Now Hiring! The Death Company

This was probably my favorite part of the Angels Solarus project, and it was a complete accident!

A while back, I had made these figures from Cathy's left over Dark Angel robed bodies, and a bunch of Death Company/ Sanguinary guard bits:



They were languishing in a box until the Solarus project.  Steve wanted some unique Death Company figures, but the original thought was to adjust the colors somehow.  The idea of these figures came to mind, and I did a test figure.  It was decided to go ahead and paint them all!  Here are the results:

Home Sweet Home: the Tomb complex of the Silver Pharaoh (Armies on Parade)

Here  is a basic sketch that I made a while back of my display board for my Armies on Parade Tomb Kings army.  There have been some alterations since this original drawing, mostly on the upper level.



There will be a wall/gate on the back of the top level that will have images of the King and the new "God" to which the King has pledged his service.  It will show how he made this pact in the hopes of becoming mortal once again.

Also on the upper level, you can see some grave robbers digging away at the tomb beneath.  They are from the Empire.  One of them will have dropped a torch down into the tomb itself, as in Indiana Jones.  Creeping up behind them are some of the Carrion.

While the surface level will have mostly broken monuments, sand and debris, the tomb level will be relatively pristine.  The floor will be done just like the floor on the Casket of souls that was posted a few days ago.

In the alcoves will stand the Ushabti, with all sorts of designs and cartouches telling the history behind the army.  I will also be using LED lights and fibre optics to create a pallid greenish glow inside the Tomb.  This is intended to make sure people can see what's going on in there, even in the notoriously dim lighting of the convention hall. 

The Columns will have many designs and hieroglyphs painted on them, and even the ceiling will have a representation of the Heavens, similar to that which was done in Egyptian tombs.

Some of the restrictions on the overall design come from the display area for Armies on Parade.  I know I have to deal with the sneeze guards, which means that I have to deal with a pretty shallow angle.  The final board will have less of the upper level showing, hence the need for that back wall/gate.

I will post WIP images of the board as it is constructed!  Also, I will be posting the story behind this army in the next day or two, so be sure to look for that!

More Ken and Barbie dolls from Ilyad

I have said it many times, and will say it again.  Ilyad really had it right with their resin figures.  You don't get any kind of distortion that is so prevalent nowadays, and very few, if any, air bubbles.  They also do not have to be power washed for 3 hours just to get some primer to stick on them. :-)  Sorry if that sounds a bit cranky!  I have had to deal with lots of substandard casts lately... as in the last year.

I just finished off these two figures...







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That sounds like the sort of mischief Chaos would be up to, wouldn't it?

What makes this squad unique is the shoulder pads, which I spent a good deal of time sculpting. :-)  I used brown stuff, which keeps its edge quite nicely.







Her are some shots of the squad as a whole:






Another patented WIP image that illustrated the concept of starting with very light colors and shading darker:

Seeing stars: the Observatory of Meliador... lots of pictures!

This project dates back to the "Golden Era" of dioramas, circa 2004-2005.   As I progressed with my various dioramas, the miniatures themselves became more elaborate.  For instance, the Planesphere which I created for Meliador's calculations.

Since I have been a huge fan of astronomy for as long as I can remember, this might just be my favorite diorama of all time. :-)

The overall structure was done with sculpey.  Here are a few overall shots with the minis:





Now a shot of Meliador himself:


And for some close ups on the Planesphere, which was also made from Sculpey:





I have some exterior images that show the copper roof, the column, stairway and alcoves:










These images show the floor design, which was inspired by a very old section of the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago.  There is a giant pendulum that hangs from the ceiling, and it keeps time as it swings over a large sun dialesque design on the floor.




Here are a few more close ups of Meliador inside the Observatory:

Now that's one Mean Jelly Bean!

Tonight we have another member of the Brood faction, which is dominated by monsters and other critters.  He is standing on a 40mm base, to give you an idea of scale.  He is called Mean Jelly Bean, and it was based on the artwork (of the same name) of Brom.  I really enjoy his classical style of oil painting, and I tried to replicate it when painting this figure.







This was a version that I did way back in 2003.  The colors are not terribly different, but the approach certainly was!  My palette has changed a lot since then, and continues to change almost weekly, it seems. :-)  I mix a lot more muted pale greens into my golors, along with purple grey colors like the old GW shadow grey.

By comparison, these colors were far simpler, just a variety of browns.



I think I have a few other "then and now" figures like this, which could be interesting to check out...

Dread(ing) more Chaos?

Sorry about that . :-)

Here is another Tainted World Eaters dreadnought.  Gee, everything seems to be tainted, doesn't it?  It must be me.  Too much fiber.

This time, he's got himself a wee little gun... so he might shoot his buddies.










He's standing next to one of the banner bearers you have seen me post recently:


And now a shot showing the sculpey bases.  Since he had a heavy bolter, I used some polystyrene tubing to creat some spent shell casings...