zeppel Platform and More fancy models.

Cheers!

Shadowwolf

[Shadoweyed]

The way you describe your creativity sounds like a really great booty call. 

Cheers on all the fantastic work you have done and keep it coming. I know that I for one thoroughly enjoy it.

-Shadoweyed

[Shadowwolf]

Thanks, Shadoweyed!

I'm adding a few more things, all pre-dating the Terrain Board. First out is a Warhammer-Empire classic; The Captasus!

Of course I had to go and make one after introduced to him here at W-E! A bretonnian pegasus, a torso and some armoured arms and then he's ready to go!

Another model I finished a while later was my treeman. The new wood elves book had just been released and I wasn't too happy with the new treeman. He looked all to much like a monster, while I wanted him more like Treebeard from LotR. He hadn't appeared in the films just yet,so I still had my own mental image of him.
I got my hands on one of the old treemen on E-bay and after finishing a new base for him, with a huge rock to make him seem taller, he recieved painting to match the rest of my Wood elves. In celebration of the new rules for him I added as many spites as I could to his base.
I later entered him into a painting contest, and he earned a 2nd place, awarding me the Ogre in the above post.





An early terrain piece, well not that early but still, was the stone farmstead I build after a White dwarf article on bretonnian terrain. Stacking blocks of polyurethane around a basic shape resulted in this little cottage. As I couldn't think of any good ways to add a straw roof, I decided to make a peat roof instead, thus the grass growing on top of the house.

The house also included a special feature; The window of death.

If you wonder why the name, try figuring what would happen if you opened it. 

Shadowwolf

[Warlord]

Bout time all your stuff was put together.

All of your stuff is such a high quality, and I love it.

And that fort still looks fantastic!

[Siberius]

If they don't plasticise centigors for the new beasts book, I'm definately going to borrow that whole centaur idea (except using beast heads, obviously). They'd fit in so well with the ones I already have.

Course, seeing all this stuff together makes me realise how much amazing stuff you've done 

[Shadowwolf]

Why, thank you! 

I dug through the piles of photographs on our family computer and came up with even older stuff. This is from the dawn of my warhammering, when I first really managed to accomplish anything more than basic colors on a miniature. 

In the very beginning, I was sold on Wood elves, having taken not just a little inspiration from Mr J.R.R.T. I inherited a few wood elves from a cousin, which made for an exellent start on the wood elves beside the Imperials I had gotten through the Starter pack.

This is a photo I took for fun,having painted my few waywatchers to blend with the citadel trees, nearly invisible, striking from the dark of the forest, appearing right beside the unwary traveller of Athel Loren.

Another early project was this Imperial house. I had made a few fences and standing rocks, but not really anything substantial in the way of terrain. After a first failed attempt, I came up with a scond house. Made out of cardboard and Kellog's Corn Flakes boxes, this house saw the light of dawn. I still remember the pain of cutting all these roof tiles... And still do.

Sigh, the memories... 

But I advanced from the cardboard stadium, as I managed to run past a guy with his hands full of pink polsterene on a dump. After a quick and enthusiastic convincing speech (of both my father and the guy with the foam) he decided to donate it to my noble *ahem* cause. To celebrate this accuiration of material, I decided to make something out of rock. A watchtower suited me perfectly.
But let's not skip too far ahead. My father is a master sience engineer, and he told me of how he had used hot wire to cut polysterene. Enthralled by the idea, I came up with a few hot-wire cutting ideas, some which were dismissed by my father. Together we did a first construction, using something as simple as two wooden rods, a wooden block and some wire. This first prototype is what I used to cut up the polysterene for my watch tower.

Notice the short hair. By measuring the length of it, I can keep track of how old I am in pictures, simply by subtracting it from my current hair length. I believe I am 15 or 16 in this picture.

The watchtower took form, huge and pink. I added a hill to it, in order to give it a little more strategic advantage. The rampart is designed so that the hand gunner can lean forward, his handgun just following the parapet, in order to make it look like he is aiming down at an oncoming foe.

And painted it looked like this! My spearman standard bearer got the honor of being size comparison.
Notice that the grass is untouched on the hill. There is no path between the door and the stairs! I realized this too late to change it. On later days, I added ivy to the wall, covering up cracks between the layers of foam and adding a nice detail for skaven assassins to climb.

After a few struggles with my first foam cutter, I quickly began to realize it's limitations. It was simply not big enough and the thread snapped because it got too hot. And straight angles were a real pain.
So I came up with a new design, based on our school's mechanical saw.

This version is povered by my father car battery charger, able to switch between 6V and 12V depending upon how destructive I was feeling. Needless to say, 12V cuts a little too brutally and 6V too slow...
Anyway, this is the tool I'm using today. Should I build another one, it would probably look similar, but the table would be tiltable according to a degree scale. But that's another project...

A High elf chariot came into my hands through my cousin, who tired of them. He later started 40k. Anyway, at the moment I was very inspired by a dude I know as Macharia and his website. He was grieving the disappearence of the wood elf chariot in later books and thus I went to paint the chariot up as a wood elf one.

Sadly, it never saw battle as yet a new wood elf army list arrived without chariots. It holds a place in my cabinet still, though.

END OF ALL OLD THINGS

So, let's add something new! I realised I had forgotten one of the better Magic pictures, the only one I made completely by myself. In a burst of creativity, I got the grand idea of this photograph, and then figured out how to get the wanted effect. Using a christmas tree lamp down in our blacked out basement I took a picture of my few undead models.

Pushing the lamp into the crevace between two sections of the terrain board I lined up the models and took the shot. To this I added Volkmar, from the same angle, on a white background.

Together these came out as this picture, dubbed "Volkmar goes Nuclear" after a little cutting and pasting.


Well, that's all for today! see you 'round, folks!

Shadowwolf

[Pipeline]

that is actually awesome.

[GamesPoet]

That is some great stuff there Shadowwolf!

Thank you for sharing all of that in one thread!  Magnificent!

[Shadowwolf]

Thank you, thank you!  There's more to come!

A not-so-old entry is my Imperial Manor, all made out of ginger bread:

This is not your standard Empire terrain feature. This is a house made from ginger bread!

At least in Sweden it's a tradition to build houses out of ginger bread, and I have a certain knack for coming up with whacky ideas. A few years ago I made a full viking ship (the hull was a terror!) and after that there was an Igloo, followed by a footbal (yes someone kicked it...(not on purpose...) ) and this year it has come down to a warhammer terrain feature!

Starting out, we have most of the pieces which will build the main frame, a tower and a main part wich together form something which could be mistaken for a church. It isn't, beware! 


This is the basic construction. By adding molten sugar to the pices they are applied to each other with outmost care! The roof for the main hall is not on yet, but the supports are being added first.


Roof tiles, windows and door, all made out of yummy egg and sugar!


Shadowwolf

Mmm, still stands here at home. Soon time to consume it!  Yum!

The inspiration to this creation actually spawns from a terrain project I'm currently wrking on. The creativity burst which originally set the construction in motion didn't manage to finish it, because of university calling my attention. Alas, I am finishing it one bit at the time but here are a few WIP pics of it!

Just as any other house, it started out as a few boxes of Foam core and polysterene. I used Mr Size to get the right proportions on everything.

This christmas, I went down to buisness with finishing the house, which I havn't done yet, but I have nearly managed to finish the roofs. The theme of the building is that an older one, the tower like part, got a new addon, using more sophisticated building techniques and more expensive windows. The lightly sagging roof is also a sign of wear on the old part of the building.


However, this was not the only project I had at the moment. As I spent the biggest part (if not all of it) of my day at Chalmers, I ended up having projects there as well. Two houses took shape there, a lot faster than the one at home. Foamcore was cheap, it was thrown away in large quantities, so no one minded me nicking a few pieces for houses. I had a lot of questions from my class mates, though, mostly about how I had time to put up with this stuff...

Due to painting under a halogene lamp, the colors percieved in my basement weren't neccessarily the actual colors painted. So when I placed them on my table, I was horrified at the bright blue and red roofs which had appeared so modest in another light.

The second one is this small stable. I am under the impression that if I continue making houses at a certain rate, I will end up with an Imperial city to fight in/for/against/with.


Another small side project was this flying chaotic rock. I had spied a set of marvellous chaos terrain on the interwebs and decided to try that out for a smaller monolith. I also did a little practicing with trying to make the lava glow, but I must say it didn't come out as I would have wanted.


Shadowwolf

[Dunrik]

You are too clever shadowwolf! That's why I hate you

[Shadowwolf]

Aww, you make me feel all fuzzy inside! 

Here's a few later models!

Let's start with Jaas, my griffon I got over E-bay.  ('The griffon' in swedish is 'Gripen', Jaas Gripen being a Swedish military aircraft, hence the pun )

I wanted a pretty natural looking color scheme for her, so I went with browns, white and black. Actually, I pretty much copied the colour scheme from a GW griffon portrayed in the 'Egg hunt' skirmish scenario. I still have no rider for her, but I use my mounted arch lector (with a blot of blue tac) instead.

I really like the contrasts which build between the different layers of feathers in the wings. 

For the body I went with a lion-ish colour, contrasting to the dark brown of the body feathers.

And where better to use the baby griffon than with it's mother? I used the same colour scheme for the baby as the for the mother.

Her battle prowess has yet to be determined, though, as in the single battle she has participated in, a siege, she was shot down by massed orc artillery in the first turn.

Next up is another E-bay figure. As you probaby have figured out, I run a wood elf army beside my larger Empire one. This army is made up by Cool and Unique units, so I'm always on the lookout for the perfect role to fit my version of the characters. I wanted a werewolf model for my Alter Noble and so kept a lookout for those. Unfortunately, most werewolf models are evil, so I could not find the serene creature I was imagining. What I found was the Confrontation Wolfen, of which I came across one at E-bay one day. Not exactly fitting the Wood elf theme he still had a lot of character.

He had some trouble fitting on the base, though...
The gun can easily represent a longbow, and even though he runs around with a dead tree for weapon, so does the treekin!
Originally, I wasn't aiming for such a blue skin. I had aimed for a greyer skin with a blue tone, but when he came out in the other end I liked what I saw and kept it that way. Notice the long blond hair in a pony tail. Recognizing it?

His clothes are pretty worn out and ripped, which really works well for a elf-wolf (were-elf? Welf?), giving him the Hulk-feeling associated with werewolfs.

There were so many good details on this guy! He really looks like a traveller/hunter.

And then there is the Von Zeppel Fighting platform I built for my steam tank. Finished it just in time for the Eurobash and it made quite a few holes in the Imperial (and khornate) opposition.

I only had 2/3 of the crew, so I kitbashed the rest from handgunners. The platform is made from balsa wood, cocktail sticks and measure tape. And shields, of course. One for each city/province the steam tank has served in!

And at last today, a wee update on the progress on the Imperial Manor. I've finished decorating the 2nd floor, adding windows and shield bosses to the walls. I also finished the roofs (AT LAST!)

I did a little texturing of the rocks as well. Unfortunately, the smaller bricks are a bit off, tilting and of different sizes depending on rows 
Should there be more widows? The tower part seems a bit naked and the gaps in the wall seem to be lacking something. But then there's heat loss and window tax, so I wouldn't want to put too many windows up. They are a pain to make as well...

The roof. The joint between the roofs was a pain, but at last the roofs are covered in nice flat (mostly) tiles.

That's it for today! 

Shadowwolf

[Shadowwolf]

Time for another update! This time the Cursed Company make an entrance! You have probably seen a few of them already in the Volkmar Goes Nuclear picture earlier in the thread.

The story behind these guys is that I from the beginning got my hands on a few skeletons and one and a half zombie. I painted the few skeletons, hoping I would once have the opportunity to add them to a cursed company. As they were pretty easy to paint, two or three have been painted by my little sisters.
Later on I purchased the cursed company command, intending on fielding them sometime. But as their starting cost of 305 points for 10 models is a little high, I have not yet decided to use them. They might resurface as flagellants, though.
A while ago I won two auctions on E-bay, netting me a few more skeletons (missing quite a few parts) for my collections, of very various quality, size and productions. This suited me very well, as I wanted a very wide variety of skeletons in my company. Unfortunately, I havn't got my hands on any foreign skeletons apart from the high elf and goblin in command.

Enoguh talking! 

This is the Cursed Company in all it's bony glory, a undiciplined mass of ununiformed skeletons.



Here is the first rank. The Company is led by the towering figure of Richter Kreuger, flanked by the banner of malediction and his faithful goblin drummer. Flanking them are the two largest skeleton warriors, each of them at least 7 feet tall in real life, both with Imperial gear.


The second rank of skeletons are made up mainly of spears. A normal skeleton, followed by another slain knight on foot, his shield and helmet a bit mismatched. He is hóne of the first few. The third is a Unipose skeleton, no modifications. The fourth, with the bow, is another unidentified 7 foot skeleton. He is positioned to fire over the goblin in the front rank. The last one is another old one, painted by my big little sister.


The third rank has a second musician. He is another old guy, painted by my small little sister. The next one is just a normal and the next again is a uniposer with militia arms and armour added. The fourth is yet another unidentified, this one smaller than the rest. The position of his knees indicate either instability (due to lacking balance organs?) or wetting himself (which I cincerly doubt...). The last is a uniposer I added some greenstuff clothes to a well as the militia hat and a bretonnian shield. I painted a pretty wild colouur scheme on him in order for him to stand out of the crowd.


Next up is another uniposer, with knight armour added as well as a lance and helmet. To the right of him are two of the smaller skeletons followed by a normal, ehich I've come to call 'Jig' after the pose he strikes. Then there is another uniposer with the arm of the rightmost skeleton in the first rank and a militia club.


The last rank is incomplete. It is made up of the models which didn't really fit the rest of the regiment. The two first are emerging from the ground (they were missing feet...) which isn't very fluffy for the Company. So they hide in the back ranks  Another normal guy followed by one of the first, who has just gotten an arrow through the chest (which doesn't show very well in the picture), hence the crouching pose.

That's all, folks!

Shadowwolf

[Perambulator]

 

[Shadowwolf]

Thanks, Peram! 

Okay, not to much to look at this time, but some WIP. I guess it will be along time to the next update as I am moving!  This means everything goes into boxes and is left at your parents' house while you go shopping new stuff to fill your new apartment!

Anyway, I made a great deal with Shadowlord, aquiring a large quantity of great swords to add to the three I had. A total of 29 models are now forming this huge block of elite state troopers, ready for priming and painting!
Which will probably take some time and be around for first colors at the start of the summer! 



The Imperial Manor on the other hand, is having a few colors added to it each time. A glimpse of the works:



Shadowwolf

[Stmr5000]

This is really cool.  Question, how do you paint the feathers for the griffon?  I'm getting my own, and I have no idea how to get the feathery look.

[Merrick]

You have my everlasting awe, love and respect.   

[Shadowwolf]

Hia!
Sorry for not answering, nor updating in such a long time  but great things have been happening! I have moved out of my parents' house, to my very own flat closer to university! Bringing with me, of course, the painting station. It took a few eeeks to get everything rolling again but the painting station was pretty deep down in the cardboard boxes. Although being busy beween 7:00 and 21:00 (sometimes 23:00) EVERY day, I've managed to get a little painted on the greatswords, as well as packing everything up, shopping junk I didn't know I needed, studied, rehearsed for the students' farce a.s.o.

Anyway, here are a few pics! They havn't gotten very far, but hopefully I can stay motivated and finish them!

This is really cool.  Question, how do you paint the feathers for the griffon?  I'm getting my own, and I have no idea how to get the feathery look.

The trick I believe is the most important is the basecoat for each section of the feathers. The model was undercoated black, but that was painted over with Beastial brown, Codex grey or left black. Successive drybrushes, lighter and lighter each time, until I like what I see. The trick here is the consistency of the paint. Try watering down the paint A LITTLE before drybrushing. It turns out much better.

Shadowwolf

[Shadowwolf]

CREATIVITY ALERT!

Once again, creativity has struck me with a forceful blow! This time, I suggested an idea to a forum member which would just not leave my head! So now, I'm scratchbuilding a Daemons army, based on Elementals!

After a while of scribbling little scetches in my stream line mechanics and advanced material engineering books, I've started off the scratch building according to an army list based on my ideas.

The theme is pretty much a race of gnomes or gremlins, too feeble to fight, who instead use their extensive knowledge in elemental magic to summon creatures to fight for them. I had a thought of including them as horrors, but they didn't fit into the list.
So the heralds should be pretty much a gnome with a elemental of their choise which they are either riding or goading forward.

Plaguebearers and heralds would be water elementals, concisting of pure water, thus the high toughness (how do you kill water?) and regeneration (through herald). I've made some interesting experiments with hot glue for sculpting these buggers!

The Bloodletters would be Ice elementals. Pretty fragile, but extremely dangerous on the offensive! They might change into daemonettes, their radiated cold representing the musk of the daemons.

Screamers would be Air elementals, thus flying and not very high combat statistics.

Plague beasts would be Rock elementals, welded together from lava and rock. High toughness, nearly indestructible and initiative 1. I'm split about if the rock elementals should be bloodcrushers or beasts, but I figured beasts with their high toughness.

Flamers would of course be fire elementals! Pretty much living fire!

And lastly, the Great unclean one! He is going to be a hybrid elemental, sporting a solid rock body (toughness), water elements (regeneration), fire arms (haha)(Breath attack and BtB attack) and lastly the master gnome riding on top! (thus magical potential)

But how to model all these dudes then? This is where the ideas starts popping up like mushrooms in an orc camp!

Hybrid elemental: Large rock or metal body with elements of fire and water as appendages. Gnome on top or inside cockpit, cackling manically!
Gnomes: Gnoblar bodies and heads, sculpt Hobbit like faces? Weaponless.

Shadow elemental: Black figure. Just pitch black Perhaps yellow eyes. Or maybe just an empty base with a shadow painted on it.
Lightning: Stripped copper wire dipped in resin.
Water elemental: Make a finished base and add clear or tinted hot glue to it.
Water elemental herald: Large water elemental with Gnome with snorkel swimming inside. Fish?
Ice elementas: Shards of something glued together to form a vaguely human shape. Glass to fragile and sharp? Plastic sprue carving? Cerams?
Lava elementals: Big glowing blob with scorched earth! Painted hot glue or greenstuff.
Air elementals: White figures (will probably be wood elf horses) with cotton mist. (will look like sheep?)
Sand elementals: Simply a 40x40 base with an angry sand box!
Rock elementals: Favourite! Polyurethane rocks matched with real rocks for a carnifex- or tyrant guard like creature.
Fire elementals: Sculpt from greenstuff threads or dip upside down in something? Might use melted polyurethane too...
Light elemental: Just lightsourcing and a pin!
Void elemental: Make a nice high base and cut a void out of it!
Darkness elemental: reversed light elemental!
Anyway, I couldn't hold myself back any more, but took the bisycle to the GW store in town and bought a bag of square bases. While not enough for my needs, I got a pretty good batch of 25mm bases for building thins. I'll have to see if I can get a few out of my local O&G pal.

So I went and constructed the first element of my army (haha), one of the Rock elementals, which are going to go as Plague beasts.

I simply took a hike down to the street and collected a few rocks which I glued together according to my concept sketches. I had planned to use foam for rocks as well, but I realized I had left both my foam and greenstuff at home-home when I moved away from there in feberuary...

A day later I started a few sand elementals (Nurglings). They're pretty rough now, but this is just the basic frame.




The sand elementals are getting a treatment of first gravel, then flour and then paint. I yet have to paint the base, but I havn't decided on colours yet, so it will probably stay unpainted.

The bases for the water elementals are also taking shape. I try to include as many interesting features as possible to flow through/past/over. The screaming guy is gonna be drowning in one 


That's all for today, folks!


... I wonder if creativity can carry me through the whole army...

Shadowwolf

[Merrick]

Erm....

I can't see the latest pics. 

[Zak]

WOW!!!! very cool dude 

[Shadowwolf]

Erm....

I can't see the latest pics. 

Hmm... They work for me. Sure you give them enough loading time? With this much images on one page it might take a while for them to appear.

WOW!!!! very cool dude 

Thanks! 

Shadowwolf

[Ownkreig von Pwnage]

all of this is ridiculously fantastic. you just made my models cry 
 

EDIT: What horses did you use for the centaurs?

[Parka]

Very Pic heavy you weren't joking 

I liked the photoshoped stuff.

[Shadowwolf]

Those are wood elf horses with their saddles shaven off 

Shadowwolf