Corpse building!

[Voice of Reason]

--Just in time for halloween!

I've seen lots of dead bodies on model bases and on terrain pieces.

some good, most are fairly unispired or badly done.

because current GW models are posed as dynamically as possible, each corpse you create is going to need some basic to fairly extensive converting.

tools:
exacto-knife, plastic glue, super glue, tweezers, clippers. epoxy putty (or green or brown stuff)

supplies:
corpses of choice, skeleton and/or zombie sprue.

aside from knowing how corpses fit into your basic project plan there's some more detailed work that needs to go into corpses.

Things you need to know before hand:
>how fresh are your corpses? for terrain, I prefer long dead or skeletonized, for scenic bases I prefer to make fresh victems. Each will require different bits, modelling and painting techniqes.
>how did the victem die? A corpse from an artillery shell will look quite different than one from an acid mine or bolter shell.

with this in mind, lets take a few basic examples...

Easy:
artillery victem:
Death on the battlefields 41st millenium often comes with large explosions and flying shrapnel. occasionally, some unlucky individual will be blown to bits (haha) from these forceful blasts.

Clip off an arm or a leg. with each limb, cut it just short of a joint like knee, elbow or hip. clip off the appropriate section of a skeleton sprue, drill out a small hole in the limb, (keep the shavings!!) and fit the protruding bone from the flesh. once you have a couple good gorey limbs, place them creatively, yet sparingly around the crater. wad up a small amount of the shavings and glue them around the limb where the flesh has been torn. Also consider using an empty helmet, a broken gun, or other bits of equipment. minimalism can go a long way, so don't put too many things on or around the crater, most of it has been vaporized or sent flying anyway.

Skeletonized corpse:
some battlefields are sites of ongoing wars and under these hellish conditions, bodies are not always recovered and simply left to rot.

Use a skeleton from the skeleton sprue. it is also more realistic to clip the joints separate and spread them around, mix them up, "lose" some parts. It is flesh that holds most of the bones together, especially on the limbs, and with troops marching, tanks driving and explosions all over the place it's unlikely at best to think that a skeleton would remain whole. often these victems will be half-buried, and a quick way to simulate that (without going through the trouble of digging out a shallow grave for your corpse) is to simply clip the skeleton's ribcage along the length of it. add a little basing and viola! a half buried corpse.

Moderate difficulty:
The Choppa'd Terminator--sometimes you want to make a statement about the effectiveness of certain troops.
I took an old 3rd ed terminator, cut off both arms and then laid him flat on the ground. I then pinned the arms BACK on, only this time in a spread-eagle pose. this left some gaps in the armpits which I filled with epoxy putty, then grooved to make it look like an actual armored joint.

then I took an ork choppa and cut a groove directly down the center ridge of the terminator's head. Doing so took some serious trimming of both the head and the axe, but when it was complete, I had a terminator with a big ol' choppa stickin out of his head.

(more moderate and some hard coming later)

Painting!!
old corpses:
if they have any flesh on them, paint corpses like zombies, some fleshtones, some green and grey drybrushing.

Funny thing about bones:
they tend to take colors from the environment they are found in. this is mainly because of the slightly porous nature of bones, and the only exception is really when they've been sunbleached, often in sandy, rocky environments. other than that, paint the bones a little lighter than the ground they're found in. greys and browns are preferable.

Fresh wounds:
if the wound is fresh, you need to do some work:
I've found that taking the drill shavings (both metal and plastic) wadding them up and gluing them down around the wound simulates gore very well. also small amounts of epoxy putty will work well, it's just a matter of getting it to look right. rolling it into small lengths or balls works pretty well.

once your gore is modelled to your satisfaction, I recommend
primer white,
dark gore red,
(occasionally a sparing amount of liche purple if there's viscera invloved)
blood red,
occasional small dabs of white (this simulates the random bone)
then blood red again.

spray matte varnish over the model,
'Ard Coat (paint on gloss) on the freshest of the blood.

be a little generous with the final spatter of blood red, and be precise when applying the 'Ard coat. this will make your blood spatters look goopy and plentiful, and the 'Ard Coat will make the blood pop out as it looks shiny.

[coff]

Great tips. I had a marine on my original carnifex's base under his foot. I plan on rehashing the idea when I get the parts to rebuild him. Some things I'd like to make sure I do is sand him down so he looks to be sinking into the dirt abit. Only his belly will be sanded. Arms will be splayed out. I also plan on cutting away some of his back pack to make it seem like its being crushed under the weight.

[Voice of Reason]

coff said:

Great tips. I had a marine on my original carnifex's base under his foot. I plan on rehashing the idea when I get the parts to rebuild him. Some things I'd like to make sure I do is sand him down so he looks to be sinking into the dirt abit. Only his belly will be sanded. Arms will be splayed out. I also plan on cutting away some of his back pack to make it seem like its being crushed under the weight.

that leads me to an idea I had some time ago: tank-crushed marine. I never got to try this but: try placing the shoulder pads in the freezer for a while then pinching them closed a bit with a pair of pliers. it should produce a pinched, cracked appearance, help indicate the weight of the fex (depending on where he's stepping.) you may also want to try pinching down the torso with a pair of pliers.

I'll post more about this later in the advanced/difficult one, but a quick preview: corpses don't exactly feel pain or worry about laying uncomfortably. don't be afraid to put your victems in a pose that is uncomfortable, as long as you are careful not to make it unnatural (or if the bones are broken or dislocated, it's OBVIOUS that they are so)

I mention this to you, Coff, because I could well see an arm of the SM sticking up a little strangely from his body as he's being squashed by the uber-fex.

[ravener]

Yeah, thanks for those. Now only if i had 30 bucks to spend on marines to kill....

[Voice of Reason]

ravener said:

Yeah, thanks for those. Now only if i had 30 bucks to spend on marines to kill....

eeeeebaaaayyyyy

best of all, some of the crapshoot bins that you see for sale are often badly painted or converted so you.. or at least I... don't feel bad about chopping em up.

[Voice of Reason]

Okay, so now that you all have had time to digest (haha) the simpler parts of corpse building, now comes the harder parts.

remember some of the basics from the part one:

1. How did the victem die?
2. How fresh is the corpse?
3. Bodies don't care if they fall down uncomfortably.

difficulties to overcome:

a. dynamically posed models do not easily make for good dead bodies.
b. some of the coolest models to make dead are metal. (argg!)

hints:
1. Study anatomy.
it's easier than it sounds. spend some time being 2 years old and look at the full range of motion each joint can go through. where can you move your arm and shoulder to? where do the internal bones force you to stop moving.. don't allow yourself to be fooled, try not moving the rest of your body at all, just the shoulder, the elbow, the arm, the leg, knee, hip, ankle, etc.

2. Study anatomy.
Yah, I know I said it once, I'll say it again. go check out the art sections of your library or book store. look for comicbook art books, anatomy books, etc.

3. carefully select the parts you're going to need and the poses you can use them in.

so now, the difficulty is in making a realisic corpse with the parts available.. namely guys holding guns. it goes without saying that a corpse is not going to lie down dead holing a lasgun up to its shoulders or one leg thrust way out front in a widely placed shooting stance.

Picking your parts.
start with some legs. go through each set of legs available and pick the ones that lie down the nicest. running ones can work well, as long as the toes are not bent too crazily. widely spaced ones will work, but we'll get there.

next is torso. almost all the torsos are pretty much stock for every race. very little change for each one. the pose comes from twisting the torso. once you have your legs, lay them down on a flat surface and then place the torso on them so the shoulders are parallel to the ground (this works best, putting a model on it's side can be a great challenge as shoulders will start to get in the way)

now, most likely, one of the legs will keep the model from looking right, often sticking up in the air. go ahead and cut it off at the hip or knee, then drill a pin into it and straighten it out. most likely you will have a gap that needs filling.

select some arms that work well for the pose. you will pin these on to the model the same way you did the leg, making sure that each limb you pose makes the corpse lie as as naturally as possible. test and retest everytime you change the model. also be aware of where you will be putting the model. if it goes on some rocks or wedged into a crack then make sure the pose fits.

once the pinning's complete, mix a tiny bit of epoxy putty, and place it in each gap where the limbs are joined. press it in with the handle end of a paintbrush, then use a water laden brush to smooth out the texture of the putty. be sure to try to match the texture of the surrounding clothes/armor/limbs.

add the head last, always try to make it tilt or lean, make sure the sight line of the model makes sense to you.

you can also substitute zombie and skeleton sprue parts for the models. cut off a cadian's grenade throwing hand and put an open zombie hand in place of it. head not decayed enough? use a zombie head. use some of the hanging guts fromthe zombie sprue. leg in the wrong position? replace it from the knee down with a skeleton leg.

mix and match.. be creative!

~~

I hate cutting metal models. I'll do it if I must, but I've always had my worst accidents doing just that.

if a metal model needs a slight pose change, such as a metal SM's leg, you're not going to want to cut it, and you're not going to be able to bend it with your bare hands...

try this:

take a pair of pliars, you know the heavy needlenose types? then a paper towel. fold the paper towel up several times, wrap it around the metal limb, then use the pliars to bend the model into the position you want it. the paper towel will pad the model so minimal metal scoring occurs!

~~
finally, whatever you do, don't just glue together your most hated foe and lay him down on a base. it's so much more fun to mangle and destroy your foe's body beforehand and can look so much better with a little attention to detail!

Cheers!

[The Hive Mind]

Dude this has got to be an article on the new site.

[ravener]

Do you have any tips for realistc space marine deaths? I mean that their god darn back packs always make them is really stupid possitions when they fall down dead.

[Polaris]

What i do is drill a hole and insert wire,like the back pack as been ripped off the marine,other wise just build them normaly,lay them down and put a PVA and modeling sand mix around them,like thery are in the mud.

[Voice of Reason]

You're right, them backpacks are a pain.

those ideas are great, Polaris... make sure the wire you use is guitar wire or the like. good stuff! you can also try laying them face down.

one of the other things you can do is cut off both legs at the hip and re-pose them so they are sitting, with the back pack holding them up. the nice thing about doing it this way, is if you cut the hip at an angle along the crotchline, then all you have to do is rotate the leg, re-glue it with plastic model glue... no need to pin, as you will have some good contact area between the two pieces.

you will notice that in the Dead Marines terrain piece I did, I completly skipped the issue by not including the legs. this gave him an aged, buried look. but you can do similar things with other techniques to make fresher corpses...


which leads to another bit of posting.. I'll try to get it up at lunch.

[Voice of Reason]

Unusual death!

Funny thing about war in the 41st millenium...

there are more ways to die than can be counted. Gauss Flayers, Acid mines, Warp blasts, mind wars, monofilament shredders, holes into the warp, railguns that shoot slugs so fast they leave a trail of fire through the air behind them... the list goes on.

we have monsters that can cleave a dreadnaught in two, squash squads of marines with a few swipes of a claw or slash them to pieces with a single slash of a talon.

This can help give ideas on how to create unusual, unique corpses that will help highlight the various types of death that Tyranids can deal out.

talon victim 1: Monstrous death
Some unfortuante sod that got hacked by a scythe talon:
decide where/how the victim was slashed. probably the easiest would be hewn across mid torso, but take into count the model and how much work you want to put into it. for simplicity's sake, lets do a marine across the abdomen.

1. assemble the torso, one arm, backpack and head. Be sure to pose to taste, often I like making them mid-scream or disbelief/shock that the fate has befallen them. take the other arm and cut it off so that it matches with the cut at the waist. keep the severed hand.
2. cut the dome off of the marine's legs. hollow it out a bit with a drill, exacto knife, or some other tool.
3. place the three pieces some distance apart. add the plastic drill shavings as had been described in previous sections. if you're feeling uber-creative mix up some epoxy putty and make small flattened balls and organic shapes, some tubes and such like. string these between the legs and the torso to make exposed viscera.
4. the severed arm can be drilled out a bit and gore added, or a broken bone from a skeleton sprue, or (if you're feeling inexpensive) a small broken off toothpick.


Talon victim 2: Not so much...
I saw this pic a while ago and loved it. someday when I make more warriors I'll probably be doing somehting like it.
How?
1. assemble all of your warrior except for the talon of doom.
2. assemble your marine how you want him. then, cut a small hole (enough to fit the talon) in his chest
3. compare the length of the talon to the depth of the marine. mark your talon, both sides of the exposed talon and cut it off.
4. use a very small drill bit (pin vise is best) and drill straight through from the hole you cut in the chest to the back of the model. then widen it just enough for the tip of the talon.
5. glue the talon onto the marine. you should be extra careful to:
>a. make sure the talon is straight. nothing will ruin it quicker than to have a talon that appears to bend or distort through the marine.
>b. the talon actually goes INTO the marine. when it's just glued straight onto his chest it looks very wrong.
>c. don't use too much glue, you can add a little bit of putty later for some gore or blood.
>d. make sure the pose works between marine-warrior-talon.
>e. make sure it's completely dry before you move on.
6. only NOW do you glue the arm with the marine to your warrior and the rest of the base.

Melty Death.
Acid is painful... and dramatic.
cut off a victim's torso so that the cut, placed on a base, is diagonal. add one arm raised up, the head, and maybe part of the other arm. glue him to your base.
made cheaply:
add PVA (white) glue to the base. don't be shy. make it goopy. let it dry. add some to the victim. his arm, torso, maybe head. paint the color you think acid should be, then add gloss coat. simple, cool lookin.
made the expensive way:
I would imagine that using epoxy resin would be very cool, simply add some color to the mix and you're done as soon as it hardens... but I don't know much about epoxy resin... experiment at your own risk..

there's millions more out there for you to discover. read the weapon descriptions... after downing an opponent's razor back with 2 twin linked devourers from my fex, I described to my opponent how it worked. little worms all over the tank... he just about turned green.
it was almost enough to make me go out and buy another razorback and epoxy a million little devourer worms all over it.... then sanity returned.

[ravener]

Yeah, a made a marine crushed in half but old one eye, i rigged up some niffty intestines too. I like the talon ideas. Plus, if the marine didnt die from this certain blast of acid, you could carve or drill small acid holes so it looked like he just got splashed or shrapnal

[Voice of Reason]

battle damage will take as much attention to detail as a dead marine, just less converting work (depending)

here's an experiment for you:

go grab a hunk of styrofoam, you know the blocky stuff that comes packed around computer bits? then grab a bottle of nail polish.

drizzle some of the nail polish on the styrofoam... MAKE SURE you do this outside...

the reason I suggest this is that when its done, you will see a good effect of acid. notice that the surface is smoothed, distorted and melted. to get this effect on a marine, you either need to find some way to melt it (and fire is VERY unpredictable... ahem) or simulate the effect.

as ravener said, carve or drill is fine, be sure to make the holes of uneven depths. but then when you come back and paint it, hit it up with some 'ard coat to smooth out the sharp edges first, then paint it.

leave the sharp edges to shrapnel damage and bullet holes.

[ravener]

Hehehe, you said drizzle. Anyway, What effect does fire give to models. When me and my friend tried it, the model actualy caught fire and basicly got really charred....

[Voice of Reason]

ravener said:

Hehehe, you said drizzle. Anyway, What effect does fire give to models. When me and my friend tried it, the model actualy caught fire and basicly got really charred....

yah, one of the reasons I recommend against fire. the polystyrene catches fire easily and spreads. this is because of it's low melting point... leave a plastic model you hate glued to a black base on a car dashboard, leave the car in the sun in the summer. bases do weird things.

I did use fire to good effect once, but I had to be very careful.
What I did: (I am NOT condoning this... don't try this at home, if you do, don't blame me.. you deserve what you get)
1. put a light coat of superglue on the area I wanted to burn, (the front of a marine) but I didn't let it dry.
2. light it on fire (I like matches, better than lighters...) I was VERY careful... the glue flares up and burns very hot.
3. I blew it out as soon as the glue burned up, then pressed it on to a flat hard surface. this flattened out the model's front, and created an almost pooled-effect.
4. I repeated this several times. one leg came off with a small blob of melted plastic on top, the other strung out a bit so I placed it so the marine was face down in a pile of his own melted goo, both legs strung out behind him and only one still "attached"

I'm going to use him as an acid victim.. I just haven't found a good model to put him at the base of yet.