Swarmlord part 3

Not much to say today, short of showing you the pictures of the completed Swarmlord construction.

Somehow the way the arms "sat" changed, and I had to fiddle with them again to find something I was happy with. I still think it's a natural, challenging stance.  The addition of the second tail end makes it more animated, and I'm quite satisfied with the overall look of the piece. Once it's painted I will be adding the dead Ultramarine to the base. Just so my Dark Angels can point and laugh.

Of course, teh peepl on teh interwebz are now saying that there's a plastic Hive Tyrant kit coming with wings and Swarmlord options coming in the Nids second wave.  As always I take anything from Warguesser or Dakka with a bag of salt. Even if it were true I'll stick with the model I have, although I'd certainly buy the kit to build a Flyrant, which would use a gargoyle brood for ablative wounds.

Of course the next part of the adventure is to prime and basecoat this bad boy, after the greenstuff has had sufficient time to set up hard.  The superglue does help that along the way but I'll be happy to leave it in a warm dry place until it's done.  In the meantime I have a Tyrant Guard brood to work on - I've actually thought about greenstuffing tuxedos onto them as they seem to be working as his muscle monkeys.  But that's just silly...  Also on the build list are a pair of Zoanthropes and a pair of broodlords.  Though, I should get my Fortress of Redemption painted too.  Until next time, Superfriends!

Swarmlord part 2

This modelling and converting seems to be a business of fits and starts of late.  I got the Rhino finished, then completed my second Imperial Strongpoint. Then started painting the Fortress of Redemption (no blog for that yet).  Lazy non-painty weekend and much the same way tonight. So I thought "let's git to some moddlin'!"

I received the second Swarmlord tail from Tobin at Apocabitznow.com, and promptly cut a big chunk out of it. Then I used a round file to get a shape that would help it to fit flush to the main tail.  I drilled into the secondary then actually drilled THROUGH the primary.  I wish I'd taken pictures. Sorry. The drilling was intentional.  I superglued the rose wire in place through the main tail, then trimmed and filed to shape. Then I glued and greenstuffed the secondary in place, shaping the greenstuff with my silicone paint pushers.

  

They're also known as Colour Shapers, by Royal Sovereign. Clicky Clicky!  A word of warning - don't touch silicone colour shapers to superglue.  They go all hard and brittle. And don't put said superglued colour shaper in your mouth to moisten it.  Eww. I had a spot of CA dried on my tongue for a few hours.

I did find that for shortening the cure time of greenstuff, you can coat it in superglue.  I dunno what it does, but it does it.  I still left it 24 hours to completely cure up right through, but for hardening the outside so that it will hold the work together, it's very good. For small pieces, anyway. Don't glue your Bio Titan together like that and expect it to be standing in the morning...

Unfortunately, to get the tail together, I had to remove the main tail from the body.  Ah, well - never mind.  It was a little loose anyway.  I hadn't assembled it very securely, so I played Pin The Tail On The Swarmlord. I hope it holds.  I also took the opportunity to bend the tail a little to pose it away from the right leg.

  

And you'll notice I went the whole hog.  I mean, what's the point of building the Swarmlord if you don't do EVERYTHING? So I drilled holes in it's face.  No, it wasn't scary at all, drilling holes in the head of a $55 model.  Bazinga.

I used the foot claws because they're just WAYYYY too fiddly to glue to the feet. I held them in pliers while I filed the insert to a peg the size of the drilled hole and glued them in place. I use Gel Control Loctite - there's a bit of flex in it so I don't worry too much about stuff falling off when breathed upon. 

The secondary horn was just cut from a large scything talon out of the bits box.  I did pin it in place with tiny tiny pinning rods from Privateer Press. The drill was almost TOO wee. I'll sand the greenstuff when it dries. 

Next I will be gluing the arms in place, and that's it for the main model.  I decided the Swarmlord needs something on the base.  Anyone got a dead Ultrasmurf lying around?