Today's post is a recently completed commission job for a client who did NOT want to paint all of the veins on this magnificent Heldrake model from Games Workshop! Truthfully, I accepted the assignment with a bit of reticence and a sigh, but after I got cranking on it, was oooh so fun! Hope you like the results!
The Heldrake finished with all of it's metal veins and rivets gleaming!
Going through the painstaking effort of getting some base gold from P3 Paints!
Dry-brushing on some detail to one of the talons.
Side view of this screaming monstrosity!
Catching all of the cool detail on the many fins; all of the layering of ribs and fins were definitely a challenge, but proved worth the effort!
Combination of dry-brushing, highlighting, washes, and glazing gave this effect!
Right side view... such a cool model!
Screeching as it circles in towards its victims.
Close-up view of the head; notice the digital red-eye, the green acid in the venom spitter, and the pink on the techno-lash-tongue-thingy!
Definitely no fun facing this thing on the battlefield! (I know... I have had to do it!)
Ariel view of the head.
Ariel view of the back, showing off some of the detail.
Look at that wing span!
Transitioning to the battlefield... awesome!
What a terrorizing model to place on the field! It definitely makes you sweat because you know the commander is going to spit venom on your troops, roll the dice to wound and then say, "Pick'em up!" because MOST models get no armor save! Ick!!!
Here is the final pic: really enjoyed this project, and the final result was soooo worth the sweat. Please go and vote for him at:
Recently, I was fortunate enough to play a game of X-Wing. In preparation for said game, I new that the participants would be bringing their "prepainted" minis... so I took a stab at painting up an X-wing for Gavin Darklighter.
This first pic is of the pre-paint X-wing (on the left) with the regular 'out-of-the-box' model on the right:
It might not be readily visible, but the X-Wing on the right is a shade darker than the one on the left. I tried to bring out more of the 'white' that I envision the models having like in the movies a grew up watching as a kid.
My repaint (on the left) has the Rogue Squadron markings of "Rogue 5" which (at one point in time) was Gavin's ship!
Side view of the repaint (left) and the model (right) straight out of the box set.
On the back side, my repaint on the left has the 'afterburners on' which I tried to employ with some reds, oranges and yellow. Let me know what you think.
Miss the old X-Wing run on the Deathstar? Here it is!!! :D
Here is another mini that I need some help with... a Wood Elf Treeman! This was (again) one of the originals I posted up on this blog not really expecting much from Cool Mini or Not, and he has remained one of the high scoring minis on the sight!
Here is the link to the original post along with the link to him at Cool Mini or Not!
I really liked this mini when I came across it, and thought it would be a fantastic treeman blocker for Blood Bowl! So I picked it up, and pieced it together and painted it up! Really like the overall effect of how it turned out! :D
This is a wicked looking pair of Dark Elf Assassins from Gaspez Arts that were custom ordered for a Dark Elf Blood Bowl Team that I am finishing up. These nasties run up to the opposing players, and instead of throwing a block on them, can stab them instead with their assassin blades! (Ouch!!) If they pick-up the skill "multiple block" they can run up to TWO players on the opposing team and... Stabitty! Stabitty! Very annoying!
Assassin number 15 has his blades in the 'upright' position ready to do a 'lung punch' on an unsuspecting victim!
Assassin number 16 has his blades down, ready to sneak up behind and do a throat cut, or hit a major artery in the neck! Wicked little DElves!
With the rage about Zombies in the pop culture over the last few years, I thought I would share these crazy looking Zombies from the team I have been commissioned to paint... these are Gaspez Arts Zombie Sculpts for a Blood Bowl Undead Team.
This first guy happened to pull his own arm off in order to use it as an atlatl!
This post is a for Space Marine Deathwatch Kill Team I have had sitting in my closet for years, nearly painted! With a need to get some Space Marines out on the table-top for demo purposes, I decided to finish them up! Before I get to the pics, I have got to get down a brief history of my Space Marine Armies that I played. (Being a former Marine myself... was there ever any other option?)
When I first started playing 40k "back in the day" I started with Ultramarines (like everyone else), and the artist in me decided to throw in a squad of Imperial Fists for the color change on the table-top... more than anything.
After I sold my Ultramarines, I decide to play Space Wolves to join my bio-bro on the field of battle, but since he was already playing Ragnar's Company, I decided to field the Great Wolf himself--Logan Grimnar! (This pic is a spectacular painting of Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space wolves)
I loved playing Space Wolves, and the versatility that they offer... but at the time I was playing, it seemed EVERYONE else figured out what my brother and I knew, so I sold that army off and decided to field an entire army of Imperial Fists!
They looked tremendous on the Battlefield (yellow against most table top gaming colors really stands out!), and then I came across rules for the Deathwatch Space Marine Kill Teams! With access to M.40 Targeters to affix to the Bolters and Stalker Silencing shells which force pinning tests, not to mention the ability to bring in TWO Heavy Bolters with special ammo and suspensor links which allows you to move and fire, it wasn't hard to start salivating...
(click any pic to enlarge)
But one of the most attractive things about Kill Teams is that the Space Marine Captain can be upgraded to a Psyker (Magic User) for a few more points! He comes with the spell "Smite" which is a potentially devastating cast with high armor penetration. This particular model (when I got him) had a converted scythe for his force weapon and it looked ridiculous, so I converted it to a force mace... much nastier looking! The pics don't bare it out too well, but I actually painted lightening flashes on the mace and down the shaft to the glove!
In truth, however, the thing that I love MOST about Kill Teams, is that the members a chosen from the very best the Space Marines have to offer, which means each member is hand selected from any chapter! The only assemblance of their past loyalties is the right shoulder pad which bears their original chapter badge; so you can incorporate members from different chapters, and combine them into one unit! How cool is that? Each Marine wears the Black Armor of the Deathwatch, with the Inquisitorial seal and Crux Terminatus on the left shoulder coupled with the steely, heraldic armored gauntlet reminiscent of the knights of old!
If you look close, you can see that in this squad, I incorporated members from: the Black Templars, the Crimson Fists, the Ultramarines, the White Scars, and yes... the Imperial Fists!
Here is a brief trailer from "Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40k Movie" with a squad of Ultras, led by an Imperial Fist Chaplain, and Fist Veteran Sgt! Enjoy! ;D
The other day I was taking pics of my crystal blue dice (the first set I ever bought as a serious gamer), with full intent of talking about them on my blog. Immediately upon completion, I was downloading the pics to my laptop and checking my gaming email, and wouldn't you know it... one of the well-respected young bloods in my active blood bowl league had sent me this article entitled: "How to Make the Dice Roll High Numbers!" So, for none other reason to be entertained briefly, DO read on...
Here are many of the dice I use when I play Blood Bowl: The three block dice that are dark blue, the light blue and red crystal six-sided dice, and the D12 or D20. They are placed next to my Morg'n'Thorg mini simply for perspective.
Here are the dice that I use with my human team. (Yes! I am one of those OCD guys that actually seeks out dice that match the color of my team!) Which, I might add, is how can you tell if one is a true gamer or just a wannabe! If their dice somehow MATCH the team/unit/army they are playing with... then you know *points finger* "True Gamer!!!" :D The small die is used as a wound counter for heroes in table-top strategy games, but in Blood Bowl it is to remind me that my Ogre has gone "bone-headed."
And now *drum roll please*my blue crystal dice! I was laughing soooo hard when my young friend sent the article to me about dice, because so much of it I am guilty of!! So, now it is time for a quick story!
I actually DID go down to the local hobby store (years ago) and find some dice that matched my Ultramarines, and started rolling them! I probably rolled thirty plus dice (no joke) for about a half an hour, until I narrowed it down to five dice that were consistently rolling sixes!!! Laugh now, but I tell you the truth! The next battle I faced off of against Tyranids, Helveticus the Ancient Standard Bearer was stranded on a hill-top swarmed by stealers! He had to roll straight sixes for armor saves! He rolled all five of them in that fatal first turn of hand-to-hand combat! My opponent (as was I) stunned into silence! But there is more...
"Helveticus the Ancient"
The very next turn he had another impossible six armor saves and once again... straight sixes!!! My opponent yelled, "NO WAY!!! Those dice are loaded!!!" I held them up and grinned, "Nope! You can see right through them!" He yelled for the other gamers in the store, and EVERYONE came over to see what the ruckus was about! Next turn, another astronomically impossible six armor saves (straight sixes), and for a third turn Helveticus stood firm, the Banner of Macragge still in his stealy grip! Everyone, bowed and paid homage to my blue-dice! From that day forward, everyone had heard of the legendary blue dice! Opponents would cower under the table when I brought them out! And while Helveticus did eventually go down, he gave this gamer a most memorable moment in gaming history that has probably never, ever been repeated!
Yes, my friends... take care of your dice! Treat them with respect! Leave them on the table with the "six" side up! Kill the insects! Do your due diligence and (more often, than not)... they won't let you down!!!
All right sports/gaming fans! Found this the other day, and I just had to put it up! (Nothing really to do with minis, per se, directly...) If you go to the "Ranker" website by clicking on the link provided, you will see that with over 380,000+ views, and over 7,800+ votes on the BEST 100 table-top board games of all time... BLOOD BOWL was ranked (as of this morning) 75th! Yeppers! Beating out other GW produced games (except for Space Hulk which was 53rd)! Amazing!
