The Dragon's Den

[Dragon Lord]

Dragon's Den... or ... a glimpse into the mind of a mad, mad man!

It is probably an indication of my madness that I take that as high praise indeed! Thanks very much daemonkin.

Can't believe I've never posted here...
The ship looks great, fits into the scheme very well without going over board.

Nice to see you drop in Gomez, can't blame you for not having posted here before really though, my posts aren't regular enough to keep it near the surface of the forum for long.
Thanks for the comment about the ship, I'll probably leave it as it is, as and when I ever do another similar one I might try going about it differently though.

[Dragon Lord]

Blows dust and cobwebs off thread. Aaaah, spiders!!

So it's been almost 3 months since the last update, I do have some some excuses, I have been doing and then writing up my masters project, but nonetheless I think its long past time for an update, don't you?

So what do I have for you? Well I have finally got around to working on the organ for the back of the stormblade.

It isn't quite finished yet, I still have some more pipes to do, you may just be able to see the indentations in the blu-tac marking out where they are going to go. Then I have detailing to do on the organ and make the organist, currently just a sentinel crewman sitting on a blu-tac blob, but who will eventually be a 4 armed virtuoso (hopefully at least).

I have also decided to start a new on going project that I can dip into every so often, which will be a cross between a tour through the laboratories of a High Tech-Lord of the Dark Mechanicum and a gradual build up of a Dark Mechanicus army. To that end I got some rather interesting legs from Micro Art Studios with the intention of making some Skitarii. Unfortunately as you can see in the photo below, while they look good they are rather larger than I had been expecting.

As a result I am going to use them for the personal bodyguards of the Tech-Lord himself and go for a slightly Magna Guard style look using a mix of space wolf and chaos terminator pieces and drawing some inspiration from the excellent truescale marines around on warseer. When I got the legs from Micro Art I also got some interesting bases that can represent parts of the Tech-Lord's base/laboratory.

The smaller bases are 25mm for the flat sided ones and 30mm for the rounded ones, and will not be big enough for the bodyguards so I will get some more 40mm ones. Before I do the bodyguards however I am working on the model that will go on the large 60mm base. I'm not going to give too much away until its a bit further progressed, but I will pose you this question: If a Dark Mechanicum adept could get hold of one creature to experiment with, what would it be and what would they do with it? The person with the closest answer gets a cookie and the knowledge that they think like an adept of the Dark Mechanicum

[GomezAddams]

Carnifex is Gomez' answer They'd blind it, attach worky gubbinz and have an adeptus walking behind it..

[EmperorNorton]

Lovely organ!

That kinda sounds wrong...

Anyway, I'm interested in what you are going to do with the legs from Micro Arts. Bought a pack myself to use for some Wood Elves, but as you noted they are just way too big.

[Jihad_Ragsta]

Excellent organ! Erm...

Did you use a tube cutter for all those pipes? I'm not sure about this but are you gonna address the 'air hole' thing church organs have going on? The red slits here.

It looks great already tho

My first thought was an Ogryn, cybernetically enhanced. But that's a bit of a naff Vraks cop out... How about a Xenos (heresy!) boosted and augmented with combat mechadenrites? Like THIS.

[sheep]

Everything looks fantastic mate, the BFG scratch building is impressive for its sheer tinyness and the stormblade looks bad ass with that dozer blade on it, consider it nicked

Cheers

Sheep

[Dragon Lord]

Carnifex is Gomez' answer They'd blind it, attach worky gubbinz and have an adeptus walking behind it..

And Gomez gets it on the nose first time!
I would like to get a bit more bit done on it before I post it up here, but with exams looming I'm not sure if that will happen. If I don't get any more done on it by the end of next week I'll post it up in its current state and probably leave it until after exams (middle of June).

Thanks for the complements on the organ.

Did you use a tube cutter for all those pipes? I'm not sure about this but are you gonna address the 'air hole' thing church organs have going on? The red slits here.

No tube cutter, though I'm sure that having one would have sped the process up somewhat. I carefully dotted a line around the tube in pencil then cut part way through the wall all round and snapped it. I think it was Tommygun I have to thank for the idea of only cutting part way through and snapping (I hadn't thought of doing that for tubes), and it does lead to a much straighter cut. I have thought about the 'air holes' and do plan to include them, I haven't decided exactly how I want to do them yet though, I will test it on some of the tubes for the middle that you won't be able to see.

Anyway, I'm interested in what you are going to do with the legs from Micro Arts. Bought a pack myself to use for some Wood Elves, but as you noted they are just way too big.

I can imagine they would be even worse for Wood Elves than my planned Skitarii. I would be happy if my work with them as and when I get around to doing my bodyguards is of any help.

the stormblade looks bad ass with that dozer blade on it, consider it nicked

Hehe, you're quite welcome Sheep, I'm always happy when someone takes inspiration from something I've done.

[Dragon Lord]

If I don't get any more done on it by the end of next week I'll post it up in its current state and probably leave it until after exams (middle of June).

Ok, so I was consumed by exams before I got around to posting it up in its then current state. However exams are now over and after spending a couple of days celebrating (read; drinking heavily) today I got around to doing some modelling. So may I present Experiment Carnifex Alpha-1:


It is by no means complete at this stage; the battlecannon needs some more detailing, the canisters feeding into its brain need some more attention and there are various other bionic additions I plan to make (such as replacing the end of its tail with a buzzsaw and putting some extra bracing on its left leg).

As ever comments and criticism always welcome, and as I have quite a bit more free time now I should actually be updating a bit more regularly!

[malika]

His left arm is bionic, what about a right bionic leg?

[Dragon Lord]

I've made a start on detailing the battlecannon and doing the bracing on the left leg. The idea behind the pistons on the leg is that the battlecannon is a bit on the heavy side even for a carnifex so they are to strengthen its leg and help it support the cannon.

So far I've only put pistons on the outside of the leg as you can see below. Should I put some on the inside too or leave them as just being on the outside?

His left arm is bionic, what about a right bionic leg?

The right hand side does look a bit in need of some bionic additions. I wasn't sure about replacing the entire leg but what I am going to do is give him a bionic foot.

and scale pic

It is styled on the feet of the warhound titan

[Jihad_Ragsta]

I say leave out the internal bracing- it will hardly ever be noticed and save you some hassle. Very nice bionic foot there, good plasticard skills.

Looking forward to seeing some detail on the cannon and bionic bits in general- I think it will be important otherwise you'll just have a Fex with a big cannon strapped on. Ooer.

I like the idea of having an Ad Mech trailing aong behind it! Perhaps plugged into it via a cable of something! Keep up the good work

[Dragon Lord]

I like the idea of having an Ad Mech trailing aong behind it! Perhaps plugged into it via a cable of something!

Hmm, now that is an interesting idea, I can just imagine a bundle of cables coming out of the left side of its head and leading to a control held by an Adept. Said Adept would need to be careful about staying away from the buzzsaw on its tail though, hmm, I will definitely have a think about that one. Thanks for the idea Jihad!

Anyway about time for an update I say!

Not that much in terms of exciting new things but I have been making progress.

Experiment Carnifex Alpha-1 now has a bionic left foot and some sort of access plate on its carapace.

And I have also made a start on the buzzsaw for the tail.


The organ for the stormblade is also finally approaching completion, I have added all of the pipes, with slits on the visible ones, and done the lower of the two keyboards, just the upper keyboard and the stops to go!


Finally as I had it all out to measure things up for a nice new storage case from KR I thought I would take a picture of my entire BFG collection.

From right to left, tyranids, space marines (Dark Angels), chaos, defences and miscellaneous.

[Dragon Lord]

I felt like a little change today and haven't done a BFG scratchbuild for a while so I decided I would make a light cruiser.



And a scale pic with my explorator vessel.


There is obviously still quite a lot of work to do on it but it is shaping up nicely at the moment I think (even if it is a little smaller than I had originally intended).

Comments and criticism welcome as always.

[Jihad_Ragsta]

Looking good fella! You deserve major kudos for cutting all those slots in the organ tubes!

Liking the light cruiser so far- you're annoying me tho as I have been meaning to get started on two light cruisers of my own!

Any chance of a tutorial on how you did the prow?

The Carni is shaping up nicely but can I get a shot of the head? Not sure I like what's happening to his right eye... Unless there's still an optic to go on it that is!

Dammit... *wanders off to start sketching light cruiser plans*

[Dragon Lord]

Thanks Jihad.

Liking the light cruiser so far- you're annoying me tho as I have been meaning to get started on two light cruisers of my own!

A little bit of encouragement to get yours done then I suppose! I had been thinking of doing a grand cruiser, slightly inspired by your work on the Brandenburg, but decided to do a light cruiser first.

Any chance of a tutorial on how you did the prow?

Sure. I'll make another one or do a card one so I can take pictures at different stages, as I don't think trying to describe it entirely in words would be that helpful.

The Carni is shaping up nicely but can I get a shot of the head? Not sure I like what's happening to his right eye... Unless there's still an optic to go on it that is!

There are a couple of pictures a few posts further back up that should give you a better view of the head, but if you'd like a different view let me know and I'll get one. The right eye-piece has three optical receptors of different sizes at the moment.

[Dragon Lord]

Right time for an update.
The light cruiser is now finished, as those of you who are familiar with BFG may be able to guess, it is a Dauntless class. Apologies if some of pictures aren't the best, it is quite difficult getting the lighting right to photograph something that is completely white.


I have also made another prow, which will probably be used for another light cruiser, to do a tutorial for you Jihad.
The prow is made from 5 pieces, with the pictures here and here showing their relative sizes. Where the sides of adjacent pieces are different lengths this is, as you can probably guess, to take into account the thickness of the plastic. The next step is to score and bend the side pieces as shown here. The pieces can then be assembled to make the prow. This one is slightly larger than the first one as I thought the first light cruiser turned out a little on the small side. Hope that was helpful

[Dragon Lord]

Quite a big update today.
I've finally finished the stormblade (apart from a tiny bit of greenstuff gap filling), the model with which I started this log a year ago.
The main change since the last update is that I have finished the organ and in particular I have made the organist. I also magnetised the plasma blastgun, which would allow me to swap it for a different weapon, but was also a trial run for magnetising the parts of my warhound, which will be one of the next things on the agenda now the stormblade is finished.

[Dragon Lord]

Update part 2.
One final bit about the stormblade, I have discovered that the earphones from my MP3 player fit nicely underneath the turret extension (you can see the wires coming out of the back in the picture below), meaning that I can now have the organ really play music! My particular favourite being getting it to playBach's toccata and fugue in D minor.


As well as finishing the stormblade I have also now finished experiment carnifex alpha-1. I have put the buzzsaw tail on and embedded a piece of guitar wire into its tail to supply power to the buzzsaw and act as replacement spinal cord. I've also added a field generator and projecting vanes to the scything talon, turning into a power weapon and done quite a bit of greenstuff work to merge some of the components together.

[Jihad_Ragsta]

...That's... Just great I love the organ player- that you can play music out of the sucker is even cooler! This piece is looking gorgeous- the only thing I would suggest is maybe spice up the plasticard siding you've added between the side sponsons. Not sure what with, maybe even just some Chaos runes.

The Fex looks cool, it will make a nice piece to sit on your desk. I like the bionic eye now

I'd forgotten about your Warhound... And incidentally I also forgot about your greenstuff animals :P

[Dragon Lord]

Thanks Jihad, I can't say I blame you for forgetting about the Warhound I have had it for over six months now, it seems to take me quite a long time to get around to doing things (as is perhaps obvious since we started our logs at around the same time and while yours is 22 pages long mine is only 4 pages). The blank spaces on the sponsons I am planning to fill with scripture and Word Bearer symbols when I eventually get around to painting the stormblade.
Coincidentally regarding greenstuff animals I did in fact start on a new one when finishing off the carnifex, but it needed a little bit of extra work after the first lot of greenstuff dried. I have now finished it, so here it is (though unfortunately the camera seems to have decided to focus on the Imperial Guardsman):


I've started doing a bit of work on my uber-skitarii/techno bodyguards

Quite basic thus far, but I think the terminator body works, the only thing I am slightly undecided on is if it needs any widening (that is if when viewed from the front it looks a bit narrow), what do you think? I'm going to use terminator arms, sliced up and extended with plasticard, over which I might well sculpt greenstuff sleeves and I'm going to need to make heads for them too as normal marine heads look too small, though as I am probably going to give them hoods all I really need to do is make a face with some bulk behind it to sculpt the hood over.

I also washed the pieces of my titan and gave them a checking over to look for miscasts, there is one piece on the bottom of the torso where there is a slight gap along one edge of a hatch because the resin went too thin but I don't think it's enough to worry about. The only piece I think I might get in touch with forgeworld about is the plasma blastgun as it has quite a few places where the resin has kind of 'bubbled out' obscuring/filling in details as shown in the pics

It also had a number of small pieces of pink rubbery material (I presume small chunks of the mold) stuck in recesses in the model.
Anyway moving away from problems I decided that I'm going to steal BigJon's idea of using the battlescape terrain piece for the base of my titan and should be getting one in the post in the next day or two.

Finally we have this guy

Nothing particularly special in the model itself (at least not until it's painted), but the character the model is to represent has an interesting back story.
Called Zarbon, he was originally the aspiring champion of my 'fire support' squad with a famously inaccurate lascannon marine and rarely got up to anything exciting. This changed in one game I had against Tau however, thus earning him a promotion. I was being absolutely slaughtered, it was a 1500 point game and by the end of I think turn 2 or 3 I had lost everthing except Zarbon's squad, who had been sitting at the back guarding my objective, in exchange for a pirahna and a few pathfinders. Zarbon's squad then started to be whittled down for little more Tau loses until it was just Zarbon left. By this point the entire Tau army was arrayed around Zarbon with almost everything having range and line of sight, so with both myself and my opponent expecting to be shaking hands very soon the Tau shooting phase started and it was here that things started to change. The entire Tau army rained down all of the firepower they could muster, but all of it either missed or I passed my cover/armour saves, so at the end of it Zarbon was still standing there defiantly. My opponent was rather frustrated with this upstart marine defying the Greater Good and so charged him with a squad of battlesuits, a some firewarriors, some pathfinders and commander shadowsun. Now though Tau are hardly known for being good in combat again both myself and my opponent were expecting Zarbon's imminent death. As he has higher initiative and the Tau were charging into cover he went first and managed to kill a pathfinder, so I thought well at least he gets to go down fighting, but then all of the Tau either missed or pinged off armour and then every single one of them failed their leadership test, even Shadowsun. So now I was laughing and told Zarbon he'd already earned promotion but that if he cut them all down (as he seemed quite likely to do with the Tau initiative of 2) I'd elevate him to a daemon prince there and then. Evidently he was a bit surprised by this turn of events and let the Tau run away, but the sight of that many Tau, including the leader of the 4th sphere expansion, running away from a single aspiring champion was very funny. Zarbon also managed to recover himself a bit by catching the firewarriors, who hadn't run very far, and slaughtering them (as they failed their test to regroup) and then proceeded to survive another entire turn of Tau shooting. Unfortunately the Tau weren't going to make the mistake of getting into assault range again and he eventually succumbed in the next turn. So although he hasn't quite made it to daemonhood yet he definitely earned his promotion and showed he was favoured by the Chaos gods.

Anyway, I thought people might enjoy that little bit of background to him.