Back from the dead on this plog, with my Pleasant Surprise VI round II!
George is my target, and he has a lovely army of blue-and-white Empire with a steampunk vibe. Inspired by this post on his plog;
As an aside I am finally coming around to the realisation that my army will need Demigryphs to help give a competitive edge. I'm not a big fan of the chickens and am looking for ideas on what I can use in this army. I pondering converting a variety of mechanical mounts using my Steam Dragon for inspiration. With the feel I'm trying to give my army I think that the largest real animal will be the horse, so the demi mounts need to be "engineered"
Any ideas? I'm thinking maybe a wolf, bear and/or bull.
I thought I could make some Demigryph expys, mechanical bulls, using the Juggers. I bought the legs and bodies from eBay, thinking I could use Minotaur spares for heads. Then, I was struck by the idea of making centaur-like creatures with mechanical chests and Minotaur heads and arms.
(Click images for a larger version.)
Gathering together all the various castings and other pieces! The barrels were going to be for steam plants on the back (I'd ordered the Skullcrusher Juggers with the crotch / saddle in place on the back - that was where I would attach that). I used Instant Mold and resin to make cogs (based on Lego cogs) and some torsos (based on Tyrus and a terminator torso back). The little cogs are from a collection of old clock parts I have in my bits box.
The arms were assembled with brass rod and plastic tubes to form hydraulic pistons, mimicking the bones of the forearm. I assembled the champion's arms together, so he could have a two-handed weapon. You can also see how I attached the heads with more hydraulics and used plastic tubes and the Knight trumpet to make exhausts or similar.
The head of the hammer was based on the twin-tailed comet design - I printed the design on paper and used it as a template, then free-handed some more details. The old round lion shields made a cool body of the comet.
I only had two heads (necessitating a casting for the champion), and while I had three sets of horns, one had been trimmed. I used the musician part from the Greatswords to give the musician new "horns"!
Graphics edited to make a shield and banner design. The shield was printed on card and laminated with plasticard into a curved shield, and the banner was printed onto decal paper.
The bodies are put together and the torsos attached. As mentioned, I had ordered the Skullcrusher bodies and legs - but Hoard-o-Bits sent the Bloodcrusher bodies. In many ways, this was good as I think the steam plants would have been too busy. But, the Skullcrusher & Bloodcrusher Juggers are different - the legs do not fit! It required some careful positioning, which resulted in some very dynamic poses indeed! I had to replace the rear hydraulic pistons (one of the reasons I chose these components in the first place!) with scratch-built elements. Still, that worked well as now all the pistons are the same size.
I cut off the front of the bodies (the neck) and mounted it on the "hump" above the shoulders, creating a waist. The gaps were tight and sealed with poly cement, so I was able to use resin to completely fill the bodies. This held the pin holding the torsos in place very well indeed. To cover the hole at the front, I simply used a round shield with a horned-beast design.
I did not have any suitable bases, so I used some 6mm plywood cut to size and pinned the models in place with brass rod, Milliput and superglue.
To painting! WIP shots follow;
I undercoated the model white and gave it an all-over coat of a watery mix of black and silver, then washed with blue-gray, black and silver wash, with a final drybrush of silver. Then, I painted various portions in different metallic styles - including the usual verdigris copper which is so nice. I kept with the blue and white scheme of the army, using bright yellow as a contrast color.
Looking at them now, the freehand designs on the shields at the front really need work - I won't be offended if you repaint those, George!
The finished models!
