Tuesday 9 October 2012

Nurgle Lord Conversion - Golden Demon UK 2012 Entry

Nurgle


Well, my best laid plans at the beginning of the year to bring a number of entries to GDUK in 2012 went out of the window by the time September rolled around and I was left with only one model to take - one that wasn't created with the intention of entering to boot!

The figure I ended up taking was a converted plastic Nurgle Lord. If I had known when I started just how saturated the fantasy single category of Golden Demons around the world have become with entries based on this figure I would probably have picked another!

Still, the base figure is an instant classic sculpt and the conversion and paint job were both enjoyable and came very naturally.

You can see the figure in its unpainted state in a previous blog post here.

Nurgle Lord Conversion Painted
Nurgle Lord Conversion Painted 2

Nurgle Lord Conversion Painted 3

Nurgle Lord Belly Painted


I took a lot of inspiration from the brilliant job Darren Latham (of GW Eavy Metal team fame) did on his Nurgle Lord for the paint job.

The style is a bit brighter and more sharply highlighted than my previous work - a bit of a change in painting direction to try and work more contrast in to my highlighting. While the paint job is far from perfect, I am happy enough with how it has come out.

The base was also enjoyable to make - I tried to make it blend with the plinth, overlapping the round bevelled edge of the 40mm GW base in areas to try and draw the eye into the scene a bit more. I'm in two minds as to whether the base is too big for the figure and whether he would have been more successful on a smaller base.

In the end I managed to come away with a finalist pin from what I felt was an incredibly strongly contested category. While I'm a little bummed it is my first time entering GD and not coming away with a trophy, I am still pleased enough with his performance given he hadn't been painted with the intention of entering him into the Golden Demon contest.

For those who would like to vote on CMON, he can be found here - all votes and comments are much appreciated! :)

Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below. Do you like the new style? Is it something I should continue with? Thoughts welcome.

Monday 27 August 2012

The Gift of Inspiration


While looking through the galleries on coolminiornot.com today I came across a rather pleasant, if unexpected surprise.



Upon seeing the piece "Imperial Guard Ace" by artist MoMinis, entered at this year's Golden Demon Germany (and a worthy finalist), I was instantly reminded of a converted Imperial Guardsman I had made back in 2009:

imperial guard conversion CMDante

My model was also a finalist at Golden Demon UK in 2010, so I guess these two models have even more in common!

Looking at my miniature now, I would have taken longer over the paintjob and base if I could start again. Both were quite rushed from a desire to finish the miniature before I moved to my current home and from simply having worked on the conversion for too long. A problem I find frustratingly common!

Warhammer 40,000 Dark Vengence Boxed Set
Warhammer 40,000 Dark Vengence - 6th edition (2012)


So what have I been up to lately? Well, aside from trying to finish up a few entries for this year's Golden Demon, I have been eyeing up the new Dark Vengence 40k boxed set (which you can get for a pretty nifty 10% discount at Wayland Games).

The new models look great and it is hard to believe they are "snap fit" models. The hobby has come a long way from the old starter sets I can remember receiving for christmas in my youth.

Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition Boxed Set (1993)
Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition boxed set (1993)

It's funny, because I have seen people complaining about the presence of a few duplicates in the new set. It just shows how high the expectation level is these days thanks to the improved quality of all boxed sets GW produce.

The old sets used to include only around 5-8 versions of a model, no characters, no vehicles. Now we get spoiled with properly structured forces, including characters, dreadnoughts, bikes and multiple unit types per force.

Changed days indeed!

I'm already planning some minor conversions for the Chaos chosen and Hellbrute so can't wait for the new boxed set to arrive.

Got anything special planned for your own set? How do you plan to paint up the chaos models (still torn on a legion to choose myself, so ideas are welcome)?

Friday 1 June 2012

Miniature Review - Forgeworld Event Only Enforcer

CMDante Miniature Review


As anyone who is a regular at Games Workshop events and is a fan of Forgeworld miniatures will know, GW's resin specialists have, for the past few years now, released special "event only" miniatures on an annual basis.

Last year saw the event only Warhammer Forge Chaos Dwarf hero an Warhammer 40k Boarding Space Marine, while 2012 sees the Warhammer Forge Skin Wolf (Chaos) and Warhammer 40k Imperial Enforcer. It is the later of this years models which will be the focus of this review.

While I have yet to attend a GW event this year, I did manage to pick up one of the many event only models available on eBay. While you may find that you have to over-pay to pick one up, I got mine for £18 including postage - not too bad when you consider the model costs £12 new at an event (which would also have associated costs in attending).

First Thoughts


The first thing of note about this years event only models are that they come in a new packaging format for Forgeworld. It seems that the new Finecast style plastic blisters are also being used to package these figures. I'm not sure if this is something that is being rolled out across the Forgeworld range, but it is a bit of a welcome change.

Forgeworld Event Only Imperial Enforcer Blister

Previously Forgeworld models came packaged in small jiffy bags - great for seeing the parts through because you could carefully manipulate the parts to see them from all sides, but they didn't offer any protection from breakages while transporting/storing. Not great for the often fragile, brittle parts typical of resin kits.

I knew the minute I saw the first pictures released of the Imperial Enforcer model that I would wind up purchasing one and on doing so, I was not disappointed. I have always had a preference for Imperial figures and a great fondness for anything related to Necromunda/Inquisitor - models that have a strong character in their own right without a supporting army. This guy definitely ticks that box.

Contents


So what do you get for your £12 (or £18 in my case)?

Forgeworld Imperial Enforcer Kit contents

The model consists of 3 pieces. The enforcers body, head and a cyber mastiff.

Quality of Sculpts / Detail

As with most of Forgeworld's products, the sculpting quality on both miniatures in this set is top notch, full of crisp, intricate details. The enforcer's body has a number of small imperial icons and some finely detailed chain elements, including a pair of handcuffs.

Forgeworld Imperial Enforcer Body

I can't say I'm a big fan of the way the boots have been designed. The soles/heels look too tacked on to the rest of the boot, almost like an after-thought modification to "space" them up to look more 40k. A minor criticism though.

Forgeworld Imperial Enforcer Head
 
The head has a sullen eyed veteran appearance - a somewhat common trait of Forgeworld bare human heads. It actually reminds me a lot of Inquisitor Eisenhorn too and would be an ideal choice of head for such a conversion.

Forgeworld Imperial Enforcer Cyber Mastiff

Finally, the cyber mastiff is a large, but exquisitely sculpted beast. The anatomy is very realistic looking, even for a cybernetically modified, gene-enhanced dog! The face is a pleasant change from the usual aggressive snarling that is common for most wargames miniature beasts and hounds. There is also some really nice detail for the cybernetic enhancements.

Pose

The posing of the model is more relaxed than the typical 40k miniature posing offered in GW's main ranges, yet still interesting and characterful. He has a sort of "investigative stride" look, with shock maul held low in his right hand and some sort of auspex/communicator device in his right.

Forgeworld Imperial Enforcer back

The cyber mastiff's pose has a similar feel, as though master and beast are investigating some sort of incident. He also has a nice loping, single minded stride going on.

Forgeworld Imperial Enforcer Cyber Mastiff back

Casting Quality

This kit instantly ranks amongst the best quality of casting I have seen from Forgeworld. A few small mold lines, bits of flash and sprue vents, but nothing you wouldn't expect on any miniature. The details have all been cast fully and crisply, with no softening of detail that can sometimes be present in resin kits and which used to be a common issue with some Forgeworld kits in the past.

Forgeworld Imperial Enforcer body right


The worst area for mold lines appears to be the tops of the boots on the enforcer's body. This seems to be quite a common location for deep inset mold lines (as opposed to raised mold lines common on plastic kits), but nothing a little putty and sanding can't sort.

Forgeworld Imperial Enforcer Cyber Mastiff top


One thing I would say is that the miniatures feel very greasy all over, clearly having a goo coating of mold lubrication, meaning they will need a good wash and light scrub in some warm soapy water - something worth doing to all miniatures before applying paint, but particularly important on resin models.

Summary


Overall, this is a great kit. The models are nicely posed, work well together and are finely detailed and cast. As a personal opinion, there aren't enough of these "non-battlefield" miniatures that flesh out the background of the game and are a common focus of Black Library novels, making this a welcome addition to the GW range.

The only real criticism I have is the previously mentioned styling of the boots. A small criticism though of an otherwise brilliant kit.

If you plan on attending a GW event this year and you are a fan of both 40k and Imperial miniatures, then I strongly recommend taking the time to pick this kit up. If you don't intend to visit an event, then you could always do what I did and pick one up on eBay as there appears to always be plenty going.



Forgeworld Event Only Imperial Enforcer Reviewed by CMDante on
Overall Rating: 4.5/ 5

CMDante Miniature Review 4.5 Stars


Saturday 14 April 2012

Nurgle Lord Conversion


I have had the fantastic Brian Nelson plastic Nurgle Lord model from Games Workshop sitting on my painting desk for a few months now, partially assembled and waiting for some attention. The problem was, I knew I wanted to convert him - I can't seem to not convert a model these days - but I didn't know what I wanted to do to him and was hesitant to start cutting him up only to regret it.

Anyway, I had some extra time off from work over the Easter weekend last week and I decided to just sit down and work on some models since I had been in a bit of a lull of late. Shrugging off my earlier hesitations, I decided to start working on the Nurgle Lord figure, despite the absence of a clear idea in my head for how the finished piece should look.

While this is quite unusual for me, the process was quite liberating as I wasn't frustrating myself by trying to work too precisely towards an image in my head.

The end result of a few hours work is what you can see below. I clipped off the horns on the shoulder pad and turned them into disease ridden pustules. I added the crow from the Empire General kit, with a little conversion and tidying up, to return some height and attention to the area and also to create some visual lines through what is otherwise quite a 2D pose.

The head received the most sculpting work to create a hideous face, half covered by a helmet with horn bursting through. The rest of the work composed of adding some rivet detail to flat armour plates (rivets always catch rust well so they would help work some contrast in when it came time to paint) and to tidy up areas of soft detail due to the limitations of plastic casting.

All in all, I am pretty pleased with how he has turned out. While not radically different from the original sculpt (I don't think he needed to be anyway - the original is was an instant classic) he is different enough to be unique, which is what I was going for.

I used a mix of ProCreate and Milliput putties (about 50:50) for the face/helmet sculpting, ProCreate on its own for the horn and Milliput for the armour plate fixes.






All in, not bad for a few hours work I think. I will be painting him up in the coming weeks. I picked up a few of the new GW paints to test them out so will try to provide my thoughts on these two in the next few posts as I work on the model.

As usual, feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Monday 16 January 2012

Sons Of Medusa Space Marine Captain Commission




My first miniature finished in 2012 is this Sons of Medusa space marine captain done as a Christmas commission for my good friend Aaron (Grey Death) from The Painting Corps.

The first marine I have painted in a number of years, this project was a lot of fun. Not only is the SoM colour scheme great fun to do - if a little challenging due to the poor coverage of scorpion green (thank god for my airbrush!), but it was a cool challenge trying to keep the model in keeping with the look and feel of the rest of Aaron's force.

The model has had a few subtle conversions, namely the plasma pistol and the bionic eye. The eye was a late addition due to the horrible cast quality of the model around the face making the right eye unpaintable and the face covered in excess metal on that side. Luckily it turned out pretty well and fits with the Sons of Medusa theme (being successors of the Iron Hands).

Here's hoping Aaron likes him and be sure to let me know what you think in the comments.

Saturday 14 January 2012

Check These Out...


So 2011 is in the books and all in, despite the fact I only painted 3 models in the entire year (I know...), it was a pretty good year for the blog. There were 21 posts in 2011 with a good mix of tips, tutorials and reviews but I want to do even more in 2012.

But enough about my blog for now. For this post I want to share with you all a few blogs and sites I have found recently that I would strongly recommend you check out.


Sproket's Small World

Sproket's Small World is the blog of former Golden Demon UK Slayer Sword winner David Soper. David is an extremely talented painter and converter with a bit of a "modern classic" style. While his blog is fairly new at only 6 months old, he has already shared a number of excellent step by step tutorials and tips, making this blog well worth a look. Check out his tutorial on painting Dark Eldar Scourge wings - brilliant and makes it looks so simple!


RuneCast Blog

RuneCast Blog is the blog of the almost sickeningly talented Gregor - a freelance miniature sculptor combining a blend of classic marauder miniatures style with more modern 40k sculpt style. In particular check out his conversion work on a Black Templars Contemptor dreadnought and his Dwarves. Cracking stuff!


Fantasygames

Fantasygames is not only one of the slickest designed hobby blogs/sites around, but also the home of a talented group of Polish painters. While mostly a place to display finished models there are the occasional WIP posts and some innovative ideas on show. Be sure to check out "The Puppet Master" diorama - really cool magic effects going on there.


So there you go, three great blogs to kick start your 2012 with!