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Old Schooler New to Lizzies

They were modeled from GW skinks anyway weren't they? Seems like something you shouldn't sell.
 
This looks fantastic! Congratulations on your hard work!
 
DanBot said:
They were modeled from GW skinks anyway weren't they? Seems like something you shouldn't sell.
Click to expand...

Yes and no - the chameleons are sculpted on top of armatures that were conversions of plastic skinks. By the time the minis reached the chameleon stage there was hardly anything left of the original figure - the underlying pose of the legs was about all that GW could lay a claim on, if anything, and that's just not enough to even characterize these as derivative works. IMO, the chameleons are "transformative works" under copyright law, which I would be legally permitted to sell. I can't say that GW wouldn't harass me all the same, so if I did make a chameleon dolly for use with GW's plastic skink arms, I would make sure it was 100% original sculpting. That's what I was suggesting above. I may in fact do this, just to have the next few chameleons take to the tabletop that much quicker...

In other news, the Krox are just about done. Final photos soon, then I'll be shipping them off to be cast :)

In other, other news, I've done a wee bit of painting and just about have my Cold One Cav finished (remember them?) Photos of that coming soon too. Just been really swamped at work unfortunately (or fortunately, as I am grateful for having a job that pays me well...)

Thanks for the continued comments and interest!
 
GW can shove it! Your work is awesome! I really hope you do make those chameleons for sale. I for one would love to purchase them along with those kroxigors. Looking forward to seeing the cold one cavalry done. Haha yes very fortunate as some people are out of a job (like myself 3 weeks ago lol).
 
Count me in for some of those camo skinks. Its about all i dont have. And games workshop models arent worth the price as we all know. If i was gunna pay that much id rather just get some that feel special.
 
On to something a little different for a bit...finally working on my Stegadon. As mentioned elsewhere, I have the old metal one and picked up some of the new plastic crew and bits to make a conversion. This required enlarging the howdah a bit, which you can see in the photos below. I am on the horns of a dilemma now (pun intended) in how to arrange the crew.

There are four side by side comparison photos below. In each, the Steg on the left has the Skink Cheif riding on a platform on the front left. This makes him nice and visible, but off center, and I'm not sure I like the way the two in the back with spears look. The crew configuration on the right in each photos has the Chief riding in the back, but placed this way he gets to look directly forward. The spear skinks, instead on standing back to back, are staggered. I like certain things about each, so I need some help figuring out what to do here - please give me your vote or advice if you have any! Thanks!

comp1front.jpg

comp2frontleft.jpg

comp3rightfront.jpg

comp4rightrear.jpg

If you have a comment about how I painted the steg, I'd be happy to read that too :)
 
I prefer the configuration on the right. Looks good overall!
 
I agree. He doesn't get lost in the back or anything, and with his helm painted up and that big spear he'll easily pop out of the 'crowd.' Centered makes him look more in charge, rather then yelling at some pedestrian on the side.
 
I think they are both good, but i too prefer the right one a little bit. gaming wise though i do not understand why you would put a skink chief with warspear (thats what it is, right?) on a non-ancient stegadon. Seems like it would be worth 30 points to get that S6 on the impact hits.

Painting wise i like the color, and i think that especially the horns look brilliant. looking forward to more as usual :)
 
Funny, after toying around with this a bit more last night I had all but convinced myself to stick with the original Chief on the front left position, but was waiting to hear from you guys first...and you all seem to agree with my second plan. Decisions decisions! Your points are all good ones...

Tsunami, the reason I was going with a chief on a baby Steg is because S5 is more than adequate to kill elves, and the game I have coming up against the HE is 2200 points and those extra 40 points do not easily fit into the character allowance. Frankly there is a good chance I am just going to take the baby steg without the chief...

All of this brings up a further point: that there is really a lot to be said for allowing for future customization. Not to mention being able to remove crew to mark off wounds. So now what I think I should do is make the crew figures all removable and configurable by putting wire pins in their feet. It means drilling holes in the floor of the howdah, but that won't necessarily look all that bad, since the floor is wood, and wooden beams with holes in them is a fairly common sight.
 
Being able to pull off the crew as they are wounded is something that will make using the stegadon much easier. I wouldn't do mine any other way.
 
Probably will make the whole thing a lot easier to transport too. But that one guy pulling back the ballista has to be glued on - no way to do that pose and have him be removable:

Steg002.jpgSteg001.jpg

Steg015.jpg

Lots more to do on this before the weekend! Note to my High Elf opponent if he is spying on this blog...I might not even take this thing on Sunday, so don't go out of your way buying bolt throwers :D

P.S., just noticed the skink under the steg's foot in the last photo...that wasn't intentional, but gives me an idea for the base :bored:
 
You should be able to get the skink working the ballista removable as well if you want.

I bought a bunch of rare earth magnets from ebay for when I get around to start assembling my units, one of the sizes I got is not more than 2mm or so in width and perhaps 1mm thick. I believe you should be able to use that on the bow string, and then a little larger magnet on the foot.

Though personally I believe I would use magnets instead of pins for the placement of the skinks, it will cost a little more since you need to get the magnets, but I believe it will be easier to use than the pins, as it also allow you to change the position of the crew if desired.
 
Aren't rare earth magnets dangerous? Pardon me...I'm an organic farming hippie type...the idea of being exposed to that much magnetism...I don't know. Maybe I'm just being silly? At any rate, I could certainly see using one for that top-heavy "Aztec Dial sporting" BSB, you know the one:

BSB.jpg

(Note the slight conversion to the shoulder so that his weapon is held at an angle that will clear the lip of a movement tray when he is placed in the front rank. Damn I hated putting this figure together...the dial weighed a ton and just wouldn't glue on without adding some putty!)

Anyway, back to the Steg, if I were going to put rare earth magnets in the feet of the skink crew, how would I do that? Most of them are standing on their toes. It was hard enough pinning a bit of wire in there without drilling straight through the top of the foot.

FYI, the skink pulling back the ballista bowstring must be pretty damn strong. In the original kit there were two in this pose, but I wanted the second giant bow crew memeber to be handing him an arrow to reload with and pointing to the target. That was a bit of a sculpting project in the middle of everything...I'll post some close ups of that at some point. Let's see how far I can get with this in only one week. I kinda feel like I am racing neveroddoreven to get this done on such a short timeline! :D
 
There is nothing at all dangerous about the magnetism of tiny rare earth magnets. Their field strength only goes about half a centimetre so you won't even be in the field most of the time, and when you are magnetic fields are thought to have more healing properties than harming properties, though I don't really believe either. :P Large electromagnets I wouldn't want to be close to for too long, but the only problem you might have with the rare earth ones is if you let them smash together, they break into small pieces, and you inhale it. I think you would have to be going out of your way to manage that.

So overall I agree with using magnets instead of pins, thats how I have done my steg as well. Either way should work though, and if you only put a pin through one foot you will be able to change their positions easily enough if you want to anyway. As you mentioned, you have to be careful not to drill all the way through the foot, but if you get extremely close, almost to where the hole is just starting to appear on top of the foot, it will fit the magnets. Make sure you are drilling under the leg if possible as well to get more stability.

Oh and kudos for getting that BSB together! It did seem like a rather ridiculously top heavy piece.
 
seriously? afraid of magnets? *facepalm*

what color will you use for the eyes of the stegadon?
 
OK, thanks for indulging my fears. I did read an article about a toddler who swallowed a tiny camera battery - the kind that look about the size of a silver M&M, and almost died because of the magnetism, but that's obviously a different matter. I might try playing with some of these as it's highly unlikely that I'll be ready to glue the howdah on any time too soon. Might have to settle for blue tacking it together for this weekend's game. I hate rushing these projects, and there's really no need to - conversions and sculpted miniatures are exempt from full VP penalties in our campaign system (they still get a minus 25 point hit, being treated as "painted to minimum standard but not yet finished" while under construction).

About the eyes, I went with a red iris with a black dot in the middle, and painted the whites pure white. They look great, but are very small and hard to see on this model.

Here's one additional view of the Steg with the two competing configurations for the Skink Chief:

comp5rear.jpg

I am still leaning a bit towards putting the Chief prominently on the platform, even though he wouldn't be centered. Part of the reason is that from the rear I just like those two skinks stabbing down on either side. The rear view when the Chief is on the back of the howdah strikes me as rather dull. Anyone agree? Disagree?
 
ok, screw painting for a while i just get so upset when i see these kinds of misunderstandings :D

yes, these super magnets can be very dangerous if you swallow more than one. but it is not (directly) because of the magnetism itself. If you swallow one magnet, and that starts traveling down your intestine, and then swallow another, that also travels down the intestine they could get pretty close to each other while in different parts of the intestine since it is looped in the stomach. then the two very strong magnets can snap together and pinch the intestine. it will create a wound that can bleed and also cause huge inflammations in the gut. THAT is dangerous and ppl have indeed died. the most common cause of this is when (idiots) use these magnets as fake piercings and then accidentally swallow them.

the magnetism in itself is not dangerous, and i have never seen any scientific evidence that even hugely powerful magnetism (think those things they use to lift cars, or MRI machines) can affect the body in any way.

OK, i think im calmer now :D
 
T'hinker'er, you are right. From the back, I think the one on the left looks better.. It then comes down to what impression you want to give from the model and especially the chief. When he is at the back, it looks like he is the clear leader directing things from the back of the howdah and shouting orders. When he is at the front, it looks more like he is just a stronger warrior than the others and is getting stuck headfirst into the fight.

Which personality do you want for your chief?
 
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