The Emperor on Golden Throne, a mini-display diorama by White Metal Games

Greetings from Terra!  I have an extra special treat for your today, fellow wargamers!  By now I'm sure most of you seen the concept art for the Golden Throne from the inside cover of the 5th Ed. 40k rulebook.  If not, then just follow the link! 

 This art was so icon, so inspiring, that I felt moved to create a mini-diorama depicting the scene.  I've seen one or two of these floating around the web before, but I'm not sure any have been as truth to the imagery as this one. 

 Now, bear in mind that this isn't a gaming piece.  Although, i suppose, you could cook up some sort of 'Assault on the Imperial Palace' scenario and attempt to play it out.  That's an apoc game I'd like to see! 

 The figure was constructed from a variety of scenery pieces from the Warhammer 40k Terrain line.  For the Emperor himself, we used a zombie torso and arms, a servo skull for the head (then sculpted a jaw and some lower teeth), and finally we used a spare Valkyrie ejection seet for his lower body.  For his legs, we sculpt the robes and stippled them to appear mottled. 

 for the cables, we made dozens of cables out of grey stuff using a specialty tool we picked up, let them dry, and then fit them into place.  We probably could have made dozens more tubes, but we didn't want to over due it, even though the concept art in face has what looks like hundreds of tubes!  This is simply an interpretation , after all. 

 Painting wise, we stuck to a limited palette, building up various shades of gold for the throne, toning it back down with glazes and washes, and then highlighting it back up gradually.  For the Emperor himself, we used a similar process, starting with dark flesh tones and working our way up to pure white for the final highlight. 

A little red OSL on a few places, like the diode to the left of the Emperor helped add a little color to the model.  We choose note to use OSL on his lens, since we wanted the Emperor himself to appear seemingly lifeless.  We stippled on a little silver here and there to create a look of worn metal, chipping with time.  In retrospect, we should have been more selective with it's application and stuck to edges instead of open areas.  A little rust effect would have also gone a long way, maybe a few streaking lines here and there.  There is also room for improvement . . . and jello.  

 Which begs the questions . .  .can you improve Jello? 

 Overhead

 Hail to the King, baby! 

 My name is Caleb and I run and operate White Metal Games, a miniature painting and assembly service.  For inquiries, email us at info@whitemetalgames.com 

So what do you think?  Did we nail it, or did we fall short?  Think you can do better?


PUT YOUR MINIS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!!!!!

From Balrog to Skarbrand, a custom transfiguration by White Metal Games

Greetings fellow wargamers!  Since the Balrog figured was released by GW post the LOTR release, it's always been one of those figures near and dear to my heart.  The Balrog itself is intimidating enough.  The figure is posed mid stride, fire literally marking it's passage.  And for $50 some odd dollars, even by today's standard it's a pretty fair price for the size of the figure.  GW did another smart thing when they sold the balrog wings for individual sale.  I can't begin to tell you how many sets of wings I've used for transfigurations over the years. 

 I knew I wanted to try my hand at a counts as Skarbrand.  He's an iconic figure and I love working on daemons.  The balrog was the natural starting point. 

 I suppose I should have swapped his feet for hooves, but any good conversion is also a study in budget, so to keep matter cheap, I just left his cloven feet along.  I swapped the wings for these worn out leathery bat wings from a heroclix model called Su-Bak-Na.  I felt the scale was pretty good, maybe a bit smaller, but perhaps the wings have atrophied through lack of use . . .  .

For the horns I wanted something BIG, like Legend with Tom Cruise big.  So I went to the Cygor kit.  The cygor comes with like 4 sets of horns, so there are tons left over for conversion.  Then I moved the balrog horns lower down the face to create the 2nd set of horns featured in the concept art in the codex/army book.
 

 The right axe is simple a Daemon Prince axe with an extra blade added to the back from the same bit.  Pretty easy stuff.  The left axe is a Khorne icon attached to a spare autocannon barrel, with a gargoyle head added to the barrel.  I actually carved out a niche int he barrel to insert the icon,then glued it into place.

 I used spare bits of Daemon Prince armor to give him some leggings and vambraces.  A heat gun heled met to fit the belts in place around his ankles, as well as bend his fingers around the haft of that autocannon barrel. 

 His shoulder pads are two canopies from some spare Eldar kits I had used for other conversions.  I added the icon, then glued on some spawn bits (drool and tentacles) to simulate blood on his armor.   A little grey stuff helped to blend it all together and complete the effect.

 At this wait I wrapped some jewelers chain, then used the heat gun again to bend a chaos chain around his front torso.  Some spare plastic cloak from an action figure was used as a loin cloth.  I actually built a breast plate too, but it never looked great so I left it off altogether.

 For his shoulders I actually had my first shot at sculpting muscles. Mostly in the past I've just filled gaps, but as I get older and more confident I am willing to try more and more ambitious sculpting ventures.  Actually they weren't that bad.  I just applied sausages and balls of grey stuff in ideal places and then smoothed them into place using some solvent. 

 The hardest part was probably getting the front arms to fit into place between the now 'comically' big shoulder muscles and the arm socket.  I actually hard to remove part of the muscle and resculpt it just to get the arms back into position.  Whoops. 

 I left the fiery mane, but plan to paint it as black fur when I paint this bad boy in a few weeks. 

 I also had to clip the rock from the Balrog's right foot (left in the below picture) to get him back on to the base.  For some reason his legs were a bit warped and didn't want to fit snuggly.  Fortunately, his right left fit fine, so I just used a little base decoration from this C.o.D kit to cover the gap.

 From the top down. . .

 And now in scale.  That marine doesn't stand a chance. 

 My name is Caleb and I run and operate White Metal Games.  Be sure to check us out and if you are interested in setting up a commission, contact us at info@whitemetalgames.com.  And until then, PUT YOUR MINIS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS! 

Caleb, WMG



jd

Poor Man's Azrael Transfiguration using all GW bits

Greetings fellow wargamers!  A friend of mine wanted an alternative to the Azrael figure offered by GW, but had a limited budget to work with.  He asked me to research a cheap alternative.  And so a new conversion begins . . .

 

 For this particular build, I drew from two bits:  the Dark Vengeance Lord and the Dark Angels Terminator kit.  In the case of the former, the lord already rocks a great vestment, he's packing a combi plasma on his back, his sword is right on par with the one carried by Azrael.

For the watcher, I used the relic protector from the Deathwing Terminator set.  I simply removed the helmet from the Dark Angels Lord and used that in place of the sword carried by the watch.  I kept the left over sword for battlefield debris to be sued at a later date.  A little grey stuff to smooth over the gaps helped to hide the previous sword blade as well.

For the banner we borrowed the banner from the Deathwing kit . . . it was pinned and grey stuffed over for a bit of extra strength, since these banners LOVE to break off in your carry cases.

 Finally, for the head I selected a Deathwatch Head from my bits box.  The open mouthed/screaming look of the head works well to create a action figure style pose!

Be sure to check out our complete range of services and figures at our website!

And  until then, PUT YOUR MINIS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!

Caleb, WMG

Daemon Fly Prince of Nurgle

Greetings fellow wargamers!  What do you do when life gives you lemons?  Make lemonade.  So what do you do with GW gives you a plague drone?  Easy, you make a fly prince of Nurgle!

For the most part, this was a no nonsense conversion, simple and direct.  We swapped the standard wings with the fly wings of Nurgle, and the lower body with the abdomen from the Plague Drone kit.

 Although at first we considered using the legs from the drone kit, but we wanted the figure to have a distinct look from the drone kit.  We opted for Tyranid legs because they were bulkier than the standar daemon prince legs, which I thought would help offset the bulky distended abdomen.

 To conceal the previous slot for the flying stand, we used a 'stinger' taken from one of the legs.  A little bad of glue and we were right as rain.

 Be sure to check back with us at our website in the next few weeks to see it fully painted!  We plan to go full on nurgle style with this bad boy, but also to keep our palette limited so as to not distract from the conversion.

 For shoulder pads, we wanted something different, so we used these defiler bits.

 
 We offer a variety of painting and assembly services.  Be sure to check out our gallery for other custom transfigurations!  

 And until then, PUT YOUR MINIS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!  Caleb, WMG

jd

HR Giger Inspired Custom Daemon Herald of Slaanesh or Tzeentch

Greetings fellow Wargamers!  Today I present to you an extra special treat.  This custom daemon herald was a perfect storm of bits that just happened to align at the right time.

About a year ago, a client requested a custom Kali inspired daemon prince.  In order to get plenty of arms for this she goddess, I needed some extra arms.  That also means we had a leftover torso.  And what better thing to do with a leftover torso than transfigure it!

 I liked the feminine look of the figure.  It reminded me of the Slaanesh range.  But the script wrapped around her body also reminded me of the Tzeentch range of daemons, like the Blue Scribe!  What to do  . . .can I have my cake and eat it too?  

The answer was to take the best of both worlds.  I selected multiple arms, a trait generally geared toward Slaanesh, but head tentacles, which is generally geared toward Tzeentch.

 For a color scheme, we selected something neutral that would work for either scheme.  We even applied a little OSL to a few areas like the base, and the gland on the head (taken from the Genestealer bits sprue).

 This is just one example of the types of figures we create at White Metal Games.   Be sure to explore our gallery for other custom transfigurations.

 Also, if you like this particular figure, it is currently available through our ebay store!

 White Metal Games offers a variety of painting and assembly services.  Be sure to check us out here!  

 And until then, just check out that ass above . . . I mean . .

 PUT YOUR MINIS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!  

Caleb, WMG

jdj