Battle Brush Studios Commission Log .... In Space!

[sigur]

Hi again,

so the last pack of Long Fangs is finished painting and is based, the Grey Hunters are finished as well, second Runepriest is well on his way so I thought I could proceed to building the next few stuffs - 2 Land Speeders and 10 Wolf Guard Terminators.

This is what the "active part" (i.e. the not totally cluttered part) of my desk looks like at the moment:


I have to say, these sunday nights work really well. It's always been the best night of the week in terms of painting and modelling. As you can see, only the most basic chassis of the Land Speeders is assembled yet but I was told I better leave the chassis to dry completely before proceeding. That LS kit is an interesting one. Fun to put together.

As for the Wolf Guard, they're built and currently curing. I had to convert some parts to make them fit my client's wishes (mostly swapping some weapon from one hand to another, sculpting the occational thumb or other gubbinz). There's some magnetized options on two of these guys so I'm two pairs of terminator shoulderpads short which I'll have to get from somewhere. Oh, and I have to convert another combi-melta for one of the guys.

In total, it's:
3 Terminators with power weapon/storm shield (the box doesn't give you the option to build that though because there's only one power weapon per box and it's on the same hand side as ALL storm shields)
1 Terminator with Chain Fist and Stormbolter (straightforward and out of the box)
2 Terminators with Powerfist and Stormbolter (also straightforward)
1 Terminator with Wolf Claw and Stormbolter (no problem as well)
1 Terminator with Wolf Claw and Combi-Melta (have to convert the melta and swap it with a stormbolter)
2 Terminators with Cyclone missile launchers (not in the box, got the extra bitz though) and magnetized arm options: Powerfist/Powerweapon on one side and Stormbolter/Stormshield on the other. That took a little work but nothing too bad. After everything cured tomorrow I will add the magnets.


Apart from the Space Wolves, there sure has been a lot of stuff going on today. I'm talking about Games Day UK and the revelations the day brought. It was very nice to finally get a proper look at the new Dark Eldar miniatures and there seems to be some nice FW stuff coming up for Eldar (as well as a Land Raider varient that seems to lack an "r"). The new Dark Eldar look good, can't say much more about them really. I really like the redesign of the DE transport I can't quite recall the name of at the moment. Reaver maybe? Or was that the name of the shooty version of that transport? They have entirely different names in German. Anyway, that looked good. I even like the horns on the Incubi (like their Uruk-Hai swords a little less though).

The thing I enjoyed seeing the most though was the minis The Forge (Warhammer Fantasy division of FW) has in the works at the moment. There is SOOOO much more stuff coming up than I thought it would. Personally, I don't care too much about the Nurgle stuff because we were few nurgle things by FW thoughout the past two years.

Then, there was of course Chaos Dwarfs. I was surprised to read yet disappointed comments eventhough today the thing so many people have been wanting to see for over 10 years has happened - Chaos Dwarfs indeed still do exist and actually, I don't care if they're resin only. It's CD releases and from what I could see, they did a good job on the Dwarves themselves. The bigger warmachines have been done ....okay. It could have been much worse (the use of the word "steam" did evoke a little grimacing on my part). There are too many cogwheels involved in my opinion. Just like with the new Doomwheel. one or two big, clunky-looking cogwheels are okay but it shouldn't be overdone.

I absolutely loved the Empire stuff. That Land Ship is just so awesome and very reminiscent of the oooold Dwarven Landship or the massive and not that old Skaven Landship diorama that was showcased in a WD some years ago. The Demi-griffon looks like a fun idea and I'm really looking forward to see proper close-ups of the state troops resin parts.

The Golden Daemon entries were interesting this year. Some great ones I remember are the Eldar Warlocks from 40k unit, the dioramas of course (both were very good), the Zombie Dragon looked nice as well. Oh, and the Banshee diorama from Duels was nice. There was also a very amusing interpretation of the Duels category involving the white dwarf.

Enough of my ramblings now, it's late and I have to get lots of stuffs done tomorrow. So seeya then!



edit: Oh, and many many thanks to everyone who went to GDUK this year and uploaded pictures to Warseer. Hope you had a great time!

[Logarithm Udgaur]

That Runepriest in the background is looking good.
Your modeling area seems to be slightly less cluttered than mine.

P.S. If the duel with the White Dwarf was a drinking contest, it should have won.

[Mega Nutz]

Looks and sounds promising!!

[sigur]

@Logarithm Udgaur: Cheers, I got you a picture of the Runepriest this time. And a drinking contest the duel was indeed. Not sure if he won though.

@Mega Nutz: Oh yes, the upcoming stuff should be interesting.


First off, the 2nd Runepriest (still WIP):


Wolf Guard Terminators:


Wolf Guard Terminators with Cyclone missile launchers and arms fer switchin':


Land Speeders (lacking Multimelter and second crewman at the moment):


After some lengthy Airbrush cleaning, next thing I do is give all that stuff the basecoat of paint.

[Crazy Harborc]

Does THAT mean turning the sprayer on FULL.....turbo power blast....cleans the table AND paints it too. Oh, I really DO like that Runepriest.

[sigur]

@crazy harborc: An idea for cleaning that is only matched by explosives and a bucket of paint to redecorate a room.

So I finally finished those gosh-drat-darned special weapons guys:


Boy did I underestimate the PAIN these caused. Painting 12 arms and weapons doesn't sound too bad. Can't possibly take as long as painting say a full Space Marine or something. Gah.

I really need to take a break from space Marines and the colour grey. 'tis so annoying. Might finish that gosh-drat-darned Nightbringer. Or these gosh-drat-darned Space Hulkers.

Gosh-drat-darn it.

[ArtificerArmour]

Love those rune priests, good work

[Aulbath]

I really like those Plasmagun-tips, as mentioned before those extra bits of paint really add to the models and balance them nicely.

[Ancre]

The thing I enjoyed seeing the most though was the minis The Forge (Warhammer Fantasy division of FW) has in the works at the moment. There is SOOOO much more stuff coming up than I thought it would. Personally, I don't care too much about the Nurgle stuff because we were few nurgle things by FW thoughout the past two years.

Then, there was of course Chaos Dwarfs. I was surprised to read yet disappointed comments eventhough today the thing so many people have been wanting to see for over 10 years has happened - Chaos Dwarfs indeed still do exist and actually, I don't care if they're resin only. It's CD releases and from what I could see, they did a good job on the Dwarves themselves. The bigger warmachines have been done ....okay. It could have been much worse (the use of the word "steam" did evoke a little grimacing on my part). There are too many cogwheels involved in my opinion. Just like with the new Doomwheel. one or two big, clunky-looking cogwheels are okay but it shouldn't be overdone.

Whoa what ? I missed stuff by not browsing through the news ! So forge world does chaos dwarfs for real ? That makes me happy !

Even if the overdid it with the cogwheel and other bizarre stuff - but hey, it's warhammer, they overdo everything, from the size of the hands to the price of their minis



The special weapons are fantastic sigur, I abolutely love the plasma guns and the move from yellow to dark red on them.

[Logarithm Udgaur]

Thanks for the close up of the Rune Priest. He looks really good, particularly the (non)metalics. Do you have any special technique for the freehand, or just lots of practice and patience?

Love the special weapons also.

[sigur]

@ArtificerArmour: Thanks muchly.

@Aulbath: Yeah, they really add to the miniatures.

@Ancre: Seriously awesome stuff coming up from The Forge. Especially if you're into Empire and Chaos. They're also releasing a book similar to the IA books for 40k. Problem I have with that book is that it seems to be sat in an alternate timeline or something like that. Quite sucky but it seems like people don't care if it's not about something out-of-proportions and zomgtheendofthewoooorld. I'd like to see maybe a siege of some major city be discussed in a book. It could be done like a history lesson; some imperial scribe getting all sorts of sources together on some big siege of the past. Praag or something. That absolutely suffices for a campaign book. Heck, if they insist in making "something new" so they don't have to bother with the existing background, they could do something on the crusades. Holy cow, there's something they could do a TON of stuff on! First the liberation of Estalia, then pushing on into Arabya and finally crumbling and retreat. There doesn't have to be an ongoing campaign even, it could just be done in the way of an old mercenary or Reiksguard dude telling stories about past battles which could fill a book with scenario ideas like the old General's Compendium. But no, let's just go for the worst idea possible and go for another all or nothing last stand big epic battle for world domination thing PLUS let's introduce different timelines! I know, all this is a little far-fetched and we don't know much about this book yet but I really don't get why things can't be done in a mannered way that doesn't violate the background in multiple dimensions and universes. Sorry for my rambling. I know that Warhammer is an exeggerated setting but even exeggeration can be overdone. Also, I'm smelling a blatant nod to the abomination that Steampunk has become with all the cogs and all that. Yeah, I'm in a rambling mood today, I even posted some wordy (and very clever and valid of course) stuff over at 40k background.

@Logarithm Udgaur: It's mainly a steady hand, practice and patience so I can't really give you and tips. Maybe a little heads-up: With that kind of NMM-like scribblings, it's no big deal if the basecolour (in this case the darkest brown) is a bit wobbly or not perfectly placed. You can make up for a LOT with later layers in this technique. Take the pseudo-arabian I painted on the banners of the WM Arabyans in my Fantasy log. These squiggly lines look terrible after the first basecoat of brown but after the third mix and highlighting, it starts looking much better and by the end, it looks rather competent. Just give it a try. For this very reason, I find it even easier than say paint letters with plain black paint onto a white surface.

Now for the reason I'm here. I didn't get anything more done so I thought I'd just do some shots of the finished units.

Grey Hunters Pack #1:



Grey Hunters Pack #2:



Grey Hunters Pack #3:



Grey Hunters Pack #4:

[sigur]

Long Fangs Pack #1:




Long Fangs Pack #2:




Long Fangs Pack #3:




Wolf Scouts:



Wolf Guard in Power Armour:


A single Wolfguard dude (this picture only happened because my client wanted to have a closer look at one of the bases and I like that one guy's pose a lot):



I just thought of some things he might be saying at the moment but there are so many possibilities that I couldn't settle for one thing to put into a speech bubble so let's make a game of it! What could this Wolfguard dude be saying at the moment in which the picture was taken? :-)

[Logarithm Udgaur]

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to get to the toilet in this thing?"

[Old School]

"...The auto-colostomy device has stopped working! I've gacked in my suit! RAAAARGHHH..."

[tancrede]

I can't remember if I post here to comment your SW, but I just want to say that yours are some of the best I've ever seen.
The dark grey armors are really cool, and I like the way you've done the battle damages (not too much damages, but just what it needs)...
Just a little criticism : you should have worked just a little more on the faces. But as it is for commission work and if the client is happy this way, it's cool...

[Lord Azoth]

really nice units man, your painting speed amazes me more and more every time I see one of your updates...

About the special weapons swapping arms, did you magnetize them? if it´s so, any advice?, I´ll make it for 2 of my BC (power weapon/power fist, flamer/plasma/melta)

[Ancre]

Isn't he about to sneeze ?

Edit (because I have more time to write now ! ) : it's nice to see new stuff coming out. Unfortunately I do not play chaos nor empire - I'd play a kislev "empire"army (with houseruled bears perhaps) if I could, but I don't know any suitable minis for them (save the oop and horribly hard to buy ones GW did some time ago).

And it's true that "the world is in mortal peril" comes too often, but it is difficult to find another more gripping theme, but too much is too much I agree. I'd like to see southern temple lizards come back too, maybe against khemri or araby or I don't know (time to put Nagash out of the box ! ) but your idea of a crusade is nice, there's lot of armies that can be involved (including southern temple lizards ). It probably never will though, the parallel with the real world is a very obvious and touchy one unfortunately, and GW folks are probably wise enough to stay out of religious & politics controversies.

[sigur]

@Logarithm Udgaur, Old School: Great, I triggered poopie humor.

@tancrede: Thanks a lot for the comment. I know, the faces on these guys just don't really look the part yet. I guess I'll have to work a bit on some of them.

@Lord Azoth: Thank you. :-) Magnetizing Space Marines arms is very straightforward. You get more than enough space to drill your holes and place the magnets. I can do a picture later if you like but it's really not complicated.

@Ancre: I'm fairly sure they'll come up with various other things for WHFB in resin. Meh, I guess you got a point about the crusades but really, is this still such a sensitive thing? Gah. People are silly. What I always loved about WHFB is the semi-historical references and the humour. But no, that's all sacrificed in favor for "BAD GUYS ARE TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD, MORALLY AMBIGIOUS FASCIST GUYS HAVE TO STOP THEM"-scenarios. You get that in every action video game nowadays.

Speaking of bad things GW does to upset me... [Enter rant about renaming the iconic Space Sharks].

Update!
5 Wolf Guard Terminators:


5 more Wolf Guard Terminators:


Land Speeders:

[Dayspringer]

I really like the grey on these wolves. Any chance of an army shot soon?

[sigur]

@Dayspringer: Thanks. I think that there'll be an army shot rather soon considering the client is pressing to get the first batch into his hands as soon as possible.

Tonight I got bored with all that grey and started working on a little side thing:


Not much to see yet, just doodling around with red and blue.

By the way, I wanted to get some Vallejo Air paints from my LGS and much to my surprise had to notice that they don't have them. I could have sworn that they had a small batch of those a few months ago. Anyway, because I was dead set on getting some new paints to play around with, I got meself three pots of P3 paints. Because it's funny to get 3 Pots of P3 paints you see. I laughed all my way home. Anyway, I tried them today and here's my verdict: They're okay.

That's the awesome info for tonight. Sleep well, world.