DARK AGE - The Forsaken forces of Saint Joan

It has taken me a little while to get this commission sorted, but thankfully my client is a patient guy. These models are the Forsaken St Joan sub-faction for Dark Age. With the new arrangement of boxed sets that CMON has put together for the game, all of these models can be found in one $80-box, and the contents total up to 925 points. Great for a game where the standard size games are either 500 or 750 points!

While the vast bulk of the models for Dark Age are spectacular, St Joan came under quite a bit of fire when she was released, because she didn't rally look like her badass artwork and it seemed her limbs were a little out of proportion. I wanted to have a go at bringing her "up to code" and so I tweaked a few things. You can see those tweaks in the photos below. I think it all worked out quite well.

I loved the color schemes of some of the Studio models, but wanted to see something more cohesive across the force, so I carried the main colors through from the St Joan model. The armor is a base of P3 Coal Black, highlighted up by gradually mixing in VMC Light Grey.

For the Furies, I tried to follow the Studio scheme very closely; using true metallics, however, rather than the NNM.

And finally for this batch I added in a set of Coils. My client is very happy to be able to add these to his currently template-heavy St Isaac force, too.

Cheers
Dave

The 2017 NOCF Raffles!

Another year and another host of wonderful armies and collections and individual models up for grabs! We have had a lot of wonderful people donate their time and talents in order to raise money for the various causes supported by the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation. This is my seventh year involved in some sort of charitable painting effort, and I couldn't be prouder of all those who have joined me along the way. Excellent models from lovely people. 

Over the course of the next two months I'm going to be featuring these armies and calling out these folks. I hope you'll show them, and the charitable causes they have represented, by buying lots of tickets in these raffles. Each of these banners links through to the page to buy tickets : )

• Tickets will be available from the website (novaopenfoundation.org)
• Tickets can vary in price (between $2 and $5), but there is a minimum $10 purchase
• Tickets can be purchased from ANYWHERE in the world
• The winners DO NOT need to be present at the NOVA Open when we draw their names
• The NOCF will ship ANYWHERE in the world

HORUS HERESY - Leman Russ and his Wolf-kin

I recently had the chance to work on my first Forgeworld Primarch model, Leman Russ. It was interesting returning to him after I had converted and painted one a bunch of years ago (almost seven years! Check it out HERE).

Obviously the Forgeworld model is a better sculpt, and my painting has continued to improve over the last few years (or at least I hope it has), so it was a lot of fun. The Wolf-kin (Freki and Geri, not sure which is which) were also a lot of fun to paint, as were the bases.

The front part of the larger base for Leman Russ is separate (connected with magnets), so that the Great Wolf himself can slip out and spend some time on the miniature battlefield.

I hope you like them : )

ADEPTICON - The Loot Part 3

I think this is the final "Loot" post from AdeptiCon. It seems I bought quite a bit of stuff (not too much, just more than usual for me).

Well, here it is, my lovely, new Tablewar case! After borrowing a friend's case last year to schlepp stuff to Northern Ireland for Beasts of War filming, I really wanted to get one for myself. Shipping, however, was the big sticking point for me. In the US, the product ships from California, so it's pretty hefty to get it to the East Coast. Thankfully, the Tablewar team have been traveling to shows and I was able to pick this up sans shipping : )

After gluing together the accessory trays, I started adding magnets to the bottom of my Dark Age collection. Thankfully, the Tablewar guys also sell magnets in packets of 50, as I've almost gone through two packets of them!

Getting ready for the Dark Age tournament on Saturday. My St Mark, Bounty Hunters, Salt Flat Nomads, Brutes, and Dragyri Fire Caste collections are all ready to go. The tray at the bottom holds all my cards, templates, tokens, dice, and tape measure, so I can just worry about bringing the case and my phone : )

ADEPTICON - The Loot Part 2

Of course I had to pick up some Dark Age minis at AdeptiCon this year. I bought my own copy of the two-player starter set - Path to Glory - and a few models to wrap up my collection of Bounty Hunters - John Carter, Dedlock, and some Junkers for a conversion or three : )

This is John "Clank" Carter, one of the range of Bounty Hunters, and this one is based on one of the Immortals winners, John Carter (surprisingly enough).

And here I've converted one of the Junkers into one of the Bounty Hunters that has a bit of history with my current warband leader St Mark - X'cess.

I also picked up some scatter terrain from Death Ray Designs, which will be great for my Dark Age terrain collection.

I also had the good fortune to catch up with my friend Victoria Lamb, and she was kind enough to give me the gift of the awesome Sledgehammer BFG (sculpted by another friend Jake Schneider) that she created as part of the latest Reaper Bones Kickstarter. The crew for the gun are in the soft PVC of the standard Bones lines, but the BFG itself is in a hard styrene, with the pieces already clipped from the sprues, and very few mold lines!

UPDATE: A special note for Reaper Bones III backers - The Sledgehammer BFG was NOT for sale at AdeptiCon. Reaper and Victoria Miniatures would not sell the model until after backers get their products. They took pre-orders, but did not sell any models. They'll send out those pre-orders once backer rewards have shipped.

The kit itself doesn't come with instructions, but I expect they'll be available on the Victoria Minis website soon. I was, however, able to build it pretty quickly just by looking at the photos on the packaging.

Within the basic set there are a number of options, like the long wooden planks-style decking above the wheels.

Or you can go with a smaller metal deck plate.

There are going to be accessory packs in resin too, including two track units (one on each side) that replace the wheels.

There is also a resin kit that will allow you to switch the long gun for a much shorter, larger bore howitzer.

That kit comes with some very cool shells too. The one on the left puts me in mind of a phosphex shell from 30K.

I'm a big fan of the wheels, so I'll be gluing them on. I'm now debating whether or not I'll magnetize the howitzer and the long gun so I have the opportunity to switch back and forth.

One more AdeptiCon loot post to go : )