The Evil Cleric

One of my teasers from last post was wrapped up last night and photographed this evening. This model is Reaper's Evil Cleric Bledsoe.


Some of you may remember a few models I have painted for the Mechanicon Charity Auction. There's the Vulkan He'staan I did for the 2009 auction winner, and the Ulfhedner for the 2010 auction winner.


The annual Mechanicon auction is in honor of Chris Bledsoe, a dear friend of the organizers who passed away. The money from the auction goes to The Luekemia and Lymphoma Society. The 2010 auction winner again bid high enough to win my services for the 2011 auction. That's right, Kevin Bledsoe - the father of Chris Bledsoe - wanted me to paint up another model. I was honored when Kevin sent me this model, sculpted by the renowned Tim Prow, and based partly on Chris, partly on a character Chris used to roleplay.

This model will be heading off to Kevin in the next few days. And if you happen to be going to Mechanicon 2012 (in November), make sure you get involved in the great Charity Auction for a great cause.

Cheers

Dave

More Charity work on the horizon

As many of you may have seen on TV or read in newspapers or online, the Australian state of Queensland has recently been inundated with vast amounts of rain. Almost biblical amounts. While Australia is a land of stark contrasts, with its hardy farmers suffering either drought or flooding, these recent events have killed almost twenty people, left thousands homeless, and seen sharks swimming in the streets of Brisbane.

Chris Slade, from the Deepstrike Radio podcast, is a native of Queensland and while he didn't lose anything during the floods, many of his friends and relatives did - some of them deeply tragic losses. Doing his part, Chris has started a relief fund linked to his podcast. The banner above is linked directly to the page on the Deepstrike Radio site. Please head there and donate what you can to the relief fund. Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill have committed signed books to be awarded to those who donate the most.

In addition, Chris and the Deepstrike team have been accepting donations of boxes of Space Marine models that they intend to auction off as one huge army (starting February 1st, I believe). Not only will the winner of the auction get a big army, all new in the box, but I've decided to pitch in and convert and paint a command model for the army. The winner gets to choose what HQ unit and the color scheme before I get to work on it.

As a human being, it's tough to watch that kind of devastation, the kind that rocks some corner of the world on a regular basis. As an Australian myself, it's this time that I can do something small to help out friends of mine who suffered during this catastrophe.

If you are able to help, please do. If you have already helped, thank you. If you aren't able to help out here, that's fine too, I just ask that you take a look around your area and see if there is something local you can help with in some way.

In 2009 I offered up a painted miniature for a charity auction at Mechanicon. I ended up painting a Vulkan He'staan. Last year I decided to offer up another painted miniature for the Mechanicon Charity Auction. The auction is in honor of Chris Bledsoe, a dear friend of the organizers who passed away. The money from the auction goes to The Luekemia and Lymphoma Society.

This past year's winner of my "lot" was Kevin, who asked me to paint up the model you see here, an Ulfhedner produced by ZN Games. As it turns out, Chris had a lot to do with the development of this model and it is important to Kevin to honor Chris' memory.

Kevin left the scheme and approach completely up to me, quite the burden, considering the importance of the model. After much deliberation I went for a kind of Weird War 2 approach for this crazy werewolf. I kept some "standard" flesh tones in the mix (using the colors I had for my Minotaurs last February), and opted for a dark brown fur to contrast with the skin. Although I could have gone with a German or Allied color scheme (harkening back to the Incursion work I did last October) for the Ulfhedner's armor, I decided to leave his allegiance in question by going for battered metal plates. I mounted him on a Trench base from Dragon Forge Design to enhance the WW2 feel. Some Scab Red mixed with Gloss Varnish for fresh blood was all that was needed to finish him off.

Thanks for listening to my philanthropic rambling, I hope it inspires you to go out and do what you can to be good to people : )

Take care everyone. Some more Napoleonic British next time I think, before jumping back into my Empire army and some more Tanith I think.

Cheers

Dave

Mechanicon! and some Tanith

The Mechanicon 40K GT is just around the corner, literally. In just under three weeks Tony, Jeremy, Jim and the rest of the crew will be running a growing Grand Tournament in the "old school" style. You can find out more about the show by checking out their website here.

This year the guys are running another charity auction. Last year I offered up painting a 28mm miniature of the winners choice. Jim Warrington won the auction, and I painted up this Vulkan He'staan for him. We are both pretty happy with it. So, for this show I'm offering up the same thing (a 28mm painted model of the winners choice that is). Get along to the show, have fun playing some great games of 40K, and bid early and often on all the prizes the crew will be gathering for the charity auction!

And here's an update on the Gaunt's Ghost project I've been pottering around with. Above you can see the finished Veteran squad, lead by Scout Sergeant Mkoll. The squad is equipped with two sniper rifles, a meltagun, and camo cloaks. Below is a closeup of some of their tattoos.

Below are the three sniper teams I did for the project. Although the snipers are from a Special Weapon squad and would typically be based individually, but the client and I talked about it and we figured I could tell more of a story on the larger, 60mm bases.

From left to right: Mad Larkin, Nessa Bourah, and Jessi Banda.

Cheers

Dave

Expanding the Motor Pool!

I can never seem to get the hang of the smaller, more regular posts that so many other bloggers are able to pump out. They may be far apart, but at least they're big and meaty ; )

Anyway, it is less than two weeks until I'm going to be playing in Phoenix at the Battlefoam "Wild West Shootout" Indy GT. I'm pretty psyched, even though I have seven vehicles to get finished by then. Plenty of late nights for me I think.

Here are the first three almost complete. My platoon command "Chimera" on the left with a turret-mounted heavy flamer, my Psyker Battle squad's ride is in the center (I just need to finish the gunner and camo netting, and my N-20 Flame Halftrack (Hellhound) on the right.

Close-ups of my heavy-flamer toting transport.

My Psyker squad transport. This one will typically be sitting still in terrain, hopefully gaining a 3+ cover save on a regular basis.

The N-20 Flame Halftrack. The halftrack suspension is copied from the halftrack I made for my GD Diorama here. The tanks in the back are from a Forgeworld super-heavy tank, and the front of the inferno cannon is from an Ork Burna Boy.

In Sabbat Martyr, Dan mentions the self-propelled artillery support used by the Blood Pact, the Usurper. When I last chatted with Mr Abnett he said he had the WW2 M7 Priest in mind when he created the Usurper. Therefore I put my own spin on the piece, basing my two off Leman Russ tracks and toting Medusa siege guns.

Obviously it isn't directly copied from the Priest, but it certainly takes a lot of keys from it.

My Battlefoam cases arrived recently, so I couldn't resist seeing how everything was going to be packed for the trip to Arizona. I'll be packing it with a mix of stock trays and custom trays. I'm looking forward to traveling with these cases.

So you've seen the first five vehicles, here's the start of the sixth (which will be the same as the seventh). Still a long way to go on the AT-73 Reaver (Leman Russ). So wish me luck on that.

I've had quite a few folks asking me about commissions recently, which is great. With any luck I'll be able to support my hobby from commissions alone next year. That would be nice. On that note, I'm actually giving something away in November!

I've donated a paintjob to the charity auction that will be held at Mechanicon in PA on the first weekend of November. This is the first year for the event, and the team putting it together have been working really hard to get everything together. If you're on the East coast of America, you'd be pretty crazy to miss what will grow into one of the larger gamer-run events around.

For details on Mechanicon, click here, and get yourself along to the show. Don't forget to bid on my paintjob (on the 28mm human-sized miniature of your choice), and have fun!!!

Cheers

Dave