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Great to see more Catachan, and they definitely are the best action-hero cameo army. I have Tarzan, Indiana Jones, Queequeg, and Little John ready for paint with Muldoon from Jurassic Park in the works. Looking forward to seeing what else you come up with.

Project: clean out my hobby backlog continues.

Today I finished sculpting a unit of Chaos Dwarves (or the little people of chaos as they're sometimes called). I'm stretching my green stuff skills a bit here as you can see. I definitely don't do great faces, but with a dark, armor focused army like the chaos dwarves, I can do them well enough to feel alright fielding them.
I like the forgeworld range, but the infernal guard don't do it for me. I think they're a bit static, so I went a different direction with these guys. They're not big hats, but they're not the new FW style either.





They'll get some paint on them in the next few days. In the mean time, I'm working on another Metal Slug tank for the boys in green. They'll have a squadron of three in the end. The one in progress is going to have an open hatch - I've got to get a few of the Metal Slug commandos modeled up - they just scream Catachan.

Until next time,

Dan

Hey all, I'm back.

I'm still working through some leftover projects. First up, I finished the second Straken jungle tank. I added an exposed crewman to this one. He's giving the classic "WTF" hand and arm signal.



I've got one more tank to finish - I think I'm going to assemble it in walker mode for variety's sake.

Next, I received the general for my newest project (the Army of Light). He's a Kingdom of Death model, and the sculpt is incredible. I searched for more than a week to find a model that represented what I was looking for, and this guy fit the bill with minimal modification (I cut off the brazier he was carrying, changed the way his arms are posed, and put together a spear).

The trick has been producing the effect I want while working with a very limited pallet. I haven't decided whether to go with NMM for the gold or metallic, but I'm leaning toward the former. The belt buckle is already done up that way, and I think the contrast looks good with the white on white skin & clothes. (Edit: after more thought, I may scrap the gold for silver. We'll see) I'm shooting for an alabaster skin tone by the way - I want the list to look inhumanly pure. Any advice anyone has on achieving this is welcome.

Here's the current WIP pics of the Archangel Gibreel:




Next time I'll include a model for scale.

Any feedback is welcome. He's going to set the tone for the whole army.

Dan

I finished up the Archangel Gibreel last night. All that's left is the base - I'm still trying to decide what the theme is going to be.

The lighting is a little odd, but I think the coloration comes though well enough.




We'll see where the army goes from here.

Dan

Okay I have to bite... Where in the deep bowels of the interwebs did you snag the Metal Slugs? Or did you pay for the prepainted $75 ones I'm seeing on eBay?

On the topic of oddball minis... Did you just happen to get the Warthogs when they were new and cheap-ish or did you find them somewhere online that was conveniently $9? I've wanted but never searched much for both the Metal Slug and the Warthog for a while, never found them for reasonable prices though!

It took some digging.

The metal slugs were these guys:
http://www.hobbyfan.com/product_info.php?products_id=11838
With a bit of looking, they turn up for not-outrageous prices on ebay. (30 bucks or so) They're actually called "super vehicle 001" models, which should help.

Tragically, the warthogs don't seem to be around any more. I got them off Amazon for a few dollars, then they seemed to vanish. Maybe forgeworld had the manufacturers assassinated for making an alternate taurus that cost about 15% of the real thing?

Hope it helps,

Dan

Thanks a ton Dan, I'll most likely be grabbing a few "Straken" tanks of my own! It's been ages since I played Metal Slug... Last time I did I earned some bragging rights while my friends watched me beat the original at Circus Circus armed with 7 quarters and a HEVY MASHEENGUN.

As for the 'Hogs, you're right I can't find the ones you had... The closest I can find is a 7" (18 cm) Halo 4 version... The hunt is on!

I'd like to take a moment to say thanks for posting all this, it's very inspiring to see how good a Guard army (and the others too!) can look when some time is put into it!

Metal slug was a staple of my childhood too man - truly the king of the 2d shooters.

After looking at the Archangel for a while, I decided I didn't like the gold much. The warm colors just don't work with the Army pallet I have in mind.

Consequently, he's bee reworked. Here he is, base and all:




As you can see, his base is circle-within-square to accommodate his participation in battle wherever it may lay in the stream of time. Being a cheap person, I'm going to have this army pull double duty in both Warhammer systems!

I'm much happier with the way he looks now - the way is paved to start the rest of the list.

Dan

The angel is looking fantastic! The cooler colours really work well on him.

I'm glad you like him - I agree on the cooler colors. The yellow-gold didn't look right.

Somebody through in an old LOTR building kit that's going to be cannibalized for the Army's bases - expect more Tolkienesque ruins.

As promised, here's a scale pic so you can gauge the size of the model.


More to follow,

Dan

Thanks to the faux-hurricane that's cooking up in the gulf, I got the day off work - which means I was able to allocate a bit more time painting today than usual. Combined with the recent arrival of my Sedition Wars Bio-hazard models, this led to a productive afternoon.

First up, here are the finished chaos dwarves that have been lurking in the top of my workstation for almost a year.
As usual, I'm happiest with my sculpting work right about the time I'm finished with the project, so these guys are the best looking in the army. I guess (as in life) somebody has to be the rear-ranker.




Next, I finished up 5 of the wolves for my Sylvan army. These guys will be warhounds in a beastmen army, mournfangs in the ogre incarnation, or some sort of hound of Orion in the wood elf version. They were a simple enough project - nothing too remarkable here.


I also knocked out a test model for an upcoming monsters of the north army - a rock troll. I think I'm going to use a little less blue in the shading on the rest of his amigos.



Finally, I have a couple of the bio-hazard models finished up. As with the others, I really like what Studio McVey did with these guys, although it's pretty fiddly working with 28mm true scale kid-sized models.
I really like the aphid suit, and I might try to pick up a few more for the Catachan army when I get a chance - I can't see a pop culture reference somewhere without trying to fit it into the ole' 187th somewhere.

Oh, and I don't know about you all, but I can't even look at the Dr. Ridley model without feeling a bit of loathing for Paul Reiser in my belly.





That's all for now, more to follow!

Dan

I just love dropping in on your thread from time to time so much variation in each update, cross over of armies and time scales and the use of multi manufacturers just so interesting

On top of this the amount of colour its like looking at a stain glass window on a bright sunny day , the wolves are great never in a million years would I have thought that scheme would work but it does.

Like the Chaos dwarf unit nice and dark

Thanks man! And here I thought my thread was getting a little schizophrenic.

The chaos dwarves are tough. I wanted to use a dark, simple pallet, but it's hard to do that and still have the army "pop" on the table. Even their gigantic warmachines look a bit drab. I guess that's just life.

The sylvans on the other hand have plenty of "pop" - I'm really happy with the way the army looks on the table. I'm sure it's out of vogue, but the color scheme draws heavily on WoW for influence. There's some weird stuff in the night elf kingdoms that looks really good in spite of its apparently gaudy color scheme.

I'll settle down on an army sooner or later, but for now, the schizophrenia will continue until my back-log is cleared out.

Dan

Never go sane mate I love the fact we never know whats going to appear, its kind of like christmas without socks or deodorant

That is a hard issue to keep a dark grim feel to a paint scheme but still make it pop, I find the best way is to keep a muted pallet and just add a small touch of bright colour to each mini.

Now those wolves do look great and I aint much of a fan of them or bright colours, but you have combined to things that would normally make me think to so thats cool on its own

I kind of like the blue tinge to the troll myself although maybe a little greyer/ purple would look cool.

The Biohazard miniatures keep coming - today I finished up another 4 or 5 of the space-faring lads & lasses.

First up, a terrorist leader, a smuggler, and Vin Diesel:


Next, a crazy kid in a dress, a hot mechanic, and another shot of Sigourney Weaver:


And finally, Commander Black in a suit of Gnosis armor:


In spite of the mixed press and the rocky start, I really enjoy the game. The revised rules have made it much more playable, and the active/reflex turn sequence keeps the game moving and the atmosphere tense (as it should be). My kids get downright emotional when their soldiers get infected with nano and zombified.

Anyway, more to follow - I'm working on finishing up some Space Wolf terminators that have been moping on the back shelf of the paint cabinet for quite some time.

Dan

Just discovered this blog, and your work is fantastic. The heavy metal space marines were hilarious genius, and I really like the Space Hulk / Sedition Wars mash up you have going. Would love to see more of that, as I'm curious about how the two miniature lines scale together. (Especially Vin. Would he fit in with your Catachans, for instance, or would he be too small?)

Overall, I'm in awe of your ability to do so much consistently inspired work AND be a father. I pull off the latter, but usually at the expense of the former.

Keep up the excellent work. I'll be staying tuned.

Thanks for the compliments, I'm glad you like my work.

Vin doesn't scale well with the Catachan models. They're heroic scale, so the heads and hands are substantially larger than Vin's are. I'll post a pic when I get a chance.

The non-human sedition wars range (the strain) does okay though - the zombies look great next to guardsmen and space marines.

And being a dad is easy - I sub-lease my kids to the local Nike factory during painting hours. Free time for dad and 6 cents an hour (per kid) toward my hobbies! Seriously though, I've subtly (or not subtly if you ask my wife) brain-washed them to love wargaming over the years. They paint & game along with me & at least the oldest one is getting alright at it. Nerds in training!

More to follow,

Dan

Well, i just found this blog and looked at most of it. The catachans really stood out (i love the marbo, pure genius - will probably 'borrow' that idea if i ever do catachans).

Also the slaaneshi noise marines made me laugh. Marines with guitars... awesome

So, like all hobbyists, I've got the desire to paint a titan. In many ways this not-so-miniature miniature is the magnum opus of any modeler/gamer's career - it's a gigantic centerpiece to any gaming event, as well as a huge project in its own right.

For me, being a fantasy player, this has always been a sticky issue. Sure, I've done up a Forgeworld fire dragon, but that's not really on the same scale as a titan. My warhammer shelf needs something bigger.

With that in mind, I'm going to build a to-scale model of Krakanrok the black, father of the dragon ogres. According to the Archaon story, he was mistaken for a mountain at one point, so I think he'll be suitably big.

I've found a good base model, waited 6 months on back order for production, and now it's time to start.

Without further ado, here's a pic of one of his weapons - just to give you a sense of the scale I'm talking about.


This slayer, as you might imagine, has bitten off a bit more than he can chew. I'll use him for scale throughout the build.

More to follow as the model starts coming together! I hope you're as excited as I am.

Dan

Any hit as to the model you are using

Here's a second shot of the big guy - I've cleaned and assembled the basic body, and I'm now ready to start working on exterior detail and the arms. It's hard to capture the scale of this guy - I need to post him next to a set of castle walls. He could quite easily peer down into a city during a siege.




One of the few details we know about Krakanrock is that he has claws the size of warhorses. I think this guy fits the bill.

More to come!

Dan

That is great. Where is that model from???

He's a sculpt made by a guy named pkking - an obscure (in the US) but amazingly talented guy out of China. It took some digging to link up with him to buy a copy, but once I saw a picture of the model, I got the fever...

Anyway, I've decided to work a fluff theme into the model, as befits a sculpt of his stature.

"Worshiped by the beasts of the north as a god in his own right, Krakanrock the black is a being of monumental power and hubris. This is reflected, in part, by the gem, parchments, and skull adorning his chest. As has been written, he was the principle signatory of the contract made between the dragon ogre race and the chaos gods. So powerful was Krakanrock, and so strong his bargaining position, that he may be the only being alive to have ever dictate terms to the four powers. At his insistence, the contract was written on the flayed hide of the mightiest daemon prince present, the arch-fiend Xzar-cha'ruuk. The demon's soul was then imprisoned in an enormous soul stone, and set into Krakanrock's chest. Krakanrock then took the skull and contracts, and hung them along side the gem as an eternal demonstration of the dragon ogre's might. He wears them still, and it is said that as long as the gem remains in his possession, Krakanrock is truly immortal. Some sages question whether a being of his power would be immortal without the gem as well, but such matters are best left to the philosophers, as no living being will ever see his end."

Here are the pics of the progress:




As you can see, a star dragon had an unfortunate run in with the big guy.

More to follow,

Dan

Awesome sculpture / model / statue (!) I'm sure you're going to do this piece the justice it deserves...

I'm always amazed and impressed by your collection of miniatures - really like the big walker suit thing - aphid suit is it? Where's that from?

Thanks man - the aphid suit is a sedition wars model. It's the closest rendition of the "Aliens" power loader I've found, and thus it rocks.

Thanks mate, I agree it's excellent.

I really need to dip my toes in other games than 40k (inc Space Hulk and Necromunda) as there's some awesome stuff out there from what I can see - I'm a big fan of alternative figure manufacturers such as Hasslefree and Heresy to name a couple, but with actual game systems I'm a comparitive newbie

I've been out of town for a few weeks, but there's been some painting done in the down time - here are the latest completed/in progress models.

First up, here are the orcs from my copy of Warhammer Quest. I've been slowly painting up the set over the last few years. Eventually it'll be done, God willing, but in the mean time, here are the boyz in green:


And here are some more shots of Krakanrock - he's going to have black skin and bronze armor. Obviously there's ton more work to do - expect to see lots more pics of him along the way.





And here's my newest project - a Farsight Enclaves army. I used the proceeds from a recent army sale to put together a pile of them. Here are the first pics:

My Commander - obviously based heavily off the Farsight sculpt. This model is my favorite battlesuit in the line, and I didn't want to do much to it. I'm going to swap the sword for a fusion blade, and magnetize his other weapon, but otherwise he's staying largely as is. I'm still working on perfecting the engine glow - I'd like to add a bit of OSL, but with such a bright pallet, I don't know if it's going to look right. There'll be a bit of weathering as well, but that's till in the future.




And here are a few WIPs of the first riptide and the first 3 battlesuits:



That's all for today - obviously there are a lot of irons in the fire, but I guess I like it that way. More to come - C&C welcome.

Dan

I spent the weekend finishing up my crisis suit commander and a riptide for the Enclaves.

I decided to go with a heavily weathered look, and an alien theme for the bases. Given that the whole army is going to be suited up, I don't have to worry about them surviving in a strange environment. I think the purple, blue and teal static grass sets off the red armor nicely.

Here's the Commander - name TBD. I decided to go with a light saber sort of look for the fusion blades, while maintaining the basic twin-linked design. You probably can't tell from the pics, but I magnetized both of the shoulder hard points with nails (great, cheap way to magnetize btw) and his under arm weapon on the shield side with a magnet. He's ready to be equipped with just about anything!




Here's the first riptide. The loss of resolution during the upload didn't do the stippled blast damage much justice, but you get the gist of it.




With the entire army numbering less than 30 models, it's fun to get to devote a good amount of time to each guy - I'm working on finishing up the first 3 crisis suits now.

More to come!

Dan

I finished up three more suits today.

After finally buying and reading the Farsight Codex, I've been working on the theme of the list. It's going to be Crisis Reaction Force Omega 9, the quick reaction element of one of the larger cadres. The Force, as with most of the Farsight Enclaves forces, consists of a relatively small number of warriors outfitted in with mostly experimental and customized battle suits. Each of the teams has a designated role - the models depicted here represent team Gamma. Their primary task is strongpoint defense and objective security, with a secondary task of light vehicle destruction.

Here is Team Gamma - all armed with 2 missile pods.





I'm enjoying working on these guys - the basic suit looks crappy unaltered, but with a little love (and hands) they look pretty good.

C&C welcome,

Dan

Happy thanksgiving to all you Americans out there - I got a bit of work done last night on a pair of broadside suits for the Enclaves.

The broadside kit is incredible by the way - it's exactly what the crisis kit should be some day. I wanted to have the versatility to use either the missile system or the rail rifle on my suits, but I don't like the look of the stock missile arms. Hence, the following mod:



I'm particularly happy with the pose of the guy on the left. He's got a good C-grip on his rifle, a nice low shooting stance, and his rifle's at depressed muzzle. In short, he's ready to smoke something.

As has been said by others before, the hands really change the feel of the suits - they're a welcome addition.

More to come,

Dan