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For the last of the three Venoms, I decided to snap some images directly with my favorite backdrop!

The base was made with my own "trophy"... it was an unused interior door of the dreaded Forgeworld Storm Eagle kit.  That was the piece that made the hull section explode in my hands as I tried to glue it together.

As with all parts of that kit, nothing fit together.  Attempting to use the interior piece to stabilize it all.. wrapped in rubber bands, covered in glue and green stuff... BOOM!  All over the floor.

Anyway, the alterior purpose for these kinds of bases.  They were much heavier than the Venom on top of them, thus making them far less top heavy.  Not to worry about these guys tipping over!!!

Next up, I will use the giant backdrops to photograph all three of them together, which has never been done!  Yea!

Working in the 'Media'

When I was still in art school, a buddy of mine and I got a tiny dealer's table at a convention in the Congress Hotel in downtown Chicago.  At the time, it was a bit of a run down old Michigan Avenue hotel, in a seeder part of downtown.

We split one tiny table.  And thus, that's how my adult life of selling artwork began.  At a really really small Star Trek Convention!

I had a knack for not only painting portraits... but likenesses as well.  As it turns out, only a few people can achieve them, even though many artists paint very nice portraits.

So, for quite a number of years, I would paint images such as this Babylon Five character.

These are all watercolors.  The idea was to put them in a "movie poster" format, as we were taught in our illustration classes.

Eventually I tried to get more and more humor in the images... like this Trouble With Tribbles painting.  Eventually I would have to give up on them in favor of the Wildlife, Astronomy and Celtic Mythology series, since I saw lots of other "media painters" getting cease and desist orders.

That was a bummer, but I suppose it was all for the best.  I knew that the other genres of painting had far more longevity to them.  Media paintings had a tendency to run hot and cold, depending on what show was popular at the time.

Also, with more and more shows coming out, the fans became more fractured in their interests, making it almost impossible to judge where to go and what to take to a show.

However, I do have half a dozen pieces of artwork that have signatures of the Actors/Actresses who played the characters!!!

Potpourri

A little bit of everything for you tonight.  A touch of Memoir terrain for our next campaign, including a cemetary.

Some gravel, which did double duty to stabilize the green stuff bases for the trees.

With a spot of paint and flock...

And a few quick bridge sections made out of pink foam.  Took just a matter of minutes!

I have also been working very hard on five Castellax Battle-Automata.  Lots of crazy little parts to scrub down.

Finished bridge sections...

The color scheme will be identical to the Krios tank.  Final Shaded Basecoat stage here.

I am doing this to all five... and then some serious glazing and tinting to take place!!

The whole thing...

Here we go!  The entire train!

It is so massive, it's tough to get it all in one image.

The view from above...

I look forward to seeing this at GenCon with a bunch of other Wild West Exodus figures around it!

Coming right at you!

Rollin' down the rails!

The GenCon Express!!!

The friendly skies

This was my favorite Venom, which belonged to the Archon and army general.  There were Incubus warriors inside.

Some of you might already know that the base was an homage to the "Crashed Plane Sculpture", as we call it, near Midway Airport.

It's an ugly twisted spire of metal, and it looks like the tail section of a recently crashed American Airlines plane.  I had a few tail sections of the nasty Storm Ravens around... so I could not resist!

It looks so different on this nice blue/white fade, as opposed to the sheet of white drawing paper with the smudges on it!

Because of the colors on the base, the Red backdrop works a little better than the previous Venom.  It looks like it about to arrive through the webway!

The green looks really atomic in this view!  So many contrasting colors.

Now for the deep blue.

And to my favorite backdrop for these Dark Eldar vehicles.

I really like how it is neutral to the vast majority of the surfaces.  No color is drowned out, nor is any color too bright.  About as close to neutrality as the blue white fade, but a wee bit more interest.  Thanks again to Hangar 18!!

Holy cow! What's coming down the tracks.

As many of you already know, the game that has captured my fancy since Adepticon is Wild West Exodus.  You have seen the process of the painting of the Siege Train, which has been a blast!

By the way, that train is headed to GenCon, so you can see it in person, in all its massive glory, at the Wild West booth!

That is where I will be learning the game, and also painting some Wild West miniatures!  Double the fun, and I am really looking forward to that.  I have been gathering references for terrain, which is something you will see a lot this winter.

This is to be the next large vehicle I will be painting.  It is the Pillar of Light heavy support.  It will be very fun, and it has also made me choose the Holy Orders as the faction I would like to start playing.

Here are some more images.  And here is a link to the Wild West page for you:

http://www.wildwestexodus.com/holy-order/

It reminds me so much of the Beloved Inquisition armies I used to play back in the day, so too hard to resist.  The terrain possibilities will be incredible, so definitely something I want to try.

I have been impressed at the individuality of each faction.  They look very distinct, and they have their own stories.  I liked the back story for this faction.

They are a mix of all the major old world orders. Romans, Greeks, and just about any major group from ancient times. The army as a whole has been around for thousands of years in the shadows watching over mankind. They have helped build cultures and have watched man blow it all up.

I have been reading some of them to get a feel for the WWX universe.  Here's an example:

http://www.wildwestexodus.com/honor-among-outlaws-the-jesse-james-archives/

And now for the regular guys.  Among other WWX miniatures, the plan is to be painting some of these.  I will be making some bases for them in advance.  Also, I will be working the Paint and Take area, focusing on basing.

You can stop by an hang out with me there as well!

Next we have some images of special characters and troops... or Hired Hands.

I saw this, and said this has to be the faction for me!

These are a plastic kit.  I have assembled the starter set factions, as well as the Outlaw gang that reminds us all of a favorite sci-fi show!  They are highly detailed, and go together very nicely.

Strong as well, with not lots of spindly parts for breaking.

As with all Hired Hand boxes, there are ten unique figures inside.

I really enjoyed this pose.

And especially liked this one!

And the set.

Armed with the knowledge of how to play the game, I am hoping that over the fall and winter, I can get some factions painted up, terrain made, and have the battle reports flowing!

You've seen it with LOTR, with Memoir.  Heading to the weird west next!

Deadlands was my favorite RPG, so I am gonna love this :-)

My "really little" ponies

Time for some minis from the Memoir '44 equipment pack.  These cavalry figures are multi purpose... mostly used as both Polish and German early war cavalry.

While there is not a ton of detail on them... and some difficult mould lines to deal with, you can still have a lot of fun!

There are enough of them to tray out just about any color scheme.

These are the more basic colors.  I had lots of fun with the Dapple Gray.

Forward!

The Charge of the Light Brigade.

We used cavalry in one of our first battles, and it was a blast!  Very fast movement, a swirling maelstrom of action.  Until the tanks showed up. :-)

We are starting to work on these again, as we want to do some early war France and Poland scenarios.