Paraeroa

The title may say nothing to you, but let me explain, Paraeroa is Maori for 'Veteran' (At least that is what the dictionary I've consulted says!). After two characters, it was time to start building up the Veterans squad. So here you have the first one. Let's see the process. The original mini was this terminator:

Brother Deino, to surgery

 [Cut cut, chop, glue glue, putty, putty]

It's alive! Mwahahaha!

I kept on dismembering my Raptors marines. The change of pose is evident. Not as aggressive as the original, maybe, but it works for my purposes. Here you have it once painted:

Paraeroa on the shoulder pad

Yeah, I know, writing 'Veteran' on a Veteran mini is kind of lame. I have to work on better signs...

Yes, just pose for the pic, gazing into infinity. That's right

Just to remember the size of these blokes:

Bear in mind that the Blood Angel is wearing high heels has a higher base

Alongside his mates...

So the Squad begins...

Fear not, I have not forgotten about my other projects, I simply followed the momentum and built this one. I'm in greenstuff mood, so I'm working simultaneously on the next mini for this force and on certain mechanical mount (wink, wink). Any of them soon on your screens!

Space Sharks realscale Librarian

Though the title may be quite self explanatory, I'll yet try to surprise you. A few weeks ago I got to show the Space Sharks Captain and told you about my plan of mustering a realscale force.

Now it is time to show my evil plan, or at least part of it. You may be familiar with this mini...

Pic shamelessly stolen from Lexicanum

I forgot to take a pic from my own original model, ooops. Well, the thing is, here we have a Space Marine in Terminator Armour... You see where I am going here?

This one indeed is my model

Right, you might have seen several conversions of the Space Hulk minis, but I sincerely hope you have never seen what I am about to do with them :D

I pretend to use the Space Hulk terminators as realscale marines. Given the baroque ornamentation of all of them, I hope I can make a Veteran squad out of these minis, as well as some characters. So I'm starting with the Librarian, as I think it will be the easiest of all the bunch.

In the pic above you can see what I'm doing, cutting out the back structure, but leaving the rest more or less untouched. Then I need some rebuilding work with greenstuff...

I lowered the arms to give him a human silhouette and placed the book on the backpack

So the conversion is rather simple, you see. As said before, that is why I chose this model, to try the basics and see where the limits are. He looks like this when painted...

Hey! What happened to the stairs?

Why do I look like I'm dancing?

Some decisions I made. I'm replacing ordinary bases for flat ones (by Renedra). It's something I saw at Lead Adventure Forum and I really like it. As these minis have the metal tag no more, there is no need for slotta bases. A little bit minimalist, well, but I like innovating. Thanks for the idea, Elbows!

There is a hole in the mound. I wanted to sculpt some weird lizard or something, but I've been unsuccessful so far. I might give it another try at some point in the future.

Acoording to official background, Carcharodons are extremely pale, as descendenas of the Raven Guard, and have deep, dark eyes with almost no sclera. Just like sharks, how original. Ahem. I simply ignored that and painted him with tanned skin; I didn't dare to paint Maori tattoos on his face, the risk of screwing it all was too high.

Talking about the Maori inspiration for the Carcharodons, I painted a Tiki on the kneepad. It's a symbol of the first man, the relation between men and gods; I thought it might be appropiate for the guy with the magic powers.

In a Disney movie it would totally speak. Now you may be humming the Moana songs

I also mase some other Maori inspired decorations, but didn't want to overdo the mini. The armour looks mildly worn, as it is the general aspect I want this force to have.

Yup, I'm the Librarian. No, not the one from the movies. Give that book back, you scoundrel!

I also replaced the Captain's base, so here you have them both:

Space Maorines!

This is it for today. But it has started! From now on you can expect the whole set of Space Hulk termies to be desecrated and converted into towering realscale badasses. More to come soon(ish)!

It's a game of thrones

...but not the kind you are thinking of ;)

This (finally!) is the long awaited continuation to the Genestealer Patriarch throne I once promised. So well, first things first, let's have a Patriarch!

Ready to sit

I forgot to take a pic before priming it, so here you have it once painted, you can see I added a sexy belly and stuff:

I think he wants a kiss...

I repositioned the right hand, so instead the Charles Xavier pose it now resembles more a blessing lord, kind of a Pantocrator, which suits the vibe, I hope.

Sooo, the throne. I begun to build some structure around it.

Too large a piece, you say?

Well, it is a large throne room, but it is due to the fact that I had something special in mind...

Stay with me for a while...

I used Das putty to make rough rock walls, so the room itself looked like recently excavated, in accordance with the rock to which the throne itself is attached.

But the question stands, I guess. Why so large? Well, in fact it never was my idea to make just a mere diorama...

What's this nonsense?

Why this absurd box?

Time to reveal my plans! I am to build a full Space Hulk like board, but full 3D, set in the mine and underground catacombs in wich the Genestealer Cult dwells. So the throne room will be the starting point; it's as good as any other. In the first moment I painted it like this:

First one. Just the rest of the board to do

But you know what? When I saw it all so grey and dark I realised I didn't like it. I thought that a whole board this gloom would be too much for me. I wanted something less grimdark and in another fashion. So I repainted it:

Brown, beige and the like. The same yet not the same at all

Then I begun to add details. Let's see some:

A cent and a bead. What kind of decoration is this?

If we add some greenstuff...

...we get a valuable idol!

Cute ministealer

Ahem

A painting for a worthy wall

The central slab on the floor needed something else

And this banner will cover the secret door behind the throne

Yup, a secret escape door, I've thought of everything :D

Let's see it all finished!

I didn't glue the golden idol so I can move it, just in case an adventurer decides to steal it, you know ;). Close ups of the details:

Ideal for sacrifices and all kind of rituals

Secret door, remember?

 Finally, a bird's view:

Now I can say it. It has started. This will be only the first of many other rooms and corridors to come. Wish me luck for I am going to need it!

A change of plans! (Wasteland Walker Pt. 2)

No matter how good your plans are. They never survive first contact with the enemy, i.e., reality. The good thing is that I never make plans, but simply build and paint as I fancy, so I guess I'm safe!

Remember the wasteland walker from a few days ago? Well, I did built it and left it for some days as I had some work issues out of home. But a sudden idea struck my mind. I was thinking of a suitable background for the mini, as the concept was wide open and could make several things with the design I had. What reason could that gentleman have for striding all over the wastelands outside vicious hive cities? Why is he riding such a mount and what is his purpose in life? The junk collector might fit in, as well as the bounty hunter. But then I got it. The idea of a Knight-Errant was so appealing. And then all the pieces came into place in my mind. I simply knew what I had to do. I had to make a change on the mini. A slight but relevant one.

I guess the best way of illustrating my point is just with a few pics. I delved into my bits box, as I knew I had what I needed. A very particular head.

'I don't get it', you may say, 'what's so special about this head?'

How is this going to be any improvement in comparison with the ciber-Kislevite? Well, I touched the head...

Is it recognisable now? Even with the blurry pic?

Oh, come on! You don't really see where am I going to?

Somewhere in the Segmentum Pacificus, in a place whose name I do not care to remember...

This is it. Now I have something. Please let me introduce you Don Qirixote of Manchae Prime.

No, don't worry, I'll wait until you stop laughing. Take your time.

So... Where were we? Oh, yes, let's go for some paint...

My usual burnt colours problem with pics

Just for the sake of it. Take these two pics. No paint, no effect was added between them, they were taken with mere seconds of diference, but just with different light:

Lemon yellow tone!

No, seriously, it's the same #@%&ing mini. This pic is closer to the real colour

Sigh. No more comments. Let's stick to the fact that I kept on painting it...

Almost finished

Here we have the final version:

Somewhere in the Segementum Pacificus, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived during M.35, one of those who has an energy lance and ancient power field on a rack and keeps a clapped-out technag and a rusty cyberhound for racing [...]. Some claim that his family name was Quirixada, or Querexada, for there is a certain amount of disagreement among the authors who write of this matter, although [...] this does not matter very much to our story; in its telling there is absolutely no deviation from the truth.
And so, let it be said that this aforementioned gentleman spent his times of leisure - which meant most of the year - reading data slates of Space Marines, Inquisitors, Rogue Traders and chivalry with so much devotion and enthusiasm that he forgot almost completely about the hunt and even about the administration of his estate; and in his rash curiosity and folly he went so far as to sell his land, his ships, land speeders and servitors in order to buy data slates of chivalry to read, and he brought as many of them as he could into his house; and he thought none was as fine as those composed by the worthy Richard of Priestley, because the clarity of his prose and complexity of his language seemed to him more valuable than pearls [...].
With these words and phrases the poor gentleman lost his mind [and] became so caught up in reading that he spent his nights reading from dusk till dawn and his days reading from sunrise to sunset, and so with too little sleep and too much reading his brains dried up, causing him to lose his mind. His fantasy filled with everything he had read in his books, psychic powers as well as combats, battles, challenges, wounds, armour save, lascannons, Orks, Eldar, and he became so convinced in his imagination of the truth of all the countless grandiloquent inventions he read that for him no history in the world was truer.

So, in time, this Don Alonzo de Quirixada decided to clean some Imperial Guard armour of his ancestors, that had lain for ages forgotten in a corner, eaten with rust and covered with mould. He took his old techsteed Rho-102 (or Rho-CII, in Gothic numerals) and left his home in search of adventure, duels and undoing wrongs through the Galaxy...

Well, I think you get more or less the idea :D

Here you have a 360º view of RhoCII:

Phew! It's taken some more time than expected (RealLifetm, you know), but here it is. But of course, if I've dared to take this Quixotesque path (in so many ways), it means that this project has just doubled, for now I need a sidekick worth of Don Quirixote of Manchae Prime!