Kama'zotz

[JFSebastien]

Spent the morning carving out the little bit of cloak that flows between Vlads legs. This is always a JOY without a rotary tool....
My DIY method is to drill holes down into the piece, as many as you can fit in the space. This takes out the bulk of the metal, leaving you to scalpel out the remains. Takes alot of cutting and filing to get the mass out. Remember that you just wanna take it down flat, not perfectly smooth, as a GS layer will be added to finish it.
Its just 'subtractive' thinking, taking off layers to just below where then newly sculpted layer will sit. Its exaserbated by trying not to ruin the details that you want to keep, tricky with scalpel blades as they often take a chunk off something else when you are digging down into metal areas. Also, 3 finger wounds....its the main hazard of carving metal lol. Nearly took my eye out when a blade shattered and flew up at my face.
First up is vlad with the area gouged out. Still needs alittle more work but mostly done:

Second is an image detailing the area i have removed (RED) against a rough image of what i will sculpt back on; Leg (GREEN), loincloth (PURPLE) and the new layout for the left hand side of the cloak (BLUE). The weapon poser (BLACK) and hand (FLESH) are added so you can get the overall pose:

 

[JFSebastien]

Started to play with the plastic Ghouls to try to find a look that will suit my army. I'm still not massively happy with the models, but they are growing on me. I think i will be able to get a suitable looking model out of the set for my 60+ ghouls. This model is the prototype and is being used to work out what changes i want to make and how i can refine the process to be as quick and painless as possible. The main changes are going to be:

~Repose: my ghouls have some of the lower torso removed and a pin used to give them a more upright appearence. GS is added to the gap for strength, then when dry, a stomach is sculpted back in.
~Backs: all the crazy crap is stripped off. I tried to carve out and resculpt some spinal bumps but this takes far too long to do 60+. As it stands i will just smooth out the removed areas and make the lower back alittle more concave to look natural. I would like the spine protruding, but theres not alot i can do, so will use the big, blank humpback to display tattoos and warpaint.
~Heads: adding in suitable meso-american jewelry. Most will get the disc earrings and some will have extra details added on the lowerlip, nose etc.
~Hair: once the head is attached i will add in some hair. Not sure how these will be styled, but will keep it quick , so mostly the front and sides will be shaved, with some hair at the back going into topknots etc.
~Loincloth: This is taking some time atm, as its the prototype. I will look at other plastic kits such as the Dire Avengers as as possible source of cloths to speed the process up.
~Weapons: i prefer the bare hand options, but will have some with wooden clubs and obsidian-edged swords. Originally (with the bloodlett idea) i only wanted bare hands, but this this meso-american theme, i don't mind some being armed now. Usually i don't understand why a ghoul (with paralysing venom on their claws and teeth) would use weapons, but as these are tribemen and more human than some depictions of Ghouls, it will help the theme to arm some of them.

So thats the Ghouls concept. The only thing i have not show are the arms. These will probably need reposing as they unique way they join onto the torso limits the way you can position them. WIth my repose they end up in unnatural positions and don't look right. So will probably cut off the 'shoulder blade' part and just run a wire pin into the socket, resculpting the rest. SHouldn't take long and will look much better.

C & C appreciated

 

[Death Stalker]

I am looking forward to seeing the finished army, 60 ghouls... thats a lot to do that much work on, looking good though - how long do you think this project is going to last?

I find my enthusiasm runs out pretty quickly because i want to game with the army and when i start a project im excited about tournament gaming with it as well as the look/theme so if its going to take me 6 months+ by the time the army is ready to go im wanting to do something else

Nice smooth sculpting on the loincloth btw

 

[JFSebastien]

Well, i think the project will take quite some time, but then i don't have anyone to actually play the game with, so no rush. Theres a club thats not far away, but then i've never really been that involved in the gaming side of things. Been around the hobby for most of my life, but as i hit the age where i really got into things, my older brothers had given up on GW. So i inherited thousands of models, but no opponents. I would like to play at some point, but mostly i am satisfied with the modelling side of things. I sculpt alot and spend most of my Hobby time thinking up ways to convert things, to improve stuff i don't like etc.
Hopefully ill actually like this theme enough to complete an army i can use as a way into the gaming/social aspect of the hobby, but then my Sisters of Battle project was supposed to do that I am moving into casting my own sculpts, so projects like this are practice, gearing up for various projects i am involved in to release miniatures with a few people i know online.
Other than that, we shall see. I don't own any paints (threw out my ancient pots in a GW purge) so that would help to progress this project. Its all dependent on selling my entired collection of OOP classic models, with alittle money poured back into the hobby for paints or trading for more models.

Hopefully the project will continue, but it will be slow, hopefullt appealing to those who like to see the intricate details of conversions and creating a themed army to a high standard. Curse my inability to ever use a model without modifying it to my own tastes, i just figure if you paying silly prices for GW stuff, might as well make models that blow peoples socks off.

 

[Trevy the Great]

Whoa, those Ghouls are gonna be awesome! Your Greenstuff skills are very good, JFSebastien, very nice. I can't wait to see more.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

That Ghoul conversion us great. It's surprising how a simple change of stature can make all the difference. If you convert all the ghouls this way it will look superb, especially with the different weapon ideas etc.

 

[JFSebastien]

@Vekarin: thanks alot for the compliment. For these prototypes i am working pretty slow, so the standard of GS smoothness etc is high. I'm never comfortable cutting corners so i might sculpt some loincloths to resin cast rather than having to sculpt 60+ individual loincloths and maintaining the same smooth standard.
@Disciple: Aye, a small change in posture can alter the flow of a model completely. I think that the default pose on the ghouls hides all the detail on the chest and the way the arms glue into the torso etc, limits the versatility of a multi-part plastic kit, if they all are locked into basically the same pose.


Here are some pictures on my progression. Bad pictures by its very overcast and was a rush job before i lost the daylight.
First up is a size comparison on the deafult pose of the ghouls (the one on the right is obviously unmodified apart from having the gubbins removed from the shoulders):

Second up is a pic of my Ghoul almost finished. The back of the loincloth is done (bar some burnishing as it dries, sharpening of the edges) and the left arm has been attached. I cut away the shoulderblade portion of the arm and pinned it straight into the torso, then filled with GS. This will be finished when it is dry enough to add on the final layer of skin. Not sure about adding hair anymore, might leave them mostly bald to save on conversion time. Once this one is finished i shall start doing batches of 5 at a time:

 

[The Dark Sheep]

Now that is what a humanoid predator is supposed to look like. Great work on all of it and especially the back.

 

[JFSebastien]

The inside of Vlads cloak is sculpted. Needs to be smoothed out. You can see the gap where the leg will be resculpted aswell as the first layer for the extra cloak that will extend to the right on the picture. That will be trimmed down and a second layer added that will blend with the rest of the work.

First attempt at a face at 28mm. Damn tricky. I think i will scrap this face as it's too long, but was a fun warm up attempt.

Not much to look at, but this shows the finished reposing of the arm. The shoulder blade was trimmed off the original arm and pinned into the socket in a more natural pose. GS to give a sturdy joint and then a second layer to finish, smoothed out as much as possible. I still want some spine ridges on the upper back as it looks too blank, but not sure if its gonna take too long for each model.



So a little bit of progress and the pictures aren't great.
Not sure where this project is going due to GW and the BS pricing soon to come, so i'm on a bit of a negative GW trip.
I think i might clean up the conversion work on the two metal vampires and not go down the route of giving them the meso-american flavour yet.
Anyone out there be interested in buying these models?
They are still generic enough to fit any VC army and would be willing to finish off the sculpting work to your own theme.
So you would have:
~Vlad with cloak toned down, hand either can have the sword added back on or reposed. Any other weapon/gear options you want.
~Flying Vamp. Weapon options your choice. Want to attempt removable wings so he can represent either a flyer or a roaming vamp (Talisman of Lycni combo etc)
~10 Ghoul 'Bunker' for the Vlad model. Either the ghoul i have converted can be the ghast with the rest made up 'straight out of the box' or i can repose all 10 to give you a unique feature unit instead of just another 10 ghouls who happen to be a vamp bodyguard.

If your interested in buying these, let me know. I think my work is pretty solid and i am confident i can style them to fit your wishes. A good chance to get two unique vampires and a bunker unit for the core of most VC armies.

 

[Devo]

It's distressing to think you might be abandoning this army. It's coming along fabulously.

If you're taking votes, I say you keep it going!

 

[brotherAkkyshan]

My vote goes for keeping the army going too! Forget GW and their crappy customer relations policies. There are plenty of other companies out there! Heresy Ghouls are fantastic (I've got some myself) and those Rackham Ghouls look stunning! They'll enable me to expand my Strigoi warband into a full army when their released!

Keep up the fantastic work, your ideas are very interesting and original... shame to waste them just 'cos GW pissed you off!

 

[Onikaigo]

Keep going! If you stop this army for whatever reason that's not Family or immediate life threatening then then....then....I dunno! I'll be angry.

Those ghouls look fantastic. I'm so going to steal your idea and rotate most of my ghouls to a more upright position.

And I actually like the face you made for your vampire. I really do. It's inhuman enough to be strigoi, and definitely reminiscent of a Bat of some sort.If you scrap it, mail it my way.

 

[Zephyr]

I agree with the others; love your work and don't abandon it! Trust me I sold my first VC army and I still regret it.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

I really hope you don't stop. The work you have done is really inspiring................however I would be interested if you do decide to sell them.