With the Predator done and ready to paint I moved onto the Dreadclaw build. After getting some great ideas from other gaming friends I went to work on building a base and mounting the Dreadclaw to give it some character. I wanted to have it set up in a way that allows me to drop the fins when it has landed and raise them up when its flying. With the ability to burn enemies when its flying and landing I wanted to incorporate that into the model. Being Nurgle though I had to go with slime as opposed to fire. This gave me the chance to work on a splash technique where the slime hits the ground. Hopefully it all works out.
The first thing I did was cut a base out of wood. I didn't really think it was going to be heavy enough to support the weight of the Dreadclaw so I was going to have to add to it. After that I worked on a splash technique I found online to see how it would work out.
I placed a rod into a spare base and added cut up blister plastic to create the splash. Ater that you add water effects to fill it out. Because the water effects are clear I added a bit of different inks to give it some color but it ended up thining it out to much. Once that was dry I added more of the water effects to get the desired effect. My only problem with the way the test splash worked out is that I cut the plastic pieces a bit to big. For the Dreadclaw I'm going to paint first then add the clear water effects.
Next up was figuring out how to place the model. This thing has 8 engines on it and I want to have a couple of them burnt and rusted out which would cause it to list. This was probably the hardest part because I had to drill out the engies (which are on an angle) then have the rods go straight down to the base. Because of this I had to hold the model in place as best I could to get the lengths and proper angles of each rod.
Once I had each rod cut I glued them all in place. This isn't going to make painting any easier but if I didn't I wouldn't be able to sculpt the green stuff to the rods and engines.
Once the Super Glue dried I filled all of the drilled holes with green stuff so that I could fill the base. I had a shit load of washers laying around so I decided to use them in the base to give it more weight. I got the balance really good on the placement and didn't need to go to crazy with the base but I did anyways. Now this thing isn't going to topple over unless you give it a pretty good shove. With the washers in place I mixed up and poured resin into it to seal it.
Once the resin was dry I started working on the base. I have a few nurglings that I'll paint on the side that I can add later before pouring the final water effects.
With the base gravelled and ready to go I worked on the green stuff sculpting of the slime and then the splashes.
Now on with the painting!!!
