INQUISITOR - Severina & Sevora

It has been a crazy busy couple of weeks. With Winter Storm Jonas dumping 30" of snow on Baltimore in a day and all the distractions that come with that (my eldest daughter has been off school for the last eight days!), and my wife's birthday I have sadly been unable to get much done on my Titan.

I have been able to finish this month's Inquisitor commission, however.

First up are the twin death cultists, Severina and Sevora.

Something completely different - I made a thing!

Last year my good friend Dave Pauwels decided he wanted to put together a project that was an homage to DUNE (the novel celebrated its 50th birthday in 2015). He had a sculptor in the UK sculpt up some 6mm spice smugglers, a mutual friend Rich Erickson is sculpting an appropriately sized desert-wyrm, and he approached me to sculpt an ornithopter. I've been a fan of David Lynch's DUNE movie since its release, and was excited to mess around with this project. Despite being a big fan of most of the designs in the movie, I did not like the look of the ornithopter.  Felt it was very clumsy and could never "really" fly. Fortunately, Dave gave me free rein and I went straight to Google image search.

I was struck immediately by this image, by artist Mark Moinar, of an ornithopter landing in Arrakeen in a world that was aesthetically very different to the Lynchian vision, but just as strong.

As you can see, the image was a great inspiration for me. I loved the idea of massive wings to hold aloft the more upright body. I have two casts here, the first is in flying model with the wings at the top of their upstroke.

And here is the ornithopter in the landed position, feet deployed and the wings providing additional balance.

These casts were done by the incomparable Chris Borer, who has never failed to replicate my sculpting flaws perfectly : )

And here ar the component pieces that I sent to Chris to work his magic with.

I'm not sure exactly what is next for the ornithopter, but I'll let you all know once I do.

Cheers
Dave

WARLORD - Part 11 - Looking at the new magnets and pins and so on.

I grabbed a few minutes over the busy weekend and put together this video on how the almost-complete Warlord Titan is looking now! There are a few more magnets in the head and on the arms. The arms and weapons are pinned into place, and I can now start priming the pieces : )

Cheers
Dave

WARLORD - Part 10, Getting closer to the end!

It has been a little longer than I would have liked but I'm almost caught up with the Warlord. I put in a few hours of work on it yesterday and filmed a little bit this morning. Here's the video of where things are now at.

I hope you like it, and don't forget to check out my Patreon page!

Cheers
Dave

Starting on some Dark Age models.

In my last post (HERE) I noted that I had done some Marketing Planning for Cool Mini or Not (CMoN). Towards the end of last year I put together a plan to help grow their two miniatures games - Wrath of Kings and Dark Age. The folks at CMoN liked my plans and have asked me to join them on a part-time basis during 2016 to see the plans implemented. Of course I've said yes : )

I've been working hard to get a warband together for Dark Age, a sci-fi skirmish game that's been around for a while and has gone through various waves and cycles, but now stands as a great game backed with beautiful miniatures that just needs to get a bit of traction.

For quite some time Dark Age has had the "Post-Apocalyptic" moniker attached to it, and the core event that began to shape the planet of Samaria as it is now was an "apocalypse" of sorts. Five hundred years prior to the current time, the planet suffered a massive economic collapse causing all sorts of companies to pull up stakes and run, leaving behind their expendable workers. But now, five centuries later, the collapse is only a thing of legend and the various alien races that have since landed on the planet (and the extreme conditions of the planet itself) are a bit more a concern than any apocalypse.

Anyway, I was drawn immediately to the Outcast faction (my love of "man against the fantastic" showing through again) and decided to start with the exceptional models of the Salt Flats Nomads sub-faction. Here are the models I've painted up over the last couple of weeks. The schemes are drawn directly from the CMoN Studio models)

This is Bendahrin Durshe, Bladelord of the Tribe, Leader of the Salt Flats Nomads. I love the pose, the detailing, and particularly the bone tulwar (sword).

This big fellow is Kane, the Hand of the Bladelord. Unlike the other nomads, Kane wears a massive suit of bulky armor and he wields the massive Kestrel.

These Tribal Warriors are absolutely beautiful! Lightly-equipped with exceptionally sharp tulwars and poisoned hand crossbows, I'm hoping they'll be as lethal as they are good looking.

These Nomad Herders are the models that grabbed my attention as I was searching through the Dark Age galleries. Again, the poses are fantastic, and their masks are just the right amount of surreal for me.

And for my first set of beasts herded by my... well, herders... I've gone for the razor-winged Vrocks. Excellent sculpts, and cast in awesome resin!

I'm off to Atlanta tomorrow to chat with the CMoN folks and get things started. I'll also be getting in a few games of Dark Age. Let's see if my initial choices were good ; )

Cheers
Dave

Happy New Year! and what has Dave Taylor Miniatures been up to?

Happy 2016, everyone!

It occurred to me, as I was thinking back over the last two years of what I'd call a successful start to a business, that I hadn't really given you all a rundown of what Dave Taylor Miniatures (my business) had been doing over that time to "keep the lights on" as it were.

Well, I figured it would be a good idea to give you a quick overview of what I've been able to do in my mission to help various companies bring new product to market, as well as selling more of their existing products. In alphabetical order, here's a list of the companies I've worked with and the things I've done for them:

Brigade Games - Sculpting, Painting, Photography
Broken Toad - Marketing and Promotional Planning
Cool Mini or Not - Marketing and Promotional Planning (more on this soon)
Dragon Forge Design - Sculpting, Painting, Photography
Geek Nation Tours - Writing, Painting, Photography
Grindhouse Games - Graphic Design, Painting, Photography
Infamy Miniatures - Graphic Design, Terrain building (more on this soon)
Ironheart Artisans - Photography
Mindworm Games - Marketing and Promotional Planning
Ninja Division - Hobby Content, Painting, Photography, Terrain Building
Riot Games - Graphic Design
Secret Weapon Miniatures - Sculpting, Community Management
Turbo Tape Games - Painting, Photography
Victoria Miniatures - Graphic Design, Product Consulting
Wargames Illustrated - Graphic Design, Painting, Terrain Building, Photography, Event Coverage, Writing
Warlord Games - Hobby Content, Painting, Photography
Winged Hussar Publishing - Graphic Design
World's End Publishing - Graphic Design, Photography, Promotional Consulting

I've also done a few non-miniatures related jobs, and worked on commissions for 14 other customers.

I'm really excited to see what the next two years might bring for Dave Taylor Miniatures. I'm really lucky to be able to work with so many wonderful people on such cool projects. Thank you all for your support!

Hope your outlook for 2016 is just as exciting : )

Cheers
Dave