Sails of Glory: Rigged Le Berwick 1795

This is a 74 gun rigged Elizabeth class ship

Please contact me if you have any painting needs!

15mm Late Byzantine Army

This is a Late Byzantine army based to Field of Glory standards

Please contact me if you have any painting needs!

Please contact me if you have any painting needs!

Rejoice, Rejoice Cthulhu Dreams

Cthulhu from Reaper Bones Kickstarter

The Elder God awakens

Here Be Goblins

Goblins from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter

I painted a few of the Bones up, they came out nice though the details are soft.

Great product for the price.

Ozymandias Production Model

Ozymandias Resin Terrain Piece $24.99

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

It is a solid resin model measuring 6"x4" base and 8" tall at the top of the legs.

This model works well on both 15mm & 28mm scale game boards.

Ozymandias WIP

Here are a few shots of my Ozymandias Work In Progress.

The 28mm viking is not part of the model, but present in the pic for a scale reference. There is some perspective distortion from angle I had to shoot the first photo with my phone. The legs are eight inches tall.

These are just some quick shots I took with my phone (hence the poor resolution). I live in the States and I was unlucky enough this winter to catch the flu not once (on Christmas), not twice (two weeks later), but THREE times (last week). This has put a serious crimp in my production output. I am mostly better now and will spend the rest of the winter in an isopropyl alcohol bath.

As you may be able to see in the photos, the head still needs some work but the model is about 80% finished. I hope to cast a mold this week (unless one of my arms falls off or I just turn to goo).

Ozymandias

Ozymandias will be my next sculpt/cast.

Congrats to Ochoin Ceithir from the TMP page.

I expect at least 6-8 weeks to complete the cast. I will keep my blog updated with WIPs on the project.

The above is only a visual description of Ozymandias for those who may not be familiar with the Shelley poem. My sculpt will only resemble this picture in that it will have "two vast and trunkless legs".

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

Percy Bysshe Shelley

15mm Roman Watch Tower

This is my 15mm Roman Watch Tower kit I cast last year. It is based for a Base Camp for Field of Glory and stands 8" tall. The roof comes off and is a 15 part resin kit.

It is still available for $45 USD plus shipping and handling (unpainted and figures not included).

110 ASME of Resin Squashing Love

I just added another pressure pot to my growing horde for resin casting.

Binks is the Maserati of pressure pots and this one is the top of the line that I found used for a sweet price. It is stainless steel and looks to have been only slightly used. I very happy with this pot. It is rated for 110psi but I will never hit that ceiling, 80 psi is the highest you should cast at and 45-60 is normally fine. If you exceed 80 your molds normally start deforming and you end up with a warped and twisted cast.

So with this new pot, I probably won't blow myself up.

In celebration of this new denizen I want to sculpt up and cast a new rpg/wargame terrain piece.

What is a must have terrain piece, that is not always readily available but you wish was in your collection?

I will select one suggestion, sculpt/cast the piece and send it to the winning choice.

All Hail the Gods of Pressure Casting!

Mounting Quantum Expanse models on Stealth Counters

It is very easy to turn your Quantum Expanse Stealth Counters into bases.

First drill a hole into the Stealth Counter (do it outside or wear a mask, the counter is resin and the dust is toxic).

Then take a drywall screw and slide a piece of electrical shrink wrap around the threads and mount it in the hole on the Stealth Counter.

Finally glue a Rare Earth Magnet to the model and one to the screw head. Take care to check the polarity of the magnets before you glue them in place. The magnets should snap together firmly. I find them absolutely strong enough to hold the largest Dreadnought in place.

Star Field Game Board

This is a new game board & terrain I designed and painted for various space battle rule systems. Over the next few days I will publish tutorials for building: the gas giant, moon, asteroids, and star field board.

This shot is a skirmish using the Quantum Expanse rules and models

Quantum Expanse paint test

Recently I received Quantum Expanse, the models are clean resin casts and have perfected a paint scheme. These models should would work well with other rule sets (the QE rule set is currently a basic beer & pretzels type).

Now before I paint the entire fleet I have run into a conundrum and would like to hear your feed back.

If I paint all 48 ships the same pattern and try to play a two player game with just these ships, I am concerned the game area will look both confusing and visually bland.

How have you all dealt with painting large fleets of ships that are modeled similar but used as mixed or separate fleets? Any thoughts on painting patterns or basing before I commit my 48+ ships to the brush?

15mm Hussites (Essex Miniatures)

This is a Hussite army based to Field of Glory standards

Please contact me if you have any painting needs!

Please contact me if you have any painting needs!

Orks for sale

The eBay auction is up. I only added on group of five orks from my mob of 25. I think I am going to add an eBay store to sell the rest of them and other GW stuff as I finish them.

I don't feel eBay is the best place to sell my work but this time of year is always slow; so maybe it will drum up some new business.

I am thinking about running a deal for the first 5 people who contact me and arrange to send me five 28mm miniatures / four 15mm stands of miniatures and I paint/assemble them for free (you pay shipping back and forth).

If you decide to use me for a future order, I'll give you free shipping for that order. And for every client you send my way who spends $100 USD or more, I'll paint another 5man /4stands for free (you pay shipping back and forth).

What do you all think of that?

The eBay auction is up.

UltraForge Tree Woman WIP Part 1

An unfortunate lumber jack is being investigating by the Lady of the Forest!

The lumber jack is an old Wargames Factory Viking I had lying around. I made a few sculpting mods to him to "help" bring out some of his details and convert him into a more panicked expression. These casts a fairly "soft" and most of the detail is lost in the process. I think WG has improved their molds since the vikings but I stopped buying from them after the Chinese take-over.

If your looking for plastic vikings go for the Gripping Beast Plastic Vikings, they are sharp casts.

Notice the shine on the lumber jack. This is due to the custom washes and glazes I mix with Future Wax. It leaves this gloss effect, which is cool if your going for the wet look but nasty looking here. Once the model is complete I'll hit it with a coat of Testor's Dullcoat, this will kill any nasty shine.

I have begun adding branches to the model.

The next step is to build the tree canopy and finish the highlights.

Gripping Beast Skjaldborg!!

The Skjaldborg or shield-wall was commonly used tactic developed in Antiquity and implemented in many parts of Northern Europe, such as England and Scandinavia well into the Renaissance. The shield-wall did not require any great skill, and was essentially a shoving match with shields & weapons. This allowed poorly trained Fyrd (militia composed of farmers and other lower-class folk) to compete effectively with Huscarls, Thegns, and Hirdmen who were seasoned warriors that carried heavier weapons and consistently wore armor.

Below is a fearsome Skjaldborg of Gripping Beast Plastic Vikings. I feel these are the superior plastic vikings currently available. The casts are sharp with well defined features.

I totally dig them.

Now being a sneaky bastard, I often base plastics with neodymium magnets on metal bases . This allows flexibility for not only using a variety of basing conventions, but also allows one to slightly adjust miniatures when building a shield wall or positioning them in large base to base formations.

Sonni Criid

The Holidays were crazy on my end. I hope to load up the blog with pics of several projects I recently completed.

I centered the light effects around the skull and some minor glow from the sword on this Malifaux miniature. I think the real trick to lighting effects is not to overdo them but achieve bright colors that fade into darker colors without fading to black.

Holiday Rush

I am painting and building like a madman. I should have some pic updates in a couple days.

I am finishing up a Doll House for my daughters and have both dragons near complete along with some Malifaux models, a Roman Cohort, and of course more Orks. I may try to crank out an oil painting if time permits. I was going to build a Jedi Temple complex for the Star Wars RPG to give as a present but that will need to wait until January.

If you would like a commission contact me soon, January is filling up fast and I have one slot left.

UltraForge Dragon Progresses

Here is an update on the UltraForge Dragon.

The armor is coming along and the flesh is starting to pop.

Dragons blocked with primary colors

The dragons have been blocked out with their primary colors by airbrush.

UltraForge Dragon

Games Workshop dragon sans rider.

From this point on it will be a matter of brush work as I highlight the various details.

I am going to create a tutorial once the holidays have passed, that will go into greater depth on how I worked through each stage. For now I am just going to update the blog with basic pics as I advance toward completing the dragons.

I am crazy busy with Christmas commissions and need to concentrate on producing art, as opposed to commenting on it.