Project 365: Day 10 - Miniatures - Assembling Megalith Part 2

From the ground up :)

if you haven't yet, please check out Part 1

I like my warbeasts to be on a scenic base as this makes an already large warbeast all the more impressive. During the dryfitting stage for my large warbeasts I take the base into account for the final pose. My material of choice is cork :) specifically cork board. I like cork because it's easy to work with, letting you carve, cut and tear it into natural looking shapes that look like convincing scale rock when painted.

A medium base, a large base some corkboard and an Xacto knife. Pay no attention to the stray hair. I command it!

One thing I noticed is that a medium base fits onto a large base almost perfectly. I used the medium base as a template and scored into the board with an Xacto knife. I didnt cut all the way through so I can get a slightly ragged edge. Viola!

During the dry-fitting stage I noticed the gap in Megalith's torso. After scoring the mating areas with an Xacto knife I then lined it with greenstuff.

I used some petroleum jelly on the end of my brush as a smoothing tool

I also attached the legs. The sculptors were kind enough to have the legs attach to posts like an action figure but this made some new problems as just attaching the legs would make it pivot. To fix this i put in a little greenstuff for the legs to stick to

Any excess greenstuff was either trimmed off or sculpted like vines

Once the bond was solid I attached the head with some greenstuff and angled it so that Megalith was looking slightly to the side

Once everything was dry I started drilling my pinning holes. Those were located on the foot, Megalith's back where the twig was supposed to be and finally under the shoulders. The shoulders had tabs where the arms were supposed to slot into. i wouldnt be needing those so I had to slice and file them off. It was easier than I expected. Just remember to cut away from you at all times. With the plan I had in mind I decided to drill into an angle into the shoulder

I then also drilled straight through the base and cork to fit a paperclip through. I used a fairly large paperclip that I roughed up a bit with a file.

Trimming the excess. I have since dubbed my clipper "Lord Tetanus". Obviously I made sure to not cut in this position as thats a perfect way to take an eye out. Protect yourself from flying bits please.

If you'll notice I carved a step into the cork for the foot to rest on.

I then mounted everything with a lot of superglue. The cork soaks up a lot of the superglue and in the process hardens the cork nicely :)

With the upper legs and torso resting on the base to dry I then proceeded to sculpt the arms.

Watch out for part 3.

Project 365: Day 9 - Miniatures - Assembling Megalith Part 1

I still cant find the charger for the digicam :|

Luckily I was able to find some old pics from way back when I initially wanted to start this blog.

Megalith is part of Privateer Press's Hordes line and belongs to the Circle of Orboros faction. It's a unique character beast and a very cool one basing it on the fluff and the illustration.
 

Megalith, Kaya and Laris. Andrea Uderzo is a god!

The figure itself, however ...was a bit "meh"

Hooray!!

While the sculptor was able to to translate from image to mini beautifully, the pose itself left a lot to be desired. The pose didn't convery "hulking rock with regenerative abilities" very well at all.

The thing is the sculpt was halfway there and his stats meant that he would be something i would like to field on the table from time to time. I had to do something about that pose.

The Plan:

After the standard cleaning and filing , which I had to do very little of for this figure, I dryfitted the parts to see where everything went and set about my plan. The arms had to be reposed for sure, which had its set of problems since I had to trim pieces off and resculpt some areas. I also needed to do something about this:

if you notice on the official illustration for megalith, he was a hunk of stone with some tree branches growing from his back. The part that he came with can be charitably called twig :P. I needed to build and sculpt something a lot more fitting for Megsy.

While I was doing this I noticed I used the word "sculpt" about twice now. By that time I new I was in for a bit of trouble as I have very little skill and experience working with greenstuff.

Click here for part 2: Bases and assembly!

Project 365: Day 8 - Food! Salcedo Weekend Market

Pulled a 10+ hour graveyard training shift that ended this morning. I also had some trouble filing some admin stuff that i ended up having to send an email for. It definitely wasn't one of my better days.

Sleepy, tired and pretty much annoyed youd think I'd just head home and rest like any other sane person.

Nope.

I had to meet my girlfriend for brunch at Salcedo Park :D Nothing like good company and good food to turn a day around!

Me and Roxane

The destination: Salcedo Weekend Market! Where weekend cooks and merchants dish out their best

The grub! Wagyu Cheesesteak Sandwich. Pretty pricey (Php 230 for one fricking sandwich!) so me and Roxane split one. I gotta say, its a good sandwich. Fried wagyu beef with cheese melting in a good quality bun. I got the gristley beef strips but it was so soft you'd barely even notice.

The grub part 2. Chicken Samosas! Best samosa I've had so far. The light crust was a pleasant surprise and the generous chunks of chicken in a mild curry was very good.

Random cute kid of the day hamming it up.

The grub part 3. Chicken ala king in light pastry shells at Php 35 a pop. Kanin na lang kulang! Well priced and more importantly very tasty! Definitely coming back for this one.

The grub, dessert edition. Pistachio Baklava! This was a knockout winner for Roxane :)

Project 365: Day 7 - Painting Miniatures - Trollblood List

One of the things I want to get done by the end of Q1 is a fully painted 35 point Cheesedrak list. Here's the list and the current status of paintedness:

Mardrak Ironhide, World Ender (currently proxied with Chief Madrak Ironhide. Will get the epic fig soon)

Troll Impaler (assembled and primed) /Troll Axer (fully painted)

Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (assembled, not primed)

Trollkin Champions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (assembled, not primed)

Skaldi Bonehammer (not purchased yet)

Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (assembled, not primed)

Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (not purchased yet)

Fell Caller Hero (fully painted)

Stone Scribe Chronicler (basecoated, in progress)

I better get cracking :)

Project 365: Day 6 - Miniatures - Assembling Mulg

I guess this should've come before the priming article but I misplaced the charger to my camera and I'm forced to work with whatever pictures I have.

Any other blogger would've just said "awww screw it" and blog another day but noooo...not this one. I am fearless! I am unstoppable!

An unstoppable blogger wouldnt have misplaced his charger in the first place. Luckily I do have pics of when I assembled Mulg! This isnt going to be a full fledged tutorial but I thought it would be good to let ya know what you might be getting into if you get him.

Mulg is a character beast from Privateer Press' Hordes line. He belongs to the Trollbloods faction and when I say that this thing is a beast I'm not kidding. For a currently all metal line of minis this guy has one of the most impressive feel and heft to him. He's a good chunk of metal right there and knowing that, he can be a pain to assemble.

Initial cleaning and prepping. Filing and washing off of mold release happens here

I score the areas where pieces meet with an Xacto knife. This serves to help the glue and greenstuff cling better

I always have some water handy when working with greenstuff. I often mix the putty and keep them in water until im ready to use them

Applying the putty

After joining the two torso pieces I trim off the excess green stuff

The inside of Mulg's hollow torso. I used more greenstuff to reinforce the join

Pinning! Ill probably do a pinning article later.

Mulg's arms were really heavy so instead of one big pin that may break and pivot later i used 3 smaller pins in a triangle formation for a stronger join. Lining it up wasn't as hard as i thought it would be.

There was a big gap in his left shoulder that needed filling

The beast unleashed (or at least partially assembled)