Greenstuff Press Mould - Helmet Crest - Betrayal at Calth

When I looked at the picture I was using as reference to paint up my Sons of Horus test marine I noticed his helmet crest was very similar to the one found on the Captain Sicarius metal model, which I have, in that instant I knew I could use it to make a greenstuff mould. The difference this time is that it needed to be a double sided mould.

There are two ways to approach this:

1) Use a single piece of greenstuff, wrap it around the item and press together, then when dry cut open.
2) Use two pieces of greenstuff and cast half the mould at a time.

I decided for the second option.

I prepared a rough block of greenstuff and pressed the item into the mould about halfway, left it to dry. Once dry I prepared a second block of greenstuff and repeated the process to the other side. I used olive oil as the non stick agent and applied to the item and the mould so the they would not stick to each other. Once that was dry I had my mould in two halves.

Now for the test, I prepared some greenstuff, used the oil as the non stick agent and pressed it into the one half of the mould and pressed the second part on top, left it to dry and amazingly it worked very well.

Highly recommended, although this probably wont work for every part you may want to replicate but give it a try.

Vitor

Betrayal at Calth - Sons of Horus - Pre Heresy - Finished

 

 Finally got there, my first finished model of the Betrayal at Calth box set.

I really like the finished result and having the inspiration from the image of a Sons of Horus Lieutenant from the Horus Heresy Books to use for reference was fantastic.

No much more to say so enjoy.

Vitor

Betrayal at Calth - Sons of Horus - Pre Heresy - WIP

The Betrayal at Calth box set is still providing difficult decisions for me with respect to which legion to go with. The options I explored in a previous post were Sons of Horus, Night Lords and Alpha Legion as a long shot, I am no closer than I was then.

Looking through my bits box I noticed that I had a couple of Forge World Sons of Horus shoulder pads so I decided to paint up a test model using one of the shoulder pads and combining that to paint the exact replica of the image of a Sons of Horus Lieutenant from the Horus Heresy Books to use for inspiration.

Once I had made this decision I ordered Lupercal Green and Sons of Horus Green from Forge World. I also made a greenstuff mold of the Old Captain Sicarius models helmet crest.

I base coated the model black and painted a base layer of Lupercal Green, as this is a paint designed for airbrushing it is nice and thin but your may need two coats to get the coverage you want.

Next was a layer of Sons of Horus Green and here I had to apply two coats to get a nice finish.

Next was to start painting the details.

Two interesting details I wanted to add to the model was the Cthonian 'mirror coin' tokens the Sons of Horus used to count honour in battles and the skulls which were gilded.

I couldn't find anything suitable to represent the tokens and if you have any ideas please let me know. The skull I used is the one with the bullet hole through the forehead from the terminators sprue (I think)which should be glued onto the base, I threaded some string through the bullet hole and attached it under the holster, perfect.

I just need to finish the details so stay tuned.


Vitor

Betrayal at Calth - Cataphractii Backpack Conversion - Greenstuff Mold - Painted

All I wanted to see with this experiment was could it be done and what did it look like. I didn't want to spend hours to find out it looks terrible and have to clean the entire mini to salvage it. Total time spent was about 15 min excluding paint and greenstuff drying time.

I glued the cut out backpack piece to the terminator back and filled in any gaps with more greenstuff.

Once dry I gave the back a quick prime with black and followed that with a layer of Leadbelcher.

Next a wash with black and a quick red and blue layer of paint with a edge highlight and all done.

The experiment was successful, the one mould is better than the other due to higher detail captured but once painted not too bad.


The next step in this process is to add my Puppets War shoulder pads.

Finally the leg additions similar to what Ron did at From the Warp.

Vitor.

Betrayal at Calth - Cataphractii Backpack Conversion - Greenstuff Mold

I have been wanting to utilize this reusable mold I have had in my hobby box for a while now and this seemed like the best opportunity to try it out.

I love the Cataphractii Terminators backpack detail, they are so much better than the 40k versions. I took my reusable mold and soaked in in almost boiling water for a few minutes then mashed it around the  Cataphractii Terminators backpack, the first mold was a bit hard so I left the second one a bit longer in the hot water and it was much softer and seemed to get into the detail better.

Once it was dry I filled the two molds with greenstuff.

Left to dry and looked at the results.

Not bad for what took a short time. The one on the left was the result from the harder mold, it came out slightly less detailed than the one on the right which stayed in the hot water for longer.

I will now convert them onto to 40k Terminator to see what they look like complete
.

Vitor

Luna Wolf Tactical Symbol - Press Mould - Hobby 101

 

The tactical marking on my Luna Wolf model was done using a greenstuff press mould. (follow the link for more detail on how to make a mould)

Place a small amount of greenstuff on the shoulder pad, use mould to press out the shape, clean up and allow to dry.

Once dry paint to your desired colour.

Use this technique on all sorts of bits you might use regularly in your conversions.

Vitor

Pre Heresy Luna Wolves Tactical Marine

First off, I know the mark of armour etc is not technically correct but this is just a test model for loads of stuff I wanted to try out. It was inspired by the reading of the Horus Heresy from The Black Library. The first time I read about Loken and the Luna Wolves Legion I wanted to do this!!!!

I used one of my Marines from my now dwindling stock of AOBR marines.

After doing some greenstuff bits ( I will do tutorials on these afterwards )

I primed the model in white GW Primer and from past experience with painting white on my Pre Heresy World Eater Marine I knew it should be better than painting from a black base.I followed this with a base coat of white.

Next I added a brown wash in the recesses being careful not to get any on the white armour.

I then painted up the base colours of the metal and fur etc.

last I tidied up the white armour and finished the rest of the model. 

The final product. I am still not sure if I want to add weathering and battle damage to the model??

Hope it gives you some inspiration.

Vitor.