This would have been my entry for the 2002 Oz Golden Demons. Due to unforeseen circumstances, however, I not only didn't get it finished, I wasn't able to make it to GD anyway...

The entry is a duel, between a Dark Angel and a Fallen. I wanted something fairly uncomplicated, due to time constraints, and the Space Marine plastics lend themselves well to easy conversions. I also wanted something other than the standard "two models looking fiercely at each other", which is what most duel entries seem to be.

The Marines, eventually, would look something like this:

...and would be duelling on a big rock, amidst a ruined building. The Angel is leaping forwards, grasping the pistol hand of the fallen, who is slipping backwards in mud, about to fall off the side.

The Base

The base, initially just layered polystyrene...

Then adding putty to build up the rock texture...

I'm using Selley's Kneadit (the copper coloured one, because it was on clearance at work, so I got it real cheap.) This is a two part epoxy putty which is brilliant for this sort of work, as it sets in about 5 minutes. You can work it easily with a wet tool, or carve and sand it when set.

And finally the base fully covered...

Next step is to start building up the detail on the top (remains of a ruined building, lots of mud) so I can start assembling the models around it...

The base takes shape...

The pipe was made from a section of plastic tubing from an aircraft kit. I cut up pieces of sprue to make the grey squares... these will be the mounting for the tiles. The wall section is cut off one of GW's ruined building sections.

Moving right along... undercoat...

Followed by a heavy drybrush of Bleached Bone, and then a highlight of Skull White...

"Why am I drybrushing on a GD entry?" you ask in amazement... Well, I think drybrushing is the best way to get a natural rock texture. It takes a bit of patience to do it right, but the end result is worth it.

Finally, the pipes and floor support are painted...

I have also added spots of Bestial Brown over the rock to dirty it up a little, and a splash of brown also down the corner below the pipe, where the runoff would be. The pipes are painted with TinBitz and Beaten Copper, spotted with Goblin Green. The floor support (the grey thing) is Shadow Grey with progressive amounts af Ghostly Grey and Bestial Brown mixed in. These will be partially covered with broken tiles, hence the need to paint them before actually finishing the base.

The tiles in place...

Tiles were done with cardboard (the unshiny kind, as this gets a nice stone look when drybrushed. The inside of a cereal packet is perfect), cut to shape and glued onto the frame. There will be shards of tiles littering around the place eventually, sticking out of the mud...

After some feedback from the good people at Dakka, it was decided that the cardboard tiles were just too thin, and had to go. So I ripped them off, and made new ones by pressing Kneadit flat under a damp piece of masonite, thusly:

Then simply carved in the detail that I wanted with a hobby knife... chipped away corners, gouged out chunks, carved in cracks, and roughened up the surface a little. The end result is almost the same pattern as I had with the cardboard, but much thicker...

Slapped a quick basecoat onto the tiles to see how they would look...

That's all I'll be doing to the base for now... Tonight I'll start putting the Marines together. I wanted them interacting with the base so that they looked like a part of it, rather than just a couple of models slapped onto a rock, which is why I've been concentrating on the base so far. Now that I've got the bare bones done, I can put the Marines in, and then go back and do the detail work on the base...

Started hacking up my marines to get the basic pose down. Only Blutacked at the moment, as I'm still ironing out some positioning problems, but here's what I've got so far...

Brother Gabriel

Brother Hazael

Now it's time to start glueing my fingers together! Yay!

(While tiling the base, I managed to superglue my lamp to the desk.)

>>>>>Warning: The following images may be upsetting to Space Wolf players...<<<<<

Take one SM helmet, and one Space Wolf head with all his hair shaved off (Mwahahaha)...

Then, using a 3mm drill bit, a hobby knife, and a fair amount of obscene language, you hollow out the helmet...

Then, with careful application of a hobby knife, a nice gaping rent is torn down the side of the helmet, so that when it is placed on Gabriel's head, thusly...

...you can see his forehead and one eye through the hole... Unfortunately, my camera just isn't up to producing pics good enough for you to see it. Hopefully it will show up better once I get some paint in there...

I now have the greater part of Gabriel ready to go, with his head, left arm, backpack and shoulder pauldrons to be painted seperately. Slapped him 'round with a pot of rather watery Chaos Black...

and then followed up with an equally watery Dark Angels Green...

As you can see, I've started for real on his right leg.. just testing out my highlights so far.

Coming along nicely now, with most of his body done...

...not that you can really tell a lot from these crappy pics... There is actually a lot of battle scarring on the armour, carved in along the edges of the plating, plus a couple of bullet craters hacked in with a drill, then roughened up with the knife..

The armour started off as Dark Angels Green, with Goblin Green mixed in progressively for highlights. Got one greave done and decided this was giving far too rough an effect, so started over. Now using DA Green with Snot Green mixed in, and then a final highlight of Goblin Green on corners and sticky-outie bits.

The battle scarring (which you probably can't see) was then re-undercoated in black, and painted with Boltgun metal. Eventually I'll add a highlight of silver.

The chest eagle was painted with Vomit Brown, and then drybrushed with Bleached Bone. Again, this needs a final highlight yet, (Skull White), which I'll get to at the end.

I generally paint marine shoulder pauldrons seperately from the model, so that you can get all the inner surfaces. (Avoid unsightly grey patches) A neat little trick to make this easier: Bluetack it to an old paintbrush, thusly:

Works well for heads and backpacks as well...

And on with our regular scheduled program:

Now have all the basic work done on Gabriel. There's still quite a bit of detail to be added, but I'm kind of playing it by ear to see how much time I have. At this point, I can get his head put together, plonk him in place, and then see how Brother Hazael has to go together to fit in...

So, in all his blurry glory, here's where he's at...

Painted Gabriel's Head, once again using the "Bluetack it to a stick" method... Probably spent a little more time on it then it deserved, seeing as how it's going to be mostly hidden under a helmet, but hey, if you're going to do a job...

Undercoat with Chaos Black, then Bestial Brown over the flesh bits. First layer with Vomit Brown with a little Bestial mixed in, then slowly adding Elf Flesh for the final Highlight.

The neck guard was re-undercoated black, then the band around the back of the head painted with Boltgun Metal. The black was then highlighted (highlit?) with Shadow Grey.

Teeth and eyes spotted in with Skull White. Eyes were then added with a dot of DA Green, and then a teeny little dot of black... Add on some black eyebrows, and then all that's left is to bash him around a little.

Thin strip of Blood Red/Red Gore/Bestial Brown mix down the side of the nose, and a splash from the eyebrow back along his head, where it should show nicely through the tear in the helmet...

So, with head in place, he looks like this...

Finished off Gabriel's helmet... Green done the same as the rest. Eyepieces done in Red Gore, then highlit with Blood Red and Fiery Orange mix. Metal bits and battle scarring picked out in Boltgun Metal... The inside of the helmet is painted black...

Then I put it on his head, and nearly fell off my chair....

It was hard to tell, unpainted, how well this was going to work... but now with all the paint on, there's this eye peering out from behind a shattered lens...You can see his head, complete with nasty bloody bits, through the rent. It looks far better than I expected...

Unfortunately, you'll have to settle for this pic:

Brother Hazael

He will be wearing older style armour, hence the one-piece greaves... To go along with that feel, I shaved the rims off a couple of shoulder pauldrons, and smoothed down the curve a bit, to make them look more like the old RT pads...

Then added studs to the right pad...

This was a technique I've heard of often, but never actually tried before. You get a small length of sprue, drill a really short hole in the end with a 1.5 mm drill bit, as a mould for the rivet head... put a dollop of Green Stuff on the surface you want the rivets on, and then press the end of the sprue onto it to make a rivet... Then just trim the excess GS from around the edges...

It's a lot harder than it sounds

Took three tries to get some of them sitting right, and will require a little bit of reshaping on one or two once they're set...

Hazael's body mostly finished off, just the final highlights to go...

Started with a black undercoat, then painted on a mix of Chaos Black and Shadow Grey, highlighting by adding more grey. The plan was to try for a deep grey that still looked black, but without the shiny, 'just painted yesterday' look that you usually get on black marines...

Then pulled out the Boltgun Metal again for all the usual bits, and the battle damage. Also painted over the chest plate with straight Chaos Black, in the shape of a normal chest eagle, and added small nicks of Boltgun Metal around the edges, to look like the eagle has been chiselled off...

Finally, painted the holster and pouches with Red Gore, then Blood Red, highlighting with Fiery Orange/Blood Red mixed. And painted the Skull on his chest with Vomit Brown and Bleached Bone...

It was while gluing these pouches on that I realised I'd forgotten to do them for Gabriel... Quickly whipped out a scabbarded knife from the Space Wolf accessory sprue, cut off the knife handle, and drilled out the mouth of the scabbard with a 1mm drill bit. Then came the problem of figuring out how the heck to paint it... What I came up with:

...simply glued the side of the scabbard mouth (the spot that the glue will go on to stick it to Gabriel) to a piece of sprue... Use superglue here, as it will just snap off easily when done, then just shave off any excess glue, and stick it in place...

Brother Gabriel, complete with left arm and scabbard:

Brother Hazael now also has a left arm. This required some filling with GS for the shoulder joint:

And various bits were finished off and undercoated, ready for finishing touches.

Added on his head, and left shoulder pauldron. The pauldron required a small amount of shaving inside to fit over the outstretched arm.

Finishing Up

At this point I went back to the base. With Hazael's right arm bluetacked in place, I could position the models and place the extra bits on the base. I used a thin layer of filling plaster for the mud, by slapping it in place with a butter knife, and then sliding Hazaels foot through it to make a skid mark where his foot is slipping. Also added shards of broken tile with some more Knead-it...

Undercoated...

And then drybrushed the same as the rest of the base. I actually left the paint a little bit thinner on the mud, so that more grey would show through, giving it a slightly different texture to the rock. The tiles, on the other hand, were drybrushed a lot heavier, and given a heavier highlight of Skull White, to make them stand out more. The wall section was painted the same as the tiles.

Painted up the two backpacks...

As you can see, I've continued the 'old armour' theme for Hazael by using an old 2nd Ed backpack.

I also painted their chapter badges onto the shoulder pauldrons at this point, but couldn't get the pictures to turn out large enough to see the detail...

To fit the marines into the base, I muddied up their feet with a drybrush of Bleached Bone, followed by a highlight of white...

Brother Hazael now also has a left hand glued on (The bolter-holding left hand, simply cut off the arm, and then re-attached facing down), and a right arm ready to go on... The right arm is the standard marine assault arm with bolt pistol, although I cut off the pistol and bent the wrist inwards by cutting wedges out of each side, bending it over, and filling with green stuff. I then stuck on a 2nd Ed bolt pistol.

Hazael's right arm could then be glued on, by applying a small dab of glue, standing both marines in their places on the base to check the fit, and slotting the arm into place.

Had a small panic when I tried to fit the last two shoulderpads on... Hazael's pad would fit between the bolt pistol and his arm!

After muttering a few naughty words, I simply shaved down that corner of the pad, and sliced a tiny piece off the back off the pistol.

Then came time to put it all together. I applied a small dot of superglue to both marine's feet and slotted them into place on the base. Then, a small dollop of plastic cement to their necks, and sat the heads in place, turning them so they were glaring directly into each other's eyes. A bit more superglue to re-attach Gabriel's scabbard, which I had managed to knock off while painting his feet...

Decided at this point that the base was a little plain, so grabbed an axe from the old Chaos Marine weapon sprue, sliced up the blade a bit, and slapped on some Boltgun Metal. Then took a Bolter, cut off the magazine and drilled out the magazine slot with a 1mm drill bit and hobby knife, and painted it up...

The end result:

You can find more pictures in the gallery

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