Why don't you Drop Dread...

Sorry about that!  It's been a crazy day already.

This is the first of five dreadnought drop pods that I painted for the Angels Solarus.  Figuring out the color transitions for these was a huge challenge, since I did not want then to get too dark, or too yellow.

The practical nature of the large planed surfaces meant that I had to go with much more orange than on the infantry or even the regular vehicles.  I also used a lot of weathering powders on these.  Normally I would paint those effects, but I was trying to handle these as little as possible.  The powders let me do that.

All the pieces were painted individually and then assembled later.  What drove me nuts is the fact that the upright pieces were different sizes!  Most of the dreadnought drop pod pieces are giant hunks of resin, with little chance of heating them up and bending them into shape.  I am glad I don't have to deal with these any more :-)

Getting in the (Game)zone.

This was an interesting piece from Gamezone that I painted last year.







Here are a few sorcerers:






Oh no!  It's Mage Priest Babo!  He has spawned new Cookie Demons!

A History of Helexa: Then and Now

I mentioned a few days ago about posting a "Then and Now" set of images,  The idea is to paint the exact same miniature in almost the same colors, many years apart, and compare the results.  Some things that don't show up in photos are how much time (more or less) than it took to paint the same piece.

I was able to locate such a piece, and it is Helexa from Dark Age Games.  This version was done a year or so ago, and it looks quite familiar  to the style I use now.

This is the artwork which I was required to match, a nice painting by Brom:



Here are the rest of the views of the newer version:





And now for the original one, painted in early 2004.  The first one also took a great deal longer, possibly three times as long to paint.  You can see a very large difference!



I suggest that you all try something like this.  Even if you have only been at this a few months.  I did some years ago that were less than a year apart.  You will be amazed!

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: