Marienburg vs. the Undeadish (update: undead & spooky stuff)

[Schrumpfkopf]

Brilliant painting as always, but the heads are absolutely brilliant. Did you sculpt them from scratch?

[ZeroTwentythree]

Sleep is important. Allows you to reset and start the problem afresh. The undead are restless for a reason - they don't sleep.

I went to architecture school, so I am acquainted with expert level sleep deprivation.

Brilliant painting as always, but the heads are absolutely brilliant. Did you sculpt them from scratch?

Thanks! Yes, I sculpted them. I'm about to start another round, and have only got to the first step.

[ZeroTwentythree]

Looks like resin's back on the table, boys!

After spending too much time and paying more than I had planned, I got it, I did it, and it worked pretty f'ing well. I really needed this boost of confidence.



I figured it would be a hassle trying to mix just a single head worth of resin, so I mixed extra and poured an old mold I had from a casting class I took a while ago. (I had been thinking about using some these as some weird terrain bits, so it won't go to waste.)

Going to make molds of the rest of the heads. I had been wondering if the single piece block mold would work well enough, but it worked beautifully. So I don't think I need to so two-piece molds for these heads at all. I still need to decide whether to do them individually (like this one) or whether to "sprue" them together in one or two group moulds.

I'll mold & cast up some of this first round of heads, but my plan is to still work on refining the sculpting. I also need to get the tails right. I've been experimenting, but I'm really having trouble getting them right. But it's good practice. And I'm eliminating a lot of bad ideas.

[Vermis]

Luvly.  Looks like great, crisp casting.

[DeafNala]

Both pieces look SPLENDID! VERY WELL DONE!

[ZeroTwentythree]

I made two more molds of Fomorian heads, one with a single head, the other with the better four of the batch that has been sculpted so far.

My initial resin pull the other day must have been beginner's luck, because tonight I had a lot more trouble -- especially with that mold. In fact, it got a bit torn up from trying to retrieve heads from the cavity. I was having problems with bubbles at the small joint between the head and the "funnel" into which I pour the resin. I got better at avoiding this, but what really made the difference on the last two pulls was using a syringe to fill the head with resin.

So here's tonight's haul:



That's 19 good heads, four more that have small bubbles at the back of the head (simple fix,) and five bad heads. Of the five, I could probably reconstruct the back of three heads, or they may become the start of converted variants with some sort of headgear/hood. The other two are unusable for anything.

I'm still working on sculpting some decent tails. But for the moment, I seem to be on the tail fail trail....

I should start thinking about getting my hands on some more Reaper orcs (I only had the one) so I can see if I can sculpt & cast replacement feet, or whether I will have to sculpt them on each individual figure.

[ZeroTwentythree]

After three months, my dwarf light artillery is done...



Not a great phot, unfortunately. And I already know... missed the mold line on the wheel...

[beefcake]

Nice. Great skin tones.

[ZeroTwentythree]

I was impatient to see what how the cast Fomorian heads look, so I quickly cleaned up and painted one of each head, separately mounted on a bit of wire.



On closer examination, they aren't as cleanly cast as they initially looked. I am doing all of this without a vacuum chamber or pressure pot (for now) so there seem to be some very minor bubbles in both the molds and a few of the castings. Given that this is my first time, and that they are so few and so small, I'm not at all disappointed. I only needed to do a quick bit of cleanup.

Painting them up also revealed some weak spots in the sculpting, which is helpful as I plan on doing more and this will help me recognize where to improve. I doubt I will cast more than a few of heads A & B. Head E looks a bit off -- I think the nasal holes were a bit mismolded or miscast, so I'm going to take a look at whether that needs a small repair before more casting. I'm pretty happy with C, D & F.


Should I share these heads?

When I first started, ac couple of people asked if castings would be available. I've been thinking about that. This is really just a personal project, and the quality of both sculpting and casting is still just an amateur/hobby level, at best -- and I'm still working out the bugs of casting for the first time, too! Besides, it's a niche interest within one corner of a niche hobby. But I'm considering doing a one time evening cast-a-thon, set aside what I need, and then making the remainder available for a small price (to help cover materials, postage, and maybe put a bit towards the phase...) or for trades.

I do plan on sculpting and casting a few more heads. And I'm working on some tails, and eventually I may try some cast feet as replacements for the specific figures I'm using in my project.

What do you think? Any interest? I'd like to get a feel for this before casting a bunch of extra heads. Should I wait until I get some tails cast too? (And feet?)

[Braxandur]

I'm interested!

Seeing what you did with the orc made me drool and think about somehow building some of my own fomor. Basically I have shieldwolf mountain orcs and GW savage orcs waiting for heads and tails 

[DeafNala]

A FINE UPDATE! The Fomorian heads look TERRIFIC, as do the Vertically Challenged Artillery. VERY WELL DONE all around!
It's WONDERFUL seeing that Old Gun all painted up.

[wolfie907]

Yes id want some  plus tails and feet

[white knight]

I'd be interested in some as well, heads, tails and feet.

[ZeroTwentythree]

OK, so when I'm ready to start cranking out resin, I'll probably do a small amount of extra heads, tails, and feet for trade/sale.




Release the hounds.... or wolves... y'know, whatever we've got...



I got a bunch of painted wolves from a friend. I may try to get two more for even groups of 8. I've been trying to find a good deal on some current GW dire wolves or chaos hounds for quite a while with no luck, but I can work with these oldschool plastic wolves. I'm going to repaint them and, again, draw some inspiration from Moorcock's second Corum series. In those books, the Fhoi Myore, and in particular Kerenos, are accompanied by very large wolflike hounds that are white except for some red fur on their ears. I'm not certain if he meant "red" as in a natural red hair color in humans, dogs, etc. or red as in crimson or some other vivid hue. I really like the idea of the bright crimson. I'll eventually paint a test figure & see.

[ZeroTwentythree]

The village matron affectionately known as “Ma Khorne” started the village orphanage after her husband, “Pop Khorne,” recently met his unfortunate and explosive demise on the wrong end of an Imperial fire mage and a halfling hotpot full of butter . In anger and sorrow (but mostly anger) she turned to the convent of the Sisters of Perpetual Bloodshed, where she has assumed the role of caretaker and disciplinarian (strict disciplinarian) of the village children whose parents have died or mutated to such a degree that they can no longer care for their own young. Here is Ma Khorne with Oswald, one of the adorable young tykes under her care.

This is my submission for the Oldhammer forum's 2016 Legacy project. This is the first time I'm participating. I love the concept (sort of like a figure lottery) and this year's theme: "C49 Chaos Villagers."

My old chaos figures are/were mostly generic chaos figures, or Nurgle & Slaanesh once the RoC books came out. Khorne always seemed a bit dull to me, both in terms of painting and background. But I'm amused at the idea of devout Khorne followers trying to take part in village life. Unaligned mutants and followers of the other three major chaos powers, sure. But Khorne? So here they are.