The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

Brutal and cunning

So I spent just a little more time painting this guy up. As-is, I think he's pretty decent tabletop quality, but I've had a lot of trouble giving the model the paint job it actually deserves. I'll get some better pictures once I can matte varnish him - right now, he's a bit too glossy to photograph properly.

When it came time to paint the feet, I found myself at a bit of a loss... I hadn't really looked at them particularly closely up to this point, and when I set about putting some paint on 'em, I found myself feeling that they were a little devoid of detail besides the toe-spikes. After a bit of consideration, I went at the model with a jeweller's saw and gave him a foot transplant with an AoBR nob. I think the new feet look just fine, and they were a fair bit easier to paint because there were more raised details to help guide my work.

 

I think he's like 95% done. There's a few places that need a little more work, like his belt buckle and maybe some of the backpack. I'm also considering bloodying the blades up a bit, but I'm unsure, since it tends to be distracting. He's all glued together now, though, which makes me feel relieved - I've tried very hard to lose that backpack a bunch of times this past week, and now it's not going anywhere!

Waaagh!paint

So, here's a bit of work on the paint! The skin's coming along well enough, and I took a crack at adding some red warpaint similar to that of the Dawn of War 2 Kommando Nob... it's a bit simpler of a pattern, but that's because I'm considerably shoddy with freehand work. I lack the fine control needed with a brush.

 

I am happy with how the face came out, but I'm still working on trying to tighten up the red bits on the arms some. I was thinking he needed some red on the abs, but I can't think of a good way to lay any sort of pattern over them.

I'll work more on the lower body and straps, which have obviously been neglected. The choppas aren't done, either, just base-coated with Boltgun Metal... I've mostly been focusing on the skin.

Primed and Based

Okay, so now I'm shifting over to painting on this guy. I made him a base on a 40mm round, since he would never have comfortably fit on a 25mm'er. Warforge frequenter Made of Bees has been awesome and has donated a Manufactorum kit to me for use on whatever projects I'm working on, and I figured basing the Kommando on the rubble of a manufactorum would be nothing if not appropriate - the result of a successful sabotage mission, perhaps? There's a small bundle of TNT towards the back edge of the base, just to finish the job.

 

So, painting starts! Any areas I missed with primer will be easy enough to touch up with some watered-down black paint, so I'm not too concerned with it.

In the mean time, if anyone knows where I can pick up some Kommandos for cheap, I'd be interested - I have 5 of the metals, but I want to get a full squad of the things to go along with him.

Swingin’ from tree to tree

Not a lot of work's been done on this thing thanks to school, but I have had a little time to make a grappling hook for the Kommando Nob, and hung it off the backpack. I think I just want to put a little bit more gear on him, to make him look loaded up and ready for any sabotage mission imaginable, but the model itself is nearly done.

I need to base him, but I don't actually seem to have any 40mm bases to work from, so I haven't had the chance yet. Soon, hopefully.

Armed and equipped

Had time for a little more work on this Kommando character, so I finished off his other arm. I ended up moving the hand just a liiitle bit off to one side of his face, because I realized that I would never, ever be able to paint that face properly if I had that hand in the way. Hopefully the effect still works, though.

Edit: Actually, I just bent it back a little bit more to the front just now (post-pictures), since it didn't look enough like he was 'shhh'ing, so... there you go.

 

Z sent a lovely backpack along for him that I've been playing around with a bit. I stuck a Stikkbomb up top to hide where the backpack and the body join. I could have sculpted it onto the back properly, but I'm leaving the pack as removable for now just to make painting easier. I also added a small coil of rope that's hanging from the bottom of the pack right now - when I have  a bit more time, I'm going to add a grappling hook next to the rope, and then probably hang a couple more gubbinz off the thing like a tankbusta bomb or that sort of thing. I'm also going to smooth out the sculpt a bit in the back, around the boot area.

Some of you may notice there's substantially more white styrene replacements on this model than in the previous photos. Much to my lament, it seems every time I handle the miniature like the big, ham-fisted moron that I am, some of the tiny details end up falling off, like his teeth or goggles. Very upsetting, but I'm trying to keep up with it by simply putting new ones on, since I can't for the life of me find something like a goggle lens when it falls off.

Did you hear something?

So here's the deal!

Zsoulless was sculpting a rather lovely Kommando Nob based on the one from Dawn of War 2, and I've managed to get my hands on it!

This is what he gave me:

A couple of his teef went missin' on the trip over, but I've been sticking styrene replacements back in his gob. Some of the smaller gubbinz like grenades also fell off his straps, but I'll replace them soon enough. Z designed it without arms so that whoever eventually ended up with it could do whatever they wanted with it. I figured that I'd make him a Snikrot conversion, since I already had the arms lying around and he seemed deserving of such attention. I'm currently in the process of trying to sculpt the upper arms and shoulders so that they blend in properly.

His backpack'll see some tweaking - I want to add some ropes and grapples onto a pack for him.

And then, of course, I'll need some Kommandoz...