Games Day UK 2012

So I only have crappyphone footage to report with, but there was some interesting stuff here.

the main hall...

Being a teacher of digital graphics, and something of a 2D and 3D digital artist myself my companion for the day (Zzzzz) and I had a few interesting chats with FW and GW guys about how they do their stuff.. although i did get at least one "I cant answer that".. GW guard their proprietary technologies well.. and who can blame them :)

The FW stands were awesome, these guys are really going all out on the heresey..

FW Emperors children

Legion specific termies..

man-portable autocannon!

 This thing was awesome, but hard to get close to.. (sorry for the quality, I was at full stretch :) )

It's Abbadon...  and looks wicked...

This was the amazing Isstvaan 3 board.. World eaters storming the loyal Legion forces...

There we have it, not much footage but some to add to the general internet morass.

The GW contest was impressive, but a few people won multiples, and it didnt look that clear cut to me, still its hard to judge at the distances we are, I look forward to better pics appearing online so I can see what the judges saw.

and looking at some of the stuff in the finalist's cabinet, I may well have to have a go next year.. although it commits one to a longer day..

Anyhoo, thanks for reading!

Spiky Bits Dark Vangeance Contest(s)!

The guys over at the Spiky bits Blog are giving away two sets of DV!

here are the detals

one requires a simple "|like" while the other asks you to upload a converted and painted mini.

I used the recent DV libby..

 

 I know potentially it looks greedy.. trying to win one of something, with one of the same.. But I do only have this guy and the chappie, and what I'd love to be able to do is try to convert the others and make tutes here.. and to give the chappie and libbie away, painted up, as prizes once I hit 400 followers..

'course I have to win it first, so if you fancy helping that along you could always pop along to the gallery and "like" my entry... and any others that take your fancy too.

anyway, busy work week.. and games day on sunday. (damn you for releasing the fellblade...!) Hopefull i'll be able to capture some worthwhile footage or pics. expect a post monday!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.437839559602069.110267.116883518364343&type=3

Dark Vengeance Rune Priest 360

I made one of these thingies...

of this chap..

Let me know your thoughts.. more pictures this time, so should be a bit smoother, better light too i think..

OMG! Forge World Fellblade!

This latest Hersey Campaign book announcement Video..  at 2.44.. that's blatantly a Fellblade...


Sure there's a ton of exciting stuff in that vid.. jetbikes, rules for Saul Tarvitz and so on.. but seriously.. that's a fellblade!

I've intended to get my ass round to building one of those for my wolves for ages.. now I dont need to!, wheee...

okay. I Realise I may have sounded a wee bit giddy for a second there.. but seriously.. it's a fellblade.

Dark Vengeance Rune Priest - Wot I did

Nothing too complicated about what I did here tbh.. most of it was scraping off icons and adding wolfy bitz..

The starting bits....

and with icons removed.. heres a tip, use plastic glue.. the thin stuff we used to call "liquid poly" to melt surfaces clean and smooth....

the wolf arm and the donor sword.. I left it as a sword instead of using an axe mainly because I liked the sword.. I did make some modifications to the hilt to make it more "celtic"

the backpack got some donor parts to wolf it up.

and once the chap was all kitbashed and assembled i set to making some fur..

Here he is in primer...

I'm fairly confident I could set this guy up for any chapter, so it seems my fears about the usefulness of the DV box may have been exaggerated...

Dark Vengeance Librarian Conversion to Rune Priest

I know, but I just had to.

I was fortunate enough to snag this guy and the chaplain form a fellow blogger, and had to have a go at converting the guy, surprisingly easy actually, and a lovely model.

I don't have a whole DV box, couldn't justify it, being two armies I just don't have, but I really liked the sculpts and wanted to do something with them.

Here he is, I do have some WiP shots, so might do a "wot i did:" post.

Tried a slightly different paint style, quicker.. you'll see why in the next few days, but I'm fairly happy. I wouldn't rate him "display standard" but he'll do for a playing piece.

Question is, have I moved him far enough away from his dark angel sculpt.. does he read as a space wolf?

Combi Plasma Conversion for Space Wolves

Sure it would work for anyone, but this one.. is for my wolves :)

 As I move towards a 6th ed army, I cant help but want to try my Wolf Guard in TDA. this of course means 1 less plasma gun.. which just wont do.. so.. combi plasma.

I set about looking at the original one form the commander box, mainly because I'm really not a fan of the side-by side storm bolter approach. I know it has the Forge world endorsement now and everything, and I could make them form pintle mount storm bolters and emulate the look.. but nah, not for me.

After a little thought and some trimming I cut the boltgun and plasma pistil into the component you see above with a sharp scalpel. for once I didn't cut myself. win.

Further thought, dry fitting and trimming left the two main components looking like this. the top section of the pistol is removed so that the barrels will fit flush, the gubbins is hollowed out.

And when the pieces are put together, with wolfy bits and all, you have the above. not a bad match imo. the trick is getting the barrels back on and the magazine to fit flush, some inventive trimming is needed for that.

Here it is on a couple of models, and at the top of the article you can see it wide-by side with the GW part.

Anyway hope that helps both my fellow wolves and the soon-to -be overpowered DA players and their much-rumored "plasma special rule"

Thanks for reading.. PS.... PC is still sickly.......

More Lighting Shenanigans

Just a quick post.. a return to work, coupled with a totally nuked PC (I mean how hard can it be to install windows seven? turns out, very) Mean not much time for modelling and not much ability to make posts.. still I played with the camera some more and got these:

This one was taken with some available tungsten lights

This one was taken with the only light source being the single LED in the cabin

I'm a fairly experienced photographer, I know what I need to do to get my pics looking like the ones on that flickr account I posted about. What's holding me back is the Kit..

See, I have lighting for bright, daylight neutral close up mini photography, and what I need is very adjustable lighting for low light ambient colour and fill. I also need more in-scene lights, such as LED's or dollhouse lights such as JonTLaw uses.

I also need to either a) photograph in water.. or b) use smoke. for the atmospheric density to help fool the sense of scale. I don't have ready access to either not wanting to immerse my lil plastic dudes.. and having given up smoking over ten years ago.

So for now, I'm going to try and get hold of some more in scene lights.. and look for a cheap source of smoke on ebay. mainly because I like the possibilities presented by all this, even if it is just my own little crazyness.

thanks for reading, and I promise, more articles as soon as my PC is back on it's feet.