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Hey everyone!

Here is my finished Adepticon army. Thanks to all of those that followed and/or commented on my blog. I hope you like it!

It is inspired by Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The poem has always been a favorite and has inspired a lot of my other work and tastes in art. I love all things nautical (even though I rarely see the ocean funnily enough ). Empire, cephalopods, old time imagery, movies, the trunk itself (a 100 year old family heirloom), and all things in, on, and around sailing ships have always been interesting to me, so they all come together to make an army that is very sentimental to me.

If anyone is interested in the process of building the display over the past month or so, please check out my blog thread:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/515905.page

Anyway, on to the pictures!







The display is built out of a 100 year old trunk, which belonged to a relative and was given to me a year or so ago. The lower section is 2x4s and hinged. It lowers for transport and locks into place. The box is a lot bigger than it looks in the images. It is almost an arms span across and as it sits there is 3 feet tall to the lip.















The boat itself is made of pink insulation foam for a form and then covered in hand cut plastic (not balsa!) strips. It took about 3 full days to cut and cover the boat in planking. The rivets are cut from stock rivet plastic, and all ralings and accessories are legitimate ship modelling accessories.

The wood grain is all freehand. The backside is done as well, 5 inches below water and what you see above.







The sail is made from duck cloth soaked in PVA for sturdiness. The rivets were punched in and strung to the dowels. The dowels were lightly stained and pinned and epoxied together.

The sail is removable as the black rigging is all elastic cord. The mast goes down into the ship where the Kraken leg wraps around.





This is over two gallons of clear resin. The boat goes about 5 inches down into a second box with an enclosed bottom. The waves are honestly not as rough as they would be realistically, but sacrifices were made to be able to see all that hard work down below.

I was honestly incredibly lucky with the resin. There was NO shrinkage at any point, and I got hasty with .5-1" layers when I was advised (thanks penturners!!) to do much thinner layers. However as I found out this stuff is horrible smelling and it requires sunshine or above 70 degrees to cure, both of which were in short supply in the past couple weeks.

It still smells too... :(

Speaking of resin, other than the bodies of the artillery and the Birdmen wings, the entire army is resin as well!























The baby octopus is real, preserved in alcohol. I felt a bit bad but they were already dead and bought for eating...

The others were used to make similar "lures" and given out to friends and family.













My hack and slash, rewritten version of the Rime. Im pretty happy with how it came out, as I am not really a writer.

The short version is, some random old man gave Kraal the Kraken lure. He, being Kraal himself, thought nothing of it, and did not tell his men and sailed out. They encountered and killed the Kraken after several days when the Batton Boys threw their favorite rum overboard and blew up the Kraken.



Van Der Kraal!



Wizard Lord



My version of the Sea Bride standard. The Manaans Blade's standard is a tall banner with the image of a mermaid, that screams and frightens its foes, especially when wet with sea water.

The mermaid is a Vampire Counts model and sculpted tail. The bearer is Marius Lietdorf and a Manaan lower body.







Our heros the Batten Boys! I needed a 4th cannon for symmetry so I stuck it in a unit



















Some salty mercenary Greatswords. The crates were a HUGE pain to saw apart and line up. Some sort of really hard resin.

A note on the posing over the army - it was all done with hot water. I love resin!

















Kraal's Salts. Kraal's personal guard and the only ones who knew what the crew was in for.

In the 20 kits of Manaan's Blades I purchased I somehow had enough of those heads for the whole unit. Thanks Forge World! The heads are all single sculpts, so I did a lot of resculpting and beard-adding.




















They're on a boat! On a boat! In a box! In a box! One of my favorite models, sculpt and fluff wise it was an auto-include.











The cannons are part stock plastic, part steam tank cannon, part regular artillery bits. They are designed to be hydraulic. One lever pushes the cannon forward and returns it for reloading. The other fires it.














These are Birdmen of Catrazza wings on Manaan bodies. They really lock together...

Well, that about does it for now. I hope you like them! If you are going to Adepticon please stop and say hi. I always enjoy meeting people from forums and seeing some of the same faces every year.

Thanks for looking!

ARE YOU EFFIN SERIOUS?

REALLY?

How do you maintain this level of work?! Unreal!!!!

That.. is nothing short of beautiful my friend.

It's just full of character and everything you could want in a display. my hat off to you my friend.

Your work is always amazing!

Jaw. Dropped.

That's just unreal dude. I'm in total awe, not just the paint job (which is awesome btw) but the modelling and the dedication in general is just

That has got to have a good chance, the feel of the whole thing is amazing!

Wow. Un-freaking believable

Thanks!

This is insane... The models are drop dead gorgeous, but that kraken... Those watereffects... Did you tint your resin for that in any special way? It's frigging unbelievable.

There is so many good things to be said about this, it's hard to pick one to begin with

Awesome. I do enjoy the nautical themes and ship / chests that you bring to Adepticon. They are always epic!

Absolutely gorgeous, inventive, thematic, and tasteful. Good luck at Adepticon! You deserve a lot more praise than this.

Wow... just wow.

 Elmir wrote:
This is insane... The models are drop dead gorgeous, but that kraken... Those watereffects... Did you tint your resin for that in any special way? It's frigging unbelievable.

There is so many good things to be said about this, it's hard to pick one to begin with

Thanks so much!

The resin actually is not tinted. I was advised not to, so instead I painted the walls of the box blue and tinted the boat blue from the waterline down. The resin as it turns out also has a bit of natural blue to it. Its not that the resin is blue though, its more like it reflects blue light, like a crystal. I dont know if I am explaining that well, but hopefully it comes across correctly.

A museum piece literally, amazing!

holey BLEEP what an awesome army and display.... wow, what else can I say

Speechless, truly a work of art !

Sooooo derivative...

I remember a couple years back at Adepticon some had a CSM Army I think, squiddy and octopus Diver themed ALSO in a trunk..

total rip off.

Oh wait... that was .. you.

Efffing Brilliant as always .. I wondered how you would top the Munchy Gutsmen..

-P

AMAZING WORK!!!!!!

 porkuslime wrote:
Sooooo derivative...

I remember a couple years back at Adepticon some had a CSM Army I think, squiddy and octopus Diver themed ALSO in a trunk..

total rip off.

Oh wait... that was .. you.

Efffing Brilliant as always .. I wondered how you would top the Munchy Gutsmen..

-P

Bahaha oh Porkus...

I guess I am guilty. Part of it however is a lot of people told me that army was always the best one, and better than the other two between. Which I understood, it definitely has more in some regards than my last two, and of course everyone has a different opinion.

So I wanted to top it for good! I still love that army just as much as I do this one now though.

Honestly, this has become my favorite part of Adepticon: What's GMM doing this year?

Stunning work as always

Nice
Well, better than that, one of the best pieces I have ever seen, Well done and good luck !!

I dont like the color choice at all, i'll just say it's much too "fabulous" for my taste.

i respect all the hard work though, that's a huge undertaking.

Too cool! This army really has so much personality. 10/10

kb305 wrote:
I dont like the color choice at all, i'll just say it's much too "fabulous" for my taste.

i respect all the hard work though, that's a huge undertaking.

Well, it is Marienburg/rich snobby traders/ the leering seceded town that sees themselves as too good for the Empire, so while yes they are flamboyant it is accurate. They work and fight in clothes most of the rest of the Empire could never afford.


Marienburg is sort of like if Miami in the 80s seceded from the union.

 Maelstrom808 wrote:
Honestly, this has become my favorite part of Adepticon: What's GMM doing this year?

Stunning work as always

Well thank you! Likewise my favorite part is meeting people and watching my army make them smile.

This is awesome work my friend, top shelf. A display you can be proud to show off for many years to come. Very inspiring.

I love how you made each and every rank-and-file soldier a unique personality, absolutely amazing!

Pat yourself on the back for a job done perfectly. I hope you win best of show and play a hard-fought game, you deserve it!

I'm just honestly blown away by this, frigging awesome! =)

Year after year you guys produce the absolute best looking armies and display set ups I've ever seen.

awesome awesome awesome

(Jaw drops... sits in stunned disbelief... wakes from self-imposed mental exile.) I mean, wow, amazing work! And I don't even like Empire models and style at all, but that is a GREAT example of top-quality work!

A-MA-ZING! Just amazing, words cannot express the awesome

I have been following this on your blog, but seeing this completed it is just amazing. It's one of the reasons I find you the best army painter in the world

Stunning as always.