Free 3D printable creature

Sorry for the radio silence guys! But I have some exciting news that I had to share.
My friend and talented sculptor and 3D artist Sam Rowan has released his first 3D printable creature. One that I cant wait to get my hands on and paint.

This model is also part of a competition to start manufacture and distribution. By going to the link at the bottom and downloading a copy of the creature yourself (FOR FREE) it gives him a great chance of winning. And looking at the other entrants I cant believe he hasn't won already.

Support your local sculptors and artists. Support Sam Rowan!

http://www.myminifactory.com/object/sam-rowan-curiosity-cabinet-specimen-165b-lucanidae-chiroptera-loc-guatemala-2915

Im In Visions!

Pretty momentous thing that I haven't even bothered writing on my blog. I probably should have written it on my blog as soon as the pre-orders came up but it completely passed me by.

Anyway, with its release this Saturday, and my 14 page Blanchjitsu article firmly wedged in there I am proud to say that I have officially had a chunk of my models published and written about in the hallowed pages of White Dwarf!
Needless to say I'll be buying several copies and hanging around Muswell hill GW on Saturday grinning.

Thanks for all your support and motivation,
Next stop! Golden Demon! 
H

Ist legion begins: Pre-Heresy Dark Angels

This little spark of inspiration first came about with my experiments with painting black.

A brutal colour to get right. Do it in shades of grey, and you end up with a black and white mini like an old Disney cartoon. Unless your model exists on monochrome world this just doesn't look right. Put too much colour in it and you end up with what looks like a mega shaded colour at night. Blacks can be warm or cool, vibrant or matte. Its a bugger. And I still don't think I've got it right. But its getting there. And its fun to paint!

So in my mind I had a couple of choices.  Raven Guard are meant to be matte black. Right? Non reflective, hard lines, and brutal. Black legion are Chaos, and I wont mix with that lot (apart from the occasional foray into the bloody landscapes of Khorne).


But 30k Dark Angels? Bad ass knights of the realm, with all sorts of secrets, and gold, and shiny black plate armour? Hells yeah. And the picture below really was my inspiration for it. Look at all that blue that reads as black.

The picture at the top was obviously edited to be darker, slightly less saturated, maybe adding more grey to the final glaze to knock it back will work in the future but as a proof of concept I'm a happy man. Anyway, this is how he looks in the flesh.

Knight Lancer: WIP

The magnets are in and the colours are down!
Finally I can see how the lancer looks. And I'm really happy with how its turned out. If I were to do it again I might re-consider the lion head, the current one is a little too stark and cartoony. But other than that im pretty happy. little more freehand, the pilot, and the banners to do and im calling it a day with this model. Amazing fun doing it.

And finally a little size comparison for those who havent seen one of these giants in the flesh. 

Knight Lancer: Vilhelm the red

*Vilhelm the Red piloted himself lightly through the ruins of the shattered hab unit, refugees streaming around the giant claws of his Lancer, the mighty and proven Marshal of Phen'brook. An old name lost in the sands of time but given by the Emperor before his ascendance to the golden throne. His chassis, plate, and weapons were replaced many times since then, but it's mighty machine soul was ancient and wrought of the minds of a thousand knights.

His prey was close at hand. The explosions rumbling the hive structure under foot told him as much. Something evil and twisted had crawled from the warp to persecute the citizens of the imperium. 

The plate of Phen'brook was battered and scarred, much to the chagrin of the magos that traveled with their group of misfits and freeblades. But he carried himself taller for it. These scars and repairs were the badges of honor where others would carry their gaudy baubles and kill markings, Phen'brook had no time for such things. Those who knew his name rejoiced at his arrival while his enemies scattered before him, that was all that mattered. 

A terrible wrenching noise broke across the plaza into which he stepped. The sound of metal being torn asunder to make room for his foe. The lance at his side began the process of winding itself back in anticipation of the horrific power to be unleashed, when it was needed the lance would decend with the speed of a rail gun and the power of a dieing star. Hefting the scarred shield and bracing himself Vilhelm let out a roar of challenge that was echoed by Phen'brook a thousand decibels louder causing the nightmare of metal, tentacle and colour to swing around , and with a cry of sonic weaponry the two foes lept to the joust...*

A little fluff and a couple of early WIPS from my latest project. The fluff inspired by my good friend John Ashton over at heresyandheroes and his incredible Slaaneshi knight that you may have seen featured on the GW blog recently.  

http://heresyandheroes.com/2014/07/25/dios-toros-slaaneshi-imperial-knight/

Bring me my shield!: knight lancer WIP

I wasn't a fan of this model when I first saw it in the forgeworld newsletter. Too gangling, too ostrich rider! Didn't look like the hard hitting beast a lancer should be. The armoured giant that it should be. And that god damn shield. Dammit. it looked wrong. All empty space. But then I saw it in the flesh and bought it almost immediately. Half again as tall as a knight and so much potential!

Still hated that shield though so my first plan was to give it a brutal steel welded beast of a shield. Welding burns and heat distortion, a double hard bastard of a shield.

It was ok, but too bare. So a couple of layers of hairspray and ard coat later and you have this! More weathering and heraldry to come. Something Simple and coggy.

I actually planned and made the base before I even got the lancer. A blasted wasteland with a small stomped on trench system to display the weight of the lancer as it pounds across the battlefield.

And gives it a nice wide tall stance without making it look too skeletal before the plates were put on.

I would say this is a slow burn project but I will probably complete it within a day of metal motivation.

Thanks for reading!

H

The Herd