HORUS HERESY - Leman Russ and his Wolf-kin

I recently had the chance to work on my first Forgeworld Primarch model, Leman Russ. It was interesting returning to him after I had converted and painted one a bunch of years ago (almost seven years! Check it out HERE).

Obviously the Forgeworld model is a better sculpt, and my painting has continued to improve over the last few years (or at least I hope it has), so it was a lot of fun. The Wolf-kin (Freki and Geri, not sure which is which) were also a lot of fun to paint, as were the bases.

The front part of the larger base for Leman Russ is separate (connected with magnets), so that the Great Wolf himself can slip out and spend some time on the miniature battlefield.

I hope you like them : )

For the Wolf Time!

I can't believe it's been a whole week since the last post. Busy times indeed. We're wrapping up another issue of Wargames Illustrated (WI277, the November issue), and there's always the joy of copy editing to do : )

Anyway, here's a quick look at the last Primarch model I completed, the Great Wolf Leman Russ. It took me a while to decide on the pose and parts, but in the end I took a big lead from the fantastic artwork on the cover of the yet-to-be-released "Prospero Burns", due for release in January (I think).

Here are the WIP photos.

And a few painted shots.

I hope you like him.

Cheers

Dave

PS. Tomorrow is the last day of the Glen Burnie Bunker, so I'll be heading there to say my goodbyes and pay my respects. Expect a somewhat maudlin post in the next few days : (

Games Day Baltimore 2010 (part4-The Last)

Following my three hour stint at the Golden Demon Lounge I new I had to make up for lost time. I grabbed my stack of Dan Abnett books (the hardcovers at least) and raced down to the Black Library signing line. Not only was Dan there, but also his lovely wife Nik, and Gav Thorpe, Nathan Long, C.L. Werner, and Mike Lee! I was able to dash out of the line, buy a copy of The Sabbat Worlds, and get back in line to have Nik sign her story on the compilation and Dan sign "my stack".

After that I didn't have much time but was able to swing by the Jawaballs table again, say "G'Day" to a few old friends, spend far too much at the ForgeWorld stand and then start packing up my Blood Pact army. While doing the last bit I got the chance to talk to Jacob, the winner of the Storm Wardens army, and he is a really great guy! His love for 40K and enthusiasm about the project will, no doubt, see him taking good care of the army for years to come!

Anyway, all that meant I missed the award ceremony for the Golden Demons (they changed up the timing and location for it all, and I hadn't paid any attention to the new schedule), but was able to stand on stage for a brief second along with the other Gold trophy winners and see Todd Swanson awarded his FOURTH Slayer Sword! Boy, did he deserve it. A very beautiful Lictor indeed!

So, thats about it for my Baltimore Games Day experience. If it seems rushed and disjointed, that's because it was : )

I spent the bulk of my time doing what I love to, talking to friends (new and old) and having a great time with toy soldiers. So thank you to all my friends who were there for making it a great day, and congratulations to those who walked away with Golden Demon trophies too (Kyle, Kirill, Jeff, Yuri, Marc, Mathieu, Todd, Zach, Alex, and anyone else I may have missed!)

So here he is, my latest Primarch conversion - Night Haunter, Primarch of the Night Lords.

I hope you like him.

Quick Question for the Background Buffs

Hi guys

I'm currently working on a Night Haunter piece and wanted to track down a tidbit of information. I have heard at some point that Night Haunter (Konrad Curze), the Primarch of the Night Lords, wears a crown of some sort. I need to know if that is the case.

If you know where that information can be found (ie. a book reference, web page etc.), please post in a comment below.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Dave

Greetings from the Warmaster!

So, after a fairly busy week (including a working trip to Cold Wars in Lancaster,PA) I've managed to finish up the Warmaster Horus. This conversion is based on the great artwork by Adrian Smith of the final meeting between Horus and the Emperor. My client wanted Horus to be "less evil" so I did away with the severed heads, stretched faces and one or two other accoutrements. This is Horus at the time of renaming his Legion (from the Luna Wolves to the Sons of Horus) when his faith in the Emperor and the Imperial Truth is on the wane.

Enough of the introduction, I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

The base is from Dragon Forge Design's Lost Empires range. For my money, nothing says "crushing the enemies of Mankind" like a toppled statue.

A couple of posters asked for a scale comparison with a standard Space Marine, so here he is towering over a member of the Legio Custodes. My client has a friend he plays against on a regular basis who has a Ronin Miniatures' Mortarion, so I wanted to make sure Horus could stand up to the Primarch of the Death Guard.

On a final note, here's a teaser of the last commission to finish before Adepticon. Rylanor, the venerable hero of the Emperor's Children Legion and friend to Saul Tarvitz. There's a bit more work to do on him so I better get back to it.

My first Primarch - Completed

When I was approached in August to convert and paint a Fulgrim in the style of Chris Borer's Slayer Sword-winning entry from the 2007 Chicago Golden Demons, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

I spoke with Chris to make sure it was ok with him for me to create this homage. He replied by reminding me, he had drawn inspiration from the John Blanche and Sam Cook artwork in the Horus Heresy artbooks, and gave his blessing. And so it was that the project began.

I knew I'd feel good about the model if I put my own spin on things. So, taking Chris's model as the guide, I tweaked a few elements to give it my own flavor. I also mounted him on a base from Dragon Forge's Ancient Ruins line. By adding a few spikes and roll of razorwire I was able to keep reasonably close to Chris's original vision.

I hope you like him. I know my client does, he has already commissioned a Lucius and a Standard Bearer.

I have quite a few commissions on my plate right now, that means you'll get to see some quite interesting stuff over the coming months.

Cheers

Dave

Talk about busy!

So I've managed to burn the candle at both ends getting stuff ready for the Battlefoam Wild West Shootout Indy GT this weekend! I'm flying out on Friday evening, so I figure I can sleep on the plane. No more posts until after the show. I just have too much to finish off.

Anyway, on to the five key points of tonight's post:

1) The AT-70 Reavers. After seeing the tank built by Rabidchild on his blog (Pick a Damn Army, new to my blog roll) I decided to run with a smaller turret than my Ragnarok turret. Here are the two tanks as they stand right now.

For maximum transportability and flexibility, I magnetized the lascannon, the cupola hatch, and the battlecannon. In the future I'll build out some different guns for the turret, and different hatches as well.

2) The Usurpers. There was a good reaction to my Usurpers, so I thought I'd show you the painted pieces! I've gone with the same color scheme I used on my Valdor and Malcador, Dark Flesh with Khemri Brown/Bleached Bone icons.

After seeing the M7 Priest model from the Flames of War range I saw that the shells were placed vertically in cases on either side of the rear of the crew compartment. On my Usurpers I had to turn them around and lay the shells horizontally. In the picture below you can see the rear of four shells nestled in their storage, just ready to rain death down upon the worshippers of the Corpse God.

3) Commission - Fulgrim. I still squeezed in some time on my Fulgrim commission. He is so very close to completion with just a few more details. The cloak has given me plenty of trouble, but it is almost there. Just a little more time...

4) Mantic Games. A friend of mine who is the Sales Director (or something similar) for Mantic Games was in town this weekend for a trade show, and he dropped off a few sprues of the new Mantic Games Elves on my desk. I guess after the weekend I'll be starting on painting these guys up. You can find out more about Mantic and what they're up to on their blog, also new to my blog roll!

5) Blogs! There have been another recent spate of new blogs and I'm just getting around to checking them out. I have also added my mate Anthony Reynold's new blog to my blog roll, and there are probably many more to come. Keep an eye out for them as I add them.

Well there you are, another week, another looooong post. Wish me luck for the tournament, I haven't played 40k since last November ; )

Cheers

Dave

No Pact in sight!

I think it was last post, but I know I've mentioned the Perry Miniatures American War of Independence (AWI) American Militia miniatures I was painting for work. Above is a shot of the first 20, painted as patriots (by using some blue/grey colors) using the "dip" method. This is the first time I've really used it, and it was quite interesting. I enjoyed the process for these miniatures so I painted another 20! Finished them up this morning, and painted them as loyalists (by using a red/brown where I'd used the blue/grey on the others).

You'll be able to see more shots in November's issue of Wargames Illustrated (#265).

Anyway, back to the sci-fi/fantasy realm.

I currently have two commissions on the go. The first is to convert and paint a Fulgrim in the same style as Chris Borer's Slayer Sword winner from Chicago in 2007.

I still have quite a bit of sculpting work to go. Wish me luck!

The second one, below, is to build and paint a Night Lords Chaos Lord with two Lightning Claws and a combi-melta. The commissioner wanted the boltgun and meltagun integrated into the claws. He also wanted wings (the Night Lord influence). We both agreed, however, that winged helmets were silly.

I wanted to do something slightly different with the wings (rather than just use the very cool Possessed winged backpack). After seeing the winged Daemon Prince by Lemmingspawn on DakkaDakka, I wanted to do something similar.

Here's the right claw with the bolter integrated into the "little finger" spot.

And the meltagun on the left claw.

All that remains now is to get it painted!

Only three weeks until I have to have my seven Blood Pact vehicles finished for the Battlefoam tournament, as well as having these two jobs done. Should be a busy time.

Cheers

Dave