24/12/2018

Don't feed the troll

You can find trolls all over the internet, that's a fact. Even here, on this blog! Don't you believe me? See by yourself, today I bring a commission. Just in the same fashion of the Blood Bowl Ogre turned into Necromunda, I was given this Blood Bowl Troll to turn it into... well, Necromunda.

I didn't get many specific instructions, just to make it grimdark and menacing. In the beginning I toyed with the idea of a huge, massive two handed weapon, something like this:

At what point does something become 'too much' even for Warhammer?
I discarded that as I found the Goblin King hand from the Hobbit starter box. This could work better...

Five fingers on the right hand, four clawed fingers on the left one... Necromunda muties, man
The front part of the mini was painfully clear, something needed to be added. I thought of a canister of some kind, instead of the original wooden sign he had hanging from his neck.

I think this is the first time I intubate anyone ever

Best way to WH40K-ize a mini
In the end I turned the weapon into a spear. That helped with the original pose of the mini, throwing a ball.

It had a more natural flowing pose this way
I had been asked questions about the green stuff tubes. Far from my intention to make a 'tutorial', I'll just share my ideas on a way that works for me, I hope someone finds it useful.

More than enough for most of the uses on a 28mm mini
 The roll maker is kind of easy to use, but it can be deceiving. Try not to abuse of yellow stuff in the mix, though the key here is about constant pressure (and speed) when using the tool. If you press harder  at some point (or stop the movement halfways) you will likely smash the roll and make it lose its shape. Worst case scenario is having greenstuff stuck on the plate itself, that's a pain in the ass. In case of need, keep the tool wet.
A tube, long enough. Pay atterntion to both ends
Now the issue is to give proper shape to this and to add it to the mini. My hint is to never use your bare hands, as you inevitably will leave your prints or smash the tube. You can work with the tube immediately, as long as you don't touch it directly. You can use different tools (mainly burins) to manipulate the tube. Let's keep it simple and cheap, today I'll be using a mere toothpick. Just take the excess on the end apart.

This way you'll have only proper tube on one end
Stick the toothpick on that 'new' end (on it's very edge, we don't want to make a mess with this useful part)

Now we can manipulate it
Stick it to the desired part of the mini. Roll the toothpick to free the greenstuff.

Don't worry if the joint is a little mess, we'll get back there later
Now you can take the other end of the tube wherever you please. In this case there was enough so I could use my hands, but you may want to use the burin/toothpick again. At this point you may want to make complex forms or whatever you fancy. Work now that the greenstuff is not cured.

Be careful and avoid harsh movements so the tube joint remains in place
Use the toothpick to fix the tube to the other end at will. You will inevitably have to smash it.

Damn, it's /%&%$ difficult to take pics like this one

 This way the tubes stay in place. Just let the greenstuff cure, we'll manage later with the ugly ends.

It works for now
 Let's repeat the process quickly:




Enough for my purposes
 And again:



So you get the idea. I don't want to give the impression that I'm speaking the truth or giving a lesson. It's just the way that works for me. But OK, we have a problem, all those dirty, messy joints. What can we do? Once the greenstuff is cured, we will have to add a small 'ring' around the tube, just on the joint, to hide our previous mess. Look at the spear:

Do the same on each one
 It works the same way for fine wiring. Glue the thread and once everything is safe add the small ring to hide the thing, giving the impression of the proper plug:


This will be pretty much the mini
It also works on bases or wherever

Painting wise, the main direction I was given was making it dark and menacing, and specifically wearing kind of gothic makeup, the kind of The Crow one. So...

Grrrrrr
There she snorts!
The shoulder pad comes from the Blood Bowl Ogre!
This is how we hunt in our tribe

Told ya, Jim, this pest control job in the underhive sucks

 This is it!
At this point I can only wish you a merry Christmas! Enjoy the holidays with your beloved ones; I'll try to bring a last post before the year ends. In the meantime, best wishes to you all!!

14 comments:

  1. oh, oh! my heart! What an awesome conversion! You're real master mate!

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    1. Thank you very much! It's fun to see how it changes with a few tubes and wires :)

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  2. Te ha quedado muy bien, te copiaré la idea más adelante cuando la pila de las minis baje un poco...
    A mi también se me ha pegado alguna vez masilla en las planchas a la hora de hacer los tubos, si no tienes vaselina prueba con crema nivea que también sirve.

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    1. Gracias, tomo nota. Bueno, tú le estás dando a base de bien a Necromunda también, tus conversiones me están gustando mucho :)

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  3. That's a fantastic conversion! And you make the green stuff tubing look easy, but I could imagine plenty of muttered threats and curses if I was doing it!

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    1. Haha, thanks! I also curse from time to time :D :D :D

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  4. Wow, great conversion work, the tubing looks fab, really impressive and the painting is excellent!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks! This kind of conversion is rewarding, it really adds more than you think with very little effort. I need to do more stuff!

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  5. Nicely done, must get one of those greenstuff rollers

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    1. Thanks! The tool is pretty easy to use and gives you a lot of variety for conversions, I'm pretty happy with it!

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  6. Cool mini, wouldn't be out of place in a Post Apocalyps setting either.
    I haven't seen this method of tubemaking before, but I did see other ones, where did you get it?
    Also, instead of fiddling with the wet putty, have you tried to put a thin piece of wire in there?

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    1. Thank you! It's from Green Stuff World:
      http://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/roll-maker/69-roll-maker-tube-wire-machine.html
      About the wire, the thing is that this tool would only allow it on straight pieces, but you cannot add texture to a curved section. But really, it's no big deal, the tool is really easy to use and working with wet putty gives me a lot of freedom developing new shapes as I work :)

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  7. Excellent final results Suber but what's more impressive in my books is that you took the time to record the progress leading up to its completion and sharing it with us. Nice! :)

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    1. Thank you! Well, I sometimes remember to take pics, but most times I just move forward and forget about anything!

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