Thursday, March 31, 2011

Commissions: Dark Eldar, Part I


Since April is going to be Mecha Month here on M3, I thought I'd get the non-mechanical part of the latest commission job out of the way. You'll recall the WIP Razorwing I posted earlier; these are the rest of the Eldar models who were turned to the dark side. Well, minus the Talos. He's coming next time to kick off the heavy metal festivities. 


The above Haemonculous started out as an old Warlock model, and has undergone some body modding, as they apparently do in the rape pits of Commorragh (or however you spell it). If you'd asked me to build one from scratch, I probably would've used more Daemon and mutant parts, but these are meant to be from his bits stores, not mine. Is he floating, or is that an actual pole up his ass? Only Mat Ward knows for sure.




The Wyches were the real labor-intensive part of this package. Sawing the heads off of a bunch of Banshees was a royal pain in the ass, and they're considerably overdressed as Wyches go. The client had limited leftover parts from his old boxed set (hence some of the fugly crone faces), but I think they manage to pull off the evil murder-hooker look convincingly. I probably should have given the helmeted ones Cobra masks, too, but oh well. According to the fluff DE are hundreds of years old and drink other peoples' emotions (really? They're anti-Care Bears?) , so they're bound to be a little nasty looking. 




The upswept dreadlocks on the Scourges were a last-minute decision which ended up working out, visually. On the prototype I sculpted these long, trailing things, but they ended up victims of gravity that would've required an armature to stay right. The compromise was using the elongated heads of the Swooping Hawks as makeshift forms, and playing off the rather gothic-looking grill-masks.  Presumably the actual Scourge model will look a lot more predatory, as they're also body-mod freaks, and not Eldar pussies in winged armor. 




Lastly, another crop of 20 Sybarites to make up the body count on the battlefield. I spread out the remainder of the old-style DE parts as best I could, and avoided using the standard Eldar fiddly bits. This brings his total of DE warriors up to 40, so presumably he'll focus on the other parts of the army list for his buying decisions instead of more Sybarite models. More's the pity, because I wanted to work on some of the new plastics, but oh well. 


Coming up: The Talos, Jetbikes, and Venom.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Knight Warden Titan WIP and 100th Post Contest Winnah!


Here he is, covered in rivets and basecoated. I still need to suss out a base for him, plus there's some detailing that remains to be done, but he's basically finished. I think it gets across the whole "pygmy Reaver" look of the epic model from the last post nicely. I was thiiiiiiis close to giving him spindly Punisher cannon arms, but opted for the CCW and battle cannon instead. Given the piece I used for the Apocalypse Launcher (which looks like an enormous Thunderfire gun) a pair of gatlings would've been redundant, design-wise. He'll have to settle for strafing infantry with the heavy bolters on his low-slung head (maybe I should've made them flamers?) and that autocannon on his right arm instead. Here he is next to my still-baseless Warhound: 




Color-wise, Red and brass always looks too Khornate to me me, so I may opt for a different tack with this model. Still, I want him to tie in with the rest of my AdMech forces.


Oh yeah, the contest winner.


Drum roll, please. 


Ghengis Vaughn, for Warden of Sovereignty.


Ghengis, email me your mailing info so's I can mail you the sprue, and thanks to everybody for playing, not to mention being a reader of this blog. Hopefully after this Titan's done, I can sum up the courage (and plasticard) to cleave into that ancient AT-AT in my garage and make a full-sized Reaver out of him. 


Also, I'm clearing out more stuff on eBay. Most of it sci-fi/anime-oriented, though I daresay there's something for everybody. So take a look and fund my miniatures addiction. International shipping is available. 


Next time, we show off some Dark Eldar conversions....





Saturday, March 12, 2011

100th Post! (Also, Contest...)


One hundred posts. We're finally here. 

I started this blog as a hobby project,mainly to blow off steam by writing down random raving thoughts. Then I saw how massive the hobby community was here on the interwebz. 

And then I was laid off. Hello, free time.

There are so many of you, and where possible I add to my blogroll because they're so cool that other people should see them. Admiral Drax, Tears of Envy, Stelek, Brent, Mordian 7th, B.Smoov, Ron over at FTW, Col. Corbane, Oniakki and so many others; all lights in the void. I'm glad you were out there for me to find and learn from/ogle at, guys. Way to light up the internet. 

I'm an arts guy, and stats really aren't my thing, but the reigning most popular post of all time? This guy.


It's not like his ego needs any more boosting, but Grievous got 2,194 pageviews. what's more, this blog has gotten 70,554 total. Jeezus. If I had put all these damn models in an art gallery on a street somewhere, it'd be time to change the carpet. All this might be old hat to you seasoned travellers out there, but to me it's just breathtaking. 

Thank you, really. 

All 219+ of you. 

And so, the contest. It involves this guy:


I mentioned before that I'm building a 40k-scale Knight Warden Titan for a contest over at the Adeptus Mechanicus Forums. He needs a nice, Titan-y sounding name. All you have to do is come up with a name for him and post it in the comments section of this post before March 19. What's the prize? 


Why, it's a sprue of Shock Troops from the by now famous Wargames Factory range. You've seen them in this space before. I will slip them in a padded envelope and mail them to the winner. 

I also want to take a minute to remember our friends in Japan. I'm sure you all know about the recent calamity. They're having real tough time right now and can use your prayers and support. Let's all keep a good thought for them, and help out where we can. As a testament to the enduring spirit of Japan, the Gundam statue in Shizuoka is still standing. There have been pictures going around of it toppled at the knees, but these are from when it was taken down for renovation the first time. 

So that wraps up post 100, and here's to the next 100.

Thanks, people.

PS: Yes, I know I missed Old Stuff Day, but life gets in the way, so I hope the Grievous pic makes up for it.

PPS: Yes, I drew that mecha girl at the top. She was meant for another 100th-something project, years ago, but I ended up using something else, so she just stayed in limbo until now. Hope you like her.