Well as predicted my Contemptor Dreadnought arrived in the post and what a lovely miniature it is. A few odd bits that have needed filling, but my usual 50/50 mix of Green Stuff and Superfine Milliput sorted those out. The miniature comes as individual components, allowing each item to be angled just as you want it – sadly this means you end up trying to manipulate 8+ pieces with blu-tack holding them together, often resulting in a spectacular show of “spaz hands” and bits going everywhere.
Couple of tips I would say on working out the positioning of this, which is critical to end result looking realistic (it’s a humanoid shaped robot after all). Firstly, create the basic base first so you know where you want it, unless you’re going for a completely flat base (how boring). Secondly, mock everything up with blu-tack before you even think about gluing anything. Also tidy everything up and wash with warm soapy water before you glue. Finally, use super glue for the knee joints but an epoxy glue for the rest. I think it goes without saying that you should also wash the miniature again before you prime it.
I have to admit that I am a little disappointed with the Heavy Bolter arm as it has really restricted movement and positioning. There are only a few positions that look right and you can’t rotate it so that it looks like the dread is pointing at something, the Power Fist arm is fantastic though – almost wish I’d gone for the claw now that I’ve seen how versatile it is 🙂
The base has had the core construction made from super sculpy and I’ve begun to glue slate bits on it. This will receive numerous coats of sand in an effort to build the base up to look very rocky at the bottom. It’s topped of with a piece of plasti-card that forms a nice flat base for the dreadnought to stand on, which will have numerous bits of debris on that I’ve dug out of bits boxes and various basing packs. I want to try and make the lower element have a different “feel” too it. I might even cork the top to make it look like a tarmacked road which in turn will then have the debris and rubble on and then snow effect.
The Contemptor has it’s body completely assembled and I’ve started to try and create the fur cloak, without much luck. I used Green Stuff, flattened out and then left to cure for half an hour, however even now that it’s dry it’s still flexible and just doesn’t look right, it doesn’t have the necessary dynamic element and I think with it being so flexible I’m going to get problems.
Plan B consists of two elements, firstly I’m going to use Magic Sculp which is meant to be a less flexible material. Secondly rather than the “cloak” shape I’m using, I’m going to cut more of a pelt shape. I’m not going to include wolf head or legs etc, but I think this squarer shape should result in more the idea I’m after and look much more like a fur pelt than a fur shape.
1 thought on “Furry Cloaks…”