Orctober...

An update on my sculpted and 3d printed shields- Here are a couple attached to some of the Crooked Claw Kev Adams sculpted goblins. The goblins are classic sculpts which are being produced along with an extra range for the Greenskin Wars Kickstarter campaign.

Reworking the Grotesques...

With the 3d printer back in action, rebuilt, focused and performing well I'm back on the grotesque shields making some small updates and adding new designs. I plan to have a set of 8 in total with casts in resin or white metal for the goblin horde.

MOAB

With MOAB and the long weekend wrapping it is back to the studio. I'm happy to have picked up a 3rd place in the Group category for my Death Korps of Krieg Artillery piece...

Oldhammer Goblin shields...

Initial tests of new shields sculpted in ZBrush and printed on the B9 Creator. I have around 10 variants planned- great for a classic Oldhammer Goblinoid rabble. Also a sprue of helmets and some tests for a Chaos Dwarf sculpt.

Narcissus...

Being a big fan of the original Alien film and the special FX of that era I have always been impressed with the design of the Narcissus shuttle. It is iconic and elegant with its' wedge shape kludged together with 70's model parts. This is a 3d print from my b9Creator from a model by aaskedall (Thingyverse) finished with acrylics and measures about 60mm long. It is not completely accurate but nice detail and relatively convincing at that scale.

Old lead, new resin...

The printed backpacks cleaned up and drilled to mount on the Rogue Trader marines...

Printing...

I am working away on a bunch of old Rogue Trader pieces- Marines and Renegades. After digging out the old lead and purchasing a few additions to the collection online I've found I am short on backpacks. The old lead packs are great but with some loose details and the expensive prices they now fetch on the second-hand market I thought I'd print my own based on the old design. Rough modeling in Maya and some work in ZBrush and the .stl files were ready to go. I've done a few variants...

Also here are an array of mines I designed to use in a terrain piece and some other bits I will be adding. More to come as I prime these and put them to use.

Oldhammering...

Oldhammer... a revolt against the plastic mass produced sprues of contemporary fantasy and science fiction wargaming? A sentimental attitude harking back to the time of blister packed white metal/lead figures of our childhood? A bit of both... but its more than that.

The old lead still has a lot to give- it's hand sculpted details may be softer than the modern digital sculpted, dynamic models but it has a certain charm with the sometimes wild designs and exaggerated shapes. A lot of the sculpts seem to rely on- from what I understand- the rtv molding and spin-casting process that limits the dynamism to a degree while trying to achieve a single piece figure cast.

Artists/sculptors seemed to imbue more of their own ideas into the pieces that hinted at a much more varied universe and made for a range of interesting, diverse characters and creatures before an amalgamated style was settled upon.

There are some great blogs showcasing these old classic pieces...
http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/
http://realmofcitadel.blogspot.com.au/

In addition here is a great interview with Rick Priestly with a lot of tidbits on the conception of 40K and the 'old days'...
http://talesfromthemaelstrom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/rick-priestley-interview.html

And in the meantime here are a few Undead pieces of mine- old and new. A mix of 80's Citadel metal, contemporary plastic from Games Workshop and Mantic and some models from the metal Lord of the Rings range.