CMDante's Blood Pact Conversion Log

[CMDante]

Well its been a while since I posted anything, having been ill with bronchitis and run off my feet with work there hasn't been too much time to paint. That said, I've managed to work on a few pieces and am getting back into the mood for some serious painting again so I thought I'd get a little log going to keep me motivated.

So what have I been working on? Well, as usual I have a number of half finished projects on the go (some of which I'm considering trying to sell or trade on as I'm getting tired of them looking at me expectantly!). Currently on the workbench are some SM scouts (well, scout, only one test has been converted up so far), a converted abbadon (still needs some conversion work), and the only finished thing so far, the free AOBR ork nob from WD.

Anyway, enough rambling, here's some pics:

Scout conversion (posted before)


With some paint


more in next post....

[CMDante]

Ork Nob from WD




I'm pretty pleased with the way the ork turned out, first time I've painted an ork since 1998-1999 so it was a nice changed from human skin tones.

It was also a first time painting yellow, not to mention doing trompe d'oeil and I think it came out alright (better on the shoulder pads than the chest armour). Being an ork I wanted to keep things nice and rusty and dinged up, even working in a few nicks on the leather straps of his webbing (harder to make out on the back cause of the sheen from the lights).

Due to being in a rush to finish this, there are a few areas I think could use more work, mainly the trousers and the wrist straps. I need to work on my photography too since the pics kill much of the highlighting and blending on the skin and the eyepatch strap.

I'm most pleased with the face and the rust and yellow on the pistol. I tried to go for a weathered, old tough hided nob using catachan green as a base, followed by devlan mud wash then rehighlight with catachan and then blended up through various juices of catachan and dheneb stone mix (using a wet pallet). Since the eye patch had the potential to lose the face as a focal point I tried to do a bit more with the one visible eye by making it red with a black pupil and doting the white reflection in. Not sure its entirely visible in the pics though.

All in all, I quite enjoyed the change up painting an ork provided and might dig out my Avatars of War orc warboss for a second effort at greenskins.

Anyway, let me know what you think. Afterall, this thread isn't going to provide the motivation intended without some input from you lot on what could be improved!

Cheers,

Dante

[OnnO]

Very nice work, both on the scout and the Ork.

Question:
What did you use for the scope on the bolter, is that part of a lasgun?
I'd love to see how you make those.

Keep it up, I'm happy to see some of your work on WS again.

[CMDante]

Cheers mate.

The bolter was made using a scout sniper rifle and a regular marine bolter, the cuts are quite clear from the pic (the bolter was a lighter plastic). For the scope i just shortened the scope from the sniper rifle so it fit on the bolter, took a little GS just to tidy up the join.

The main part is being very careful with the cuts, you need to leave the majority of the sight attached to the sniper arm and rifle stock but cut away everything beneath so the bolter goes in snugg. If that makes any sense?!

Cheers,

Dante

[OnnO]

Thanks for the info, I see now what you did.
Very nice, I'll be keeping an eye on this.

[Shadowphrakt]

That scout looks sweet Dante, really loving the bolter...now all it needs is a silencer

The Ork also looks really good glad i voted for it

[spikyjames]

Great start mate, i'll be making sure i pop in every now and then to see what you've been up to.

looking forward to seeing the scout finished.

does this mean you'll be doing a whole army now then?

James

[synapse]

i like the weathering on the ork, very nice

[CMDante]

@ Shadowphrakt - cheers mate, yeah I had contemplated giving it a silencer when I was making it but the sniper rifle one looked a bit silly (too big). Having seen Telions its certainly something I'll consider. Also considering changing the scheme to make him Ultra's like my existing scout squad.

@ Spikyjames - I'm hoping to keep this one updated fairly regularly (work permitting!) so hopefully there'll be plenty to come back for! As for an army......hmmmm I wouldn't bet on it!

@ Synapse - Cheers mate, can't beat Bad Moons for a great opportunity for weathering. How are yours coming?


Recently I've been inspired by Migsula and his Necromunda warbands so I'm thinking of doing something similar. One "good" warband; inq, henchmen and some guard attachments etc, and one "bad" with blood pact guardsmen.

Keeping things small on numbers will allow for lots of funky conversions, once I've amassed the bits needed I'll post more pics.

Cheers,

Dante

Cheers,

Dante

[Mr Feral]

Nice work all round!

The Scout is looking pretty good, I like the conversion and the paint job so far.

The Ork is sweet, the contrast between the vibrant yellow and the black and white used for decorations is superb, and I think you've nailed the Ork skin on the head too.

Recently I've been inspired by Migsula and his Necromunda warbands so I'm thinking of doing something similar. One "good" warband; inq, henchmen and some guard attachments etc, and one "bad" with blood pact guardsmen.

I'd love to see that, I'm pretty inspired by Migsula's work too. Blood Pact rule!

[Mulrak]

Great work on your Ork! I love the rustic, dirty feel to it and at the same time the superb painting and highlights.
I paint both my Ork(Orc) armies in the same way. They can look superb while at the same time look like they are ORKS! I understand why people love to paint and make everything clean and clear, but to me an Ork is an Ork. They grab what coloring they can and slap it on thier armor and weapons and go to WAR!

You have have done both and all, awesome work and keep it up.

Mulrak,
Warboss of the Black Boot Clan

[CMDante]

Cheers fella's, I know not everyone likes their orks that dark skinned but I like to try and keep some realism in all my models (even giant, green, space fairing, half man/half hog type things!) and I'm glad two more people agree!

@ Mr Feral - I think Migsula's models are some of the best examples I've seen of 40k's gothic atmosphere and really convey the artwork in model form in my eyes.

The blood pact are going to be nice and detailed with lots of little bits of sculpt work I think. I'm aiming to try and recreate both of the following in terms of look and feel:




I intend to start knocking together the first trooper tomorrow so hopefully I'll have some pics by Saturday.

Cheers,

Dante

[Mulrak]

Im subscribed to your work, keep it up and show us pics when you get them.

Mulrak,
Warboss of the Black Boot Clan

[The Occult]

Is this thread over now that you've posted some chaos?

Anyways, looks fantastic. I especially like the ork.
Cheers!

[CMDante]

Update time!

I started work this morning on the first test blood pact trooper for my "bad" necromunda gang. Here are the pics:





Very WIP at the moment but hopefully you can see where its going. The head will have a grotesque mask sculpted on it, hooked nose and all, just like the illustration above.

The left hand will be holding a nasty looking knfie, again a bit like the image above, while the right hand will be sculpted to be cradling the rifle (which will have the eagle removed! Only just added it for pose purposes) in one hand. I also plan on adding a chain round the neck with some severed hands (again like the image) and maybe some webbing and various trinkets for details. I've lengthened the legs a little as I don't like how squat and stocky the current guard plastics are.

With the pose, I'm going for a menacing stride forward, searching for the next victim type look, does it work? Obviously lots of work still to do yet but I wanted to get some thoughts on the pose and general feel. Any input for details to add would be great too.

Also ideas for the rest of the gang would be nice, at the moment im thinking 4 or 5 troopers like this, a sgt type and then some sort of specialist types. No idea what to do for those though. Probably some kind of sorcerror? Ideas welcome!

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Dante

[Mr Feral]

Yeah, I rather like that!

The shaved-down chest plate is rather good, I might just have to borrow that idea actually.

I'm assuming it's all IG, Ghoul and Flagellant parts and some plasticard then?

[CMDante]

Yeah, I shaved the chest plate down as he was looking a bit too "cadian" even with the eagle removed. Borrow away!

Yeah, the parts break down is:

Catachan legs with plastic rod spacers
Cadian torso, shaved down
Cadian shoulder pad (carefully carved out from a grenade launcher arm)
Flagellant arms
Ghoul head (shaved down for mask to be sculpted on later)

Cheers,

Dante

[malika]

We need more =][=munda! One of the reasons I started scratchbuilding weapons was the whole =][=munda thing!

[Monsterzonk]

The Ork is great! Lovely weathering. And the conversions are really cool, especially the Blood Pact warrior. I'm watching in anticipation.

Cheers,
Monsterzonk

[Sinny]

Really like the Ork nob but he needs more colours on his arms/skin, especially on the veins imo but everything else is impecible.