To replicate the sword, I suggest the use of oyomaru and greenstuff/milliput/similar. Or, as you only miss the blade, you can create your own with gs/milliput pretty easily. I did it myself quite successfully on a smaller model and I'm far from being confident with this kind of thing. I would suggest to use a pin to both put it in place and bring some extra rigidity in it.
I'm thinking too of getting that blue stuff for mold making and try to copy the Guijia sword. It's almost the perfect size. Maybe a little big. I'm going to look into all of the suggestions. Sadly money is tight so I can't splurge on hobby stuff. But I will do it and let show you all how it comes out. Firstly I'm going to make the image below into vector art and print it out at a size that looks right. Then use it as a template for plastic card. Then add green stuff if needed.
Fortunately, oyumaru is on the reasonable side of investment. But obviously as any hobby stuff it may have various availability from one region to another. Here it could found for a couple of euro to 4-5 times from store to store if from Amazon or creative arts stores. Also it has an almost infinite reusability.
Oh that's what that is! I've never heard of it. Yeah it's not to expensive on Amazon. I just need to get more stuff to get free shipping lol :( My local store has the blue ones for $15 but it's also way more than I need. I need to find someone that will maybe go half with me.
To extend your search, Oyumaru was the original brand, but "Instant Mold" and "Blue Stuff" are competitions that do the same. And it's not the only thermoplastic around, not long ago Miscast mentioned using high temperature hot glue for the same purpose, and local veterans mentioned going to a sports store to get mouth guards, because some of those are made of a plastic that works similarly.
I'm extremely excited to show my conversion of the Dog Warrior/McMurough/Bai Hu that I showed earlier. I was extremely lucky to get some Wrath of Kings figs for sale on Minaturemarket. House Shael Han with 24 figures for only $8!!!! Below him is the figure I got it from. The female demon/oni/whatever. It was tough decision if I wanted to do the Kwan Dao or the double bladed spear/staff from the other guy. But I'm pretty happy with this. I'll update when painted.
Congrats on the cheap catch. Deals like that only come around once in a blue moon. And I think that the blade you used looks great on the Tiger Warrior McMurough you made.
@Space Ranger Nicely done proxy/conversion you did here. I think Bran Castro certainly fits the asian theme of Yu Jing. Wu Kong is a good inspiration for a beast hunter your army.
And now for some Combined. I did the Legates primarily as a test before doing Nourkias. The browns are a lot more red than the picture shows and I tried adjustments but it didn't come out a way I liked. I think it still looks pretty good though.
Is it me or your paintjob is definitely increasing lately ? Or maybe are you pushing yourself further?
A bit of both. I've got time off at work I need to use and not much to do other than cleaning and painting. I'm a bit more determined to paint some stuff that's been waiting for a long time (years)! I've also learned some new techniques to speed up. The Legates was primed and zenithal highlighted more than a year ago. The actual painting with brush was only about 3 hours I think. Next up the actual Nourkias. Castro has been ready to paint for almost as long. But I was inspired by the new Beasthunters profiles, watching HunterxHunter anime, and watching videos about the Monkey King. After that, I'm re-painting some 1st edition Zhanshi to be my White Banner Zhanshi and proxy White Company Fusiliers. My second edition Zhanshi became Bounty Hunters. The newer ones are for Invincible Army.
You indeed paint more in less time but my comment was more about your painting level (I see now that I was a bit vague). I really think you've stepped up.
Thanks! I appreciate that. I thank the airbrush! lol. Also learning how to use glaze medium. Also, I kind of have a new way how I put paint on a figure with the mantra "dark covers light" and "never use black". Meaning for instance the red in the Umbra starts with brown. Brown is closer, but darker, to red. Adding black to darken will make it muddy. The Morats started with a brown based going up to tan. In some things i've been going opposite normal painting. Usually dark to light. I've been starting light and putting in dark.
Being a hard learner myself, I had to go through this baby steps too. Some are natural and only need to be told once to assimilate things, I have to experience my own mistakes to understand why things have to be done a specific way. Quite the steep learning curve but in the long run it allows me to have a better abstraction understanding of what I'm doing. So don't be like me and don't fear the trial and error method.
So this took forever. I got an acrylic tube and cut it down to the size of a Silo 1. It took ever and cracked a little. I started with a pipe cutter until it cracked then switched to a hack saw. After cut I wrapped it in printed paper "camo" pattern. These are worth it I think. I really like how I can wrap it. If it hadn't cracked I thought of putting the paper on the inside. But I think this looks better anyway.
@Space Ranger For all that work you put into making this I'm glad it was worth it. I certain could not tell that this was once an acrylic cylinder.
