The Holy Roller!

I was working on a few things while I was at the Wild West Exodus booth.  I painted a bit on the Wayward Eight and the Lawmen, but it was apparent that I was having a tough time seeing them without a magnifier light, and everyone else was as well!

Soon, a large resin piece was in my hands.  It was the brand new Pillar of Light heavy support for the Holy Orders faction.

You are all familiar with this stage.  Yes... Shaded Basecoat!

I was shown the concept art, and the two primary items on this vehicle would be lots of shiny gold, and blue glow... not red.

The glow is being established, a bit at a time.  Obviously the cyan fluorescent paints were deployed :-)

I moved around the various surfaces of the vehicle, making sure not to linger on too long in one spot.  I wanted to be sure that each area got equal attention.

The value patterns are pretty well established now, but refinement has not begun quite yet.

Stopped by briefly to see Jim and Jessica at the Dark Sword booth.  INCREDIBLE minis on those shelves.  You will see the ones I brought home, and some discussions on what will happen with them.

It was great to participate in the ACES charity speed paint with Jessica... tormenting her only part of the time. :-)

More development on the Pillar of Light.  For the next several hours, I would be seeing just how light I wanted certain areas to be, and getting more darks as well.

Once more shadows were completed, I would go back into the middle tones to create several areas with subtle color variations.

Stay tuned!

Thumbs up for GenCon

The Return has begun.  The Circo Train back to Chicago rolled in, and the unpacking process is under way!  That's gonna take a while.

Let's step back in time, however, to the start of GenCon.  As you know, it was my first time attending.  In some ways, I knew what to expect.  In others, I had no clue at all.  I had been told about the size of the venue, the hordes of people, and so on.

I brought a lot of stuff with me, including the Siege Train!!!

Cathy has a dramatic moment descending the glorious staircase of the Omni Hotel.

The view from inside the convention center.

I wanted to get a start on some of my Holy Orders bases...

Learning what the icon of that faction looked like, and putting it to memory.

A number of wonderful concept artworks showing future factions of Wild West Exodus.  One of them is the Confederate Rebellion.

Showing a few sets of Wild West bases next to each other.

I love painting on my new palettes.  Yes, that is the left over non-stick backing of the DVD labels!  I have 1300 pages and counting!!!

We also had the Wayward Eight on display.  I painted 'River" while I was at the booth.

Still can't wait to do the Worbla armor to complete the costume.

The Holy Orders symbols take shape with some additional highlights.

The second base is almost complete!

It's been a while since I was able to work with highly saturated warmer blues.

Yes!  The Holy Orders exist!  But not for long, as eager players quickly snapped them up.  At some point, my Holy O's will have a home on these bases...

Long awaited group shots!

To say I was eager to take these images would be a massive understatement!

Thanks to the giant Hangar 18 backdrop, the Legions of Pseusenes can at last be shown in their true glory!

The Hierophant on the skeletal steed was a favorite conversion of mine.

I am in the process of making a much bigger horse unit for him.

Some views of chariots, bases and more under construction:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2013/04/lest-we-forget.html

The WIP of the new horse unit:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-little-more-on-horseman-movement-tray.html

I am hoping to reshoot the Tomb Complex as well.

More of a "family shot".  The mounted Death Liche is off to the right.

I hope you have enjoyed the renewal of the Tomb Kings!!

My favorite chariots

One more trip into the chariot realm of Khand.  Some WIP images here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/05/operation-desert-storm-legions-assemble.html

As you saw in that post, a lot of different things used in the conversions.  I forgot how much green stuff was used!

Images of the King being painted:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/10/here-comes-king-work-in-progress.html

I have been saving the materials to make at least 2 more of these.  They are so much fun to use in the games!

Some shots of them in action:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-axles-of-evil-thundering-hooves.html

Skellies and pointy sticks

For such an inconsequential unit, this one took just as much, if not more work than the Stalker and Necro Knight units.  Each of the archers was placed in a unique pose, which took some serious puzzle solving just to get two ranks!

As you can see, I painted all the Demon marble on each base, and did the same hieroglyphs on the outer edge of the movement tray.

Each of the skeletons was painted with unique colors, and even their bones changed colors!  Of course, their eyes glowed with a sickly green hue...

I have some step by steps of the skeletons here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/07/step-by-step-skelltitones.html

In fact, a number of videos from the painting series were developed during this project.  Terrain pieces, this demon marble, painting skeletons, fluorescent colors, and more!

Just as it was with the Dark Eldar, this was a massive laboratory.  A crucible for testing and perfecting dozens of techniques.

Much more to come!

Headed to the starting gate...

One of my favorite units here!!  The Khandish chariots allied with my Easterling Cavalry army.

These two chariots were heavily converted, using Tomb Kings chariots, Foundry miniatures, and Rohan horses.

Once it was all together and painted, I loved the results.

As you can see, I had a lot of fun with the bases as well!  I added lots of body parts, as well as trophies in the form of Gondor heads.

I did have to cut down  the chariot parts to make them fit on the 60mm bases, but it was well worth it!

Here are all four chariots, including the king!

Combined with the Easterling Cavalry and the war drum, they were the perfect shock troops.  High Fight skill, and very tough, lots of Dwarf archers wasted their time on these.

That would allow the Cavalry to advance more unscathed to join them!

There are a number of WIP posts on how these were made in the Lord of the Rings section of the blog...