Blog Wannabe lizard wizard… Toltecatl's lil' lizzards and stuff!

Whenever I think your space marine bases are done you keep adding stuff to them! Awesome stuff! Also looking forward to your casting results!!

 

@Jorgik Aww thanks :x i do think the base thing is getting out of hand though… ill give them game sized bases too lol.
@Warden Yeah i really hope the glass will be ok.. I guess i just gotta jeep trying til i find something decent. See you in 3 years XD

 

More casting guys!! First 100 per cent-cast TG right here, after mould line removing etc:




so overall it's not looking too shabby, but two-part moulds sure are difficult to exploit with precision. I put too much GS in the body mould and had to do quite a bit of cutting and gluing, it's far from perfect. Also, it's really hard to push the resin into the spikes properly so only two of them made it on the lizard's back. Meh. Whats more the GS i used is a bit old, it doesnt make for that smooth of a texture anymore, which is a bit annoying as you lose some detail (more painfully so on the scout though). Then i learned from my mistake and the head turned out much better.
Also, i though the arms werent worth the trouble of making two-part moulds so i just did some sculpting/ carving on the side so it doesnt look too bad, but it wont be very nice.

But well… the casting is supposed to allow some savings and not to be pitch perfect, so i'm pretty satisfied. I'll try to get better and better for the next round.

The scout turned out ok as well, i just have to assemble it and make the cape. Think i'll be going for the heavy bolter first, which means cutting and gluing too since the arms are included on the torso i moulded while the HB comes with a right arm of its own and requires a handle on the left one… So we'll see about that soon. I didn't upload any pics of him cause it's only 1-part casting, no major interest.

So now i'm going to cast 2 more TG's (with 15 from the box and 12 from the starter set warriors, that makes 30, which was my goal: 3 units of 10 blokes), maybe a couple additional ones but not many cause I have other WIPs to attend. Then i'll leave casting aside for a while and get to:
- finishing the last Marine base, the one with the stairs (almost done, just got to finish the arch, position the Gaunt after removing mould lines from it and add some more cork rubble)
- assembling my TG's from the box, and converting the Warriors (+ adding capes, pelts, or whatever if my sculpting allows)
- PAINTINNNG: i have one Tac marine and a couple cold one riders I'll use as guinea pigs for colour schemes (and also, as training in order to get the rust off my fingers hehe), and prob will be asking around for advice

Then, next month i'll prob be able to buy some casting resin (30 euros a 1-kilo can… ewww…) and cast the hell out of my scout moulds so as to get some units up (prob 2 bolter+heavy bolter ones, 1 additional sniper unit, probably a missile launcher or two if i can). Once this is done i will be able to use the oyumaru and resin for large bits and, if all goes well, get a Carnosaur and a troglodon out of just one kit (the one from the starter set). Then i'll be casting an entire land speeder i think… and then back to painting some lizards hehe. I'll be posting pics all the while, and prob writing about how the resin thing goes compared to GS and milliput if you guys find it helpful.

Thanks for reading the blog so consistently guys, it's been 2 months and we've got 6 pages and quite a bit of (IMHO) interesting discussion already!! can't wait to get to painting time.

 

Nice lab report...
For me, I´ll provably cast some individual pieces when I get to casting. Full models take too much work .
The temple guard looks pretty good though

 

@Jorgik yep it sure is a bit of work if you want entire models. Not always a good time+investment//results ratio i guess, you gotta assess the situation to see if itll be worth yourwile…
but if it's gonna help you get a troglodon in addition to a carnosaur and a land speeder squad instead of just one vehicle, i think it really is an option to consider. Smaller models make for lesser savings i suppose, depends on whether or not you can avoid making two-part moulds. One-piece moulds are really easy and quick to use, as for the scout i'm about to show. They can get whole units done in little time, i think.

So meet brother-initiate Kamino, Salamanders, 10th company! I decided to try the easiest stuff first so i went for a basic bolter instead of a heavy one.
As i mentioned in the last post the GS was kinda stiff so it's got loads of imperfections, but eh, it was quick and easy, lets just say his armour and equipment got badly damaged by a Gaunt swarm before the squad kicked their butts… anyway it's nothing that can possibly disqualify a model from a table (?). So now i've just got to sculpt a cape to conceal the back part (as you can see he's looking a bit flat right now hehe) and fill in the left-hand-side wrist now, plus add a little GS patch on the right hand to fill in the assembly gap, and he'll be good to go shoot some xenos, purge the heck out of heretics etc.

Hope you guys like him. Now back to lizzies for a while, i swear

 

Yep, I have to agree

When I saw your first pic of the scout I thought "real nice detail there, it actually looks very good!" And then I scrolled down and saw his back .
Really looking forward to seeing how he turns out after the cloak!!

 

Yep im pretty impatient to have my scout force ready too ^^.. Unfortunately i spend hours on each model so thats gonna take very long

 

Hey guys! Back with more WIP.

The first TG are well on their way, got some more details on them:







Also, I decided to sculpt a little toad for some reason. Just need to add the eyes once the head has cured:





Finally, used some GS on my Salamanders too as I tried making two capes for my spess mehreen scouts. Wanted to adorn them a little with fur for one of them and Salamandery scale and flame motifs for the other.
Unfortunately, my GS really has been curing super fast lately, so the capes look really stiff, i couldnt really get them to come in nice-looking folds. I decided not to do them over again since its only scouts and i dont want to waste too much putty, lets just say they are super rigid, strong capes (after all they do give you a +1 cover save and even a 6+ one if you're out of cover lol). I'm ok with how the scales turned out but the fur has some inconsistencies in its movements on the shoulders, thats something i'll need to work on in later endeavours. Still, it's an encouraging first try to me
Also, i used the leftovers to cover more of the vanguard squad's previous owner's mould line fails. Getting closer and closer to finishing this squad………









Anyway feel free to comment, advice and criticism are always welcome. And a great weekend to y'all, fellow lizzies

 

These guys are looking awesome! That toad sculpt is so cool!

 

They are all awesome!
Remember when I said full casted models didn´t look good enough to be worth the effort? Then forget I did! They look awesome, both the temple guards and the scouts! The more you cast the more I think about going it myself .
I also really like the converted shield! And the toad! And the cloak! And the leather coat! And even the leftovers sculpts! Stop making them so awesome and get to painting already! I want to see them painted!
How much worth of green stuff did you put on each TG?
Real cool work

 

Very nice skills with the green stuff. My work is so poor in comparison. I love that toad!

 

Yes the toad looks amazing! The other stuff is also really cool! I really like how you solved the "problem" with the back of your marines.

 

Wow…
Thanks for your nice words guys. Especially about the toad, i was really wondering whether i wasnt wasting my time for something that would turn out bad... Now the fact that everyone likes it gives me the urge to go on and get better
So there definitely will be more sculpting in the future, I've got the itch for it and if everyone likes to see some why should i refrain!

Also, i have a question for everyone: casting minis is all well and good, but what materials would you use to create bases? i have none of the appropriate size for TG's in my bitzbox. So i've thought of cork or cardboard. Any other suggestions?

@Jorgik I think we can estimate my expenses between around 1,50-2 euros per model so far, factoring in GS and Oyumaru, and taking into account the fact that I also used quite a bit of putty for making molds before I started using Oyumaru. The price will keep decreasing up to a certain point, as I will be reusing Oyumaru and probably turning to cans of liquid resin to cast my stuff as long as it's one-part moulds. When you cast a lot of things I believe it becomes more economic than GS, and i have a hunch that it will also be more accurate (you can use a paintbrush to stir it so as to avoid bubbles). If you get well organized and invest in Oyumaru (or maybe blue stuff? i'm still curious to try it…) and resin right away, instead of groping around in the dark like I did at the beginning, I think you can make it cost effective pretty quickly.
Anyway, I love seeing @Warden and I arent the only ones interested in casting. I really like the 'DIY' aspect of the hobby, and casting and sculpting embody that aspect pretty well.

Now for the painting, yeah… soon ^^' as i said earlier i'm leaving casting aside for a short while and focusing on painting my first units of lizards now. I've decided to get a first 10-man TG unit up and paint as soon as thats done. So we've got 4 almost done as of now: it shouldnt take me months, should it? maybe first layer of paint around the 10th of may, as next week will be a busy one.

 

this is some really good work dude im happy the Oyumaru is working out so well for you

 

Thanks i do enjoy working with it quite a lot… loads of thank-yous for the tip btw ^^

 

Hey guys! I'm back
Long time no see. I was taken in a sh*tstorm of work this month so that made things complicated.

So here we go, I just finished putting together the bases for my Vanguard veterans. I just have to do away with the last mould lines and GS additions wherever the previous owner did horrifying work, and then on to painting
I'm really excited about that, it's been months now.

I also had the time to do some basing for my first TG unit. I have 5 of them based now and will be assembling and basing the next 5 before I post a pic of the whole unit. The bases will include water hopefully, that will help me get acquainted with it so I can do some nicer stuff for big units. (who said 'Carno'?…)

Here's the final base for one of my Marines. I just decided to consider it as complete (not spending more dozens of hours than necessary on this anymore lol). Also thought it'd be cool to add a Nid. Whom i guess i'll call Sid cause Sid the Nid sounds good to me. And he's about to get into trouble as brother I-have-no-name-yet intends to play Bust-a-Nid today.





Damn it's good to have time again.

Hope you guys are all doing great!

 

This looks so awesome! Great and epic scene going on here!

 

Very impressive work with the greenstuff! :O Great job!

 

I really like the frog! And the Temple Guard details, especially that shield that gives me great ideas.

 

awesome work dude looks great