The Flight - Part Five

I'm back with another update of work on my Inquisitor warband diorama "The Flight". Click on the link here to take you back to the last four updates.

Well, this update shows the work so far on Sister Aaliyah, the Repentia soul-bonded to my inquisitor. Above you can see the initial take on her. Using Dark Elf Corsair legs and Daemonette torso and head, I'd got quite a ways down the track to having her done...

Then GW released the new Dark Elf models. I went halves in the Cauldron of blood model with a friend who really wanted the Medusa. Below you can see my second version of Aaliyah underway. Still a bit more work to be done, but I'm enjoying the slenderness of her frame, particularly when compared to the bulk of Urgo-Wrath.

Anyway, I'll leave these images here. Feel free to tear them apart ; )

Cheers
Dave

The Flight - Part Four

Another update on my Inquisition-themed diorama. Click these links to see Parts One, Two, and Three.

The first model to check out is Areta, Inquisitor Bartok's Assassinatrix. Areta actually started out as a potential part of my Mechanicum army (after being inspired by the assassin in the story of the same name), but once I'd read Anthony's story for my diorama, I knew I could repurpose her.

Built from Dark Eldar Wyche parts, I think she has a great, coiled menace about her. Following on from the idea of having all the henchmen with shrouded or augmented sight, I think I'll be adding some bionic eyes to Areta.

And then there's Saskia, Bartok's telekine. I'm thinking that  should either put up a veil over her face, or simply paint her eyes without pupils. Still a lot more work to go, and lots of fiddly details on the bodice and skirts of her dress.

Cheers
Dave

The Flight - Part Three

This week I hope to bring you a few more photos of my work in progress for "The Flight". You can check out the first two parts of this ongoing project here and here.

Here's my completed build for Urgo-Wrath, the brute of the warband. His initial form is that of the Warhammer plastic Nurgle Lord model. I trimmed back a lot of the "bloat" and puttied in a lot of the decayed sections. I rebuilt the front of his torso to give him a more muscular look, but I went for an unrefined, slab-muscled look.

His rotor cannon is from the Space Wolves Wolf Guard Terminators kit, and the backpack (loaded with incredible amounts of ammunition) is from the Space Marines Devastator kit (it's a heavy bolter back pack). Initially I was hoping to be able to use the original ammo feed from the HB, but things just didn't line up. So, building it was the only way. Hopefully the new ammo feed will paint up crisply.

Anyway, feel free to let me know what you think of this guy. There isn't too much wiggle room, but there might be some detailing I could include.

Cheers
Dave

The Flight - Part Two

For Part One, which lays out the project, click HERE.

One week on and I have a few WIP images to show you for my diorama (The Flight). Above is Urgo Wroth, now with arms and lots of other detailing.

And a few different models here. On the left is my initial model for Areta. She is based on a model I started originally as a Mechanicum assassin. Most of Areta is from the Dark Eldar Wyches kit. In the center is my first stab at Saskia, who owes much of here look to the Dark Elf Corsair kit, along with bitz from DE Wyches, Daemonettes, and the VC Coven Throne. On the right is the start of Sister Aaliyah, made from Dark Elf Corsair legs and a Daemonette torso. I'm thinking now, however, that I might need to use some of the new Dark Elf Witch Elves pieces to start her over again.

In addition to the work on the diorama, I started putting together my recent Forgeworld acquisitions.

And put a little paint on my Mechanicum Skittari Centurion.

I hope you like them.

Cheers
Dave

The Flight - Part One

For a little while now I've been posting a fairly random series of posts, with nothing really to connect them other than they're all about toy soldiers (surprise surprise). At the same time I've been marveling at the patience, dedication, and endurance of people like David Soper, Klaus, and Colonel O'Truth. These hobbyists (and many more like them) can really take their time with a model, be it a single Skink priest or an enormous scratchbuild with tens of thousands of hand-cut rivets.

Well, I've decided to give this approach a try and will chronicle my building of "The Flight" (working title) in a similar manner. I'm also planning on collaborating with a few other artists on various projects over the next 12 months, and this is the first of those collaborations.

I've been thinking my way through this particular diorama idea since Games Day 2012. After attending the classes of Victoria Lamb and Roman Lappat at Adepticon earlier in the year, I knew I had to spend a bit more time planning this project out if I was going to push my own limits and get the best out of it that I could. The two rough sketches above are ones I did on the flight home from Adepticon. They show the basic structure of the diorama, some ideas for lighting/colors, and the genesis of the story - the flight of an Inquisitor and his henchmen towards a waiting gun-cutter at the end of a Star Wars-style walkway.

Well, after turning over a bunch of things in my mind, I asked my good mate - author Anthony Reynolds - if he could help me out by making something more concrete out of my general idea. He was a real champ and sent me this:

As we run, overpowered las-fire and solid-slug projectiles hurtle by us, buzzing like angry insects. I would have been hit a dozen times already if not for Saskia. She has her hand out behind her as she runs, slender ring-encased fingers splayed. She’s nudging the enemies’ shots away, deflecting the incoming fire with her mind, just enough to miss us.

Spotlights from ornithopters overhead chase us, leading our pursuers on. More of them are closing in fast; I hear their jumbled thoughts crashing against me.

We have what we came for. The heavy stasis-tube is mag-locked to my thigh. Contained within: the gene-seed of an Adeptus Astartes. The Ordo suspects their genestock is compromised. We will see. Thankfully, it is not the Space Marines themselves that are hunting us. Not yet.

My name: Miklos Aladar Bartok. My rank: Inquisitor, Ordo Hereticus.

I kill one of our pursuers. My wrist-mounted inferno pistol burns his head to ash. Two more fall to the heavy, chunking fire of Urgo-Wroth. The massive, slab-muscled warrior – vat-grown from augmented gene-stock and heavily mecha-augmented – is a living tank. The gantry-bridge shudders with his every step as he runs. Saskia doesn’t bother exerting her psychic powers to protect Urgo-Wrath – he can handle everything this enemy throws at him. His body is riddled with las-burns and bullets unable to penetrate the thick shielding implanted within his flesh.

His malformed twin, held aloft on humming suspensor arrays, is similarly left unprotected by Saskia. Incoming fire hammers at the crackling refractor field bubble that protects him. He retaliates with stabbing fire of his own, darting sinuously through the air, his face twisted in savage pleasure as he kills. I do not approve of the glee he takes in snuffing out life… but his usefulness outweighs his moral failings.

More of our pursuers – I cannot yet bring myself to name them enemies – fall to Areta’s shadow-blades. Part of the darkness shrouding the immense facility, she disappears and reappears at will, appearing behind, above, below and next to our pursuers, despatching them with ruthless thrusts and cuts before jumping again. To her foes, she is a living shadow, a murderous shade that is all but impossible to target. To me, she is much more.

My cadre is rounded out with three others: Luthor Hayne, my pilot, a murderer, ex-ganger and substance abuser, and also the best gun-cutter pilot I’ve ever met; Sister Aaliyah, a mournful penitent of the Adeptus Sororitas, soul-bonded to me and desperate to atone for some past indiscretion; and the mercenary Hand, giving the rest of us covering fire. He’s possibly the most dangerous of us all, with his two kill-drones. One day there will be a reckoning between us, of that I’m certain.

Hayne brings my cutter down through the acid rain storm. Lightning reflects off its glossy, void-black hull. It’s a gorgeous craft, as sleek and swift as a knife. The turret-cannon underslung beneath its insect-blade nose opens up, churning through the ranks of our pursuers. Still, more of them are closing in, and they are bringing in heavier elements now. Military-grade.

We’ve done more than stir up the hornet’s nest; we’ve dropped a grenade right in the middle of the hive, and the hornets are not best pleased.

I smile. It’s going to be a close-run thing. I send out a mind impulse to my cadre.

+ Break off. It’s time to leave. +

I've started work on Urgo-Wroth. After I finish the detailing on him, I'll start to add his heavy bolter. I think I'll have him standing on the platform near the waiting gun-cutter, his chunking fire lighting up the scene a little.

Throughout this process I'm really happy to take suggestions from you all. Understand that I might not follow them, but they'll all impact the progress in some way, shape, or form.

Cheers
Dave

And on into 2013...

Anyone ready to suggest a name for my Lamenters Furioso? 

And yes, I still have to add the pools and splashes of blood and gore.

Well, I took a look back at my goals for my hobbying in 2012. Some of them were achieved, some of them were not (more the latter than the former), but strangely enough I'm nowhere near as troubled about that kind of thing as I was 12 months ago. Regardless of all that, I thought I'd jot down a few more goals to achieve this year.

Lamenters - I've made a pretty good start on this army, and it has helped pushed my painting a little bit outside my standard comfort zone (see the Dreadnought above as an example of that). My goal is to reach 1,500 points with this army and win a couple more games with it (currently I'm at about 50% of the painting and "winning games" thing).

Iron Brigade - I have these down for completion before Adepticon, where they'll be used as part of our Guns Of April annual game. With 100+ models already completed and roughly 70 to go, I think these one won't be too tough.

Adeptus Mechanicus/Mechanicum Army - I worked on this army eight years ago (I think), and after recently reading Priests of Mars and re-reading Mechanicum (both by Graham McNeill) I'm really psyched about re-working these guys and adding quite a few more odd, esoteric models to the mix. These will be models that have no apparent purpose in a 40K game, so you've been warned.

INQ28 - I've been keeping an eye on a cadre of great storytellers (and painters and modelers) who live, for the most part, in Europe. They've been doing some inspiring stuff that taps directly into the essence of the 40K universe and I'm hoping to use the power of the interwebs to work with a few of them over the coming year.

Everything else - No doubt there'll be a lot of other things that I'll turn my hand (and this blog) to, many of which are currently obscured from my sight. It'll be an interesting journey that will hopefully include some more Warhammer fun, maybe a little more Napoleonics and Flames Of War, and almost certainly some Horus Heresy goodness (Loyalist Death Guard are the way to go!).

So, I hope you all enjoy the journey with me, or at least chuckle heartily as I somehow get massively distracted!

Some Mechanicum fun in the next post (I think).

Cheers
Dave

What's on my table?

Sometimes I end up with a bunch of projects on my painting table at once. Usually more than I'd like, but for some strange reason the they keep springing up.

The projects on my table at the moment include two psuedo-charity projects that I'll talk about more when I've completed each one, but here are two teaser shots. A big tank (above) and a single figure (below).

Then there's the Napoleonic stuff.

I've finished painting my Hussars. Once I've got the bases completed I'll post up more photos on the Guns Of April blog (which you can check out here).

I'm also about to get started on some Shaken/Casualty markers for our big game.

And then I'm going to be working on a unit of French Ligne for a friend of mine.

I picked up some Empire State Troops over the weekend so I can get moving on that spearmen unit for my Procession of Morr army.

And finally, when I wasn't in the mood for all that other stuff, I assembled this guy out of some bits I had on the table at the time. Not sure where he'll end up.

I hope you're all keeping busy!

Cheers
Dave