Green Tide II / Hot Recovery (3)

Thanks guys,

@Joe B - thanks Mate :)

Yeah, those bones of the Skeleton Warriors are pretty handy :)

I totally agree on the lights. I will work my way from the black primer, then start lighting the throne area - which I intend to be in blue moonlight - then the central "fire area", and finally the outer areas, which will most likely be lighted by the power blades.

Well, in discussing the build in one of the forums I got the sudden urge to add an Indiana-Jones-Style character.

The initial idea was to add a human, based on IG parts. But that wouldn't really make sense with my Crimson Guardians Space Marines - they wouldn't be accompanied, or even bossed around by a mere human.

So I decided to use a Marine with a Apothecary weapon and a head with a hat - it's one of the excellent Mad Robot Miniatures Boonie Hats.

 

And with a bit of GreenStuff to give it a "neck" the head fits really nicely.

 

If I recall correctly Dr. Jones is always carrying a satchel-bag, isn't he?

Well, he'll definitely will get a whip.

 

Anvildude (on DakkaDakka) suggested that the Ork skeletons pants should be more carved out, as they are too well filled out.

Weeeell...

I gave it a try...

 

But I have to say for my taste it is too much work for too little effect. What do you say?

 

That's as far as I got last night.

But here is another positioning shot.

 

The (currently still Blood Angels) Termie is the central piece and will be the focal point and also the source of most of the light (hopefully).

 

As you can see by the small rod, his fire will be aimed at the (not yet existing) Ork strangling the Marine on the floor.

I have to add an Ork directly in front of the guy with the hammer, one to the kneeling guy on the left, and the one "Strangler".

Green indicates the Orks, yellow the muzzle flashes, and blue the power blades.

Too busy?

Whaddaya think?

Cheers

Klaus

Green Tide II / Hot Recovery (2)

Hi all,

I hope your festivity preparations are well underway and you're not too stressed out to enjoy some hobby time :)

@Malevengion   - not really anything fancy planned for the Orks - just a plain all-out Infantry attack.

But let's see how it progresses.

With the basic Marine actors assembled I started to build up the environment.

First was the throne and its platform.

 

The brick-factory working at full capacity :)

 

Slowly building up the base - with some Styrofoam as support.

 

Two columns at the lower end to give the scene a frame.

 

While the PVA takes some time to cure, I use a ruler and some weight (a bunch of SuperSculpey packs) to keep the bricks in position and leveled.

 

Most of the brickwork completed.

 

The throne as center piece in the back.

 

A first position test with the Marines.

 

Not 100% sure, but I think this will be balanced enough, with the top 3 Marines providing light with their muzzle flashes, while the lower areas will be darker - maybe some light effects form the energy blades?

 

Then I created some skeletons from the original struggle, hundreds of years ago...

 

Only a dead Ork is a good Ork?

Plus the two dead throne-guards

 

Still needs a lot of cleanup, detailing, and of course the attacking Orks.

But I hope it already gives a good impression of how it will look in the end.

I look forward to your feedback and suggestions.

Cheers

Klaus

Green Tide II / Hot Recovery (1)

Hi all,

thank you all for your comments and condolences.

I'm very glad to see that so many of you are still around :)

Here's a little photoshop I did of our cats.

They are remembered well, and we both think back of all the good times we had with them. We're still giving us a bit more time, but we're absolutely sure, that we will soon (probably mid next year) have cats again :)

Well, as mentioned, the hobby itch seems to be back :D

The idea bouncing in my head is based on "Stemming the Green Tide" mixed with the "Tomb Raider" fluff section.

An expedition of the Crimson Guards sent to recover a valuable artifact. Not sure if it will be on Dencara or on another planet...

Just as they have finally discovered the sacred item and are about to recover it, they are attacked by Orks.

So it will be a "last stand" type of battle in a temple(?) ruin with the Crimson Guards against Orks.
From a composition point of view there will be a throne like feature at the top end of a long (stair) rise lit by blue-ish moonlight (a beam coming through a crack in the roof?), while the actual fighting, lit by the gun flashes will happen on the stairs below, with most of the Orks attacking out of the dark.

...

hopefully

...

So, with this bouncing around my brain cage, I raided my Space Marine bits box.

 

 

Unfortunately I'm no longer in the possession of the Space Hulk throne piece with the dead Marine, but hey...

 

Still plenty of cleanup and GreenStuff necessary.

 

Some of the basic fighting poses.

 

These two in hand-to-hand combat - not sure if it will be a fist fight, or if the Marine will have a sword....

 

A fallen Marine in his last defense...

 

This will also be more of a hand-to-hand, close-in pose - maybe an Ork striking down with a big axe.

 

And (if I can make it look convincing) a downed Marine with an Ork on his back, trying to suffocate or choke him.

 

Well, this is as far as I got.

I think I will start building up the stairs next, so I can work on finalizing the poses.

What do you think?
Ideas, suggestions?
I look forward to your feedback.

Cheers

Klaus

(Chrome) Assassin - Ilse Sturmfeder (3)

Hi all,

I hope some of you are still with me - with the low frequency and erratic topics rather surprising :)

Since the last update I did make some progress with Ilse.

Slow, but progress nevertheless.

First I started with the brown ground color.

As you can see it's rather crude and often adjusting the draft horizon lines.

 

 

It was quite challenging to find the proper horizon lines to correspond with the shape of the body section.

 

 

But with each section I grew more confident and understood the process better.

 

 

 

Once I was pleased with the ground I repainted the darker horizon lines, as well as darkening the seams between each body section.

 

 

And lots of cleanup and re-adjusting.

 

 

But things became clearer with each step.

 

 

 

And then I started to add reflections of the surrounding landscape.

And then we had to put our 17 1/2 year old cat Lilly to sleep.

Not that she was sick, but she got really old and tired.

It took us several weeks to accept it that she had no more fun, was tyring quickly and we were carrying her around more than she walked by herself.

If we let her, she slept most of the day.

It was really hard - actually it still is - but it was really the best for her. Luckily we had some sleeping paste that we could give her, so she slept on my arm while we drove to the vet. She never even realized with was happening and just continued to sleep and with the final injection she crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

 

 

For the first time in our marriage we have no pet.

Coming home without a pet waiting is hard.

So we decided to flee for a while and booked a 2 week vacation to Cuba.

It was a great vacation and gave us the much needed distraction and recuperation.

 

However, when coming back, and looking at Ilse, I always remembered Lilly being around while I worked on her...

So I didn't really find the urge the continue her.

She's now in the cabinet waiting.

But I also have a bit of the hobby urge back...

kinda strange, isn't it?

So I decided to finish some old stuff (for the family) first.

Like this Elephant that needed a rainbow coloring

 

 

or this golfer that needed a final go-over.

 

 

Into the Mole's lantern I had to install the solar powered LED light,

 

 

and complete the paint job.

 

With this done (over a couple of days) my desk was empty, but I still had the urge to "hobby up something".

I have an idea, based on "Stemming the Green Tide" - not really a remake, but maybe a mix of it and the "Tomb Raider dio" I had started?

Not really sure, but I have made some sketches, looked up images on the Internet and last night raided the bits box :)

So, lets see what happens over the next few days.

Thanks for coming along.

Cheers

Klaus

(Chrome) Assassin - Ilse Sturmfeder (2)

Hi all,

process with Ilse was slow, as I had to stop often and at least partially cure some of the clay to preserve details.

Since the last update I completed her left arm.

 

and finished the hand (with the Lilly cat in the background).

 

The right arm and hand,

 

and started with the head.

 

I found sculpting the head without proper facial features and still lacking the mass of the neck quite challenging.

 

But once I was pleased with the shape I added a lump of clay and started the mouth.

 

Mouth and face-shield.

 

 

With the rest of the head, including the "eye-slit", it looks better.

 

Once I had cured the head, I sculpted the neck,

 

and finally the "ears" :)

 

Ilse in her (at that time) final pose - sculpting completed.

 

Next I went to cutting her blades from plastic card.

 

After a lot of sanding it looks like a blade.

 

and her final "knife".

 

For the right hand she got a sword.

 

I tried to keep the shape of the blades rather curvy to complement her body shapes.

 

 

 

At this point I decided to change the angle of the right hand.

and now she's holding the sword a bit different - which I feel looks better.

 

After the blue primer I painted her in the very light blue chrome base color.

 

And then I started to indicate the horizon of the reflections.

This is still very crude.

 

On the right knee and breasts you can probably see the corrections, where I moved the horizon to better fit the shape and position.

 

But this now gives a good impression of how she'll look (hopefully).

 

So, what do you think?
I look forward to your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Cheers

Klaus