Feed's High Elf Army

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Shannar, Sealord
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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#31 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

Malhandir's Feed wrote:Thanks for the advice on paint stripping everyone.

I'm with Rod. I'm really curious about them bridges. Also, I asked, so GW sent me ALL their available instructions they have for High Elves.

I may be wrong, but I feel like our old warhammer fantasy game could make a comeback in 5-6 years. I just don't see AoS doing well now or in the future.

Another question. What do you all use as a model file? Or do you just use an exacto knife? Also, how do you get greenstuff to do what you want so it covers cracks and sprue removal divots?
It's not all that exciting. Mostly I just go check out bridges that inspectors report as having problems. Then we design a (usually simple and temporary) fix. Occasionally we get to design a new one. Most of the time that simply involves typing a length and load into a computer and confirming that the standard design will work. When I started we had to pick it out of a book haha. Other than that it's documents. So many documents (and more of it than one would expect still involves actual paper documents).
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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#32 Post by Malhandir's Feed »

That's actually pretty darn neat Shannar, is it work that you really enjoy?

Alright I've got a pretty serious question now. With me having my cousin's army, I now have 3 dragon models, and every single one of the wings has broken off at some point. My question now is: What do you do to make your dragon wings safe in transportation? Its easy enough to pin a dragon wing I suppose, but I was wondering if anyone has come up with good solutions for magnetizing the wings so that they stay on, but they're removable. Thoughts?
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Shannar, Sealord
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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#33 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

I've always pinned them. When I eventually get around to doing a dragon with plastic wings I am thinking about magnets. I don't think I'll end up using them though. There are two issues. First, even though the plastic wings aren't all that light either. And they are fairly large, so a bit of force near the end of the wing could break the magnetic bond fairly easily unless you use really strong magnets. Then you have to glue them in securely enough to hold. Second, I really like using putty to hide the joints.
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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#34 Post by Luna Guardian »

If you want removable wings I would use thicker and longer pins and only glue them in on one side. Of course you would need to have pins that are almost exactly the same thickness as the drill bit, but that shouldn't be a difficult task, all things considered
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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#35 Post by Prince of Spires »

Malhandir's Feed wrote: Another question. What do you all use as a model file? Or do you just use an exacto knife? Also, how do you get greenstuff to do what you want so it covers cracks and sprue removal divots?
Plastic models I just usemy exacto knife. I make sure to change in a new blade every once in a while. They do get blunt at some point, which makes it harder to use them. For metal models I have a set of small files (not sure where I got them). But they work fine. And still an exacto knife for the small, finnecky bits.

There's a few tricks to working with greenstuff. The main one by far is to use wet tools / fingers. This prevents the greenstuff from sticking to the tool. Just don't use too much, because then it will also not stick to wherever you try to get the greenstuff. Just dip your tool in water and then use it to model the greenstuff. If the greenstuff gets too wet (and thus doesn't stick to anything anymore), simply blow off the exess water and you're good to go again.

Another thing that helps is once you have a blob of greenstuff roughly where it needs to go, let it set for 5-10 minutes. It hardens ever so slightly, which makes it easier to model in the shape you want.

Don't use / mix too much greenstuff. You only need a little and it goes a long way (especially when filling in gaps).

I think these are the main ones.
Shannar, Sealord wrote:Other than that it's documents. So many documents
Sounds as expected actually. In my experience a lot or jobs involve way more paperwork then you'd expect. Still, it sounds pretty cool. Though I would never have though bridges simply are picked out of books...

As for the dragon wings, if you want them removable then you need some (reasonably strong) magnets. Make a hole where they can sit on both sides and then you can stick the wings together (if you position the magnets the right way round of course...). But especially for bigger metal wings you need pretty decent magnets...

If you want to simply have them stick together, then pin + small ball of greenstuff + superglue is the best way to go about it. This holds them in place pretty well unless you either really try to snap them off or drop them on a wing.

Plastic wings are light enough to only pin if you want them to be detachable. You need a reasonably long pin, but nothing too excessive.

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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#36 Post by Malhandir's Feed »

I don't quite see how I would pin it such that I 'd be able to remove them... maybe give me an idea?

I really appreciate everyone's advice on magnets. I've acquired a drill, just gotta get the magnets.

How different is Milliput than greenstuff?

As far as whats going on, I've stripped 10 swordmasters, 5 dragon princes, and have primed the swordmasters and KORHIL. I'm currently testing out brake fluid on my remaining 4 swordmasters and a plastic archer as practice. We'll see how that works in comparison to Pine-sol.
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Shannar, Sealord
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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#37 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

Malhandir's Feed wrote:I'm currently testing out brake fluid on my remaining 4 swordmasters and a plastic archer as practice. We'll see how that works in comparison to Pine-sol.
Faster, and less pleasantly on the fingers and enviroment (but you can reuse it for awhile so that helps)
Shannar, Sealord
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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#38 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

Oh, on the other questions.

For the pins, glue them into the dragon, but not into the plastic wing. It'll work for a good while at least. Forever depending on how often you use it.

I'd call milliput a softer greenstuff.
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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#39 Post by Malhandir's Feed »

Brake fluid works wonders. I just wonder if I'm overly cautious about the toxicity of it.

I painted up a Swordmaster for my cousin's army (its red/white, I personally like white/blue). C&C? I personally really didn't like painting this model.

Image
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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#40 Post by Luna Guardian »

It looks quite good! One piece of advice, I would use a lighter gray for the shading of the white robe, Fenris Grey is my personal choise. It has a more natural look and the slight blueish tint gives the model a bit of extra color
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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#41 Post by Prince of Spires »

Shannar has got it right on the dragon / wings pinning. You glue the pin into the dragon and leave it sticking out. Then, you make a hole in the wing. And when you want to use it you simply slide on the wing.

I'm guessing that the pin will need to be longer then when you glue both sides. When glueing both sides I think having half a cm in each side is fine as the pin is only part of the bond. When it's loose I think it should be a bit longer to fully support the weight.
Malhandir's Feed wrote:How different is Milliput than greenstuff?
It probably depends on the milliput type (there's a couple of different ones). But assuming the green one. Initially, Milliput is softer to work with. As a result it's more difficult to get it into a detailed shape. When soft it can also be thinned down with water slightly for an even more malleable putty. However, when it sets it is actually harder then greenstuff. So for smaller and less fragile items without a lot of detail it's very well suited. Another difference for me is that it's cheaper, which makes it a good choice for larger parts.

As a result they are pretty good to combine in a single project, where Milliput is used for the larger, more structural parts and greenstuff is used for the details. An example project from me of this:
Image
(for the whole project, start here: http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic. ... 21#p875421)

Rod
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PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
Painting progress, done/in progress/in box: 167/33/91

Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.
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Re: Feed's High Elf Army

#42 Post by SpellArcher »

I use Milliput, not greenstuff, though that's largely through inertia.

Mainly for basing but for conversions where necessary.
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