Quantcast
Channel: davetaylorminiatures
Viewing all 414 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

A New Look for the Blog

September 6, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
I've been tinkering a bit with the blog recently, and thinking of a few new things I can do.

Welcome to the start of the new layout. I want the blog to look nice and clean, with the posts continuing as the primary focus, but with the added potential to do some other things. These other things will include a little bit of advertising, and the ability to better promote the miniature based activities of my friends "in the business". 

The first incarnation of this is new approach is exemplified by the Kickstarter project being run by long-term friend of the blog, Nick Baran. I invite you to click on the image at the top of the sidebars to the right and see what his very cool new miniatures boardgame - Broken Contract - is all about.


Stay tuned for more tweaks, and feel free to leave you thoughts and/or suggestions in the comments below.

Cheers
Dave
↧
Search

Mechanicum - Completed Thanatar, and more automata!

September 9, 2014, 7:27 am
$
0
0

I squeezed in a little painting on the weekend, and yesterday my FW Iron Hands decal sheet arrived. I received a neat tip from an excellent modeler on a Facebook HH group about the Mechanicum symbols on the sheet and wanted to use one on the shoulder of my Thanatar. Of course, once the sheet arrived I realized my black shoulder pad wouldn't really display the symbol properly. I quickly went for a deep red on the shoulder pad, added the decal, and then finished it all off with some chips and scratches.

I hope you like it : )





I also finished up the Castellax (his shoulder pad received the same treatment).



And four of my final 12 Thallax. Just eight more to paint now.


And finally the group shot of the recent automata painting spree.

Along with my decal sheet, I received my Cerastus Knight Lancer. I hope to start cleaning and assembling him this weekend : )

Cheers
Dave
↧
↧

Mechanicum - Cerastus Knight-Lancer Part One

September 12, 2014, 12:11 pm
$
0
0

No prizes for guessing what's in the bath of Simple Green. This weekend's assembly project is a Cerastus Knight-Lancer. I'm looking forward to getting this puppy built, and if I can squeeze in a little time, I'll even build a pilot for it : ) And that's a Tech Deck base in there from Dragon Forge Design.

And for those who have not yet seen the rules for the Cerastus Knight-Castigator (the one with the sword), Forgeworld apparently posted these rules up today. Check out the madness that is the sword! S10, AP2, with Deflagrate, and the ability to auto hit all models in base contact at Int2. Perfect for wiping out Terminator hit squads!

And with that thought I bid you all a great weekend!

Cheers
Dave
↧

Mechanicum - A few new shots and a pilot for the Cerastus.

September 17, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0

A quick shot of the finished Thanatar standing alongside my still-yet-to-be-named combat-focused automata.


The Castellax with all of their shoulder icons.



Finally, here's the pilot I built for my Cerastus Knight Lancer. He's currently painted and in place. Once I've made a bit more progress on the Knight-Lancer I'll post some more shots : )

Cheers
Dave
↧

Mechanicum - Finally, an update on the Knight-Lancer

September 22, 2014, 9:56 am
$
0
0

A quick update of the Cerastus Knight Lancer. Last post you saw the pilot posing in his Throne Mechanicum. Here you can see some of the painted version in situ.


And here are a couple of shots with the carapace in place. I have a bit more work to do on the carapace and shoulder pads, including custom decals and weathering.



And then, of course, it's completing the weapon arms. I'm pretty happy with how he's coming along : )

Cheers
Dave
↧
↧

Project Alchemy - An Oldhammer & Collecting Citadel Miniatures charity project : )

September 25, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
I was recently asked by my friend James Craig to help promote a project he has been involved with recently - Project Alchemy. This combines three things I like - good friends, charity activity, and a nostalgic look at old Citadel minis : ) These rest of this post is from James himself. Please read and click on the links to check out this great effort. The project runs from now until November 9th!


Project Alchemy

Jon Boyce, Tony Mansfield, Steve Casey, James Craig and others have been working over the last six months on a charity fundraiser. We've collated a fantastic pool of 30 prizes, including unreleased figures, original artwork, studio resins and signed books.

Donors to the project automatically get entered into the prize draw, with £1 = 1 ticket.

All you need to do is check out the website and donate some cash and you could win some pretty amazing stuff: Project Alchemy - An Oldhammer & Collecting Citadel miniatures charity project

http://www.project-alchemy.weebly.com 





Here is some information straight from the site:

What is Project Alchemy?The aim of this project is quite simple - to raise money for the charity UNICEF through a shared love of old-school tabletop wargaming.

Project Alchemy is a virtual raffle of some fantastic and unique prizes - if you fancy winning a piece of original Games Workshop artwork, classic signed rulebooks or unreleased models, then this is the charity project to donate to!

Each £1 pledged through our JustGiving website enables you to qualify for a virtual raffle ticket. If you would like to be entered into the draw for the prizes on offer, you must tick the box that allows Project Alchemy (Jon Boyce) to contact you.

Project Alchemy is being co-ordinated by a team of people from the Oldhammer forums, Oldhammer Facebook group and the Collecting Citadel Miniatures Yahoo group.

The charity project is not affiliated with and does not represent any of the companies whose products are being offered as prizes, and no challenge to their legal rights is intended.



Why UNICEF?Project Alchemy will (we hope!) draw donations from around the world. We have selected UNICEF as the charity to support as it meets our key criteria of both being an internationally active charity and of its high external ratings for the effective management and use of its funds; the money gets spent where it should be! UNICEF was also selected simply because it helps kids...and who better to benefit from a charity project centred on toys?!

What is JustGiving?JustGiving is a widely used online donation platform, specifically created to support charitable fundraising. For details on how JustGiving operates, visit theJustGiving homepage.
The Project Alchemy team have selected JustGiving as the platform for processing donations as it is secure and transparent. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
↧

Mechanicum - Knights, and more...

September 30, 2014, 10:36 am
$
0
0

While I've been waiting on the custom decals for my Heresy-era House Taranis, I've taken my Knight Paladin a little further. Of course, once I reach a certain stage with him I'll use the same custom decals, and then just need to build his power blade replacement for his Reaper chainblade. The base is the Knight base from the Tech Deck range by Dragon Forge Design.


A few folks have asked me about my metallics recently, in particular the base metals for my Knights' super-structure. Well the basic approach is this:

• Prime GW Chaos Black spray
• Heavy dry brush (with "Tank Brush"-sized brush) with Vallejo Game Color Tinny Tin
• Drybrush (with "Tank Brush"-sized brush) with Army Painter Gun Metal
• Wash with Army Painter Dark Tone
• Selectively shade with thinned washes of Vallejo Game Color Charred Brown
mixed with Army Painter Matt Black
• Highlight edges (as appropriate) with Amy Painter Gun Metal
• Highlight edges (as appropriate) with Army Painter Shining Silver

I hope that helps : )

For those who would like to get a closer look at how I do my metallics, I've been coerced into running two classes at AdeptiCon 2015. More details to come!


Another work project I've had on my painting table are a bunch of the fantastic Hell Dorado models from Cipher Studios. Much more information to come as this project nears completion : )

Cheers
Dave
↧

Mechanicum - Acting as a Mechanicum Forge World

October 7, 2014, 8:37 am
$
0
0

Sorry for the radio silence, I've been too busy to snap any photos of all the hobby work going on at the moment. In addition to my own Knights, I'm working on a big Napoleonic commission, a FOW US tank army commission, a handful of US tanks in payment for some 3D modeling I had done for my Knights, and this beauty - The Etruscan. My friend Dave Pauwels has a great many wonderful ideas, but often nowhere near the time to achieve most of them. To this end he commissioned me to clean and assemble his Cerastus Knight-Lancer. Last Fall I did the same thing for his Warhound - Venatrix Nocturna.




I wanted the Knight-Lancer to be in a wary, combat-ready pose, crouched behind the shield, feet moving (rather than a locked/power stance) to give the impression of circling, as this Knight will be doing at AdeptiCon 2015 in one of the new Knight Gladiator events (more details on those as soon as I have them).


And my custom decals have arrived. Although House Taranis have decals on the sheet that comes with the box, they are designed for the 40K-era House Taranis. Based on the eveloution of the heraldry shown in the lush sourcebook The Imperial Knight Companion, I decided to scale the heraldry back a bit, and make the icon a little more complex.

Now I just have to start getting these elements onto the Knights : )

Cheers
Dave
↧
Search

WW2 - I mentioned working on a few 15mm jobs.

October 9, 2014, 5:57 am
$
0
0

I mentioned last post that I've been working on a few FOW projects recently. One of them is for a long-time follower of the blog, Jake. Back in April I asked Jake to help me out by 3-D sculpting a few parts for a Knight for me (hopefully I'll have parts in hand from by the end of the month). Payment for the sculpting work/time is going to be this squadron of USMC Shermans from the Pacific Theater. Jake sent me a bunch of reference photos that showed the additional wooden armor that crews would build for the sides of their tanks, and most of the photos show an amazing abundance of extra track sections, also used as improvised armor, draped over the tanks.

Anyway, here are some closer shots of the lead tank, with sheet metal skirting added to the lumber armor. This is based on the photo (apparently taken in Okinawa, 1945) at the bottom of this post.





Here's the color scheme that Jake would like to see on the tanks. 



Now it's on to the painting : )

Cheers
Dave
↧
↧

Oldhammer Weekend approaches!

October 13, 2014, 12:56 pm
$
0
0

Very soon (Oct 25-26), Dropzone Games will travel back in time to the late 1980s.

Oldhammer was founded by a handful of old grognards, bitten by the nostalgia bug (and possibly not too happy about the direction GW's flagship games were heading), and has become an international "wargaming movement", with hundreds, if not thousands, of hobbyists collecting old school Citadel and Marauder miniatures and playing games of 3rd Edition Warhammer and 1st Edition 40K (Rogue Trader). After a successful Oldhammer day held in the gaming space of The Foundry in Nottingham (owned by Bryan Ansell, former owner of Citadel Miniatures), the Oldhammer enthusiasts in the New World decided to put on a weekend of their own. Blake Shrode and Andrew Dyer are the guys behind this event (and the painting competition, which they have invited me to judge).

You can check out all the details about the event at Blake's blog HERE.

You can read about my involvement for the weekend HERE.

If you live in the Mid-Atlantic area and have a passion for all things Oldhammer, I hope you can make it along. Please bring along some models for the painting competition too!

Cheers
Dave


↧

Mechanicum - Knights so close you can taste them!

October 17, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0

Not long now and my first two Knights will be complete. Just some chipping and then weathering powders to go on my Knights of House Taranis, sporting the 30K version of their iconography/heraldry. The Cerastus Knight-Lancer is above, while the Knight-Paladin is below.



Have a great weekend, everyone!

Cheers
Dave
↧

WW2 - A US Armored recon force.

October 20, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0

Here are the models from a recent commission, painted up for a client in Viginia. He sent me the models, a mix of Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company models. It was the first time I'd used the PSC kits, and they are certainly crisp, with a versatile range of parts.

Above: A mix of PSC early- and mid-production Stuarts.


Above: Five PSC late-production Stuarts (with nifty hedge-cutter attachments).


Above: A unit of Battlefront Priests, with their command staff and observers. The Sherman OP is from PSC.


Above: Four M36 Tank Destroyers from Battlefront.


Above: Battlefront Jeeps - four with .50cal AA, and three with 60mm mortars.


Above: Battlefront M8 Greyhound armored cars and M28 Utility vehicles.

It was quite interesting to put the PSC kits together. While things like the Stuarts turrets had nine individual parts (the bodies were at least another nine), and that meant a LOT of mold line trimming, they were a great fit and looked great once assembled.

I hope you like them.

Back to the 40K/30K soon ; )

Cheers
Dave
↧

Death Guard - Some old school reinforcements and some new models.

October 21, 2014, 6:42 am
$
0
0

While searching around for some Ogre bits a few weeks ago, I stumbled on a handful of old school Rhino-based vehicles. Some were missing parts after years of neglect, others had never seen paint (beyond their black primer coat), so I decided to resurrect them as reinforcements for my Heresy-era Death Guard. I little scraping here and flipping there and I'd managed to salvage the four you see above. The two blue vehicles were originally part of the Crimson Fist Space Marine army that I built in 1997, that graced the back cover of White Dwarf sometime in 1998 (I think). I had a few hatches handy, but hot enough exhausts to replace the damaged ones. I decided to replace all of the exhaust tops with plastic tubing to tie them in with the current Forgeworld homage to this old transport.

Since this photo, they've all been primed and are awaiting a session with the airbrush (which is in turn waiting for me to complete the assembly on my Spartan).

But enough of the old school stuff, here are a few photos of some shiny new models I've assembled using some of the great new parts from Victoria Miniatures!


First up is a trooper using a head, arms, and legs from the Arcadian kit, and the all new Cloaked torso from the Borderworld Rangers kit. Despite being planned for a different set of legs, this particular cloak falls wonderfully over this set of advancing legs. This guy would make a great stand-in for a Vervunhive recruit to Gaunt's Ghosts!


I love breaching shields like this (I currently have 20 for my Death Guard!). Although there aren't any immediately obvious analogs for the shields in my Imperial Guard collection, I thought it would look cool on the arm of of this Scion. For close-quarters action I switched out his laspistol for the great compact stub-pistol. I love it!


And finally, I have decided to use my already-painted Vostroyans to represent a Solar Auxilia force. I have pulled out the models armed with lasguns to form three different 20-man lasrifle sections. This has left a few heavy weapons teams awaiting an indication from Forgeworld on how they'll fit into the new list. A search for spare Vostroyan models, coupled with the arrival of the package from Victoria Miniatures, lead to this lascannon team. I'm excited to get my hands on some more : )

Cheers
Dave
↧
↧

Mechanicum - More Thallax roll off the production line.

October 23, 2014, 11:24 am
$
0
0

A little while back (here) I had assembled a bunch of Thallax so that I could really expand the beefy (yet fleshless) core of my Mechanicum force - after playing a few games, Toughness 5 and 3 Wounds is certainly nothing to sneeze at!


Well, over the last week I've finished off the last eight : )

After applying the weathering powders to their bases, I plonked them in the pile with my other Thallax so I could apply a cog decal to all of their left shoulders. Once I'd done that I couldn't pick out which models I'd just finished, so I figured I'd show you the whole lot, all 21 of them (see above).


The shoulder icon is from the FW Iron Hands decal sheet. I chose this particular one as it has three nuts arranged in a pattern like the three skulls of the post-Heresy Death Guard. A nice little connection if I run them with my pre-Heresy Death Guard ; )


And finally, as with all of my Mechanicum army, they are standing on Tech Deck bases from Dragon Forge Design. Jeff is currently running a Kickstarter to expand the size of one of his most popular lines. Click HERE, or on the image on the top right of this page, to check it out!

Cheers
Dave
↧

A quick tease, and Kickstarters arrive!

October 29, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0

I have a few other things on deck at the moment, but I thought I'd show you two WIPs for my Death Guard. The one on the right is my second Contemptor (who will be wielding a multi-melta and a power fist), and the guy on the left needs a couple of plasma pistols ; )


Anyway, on to the next thing. Three Kickstarters that I've backed over the last 18 months all delivered this month. Mars Attacks from Mantic and Games & Gears' brush sets were the first two to arrive (more on these later). Today, it was these two snazzy boxes from the Secret Weapon Tablescapes Kickstarter. Of course I haven't had the chance to get any paint on them yet, but my daughter was able to help me out by designing the layout you see below. The compression clips were easy to snap into the tiles, and held them together really well.


It's always a great feeling when you know you've been able to help a great company afford to create such a cool product : )

Cheers
Dave
↧
Search

Happy Halloween! ...and some Ogre heads

October 31, 2014, 8:44 am
$
0
0

Happy Halloween to all those who celebrate it!

Here are a few Ogre heads that I converted up for my buddy Teras Cassidy, Head Geek at Geek Nation Tours. They'll be making an appearance in his Warhammer army he'll be taking to AdeptiCon 2015. Not long now until the webcart opens up and tickets go on sale : )

Have fun!

Cheers
Dave
↧

Charity efforts, an update. And a Death Guard Moritat.

November 5, 2014, 6:56 am
$
0
0

Well, let's get the Moritat out of the way. I've only faced one of these guys in my handful of 30K games. It was at the Old Line Massacre back in June, and the Night Lords Moritat armed with two plasma pistols took out my Arch Magos Prime in a single round of shooting. Impressive to say the least. Many online will decry this particular loadout, and many gamers have banned it from play in their gaming groups. Is it a nasty combination? Yes. Will I get t use it all that often? Not really. Did I just want to model a BIG guy for my Death Guard? You betcha.

In the photo above he's standing next to one of my recently finished Breachers, both are on Dragon Forge bases.


The last two years I've participated in the charity activity that is Movember, growing a mustache to both raise awareness of men's health issues, and money for research into same. This year I have a lot going on, and couldn't divert energy away to keep up with the regular promotion required to make such an endeavor a success. So, I won't be growing a mo this year. Instead, I urge you to check out the page of my friends Brien and Chris who'll be rocking the 'stache all month long!


To make sure I'm still giving this November, I'll be donating these two units of 15mm American Civil War models to the Toys For Tots auction being run by the Wednesday Night Painting Group at Fall-In this coming weekend. Shawn and the team have been running this for a number of years now, and each year it continues to grow. If you are in the market for 15mm ACW units and are going to Fall-In, please stop by the Silent Auction and put in the winning bid ; )


Finally I can now announce that, following the success of the 2014 NOVA Open Charitable Foundation activities, I've been invited to join the board of the NOCF. Last night I attended my first board meeting, and I am happy to say that we'll be growing the offering of the raffles and auctions and other activities. As soon as our plans are locked down we'll start to roll out the good news : )

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

Cheers
Dave
↧
↧

When your mechanic calls you and says...

November 12, 2014, 6:39 am
$
0
0
..."Dave, we have to talk."


Yesterday, was "one of those days" where I got to hear the list of ailments facing my car, and the price for repairs. Of course, repairing the car is still going to be a better deal in the long run than buying a new car (or a new used car), but it's certainly a chunk of change I don't have sitting in the coffers.

To that end I'll be selling off some of my armies. I have quite a few, some of them from from the mid-late '90s, others from the early 2000s, and I might even be tempted to let go of some more recent collections, should the offers be right.

Anyway, if you are interested in picking up something for yourself (think of it as an early Christmas present), just shoot me an email (tanithtaylor at gmail dot com) letting me know which of my projects you're interested in and I'll sort out some photos for you : )

On the short list for sale are:

Warhammer
• Bretonnians - 3,000 points, painted in 2007/8 (current models)
• Beastmen - 1,000 points, painted in late '90s (models from that period)
• Chaos Warriors - 1,000 points, painted in late '90s (models from the period)
• Chaos Warriors (Nurgle) - 1,500 points, painted in 2003/4 (models from that period)

40K
UPDATE: SOLD • Tanith 1st - 1,500 points, all infantry, a LOT of conversions, painted in 1999
• Cadian army - Loads of Infantry and dozens of vehicles, probably 4,000 plus points, painted in 2003

Flames of War
• Early/Mid War Germans - a collection that can be used to create any army from the Blitzkrieg book from roughly 1,800 to 2,400 points, painted in 2011
• Mid War Soviets - an older collection that can probably be used to field around 1,500 points of an Infantry Company, painted in 2004.

I won't be selling off my Mechanicum, Death Guard, Genswick Rifles, Blood Pact, or Vostroyans, but would entertain offers on most of my other stuff.

Cheers
Dave


↧

Things might seem quiet on the surface, but...

November 18, 2014, 12:44 pm
$
0
0

...underneath I've been paddling away like a duck. The car thing has taken some time away from fun, hobby stuff, but hopefully that will be restored in the next week or so. In the meantime I have a few cool things to show you, and will hopefully have the time to get them posted. Can you tell from this that I'm quite hopeful? : )


Anyway, you might remember this commission from earlier in the year? My friend Brien decided to add a few new models to his Ariadna force, and I was happy to oblige. It was a fairly simple matter to match the paintwork from the original models, as you can see in the photo below. They fit in pretty well.



Cheers
Dave
↧

AdeptiCon 2015 is Coming!

November 21, 2014, 1:32 pm
$
0
0

Well, next March is the actual event, but I wanted to point out that the registration for AdeptiCon 2015 is only a few days away! On Monday November 24, at 8pm Central time (that's 2am Tuesday morning for you folks in the UK) to events web cart will go live. Many events at AdeptiCon sell out on the first night and many more over the following days, so I heartily recommend you check out the event listing so that you can be ready when the crew flip the switch! The AdeptiCon team are using a new, more robust system, so it's worth taking a few moments to familiarize yourself with it.

To check out the listing of over 280 events, click HERE.

This year, for the first time ever, I'll be running two Hobby classes (well, technically it's the same content, just at two different times). That's right, I'm running the Liber Metallica: Dave Taylor Edition on the Saturday and Sunday morning.

Quite a few people have asked me questions about my metallics over the years, so I figured this was a good opportunity to present my thoughts on the topic of true metallics. I hope to see you there.



Cheers
Dave
↧
Viewing all 414 articles
Browse latest View live
Search