Praetorian Firing Line Sculpt for Curious Constructs

One of the things which perhaps is an iconic idea of the Imperial Guard, and of Praetorians (and Mordians) specifically is the idea of perfectly drawn up ranks of Guardsmen, presenting arms and giving volley fire. The original Praetorian range included the two figures you needed to do this, but of course no longer being in production (and only otherwise available at the massive second hand prices), assuming you can find enough of the right models is a little... limiting.

Its such a cool concept though and demands doing - so thats exactly what I'm doing.

I finished the torso some time ago, but only just got the masters back from the caster, I'm now going to get on with doing the legs (standing and kneeling), and some Sergeant components to go with them! I'm aiming to get these finished for release in April through Curious Constructs. Will drop in some more pics as the sculpts progress.

I've got lots of other bits to preview which should be on sale at the end of this month as well, the masters for these all came back, so now its straight back to the casters for production! The wheel is turning slowly after all the delays the artillery kits caused, but now I'm getting back in my stride!

The Gravis Pattern Gatling Gun - Work in Progress

Previously I showed off a CAD preview of the wheels which I commissioned for the 'Gravis Pattern' Gatling Gun Kit I'm putting together as part of my second wave of releases. And yes I do know the first wave is'nt even on sale yet, though the website is up and running, more about that soon.

Today I thought I'd show how the gun assembly itself is coming together, this is still very work in progress, but more soon!

You can work this one out...

Yet another quick update, because I'm terrible at resisting posting something like this, a preview of something I've commissioned as part of a release for the new store, it arrived in my inbox today from Kit at Zinge Industries.

New Roughrider Torso Sculpt

Just another quick update post, my new webstore venture, will also be stocking a revised version of the Roughrider Conversion Kit, that means a new Torso in the style of 19th century British Lancers, with an improved neck which is much more friendly to the heads produced by other manufacturers.

New Sculpts Incomming

It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally about to send off some more bits to the casters which will form part of my Life Guard Heavy Infantry conversion kit, unlike with the Roughriders, these bits will all be available seperately through a webstore. The webstore will also stock the Roughrider kit with a revised Torso, a new Infantry torso, and lots more goodies which I've got planned - some very close behind, some a little more distant.

Anyway, just a quick look at a couple of the new bits.

Finished Carapace Torso

Finished High Energy Laser Gun

And finally, a mockup of the style for the Life Guard Heavy Infantry Helmet, these will follow in the next wave as a sprue of heads.

More Sculpting Projects for Release

Aside from the Life Guards I've a few other odds and ends that I'm working on, with plans for release through my friendly local gaming store, The Iron Haven. So here is a quick preview of what else I've been working on, amongst other things. Sorry the picture quality is'nt brilliant!

The first two are nothing too exciting, merely modified versions of the Praetorian Roughrider components. These include a modified torso, without the Aquilla emblems, ideal for creating dress uniformed troops.

As well as modified Cavalry Legs, now with combat trousers and boots.

It does get better though, how about Military Officer caps, or Mordians to you an me?

The Life Guards - Mk2 Praetorian Storm Troopers (Part 1)

Anyone who has been following this blog for a while might well remember the Storm Troopers I started to convert years ago, with this chap being the poster boy.

The original squad, which are now long gone, were converted from plastic Cadians, Praetorian heavy weapon gunner torso's, and various other bits, all with some of my earlier sculpting work. However, the germ of the idea, and the original inspiration behind them, the British Regiment of Life Guards, has stuck in my head ever since - it was only a matter of time until I came back to them.

That time has now come, my idea for the project was to do them as complete sculpts, rather then as one off conversions. Originally I planned to do them in a similar vein to the Roughrider conversion kits, intending to create various components, but in this case so they could be combined with GW Cadian bits for complete models. However, the success and experience I've gained from the success of the Roughriders has lead me to a change of plan. I'm now going to build them as single piece miniatures, with a variety of poses, and with drop in weapons. I'll use them myself, and again have them cast up to put on sale.

I'm a sticker for making them uniform in appearance however, so the first stage is to sculpt a master dolly. This dolly I'll have cast up in a small quantity, which I'll then use to create a small selection of poses, before sending these off for casting in turn. Several people have been asking for progress shots, and I really wanted to post some anyway, so here is the dolly in the early stages. The putty is still drying in fact! I've been working on the armour first, which is proving tricky to get just right and symmetrical, however as this first shot shows, I think I'm just about there with the breast plate. Next up, I need to work on the basic shape of the back plate, before adding the tunic and trousers, back to work!

Mk3 Roughrider Sculpts - Finished

Yep, that's my new Praetorian the Roughrider sculpt done and dusted.

Here the master is shown assembled (albeit with blue-tak, hence the dodgy fit) with a Secret Weapon Pith Helmet, mounted on a WFB Empire Pistollier/Outrider.



And here are all the components, the lance shaft is intended to be a thin section of plastic or metal rod, which can be drilled through the arm and to which the lance tip component can be fitted.



Next stop - time to arrange casting.

Mk3 Roughriders, New Sculpts Work In Progress

Yes I've been quiet, busy in fact, but amongst the things keeping me busy has been this.

At long last the new Roughrider sculpts are really taking shape, so I thought I'd chuck up a quick picture. As with the previous two versions (my own and the abortive Phoenix Club set), I'm making use of the WFB Empire Outrider Horses. This time though I'm also making use of the Pith Helmeted Head set which I sculpted for Secret Weapon Miniatures. The Torso just needs a little more detailing, the boots need adding, and the first set of arms still have a fair way to go - the one in the picture is nearly done though. I'm also thinking of turning out a scabbard and holster as accessories to join the Lance components I've already finished.

Hopefully further updates soon.

Hobby Tutorials

Sculpting -

How to Sculpt Mordian Style Caps
How to Sculpt Pith Helmets
How to Sculpt Epualettes
How to Sculpt Valhallan Style Caps

Conversions -

Converting Praetorian Plasma Guns from Meltaguns
Converting a Swapable Basilisk and Medusa Artillery Piece

Terrain -

Quick and Easy Minefields

Sculpting Pith Helmetted Heads (Part 9)

Following a little minor work to the fifth head here's the finished set, hopefully!

Sculpting Pith Helmetted Heads (Part 8)

And there we go, finished heads number four and five, despite a few problems I think these will fill the gaps in the set of 5 so each head is different - over to Secret Weapon now.

Sculpting Pith Helmetted Heads (Part 7)

Well I had thought this concluded, but not quite, I've been requested to sculpt a couple more heads for the Pith Helmet set, so that each pack contains 5 different heads and with a little time on my hands today I've got going on these two.

The first is a snarling face (and I can tell you I've been getting some odd looks from my girlfriend as I've been pulling faces in the mirror to get a good idea of what I'm trying to achieve!), the second is a minor resculpt of the basic closed mouth head with a mustache, which several enquiries about the heads have asked for - so here we go.



Hopefully these will be finished very quickly, over this weekend infact!

Sculpting Pith Helmetted Heads (Part 6)

Well thats it, pending acceptance by Secret Weapon Miniatures the heads are good to go, there are three variants, Mouth Closed, Mouth Open and Bearded - exactly the same range as a certain set of Pith Helmetted soldiers from the 4ast Millenium, can't imagine who they could be!

Assuming that they are accepted, and the noise has only been good so far, they could be available to purchase in metal from September.

Sculpting Pith Helmetted Heads (Part 5)

Thanks to TrooperPX I've got a batch of copies of my first sculpted Pith Helmet, I've now started reworking these into a number of different faces, once completed some of these will, all going well, enterproduction with an existing manufacturer, something I'm really excited about.

Commission - FW Commissar Bust Repair

A little while back I put out a request for a couple of FW IG Plasma Pistols and one very nice chap was happy enough to send me them for free - so I said I owed him a favour and here it is.

After some hunting he came across one of the old Commissar Crowe bust's which Forgeworld used to produce, they're fairly hard to get hold of and unfortunately this one was slightly damaged as you can see below.



He had clearly taken a tumble at some point, the chainsword had been broken cleanly but repaired however the handguard and pommel were missing, there was also some damage to one finger and one chainsword tooth was missing, though this was not to be repaired.

I removed the damaged section of the guard and replaced the whole thing with plasticard, and extended the damaged grip with some tube before tidying it with GS and fixing up the finger. The pommel came last with a slightly larger diameter of tube and a GS plug. Job done.

Misc Space Marines Pads 2

Another quick post with some freshly finished Space Marine shoulder pad designs that I was commissioned to do, the first one (top) is a lion design, it ended up slightly larger then I'd planned but I'm pretty satisfied with it. The second and third are I assume for a Space Marine Chapter which has been infected by Genestealers no less using a couple of classic Tyranid icons which have then been simplified for this small design.

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 17)

That's it, the Bonehead has his Chainsword and the final Ogryn his hand, though it was sculpted in the end.



And with that the Praetorian Ogryn Squad are complete, it's been a hell of a project, it's taken far longer then I could of imagined but the results are such that I'm really rather pleased with them. I think they're characterful, and fit the theme of a Praetorian unit, but one which is a wee bit on the rough side! I'll actually be quite sad to see them go and it's very tempting to want to get on and create such a unit for my own army - maybe sometime soon, it's not like I hav'nt got enough to get on with already!

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 16)

What will probably be the penultimate post on the Praetorian Ogryn Squad has finally arrived, 8 of the Ogryns are now to all intents and purposes finished as far as I'm going with them, weapons have been added, gaps filled, and only two now remain.



The Boneheads Chainsword needs to be finished and attached, it's built from two Ork Chainswords combined, however before I add a grip I need to pin it into his fist to ensure it stays in place.



The final regular Ogryn meanwhile is in need of a hand, unfortunately I've run out, but I'm hoping to acquire one from a club mate this week which will allow me to finish this model also with a few minor bits of sculpting left to do.

Commission - Praetorian Officers & Sergeants (Part 3)

With a little more work I've finished the four Praetorian 'Character' models, top left has gained a Laspistol and a outstretched pointing arm, top right has had his cloak finished and gained a Laspistol in his exposed hand. Bottom left meanwhile has had a little tidying done and the bottom right has recieved a little more detailing including a small aquilla on the Power Fist.

Job's a good un!