# Silvertabby's Works in Progress (updated 05/08/12)



## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

I am notorious for starting projects and not finishing them, so I figured if I keep a track of ongoing things online, I may actually stand a chance of completing more of them. 

I have 2 main armies, and a number of smaller side-forces. My main armies are Sisters of Battle (ongoing for over 15 years) and Tyranids (even longer, but has seen an entire overhaul mid-2000s). My smaller forces include Slaaneshi daemons and Chaos Marines (all Eldar-Slaanesh based, and on hold until the new dex comes out next month) and Imperial Guard (a subsidiary of my Sisters force, and made entirely of Necromunda Escher figures). 

I shall put up a number of pictures of the stuff I’m on-off working on (and some of the recently completed figures), and will update periodically with new work. I’m about to start painting my GDUK entry, so any other painting will wait, but conversion work will continue in the background. I am afraid that painting happens *very* slowly for my armies, a side-effect of having spent almost a decade painting for a living means I was reluctant to paint for myself after work (plus I’m just a painfully slow painter in general), and children now mean I have little painting time full stop. I am however a prolific convertor. :wink:

Feel free to ask any questions, I feel strongly that a huge part of this hobby is the imagination that goes into your army, so anything I can do to help inspire others is fine by me.


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

*My Chaos Forces*

Originally I loved the idea of a Craftworld that had fallen to Slaanesh, as I like both the Eldar figures and the Slaanesh figures (and daemons with Cow heads, how cool is that?). Then they went and wrote a whole-page fic section about Ker-ys (I think that was it’s name, I don’t have the Codex to hand) and lo, a solid idea was born. I have a number of half-finished daemon prince/Avatar melds in my bits boxes, but this was left on hold whilst I wait and see what happens with the new Chaos dex, and how I can mix and match to get what I’m after using the Allies rules.

In the meantime, here’s what I put together across the last 10 years or so of fiddling…

This was a Daemon Prince I made almost 10 years ago, it’s about the only fully painted Chaos figure I have, other than my chariot and a squad of Diaz daemonettes.









This is a squad I put together just after the new harlequins came out, and are designed to be some kind of chosen unit, again awaiting the new rules.









These guys are the basic troops, I have about 20 of these in various configurations and with different weapons. I even have some with Swooping Hawk wings, though those annoy me because they keep falling off. The Dire Avengers were meant to be squad leaders, as was the Warp Spider, back when Lost and the Damned allowed you to put lone power-armoured champions in with mutant squads. I went for a crab look with the spider, when I found the claws to be fully reversible…


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

*My Tyranids*

I do like to know what my army is eventually going to look like, so I have at least two fully finished painted figures as a reference. It means any conversions won’t compromise the scheme by being impossible to paint in that way. At present they are the _only_ two painted figures, but one day I will fix that. 
























This chap is made from an old 90’s Hive Tyrant, who is the same size as a current Warrior but looks sufficiently different to be a convincing Prime. The arms are pre-production resins rather than the new plastics, cut to the right size for such a smaller figure than the metal big hive tyrant. 






























I was using a Tervigon long before the new kit came out, and these are a few shots of her as a work in progress. Those little glass balls are so very useful, as are the beads from Britax water filters (which are much smaller). 
























This is the beginnings of my Parasite of Mortrex, based off a warrior body and WHF Vargheist wings. The two fit together remarkably well, and if no Shrikes come out soon I may invest in some more wings for a unit to accompany this chap…
















This girl I’ve been working on for a while, and playtested with her as she was being finished. I do love Harpies, even in 5th when everyone else said they were rubbish. Now she’s even more awesome in 6th she’s likely to be the next ‘Nid to get a coat of paint…


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

*My Sisters of Battle, and Imperial Guard detachment*
(Or Dino-Riding Battle Nuns as a friend recently put it)

This was a girl I converted for GDAtlanta 2007, and she won me the Staff Sword. The Celestine body is remarkably good for character conversions as it comes off at the waist very easily. 























This girl was originally a commander for a squad of Rough Riders, then a prototype Seraphim, and now will lead my IG contingent instead. There’s still a litlle neatening up to do on her…
















And here’s a few of the Guardsmen with their Heavy weapons. I’ve gone for Autocannons rather than any of the bigger guns (like Lascannons), to avoid straying too far from the proscribed Holy Trinity but introduce something other than Heavy Bolters (which are much harder to fit on the back of a Cold One). 

















This one started life as a Sentinal, but with the advent of 6th (well, it actually changed about a year ago) has become a Hydra Flak Tank instead. The guns are removable so it can be mounted on a Bastion if needed.









This is the Leader of my Sisters Penitent force, Saint Bridgette, Guide and Guardian of the Repentant Soul. The model was sorely lacking a Heavy Flamer, so I thought I’d put one on that matched the lizard-theme of my army :biggrin:
















These are my current projects, to add to my Penitent Force. The Lhamaen is being turned into a Mistress of Repentance, and the Wyches into the Repentia. I can’t stand the current models, so I figured something with an equally flimsy-looking set of armour but better definition would do nicely. The chainswords are the Canonesses one, which is a perfect size match to the current Repentia, and the heads are from Hasslefree miniatures. 























These just got much better with the release of 6th, so of course I had to add a third one to my army…









And a transport for my IG I started about 6 years ago, a Chimera. The tank portion is virtually finished, I just need to work on making the LotR dragon look less LotR-y…


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

Simply stunning, I love the 'nid and the award for the Sister is well deserved


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Beautiful all around. I love the scheme on the nids, though I would think it is especially time consuming. Also the GS work on the flamer dragon is top notch. Can't wait to see more.


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## Pssyche (Mar 21, 2009)

Incredible stuff.

Oh, and 
"...on hold until the new dex comes out next month..."
Is that just speculation, confirmed or do you now have to kill everybody who read your post?


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Excellent work

Now stop reading our compliments and start painting.


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

Pssyche said:


> Incredible stuff.
> 
> Oh, and
> "...on hold until the new dex comes out next month..."
> Is that just speculation, confirmed or do you now have to kill everybody who read your post?


It's pretty much a definate. I can't be 100% sure, but I have enough evidence I'd need to kill people for reading that I'm 95% certain.

As for the 'nid colour scheme: you'd be amazed how quick it'll be to do on the smaller stuff. It's actually the bone that takes ages, but I'm working on trying out a Halfords colour spray to make that quicker too. There's a maximum of two highlights on each colour, they are just stark ones that are well water-blended together on application. 

And tomorrow is the first painting day I've had in months, you'll just have to wait til September to see what I'm painting :wink:


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## Pssyche (Mar 21, 2009)

So it's either Sisters of Battle or Squats?
And I don't think Squats are due a Codex anytime soon...
Ha ha ha...


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## Dicrel Seijin (Apr 2, 2011)

Wow. That is some beautiful greenstuff sculpting. And I really want to see more painted models. 

I know I have a lot to learn, but looking at the pics strips away the illusion of any progress I've made. Still, one day I hope to be at this level of craftsmanship.


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## LegionThree (May 1, 2012)

That is simply beautiful GS work. Amazing man. That and your painting is also top notch.


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

I've been doing minor conversion work for about 12 years now with GS, so I've had a bit of practise. The biggest tip I can give is do it slowly, in stages. For the dragon, I did a rough body shape, then the legs, then the tail, wings, head (in 4 stages) then scales. It took about a dozen hour-long sittings between other projects. 

I've not got much new stuff painted, and GD work means I won't til September. I'll keep posting the conversions though, and come Sept after GDUK I'll post an entire blog about my entry, whether it wins anything or not. 

Thanks for all the encouragement!


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## Zodd (Jul 27, 2009)

That's some nice modelling you have been hiding, Silvertabby.
The GS, the kitbashing, the conversions, the paintings, etc, just loving it. Thanks for sharing.


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

So, here’s tonights little additions to my Mistress of Repentence: A waist that can contain actual organs, ears, scaled-down shoulderpads, a slightly thicker neck and one side of her arm robes. Those Britax filter bobbles are great little things.
































Next up: maybe some loose hair on the cheeks (I don’t know if I want to keep her looking very prim and proper or a little more ‘pretty’), the other robe and some whips. The back plates will be filed flat and a backpack with flaming torches added on eventually, but the other details need finishing first. 

I also have to decide on iconography for the unit, but that’s something that can be done right at the end, when I’ve decided on something that will go with the entire force…


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

Another day, another hour of converting squeezed in around painting. Today the Mistress of Repentance got herself a few more adornments. 


















Her other arm is now robed (though this may need some trimming once dry), she has the beads her =I= symbol will be attached to, her foot has been properly bulked out, and I did have some shots of her plait-end, but they all turned out to be focussing on the foot instead. Silly camera. 

























Next stop, possibly the most pointless power weapons out there: Neural Whips. :wink:


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

SilverTabby said:


> Next stop, possibly the most pointless power weapons out there: Neural Whips. :wink:


What is a Mistress without her whip?

Nice work, lots of inspiration here for sure.


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## Dicrel Seijin (Apr 2, 2011)

The one thing I do like about your plog is that you do mention time, as in how long it takes you to do something. It's a bit of a reality check since it has caused me to reconsider my rather lofty conversion plans (a Chaos Renegade Ork Warband out of WoC).


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

So today I was meant to paint, but hit 'painters block', where I sat for a good 20 minutes staring at the model in question, but couldn't get into the painting mindset. 

So, after blitzing the desk and clearing out all the huge piles of bits and crap, I got out my tools and did a bit more on my Mistress instead. However, the block kinda extended to "oh I can't be arsed to sculpt gloves" so she's got hands made from Immolator gloves and Dark Eldar bits instead. The gaps between robes and gloves have been filled in too. The second whip has a bit missing in the middle and the green that will replace it is still drying, more on that later. 

First stage of her =I= symbol is done, and after the whips I shall file the back plates flat so I can put on her backpack.
















Not very much today, we'll see how the weekend goes.


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

Well, apart from the skull on her =I= which I forgot to add, she's done. I'm not 100% happy with her right whip, but she's an army model not display so I can live with it. The whip took 2 sittings to make as I made the bend first, then drilled into it to stick it on and file it once it was dry. 
The chunky thing on her back is her backpack mounting, which will be the 2-flame Canoness backpack. 










Her footprint is bigger than planned, but as she'll likely be an ablative wound on the way in it's not such a problem... :wink:









Once other projects are complete, I'll get around to painting her...


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## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

That's looking great Tabby, I always thought that mini had a lot of potential for conversion.


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

And here's the final shot, with the skull added. 









This is why I haven't been doing much of late - my Golden Demon entry took up all my time (two pics below, but there's a whole other thread for this one). Now I'm working on a necromunda gang for our campaign, I'll get some pics up of that soon.


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this. Well, here goes. 

One homebrew Exocrine - made from a Carnifex base, originally intended to be my second Tervigon and never quite made it. Now it's had the Acid Spray gun from the Tyrannofex added to it's back, had a 7-hole sphincter added to the barrel and a few extra bits like new back plating, plasma venting tubes and cranial control wiring put on. Et voila, one Exocrine. Now to base and paint it...


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

That's some great work!

Have a cookie


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## Pssyche (Mar 21, 2009)

Very, very nice.


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

Gribbly! Nice work as ever ST. Are you planning a Nid for a GD entry at all?


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

I should really start work on this years GD entry, shouldn't I? Hmmm.


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## iamtheeviltwin (Nov 12, 2012)

Your GS work is marvelous, so smooth and well sculpted. Any tips and tricks to getting it to come out so cleanly and working it?


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

iamtheeviltwin said:


> Your GS work is marvelous, so smooth and well sculpted. Any tips and tricks to getting it to come out so cleanly and working it?


I would love some tips and tricks as well. Enjoy some rep as well


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

Thanks guys. For the GS, I can't emphasise strongly enough that small steps and spit are the major contributors to a good result. That, and have a bunch of tools with many different edges. I have 5, and find uses for all of them. 
I've got another thread from a while ago up here, that shows what I mean by small stages - I'll find the link...

*Edit* and here we go: http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=118059


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## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

Great modelling there SilverTabs, I'm super impressed!


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

It strikes me I have been doing painting, but not putting the pics up here. So, let's rectify that, shall we?

I've settled on a colour scheme for my 'nids, and have been attempting to get 1000 points done. This has been hampered by the codex changing, and me being unable to settle on a basic 1k list (Too many monsters! Too few points!). Hopefully now I'll be able to get back on track again. And whilst the first 2 nids I fully painted were completely rendered by hand, I have since decided that I don't hate myself enough to have to do that on all of them. I have cracked out the dip...





The Trygon actually tarpitted my painting for months. The bugger took an *age* to do, as that's a LOT of spots. And he's still not finished - I have to do the lighter blue over each of those spots too...


With the Raveners, the one on the right was the one I hand painted. The one on the left was the dipped one. The difference is small enough that I can live with having a painted army, rather than a collection of half-done masterpieces :wink:


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## Wookiepelt (Jan 29, 2013)

Oh my giddy aunt!!! The time you must have spent on the detailing... Hat's off to you, mate!

Have a well-deserved +Rep for all that detailing effort!


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

They look fantastic man - I love the red scales details, as it really brings them to life. +Rep for you :good:


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

Lovely stuff Tabby!

I owe you a cookie! :good:


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

Really impressive work man. Im not a fan of Nids by any means but man do those things look good.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Hands down the coolest 'nid colour scheme I have ever seen.


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

Thanks guys, tis appreciated. And yes, the detailing does take an age. However, now I'm not having to hand shade/blend the bone beforehand it only takes about an hour per hormogaunt from undercoat to varnish (excluding the 12hrs for dip to dry), rather than 4 hours per. 

The MCs still take forever, but it's a *much* reduced forever, again because of the bone component. I'm even going to respray the big things I'd got halfway done on the bone, because of the massive reduction it will give me...


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