Jetbike LoLtarch Conversion (WIP)

This is a project I started a long time ago and just never got around to finishing. What held me up was annoyance at having to redo how he attaches to the bike. His left foot binds to a magnet in the hood, but instead of a magnet I had originally put a pair of paperclip clippings inside his foot. Well the other day I cut his foot all to hell and started redoing it with green stuff and a proper magnet. I also bound his other foot to the handle bar it had been resting on.

One of the benefits of magnetizing him is that I can reuse the bike for another conversion I want to do. When I run my Jetseer Council I like to have 2 Farseers on bikes, so later on I'll magnetize a Farseer to this hood with a different pose. Another benefit is that it makes transportation much easier because everything fits snugly in my case. On the other hand, I really want to do another project like this some day using a model made all in one piece so I can get a more action-oriented pose out of the rider. Something like a guy leaping off the front. But that would mean a smaller point of contact on the bike and reduced stability--better in my opinion for a show piece than a unit to be used on the table.

Ignore my ugly base please =) I'll clean it up someday, I swear it...

And here is a video about the model and conversion. Pay no mind to where I mention another video. I realized afterward that this one makes it redundant.

Post them up if you have any questions or comments! Cheers!

Spolight: Ryan Herbranson - Bronze Prize Diorama for Golden Demon Japan 2013

It seems that here in Japan the Golden Demon event was held yesterday and my friend Ryan over at Blood of Angels won the bronze prize for his amazing diorama. The competition must have been incredibly fierce because I absolutely love his work. There is some great background behind the scene too, but I don't see it on his blog so I'll ask him if I can copy/paste it from somewhere and then I'll edit it into this post. Posting about Welcome to Wargaming will just have to wait a little bit. This is too rad not to blog while it's hot =) Without further long-winded ado, here are pictures of his great submission. Congrats Ryan!

Spotlight: Skeeve (who taught me more than he probably realizes)

Yay! I finally have internet again! Wow that was a long two days...*ahem* anyway...

There are basically two moments in all my time hobbying where I saw immediate, profound improvement in my work. The first was when I opened White Dwarf 316 and became absolutely obsessed with Nurgle. The tutorial in that issue taught me more about painting than I had learned up to that point and changed the way I painted and modeled for years. The second time was when I saw Skeeve's Blight Drone tutorial and decided I had to learn more about blending and layering thin coats. I contacted him through the 40k Online forums and was astounded that this brilliant painter had the time to reply to lowly I. Well, I feel a great debt of gratitude for it, because I learned so much through his guidance that again, everything I do has been affected by it. And it gave me the confidence to try new, bolder things. Here are a number of his models that I gathered up to show off. Enjoy.

Hiking in Nagano: Reference Photos

I meant to post this during the week, but I just wasn't able to get to it. Last weekend I went hiking with a friend of mine in the Nagano mountains. I take a lot of pictures anywhere that I find good textures, scenery, wildlife, buildings...even and maybe especially decay, as getting things to look real on the tabletop means making them look like they're breaking down naturally. So here are a number of great shots that I'll be referring to later when I'm working on terrain and bases.

A lot of it is plants which I find endlessly fascinating for modeling. It's just so hard to make them look real. Density and texture is an issue. So is mixing in variety and using materials you can paint easily. Other photos are of things like old wood and broken buildings because I think it matters a lot that you know where things should be broken and how they ought to lay or hang when modeling these things.

I had a great time getting these samples. It might be some time before I get around to using them, but maybe they can help someone else until then. I do really suggest taking your own though, if you don't already. I think it helps train your eye and judgement.