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Post by ash on Oct 25, 2009 19:12:09 GMT 9.5
This theme has conjured up so many ideas that I have no idea where I am going to start. All I know is that it will be a duel of the usual sense; two opponents fighting it out but I have no idea what genre or scale in which to do it.
From my last competition entry I have some good raaw materials with which to construct a scene. I liked the idea of having a crack at sculpting a tree with clay and wire so i'll probably be integrating that into the scene somehow. It will probably be an ancient, dead looking tree so I am thinking Woodelves or maybe even Beastmen... maybe a fight between two members of those races?
I could paint up two units from two different armies and have a challenge being fought out between the commanders/champions. Maybe i'll just purchase a plastic Empire Wizards boxed set and have a clash between two wizards from different schools. Some cool pyrotechnics could be integrated into the last idea....
I also have many 40k bits and pieces. I have my Dark Angels and Orks as my two preferred armies so maybe a fight between them?
Yeah, it will probably incorporate an Ork in one way or another.
So all I really have to go on at this stage is that it will incorporate a tree and an Ork and will be set in either fantasy or 40K.
Still not much of an idea as yet but I'll work on it and keep you posted as it progresses.
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Post by ash on Oct 26, 2009 10:51:27 GMT 9.5
Last night was spent in much thought and after talking to thecoldandfastone and what he is entering I thought that I too would do something that has meaning for one of my armies. I have a few armies for a few different systems but my original and biggest army are my 10,000pts of Greenskin Fantasy led by the might Gormath Grinsmasha!! I have done a fair bit of fluff for this character of mine and I shall post it once I can relocate it. Im pretty sure its somewhere on calicojacks laptop... actually I HOPE its there. Gormath is also known as the Green Daemon and has been harassing the North Eastern parts of the outer Empire region for quite a very long time. Its speculated that when he dies he is reborn again from his own spore located out where the Worlds Edge mountains start to encroach upon the lands of Chaos. He has possibly been gifted by the chaos gods to keep returning to life to continuously battle his way to greatness (and greatness he has achieved) When Gormath is Killed another large orc from the Grinsmasha Tribe ascends to the position of Orc Warlord and will hold that position until the day Gormath makes his way back home to retake his rightful place (or the orc is defeated by another up and comer, either way Gormath will be fightin someone) It is one of these battles which I will be doing my entry on. It will incorporate a twisted dead tree and will be located in the wastes in the mountains where Gormaths Tribe resides. It will feature Gormath fresh back to the tribe and instantly sticking the boot in. Gormath will have with him his mighty Axe (as yet unnamed but will be done so during this entry) and will be performing his killing blow; cleaving the opponents face in half hence his full name. There may even be a few onlookers present depending on how big i decide this entry to be but will probably be just the two combatants. Ill need to make a few purchases for this entry most importantly the plastic orc general on foot and mounted on boar boxed set and possibly a box of black orcs to ensure I have enough bits. The tree will be wire frame and sculpted and will be perched on a rocky outcrop. If I have time (and resources) I may even have the bones of past losers scattered around. If not i'll just have a few trophies scattered around and maybe hung from the tree. Ill need a suitable base for the scene and am thinking of something like a spray can lid to give it height and to allow lots of overhang. Still not really certain on that yet. Well thats the general gist of my entry. As always feedback is welcome and wanted
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Post by ash on Oct 29, 2009 17:03:14 GMT 9.5
Alrighty, this weekend I'll make a very determined start to the Duel Competition. As I will not have the models that I wish to use to make the actual combatants (I was going to use the orc general boxed set and plastic black orcs components) I think I'll just have a go at bashing them together. I have thousands (literally) of fantsay bits and a very good proportion of those are Orc parts. Im sure ill be able to come up with something suitable for atleast one of the combatants.
Ill also be having a good look around for something to serve as my base. Ive been thinking of carving up something myself and letting some of my clay serve as the foundation for the texture. I reckon I could do a alright job of this but will not know unless I give it a try.
Either that or I find a real rock or piece of bark to serve as my outcrop. What do you guys reckon??
Ill also be starting on my dead tree. This will be a wire armature with modelling clay sculpted over it. Fairly basid but still something i'm not too confidant on doing but once again I wont know unless I give it a crack. Getting the pose is easy enough but sculpting in all the bark will be a little frustrating I believe...
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Post by alex on Oct 29, 2009 21:34:50 GMT 9.5
pieces of bark make for great rock texture with a little drybrushing.
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Post by ash on Nov 2, 2009 16:59:32 GMT 9.5
They do that really well. I used a fair few pieces of bark on a small table I did at the Dice and Deck a little while ago for demo games of Battle for Skull Pass. They looked pretty sweet. I just need to find a suitably sized and shaped piece of bark and I'm in business.
As for the tree I plan on having in my scene I have twisted up a wire armature in order to use as a test piece. Will log my efforts in learning the art of sculpting trees but I fear it might not turn out aswell as I am hoping. I may end up using a Warhammer Forest Tree instead (the plastic one) they look suitably gnarled and with a little work can serve my purposes very well.
Either way I'll sculpt a tree.
I searched through my bitz boxes and could not find a single set of Orc legs! Look like another purchase this weekend....
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Post by ash on Nov 10, 2009 18:55:19 GMT 9.5
I have started some actual work on my Duel Competition Entry! A few days ago I went out and purchased the Orc Warboss plastic kit and have spent the last night and day slowly cleaning up the parts and assembling them. Right now the Boar Mounted 'Challenger' to the title of Warboss is the only one glued together and almost finished being cleaned. (my original Gormath Grinsmasha model had a really large single handed axe in his hand. This is obviously not present as it is.....) (...here. I guess he attained the axe head from this challenger to his title after the fight!) By cleaned I mean mold lines removed and detail 'cleaned out'. Sometimes in a miniature some of the detail is deformed in the cooling process. This happens as there can be some slight shrinkage in some parts and no shrinkage in others deforming the cast. Its very minimal but there were some areas in the chainmail and other textures that I wanted to be crisp. All I did was take a knife and run it in the grooves to help 'sharpen' the detail. At this stage the minatures are to be put together out of the box in order to provide my canvas for them. From here I will be adding lots of extra detail in the form of added parts from other kits to some new parts being sculpted from greenstuff. If you look closely the mounted 'challenger' has a wolf pelt over his shoulders which is blowing in the wind yet the boars 'mane' is not. I will fix this with greenstuff aswell as adding extra details in the scene to help reinforce this direction. In the past I have only ever sculpted shallow detail so this more dramatic sculpting should prove to teach me some things. Guess I'll have to see how I go with that. With all of my projects that I undertake in this hobby along the way things change; this project is no exception. Originally I wanted Gormath to be the challenger, looking up the rocky outcrop at the other Orc. This has been swapped around as I think the miniatures would look better this way. Oh well, it might change yet again....
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Post by ash on Nov 13, 2009 14:44:49 GMT 9.5
While digging through some of the stuff in my games room looking for suitable things to add to my entry I stumbled across one of the boxes containing my Orc Army. Amongst the Orc Boyz and Night Goblin spearmen was my second Gormath Model (The first was an old Inquisition Miniatures Orc with Cleava). I thought I would post a photo of him to show you guys who Gormath Grinsmasha is. (Gormath Grinsmasha; the Green Demon) Like this entry the previous Gormath was made almost entirely from the plastic Orc Warboss kit with a few editions. His cape is from a BFSP Night Goblin Standard and the Horns are from some other model. (I was really happy with the shield then fluffed up the rest of the miniature) As you can see I have a very cartoony style when it comes to painting. I dont like to wet blend to give that smooth transition as I like my different layers to stand out on some models. The shield is a really good example of how I prefer things to look although in this photo all the color layers are really stark against one another and this is less prominent on the actual model. I really enjoyed painting the model until I made the mistake of adding a wash to the skin which ruined everything. It turned out overly glossy and really ruined the highlight layers which were underneath. After the stuff up on the skin I kind of lost interest in the model and did a really dodgy job on the Axehead, shoulder pads and cloak. My Duel entry will really allow me to make up for this dodginess on Gormath and paint the Green Demon as he really should be! This weekend will have me finishing off the two miniatures and hopefully have me found some cool resources to make the base for the scene.
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Post by pariah on Nov 13, 2009 21:55:05 GMT 9.5
That is an awesome shield, Ash. Nice.
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Post by ash on Nov 13, 2009 22:00:30 GMT 9.5
Thanks Pariah. I plan on doing an even better job of it on the finished display piece (along with the rest of the mini this time)
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Post by ash on Nov 15, 2009 17:55:00 GMT 9.5
Another weekend nearly over with which means I have made more progress. The characters in the scene are really starting to take shape now and I have also found some materials to start making the base of the scene. I guess I should make somewhat of a more detailed post then those comments. Here we go! Friday night I was meant to go off and join my new board gaming group for the regular session of boardgaming. As it was bloody hot (apparently) the session was moved to a cooler venue of which I could not get too. Too bad for the gaming but good for the modelling of my Duel Entry. I made a lot of progress on Gormath Grinsmasha himself and really started to lock in his overall pose. This was achieved through some slight limb manipulation. His final pose would have him stepping down a rocky ledge to go meet his opponent in battle. Although the legs in the kit are quite animated they are missing that look of someone stepping down a slope. What I needed to do was have the leading foot pointing down more in line with the gradient of the slope whilst keeping the trailing leg looking like it is holding the balance of the orcs bulk. It all sounds rather complex but it was as simple as cutting Gormaths right leg where the boot meets the lower leg and twisting it about 40 degrees. The left leg could stay as it was as the rest of the movement in the model would be achieved with the twisting of its torso and the positioning of the arms and head. (Right leg cut and repositioned and final position of the torso and arms) Gormaths head has two rather large horns sprouting from it and these were made with one of the spare heads in the kit. This head has a horned helmet and I clipped the horns off and glued them to Gormaths head. Flesh is still to be added in the form of greenstuff but this is relatively simple to do as I have already done it on the other model of Gormath. (Gormaths head and horns minus greenstuff) I still needed to add in Gormaths cape. The previous model I did used a banner from a BFSP Night Goblin Standard Bearer and this time it would not be any different. I took the Night Goblin and carefully trimmed away the banner. This was very time consuming and quite fiddly. I did not have a dremel or anything like that so I just used my trusty clippers and a hobby knife. It was at this point I noticed a problem. The Orc riding a Boar is wearing a wolfs pelt which is blowing in the wind. In order to attain a certain level of continuity in the scene all loose cloth, ropes, chains etc needed to also be blowing in the same direction. I needed to bend the cape in the same direction as the pelt is blowing. I tried several methods and failed until I did it the hard way. I cut little wedges out of the back of the would be cape and then having weakened the structure of the piece I was able to bend it how I wanted. It then took a bit of greenstuff to tidy it up and re-reinforce it. I still need to put on a fine layer of greenstuff to tidy the piece up. (The would be cape) (The back of the cape with reinforcement layer added. Detail and tidy up layer soon to be added) And that was Friday nights effort. Saturday night would be spent starting to finish the miniatures and initial scene placement.
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Post by ash on Nov 22, 2009 12:21:54 GMT 9.5
I can not believe I forgot to make my second post for last weekend! I thought I had done so but upon revisitng my thread it appears that I have not... Fear not for the pictures are on the interwebs and banging out this post is as easy as 1, 2, 3 and ... 4 The first 3 pictures are of the scene as a whole but at different angles. The scene is still only roughed out and there has been one major change but more on that in a minute. Obvioulsy I am still to add a whole lot of detail to this but it still gives you a good idea on how the duel participants are interacting. I really wanted this scene to not actually be an action scene as I feel most of the other entries wil be just that. This is more the point in the seige where the gauntlet is thrown down and Gormath is making his way to the would be usurper. I think the scene really portrays this. Now a note on the major change.. The rock Gormath is standing on has changed. I found the rock in my backyard in my clothes line support pile (yes, you heard rightly. I have a hills hoist in my yard and rather than burying and cementing the pole in it looks like the landlord just stood it there and piled a massive amount of rocks around its base. Needless to say it is leaning more and more each day.... similar to my house itself!) Anyways the rock I pulled out of the pile turned out to be not friendly with water. As I was washing it it dissolved in my hand. My next post will show how I remedied this. Back to the show! I discussed in a previous post how I had changed Gormath to make him more animated in context with his actions. I had changed the postitioning of his leading foot and constructed his arms in a way that his motion looked menacing and realistic with its motions. Hopefully this picture shows how this turned out. Let me know what you think!
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Post by pariah on Nov 22, 2009 18:21:49 GMT 9.5
Ernie's got his back.
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Post by ash on Nov 24, 2009 21:13:24 GMT 9.5
Oh dear, there is only till this Sunday night to have the competition entries in and I am not even close to being finished. I still have quite a lot of work to do on the conversions in the scene, finish preparing the base and of course painting the lot! It's a big task but I still aim to have it completed. When I am in the 'hobby zone' I can accomplish quite a lot of work in quite a little amount of time but even this may be beyond me. I'll have no problems finishing all the conversions as there are still only one or two things to do such as resculpting the boars mane and do a bit of work on Gormath himself. I think I may have to do a little bit more of a slap-dash job on the painting than I would like but thats okay. In the past few days I have been working on Gormaths Rock, the place where he stashes what trophies he has (remember he is a mad Ork and dies quite a lot... he fears nothing so always ends up over his horns in trouble. Don't get me wrong he aint no pushover but there are only so many daemons that you can slay before you fall!) So I have found a smaller piece of slate which I am using for this task. It is quite flat so I needed to somehow build up a base for it so it could rise out of the ground on an angle reminiscent of the previous rock I was using. I still had the air drying clay that I was going to sculpt a dead tree out of. With this I built up a wedge that I could put under the slate. Unfortunately when the clay had dried it did not take the union of itself, superglue and slate too well. The bond was not strong enough so the slate kept parting from it. Here is my next try: 1.I formed the wedge again but this time I pressed the slate into it and pushed it down enough so that a lip of clay fored over the edge of the slate locking it in. (The slate pressed into the wet clay) 2. Once the clay had been left overnight but was still slightly maleable I removed the slate and allowed it to fully dry which took another night. This left an exact impression of the slate which would allow more surface area for glue to bond. (The negative of the slate impressed into the near dry clay.) 3. With the clay fully dry I put a small amount of glue and greenstuff onto the slate where it would bond with the clay and pressed it in tight. I then added more green sluff around the edge where the clay met the slate. This too was covered in super glue. (Clay, slate, greenstuff and super glue. Modelling overkill!) I now had a very firm and stable rock outcrop for Gormath to stand on. There was a whole lot of clay and greenstuff showing which when painted would look nothing like the slate it was meant to be a part of. Luckily Gormath had hoarded a sizable amount of trophies and its with these that I would hide a good portion of this less atractive part of the scene. Anything that would not be covered with trophies would be covered with dirt, grass and snow. With that in mind I started to cover it all up. I raided the household bitz box and found all manner of weapons, standards, shields, kegs and anything else that Gormath may have pulled off the corpses of his more worthy enemies (theres lots of chaos, undead, orc and beastmen bits in there with a smattering of empire.) These were glued around the rock and elsewhere over the scene. Where there was something that looked like it could blow in the wind I made sure to either position it or tweak it to follow the other blown objects in the scene. Having Gormathand his opponent in easy view was key to achieving this. Here are a few pics: (Assorted trophies adorn the outcrop) (A closer look at the trophies) These are far from the only trophies to be placed in the scene. The ones you see will be partially buried under dirt and sand and once this layer has been added more trophies can be lain ontop. Tomorrow I'll post some further progress shots. At the moment I have some PVA and modelling sand drying in strategic places on the base. Can not wait to see how it turns out.
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Post by ash on Nov 27, 2009 16:16:29 GMT 9.5
Just a quick picture driven post this time. I am feverishly burying myself on my entry to get it finished in time for the Sunday night deadline so really do not have any time to make a real wordy post. The base is just about 100% finished. I have added fungus made from green stuff with spear shaft stems and added them to the scene especially under the overhang of the outcrop. I have slowly built up layers of hobby sand to add a texture other than rock to the main base. At first it was going to be snow but will not be getting to a hobby store before Sunday so looks like it will have to be a good old combination of dirt and grasses. Still, the classics always work. As I am typing the last layer of sand is drying. In about half an hour ill be adding the more recent of Gormaths trophies to the scene and then adding watered down PVA to seal it all. Will be dry sometime around midnight which is when I shall undercoat (after rough coating some of the slate parts) and leave to dry overnight. Gormath has had his horns sculpted but am not sure if ill have time to do the boars 'mane' (does anyone know what that is actually called??) I have no doubts I'll be able to get the base fully painted. Without bragging I am pretty good at getting bases done and done well quickly. It will be the two opponents who will be the struggle for me. Pics below! (Final placement of all the pieces) (some of the fungus) (The first layer of hobby sand. 4-5 more have since been added!) Greenstuff Mushies. They were first balls of green stuff which were then shaped and left to dry before being placed upside down in blutac to have bits of spear shaft super glued to them) Thats it for this post. More tomorrow and hopefully a finished base!
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Post by ash on Nov 27, 2009 16:20:36 GMT 9.5
Damnit the bell dongy thing seems to be levitating in the middle of the outer bell... That needs to be fixed!
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Post by ash on Nov 27, 2009 18:13:55 GMT 9.5
Heres a few bonus photos as I'm just getting ready to go out for a night of gaming and have made a bit more progress since I posted a few hours ago. Just about finished all the greenstuff usage in the entry. Theres still a few touch ups that need to be made especially the boars mane but it still looks alright at the moment. Gormath is about ready to be glued together (his head is still not attached to his body) and once the watered down PVA has dried on the base I can undercoat it. I have much better hopes of this thing being completed now that I see how much I have to go which is pretty much just the painting. (some of the greenstuffing that has been done on the Boar. Still needs a little touching up and trimming in places.) (another look at the sculpting on the boar. Note the mane know blows in line with the cape) (Gormaths horns fairly early into the sculpt) (Watered down PVA seal) No more tonight. I got me some games to play and then undercoating to do. Check back tomorrow!
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Post by ash on Nov 28, 2009 23:32:51 GMT 9.5
The base is now about 80% completed. The slate and sand/dirt is finished and quite a large portion of the details are complete. I need to finish off the metal objects which at the moment are pretty much all a dull metal color with verdigris and a little rust. These will be slightly altered to make them look a little different from each other. I need to finish all the fungus and start on the skulls. Unfortunately the banner broke off during the drybrushing stages so this will now be worked on seperately. I am not sure what color to do it so I will leave it to the very end and hold up some color swatches behind the scene in its approximate location to make the best choice as I do not want it to overpower the combatants visually. Speaking of combatants I have not yet undercoated Gormath and his adversary. That will be a job for tomorrow but it should not be too much of a stretch to get them completed. Heres a few pics of the stage by stage progress of the base: The final picture is of the verdigris effect drying. I did not have the colors at hand with which I would normally use for this effect so this is how I did it. 1. I painted a little Scaly Green into the recesses of the metal. Just a very small line as if you were putting a hard edge highlight on it. 2. I loaded my paint brush with water and really soaked the area. I did not soak it so much that the water would lift the paint out of the area of sunken detail. I really wanted to just suspend some but not all of the color in the water. 3. I then put a small drop of enchanted blue in the deep corners of the detail and kind of drew it out thinly through the scaly green following the line of the detail. This is as far as I got in the pictures as the paint is still drying but once it has I will lightly drybrush some of the original metal color around the area and making sure the verdigris is only just visible. Then some rust effects for good measure. [/img]
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Post by ash on Nov 29, 2009 18:26:04 GMT 9.5
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Post by ash on Nov 29, 2009 21:21:28 GMT 9.5
And finished! That was a mammoth painting session today. I finished the base and painted both participants. Unfortunately there was sacrifices such as the paint job being a little rushed on Gormath and the banner was not able to be included due to the fact that I simply had had enough of painting by the time I had finished everything else. I really did rush all the highlighting on Gormath and all the metal in the scene could have used a lot more attention but overall I am happy with what I managed to achieve today. Next competition I will not be leaving everything to the very last minute. Anyways here are the pics. And thats about it for this competition for me.
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