Might Makes Right! - Completed Thundertusk

Well, it's been a little over three weeks of work (on and off) on this big boy, the longest I've spent on an Ogre model to date. Above you can see the final "accessory" I had to paint to wrap=up the Tundertusk itself. I put this poor, unfortunate snack-to-be in a Nuln uniform, a nod to my Artillery Train. I started his skin with a mix of Sombre Grey and Elf Skintone (both Vallejo paints), then highlighted up by adding more Elf Skintone.

Below you can see my painted base for the Tundertusk. It's one of the Dragon Forge 150x100 mm base blanks (to avoid the warping I've seen on a couple of GW plastic bases). You can see the pre-paint in my last post.

Each of the little "divots" in the acrylic was shaded and highlighted by hand, quite the tedious task if you ask me. A coat of gloss varnish was painted on over the top to complete the icy look.

And here is the beast in all its glory! I hope you've enjoyed watching this guy come together.

Cheers
Dave

Might Makes Right! - Thundertusk and basing

My Thundertusk moves ever closer to completion (thankfully). I must reiterate my previous comments about this kit, it is simply fantastic. So much character, brilliantly sculpted, and wonderfully fit together. It may be the best model kit I've ever worked on.

Here's a look at the faces of the Beast Riders, a wonderful mix of angry and bored, all at the same time.

And it can be just dripping with the little hanging accessories, like the frozen chicken, Orc hand, pigskin, and huge tongue. You'll also see  switched out the regular quiver of massive arrows for the rack of High Elf bolts.

Anyway, on the the base. A few posts back I asked for ideas from you all, and I got some very good ones. I let them roll around in the hobby rock tumbler of my mind, and I decided that while an entire base covered in ice would be cool (no pun intended), I still wanted it to fit in with the rest of my "Spring thaw" basing scheme. To that end I hypothesized that wherever the Thundertusk stepped, tendrils of rapidly growing ice would crackle and spread across the landscape, only to melt as the best recedes into the distance (something like the profusion of life that would spring up in the footsteps of the old Chaos Champion, Aekold Helbrass (thanks for the reminder Mike).

Above you can see what I have come up with.

Step 1 - I traced around the three feet that touch the base, and made a reasonable guess of where the front right foot would have been.
Step 2 - Using snapped off pieces of a clear textured acrylic, I laid out radiating "runners" of ice from the footprints.
Step 3 - I converted an Empire Handgunner as a "victim of the Aura of Frost". He'll be painted up in my Nuln colors.
Step 4 - The footsteps were filled in with brownstuff that was blended into the edges of the acrylic. I also sculpted some up and over the legs of the Handgunner. I plan to paint it all much like the weapons on the Yhetees.
Step 5 - I glued down small clumps of the GF9 medium basing grit, then glued down large areas of the GF9 superfine basing grit.

Now to the long task of painting it.

Here's a small look at the acrylic I used. Thanks go to my friend Thomas for showing me this stuff, apparently it's from a version of the plastic sheeting you see covering banks of flourescent lights. He picked up quite a few sheets at a local Home Depot store for cheap (as they were damaged) and then used them for his Space Wolves army.

Speaking of 40K, I've been refurbishing my Grey Knights and Pre-Heresy Death Guard, getting them ready for sale. Keep an eye out for them in the next few weeks.

Cheers
Dave

The tickets for Celebrity Dreadfleet!

The tickets are now on sale for the raffle of the Celebrity Dreadfleet!

Unfortunately, your ticket needs to be present at AdeptiCon in order to win the raffle. Note the importance nuance here... Your ticket needs to be present, but you do not need to be on site.

 If you are planning to attend and want a ticket (no reason why you shouldn't buy at least 3 dozen...) the tickets are this way.

 If you will not be at AdeptiCon this year (which is a shame but understandable... well not really, but still...) you can always ask a friend who will be present to buy them for you and collect your prize on site (if you do win, which I'm sure you will).

 If you do not know anyone present at Adepticon, or you cannot trust any of your friends, we have another solution. Mathieu Fontaine and I are proposing to be your reliable friends at AdeptiCon. You send us your donation via Paypal and we will buy the tickets for you, manage them during the raffle and if you win (which again, I'm sure you will) we will send you your copy.

A few rules and details:

• We need to receive your donations at the latest March 30th. Mathieu and I will buy the tickets on March 30th (day on which the online cart for Adepticon closes).
• Any bonus tickets will be awarded as per the guideline on the Adepticon Online Cart. Any extra bonus ticket will be pooled together and if one of them ends up being the winner, the copy of Dreadfleet will be randomly awarded to one of the donators.
• A complete list of the donators with their ticket numbers will be published on our respective blogs for transparency on Saturday, April 21st.
• Any transfer sent to either Mathieu or I must include Paypal fees or be sent as a personal transfer. Mathieu and I will cover shipping of the Dreadfleet copy in case one of you win (and I'm sure you will) but we will not cover the Paypal fees.
• The winning ticket number, along with the name of the winner if it is one of our donators, will be announced Sunday, April 22nd in the evening on our respective blogs.
• I accept donations at the following Paypal adress: tanithtaylor@gmail.com

Cheers
Dave

Introducing "The Guns Of April"

Here's a little introduction to a new blog you should check out/keep an eye on, The Guns Of April.

Well, after a couple of years of hard work (or hardly working) on some Napoleonic models intended for an outing at AdeptiCon, we've finally got our act together. Joe Krone, Brien Dulaney, and I started collecting our Napoleonic figures around November 2009, we discussed plans both small and grand, futzed about with ideas, and applied paint to miniature soldiers, but things never really went too much further despite my collection now exceeding 300 figures (painted).

Enter Dave Pauwels and Jamie Welling, friends of ours from Chicago, and their desire to see a big historical game at AdeptiCon. After some chatting, planning, and a little bit of scheming, The Guns Of April hobby group was born.

For AdeptiCon 2012 (its 10th anniversary by the way) we've decided to present a "what if?" scenario based on the historical Battle of Salamanca, 1812 (also a significant anniversary year, its 200th). For tales of the developing armies and terrain for this game, you can head to our blog, The Guns Of April.

Here's a shot of my latest completed unit, the 5th Caçadores. I actually finished painting them earlier in the year, but was out of Apoxie Sculpt for their bases until recently. I figured it'd be the right time to record my basing scheme for my "Napoleonic British in the Peninsula" army. You can find that on the blog too, although I'll show you the fun pic below : )

Well, head on over to the blog and start leaving comments. Hopefully that'll inspire us all to keep painting ; )

Cheers

Dave

PS. If this goes well, we might do something cool every year!

Might Makes Right! - Cool New Bases!

So, a little over a week ago I placed an order with Jeff at Dragon Forge for a few of his "base blanks", primarily his new "150x100mm" base blanks so that I could base my Thundertusk on it. I know that the Thundertusk already comes with what seems like a perfectly serviceable base, but I've seen quite a few of them now that have warped thanks to the glue used to apply a texture to them. In my opinion there just isn't enough structural support under the base. Anyway, my order arrived last Thursday (just before I headed off to Lancaster, PA for the Fall In convention) and in it there were a few pleasant surprises : )

The 150x100blank with Thundertusk on top, you know, for scale ; )

The surprises were the first casts of a new line of bases from Dragon Forge. Jeff has brought his successful Slate Wasteland bases (popular with Space Wolves players) into the Warhammer realm. I suspect this line will be quite popular with Ogre Kingdoms players. Above you can see the 150x100mm base, just perfect for your big beasties. There are lots of slightly differing angles on the tops of the slate pieces, so I would recommend you pin your Thundertusk/Stonehorn to this base. Depending on where you place it on the base, you may also need to do a slight amount of putty work to getting it standing just right.

I wanted to put together a few new models so that you could see how everything fits on the bases. Here are two of the new Mournfang cavalry models, each sitting on one of the two unique 100x50mm bases.  Despite the different angles on these bases, there was absolutely no trouble gluing the paws of the Mournfangs to the bases. I think pinning is still a good idea though, just for peace of mind.

These are the two uniques 50x50mm bases Jeff has for the line, and these gave me the perfect excuse to assemble a plastic Hunter from the left over parts from my Thundertusk. The large, flat areas in the middle of the bases make it a very easy task to accomplish.

And now we get into the "meat" of the range, important for Ogre players considering this line. Above you can see "Set 1" of the 40x40mm bases, along with an Irongut I put together using a few of the left over pieces from the Mournfang box. Set 1 contains five individual bases, all with flat areas in the right places to mount the surprisingly small "footprint" of the basic Ogre model.

Finally, here is "Set 2" of the 40x40mm bases. Another five unique bases just begging to have some Leadbelchers, Yhetees, or even a Firebelly or two, standing on top of them.

All in all, I think these bases are a great addition to the Dragon Forge stable. They look great, they're well-sculpted and incredibly well cast (only minimal flash around the edges and no airbubbles at all), and they are very reasonable priced.

I'm not sure excatly when Jeff will have them on sale, but I expect it'll be very soon (in the next week or so). Keep an eye out on his site or "like" his page on Facebook.

Now I just need to put together a few more Ogres to fill them ; )

Cheers
Dave