Hey all, here is my Taurus Work-In-Progress. His wings are Greenstuff and a cut up yogurt container, and his body was a toy bull that I found. The guy is a little big, and I was originally going to leave him in the pose that he was manufactured in (a very docile looking cow) and put him on a chariot base, but decided not to after much internal debate and forum questioning. So anyways, I chopped up the legs and put some paperclips inside to brace him up in his new position. Unfortunately, he is a bit heavy and the Greenstuff/paperclip give way under the weight and he slowly begins to droop down. He was also tipping over, so I had to glue 2 heavy washer to the base (which will be covered by greenstuff so it doesn't look like a donut).
Anyways, my question is this: The small paperclip that you see propped up under his leg isn't glued yet, but I need something like that to help support the weight of the taurus. I don't want it to look tacky, so I was thinking of turning the prop into part of the model. The best Ideas that I've come up with are 1) Greenstuff the paperclip into a broken chain, or 2) making him look like he's rising from lava and have a "splash" of lava cover the paperclip (I need to greenstuff something so that I can reinforce the prop.
Any ideas as how to go about doing this?
Second question is this: I really want to put Armor on the bull. I've decided that I'm going to put a spiky face-plate on him, and I'm debating on how much armor to put on his body, and what kind? I'm thinking of either Light plate or a Scale mail around the body. I want it to look like the armor on the Chaos Knights or on some of the heavy cav Empire models. What do you guys think of this idea?
-Lepreh Khan
Two comments: Remove the small bulbous thing in the middle of its belly. I'd say open the jaw as it still looks slightly docile with its mouth closed.
As for the standing thing, have a jet of lava geysering out next to its leg (touching it for the support) that could also act as a counterbalance with/instead of the washers...
@Torn: I think that the rock might cause him to start tipping over again. I guess if I did the rock out of Greenstuff it might be ok. The armor that I was planning on was light plate armor (very thin, using the yogurt container plastic again as the plates). I've experimented with it but just can't seem to find the right look on him. The wings particularly make it difficult, as I want to put plates on the sides but they look funny underneath the wings with what I've been doing.
@HB: Yeah, I know he looks docile. Opening the jaw will just be too much work, but once I add the faceplate on him he'll look less docile and he'll have at tougher look on his face. I will definately have to remove the "bulb" under his belly (I already removed the two between his hind legs... lol). I kept it there at first just because I thought it was kind of funny. The jet of lava is a good idea. I'll have to be careful though and make sure that it doesn't look too weird when touching his leg.
Thanks for the ideas. Keep them coming.
-Lepreh Khan
hmmm... imo u should correct wings - put some gs/miliput on tis paper (because mo now it looks ugly) and make some "skinny-membrane" facture on it...
u can see how I done (imo grat looking) wings on DE manticore:
Whoa Grom.... show me EVERTHING!!
Definately looks cool. I was thinking about painting the membranes and stuff onto the wings, but maybe I will Greenstuff some of them on there. The wings are made from yogurt container plastic (the cheapest form of plasticard
), not paper, so it's a little thicker but I can manage it. I like the cuts on the ends of the wings, I'll probably incorporate those into mine as well.
I have worked on my model some more, so I will post pictures tomorrow of it.
Thanks for the inspiration Grom!
-Lepreah Khan
same like me - but i used plastic containers 4 mineral water, glued to skeleton from copper wire, and then covered all with miliput
i can do some tutorial 'bout it
Well, I haven't gotten around to doing more on the wings yet, and I still need to make the faceplate for his armour. I know they look silly right now, I've been using yogurt containers (which don't respond very well to either GW Superglue or Zap-A-Gap).
Things I have added since last picture:
-Leather Straps
-Saddle
-Lots of Armor Plates
Things left to do:
-Faceplate
-Spikes on "shoulders" & "Thighs"
-Before I apply the faceplate, I'm going to sculpt his brow to make him look meaner.
-Chain dangling from his leg (to hide the extra support).
-The Lord...
I should be done by next week at the latest.
-Lepreh Khan
I recommend cutting down the sides of the saddle etc with a craft knife to sharpen the edges.
Also, IMO you should file the GS on the wings to smooth it out and take just a little of the bulk out.
I think it has definite potential, but i think i might have had him just standing on the groung, instead of taking off. also, i would say definetly add a bunch of plasticard rivets to the armor. it'll make it loads more noticable, rather than just sheets of metal
Looks good! As said above, i would make the wings more organic looking. I would like to see it be a little more "chaos-y", (chains instead of leather straps, etc). I would also add some decoration to all the armor plates, chaos star, etc.
Can't wait to see the finished product.
I actually did sculpt a meaner brow! It definately changed the look of the model drastically. He actually looks mean instead of docile now.
A word of caution to people who are thinking of using yogurt plastic; it doesn't glue very well. I have been using globs of greenstuff to stick it to the model, and even that isn't doing too well. I'm a little bit worried that all the armor plates are going to start coming off one day, so I'm going to buy some GW plastic glue (plastic cement pretty much) and see if that will hold it a little better.
I will post some pics later today or possibly tomorrow.
And don't worry, his armor will look very Chaos-y by the time it's done.
I don't know if I'll do the star, but there will be the good old arrows on it somewhere.
-Lepreh Khan
Ya, I was going to suggest making him look meaner too.
What have you got in mind for the base there?
It's been awhile since I've updated, but here is the almost finished Great Taurus.
Some important things to note:
-The Green stuff inbetween the bases will be turned into lava.
-I will probably add a shackle on his leg where the chain is. Another Idea that I had was to put more fur on the end so that it looks as if the chain was welded into the Taurus' leg.
Also, since I really like my Lord that I did on top of the Taurus, I devised a way to detach him so that I could use him as a Lord on Foot if I really wanted to (this is also handy if the Taurus falls in battle).
What I did was drilled a small hole underneath his body (big enough for a paperclip to fit into). Then I drilled about halfway up into the body. Then, drilled a hole in the saddle and glued a straight part of a paperclip in there. Now, I can slip the Lord over the paperclip which holds him in place and I have a seperate little base with another paperclip for when he's on foot.
Will post some pics during the painting process.
-Lepreh Khan
hice chain, how did u done it?
Wow, a lot meaner! Not really keen on that base, but this guy is looking way better than what he started as!
There is a tutorial somewhere on the US 40k website about Librarians that showed me how. I can't find it right now for the life of me though. I'll post a link when I find it.
-LK
The armour on the taurus' head looks great, it's really coming along nicely.
Thanks Hal.
I haven't had any time to work on him because my brother-in-law and his wife have been in town, but he's ready to be primed and painted. Expect some pictures by Friday.
-LK
looks awesome. That lord looks like he's about to tumble off though.