I am alive.

The last months I was silent but real life tends to be like this. In the time in between I managed to work on some figurines but I have not finished them yet. Also the shop in Shapeways is updated with 3 new pendants· well 2 new, the Raven Guard is just an update of the older model.

Raven Guard pendant

Ultramarines pendant

Imperial Fists pendant

In the upcoming weeks I will upload some more. Plans are for Space Wolves (40K),  Dark Angels (40K), Black Templars, Inquisition, Sisters of Battle, Thousand Sons (40K and 30K), Sons of Horus (40K) and Luna Wolves (30K), Chaos Star and Terra Star/Halo, and with the icons of the Chaos Gods.

Shapeways store is open!

You can find two custom bolters in my new Shapeways store. They are in detail and ultra-detail acrylic. Modelled around the real-life Kel-Tec RFB. The dimensions are to the big size, with the bolter approximately in  24mm x3mm x14mm and the silencer adding another ~7mm to the length. The Mor Deythan snipers should be in the same dimensions if you want any reference.

Thunderbolt Gun

Silenced Thunderbolt Gun

In the following weeks I will update the models with Chapters' iconography and combi variants.

Summer work. Loading at 25%

Summer work... These are roughly 1/4 of the models I have to work! I hope I will have them ready before new Deathwatch box and codex hit the selves. A/C (and AC/DC) are my co-pilots. Cleaning the mould lines is the worst part by far.

Upcoming from Games Workshop

Games Workshop has entered vigorously the market in an attempt to be profitable again. The new packages of "Stormcloud Attack" boast 2 aircrafr models to make 1-1 dogfights. The boxes are:

1. The Eldritch and the Beast (Eldar vs Ork)

2. Faith and Heresy (Space Marine vs Heldrake)

3. The Ancient and the Greater Good (Necron vs Tau)

The price will be probably at 90€ per box.

Fun picture of the day

What could possibly go wrong?

Stakan Stormraven STC

Finally I started working on my version of a proper-sized Stormraven. I know of the Chapterhouse's kit but I did not liked it. I always liked the russian Mil24s / Hinds and I am making the vehicle based on such design. The side sponsoons will stay permanently and the troops can disembark from the doors behind them. So, I connected the hulls of 2 Stormravens. The first pic is below.

I hope I will have it ready at the end of this week (other work deadlines). 

Terrain: Basalt Columns

One of the most strange rock formations are the Basalt Columns, which are rapidly cooled rock during a volcanic eruption and they get a characteristic hexagonal (usually) form. The most famous is the Giant's Causeway in Ireland and more information can be found HERE, as long with other PLACES where they exist. They can have many colours but I chose to do them in the classic rock grey and dark tones, as they fit better with my SM Chapter homeworld. Let's start, shall we?

We will need some common wooden pencils, nothing expensive. In this terrain piece I used 6 pencils. Ofcourse we will need our usual base, a CD/DVD (preferrably one that is not working anymore). We cut the pencils in different lengths, as we see fit. We do not throw away the wood chips.

Using our hot-glue gun we place the columns. Photos can be used as reference, but usually they follow a rough staircase-formation. We do not care much if they do not interlock properly or if there is excess glue on their base.

With PVA-Wood glue we cover the rest of the base and we pour our left-over trimmings. Hey, free basing material! Plus the smell of the pencils always had a homey feeling for me...

Time to prime the piece! I chose black, as I went for a dark tone but you can use also white, grey or other colours, depending on what you want to achieve.

After we paint the columns and dry-brush the rest. I chose Citadel Dawnstone for this part. If you want to give some texture, you can use a fast brush with Citadel Astrogranite, as I did too.

Remember that ugly glue on the base? Time to cover it up. Again, you can use whatever flock or basing you want, but I wanted a more desolate look and I used rocks. To glue them I used super-glue in gel type and I tapped them with a wooden stick to stick them better. It may need a 2nd round of glue and tapping, depending on the density and the acceptance of the rocks to stick in place.

Now, I did not had grey-hued rocks but I solved it with some Citadel Nuln Oil. Only 2 passes were enough, but again you can adjust to your liking. I also expaned the wash between the columns to give a more natural look. You can use other washes if you want another look or have a different pallette.


Well, there it is. A simple and cost-effective terrain piece. I hope you will enjoy it in your moon or desolate terrain mats. 

Saturday night work

Late Saturday night and I am working in the figures from Deathwatch Overkill. Removing mould lines is not the best sport, but has to be done... Also redying the heads for painting, they look like I prepare them for Khorne!

Cannot have the Iron Hand without a proper helmet, can we?

The helmet is from the Space Marines Tactical Squad, carefully carved hollow.

A better pic, the blue tac is just to hold it in place.

And these are the half of the heads!

An article about plagiarism (harsh language following)

Plagiarism is one of the most serious accusation someone can get. And it is also bad for your profession and bussiness in general, a characterisation that it is very difficult to get off your back when you get it. It can be found in alsmost any profession, from academic papers down to humble artists. It is also an indicator that the creator (of such articles) is someone with limited or no skill and creativity.

The following article is about a guy that does just that. Harsh language follows, especially since the writer is one of the people that loses income because of that.

Buzz Sends Tim Lundmark Packing At Wizard World Minneapolis Comic Con

Tim Lundmark is an artist who goes by the name of The Random Artist. And appears at comic shows, basically, selling work ripped off from other artists as if it were his own.

He’s certainly not alone in that. That might well be the problem, shows seem to have more and more such individuals. And for some, enough is enough.

Aldrin Aw, better known as Buzz, is a comics artist who has worked on Justice League, JSA, Vampirella, Shi, X-Factor and more.

And on Friday, at Wizard World Minneapolis, he lost it.

After a full morning of dealing with sea of print vendors disguised as artists hocking cheap sh-tty prints made from downloaded images, My friend Troy Dontee brought me over to this motherf-cker’s table to check out the artwork he has on display. Every single piece of art was printouts of other artist’s work,He had work from every artist imaginable from Neal Adams, Andy Brase, Bisley , Deodato Jr. Greg Horn, Adi Granov, Romita Jr. to Simone Bianchi.

I went off on the motherfucker with a long string of shaming words and obscenities, and all he can say was it’s fan art.

It took every ounce of strength from me not to twist his f-cking head off.

There is still tomorrow…it may still happen.

And on top of everything, this cockslurper is printing the art on bags,placemats,and all kinds of merchandise.

There were plenty of comments but one from Gary Guzzo was particularly qualified and added history.

When I was heading Publicity at Marvel, one of my jobs was to keep the use of our material in our hands. Between the costumed characters in Times Square, and the blatant rip offs of copyrighted material, the publishers seem to not care, anymore. I guess they figure the money they lose is negligible, but they forget about things like actual comic creators who need the income of doing sketches for fans. In THIS case, aside from kicking this guys ass (which I would love to be in on…), it is time to talk to Convention organizers and get these f-ckers OUT of Artists Alley!!! I comes as no surprise that Wizard would ignore copyrights….they did it all the time when we were at Marvel, but we sued the crap out of them, which is why myself and Sven Patrick Larsen have been blacklisted by Wizard ever since.

So what did happen the next day? We had an update from Buzz…

Update on the thieving assh-le, ripoff artist from yesterday.
so the guy and his wife were going around harassing people who witnessed my verbal spanking to not spread “gossip ” about what happened.
Then I had a run in with them.
The conversation was as followed.

The wife: You should stop spreading this bullsh-t and you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Me: go fuck yourself.

The wife: well, we’re leaving because of you.

Me: Good, good fucking riddance.

Update.
The f-cker has taken down his FB page too.

There were other details from Buzz to share.

This is ripped off from a painting Neal did for his office. Fucker took the image from Neal’s site, printed it and selling as his art.
So, that was a baaaaaad move. Neal is here as a special guest one aisle away.

So be warend, if you are a Tim Lundmark or a Rob Granito exhibiting at a show… Buzz is coming for you!

Tim has removed his Facebook page and made his Tumblr page private.

SOURCE

Some terrain

I am entering my uni exam period and the progress will be very slow, if not halted. For the time being here is some terrain I did the other day.

Ancient Greek Temple ruins. I used wooden rod (the motif is from the factory) and for their bases two 25mm bases from my bits box. Rock slabs are from 1mm cork.

The test base for my Space Marines army. These are real quartz crystals. They are cheap and heavy, so I can add the figures without much fuss over their weight centre. The obsidian rocks are made by melting styrofoam (blue) and painting them black and finishing them with gloss varnish. The soil is made by the Vallejo Lava texture paint.

Dwarf Monk

Here is my Dwarf Monk that I used in a recent D&D 5E campaign. It is based from a guy in the Heavy Bolt team from Warhammer Fantasy. Finecast miniature, thankfully with no miscast, but it was a pain in the ass to convert to the image I had in mind. 

The guy holding the heavy arrow was the basis

Aaaand, I should learn how to properly take pictures of my figures.

I am Alpharius...

I couldn't resist the temptation and got me the 30yrs specials from GW. Thankfully I found them in stock in a local game store.

I am one of us...I am Alpharius.

A small tip

I am alive! But this season is a very busy one for me and I have not the time I want to work with my miniatures. I have done some fast terrain, as the details are less and can be made faster than my heavily customized minis.

Two tips for now. Do not throw away old brushes and toothbrushes. With a toothbrush you can unstrip models from old paints and in general cleaning, especially in tight areas. It is hard enough, but not too hard so to damage the mini, as a grit paper is.

The other thing, as my brushes get older or used I change their uses. I swap to new brushes, especially for fine details. The used ones are used for technical uses, as dry brush. And when even these get used, I take the brush off. I can use the sticks to stir my paints. It is far better than just shaking them, plus the strirrers are free! They can hold for a very long time before the wood gives away.

A normal used brush, an overused fine brush that now I use for drybrush and the final stage of their work life as stirrers.

New models on the table! Plus Space Marines...

New goodies arrived the other day. 4 models from Incursion the Game. I will use them in my This is Not a Test campaign though (my team and enemies). Very nice quality and I will get more from them for sure.

On another note, my Space Marine army build is going slow but steady. Transforming them into real/true scale is very tiring and time consuming, especially the sculpting that comes after the process. Here is the difference between the Imperial Guard (normal height), SM Scout and full SM in Terminator armour. Not mind that he is a Space Puppy, it is a commission piece. I cannot wait to finish, at least priming, my army!

The raw milliput that I used to cover the spacers. After this comes the difficult process of detail sculpting.

Space Marines are known for amazing children's tales

The struggles of model stripping....

One of the reasons I named the page like this...when we are buying second hand models to strip them, there can be challenges. Sometimes the people have used so radical glues and colours, especially primers, that make the stripping impossible! Even the ultrasonic cleaners can't do the job. This is especially troublesome in the plastic and resin models.

This was the cleanest model I could do from a team of 5 Terminators, even after 7 days bathing in dettol. The glue used is so strong that the only way to change their poses is to use my dremel saw. On the plus side, they will be made in stealth black for my Space Hulk brotherhood of my Chapter. 

Facebook page and minor update

You can also check the facebook page HERE. Sometimes content will be uploaded there. In the next months I will complete my weapon prototypes for my Space Marines and Imperial Guard. Fingers crossed when I do the moulds to build the armoury!

Corvus Corax Primarch from ForgeWorld

The latest Primarch from ForgeWorld is Corvus Corax. A huge kit, as a Primarch should be.

Corvus Corax (solo) 91€

Corvus Corax and Dark Fury attack squad 140€


Next Primarchs are rumored to be Leman Russ and Magnus the Red.