I have finally finished my first tyrants legion unit, an elite squad of Retaliators. Huron's discipline masters and shock troops. First up the sergeant...
He's a pretty simple kitbash, the head is a maxmini steampunk knight head with the laurels from the small commander sprue, as is the loincloth thingy. the axe shaft and arm are the company standard bearers arm from the command squad sprue, the axe head is an old Chaos space marines bit. The part I'm most pleased with is his combat shield, with its cool feline heads. This is from the plastic warhammer fantasy knightly orders box (knights panther I assume)
Next is the squads weapons specialist with a melta gun. A basic conversion of a tac marine with an empire fantasy shield.
Next is a gnarled old veteran, brother Tanin. He has another maxmini steam knight head, the combat shield from the plastic company champion, and a bionic arm.
Next another really basic conversion of a marine with another empire shield
Lastly a marine with a black Templars chainsword arm (I scraped the iron crosses off) and the combat shield from the plastic assault squad box. This combat shield arm (unlike the company champions) doesn't hold a bolt pistol. So I made sure to put a holster on this model.
I'm really pleased with this squad and looking forward to getting the legion cohort and characters painted, and then thinking about the twenty auxillia that are a old school style 'mandatory' troops choice for a tyrants legion army. I think at some point I'll bite my tongue and pay ten quid for a sheet of forgeworld transfers to finish them off properly, if you've looked at the photos you will understand painting them is beyond my skills!
Hey mate, read your "plea for comments" over on Minature Tim and thought I'd give it a go ;-)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, fear not, the lack of comments definitely hasn't got anything to do with the quality of your work: I really like those Astral Claws! A nice use of bitz, especially of the Steam Knight heads -- I might have to get some of those one of these days.
I especially love the guy with the power axe! Great pose, and the laurels you added to his head really make him look special. I think his loincloth would definitely profit from being picked out in a different colour (brown), though.
One bit of constructive criticism, though: Your photos seem rather slapdash -- and I am saying that as someone who is not a great photographer by any stretch of the imagination. You should maybe use different lighting conditions and pay attention so that they don't turn out as fuzzy.
Personally speaking, I take my photos outside, in broad daylight, since I am too lazy to build a lightbox or anything. But it usually really helps with the lighting! Oh, and graphics software like Photoshop or its open source alternative Gimp let you process the photos afterwards to make them even better.
Whoa, look at me rambling on here ;-) Anywhere, hope this helps! Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
KS
I actually have a post about my photo setup on my blog:
Deletehttp://40kangelsofdeath.blogspot.com/2012/10/budget-photo-setup.html
You don't even have to go this far. Just put a piece of paper under the model (I like black or white best) and get a good light source. Sunlight can sometimes make harsh shadows, so if you do that put something to diffuse the light like tissue paper. Also making sure the white balance on the camera is set right really helps the colors of the model show. Using cardboard as your background can throw off the camera's auto white balance, so setting it manually can help.
And as for the painting, it is looking really good! I really like the Astral claws especially the FW Huron model). oh, and one last thing, cleaning up mold lines is super easy to do, and really helps make the model look like the real thing. This article by Ron at From the Warp shows a really easy way to clean them up. http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2010/10/cleaning-mold-lines.html
Everything is looking good so far. Keep up the good work!
Oh, and one more thing. I just used Tamiya Clear Red for the first time, and it makes the best looking blood ever. if you plan on doing any more blood I would highly reccomend getting yourself a bottle of it. This guy has a great tutorial if you're interested. http://www.thedarkcity.net/t2933-blood-n-gore-lonewolf-style
DeleteThey really turned out looking great - that's a very characterful unit you've built. I especially like Tanin, the bionic and shield both look fantastic.
ReplyDeleteIf I may offer a suggestion, on the sergeant perhaps giving the loincloth a darker leather look? Something in the dark tan to brownish scale could help contrast against the lighter metal color a bit.
Keep up the great work - looking forward to seeing more!
Thanks guys. I appreciate you taking the time to comment. I think I will try out your suggestions on the sarge next time I have my brushes out, will update when I have had a go.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed rreading your post
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