Public Service Announcememt #2

My buddy Alex, owner of Battleroad Games & Hobbies, is celebrating his 30th birthday in a few days (May 14th to be exact). To do it in true Alex style, he'll be running a "30% off for 30 hours" sale in his webstore starting on May 14th (this Tuesday).

Alex has a ton of cool things in his store, including a lot of GW bitz, soooo... I suggest you click on the link HERE and start planning your purchases for Tuesday!

The discount code is: 30thBday

Have fun, updated Mechanicum combat servitors coming very soon!

Cheers
Dave

Public Service Announcement #1

My friend, Justin McCoy (of Secret Weapon Miniatures), is just about to wrap up his company's first Kickstarter campaign, Tablescapes. I've mentioned it before, but as there are now less than 48 hours to get your pledges in, I felt it was important to mention it again.

Since I last talked about it, several more themes have been unlocked, and all manner of additional announcements and partnerships have been made.

Soooooooo...   Head on over to the Kickstarter page HERE and take another look through the excellence that is Tablescapes!

Cheers
Dave

Expect to see a few more plugs for different things over the coming days.

Is it time to fight?

Over the weekend I picked up some Vampire Counts Vargheists from my FLGS (Dropzone Games) and set to work adding some techno bitz, most of them from the Dark Eldar Talos kit. With a few sessions of greenstuff application I ended up with these three 'Chrono Gladiators'.

These three beasts have just been primed (white) and stand ready for me to dive in with the paints. I'm pretty excited about them, so they may push aside the servitors currently getting a makeover.

Some of you may have noticed the small, circular sockets embedded in the flesh of these combat servitors, somewhat reminiscent of the sockets from The Matrix. I thought I'd boost the value of this post by showing you how I did them.

Greenstuff and a sculpting tool are required, in addition to two "new" tools, shown above. A is a thick plastic rod with one end drilled out to create a little hollow inside. B is a thin plastic rod with a diameter smaller than the hole drilled inside the thick rod.

Step 1. Place your little ball of greenstuff onto the model where you want the socket.

Step 2. Smooth out the ball of greenstuff, blending it into the surrounding flesh.

Step 3. Push the end of Tool A into the center of your greenstuff bulge.

Step 4. Push the end of Tool B into the center of the greenstuff nubbin.

Step 5. Let it all dry

Simple, really. And don't forget to use some sort of lubricant on all your tools when working with greenstuff. I use my paint water because it's convenient ; )

Cheers
Dave

The first of the Thallax Cohorts

Here are the first three of the new, Forgeworld Mechanicum Thallax Cohorts.

I went for a fairly simple color scheme, much like the FW paintjob, but a little brighter on the brassy bits.

I decided not to go for a bright blue glowing power core, but I might change that if enough of you think otherwise. Also, for the face plate I decided to steal a little bit from Roman Lappat's class. On of the busts he has painted features deep black eyes, accentuated by four or five layers of gloss varnish. I think it adds just the right touch of depth to the head.

Cheers
Dave

What was old is new again!

I haven't been idle, hobby-wise, since Adepticon. I've just been without my lights for photography. They returned on Wednesday, so last night I was able to sneak in a few shots of what I've been up to.

So far you've only really seen the "new" stuff for the Mechanicum army. Well, part of the plan has always been to rebase and touch up the "old" stuff, and bring it inline with my new approach. Above you can see the four Magos/Adepts models from the "never commercially released" Adeptus Mechanicus set that was available for a short time in the early years of this century (vis GW's Skullz program). When I first tackled the AdMech in 2005-6, I converted these guys, and replaced a few missing bits, hence the interesting mix of backpacks and claws etc.

For this update I simply switched their bases, updated their skin color to match the pallid flesh aesthetic I'm going for now, and repainted any military green areas with black or red. They'll be a nice "throwback" cluster of models in the greater procession.

I have over 30 servitors to update as well. Here you can see the new approach to the flesh in effect. The model on the left is my original "greying flesh", then the second step of the new flesh (Vallejo Pale Sand with a layer of Seraphim Sepia wash), followed by the fourth step of the new flesh (highlights with Pale Sand and Dead White). The final scribe servitor on the right has some thin, spot glazes of Secret Weapon Ruby wash pushed into the details.

Here are a couple more of the updated servitors on their Dragon Forge Tech Deck bases.

I also had over 20 "Cultists" to bring up to date. Here they are. The bulk of the original conversions are based on the old Bretonnian Grail Pilgrims.

And finally. I was short a couple of 40mm bases (a miscalculation on my part), so I built these ones using plasticard, plastic rods, and a few cool vents and deck sheeting that I received from Jeff (at Dragon Forge) in my order. I think they've turned out very nicely.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy seeing this "update". There'll be a lot more Mechanicum/Adeptus Mechanicus stuff to come.

But, wait... there's more!

My mate Graham McNeill, author of Priests of Mars (the book that rekindled my obsession for the Ad Mech), is up for voting in the SFX awards for 2013. Please take a few minutes to head to this link here, scroll down a bit, and vote for Priests of Mars. I (and Graham) would really appreciate it ; )

Cheers
Dave