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This blog is going to be a temporary blog to document the "Pimp my wizard 40K! A friendly painting and modelling contest".

The idea to start this contest came up when PDH and I were arguing about calling dibs on converting the WFB wizards coming out in July.
You know these four handsome fellas, who are being released for the storm of magic:


So after telling Peter "calling dibs, my ass!" I suggested to make a friendly competition of it, just to see what ideas some creative individuals might come up with when converting these few miniatures.
That's what we and some people we're going to invite, will do when the new wizards are being released on the 9th of July.

As it says above, this is an INVITATIONAL! So no offense, we're not intending to exclude anyone, but it's just a small event amongst friends.
If you love the idea, like we do and you're desperate to participate head over to Panic's open version (not to say rip-off ) of ours.


If you're not going to participate feel free to comment anyway and tell us how you like the idea and what you'd want us to convert, or something similar.

"Pimp my wizard 40K! A friendly painting and modelling contest"

Rules: (by PDH and me)

Get one of the new Warhammer Wizards released on the 9th July 2011. As seen in this picture (pretty picture/see above)

The model will need to be converted to represent something from the Warhammer 40k setting...where there is only war and paperwork.

Use the mages body as a base, but apart from that anything goes.

Use any parts as you see fit, be they GW/Forge World or one of the plethora of other miniature companies. Plastic Card, modelling putty etc is all good.

The base size shouldn't exceed 40mm and secondary miniatures should be minor minions (eg servo skull and familiars). Exceptions can be made if you can make PDH or Baiyuan understand why a bigger scene or additional character is essential to your project.

Update the blog at least once per week with words, pictures, ideas, stories. Whatever you see fit and will add to the project. Even a “I’m still alive and work has been massively busy.” would suffice. Obviously work in progress shots throughout the building process would be great.

All pictures should be posted in a dakka gallery.

When you have built the model and before undercoating please take a picture and post it in the blog.

The model will need to be painted and photographed by the 10th September ready to be posted on Dakka. Post the finished product on September 10th for all to enjoy.

At least one picture has to be taken against a plain white backdrop ie a sheet of A4 paper curved upwards with the model standing on the bottom. (That will make it a lot easier to put all conversions into one mindblowing picture via photoshop.)

There will be no judging or prizes (other than comments from other Dakka users) The journey will be the reward. You could look at this project as a nice break from your army, a change of pace from competition pieces. Something to add to your Inquisitorial Warband. A start to your often planned never started Inquisitorial Warband. Perhaps you just fancy showing off your skills. Whatever the reason it's about having fun and looking at beautifully created models.

Confirmed participants:

PDH

Baiyuan

Neil101

CMDante

Migsula

Scarper

Cadaver

HF Izanagi

Vitruvian XVII

JRN

Jackanory

...more coming soon...

Edit: added "use dakka gallery"-rule, added bigger pic of the wizards, added "white backdrop photo"-rule, added "base size and familiar"-rule

Update:
Dakka celebrity Migsula is in for the fun and we're happy to have him.
Another highly creative mind, I can't wait what breathtaking creations the guys will come up with.

I would love to know what conversions you all have in mind for the wizards, no matter if you're participating or not.
What comes to mind looking at them?

About my personal conversion plans so far:
My mind is currently racing to decide which wizard I'm going to convert. I'm having ideas for all of them, but I want it to be really demanding and unexpected.
Surely one could give the chaos sorcerer an autopistol and call him a chaos psyker and it would look great, but I'm thinking more in the line of "I wouldn't have guessed what the base model was, if hadn't known before."

The only model I'm more or less excluding is the tzeentch sorcerer, I don't like him that much. My only idea for him, was to turn him into an alien bounty hunter. I think the strange legs and twiggy physique would make a good base for a unique alien, but I'm not that excited about the idea, it's rather uninspired.

The chaos sorcerer was love on first sight, what a gorgeous miniature. On the first glance I knew that I had to convert it and the more often I look at it, the more I want it. There is only one problem, I didn't have a firecracker of an idea yet, just lame stuff. I was planning to turn him into a radical inquisitor, but I think I'll need to hold the actual model in my hands to get an idea of how to do that.

The necromancer was my second choice, lovely! I only see one problem with him, if you remove his weapons and/or head the only thing you got left is a robed figure, that could be from any miniature, not very characteristic. On the other hand, like PDH said, for the same reason it's a good canvas to work on. My best idea to convert him was so far to turn him into a ratskin shaman.

The supreme sorceress was the model I initially didn't consider at all. Sure it doesn't look bad, the hair is nice and everything, but it doesn't look like it's 40k compatible at all and it could be from any manufacturer.
Well as things go, my "bestest" idea for the competition is about the sorceress. It's in fact so good, should I decide not to do it for the contest I'll do it later. I don't want to give it away just yet, but I can tell you that much, it will be plenty complicated and the product will belong to my ordo hereticus warband, nuff said.

LOL... this is an amazing idea!! You've got Migs and Dante to go at it too??

This looks to be like a fantastic contest... I'm not worthy, but could I sign up as well?

The top two figures call to me... especially the Tzeentch (sp?) Wizard you place so low...

-Remi (HF Iz)

-EDIT-

Tell me more about the rules- anything goes? Start with a sorcerer, end up with whatever your mind's eye sees?

Ooh this should be good! Wish i could find the time to enter, but i shall just have to satisfy myself with drooling over all of your creations!


edit: Curse you Izanagi!! Would it be at all possible for me to join this hallowed circle? I would love to pit my limited skills against all of you.

HF Izanagi wrote:LOL... this is an amazing idea!! This looks to be like a fantastic contest... I'm not worthy, but could I sign up as well?
Tell me more about the rules- anything goes? Start with a sorcerer, end up with whatever your mind's eye sees?

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Ooh this should be good! Would it be at all possible for me to join this hallowed circle? I would love to pit my limited skills against all of you.

Thank you, I think so too. It will be a blast! I can't wait, sooooo excited...

About not being worthy, Neil101 said he feels like "dining with the big-wigs". Sure some dakka celebrities are participating, but aren't we all just normal freaks enjoying our escape to fictional worlds? It's really not about anybody not being worthy of the company, I mean I'm in afterall and I'm just a dakkanewb.
The people who are being invited are just those that came into Peter's and my mind first, when we asked ourselves who we would really like to see trying to convert one of those wizards.
We wanted to keep the list of participants less random and not to big, just to make it more personal, it's not about being elitary.

We will see how many of our invitations will be accepted. If we decide to have some more in the end, there might be a second wave of invitations and then I'll make sure your interest won't be forgotten.

Understood. We'll be waiting if you guys have any openings, then.

Regardless, I look forward to the figures you'll all put out- I'm a regular at the galleries of all the participants mentioned... usually green-eyed with jealousy...

-Remi (HF Iz)

Another one of the usual suspects accepted the challenge: Scarper, welcome to "Pimp my wizard 40k!".

The ship sat solemnly in stationary orbit above the dirty smoke grey planetoid. Lights from the tallest spires stabbed out into space, though they would soon be extinguished by the explosions and flames, boiling up and out of the hives spires. Fire raged over the majority of the planets surface, millions would die before the end of the night. The protectors of the Emperor's realm had failed and the planet would not meet its tithe, for centuries to come.

Ooo, very evocative!

I'd like to get in on this! Also, I think it would be great to continue something like this for other future releases that fit the =I=munda setting.

Cadaver wrote:I'd like to get in on this! Also, I think it would be great to continue something like this for other future releases that fit the =I=munda setting.

In fact you're on our list, I just didn't get around to send everybody their invitations. Now that you said that you want in I can save the time to write you one and just tell you, you're in. Welcome!

Interesting idea. All the starting miniatures are seemingly a good place to begin and change. It'll be good to see what some of the more creative minds here can get up to...

Yeah, that's what this is all about, a pool of creativity!

In other news, two more additions to the cadre, Vitruvian and HF Izanagi.

Thankyou to Baiyuan and PDH for letting me join this esteemed circle! Hope i can deliver :S

How much of the original model do we have to keep....

At the moment i've got my eye on the DElf Sorceress, after all its about time i had a female tech-priest... Ideas for her involve a lot of amniotic fluid and machinery.....

The Chaos Sorcerer i wont be using (i think!), lovely model but too much robes and armour for me.

The Tzeentch Sorcerer i like, very interesting, need to play around with a few more ideas first.

The Necromancer could very easily become a tech-magos (ala Migsula with the Empire wizards) and for that reason i think i'll ignore him too, just too obvious for my personal take on this contest. Why do a generic figure when you could push the boundaries? Of course, im sure someone else will make a stonking model out of it, and leave astounded as to why i didnt think of that!

Hmm, decisions, decisions. Always a good position to be in...

That's almost exactly what I am thinking in every detail! And I'm also tending to use the sorceress, but I'll be going in a very different direction, let's just say I'll be using a lot of GS and red color...
For the millionth time, I can't wait to see the totally different things we'll all create based on those few miniatures.

As to how much you're supposed to keep of the original miniature: Like Peter and I wrote in the rules, you should use the main body somehow. You can change the pose, remove some limbs, swap the head, whatever you like. I'd just say it would be a nice touch if one could still recognize the base model in the final product somehow, if that takes 5min it's possibly just well done though.

My plans for the sorceress for example consist of removing her right arm/weapon, possibly keeping the other one, but I'm not sure yet and then cover most of her body, limbs and head in GS. So the general pose will stay the same, which isn't exactly necessary, but it suits my plans more or less, on the other hand the whole surface of the miniature will be almost completely changed.

Working on the necromancer one would most likely just swap hands and/or head and make some other additions (tentacles, mechadendrites...), but it would be an unthankful (but not impossible) task to change his pose. This makes it especially challenging to create something inspiringly different out of him. I think Scarper is planning to convert him, if he does it right it could me most surprising what one can achieve on a model that looks so restrictive on the first glance.

Mind if I join in, I don't have a chance of winning but I havn't tried a competition before and it'll give me a new challenge.

I have similar basic ideas about the figures as Vit- the Chaos sorceror could totally pass for an antagonist Inq (heavily modded to remove the symbols, crazy but awesome horned head), lots of GS work... DE Sorceress... no plans at the moment. And Migs' conversion of the Empire wizard stands out as an example of what COULD be done with the Necromancer, and pass off extremely well.

Like I wrote in the invitation acceptance, the Tzeentch wizard will be my base. I'm going to go all out on the conversion- the basic model will still be able to be picked out, I think, but the final mini will be... more in the 40K range... along with other interests I plan to incorporate into the project...

Thanks again!

*begins humming Mortal Kombat tune*

-Remi (HF Iz)

Thanks again for the invite guys - feeling pretty humble amongst some of these big names, but I'll do my best!

As to the models, I'm a little torn at the moment - I have a fair few ideas, but a lot of them feel pretty uninspired.

If I went with the necromancer, I'm leaning towards a hunched and wisened female scavvy lookout, overloaded with scavenged rags and equipment, and perhaps carrying an infant. Obviously the staff, head and skull would be long gone, I'd make changes to the robes, and hopefully change the pose up a little. I feel like it might be too simplistic, though, or kind of cheating as the base is, as had been mentioned, pretty blank.

I feel like the tzeench sorceror has a lot of potential movement with some fairly simple alterations - lots of potential story to it too! I can just imagine some kind of spindly, creeping monster, devoid of all the humanity it once had...

I've got a couple of plans for the dark elf sorceress too, but nothing concrete yet.

The only model I'm struggling with inspiration for is the first one, which seems to be a big favourite with some of you lot! It seems really static to me, so I'm really looking forward to seeing someone transform it

Early ideas, but there's a lot of pressure here - Every one of the people taking part has awed me in the past! Still, an excuse to push boundaries and work on my skills - Thanks again for letting me take part. Fantastic idea, PDH and Baiyuan!

Ooo Scarper, the scavvy sounds great! I thought about turning the necromancer into a ratskin shaman, but it didn't kindle my fire so far. Your plan doesn't sound simple at all, sounds like just the right thing. And like I said before the simplicity of the base model would make it an even more impressive conversion.

I think im going to go down the MC route and use it as an Archmagos Veneratus, got some lovely ideas of what to put on a 60mm base!

It will all depend on whether i can sort out an amniotic preservation chamber. Will need to test a fully submerged painted model in water effects to see if its viable...

Im definitely going with the Sorceress now, the others just arennt grabbing me. And if she comes with hair in 3 pieces like its rumoured, so much the better! (Should look a treat upside down and in fluid...!)

Baiyuan/Vitruvian XVII - I really hope you DElf boys don't take any inspiration from this:




HF Izanagi - Nice to know you're game, glad you're using that model. I find it hard to believe GW aren't releasing it as a herald of tzeentch. In the future I may have to steal Baiyuan's idea of turning him into a alien bounty hunter.

Scarper - Stop it or you'll give yourself a complex, along with the rest of us . The scavvy sounds right up my street, you could use her as some sort of skivvy (like what I did there - Oh Yeah) for the Jackals.

As co-creater of this little project I guess I should share some of my ideas as well.... sorry they are a secret at the moment . We'll see closer to release date. Instead you'll just have to settle for some more of my terrible fiction. Now I'm off to email Molotov to see if there is a spare hive world in the Dalthus Sector he minds me ruining.

Peter

No danger of me going for naked admech, or any other kind of admech, at least not for the contest. And I think we discussed unmotivated nudity in sci-fi just recently. Should I really do the supreme sorceress (that sounded wrong) there will only be little of the bare skin left.
I'm currently trying to decide what weaponry and which familiar/companion I'll give her. Decisions, decisions... being spoilt for choice, I prefer the german phrase: "die Qual der Wahl" the agony of choice.

About stealing the bounty hunter idea, maybe there will be a second round of pimp my wizard, who can say, but let's focus on the task at hand first...

I really hope there will be better pics of the wizards soon, I looked at the current ones so much, but they just don't reveal everything.

Did Mol respond to his invitation yet?

And now, to follow Peter's example, some mysterious fluff, that says virtually nothing about my conversion, but (hopefully) sounds good:
She had hunted them for so long, scores of worlds throughout several systems and every single man, woman, child or thing that she had brought down, had made her feel closer to his radiance. All the years she had spent on the prowl seemed to have gone by in the blink of an eye, restless as if she was a bird of prey, that would fall from the sky, were it to ever slow down. - And now it all felt so void compared to doing Tiberius' bidding, he gave her the chance to experience the true meaning of her life. She had always known without a doubt, that her cause was just, but he had shown her that there was no need to worry about people despising her, that mortals would never empathize with her. Only through him she would find fulfilment...

Baiyuan wrote:

Cadaver wrote:I'd like to get in on this! Also, I think it would be great to continue something like this for other future releases that fit the =I=munda setting.

In fact you're on our list, I just didn't get around to send everybody their invitations. Now that you said that you want in I can save the time to write you one and just tell you, you're in. Welcome!

Awesome, I'm loving the idea of this. Just one question regarding the rules - would it be okay to submit more than one entry? I'm not sure if I actually will, but I had my eye on the Necromancer since I first saw the leaked pics and now I'm thinking I could make a cool Escher model with that Dark Elf sorceress and some Dark Eldar bits. Possibly a Escher themed bounty hunter or hired gun. I've been on a pit slave obsession lately, so possibly a female pit slave... we'll see, and honestly, inspiration may not strike fully until I have the model in my hands to tinker around with. That usually how it goes for me.

Cadaver - Morning, glad you're on board. I'll answer this one for Baiyuan and myself. For this project there can be only one model. Its about quality over quantity but having fun whilst doing it.

Man I want to watch Highlander now.

Baiyuan - I like the background. I think I have an idea about your character now. Glad to hear you're not using that nicely drawn but terrible image for any inspiration.

As for Mol he is going on holiday and gets back towards the end of July. I've told him he is more that welcome to join in at any stage and have the model finished by 10th Sept.

As for a second round of Pimp my Wizard....shall we see how this one goes. Its not even started properly yet . Though from what I'm seeing so far its looking good.

Peter

Cadaver wrote:Just one question regarding the rules - would it be okay to submit more than one entry? ... we'll see, and honestly, inspiration may not strike fully until I have the model in my hands to tinker around with. That usually how it goes for me.

Just what I think, I have several possible ideas, some quite intrigueing, but I'll have to wait till I have the models in my hands, because that's also what it works like for me.
Regarding entering with more than one model, I can empathize with the wish, because I've considered that too, and if Peter hadn't answered in my name I might have been in a dilemma. I say let's listen to Peter's voice of reason and postpone additional entries to a later date.

PDH wrote:As for a second round of Pimp my Wizard....shall we see how this one goes. Its not even started properly yet

You're right that's why I wrote "maybe". Call me overambitious, because I am, but in my head the current one is totally running already.
PM me your idea of my character, would be funny if you got it already.

Awww, PDH, that was the whole inspiration behind my charcter.... (not really but i would like to make that model, just to see how many 40k pervs get the reference )


Seriously though, anybody have any links on submerging models in water effects or liquid resin?

This is pretty much the only tutorial on submerging miniatures in resin or similar that I've found.
http://www.reapermini.com/TheCraft/49
Hope it helps.

Cheers dude, will read that now!!

Thanks for the invite to join in the fun lads. As Peter already knows, I was already eyeing up the chaos sorcerer for an Inquisitor related conversion anyway so when I was invited to join in on this, it was a no brainer.

Ideas wise, like most I have a couple of thoughts and plans in mind, but these tend to be only tentative at best until I get the models in hand. I might get round to doing a few mock up sketches of what I'm thinking later today, though a similar project that I'm already working on currently has my full attention.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with and the final painted results.

Cheers,

Dante

I've seen other tutorials for things swimming in tanks, the guy used an old chewbacca action figure, I'll post it when I find it.
One thing you can go for is using wax gel. You know the stuff from which women make strange candle thingies? Thats just it, cheap, clear and if you mess it up it's easy to get off again, but of course it will never harden.