Stompa Gargant W.I.P.

[jamsessionein]

So, it\'s dried.. it doesn\'t look bad, but I need to figure out some way to seal all of this material down - the putty is hard, but a little brittle and crumbly and I don\'t want it continually falling apart on me. I\'m thinking maybe watered down elmer\'s glue would help.. I\'d prefer to not brush too much on the base as it\'d end up brushing some of the extra material off. Any ideas would be appreciated - I sadly may have to elmers + retexture everything in an additional layer for the sake of strength. The gun arm is supporting the gargant in this picture because I haven\'t finished pinning it yet (nor will I until after painting) so don\'t consider the arms to be in a truly proper position for these pictures.

 

[philologus]

James,
This looks great. One thing I haven\'t seen mentioned...You\'re diorama base is very large. If you intend on entering this in GD (As well you should) make sure the base isn\'t too big for entry restrictions. I can\'t tell exactly how big it is from the pic; but I would hate to see this fantastice piece disqualified for something silly. Anyway worth thinking about before you progress much further. Cheers!

 

[philologus]

Sorry for the DP. I have used watered down elmer\'s for strengthening basing material. It works well if you sort of dribble it on and let it run into the cracks. The problem is that if it\'s too diluted it sometimes causes the basing material to \"lift\" in a sheet like effect at the edges. Just be careful. If lifting occurs a dab of superglue under the edges works just fine. Once again; superb!

 

[Ritual]

Maybe you could spray on some varnish to secure the texturing material, before applying the Elmer\'s glue?

 

[jamsessionein]

Philo: It could go in the Open category, as the base is less than 18\" x 18\" x 18\".. but I couldn\'t put it in the duel or monstrous categories - unless I made a separate base for that, or simply used it\'s gaming base.

I think I figured out a way to seal it, so I went ahead and tried it, and it looks like it worked.

Instead of brushing, I took a sponge to some watered-down elmers and just dabbed it around the base to let it flow into the cracks. It looks like it got down in there pretty good, so I imagine it\'ll be holding the terrain down well - it\'s going to take a test priming to see how the surface texture really came out, though, as elmers dries transparent to begin with.

Anyway, it\'s drying right now, and I\'m not dissapointed with the results.

 

[philologus]

Sounds like you had it all planned out from the get-go. I use elmers much the same way for all my bases once I\'ve affixed the terrain. Good luck.

 

[DrEvilmonki]

If you need any more strength to it try watering down white glue and putting it into a spray bottle. You can then put multiple layers of glue over the base as a spray - just dry in between layers. I used this technique on a number of gaming tables post flock and never had the surface come away.

 

[RedSevenBlue]

what color is the flock gonna be painted when your done?

 

[jamsessionein]

I\'m doing the whole base in a washed-out brown, I think, with the stereotypical gray buildings.

Guardsmen are so easy to convert!

This dude\'s pinned in, but not attached yet as I figure he\'ll be easier to paint if I can get at all his angles. I\'m thinking I\'m going to put one more standing near him turned sideways and pointing at the gargant in a \"Death approaches!\" pose.

I got myself a Sanctum Imperialis box from a place about an hour away.. but I think it was worth it. I\'m setting the ruins up presently - pictures will be up when I get it all done.

Still waiting on the circuit for the head.. but I\'m going to have to start building around it for now.

 

[RedSevenBlue]

Looking good!

 

[vincegamer]

Originally posted by jamsessionein
I\'m thinking I\'m going to put one more standing near him turned sideways and pointing at the gargant in a \"Death approaches!\" pose.

not sure what that would look like.
How about standing in front of it, frozen in terror looking up? Hands in front of face in a useless defense pose may work too.

Jut brainstorming.

 

[RedSevenBlue]

what about one standing there, futilely shooting at it?

 

[Tony Manero]

Originally posted by RedSevenBlue
what about one standing there, futilely shooting at it?

with two hand pistols maybe... mhhhh very cool!

 

[Ogrebane]

I like were your heads at tony. Very cool imagry

 

[RedSevenBlue]

Originally posted by Tony Manero

Originally posted by RedSevenBlue
what about one standing there, futilely shooting at it?

with two hand pistols maybe... mhhhh very cool!

I like this too!

 

[MathewBaich]

lol, the last picture reminds me of south park \"screw you guys, Im going home\"

 

[Jericho]

Common goof with putting Cadian torsos on Catachan legs... both have belt buckles sculpted on... other than that the thing is absolutely great! Very Mars Attacks.

 

[vincegamer]

What? Are you saying you don\'t wear two belts?


Maybe instead of 2 pistols, 1 pistol in 2 hands, sort of taking aim.
Of course I think the idea is to make the Stompa look tough, not have Dirty Harry staring it down, so he should stick with terror.

 

[RedSevenBlue]

Originally posted by vincegamer
What? Are you saying you don\'t wear two belts?


Maybe instead of 2 pistols, 1 pistol in 2 hands, sort of taking aim.
Of course I think the idea is to make the Stompa look tough, not have Dirty Harry staring it down, so he should stick with terror.

Imperial guardsmen are dirty hairies? when did this happen? I mean, cmon, a laspistol is that strong, it probably couldn\'t do jack to a rhino even. I think a rifle would do just fine, maybe While he\'s firing, make him sorta stumbling, like he tripped while running backwards and he\'s still firing, maybe put a little dirt kicked up to show he\'s stumbling, or a rock. Forget it, just making him standing there, screaming and shooting.

 

[jamsessionein]

So I have some interesting pictures and a whole lot of text. I\'m sorry for any of you 56k users, there\'s a lot of images to suffer through below.

Firstly, while I wanted to add one guardsman being defiant and brandishing dual pistols at the gargant, I didn\'t have the necessary parts. However, I did manage to make a commander/commissar type dude with a large hat - he is standing there defiantly, chainsword in hand and pointing at the gargant as if to say, \"Come get some!\"

Of course, pesky comissars armed with chainswords are nothing to really be concerned with. It\'s reasonably safe to assume he was soon incinerated by a blast from the gargant\'s head-flamethrower (which I have yet to make! >_<.

I strapped a few extra bitz onto these guardsmen just to make them look more detailed, and tried cleaning up my greenstuff on their joints a bit. I basically sculpt like a monkey, I\'m not going to lie. They\'re removable for painting and won\'t be glued down till I\'m good and ready.

Now, this is something of a before-and-after of the ruins I added in. The base is now 90% done, pending a bit of work on the road and sidewalk area and a bit of sealing with the new putty.


Before the putty was added onto the new ruins:

After the ruins were.. well, ruined.

And a grot footprint before and after:

Overall, I consider this to be a very successful attempt at a large-scale base and I think the things I\'ve learned are pretty valuable. I unfortunately am now all out of putty, so touchups will have to be with elmers glue if any are necessary.. I\'m letting it sit overnight and I\'ll be sealing the whole putty base up with glue tomorrow. I think the base does the model justice, in any case.