Monday 26 December 2016

Commission work: Thousand sons #1, and the grief involved...


Fear not, for the custodia watch over you!  
Throne, I'm tired.

At my FLGS a month or so ago, a local gamer asked if I could paint him a squad of rubric marines; he had some old CSM that he'd never got around to painting, some 3rd party resin chaps along with a metal sorcerer and Lucius the Eternal (who you would've seen finished last post).  I picked them up as I went past into town, thinking how fun and exciting it would be to paint blue and gold for once!  Ho ho... I'm such an optomist... actually, I was wound up with getting the canoness figure and didn't think much about how HORRIBLE resin-- particularly old, 3rd party stuff-- could be.

Well, got them home and realised they were already undercoated.  In a LOT of black.  Worse thing was the fact that the client hadn't pinned anything, and had used either an improper glue, or had put them together longer ago than I thought; hardly anything was holding and guns were balanced above hands, stuck down with drips of primer...

Dorn help me!
 Sorry for the rotten picture quality-- again.  The sorcerer was the only candidate up for the dettol bath, so in he went.

 

And after a  while of hesitant pulling on arms and heads, this was about all that actually held:  Out came the drill press and the wire cutters...  Bit of a side thing here; I'm harvesting boysenberries tomorrow, and I have to practise getting up at FIVE in the morning; a tricky thing for an insomniac.  I've been working on these chaps to stop myself falling back to sleep.




What you're seeing here is easily 15" of wire and three night's worth of hobby time.  What made it more challenging was the fact of the 3rd party bodies not fitting the GW legs, so they needed to be scraped out and greenstuffed.  This left them looking a bit tall in the body so I added pouches to try and cover this up.  In the words of brother-captain Erecond Gaius, "Brothers, we are being tested..."
Matching arms to bodies again was a bit of a task, and with the way the guns had been attached left for some... awkward... poses.  Can't say I tried though.


Pfft...


After adding a few strips of parchment  and basing them all, I got down to painting, at last.  I started with a Very Very Careful spray of corax white-- Throne, they had enough chaos black on them for three times their number, but we'll have to see what happens.


Sotek green to Africa; quite an intriguing colour, I might add.


So after another hour after the green/blue and an entire Equilibrium album later, this is where I'm up to.  I think the guns are going to be red or silver, and there's going to be a lot of yellow and bone to go.

Ten past eight, and I'd better go and have breakfast.  Bye bye for now.

Friday 23 December 2016

Assembling/converting canoness Veridyan #1: sidhe of the scalpel

Hallo again! Summer's upon us in full force down the bottom of the world, and last-minute Christmas traffic has been going back and forth past our quiet country road and driving me quite mad!  Good thing I've got a few things to work on over the holiday period (when it cools down a bit in the hobby room-- 30 degrees is not good for open paint pots, to say nothing of my mental state) and I'll be expounding on one in particular to-day; you've already guessed by the title, haven't you?

Just quickly though, I'll show you my other projects:

First-- and most closest to completion that isn't finished-- a warpsmith for fellow 40K G+ member, Thefallenstar:


Pretty pleased with how this fellow's turning out!  The axe still needs some work, but I'm having to be careful it doesn't become the focal point of the miniature...  Oh well! When have I ever been careful?
Second is the squad of 3rd-party thousand sons I alluded to last post:


They aren't the easiest of things to work with.  They'll be getting a post of their own soon.

Third is an old metal sorcerer who won't have ANYTHING to do with his backpack, no matter HOW much I glue and pin, Throne curse sorcerers:


And lastly is best Hansey boy Yoshikage Kira, my first straight-up paintwork in a long time:

 
 

But here!  This isn't what I was supposed to be posting about to-day!

***
Yes.  Yes I was excited when a official piece was sculpted from a Blanche piece.  Yes, I only got slightly anxious to get it and yes, there was only one at my FLGS.When I got the limited ed sister of battle I was almost going to assemble her without changing a thing... but how could I forgive myself for that?  But I couldn't really think of anything I wanted to do that'd actually work... making anyone into an Inquisitor is flocking easy...
I wanted to turn her into something special.  The artwork canoness Veridyan is taken from was the turning point of my developing style from lukewarm to grimdark-- it's special to me, and anyway, I like fringes, exspecially gaunt girls with fringes... this isn't a sexual thing.


Then I had an idea.  I have a faerie character/mascot/symbol I initially designed for the Sagolanda page banner.  She sort of sneaked into everything else as time went on and now she's on the banner of my commissions site!  Poor thing doesn't even have a name yet.
She's an embodiment of how I treat the wargaming hobby (and life in general); take what naturally occurs and twist it way out of line with tortured darkness and an off-kilter sense of piety.

She's got a fringe too...

So to save you the grief of watching me cut up a valuable figure, here's the canoness after bionics surgery.


I swapped out the cloth at the back for a piece of tin to give it a bit of lightness.


Small problem was that the faerie's left wing is made of razor blades, enforcing the symbol of unnatural altering.  I wasn't sure how to represent razor blades... I thought of using real ones, but they're expensive.
How about used scalpel blades then?  It represents a similar mindset, and it's just as emo, isn't it?



So they went together nicely.


So here we are as of now.


I had to pop an extra skull under her boot to make up for space.  Not sure what I did wrong but it's worked out okay.


A few more pipes and drug injectors across the wings-- and the base wants tidying up-- then on to painting!  If I forget to post the finished project here, she'll more than likely end up on Flikr, just a heads up.
So that's that!  Next time I might expound a bit on that Thousand sons squad... hee hee, if it doesn't drive me mad.  Wish me luck.

Bye bye for now.

Oh yeah, Merry Christmas for tomorrow I suppose.

Saturday 17 December 2016

The two-year dream: looking back at some of my older posts


Today's post will be a bit of a self-glorifying mess, I'm sorry.  We go back and pick out some of the more notable posts on the blog to have another look at.

Two years, 100 posts and 20,000 views and a kitbashing business... It's strange really, thinking back to when I started out I didn't even know what to expect of the blogging world.  I never intended to make it a regular thing, you know-- I didn't even think I'd carry on for so long!

My first ever post is dated Tuesday, 18 November 2014; that's exactly a month and two years ago.  No followers, no wargaming contacts outside the few I knew locally, nothing.  I posted sporadically (like I don't now!) with no expectation of audience, stuff like a rather odd deathwatch conversion I was so proud of back then, and the day I learned to embed videos and spammed it for one day; a random idea I had about the Blood Angels gave me an idea for the Rambling Thoughts series that I will be returning with another article presently...


I posted a bit about the Legend of Zelda too, a favorite video game franchise of mine; two pencil drawings of a favorite character and an outlandish figma repaint that scared me at the time, being two notable ones.


So nothing really happened until another blogger by the name of Steve Ver chanced upon a a vanguard veteran squad and the first major kitbashed squad I had ever done for the Sagodjur Fjorlag.  Steve asked if I wanted to share this on the 40K G+ community and, after getting confused about sharing etc it was there and-- Throne, what a reception I got!  100+ views might not seem like much now, but for someone who thought twelve was a big number--!


Here's a funny thing:  I made a weapon out of an old sawblade-- more importantly you get to see what I looked like back in January last year, hairy little bugger that I was.  All of nineteen years but I looked awfully aged, and I had a MOUSTACHE for Throne's sake, I almost forgot that!


After I'd been painting for two years, I thought I was authority enough to write about painting and the mindset involved.  This was during the time of my life when all I wanted to be-- as far as 40Kwas concerned-- was the next John Blanche, and I had devoted my hobby time to replicating his blessed style, suppressing my own creativity at my own degradation.  I've matured a little (at least I hope I have!) and have since revisited that concept over at Broken Paintbrush.

OMG OMG OMG just LOOK at my CA-RAYZY conversion skills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
 I continue to lament how I thought my conversions were so off-the-wall, so I said to my past self, though by Febuary 2015 I suppose I was getting somewhere as far as kitbashing is concerned when I made my 2nd attempt at 7th captain Thunraz.  I'd just learned to make greenstuff capes, so yeah, world's my oyster, so to speak.

What an odd pose... so glad I didn't go with this model in the end for him!

It was from that point that the Lonely Kitbasher finally emerged from the safety of his little hobbit-hole and began to build figures that made even him flinch at their absurdness; 1st lord Klatos and  my first attempt at 3rd lord Baldr being the most notable at the time.


I even made an Anime girl from the grim dark future out of a Sailor Moon bootleg; that's how much my confidence had grown; you know if it wasn't for the kind support of the 40K community I wouldn't have the confidence I do now, so big shout-out to all you lot!

...Only I got a bit big for my boots and proclaimed I was going to make a thunderhawk. Yeah.  That didn't turn out as I planned, and brought me down to Terra with a bump.  It's embarrassing to look back on now, but it happened so I can't deny it...

She looks so odd without paint...

When the Imperial Knight was released I knew I had to have at least one in my collection, so as soon as I could afford it I bought one and began on something quite special.  And you all know where that led to!  Rumour has it that John Blanche himself saw The White Rose and liked it-- I am blessed, truly!


Time passed and nothing really worthy of note happened, until The Emperor's Peace, a monster of the Imperium that I'm still not sure what it is exactly; and the God Murderer, when I really began to put a definite narrative to my projects.  Things got quite dark from there on out, as if they weren't dark enough already...



The beginning of this year I completed my 2nd attempt at lord Baldr and was Very Happy with him.  That led to a few more kitbashes and at this point I could not go back to making Space Marines straight out of the box.


I began rebuilding a dreadnought which turned into something I was pleased with too.

 So that was interesting, I suppose.  Have a look back and see what I used to get up to (please, don't-- it's actually really boring) all those many ages ago when dinosaurs walked the earth and fat bloke was editor of WD.

I shouldn't make that joke, I'm too young for that to be funny.

***
 
So what will the future hold?  What are my hopes?  Going into 2017 is a scary prospect.
More painting, that's a thing.  Five years of 40K has yielded me barely 2500 points worth of playable army, which is shocking.
I sort of hope that word of my kitbashing business will get around, and that people won't be afraid to ask for the most outlandish of commissions!  Some day I'd also like to make contact somehow with saint Blanche, will 2017 be that year...?

As for now, I'm working on a ten-man squad of 3rd party Thousand Sons commissioned my a local player.  Inferior resin and Very Old superglue means EVERYTHING needs re-gluing and pinning, and every piece has been primed with a LOT of chaos black, so I'm going to have to count my layers like Scrooge Mcduck.  Once I've got a bit of progress done on them I'll post my trials for you to laugh at, along with another Rambling Thoughts-- this time about a certain story set on a certain Daemon forge-world with a certain steam train...

Until then, here's to the new year!  Happy Christmas you 'orrible lot, bye bye for now.

Friday 16 December 2016

Hobby update: Sago altar has a website! Also 100th post



Hallo everyone, I haven't blogged in a while due to-- as I stated in a G+ post-- a severe case of Everyday Normal life.  With the holiday season upon us things have become super-chaotic and I haven't had much hobby time available of late.
But now things are settling, I can get my paints out again and cut up more little plastic men!




On that note, the Sago Altar has a site of it's own now!  Hurrah!  I'll figure out a way of putting it nicely in the blog's sidebar, but for now please come and have a look here:


The commissions page on the blog already will need a bit of an overhaul-- among other things, a friend of mine politely noted I've spelt "altar" wrong in several places!  Whoops... 


Also, today is my 100th post!  One hundred!  Really!  Regrettably, I haven't got much time to celebrate, but next time I think I'll have a look back at my last 99 posts and be all nostalgic/embarrassed, and write up something emotional about Lonely's journey through the hobby.  For now, here's a stolen image of a space marine with a balloon:



Bye-bye for now.

Sunday 27 November 2016

Hobby update: My own legion of the damned


Let's get this out of the way quick-- I LOVE the Prospero box kit!  MKIII must be my favorite sort of power armour, and all the other cool bitz you get-!  $300+ NZD was a stretch, but I know I won't be needing to buy any more plastic crack for a great long while.

So what will I be doing with the set?  Oh, you know I won't be assembling them as per the box!

But truth be told, I wasn't really sure what to do at first.  I had a bit of an experiment with bits and pieces; first and foremost I put together a Sagodjur Fjorlag with a few MK III bits;


I buckled and assembled a tataros terminator in the way it was supposed to;


Yup, exactly as it was supposed to...  And using the custodes bitz, I made-- drum roll please--


...Still working on it... I wanted to mix things up a bit with some Sigmarine pieces; I also bulked up the torso with a plastic wedge between the two halves, making the collar a bit more raised.
That's all very well and good, but I wanted to do something major, something nobody could bring themselves to do, something that would cause you to flinch!  Hee hee, aren't I mean.

The conclusion of the following brainstorm was quite exciting.  I've always wanted my very own Legion of the Damned; their mysterious backstory making them sound like hallucinations interested me (of course it would!) also melta weapons deep striking into the battlefield is a nice thought too, but-- canonically, I can't field them.
 
As far as the story goes, they only started being noted as a phenomenon from the beginning of the 41st millennium.  My Chapter, and by extension all (or much of, at least) my 40K-related work is based in mid M35, four thousand years before the LoTD were even known of.  While I could be a special snowflake and say "Oh, they chose to appear before MY Chapter because..." but I'm not one to twist the existing lore to suit myself.
During the initiation process of the Sagodjur Fjorlag, in a step known as Drepa, the dripping, neophytes are compelled to make war with "the generation dead", the essence of past Sago Astartes brought back by the Librarius.  What then would happen if the librarians were to summon those dead from the warp upon the field of battle?

What would happen if I were to combine the LoTD--


With, as always, Silent Hill?



So this is the beginning of my experiment; The generation Dead, my counts-as LoTD.  I'm working towards a ten-man squad with a plasma gun and multi-melta.


The silhouette of the MKIII armour needs to be kept, but, as it were, out of focus-- as if you don't know where to start looking.  Cutting into the plate and brushing glue over it leaves a soft layer to work with.


So there we are!  That's what I'll be doing with my hobby time, between commissions and things. 

Bye bye for now.

Saturday 12 November 2016

Sago alter: a temporary commissions page!


So I'll be accepting commissions now!

Setting up a website is taking longer than I thought (oh dear), and with my time being taken up elsewhere-- e.g life-- it will take a very long time, but that won't stop me from accepting commissions!  Just 'cause I don't have a website doesn't mean I can't start work straight away :P

Ah, okay then!  welcome to the sago alter!  I've copied the data I'll eventually be putting on the website, and put it onto a series of pages here, just to be quick.  This is only temporary, and if it's messy I apologise.  The proper links are up on the top right of the blog, just below the title; or click here to go to the "Home" page.

So I would ask of you, I need someone to test this system for me please?  I'd like someone to volunteer as a guinea pig, to"place an order" and see if the system is at all usable.  Criticism is always accepted too, I only want to make this  fun and easy thing for you!

Bye bye for now.