This is my first WiP thread. And my first attempt and doing so much in the way of a conversion.
I'll try to talk through the whole thing. Please feel free to comment on things I can do better. I can't be my own worst critic all of the time :slapface:
Step A: Assemble the Pieces!
You can see I've got:
a) The mandatory tubes of green stuff,
b) A block of extruded polystyrene
c) A block of expanded polystyrene (I wasn't sure which I'd want to use, but I was pretty sure it'd be the extruded)
d) Brass Rod - 1/16"
e) Balsa Wood - 1/2" x 1/2" x 3'
f) Balsa Wood - 3/16" x 4" x 3'
g) The Damsels of Distress that come with the GW coven throne kit, most generously donated by Bloody Maria after my shameless grovelling to a number of CN members for assorted bitz.
h) Not shown are the miscellaneous heads from my bitz box.
Step B: Build the Top Platform
Tools/Supplies - fingers, hobby knife, boxcutter, superglue, 1/2" and 3/16" balsa.
I've got flagstones across the top, because I think flagstones are cool. I've done these with the same technique I've used to create rock walls in extruded polystyrene (the blue/pink stuff). This is a chariot base sized piece of the 3/16" sheet of balsa.
1) Mark out or just run vertical cuts for your overall pattern.
2) Cut out a 'V' at 45 degrees or so, 2-3mm deep. This gives you a nice obvious feature that you can wash and/ or dry brush quite easily. It looks coarse, and if you stuff it up, no one can tell.
3) I did the same for the bench seat across the back, just using 3 sides of the 1/2" square balsa.
Overall I like the effect better with polystyrene, as you don't have to worry about the grain.
Step C: The Pedestal
Tools/Supplies - Boxcutter, drill press w/ 10mm bit, white glue, 3/16" balsa, extruded polystyrene.
1) I cut another chariot sized piece of the 3/16" balsa.
2) I cut the extruded polystyrene to put my platform at the same height as the platform on the GW model (height pilfered from another thread here at CN).
3) I used the drill press to grind out the shape from the polystyrene. It took me roughly 10 minutes to get into this shape. If I were to do it again, I'd make the top and bottom recessed from the edges of the platform and base. Keep the vacuum cleaner handy, as with any time I start carving polystyrene you get lots of crumbs with static cling - a bugger to clean up.
4) Glue on the base and platform with white glue, then two coats of white glue over the sides of the pedestal for paint-proofing.
Step D: The Toppings
Tools/Supplies - Serious wire cutters, 2 pairs needle-nosed pliers, 70/30 blue/yellow green stuff, paper clip, superglue, pin vise w/ 3/16" & 1/16" bits.
I wanted a Burton-esque railing around the top, something that evoked The Nightmare Before Christmas or (showing my age) Betelgeuse (why, Winona, why!). I figured the way to do this would be an ostentatiously bent rail with green stuff or paper hanging from the bottom for tatters.
1) I drilled some holes where I thought it'd be a good spot to put the uprights. I wasn't going to be too fussy, just the four corners and one on each side. I should have placed my damsels first, then drilled the holes, but measuring is for amatures, as is choosing not choosing a drill bit 3 times too large.
2) The top rail of 1/16" brass rod runs from the two front holes and goes all the way around the sides. I figured this would give me my strongest piece - a consideration as it's also one of the most exposed to flailing fingers/elbows/books. I bent it, bent it some more, unbent it a bit, and used some body english to get it into place. I then went about cutting and bending the remaining four uprights. At this point, nothing fit anymore.
3) I used 70/30 blue to green stuff to fill the mounting holes. I stuck in the back uprights where I thought they really ought to go, then the surround. I used more gs to wrap a decent blob over the rail and stick it to the uprights, drawing it out in each direction to try to make it look like it was all fused together by a stoned blacksmith. The centre two uprights went in with more smoothing and drawing, then I used the blade of my hobby knife to scrape off the excess gs from the base of each upright.
4) The Damsels I assembled very paitiently using the GW instructions (also tracked down here - thanks for the link!) Once they were sitting pretty, I realized that they looked rather silly with nothing to recline upon, so using some odd-shaped bits of the 3/16" balsa and squinting a bit, I made some more flagstone piles for the girls to recline against in indifferent luxury. I also slipped a flagstone step under the toes of the more upright gal. I then used the paperclip to put a pin in the posterior of each, so the join to the model would have a bit of mechanical strength. Not a huge amount, I was dealing with polystyrene and balsa, but enough to be knock-proof.
Step E: The Spirit Host
Tools/Supplies - Hobby knife, serious wire cutters, brass rod, 50/50 green stuff, pin vise w/ 1/16" bit, gs flattening gear of choice (I used plastic film and the plastic film roll - substantially less than ideal), heads from my bitz.
I wanted the platform to be held aloft by a shifting mass of ghosts-in-sheets, with just some heads (and maybe hands) poking out the front.
1) Raid my bits for some likely looking noggins. In this case, it was some Possessed Chaos Marines (I pronounce it chowss for giggles) and some skulls from the new skellies. Drill holes straight into the back for the brass rod. The rod is cut 7-10cm long and some of the pieces I gave 'S' (ok, 'Z') shapes to. The heads are mounted on the rods with the superglue and left to dry.
2) The heads are mounted onto the pedestal by just poking them into the foam at likely spots until I had something approximating a reasonable spacing. At this point, I had no idea how any of this was going to turn out, and was getting really apprehensive about the overall result.
3) Draping. I rolled out the GS until it was somewhere shy of 1mm thick. Too thick and it looks bulky, too thin and I can't handle it properly and I end up with great green fingerprints all over everything.
I started draping the front, starting with the lowest noggin and working to the top one. This way the bottom of each sheet would show, hopefully giving me a layered effect. I then used the hobby knife to snag the gs and pull it down to give me the mid-sheet tatters.
For each of the draped pieces on the heads, I folded the top backwards. For each of the side drapes, I folded the top outwards for more tatterd edges.
I overlapped the drapes as I moved from front to back, hiding the back edges of the forward piece. The leading edge of each drape was folded back for more layering.
You can see the random head low on the left side. I had torn a hole in the drape, so I just added the extra detail to cover my mistake.
Overall, I found this to be an intimidating project. I haven't done any green stuff work for 3 years, and most of that was gap-filling.
I found rolling out the green stuff to be a colossal pain. I was using well wetted sheets of plastic film, but something more substantial would be less frustrating. My wife just got these sheets for rolling out fondant for cakes - large enough to GS half a table. I don't think she'll share, though. If anyone has any products that have worked for them, please feel free to link them here.
Comments, yays and boos, are most appreciated.
I'll try to talk through the whole thing. Please feel free to comment on things I can do better. I can't be my own worst critic all of the time :slapface:
Step A: Assemble the Pieces!
You can see I've got:
a) The mandatory tubes of green stuff,
b) A block of extruded polystyrene
c) A block of expanded polystyrene (I wasn't sure which I'd want to use, but I was pretty sure it'd be the extruded)
d) Brass Rod - 1/16"
e) Balsa Wood - 1/2" x 1/2" x 3'
f) Balsa Wood - 3/16" x 4" x 3'
g) The Damsels of Distress that come with the GW coven throne kit, most generously donated by Bloody Maria after my shameless grovelling to a number of CN members for assorted bitz.
h) Not shown are the miscellaneous heads from my bitz box.
Step B: Build the Top Platform
Tools/Supplies - fingers, hobby knife, boxcutter, superglue, 1/2" and 3/16" balsa.
I've got flagstones across the top, because I think flagstones are cool. I've done these with the same technique I've used to create rock walls in extruded polystyrene (the blue/pink stuff). This is a chariot base sized piece of the 3/16" sheet of balsa.
1) Mark out or just run vertical cuts for your overall pattern.
2) Cut out a 'V' at 45 degrees or so, 2-3mm deep. This gives you a nice obvious feature that you can wash and/ or dry brush quite easily. It looks coarse, and if you stuff it up, no one can tell.
3) I did the same for the bench seat across the back, just using 3 sides of the 1/2" square balsa.
Overall I like the effect better with polystyrene, as you don't have to worry about the grain.
Step C: The Pedestal
Tools/Supplies - Boxcutter, drill press w/ 10mm bit, white glue, 3/16" balsa, extruded polystyrene.
1) I cut another chariot sized piece of the 3/16" balsa.
2) I cut the extruded polystyrene to put my platform at the same height as the platform on the GW model (height pilfered from another thread here at CN).
3) I used the drill press to grind out the shape from the polystyrene. It took me roughly 10 minutes to get into this shape. If I were to do it again, I'd make the top and bottom recessed from the edges of the platform and base. Keep the vacuum cleaner handy, as with any time I start carving polystyrene you get lots of crumbs with static cling - a bugger to clean up.
4) Glue on the base and platform with white glue, then two coats of white glue over the sides of the pedestal for paint-proofing.
Step D: The Toppings
Tools/Supplies - Serious wire cutters, 2 pairs needle-nosed pliers, 70/30 blue/yellow green stuff, paper clip, superglue, pin vise w/ 3/16" & 1/16" bits.
I wanted a Burton-esque railing around the top, something that evoked The Nightmare Before Christmas or (showing my age) Betelgeuse (why, Winona, why!). I figured the way to do this would be an ostentatiously bent rail with green stuff or paper hanging from the bottom for tatters.
1) I drilled some holes where I thought it'd be a good spot to put the uprights. I wasn't going to be too fussy, just the four corners and one on each side. I should have placed my damsels first, then drilled the holes, but measuring is for amatures, as is choosing not choosing a drill bit 3 times too large.
2) The top rail of 1/16" brass rod runs from the two front holes and goes all the way around the sides. I figured this would give me my strongest piece - a consideration as it's also one of the most exposed to flailing fingers/elbows/books. I bent it, bent it some more, unbent it a bit, and used some body english to get it into place. I then went about cutting and bending the remaining four uprights. At this point, nothing fit anymore.
3) I used 70/30 blue to green stuff to fill the mounting holes. I stuck in the back uprights where I thought they really ought to go, then the surround. I used more gs to wrap a decent blob over the rail and stick it to the uprights, drawing it out in each direction to try to make it look like it was all fused together by a stoned blacksmith. The centre two uprights went in with more smoothing and drawing, then I used the blade of my hobby knife to scrape off the excess gs from the base of each upright.
4) The Damsels I assembled very paitiently using the GW instructions (also tracked down here - thanks for the link!) Once they were sitting pretty, I realized that they looked rather silly with nothing to recline upon, so using some odd-shaped bits of the 3/16" balsa and squinting a bit, I made some more flagstone piles for the girls to recline against in indifferent luxury. I also slipped a flagstone step under the toes of the more upright gal. I then used the paperclip to put a pin in the posterior of each, so the join to the model would have a bit of mechanical strength. Not a huge amount, I was dealing with polystyrene and balsa, but enough to be knock-proof.
Step E: The Spirit Host
Tools/Supplies - Hobby knife, serious wire cutters, brass rod, 50/50 green stuff, pin vise w/ 1/16" bit, gs flattening gear of choice (I used plastic film and the plastic film roll - substantially less than ideal), heads from my bitz.
I wanted the platform to be held aloft by a shifting mass of ghosts-in-sheets, with just some heads (and maybe hands) poking out the front.
1) Raid my bits for some likely looking noggins. In this case, it was some Possessed Chaos Marines (I pronounce it chowss for giggles) and some skulls from the new skellies. Drill holes straight into the back for the brass rod. The rod is cut 7-10cm long and some of the pieces I gave 'S' (ok, 'Z') shapes to. The heads are mounted on the rods with the superglue and left to dry.
2) The heads are mounted onto the pedestal by just poking them into the foam at likely spots until I had something approximating a reasonable spacing. At this point, I had no idea how any of this was going to turn out, and was getting really apprehensive about the overall result.
3) Draping. I rolled out the GS until it was somewhere shy of 1mm thick. Too thick and it looks bulky, too thin and I can't handle it properly and I end up with great green fingerprints all over everything.
I started draping the front, starting with the lowest noggin and working to the top one. This way the bottom of each sheet would show, hopefully giving me a layered effect. I then used the hobby knife to snag the gs and pull it down to give me the mid-sheet tatters.
For each of the draped pieces on the heads, I folded the top backwards. For each of the side drapes, I folded the top outwards for more tatterd edges.
I overlapped the drapes as I moved from front to back, hiding the back edges of the forward piece. The leading edge of each drape was folded back for more layering.
You can see the random head low on the left side. I had torn a hole in the drape, so I just added the extra detail to cover my mistake.
Overall, I found this to be an intimidating project. I haven't done any green stuff work for 3 years, and most of that was gap-filling.
I found rolling out the green stuff to be a colossal pain. I was using well wetted sheets of plastic film, but something more substantial would be less frustrating. My wife just got these sheets for rolling out fondant for cakes - large enough to GS half a table. I don't think she'll share, though. If anyone has any products that have worked for them, please feel free to link them here.
Comments, yays and boos, are most appreciated.
