Hardened Veterans

[Deleted]

Alright, so I've done up the first of my hardened veterans, and I've noticed a few things:

One, weapon sizes in Warhammer 40k are crazy. 'Sidearms' are the size of thighs, and 'boot' knives would go up to their knees. So I had to trim some of that stuff to make it less...compensating.

Number two: helmets are practical, but not bad ass! Thus, my Hardened Veteran has no head. This is obviously a problem! I'm thinking of doing up a head to look like Raynor from Starcraft II (my avatar). Another pic of him can be found here:

starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Image:Jim_Raynor_SC2.jpg

Now, I'm thinking of using the standard IG head without a helmet, but how do you think I should do the rest of him? I'm pretty sure I'll need to GS the hair to be somewhat longer, but should I GS in his beard as well? Or merely paint it on? And how would I paint it on, using watered down black and/or grey?

Alright, I was going to have a three, which was how should I do my special weapons? Since the metal cadians have a) helmets, and b) completely static poses, they wouldn't have served. Fortunately, I do have a horde of marine bits (and 3 meltaguns, hoho!), and size was they don't look so bad just being held by a Guardsman.

As a side note, I have 10 plasma pistols...any idea on how to turn them into decent looking plasmaguns?

-Steel

[mardaddy]

Fabricate a folding stock?

Seriously, though, you could probably come up with something cool doing some cutting using four of them , making one longer gun incorporating four of those ribbed areas (side to side, and forward pair, back pair) plus something to pass as a barrel. Something like...

[][]
[][]

But you'd still have to come with a hint of a stock, or it'll look like some oversized, unbalanced pistol.

Maybe replacing a lasgun guts (kinda hollowing the gun out) and putting the ribbed areas in that, a tiny bit of greenstuff here and there...

HEY. I'm gonna try that!!

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

here's a pic of a couple of the kill team guys I was working on a while back - hope it provides some inspiration on a possible way to do plasma guns (I really like the conversion - picked it up from someone here on the forum).



about greenstuffing the hair/beard - I dunno if you've worked with greenstuff before but it is ABSOLUTELY neccessary to have some Olive Oil or other such cooking oil to dip your sculpting tools in so that you can work the puddy and not have your tools stick to it and tear it all apart leaving you frusterated and back at square one. lube your tool (lol)

also get some toolz if you don't have any. a starter set is all you really need and they only cost like $10 or something cheap like that. it'll help you a TON in getting good results with your sculpting.

good luck and be sure to snap pics of the results - I totally wanna see how you do with it

[Deleted]

I've done some fairly basic GSing previously, but I never heard of the Olive Oil tip

But yeah, the beard will probably be the smallest and most detailed thing I've done...so it should be really frustrating, but educating I have the GW sculpting tool, the double-sided thing. I'm not sure if its fine enough to detail hair though...but we'll see. I guess if I lube up the xacto knife it should also suit for the hair.

Then again...I might just end up painting on the beard..

[Deleted]

Dental picks (hooked scrapers that usually come packaged with a little mirror) can be great for putting detail into GS and are relatively cheap, too.

[Deleted]

Ooo, where could I get one of those?

I guess I could ask my dentist the next time my tooth breaks though.. =\

[Commissar]

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA LUBE YOUR TOOL HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA

Ahhh...*wipes tears of laughter from eyes*, yes, that method works!
I like these models, especially the shotgun, he looks real...mean, like hes gonna kick open the doors to a saloon and shout "...THE PUMPERNICKEL PIMP IS IN TOWN" And then shoot up the joint.
Something random and untame like that; the type of thing nightmares are made from.

But yes, hardened vets can be a little difficult to make...individual.
There are many possibilities and its hard to choose!

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

you should be fine making the beard if you remember the olive oil

[telecustom]

Look at using Empire Heads. They already have Beards and longer hair.

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

ah that's a good tip right there

[Deleted]

Or, just look at the multitude of other miniature types out there... i'm sure you could find something suitably amazing.

[Deleted]

Well, I mean...his beard isn't THAT bushy (Although I do need a big beard for my Vostroyan vox officer...and I do recall one empire head that would suit it awesomely!)

I have a multitude of miniatures that I might be able to use though...but I would like to practice my GSing skills. Originally I was going to go with the visored vox helmets that were posted somewhere on this forum (Drop Troop board I believe), but I think they kinda look clunky without additional armour. The pose I have is fairly fluid and light too, so in the end I don't see these guys wearing helmets.

Ugh, I sold a horde of Catachans to my friend a while back...I'll probably look into stealing a bunch of heads back since he doesn't even use them. Two rules I've come across:

1. Never sell your stuff. You'll always regret it later.
2. Don't quit the hobby. You can't, it's over! Nothing you ever do will free you!

Unfortunately exams are rolling up fast, so I might have to put complex projects on hold and just stick to painting up line guardsmen.