Nerd collides with Warhammer

The last few months have been an absolutely ridiculous amount of fun! Just before Easter I walked into a Games Workshop Store to find a model to serve as marker for my pen and paper RPG character. After building that model, I got myself a used Chaos Space Marine army of eBay.

In the course of removing the paint from these minis, repairing them and repainting them I learned a lot of basic hobby skills, which I then I expanded to magnetising, airbrush and scratch building. In the course of this I made a few YouTube videos to show off successful builds.

Now I decided to dust off my Blogger account and document some builds, techniques, tactics and whatever else might come up in an easily referenced location. I will backfill this blog with some content which I previously posted on various forums or just stashed on my computer.

Greater Brass Scorpion construction

I got an incomplete Greater Brass Scorpion Forgeworld kit for a good price from a fellow member of the local warhammer club, which gave me the chance to lay my hands on a Forgeworld monster without selling a kidney first.

It is still not finished, but I just noticed that I handn't really said anthing about it so far on the blog. I started out by carving the massive amounts of sprue from the parts that appear to be typical for Forgeworld kits.

Then I connected the tail to the main body part using two pairs of 6mm x 6mm round neo-dym magnets. The tail makes the model a good four inches taller, so I figured it would be good to make this removable for transport. I also connected the maw cannon with magnets for easier painting access.

 Next I had a look at the missing parts. I found a picture of all parts laid out in sufficient resolution from some completely unrelated eBay auction. I cut and pasted together the parts that I was missing and the center piece for the tail gun which was included. Then I used BigPrint, a software made by the awesome woodworker Matthias Wandel to print a picture of the parts to scale. That gave me an idea of what I needed to make. I'm told that Forgeworld is very helpful regarding missing parts, but since I didn't have an order number, I didn't want to be cheeky and ask their customer service.

 Then I tried to get an idea of the position the model would stand in. At this point I got quite dishearted. The legs end in balls that are supposed to fit into quarter inch wide C-shapes, similar to the Soul Grinder and Defiler models. However, both parts were only approximately fitting here and there wasn't as much material around and behind the C shapes. Also, the main body is solid resin and is quite heavy. I didn't like the odds of glue holding the legs in position against all that weight, in particular if the surfaces don't mesh well.

To allow me to look at the model with armor while working on it and not have the armor plates in the way while working on the model, I attached them with magnets. Did I mention I like magnets? ;-]
I cut a small cartboard box to size to support the main body while I tried out leg positions.

After leaving the project aside for two weeks or so, I decided to go medieval on it. I clipped the head and point of a 2mm thick nail, which left it about an inch and a quarter long. I drilled holes into the ball and into the C-shape at the thorso and put about a third of the nail into the leg's ball joint and the other two thirds into the body. That nail transfers the weight quite nicely to the upper leg and leaves the glue's strength free to deal with just unwanted rotation.

Since the leg's knee joint is very loose it wasn't very convincing either. I drilled right through it sideways and used a small machine screw with a nut to compress the joint. That holds it in position even without glue, so doing this with glue should be fine and solid after the glue sets.

For the first leg I put the nail into the leg first, then I swapped to putting it into the body first. Actually, that is more logical, since it needs to go in further there and more friction may need to be overcome - for which a solid grip on the nail with pliers is really handy! This also allowed me to bend the part of the nail for the leg into place for the front claws, where there isn't enough material for the pin to bite into directly in the line with the orientation of the joint.

It stands! Yay! Happy dance! You can see four parts cut out of two different gauges of plasticard in the picture below. That is part of making up for missing bits from the set.

Talking about missing parts. The picture below shows my scale pintout with the missing parts and the central tail gun part for reference together with the replacement parts I made for the tail gun, it's armor plate and the cut off original central gun barrel.

The gun barrels are made from Q-tips (orange) and ABS plastic rods meant to be melted in place as seal between tiles. I drilled holes for the thin Q-tip rods into the solid black rods to have more glue surface. A piece of plasticard connects each barrel pair. The black stuff I also used as joints for the hydraulics, while a thin plasticard rod fits exactly into the Q-tip pipe to make a nice looking and solid cylinder.

I drilled a bunch of small holes into the thinner piece of plasticard that acts as banding for the blade part. I didn't want to make bad looking rivets, so I figured recesses that fill with shade are the next best thing.

And here is the model fully assembled. Standing strong, unlikely to collapse. Phase 1 successful.

Heldrake paint job

After playing my heldrake quite a few times with just black primer on it, I finally painted it. By no means a masterpiece, but it combines the strengths of airbrush and regular brushes to good effect. 

The armor pieces are covered in successive layers of primary blue, with each subsequent layer being smaller and more white mixed in. That gives a great colour gradient which looks interesting. This would be very hard to do with brushes, but is trivial with an airbrush. 

The fittings on the armour however, would be a nightmare to do via airbrush - with or without a metric ton of masking tape. With the side of a reasonably sized brush however, it's no witchcraft. 

After painting in the chest and eye glue and adding some Nuln Oil shade I was quite happy with the overall impression. 

I bought another heldrake kit because I really want to make one with fiery wings and gold fittings, but I would have had to break apart the wings of my first drake to properly do this.

BuyPainted has done an awesome tutorial on how to do this:

Nurgle General on Trike

After trying a Khorne General on Moloch a few times and hitting myself with a '1' on the daemon weapon roll quite reliably, I wanted something else. Following a tip from a Games Workshop salesman, I looked into making a Nurgle themed General on a Bike with some Chaos Bikers as escort.

I already had a couple of bikers which were only drybrushed with Leadbelcher, but for this I decided to throw the Dark Angel bikers from the starter box into the blender and use some virigin chaos bikers for the escort.

Just behind the driver's back, I sawed througth the DA bikers diagonally. I discarded one front. From the other front I removed the biker torso and clipped the wings to stubs I could mount my custom front shield on. Obviously I also scraped off any iconography of the false emperor and his foolish minions. The rear bike halves I put next to each other and bridged the gap between them with a few plasticard rectangles. I also used plasticard to close what I had sawed open to the front and some more plates to cover the wheel housing.

 

Some cut-down spikes from the Chaos vehicle decoration frame sits next to the plasticard on the rear wheel housing. I also used it to cover a gap behind the driver. An oil drum which I had flying around was dropped inbetween the rear wheels.

Basing myself on the shape of the front armor of the regular chaos bikes, I cut something bigger out of plasticard and gave it a border and nurgle irons before gluing it to the wing-stubs.

I used a Warhammer Fantasy Battle chaos lord for the torso of my model. This meant some sawing, filing and filling in with green stuff, but I like the overall result. The right arm and the head are from a chaos spawn plastic kit. I know the fly head looks weird, but with a fly being used as icon for Nurgle, I thought it fitting.

One Nurgling is surfing on the drum, two others are just chilling.

The drum with the surfer glued to it and the two Nurglings are fixed in place with magnets to avoid contortions while painting. They can also be used as hit-point counter. I also attached the power fist with magnets and slipped a few small ones into the base of the wheels. I like to transport my models on a metal sheet in a box and didn't want to slap the trike on a base.

This picture shows the mini completely assembled before priming. The drum (it's from a Tamiya kit I think) got a chaos star and the trike got a towing hook. The nuts around it come from two cultist improvised close combat weapons cut into pieces.

After I primed the models, I got medieval on them using a Dremel. Even though I don't like mold lines anymore than the next guy, I wanted to do some serious damage to the surfaces of the model for the final look. Rather than elaborately paint that, I figured just mess up the surfaces and use shade. Since the Dremel marks were looking a bit too sharp, I covered them with plastic glue which melted them down nicely.

Here are the General, his escort and a hexer I built from the remaining Dark Angel bike in a group shot. I made the mistake of putting the plasma weapons into the hands of the escort bikers rather than chuck them into the bike. Since they replace either the bike's syncro bolter or the biker's close combat weapon, that costs a bonus attack. I've fixed this later. Since the weapons were magnet mounted, that was no big issue.

Finally, here a shot of the General from all sides. Standard Citadel paints were used, except for Tamiya Clear Red for the open wounds.

The General gets an Energy Claw and an Energy Fist, allowing the choice between a faster or a harder hit and granting a bonus attack for two special weapons. The bike grants toughness 5, which gets upped to toughness 6 by the Mark of Nurgle. That is pretty sweet. He doesn't have feel no pain and only has three wounds, but is still a pretty cheap, yet fast and tough HQ.

***************  1 HQ *************** 
Chaosgeneral, Mark of Nurgle, Veteran of the Long War
+ 1 x Energyweapon, 1 x Energyfist  -> 40 Pkt.
+ Sigil of Corruption, Chaosbike  -> 45 Pkt.
 - - - > 170 Points

Adding five chaos bikers with toughness 6 all around, a power fist on the champ and two plasma weapons is just 200 points. Of course one can roll with just three if that is too dear.

CSM Defiler Conversion

One of the models I got with my first batch of CSM eBay stuff was a hard used Defiler. It had been roughly painted, overpainted and primed again and none of the legs were connected. At first, I just put it together as designed with some magnets to hold the legs. Not really worth writing about.

Having seen a really nice looking conversion on DakkaDakka, I decided to either successfully convert the Defiler to a bi-pedal model - or to scrap it.

First I took it apart using my hobby knife, alcohol and some gentle brutality. Then I soaked the bits in Sterilium for a while to break up the paint and primer before brushing it off with a nylon brush and running it though an ultrasound bath with some dishwasing detergent to bind the fat the Sterilium leaves behind. Sterilium is a hand disinfectant for medical use and my go-to acrylic paint remover on plastic minis.

Using Patafix poster glue pads, I assembled the parts to try out possible build options. I had a Landspeeder without the cockpit parts which I decided to use as a stepping stone.

The Defilers Claws make up the legs in this build. I removed the usually movable pincers and flipped them around. Since they don't fit into the cut-out then, I put some sections of a ball-point pen housing between them and their counterpart.

As you can see in the picture below, the front third of the Defilter's lower body makes the hips in the new setup. In the picture it's still the wrong way around compared to the final version. I just used the hobby saw to chop it to size and then slapped on a few layers of plasticard cut and filed to size on the resulting opening.  I dilled a cone shaped recess into that to receive the piece that holds the upper body by default.

Compared to the mock-up, I moved some armour bits around and built a plasticard cover for the shoulder thorso extension which is a short section of electric installation pipe from the hobby store. The plasticard is cut into rectangles with added thin stripes on the borders. That echos the design of the Defiler's upper body. The gaps between those plasticard bits were a bit rougher than intended. Yet, since this is chaos, Spikes are an obvious solution to cover those bits. The picture below shows the model after glue-up.

The four rear legs of the Defiler make up the arms in this build. To make that work I cut off the claw bits off one leg and the ball joint of the other, filed things round and glued them together. Unfortunately, one of them didn't hold, probably because the fit wasn't as good as it could have been. This was easily remedied with a pair of magnets though. The balls on top of the arms are just glued into holes in the plastic pipe. The weapons on the shoulders are stuck on magnets, so I can swap them as needed.

Here is an action shot of the model with the first bit of painting thrown on it.

Wraithguard weapon options

With the new Eldar Codex and models, I wanted to check out how the new plastic wraith minis  compare to the old metal ones. As you can see, the plastic models are a tad taller than the metal ones. I had already swapped the metal models to the new base size.

The new set comes with two different ranged weapons and either an axe and a shield or two swords as melee weapons. Even though this is a 40mm base model, it is actually less beefy than generic space marines, offering less material for happy drilling and magnets. I didn't particularly need the plastic models to be flexible, but I wanted to see if I could get it done.

The picture below shows the parts laid out with the size of the magnets I inserted noted next to a magnet of that size. The main problem were the wrist joints, in particular the hands. A 2mm wide and 2mm deep magnet doesn't quite fit in there. Any deviation when drilling the recess destroys the hand. I used smaller 1.5mm wide and 0.5mm thick magnets for the hands, which fits nicely. Everything else is 2x2, besides the magnets in the torso, which are 3x3 for extra brawn. I deliberately drilled through the shoulder end of the arm rather than try to hit the needed depth without going through where possible.

Now I can swap the weapons of the model around as needed. You can see the result below.

My take on this is, it can be done, but it's probably better to pick the options you really need and just go for those - or even pick up an extra box or two of these guys as needed.

Wraithknight magnetized with full weapon options

While my recycled Eldar army is still in bits after being stripped of colour, I couldn't pass up the challenge of the wraithknight and his many weapon options. So I picked one up when it was launched and put it together while preserving all weapon configurations. After I was done I took a picture of the model together with some others to clearly show its size.

The model offers three primary weapon options, big cannon with shield, two heavy wraith weapons or giant sword plus shield. Considering that the model comes with the choice of three different pairs of secondary weapons and can only fire two weapons, my guess is that shield and big gun plus a laser for the buff will win the day, but time and personal bias will tell at a later date.

To preserve all options, I had to magnetize ths shoulder joints for the  torso and all four arms as well as the mount points for the secondary weapons on the shoulders and gun arms. The secondary weapons all use the same base with different barrels. Since the guns for the right arm share the center part, I had to magnetize the barrels and accessories there.

For extra fun, I made the hip and head joints flexible as well. I find that even a little freedom with the pose really adds to the miniature. The picture below shows all parts laid out.

Three was one problem with the right arm, it didn't stay up where I put it and rotated down instead. Usually the friction between the plastic parts is sufficient to avoid unwanted rotation. However, if the weight and leverage is too big or if the fit isn't just so parts may not stay where you want them. I had filled the lower arms with green stuff since I wanted to have extra meat for my magnets to bite into. However, it turned out that this was completely unnecessary. So most likely it wouldn't happen again when doing the same thing to another unit.

I fixed this model by  adding the two magnets you see here on the top of the arm and under the shoulder pad. Just like the green stuff in the arm, this was a bit more than needed. A plastic know like a door stopper would have done the job just as well. ;-]

When I completed this model, I also made a YouTube clip and followed that up with another one showing the fix for the dropping arm. You find those below.




I quote the magnet dimensions here to help pick sizes for your own wraithknight.

hip and torso: 6x6mm 2pcs
neck: 5x5mm 1pcs
head: 3x3mm 1pcs
shoulders(torso): 5x5mm 2pcs
shoulders(arms): 6mm wide x2mm thick 4pcs
hands 3x3mm, 9pcs, four hands, one sword, four wrists)

right gun: 5x5mm 1pcs (holding barrel), 3x3mm 2pcs (holding accessories)
gun barrels: 4x4mm 2pcs (one each), gun accessories 2x2mm 4pcs

four secondary weapon mounts 2x2mm, 8pcs (two location pairs, two magnets each)
secondary weapon mount shoulder connection: 3x3mm 2pcs
secondary weapons 2x2 mm, 6pcs (three weapons, two magnets each)
secondary weapon barrels 3x3mm, 8pcs (three weapon type pairs, two mounts)
secondary weapon accessories I just plugged in, 1mm max in them otherwise.

In my experience, the worst magnet problem is having to remove one that is glued in place inside a pice of the model. That's usually because it's inserted wrong side up, not inserted far enough, or because it turns out to have insufficient strength due to small size, distance to the counterpart or deviation from the perfect alignment.

When (hand!) drilling the holes for the magnets, I find it useful to start with a pilot dimple for the center point, followed by a small 1 or 1.5mm drill. I then increase the drill size in 1 or 0.5mm steps to the required size. This reduces plastic tearout and breaking when too much is cut in one go from a small or narrow piece.

Helbrute remix

When grabbing a bunch of starter boxes to get a nice cultist mob going, I also picked up some helbrutes. The starter box models are really nice, but with their fixed poses they are easily recognizable and look like they are dancing in sync in a formation. For the cultists, their siluette is easily broken up with some determination and a saw - but the helbrute ist a bit more tricky to modify.

My basic approach was to saw off one or two arms and reposition then either as they are or extend them. Especially the power fist sticks out, so I wanted to move that. To get some freedom, I extended the arm using some pieces of sprue and then filled in the void with green stuff.

 

I bulked up the green stuff in there to something vaguely beefcake like. A daemon prince shoulder armor pad fits on top nicely. Here is a rear view of the modded model next to a regular one.

 

Messier than the arms are the legs. They are connected only with some strands of plastic, which are the leftover bits of the original cybot hips plus the daemon flesh growing over and around it. To modify the legs I cut them off and then capped them with plasticard, which I then trimmed to the shape of the piece as well as I reasonably could. That gave me to flat surfaces that I could angle as desired and get a very strong glue bond. This model here is in full run while shooting and ends up running on three limbs. I hand-cut a Khorne icon from plasticard for the gauntlet and had just glued it in place when I found back one from the Chaos Rhino spure. Ah well! =]

Here are the four brutes side by side. From left to right the original, arm moved, arm and legs moved, arm extended and position changed to slip a casualty in.

I mounted two 4mm round magnets into each brutes right wrist to be able to swap the weapons as needed. The laser cannons on one of them are too big of course, but I didn't have more of the smaller ones at the time.

Stripping paint from plastic miniatures

When looking for advice on how to remove paint from miniatures, I found many different opinions. Here you find what worked for me and what I will continue to use unless I stumble across something better.

For the bulk of the plastic miniatures I used Sterilium. This stuff is made as hand disinfectant for medical use. The alcohol in it reliably breaks up the binding agent in paint and turns it into a rubbery mess. A firm brushing of the model will slide that mess right off it in the best case or flake off in the worst case.

While fishing for models at first, I then found a really handy way to do this. I beheaded thick walled PET plastic bottles so that the lid of the glass jar fits even though the bottle is in there. I cut a bunch of small triangular holes into the bottle about an inch up from the bottom. With these openings, the liquid can flow into the bottles as they are submerged and out of them as they are removed without trouble. Note: Please don't stab yourself if you do this, the bottles are quite slippery.

The picture shows an Iyanden army ready to take the plunge into the blue Sterilium. After leaving the minis in the stuff for half an hour, paint may already be loose and come off with some brushing. I pull out the bottle and drop it's content into a sink with the drain closed. Then I brush the parts off with a nylon brush. If the parts are clean, I put them into another container, if paint is remaining I put them back into the bottle and that later back in the jar.

Note that Sterilium is supposed to return fat to the user's hands, which of course isn't wanted for the miniatures and the paint in their future. So I hit it with a bit of dishwashing detergent and warm water. I like to do this in an ultrasound cleaning gadget. The vibration shakes paint bits loose from spaces you just cannot reach with a brush.

I've left miniatures in this stuff for a month by accident, without harm comming to the plastic or its details.

Anyway, maybe this helps someone. =]

Chaos Heldrake Magnetized

For this model, the weapon change modification is minimal. Yet, being able to make the head, neck and wings moveable is something I really like. Note that there isn't enough material in the rump to hold the neck joint properly. I beefed it up with some sprue to securely hold a magnet of satisfactory size.