Throne of Angels

New Releases from Zenit!

2012-02-22T21:53:00.000-08:00

New models for the Orphans line!

So coming up after my run through with Alkemy I'm going to review and play through Nemesis from Zenit Miniatures. I've had a lot of personal interest in this line as I love the Orphans and The Cult of Thousand faces lines...they have such great personality and style. All in all there are currently 5 factions, the other three being The Not Alives (which I also think are pretty sweet), The Kingdom of God (some of these I love, some of them I don't) and the newest faction the Rocaviva (these are my third fav! but there are only a few models).

So the one thing that separates this game from all the others is that the rules are free in their entirety and carry a Creative Commons license so that means ANYONE can help with development in this game, and they look to their community for help in advancing the game. Now it's a Spanish company so speaking the native language might help here, but they do have English versions. :P

You can find the rules for Nemesis here:

http://www.zenitminiatures.es/en/downloads

And if you have not seen the line yet you can find the homepage here:

http://www.zenitminiatures.es/en/

And the galleries for each force can be found by clicking the round banners at the top.

Keep an eye out for a mini's review in an upcoming Episode of the video blog!!!

Til next time keep your paints thinned and your brushes clean!

Coming up!

2012-02-20T00:37:00.000-08:00

So with the launch of the video blog, some exiting things are happening around here, and I'd like to share what's on the horizon. I've got a lot of great things planned for the coming months and the rest of the year, more demo's, more giveaways, more interviews, more content including tips and tricks for painting your mini's, gaming tactics, building terrain, army building and insight, some sneak previews and of coarse maor fun!!!

One thing I really want to stress is that the content here is geared towards not only what I want to share, but what YOU guys and gals want to see!! I want the Throne of Angels blog and video blog to cater to the audience, followers (and hopefully fans) so please send in requests! Speaking of requests, the first one has arisen, so coming up in a few episodes will be a demo for the game Alkemy!!! I just received my order last Friday, I snagged a few boxes of Aurlocks and some Jade Triad.

And running along the lines of demo's next episode we'll be spending some time playing Dark Age Apocalypse!!!

One of the things I'm going to start doing more of is using the blog as a hobby chronicle and start posting what I'm working on. Work has been crazy lately so my hobby table is full of awesome stuff that I just haven't been able to put my mitts on yet. So in the coming weeks I expect to be sharing progress on a number of these projects, as well as whatever else pops up.

On deck I'll be squaring up my Black Sun force for Anima Tactics, currently I've got the Black Sun starter open and contents spread about waiting for cleaning and assembly, following that, there's the Raziel Archetypum, Clover, a Type-012 (maybe 2!) and the most amazing Raziel NK-X!!!

Type-012 Hunter

Raziel NK-X

I've also got some Dragyri Air Caste on order to go with my recently reviewed starter and Arbiter of Balance for Dark Age Apoc as well as Cang the Implacable and the aforementioned Alkemy boxes. And like all good gamers and hobbiests I have quite a few other projects sitting here waiting to be addressed!! :P

More updates to come and keep an eye out for the next Episode coming soon!!!

Till next time, keep paints thinned and your brushes clean.

CONTEST!!!!! and Episode 3!!

2012-01-31T18:39:00.001-08:00

EPISODE 3 of the video blog is LIVE!!!

And with episode 3 comes our very first sponsored PAINTING CONTEST!!!! To follow up with last episodes Anima Tactics RANDOM GIVEAWAY!!! we're learning how to play Anima Tactics with none other than Dave Freeman, COO of Cipher Studios!!! So if you haven't watched it yet, check out the fun we have with the Light and Dark starter boxed sets after a great interview with Dave!

CIPHER STUDIOS PAINTING CONTEST!!!!

The details:

The who:

Anyone who wants to participate...except employees of Cipher Studios and the guy typing this blog.

The when:

Contest ends March 15th 2012 (it's a Thursday)

The what:

A LEGAL Anima Tactics 300 lvl FORCE or Hell Dorado 200 AP FORCE.

The PRIZES:

1st place - a 300 point Anima Tactics force OR a 200 AP Hell Dorado force of your choice

2nd place - Anima Tactics or Hell Dorado starter box of your choice

3rd place - single Anima Tactics or Hell Dorado figure of your choice

Please email pictures of your entries to throneofangels AT gmail.com - you can submit as many pictures as you like, but I cannot promise if you submit 226 pictures that they will all make it to the contest gallery. :D Entries will be judged by myself and the wonderful guys at Cipher (I reserve the right to bring in a guest judge if they agree...and will make it known once I have an answer).

You can submit entries for both Anima Tactics and Hell Dorado, but cannot win more than one prize.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!!!

To help a couple of you get started I'm giving away a Light and a Dark starter box!!! The first two people to answer one of these two questions via email to the address above will receive either a Light or Dark starter. You can answer both questions, but cannot win both boxes. :D

For the Light starter box - the first person to tell me the total LIFE points for Kronen and Evangeline will win the Light starter box.

For the Dark starter box - the first person to tell me the total ATTACK POWER for Dark Cheshire and Bael will win the Dark starter box.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Until next time keep your paints thinned and your brushes clean!!!

Video Blog Episode 2

2012-01-16T08:56:00.000-08:00

All right!!! In this episode we continue with some great product reviews and our first ever SPONSORED GIVEAWAY!!!! The great guys up at Cipher Studios jumped in as the first company to sponsor the soon to be ultra popular RANDOM GIVEAWAY!!!!

So if you follow the blog or the 'tube channel, you may very well have a sweat new model on the way! Take a gander at Episode 2 and find out!

You can watch Episode 2 here:

Throne of Angels Video Blog Episode 2

Happy New Year!!! Video Blog announcement

2012-01-02T13:29:00.000-08:00

Hey hey hey!!!

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope the year brings much success on the table top and in life for you!

So to start of the new year I have a new video blog, try as I might, I find that I do not update my blog as much as I would like, but from my days at Animation Mentor, I know that I can keep a video blog like nobodies business!!! So it's time to change over to that format. Now I'll still do the written blog thing, but I'll be updating the video blog every two weeks with reviews, hobby tips and tricks, game tactics, contests, give-aways, guest appearances and all sorts of other random things!

The channel can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ThroneOfAngels

and the first episode is up here:

http://youtu.be/C4RGWb7JzDg

Obviously this is what we in the hobby would call a WIP...so it will evolve over time as I figure out how to set things up a bit better and work the cameraz and softwarez and all the other stuffz that go into making a non-studio based production piece a bit more 'polished'. :D

I'm hip on requests, suggestions, comments, critiques and all that fun stuff as ultimately this is a bit of work to help grow my hobby and my community!

Till next time, keep your paints thinned and your brushes clean!

Dark Age Games - March to Immortality

2011-12-03T22:31:00.000-08:00

Hmmm...March to Immortality, sounds pretty serious but what the hell is it???!

Well it's a pretty damn solid contest put on for the Dark Age universe.

From the Dark Age March to Immortality page:

Each year, Dark Age players gather at Gen Con Indy to participate in the annual Immortal tournament, where the winner gets to work with the design team to create a special character for the Dark Age universe. How cool is that?

The March to Immortality is the premiere tournament circuit designed for stores and gaming clubs to host qualifiers that feed into the Immortal tournament at Gen Con Indy. Special prize support will be provided for participants. Providing that you meet the requirements, the winner will be provided with round trip airfare to Gen Con Indy to play in the Immortal Tournament. If you are a store/club that wants to run one or more of these awesome events, read the document and let us know!

The next immortal winner might just be your store champion!

Sounds pretty damn kule huh? Immortalized as a mini for a game? So who was last years winner? Marc Berlove!

And the concept work for his figure!!!

We are proud to introduce Phadras and Maximo! Marc wanted to include his son as part of his Immortal Prize, a few ideas were thrown around and he setteled for Phadras & Maximo. Phadras is an ex-Brute Pusher that got tired of the bickering in his tribe, so he decided to make out on his own. Little did he know at the time one of the Scuts that always looked up to him and regarded Phadras as the father he never knew, had followed him. Eventually Phadras came to accept his "little shadow" as he called Maximo, now the two are inseperable. This Bounty Hunter Matched Set will be available for hire Gen Con 2012.

Not only does Marc get immortalized but his son as well! How would you like that???? HUH??? I AXED YOU A QUESTION SON!

So what do you have to do you ask? Find a store to host an event, win a 24 person X'Treme Tournament with an approved Judge at hand and CMoN will even pick up the flight to GenCon!!! This pdf details it out really nice like:

Event Brief

You can find more info and the previous winners here:

March to Immortality

For the events in December and January check the link below:

Dark Age Games - March to Immortality Events in December & January !:

So do you want a chance at IMMORTALITY in the gaminverse???!!! Thought so...get your local store to set up an event, start a league and get to hammering out some games of Dark Age!!!

Til next time, keep your paints thinned and your brushes clean!!!

DreamForge-Games: Eisenkern Trooper Kickstarter Project and actual prototypes!

2011-10-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well I've talked about the work of DreamForge before...and I just can't help but do it again. So Mark Mondragon is looking for OUR help, and well dangit, one way or another, I'm going to give him some! He's working on getting his next project rolling and he's got a fantastic set of mini's in the works. Here's the details on what he's working on...

Well folks, I need your help. If you enjoy my models and would like to see this product line launch, please head on over to Kickstarter and add your support to the project.

If you're not familiar with the Kickstarter model, the way it works is you receive a reward for an accompanying pledge in support of my project. The more you pledge the better the rewards and the greater contribution you will make to this and future projects. Your positive participation will help a small independent company to grow and thrive and you gain the satisfaction of knowing you made this happen.

And what you have been waiting for....Here are a few shots of the actual prototypes for the Kriegsmarine and Sturmtruppen soldiers.

Now as you can see he's got some sweet prototypes ready to go...so what can YOU do to help out? Well you can jump over here to his KICKSTARTER page and get to pledging! There's a couple of phenomenal deals on that page, including a 2 Leviathan set with like a GAZILLION troops!!!! (it's actually a pair of platoons which is a sick deal)!

I'm excited to see the next faction he puts up and starts rolling on! GO MARK GO!!!!

To see more details check out the link above for the KICKSTARTER deals as well as the DreamForge page, and for more on all of Marks doings, hit the DreamForge home page as well!!!

Help support small business and score some sweet figs in the process!!! I LOVE IT!!!

Look for a couple of updates this weekend with some early WIP of my Skorne paint scheme and a review or two of some Dark Age starter sets!!! Oh and I might unbox a Legacy Mini's figure if time allows!

Til then, keep your paints thinned and your brushes clean!!!

HORDES!!! - Skorne Project Update

2011-09-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here we go again! Time for a project update, my life has been a bit on the hectic side for the last month or so (as it always is at the end of Con season since I end up going to two or three of them) and I'm still commuting to work ever Monday and home on Friday so my hobby time has to compete with my Honey Do and family time as well as my gaming...Gears of War3 hit and wooooo is it solid!

OK so I'll start by saying I've got the 'problem' with blog updates nailed down to the fact that I can't stand taking pictures, transferring them to my PC, uploading them to photobucket and then pasting them here. It's just SO tedious.

So I guess I'll start with the list, I'll be starting off with Supreme Archdomina Makeda or the almight eMak. Starting at 25 points and moving on to 35 and later 50, I'll start with the list and then why. I'm building a simple Tier 2 list (Tier lists give us fluff players a much better chance at being competitive on the tourney scene in my opinion...not that I had much trouble before...but now I'm rewarded for building lists that fit into the fluff)! So here's the list:

Supreme Archdomina Makeda +5
Cyclops Brute - 5
Cyclops Savage - 5
Cyclops Savage - 5
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) - 3
Praetorian Swordsman (Leader and 5 Grunts) - 4
Praetorian Swordsman Officer and Standard - FREE
Praetorian Swordsman (Leader and 5 Grunts) - 4
Praetorian Swordsman Officer and Standard - 2
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor - 2

25 points on the nose!!! I love it when a plan comes together - dun da dun daaaa dun dun dun

So the choices are derived obviously from the rules of the Tier list - I can only have Cyclops warbeast and Molik Karn...well at 11 points, MK is too much of a point sink in 25 points...and a bit cheezy to me to put on the table at that low of spread. So the decision was pretty simple...load up on Cyclops!! :D

I took a Brute as my +5 since it's a great defensive beast and it will hang with eMak as she rolls into the fray, keeping her safe from the ranged shots with Shield Guard along with a set of solid defensive buffs in Intuition and Safeguard. Being able to force a re-roll and not having to worry about knockdown when slammed is a set of great abilities to have around a warlock. With a DEF of 15 against charge, slam or impact attacks, it's over average rolls to hit for most and the ARM of 19 with that big ass shield means he can soak up a bit as well. This guy is fairly important in the overall scheme of things as eMak is definitely a lead the army into the mess kind of warlock, she just needs to get into the thick of it to make the most of her spells and abilities, so having another tool to keep her alive is paramount.

My second and third beast choices consist of a pair of Cyclops Savages. A solid mainstay medium based warbeast, they have decent hitting power, decent DEF and ARM and being able to boost after the fact with Future Sight. With Prescience as an animus I can also give eMak (or any other faction model) the same benefit when needed.

With no heavy's (high damage output models) a max unit of Paingiver Beast Handlers is truly needed here to make sure my Savages are taking care of business as needed on the heavy's I'm sure they'll be facing.

To hit Tier 2, I have to have 2 units of Praetorian Swordsman in the force, but I get a free UA for unit 2 out of the deal, which is pretty solid as the UA make a pretty solid melee unit and make them a bit better. I've had units wreck heavy warjacks in the past, but not having any way to buff their STR or damage rolls yet I don't see this happening all that often as on a charge averaging 10 on the dice with a Combo Strike, that's still on 2 damage per model on a Khador 'jack. :P But with Vengeance from eMaks Elite Cadre, boosted attack rolss from her feat, Side Step from the UA and Perfect Strike once a game for BOTH units, I can pretty much guarantee that when they get into contact with units, those units will fold like fresh set of linens!

I'll have to rely on the SPD of the army to make it into contact with the enemy forces as soon as I can, but with Road to War, Leash and the solid high base SPD of the models in the army, that should not be too much of an issue. Stay Death will help keep a model or three alive in the early game as I cross the table and the fact that models don't flee and immediately rally in her CMD range make worrying about CMD checks a very low priority.

Now rounding out the pack is Orin Midwinter, a solid solo who can bounce some lighting around like a couple of well know Cygnar casters and stop an enemy caster from casting spells during those all important last couple of turns when little trix are what are needed to turn the tide of the game or solidify that victory.

I won't dig into eMak as I can't give away all my secrets. :P More like it's late and I need to crash.

So there it is, my base list, feel free to let me know what you think...it won't change anything as this is what I want to play and it's a solid start to a Tier list that should bring me some good wins, but I'm always happy to see what other people have to say about my lists and thoughts on lists.

Til next time keep your paint thinned and your brushes clean!!!

HORDES!!! oh and an update.

2011-08-03T02:21:00.000-07:00

Well now, it's been some time since I've had an update on here, but I do have a decent reason me thinks. I got a job. Out of town. Pretty dang far out of town. Like 124 miles out of town. As in it takes almost 2 hours to get to my office out of town. So I drive out of town on Monday and drive back to town on Friday. It's rough.

Well gee Oz, you can login and blog anywhere duud! Yup, sure can, but being home only two days out of the week, that leaves very little in the way of 'hobby time' when I've got the honey do list and the kids got stuff to do list and the other stuff I have to do list...so I can blog, but I really don't have much to say all that often. :P

So I'm thinking I will most likely start doing a bit more 'newsy' type posts when I can, and interject the 'hobby and review' stuff whenever I can put some time in at the painting desk...which leads me to the current project.

Now like most 'gamers' or 'hobbyists' I have a serious case of gamer AD/D, or need to bounce from army to army to army...sometimes game to game too. I like to think of it as the whole 'variety is the spice of life' concept, but it could be that I get bored with the same thing, but seeing as how I have been with my wife for 18 years, I can most definitely say that I DO NOT have a fear of commitment. :D

When I first started this little blog I was all gung ho on a fantastic little project for a Drune Rag Na Rok force...well I'm STILL waiting for half the models to show up, so I've kinda shied away from that project for now, plus the fact that I cannot for the life of me find anyone to play Confrontation let alone Rag Nar Rok has also added to that project getting back-burnered.

Soooo having spent the last few months searching and reading and reviewing and talking to multiple gazillions of gamer duuds looking for a great tactical fantasy game to play I have found that no such thing exists...so I have succumbed to the rolling pebble that is HordesMachine once again. The two local areas I'm in have a decent community built up and I can just kinda plug-in wherever, plus my buddy Erik is all fired up to start a new force after we took like the last year off.

After pouring through half dozen army books I was figuring I'd have to wait until I got my hands on the new Hordes book to make a decision on what I was going to build up...I knew I was going Hordes as Erik is rolling up le Cygnar and the powder blue pansies...plus I just like the feral-ness of it better. So it became a toss up...back to Circle my oldest love in the Hordesverse or continue on with the Legion force I had started a year ago? Hmmm...decisions decisions. Well I decided to go with NEITHER!!!

I ended up having a conversation with my buddy Casey who was asking me a bout an eMak Tier list he was thinking of picking up and right then I was like...HELL THAT'S IT!!! Yup that's right, back to my old love/hate relationship with Skorne.

So I jumped in and started collecting a force...in a matter of days this is what I threw together:

Casters:
Mekeda
eMakeda
Mordikaar
Xerxis

Beasts:
2 x Savage
2 x Brute
Molik Karn
2 x Razor Worm
Bronzeback
Gladiator
Rhinodon

Units:
3 x min Pret Swordsman
2 x Swordsman UA
Nihilators - max
Venators - max
Karax - max
Beast Handlers - max
Ferox - max
Tyrant Commander/Standard

Solos:
3 x Ancestral Guardian
Hakaar
2 x Extoller
Aptimus Marketh
Tyrant Rhadeim
Void Spirit
Agonizer

Quick pic of the mess:

Sexy huh?

I'm going for the heavy infantry strike force...win big or lose big type of army. I'll be rolling eMak as the main and picking up a few more models to run Mordikaar as the back-up.

My goal is to get this assembled and painted pronto - so I'll be rodeo rocking the paintbrushes like a mad cattle rustler at an all day moo cow stampede! As for a color scheme though...I'm leaning towards a deep blue, but do not have a colormatic color concept all squared up yet...feel free to chime in if you like!

Well it's late and that's all I got for now!

Til next time keep your paints thinned and your brushes clean!

YO DRE!!!! DROP THE BASS!!!...er BASE!!!

2011-05-01T22:17:00.000-07:00

Well this weeks update comes in the form of the start of the base for my Warrior of Stone. Here's a couple WIP shots of what I'll be mounting him on. The idea is a simple one, a pathway up a on a mountaintop with a withering tree - Behemoth Orcs and Trees...there's some connection there I'm sure of it. :P

Not a huge update this week but I did get quite a bit done on this thing...next week, more details for the base and more paint for the WoS!!!

Til then, keep your paints thinned and your brushes clean!

Warrior of Stone

2011-04-25T00:09:00.000-07:00

Started in on a new piece for a local 'friendly' painting competition - I'm going to plug away at one of my favorites in a fantastic set of figs - the Warriors of Stone for the Orc of the Behemoth tribe from Confrontation.

I'll be posting my WIP here as well as on the local site..

I got base colors laid down, worked the overcoat up and started in on the face and back pack.

Obviously the lighting is horrible as its just my painting light, but its good enough for now. :D

Kelts of the Drune Clan - An Army Project - Proof of Concept

2011-04-10T19:47:00.000-07:00

WOAH!!! Holy forgotten blogs right??? I mean RIGHT??

Well not exactly no, life has been coming like The Fast and the Furious and I've been doing my best to keep pace with the pack! I spent the last few months working on a game contract and the office is two hours south of the house..so adjusting to living life in two different cities has been a bit odd. Well it's full time now, so I'll do what I can to keep my hobby side up!!!

So some of you may recall I started in on a Rag Na Rok sized Drune army project a little while ago which I started chronically here on dragon painting. I started this project with the 'community driven' mentality putting up a couple of polls here and here. The point was simple to allow the regulars who post there (some top notch painters and all around pretty swell group of peeps) have a bit of input into my own personal project by picking from a few set choices with the almighty poll./popular vote thing.

Well the project itself has been going a bit slower than anticipated due to a couple of things, first, I'm still waiting on my buddy to deliver half of the army to me...it's missing the cav, the lanyfh warrioresses and the base foot sloggers still. But it is full of Formors, Minos, Hounds, Karnaghs, Archers and most of the characters...so I've got plenty to work on. Second, the above aforementioned job, it's put a bit of a damper on my weekly painting and my weekend painting has to compete with the long list of 'home improvements and chores' one must do...when oh when will they make a yard that is maintenance free???? And finally, like all you fine fellows who may be reading this, I've got painting/army collection A.D.D. like nobodies business, so I went on a Cryx tangent for a couple of weeks in there too.

So with all of that, I have finished a pair of models to prove my color proof of concept which is based on this piece of artwork.

Now I love this piece of work and find it just fantastic from an artists perspective (for those of you who don't know I'm an animator - so I actually make a living as an artist). It's rich, emotional and has amazing contrast while being very stylized. Now the color palette in question doesn't necessarily jump right out and say 'HEY I'M PERFECT FOR A MINIATURE ARMY!!!', it does say 'hey, I'm a challenge...can you take this unusual scheme and apply it to a bunch of toy soldiers and make it interesting?'

Well I think I can, but of coarse I took some liberties with it and will say that I will most likely evolve the test pieces a bit as I went more into the pink side of the reddish spectrum and more into the yellow side of the orange. Also the fact that this is an army, means that I have to come up with a scheme that looks good and that can be applied fairly quickly across a bunch of figures, so making sure I follow those directives is important, so keep that in mind when 'scrutinizing' the work. it's not meant to be competition worthy.

So my first test piece is a larger one, the Drune Minotaur- here I wanted to make him raw and feral looking - so I opted for a really bright skin tone bordering on muscle fiber-ish. Again, heading towards a more yellow tone for cloth...I might bring this back to a more orangish look in the overall scheme though. I believe the blue armor and sword contrast very well with the rest of the mini, but the plan overall is to make sure that each minotaur does have a unique look and feel to it...as I have 4. Here's a couple shots of the first.

Here's a WIP of his back in the early stages as well:

Overall I think he's got a unique look and although the scheme does not follow the initial palette selection exactly, I think there's enough of it there to not bath him in the Simple Green and start again.

The second model I completed is Wandyr the Bloodthirsty. I love this fig, it's got attitude and a real solid look, plus it just seethes Barbarian with the helmet, the half armor and the bare feet...siick. Now this one pulls a bit more into the colder end of the scheme from the front and then a bit more into the warmer end from behind as again I went much higher into the yellow's with his cloth than that of the artwork. I also leaned a bit more into the pink tone in his fur cape A couple of shots here:

Now as I'm sure you can tell, I am no maestro with a camera, and my lens work needs real help but you can at least get a good idea of what the look is. As it stands however, I may very well move the next piece into a 'darker' overall feel but pressing into the orange spectrum a bit more and not going so high into the yellows and pushing the pinks back into a more magenta/red or even into a deeper purple - we'll see.

Any requests on the next fig for the test?

I'm currently spending a lot of time on a Mountaineer of the Behemoth as he's going to showcase another little project that I'm working on that has suffered due to my time pressed schedule...but I do have a couple of pieces for that to show here as well...so a couple of sneak peeks!!!

So with that, I'm going to close this out and until next time keep your paints thinned and your brushes clean!!

Ankama - [ the art of edouard guiton ]

2011-03-07T22:09:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite concept guys has updated his page! He did a lot of Rackham work, but his other stuff is superb as well.

Ankama - [ the art of edouard guiton ]

Imbrian Arts - Goblins Pre-order now up!

2010-12-26T22:17:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to share the news that the Goblin set is not ready for pre-order!!! WOOOOT! For those who have been following the set we're all terribly excited to see this happen. For those who have not yet seen it, take the time and explore the set, you won't be disappointed!!

And the info from Imbrian:

Over the past few months I’ve been showing previews of the upcoming goblins set on the Imbrian Arts Facebook page and all over the net. Finally we can all breath a sigh of relief and say it’s about damn time the pre order got put up! The goblin set is now available for pre order and will be released on the 21st of January. As a special thank you to those who pre order a set I’ll include prints of the concept art for the goblin shrike and troll druid. This is the only time they’ll be available and the only way to get them is by pre ordering your goblin set.

The Goblin set contains 10 miniatures, including 9 goblins and a massive troll druid. The goblins race is diverse and strange, with each goblin seeming to be a unique creature and in many circumstances bearing no resemblance to its kin. Among the goblins in this set you’ll find 3 goblin shrikes, 3 goblin footmen, 2 shaggamaws, and a goblin cat eater.

Red Fog: Nazi Zombies!!!!

2010-12-17T01:18:00.000-08:00

I know it's not mini's but I don't know many figure painters, gamers or mini-fanboi's who don't LOVE the Zombies!!!

Looks killer!! Plus the company I work for is teaming up with them to bring these things to life as 3D models!!!

EXCITED!!!

Holy end of the year blitz!

2010-12-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

OK - I'll be honest, my life at the end of the year is rather over whelming...between birthdays (my 10yr old just tuned 10 on the 16th of Nov, and my 13yr old just turned 13 on the 3rd of Dec), finishing up the term (I teach an animation class once a week), family holiday events...can we say more than one Thanksgiving??? let's not even think about Christmas dinners yet. Shopping for said Christmas, working on a demo reel to put out to all those fantastic companies out there that need to have an overly energetic super excited animator like me on their creative team and the random 1100 other things to get done by the end of the year...I um...slack on the blog thing.

So this episode we'll hit on a couple of things and start in on a topic that's started to circulate on some of the other pages I try to read when I get a free 32 seconds.

First - Jody over at Imbrian Arts has completed the Goblin set that I'm sooooo looking forward to getting my mitz on. Lets take a look at some final shots, the last piece and then the group overall shall we...why yes, we shall...since I'm the one writing this thing here.

An early WIP shot of the last fig - the ogre/troll mage!

A little farther along.

The axe complete with familiar.

A few shots of the final!

And the final group shot!!! WOOOOO!!!

All I gotta say is Jody you ROCK!!! I'm super thrilled to be able to get my hands on this set, for some reason, I really love goblins, and this set is no exception, but what's really odd is that I'm a huge dwarf fan as well...natural enemy of the goblin. C'est la vie right???

Next up is a new fig from Cipher for Anima Tactics -

Raziel Archetypum, Undead Construct

My local play group is working on me to play some AT, but the one time I did play, I didn't feel the pull, but the few games of Hell Dorado we did play last weekend, have me ready to get rolling with that game again!!!

So myself personally, I've been working on improving my own personal painting skills as I'd like to start competing on the national level and placing in high end comps - so I do my reading on techniques, check the big sites, look over reference and all that fun stuffs, but I stumbled upon a topic that really hits home for me.

Lack of difference in the top tier paint work.

So what exactly does this mean? Lack of difference in top tier paint work? Well the one thing I've started to notice, while the top tier work is exceptionally amazing and technically astounding, it is all starting to kind of blend together. The colors and hues are all heading in one direction, dark and gritty. Now while for the most part, dark and gritty is pretty damn kule, there are sooooo many other options, that are pretty damn kule as well.

I first fell onto a post by Dave G (don't ask me how I got there I have no clue) - but you can read his opinion on it here:

http://nplusplus.blogspot.com/2010/11/bringing-new-style-to-hobby.html

After reading through that I really felt he hit one of the things I was feeling on the head and continued on to a series of four articles written by Lauby/Laubersheimer - you can start here:

http://lauby.blogspot.com/2010/10/je-ne-sais-quoi.html

He's also got a pretty similar and decent perspective on the topic.

Now while I will never take away from the skill and absolute beauty of the work that the current stable of winners are producing, I can whole heartedly agree that there is just something missing, and it's tough to put a finger on, but I'll go back to my 'dirty/gritty' comment earlier. I think that the 'Grim Darkness of the Future' is really being taken to heart when it comes to the current popular painting style.

BUT!!!

Yes I do have but or I also have another opinion. The current painting style also has certain techniques that with a number of the really popular colors tends to mute and drop the hue of the color all while increasing the saturation or hue of the color as more and more successively water thinned layers of color are draped over the surface.

Color choice I think is another contributing factor, earth tones right now are very prevalent, and when the realm of primary color is used, there are a lot of soft earth tones used to surround said primaries or even used to shade and or highlight them.

So I ask you this as I'm sure I'll continue on with musings on this topic for a while...what do you think? Is the current trend all due to style and the attempt to just out do the last champion or does it all come with the current techniques and color choices?

Overall I'm always excited to see amazing paint jobs and unique pieces...but I'm going to start pushing the boundaries of what is being done with something that might just break the mold...what that is...I don't know yet, but when I find it, I'll share it here!!!

Big and bad azz!

2010-11-21T23:43:00.000-08:00

So like most of my mini loving friends, I spend a stoopid amount of time ooooing and aaahhng over new things that pop up on the eleventy billion sites I visit all too often on a weekly basis, and that makes it tough to remember to do things like um...BLOG about it...holy crap am I bad at this blogging thing. I don't have a problem writing, nor do I have any issues typing, in fact that last typing test I took I was blazing along at 66wpm with a whopping 2 errors...so why do I always forget to write about the sweet ass stuffs I come across on the ole interwebnation?

Who the hell knows.

Enough ramble onto the really kule things I fell onto earlier this week. Ladies and gentlemen...well most likely just gentlemen...or prolly just men...boys? Well anyhow, I would like to introduce you the the next BIG THING in miniature madness errrr gaming.

THE LEVIATHAN!!!

Weighing in at oh hell I don't know 200 tons...at 36.8 ft tall (I just made these stats up, so if you expect real gaming data from me about this thing, you're sorely effin mistaken bud) you're looking at a whole hell of a lot fo walking friggin death! This thing is gonna tear some ish up, and I'm not talking the stuff you dog drops in the back yard either, I'm talking some other monstrosities of metal!!!

THE CRUSADER!!!

THE GABRIEL!!!

THE AZRIEL!!!

THE AZAZEL!!!

I have noticed that half of these things have names of angels...I wonder if that's intentional or if random names were pulled out of a hat???

Now for a quick scale shot so you can understand a little more about the scale of these things - as they are looking to take on the Legio Titanicus (if I have to explain that then you're reading the wrong blog) in scope of size...i mean these things are going to be epic in size...literally!

Leviathan Mortis and a 32mm model from MERC.

The Crusader with same 32mm fig.

So what's the deal then? Well these bad boys are the brainchild masterworks of digital artist Mark Mondragon of Sonoma, CA...he's a Sagittarius and owner/operator of DreamForge Games concept artist and designer publisher of Iron-Core. That's badazz...don't know much about it, but it's just got a ring to it. Yup badazz...and if anyone knows badazz it's me.

So with the game system still in its infancy, I cannot give you too much in the way of details, in fact if you hit the links about, you'll know exactly the same amount of info that I do...but I will say this, it looks to be one helluva ambitious project, it's got 9 freeking factions listed! And if each one of them gets one of these hurkin monstrosities, well lets just say the target for execution on what Mark is trying to get done here is HUUUUGE! If you read his blog you can also see some pretty damn solid WIP shots of the models and masters. He's also got some great shots of tanks and bugs and a number of other things that he's worked up for some other companies. Take some time to take a look, I was pretty damn impressed and found a few things I never knew existed.

All in all I'm excited to see what else Mark is going to bring to the table with Iron-Core. Good luck Mark!!! and if you need to start in on playtesting, let me know as I've been known to put ace teams together for a few other companies in the industry. :P

More bad ass Goblins from Imbrian!

2010-11-14T00:23:00.000-08:00

This time we're looking at a pair of Goblin Shaggamaw's - one complete and one WIP - these freekishly huge beasts are going to make a fantastic addition to the Goblin set that Jody has been hammering away at. This first one has giant teeth, a bigazz axe and spittle looming from his giant maw.

These is the first one and is complete:

This next one is going to be swallowing either a goblin or a hobbit...the goblin idea was my suggestion and I'd love to see him go with it...as it would just make them all the more characterful to me...but I'd settle for a hobbit. :P

Now this wonderful little project is being chronicled on my personal favorite little hole in the web www.dragonpainting.net in the THREAD here.

Drop in and let sprue know what you think of his work. Me personally, I'm super excited for this set to show up around holiday time!!!

Whispers and Howls part 2

2010-11-07T01:05:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, last time I left off with just the tower and the pillars for the stairwell carved.

This last week I cut the entry stairs in, and built the archway in the lower right corner, I also changed gears a bit and instead of building a cairn with a rock type Celtic feel to it, I went all out and built a friggin mausoleum. Yup that's right I built a family style tomb for some dead Orgoth Chieftain with a serious attitude problem. No I'm sure it's nothing super grand and fabulous and it's no where near as dilapidated as the tower, but it's a little weathered and once I get done gluing it together, I'll work on weathering it some more and breaking it up a bit.

Now the stairs will be cut a bit more and when I drop all the rubble and sand, they will be painted and finished to look like they have been cut right from the stone of the ground. Now the archway, although carved is not complete yet. It's obviously two pieces but the pillar arch on the left will be cut where the dark line is and the top piece will be laid beside or behind it.

Here's a closer shot of the detail carving work in the archway.

As you can see the archway has a diamond shape cut into the top of the arch, I think I may paint an eye here as it's what I sketched in there, but I'm not sure yet...still up in the air, but it is recessed about 1/4 of an inch or so into the foam.

So once again I did a ton of research into cairns and really did not come up with anything that I really 'felt' so I started looking into other options and the thought of a mausoleum really started to sound right up the alley so to speak. Here's a couple of shots that I found that I liked and kind of went with a hybrid design on my own combining a few things I liked from a few of them.

The mausoleum is a bit larger than what I was planning, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Initially I was planning a foot print of 4x6 and it's 5x7ish - I've got it all textured and will do some ornamentation on the top gables and roofing areas and the front right pillar will be cut in half and dropped in front of the tomb where the 50mm base is...and that will also get integrated into the basing of the warjack that will be occupying that space.

I also toyed with the idea of rotating the mausoleum 90 degrees and facing the archway. but it pushes the building way to close to the stairway.

So the overall scope of the project is turning out pretty damn good for my first attempt in my own not so humble pat myself on the back opinion. I've currently got a ton of water bottles and random foam blox stacked on top of things now as I glue it all together and I'm still toying with the idea of putting the mausoleum on it's own solid base so I could actually use it for a piece of terrain as well, but that may be more than I want to do as it would require cutting a damn perfect rectangle in the top right corner of this thing.

So the last couple of things to do before I start the texturing process are the broken wall in the lower left, finishing the two pieces chronicled here and the hole drilling for the bases, then a layer of foam tuff and and the paint can be laid....I think.

If something is glaringly missing or you'd like to leave some feedback or comments, I do welcome them as this is my first terrain/display base project I'd like to know what you all think about it and the direction its heading.

Until next time keep your paint thinned and your brushes clean!!!

Whispers and Howls

2010-11-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

Well now...time for a project update. This project has a dual purpose, to put together a theme based army around one of my favorite Khadoran warcasters, and tie in a competitive Steam Roller list. The second purpose of this list is for exilejjb's Army Challenge over on WaMP.

Steam Roller, which is Privateer Press's official tourney format - in the SR format you can use 2 legal lists and decide which one to use before the match starts. The size of the lists will be 35 points and I will be using Epic Butcher for list 1 and Zerkova for list 2.

This is the current set of lists:

eButch
Bezerker
Kodiak
Fenris
2 x Doom Reaver unit + UA
Doom Reaver unit
Manhunter

35 points on the nose - this list will most likely see little to no modification as it gets played through more.

My Zerkova list has two options so far:

Option A
Zerkova
Juggernaught
2 x Doom Reaver unit + UA
4 x Grey Lord Ternion unit
2 x Koldun Lord

35 points on the nose

Option B
Zerkova
Juggernaught
Doom Reaver unit + UA
Doom Reaver unit
Koldun Lord
Devastator Marshalled under Koldun Lord
Koldun Lord
2 x Grey Lord Ternion unit

34 points

Play testing may modify the lists somewhat as I get a better feel for how they perform - painting and modeling updates will be posted to [URL="http://throneofangels.blogspot.com/"]my blog[/URL] once I get moving a bit more.

Working on assembly/conversions and the display base currently, and have been spending a bit of time on the display base the last week or so.

Now this is my first foray into building a display base, well any type of scenery actually as I've never really done anything beyond the overzealous base work before. So I'm entering new ground and having a fantastic time with it. This is also my own personal testing grounds for my part in the Dragon Painting Cadwallon Table Project - a giant undertaking by a number of the fine folks and myself on the Dragon Painting board to build a 4x6 modular Cadwallon table in 2x2 sections that can be reproduced by anyone anywhere in the world through a detailed set of instructions and blueprints that will be put forth as each section is created.

Now with the theme of my army obviously being based around the recovery of Orgoth artifacts and the use of said artifacts, I began to think about putting this army in an Orgoth ruins. I love the concept of the Doom Reavers and the Butcher - tortured souls and all, and the fact that Zerkova and the Grey Lords that are constantly searching for lost Orgoth artifacts and weaponry....totally sweet back story.

As you may or may not know, I'm an animator by profession so that means EVERY project starts with a sketch or two, and since I had a really good idea of how I wanted this to look I just did a brief sketch for layout purposes...sadly I for some reason cannot get my scanner to pick it up - it is pretty light, but still...damn scanner. So with my plan in hand and my figure layout pretty much set up, off to find a few pieces of reference. I always suggest using reference for any project you're working on...no matter how great your imagination or memory is, you will always find inspiration in reference, be it photos, drawings or other building projects such as this one. I went after some ancient ruins photo's - here's a few:

So first step involves setting a base and selecting materials. For this project I've already selected my color palette (more on that at a later time) - so I don't have to break my skull open and pull something out of the depths of my melon kicking and screaming that it doesn't like the other two colors that it has go with...colors can be so damn spoiled at times...freekin whiners. A couple of the other things I am trying to keep in mind are this - there's going to be over 40 metal figs on this board - 4-5 on 50mm bases that have some heft to them and it's going to go gaming with me, so it has to be fairly sturdy and easy to repair if needed, but light weight, I know I've got big arms...but who wants to pack around 40lbs of gaming stuff all day right??

Well the obligatory pink insulation foam is always where things start, and I figure if I can get ahold of the right molds, I'll be using some plaster castings as well, but this foam stuff after a little experimenting seems to be a great medium for carving....so we'll be using quite a bit of that, also I've read about this STUFF which if I take the writers words at face value will keep my foam from getting damaged...so I'm down and good to go with the foam carving love, but again if I can get some of the right molds...I'm using some of that too. :D

Setting the base to means making sure the 2" piece of foam I'm going to use as my base has a good firm base of it's own...in comes the random piece of hard board I've got lying about:

A good amount of wood glue (I don't recommend wood glue for foam to foam...but since the base is wood, it is actually a great option for wood to foam) and a few clamps with a good overnight rest and the two are like an old married couple...damn near inseparable.

Ok, now I've got my base, time to draw out the layout on top of it and get to work. I was going to do a Hirst Arts ruined tower in the upper left, but instead carved the whole thing out of pink foam. I wanted to put the blocks on a foam base to start with and it just ended up being simple enough to carve the whole thing out while watching Kim Possible with my 4 yr old. I was thinking that I took some WIP shots of my tower ruins, but I am mistaken...I did no such thing.

I adjusted the photos best I could buy my lighting in the garage is terrible and I was too lazy to grab my high priced flash attachment for the over priced camera I have that I don't know how to use anyways...so they're a little bright and washed out, but you get the idea. :D

Next up came the base for the tower, it's cut but not really weathered yet as I want to keep it kind of 'pretty' as it will look like a cut slab, so lots of rubble strewn about, kind of like the Colosseum and the Pantheon.

I was a little stuck on the stairs and was talking about it with my pal BA and he suggested a pair of pillars instead of the entire set of wrap around stairs I was planning. PERFECT!!! He suggested doing menacing faces like on the armor plates of the character drawn up in the world guide, but as I was looking for something suitably Aztec or Mayan online for a reference piece I was struck with an idea. I'll do the sword/staff of the Doom Reavers instead!!! So I grabbed a couple of quick shots from the concept art as reference and set about for a couple of hours carving away at two blocks of foam.

As of right now this is where I'm at...I still need to glue the pillars, the tower and the tower base down, but I might actually buy some foam glue for that.

Next up is a ruined wall section in front of the tower base, a burial cairn with pillars to the right of the tower base and a carved stairwell arched entry in the bottom right corner.

I'm not sure which ones first, prolly the cairn or the wall as the archway is going to be two or three pieces which may very well take some time, and I want the pillars to be cast, as I'm not sure I can carve good even cylinders in foam. :D

Got some list testing to do this weekend, but I'll update when I have more to share.

'til then, keep you paint thinned and your brushes clean!

CASTING CALL!!!! Looking for Red Shirts!!!

2010-10-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

One of the few projects sitting on my desk in front of me are the wonderfully put together set of Kobold lackies...errr Warriors and Iron Scales from Soda Pop Miniatures for the upcoming Super Dungeon Explore!

Keep a watch on the Soda Pop Facebook page for upcoming news and a demo set of rules for SDE!!!

To prepare for the inevitable release, I've started work on the minion brigade, the recycle crew, those who live to die....the REEEEEED SHIIIIRT CREW!!!!

I've got 3 Warriors and 3 Ironscales all scrubbed up and ready for assembly and filing. As you can see, I have assembled an Ironscale and have him primed and ready for paint...my only issue is, I can't decide on what color scheme I'm gonna roll with for my Kobolds...talk about frustrating!

After the Red Shirts I gots to get the Shaman, the Slinger and the Skirmishers done!!! So time to pick some colors!!!

Tor Gamings Orcnar Eotan

2010-10-22T01:27:00.000-07:00

The other day I received a little package in the mail. It was a pair of Orcnar Eotans from Gavin over the way at Tor Gaming...and when I say over the way, I mean half way around the globe baby!!! Now these guys are uhgly...and I mean that in a good way...some serious table top nastiness headed your direction with a pair of these.

Now these two hurking beasts are for the Orcnar from the upcoming game Relics now in the open beta stages and with the size and shape of their upper bodies and um...arms.

So Gavin started a pretty sweet little 'club' giving a number of us painters across the world the ability to put brush to mini and showcase these figures.

From the Tor Gaming site:

The Brush Army program we run is a special program where some of the most talented painters are given our miniatures to paint.

The Brush Army members are given full creative freedom to paint the models how they want and you may even see some conversions in there too!! (The Brush Army gallery is not on line yet!!! Keep checking back!)

Now for the last couple of nights, I have turned my attentions to one of these 'things', I managed to snap shots of my work each night.

Obviously the first thing I do it wash the fig with a mild detergent and a toothbrush, fill the flash and mold lines and then give it a prime, I didn't take any shots of this...as if you've seen one primed white beast you've seen them all...plus my wife would whup my rear if I was taking candid photos of her sink.

So we'll just start with the initial paint and roll thru the final stages. This fig was painted over the coarse of 3 evenings.

Since Gavin gave me free reign to do what I will, I decided to use colors that I do not normally use. Typically I'm a very neutral paint color kind of guy, I do the whites, greys and blacks or the green, browns, yellows and oranges...sometimes I get wild and do some blues or maybe reds...so with this choice I figured I'd go with a purple flesh over a deeper green coat of scales.

I'll go over color choices and mixes. I'm a firm believer in the power of a limited color palette, not just across a single fig but keeping it tight across an army as well. But this about a single fig and not an army...so on to the base coat!

Paint for this project is limited to these colors:

Skin:

VGC - Dead Flesh

P3 - Beaten Purple

P3 Sanguine Base

Scales:

P3 - Ordic Olive

P3 - Cryx Bane Base

P3 - Cryx Bane Highlight
P3 - Menoth White Highlight

Washes and depth:
P3 - Mixing Medium
GW - Black and Brown Inks (circa 1988 - yes I still have originals)

You'll have to forgive my horrible ability to take photos...as I'm great with say like sports photos, or shooting the kids...when it comes to hitting the macro action...um I SUCK!

The whole model get an initial thinned down coat of Dead Flesh (I actually love this color very very much...if I could hang out with it on a Friday night I would...cause it rocks). The scales get a deep wash of Ordic Olive - the whole model is then given a thin wash of Cryx Bane Base. This sets the base tone and lets me build from there.

Second coat is Dead Flesh with a paint brush tip of Beaten Purple added - this brings my flesh color up to a base purplish flesh.

A light wash of Ordic Olive is then laid down over the whole model to tie the two colors all together. This also gives the scales a bit more base.

The next step is to bring more depth to the skin, I add Sanguine Base to Dead Flesh and start the blending process.

I add Cryx Bane Highlight to the Ordic Olive and give the scales another coat of paint - now based off of the texture of the scales, I use a very thin paint and take a dab highlight approach vs a blend, I want to build up color on top of the scale and blending it down with a second brush would make it very tough to do.

The entire model is shaded with a mix of Cryx Bane Base with GW Brown Ink and the scale are shaded with Cryx Bane Base with a touch of GW Black Ink (I want more contrast between the scales as well as a tight outline).

At this point I've also started in on getting color on the spikes on the arms. This is a blend of the Ordic/Cryx Bane Highlight and straight Ordic, washed down with the Cryx Band/Brown Ink mix.

From here I am back to the skin with another lighter blend of Dead Flesh and Sanguine Base with a touch of Menoth White Highlight (I love this color too...one of my favorites for adding warmth to a highlight). I have also added a touch of Menoth White to the Ordic/Cryx Bane Highlight to hit the scales with.

The skin is given a glaze of Cryx Bane Base and then a re-highlight of the last skin tone used. The spikes are then hit with another highlight, again with Menoth White added to the Ordic Olive.

Finally Sanguine Base is washed into the mouth and eye sockets to create a base color, Beaten Purple is used as another wash to give both a bit more depth. Menoth White Highlight is mixed with a touch of GW Brown Ink and used to bring the teeth up in color and a final Menoth White Highlight is given to the teeth to bring them out completely.

The base was made by cutting some stone shapes into a bit of green stuff, painted with Cryx Bane Highlight, washed down with the Cryx Bane Base/GW Brown Ink mix and blended with Trollblood Highlight. Static grass was places between the stones and things were cleaned up.

Overall the Eotan was a great piece to paint, plenty of character and texture, a real solid piece of rock...er a real solid Orcnar.

My thanks go out to Gavin and Tor Gaming for allowing me the opportunity to have some fun with this bad boy and if you haven't already, take some time to take a look at the really characterful pieces that are starting to hit the market from TOR GAMING!!!!

Time to pack him up and send him back to the studio to allow someone who actually knows how to take pictures give this guy some decent coverage. :D

Till next time, keep your paint thinned and your brushes clean!!!

A day at Cipher Studios

2010-10-14T22:28:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks back I was up a Cipher Studios.I had my camera in tow as I thought it'd be pretty sweet to show those out there in minifandomland what a casting operation is like from the inside. And for those of you who are fanboi's of the Anima Tactics line, this might be a little treat for you as well. It's pretty sweet.

So meet the men behind Cipher -

On the left we've got Mr. Kai Nesbit - he's the guy who makes the decisions and tells peoples what to do To the right is Dave Freeman - he works on development and other stuffs. These two can generally be found above the room they're standing in feverishly pounding away on a keyboard trying to get something important done. Personally I think Dave needs to type faster, but hey...we've all got our faults right?

This fine young man is Joel Lehner...I stole this photo from the website as when I headed up to snap shots, Joel was working hard on getting a mold ready...so I didn't want to interrupt him for a glamor shot. :P Joel heads up all things mold related, handles the sales and marketing side of things and if you happen to be a Free Agent, well then this is the guy you report to...that's pretty sweet.

So after the sculpt is done, what process does that little model go thru before it gets to your grubby lil hands??? Well first the master mold has to be made - and this I didn't actually get shots of as Joel was working on making a production mold when I was there.

A mold starts out literally as a lump of clay.

Studs are added and it's build around a set of 'masters'

Hmm...looks like a horse...

After both sides are set, it's off to what I consider the kulest name machine on the planet....

The VULCANIZER!!!!

The newly prepared soft squishy mold is placed in that giant iron pie pan and stuck into the VULCANIZER!!! which heats that thing up to 315 degrees and drops 1500 psi on it to make it a semi-flexible solid set of RTV molds. It's pretty damn sweet.

After the mold goes through the VULCANIZER!!! it gets pulled out and trimmed up a bit, some extra flus are added to help with the smaller fiddly bits to make sure they get enough metal when spun and the details come out right....then they are handed off to the MIGHTY KJELL!!!

He's the guy that actually makes your figs.

So once the MIGHTY KJELL! has the newly vulcanized mold, what exactly does he do with it? Well he gets to run a few tests...he has to set pressure, rotation speed and a couple of other things to make sure that the mold produces the figure the way it's meant to be.

A newly prepared mold ready for testing

On the left here is the spin caster, that thing on the right that looks like an industrial crock pot, pretty much is...it's full of metal. I didn't get any photos of the bars they melt down, but they look just like bright shiny bars of silver that you see in the movies...it's pretty sweet.

Here's a better shot of all the molds they have in current production though...man that's a lot of parts!

So when running some tests, heres what we're looking for in regards to setting things properly. It's really kind of a fine little art as the bigger figs tend to separate or split and the smaller models tend to not form fully...I gotta see both...it's pretty sweet.

Here's the Iron Chef from Soda Pop and you can see where the cast doesn't quite come out right...back into the melting pot Mr. Chef!!

A lil closer for those of you who are vision impaired!

This one is for those of you who are just plain blind!

Now I'm not going to get into the packing process...as it's just taking this part, that part, some tokens, a piece of foam and a card or two and sticking them into a blister, dropping half dozen into a box, a dozen boxes into a case and hitting them with a UPS label to send them off to parts unknown.

So that's the process, it's by no means a detailed breakdown, but just a brief overview of what it takes to get those lil metal men into your and my hands!! All in all though...it's pretty sweet.

Make sure you drop by www.cipher-studios.com to see what's new, what's coming and even drop the guys a line, they're very happy to chat with their customers and fans!

Well I hope y'all enjoyed this little incursion into Cipher Studios, and I want to extend a HUUUGE thanks to the boys in the band for letting me interrupt their hectic day to show me around and toss me some really sweet swag...I'd show you guys, but they won't be released yet for a couple of months and was asked not to photo them yet...THAT'S MIGHTY SWEET!!!

Til next time!!!

keep your paint thinned and your brushes clean!

Imbrian Arts - Goblin Shrikes

2010-10-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

So over on dragonpainting.net we're blessed to have a few outstanding mini artists, painters and sculptors who share what they're working on,

One of those little projects happens to be something that I'm really keen on, super excited to see complete and well I pretty much can't wait to get them in my hands...and the funny thing is, they're GOBLINS!

Being a huuuuge fan of the almighty fantasy dwarf, one would expect that I have a nature dislike for all things goblin right? For the most part, it's true, I dislike the little greenskins and their larger cousins the orcs. I will say however that I do like the GW knoblars that go with the OK, and there are a number of really characterful pieces from the old Confrontation line that I truly enjoy, but I must say these little guys certainly are certainly worth a bird in the hand, hell even two in the bush!

Now if you're unfamiliar with a little studio by the name of Imbrian Arts...well you better take notice - http://www.imbrianarts.com/ - we're already seeing some fantastic figs come out of this studio and this set of Goblin Shrikes, will be one that takes the Goblin community by storm!!!

First a little about Imbrian -

My name is Jody and I'm a painter, sculptor and an avid war gamer. I've been painting miniatures and playing war games for about 15 years now. Up until recently, I had confined my activities to merely painting miniatures and collecting every war game I could get my hands on. After moving to Australia I found the price of miniatures heart wrenchingly expensive so I started scheming and dreaming up new ideas for war games, thinking that one day, I'll be able to make miniatures for others that even I can afford.

Imbrian Arts is my way of sharing my love of art and wargaming with Australia and the rest of the world. My goal is to create unique sculptures that have a character and a personality of their own. As a miniature, they're not just about pieces for wargaming but they have a story to tell.

Now on to this little project he's got going.

Jody has been unveiling these little guys in a great thread over on dragon with some WIP's and final shots. Again the set is compromised of what he calls Goblin Shrikes which Jody claims is about 25% done (that means at least 12 figs since he's got 3 done) and I believe he's going to add a Troll to the set as well through what he's been adding to the thread. As you'll see all the goblins have birdlike details.

These images are all used without permission, so for more details and a complete set of pics I invite you to drop in to the dragonpainting site and take a look here:

Goblin Shrikes by Imbrian Arts

I never thought I could get amped up about a goblin range, but low and behold, Jody has pulled something extremely unique and fun out of the Aether and is making a go at it.

Once again drop by the Imbrian Arts website and show Jody some support by picking up his models.

Holy Heresy Dragon!!!

2010-10-05T00:02:00.000-07:00

Well now what have we here????

Consider this bad boy on pre-order!!!

I'm in for sho...have the no longer available Netherlord and I love it...this thing is siiick! Might just have to get 2!!

Heresy - multi-part fantasy miniatures for your dungeon