Category: LEDs

Crimson Fists Judicar

On By Chris B.In Crimson Fists, Indomitus, LEDs, Space Marines, Warhammer 40,000Leave a comment

Judicar01

Judicar Gistaín wears a Iron-pattern helm recovered from the rubble of Arx Tyrannis. A skull is painted on the front of the helmet to remember all those who gave their lives in defence of Rynn’s World, and the mouth vents are sealed shut as a symbol of Gistaín’s vow of silence. The Judicar will not utter another word until he has fulfilled his oath of vengeance and laid low the enemies of the Chapter.

This Judicar is a relatively simple model by my recent standards. I picked the Judicar as the next model from Indomitus that I was going to paint since it was a “low hanging fruit” in terms of LED work. Plus it’s just a badass looking model!

The LED work on this model is just a simple LED helmet, using the techniques set out in my LED Eye Lens Tutorial. Like many other people I’ve seen posting their Indomitus work, I’ve chosen to swap out the standard Judicar head. It’s not that I dislike the standard head as such, I just felt the MkIII helm was a better fit for my force. Plus I had the clear vision of ‘sealing’ the mouth vents and adding a skull image in their place. One of my games club friends described the model as having “resting Punisher face” when he saw the WIP shot, which I thought was a brilliant way of putting it!

Judicar04
Brother Gistaín leads his fellow Crimson Fists comrades from the front.

I’ve never been keen on the ‘all one colour’ scheme for space marine specialists. I prefer the Rogue Trader/Horus Heresy approach of just a portion of the armour – normally the arms and helmet – in the specialist colours, and the rest in normal chapter colours. In this case I painted the arms, shoulders, helmet and power pack in the black of the reclusium, and the rest of the armour in the blue of the Crimson Fists.

That’s it for this week! More Indomitus models and various other bits and pieces on the way soon.

Lamenters Sergeant with LED Power Sword

On By Chris B.In Badab War, Kill Team, Lamenters, LEDs, Space Marines, True Scale, Warhammer 40,0002 Comments

SgtLugeo05

Why make your point with words when it’s so much faster to make it with the tip of a sword?

– Sergeant Lugeo of the Lamenters

Power Weapon Tutorial

Sergeant Lugeo is the third member of my (slow growing) Lamenters kill team. If you missed the previous members of the kill team then you can find previous posts on the MkVI Lamenter here and the Lamenter Breacher here.

LED Power Sword

If you’re wondering exactly how the power sword was made, then good news, I’ve just published a brand new LED Power Weapon tutorial here.

True Scaling

SgtLugeo07

My Lamenters kill team is intended to be Badab War themed, which of course means no Primaris Marines. However I do love the Primaris scale and proportions, so you may have noticed that Sergeant Lugeo is based off a Primaris model, like the other members of the team. I took some time to remove a lot of the Primaris-specific detail, like the ankle stabilisers, backpack and some of the chest detail. I then sculpted replacement detail with modelling putty. Hopefully he now looks like he is wearing MkVII power armour rather than the distinctive MkX armour of the Primaris Marines.

So that’s three Lamenters down, and four more to go!

Indomitus Crimson Fists Primaris Lieutenant

On By Chris B.In Crimson Fists, Indomitus, LEDs, Space Marines, Warhammer 40,0001 Comment

IndomitusLt04

CHOOM!

– Lieutenant Alehoc

A week ago today I received delivery of the wonderful Indomitus boxed set. Normally I wouldn’t start a project with an HQ model – I feel that’s something you have to build up to! But the new Lieutenant is my favourite model in the Indomitus set, plus it was the one that I had the clearest vision for. I’ve known what I wanted to do with it from the moment I saw the previews.

IndomitusLt01

This model was not only a record build and paint for one of my LED models (less than a week), but also one of the rare occasions where a model ends up looking exactly as I imagined! I’m very pleased with how it has turned out.

 

To achieve this volkite effect I simply followed the process that I used in my LED muzzle flare tutorial, except rather than sculpting the standard muzzle flare, I tried to capture the distinctive volkite muzzle flare seen in the artwork. You can see what the resin effect looks like the the LED off in the pictures below. The LED I used was a TruOpto 1.8mm Red LED.

 

That’s all for today. More Indomitus models to come soon!

IndomitusLt06

Crimson Fists Hellblaster Sergeant

On By Chris B.In Crimson Fists, Dark Imperium, LEDs, Space Marines, Warhammer 40,000Leave a comment

My plasma incinerator is like the sun I never had.

– Ordoñez, Hellblaster Sergeant

Almost two years after finishing my first Crimson Fists Hellblaster, I’ve finally returned to add another member to this unit. I did start assembly work on this model quite a while ago, but rage-quit after accidentally breaking the last two pink 1.8mm LEDs that I had in stock!

The details and pose of this miniature are largely unaltered from the stock Dark Imperium model, although as you can see in the WIP image below I added an extra purity seal to the plasma gun. This was to help conceal an area of the gun I had to resculpt after installing the LED.

HellblasterSargeWIP

The LED plasma effect was achieved using the techniques described in my original LED Plasma Weapon tutorial. If you’d like to have a go at plasma weapons but are worried this method is a bit too complex, I also have my Simple LED Plasma Weapon tutorial.

I’m sometimes asked “why pink for plasma?”. As I explain in the designer’s notes of my tutorial, there are a number of reasons I chose pink as my colour for plasma. Firstly, the range of miniature LEDs I use only has a finite selection of colours available, and I’d used a lot of the other colours already. Secondly, I’ve used argon plasma in semiconductor fabrication processes in a previous job, and that was pink, so I tend to associate pink with plasma. Thirdly, it’s pretty eye-catching, and tends to stand out among the other LEDs.

img_2855

That’s it for this week. Hopefully it won’t take me two years to get the next member of the squad finished! I’m trying to get through as much of the Dark Imperium box as I can before the Indomitus box (presumably) arrives in July. I’m really looking forward to adding the Primaris Space Marines from this new box to my Crimson Fists!

Genestealer Cult Nexos

On By Chris B.In Genestealer Cults, LEDs, Technical, Warhammer 40,000Leave a comment

Nexos01

Do the unbelievers think that being surrounded by hostile blips just happens? No! It takes skill and dedication to have our brethren coming out of the goddamn walls!

– Kelbrech, Genestealer Nexos

The Genestealer Nexos is a model that I’ve been keen to give the LED treatment since the day it was released. Actually, since before it was released, as this was the one-and-only time I’ve correctly guessed an upcoming model from a Rumour Engine preview (fun fact, the Nexos design is based on an unreleased Genestealer Cult model from the early 90s)!


Nexos LED Hololith

So how was it done? I mostly followed the process detailed in my own LED Hololith tutorial, but with a few differences. I’ve detailed the important changes below.

NexosWIP01

1. Rather than resin cast a small section, I found it easier to simply recast the whole top of the hololith map table in resin. If you’d like to know more about resin casting for LED effects, take a look at my tutorial here.

NexosWIP02

2. I drilled a number of 4mm holes in the underside of the resin cast to allow the LED to sit snuggly in the component and to ensure the resin was thin enough to allow the light to shine through. This needs to be done slowly and carefully to ensure you don’t accidentally drill all the way through! If you do drill all the way through, then I’m afraid you’ll need to make another cast.

You can see in the image above that I drilled seven holes. This was just as result of my experiments to find the best position for the LEDs in relation to the detail on the map. You only actually need to drill one hole for each LED.

NexosWIP03

3. Next I inserted my three LEDs, holding them in place with tiny dots of superglue on the side. At this stage it was important to ensure the legs of LEDs all had the same polarity on the same side, as this makes connecting them easier later. I used TruOpto 1.8mm red LEDs instead of the nano chip LEDs I specify in my hololith tutorial. This is because I wanted a slightly greater brightness and a larger angle of dispersion for the light, plus I had more room to play with on this project.

NexosWIP04

4. Next I drilled holes in the plastic base of the hololith map table to allow the LED legs to pass through.

NexosWIP05

5. I glued the top and bottom halves of the hololith table together, filling in the very slight gap around the edge with modelling putty. Then I trimmed off the excess length on the legs of the LEDs and wired them together in parallel. Then I attached two trailing leads which will connect the table to the base.

NexosWIP06

6. Next I used modelling putty to hide the soldered connections of the LED legs. The putty looks a bit rough in the above image, but I tidied it up later, adding detail so it just looked like part of the machinery of the table.

I removed the plastic ‘wires’ that connect the table to the plastic ‘power pack’ on the model and replaced them with the actual wires. The wires pass out of a hole I drilled in the bottom of the plastic power pack and connect to the switch and battery under the base.

NexosWIP07

7. Next I glued the plastic power pack into position and then hid the wires with the base texture material that I use. This texture material is pumice paste, but PVA and sand or any other texture material will also work.

NexosWIP08

8. I covered the actual map with a lump of blu-tack and then undercoated and painted the model.

NexosWIP09

9. Finally I applied a very thinned down coat of Citadel Contrast Flesh Tearers Red. I was careful to avoid pooling on flat surfaces and to keep the contrast paint in the recesses as much as possible. This is stage is just to give the map detail some definition and make the model look better when the LED is switched off, and shouldn’t actually effect the final brightness.

I’m sure a lot of people know about this fun Easter Egg, but in case you don’t, the hololith map actually shows an aerial view of Warhammer World!

Nexos06

That’s it for this week, I hope you found all that informative. Revisiting my Genestealer Cult has reminded me that I could do with some group shots of the Cult of Celestial Wisdom, so perhaps that’s something I’ll get around to soon. Please don’t forget that if you’re interested in following my work then you can also find me on Instagram and Twitter where I give regular updates on my various projects.