¬ Location: ¦ Spawning Vat ¦>Project Hel<¦

Mr. Pink did this incredible conversion of a Carnifex. He used to talk about the sketch this model is based on for years. And I think the result truly shows how far a passionate effort can take you.
Very, very impressive, Mr. Pink. And I really hope this isn't the last model you convert...

Project: Hel
An Old One Eye conversion
By Mr. Pink

Where did this crazy idea come from?
Hel first planted her seed of inspiration in my head several years ago when I picked up a copy of the then newly released (2000) Inquis Exterminatus book of Warhammer 40 000-inspired artwork. Although all of the finished pieces in the first 150-some pages of the book were great, I was really drawn to the “Future Unbound” section at the back that housed a few pages of rough sketch work by the likes of Jes Goodwyn, Dave Gallagher, Wayne England, Neil Hodgson, and John Blanche. There was a great deal of Tyranid material in this section, since (unbeknownst to us) the new ‘Nids were due out in just under a year from the time the book was published. I was most attracted to one of Jes’ sketches of a Lictor, but Dave Gallagher’s rendition of a Carnifex also caught my eye and I sincerely hoped it was the basis for the new Carnifex model, should they ever release one.
When the new ‘Nids were released in 2001 and neither Jes’ Lictor, nor Dave’s Carnifex were used as the concepts for the new models, I was a little disappointed. Although the new Old One Eye model bore some passing resemblance to Dave’s sketch, I was less than pleased with the new Carnifex model (grinning rhino?) on the whole. While it has grown on me over the years, I guess the new model just never made me think “screamer-killer” as Jes’ old, four-scythed monstrosity did. I resolved that I would never buy a new carnifex and unflinchingly sold the carnifex that came in the Tyranid boxed army.
Since the new Lictor model also left me cold (I was also a Lictor lover in 2nd Ed with a grand total of four Lictors in my army), I decided that I was going to try my hand at modeling by kitbashing the old and new Lictor models together and using a bit of epoxy putty to create the Lictor from Jes’ sketch. I paid a great deal of attention to this project and this sketch, and Dave’s Carnifex was soon forgotten.
A lack of any real skill at sculpting meant that I wasn’t all that invested in the Lictor project, and I soon let it fall to the side while I focused on the rest of my ‘Nids. (However, Marco’s Lictors are good renditions of the overall feeling given by Jes’ sketch)
I soon decided that I would like to be able to include Old One Eye in my swarm, but I was still faced with the fact that I was not fond of the current Carnifex model that OOE was based on. This was when I rediscovered Dave’s sketch in the back of Inquis Exterminatus and thought that it might make a good Old One Eye. I got a deal on an OOE model at a local hobby shop that was going out of business, so I bought it. I wasn’t sure how I was going to overcome my aesthetic issues with the model, but decided that the head an face on Dave’s sketch bore a passing resemblance to the then recently released 40K demon prince model. I purchased the demon prince’s head and chest plate and decided I would replace the OOE head with these bits. I realized I would have to do some putty work, but hoped it would only be minor. Little did I then know…
So, as is the case with many of my magnificent modeling brainfarts, the bits for the conversion sat in the box for months. At some point I made a dismal effort to saw off the bottom of the demon prince’s chest plate but gave up half way.
Then, opportunity struck in the form of a long summer of work. Added to this, my girlfriend was working in another city and, besides hanging out with my friends, this left my evenings rather wide-open. I made the conscious decision to finish something that I started and looked to have a lot of promise. My main motivation while doing the project was to have it ready in time for this 2004 Golden Demon in Toronto. Of course, I decided this in earnest a little over a month before the competition, so I had my work cut out for me. I can’t honestly say how much time I put into the sculpting since I would go straight to work on the model once I got home from work at least three or four nights a week. There was even one weekend at the end of July when I seriously did nothing else but sculpt all Saturday and Sunday (I was strangely near-sighted for a good couple of hours after that sculpting marathon). Somehow I managed to finish all of the sculpting work exactly a week before the competition, primed it, and started painting it with only 5 days (and a maximum of 25-30 hours available to work in) left before the GD. The competition in the Large 40K category was fierce at Toronto GD 2004, and I don’t begrudge any of the other competitors because they probably spent a lot longer painting their models than I. Although I didn’t garner a demon, I am glad that the competition drove me to complete this project. Over the course of the project, I learned a great deal about sculpting Tyranids, as well as about using greenstuff in general.

Why "Hel"? The name of the model/project is drawn from the background of my fleet. Simply put, the Tyranids of my fleet are worshipped by a genestealer cult that has managed to seize control of an entire planet near the planet that my fleet's ships crash-landed on. The humans that have turned to worshipping the 'Nids have certain cultural similarities to ancient Norse humans and they worship the same gods that the Norse did. Before the arrival of the cult, they saw the Emperor as an embodiment of Odin. Now that they have turned, they see the Tyranids of my fleet as the servants of Fenrir, the mythical beast that will deliver them from the oppression of Odin. Though my fleet is based heavily around the idea of the Norse god Fenrir, there are certain prominent mutations that the cult also worships as secondary gods.
One such creature is the mutant Carnifex of the Old One Eye strain. Since this creature can continue to function with even the most grievous wounds and it has shown the ability to regenerate, the cultists believe that the creature is half dead, half alive, and have named it 'Hel' after the Norse goddess who was also said to be half dead and half alive. I tried to carry this imagery through on the creature's base (base).

How did I do it?
In reality, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I had Dave’s sketch to work from/towards, had all these components and a very vague idea of how they were going to go together. As can be seen in the preliminary picture of the components, the only pieces that weren’t standard bits were the scything talons that I traced on plasticard and cut out. I then whittled them down to have tapered edges, heat vents and ridges. Everything else is standard, run of the mill, GW bits modified with greenstuff. In addition to this, I used a handful of sculpting tools that can be found at most art shops (Sculpting Tools). Although the assortment pictured may look broad, I only really use the two on the right. I have come to the conclusion that, when it comes to sculpting, I much prefer “working up” from an existing model by layering greenstuff on top of it, as opposed to making a wire frame and creating the whole model from scratch (I envy Ed Fortae’s ability to do just this). This “working up” approach also means that, for the most part, you don’t have to sculpt the whole surface of the model because you can keep the parts you like exposed.
When I started on my OOE conversion, I had not intended to do as much putty work as I ended up doing. There were certain things that I realized I had to change as I went. An example of this is the “thunder thighs” I had to add to the legs. When I had created the model’s torso, I realized it was much too large to look normal on the normal carnifex legs, so I bulked up the thighs and added carapace plates/exposed soft tissue to them. The large thighs were balanced out by also having large hooves, which I had kind of intended to do all along.
The pictures of the model’s legs also demonstrate another element of the “working up” approach. Instead of putting a lot of putty on the legs and sculpting all the detail at once, I chose to sculpt in layers. This involves putting on a layer of putty to bulk up the leg, allowing it to dry, then adding the carapace plates (Legs1), allowing them to dry, adding the recesses for the exposed soft tissue (Legs 2), allowing them to dry, and finally sculpting the soft tissue itself inside the recesses (Legs 3). This approach gives you more control because you have a hard layer to sculpt against while also safeguarding work you have already done and don’t want to undo by mistakenly sticking your finger in it while it is drying. Ideally, I should have added some greenstuff to the edges of the carapace plates on the legs because the hard epoxy putty I was using for the sub-structure of the model doesn’t take detail very well.
A part of the model where the “working up” technique was particularly effective was the face. As I began to sculpt the model and compare the pieces to one another, I quickly realized that the demon prince head was going to be far too small. Heck, the ridge of teeth that I sculpted alone covered the eyes on the DP head (Jaws 1). It is really easy to mess up while trying to sculpt too much at once, and if I were to mess up on the face it would be very noticeable. The “working up” process granted me the control that I wanted over the face. I began by creating the sub-structure that I would sculpt the face around (Upper Torso 1). Next I added another layer of the coarse epoxy putty and pressed in some divots for the model’s eyes. On top of this layer I sculpted the bottom half of the creature’s face using greenstuff (Upper Torso 2). Next I added the top part of the creature’s face as well as covered the lower jaw with greenstuff (Upper Torso 3). Finally, I blended the jaw with the head, further defined the chest plate, and added the eyes, the ridges around the eye sockets and some other details with another layer of greenstuff (Upper torso 4).
Another indication that I didn’t know what I was doing is the fact that I decided to include more components as I progressed through the sculpting. The picture “Components 2” shows many more pieces than the original. For example, I decided to include smaller details like fleshhooks that would be hidden in recesses on the crushing claws, as well as the extra finger/claw appendages depicted on the right claw of Dave’s sketch. You can also see that I was initially planning on using modified versions of the OOE mandibles before I scrapped them for the sleeker VC mandibles. It is very likely that a model will evolve while you sculpt it and you will change your mind about what you want to include on the model.

What I learned about sculpting 'Nids
Basically, what I learned from this whole project is that sculpting is a learning process. You slap some greenstuff on a model and poke it around with some sculpting tools and that is how you learn what looks good, how to create certain effects, and when you need to layer. I was convinced I couldn't sculpt when I started Hel, but the process has made me surer of my ability.

When it comes to sculpting Tyranids, I learned that you always want to score the edges of the carapace plates, whether you do this with a sculpting tool when the epoxy is wet or with a knife/file when the putty is dry. Nothing looks more un-Tyranid-y than a smooth, perfect carapace plate. Also, the best way I found to sculpt carapace plates is to start with the last plate and layer each successive plate over the last. For example, I started sculpting the plates on Hel's head by sculpting the first plate at the edge of the exhaust vents on the back of the model, then proceeded one plate at a time until I reached the last plate above the model's eyes. This took a little more planning because each plate was decreasing the amount of space I had to work with, yet I wanted to make sure the five plates on the head (the magic Tyranid number) were all roughly the same size (Headplates). Finally, you want to make sure that carapace plates have sharp edges, and not dull, rounded ones. This can be accomplished by sculpting the plates and then going back over the later, once they've dried, with small amounts of greenstuff to build up definite edges.

Sculpting the exposed soft tissue is tough and I would recommend sculpting it first in little ridges, allowing it to dry, and then sculpting greenstuff around it for the skin/chitin. I did mine by leaving recesses and trying to sculpt the ridges of exposed tissue inside the recesses, but I don't think they came out as well as they should.

Sculpting the Tyranid "skin" where it stretches across "bone" is best accomplished by pulling out small ridges of greenstuff across the "bone" using a sculpting tool. You can then further reinforce the effect by pushing the putty that isn't stretched across the bone back with the tool. This is hard to explain, but I hope it makes sense when accompanied by a picture (Skin on Bone).

I hope that the story of Hel can inspire those who read it to go out and complete their own crazy conversions that they have been putting off. If you think that you can’t sculpt, then that just means that you haven’t had enough practice and should immediately put tool to greenstuff to start getting better. Don’t expect to be able to sculpt a space marine from scratch the first time, but if you stick with it and start sculpting things that get progressively harder, you might just surprise yourself with your own ability.

Mr. Pink
Hive Fleet Fenrir
Harbinger of Ragnorok

More Pics of Project Hel (JavaScript on!) all pics by Mr. Pink

Components 1 w minimal work
Components 2
Components 3
Headplates
Jaws
Legs 1
Legs 2
Legs 3
Sculpting Tools
Scytal pre putty
Skin on Bone
Upper Torso 1
Upper Torso 2
Upper Torso 3
Upper Torso 4
Web GallagherFex Inverse
Web GoodwynLictor Inverse
Base

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