Sgt. Harker Revisited

While Sgt. Harker may have been nerfed in the most recent Astra Militarum Codex he's still a badass and I always run him with my veteran squad. Today's post is a republishing of a very old page I made dedicated to my custom Sgt. Harker project.

Why buy a character figure when you can make your own?  I'm sure there are plenty of good reasons out there but for the sake of this project let's just pretend there aren't.  Yeah Games Workshop makes a Sgt. Harker figure, but I wasn't in the mood for that.  You see I had lot of extra Catachan Infantry lying around and a whole lot of bits to play with so I went about making my own. 

I started with a standard Catachan Infantryman.  I chose the bare chested torso with legs which were in a bracing position.  Since Sgt. Harker is carrying a Heavy Bolter he was going to have to brace himself for both the weight and recoil.  One arm was a standard Catachan trigger arm and the other was a Catachan arm extending a sword.

Using a hobby knife I trimmed off the rifle butt from the trigger arm, the sword from the extending arm and carved away the ammo pouches and straps from the torso.

Next using Apoxie Sculpt I began bulking up the muscles.  In order to get a good shape for the neck and shoulders the head was glued in place.

For Sgt. Harker's heavy bolter I salvaged one from a Catachan Heavy Weapons Team.  It was a little long so I trimmed it down using my miter box.  I then smoothed out some spots with the hobby knife and added an aquila to the front facing side using apoxie sculpt.  I also drilled out the barrel and vents.  This is an important part which a lot of people overlook.  Simply painting black dots where holes should be is just tacky!

At first the ammo belt stumped me.  After looking at some different examples of heavy bolters I decided I'd make mine in the style of the Space Marines.  I measured the width of the chamber on the heavy bolter and trimmed numerous pieces of 3/32" styrene tubing to fit.  I then affixed these tube sections to a long thin strip of masking tape I had cut to be roughly 1/3 the width of the tubes.  This allowed the belt to remain flexible until glued into place.  After the tube sections had been wrapped down the middle with masking tape, the lengths were a little nonuniform.  I evened them out with a few passes over an emery board.  If I had it to do again I would have created the bolter before I did my sculpting.  Because the sculpting was already finished I was limited in how I could position the bolter and drape the ammo belt.  I ended up with layout seen here.

The shoulder strap with ammo pouches was created using Apoxie Sculpt for the belt, salvaged bits for the ammo pouches and sheet styrene for the buckle.  A sword and sheath were positioned in the middle of the back

You can also see here the addition of the forward arm.  A little more Apoxie Sculpt was used to create a forward handle for the bolter.

I finished bulking up the muscles and repositioned the head.  It had been buried in his neck.  I think now he looks like Sgt. Harker, not just a Catachan Infantryman with extra muscle.

Additional ammo pouches were added to his waist.  These were carved from scrap sprues.

I'd have to say for my first major sculpt I'm pretty satisfied. Due to the difficulty in obtaining accurate detail in Apoxie Sculpt I would choose Kneadatite in the future, but Apoxie Sculpt has served me well for small applications as well as adding bulk. The tape and tube styrene worked like a charm for the ammo belt and I will definitely be using that technique again.

	A close up of the heavy bolter. The aquila was sculpted with Apoxie Sculpt using a dental pick.
A close up of where the shoulder strap meets the heavy bolter. It was sculpted using Apoxie Sculpt. The bracket was made using sheet styrene.
	These ammo pouches were carved from scrap sprues.

Fellblade Rescue

This thing has been a royal pain in the ass but it is finally assembled and ready for paint. A while back my buddy Joe picked up a Fellblade from ebay (check out his blog to see his awesome commission painting). When it arrived it was clear to him that the glue bomb he had just received was a recast full of problems. He brought it to me to repair in exchange for some trade. 

I had to begin by disassembling it. There were major gaps, broken and missing pieces, warping, and nasty seam lines. Joe had picked up some 3rd party treads and forgeworld doors he wanted to use. In addition to the extra bits he wanted to add, we had to completely replace the bottom of the hull as well as the two interior side walls. While I didn't take any 'before' pictures I have detailed the steps I took below.

One of the many broken pieces was the .5mm lip around the sensors on the main turret. I trimmed of the broken portion and replaced it with styrene cut to shape and size.

These little brackets were missing from the model so I whipped some up out of styrene and apoxie sculpt. The rivets are from MENG. 

The turret itself had several chips and gaps in the edges. A bit of putty, a lot of sanding, and a coat of grey primer later and its as good as new. When working with putty it helps to apply a layer of primer after sanding to see the finished product. Followed up by subsequent sanding and primer seam lines an blemishes disappear.

Several of the steps were broken or chipped so I shaved off what was left of them and replaced them with styrene cut to shape and size.

The lascannons needed some serious straightening, nothing a dip in some hot water couldn't help. The sight rails also needed to be replaced. Don't ask me why unmanned weapons need sight rails but apparently in the 31st century they do.

One of the back tread covers was broken and a duplicate of the opposite side. It needed a great deal of putty work to rebuild.

The third party treads didn't fit at all and required modification of the undersides to fit. The forgeworld doors only required a gentle sanding to fit in place.

Considering where it started out I'm quite pleased with it and look forward to seeing what it looks like painted. Oh, and yes, that is a Sicarian Battle Tank in the background, but I'm saving that for another post.

Terrain - Water Tower

I always wanted to make a water tower piece of terrain out of a tin can and so... I finally did! Yay, me. It's complete with a bird's nest and a fortified base.

For materials I used 1/8" particle board for the base, some scale model drums and cambros, a pack of scrap balsa wood, some sheet styrene, styrene hex rod, styrene tube, sand, and wait for it... a tin can!

I detailed the tin can with cardstock and made rivets out of disks I punched from styrene and slices of styrene hex rod using the same methods detailed in my previous tutorial on fasteners.

After that I primed the whole thing black and drybrushed it with a medium grey followed by a drybrush of gun metal and finished off with a mix Secret Weapon Miniatures rust weathering powders and mineral spirits.

The sandbags were sculpted out of apoxie sculpt using the same method described in the Forge World Model Masters books:

• Roll out a sausage of putty (green stuff or milliput will work too)
• Flatten the sausage
• Cut it into sandbag sized rectangles
• Cut a seam into the sides
• Set in place
• Texture with a cloth
• Enjoy
• 
  

 A box of scale model cambros and drums helped to add some detail.

I weathered the wood with a wash of dark grey acrylics.

A weathered pipe made out of styrene tube is complemented by a small pool of water.  I used the Secret Weapon Miniatures real water to create a little puddle.

Want to make your own? Check out this great video from MiniWar Gaming:

Custom Coteaz WIP

So in light of the recent Codex: Inquisition I was having a hard time getting my hands on a Coteaz model.  But, as I often do, I thought to myself... self, why buy a model when you can make your own?  Using a bit of green stuff, a tad bit of apoxie sculpt, a space marine captain, and a lot of patience I began sculpting my own Coteaz.  Here is the current work in progress:

I still have a lot of detail work to do but I'm happy so far.  My list of details to add are as follows:

• Psyber-Eagle
• Skulls on knee pads
• Inquisitor symbol on shin guards
• Inquisitor symbol on shoulder pads
• Fur
• Front cloak
• ribbons

Custom Space Wolf Dreadnought #1

My first dreadnought was a vanilla marine I picked up off of ebay for about $10.  My goal was to turn it into a Space Wolves Dreadnought.  To accomplish this I used a combination of Apoxie Sculpt, Green Stuff and a little tough love. I began by removing the paint with Super Clean.  This normally works very well but will sometimes not remove black primer.  In this case it worked well enough to move on.

I used Apoxie Sculpt for all fur, and Green Stuff for more minute details. In this photo you can see one of the furs on the first Dreadnought.  I use dental tools to sculpt the fur. I also went about magnetizing the Dreadnought and the arms so that I can change up my list to meet specific threats.

You'll notice that there is still some paint on these.  I soaked them in Super Clean for a couple of days and what you see left is the tough stuff that stained the plastic.

The Lascannon received a Green Stuff wolf icon. The hash marks help the Green Stuff adhere to the plastic. I then spread a ball of GS across the side of the lascannon and carved out the wolf using a x-acto knife and dental tools.

The Missile Launcher got the same treatment.  I also added a bit of small chain to the missile launcher. I got this from Michael's craft store. Check out their jewelry section. There are a lot of great necklaces that can be used as chain and power cords.

The legs of the dreadnought were missing the shin guards.  I fixed this by cutting a piece of styrene tube to length and then cutting it in half.  I applied those to the front of the legs and finished them off with some more Apoxie Sculpt fur and a Green Stuff banner.  I "Wolfed up" the feet by cutting notches into the toes and cutting some sprue into claws.

For the classic wolf skull and cross bones I created a push mold of an original using Apoxie Sculpt and used that to press a Green Stuff duplicate.

A coat of Wolf Grey primer and base coat from The Army Painter  really starts to pull it all together.

Next came paint. I don't have any in process pictures but the colors used were Wolf Grey, Dragon Red, Greedy Gold, and Weapon Bronze, from The Army Painter as well as various craft paints.  The mechanical details were blackened out out and then dry brushed with Games Workshop Boltgun Metal.  I used The Army Painter washes for shadows and Secret Weapon Miniatures pigments for rust/weathering.  The base was flocked with Army Painter snow and some other snow flock I had on hand.

Tada!

Space Wolf Dreadnoughts - WIP

So I recently picked up a couple of Space Marine Dreadnoughts off Ebay for about $10 each.  One was a vanilla marine and the other Dark Angels.  My goal was to turn these two Dreads into Space Wolves Dreadnoughts.  To accomplish this I used a combination of Apoxie Sculpt, Green Stuff and a little tough love.
	I used Apoxie Sculpt for all fur, and Green Stuff for more minute details. In this photo you can see one of the furs on the first Dreadnought.  I use dental tools to sculpt the fur. I also went about magnetizing each Dreadnought and all the arms so that I can change up my list to meet specific threats.

For the close-combat-weapon I added a fur pelt across the top, a skull  and trim on the front face, removed a cable and replaced it with "Power Cable" made out of a section of necklace I picked up at Michael's.  Lastly, I cut notches into the fingers and cut out sharp finger tips from styrene card stock.

You'll notice that there is still some paint on these.I soaked them in Super Clean for a couple of days and what you see left is the tough stuff that stained the plastic.









The Lascannon received a Green Stuff wolf icon. The hash marks help the Green Stuff adhere to the plastic. I then spread a ball of GS across the side of the lascannon and carved out the wolf using a x-acto knife and dental tools.



The Missile Launcher and Multi-Melta get the same treatment.

I also added a bit of small chain to the missile launcher. I got this from Michael's craft store. Check out their jewelry section. There are a lot of great necklaces that can be used as chain and power cords.


The legs of Dreadnought number 1 were missing the shin guards.I fixed this by cutting a piece of styrene tube to length and then cutting it in half.  I applied those to the front of the legs and finished them off with some more Apoxie Sculpt fur and a Green Stuff banner.  I "Wolfed up" the feet by cutting notches into the toes and cutting some sprue into claws.


Dreadnought number 2 still needs a lot of work.  I'veadded plenty of fur, some wolf details, a banner, and I've used some green stuff, styrene tube and a space marine head to create a "Venerable" feel.  I added a skull to the shin and claws to the toes again.  For the classic wolf skull and cross bones I created a push mold of an original using Apoxie Sculpt and used that to press a Green Stuff duplicate.


A coat of Wolf Grey primer and base coat from Army Painter really starts to pull it all together.