Welcome to the party travisb7, just remember not to bite off more than you can chew, if you do you'll be paying for it in the Teef! Don't say I didn't warn you.
Great work Respekt! I dig your Lootas, they have a great character and the choice of Eldar, SM, and Necron bits was brilliant. As for the bottom one I think the reasons why you feel its a little naff is because it lacks the almost organic cut up bits that the others have (that and it started out as an AoBR Big Shoota). For Orks it works fine, but if you want to improve upon it I see two options, either you disassemble the EML from the top and fiddle with it, OR you just add some extra card and bits to give it that complicated look. I would recommend the second of those two options because he isn't bad, it just doesn't look as if he fits in with the rest.
I love the look of the wings, can beat the flaps up a little to 'blend' or they were just looted from a shiny new one and smashedinto place to replace the nonexisting ones left on the battlefield, lol either way those wings look really great.
Thanks for the input Boss Ard'Ragger, I think they'll definitely have to have a different paint style than the rest of the boat. And because you and adamscurr have asked...
AoD... What did you use to do all that pitting on the wings in you plasticard?
Hmm... should I really share my "secrets" of model building. I don't know, I mean adamscurr one of my fellow bosses of the WotW did just confuse me with angel of death 007. I'm just joshing, of course I'll tell.
The "secret" is not really a secret at all. Well I suppose that's debatable. When I'm detailing I only use one tool, an old Exacto blade which has a broken off tip. Now I'm not advising anyone break off the tips of their blades as the tip is the sharpest and best part of the blade when it comes to precision cutting and detailing, but rather don't just chuck a blade when it breaks. Using the blunted head it is easy to carve irregular patterns into card (the ease is relative I suppose).
Another thing to consider is that if you look closely (sorry it isn't a better photograph) the top armor is segmented in strange bits. This is because that top is entirely comprised of off cuts of card that I've mushed together (another reason why you always save your scrap). Some were already detailed and then cut off from other parts of card, but most are freshly converted for the project, and are cut up before gluing down. This of course leads to many (and I mean many) accidental cuts on the fingers, so if you steal, I mean Loot, I mean use my technique be extremely careful as it is anything but safe. I could actually take a pic of busted up finger to attest as proof, but I'm not going to waste space with that.
Projekt Update: 19.5 hours into projekt...
I both did and didn't get as much as I wanted finished in this space of time. Simply put I had hoped to get further, but setbacks seem to constantly occur. On the bright side the more I look at these photos the more I think to myself, "nah you're making good progress". Anyway...
Here's my first couple reproductions of the Supa Shootas. For it I "graduated" to the smaller and more delicate drill bit to make the holes. I don't want to make another set of these. Yes they look good enough, but very time intensive. I stress that, Time Intensive! Admittedly there's more detail that doesn't come out in the shot and I'll be pleased with them when they are mounted and painted, but at the moment I'm sick of them.
The Russ Trakks are nearly complete, all that's left is the large wheelhouse on the inside loop, and either another access panel or Side Sponson for the exterior side. The Sponson would probably look best, but then there's the element of time and the lack of GW grey for it on hand. The gear works are all aligned properly to one another and come close to where they are supposed to be on the real kit, but are unfortunately not completely accurate. I spent a bit too much time working on that and decided to just get it to an approximate close enough. After all my hope is that people don't spend too much time looking closely at part of the base and instead focus on the model the base is on.
Speaking of which...
I am really liking the pipe built much more than the standard body. Quite a few changes have happened, for starters there's a thick wire in the exposed section of where the engine connects, a front airscoop as been attached, the main exhaust ports have been plopped on, and the beginnings of the cabin have taken place. The Wings and glass canopy are just mocked on at the moment, the canopy itself will only be finalized after paint. This piece however had the biggest setback of the project thus far (and hopefully the last one).
In the rear you may notice a chasm that's been cut out. This is because I needed to get a notch for the rear wing. I measured it out multiple times, and then when I went to cut I cut behind the line instead of directly on top. As such there isn't enough room to cut another slot in, and this one is off center and leans slightly to the side. It's very irksome and the only way to fix it would actually be to replace the entire bit (which would mean take everything apart and I'm not doing that). Instead I'll do what I should have done in the first place and cut the tab off instead of creating a slot for the tab.
My apologies, just realized that a lot of this post is rambling. Haven't been getting a lot of sleep (looks at work table) I wonder why?
Peace
~OD
