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.

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.

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.

Adventures in Airbrushing Episode IV: Where do I buy this stuff?

Apparently airbrushes are not high on Google's priorities.
source

Hey everybody, Chaosheade here with a quick addition another episode of Adventures in Airbrushing with commentary by M4XVLTG3.  I wanted to go over different airbrush retailers and some of the advantages and disadvantages of each one.  There is a very brief list in AiA Episode III on compressors but I want something much more comprehensive.  The subject didn't really seem to fit in any of the other sections that are being worked on or are planned and it's something I wanted to discuss.  This was originally supposed to be a quick and dirty guide but it ended up growing too long to be considered a small addition so it grew up to be a full episode.  That seems to happen a lot when I get carried away with my research.  More 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.

Adventures in Airbrushing Episode III: The Compressor Quandary

Or, which compressor should I buy?  Similar to Adventures in Airbrushing Episode I, in Episode III I will be listing some guidelines on which compressor to buy as well as some examples.  If you haven't read it already, be sure to check out Episode II for an in-depth guide to many of the benefits and features available to be sure you know what you are looking for. So get ready, sit back and let me, 

Adventures in Airbrushing Episode II: Attack of The... Compressors?

"Guns don't kill people.  Apes with guns kill people" -Charlton Heston
Source

Welcome back everyone to the second installment of Adventures in Airbrushing with Chaosheade and M4XVLTG3.  In this episode, we will be discussing compressors and virtually everything you need to consider when choosing a compressor.  Strap yourselves in because it's going to be a bumpy ride and remember to keep your hands and other body parts inside the vehicle at all times.  Maximum Heresy is not responsible for any injury sustained while reading this post.  Enjoy your ride!

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.

Adventures in Airbrushing: Chaosheade and M4XVLTG3 Take the Plunge

Hey everybody.  Chaosheade here (in white) introducing what will be our first jointly written series, Adventures in Airbrushing where M4XVLTG3 (in orange) and I will be detailing an account of our journey to infinity and beyond on the path of the airbrush.  We will share our inspiration for getting an airbrush, the research we did to decide what type of setup to buy, our ultimate decisions on which airbrush/compressor/accessories to buy, and eventually we will have some painting to show for it (hopefully... if not, something has gone horribly wrong!)  We will also be working on a page to add to the blog that will serve as the ultimate airbrushing resource for anyone who wants to know anything about airbrushing miniatures.

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.

Tyranids Incoming: Preliminary Thoughts, Paint Scheme and Planning Purchases. Bonus: Lots of Useful Links!

I wanted to share with you all some of my thoughts and plans on building my future Tyranid army.  I will be going over some of my general thoughts, a possible paint scheme, how I plan on building my lists, how I plan on playing them, and how I will be buying the army to spend the least amount of money possible on it.  I have also been working on a modeling tutorial that I wanted to have posted by now but it's taking much longer than I had anticipated, so here's something to entertain you until then.

I know I already used this one before but I like it, it's appropriate to the post, and I want to show off my 1337 Photoshop skills of adding text to a picture.  I R guud at Fotoshopz!

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.