Welcome to the Windy City!

Finally, the day has arrived. As this posts I'm doing the final scramble to get to the airport and fly off to Chicago for AdeptiCon. I'm obviously super-excited for the show, primarily because I get to see lots of good friends I only see once a year!

I'm also excited to see hundreds of thousands of miniatures on the tabletop and in the cabinets, all lovingly assembled and painted with care. Speaking of which, here's my finished model for the Crystal Brush, The Toad. I've shown you a few WIPs before but here he is now, complete and sporting a crumpled broadsheet decrying him as "The Devil of the Docklands".

The Toad is from Infamy Miniatures, and will play a major role in my collection for the game Infamy: Welcome to the Big Smoke. I hope you like him.

I finally finished one!

It's still all noses to the grindstones here at Dave Taylor Miniatures, with lots of work for March in the queue. I'm quite happy about that : )

I did carve out some time, however, to finish up this guy, who has been sitting on my desk for a few weeks (thanks to a generous James). He's an early cast of the Quaker robot from the Infamy: Welcome to the Big Smoke game. You can check out my other posts about it here.

He's a nifty little, almost-hound-like cleaning robot with a big lightning gun on his back. Very cool. I went for a simple, Tesla-just-finished-building-this-prototype-in-his-workshop look, with dark cast iron, shinier steel, and some solid brass machined parts.

The base is from Secret Weapon Miniatures' Town Square range.

I hope you like it : )

And here's a size comparison with a FW Thallax.

Cheers

Dave

Working on a warehouse for "Welcome to The Big Smoke".

I've been working on a few different things recently (well, four or five different projects - I'm obviously a hobby butterfly). While the washes dry on my Dracosans, and I wait for my bases to arrive for my thudd guns, I've been working on tarting up a great 4Ground Victorian Warehouse.

I got this beast from my friend Nigel while I was visiting the Oldhammer weekend last October, and at the event Rusty challenged me to make it "not look like it's laser-cut MDF". I've been thinking about how to do that, and after finishing up the Sarissa/Warlord La Haye Sainte just before Christmas I felt it was time to get started. I've been working on it over the last week and am now writing up an article for Wargames Illustrated (with photos) describing the things that I feel can be done to enhance an already spectacular building.

But more on that later...

Here's a quick WIP for my first Infamy "kingpin" - The Toad! I hope you like him.

Cheers
Dave

The Infamy Miniatures "Post Kickstarter"

You may remember a couple of my posts earlier in the year about Infamy Miniatures and their excellent Kickstarter. Well, I've still been plugging away at a few things, and recently received an early Christmas present from Infamy's James Griffiths. James sent me a couple of the first casts of some characters I've been very keen to see.

I've already mentioned my desire to build a gang around The Toad, dockside crime boss extraordinaire! Well James' gift spurred me on to completing the build of The Toad, which you can see below.

And I also completed the build for the Quaker (a walking robot toting a nasty electrical gun) and Mole, a fierce fighter used to digging through subterranean London.

If you saw my posts about the Infamy Miniatures Kickstarter, but didn't jump in, you still have time to join in as part of the Post-Kickstarter Backer Kit. James has left the Backer Kit open until January 5th, so head to his website HERE and join in. I've already selected my 20 models. Which ones will you choose?

Cheers
Dave

Infamy - Gameplay video! And the final few days.

The Infamy: Welcome to the Big Smoke Kickstarter is drawing to a close - less than three days to go now - and it has exceeded James' expectations (not hopes and dreams, but he's a realist). In these closing stages he has finally been able to put up the first of three gameplay videos. You can check out the details of how the card/blackjack approach will work in the game in this update HERE.

Additionally, James has just shown off a few new pieces, like the Talullah Belle and Mad Pete artwork above, and the new "add-ons and alternatives" for the Suppressor kit below.

I'm currently in discussions with my friend Alex from Ironheart Artisans about a gaming table. Hopefully in a week or two we'll have an Infamy surface all sketched out. : )

Cheers
Dave

Infamy - Kickstarter, Charity, and The Toad

The Infamy: Welcome to the Big Smoke Kickstarter continues to gather (pardon the pun) steam, and is currently within spitting distance of breaking the £70,000 mark. I'm currently pledged for the Full English level, and I've started talking with Alex from Ironheart Artisans about developing a gaming board for Infamy's London.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about today. James Griffiths not only runs a great company (Infamy Miniatures), but in the middle of his crazy KS campaign, he has decided to put together a charity auction (on eBay) to benefit Anti-Slavery International.

I urge you to go and check out his auction HERE (loads of cool Infamy stuff, including collaborating on a character with James), and maybe even bid : ) If you can't bid, please share the auction with all your gaming friends.

I've decided that the first gang I'll be working on will be The Toad's motley crew of riverside rabble. Badger and Mole have already been unlocked as part of the KS, so hopefully Ratty might make an appearance before the end of it all (Sunday August 10, don't miss out!)

Infamy - Frank Hyde is complete!

Frank Hyde is a pretty intimidating model. He has been hanging around on the periphery of my painting table for more than a year now, but with all the excitement surrounding the Infamy: Welcome to The Big Smoke Kickstarter, I just had to break through the fear and get him done. I've recently upped my pledge to the Continental Breakfast level, which means there'll be a lot of minis coming my way next year. This means I have the rest of this year to get a gaming table together for Infamy. With a few of the 4Ground and Micro Arts Studios Victorian/Steampunk buildings available, I think I can put together something pretty cool.

Anyway, I hope you like Frank! His plinth is from Secret Weapon Miniatures.

And here are a few favorite new models coming thanks to stretch goals in the Infamy Kickstarter

This "painted" Tesla is a digital paint job by Ben Komets, who (thanks to Painting Buddha) will also be doing a painting video that will be free to all online : )

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - The Thanatar has arrived!

When the mighty Thanatar Siege Automata went on pre-order, I couldn't resist. I placed my order through the FW website, and about a week later the order shipped. It arrived last Friday, and I spent a bit of time over the weekend scrubbing, cleaning and assembling the delightful resin parts that go together to create this excellent robot!

In the photo above, you can see that I'm yet to attach the Plasma Mortar or the Mauler pattern bolt cannon ammo feeds. The feeds will go on before painting, the mortar after.

I wasn't sure what size it would be, so when it came through with the large oval base rather than the Knight base, there was a momentary twinge of disappointment. I took the plastic base and built a "Tech deck" base to match the rest of my army using conversion strips and sheets available from Dragon Forge Design.

It was nice to see that it was a similar size to the "knight" I built last year (primarily from the Grey Knight's Dreadknight kit). So, now I just need a name and rules for the "knight". Anyone want to suggest something based off the Thanatar stats in the Horus Heresy: Extermination book?

While I'm talking about the Mechanicum, I thought it might be a good idea to point out the Suppressor here. This "robot" is about to be unlocked in the Infamy Miniatures Kickstarter, which can be found here.

Looking at the size, this thing could certainly double as a Dreadnought in any number of 30K/40K armies, or even as a walker in other games (like Deadzone, perhaps?). I'm thinking it's the perfect size to represent a Castellax Battle Automata on the tabletop. The price through the Kickstarter is even quite similar.

Cheers
Dave

Infamy Art book PDF is funded!

I know I've mentioned this a couple of times lately, and that steampunk might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I've recently been working with James Griffiths of Infamy Miniatures on some layout ideas for his now-funded art book stretch goal as part of his Kickstarter campaign.

Should funding reach appropriate levels for the campaign, there's a good chance I'll get to do some more work on the book, and that it might become a printed thing of glorious beauty.

Very excited by this possibility : )

Cheers
Dave

The Infamy Miniatures "Uberprize" has arrived!

You may remember, if you cast your mind back to May, that I was the lucky winner of the Infamy Miniatures Facebook promotion - The Uberprize. I asked you loyal readers to head on over to Infamy's Facebook page, "Like" it, and make sure that if you were selected by James to tell him I'd sent you.

Well, thank you very much, you did exactly that (well, many of you "Liked" the page and one of you were selected to win some goodies)! To my delight, I was the winner of the Uberprize, which has just arrived on my doorstep (yesterday).

With Infamy Miniatures' Kickstarter - Infamy: Welcome To The Big Smoke - about to launch on thursday (July 10), I figured I should crack open the box and tell/show you all what was in the prize!

Included in the prize were six of the 32mm gaming models: Henrietta Jekyll, Chee-chee, Talullah Belle, Sherlock Holmes, Frank Hyde, and The Toad. I'm very excited about these models, they are simply amazing, incredibly detailed. I will admit to already owning Sherlock, Henrietta, and Frank, so I'll be running a competition on my blog here to see which one of you lucky readers could win these "doubles" : )

In addition to the "gaming" sized models, I won a 90mm scale version of Talullah Belle (number 38 of a limited run of 90, I already have plans for her) and a bust of Uncle John. Whenever I start painting a gaming miniature, I'm tempted to push my painting as far as I can, but end up making compromises based on time and gaming need. With a bust, none of that comes into it. As it won't take to the tabletop, it must purely be a display piece. Should be fun. If you'd like to see a few examples of this bust painted up recently for an Infamy competition, head here.

There was also this lovely print of the Talullah concept art...

A funky, laser-cut Infamy logo...

And a roll of four high-quality art prints, two of which are shown below.

I'll show the other two off at a later date (along with another piece of art I really love).

Anyway, get on over to Facebook and "Like" the Infamy Miniatures page to make sure you don't miss the launch of the Kickstarter to really get it all off the ground. And check out their new website too.

Cheers
Dave

The Infamous Mr Hyde

Over the last couple of weeks I've been chatting with James Griffiths, the man behind the curtain at Infamy Miniatures. During this time I've plucked up the courage to start working on this beast of a man, Frank Hyde. I'll provide this link HERE to give you some more background on Hyde in the world of Infamy.

Chemically enhanced/distorted musculature is obviously the key feature of Frank, and I've enjoyed trying out a few new (for me) approaches which are leading me to a more "painterly"feel. I hope it translates through the rest of the model.

Frank sits atop a display plinth from Secret Weapon Miniatures, and the Infamy Kickstarter begins in just three weeks - July 10 to be precise : )

I hope you enjoy the progress.

Cheers
Dave