This gun toting Law-BOT is ready to enforce some law in Wappelville.
He's glowing with RJ-1027 energy. And he takes NO PRISONERS.
Time to go clear out some Outlaws!!!
Monday, March 9, 2015
An old favorite returns
After the massive reshoot of the Tomb Kings army using the new LED Daylight bulbs, the next army I wanted to try out was the Lizardmen, the very first Warhammer Fantasy army I ever painted.
I created this army display board for Adepticon years ago, and it still stands strong today!
Welcome to the Temple of Blood.
The army won numerous best painted and Player's Choice awards at Adepticon and elsewhere.
As I have mentioned in other posts, it was also a gaming piece, and we played a number of battles on it.
The crowning achievement for this work was winning the first North American Armies on Parade. I had to construct the Temple to make sure that it would fit in the angled display cases that they were using at the time, which was no small feat of engineering!
I wanted the board to look like a Temple, but it also had to be functional. Some of the upper levels had to be changed quite a bit to accommodate movement trays and so on.
Here's a previous post on its construction:
The two Engines of the Gods that you see on this board are just a few of the scratch built miniatures that are scattered across the Temple. Terradons and other creatures also had to be built from scratch , or heavily converted.
I will be creating a gallery of the finished miniatures on the Windy City Miniatures facebook page after Adepticon.
This first massive army project was inspired by what I saw in the Adepticon tournament rooms our first few years at the convention. I saw a room full of very well painted armies and ingenious display boards. I felt that I must do the same!
There will be more posts coming that show closer in views of the Temple and its residents. I will also have some links to battle reports that took place on this terrain piece turned display board.
Of course, Mage Priest Babo leads the way, his contemplations divining knowledge of all things.
This was the army that started it all... I have done two 40k armies in this style of display board/terrain piece, as well as a second Fantasy army, and even my Lord of the Rings armies.
Now Wild West Exodus posses join in on the fun!
There's nothing quite like painting armies!!! Stay tuned for much more, and be sure to check out some of the original Lizardman blog posts, as they were the first I ever made!!!
Sunday, March 8, 2015
And now presenting the lovely couple...
At last, Marie Leveaux and her little pet!
These are some very fun members of the Confederate Rebellion, which is one of the 4 new factions being introduced by Wild West Exodus.
They really do make a great pair!!
Bands of RJ-1027 infuse the zombie snake with unnatural life and energy.
The Bayou will never be the same!!
I'm sure he's quite deadly.
Since everything about the Rebellion is hit and run, ambush, etc., I assume that he slithers around in the swamp and attacks out of nowhere!
I forget which stretch goal unlocks this cute couple, but I am certainly hoping to get there!!!
From concept to combat
Here we see an experiment in progress... from the Evil Genius of Burn In Designs, Mr. Lathan!
He is working on a combat train that is not just a line of sight blocking monolith, but a living piece of terrain.
The design has already gone numerous modifications. When you are attempting to make something so 'interactive', you need to constantly adjust from your original plan.
There is that critical balance between how something looks, and how playable it can be.
Does it offer multiple gun ports, can you move around on it, etc.
Even more important, what happens inside! This complicates things even more, as you must deal with bases and base widths, miniature height, and so on.
Having the ability to place the figures inside like this is even more important for the typical skirmish games of the day, which tend to make use of every scrap of terrain, unlike other systems where it's more of an afterthought.
These next few shots will give you the best sense of scale.
Just getting this many figures to fit easily can take a surprising number of redesigns. When you look at my terrain pieces, you see tons of these adjustments. Usually you have to make things bigger and bulkier than you would like, as the base size takes over.
Depending on how you approach the painting of this piece, it can be steampunk or sci-fi. This is also not the easiest thing to balance...
There are plenty of firing ports, but also some ways to actually see and shoot the folks inside. This does not happen with a fully enclosed kind of vehicle.
This is just one of a number of cars which are under construction. The roof is getting some extra attention, and I think that this car has even become the caboose. :-)
So, stay tuned and check out Burn In Designs for all kinds of amazing gaming and terrain pieces!!!
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Giant Critter, Giant Base.
I see that is all the chaos of the last few weeks, I never shot any images of the finished base for the Great Elk!
I'm very glad I remembered before I went to place the Great Elk on this massive platform.
This is not a plinth, folks. This is the regulation base! Huge!
Considering it's combat radius is 3 inches, this is quite the pie plate template.
The broken machine you see is the Fire Bringer, which is a resin terrain piece made by Wild West Exodus.
I had SO much fun with the extra roots and undergrowth on this piece. Normally I would use dried foliage branches, but this more vine oriented look was great.
I wasn't sure what would happen to it as it was painted. if the paint has too much water in it, things get soggy and start to sag.
I can't wait until the duel between the Lawman and the Great Elk takes place!
The roots along the ground worked out as I had hoped, and I have used that on other bases since.
The sprawled skeleton worked out equally well. It sets up another one of those 'triads' of interest, between the Great Elk, shooter and skeleton.
Stay tuned for when Base and Monster are joined together at last! Then it's on to the Crystal Brush for large creature category.
What you find in the swamp
Look out below! Or is that above, as this huge snake towers above you.
This is the finished giant snake from the Confederate Rebellion, one of the four new factions being introduced via the Wild West Exodus kickstarter.
Hopefully the step by step images I have been posting give you a decent idea of how I went about painting this!
It's always very fun to see those WIP images next to a finished product such as this.
Next up, the Zombie Queen and her pet together at last!!
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