Wargaming Tradecraft: Troll Impaler WIP 4




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Troll Impaler WIP 4

 Next up, a little creativity to make some realistic looking stone weapons. I picked up a small box of tumbled stones from a hippy store.
(Green Earth - careful, they don't keep their pricing up to date, nor do their make good on false labelling, even after store staff is made aware of the mistake.)



I'll need to drill a hole in the stone so I can pin it... unfortunately, since this stone's been tumbled, it's very smooth.

For this reason, I start by using a dremmel to grind a dimple where I intend on drilling. The bit I use is a small, spherical diamond dust one. (very resistant to wear and tear)

Next, I drill a hole for the pinning wire. Use force, careful not to bend and snap your bit. Drill a little at a time, allowing dust to clear, rather than building up and wearing your drill down extra.

Unfortunately, drills and stone are NOT resistant to wear and tear. This will increase costs as you'll no doubt eventually wear down your drill bits.
 The next attachment up is a coarse (rough) stone grinding wheel. This lets me grind the "spear head" into the shape I want.

I use the edges more than the flat sections and intentionally leave cut marks in the stone - that just makes it look more real.

Be sure to grind off all the shiny tumbled parts so that the whole stone has been ground uniform.

This really wears down the grinding wheel, and makes a dusty mess. (pictured) Also, small parts, be VERY careful not to grind yourself - another reason to pre-pin.
 Next, I use a fine (almost smooth) grinding stone to rebuff the stone.

Again, you want to grind the stone uniform in the last step, so that this buffing makes the whole stone look the same.


Unfortunately, I realized here that this type of stone looks JUST like Thrall's hammer with its lightning look. That means I'll have to redo this spear... which I guess is ok since I've got 8 of these to do. (1 in hand, 3 slung over the back)
 Finally, cut off the spear head and drill out the spear shaft for the pin.
Annnnd here we are.


Just don't forget to remove the spearhead BEFORE you prime the model. Authenticity is the point here.


As a final, I also add cheeks to the heads, bringing the tusks into the mouths.




Take a look at my Step by Step page for the entire Hordebloods project.

Here you will find each model broken down into links showing each step:
Concept, Works in Progress, (for both modelling and painting) and Final Shots

3 comments:

  1. This... seems like an extremely high amount of work for the result. Why not go out an hunt down some flint arrow heads?

    Or if not that, just take your buffed rocks, smash them with a hammer once, and then chip off the remaining smooth edges with a chisel or something?

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  2. The result is a beautiful natural stone look.

    "Flint arrow heads" a) look boring and b) are way too big for miniature scale.

    Plan A was a chisel, which I sharpened just for this... but that launched my stone across the room and took out a howling banshee. Even a C-Clamp couldn't hold it in place because of the angles and smoothness.

    You really need to consider the scale that we're working with in miniature figures. Blunt force just can't create the detail that's required. The drilling was the most time involved part too... actually grinding out the spear head took no time at all.

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  3. Love the natural stone idea. I bet some obsidian would be great with my 'nids but the cost of the stones and tools to actually work on them would probably be too high to do that any time soon.

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