I finally finished one!

It's still all noses to the grindstones here at Dave Taylor Miniatures, with lots of work for March in the queue. I'm quite happy about that : )

I did carve out some time, however, to finish up this guy, who has been sitting on my desk for a few weeks (thanks to a generous James). He's an early cast of the Quaker robot from the Infamy: Welcome to the Big Smoke game. You can check out my other posts about it here.

He's a nifty little, almost-hound-like cleaning robot with a big lightning gun on his back. Very cool. I went for a simple, Tesla-just-finished-building-this-prototype-in-his-workshop look, with dark cast iron, shinier steel, and some solid brass machined parts.

The base is from Secret Weapon Miniatures' Town Square range.

I hope you like it : )

And here's a size comparison with a FW Thallax.

Cheers

Dave

Guest Post - Damon Drescher - Seeking out a Crystal Brush

A big thank you to Damon Drescher for putting together the original guest post for my blog, and a bigger thank you to Figure Painter Magazine (FPM, for short) who will be adding an adapted version of the article to one of their upcoming issues. I'll be taking it down from here to ensure they have the deserved measure of exclusivity. As soon as the article is available there, I'll link to it from here. I'll also be keeping a couple of Damon's photos here ; )

Figure Painter Magazine is a great, and eminently affordable, resource for all painters!

Guest Post - Dave Pauwels - The Road to AdeptiCon

I've recently mentioned quite a few times that things are really busy at the moment with 

work and family, so there aren't too many new models of my own to be posting on the blog. Fortunately I have some talented friends who have offered to step in and fill the void. 

First up is my good friend, Dave Pauwels, who has his own infrequently updated blog here. 

I'm looking forward to catching up with Dave next month at AdeptiCon. It should be epic!

When Dave mentioned he might do a short series of guest posts about what people are working on for AdeptiCon 2015, I figured I had to get onboard. It’s my favorite hobby blog. EVER. For the record, I like Tom Schadle’s blog too, but man, you can only take so much Infinity. Anyway, I am very honoured to guest-post. I hope it turns into a John Oliver thing and I get my own HBO miniatures blog.

For the first time, maybe since I’ve been attending AdeptiCon, I am pretty prepared for the convention, at least relatively. I had a bit of a painting hiatus since mid-2014 when we moved to a new house. But the last month or two has seen a flurry of hobby activity. My main preparation has been towards compiling the information for my one class I’m teaching this year, Liber Titanicus: Painting Knights, Titans, and other Lords of War. I’ve woken up my Warhound from her year-long slumber to add some finishing touches. She’ll be accompanied to Schaumburg by a Cerastus Knight Lancer that I’m currently about 23% finished with. These two (cumbersome) models will be center-pieces for my class, but I’m hoping I also get to play with ‘em at some point during the weekend. If anyone has a 30K Apocalypse game that needs a Legio Mortis engine, hit me with a scrap-code PM.

I also finished a small Bolt Action Tank War force. I blame Brad Pitt for this project. I considered playing in the Tank War tournament on Sunday of the convention, but I am not a particularly adept tournament player; anyone who played against my Sisters of Battle in the 2006 40K Team event knows that tournaments are challenging for me. So these are coming with for some friendly games. I just need to learn how to play Bolt Action. I have the order dice, though, so I’m like halfway there I’m guessing.

Finally, I wanted to do a model specifically for the Crystal Brush painting competition. I haven’t done any competition painting for a couple years - back at the Privateer Press GenCon contest - so I feel pretty rusty. Plus, the Crystal Brush is very intimidating. Which is a good thing, I believe. I do occasionally miss the old Rogue Demon days, though. As a Rogue Demon judge, that competition was the highlight of the convention for me. I think, at one point, we had about 400 entries, with a wide range of skill levels represented. It was definitely the “gamer’s” painting event. The Crystal Brush is a very different animal, not better or worse, really, but different. But I digress.

I wanted to do something “small.” Meaning something I could manage in a month or so. But instead of over-thinking what categories might be tougher than others, I went with Chris Borer’s famous advice and I painted something I simply wanted to paint, without worrying about how stiff my competition might be. So, after consulting my daughter, I decided that it was finally time to realize my long-planned Steampunk Necro-Pony. She’s my take on what a Cryx Warcaster would look like, if she were an adorable unicorn!

She’s an Impact Miniatures pony, with some modified GW wings. I had to elongate the legs to give her a little more height and sculpted a new tail and wing harness. The base is one of Jeff Wilhelm’s excellent offerings and the little Chibi skull is the work of the nefarious Chris Borer. I’ve started some base-coats, with the help of a new airbrush. I’d love to have her done by the end of February, so I can focus on my Knight for a few weeks before the big show.

That’s it for me. Just have to keep painting. EVERY. NIGHT. AdeptiCon is always a great time. And, as always, while the gaming and painting competition stuff is fun, seeing people I don’t get to see very often, like Dave T., is what makes it one of my favorite weekends of the year.

Thanks Dave! See you soon at AdeptiCon!

Solar Auxilia - First Leman Russ

As with recent weeks, I've been super busy with work and family, which is always nice. I managed to crank out a few extra hours in the evenings and now have the first of my Leman Russ tanks done for my Solar Auxilia force.

Fairly swiftly done, I need to tighten up some of the shading/highlighting and add a little more iconography (once I decide on what to add), but I think it'll fit nicely with my Dracosans.

And if you haven't been paying attention to the internets this weekend, they exploded with all sorts of wonderful stuff from the Horus Heresy Weekender, held in Nottingham. For the moment, I suggest you head to the Apocalypse 40K blog and check out Loken's coverage : )

Cheers
Dave

Want to try some Digital Sculpting?

Have you ever wondered what it took to do a little bit of Digital Sculpting? Wanted to know what work is involved behind the scenes, sculpting digital miniatures?

Well, my buddy Jake Schneider, is traveling all the way from Australia to attend AdeptiCon 2015. He'll be running two seminars (on Thursday night and Sunday) on how to go about getting into the world of Digital Sculpting. Click HERE and search for Jake to find his classes.

Based on the number of conversations I've had with various miniatures companies over the last few months, Digital Sculpting will continue to be a very desirable field to be in.

If I wasn't teaching classes at the same time, I know I'd be sitting in on Jake's classes.

Cheers
Dave

Solar Auxilia - The second Dracosan is complete.

It took a little while, but I've finally completed the second transport for my Solar Auxillia. I hope you like it : )

And this guy popped up in the latest FW bulletin. I better start saving my pennies!

Cheers
Dave

A couple more cool Hell Dorado warbands!

And as the US prepares for the Super Bowl this evening, I figured I'd post up a couple more photos of finished starter sets for Hell Dorado from Cipher Studios. As I mentioned in my last post, there's a series of articles headed up to the Cipher Studios website over the coming months, including quite a few step-by-step walk throughs of these cool models - the Saracens above, and the Lost below.

Cheers
Dave