I'll say it again, I have 97 skinks with bows left over after cutting this one up, and I would WELCOME skinks with short bows if and when we ever get a new book (lord knows, with 8th edition here, we need some tweeks!) I say this not just because I have the models sitting around (and frankly, I think it likely that GW will design any new bow-skinks such that our old models will remain obsolete so we have to buy new ones....see the vastly different heads given to the Saurus compared to the ones in the 5th edition box. The main reason I would welcome bows back into the army is that I cannot imagine how a lizard could actually use a blowpipe! Lacking flexible lips and most importantly....cheeks with which to puff....honestly, I have considered making a saurus conversion playing a horn (a Roman inspired Cornican, to be exact), but modelling the mouth actually blowing...that's alluding my imagination at the moment Anyway, I am considering doing a second conversion at some point, especially as there were 2 different poses to the original plastic bow-skink. I'll see what time allows. Chances are I will not get to that anytime soon however, as I need to have about 1,300 points of painted models on the table in the next 30 days or so...
Awesome conversion! I wish I could construct something like that. I personally love the blowpipes. I think it ties in more with how the army is designed IMO.
I love the blowpipes from a 'pygmy jungle warriors' flavor point of view, and I have no quarrel with their effectiveness. I just think it's silly because lizards don't have cheeks or the kind of lips necessary to actually use a blowpipe. These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night...
Think of them more like the spitting dinosaur of jurasic park just a bit more directional rather than a tuber player.
Isn't that what our Salamander is based on? But the spitting...that has something to do with the tongue I think. Or a venom sack of some kind. Indeed, lots of lizards have venom sacks and can shoot liquids of one kind or another. But blowing air is something different. Hey, if I'm wrong, please let me know! I'm always looking for weird ideas to sculpt
This is all I could find about lizard blowing air. "What sounds did dinosaurs make? Of course no one really knows. However, certain dinosaurs like hadrosaurs has specialized head crests which may have been used to blow air through to make a trumpeting sound."
Maybe the spittle propells the dart rather than a traditional blow pipe where air is used. Hmm this could keep me up at nights dam reality.
Absolutely anything is possible in a fantasy game....the question is how to model/sculpt it Should have more photos for you folks to look at after the weekend!
Well, I never did get to painting anything because I've been devoting what little time I have to finishing sculpting/converting my army and having a minimum sized cohort available to put on the table top in the ongoing campaign. So back to Saurus now... This one was started quite some time ago, but put on the back burner when I realized how many skinks I needed... The skinks aren't done, but are at least more or less under control, which allowed me to turn my attention back to this little fellow. This is the unit champion, and I wasn't sure if he was going in to a spear unit or HW unit, hence he is packing heat in both hands: If you look closely, you can see that I modified the original figure's head with a longer neck and a nose horn made from a bit of sharpened, curved wire. The feather head-dress was a massive pain in the butt to do, but I think it came out nice. The weapon hand is from the Coldone cavalry box, as is the shield, although the shield has been heavily modified with extra feathers and some greenstuff. Other views: So what do you think?
Woah a perfect meld of 5th and 6th edition Saurus. Reminds me of some of the metal Saurus wariors, but with a better hand weapon and shield.
like it, still not sure if i like the head dress but i suppose it will look pretty sweet when painted
Well, my unit of 18 sauri got munched by HE Swordmasters today, but not before doing some damage and holding their ground with cold blooded insane courage! Here's the start of the battle (note the 2 missing Swordmasters, courtesy of skink javelins), showing my sauri conversion command group and one painted figure I was very lucky that I had a unit of SKrox positioned on the flank. I beat the Swordmasters with this unit and finally made them flee. It seems that the Saurus make a very poor anvil unit against the HE, but perhaps they still fill a role as a hammer unit, or can beat up on some of the lesser HE units, like simple archers. They are definitely cheaper than the Skrox, and I need a bunker for my Scar Vet when I run the list with him as a general (a lowly Skink Priest was my general in this battle, and I kept him out of harm's way with the BSB in a unit of skink skirmishers). Anyway, bringing the subject back to modelling, I am thinking at this point I will only paint this unit of 18 Sauri, and save work on the unit of 20 spear until much later on in the campaign, perhaps when I am facing Greenskins or Dwarves. Against those HE I definitely think I need the extra ranks and steadfast! P.S., lustria, my army is all about the feathers...so I think that head dress will fit in fine.
Well, enough about my battles and tactics...this is probably the wrong subforum to talk about that anyway...you guys want pictures, right? O.k., so here are some photos of me using resin castings of my converted 5th edition skinks (see page "4" of this thread) and hopefully turning them into Chameleons. First, I made a bunch of curly tails with greenstuff...easy enough right? Then I drilled a hole: (yes, those are my fingers) Next, I cut off the skinks' tails and drilled holes for pinning: Step 3 - attached tails to tail stubs and shave off those skink crests: Voilà! Obviously these aren't done yet (and I definitely need a few more) but I think I'm off to a good start. The basic skink box left me with plenty of blowpipes, so I only need to sculpt a left arm and put some eyes on these little fellows. Stay tuned for more and keep those comments coming
i would kill for a tutorial on how you made the feathers on the saurus on page 5. looks VERY good also, do you have a link or something where i can find more info on how to cast my own models? if i make a "prototype" in greenstuff, how do i go about copying it? /T
Hi Lord Tsunami, thanks for looking and leaving a comment - things were eerily quiet around here... I don't know if this will be much of a tutorial, but I'll try my best. Basically, I decided on the shape I wanted (a double curl of drooping feathers) and cut a length of thin wire in that shape. I drilled a hole in the top of the sauri's head and inserted the wire with some glue, as shown in this very crude drawing: After that it was a matter of rolling out two sheets of putty in a rough tear drop shape, each about the length of one of the curls of wire (a longer one for the back and a shorter one for the front). Apply the sheets of putty to the wires with a small spatula tool. You want the narrow end at the base of the feather and the broad end...well, at the other end! Once attached, I flaired each side slightly in a sort of "V" shape (imagine the wire being at the base of the "V", if you were looking at the mini's head straight on). Allow this to fully cure before going on, as these sheets of putty are by definition rather thin and will easily deform if you try to put any detail into it at this stage. Once hardened you should apply a thin layer of putty over it and use the sharp side of the spatula (or a hobby knife) to add details and texture, cutting the stem and striations of each feather. At this stage you can also clean up your lines if your "tear drops" are looking a little bit too much like unshapely blobs Here is the only W.I.P. photo that I took of the mini before it was completed (I didn't stop to take pictures at every step, sorry!). If you look closely you can see the wires are still visible near the head: After that, it was just a matter of adding the rings at the base to cover the wire. Compare the finished product: Make sense? As far as casting goes, I am no expert. What I know I learned by trial and error and scouring the internet. Beware, the mold making silicone and casting resin, in the smallest size jars, will still set you back about $100, so this is not a way to save money on miniatures. Nor is it a clean process. I wear latex gloves while working and still end up with a pretty big mess to clean up after a session of casting. Finally, it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that you should not cast anything that you didn't make yourself or which isn't a significant transformation of someone else's prior work (i.e., a "transformative work" as opposed to a "derivative work", under applicable copyright laws. See Wikipedia for more on this...this probably isn't the place for a discussion on the subject). If you have any doubt at all as to whether or not you've managed to cross that line, do not offer anything you've cast for commercial purposes
thanks man. very interesting about the resin molding, how much resin are we talking about? for example, if i want to make my own heads to a unit of dark elves, could i cast that from 100$ worth of materials? i know for a fact that epoxy is a very cheap plastic to manufacture, and i wouldnt be surprised if you could by a huge tub of it for the same cost in for example a boat equipment store. about the silicone mold-making stuff, how hard is that to use? and how much work do you have to do on the parts after you have cast them? (like edges and stuff i mean) thanks again /T
I suggest you take a look over at The Complete Sculptor - http://www.sculpt.com/ You can get about a pint of resin for $25 (I am using "Smooth Cast 300"). You can make an awful lot of heads with a pint of resin. The silicone will also run $25 for a pint kit (I recommend something like Mold-Max 20). You will need latex gloves, some kind of mold box (I generally use lego blocks) and water clay (plasticine) to set your pieces in when pouring the first half of the mold. You should also have some separator compound (I typically use vasaline). You'll need to learn a bit about avoiding undercuts, making sprues and cutting air vents into your molds - these things come with experience. Mostly what you need is lots and lots of time... As for your question on mold lines, you'll have them and the figures will need more cleaning than you do on say a GW figure (unless you are like me an obsess over every seam, in which case it takes forever either way you go).
Taking a little break from sculpting to actually paint something... Trying out a color scheme that I've been thinking about for a long time now, and my first test subjects are a pack of Salamander hearders: The teal blue crests are actually a lot more apparent in real life than in these photos. Do you think I should tone down the gloss coat a bit? I think it makes them look wet... And the same color scheme on my Skink Priest, T`hinker`er: The frog hanging off the staff looks very dull to me in this photo. Maybe I need to do something about that? Anyway, now I need to come up with a way to base these. I want the army to be uniformly based, so I'll be stuck with whatever I do on the first few models. Hard decision!
All your stuff is looking very good man!!! Keep it up. I'm really glad you are updating this on a regular basis, you are now one of my daily stops online .