The Serpents' Breath - June 29, the first skimmers and bikes for my Harlies

I love them! All of them! You give inspiration to my DE!
Keep on rollin' with that super-ass stuff!
-Benkku

Usually i don't like the "gently cuddly" eldar stuff, but thoose ones look really great and mighty. Realy cool basing by the way.

Been quite a while since I posted anything here, but I haven’t exactly been idle.  First up are the two additional Reaper conversions I did 3-4 months ago in a monthly vow thread.  These give me a full complement of three Reapers, which I have yet to use.  I did use two of them allied with a Warp Hunter to good effect in a local tournament back in June.  Still got my butt kicked, but these particular vehicles did manage to cause plenty of damage and were an unpleasant surprise to several opponents.





The close-up of the muzzle for the storm vortex generators shows the difference between my original conversion, which followed the FW style faithfully, versus the quicker and simpler approach I took with the two additions.  I don’t like them, and will substitute proper-shaped vanes when I get a chance.



Battleship row.



C&C welcome, cheers.

And I have always wanted to make some nice, proper crashed-vehicle craters for my DE because, like all DE boats, they crash and burn a lot.  And here they are.  I used various bitz and broken or mis-cast model pieces set with fake rocks.  I will eventually make myself a complete set to complement my vehicle collection.  It took a few tries to get them right, but there are four different ones – old and new Raider, Venom-slash-Razorwing, and jetbike bitz (which can be used as wreckage).  

















C&C welcome, cheers.

I still love them.

How tough would you say they were to paint? There are a lot of nice little details in them and some seem like it would be tough to pick out (like if I wanted to do details in the cockpit of the Venom, say).

Another question, how well can one place models on those? They look awesome but on considering them I get the feeling that, like many wreck markers, it's kind of a wobbly model situation when deploying your guys onto them, yeah?

Wobbly or no for placing models, those wreck markers are beastly good     

@Thor665 wrote:

I still love them.

How tough would you say they were to paint? There are a lot of nice little details in them and some seem like it would be tough to pick out (like if I wanted to do details in the cockpit of the Venom, say).

Another question, how well can one place models on those? They look awesome but on considering them I get the feeling that, like many wreck markers, it's kind of a wobbly model situation when deploying your guys onto them, yeah?

They were quick and easy to paint Thor, I did these six over two evenings, but I wasn't super fussed about any fine details.  Not that there are that many, really.  I actually minimised the details somewhat, to make the process easier.

I recently modelled my own Mycetic Spore Pods as well, and based on that experience I kept the outlines and shapes to a minimum, just so that they would be recognisable as the vehicles, and anything that might get hung up in the mold was filled or smoothed or covered with plasticene.

As for placing models on them, two of them are fairly smooth but curved, while the Raider ones have quite rough surfaces.  There would be some wobbly model issues, same as placing them on the outside of one of GW's craters everyone's dazed and stumbling around after escaping the exploding cardboard box

@Evil Space Elves wrote:

Wobbly or no for placing models, those wreck markers are beastly good

Thanks ESE!

as the recipient of 6 markers for my fiction competition entry, I must say the pictures do not do these justice. I was overwhelmed with the amount of detail and time Gob took on these. I look forward to painting mine, too bad I can paint them in my Kabal colours.... 

It would be much nicer to paint them in someone elses!

Once again Gob, thank you very much, and thank you Dark City!

^^^
See, details! Told you Gob, stop trying to downplay them.

Also, DGP - you do realize we'll be demanding pics once you get them painted up, right?

Those vehicles are cool! Also loving the wreck markers. Might have to pinch that idea

@Thor665 wrote:

^^^
See, details! Told you Gob, stop trying to downplay them.

Also, DGP - you do realize we'll be demanding pics once you get them painted up, right?

Looks like my weekend is booked!

Those wrecks look fantastic, really super work!

those wrecks are PERFECT! I've never seen so much work put into wrecks before

Those are so beautiful. If you don't mind, what did you use for the main base, some kinda of particle board maybe?

Thanks everyone.

Black Death - no base, they were cast as one solid piece using liquid plastic. I wanted a good-sized set of craters but didn't have enough in the way of wrecked models to afford to do it - one old gen Raider and one mis-cast new gen hull. So I modelled each piece in plasticene and used various bitz that I have set aside for future modelling projects, and then made a simple mold. This way I can make a bunch and complete my set.

This is the start of my entry for stage 6 of the Archon's Challenge.  I have been meaning to convert this Lhamaean into a haemie for ...... ages ...... and I have similarly had the Venom on the workbench ever since I finished the Void Raven ...... crap, two years ago now.  I haven't gotten my greedy hands on the rest of the crew yet.

When I made my Void Raven, I combined two Razorwing wing sets onto one fuselage, meaning that I had one forward fuselage left over.  I also used a Venom for the second, raised cockpit, leaving me with the rear fuselage and wings of one of those.  I thought they would combine make a great-looking kitbash and they do, I just need to fill and clean up the sides where they join.



C&C welcome.  Cheers.

expensive conversions, but looks good, way too expensive too my tastes, I would have made the front out of plasticard and some greenstuff. You actually inspired some great ideas in my mind, I see many possibilities for my next couple of Venoms.

I've seen 1 guy pull off a decent Heamonculus from that Lhamaeen model, but you seriously need to get rid of the head, some of the wych heads are such perfect heamonculus heads with some work.

Looks like a great kit bash!

It reminds me of the scorpion shuttles from Star Trek Nemesis.

Thanks Khain and Eye.

Eye - I haven't seen that model before, but I do see where you get the resemblance from.

@Khain mor wrote:

expensive conversions, but looks good, way too expensive too my tastes, I would have made the front out of plasticard and some greenstuff. You actually inspired some great ideas in my mind, I see many possibilities for my next couple of Venoms.

Khain - good to hear, the stock Venom is a beautiful model, but yes, it can still be changed up in a multitude of ways with great results.

Regarding the cost, as I mentioned back on page 2 or 3 when I first started the Void Raven project, for roughly 15% more than the [then] price of a Razorwing, I purchased two complete Razorwing and one Venom hulls, a RW cockpit, one set of RW engines, a flyer stand, some missiles and sundry other parts from an online bitz store.

The sundry parts included enough bitz to complete the Venom when the VR was finished, as I certainly did not want to waste any leftover pieces and already had this project in mind.  So really I got one Venom and one Void Raven for slightly more than one Razorwing.  That's not bad, especially when you consider that the real VR, if/when it finally arrives, will cost more than 15% over a Razorwing, I am sure.

@Khain mor wrote:

I've seen 1 guy pull off a decent Heamonculus from that Lhamaeen model, but you seriously need to get rid of the head, some of the wych heads are such perfect heamonculus heads with some work.

If you are talking about Mechanicum Jon's over at Dakka, yes, that is part inspiration for mine.  I knew roughly what I wanted to do with the model, and once I saw his finished, that clinched it for me.  I still like the head, though, and am planning to keep it.

A quick update, here is where I am at with the Venom and Haemie, haven't started the other passengers yet.      The Venom's proportions have turned out very nice.







C&C welcome.
Thanks.

Egads man, your ability to chop shop thin, curvacious vehicles and jam them back together without it looking like an ork with a blowtorch is enviable. I don't have the stones to try and pull that off.

And what retinue will be accompanying our fleshcrafting lady?

@Evil Space Elves wrote:

Egads man, your ability to chop shop thin, curvacious vehicles and jam them back together without it looking like an ork with a blowtorch is enviable.

..... And what retinue will be accompanying our fleshcrafting lady?

Thanks ESE. Corespur's finest Wracks will also be enjoying the pimped-up ride, complete with beatsticks to keep the riff-raff away from the paint job.

At least, that's my plan with barely a week to go.

Very nice and sleek vehicles. Great kitbash sir! (Your pics of them are upside down though) Looking forward to seeing them painted

@spellcheck2001 wrote:

Very nice and sleek vehicles. Great kitbash sir! (Your pics of them are upside down though) Looking forward to seeing them painted

Thank you very much SC, and after much toing and froing, I think I have fixed the pictures.  They looked OK on my PC, but yeah, were upside down when viewed on my iPad.

Cheers.

PS - got the crew put together tonight, yay! Venom is almost finished, too, so I might actually make it on time with this project.

So, I finally finished this piece for the Christmas Archon's Challenge at the last minute, having finally been able to get my hand on a half-canopy just this past weekend.  Can't believe it's been so long since I first started it.

I have been wanting to build this particular Venom and its Haemie/Wrack crew for a long time, and I am very happy with the end result.  The aesthetics of the Venom with the Razorwing's nose piece are quite nice, my bog-standard ones actually look a little stumpy on the tabletop now in comparison.

Here the final pics:












C&C welcome.
Cheers.

Wow, it looks so good! The nose was a nice addition, and it blends seamlessly. That venom would strike fear (and pain) to any opponent on the field. Best of luck fielding it! BTW beautiful base work.