Dark Vengeance Chaplain - Shoulder Pad Press Mold

Here are some pictures showing how I did the shoulder pad press mold for my Dark Angels Chaplain conversion.

For detailed instructions click on the Label for other posts on this subject.

Basically take some greenstuff press it onto the item you wish to mold using something to prevent the greenstuff sticking then remove and clean up cast.

Use cast item on your conversion!

Vitor

Dark Angels Chaplain - Conversion - Painted

Here is the finished model of my recent Dark Angels Chaplain conversion based on the awesome artwork of Andrea Uderzo.

I ended up using a different right shoulder pad. I made a 'press mold' of the Dark Vengeance Chaplain shoulder pad with the skull on it and used that instead of the Forge World one shown above.

I also based the model on my 'Urban Base' ( see the labels for the link).

Here are the rest of the pictures.

Hope you like the finished Model.

Vitor

40k Dark Angels Chaplain Conversion Finished

 

This is the fantastic piece of artwork by Andrea Uderzo that inspired me to try my hand at such a difficult conversion. As you can see the finished model is next to it. Its not exact but as the conversion progressed I had to adjust for my lack of skills and I tried to include the main elements at least, the full robes, the pointing arm and the Crozius, the belt detail, scroll, cross and dagger, the burner and scrolls on the chest, the skull face and hood and the Iron Halo. In the Icon I used the three angels as the central theme and the basic 'house' shape. I didn't add any candles and wings as the Icon is already quite large and I thought it was going to be way to big with those extra bits.

 

The picture below has more detail of the rear of the Icon.

I am very happy with the way this turned out, I know it may not look clean and polished but it is magnified a few hundred times so in reality it looks much better.

The only things I might change are the shoulder pads, I didn't have any Dark angels ones at the time I finished the model.

Let me know what you guys think.


Vitor

40k Dark Angels Chaplian Conversion Part 2

Next step was to use the mid section I cast up with the press mold. I cut the tabard section up as it is supposed to be a long scroll going down to the ground, hopefully when its painted it will look like that! I also needed to add an incense burner type thingy to the top part of the torso but my sculpting skills are nowhere near good enough for what is in the artwork this is based on, so I tried my best to roll up a ball and poke some holes in it, then sculpted an attachment for the rope plastic piece to attach on to. I then glued that to the model in what I hope is a natural look! I cant believe how difficult it is to poke holes in greenstuff and have it keep its shape, the ball kept deforming at every poke, very annoying. This conversion was getting more difficult by the minute.

The next big thing to sculpt was the icon on the back pack. It is three angels in a group bordered by a pointed square shape much like the front of a house shape you would draw as a kid plus some wings etc. I began quite well by buying the Dark Angel bits and cutting the wings of then gluing them together to form the trio. So far so good, next was the house shape?? I experimented with some plasticard but that didn't work as my skills not up to the task or my plasticard was to thick. I next tried to sculpt it out of greenstuff but my skills not good enough either. In the end I made a mold of the house shape and cast the piece then tried to cut out the inside to leave the hollow for the angels to fit inside. Unfortunately when I removed the cast it wasn't very smooth plus trying to cut out the middle was damaging the border even more as I went along so abandoned that.

So what I had left was what you see in the picture below.

I knew the artwork was a basis for my conversion but my skills were never good enough for an exact copy so what I needed was an icon with 3 angels in it and some fluffy stuff to round it off.

The more I looked at the piece the more I began to see an Icon that was really ancient and worn and damaged by being carried into battle ( use your imagination!! ). I could visualize this Icon painted up to be a gold sarcophagus type box that held three angels which represented the chapter with a suitable worn look. I added some purity seals in the front to represent all the prayers and incantations the chaplain would need in the battle.

Some more purity seals to the rear plus the incense burner thingy and called it a day.

In the end its not a clean cut and polished piece but I think it will represent the idea of an ancient Chapter Icon very well.

Next up all the pieces are put together for the final look and of course the artwork reveal that inspired this conversion.


Vitor

40k Dark Angels Chaplain Conversion

Ever since the rumours started going around saying the Dark Vengeance set would contain Dark Angels I have been thinking about a conversion for a chaplain model. I have long been a fan of Ron at From the Warp's conversions and his Dark Angels Chaplains are incredible! So with this motivation I set off with an idea that also involved trying to use a piece of art as a basis for my conversion. I found a fantastic piece of art to use as a basis and set about trying to put it into motion. My greenstuff skills are still very weak and I needed to keep my conversion simple but at the same time it had to stretch my abilities.

I don't want to reveal the picture as yet, it will spoil the article so i am going to show you the individual pieces as I went along. To start with the Chaplain is wearing robes, no surprise there then. I got a veterans torso and legs and glued a normal Marines torso front on it, then I cut off the eagle as it is going to be converted to the top half of his robes. My first green stuff challenge. I must say in my mind it was easy to do but in reality it's pretty difficult to get the flow of the robes looking realistic. After a couple of sculpts and re-sculpts I settled on something approaching what I wanted.

Next up was the head which in the artwork is a skull, not a helmet skull, with a hood. I thought again not to difficult but it's I found it tricky to get that realistic look! I used a Tomb Kings skeleton head as the basis, only because I had one in my bits box.

Next up was some detail around the midsection that I wanted to include and I could not find any bits to match except on the front torso of a Command Squad Sergeant so I ordered one up and then instead of cutting it up I made a press mold and cast on to use. I also needed an Iron Halo so used a previous mold as seen in the picture below.

Stay tuned to see how this guy progresses and see if you can guess which piece of artwork his based on.

Vitor