Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Big, bigger, and BIGGER!


The March of the Machines begins now!


Thanatars and Castellax wlaking about...


The "small" guys are on 60mm Dreadnought bases.


In this image, the "smaller" guys are on 40mm terminator sized bases.


It's really interesting to see them all gathered together like this!


I have also been looking at the similarities between them, and how one sculpt was scaled down in sections to keep the same look in spite of the difference in size.


Stay tuned!  Much more to come!


Billy the Kid strikes again in: The Pony Express


Rich and I spent many hours doing some decent size demo games in the Open Gaming area at Adepticon.  It was very nice to have that space to work with, by the way!

We set up lots of terrain on Rich's new battle mat, which leveled off the tables nicely.

The Outlaws return to Wappelville once again, this time to heist some RJ-1027 and a group of very valuable ponies.

Billy the Kid had been in Jesse's doghouse ever since the great Drapery Disaster, when many yards of exclusive French drapes (destined for Miss Fannie's establishment) were destroyed.

The plan was for Billy to ride in, grab the RJ_1027 and the Ponies, and high tail it out of town.

Here's what he brought along:


The task of stopping this heist fell on Warren Earp, who had just arrived in town himself.  He was there at the request of Judge Stern.

Warren was a bit befuddled at the odd looking stranger standing in the Judge's chambers, dressed in robes such as Earp had never set eyes on.  He felt it best not to say anything at the time...

The repaired Judgement heavy support was also ready to go, and the crew was eager to play some Hangman!


You can see the ponies running through town.  One of Billy's gang had gotten to the livery door and let them out.


The RJ-1027 canisters were also scattered around the town.


Miss Fannie was having a lovely Sunday morning conversation with the Preacher and his wife, unaware of the chaos soon to follow.


They thought it very odd that such a rare commodity of horse flesh would be running loose through the streets.


It was not long before the alarm was sounded, and the Lawmen took up positions behind the Jail, the stable, and the Power Generator.


Why this canister needed to be placed by the outhouse was a mystery to everyone.


The mysterious robed stranger appeared again, and he seemed to be pointing Warren in the direction of the church.  They would get there by using the small gallows as a screen...


Billy had decided to surprise the Lawmen by driving through the church cemetery, hoping to use it as a screen from the Jailhouse.


Yet another city vehicle was claimed by the Outlaws to secure the canisters of RJ-1027.  The disgruntled workers of the Wappelville Streets and Sanitation department are not at all pleased with the wages offered by the current Mayor.

As a result, they frequently cast in their lot with the Outlaws.


A scattering of other Outlaws came from the hills and brush outside of town, including Apache Kid.


The Judge would lead his own contingent of pistol packing Hired Hands towards the water tower.


Fortunately for the Lawmen of Wappelville, the robed stranger had hinted that an attack might be coming, and a few mines had been placed in key areas.

The Outlaws were not expecting this, and they fired wildly at the deadly traps in the hopes of destroying them!


The Interceptors held their positions behind the stable, hoping to rush out and herd the very frightened horses back in.


With their Sunday morning once again shattered by impending violence, the Preacher ran toward the Jail to plead with the Lawmen to spare the town.


The Interceptors jumped out earlier than expected in the hopes of dropping some ordinance on the frazzled Outlaws, who were still shooting at the mines.

However, the frightened thieves were running around too quickly, and some cowered behind rock formations.  This made them almost impossible to hit.


Judge Stern used the distraction to advance to the mesa, and then on to the water tower.

Does Billy the Kid redeem himself in the eyes of Jesse?  Will Warren Earp earn the respect of his brothers and stop the Outlaws?  Wait and see as we continue in part two, Hang 'em High!


Monday, March 23, 2015

Santa's elves?


Do Santa's elves ride horses during the summer months?


I could not get the impression of Christmas out of my mind as I was painting these :-)


OK, off to the Crystal Brush...


Stepping into the Parallax...


We have returned from Adepticon!  For the moment, at least.  Only minimal unpacking of the studio for now, but I wanted to post some images of a very fun miniature that I was glad to paint.

This is from Parallax Miniatures, and it is a subject matter that I have wanted to paint for years.  I had thought about sculpting a race of cat/human hybrid characters for a long time, but someone has done it for me!  Yay!


The moment I saw the miniature, I had this kind of scene in mind.  Obviously, the new bark and branch basing style figured prominently.

Here's a link to their facebook page:



Many thanks to Mr. Justin and his fantastic snow products.  And yes, I finally used his crushed glass/water effects method as it was intended . :-)

I wanted to see if I could match the Army Painter snow covered tufts, and the only way I could see to do that was to use the Secret Weapon method.  I sprinkled 'regular' snow flock powder on top of the mixture before it dried, with really amazing results.

Thanks again to Mr. Justin, and to Parallax Miniatures!!!


Sunday, March 22, 2015

The Ladies of the West!


Now this should grab some attention!  We have a nice collection of the new Ladies of the West from Wild West Exodus.

Well, technically, these are not the 10 figure set, but we'll talk about that later.


Left to right we have Marie Leveaux, Sircan Nura. and Dark Nation Walks Looking,


Each one has radically different impacts on the battlefield, which is very cool.


As you can imagine, they were also very fun to paint!


You will have just as much fun with these... and now you even have a painting guide. :-)


So, as we look at this last image of the painted minis, let's check out some concepts of the actual Ladies of the West!


This set will be comprised of ten figures, one representing each faction.

It would be VERY cool to have access to these, so let's get cruising onto these goals, starting now!


Saturday, March 21, 2015

Stomping out the competition


We meet Stompy once again, as I wanted to show some images from a different perspective.


When you have something of this size (vehicle, monster, etc.), these overlook shots reveal a number of details that just don't show up in the usual lateral style images.

The horns on this beast were massive, and very complex.  There were a number of unusual shapes, and I wanted to have more that just tans and browns.


I incorporated a number of reddish browns, greens and even blues into them, trying to make them less monotonous.


I also wanted them to contrast a bit with not only the darker colors of the face and mane, but the blue glow and the grays nearby.


This shot gives you a better view of the skeleton and the roots, which were a lot of fun to include on the base!


There are a number of posts showing how this base was made in the Basing Techniques section of the blog.


Wild West Exodus has some very fun monsters and vehicles in the game already, but the current kickstarter campaign has lots of brand new ones... four new factions worth!


So, be sure to check out Unfinished Business, the second Wild West Exodus kickstarer campaign that is in it's final week!  Join in the fun!