Horus Heresy - I'll just leave this here...

Still busy times here in the Taylor household, but hopefully things will calm down in the new year.

Now that my client has his Horus conversion in hand, I can reveal the paintjob. I hope you like it.

Cheers
Dave

Horus Heresy - The Man himself!

Sorry I haven't posted up the lastfew models from my Death Guard project, but I was busy working on this guy over the weekend. He's a new commission build - Horus Lupercal - based on the great artwork originally from the Horus Heresy card game.

Anyway, I hope you like this guy.

Cheers
Dave

Greetings from the Warmaster!

So, after a fairly busy week (including a working trip to Cold Wars in Lancaster,PA) I've managed to finish up the Warmaster Horus. This conversion is based on the great artwork by Adrian Smith of the final meeting between Horus and the Emperor. My client wanted Horus to be "less evil" so I did away with the severed heads, stretched faces and one or two other accoutrements. This is Horus at the time of renaming his Legion (from the Luna Wolves to the Sons of Horus) when his faith in the Emperor and the Imperial Truth is on the wane.

Enough of the introduction, I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

The base is from Dragon Forge Design's Lost Empires range. For my money, nothing says "crushing the enemies of Mankind" like a toppled statue.

A couple of posters asked for a scale comparison with a standard Space Marine, so here he is towering over a member of the Legio Custodes. My client has a friend he plays against on a regular basis who has a Ronin Miniatures' Mortarion, so I wanted to make sure Horus could stand up to the Primarch of the Death Guard.

On a final note, here's a teaser of the last commission to finish before Adepticon. Rylanor, the venerable hero of the Emperor's Children Legion and friend to Saul Tarvitz. There's a bit more work to do on him so I better get back to it.

And the Winner is...

And so we come to "Revelation Day"!

Perhaps nothing so grand, but with entries from 37 of this blog's followers, I know there are a few people hoping a signed copy of Blood Pact will soon be winging its way to them. Please remember, there can be only one winner. I layed all the entries out before me and went with my gut, feeling a somewhat-Zen connection to the winning entry.

As I promised in my comment on my last post, here are ten or so entries that topped the list. I'll follow these with the winner. Please note, these are in no particular order.

THE RUNNERS-UP

Here we have the entry from Istvan Vegh. A great job of bringing the knives, skull, and Khorne symbol together.

David Brender has taken a different approach here, and I REALLY like the use of the skulls to create the wreath!

Gavin Massey went down a quite elaborate path with this one. I think the blood drop inside the skull was used as a campaign badge "back in the day", so I had quite an old school feeling about it.

Jason Gould brought the elements together very nicely. I particularly like the styling of the Chaos star.

One of my favorite miniature painters, Chris Borer, took a key from my interest (and his own) in more solid, block designs. Each of these is subtly different, and one of them might make a forearm tattoo for the future.

Alex Landing was very enthusiastic about the competition and sent through a couple of dozen variations on the theme. This was my favorite of his work.

This entry from Tim Hollman was the first I received to incorporate the Blood Pact grotesque. Some very clever arranging of elements to have them do double duty.

Wayne Snyder sent in a few entries that were very cool, but it was his worksheet that I thought I'd show here. It's always fun for me to peek behind the scenes and see how people work.

David Liljehammer submitted this entry. I like the decayed feel of the Chaos star/wreath, it looks rusty and dangerous.

Three of the entries from Dylan Gould. Like many entries, Dylan was keen to see me use the Chaos star styling that I've painted on my tanks. I liked the sharp edge style of these very much.

And Dave Stolarski not only sent in this piece (note the Blood Pact grotesque on the skull)...

...but he also sent me a few photos of the start of the "Gaunt's Ghosts vs Blood Pact" sleeve he is currently having tattooed, proving I'm so far from hardcore it's kind of funny. Dave will be getting the color done over the coming months, as time and funds allow, but he has promised to send in pictures of it's progress that I can post here. Nice one Dave!

THE WINNER!

And so we finally make our way to the winner. Robert Ringefors (from Sweden) sent in this very cool - and winning - piece. Not only did Robert blend the Chaos star and the Tanith Straight Silver, like several other entries, but the eye-catching mottled red of the bloody palm print just worked so well with the negative space of the icon. This should be very cool planted slightly off center on my bicep, just below the Imperial eagle I got 11 years ago.

So, please join me in thanking ALL of the folks who entered the competition, and in congratulating Robert on his well desrved victory!

Just so you don't think I've been slacking, here's a shot of the Warmaster Horus I've been working on for a client. Obviously the Adrian Smith artwork is the inspiration, but the client asked for the Horus that has just renamed his Legion to the "Sons of Horus". This isn't the Traitor Horus, but I like to think of him as the Quite Annoyed Horus. : )

Five Hundred reached!

Well, it happened a bit quicker than I thought it would, but this humble blog has reached 500 followers! Thank you all for your faith in this blog and your comments about the content. I've had a lot of fun working on everything (modeling, painting, and blogging projects included).

I did say that I'd announce a new competition once the blog did reach 500, so here it is. Some of you might think "He's crazy", but I'm pretty sure I established that fact early on.

THE PRIZES:

Let's start with the carrots first, then get to the details of what you need to do ; )

As previously mentioned, Dan Abnett will be sending a personally autographed copy of Blood Pact directly to the winner (once announced). Pretty darn cool, particularly for those readers who don't get the chance to get to a Games Day.

I will also scratchbuild an AT-70 Reaver (or upgrade it to an AT-83 Brigand should the winner desire) and paint it up in my Blood Pact color scheme.

I am also in discussion with a couple of other sources for prizes. Fingers crossed I can announce something soon.

DAVE'S GOT INK?

I currently have two tattoos. The first is a solid black Imperial Eagle on my right shoulder. I got this one to celebrate my first five years with GW. The second is a solid black Double Eagle on my left shoulder, based on the "diving Double Eagle" symbol used in the Dan Abnett novel of the same name. I got this one to celebrate my first TEN years with GW.

Even though I no longer work for GW, I'm still due for some new ink. This time around I'd like to get a Blood Pact symbol (probably on my right upper arm, just below the eagle). The only thing is, of course, the Blood Pact don't have an "official" symbol. They are dedicated to Khorne, so I could just go for that, but that's a bit dull. I'd like to incorporate some kind of "chaosified" Tanith regimental symbol into the Khorne symbol.

Well-rendered standard Khorne symbol (source unknown).

Forgeworld's resin Khorne badge

The Tanith regimental badge.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

So, the competition is this. Submit to me (via the email in my profile on the right) your design for a Blood Pact symbol that would work well as a tattoo on my arm. That's right, I'll get inked with the best design I receive!

You have until February 28th (2010) to submit your design. I like solid black designs, but could be convinced to choose a line/color piece should it be good enough.

As this design will be on my arm until I die, I reserve the right to tweak the final chosen design. I also reserve the right to post any of the designs submitted on this blog (with full credit to the designer of course).

So, there you have it. The 500 Ink Design Competition! Have at it. Any questions? Just post them in a comment.

HOBBY UPDATE:

It has been a busy weekend, with family commitments and some time spent at Games & Stuff last might, so not much hobby time. Here, however, is where I'm at with my latest commission piece. Lots of brownstuff used to form the base armor shapes (better for burnishing, filing, carving, and sharp edges), then greenstuff added (better for fine detail and complex shapes).

Working with the Bell of Lost Souls

Hi guys

Recently, Bigred from Bell of Lost Souls and I have been chatting about a few "guest tutorials" on the BoLS site. I've kind of decided to put together one a month to post up there, and the first one has just gone live. You can check it out here.

I've had quite a few requests to talk about how I paint the Chaos Stars on my vehicles, so this is the tutorial. It's nice and straightforward, I hope you like it. In a month or so I'll repost it here.

In the meantime, welcome to all those who are new to my blog, visiting from BoLS!

I leave you with this, the latest commission I've started work on.