Eowyn WIP.

Not much of an update but here is my current progress on Eowyn model. It is pretty much done and ready for panting. The only thing that is left is to put some leaves on the branch. With this base I was going for Helms Deep type of terrain.

It has been some time…

Greetings! ...to those few who are following this blog and to those who occasionally stumble on it. It has been over a year since I posted any updates and, while I didn't intend to post on a weekly basis, a year of inactivity is a bit too much... I do apologize!

2013 was a really strange and somewhat pivotal year in my life. It brought me a lifelong joy and a lifelong sadness. It was definitely a year that changed me a lot. It was also a year that I missed US Golden Demon competition after attending it for five consecutive years. I really had a great game play for that year but with everything that happened in my personal life I had to put hobby life on hold.

Now, since my life is slowly getting back to normal, I decided to get back to the hobby. For the last two years I have been sculpting/converting a duel and at this point the project reached its completion and I plan to start painting it soon. Here is a little teaser of the duel. With more to come at a later time.

Now, the issue with the duel is that I haven't touched the painting brush since early summer of 2012 and I really have high expectations for this project when it is completed. So, I decided that I need a "warm up" project (maybe two) before I approach the duel. The choice of my first "warm up" model was relatively easy. I wanted to paint something new stylistically and I didn't want to put too much time into conversion, so my choice fell on one of the few good models from LotR range. This model was given to me by my good friend Todd Swanson and I intended to do it justice.

In order to keep myself motivated and have more updates on this blog I decided to document my progress here. So, expect to see at least monthly updates and maybe I will have a little extra time for some other projects as well. 

Brother Sergeant Signo!

I haven’t updated this blog in quite some time, so I decided to post something special this time around. This was my entry for US GD 2012.

The story of this entry started two years ago when I saw FW books about Badab war. I wanted to make a squad of marines in Mk III armor. I purchased forge world models and got quite disappointed with the quality of the cast. I quickly became frustrated with the amount of time it was taking me to fix FW models. I started to think that it would have been easer to sculpt my own models... and I started to do just that. I didn't have much experience with sculpting before (just small green stuff work on some of my models) so it took me quite some time to get a grasp on the process. Chris Borer helped me tremendously to improve my sculpting skills. After year and a half I finally finished my Mk III torso and legs. I also realized that I have only two and a half months left before GD and it is just not enough time to finish five models. So I started to think about 40k single category. Finally I settled on Blood Angels but I didn't want to do pure BA marine, so I decided it will be a BA successor - Blood Drinker.

It took me some time to research the chapter's background and figure out the color scheme. Blood Drinkers are unique among BA successors. They do not use typical BA markings but follow the codex pattern. I still wanted to keep some BA references in my color scheme so I decided that my Blood Drinker sergeant will be from the seventh (assault) squad of the second company. This allowed me to have yellow trim on shouldered (company color and/or chapter color). I also decided that yellow will substitute white, so the tactical markings are done in this color as well as the veteran sergeant helmet (also may represent that he is from assault unit - BA style). The decision of weapons was quite easy - they had to be BA specific. While power sword is not unique among space marines inferno pistol is. The last thing to decide was the name of my sergeant... I am a HUGE fan of Chris Borer's work and I like his story behind the names of "Fratricide" duel. I decided that my marine should be dedicated to one of my friends... But who, that was the question. One trait of Blood Angels and their successors that is always forgotten is their artistic taste... In this respect I always thought about them as a sort of "loyal Emperor's Children." Among my friends I have quite a few artists but one in particular stands apart - Todd Swanson. All I had to do is make the name sound Italian - thus brother sergeant Signo was created!

The atmosphere of the model is supposed to show the events taking place during Reign of Blood 802.41k., when Blood Drinkers helped to fight daemon infestation on hive world of Helios Alpha.

I want to thank Chris Borer for all his help and guidance on this project. Also, special thanks to David Pauwels and Todd Swanson for constructive criticism.

To True or not to True...

I am a big fan of this "movement" in the hobby. I always felt that there should be more coherency between the background of WH 40k and actual models.

There are different approaches to the process of enlarging space marines. Some people prefer to use terminator models as a base for tactical marines armor. Some people enlarge the actual gamin bases so marines look taller. Others use a plastic card to increase the dimensions of the stock model.

Personally, I combine the later method with sculpting. I feel that to increase the height of the model is not enough. You also need to increase the width of it.

My Mk III power armor that I used for my Blood Drinker sergeant is mostly sculpted. While I was working on it I tried to keep the "true scale" concept in mind. Below you can see this model next to the sisters of battle and regular marine.

Goden Demon 2012 WIP

Last weekend I went to Chicago for US Golden Demon 2012. As usual it was lots of FUN! It was really nice to meet up with some of my really good friends whom I see only twice a year. Sharing painting ideas/progresses/technics is a nice distraction from every day life...

This time around it was the first year that I went with some hopes to compete for the main prize - Slayer Sword! But once again, this Todd got it. This is his fifth Slayer Sword and as far as I know now there is no one in the world who has more... It is some kind of a record!

My entry was my best work up to date. As usual, I had grand plans of completing an entry for my favorite category - 40k squad... but real life keeps correcting my plans for "hobby life" and I ended up in a 40k single category... With this year entry I put a lot more thought in composition and backstory behind the model. At a later date, when I finally get a camera, I will post pictures of my finished model along with the story behind it. For now, here is the picture of the model after assembly and before it was painted.