I’d been working on this on and off for roughly three years. Nearly every step of the project was something I’d never attempted before. Casting, sculpting, weathering. The hardest to overcome was the procrastination, but here it is. Finally!
It all began with an image from the Chaos Space Marine Codex.
Then a $15 russian model to stand in for an Imperial flyer.
The Heldrake’s neck is bent upwards rather than towards the victim I was preparing. After some consideration I made a silicone mold and hot glue casting of the neck. That way I could cut it up and reconfigure it in the proper shape.
With those mixed results I moved on to dry fitting and posing.
Next I made the underpart of the neck out of some wire for strength and shape and green stuff cables made with GSI’s Tentacle Maker. Then I put the hot glue armor sections in place.
Base construction, pinning, and more dry fitting.
At this point I was frustrated with the lack of hard edges on the hot glue cast so I used some white milliput to define them a bit more and decided to just cut the spines off the original neck and pin them to mine.
Some months later it was primered and then I sculpted my very first flames.
Some silly putty to mask off the face, then flames. Airbrush to add a metallic basecoat to the drake.
I used Typhus Corrosion to get some textured grit where the flames would have heated the drake the most. Then attempted some heat distressing.
Next I used the salt water weathering technique generously and over that sprayed a layer of crimson.
Green base coat and layers for the dying flyer.
I’d been dreading painting the trim but thanks to my favorite 40k podcast I’d learned about using metallic sharpies! Thanks to my Dark Apostle I’ve learned that you don’t HAVE to hit every peice of detail. Get the areas you want focused on or it’ll just make eyes swim.
I attempted pin washing but didn’t get the consistency right and quickly gave up in favor of the much faster basic wash.
It was a long and slow struggle but I’m very pleased with the results and I learned a lot on the way.
