Opinions (I need yours)

Opinions, everyone has one and I need yours!

I stumbled upon this lovely little tutorial on the horRAiN blog about making Beastman Marines. I've made a few beastly guard in my day, but I'd never tried my hand at Beastly Marines!

Now I followed the tutorial with just a couple differences. My body to legs joint is a bit different, and I greenstuffed the heads to let them sit a bit more naturally. This is my opinion only as there is nothing natural about a goat wearing armor and firing a bolter. Swinging a two handed axe, maybe... but not firing a bolter.

I also tried incorporating the original beastman shoulder pads into the conversion. I've shot a pic of one with Marine pads and one with beast pads. I thought I liked the beast pads better until I looked at the pic a while. Now I'm not sure if it's better or just seemed better because of the extra work put into it. Have a look.


(end models are included for scale purposes)

So, which do you like better, Marine pads or Beastman pads? I guess I'll put up a poll for a couple days, though I'd love to hear your reasoning if you have time to drop a comment. Poll is at the top right of the page.

Thanks for stopping by!

Crimson Fist Dreadnaught Conversion

This is a project I started about three years ago and just now got around to finishing. At least mostly finishing, I can always find one more thing to touch up. At some point you just have to put the brush down!

I can't take any credit for the idea on the conversion. I saw it on the internet several years ago and decided I'd have a go at it. I'd reference the page where I saw it, but that page was several pc builds ago and I no longer have the bookmark.

This is also my first attempt at painting vehicles and also at using decals "correctly". By correctly I mean I used 'Ard Coat to put down a slick finish then applied the decal and put more 'Ard Coat on top, finishing up with a spray of DulCote.

I've tossed in a couple Marines for scale. One of them is a slight conversion too, he's a lefty. Here's some pics!







The legs, obviously, come from a Sentinel. I feel that they convey movement much better than the standard legs and with the armor plates to bulk them up a bit they don't look too spindly. As for the paint, well I'm still not sure I'm set on how I want to paint my Crimson Fists. I think they are already dark enough not be mistaken for Ultra Marines, but I'm going to play around with the blue a bit more before I commit.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing what I've been working on for far longer than it should have taken. Hopefully future updates will be at least a little quicker. All I can say is, babies slow you down sometimes... as Drax is about to find out!

Several Works in Progress

Not much is going to get done in the next month or so with painting and modeling. This is due to my lease being up having to pack up and move. It's a bit of a downer considering my recent progress, but it can't be helped. I'll still be on and contributing here and there, but not much in the way of pretty pictures and such.

The above being true, I thought I'd dip into the old photobucket and show some of my other projects. Since the Eldar are a recent obsession, these are all other sorts of pics.

First off we have a recent (though stalled) project. I've got about 20 of these xenos riders' mounts ready to go. I just have to convert the actual riders. Of course, now those bastards at GW have redone the Cold Ones again and they look better than ever... bastards. But here follows my prototype. Enjoy!




This one is another prototype. I claim no artistic genius on this conversion as I based it off a tutorial found online. I did add and subtract a bit from it, so I guess there is some of my own thought gone into it. Pictured for scale is a WIP Crimson Fist Space Marine. He's not nearly so bright in person, I think I must have flashed them that day. The marine is also sporting a bit of customization. I ordered many Iron Hands bits from mail order when you could still do that, and this fellow ended up with a bionic leg! I do have some slight concern that the new rules with true line of sight will have this Dreadnought raising some stink because of his height, what do you think?




Below is another prototype Space Marine. Most of the conversion is pretty self evident, but feel free to ask questions if I've thrown you off. Since my Space Marine and Imperial Guard fluff is that they are the personal army of a Rogue Trader, I've taken some liberties with my Crimson Fists. They are on loan to a 'High Powered, Multitasking, Freelance, Troubleshooter' of a Rogue Trader after all! This fellow and his squad were to be Elites. I thought I might use Grey Knight allies and counts as GK these guys. It would fit the vicious weapon, the stormbolter, and the fancy armor. The weapon was inspired by the scene in the Horus Heresy novel where Angron is wading through people with his chain-glaive. The idea of a chain-glaive just really appealed to me.




Next is a picture that was inspired when I was looking through my old copy of the First Book of the Astronomicon. At least I think it was that book... it's hiding right now. Anyway, there is a whole section on Medics of the 41^st millennium including apothecaries. There is a great pic of a Space Marine Apothecary administering aid to a fallen marine. I thought that any marine that could still hold a bolter would continue to fight though, so I modeled this. I plan to put them on a nicer base and run some "tubes" from the apothecary to the marines right arm... possibly filled with Gatorade.




Hope you've enjoyed this peek into my 40k future. These are just a tiny sample of the reasons the Eldar have to finish, and finish fast! The new Marine Codex is coming out this fall and it's going to have Pedro Cantor in it... Crimson Fists! Hells yea. Anyway, I welcome your comments and critiques. Thanks for stopping by!