Lazarus Project Completion!

So after much wash antiquing and polymer clay...and then me finally getting off my lazy butt to take photos, I finished Lazarus. So have some photos.

Because I'm just that awesome.

First, here's just some generic ones to show some detail and the fact he hangs from my doll shelf from his head. I'll take more detailed photos someday, so I'm not going to just spam the crap out of him in one blow.

Lazarus Project P2

Got moved in to the new place and am just waiting on internet hook-up, job searching, and now just wasting time at the library, stealing their internets. I've been meaning to show some of my progress pics with Lazarus (who is now finished), so here he be:

First thing I had to do is get the doll body to be less human looking, which meant smoothing out the muscle definition through sanding or epoxy. Nothing too difficult, except the Milliput epoxy I used is extremely stubborn and likes to stick to everything except what I wanted to fill in. And it doesn't sand as smooth as I would like. Overall, Milliput is good for 40k pieces, but when it comes to larger scale, I rather just stick with cheap putty epoxy from Wally World.

Brace Yourself, the Inquisitor is Here

After a few weeks of wait, which really isn't that bad compared to the month long waits I've had for my other miniatures, my Kapitan Ivanka Kurganova arrived. AKA, Inquisitor Boobs, Inquisitor Empressivous Rackus, or simply The Boobs. I'll get her a proper name after I find what inquisitor I want her to be. In the meantime Boobs McGee and I have been having a swell ol' time as I fiddled around with painting metal and faces. Knowing my skill levels, I'm pretty happy with the result. She's the 6th figure I've painted, so maybe after my army is completely painted I'll go back to her to tweak anything I don't like. I won't do this to my other knights for nostalgia reasons.

So here she is propped up on her display base (I need to get proper magnets so she can move between her display base and combat base). But she seems to have adapted to her "I own all of your sorry @$$es" position quite well.

Lazarus Project P1

Hmm, suppose I should at least update on my week. Let's see, modeled for a friend, editing one of my novels, joined a graphic novel club, taking a pottery class, worked on Tron suit, and made cookies! Moving on to what I really care about, I needed a little break from painting the army, so pulled an old BJD project out to begin work. Up on the modding table is Lazarus, also affectionately known as my itty bitty servitor. He's not actually from the 40k universe, but he was inspired by techpriests and Necrons in his creation.

Story wise, Lazarus is a robot from a future world where humans are nearly extinct after several persistent wars. Living in a city-state where robots and androids outnumber humans 5:1, Lazarus is a systems operator where he manages the computers and machines of a war compound and later production factory during peace times. He maintains some humanistic elements to easily convey diagnostics to humans, but his programming remained relatively basic. After extensive use and facing replacement from newer models, he was reformatted with a controversial alchemic prototype to give greater depth to robotic emotions.

But to spare you extensive, boring reading, here's some concept sketches:

Like Family Photos, Only More Bad@$$

I went to the local game store, the Wizard's Keep, stocked up on supplies (sans replacement bases to the ones killed), painted more bases, then stole some props for some scenic photos of the three knights I have complete. I realize while I love photos, the high res shows all of those little errors I made while painting. Must...resist...self...criticism... Anyhoo, here's Stuart, Percy, and Bartholomew for your viewing pleasure.

All Your Bases...

...through strategic means now are possessed by the collective group.

This week I decided to get some bases made up for the army. Inspired by the bases made to look steampunk or ancient runes, I decided to make the terrain of the bases look like an ancient fallen city of machines. We'll get to that result later, but in the meantime, you must sit through my process. I decided to use my favorite sculpting medium, polymer clay. I personally use Super Sculpey for the colors, but it's a little weak. If you want polymer clay, use FIMO. If you prefer just painting and don't care for clay color, use an epoxy like Milliput or Apoxie Sculpt for added durability.

The first thing I wanted to do was make some gear molds. I have 16 bases, so saved some of the sculpt time by making a mold. I made a large one over some gears and jewelry I thought had the right texture using white Sculpey III...which is good in bulk but really freakin' soft, so be careful working with it when baked. I then scored the area with a wire brush to create a terrain texture in the negative space of the mold. With a mold this big, I can get many different angles for the bases without it looking repetitive.