Dropzone Commander

I recently mentioned a new set of models by Hawk Wargames for their new Dropship Commander game, and frothed a bit about how much I loved the aesthetic of the miniatures... well today I can give you a closer look at some of the Post Human Republic miniatures as I have picked up a small number of pre-releases to paint for Hawk Wargames. They are all production casts, so exactly what you will get in the boxes/blisters (I don't know which), but with none of the official packaging (so I can't comment on that).

Now, I knew these were going to be resin, but I didn't realise they were going to be injection moulded plastic/resin. This stuff is similar to the sort of thing Reaper, Trollforged and Avatars of War have started using, and yes, also similar to Games Workshop's Finecast. However, from what I've seen so far, the quality is far higher than Finecast, and the details are so very crisp and clean.

Big Boris III is done!

He's finished! And in double-quick time for me...!

As he is for Heresy Miniatures themselves, I have kept him on the sculpted base which comes with the figure. I am pretty pleased with the way he has come out, especially the light/dark contrast in the metallics (which haven't photographed quite as contrasty) and the flesh tones. As big beefy barbarians go, this one has definitely been one of the most enjoyable to paint! I think I'm going to be sad to let him go...

Sedition Wars on KickStarter!

I'll admit now, this is pretty much the blogging equivalent of a re-tweet!

I've been following the Studio McVey Sedition Wars releases since the very beginning, and loved pretty much every one. I have a good handful in the limited edition resin, and you've all seen the diorama I put together for my Crystal Brush entry, so I can 100% endorse  the quality of the figures, and I trust the guys involved enough to support the game too.


Head over to Kickstarter to follow their progress, and hopefully you'll feel inclined to support them too!

What they've said on the Studio McVey Blog can be seen here: http://studiomcvey.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/kickstart-us.html

And of course the kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coolminiornot/sedition-wars-battle-for-alabaster

Boris, almost there...

Just a quick update on how Boris is coming on.

I have pretty much completed the skin apart from sole light glazes to being in some different colours to specific areas - a touch of red to his nose, maybe some purple to his knuckles. I also need to give him some eyebrows, but I don't have a great track record with those! The flesh tones as a whole have been painted with a specific highlighting methodology in mind which was taught by Mathieu Fontaine at a class I attended in Chicago last month.

New miniature company, and the 10mm scale... Dropzone Commander

I am predominantly a painter of 28mm+ wargames miniatres, but I dabble in some of the larger scales - 1:20 scifi, 1:10 busts and the odd 54mm/75mm figure. I would normally dismiss anything smaller than 28mm out of hand due to my perception that the models will be a) less impressive and b) less detailed than a 28mm counterpart.

It appears I may have been wrong... Check these out

Big Boris

Back in the early noughties when I was discovering a world outside of Games Workshop (yes, it does exist!), and Rackham had just blown my mind with its quirky designs and lashings of continental flair, I stumbled across Heresy Miniatures. The sculpts may not have been as sophisticated as those from our French cousins, but there was a visceral gutsiness to them which caught my eye. They were multi-part metal minis with lots of options and a good deal of room for conversion. The barbaric splendour of their half-ogre 'mascot' (if I dare call him that) grabbed me by the fruits the moment I saw him, and I keep coming back to him whenever Andy releases a new version!!

I love painting barbarians, and Boris is probably one of my favourites - up there with those elusive Howling Peak barbarians JAG sculpted for Ilyad (now long OOP and highly sought after*) and the Hasslefree Wolfs! In total I have painted 4 Borises and am currently painting my 5th!

A custom Dust Mech

Toosh and I are the two members of the group you're likely to meet at the Bodgers stand at shows at the moment due to various family commitments by the other members. We do, however have a quiet member who spends most of his hobby time preparing armies for wargaming. We shall call him 'Dave'*. This is quite a different discipline when compared to the display style pieces we normally work on and I really wanted to share that with you.

Dave has developed a very distinctive style since moving from display painting to wargaming with an eye for eyecatching colour schemes and a bold painting style which really pop from the tabletop... He's also DAMN quick!

Black backgrounds

As a whole, I tend to be pretty old school when it comes to photographing miniatures - lots of light, and a traditional blue-to-white gradient background. The gradient background seems to be pretty passée these days but I am always a little unsure about people's motivation for the way they photograph their miniatures.

For me, the intent is to give as realistic a photograph as possible with the limited photographic resources at my disposal. I want it to look as much like the model in hand as I can get it, so I try to get a good amount of light on anything I photograph from a number of different angles in an attempt to banish any shadows and let the painting do the work ie, the shadows you can see 'should' be those painted in by me. This is not an easy task, and I don't often manage it 100%, but I do try my best.

For some people (and this isn't about anybody specific, just a general trend I have observed) it almost seems that the photograph has become a piece of art of its own accord - strong/directional lighting, black/photoshopped background. They get a lot of atmosphere into their models, but I am never quite sure they are entirely accurate reproductions of the actual miniature.