Showcase: Plague Hulk

Making the Plague Hulk:

I started the Plague Hulk by asking myself, "what have I got myself into here?" It's just such a mad project. Without any further thought, I got on with the deed at hand.
I started by looking at the modelling instructions for the Soul Grinder. When I'd finished laughing, I hit upon the idea of Green Stuff all the way (you can see what effect this project has had on my dwindling sanity!). I started assembling the Plague Hulk by following the basic frame work of the Soul Grinder... and hold on to your hats, 'cause it gets bumpy from here on in. The first thing that I did was put the front claws from the Defiler kit onto the front of the Plague Hulk, as this is one of the major changes from the Soul Grinder. I then started to assemble the rot cannon, and quickly found myself thinking "what on earth can I use?" I say this because my Death Guard Army is now so large, I just did not want to repeat myself (sorry fellow FlashGitz, I'm not boasting, honest guys).
I decided to use the antenna from the Planet Strike Bastion box set... yes, you heard me right, the antenna! I then cut off the end of the antenna and reversed it, making a rather good gun barrel. I then lowered the head of the Plague Hulk and changed the horns on the model, so it was more in line with a Nurgle theme, resulting in the model having custom 'rhino horns'.
After all this, I had a Plague Hulk with so many holes in it you could call it swiss cheese. So I rolled out the Green Stuff. I set about filling the holes, bulking out the model and enlarging the stomach, complete with split hide and intestines spilling out. After all this, I still thought the Plague Hulk was looking too clean. So out came my trusty files; after hours filing away, the model was starting to look a little more worn, so heading in the right direction. The final stage was my ace card: Copydex. I coated the entire Plague Hulk in Copydex. After the Copydex went clear (but not dry), I went over the model with an old brush, roughing up the Plague Hulk even more and making the metal look warped, rotten and decayed. I was now satisfied with the Hulk. What came next was the real challenge, painting...


Painting the Plague Hulk:

I started by undercoating the Plague Hulk in Chaos Black. I then went about dry-brushing the model first with Red Gore, then Blood Red, before building up through layers of Fiery Orange and then Blazing Orange. Next came a light coat of Boltgun Metal, followed by a mixed wash of Brown and Black Ink. After the ink had dried, I gave the model a light drybrush of Chainmail, before another light wash of Brown Ink.
I then went over the claws, painting them a rusty metal colour acheived by mixing Chainmail and Scorched Brown, as well as a little Chaos Black. I then went over a lot of the rents and dents in the armour, making them look like weeping sores or red rust with varying shades of red. After that I went over the pipes, first in Chaos black, then these were highlighted in Codex Grey. With the main bulk of the Plague Hulk finished, the time had come to take on the Daemon half!!
I began by painting the flesh of the Plague Hulk with Cameo Green, highlighted with Rotten Flesh. I then went over the model in a mixed wash of Brown and Black Ink. The next stage was to go over the flesh in Dwarf Flesh and then Elf Flesh. The flesh was again given a light coat of Cameo Green, followed by a dry-brushing of Bleached Bone. The cuts in the flesh were painted Red Gore mixed with Blood Red, then given another Brown/Black Ink wash. The last details on the flesh were the eyes and teeth, picked out in red and Bleached Bone, and that finished the body of the Plague Hulk.
The last thing to paint was the sword, which I went over with Dark Angels Green, highlighted with with Snot Green, then dry-brushed in Bleached Bone. The sword was then given a light wash of Thrakka Green, then after the wash was dry another coat of Bleached Bone was used.

With that the Plague Hulk was finished. After being matt varnished, the Plague Hulk was given a coat of Bright Varnish on the flesh and weapons, and all over the cuts, as well as around the rents and dents.

And with that the project came to an end. It was most enjoyable, and I must say I'm happy with the finished result. Next up for me is a 40K project to end all others that I've done (and that is saying something (lol)):- a Chaos REAVER TITAN!!!! Yes, a REAVER!!!!! Of course, when this project starts, the FlashGitz will be on hand with a blow by blow account of the REAVER!!! (Stop yelling Reaver! - ~Blue) project. Until then, happy modelling and gaming.
~Virus

Dark Elf showcase: War Hydra

Hey folks!
This is the first in a series of showcase articles, each displaying parts of the FlashGitz' armies. First up is Virus and his Dark Elf army for Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
Phil has been collecting Dark Elves on and off for several years. Its most recent incarnation has grown beyond anything that has preceded it; at last count, it weighed in at just over six thousand points, and that's not counting special characters and magic items!
In typical style for Virus, many of the units in the force are at least partly converted. The example shown here is just one of three War Hydras; he has two of the older models, and one from the newer release. The model has had some of its heads repositioned by careful application of a hobby saw, a little brute force and some green stuff. The creature has also been mounted on a crest of slate, and the end result is quite striking.
The handlers have also been converted, one of them now carrying a pair of whips. The 'anime'-like hair colour is something of a recurring theme amongst the army, and the colours range in places from the mint green seen here, to blue, to pink. When asked why he went in that particular direction, Virus simply gave the answer: "Why not?" It looks good arrayed on the battlefield, however, and at the end of the day what more could you want?
~MyBlueOblivion

Warp Spider w.i.p. Sneak Peek...

Hey all! Just a sneak-peek post this time, as work is still progressing fairly slowly with my Warp Spiders unit. The Exarch is finished, and his squad mates are about three quarters of the way there. I want to do a showcase post on them as a squad as soon as they're done, which will hopefully be in the next week or two.
'Til then, here's a couple of piccies of my favourite so far. The icon on his helmet turned out the best of a decent batch, and is some of my finest detail work to date. I think the 'spiderweb' design on the jump pack is quite cool too... each squad member has his own individual design, and it's taken me a while to do them. They're getting there though...
~MyBlueOblivion

Plague Hulk W.I.P., part 2

Well folks here are the latest pictures of the Plague Hulk, it's still a work in progress, but all good things come to those who wait. This project is certainly one of the most fun I have had in a while, so I'm savouring the project. So for now, I'll leave you with these pictures of the model so far. Of course, when the model is finished I'll be adding a full assembly and painting article, as well as finished pictures; which, let's face it, is what we all like to see. But for now, I will leave you all to enjoy these...
~Virus

Chaos War Mammoth conversion

This was a really fun project for me. Back in November of 2008, a staff member at my local GW asked me if I had any ideas on how I would convert a Harad Mumakil from the Lord of the Rings range into a Chaos War Mammoth for Warhammer Fantasy. It turned out he wanted to use one at a campaign weekend the following March, but didn't want to fork out for the Forgeworld one. We discussed a few ideas, ranging from just painting it brown, to gluing flock and static grass to the model to make realistic fur (the idea was debunked by the thought of it moulting in his car...), to sculpting the fur on with Green stuff.
He knew I had done some sculpting projects in the past, with some quite good results, and so asked me if I would be willing to do the model for him as a commision piece. Intrigued by the challenge, I agreed, and so it was that I went home that night with a fully built and undercoated Mumakil, a sculpting tool, and about four packets of Green Stuff.
As soon as I started the sculpting work, I realised that it was going to be a far bigger job than I had thought. Looking at it, as I began putting a matted, almost wooly texture up the back legs, two things hit me at once; first, the fur was all wrong for doing the whole model, second, I had started having ideas on how a mammoth should look, and the Mumakil just wasn't it. The main problem was the head... it was the wrong shape, the ears were too low down, and the eyes were far too small. And so it was that what should have been a three week sculpt grew to (pun intended) mammoth proportions.
To fix the fur, I took the original, matted texture up the legs... the technique involves pushing into the Green Stuff at an upward angle in small increments, working it into flowing, hairy shapes. Use the pictures below to get an idea of what I mean. A second layer was then added, working from the top down, shaped to look like longer strands of hair. The two-tone effect was quite pleasing, giving the model a look of being steadily more matted and messy the nearer to the ground it gets.
A spiked collar was added to one of the back legs, first by sculpting the ring, then adding the spikes and a chain ring after it had dried. Claws were added, as well as decorative banding on the tusks. Then came the biggest challenge of the lot... the head.
The top of the head was built upon, adding height and making a new shape. The ears were next, pushed roughly into shape with my thumbs, before the inner shapes were added. The really tricky bit, though, was the eyes. These were made by first making a ball of Green Stuff, then letting this dry. Once fully hard, the ball was then cut in two, to make the eyeballs themselves. A cushion of Green Stuff was added to each side of the head; the 'eyeballs' were pushed into this cushion, then using a sculpting tool the Green Stuff was pulled around the half-spheres to make the eyelids, which were then sculpted around, adding various lines and creases. Hair was then sculpted on to the head, bringing the rest of the head more into proportion, as the eyes did stick out a bit.
After that, I added some small extra details, such as the ring in the Mammoth's right ear, and a patch of bare skin on it's back end with a Chaos Star branded into it. All in all, I was very pleased with the result... if nothing else, it was a definite learning curve, and I never would have said it would turn out half as well when I started; it just goes to show that you don't know what you can acheive until you try. Here are the progress pics I took at the time (taken on my mobile, so I apologise for the poor quality), and then I'll put in a painting guide and the finished article pics. Enjoy!









And here are some shots of the finished article. The fur was painted first, by spraying on Calthan Brown with an airbrush. The model was then drybrushed with Khemri Brown, followed by patches of Snakebite Leather, to give the model an uneven, dirty feel. The ropes, wood, and wicker flooring in the howdah were painted Scorched Brown, the ropes drybrushed Snakebite Leather, then all of the surfaces drybrushed in Bleached Bone. The colours for the ropes were used for the tusks and claws, but these were layered on, starting with thin stripes near the top of the ivory parts, moving into block colours further down.
The cloth sides of the howdah were painted Mechrite red, then highligthed with Blood Red. Then pretty much the whole model, barring the flesh, ropes and eyes, were given a generous coating of Devlan Mud, after which the tusks and claws recieved another layer of Bleached Bone. The flesh was then painted, starting with a mixture of Scorched Brown and Dwarf Flesh, then Dwarf Flesh on its own, before adding a bit of Bleached Bone to the colour for a final highlight.
Lastly came the details. The rings and hooks around the howdah's ropes were painted Boltgun Metal, highlighted with Chainmail. Brazen Brass was used to paint the bronze sections, highlighted with Burnished Gold, then washed with Devlan Mud. The eyes were highlighted from Scab Red to Red Gore to Blood Red, the iris was painted on in Chaos Black, then streaks of Blazing Orange followed by Sunburst Yellow were added around the iris to add a bit of life.
Last, but not least, I decided to have a bit of extra fun, and hand painted a series of Chaos runescript around the inside of the howdah, using the alphabet from the Warriors of Chaos army book. I don't know if he ever translated them, but they spelled out the opening lines of the song 'Nelly The Elephant'! Well, it gave me a chuckle, at any rate.
So there you have it, one Chaos War Mammoth. And it only took me about three months to complete... I don't think I'll be doing another for quite some time! Let us know what you think, all comments welcome.
~MyBlueOblivion