Fish gotta swim, computers gotta crash... Impalers gotta impale. In that vein, my second Impaler will actually be impaling someone.This Circle of Orboros druid chick makes a great target, for a few reasons.
The first trick when positioning a model like this, is the one being held up has to look natural. Feet will need to be modified so they're not just pointing straight up, hair has to flow the right direction, limbs need to flail properly, etc. This model has poseable heads and arms and a cloak that flows around the feet.
The other reason, as TheWife pointed out, is a smaller model makes the larger troll look even bigger.
I wanted the spear to look natural, so I'm replacing it completely with a stir stick rather than cutting and regluing a bunch of parts. After cutting off the shafts, I then use a knife and snips to cut around the hand even more. Finally, I drill through the hand so the stir stick can actually go right through. NOTE that this doesn't work with all minis... many hands are tool small to drill through a fist, but larger (such as a troll) models work fine.
For the victim, there's a number of things to do so she looks right.
I cut the back out of her cloak's hood so I could throw the head back as if it was whipped backwards.
After figuring out the angle she'd be held at, I drill through her chest so the stir stick "spear" can fit right through.
Fitting the hand around her waist took a little more work.
Using pliers, I was able to pull the fingers apart just enough to fit, and this gave me a target for carving around her.
To fit the thumb, I simply drilled a hole in her side deep enough for it to fit.
For the other fingers, a little drilling followed by cleaning up with a knife to widen the hole, This involved a few back and forths for sizing and fitting of course.
I'll probably come back and green stuff the cloak out some more. Definitely, I'll have to green stuff in her neck since her head's thrown back.
 | 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 |
Awesome. I love models that are interacting with other figures (A.K.A. victims.) It's a bit hard to tell exactly what it will look like at this point because the bare metal is not very photogenic but I have a feeling it will look fantastic. The only thing that seems off to me is that the troll is staring straight ahead and doesn't seem to be paying any attention to the elf. Of course, looking at the neck on the troll I can tell that it will be a huge pain to make him look in another direction.
ReplyDeleteReminds me a bit of my greater daemon with the grot (goblin) struggling to free himself from the daemon's grip on his head. I'm also cooking up ideas for some very dynamic and action filled objective markers for my tyranids that I'm pretty excited about.
It's something I've noticed in the last while too.. dynamic poses really make a model come alive.
ReplyDeleteI do want to have it looking at the elf, just had to get the elf pose figured out first... next, I'll need to see if I can crane the neck down without it looking goofy.
Got some pics of that demon?
I figured you would probably do that, but just looking at that neck I recognized the difficulties involved in turning his head. So many complications for something that should be very simple. I have no doubt you'll be able to make it work.
ReplyDeleteI sure do have pics of the daemon. I made a post about him back in March on "Old Stuff Day" and he was featured in the SCWH Honor Roll #2. The blog post also has links to the WIP thread on Warseer and a Photobucket album with something like 170 pictures or so. http://maximumheresy.blogspot.com/2011/03/old-stuff-day-greater-daemon-prince-of.html
It was my first major conversion and first experience with sculpting and a lot of other things. It's not perfect and it's a bit awkward/overdone in some areas but I still love the concept and think it's pretty good for a first attempt. The goblin I used was actually a Mageknight goblin mounted on something, I don't remember but I think it might have been some kind of lizard thing. I didn't have to re-pose him or anything, just cut him off of his mount and chop off the weapons and most of the head, and glue him on.
As for the tyranid objective markers I'm planning a blog post soon on my ideas. Anyway, I'm rambling again. Sometimes I get the feeling that I write too much.
I tried to do this with some of my marines, but there really isn't enough space on the base for it.
ReplyDeleteIt would be pretty difficult on a 25mm base. About the best you could do is give the marine a Captain Morgan pose with his foot resting on the head of a recently defeated enemy. Hmmm... I'll have to remember that idea.
ReplyDelete@Chaosheade: ohhh, right, I remember that. A very cool conversion.
ReplyDelete@Reid: It is much harder to do with smaller based minis. Trollbloods are mostly bigger though, especially beasts like the Impaler. (Just lookit that hand around the smaller waist) As Chaos points out, limbs work better for that scale.. otherwise, try on monstrous sized creatures.
But, but, she's not an elf... *confused*
ReplyDeleteShe's scrawny, robed and therefor presumably a mage, and a Circle of Orboros druid hippy... close enough ;)
ReplyDeletehttp://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100518221659/overlord/images/c/c0/Elf_males.jpg
Just came across her card.. lol, I guess she's some Warcaster... now I feel even better about picking her.. hehe... Not really an elf, but she's still a circle hippy ;)
ReplyDelete