Some shoulder pads and some resin casting

One detail from my Tyrant miniature that I was really happy about was a shoulder pad with an androgynous character sculpted on it (or a badly sculpted female character - if you prefer to view it from another angle). Ever since I've wanted to resculpt it in the regular space marine scale. So, I've managed to do so and it seemed to look good enought that I've decided to cast it in resin (with an idea of using it on multiple models from my expanding collection).

Well, only after taking some pictures of it I've noticed that the sculpt have some flaws and generally speaking, it doesn't look as it should (be honest - it looks awful). Anyway, it is already casted and probably some greenstuff here and there should make it a right (while enforcing some diversity, if I decide to really use it on multiple models).

It also seems that I've made myself a habit of retouching my "old" unfinished miniatures - this time I am working on a... space marine with a bird mask. As a sneak peek - an old photo:

In a few days, I will try to post some more recent WIP pictures, hopefully along with a longer comment about the whole concept of this miniature, inspiration and whatnot. Take care!

The Tyrant is here...

Cheers!

P.S. More pictures here!

Tyrant's Coat of Arms

This is yet another post about the Tyrant miniature I've been working on. Some paint is already out there. In the meantime, I've started designing the coat of arms for the quasi-shield that the mini has on it's right shoulder pad. This is a little bit tricky as I want to create something visually appealing while keeping it consistent, on the on hand, with Wh40k gothic aesthetics (via using more or less traditional elements from European heraldry) and on the other hand with the quasi-barbaric style of Chaos Marines and whatnot. Fortunately, thanks to the modern technology, one can test his ideas on the miniature without actually painting it. Digital tools are really much better than just a pure imagination. So, let me show you some designs I came up with.

The green colour here is something similar to feldgrau with bleached red being just a regular burnt sienna. Black circle (as well as the disk on the of the other shields) is supposed to symbolize a sun eclipse (or just an evil circle - you name it). Sun eclipse seems like a good personal totem for a tyrant*, especially for one that have something to do with sorcery and black magic, but than again - those coats without black elements seems to look a bit better. Tought choice. Triangular shapes here and there might be considered as resembling fire - which is probably an universal symbol that fits almost every theme.

If you like some of the above much better than the other - let me know in the comments. Thanks!

*For those of you who don't see any connection between tyrants and sun eclipse - I encourage you to watch the classic Polish movie "Pharaoh" by Jerzy Kawalerowicz. You can watch it on YouTube (legally, I believe).

The Tyrant 3

The Tyrant is almost ready for painting. I've decided to say farewell to the face-leg. I have also extended the cape, added a hand blade and some other stuff. Still, there is a space for some more details, but I have no idea what to fit there, so I'm probably going to just leave it as it is right now.

The Tyrant of Idius 2

For the last week, my mind has been occupied with anything but miniatures. Still, I have managed to sculpt some details on the Tyrant. He has got a cape now, some fur on the back and more importantly - he has got two hands (which is really a good thing on the battlefield). I plan to put more details in his waist area, probably a grimoire of dark deeds, to hint at his parapsychic skills. Also, expect more spikes here and there.
I am not sure about the face on the right leg, so I might end up cutting it out.

We also have a new header on the blog, I hope it matches your aesthetics as much as it matches mine. Cheers!

The Tyrant of Idius

This particular project is very special to me. About a year ago, I've accidentally started browsing hobby webpages, blogs and forums and suddenly got interested in it (again), probably in much more mature way than I've used to be as a child. Since, back then, I was not very well, financially speaking, I could not spend too much on some shiny new miniatures and instead I decided to make some myself. I've been looking at some of those astounding FW miniatures and I've thought: "well, I can do that!". If it was only so simple... Anyway, this one was my first attempt at sculpting a whole miniature from scratch. It supposed to be an chaos space marine in terminator armour. From now on, let's just call him lord Thurm, the tyrant of Idius.

Now, those of you who are accustomed to regular GW terminator marines will notice that there is something wrong about this guy. Those armours are supposed to be bulky (rule wise), but this is just too much. I myself have not realised that until one of those stock miniatures came into my possession and I had a chance for some comparison. As the result, I've just left this one in some dark corner and tried to forget.
But then it turned out that I need a terminator guy for my chaos warband - it just fits my army list very well. But no, I could not just use this one. It would be shameful. Instead, I've decided to honour lord Thurm by cutting him and using some of the remains when converting a new, not so bulky, miniature. In fact, I think that some parts of him were not so bad. In particular, I really like the face-bolter.

To be honest, I've tried to salvage almost everything from it that would not look stupid when combined with regular terminator parts. So far the new lord Thurm, the tyrant of Idius, devourer of the thousand worlds etc. looks like this:

The new left hand is almost done as well. I am trying to achieve a similar posturę here, but no power fists this time.
What do you think? Is the new Thurm going to be a better one? Or maybe you prefer the old bulky one? It certainly had some style...

P.S. I've decided to further honour this grim warlord by renaming the whole blog after him. Behold the Tyrant of Idius, devourer of the thousand worlds!

More CSM!

Back from dead! I'm still building more chaos space marines. Some WIP pictures:

Lastly, a sneak peek of my new project. It started as a part of a standard/icon bearer for CSMarines, but I think it is evolving in something different (not really sure what exactly). This picture is not up-to-date, I just want to make you curious!

New lens!

Hello!
I am testing new lens (or old one - I used to use it with my good old analog Canon) and it seems like a good occassion to post some pictures of my Aspiring Champion. A backpack is on it's place - as I promised it's similar to those carried by GW's noise marines. Heads on GW's backpack are usually gold, but here gold/yellow would probably distract too much, so I went with Caspar-the-ghost-like greys.

I've also decided to repaint the coat of arms. The Eye seems to fit chaotic Evil devotee style much better, doesn't it?

Also, I need to comment on the colour differences between previous and new pictures. It's always good to remember how much reprocessing can change the reception of a painted miniature. In case you wonder which pictures are more similar to the "actual" miniature - old or new ones - there is no true answer. :)

Painting white

It seems like a good moment for a new post!
I am now making an aspiring champion for the first of my chaos space marines squads (one of them was introduced here). It still needs some finishing paint drops and of course some missing parts. He's going to have a converted backpack - similar to those owned by GW's noise marines.
I probably should also repaint the coat of arms - it does not seem to fit into chaotic style at all.

I've decided to use this miniature to experiment with painting white clothes (and by white I mean white, not a very bright brown). It was tricky but I think that the effect is not bad. What do you think?

I am awaiting your comments! Please do share your opinions!

Cheers!

Marines #1

Another Chaos Space Marine - just to ensure that there is something going on here.

Arms and legs are from Forge World's MkIV ‘Maximus’ Armour.
Head is from Citadel's Chaos Rhino sprue, backpack from Citadel's Chaos Bikers.
Bolter is converted FW's Umbra Ferrox X10.

Shoulder pads and torso were made from greenstuff. You could already see them here. These were casted in resin, since I've been planning to use them to build even more marines. Not sculpted very well, but I like them. The torso is bulky and slightly bigger than a regular one - which makes for an interesting silhouette - especially when combined with those MkIV legs, which have a rather slim and 'sexy' shape (can you see it? Maybe I'm just cheating myself). Also, flat surfaces make painting much easier.
Oh, and visible white on the base is not there on purpose. I just have to paint it yet.
Take care!

Greetings!

Welcome to my new blog! I'm going to post here pictures of my miniatures - small soldiers I buy, sculpt, paint and then use them in tabletop wargames. But firstly, let me introduce myself.

My name is Tomasz, I live in Warsaw, Poland and I'm mostly interested in stuff like logic, philosophy, mathematics etc. Don't be scared - I'm not going to post anything about those things here.

I've started playing Warhammer circa 1999. It was nice but I've stopped playing few years later. There was a time when I would even consider miniatures to be too childish and not suitable for a mature person. But not anymore!

Few months ago, I've found myself interested in miniatures again. I'm painting, sculpting and playing. Since I'm spending much of my free time on those activities, I've decided to share some pictures of my miniatures. You can already find my profile on the best miniatures webpage online, namely, on the Putty & Paint. As you may already know, P&P is for finished projects only, so I still needed some place to post some WIP pictures. So I thought... a blog? Brilliant!

Occasionally, I might share an idea or two, but don't be afraid - I don't plan to make another painting NMM tutorial. There are already many of them out there.
Currently, I'm building a Chaos Space Marines army for Warhammer 40k, so you can expect some irregular posts about them. Let me show you some random pictures:

I will try to post once per week or two. If I will not - shame on me!

If you have any questions, you can reach me via anonimowyprzyjaciel at gmail dot com.