Forgeworld Avatar

With all the news and previews surrounding Gencon recently, I've neglected some of my own work.

I recently had an opportunity to paint a brilliant mini: the Forge World Avatar. This mini is quite the beauty.

Anyway, you'd probably rather see pics than read a rant about him:

Wyrd miniatures Gencon Exclusive revealed

Wyrd Miniatures has revealed that their booth at Gencon will be featuring two exclusive miniatures for us. One is Miss Pack (an alternate nurse miniature for McMourning) and the other is an alternate version of their new Master "the Dreamer and Lord Chompy Bits."

We only have concept art for the nurse right now, and that's just how that goes. But we do have a pic of the assembled miniature for Lord Chompy Bits. And he's a crazy one.

This alternate sculpt is called the "Nightmare version" which right now looks like it follow the example of Privateer Press' Extreme Sculpts line. He's too enormous for Wyrd to just put him on sale normally (he weighs in at $60 as is) and he isn't game changing- he's more like a collectors' item.

I've heard that he will work in gameplay just fine- pretty much exactly like the Extreme line, but I don't have confirmation on that just yet.

And so far, we don't actually know what the normal version will look like.

Anyway, have a look for yourself:

Minis in the Movies

A lot of films these days are adaptations of other properties, but one of the things we're seeing right now is something strange and new- adaptations of miniatures games into film.

Currently, you'll find a little buzz online about the Ultramarines film, basically because Dan Abnette wants to keep you informed (you can even find a teaser trailer).

Anyway, I think it is completely up in the air as to whether or not this semi-small project about the Warhammer 40,000 universe will be any good or not. I'm interested, mind, but it could easily end up looking like Mutant Chronicles in the end.



On the other hand, it looks like there's actually a little bit of work going into the Monsterpocalypse film. There is confirmation that Tim Burton is actually involved in the project, and likely going to direct it.



This isn't 100% confirmation that we'll ever see a Monpoc film from Tim Burton. I mean, Tim Burton got payed a million dollars for a Superman film way before Superman Returns. But Burton's involvement does mean that if it does happen, it will probably not look like the Dungeons and Dragons movie.

All of this talk about a Monpoc film made me start thinking. Why on earth would Burton want to adapt that material?

I mean to say, Monpoc has less of a story or even a setting than most miniatures games. I mean, the fluff is 100% an excuse for giant monsters to throw one another into skyescrapers. That's not a bad thing for the game, since it just accepts that that is what it is, and presents it as such.

Ultimately, Monpoc is a kind of weird to adapt because it is based on a genre of old cheesy movies. And that's probably what attracted Burton to begin with.

Tim Burton has a sort of fetish for old cheesy science fiction films. He's thrown in small tributes to them in many of his films, most notably Mars Attacks. In a Monpoc film, what we're most likely to see is a similar tribute to the Godzilla franchise.

And that can be cool.

Tor Gaming releases Growler type orcs

Tor Gaming have just released some pretty nice looking minis they're calling "Orcnar Unmanns." Of course, there's just no way that I can look at something like this and not say "Dude, that's a Growler!"

On the other hand, there's simply nothing wrong with looking like a growler. I mean, Privateer Press has been doing it with their Dire Trolls for a while now (although I'm not sure whether the original pictures by Brian Snoddy came before or after Vor: the Maelstrom).

Of course, Vor: the Maelstrom was discontinued when FASA dropped out of the sky, but Ironwind Metals has picked up the slack if you're interested in the old minis.


Now, I have to say, I'm not at all disappointed to see new minis that look like Growlers. I think they look like some very fine minis, and I hope to paint some up soon.

Maybe I could use those to start up a new force for when we finally see the release of VOR 2.0.

Storm Lords Command Squad

Here is an interesting unit that I got to paint just a little while ago. One of the interesting parts of this project was the sheer number of faces I got to paint for it. So many individual faces, and each of them different from the others.

This squad was painted to match a Stormlords force that I've painted in small batches for quite some time.

That is really the part that I enjoyed the most about this group, and I think they turned out rather well. I still enjoy painting new additions to the force, and especially with so many faces I can paint.

More Farrow previews for Hordes: Minions

Privateer Press have given us one more preview for the outstanding new Hordes Farrow force.

I know, I've posted up their news about Farrow at pretty much every step, but just look at this mini and tell me I shouldn't. I mean, these pigs are outstanding.



Anyway, this "Gun Boar" looks like he'll be a light warbeast for the Farrow. That puts us at one Warlock and one heavy and one light 'beast for the faction. That's not much, but back when I started playing dwarves, that's all we had. I mean, we didn't really have a dwarf unit at the time, and the Farrow already have two.

So here's hoping the book is released at Gencon.

Privateer Press previews mini-warpwolves

For everyone who has been interested in the Circle of Oboros warpwolf minis, Privateer Press has just previewed the miniatures for their very first non-warbeast warpwolves- called Warpborn Skinwalkers. Their fluff makes them sound like a sort of half-warpwolf unit (they are partially transformed into warpwolves, but not to the point where they decide to stop wearing clothing and using weapons).

The minis overall look rather nice, and these are definitely a type of wolf man that looks a little less Confrontation inspired. I'll really enjoy doing up these guys in my Circle colors.


This, of course, puts us one large step closer to having an all Warpwolf theme force (or two) in the upcoming Forces of Hordes: Circle Oboros book.

Rackham Sale and Aarklash Warpack testing Begins

Ok, to start off, Rackham started up a sale on pretty much all of their stock this week. Everything from the Rackham Store is anywhere from 15% to 70% off.

Now, when you hear that, you're probably thinking the same thing I was thinking. There's probably one thing in the store that is 70% off, and the chances of you wanting it are pretty low.

However, I was surprised to see that Rackham has put pretty much everything in their online store on sale- and the majority of things I looked at were at 70% off.

For the record, this includes some of the finely detailed and massive resin kits that Rackham put out. Better snatch those up while they're cheap.


So, what is going on here? Minis do go on sale from time to time, but not like this. Distributors do special deals with free shipping, or buy two box sets and get the third free, but this is a little extreme. I mean, these prices look like clearance. Then again, they may be trying to lead with a loss and move their games towards center stage.

On the other hand, a little more than a month ago, the guys at Rackham Entertainment announced that they were working on a new small scale skirmish game set in the Confrontation world code-named Project Groundhog. Then their fans told them that that was a very stupid name, so they started using a working title for their new game: Aarklash Warpack.
From the descriptions, Aarklash Warpack sounds a lot like a new version of the Confrontation Skirmish game that we all miss. Set in the same world, Aarklash Warpack allows for heroes and incarnates to lead small bands against one another- all in small scale skirmishes.

While this is definitely a new rules set, it does sound rather interesting to see what Rackham does with the game.

Currently, you can sign up for their Beta Test at www.aarklash-warpack.com. Go ahead and check it out.

Salamanders Land Speeders

So, I had a commission to do a few land speeders for a Salamanders force that I had already painted.

(You will have seen most of them if you follow this blog- but if you missed something, I can just link you to the Salamanders' Gallery page. As a fair warning, there are a lot of them there.)

Anyway, as part of this commission, I decided to make each land speeder unique. Sure, they should all have the same basic green on them, and the Salamanders' thematic fire emblems to keep them tied to the force as a whole, but I wanted to also give them a strong sense of individuality, setting each one apart from the other two (similar to the way I did the Drop Pods).

Anyway, enough with my babbling. Here are some photos for two land speeders.