Darkstar Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Hi, as you may know I infrequently like to post step-by-step "work in progress" shots of minis that I paint. Some of you have expressed gratitude on occasion for being able to watch and learn from some of my techniques. With this piece, however, I hope to learn as much from posting this WIP as you will from reading as I have never attempted a project of such an elaborate nature. The mini I'm working on is an unreleased GW miniature, "Dark Elf Chariot". It is a multi-part metal model which I plan on painting to my best standards as it is done as a commission piece. The problem lies not in the painting per se, but in the assembly. Here is the first shot, an assemblage of all the pieces that are in need of "puttin' together". From left to right you have the chariot's floorboards and axles, the eagle thingy is the yoke, the two wheels obviously, the driver and the 'guy riding shotgun', the two side panels of the chariot and the 4 pieces which make up the 2 'Cold One' steeds. (Cold ones are reptilian beings used by the Dark Elves as beasts of burden and mounts.) In the foreground you can see the components I will use to assemble the base...or not. maybe there's too much stuff for the base, and it could look too busy, but we will see. In case you're interested, there's a half piece of the GW High Elf monument, a prone High Elf and a wagon wheel from the wagon wheel sprue. All bitz that I ordered from GW mail-order for this project. Okay, the next step if you are going to follow this WIP "blog" here in Show Off...is going to be the assemblage of the Cold Ones...much putty work is needed to get these things together. I'll have photos later on. Stay tuned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stern Kestrelmann Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Sweet. Can't wait to see how this turns out DS. I am currently working on a big project myself, but decided to wait and suprise everyone... Anyway, this should be neat to see as it unfolds. SK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkstar Posted January 19, 2005 Author Share Posted January 19, 2005 Okay, so, my first step was to assemble the Cold Ones. They came in two seperate halves each and needed to be glued together. As you may know, CA glue and bigger pieces of white metal don't always achieve the best adherance, so you sometimes need to add a little epoxy to a piece to make sure that the bond is strong. You can see that I've layered strips of green stuff around the edges of one half and applied a little blob in the center fitting. On the other half I've applied a generous amount of Zap-A-Gap. I fitted the two pieces toghether and let sit while the Zap-a-Gap cured. I did this step for both of the Cold Ones. To my chagrin, a giant gap was left between the two pieces as you can see in this photo... Sometimes this happens and to fix it I applied a nice blob of putty right into the gap and proceded to match the surface texture of the sculpt by sculpting in scales and blending into the harnesses. Here's a shot of the filled gap with sculpted texture... Once, again, this was done for both cold ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkstar Posted January 19, 2005 Author Share Posted January 19, 2005 Now...I had gathered some components to add to the base for the chariot to make it more interesting. However, after test fitting said components I realized that it looked too busy and would likely take away from the focus of the piece, which should rightly be the chariot and not the base. So I rethought my ideas and this is what I came up with. I wanted the base to look like like a cobblestone road, a place where a chariot would be seen. I remembered that I had this roll of plastic pre-sculpted cobblestone luckily sitting around so I decided to put it to use. Here's a shot of the base, a standard GW chariot base and the cut section of cobblestone. You can find that stuff at Michaels and Wal-Mart around the Holidays. It comes in brick pattern as well. I bonded the two pieces together using a thin strip of green stuff and Zap-A-Gap once again. The two plastics joined up surprisingly well and I let sit while it cured. Here's a shot. I added the details next... The wagon wheel, dead Empire dude (from the Mordheim casualty marker line produced by GW for their game Mordheim) and some loose stones were glued onto the cobblestones with zap-a-gap. I then added my standard spree mix as flock and let dry. Everything was test fitted with the chariot preassembled with blue-tac to make sure that the chariot would fit and the details would be properly placed before gluing anything down. Coming up next, I'm going to start painting some of the pieces after I work out exactly in what order I need to paint them. Assembly of prepainted pieces is going to be more tricky, so I really need forethought before proceeding. I don't think I'll have any more photos until tomorrow as I'm recovering from the flu and I might take a 24 hour nap at this point, I'm exhausted. Anyways, keep your ocular implants peeled for the next step which will most likely be tomorrow evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePolo Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 Ooooh. Nice. This'll be a fun thread to watch! Thanks for the updates! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintRigger Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 I like the sad face addition best :) I'm pretty psyched to see the progress pictures of this too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stern Kestrelmann Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 Mmmm, all metal coldones... Lookin' good DS! Keep up the good work... SK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkstar Posted January 20, 2005 Author Share Posted January 20, 2005 Well, I decided logistically to paint the Chariot crew first...I'm doing both at the same time since I'm using identical paint mixes for both. It usually takes me quite awhile to paint a single mini to my best standard, so I won't have any pics till tomorrow, wherewith I will have completely painted the two dark elves. At this point in the day, they've been basecoated and washed to work out the color palette which I'm pretty happy with. I've started the detail work, but I'm doing the whole piece in NMM so it takes a while, plus I still feel miserable from the cold, I don't cope well with being sick, so I'm really dragging asterisk. I'll have some good shots up tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ardice Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 This is looking really cool so far, Darkstar. I just have one question. Doesn't it make sense to paint the dead guy *before* you glue him to the base? At least, it does in my little world. Anyway, can't wait to see the rest when it's painted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enchantra Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 This is looking really cool so far, Darkstar. I just have one question. Doesn't it make sense to paint the dead guy *before* you glue him to the base? At least, it does in my little world. Anyway, can't wait to see the rest when it's painted! The dead guy isn't glued to the base. He positioned it with blue tac for positoning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death Angel Posted January 21, 2005 Share Posted January 21, 2005 The wagon wheel, dead Empire dude (from the Mordheim casualty marker line produced by GW for their game Mordheim) and some loose stones were glued onto the cobblestones with zap-a-gap. I then added my standard spree mix as flock and let dry. Actually he did say he glued them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDeinonychus Posted January 21, 2005 Share Posted January 21, 2005 When was this chariot made? Thise Cold Ones dont realy look like the new style, but they dont realy resemble the old ones much, unless they are the REALY old ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkstar Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 Well yeah...regarding the dead guy, he is glued down. I positioned him in place first to make sure he wasn't in the way of anything later, then I glued him directly to the base. The reason I didn't paint him first was to allow the use of the base itself as a rig while painting him. I can just grip the large surface of the base now, instead of handling the mini on it's own as he doesn't have any extra bits to grab. Clever aint I? :) Tomorrow...pics of the painting process of the charioteers as well as the base. Busy day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkstar Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 When was this chariot made? Thise Cold Ones dont realy look like the new style, but they dont realy resemble the old ones much, unless they are the REALY old ones. Checking on that...older than the old style..pretty old, but I'm not sure how old. The sculpts are brilliant IMHO, and in fact, the two charioteers are just amazing in the amount of character sculpted in their poses and faces...close-ups to come, as well as a more accurate account of the age of this piece. Honestly, I gotta take better notes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDeinonychus Posted January 21, 2005 Share Posted January 21, 2005 Hmm.. They probably never released it cause it damaged the molds. Alot of the unreleased GW stuff is for that reason. Funny you dont hear about stuff from Reaper ever doing that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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