Modeling Tutorial: Cheap Plastic Zoanthrope Kitbash

Not if I have anything to say about it!  Chaosheade the Thrifty Heresiarch to the rescue!

Hey everyone, welcome to the long awaited Kitbashed Plastic Zoanthrope modeling tutorial, A.K.A. the "I'm about to save you a @#$&load of money on Zoanthropes" tutorial.  As you may know I am working on making a null deployment Tyranid army and that means I want to have some Zoanthropes.  Being the thrifty gamer that I am, however, I have a problem with paying $25 per model for the 6-9 zoanthropes that I eventually want to have in my collection and I'm not going to even comment on the whole "Finecast" issue and the complaints you see all over the internet.  I think that poor dead horse has seen enough abuse already.

Getting back on topic, I decided to try my hand at converting a zoanthrope using an assortment of plastic bits.  The first attempt was decent but not great and had several areas that really needed some attention.  The second version was a huge improvement over the first and will be the basis for all further conversions.  In this post I will be converting my third zoanthrope and documenting the process to show you exactly how I made them and how much money I will be saving compared to buying them at retail prices.  All right then, enough with the introductions, jumping right into it after the break.

HUGE Hobby Progress Update and WTF have I been doing for the last month.

This pic makes me want to facepalm so hard but I can't keep myself from laughing at this every time I see it.  And now you will too.  No need to thank me.
  Found here.

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here back from another little blogging hiatus with a status update on what I've been up to that's sooo much more important than this little corner of the internet.  (If you don't care about this and just want to get to the hobby update, just skip to the break.)  I mentioned in the previous post that I've been getting a ton of modeling done and I've gotten even more done since then, but the main reason I've been out of touch with the blog-o-sphere is work.  I deliver newspapers for a living and they get pretty crazy around this time of year, especially on Thanksgiving, so work has been pretty stressful lately.  To help combat the extra stress I've been taking refuge in Skyrim which, admittedly, has also eaten up some of my potential hobby/blogging time but work remains the #1 contributing factor.  I have been enjoying the game immensely and IMO it's the best Elder Scrolls game yet.  I won't nerd out too much on the blog and go on about how awesome my lvl 52 character is and all the stuff he's got, but if you want to chat about the game feel free to email me.

Enough about that, I have lots of great stuff to share with you so sit back and enjoy the show after the break.

Tyranid Objective Markers Concept /w Pics!

Welcome heretics, xenos friends, and loyalist scum wishing you can be as cool as us.  Welcome to another post by your beloved (or reviled) heresiarch, Chaosheade.  Life is continuing to kick my butt pretty thoroughly.  Work, my wife catching pneumonia and an angry gall bladder, taking care of my family, blah blah blah, excuses, excuses.  Fortunately my wife is pretty much recovered now and things are getting closer to normal, or at least what passes as normal for me.  I have been able to squeeze in some hobbying and I'm making some decent progress building my nids.  Of course my blogging has slowed down a bit but what can you do?  I'm here now, ain't I?

Today I wanted to share an idea I had for some Tyranid objective markers that I think are going to be wicked awesome.  Yes, I just said that.  That just happened.  I uploaded some previews of some preliminary conceptual mock-ups of the models on my DeviantArt account and then "leaked" them on the Maximum Heresy Twitter Feed.  For those of you who think Twitter is for twits, here's a blog post with all the pictures and info with a more thorough explanation of all the markers and the inspiration behind them.  Gribbly goodness after the jump.

Zoanthrope Conversion mk2 Complete

Translation: "And I'm spent."

Hey everybody, Chaosheade back again.   I finally completed the second zoanthrope conversion with many improvements over the first conversion and would like to share the finished product with all of you.  Pics and stuff after the jump.

Zoanthrope Conversion mk2 WIP

WIP picture of the new and improved Zoanthrope conversion.

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here with a quick update on the progress of the new and improved second generation Zoanthrope conversion.  I got a lot of work done and wanted to share my progress so far.  The above picture shows my current progress on the second model using the improvements I outlined in my last post.  More details on the specific parts and the changes I made after the jump.

Zoanthrope Conversion Beta Test Model

Beta version under construction
source

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here with an updated look at the Zoanthrope conversion that I recently shared.  I have made a few tweaks to the model and have several ideas on how to improve on the design.  I will share pictures of the model in its current state and several ideas on how I plan on improving it.  Full story after the jump.

Hobby Update: I'm back in the game!

I'm back, baby!
found here thanks to google image search

Hey everybody, Chaoshead here and I'm very happy to announce that I'm back in the hobbying saddle again.  After an extended hobby funk I finally got back to modeling.  It started with getting over my blogging funk and then the rest of the bits just fell into place... and stayed there because I super glued them. *rimshot*  I am also working on another major conversion that will save me a TON of money and, of course, I will be making a tutorial about the conversion soon.  Full details after the jump.

Modeling Tutorial: Cheap and Easy Mycetic Spore Pods

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here with another tutorial.  Our subject this time is Mycetic Spore pods, the Tyranid version of drop pods.  This is just one of the many units in the codex that does not have an official model, making it a prime candidate for substitution, conversion, etc.  There are a number of tutorials out there most often using foam balls or eggs but most of them were either too much work or just didn't look good to me.  There are also some models made by other companies such as Plasma Hatcher toys (~$20 or more depending on availability) or the models from Chapterhouse Studios ($35) and Mr. Dandy ($42-48) but these options are quite expensive. I finally found one that really caught my attention in this thread on The Tyranid Hive forums.  This method is much more economical than purchasing one of the 3rd party models and in my opinion looks better and is easier to make than any of the other methods I researched.  I can't take credit for the original idea but what I have done is create a formal step-by-step tutorial that more fully explains the process of making these spore pods.  More after the jump.

Community Spotlight: 'Tyracrons' from Musings of a Metal Mind

Group Shot
All pictures and credit goes to the author of Musings of a Metal Mind

Hey everybody.  Chaosheade here with another Community Spotlight article showcasing an inspirational example of a true counts-as army.  These 'Tyracrons' from Musings of a Metal Mind are not just another re-purposed MEQ proxy army, they are the real deal.  Painstakingly converted, expertly painted, and just plain scary looking, this army is masterfully done and a credit to our hobby.  More after the jump.

Tutorial: Swappable weapons without using magnets - Tyranid Termagant edition.

Hello and welcome to another tutorial by Chaosheade.  In this tutorial I will show you how to model the humble Termagant so that you can swap the weapons between the standard fleshborer and the much more shooty devourer and the best part is we will not need a single magnet.  Not a single one.  Any Tyranid player can tell you that if you play Nids you will probably end up with a TON of termagants especially if you plan on using Tervigons at any point.  Instead of using up your precious stock of magnets or ordering different size magnets just so you can magnetize smaller bits, we will be using the humble paper clip.  Using this tutorial, 10 cents worth of paper clips can do the work of $10 worth of magnets.  Learn more after the jump.

A short absence: burning computers and my first Tyranid conversion

Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down and I'd like to take a minute just sit right there and I'll tell you how my computer tried to burn my house down.

The Fresh Prince of Heresy

OK, so it wasn't quite as dramatic as all that.  My computer did die and turned my life upside down for a few days though, leaving me with no way to get any blogging done.  Good thing I already completed my part of our first Adventures in Airbrushing post before the crash.  Details and a some Nid converting after the break.

Modeling/Painting Tutorial: Super cheap objective markers, with crystals made from pieces of sprue.

Because Scott Adams is the man... and objectives

In this post I am going to show you the objective markers I am working on just finished.  They are very simple and dirt cheap to make.  All it takes is a few lava rocks or whatever kind you have lying around in the yard, some old sprue, some PVA/white glue, whatever paints you might need, a little bit of gorilla glue or equivalent, and the basic techniques I learned for making crystals and Gorilla Glue terrain pieces, which I will adapt and expand on.  I'll bore you with my ramblings and explanations at the end of the post, right now let's jump right in to creating our objective markers.

The finished product.

Old Stuff Day: Greater Daemon of Nurgle Scratch Build: Featured in SCWH Honor Roll #2 - Green Stuff!

Since the blog is only 2 months old, I was going to have to reach way back to my pre-blogging days to find something appropriate to post.  I've been playing 40k for less than a year and I already posted the oldest thing I've done - my first Black Reach minis.  Then it occurred to me that I had one other project completed that I've been wanting to share this on the blog for a while, and now thanks to Old Stuff Day I have the perfect excuse.  Enjoy.

Magnets! Two Models for the price of one. Pt. 1

 Welcome back to Maximum Heresy. It this 2 part writeup I will assemble a Necron Destroyer Lord using small magnets. The benefit? Two models for the price of one.

Modeling tutorial: Rhino combi-melta and infantry flamer

Hey all, Chaosheade here again. My last post was about painting, and this one will be a modeling/conversion tutorial.    Here is a preview of what you start with (top) and the end products (bottom).

Long winded intro and the meaty details of the conversion after the jump.