Sanguinary Priest: Insta-mold casting

I picked up the insta mold product in hopes of duplicating some bitz here and there. After a little experimentation, It turns out to work pretty fantastic. So here's a couple tips on what to do and what not to do that will hopefully save you some time.

The product is cheap, under $20. Instructions are simple and on the blister pack, heat, press let cool. no problem. What it doesn't tell you, is once the stuff is heated, it can be pretty oozy and with out something to hold it, it can be hard stay put as well as on the detail of the model.

A couple notes on the product.
1. It doesn't seem to stick to anything, but...
2. it self! touch two pieces of hot instamold together and they become one.

So here is my first attempt at a 2 sided mold for a devestator backpack. You can't really see the detail in the pic. The point is how on the outside of the mold it just went all  over the place. The other point, which I will illustrate later, is that I didn't think about re-aligning the pieces once done, or realize I would have to cut the pieces apart.

With my second attempt, I had a little more of a game plan. I made a lego frame for my molds and a couple plungers to press the product. I also have a couple paper clips to align the 2 part mold.

with this set up I made 2 molds. A 2 sided mold for the arm and a one sided mold for the torso piece. I also try'd making stamping type mold for the shoulder pad, but it did not work so great.

I put the hot product in both sides, put the arm in once side with product on top and put the torso in the other side. I pressed down firmly with my plungers.

I let it cool a little bit, removed the plungers and poked the paper clips in for re-alignment later. After allowing the stuff to completely cool I removed it from the lego the 2 sided mold had to be cut carfully with a hobby knife. next time I will put plastic card on the top and bottom of the mold. the texture of the lego made it slightly difficult to remove.

It's kind of hard to tell from the pic, but the detail came out perfect. 

using the mold is simple. press the green stuff in and let harden. The molds are clear so you can see from the side of the detail if you have any air bubbles or detail not coming out. Here's what came out...

Top one is my first devestator backpack. with the flash removed. The detail did not come out good on this one. The other pieces came out great with the exception of a small bubble on one of the right pocket and left tubes.

++Incoming paint++ ... ++Necrons++

Here's how my Necron force is shaping up. Going for a quick rusted up look. I initially primed with a red oxide/rust color primer, which also serves as my base coat. I dipped them all in a blackish home-made wash to define the crevices. A quick drybursh of boltgun metal finishes off the main look of the bodies & weapons.  More details below....

Immortals - for the immortals & characters I added a blended green shoulder-pads. 

Warriors - I painted over the rods to give them some hyro powered super soakers. 

Scarabs- stole this idea from "fromthewarp". Extra scarbs casted with instamold & milliput. 

WIP characters

WIP crypteks - Simply used extra overlords from Annihilation barge and swaped heads for Deathmark heads. All base tiles are from pre scored plasticard. Popped off and glued to the base in semi random fashion, finished off with sand flocking. 

Screaming bell / Plague furnace: Magnetic assembly

I wanted to get bang for buck out of this awesome kit and be able to field either of the two models. This can be done rather simply with a few well placed magnets. Here's a quick rundown of how I did it and where all the magnets go.....

Parts

Here is the completed set of sub assembly's with magnets. More detail below.....

Back crew

 One in the rear of the plague monks and one on the "other" side of the plank.

MANY new projects!

I haven't been posting too much on the Blog-o-net of late. But that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. In fact I've been so busy with various projects I just haven't had the time to really stop and take fancy pictures, not to mention, the weather has not been cooperating for good pics lately. I've been expanding my games lately into other non GW games. Along with Warmahordes, I'm investing time and $$ into Dystopian wars & Malifaux. I'm also thinking of starting an Imperial Guard or Dark Eldar army.

So here's a few random updates along with a couple pics.

For Dystopian wars I have chosen, Empire of the blazing sun. My fleet is coming along nicely, and I hope to have it completed soon. I actually have taken a few pics along the way, so I hope to have a step by step post on the fleet soon.

Mostly done, just need to add some details/highlights.

For Malifaux I'm going to be playing Guild, and I also picked up some Neverborn for the kids to play. I'm going to be trying out a new priming method on these guys. So hopefully more on that later.

 1. black primer

2. white over the black at a 45 degree angle, from above

I've been playing Blood Hammers a lot, and the work has been slow, just been slightly distracted with the above new stuff. However, I did manage to complete a Furioso Librarian converted from Black reach dreadnaught body and spare furioso parts (I used the new kit to make a death co dread).

sawing the black reach face plate was a major pain, but worked out ok in the end (with a little green stuff)

I have lots to paint still, and hope to post something soon. In progress: Dante, Storm raven & Lemartes.

w.i.p. Dante with his massive Blood Hammer! 

I have my Skaven plague army that I'm working on, with some new models arriving in the mail today, HPA & plague catapult. Can't wait to paint these dudes.

What about Space wolves? I love my wolves, I've been playing them, but just haven't been inspired to paint them lately. I have Lukas started, and want to do something interesting for his cloak. I would also like to finish my dread.

w.i.p.

Beyond that there is my Chaos Tzeentch army which is in a state of base coat, Dwarfs (I'm hoping for a new army book for my beloved Dwarfs soon), Chaos Dwarfs (with new models coming out now), and would kind of like to make a disgustingly all pink Slannesh CSM army.

That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed my scatter brained hobby antics.

Game on!

Remember when Chaos was.....Chaotic?

I have to say, I miss the days when a Chaos force could be fielded of Warriors, Daemons, and Beastmen. And back in the days of Realm of Chaos - "Slaves to Darkness", fantasy warriors had access to technology!

With the separation of the new books it just seems like a lot of the chaos has been removed. I

Oh well, those days are gone, but it does not stop one from being creative with modeling. And WFB isn't as strict with the WYSIWYG. I had some old warriors that were missing lots of pieces and need a complete unit of 10 dudes. So I threw on a bunch of bits to make a truly "chaotic" war band.

Bitz used, (L-R, Space wolf bolter arm, tyranid arm, CSM body/head, Beastman standard arm, CSM standard, Marauder horsemen shield, Beastmen instrument arm, Marauder head, Khrone berzerker CC weapon arm, Chaos mutation arm. 

I like the "newest" version of the chaos warrior plastic models. The sculpt is great. But they are ALL the same! More like the forces of order then Chaos to me. 

Wolf Lord Complete

Wolf Lord: Hamish Blackwolf upon his Great grey Thunderwolf, Bifur. He is Harold Deathwolfs greatest Champion, and leads the great company to battle when Harold is indisposed or leading another part of the company elsewhere. He wields a huge frost blade given to him by Harold Deathwolf himself. 

Frost blade made from plastic card, skull bitz from SW sprues. Sword arm was the great Frost Axe with axe removed. Left arm from Space marine Sargent kit. 

His right pauldron is adorned with the Runes of his lord Harold Deathwolf. 

Bifur poised Ready to strike!

The Base is a resin cast product form Secret Weapon. A great deal for only $5. My only complaint is it is slightly smaller then the Standard GW 60mm bases. 

Mounted Iron Priest + Cyber Wolves complete

He is done. I'm not completely thrilled with how he came out, but he will due. My dissatisfaction comes mostly because of the old sculpt of the miniature. I do not like how all of the armor has a pocked texture. For the conversion, I chopped off the thunder hammer arm for a reposition. and had to slightly pry the legs apart to fit him on the Juggernaught. For the Juggernaught, I shaved off all the spiky bits (in an effort to make him not look so chaos), gave him a green stuff saddle, and fur.

Here he is with is buddies. Chaos warhounds sans antlers. I posted them before, but the pictures were way blurry. 

For the little runes and detail on his furry blue prints, I used Micro pen. 

Cyber bitz courtesy of Ork Warbikers & greenstuff

Tyranid Harpy Conversion

Here are some picks of my Harpy Conversion, which was very simple to achieve. Using the Carnifex kit, I just chopped off the front carapace pipes and replaced with some GW Dragon Wings. The base of the dragon wings needed to be cleaned up a little to fit, with the addition of green stuff around the joint.

If you are wondering what's going on with my Base, I'll be painting this to look like an "Alien" Landscape. I glued some googly eyes from Michaels craft store with a little green stuff around the base. Once painted, you wont be able to tell it was a googly eye. :) I also glued some long grain rice around, which I will paint to look like larva.

Magnetized Hunter killer missiles & Las TL Plasma conversion

I made some quick easy brackets to magnetize my Hunter killer missiles. This makes them easy to keep track of once used. Just pull them off. I scratch made the bracket because the supplied bracket doesn't have a whole lot of room for a magnet, and I usually use them for the other options.

Bracket is made of 1/8" thick plastic card (same thickness as the magnets)
I mark off a square a little larger then the magnet for the base and a rectangle for the stand that the HKM will be glued too.

Drill a hole in the base, the same size as the magnets

Cut out the pieces

Glue the stand to the base with plastic glue, so they are perpendicular 

glue the HKM's to the assembled bracket

drill a hole in your tank where ever you want to put them, put a magnet in the tank and in the bottom of the bracket with super glue. 

Here's a couple Rhino's and a Razor back with a Twin link Plasma gun.

For the twin link Plasma gun I used Plasma guns that came with the space wolves sprues. I cut off the grips, drilled small holes to match the mount, then put a small piece of plastic card between the two to make them match up. 

The Great Wolf (and more) completed

It's been a while, but I have lots of completed stuff to reveal.....

The Great Wolf!

Canis!

Got the idea for this base from a fellow blogger

So this makes 4 completed TW cav paint jobs. I have 8 more to go for my army that includes 3 units of 4.

Red & White for my TW cav pack markings.

Next up, Iron Priest. I was originally going to mount my TW cav on these guys but decided it fit more for the Iron priest only. That and it would have put me in the poor house.