Praetorian Commission Complete

"Oh my god that is amazing. I absolutely love it." - Ian Phillips.

My Praetorian Commission for Mr Phillips has now come to and end. Ian was a delight to deal with and really let me run with this project. The project brief was for me to design several characters from Rourke's drift, based on the film Zulu, and Flashman (below). Please follow this link to my Commissions page see my interpretations of Cpl. Shiess, Pvt. Hicks, Sgt. Windridge and Cook, the halfling objective marker

Mephiston Lord of Death V.2

This is my second version of Mephiston Lord of Death, created as a commission. The client asked for a more dynamic version of my previous work, with Mephiston sweeping down upon his enemies. Luckily, the Astorath model on which this is based, is already a dynamic piece, so it wasn't that difficult to generate momentum.

The same client has commissioned a Vlad and Isabellla from the Vampire Counts range which I am currently planning with him. I'll be kept busy sculpting vampire's for a while yet.

Workbench: Praetorians commission.

What's on my workbench? PRAETORIANS!

I am currently tasked with adding a little variety to the Praetorian range, as well as sculpting some unique characters from the film Zulu and the 'Flashman' series. I'm very pleased with how work has progressed so far. I've mainly chopped and swapped heads and legs around the basic infantry range, and I have been amazed at how striking the results have been for something so simple to do. I have pinned all the joints of the infantry, and I've started work on the characters. The centre piece of the commission will be the ostentatious rapscallion, Flashman himself. I have a good idea of what I want to do with him, so progress should be quick.

The Coming of the Host - Blood Angels

I have been running a blog over at Warseer called 'The Coming of the Host - A Blood Angels Blog' that has received a lot of attention. I'm very proud of this blog and thought it high time I collected and published a page of my Blood Angels here.

Because of the reconstruction of the site, and the timely co-incidence of my GF buying a new digital camera, I will be taking photo's of the entire host and constructing a page just for them. Until then, enjoy the re-posted images of my collection thus far!

'Acuity' Battlesuit

I started this army around four years ago after a client asked me to create a custom battlesuit for his Tau Commander. The design brief was to create a more realistic battlesuit on a limited budget. The 'Acuity' Class battlesuit came as a result of this. I don't have any photo's of my original conversion, but it turned out so well, and was so cheap to build, I decided to create a Mech army for myself.

The 'Acuity' is an experimental battlesuit designed for scouting forces and expeditions. The elongated engine build allows for a longer operational time in the field. Plus the suit looks like it can hold a pilot now. More of this army can be found here in my Tau DRSTF (Disaster Relief Scout Task Force) Battlesuit army.

First Blank Page

For my first blog post, I thought i'd put up something practical. Part of the reason of creating a blog was to share my knowledge of the hobby with a wider community. Since most, simple painting questions can be easily researched on the internet, I thought i'd encourage everyone out there to run before they can walk, and offer some advice to improve your skills; no matter

how advanced they may be.

So, here's how you create a simple wet palette.

Things you need:

Tin pencil case (any lid would do. try tuppa ware for an easy alternative)

Tissues

Baking paper, or greese proof paper,

Masking tape

Scissors

What is a wet palette?

A wet palette is a painting surface that will increase the longevity of your paints. It also helps with blending, creating washes and keeping custom mixed colours keep for longer. It is possible to keep paints wet for days after mixing if a lid is attached (however i've never achieved this).

Tutorial:

Get your tin (I used an old, touristy, pencil case given to me for christmas) and tear the top off. Be careful taking this off, as the hinges can often break and leave sharp edges that can easliy cut you. Have an adult help, even if you are thirty: make a friend and let them take the risk. We want the lid.

Line the lid with tissue paper, and wet it. You don't want the tissue to be dripping wet, but you want it more than moist.

Place the grease proof over the tissue. Run your finger over the top of it to bed the paper down. I secured the paper with some masking tape, however this isn't really necessary if you cut the paper to sit inside the 'lip' of the tin.

Voila! Wet palette. Now get painting.