Bubblegum Grunge! And here are the girls of the Cerci Speed Circuit.

As someone who has painted thousands of grim dark miniatures over the years, and hundreds of WW2 models in their varying shades of desaturated green and brown, it has been a real experience switching up to the bright and vibrant colors of these Relic Knight models. There is a definite "over the top" feel to their color schemes, which only adds to the dynamic approach these characters take in the game. The Cerci Speed Circuit have certainly been a lot of fun : )

Relic Knight Princess Malya and her cypher, Mr Tomn.

Questing Knight Suicide Queen (on her jet bike) and her cypher Rollo.

Massive robot Lug and his handler, Betty.

Hell's Belles - dangerous Cerci racers!

The Pacer robot.

The Pit Crew - find yourself a good crew and stick with them!

The Royal Wrecker.

And finally, while at GenCon I had the opportunity to have my photo taken with cosplayers (from left to right) Stella Chu, Kitty von Brune, and Marie-Claude Bourbonnais, and the models I painted of the characters they are all cosplaying (Princess Malya, Suicide Queen, and Betty). The 13-foot tall Lug behind us was created by Marie-Claude for the Ninja Division crew and was not only an excellent talking point through the show, but was a great landmark for folks meeting up. : )

Cheers
Dave

Bubblegum Grunge! First up, the Star Nebula Corsairs.

I'm working on a couple of articles for the Ninja Division website on how I planned, built, and painted the Relic Knights table that debuted at GenCon. While I'm getting those together, I thought I'd show you some of the miniatures I painted to go with the table.

First up, the Star Nebula Corsairs.

Relic Knight Calico Kate with her cypher Skully. This cool model is actually supplied with an alternately-posed Calico Kate and alternate arms for her Relic Knight, a truly excellent idea!

Questing Knight Captain Harker with his cypher Caesar.

Star Nebula Corsairs minion squad.

Blowhards - demolition experts.

The Broadside cannon!

The Iron Chef - a must for keeping an unruly crew in line with excellent food.

And Kenobo - a Noh mystic with a checkered past. Best not to ask ; )

Next up: the Cerci Speed Circuit

Cheers
Dave

Why so quiet?

Well, I've been hard at work wrapping up the display/demo table for Relic Knights that will make its debut at GenCon next week. I talked a lot with John Cadice (Creative Director at Ninja Division) and we decided on a lovely mix of bubblegum pop and edgy grunge - imagine a Cerci hab-district assembled from pre-fab components fifty years ago, and then left to decay, with inhabitants that don't really give a damn about upkeep. Unsavory characters have moved in and the area has drawn some Star Nebula Corsairs, ready to plunder.

I then went to work with Alex Landing from Ironheart Artisans, designing the pre-fab parts that would make up the district, and generally looking for ways to add layers of detail and character to the board. It's taken a while to get it to this point, including quite a few late nights (cutting into my regular hobby time).

I hope you like these pics. I'll post a few more teasers on the Dave Taylor Miniatures FB page over the next week, but if you'd like to see it in person be sure to head to Booth 1943 at GenCon to check it (and the game of Relic Knights) out.

Cheers
Dave

Back from GenCon, and some new Mechanicum

So, Wednesday of last week I packed up my miniature case and headed off to Indianapolis for the biggest gaming convention ever - GenCon 2014! Despite living in the US for the last 12 years, I've never been to GenCon before. To say it's impressive is to do it a disservice. You'll note that above right there's a large sign on the floor of the arrivals hall at the Indianapolis Airport welcoming all gamers to the town. A great touch that puts you in the mood.

Given my naiveté regarding GenCon, I waited until fairly late in the day to buy my ticket, and was required to pick it up from the Will Call booth. The photo above shows the first half of the Will Call line as I joined it on Thursday morning. Around 400 people were in front of me in the queue, but thanks to the (apparently improved) processing it took less than 25 minutes to get from this point to draping my lanyard around my neck.

It was then a wander around the hallways that lead me to the mezzanine overlooking the hallway outside the Exhibit Hall. On the left you can see dozens of people taking photos of the crowd, on the right you can see thousands of people out in the crowd, just before the doors opened.

Once inside, there were 370+ vendors all ready to sell their wares, it was amazing to see the wide variety of booths and booth sizes and products on sale. It was certainly gamer geek heaven.

The main gaming hall was just as big as the Exhibit Hall, with hundreds of games being played at any one time. Apparently the gaming halls hosted over 14,000 ticketed events over the four days of GenCon.

And here's a sneaky pic of my good friend Dave Pauwels having just received a demo of MLP, so that he could teach his daughter the game when he got home.

There was plenty of cosplay going on too, here are a couple of photos I took for my daughters : )

Food was to be had in abundance. Here's a look at the Ultimate Gamer Breakfast Burger (or some such title) that could be had at the bar in the JW Marriott hotel - a massive buttermilk biscuit, with two sausage patties, bacon, cheddar cheese, a fried egg, sausage gravy, and jalepenos, sever with tater tots and a chipotle mayo. I stuck with a regular burger this day, but two friends across the table rose to the challenge and devoured one each.

And I was even lucky enough to collect a few Honorable Mention ribbons for my Death Guard Contemptor Dread and my Malifaux Relic Hunters.

Do yourself a favor. Go to GenCon at least once, and do it with friends. Have lots of fun!

Thank you to all my friends, old and new, who made it such a great first-time experience. Particular thanks go to my room-mates James, Josh, and Lionel for not snoring too much, as well as Joel (Mordian 7th) for organizing a meet and greet on Saturday : )

Anyway, back to the minis. After the Old Line Massacre event back at the beginning of June, my friend Marc Raley started to think of ideas to deal with my pesky Thallax (I ran a unit of nine at the event). He let me know that he'd bought three Rapier platforms, all with quad heavy bolters, just perfect for chewing through Thallax. My response was to order another nine from Forgeworld. They arrived with the Thanatar. Shortly after, I picked up another three in a trade and now have 21 of the automata. What could possibly go wrong?

This morning I finished converting three "special weapon" Thallax who are ready for primer. The top model carries a multi-melta, and the other two have my version of a phased-plasma fusil. I really can't wait to get these guys out on the tabletop : )

Oh, and I have a Castellax to build before I start on the paint job for them all.

As usual with my Mechanicum, the bases and cables are from Dragon Forge Design.

Cheers
Dave