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Post by captkaruthors on Jan 20, 2015 18:30:36 GMT
Totally FN awesome!
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Post by I Will Never Grow Up Gaming on Jan 20, 2015 22:01:27 GMT
That looks fantastic! I love the dynamic feel of the mid-kneel, just before the knee hits the ground.
Damnit, now I have to go buy some green stuff and possibly pull apart some of my battloids I already assembled (/grumble).
You could always do like me and buy more new ones! I'm always looking for an excuse to get more cool toys!  Oh don't tempt me. My wife may have a few choice words about it.  |
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 20, 2015 22:07:58 GMT
very much the reaction I aim for!  |
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 20, 2015 22:11:56 GMT
You could always do like me and buy more new ones! I'm always looking for an excuse to get more cool toys! Oh don't tempt me. My wife may have a few choice words about it. I always use the "it's way cheaper than if I did <insert truly extravagant hobby here>" I've used everything from owned a sailboat to collected antique cars to collected rare comics as yard sticks. It might leads to a heated, erm healthy discussion but it can serve as a good reality check.  |
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Post by InitiatedNeophyte on Jan 21, 2015 14:48:59 GMT
Ha! No kidding. Just start talking whimsically about how you would love to fly through the clouds in your own airplane. Start doing the math for that hobby out loud. My guess is that will help quite a bit to justify modeling/painting/(war)gaming.
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Post by I Will Never Grow Up Gaming on Jan 21, 2015 15:24:01 GMT
Oh don't get me wrong. She supports the hobby (heck, she buys me models and games), but when I'm still assembling 2 RRT starter boxes and say "Hey, I think I need more" i'll get that look that says "Are you kidding? You're insane .. no. Finish the million projects you have first". In any case, I'm absolutely stealing some of these poses. Don't even need the GS, as I just realized I can use the Aves Apoxie Sculpt I have already! Totally forgot I had that .. /doh! I do have 3 battloids left to assemble. I'll use those .. for now. Then I'll "need" more. mwahaha. |
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 21, 2015 16:12:40 GMT
Oh don't get me wrong. She supports the hobby (heck, she buys me models and games), but when I'm still assembling 2 RRT starter boxes and say "Hey, I think I need more" i'll get that look that says "Are you kidding? You're insane .. no. Finish the million projects you have first". In any case, I'm absolutely stealing some of these poses. Don't even need the GS, as I just realized I can use the Aves Apoxie Sculpt I have already! Totally forgot I had that .. /doh! I do have 3 battloids left to assemble. I'll use those .. for now. Then I'll "need" more. mwahaha. Always great to have a supportive spouse! Lucky for me mine has a ton of hobbies so everything flows nicely in the home. Although given the mountains of models/games I've accumulated I'm quite certain my wife thinks I'm insane! Aves Apoxiesculpt is amazing stuff! I use it all the time for custom base work and it is far easier to sand and shape then Greenstuff. I was really tempted to use it myself but with models I'm usually too impatient to give it time to cure before I start tinkering. That never ends well! |
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Post by soulsamurai on Jan 21, 2015 18:09:24 GMT
Awesome stuff! The one with the open wings looks to me as if he transformed in mid-air and is just in the act of landing, I love it. The kneeling one looks like it must have been hard to pull off. I think will look a bit better with some terrain filling the gap under his left leg, but it's already very cool. Have you considered some variations? For example, kneeling while aiming down the gun, or kneeling with one (open) hand on the ground (probably holding the gun in a "safe" vertical position). Trying to think of new poses, one occurred to me: leaping to the left while aiming the gun to the right (sort of running/jumping for cover and firing random shots back the way he came). The closest picture I could find to what I had in my head was this:  |
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 21, 2015 18:25:14 GMT
Awesome stuff! The one with the open wings looks to me as if he transformed in mid-air and is just in the act of landing, I love it. The kneeling one looks like it must have been hard to pull off. I think will look a bit better with some terrain filling the gap under his left leg, but it's already very cool. Have you considered some variations? For example, kneeling while aiming down the gun, or kneeling with one (open) hand on the ground (probably holding the gun in a "safe" vertical position). Trying to think of new poses, one occurred to me: leaping to the left while aiming the gun to the right (sort of running/jumping for cover and firing random shots back the way he came). The closest picture I could find to what I had in my head was this: Thanks! I think a lot of these will benefit from custom bases... it should let me address some of the inevitable issues that come up. The kneeling is a tough pose. I originally wanted to have one hand on the ground but wasn't able to tweak the arm enough to reach down to the base. I think it may be possible if the torso tilts forward but the angle may make it look like it got hit from the back. If it was holding the gun midway up in the other hand and using it for support it may be possible to get a 'trying to stand back up look out of it. Thanks for dropping in the photo! I love that leaping action pose! I'll have to see how it translates to the mecha. In theory at least Battloids should be able to move about like people. I also grabbed a couple of screen shots from the Max/Mirya holographic veritech arcade sequence that I'm going to try and mock up this week too. |
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 22, 2015 13:56:48 GMT
Did a little work on the 'jump to the side' pose and thought I'd share some very ugly early step pics so anyone nutty enough to do this won't be worried when things don't look so hot! here's the basic pose tacked together with paperclips and a little green stuff.   And here is a close up of how much damage you are likely going to do by removing the feet with an xacto knife (even if you're careful!)  I snapped this from a high angle so you can clearly see the paperclip pin in the leg joint. These pins run from the ankle up to the hip area since the legs are hollow. I stuff some green stuff up into the hollowed out ankle, drill a hole in the 'knee' joint and push the paperclip down from the knee into the green stuff at the ankle. (This+ a little superglue helps lock the pin in place) I leave enough paperclip sticking out of the top so that when I drill a hole in the upper leg I can thread it in.  I almost forgot to mention that I also got tired of the head laser facing backwards so I chopped it off, drilled a 0.8mm pilot hole and popped a plastic rod in. After this set up I used a needle file to shape the rod to mimic the laser. |
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Post by popatachi on Jan 22, 2015 14:49:48 GMT
Very cool pose. I did a mid-kick pose with my extra battloid figure. I don't have green stuff or the experience chopping the figure, but it turned out really well.
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 22, 2015 15:00:37 GMT
Very cool pose. I did a mid-kick pose with my extra battloid figure. I don't have green stuff or the experience chopping the figure, but it turned out really well. I'm rubbish at finding things... did you have a chance to post up pics? |
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Post by popatachi on Jan 22, 2015 15:28:18 GMT
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 22, 2015 15:34:24 GMT
Very nice! I love the open hand you put together and how you've got the base pieces to work so well for dynamic poses! |
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Post by popatachi on Jan 22, 2015 15:38:21 GMT
At some point I want to try my hand at using green stuff. My first attempts a long time ago were such crap, but I'll worry about putting together a majority of the figures first.
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 22, 2015 15:49:07 GMT
Green Stuff takes some getting used to. You can use vegetable oil to really super smooth it but then it takes forever to dry! You can also use Apoxie Sculpt. It takes about a day to harden but it has a longer working window. It also dries super hard so it is easy to file/sand. Going off topic for a moment - The image below is a banner that I created from green stuff for a truescale Space Wolf Great Company I did. I had to use oil when I shaped the banner and it took 2 days to cure!  The finished banner bearer is pictured below. He's about 40% green and grey stuff.   |
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Post by popatachi on Jan 22, 2015 16:18:24 GMT
Very nice work! At least I'll know who to contact when I start it up again!
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 22, 2015 16:36:51 GMT
Very nice work! At least I'll know who to contact when I start it up again! Sounds good! I'm 100% self taught by trial and error... mainly error! |
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 25, 2015 23:11:57 GMT
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Post by soulsamurai on Jan 26, 2015 9:17:44 GMT
Those are awesome! You should totally paint them in Max and Mirya colours!
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 26, 2015 16:23:47 GMT
Those are awesome! You should totally paint them in Max and Mirya colours! That sounds like a good plan! I may use the holo-game colour scheme for theme! |
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 26, 2015 16:35:12 GMT
Bouncing around a little but here's a quick how to for changing your VF-1S lasers on the Battloid. Actually it's pretty easy but since the pieces are so small it gets fiddly! To start with grab the VF-1S head from the Battloid kit and a pair of the VF-1S side lasers from either the guardian or fighter kits.  Now comes the fiddly part! Carefully cut the lasers off of the Battloid head. I did this very very carefully with a sharp Xacto knife and then used the edge of the blade to scrape the surface flat. Then drill a tiny pilot hole with your hobby drill... this puppy is a fraction of a mm in diameter so it's pretty small!  That's it... You're ready to slap the parts together. Make sure and face the flat side of the head lasers down and away to minimize their visual impact. After it sets up you can alos use a little ApoxiSculpt or Green stuff to round out the flat spot.   |
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 26, 2015 17:47:31 GMT
The next Battloid for this week is another stab at the kneeling pose. As SoulSamurai mentioned, the other one was nice but still felt like it could go a little farther. So here is an early WIP of the most extreme Battloid pose I've put together yet! This one required that every single joint be reworked or pinned at an odd angle. > The neck joint was cut away and a pin inserted at a sharp angle to get the head to 'look up' or ahead in this pose. > The arm joints were sanded down, pinned and repositioned. It's really hard to get the one arm to reach the ground while the Battloid is kneeling and I decided to have the other army holding the gun by the barrel to the rear. > The waist joints were really annoying and in the end I got frustrated by them falling apart due to such little surface connection that I drilled a hole through the entire hip connector with matching holes in the leg/hips and inserted a long paperclip 'pin' that let me get the waist/legs where I needed it. > The legs took a few passes to get them bent and turned at extreme enough angles for the knee to actually be on the ground and the torso to be able to fit with a slight forward tilt. > New hands had to be sculpted out of greenstuff. The ones in the pic are 'roughed in' and after they cure I will be shaping them and adding some details. Whew. This one was a lot more work then the normal ones. So let's get to the actual rough WIP photos. Still a lot of green stuff work to do before this bad Battloid is ready for the brush!    And here's one last shot with this one next to the standard out of the box pose from the parts that I started with.  |
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Post by Thorfinn on Jan 26, 2015 18:01:19 GMT
That is outstanding.
Kneeling poses are difficult because the proportions are off. The top of the leg is very short in relation to the very long lower leg.
Great job pushing past that.
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 26, 2015 18:33:48 GMT
That is outstanding. Kneeling poses are difficult because the proportions are off. The top of the leg is very short in relation to the very long lower leg. Great job pushing past that. Thanks mate! Glad it comes across well! When I'm cobbling these together I'm never sure if I'm capturing the right look and feel. It has been awful working with the super short upper leg. I hadn't really put my finger on why the kneeling poses are such a pain but you nailed it.  I really dread the clean up on these models too. It's easy enough to do the rough work but doing 'clean' green stuff work takes me forever!  |
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 26, 2015 18:55:20 GMT
Wanted to post up a group photo as a progress marker. Currently I have 8 WIP Valkyrie Battloids at various stages of completion. Sometime soon I hope to get to the point that I can grab a brush and go to town... only problem is I'm not sure how many Battloids I'm going to put together first! Family Photo  |
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Post by soulsamurai on Jan 27, 2015 6:45:10 GMT
The new kneeling model came out really well! That's a hell of a unique collection you're building up. Great work sculpting the hands; I've had to do it in the past and I found it much much harder than I expected. Kudos!
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 27, 2015 13:14:38 GMT
The new kneeling model came out really well! That's a hell of a unique collection you're building up. Great work sculpting the hands; I've had to do it in the past and I found it much much harder than I expected. Kudos! Thanks mate! Hands really, really suck but the more extreme the poses get the more likely they have to be done!  |
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 28, 2015 13:39:28 GMT
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Post by wargamer43210 on Jan 29, 2015 13:22:14 GMT
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The finished banner bearer is pictured below. He's about 40% green and grey stuff. 
