More of the Brood

Hi guys

I know you were expecting to see the tutorial for the Troop Transport Truck. That'll be coming soon. I'm thinking I might have to do it in a couple of parts OR would you prefer to see it all at once?

In the meantime I've been putting more putty on Pater Sin and his cronies. After bigred mentioned Phantasm 1 and 2 in the last thread I figured I should watch a least one of them. As I sat there and watched Phantasm 2 on cable I thought "Wow!" for two quite obvious reasons. 1) that movie is REALLY bad! and 2) my psykers do look like the little mutants in that film!

Anyway, I've put a bit more work into them and I must say that I've drawn inspiration from a couple of great sources. They are CMDante (from DakkaDakka.com) and his great Genestealer Hybrid blog, and Brother Sinaer and his spectacular Cenobite Servitor on his website. John Shaffer also demanded I do one mutant that has a big eye for a head!

So, here are the nine psykers.

And here is the further work on the man himself, Pater Sin. I tried out the Empire General's cherub for the "baby's" body, but it just didn't fit. Looks like it'll all be putty.

I hope you like them and thanks for your patience regarding the tutorials.

Cheers

Dave

Pater Sin and his brood of Psykers

As most may know, I like to take little snippets of background text (from Codexes or novels) and turn the characters therein into units for my armies. Sometimes it is a faithful rendering, sometimes it includes a fair amount of reinterpretation. I'll let you decide which way I went for this modeling project.

PLUS

PLUS

PLUS

EQUALS

So as you can see from the picture above, I'm about half way through the construction of my Psyker Battle Squad, led by Pater Sin. Originally I thought the psykers Pater Sin carried with him in Sabbat Martyr were children. When I re-read their description it seemed more like they were mewling runts, somewhat mutated by the powers of the Warp their psychic talents have attracted. Because of this description I've gone with a slighty more 1950's inspired look to these spawn of the Ruinous Powers.

This guy is the first (and only) one finished. Many of the others just need their ears added, and a few need to have their robes finished off and hands sculpted. Lots of fun to be had. The most work needs to be done on Pater Sin himself. I still have to sculpt the second psyker he will be holding in his left arm.

Cheers

Dave

The Truck wins! The Truck wins!

Well there you have it. 315 votes over a week and it still came down to within 4 votes. Very impressive!

As I've mentioned earlier. I'll do tutorials for all three projects, but this just lets me know which one to start first. After I get my Psyker Battle Squad photographed and up tomorrow, I'll start on the first part of the troop transport tutorial.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

Cheers

Dave

Almost at 200 votes!

Alrighty then, votes have been flying thick and fast and they are currently (as I type this) at 182. In the lead is the troop transport truck, but only by three votes ahead of the AT70/AT83 heavy tank. These two are again only slightly ahead of the armored car.

It's nice to see that there's such a spread and that the conversions so far have struck a chord with so many hobbyists.

Only two days remaining on the poll. So vote if you haven't and get your friends to vote if you have. I'm warming up the plasticard and changing the blade in my exacto knife in anticipation!

Cheers

Dave

A secret revealed!

Well, the cat is now out of the bag and I can introduce you (perhaps) to a new venture som of my mates from Chicago have been working away on. Without further ado I present Gorgon Studios!

Hank Edley, Matthias Weeks, and Dave Pauwels (three of the guys behind the famed Adepticon event) launched their foray into the miniature and publishing worlds yesterday and look like they're going to be having some fun over the coming months. From their website:

Gorgon Studios, a cabal of veteran hobbyists, game designers/writers and miniatures painters is proud to officially launch its website and announce its partnership with world-renowned miniatures sculptor, Steve Saleh.

‘Temperance’ Gorgon is happy to make its first Collector’s range model available. We are proud to introduce “Temperance”, a 40mm post-Apocalyptic she-devil. Sculpted by Steve Saleh, this multi-part figure heralds Gorgon’s eclectic Collector’s range. Walking directly from the blighted and nightmarish wastelands of the dark future, Temperance makes a formidable addition for the collector, painter or wargamer.

‘At the Hot Gates’ Over the next few months, Gorgon Miniatures plans to release its first two ranges of 28mm historical miniatures. First off, will be the re-release of Steve Saleh’s excellent range of early Spartans, as a forerunner to a comprehensive treatment of the Classical era. Keep checking the website for availability, updates and previews of forthcoming figures.

Concurrently, Gorgon Publishing is working on both miniatures rules and some exciting RPG material. Stay tuned! The next few months will see lots of surprises. Again, all details of our products will be announced first on our website. Keep checking for updates.

Below is the model "Temperance", first in a line of Collector's Models that the Gorgon will be releasing over time. I really like Dave Pauwels homage to John Blanche's work in his take on this 40mm model, but I had to take it in a slightly different direction. I hope you like her!

So check out the Gorgon site at www.gorgon-studios.com

And don't forget to vote in my Poll to determine the order in which I do three vehicle building tutorials! Top right of the page.

New troops are unshackled!

First off though, I figured I should post up a picture of the men of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry I painted for a Wargames Illustrated article on the Union Cavalry. They're Perry Miniatures plastics and the section of the article I put together is essentially a color guide that'll hopefully help readers get their Union cav on the tabletop faster.

And now on to the reinforcements! The squad above was finished today, thanks to my wife for allowing me a full hobby day with very few distractions. As I mentioned in an earlier post, these crazed zealots will be fielded as Penal Legion troopers. They certainly have that crazed desperado look. I'm thinking of putting together another 20 or 30 of these cultists in addition to the Pater Sin-led Psyker Battle Squad of child psykers. I bought the initial pieces for these conversions last week. I'll show you all the progress as I build lots of freakish mutant kids in robes!

Here are three of my favorites from the squad.

What's next? Well I've had requests for tutorials on how to build the SteG4, the troop transport truck, and the Ragnarok tanks I did for my Vostroyans. As I'm planning on using variants of the Ragnarok for my AT-70s and AT-83s, I could do the tutorial for that Blood Pact project. But which tutorial to do first?

I'm going to leave it up to you faithful reader. If all the tech stuff works properly, there should be a Poll on the right hand side. Please cast your vote and after a week of voting I'll have the order in which to create and post the tutorials.

And finally, here's a teaser of something I'll be able to post early next week. It's from a project a few friends are working on and are preparing to launch then. stay tuned for more info.

Three out of four lead the wave of the future!

A few folks have been asking about where they can see the models I won my Golden Demon trophies with. Some of you will have seen these all before, while others may not as some of them are "buried in the archives". Anyway, here goes:

My Blood Pact Valdor (awesome Forgeworld tank) won Silver in 40K Vehicle. Most people really like the free-hand Chaos stars. They were a lot of fun to paint!

This Inquisitor-scale guy, my Lucky 13s homage, scored Silver in Large-scale Model. I figured the return of this category so late might thin the field and I was right. Hopefully we'll see this category bloom over the coming years to reach the heights achieved by it in Europe.

I'm accepting suggestions for my Chicago entry. Just pop your thoughts in a comment.

My Blood Pact Stalk Tank won Bronze in the Open category. It's a bizarre creation and not 100% as tight as it could be so I'm really happy to have made it in to the trophies for this category!

I also won Bronze in 40K Squad with my Blood Pacters. I selected the best ten (in my opinion) from the 50 or so I have painted. I'm going to make you trawl back through the early posts to see these guys ; )

Before I go today, I'd like to show you a taste of things to come. With the new Guard Codex full of great options, I present to you the first of my Infardi. These guys will count as Penal Legionnaires and are based on the cultist enemy that Gaunt and his Ghosts face in Dan Abnett's Honour Guard.

Games Day Baltimore was yesterday!

Just a quick post before we head off to Pennslyvania for Mothers' Day activities.

Well, it certainly was an interesting day. Lots of rushing around, trying to see everything amnd chat to a lot of people, as well as spending about two hours at the Golden Demon Lounge chatting to folk about the joys of Liquid Mask for vehicle weathering, and introducing my baby girl to the spectacle hat is Games Day. It's amazing how she managed to sleep through it all.

So, things went very well at the Demons. I managed to make it into the Final Cut with all of my entries, and four of them went on to snag prizes! I scored a Bronze Demon for my Blood Pact Squad (made up of a mix of troopers you've seen in earlier posts), a Silver Demon for my Blood Pact Valdor (also visible in an earlier post), a Silver Demon for he Lucky 13s Inquisitor-scale Imperial Guardsman (seen in Friday's post), and a Bronze Demon in the Open for my Stalk Tank.

I'm exceptionally happy for my first foray into the real Golden Demons, particularly to be up against some stiff competition in the form of Dylan Gauker (congrats on the sword!), Aaron Lovejoy, Bennett Blalock-Doune, Brice Cocanour, Mark Moseler, Joe Orteza, Skeeve, and many other talented folks!

Time to get painting again!

Cheers

Dave

PS. And thanks to those people I met at Games Day who said they'd been reading this blog. I appreciate the support!

Games Day Baltimore is tomorrow!

So, tomorrow is Baltimore Games Day 2009.

I have a lot of mixed feelings. It will be the 34th Games Day I've attended (in 4 different countries), but the first I've attended as a "regular hobbyist".

I'm kind of excited to be able to enter almost all of the Golden Demon categories, and it's kind of nice to know I don't have to worry about set-up or tear-down, or making sure that the electricity is on at the speed painting table (of the previous 33 I ran 11 of them, worries galore).

All that "kind of" is tainted with the knowledge that I won't be running the show, spending my day running around and making sure that everyone's having a great time. The early days, late nights, and serious heavy lifting have always been worth it in my books. I wish every one of my friends still "slaving away" behind the scenes the very best of success tomorrow. Onwards and upwards!

I mentioned the Demons, because this year I'll be entering 10 categories in Baltimore. I've painted two models specifically for this show and I've taken a few shots of them for you to check out. My other 8 entries are taken from some of my latest army work in those categories.

There he is, my Goff Nob that is my part of the Team North America Charity Ork Challenge. More news to come on this project. I hope you like this guy! The display plinth is from Dragon Forge Design.

I've had the parts for this guy laying around for quite some time (I haven't painted an Inquisitor mini since 2001) and I figured that the addition of the Large Scale Model category this year that I should do up a piece specifically for it. I've painted him up using the Lucky 13s color scheme, and displayed him on my snazzy display base from Wayne Turner. This base was used on my Open category entry in Chicago in 2007, Captain Nathaniel Garro.

And here is one of my eight "already painted for something else" entries. In somewhat-common painting parlance, this is known as the shotgun approach. Entering as many categories as possible in the hopes of picking up a trophy. Perhaps on Sunday or Monday I can let you know how it went ; )

To be honest though, there'll be some crazy-tough competition. I'm going to be really happy if three or four of my entries can make it past the First Cut.

Oh, and here's the finished version of the windmill! It'll head off to New Zealand on Monday.

Wish me luck, I'll need it!

Cheers

Dave