Sharkpothecary

I've been out of blogging for a couple of weeks, but not idle at all! I'm afraid that the doctoral thesis is quite a demanding mistress. Anyway, I'm here about minis, so minis it is. Let's have another realscale Space Sharks day!

I had a look at this termie and I had an idea...

A skeleton on the leg, vials and stuff on the belt...

I could make an Apothecary using this one! So let's do it:

I dismembered my poor Ultramarines Apothecary to get this

Until I got this concept

However, I wasn't satisfied. Yes, it was technically correct, but it lacked something, the mini didn't have that inexplicable thing I was looking for; maybe it looked too generic, too hollow. Then I noticed this other guy...

Would I dare...?

Hell, of course I dare

This one was really challenging. Cutting the left arm out was like a nightmare, as it is not a separate piece, but is attached to the body. So I was scared of ruining it all. Fortunately I managed to get rid of it and all the torso, So I could use the upper body I already had.

But why the strange pose? Isn't it a little bit... you know, ridiculous?

Well, not if he's attending a patient!

The injured guy was made using those old termies legs and regular torso and arms, all conveniently greenstuffed. Now I was pleased, the mini represented much better the role of the Apothecary on the battlefield, attending and protecting a wounded brother. So I could begin with the brushes! Let's try the classical white scheme...

50 Shades of White

 OK, some more details later...

Is that... a turtle on the kneepad? Space Turtles Chapter?

In Maori culture, turtles are a symbol of long life and healing, so it was settled, Doc needed a turtle. The text on the gleave reads Whakamahu, which in Maori refers to the act of healing wounds.

A Shark surrounded by Maori style turtle shells, a symbol of shielding and protection

The wounded guy in regular Carcharodon colours

So, how do they look in the end?

Ouch. Stop posing and treat me!

Too white for battlefield deployment

So this is what I got for now...

No, seriously, we got two guys as reinforcements... and one of them is severly injuried?

But of course there is one question remaining. What happened to the first set of legs I first intended to use for the medic? Ohhh, I have already started the next Space Marine. Soon, soon... (hopefully!)

Cozy cottage of Twilight

Once you get bitten by these it's pretty hard to leave them apart. I'm talking about the World of Twilight ranges! These were commissioned by my friend, who got into the latest kickstarter; as always, I find them irresistible.

Belomoch dre Hearn the engineer is quite a nice, new concept, bringing a couple of tiny, adorable automata to the equation:

My puny painting skills make the steam look like soap bubbles. But ain't it cute too?

Thomson and Thompson

But the real eye candy for me this time was a piece of scenery. Listed as the engineers' cottage in the kickstarter, it's a most beautiful tiny house. I've spent some more time on it as I fell in love when I saw it.

A lizard needs a place to live in

The pic is awful, as usual, I'm afraid. I tried to apply vibrant colours to make it stand out as much as I could. I went for green as the main colour on the roof tiles so it looked different from any regular red-orange usual tones. My inspiration was some sort of Hobbiton like small cottage, so it all had to look green and nature oriented.

I'm having nightmares about defining the tiles

 In order to achieve the natural look, I took the hard way. There are not two stones in the same exact tone of grey together. The same goes for the roof, each tile has a different tone of green than any of the surrounding ones. It's an effect you may not see at first sight (and it shamefully goes totally unadverted in the pics), but it certainly adds 'something' to the final result. I guess the subtleness is the best quality I can call.

Cozy, but a little bit tight for the three of them

I still find the Tabletop World stuff too intimidating for my skills, but this house has been clearly educational. Oh, seriously, I'm feeling the urge to build a small village!!

This is just the mere beginning of a larger batch of World of Twilight minis. I'll be switching from this project to the others I have currently ongoing (the Genestealer Cult mine and the Space Sharks), as well as any other that comes to my workbench (I have something particular in mind, dun dun dunnn...), so expect some flashy colours in the following weeks! :D

D.A.P.P.L.E. (Wasteland Walkers Pt. 3)

Hi all! We are back to the wasteland walkers project today.

Once  I had Don Quirixote of Manchae Prime finished, I begun to think of his faithful companion, good, old, level-headed Sancho Panzer. Though my first thoughts were oriented towards a tiny Warmachine Jack, I had a (hopefully) better idea. I had this Kinder Surprise egg (you know, those toys inside a chocolate egg; I still cannot understand why they are forbidden on the US). Anyway, I then used not one, but two Warmachines, so I got this chubby quadruped:

Is it comical enough?

This is how it looks like next to RhoCII:

Suitably scaled

So it seemed to be a proper starting point. It was then just a matter of greenstuf fand bits!

Instead of a saddle, I opted for a full seat, to make it look even more different from RhoCII. However, I was fond of the head concept I used for the other mount, so I somehow stuck to it. Once again it's a serum vial top.

Totally un-epic

I enjoyed adding silly details, such as a headrest. It's a nail; I cut two tiny pieces and then added the headrest itself using greenstuff. The rest of the nail was used as an antenna on the head of the mount:

Don't know why, but it has some kind of Akira Toriyama vibe to me

Time to pay some attention to Sancho Panzer himself! I couldn't resist the idea of a rogue Squat engineer, an outcast from his people, wandering through the galaxy until he found someone who could offer him the taste of adventure and the promise of a proper reward. I used a plastic WHFB Dwarf:

Sancho Panzer the man! Errr, the Squat!

In the end this was more or less the result:

I enjoyed thoroughly adding all kind of wires and bits. The tow was something that came to mind when delving into the bits box. I imagined the whole thing as a civilian utility machine, just the kind of vehicle a regular guy would have in a backwater world to help him with his regular duties. So this is how I envisioned the Dynamic Appliance for Plural Purposes and Leverage Endeavours (D.A.P.P.L.E.)

Yeah, I know, I know. If you can come with a better name be my guest! :D

The name of course gave me the hint for the colour... somehow.

No, seriously, how do you paint 'dapple' colour?

It's the &%$#ing same mini, just different light. Sigh

You can see where I am going with this. Here you have the final result:

"He cannot gallop in the air: but on the Emperor's highway, he shall pace ye with the best ambler that ever went on four legs".

About Sancho Panzer himself, being "a peaceful man, a harmless quiet fellow", he left his old, boring life out of the thirst of adventure Don Quirixote offered him, as well as the promise of endless rewards, the rule of a space fortress maybe, for "then the squire might promise himself to be made governor of the place". His loyalty beyond any measure might not always be rewarded as expected, but he simply cannot understand life in any other way. "A child may persuade Don Quirixote it is night at noonday, and he is so simple, that I cannot help loving him with all my heart and soul, and cannot leave him in spite of all his follies". Now, both lord and squire wander through the galaxy in search of adventure to live, injustice to be undone and immortal fame.

Here we have the happy couple:

Let us seek for adventure... in spaaaace!

 ...

"What Gargants?" said Sancho Panzer.
"Those thou seest there," answered his master, "with the long arms, chainswords and guns, and some have them nearly two leagues long."
"Look, your worship," said Sancho; "what we see there are not Gargants but moisture vaporators, and what seem to be their arms are the sails that turned by the wind make the engine go."
"It is easy to see," replied Don Quirixote, "that thou art not used to this business of adventures; those are Ork Gargants; and if thou art afraid, away with thee out of this and betake thyself to prayer while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat."
So saying, he gave the spur to his steed RhoCII, heedless of the cries his squire Sancho sent after him, warning him that most certainly they were moisture vaporators and not Ork Gargants he was going to attack. He, however, was so positive they were Gargants that he neither heard the cries of Sancho, nor perceived, near as he was, what they were, but made at them shouting, "Fly not, cowards and vile beings, for a single knight attacks you."

'Those are moisture vaporatooooors!' (should photoshop the room out and place a dark sky there!)

 This will be all. For today at least! The perspective of building a whole Quixote ambientation in a Rogue Trader-like setting is really (really!) tempting, but it totally scares me! :D
Let me make some progress on other projects and might come back to this. Or I may organise a contest so you build silly stuff, instead of me, haha! :D

Now, please pay a visit to the amazing Alien Wars project on Death of a Rubricist. I hope these two fit in the whole plot, as a couple of desperado rogue adventurers seeking nothing else than justice to be served, damsels to rescue and good deeds to be done, against whoever dares to cross their path with Don Quirixote of Manchae Prime and Sancho Panzer! [epic background music]

PS: And of course go read the Quixote in case you haven't!!

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)!