Varangian void dragons , WIP

The internet has spoken! After the last post about the dragons on the cooling ridges I asked for some advice on the design and in the comments I got some good advice. Like my wife the internet did not like the rib cages, so I decided to remove them and go with my original idea instead (it had already been started). So instead of having ribs the cooling ridges now has some spiked bone ridges between the side vents. In the end I agree that this looks better than the rib cages. Once this dilemma was sorted I got the mojo going and have been working on the rest of the pieces. I sculpted some horns for the dragon skulls, added some small spike on the eye bow ridges. I also sculpted the last vertebra to connect the spine to the skulls. To fit the void shield projectors with the spine I had to raise them up a bit. So they are now more like umbrellas hovering above the spine. This means I need to do some sculpting on the under sides to tie them into the rest. I also need to add some more of the back bone to connect things. I also added some chaos growths to the main vent exhausts. This means I am almost ready with the back piece and can soon start painting. Once this is done the main body of the Varangian will be done so I am closing in on a major mile stone in this project.

Apart from green stuff sculpting I have also been painting on one of my Hellverin Armigers. When I bought the Preceptor knight I finally got my hands on a "real" knight pilot. Since I am not bout to by a lot of knights just for the pilot I decided to try blue stuff casting some additional pilots as a test. I must say I am really impressed with the quality of the cast. I have tried press molding green stuff before from green stuff molds. But you can't leave the mold in place as the green stuff cures as you will not be able to remove it later on, and you also need some lubricant to release the green stuff from the mold, this has always lead to loss of detail and some warping. With bluff stuff you just let the green stuff cure in the mold and then you can just pop it out with very good results. I still have some problem with the amounts of GS needed to the cast so I get some unseemly mold lines, but they will not be visible once the pilot is in his/her seat. Since I have a good surplus of skiitari helmets I decided that they would work instead of trying to cast the real helmet. This process will save me much time in the future as I do not need to build the pilots from scratch any more (unless I want to off course), which will be good if I am to build a full super heavy detachment of armigers... (preceptor and 12 armigers). We will see if it gets that far... it is a hell of a lot of models to paint and build, but it would be cool as a scouting company for the rest of the knights and titans.