Zombie Survivor Wedding Cake Toppers

Here's another set of Bride and Groom Cake Toppers doing battle against the living dead.

 Some of these zombies were created to match bridesmaids and groomsmen, while other zombies were just created from my imagination.

 These couples also all picked great weaponry for fighting against the zombie horde.

 

Mouselings: Child's First Adventuring Party

I have a three year old little girl (she'll soon be four) and she has a good imagination. Naturally, we'd like to steer this in the right direction, so I've been GMing once a week with my family. Right now it is just a homebrew system that we're keeping quite simple. We'll be moving up as we go.

 Our first hero is Drella. Her character class is definitely Princess, and while her normal tactic is to use either scorching ray or fireball, she also tends to pull a sword out of hammer space when things get rough.

 

 And this is Ella, my wife's spellcaster. She's very helpful on adventures

 

Last is Prince McGuffin. He mostly gets kidnapped by ogres, sorcerers, dragons and such.

 

 Our heroes have noted his aptitude for being captured, and have started keeping him from going out by himself for any reason. Last time our heroes sallied forth, they started out by locking him in a closet until they come back.

 I expected this campaign to mostly feel standard (we kill the monsters, save the prince and everyone is happy). But then my little girl realized that some of the monsters can talk- and if they can talk, they can be talked into doing things for them. My favorite was when they convinced an ogre that the dragon would be tastier than eating them, so he came along (all the time threatening to become too bored or hungry and start eating the party).

 Here are the three of them together.

Vault Dweller Wedding Cake Topper

Here are a couple cake toppers I got to make recently.

 Their love will survive a nuclear fallout in a world ridden by radioactive mutants.

 Anyway, here they are:

 

Infinity: Cherry Blossom Yu Jing

Corvus Belli make some excellent sculpts for Infinity.  The detail is excellently sculpted for some all together terrific miniatures. I was definitely excited when I got a chance to paint up a Japanese Sectorial army.

My client had me paint them with a cherry blossom theme to them (and I'm already considering a variation on this for some Ninja All Stars minis I've got coming).

Without further ado- here is the force:

Kingdom Death: Monster Bases

The time has finally come. People are actually getting their Kingdom Death: Monster base games. Yes, it has been an extremely delayed kickstarter, but in the end, it has delivered a game that is really fantastic.

 And the miniatures are wonderful. I didn't actually get in on the Kickstarter (I've played the game with a friend of mine, and now I'm staring at that $400 retail price tag and doing the math).

 However, I did get a commission to create bases for the monsters that more closely match the plane of faces (like the scenic bases created for the survivors).

 These are to be painted by my client, so what you see here is just the sculpture- made from a mixture of Apoxie sculpt and green stuff:

 


- One of the few details my client asked for specifically was to have a face spewing blood out of its mouth for the Butcher.

 
And some places for lava.

 

Fantasy Videogame Cake Topper

Here's a topper that I was able to create a little while ago. The characters are very similar to ones I've done before, but I really liked creating these elves in a back to back-ready for combat pose.

 Here they are:

 

Arena Rex Aquila

The field for terrific miniatures has been opening up quite a bit. More than ever, I feel spoiled for choice when I want to paint something fantastic. This is due in part to things like Kickstarter, and in part due to some of the industry's best sculptors and artists getting to really go wild.

 One of the newer lines of fabulous miniatures comes from Red Republic Games in the form of Arena Rex. They figure that with a small enough scale game, you can make some of those terrific minis cast in fine resin that are normally reserved only for collectors.

 And the quality of their sculpting is phenomenal. Sebastian Archer really nailed this sculpt, and the resin cast kept the detail like fine resin does.

 So here he is- painted for a client who wanted him looking terrific for the arena:

 

Zombie Survivor Wedding Cake Toppers

Here are a few sets of brides and grooms who have been battling the zombie horde. I love how each of their personalities gets to come out in the toppers.

 



 

Siege of the Citadel is Coming Back

The first miniatures game I ever got into was Space Crusade- a joint venture of Games Workshop and Milton Bradley that worked as a sort of gateway into the world of miniatures gaming.

 The early '90s were a flourishing time for these kinds of miniatures board games, with things like Heroquest, Dragonstrike and Siege of the Citadel acting as gateways into Warhammer, Dungeons and Dragons and Mutant Chronicles.

 For a while, it seemed like the era of the miniatures board game had passed. Then Kickstarter, and other ventures by CMON have brought it into a new heyday. We've got loads of fantastic miniatures board games coming out all the time, and even a double resurrection of Space Hulk.

 Well, the Mutant Chronicles miniatures board game -Siege of the Citadel- is coming back. The game featured an attack on the mutant stronghold by heroes from all of the Mutant Chronicles factions. Like Space Crusade, they're trying to complete their missions while sagotaging one another. This time around the minis will be made by Prodo, and the rules will be updated by a team including Eric Lang (I feel sometimes like he designs every game nowdays).

 The game is slated for a release in October 2016- and we haven't seen any official photos of the new minis or new concepts yet. So, here are a couple of Prodos' interpretations of the heroes that used to be part of the old Siege of the Citadel game:

 

Geek Cake Topper with Indian Sherwani

I'm always happy when I get to do something for a cake topper that I hadn't thought of before. My clients tend to come up with some of the best ideas.

 In this case, I got to sculpt a groom who was getting married in a terrific Sherwani. He chose for his weapon a traditional sword, while his bride had an elegant weapon from a more civilized era.

 

It is I, Be Not Afraid

This is my very first foray into religious artwork- so long as we aren't counting Paladins, Clerics, Menite scrutators, avenging angels of destruction, daemons... well, you know- miniatures stuff.


This is a statue by Angela Johnson- it is a replica of a larger than life bronze that she made for the Light of the World Garden at Thanksgiving Point. Overall, I was really taken by the expression she got on him, and I really wanted to make that work in the painting. It isn't all the time that we see a Jesus be so expressive, but I was surprised a little with exactly how much I could change it, even when it was as much a part of the sculpt as it was here.

 Anyway, here he is:

 

Cake Toppers with Fandom Weaponry

I started out the cake toppers with clients who clearly wanted Zombie Cake Toppers. They'd all choose their own weapons or props to do battle against the undead.

 A little while later, some of my clients wanted to start using weapons from their favorite books, movies, games, comics or anything else they love.

 Here are a couple of those couples.

 

Kingdom Death Chosen

Kingdom Death: Monster is finally making its way into the hands of backers. I've had a chance to play it, and I can say that the game, and game pieces are quite good. It is gritty, tough and each time your tiny colony survives a nemesis, you feel a real sense of accomplishment.

 Now, while I don't have any of the new minis from the game painted up, I do have one of Kingdom Death's resin figures done. Here is the "Chosen." While he does not yet have any rules, reading over the fluff blurb on him, I'm pretty sure that he'll make it into a Kingdom Death expansion sometime (probably as a nemesis).

 

Zombie Survivor wedding cake topper

Once in a while, it is really important to get back to your roots. With the Geek Wedding Cake Toppers, I've done all kinds of things, from representing vidoegame characters or steampunk cosplayers, to couples that want to express their love of photography or their pets.

 But I do love me some zombies.

 Here is a couple following the time honored tradition of battling the undead on their big day. It is their way of saying, "I'll stick by you well into the apocalypse."

 

The Dead Rider and Governor's Proxy

Here are a couple Wyrd minis that I got to paint up just a little while ago.

 These are both the metal versions of the characters. Wyrd has been switching their line to plastic, and with some very nice results, but it is also nice to go back and paint up the metals ones too.

 It isn't like Wyrd had a poor range before their move to plastic, you know? In fact, in a few instances, I really miss the old metal versions.

 Anyway, here they are- the Dead Rider and Governor's proxy

 

Wolf Lord Logan Grimnar

I painted up this Logan Grimnar a little while ago. He's the old metal version- from before he was moved to Resin, then later re-sculpted and put on a flying wolf drawn chariot. I'm still fond of him on foot, and the dynamic pose this mini has really works for him.

 Ultimately, the challenge on this mini was helping all of the various tiny details to pop, and still keep his face a strong center of interest. I think I accomplished this through my use of color (the warmest spots are on his face).

 I believe that my only regret here is that we didn't get a photo of the freehand on his shoulder before we mailed him off.

 Anyway, here he is.

 

Rhythm Gamers Cake Topper

I get to see a lot of neat ideas for the wedding cake toppers that I make. These range from subtle touches to make the toppers represent the couple's interests, to complete thematic sets.

 In this case, the couple wanted to show their extreme love for gaming through a revolution style dance mat and arcade setup. I posed the two of them to be playing while holding hands.

 Here they are: