Light Box Awesomeness

Hellooooo!

I feel like I've been neglecting the Studio (and the Hall for that matter) recently. Unfortunately, real life has been extremely busy... but you don't care about that. Fortunately, Southern Shrike Bowl 4 was held on the weekend and, amongst other shenanigans, tomfoolery and games of Blood Bowl, the organiser Adam brought along his light box.

I've wanted a light box for a while, but it's something I haven't yet sprung for. I'm not entirely convinced we were able to get the best shots possible, but I was able to take some pics of some miniatures that are slightly better than previous pics posted.

So, I thought I'd share and see what you thought...

Oh, and how did I fare at SSB you ask? Well, 8th overall in the gaming stakes (4-0-2 record for the weekend) with the Duskrunners, most touchdewns for and, yes, best painted team. There was some stiff opposition this year though, with a number of very well-painted teams showing up and making the affair a very colourful one.

But without further ado...

Some pics of the Duskrunners, starting with my new, sculpted and painted air elemental (counts as a wardancer) "Eurus the East Wind" who, incidentally, has to have come close to tournament MVP!

The earth elemental (counts as a treeman), "Cruac the River Bed":

The team:

And Jordell Freshbreeze:

The Drakwald Ravens are not my oldest Blood Bowl team, but they are the one that I have run with for the longest, through a stretch as the Marienburg Ravens, and back again. But the old miniatures are looking a bit shabby. This is the first "test" piece for the new incarnation of the team, which will be the next generation of players. This one is one of twin daughters to the old captain/blitzer Jock "the Hammer" Hammerstein: Jacqueline "JacHammer" Hammerstein (the other twin will be Samantha "Sledge" Hammerstein). I still have to add clumps of grass to the base and some more detail (a name and number) on the base itself).

And now a bunch of models you have seen before. Some of the Razorbakz:

The sculpted Ice Vixen:

And the diminutive flings of the White Acre Weed Pullers:

I hope you enjoy them. I'll also put up a pic of another project I've been working on recently... but that's another post.

Ice Vixens #2 - finished sculpt

Well, the sculpt is finished and, while it's not quite professional quality in its execution, I learned a great deal and the painted result will fit in quite well with the team I am working on.

So here she is, the first blitzer of the Ice Vixens norse team:

Sculpt 1 finished!

She is done! I finally finished my first sculpt. Now I didn't do all of it, the basic armature is a Reaper heroic armature and it is also a Reaper head, but basically all the rest is procreate sculpting. I'm not going to waste too many words here because I explained the rationale and so on in my previous posts, but here she is...

My other scuplting job is also coming along, here's where I'm at with the air spirit...

Sculpting again

So, I have been neglecting my sculpting... or have I?

Well, my prior work - the were-fox - is still on the sculpting table and is progressing very slowly, largely because I am not happy with the relative lengths of the thighs. So, in this regard, yes I have let it split a bit.

But when I ordered the Reaper Grave Guard I also picked up two packs of sculpting armatures and they are incredible!

What I have found is that my sculpting abilities are not too shabby, it is my capability to get the perspectives correct in the basic build that really let me down. These armatures allow me to have that already done, and I have a couple of projects now underway that I am really excited about.

The first is a beserker for my Valkyrie team. There is very limited variation in the original Valkyrie miniatures, so I wanted to do up something different for the blitzers/beserkers. The idea was a model in the same uniform as the others, but more wild and unkempt to represent the Frenzy skill.

So I used a female armature as the base and did very little to the basic stance. I also used a Reaper head and positioned it so it looked as if she was screaming at the sky in frenzied rage. From there I started sculpting. I decided she would have lost one boot in her raging and would have a torn and frayed t-shirt (when I paint her up there will be blood spatter as well). I am almost finished, I just need to add the final details to the helmet (wings and their distinctive visor/goggles), perhaps add a little bit of definition to the left arm, and base her up properly.

The only real problem I have with her is that one glove is slightly bigger than the other, and it is exacerbated because the bigger one is also the one on the arm without a sleeve. Hopefully a little bit of bulk on the arm will fix that. I'm also not 100% convinced about the chainmail brief. It might look better painted, but I think it is too round. Still, I'm just getting my head around this, so next one will be better.

The other job isn't as far advanced, but I think you can still see the idea. When I stood back and looked at my wood elf (feral elf) team, the Duskrunners, I just didn't like the wardancer options (currently two centaur-like elf figures). I have been talking about using air elementals for some of the star players, but I figured, perhaps a better option is to use them for the wardancers! I couldn't really find a decent model to represent what I was after though (the Malyfeaux Squalls being the closest) so I figured I would have a go at sculpting them.

Here is the result thus far. The idea is a female armature as a base, hovering in the air and swept back into the wind. I don't want too much detail in the body, it being just a rough humanoid form the spirit is taking, and the face will basically only be eyes - which makes it much easier for me to sculpt.

I have only done a basic sub-structure for the swept back air and some of the sculpting that sweeps from areas that are "deep" in the layering process (like behind the knee, under the breast, around the neck). The next step (when this layer dries) will be to add some sweeping, from the bottom up, on the higher areas like the calf, thigh and hip, shoulder and head. Then I'll need to also add the arm and complete the foot. Of course, that's just one side, then I have to also do the other side!

I probably won't have these ready for AusBowl, the first real outing for the Duskrunners, but who knows! Stranger things have happened.

Ice Vixens #1 - sculpting and prototype

Hi again

I thought I'd put in a quick update on my other sculpting project. It has stalled a little bit because of the need to get the Duskrunners up and ready for AusBowl, but any leftover putty has been slowly making its way on to the were-fox.

Here is the most up to date pic of the sculpt. There is also a tail that is half finished to be added to the back.

I'm really happy with the feet and lower legs. One thigh ended up significantly longer than the other. At this stage I can't really go back and change this, so I'm going to wear it as a beginner's fault. I'm also not entirely happy with the fur on the thighs. The torso is still half-formed and will have a t-shirt over the top. Head and arms, obviously, still to come along with the dreaded head and hands duo of death!!! We'll see how that goes, might be disheartening.

In the meantime, this is the prototype paint job for the team as a whole: the Ice Vixens.

And their logo: