Bobby Wong won the 2001 Golden Demon awards Slayer Sword at the US games day with his magnificent Bloodquest squad. We invited him to tell us how he went about producing these amazing models and heres what he said ...
1.
Flatten greenstuff in the approximate size and shape of the cape on a piece of paper.
2.
Smooth the greenstuff out, and cut out the basic shape of the cape. Remember to mark a hole for the torso-backpack mounting pin.
3.
Scrape away the excess putty, and with a sculpting too, form folds in the cape. If the paper is bent slightly, you can give the cape some "motion" before it dries.
4.
When the cape is dry, cut it off from the paper, moistening it with water to remove any excess paper fibers.
Left Arm - Cut off the left hand and pin in the Terminator Captain's Power Sword, at a downward angle. Fill the gap at the wrist with greenstuff, and sculpt the ribbing. I then added 8 rivets to his wrist, and a pair of rivets to the corners of the elbow armor (inside and out). 3 tiny feathers were sculpted and then glued onto the elbow as well, (see the picture of the right arm). The left arm was then pinned to the torso at an outward angle, and the gap filled with greenstuff. His distinctive left shoulder plate is a metal casting. To create his personal icon, I cut off the banner top from the plastic character Marine backpack. I then cut off the right wing of the icon, and filed it flat, gluing it to the corner of the left shoulder pad.
Right Arm - I cut a plastic Tactical Marine right arm (with vents variant) below the shoulder and rotated the arm outward. The closed right hand was removed, and replaced with an open left hand. Cut off the thumb for the open left hand, and glue it to the opposite side of the palm, and fill any gaps with greenstuff. As with the left arm, 8 rivets were glued to the wrists, as well as the 4 rivets for the elbow and sculpted feathers.
Assembly - All 6 major subcomponents were test fitted, and a taller scenic base was sculpted from both greenstuff and whitestuff. The torso was glued to the legs leaning a bit back, for a heroic "chest-out" position. I then test fitted the right arm to the torso with a Bolt gun in the left hand, and pinned it in place. You will need to extend the right arm quite a bit outwards, and fill the gap with greenstuff as well, (see torso picture) to ensure the weapon does not obscure too much of the chest. Then glue on the metal right shoulder pad. The left arm was then pinned in place as well, and extra details such a power cables, and round joints were added. When gluing the backpack (perhaps after painting), make sure that the Iron Halo is centered, and aligned with the Leonatos' head. If done correctly at certain angles, it appears as a crown on Leonatos!
Note - I intended to use a Bolt gun for Leonatos, but during painting I switched it for a more imposing Meltagun.
Materials used for Leonatos
MK7 Assault Marine legs (raised left leg variant)
Tactical Marine Sergeant's torso
Tactical Marine Sergeant head
Blank backpack
Assault Marine extended left arm with Bolt pistol
Tactical Marine arms with vents
Holstered pistol
Frag grenades
Terminator Captain Power Sword #010111104
Spiked Ram from Chaos Vehicle Accessory Sprue
Boltgun with winged skull or Meltagun
Plasticard
Micro plastic rod
Plastic character backpack with banner
Metal shoulder pads #010115908, and #010115911
Well, that's it! With a bit of work, you can also have Bloodquest miniatures to game with. I enjoyed writing this article immensely; hopefully you will have picked up on a few new techniques that will inspire you to create your own Exiles. Thanks to Marc, and Ragnar at the Black Library for giving me the opportunity to showcase my Bloodquest squad.
