Big and bad azz!

So like most of my mini loving friends, I spend a stoopid amount of time ooooing and aaahhng over new things that pop up on the eleventy billion sites I visit all too often on a weekly basis, and that makes it tough to remember to do things like um...BLOG about it...holy crap am I bad at this blogging thing.  I don't have a problem writing, nor do I have any issues typing, in fact that last typing test I took I was blazing along at 66wpm with a whopping 2 errors...so why do I always forget to write about the sweet ass stuffs I come across on the ole interwebnation?

Who the hell knows.

Enough ramble onto the really kule things I fell onto earlier this week.  Ladies and gentlemen...well most likely just gentlemen...or prolly just men...boys?  Well anyhow, I would like to introduce you the the next BIG THING in miniature madness errrr gaming.

THE LEVIATHAN!!!

Weighing in at oh hell I don't know 200 tons...at 36.8 ft tall (I just made these stats up, so if you expect real gaming data from me about this thing, you're sorely effin mistaken bud) you're looking at a whole hell of a lot fo walking friggin death!  This thing is gonna tear some ish up, and I'm not talking the stuff you dog drops in the back yard either, I'm talking some other monstrosities of metal!!!

THE CRUSADER!!!

THE GABRIEL!!!

THE AZRIEL!!!

THE AZAZEL!!!

I have noticed that half of these things have names of angels...I wonder if that's intentional or if random names were pulled out of a hat???  

Now for a quick scale shot so you can understand a little more about the scale of these things - as they are looking to take on the Legio Titanicus (if I have to explain that then you're reading the wrong blog) in scope of size...i mean these things are going to be epic in size...literally!

Leviathan Mortis and a 32mm model from MERC.

The Crusader with same 32mm fig.

So what's the deal then?  Well these bad boys are the brainchild masterworks of digital artist Mark Mondragon of Sonoma, CA...he's a Sagittarius and owner/operator of DreamForge Games concept artist and designer publisher of Iron-Core.  That's badazz...don't know much about it, but it's just got a ring to it.  Yup badazz...and if anyone knows badazz it's me.

So with the game system still in its infancy, I cannot give you too much in the way of details, in fact if you hit the links about, you'll know exactly the same amount of info that I do...but I will say this, it looks to be one helluva ambitious project, it's got 9 freeking factions listed!  And if each one of them gets one of these hurkin monstrosities, well lets just say the target for execution on what Mark is trying to get done here is HUUUUGE!  If you read his blog you can also see some pretty damn solid WIP shots of the models and masters.  He's also got some great shots of tanks and bugs and a number of other things that he's worked up for some other companies.  Take some time to take a look, I was pretty damn impressed and found a few things I never knew existed.

All in all I'm excited to see what else Mark is going to bring to the table with Iron-Core.  Good luck Mark!!!  and if you need to start in on playtesting, let me know as I've been known to put ace teams together for a few other companies in the industry.  :P

More bad ass Goblins from Imbrian!

This time we're looking at a pair of Goblin Shaggamaw's - one complete and one WIP - these freekishly huge beasts are going to make a fantastic addition to the Goblin set that Jody has been hammering away at.  This first one has giant teeth, a bigazz axe and spittle looming from his giant maw.

These is the first one and is complete:

This next one is going to be swallowing either a goblin or a hobbit...the goblin idea was my suggestion and I'd love to see him go with it...as it would just make them all the more characterful to me...but I'd settle for a hobbit.  :P

Now this wonderful little project is being chronicled on my personal favorite little hole in the web www.dragonpainting.net in the THREAD here.

Drop in and let sprue know what you think of his work.  Me personally, I'm super excited for this set to show up around holiday time!!!

Whispers and Howls part 2

Alrighty, last time I left off with just the tower and the pillars for the stairwell carved.

This last week I cut the entry stairs in, and built the archway in the lower right corner, I also changed gears a bit and instead of building a cairn with a rock type Celtic feel to it, I went all out and built a friggin mausoleum.  Yup that's right I built a family style tomb for some dead Orgoth Chieftain with a serious attitude problem.  No I'm sure it's nothing super grand and fabulous and it's no where near as dilapidated as the tower, but it's a little weathered and once I get done gluing it together, I'll work on weathering it some more and breaking it up a bit.

Now the stairs will be cut a bit more and when I drop all the rubble and sand, they will be painted and finished to look like they have been cut right from the stone of the ground.  Now the archway, although carved is not complete yet.  It's obviously two pieces but the pillar arch on the left will be cut where the dark line is and the top piece will be laid beside or behind it.

Here's a closer shot of the detail carving work in the archway.

As you can see the archway has a diamond shape cut into the top of the arch, I think I may paint an eye here as it's what I sketched in there, but I'm not sure yet...still up in the air, but it is recessed about 1/4 of an inch or so into the foam.

So once again I did a ton of research into cairns and really did not come up with anything that I really 'felt' so I started looking into other options and the thought of a mausoleum really started to sound right up the alley so to speak.  Here's a couple of shots that I found that I liked and kind of went with a hybrid design on my own combining a few things I liked from a few of them.

The mausoleum is a bit larger than what I was planning, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  Initially I was planning a foot print of 4x6 and it's 5x7ish - I've got it all textured and will do some ornamentation on the top gables and roofing areas and the front right pillar will be cut in half and dropped in front of the tomb where the 50mm base is...and that will also get integrated into the basing of the warjack that will be occupying that space.

I also toyed with the idea of rotating the mausoleum 90 degrees and facing the archway. but it pushes the building way to close to the stairway.

So the overall scope of the project is turning out pretty damn good for my first attempt in my own not so humble pat myself on the back opinion.  I've currently got a ton of water bottles and random foam blox stacked on top of things now as I glue it all together and I'm still toying with the idea of putting the mausoleum on it's own solid base so I could actually use it for a piece of terrain as well, but that may be more than I want to do as it would require cutting a damn perfect rectangle in the top right corner of this thing.  

So the last couple of things to do before I start the texturing process are the broken wall in the lower left, finishing the two pieces chronicled here and the hole drilling for the bases, then a layer of foam tuff and and the paint can be laid....I think.

If something is glaringly missing or you'd like to leave some feedback or comments, I do welcome them as this is my first terrain/display base project I'd like to know what you all think about it and the direction its heading.

Until next time keep your paint thinned and your brushes clean!!!

Whispers and Howls

Well now...time for a project update.  This project has a dual purpose, to put together a theme based army around one of my favorite Khadoran warcasters, and tie in a competitive Steam Roller list. The second purpose of this list is for exilejjb's Army Challenge over on WaMP.

Steam Roller, which is Privateer Press's official tourney format - in the SR format you can use 2 legal lists and decide which one to use before the match starts.  The size of the lists will be 35 points and I will be using Epic Butcher for list 1 and Zerkova for list 2.

This is the current set of lists:

eButch
Bezerker
Kodiak
Fenris
2 x Doom Reaver unit + UA
Doom Reaver unit
Manhunter

35 points on the nose - this list will most likely see little to no modification as it gets played through more.

My Zerkova list has two options so far:

Option A
Zerkova
Juggernaught
2 x Doom Reaver unit + UA
4 x Grey Lord Ternion unit
2 x Koldun Lord

35 points on the nose

Option B
Zerkova
Juggernaught
Doom Reaver unit + UA
Doom Reaver unit
Koldun Lord
Devastator Marshalled under Koldun Lord
Koldun Lord
2 x Grey Lord Ternion unit

34 points

Play testing may modify the lists somewhat as I get a better feel for how they perform - painting and modeling updates will be posted to [URL="http://throneofangels.blogspot.com/"]my blog[/URL] once I get moving a bit more.

Working on assembly/conversions and the display base currently, and have been spending a bit of time on the display base the last week or so.

Now this is my first foray into building a display base, well any type of scenery actually as I've never really done anything beyond the overzealous base work before.  So I'm entering new ground and having a fantastic time with it.  This is also my own personal testing grounds for my part in the Dragon Painting Cadwallon Table Project - a giant undertaking by a number of the fine folks and myself on the Dragon Painting board to build a 4x6 modular Cadwallon table in 2x2 sections that can be reproduced by anyone anywhere in the world through a detailed set of instructions and blueprints that will be put forth as each section is created.

Now with the theme of my army obviously being based around the recovery of Orgoth artifacts and the use of said artifacts, I began to think about putting this army in an Orgoth ruins.  I love the concept of the Doom Reavers and the Butcher - tortured souls and all, and the fact that Zerkova and the Grey Lords that are constantly searching for lost Orgoth artifacts and weaponry....totally sweet back story.

As you may or may not know, I'm an animator by profession so that means EVERY project starts with a sketch or two, and since I had a really good idea of how I wanted this to look I just did a brief sketch for layout purposes...sadly I for some reason cannot get my scanner to pick it up - it is pretty light, but still...damn scanner.  So with my plan in hand and my figure layout pretty much set up, off to find a few pieces of reference.  I always suggest using reference for any project you're working on...no matter how great your imagination or memory is, you will always find inspiration in reference, be it photos, drawings or other building projects such as this one.  I went after some ancient ruins photo's - here's a few:

So first step involves setting a base and selecting materials.  For this project I've already selected my color palette (more on that at a later time) - so I don't have to break my skull open and pull something out of the depths of my melon kicking and screaming that it doesn't like the other two colors that it has go with...colors can be so damn spoiled at times...freekin whiners.  A couple of the other things I am trying to keep in mind are this - there's going to be over 40 metal figs on this board - 4-5 on 50mm bases that have some heft to them and it's going to go gaming with me, so it has to be fairly sturdy and easy to repair if needed, but light weight, I know I've got big arms...but who wants to pack around 40lbs of gaming stuff all day right??

Well the obligatory pink insulation foam is always where things start, and I figure if I can get ahold of the right molds, I'll be using some plaster castings as well, but this foam stuff after a little experimenting seems to be a great medium for carving....so we'll be using quite a bit of that, also I've read about this STUFF which if I take the writers words at face value will keep my foam from getting damaged...so I'm down and good to go with the foam carving love, but again if I can get some of the right molds...I'm using some of that too.  :D

Setting the base to means making sure the 2" piece of foam I'm going to use as my base has a good firm base of it's own...in comes the random piece of hard board I've got lying about:

A good amount of wood glue (I don't recommend wood glue for foam to foam...but since the base is wood, it is actually a great option for wood to foam) and a few clamps with a good overnight rest and the two are like an old married couple...damn near inseparable.  

Ok, now I've got my base, time to draw out the layout on top of it and get to work.  I was going to do a Hirst Arts ruined tower in the upper left, but instead carved the whole thing out of pink foam.  I wanted to put the blocks on a foam base to start with and it just ended up being simple enough to carve the whole thing out while watching Kim Possible with my 4 yr old.  I was thinking that I took some WIP shots of my tower ruins, but I am mistaken...I did no such thing.  

I adjusted the photos best I could buy my lighting in the garage is terrible and I was too lazy to grab my high priced flash attachment for the over priced camera I have that I don't know how to use anyways...so they're a little bright and washed out, but you get the idea.  :D

Next up came the base for the tower, it's cut but not really weathered yet as I want to keep it kind of 'pretty' as it will look like a cut slab, so lots of rubble strewn about, kind of like the Colosseum and the Pantheon.  

I was a little stuck on the stairs and was talking about it with my pal BA and he suggested a pair of pillars instead of the entire set of wrap around stairs I was planning.  PERFECT!!!  He suggested doing menacing faces like on the armor plates of the character drawn up in the world guide, but as I was looking for something suitably Aztec or Mayan online for a reference piece I was struck with an idea.  I'll do the sword/staff of the Doom Reavers instead!!!  So I grabbed a couple of quick shots from the concept art as reference and set about for a couple of hours carving away at two blocks of foam.

As of right now this is where I'm at...I still need to glue the pillars, the tower and the tower base down, but I might actually buy some foam glue for that.

Next up is a ruined wall section in front of the tower base, a burial cairn with pillars to the right of the tower base and a carved stairwell arched entry in the bottom right corner.

I'm not sure which ones first, prolly the cairn or the wall as the archway is going to be two or three pieces which may very well take some time, and I want the pillars to be cast, as I'm not sure I can carve good even cylinders in foam.  :D

Got some list testing to do this weekend, but I'll update when I have more to share.

'til then, keep you paint thinned and your brushes clean!