Blog Aginor's Painting Blog

Stegadon, part two:

The big secret (well, not really because I already mentioned it in this thread, but whatever) is that this Stegadon is basically a Transformer. I placed a ridiculous amount of small magnets in its parts. I counted them: 64 magnets all in all.
The Stegadon itself consists of 33 parts that belong to one, two, or all three versions.
Yes, that's correct. You can convert this Stegadon between all three possible variants, actually five if you count Stegadons without the Skink Alpha as own versions. No compromise solutions that fit only halfway.
Every part that matters can be switched. I even made sure that the Sunfire Thrower version does not have the spare ammo for the Ballista attached.

I also made sure that none of the Howdah's painted surfaces (that I am quite proud of) was drilled into. All crew is somehow attached with their arms, wrists, with a magnet on their weapon or even with one hanging on their chest like an amulet.
The Alpha has magnets on his feet and there are magnets below the throne in the right spots to hold him.

The following picture shows all parts except one Skink arm that I forgot to detach.



When the Alpha is not needed (Stegadon in EotG configuration) he fits on the Priest's base and can be played with his alternate weapon as a Skink Chief.


The next pictures show the Sunfire Thrower version.
It has this beautiful bronze plate in front, and I decided to go full crazy mode and painted all the triangles.

Also:
Every Skink on the Howdah has either changed his position or his weapon/arm to fit the new configuration. It is actually quite hard to place magnets on a model in a way that works for two different configurations. It took LOADS of time and almost drove me insane, with a lot of switching between the configurations, using putty to try out stuff.

Example: the Skink holding the crank handle in the Ballista version (which is magnetized on both the Skink's shoulder and on the ballista side!) changes both arms and moves to the front in the Flamethrower version. The weapon in his left hand is magnetized to the back of the bronze half circle thing, the right one gets the spear to hold.





...and as if that wasn't already crazy enough, there is yet another version. See y'all in part three!

 

Stegadon, part three.

This is the Engine of the Gods version.
It is largely identical to the Sunfire Thrower version, but it has other accessories (we need the space where they are to put the ring through), the magnetized side parts of the throne are removed for the same purpose, it has the additional flag thingies, a priest, and one guy less on the Howdah.
The priest has a different pose than the Alpha so the throne actually contains two more magnets. All in all there are eight magnets in the throne.

I painted all the symbols in the ring, with a dark background to make them really pop. I love high contrasts.
The only accessory left is now placed in the back to cover the hole there. The throne is moved forward a bit.

First picture without the Priest to show the throne details.






...but guess what: I'll probably use the Ballista version 90% of the time.
I kinda enjoyed building this, but if someone asked me if it is worth it I would say "probably not". There is always the risk of damaging something when transforming it. Better get another one.

Here are a few last pictures of the version I play most, the Skystreak Bow Stegadon:







Thanks for reading!

 

I forgot a few pictures. Here they are. They are from an earlier stage but they show some details on the Howdah and the base without the Stegadon.

 

Sure!
The model was primed white, then I added two or three thin layers of the Army Painter metallic color "Greedy Gold", the GW equivalent would be Liberator Gold or Auric Armor Gold I guess. I shaded it with a sepia tone, but only very carefully.
You could make it even more shiny by highlighting with Army Painter's new "Bright Gold".

 

Thanks guys!
That earth color is some brown tinting paint for walls from the hardware store. I just picked some medium brown and mixed white with it until it looked like milk chocolate. Then I just slapped it onto the sand (mixed grain size, from my daughter's sandbox) not too carefully, and when it was dry I drybrushed it with some ash grey color. Some terrain pieces I also washed it with pure black paint watered down. Same kind of wall paint, it is available in the hardware store in ten different colors or so.

I probably wouldn't use that color for my models but for the ground it looks pretty decent.

 

Last night I built all the bases for the Silver Tower enemies.
Fun fact: there is at least one error in the ST assembly manual. It says the Ogroid Thaumaturge is on a 40mm base while he clearly isn't. A 50mm base is included in the set, that's where he belongs. The two 40mm bases included in the set are for the Gaunt Summoner and the Knight Questor.

EDIT: Also I was a bit surprised: Judging by their size I would have bet the Pink Horrors belong on 32mm bases, but both the text and the pictures in the assembly guide say 25mm.

I decided to try @Crowsfoot 's way of basing and did some work on the bases before putting the models on them and priming them. Looks like it could help up speeding things a little and making the basing a bit more consistent.
For the Silver Tower set I want to make the bases "dungeon floor" style, the aim is to have stone sett (is that the correct English word for this? I googled it) floors in various damage states, from complete to ruined.

I have the "Green Stuff world" texture rolling pin for bricks so I made some sheets of 2-3mm thick Fimo air basic with that texture. Then I just brok them apart and glued them to the bases.
Then I glued the models on. The result can be seen in the attached pictures, next step is priming them.
...which leads to a dilemma: I prefer black primer for bricks and other stone textures, but I much prefer white primer for models, especially when using light skin tones like for the Acolytes or the Tzaangors.
I think I will prime them all white (I have white, black, and blue spray primers) and then just slap on a black coat on the bases. Or does anyone have a better idea?

Also I am still contemplating what to do with the parts of the bases not covered by the stones. Should I cover those with a bit of coarse sand making them look more like rubble? Or just paint them grey and be done with it? I am not sure about either...

 

Oh, and more plans for the Silver Tower guys:
- As you see in the pics above I put the Gaunt Summoner and the Ogroid Thaumaturge on bases with the Aztec style texture. Especially for the Ogre I hope this will look very cool, since the big round texture from the rolling pin fits the base almost perfectly.
- For the magi/fiery/otherwise radiating guys I will try and put some colored highlights onto the bases. For example I'd like to have the Brimstone Horrors (who are basically made of fire) shine on the floor below them. And for the Ogre and/or the Summoner I'd like the floor to react to their magical powers, some of the glyphs and lines on the stone shining in blue or so.

 

Excellent bases, on the bare plastic you want rubble it might take you longer but it will be worth it.

 

Ok. I guess I will still be able to prime them on Saturday so that's ok concerning time.

 

Sanded and primed.

 

Short update:
Entered the Oh No phase with the Blue and Pink Horrors.
Pictures following shortly.