The Bearer of Bad Tidings

Don't worry, nothing's wrong.

This title is just the title of the last entry I worked on this year for the Chicago Golden Demons.

Mike Anderson did a wonderful job sculpting this model. Such a simple pose that conveys all manner of barely-checked brutality. I bought two of these models as soon as I saw it. As far as conversion work I simply replaced the head with one from the Chaos Knights sprue and replaced the shield with the shield/standard combo from the same sprue. I think the banner top is from the Chaos Marauder Horsemen sprue.

I went for a very simple palette to enhance the simplicity of the model.

Anyway, I have since passed the Bearer on to a friend who helped me through some tough times with kind words and cheerful encouragement. I wish you the best in your studies Ben, I'm sure we'll meet again soon.

Onwards to more projects.

At the moment I'm working on dozens of things (it certainly feels that way). I have to finish the truck tutorial for you all, post the plans for it, assemble and paint 6 of them for sale (a little experiment), build a couple of Usurpers (Blood Pact Medusas) and two AT-70 Reavers for a tournament in October, paint up 20 more troopers for that same tournament, host my parents for three weeks, and continue to work towards building the stockpile of great articles for Wargames Illustrated to get us a bit further ahead. There are a couple of other projects in there but I'll talk about those later.

Until next time, have fun and keep painting!

Cheers

Dave

PS. I forgot to mention, the plinth he is standing I bought from Jeff at Dragon Forge.

Back from the Windy City and settling in...

Games Day Chicago was a fun day for me. I know a lot of people have been a bit disappointed by certain aspects of it, but I think it's all about having your expectations met or exceeded.

I expected to have a fun day catching up with friends, meeting new painters, talking about toy soldiers, and perhaps even walking away with a trophy or two.

Check, check, check, and check!

I entered all 11 categories I was able to. A bit of overkill perhaps, but you can't with the MegaMillions if you don't buy a ticket. Again I was lucky that all my entries made it past the first cut. Of course that made the final judging very nerve wracking, particularly as it wasn't until the Diorama category that I saw one of my entries with a Winner tag in front of it.

That's right, The Withdrawal took Silver in the Diorama category, as did Cherubael in the Large Scale Model category.

Amusingly enough, my nemesis in these two categories was another Aussie, Kyle Morgan, who had flown in from Sydney to compete. As he was flying so far he brought eight entries (must be something in the Australian blood, or that we're raised to "'ave a go, ya mug!"). Kyle's beautiful work netted him five trophies in all (I think). You can see some of his work at the Oz Painters forums, where he posts as KyleM.

Anyway, here's a list of my entries by category:

1. 40K Single - Kalak81, Adpetus Mechanicus Skittarii (pictured in this post)

2. 40K Squad - Pater Sin and his Psyker Brood (pictured in this post)

3. 40K Vehicle - Nurgle Blight Drone (pictured here)

4. 40K Large - Renegade Berserker Ogryn (pictured here)

5. Warhammer Single - Chaos Sorceror (pictured in this post)

6. Warhamer Regiment - Ironskin Ogre Rhinox Riders

7. Warhammer Large - "The Bearer of Bad Tidings", Chaos Standard Bearer (pictures coming soon)

8. LoTR Single - Dying Boromir

9. Diorama - "The Withdrawal of the 144th" (pictured here)

10. Large Scale Model - Cherubael (pictured here)

12. Open - Departmento Munitorium Truck (pictured here)

Here's Kalak81, the Skittarii I have been working on as a commission piece for a friend of mine. I know he's very excited to get his hands on this model. The handover goes down next Tuesday!

A special edition model that I picked up from Jeff Hall (who's blog you can see here) at the last Bizarre Bazaar. For some reason I wanted to go with the purple.

And the class photo of Pater Sin and his Psyker Brood. I apologize that not everything is in focus. For some reason I got this splitting headache and blurry vision as I looked through the viewfinder ; )

Congrats to all the other entrants and winners! Keep an eye out on the GW site over the next few weeks for the other winning models.

Cheers

Dave

The Withdrawal: Diorama entry for Chicago Golden Demons - Part 2 (The Finishing)

Only 48 hours till I fly to Chicago!

Here's the finished diorama. Unfortunately the pics look a bit washed out, I'll have to take a few more next week (maybe while getting some practice in with my new work lighting rig and camera).

Anyway, I decided to stick with the 144th Cadian regiment, something about the number just spoke to me. The models are not glued down yet, that'll happen on Saturday morning, so you may see some gaps between feet and ground. This is so that it will be a LOT easier to transport this beast out to Chicago. No sense hoping it'll arrive in one piece so I'll start with it traveling in 15 or so pieces ; )

I hope you like it. This diorama represents the largest amount of time I've spent on a model that wasn't intended for gaming. Even if it doesn't win a trophy, I'm still very happy with the journey and the end result.

Cheers

Dave

Less than a week to go...

...until Chicago Games Day.

My wife has been incredibly generous. I'm allowed to go to the show, even though I was gone Friday and Saturday this weekend at Historicon (for work, lots of photographs taken). She certainly is an incredibly patient woman. Thank you Julie!

So, on to some of the finished pieces.

Here's Pater Sin. The nemesis of Colonel Colm Corbec, torturing him in Honour Guard, and being responsible for his murder in Sabbat Martyr.

In the descriptions of Pater Sin he has some pretty elaborate tattoos (including a tatt of the Emporer on his left chest). In miniature form it can be very tough to make this sort of thing look good, so I opted for some more vicious looking tribal tatts.

So, Pater Sin will join his mutant psychic choir for my 40K squad entry.

And then there's my entry for the Large Scale Model category, Cherubael! I'm very happy with how the skin worked out on this guy. Dheneb Stone is fast becoming one of my favorite colors.

And a "thank you" to Bob for giving me the Chaos star bit I used on the base. It has worked out very well, adding - I think - to Cherubael's dynamic posing.

More pics to follow later in the week.

Cheers

Dave

What's that buzzing sound?

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, I haven't had much time to get things photographed and up on the blog. Fortunately this evening, after a lovely dinner, I was able to snap a few shots of my 40K Vehicle entry for Chicago Golden Demons. Below you can see what is currently my favorite vehicle produced by Forgeworld, the Nurgle Blight Drone. Not only is it, at least in my opinion, a classic machination of the warped powers of Chaos, but it's easy to put together and almost as easy to paint up! Pure win in my books.

Once assembled and primed black I started with my "trademark" drybrush of Tin Bitz over the entire model. This was followed by a drybrush of Boltgun Metal, a bit lighter but over the whole model. This model is heavily textured and takes the drybrushing really well. Note: I use a GW Tank Brush for all my initial stage drybrushing.

The next step was to stipple all the rusted areas with some Scorched Brown. I used and old GW Large brush for this, with the bristles trimmed down to emulate the forthcoming Stippling Brush due out next week (I think). This stage was followed by a stipple over the same areas with Dark Flesh, then with Fiery Orange. Once all this was dry I washed the model with Devlan Mud. When the wash had dried I went back over the key rusted areas with a stipple of Solar Macharius Orange. An important thing to point out was that I left a puddle of the Orange on my palette for about a minute before I used it for the final stage, so it was good and chunky.

I think I may have said before that you really shouldn't try anything new (technique or color-wise) on a Golden Demon entry. By all means practice using techniques or new colors on miniatures, but make sure you're comfortable with them when you go to use them on your entries. Anyway, I ignored that when it came to the green color for the carapace. I wanted something similar to the way Matthieu Fontaine painted his award-winning Blight Drone. To that end I dragged out some colors I haven't used before: Vallejo Russian Green (894) and Vallejo Brown Violet (887). A 50/50 mix of these formed the base color for the green paintwork. With careful layers of drybrushing using the aforementioned "stippling" brush, I added Vallejo Stone Grey (884) to the mix and built it up to the desired level. A quick touch up around the edge with a mix of Scorched Brown, Badab Black, and water was all that was needed to complete this stage.

The bulging and splitting sack of engorged flesh was next. A basecoat of Dheneb Stone was the first step, followed by a thin wash of Leviathan Purple over the flesh. I then highlighted the flesh with Dheneb Stone, taking care to leave the Leviathan Purple showing in the crevices. In the areas where the skin has broken open I basecoated them with Tallarn Flesh. I followed that with a wash of Baal Red, a thin wash of Thraka Green, and then a final wash of Baal Red. Some 'Ardcoat was enough to really give a gross appearance. Baal Red was pushed into some of the deeper crevices and put over the pustles to give that "strained flesh" feeling.

The hoses were simply painted black and highlighted up by adding Codex Grey to a mix.

Many of you may have already seen the Blight Drone painted by Mark Bedford on the Forgeworld site. It's a very nice job, but my favorite part was the stream of effluent emerging from the butt of the Drone. Of course I had to pay homage to this great idea by promptly stealing it. The core of the stream is a brass rod that goes up into the Drone and is bent under the base and puttied in, making it incredibly stable. Around that core is a sleeve of plastic tubing covered in greenstuff. The splashes at the base of the stream are greenstuff formed around pieces of paperclip.

The stream of effluent was painted with a mix of Brown Violet, Russian Green, Scorched Brown, and Water Effects. Once it was dry I finished it off with a layer of 'Ardcoat.

So there you have it. One of my entries. More to come in the near future.

Cheers

Dave

My apologies

Hi there

I must apologize for my lack of updates recently. Work has been pretty busy, wrapping up the last bits of Wargames Illustrated 262 and prepping a few contributors for future issues. On the hobby front I've been powering away at my entries for the Chicago Golden Demons. So busy I haven't had a chance to update, let alone take photos.

I'll try to get a few shots this weekend and show you some of the fun stuff I've been up to.

I expect I'll also be able to announce the winner of the Stalk Tank Datasheet Competition early next week!

Cheers

Dave