This Is Not A Test! - a little bit of painting and photography.

Earlier this year I was invited to take some photos for a new game called This Is Not A Test, from World's End Publishing. Joey McGuire has put together a great game that owes a lot to Necromunda and Mordheim, but is set in a post-Apocalyptic Mid-Atlanic coast area, basically the area Joey grew up in and lives now.

As well as the game, Joey is building up a great range of minis for TNT. At a recent photo session, Joey was kind enough to hand me a couple of the models, including this guy, the leader of the Peacekeeper faction. With an interesting blend of western gear (chaps and duster) and modern tactical equipment (helmet and armor), this guy has a lot of character.

It was nice to get back to painting, after a week or so of assembly, conversions, and sculpting.

And here's a nice teaser shot for you from the TNT rulebook, due out in the next few months : )

Just quickly, I thought I'd post up this commissar. I painted him up last night as a 40th birthday gift for a buddy of mine. He has fallen ill, so his party has been postponed. I guess he'll have to wait until January to get his hands on it.

Cheers
Dave

Create Your Minis - Kickstarter

There has been a lot of chatter in recent years about the impact that 3D-printing will have on the wargaming world. Lots of speculation about how it will work, what the business model will look like, and when it will all become affordable.

Well, I recently heard about a new group from France who have just launched their first Kickstarter. Create Your Minis are offering up a service where you can pick and choose various elements and assemble them all on-screen, creating (like the name suggests) your own mini. There are all sorts of individual elements with fantasy, sci-fi, and contemporary settings, so you can create all sorts of looks, for your favorite war-game or RPG.

Create Your Minis offer a 3D-printing service, and their Kickstarter explores that some more. There are certainly some interesting things on offer as additional items and stretch goals, such as drop Dead Daisy (below). If you have a few minutes to mess around with "designing" your own miniatures, I'd certainly recommend checking them out.

Create your Minis website

Create Your Minis Kickstarter

Solar Auxilia Command

In amongst everything else, I've started on a little bit more work for my Solar Auxilia army, using my old Vostroyans.

Above is the old officer that was going to lead my army. Sadly he was never finished. So, here he is, resurrected and still WIP, standing on his new Dragon Forge base. I'll be using him as my Lord Marshal.

Here are the group that will be my new Auxilia Tactical Command Section. The Proclaimator, Vexilarius, and two Veteran Auxilia are complete (have been for a long time) but I recently got the bug to build a Strategos from the the commander in the Tempestus Scions box, with the head of a Vostroyan lascannon crew member and the archaeotech pistol from a FW Legion Praetor model.

As I get certain elements of the army assembled and/or painted, I'll throw them up here.

Cheers
Dave

Thank you, Secret Santa!

A special thank you to the Secret Santa that sent me these three lovely Vorax Class Battle Automata.

I had a lot of fun assembling these guys, I just love the models : )  The ammo feeds for the rotor cannons are a little tough to get to the right shape, particular if you go for dynamic posing like I've done. Sadly one of the feeds broke, so I've had to build a new one from plasticard strips.

The bases are scratch built using other bits of plasticard and the cool Tech Deck conversion parts from Dragon Forge Design. Click on the link above and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Cheers
Dave

Hearthstone Miniatures

Recently my friend, Scott Maurer, launched a new miniatures venture - Hearth Stone Miniatures. He plans to work with a wide variety of sculptors, producing many interesting sculpts of fantasy minis. The first from his new range is the Chuppa (above), sculpted by Yoo Jing Lee. I asked Scott for a bit of a rundown on Hearth Stone, and here's what he had to say:

"Hearth Stone Miniatures is dedicated to bringing new and interesting visions of fantasy miniatures to life. First and foremost, I am beholden to the sculptor and the artist. I want to see new artists flourish because they are the life blood of our industry and hobby. To that end, I have an arrangement with many sculptors to mold and cast their work free of charge and split the profits from sales with them. This is extremely important to me and I think a good way to foster new artists. Secondly, I want to make cool miniatures based on the work of artists I like. To that end I am commissioning concept artists and sculptors to create new and interesting miniatures that will engage your imagination with their bold vision. Finally, I am committed to quality. Everything I make is done in pressure-cast, hand-poured resin by me because I believe that this material offers the best resolution and I can best control the process by doing this myself."

You can see more concepts for future work at his site here, or on his Facebook page here.

Some very cool, and somewhat disturbing, visions of things to come : )