eathotlead
Junior Strategist
PP forumite since 2004
Posts: 259
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Post by eathotlead on May 21, 2018 17:39:00 GMT
I actually sand down a lot of my greenstuff to smooth it. Greenstuff is not too bad to sand, you just have to wait a good day for it to fully cure first. I get too impatient to make things look pretty at the "addition" stage of sculpting. Mostly I do it at the "removal" stage using a sharp hobby knife to scrape things smooth after the putty's cured. Using a mix of green stuff and milliput (or aves epoxy sculpt) makes that part a lot easier/more pleasant. The post-sculpt sanding is a trick that I finally clued into just last year. It helps my very poor GS skills considerably. (I still don't have the patience for the sculpting stage, which is why I mostly just try to find household items in the right shape for what I'm after.)
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Post by Soul Samurai on May 21, 2018 18:39:52 GMT
Thumbs up for the blow torch on the mechanik officer. Too bad you never got around to painting him. Very unique and well executed! Thanks! I gave him a full beard as well Oooh, I want to see this! Photos please!
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Post by Soul Samurai on May 23, 2018 6:13:50 GMT
While we wait for eathotlead to get back to us with photos of his Steinhammer*, here's one of my most recently completed conversions: the original Junior. I really wanted to give him a shield somehow, to symbolize the whole "arcane shield on a stick" thing. I considered giving him a standard, like some unit attachments, only the standard would literally be a shield on a stick. I even considered just swapping his sword for a stick with a shield on the end. Ultimately though I settled for something a little less silly: putting a shield on his back. The most suitable shield I had was a spare Sword Knight shield, but that had a sword attached - which I thought looked pretty good. So I replaced his sword with a leftover Cutthroat crossbow and replaced his pistol with a quiver of bolts. I liked the original "mid-reload" idea I'd used on a Cutthroat before so much that I decided to re-use it here, so I scraped the molded-in bolt off and sculpted a spare bolt in his empty hand, which I think works very well with the model's pose (I mean, what exactly was he doing with that hand before anyway?). *I've just realized that sounds pretty wrong...
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eathotlead
Junior Strategist
PP forumite since 2004
Posts: 259
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Post by eathotlead on May 25, 2018 1:27:21 GMT
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Post by Soul Samurai on May 25, 2018 4:18:14 GMT
Very nice, and I'm loving the OSL!
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Post by Soul Samurai on May 25, 2018 20:18:39 GMT
BREAKING NEWS: turns out I'm cursed. Sigh. I only just finished the Drakhun miniature that fell and broke, like, a YEAR ago. And then I decide one sleepless night to do some hobbying rather than tossing and turning in bed, so I pull out this guy and finally start putting paint on him. Next thing you know he falls to the floor. I put so much work into him too. Sigh. Why am I doing this again? Well, there's a small chance I can fix him so the LED still works, otherwise I guess I can still fix him up but without the LED. Maybe. Man, I am feeling so sick of everything right now.
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Post by fallenexile on May 25, 2018 22:36:02 GMT
Oh man! What actually broke?!
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Post by Soul Samurai on May 26, 2018 11:21:02 GMT
Oh man! What actually broke?! He separated at the waist. Even though it's a large contact area and I crosshatched before gluing. The problem is the wires for the LED go up through there. His left shoulder joint is also damaged. I haven't had the heart to check to see if the LED actually still works. The arm isn't a big problem, but the wires won't seem to go back in place so I can't push the two halves back together. The way I see it I have three choices: 1. Cut the wires, glue it back together, forget the LED. 2. Cut the wires, rip the top apart, solder a new LED to the remains of the wire, reassemble the top, and re-do all the greenstuff work (it's not obvious, but I re-angled the smokestack and did some sculpting work on the join). 3. Quit the hobby. Honestly, I'm leaning towards #3 right now. Not just for this; it's a bit if a "last straw" to be honest. I'm just not happy with the hobby and how it fits in to my life. So I think I might back off a little, at least for the time being. I'm just going to finish the Torch I've been working on (just waiting for some greenstuff to fully cure so I can glue the last bits down), post the last of my WIP photos here, then maybe try reading a book or something. Haven't done that in a while, even though I used to LIVE for reading. Hey, maybe I'll even go outside. I hear it's nice out there.
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Post by NephMakes on May 26, 2018 14:14:11 GMT
I only just finished the Drakhun miniature that fell and broke, like, a YEAR ago. And then [...] Next thing you know he falls to the floor. Oh man, that sucks. I drop things on the floor all the time. Like, every session, multiple times. Usually only parts, thankfully. But it's only a matter of time before I drop something like a metal warjack right as I'm finishing a major conversion. Maybe I should install safety equipment like those nets on the sides of aircraft carriers. But yeah, it sounds like you need a break. Burnout is a thing. Even for hobbies. Also, my experience with broken models is that it gives you a reason to (re)convert the model into something better. Eventually.
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Post by fallenexile on May 26, 2018 15:54:35 GMT
While I totally understand burn out (I played in Mk1 and then not again until only a month or so ago) and why this would make you want to take a break, I'd say finish this one first. Then, if you still want that break, go for it. But your contributions here certainly don't go unnoticed and I'm certain your advice will be sorely missed.
But this is a hobby. It's not something you HAVE to do. Nor really even something you should feel the NEED to devote time to. Spend time on this hobby because you enjoy it. Especially if you like seeing the finished result.
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Fang
Junior Strategist
Posts: 117
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Post by Fang on May 26, 2018 17:18:59 GMT
I always have the same problem when I work at night, to the point where I just don't let myself touch any partially finished projects (only start new ones lol) so I can't mess up anything I did while fully aware. Anyway, I've had the same feeling after similar mishaps. What I usually do it completely drop the project that got ruined. It failed, oh well. Put the pieces in a safe spot (I free up a section of my bits box and put it there all together). Move on, do other projects or do something completely different. Eventually, one day I open the bits box for some project or other and see a broken or failed project, and feel inspired enough to try again. Maybe that day won't ever come, and I'll use the parts to build something new. In the end, it needs to be enjoyable and if you are only getting frustrated with it, you should probably stop for a while. If you do stop, maybe leave a memento where you can easily stumble upon it in the future
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eathotlead
Junior Strategist
PP forumite since 2004
Posts: 259
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Post by eathotlead on May 26, 2018 21:09:33 GMT
When a punk burglar broke a bunch of my Rhulic models, I found it motivating (when work allowed) to take the opportunity to *improve what had been damaged: Stronger pinning, tweaked conversions, additional color accents, more units and solos. For what it's worth, I now have a much larger, improved army, partly thanks to that little A-hole.
Maybe looking at the damage as an opportunity for change could help your motivation when you return.
Disclaimer: My life runs in semesters, barring me from much hobbying except for summer and winter breaks, when my motivation (and forum posting) kicks up. It's sort of an auto-regulator for preventing burn out. If I wasn't denied for months at a time, I might not be as eager to capitalize on such things.
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Post by Soul Samurai on May 27, 2018 4:17:05 GMT
Thanks guys, I appreciate your support, it really means a lot to me. The truth is I've been finding this hobby hard to sustain for a while, partly because there aren't any players near me anymore. That's part of the reason why I originally started this thread: I tend to spend more time on conversions than on painting, so I have this large backlog of conversions that I'm actually quite proud of but I'm starting to fear will never be painted, so I figured I could at least show off them off in their unfinished state (until now I've usually only posted photos of the final piece). I don't think I'm going to go "cold turkey", but I do think I'm going to make this less of a priority. Well, I do have a few photos left to post before then. Here's the Torch I mentioned previously: You know, heaven-piercing drill and all that. I magnetised the drill for transport, and ended up magnetising the left hand as well just because. I'm thinking of building a hammer so I can run him as a Grolar; something like this:
What's pretty cool is that the pose would actually end up being quite close to the Grolar's artwork. I still need to put a lot of work into the flamethrower, but I'm thinking now that if I do it right it would work fine as the Grolar's gun as well (both have two barrels after all), which would be convenient. I thought about trying to model Torch's smoke bombs/grenade launchers, but I decided I just couldn't be bothered; plus I fear they would actually take away from the piece, which should be all about the drill.
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Fang
Junior Strategist
Posts: 117
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Post by Fang on May 27, 2018 8:12:04 GMT
Haha that jack is great! It has a ton of character to it
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Post by macdaddy on May 27, 2018 13:19:33 GMT
Believe in the you that believes in the motherland Komrad.
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