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.

Air Elemental - sculpting reprised

With the EucBowl commission finished, even though there are a few other things on the boil, I have enough breathing space to look back at my sculpting. After taking the Duskrunners to the AusBowl State Championship in March I realised I wasn't happy with the wardancers. The centaur thing just wasn't doing it for me. I started sculpting an air elemental to go with the team some time ago. I had planned for it to be a star player, but now the plan is to make two as replacements for the current wardancers.

So I have now finished the sculpt. I still need to do a little bit of sanding to smooth out some areas, but it is pretty much finished other than that. As I will be taking this team to Southern Shrike Bowl in September, I need to have her done by then. "But won't you need another wardancer?" I hear you ask. Well, no. I have something special up my sleeve for the other one...

But in the meantime, I hope you like the sculpt...

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.

Duskrunners #5 - team shots

And here's the full team shots of these guys. Enjoy...

Duskrunners #4 - final recruits

This team is now officially finished. Here I would first like to show off the last few members of it, and then (in a following post) I will show you some shots of the entire team.

First up is the last couple of line-elves:

Line-elf Ten:

Line elf Eleven:

The Apothecary (the model could double as a wizard, although I rarely use them):

My score counter:

And, the one I'm sure you've all been waiting for...

The Great Earth Spirit (treeman):

This last guy is awesome, a grave guard (or something) from Reaper miniatures. I deliberated about what to use for the treeman and I figured this team would use elemental spirits of earth and air (the mediums they run through and on). So, when I get to them, one or more of the star players will be represented by an air elemental too.

So there you have it, stay tuned for the full team shots!

Duskrunners #3 - next batch, coach and rerolls

Phew, so I had a week off and managed to tear through more of these guys. I now have twelve models plus a coach and four re-rolls, meaning I have a full team for AusBowl! Yay me!

Since I've come this far I feigure I will finish off the team completely, meaning a "treeman", an apothecary, one more line-elf and some star players are on the design board. I want an earth or stone elemental for the "treeman", which is the main missing piece here... the search continues for that one. But the line-elf and apothecary are converted and ready.

The star players are another issue entirely, but they are for slightly later.

But here is the current round of new players:

Catcher Two:

Catcher Five:

Cent-elf Fourteen (I'm not 100% happy with her hair, but it was the best I could do so I'm stuck with it):

Line-elf Nine:

The Coach:

And, the reroll counters:

I'm fairly happy with the team all up. My comments from right at the beginning stand re the miniatures, although there are some absolute beauties amongst them (including the figures for line-elf nine, catcher five, catcher four and catcher three).

The rerolls were difficult to source, but I eventually found a cake decorating wholesaler nearby that sold the miniature horseshoes that I wanted. My turn counter will be a miniature totem pole, assuming it arrives from the US in time!

Once I have the last line-elf and the apothecary done I will post some pics of the whole team on their display stand.