We can do it anywhere - Holiday chaos conversions

I believe you've already noticed that summer was upon us and that with comes Holidays and jours of sunbathing, hiking and visits all around...

All of this is nice and good but does that mean that the vast flows of creativity that inhabit us just just because we're abroad or too close to a beach ? Of course not.

There are always opportunities with kids napping or sleeping at night, little hobby havens for those who just can't really take a break from their little toys...

Since reading cheap literature and taking naps myself is not for me, I've recently opted for a good way (for me) to use free time in holidays (I might reconsider things when I'm not single).

I've already tried painting in other places than home but I just don't enjoy it, I like to have all my stuff, my little comfort with my light and chair to enjoy painting, otherwise it just becomes a frustrating and back breaking experience with me looking for things I didn't bring...

Painting is out but sculpting is another thing totally. Sculpting just implies limited tools and a roll of putty so you can pretty easily pack enough to keep yourself busy.

Another good point is that I usually don't really like to take the time to get the Green stuff out so having nothing but putty at hand helps me getting on old projects that required more modelling than I expected or wanted to.

The following are exactly that. You can see above a full pantheon of Greater demons of chaos for Rogue Trader that I've been meaning to do for some time now. I had begun with the painted Bloodthirster on the far right but I never took the time to finish his companions.

The last of the demons I finished was this tracked Great unclean one. I've had the idea for quite a while and it was first motivated by me having a spare GUO without legs. I traded the complete one I had away to avoid being tempted to be weak but it took me quite a while to find the suitable tracks. The recent admech kits from GW proved very convenient and I even added a tech arm to enhance the fusion of flesh and technology on this guy.

You will notice the right arm is that of a keeper of secrets and this has 2 reasons, the forst being I had plenty and the second being they're bulkier than the GUO ones which made it look better for this conversion.

The 2nd to be finished was this Lord of Change that was broken and begging for some attention. I managed to get a titan head from the excellent Steve Casey (thank you so much !). I swapped one of the hands for a mechanical one (just because) which comes from a Dark Eldar Talos thing. 

The previous wings were screaming "fantasy" too loud for my taste so I got inspired by the many hours of Diablo of my youth and gave those electro tentacles to him in place of wings. I find it still gives the good silhouette while looking strange. I'm not sure how I'll paint those but one thing at a time !

The first conversion I actually finished after my bloodthirster was this guy and giving a minotaur head with gunhorn was just mandatory. The head is one from the Space raiders set sculpted by the talented Diego Serrate.

I chose the other parts and global pose thanks to the help of the FB Oldhammer community and only later did I take the time to finish the conversion with putty and all.

I really hope these models don't betray the Rogue Trader aesthetic despite the newer additions, I have to confess I really enjoy all of them.

One other projects I've been meaning to work on for some time now is the mounted renegades. I was so happy to get all parts during the collection stage !

I got most of the renegades in a single lot with plastic horses and skeletal horses from an Ebay joblot (back when I still cared to looked on ebay) and the description was explaining how the owner intended to make semi undead mounts. 

What a fantastic idea, I first wanted to do exactly that in honor for the seller (I even blogged about it but can't find the post...).

Anyway, time and lack of inspiration proved the idea wasn't as obvious at it first seemed and it's only after a while I realised I had to go another way. The full metal way...

I managed to get a few flesh hounds from the Realm of Chaos era what better thing could I find really?

Well as often, the idea was excellent but I totally underestimated the work involved. 

First of all, I had to build the hounds in a way to make them all as different as possible despite only having 3 possible front legs and 2 back legs to select from. Bending them on the sides and raising some worked quite well for that matter.

I then assigned a renegade to each of the hounds but I had to bend the legs to make them work (I wouldn't recommend doing that unless you're confident in your ability to fix things...)

I also did a very stupid mistake which I'm going to share so that others don't do it (honestly, just using your brains would be enough to avoid it). 

Once I was happy with the position of my renegades, I drilled through the leg part and the hound for future assembly and then drilled the equivalent in the body, using the leg bit to help me get the positon right. 

So far so good ? Well not really, I intended to sculpt saddles to create a nicer joint between both models but once I applied the green stuff on the back of the hound, how could I find the previous holes ? I can tell you a lot of swearing was involved and this lead to me building them completely when I first intended to have the riders seperate for painting convinience.

I then added gap filler on the base to hid the tabs (I glued the models as they were with epoxy glue and pins for maximum resilience) and then only had to add sand to make the bases look good.

Oh and because I had spare hound bodies and completely crippled palanquin riders, I thought I could add centaurs to the mix !

Some of the renegades have relatively static poses which enhances their malevolent look I find.

While others seem to be more on the move.

My favourite of them all is this last guy and I didn't manage to find the right angle but he's by far the most dynamic and characterful of the lot.

At the end of the holidays I still have a little time and bits left so I tried to make the best out of the RTB01 Marines I had with me. Since I don't really fancy my marines to look constipated, I cut all joints and tried new poses, making them gaining a little height in the process. I still have to make the joints with putty but there's not much to do here and I'm eager to paint them !

I hope you folks like this post despite it having absolutely no painted model. I think the amount of work makes it a little more bearable !
I have models getting painted right now, some you know very well and some I'm convinced you've never seen before but will love !