Grots review pt.1

Hello fellas, as promised, Storag continue to review grots from his converted squad and today's guests are this two scouts: 

This miniatures are very much alike in both their pose and solidity. There is little to tell about - It was hard to think of a way to alter them without massive cutting and re-sculpting I obviously wasn't ready for. Instead I used GS to make them unique outfits and replaced their weapons. 

The end look of this parts largely depended on pure luck and unintentional choices as my vision of what they should look like was very unclear. The main idea, however, was to make them look like they are wearing stongly weathered pieces of human military uniform and it seems that I succeeded somehow :)

Forgive me for such a small post but really there isn't much more to tell about this two. As always I'll gladly answer any questions =)
Farewell! 

Veteran Castor Finn

Romio is on air again and I begin this post with a kind of butt pain, that many modelers became accustomed to in resent time - a GW Fine Cast, which is more of a Fail Cast to me, though.

'Nuff said.

At first I had no intentions for modding any of the Sword Brethren from GW Fine Cast pack, but their poor quality forced me to. This one was the worst and therefor the first to be refined.
Unfortunately I haven't took a picture of this miniature as I got it, but here's one in his original shape, as he supposed to be:

-It's hug time!

It was my first acquaintance with Fine Cast products and I never expected them to be as they transpired. Leaving behind their less than moderate quality, their monolithic shape wad my primal concern. But my disappointment never last long, for where one see's loss another find's an opportunity. Bearing this in mind I made a decision to convert them into a command squad for my Blood Ravens Ravencross Company.

Our today's subject originally boasted a pair of lightning claws - a rather famous model, frequently seen on official images. Personally I find this weapon slightly ridiculous and clumsy looking due to their enormous size in comparison to the standard marine armor. Combined to the fact they usually come in pairs makes it almost impossible to posture their wearer in heroic way, suitable for Warhammer 40k universe.

Thus, I sliced off his right hand to get a room for customization, and blades on the left one to make a power fist as an obvious decision for such occasion. All in all, It took a lot of cleaning and fixing to remove all the manufacturing flaws and giving him a base cast for further modification.

First off, I made a Blood Raven symbol on his left shoulder, for he is Sword Brethren no more, and a good new pair of knee pads, as I hate his original legs shape:

He's almost as green as an Orc.

Second, I took a Bolt Pistol from the Black Templars upgrade kit as potential right hand weapon to pair his power fist. Even though this is a great looking gun, I found it rather boring and common for such an honored veteran, so an image of a compact flamer came to my mind. This was easily done by cutting off barrel and ammo clip from the pistol and gluing in a regular flamer's parts:

A hand toaster.

To finish the appearance I added a pouch, grenade and a purity seal on his right leg.

Here's some WIP pictures, as he was assembled:

Who's clumsy now, huh?

As a final stage a proper basement had to be made to posture the figurine in an epic way. To do so I had to reshape his left foot, as his original pose was kinda gawky, and glued it to some plastic scraps to imitate him stepping on a pile of stones.

Also a special name plate was added on the basement to represent his overall individuality.

And here he rises, observing the battlefield, prepeared to burn down everything to ashes:

-Who want some?

Thank you for reading and till next time. Keep your modelling knives sharp!

Sergeant Studdus

Yo, everyone! Romio is back with his new buddy!

He is old and grumpy. He likes no one and no one likes him, but everyone respects his vast experience. And he is studded. With studs. That's why i call him Studdus. Because of studs. Well, you got the idea ;) 

Also, he looks taller than your average Sergeant or Space Marine. 

Okay, enough with this silliness and let's cut to the chase. 

To make this Devastator Sergeant, I used just a lot of different parts, which are listed below: 

MK III Iron Armour legs and left shoulder pad; 

Torso, head and lantern from the Black Templars upgrade kit; 

Hands, Left shoulder pad, grenades, pouches and Auspex scanner from the Space Marine tactical squad box; 

Signum backpack from the SpaceMarines Devastators box; 

Umbra Ferrox pattern boltgun. 

I also used green stuff to remake his fingers to get a more realistic grip on the scanner.

Assembled for great deeds.

To embrace the idea of an army, consisting of exceptional individuals, I decided to place a decorative name plate on the base of each miniature I deem worthy of unique character. This label I made of green stuff:

His is worthy.

There he goes, through the sands, looking for the best shooting position for his devastative squad:

Hey, look, there's a tetris on my Auspex!

Well, I bid you farewell for now, folks. Stay tuned!

Inquisitor and his wench

Greetings to you, my fellow readers, Romio will be your host for today.

I want to present you the first conversions I’ve ever made – the inquisitor and the fist of his retinue, the female bodyguard.

As this blog does, this conversion started with Storag, who brought me a plastic hammerhead, sawed off some DnD miniature (yeah, this guy loves sawing). It required a hilt and I made one, using a metal paper clip as a base, and covered it with a green stuff, to give it a leather-wrapped look. Each Thunder Hammer should have a power generator, hence I made one for mine, connecting it to the head by gluing a plastic cord. To give it a more imperial appearance I decorated the generator and placed a scull at the hilt’s bottom. So, the weapon of mass destruction was created and needed a proper hand to hold it.

Such a hand was found in the local Hobby Store in the face of the Forge World Solomon Lok. He was a perfect candidate, not just because of his cool hooded garment, but also because his puny saber just cried for replacement.

A sutable ranged weapon was needed to pair his grand hammer and thus I made a Plasma Revolver. The weapon that looks as good as stupid it sounds. Plasma Pistol and Grot Blasta was used as parts for this gun.

Due to the shape of his hands I had to use green stuff to remake fingers to fit both grips.

Now here he is, charging into battle to crush skulls and purge heresy:

A small man with a big gun.

Speaking of second one, the Inquisitor’s wench – it was hell of a problem to get a decent female body suitable for my simple idea: deadly, zealous and sexy female warrior, much alike Julie from the Heavy Metal 2000 animated movie. I took a GW Dark Eldar Wyches, but I’m still not sure this choice fulfills it. This Wyches are way too brutal with their muscular arms, bulky manly torso and awful shaped ass. A pair of tits just isn’t enough to make one sexy.

I had to cut her whole back and used some green stuff to cover it with a short scarf-like cape, encrusting right soulder with a small fibula. On her shoulder pad I sculpted a small Inquisition insignia.

Being too lazy to shape her rear to a proper condition, I just hid it under a green stuff rag. Not the best idea, as I understand now, but experience is always an experience.

As for weapons, her left hand holds a sword, made of a Catachan blade, some Chaos ceremonial dagger hilt and default Wyches handle. And in the right hand there’s a Catachan laspistol, slightly modified to get more classic look.

So, she stepping forward to strike Inquisitor's foes with a lasbeam, sharp blade and lecherous makeup:

Janie's Got A Gun

Well, that’s all for today. I hope my first experience was interesting for you.

The most elite grot military unit ever assembled!

Hi! Your friendly neighbor Storag is in the mood for some writing and hence here is a group photo of my gretchin squad recently primed and ready to be painted.

- Are you gangsters? - No! We are GRETCHINS!!!

This is kinda special moment, because now my first conversion project can be deemed complete.

I want to say a few words about why I started this one.

Partially, because I feel it was unfair that goblins where reduced to the state of half-minded orc slaves in 40k. As for the other part - grots are cheap and grubby in concept  therefore that makes them a great "target practice" for a beginner such as myself.

It took me quite some time and effort to complete them. I learned a lot working on them, - from basic concepts of miniature modding to the point where I'm looking forward to manufacturing plastic copies of my own green stuff designs. And at the end I like this guys very much and will write a detailed post about each of them as I did with "Loota".

Thanks for your time, that's all for now folks! =)

Grot Loota conversion (WIP)

Hello there, it's still Storag and today's post is about one of my current "work in progress", the latest addition to my heavily modified grot squad - a grot loota with big shoota :) (a whole squad I will present later).

A couple days ago, one nice fella gave me the body of GW FB gnoblar and so he's going be my today's willing subject.

   

Using this body might give my squad a bit more of so precious variety.

The first thing anyone need to start a conversion is an Idea. What do you see looking at this one? I see not a bludgeon but a crudely made shoota, I see loot bags and ammo instead of meat rations. And this one should definitely have an angry face - carrying such weight on your back is not a feat to raise one's mood.

The body

In order for the club to look like a gun certain changes must be made to create a distinctive rifle look.

First I needed to add a weapon part featuring ammo cartridge. To do this I gently cut part of the club away trying not to damage the hand. Then I shape the part which I sawed off from a standard issue slugga to fit in.

Second, I glue in some bits to form a rifle-style stock around the club's original grip.

The shoota is obviously too big for a grot to use as it is, so I decided to install a pair of support legs to let him actually shoot it rather than carry around as a trophy.

Finally I place aiming cross and a halberd-like blade on the barrel to complete the weapon's shape.

After the major work is done I cut off some unwanted decoration from his back and add two details; one is an ammo clip, and the other are several shells falling through the hole in one of his sacks.

The head

As I've said before, his face should be angry and thus I searched my bitsbox for a worthy head. The one I've found was angry enough but upward pointing ears made it look more like a cheerful-angry than a grim-angry I wanted. So I sliced his ears off, cut them a bit and glued back so they point down now. But still that wasn't enough for me. To make it look more 40k and a little psychotic I've build from scrap something like implanted monocular.

This is how it all look like when assembled.

Searching for target practice.

Feel free to comment. I'm looking forward any feedback on my works.      

The grot "Big Mek" conversion

Hi guys, Storag here. To start with, I want to show you a milestone that marks the beginning of my miniature modding endeavors.

Looking back at him through the time passed I see many flaws and lots of things I could have done better. But none the less he was born rather charismatic to compensate for my lack of experience and skill - Da Slopawka, my firstborn. He pokes. Slow, but hard.

Originally he was meant to look like this one:

But then my knife messed with his body and here is his new appearance: 

"Da Warbozz needz ya!"

"They went this way!"

"I meant THAT way!"

To make this conversion i used:

- Body and head from GW "Ork Gretchin" pack (the only body in the kit without premade hands)

- Power fist arm from GW "Devastator squad" pack

- Army Painter "Green stuff"

Backpack was made from piece of plastic decorated with parts from Runtherds shock rod and the right hand was scratch-build using random plastic scrap sawed off from whatever was within my reach =)

Must say that I have a weakness to creating back stories for every character I work on. Just can't leave all those questions like "who he is", "why he is as he is" and so on unanswered. Sometimes this even helps =). Here is a story for this green buddy, a short variant...

The Weird Moon's clan "miniature big mek" got his position when his master the former clan's big mek was partially warped away by his own warp gun. Suffice to say this wasn't a "usual" accident. Such "accidents" occurred to every orc in the clan who had some potential of becoming a mek, until he was the only one with the skills to do the job.

Thanks for watching this and please leave your comments!