"We're gonna need a bigger thunderhawk..." converting primaris carcharadons

[osjclatchford]

cheers B!

rather pleased with the end result.
just glad I got some added height and reduced girth. less obese more obscene!
this things should inspire terror in the enemy not laughter.
these look like they might actually be capable of walking about without having to stop every six steps to pant the meat-sweats out...

but seriously Im having real trouble on the third. I need good pads for it. ones like the mk5 one wont work with the arm config and the standard pads no look inadequate on their own, next to the mk3's ones with ogry bits under them. but again, they cant be added either as they'd get in the way...
ideas?

[osjclatchford]

got that heavy done:

went for a different heavybolter in the end. the 30k ones that are slung low-like that just look plain weird to me.
I chose the sternguard one because I feared issues with the beltfeed and this has the added bonus of the ammo hopper actually on the gun matches in with the centurions a trreat.
in fact these sternguard heavybolters arent bad. had to remove that rediculous ornate cross it had on the front, replaced by the simple skull (a purity seal/honourmarking from the centurion set) but other than that It took very little effort to get it on the primaris... the guy is a bit of a hybrid model though. sternguard bolter and backpack, reiver torso and intercessor legs and head. perhaps its the slighter phobos armoured torso that made it easier to add the weapon, but in the end it needed only the slightest bit of gs ball under the left armpit to fit true. the lack of chain-feed offers more freedom in positioning too...

however. the sternguard kit is not without its issues. the hoppers both on the bolter and the backpack have some ferocious join-lines when constructed and required a good filling and trimming to get to look right, see here in this wip shot:

you can see where Ive HAD to fill it.
no prob for me to be honest but someone with very little experience using gs in this fashion might be put off...

as you can see I went for a mk10 lid to further extenuate that this is a a primaris model holding that heavybolter, andsimply cos id not painted one yet and fancied giving one a go...
all in all, a solid proof-of-concept model and I'll tend to disagree with anyone that says the standard arms will look silly on primaris and that primaris with devastator weapons cant be done easily.

[Lord Borak]

God Damn that looks good. I love the Scheme on these so much I'm tempted to pilfer it when I do my own Primaris.

[osjclatchford]

thanks lord b! please do!

here's the last two scouts done (aside for the bikers) only done seven as I'm getting sick of them now:

[Lord Borak]

Looking good as always. What colours do you use for the skin?

[osjclatchford]

Thanks! All models start black undercoat.
I know people all tend to say "got to have white under fleshtones" well thats a load of spunk as far as I can see. Tried this and it made the skin stick out like a sore thumb against the rest of the model that was built up from black. It was terrible and totally undermined the shading and theme of the model, So forget that right off the bat.
Some legends like this work. Red undercoat under gold creates a richer colour and all that but I still prefer starting from bronze and working my way through copper to brass then evental silver highlights, but I digress...

Anyway, flesh!

Generic Caucasian;
Ratskin flesh. Basecoat
Cadian fleshtone. Second basecoat (using ratskin as first basecoat gives richer colour than just cadian fleshtone on its own which goes awfully shadowy over black undercoat)

Optional, If doing stubble, mix 60 40 skavenblight dinge cadian fleshtone. Paint where hair would be on head and any desired beard areas

Paint bottom eyelids, bottom lips and Wash muscle and cheek recesses with bugmans glow.
Now, Add some initial tidies up and highlighty bits over any stubble using cadian fleshtone mixed with a little white.
Wash entire flesh area with a 70 30 mix of agrax and nuln, diluted to taste with some water.

Let dry

Repeat highlights and keep adding successive white to taste.



Generic Afro-American/English;
Mournfang brown basecoat.

Optional, If doing stubble, mix 60 40 abaddon black with mournfang brown. Paint where hair would be on head and any desired beard areas.

Paint bottom lips with bugmans glow.
Wash entire flesh area with a 70 30 mix of agrax and nuln, diluted to taste with some water.

Let dry

Highlight with mournfang brown and add successive increments of cadian fleshtone to the mournfang to taste.


Namibian shade skin (as on the heavybolter scout);
Rhinox hide basecoat.

Optional, If doing stubble, mix 60 40 abaddon black with rhinox hide. Paint where hair would be on head and any desired beard areas.

Paint bottom lips with bugmans glow.
Wash entire flesh area with a 70 30 mix of agrax and nuln, diluted to taste with some water.

Let dry

Highlight with rhinox hide mixed with mournfang brown. And incrementally add more mournfang to the highlights to taste...

Obviously that's a rough guide and not an exact scientific recipie. It changes model to model. Sometimes some castings require less or more wash, less or more highlights etc... The bugmans glow in the white skin recesses is a bit of give and take especially. less is often more with this and you'll find yourself using the agrax/nuln wash more sparingly over this if you want a ruddier skin tone...

[horizon]

Ages since I painted a humanoid miniature. My last LotR mini is more then 8 years ago I think.

Good guide though! And your Marines look really good. Love all the detail work you put into them.

[Ragsta]

Yep, your skin tones are really good. Latest Scout is very nice indeed, I like the highlight effects on the shotgun too.

Your Centurion builds are utterly rock solid, the GW versions are garbage for 12 year olds.

[osjclatchford]

Thanks folks.

Fleshtones is something you have to get into a pattern of doing that's yours and you're happy with. Otherwise it will always go wrong or just look off... Then you'll be dreading doing it and fear of failure will tense you up and you'll funt it completely. Also, if you feel daunted and even if you don't, always do the faces and skinparts first. Then the rest should be more relaxed... I still do the faces before anything else. The lack of exact science and arty freedom of it means that they'll rarely come out exactly as you imagine and as such can change the mood of the entire model. That way you can change the rest of the model on the go instead of wishing you had afterwards...
But! Read as many tuts as you can and try everything! Then pick the bits you like best. The best way to git-gud is to do an Imperial guard army or five... (Unless it's dkok! Lol) then you'll be a dab hand... well, in a year or twenty...

Re. The shotgun
I agree it has turned out rather nice in the end. I wanted it to look like it might be an arbites pattern one. Or aquivilent. Hence the wooden fullstock. I decided to oppose the scheme too. Instead of black casing with steel rail and gubbins I reversed it so the casing is steel and the gubbins black. Which visually works much better with the wooden stock/pump imho. Makes it look a bit oldskool 80s actionmovie. (They all seemed to use shotguns with wooden stocks didn't they) anyway, It's another way of adding some individuality to the models but keeping the +/- kit codex-true. Hence, me ditching the melta guy... Not in the army? Then it's not in the army...

And thanks with the cent comments. Its turned out a real satisfaction fuelled project in the end.
Was a bit of an expensive risk to attempt them an was fraught with the peril of possible failure from the start. It's not like there's a lot of other compatible bits to convert cents with so it was quite a gamble to even attempt this madness. Glad I did though now...
And I think I might have figured out the last one now... Week see after paint.

[Lord Borak]

Thats grand mate thanks. I have a certain combo I like but I'm almost out of the colours as they're old GW ones so really need to learn a new process for flesh and yours is really nice. I'll try and practice that at some points...... after all my mini titans obviously

[osjclatchford]

quite a few changes on this-un in the end.

the pose is now less outrageously action-packed and much more stoic and static. its like; "yes I'm slow and cumbersome but my assault cannon isnt..."
the observant of you will notice the darkangels terminator body on the back (I just really liked those arched vents).
in place of a Tartaros top-plate (as I did not have another and wanted a distinctly different look) I'd recently been torturing myself trying to get hold of either an aggressors frag-launcher or a redemptor's icarus pod to sit between the plates.
impossible.
no-one's got one and the usual bitz stores are perpetually out of stock of both.
useless... 
I ended up using a tau rocket pod in the end and I think it actually works ok as a generic gl/rl or even smokelauncer. the way it sits reminds me of the missile pod on the invictor suit (stupidest dreadnought ever* )in fact its a nice nod to the tau battlesuits that centurions originally attempted to emulate.
as you know already, the pads were a bugger for me on this conversion from day one as I wanted something significantly different. At one point I even realised that knight armiger pads would technically fit and would have looked kinda saturniney. alas, same problem getting those as the rocket/nade pods... sigh. So you can see I copped out and it simply uses the ogryn underpad idea as on the mk3ish one. ok though.
I kept the studs and gold/bronze finery to a minimum as i wanted a streamlined no-nonsense look that fits the pose and general functionality of the model. also there were so many purity seals already sculpted on the chest eagle and the pads had those little eagles on so i figured that was enough. however I found myself adding a couple of
purity seals to hide a nasty bit on the chaingun-arm join but it works as extra blessings to guide his gun-hand I suppose? whatever!
I'm sure you can tell the chain-fist is clearly made from ork chainswords but was originally a second assault cannon.
it had to go. looked too long and harked back to the gawky-clumsy-ugliness of the original centurions that I was steering desperately away from. the single cannon works fine for me and does not look oversized or impossible to wield.

so thats cents done!  a real fun but surprisingly complicated conversion process. learnt a lot doing these. not doing any more though! LOL


*what were gw thinking with the invictor? it looks like a childs first idea of a "cool" conversion. rediculous!

[horizon]

Nice one. He looks like someone who eliminates forty tyranids before breakfast and then casually drinks his favourite drink.

[osjclatchford]

oh, you've met him then..?

[Lord Borak]

Can we get a family picture of all the centurions together?!

[osjclatchford]

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