Fairy Society Lunar Knight

Ok, I love to play some Fairy Meat sometimes (especially since I got those lovely Noraland minis from Thunderbolt Mountain). So, when I get a commission to re-paint a large Fairy Society statue, I can't help but think of how it would be perfect for Fairy Meat.

 So, here she is-another re-paint of a fairy sculpture, also a commission. Since the last one was done up in such warm, almost autumnal colors, I went with a very different feel here.

 I originally had the idea of creating an Ice Queen look to her, but when my blue colors were too warm and deep for that, I decided she looked just perfect as a Lunar Knight for a Moon Fairy warband.

 This time I had the foresight to measure her height before I mailed her out and she is a little under 150mm scale- yes, that's very big for a mini. I find there are some advantages to having larger minis to work with, but getting smooth blends takes forever this way.

 

Once the fight is over...

I got to do a few wedding cake toppers to show how the fight with the zombies went. It seems to me that it was mostly one sided, but the happy couple did end up with a few cuts and bruises.

 

Forge World Salamanders Dreadnought

Well, here's the Salamanders Dreadnought from Forge World. I hope he speaks for himself.

 

Iron Kingdoms has weekly expansions

Privateer Press has started doing what they've titled "Full Metal Fridays."

 

 What this means is every Friday, they'll have a small expansion for their Iron Kingdoms RPG.

 The D20 version of their RPG was supported for a good long while through a number of book expansions and No Quarter magazine. In addition to that, Warmachine and Hordes have been expanding the world above and beyond.

 With the re-release of the RPG core book, there clearly wasn't enough room to put in everything that the setting has to offer. They must have tons of material that they can't get it in print fast enough. I mean, this comes after slew of No Quarter articles and some other download content.

 So, right now we're on week two, and we've received Satyxis as a playable race and Raider as a playable class. Here's looking forward to more where that came from.

McFarlane K'Daai Destroyer

Here's a mini that I got to paint up for a Chaos Dwarf army (along with a number of cannons from Forge World). He's a Taurus from Todd McFarlane's zodiac action figure range, and not a bad sculpt at all.

 He's been mounted on a Games Workshop base, glued into his pose, and painted to emphasize fire. The lighting and blue background in the photos keeps some of the object source lighting from showing up very well. Next time, I'll do a dark background.

 Anyway, here he is:

 

Paladin and Wizard cake topper

Ok, as a miniatures painter, Paladins and Wizards are something that I just do. I see those kinds of RPG characters really often. I often convert them, and often paint them. 

But here is something a little different. Some cake toppers made to look partway like role playing counterparts.

 

By the way, I was told that the cake was made to look like a castle with a dragon climbing up the side. So these two are standing on top of the cake ready to fight him off. Good stuff.

Cyrissists to Enter Warmachine

At Templecon, Privateer Press announced the next new faction for Warmachine is going to be called The Convergence of Cyriss.

 Those of us who weren't at Templecon can see their presentation in this video.

 I'm among those who have been playing the Iron Kingdoms RPG for a long time, and, well, we've been hoping to see the Cult of Cyriss show up in Warmachine.

So, this is one of the factions that I've been wanting to see show up for a while now (another one is Infernals for Hordes, but we can wait on that one).  

There is quite a bit of great material for them in the fluff, and it looks to me like they're going to be using it quite well (the vector mechanics look intriguing to say the least).

And the minis look great. They're really lending something new to Warmachine's aesthetic.

 

 So here's hoping that Privateer reveals a colossal for them pretty soon.

Half Zombie cake topper

Well, here is an interested couple that I got to make recently.

 They wanted a traditional cake and a crazy zombie cake, but they didn't want to have a separate groom's cake. Instead, their cake was divided in half- one half was frosted in white, while the other half was frosted in chocolate. And they asked me to create a cake topper that looked traditional from one side, but from the other side revealed the bride and groom to both be zombies.

 Here it is:


 

Braveheart Barbarian (Super Dungeon Explore)

I decided that my party of Super Dungeon heroes really needed a barbarian with a sort of William Wallace theme to her. So, I got to painting

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And to go with her, I have a few treasure chests finished:

 

 

A Fairy and her Dragon

I've gotten into the habit of taking statues that aren't meant to be painted or converted and giving them treatment as miniatures. I just posted the latest one onto Coolmini.

 I hadn't thought of this when I uploaded her, but she actually made the top 10 for CMON. Since it works off of the calender year, it really just means that she's among their top minis of the past ten days.

 This is a statue from the Fairy Society- they make lovely fairies in a variety of sizes, none of them standard miniatures scale. This fairy is far larger than most of the fairies that I've painted, but the Dragon is smaller than most of the dragons I've done.

 I'll have these photographs separately posted to my galleries later.

 

Some Dress Blues

One thing that I get to make fairly often are cake toppers in uniform.

 I'm not sure whether or not I should be surprised that so many of our military men would like to be armed when they're married, or that they choose brides who are cool with the idea of having zombies on their cake, but I enjoy them all the same.

They tend to be more specific than most about the types of guns they're using. I've done a few cake toppers in combat uniforms, but here are a few in various dress blue uniforms.


 

 

 

Eldrad Ultran

Here's something that I should have seen coming sooner. The ally rules for 40k have added a new dimension to painting. I now get orders here and there for minis to match different factions that they'll be fielded with. This is an Eldrad Ulthran who is allied to a Dark Eldar force painted up in black and neon colors. The Ulthwe color scheme was a good place to start, I simply had to add in some of the black lighting colors. Here he is:

In honor of the apocalypse: Zombies!

There's something going around. I'm getting more and more work for zombies on wedding cakes all of the time.

Trends like these make me think that humanity is going to be all right when the inevitable zombie apocalypse happens.

 Here are some of the zombies that the newly married will be fending off:

 





 And, of course, here are some of these undead with the couples that will put an end to them.

 

Plastic Cavalry for Warmachine

Ok, Privateer Press has been moving a lot of their most expensive metal kits to plastic. So far, most Warjacks and bulkier infantry have moved in that direction.

 The biggest hole in their plastic setup right now is their Cavalry. These units cost well over a hundred dollars for a full unit of five- a price point that has kept some of the people I know from playing cavalry.

 Well, Privateer Press just gave us a preview for new Cygnaran light cavalry- some pretty nice looking gun mages on horseback.
 

The cost of the unit is 59.99- much more reasonable. Something to note- this is a plastic and white metal kit. With cav units that I've used from other companies, I would expect this to mean that the horses are plastic and the riders are metal.

 With that in mind, I'm sure we'll soon be seeing Khadoran, Protectorate and Retribution riders for these same horse minis. And who knows? Maybe even mercenary players will see light cav this time around.

Dark Age Judah

I painted this guy up a little while ago, so I'm feeling a bit sheepish about only now getting around to posting him. I have quite a few minis from Dark Age games, but my very favorite of them all is the Contradiction (Judah). A lot of minis show emotion, but the range is small on most gaming miniatures (mostly just rage or stoicism). The anguish on this mini is refreshing, and rather a joy to paint. Anyway, enough with my babbling, here he is:

 

Malifaux RPG up on Kickstarter

So, Wyrd games is working on a Malifaux RPG, and they're launching it as a Kickstart project.

 
 



 On the one hand, I'm not really sure why Wyrd needs to do a Kickstarter for their RPG book. I mean, it is a Malifaux project in the end, and Malifaux is doing great. I'm sure they have the funds for printing. All together, I can't see a Malifaux RPG failing to garner interest among the community (although Eric and Nathan might not realize that). (Evil Baby Orphanage is a different matter since it won't necessarily have much crossover audience- a Malifaux RPG is a sure bet so long as the system is cool). I guess they'll have a better idea of the demand before they order their first print run. That way, they won't end up running out at the manufacturer level like the Iron Kingdoms RPG did

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 Of course, the artwork from Wyrd is all excellent, and at this point we can expect some terrific plastic minis from them (I've painted up a few plastic crews now, and the sculpts are great). The rules and concepts that they've released look interesting- it is a card based system in which the GM announces events like "The Gremlin shoots you" and the players contest with "no he doesn't, I dodge" and uses the fate deck to try and dodge. Although I'm honestly most excited about the fluff sections of this rulebook.


 


 The city of Malifaux is kind of a steampunk nightmare realm and it is hard to really get a grasp on what the lives of normal folk living in the city would look like. What does the work day of an M&SU member or someone working on the Ortega's estate? I'm really excited because this book will mean that they'll be fleshing out their world in directions that do not focus on the powerful characters who are altering the fate of the world.

Space Hulk Genestealers

Here are some 'stealers that I painted for my own Space Hulk set. The color scheme was originally inspired by some of the wretches from Gears of War, but ultimately I increased the contrast, saturation and overall cleanliness enough that they don't really look Gearsy.

 Still, I think they turned out rather nice.

 

Families that Slay together...

So, I work with a lot of couples preparing for their wedding day. Unlike most wedding based businesses, I also get to see how well they're preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

 

This couple, for example, sent me a photo of them in torn clothing holding these weapons (and there were even some zombies in the background). To be honest, I think it might have been the clearest vision I've ever been given, and almost none of it was in words.


 
 This couple had me give them both combat vests and military weaponry. Overall, I'm considering them among the best prepared for the zombie apocalypse.


 

 This last one is a little different from most of the zombie fighters that I do. For one thing, both figures are free standing, and for another the groom is wearing street clothes. Also, their cake will have zombies climbing the sides and so they wanted to be able to aim their figures at particular zombies. Overall, I'll bet it will make a great diorama on the big day.

Rex From Gencon

Here is Rex the Ogre from Super Dungeon Explore. I painted him for the Gencon Painting competition this year, and he took third place in the large figure category. I felt that was a pretty respectable award for him.

Painting him was loads of fun, although it is rough to paint Super Dungeon minis for a competition. All of those large areas are pretty tricky to get super smooth, so he took me some time to get right.

 While the sculptor was not credited (to my knowledge) I suspect he's a Jason Hendrix sculpt. The anatomy just looks like Hendrix' style, and painting him felt quite a bit like painting up a dire troll from Privateer Press.

I've also posted him up on Coolmini for anyone who cares to vote.