Warmachine - Cryx Bloat Thrall overseer Mobius

I did this guy... 11 years ago (I think?) on my own volition as to just do something I thought was cool. This was right about my transition between Greenstuff and Fimo. I can't remember exactly why I decided to do him but apparently I had planned for this a while back as I had the gun from the original Bloat Thrall I did cast up in pewter when I was originally sculpting him. I had nicknamed it the, "Septic Thrall" and I think I had been playing around with the idea of some kind of variant of the original, something to do with leaving nauseating odors that could give the opposing army minuses when in too close proximity to it's launched leavings. The guy on his back was a spotter/range finder for arching fire with the eye-plug in the Bloat Thrall's head a direct feed into the corpse to infer that the Thrall could see through the spotters eyes like an undead targeting system.

He sat near done for nearly a decade when last year I had been asked about it, PP wanted to use it and wondered if I could finish it up with a couple of changes. "Sure!" I replied and set to work completing a figure I had nearly forgot about. Originally the guy on the back was on a kind of extending pole which I got rid of, bought him down close to the Thrall's body and integrated it more. Something that at the time had stumped me was all the wires I wanted to put on him, I really wanted to get tubing spilling out of the back guy and make it look like loose intestines but I just couldn't make it work. I had set aside the figure until I could work it out and after a while, sorta forgot about it. But by the time PP had plans for it I was able to do that key, (at least to me) detail. 

Anyway, been a long time in the making.

Painted picture provided by Privateer Press.

Skorne Mammoth

A long time in the making the Mammoth was the last project I worked on for Privateer Press. Originally started in January of '12 this was a co-project between myself and one of the PP in-house sculptors, (not sure who there got waylaid to work on it otherwise I would post his name. Could be Sean, could be Brian. I just don't know.) My job was to sculpt the nekkid body. No armor or weapons, just the body. Once the body was done it was shipped to PP where someone else would have the task of putting all the complex Skorne armor on it. Since it took me about 5 months to do just the body I think I would have killed myself if I had to do the armor as well, and if I had ground my way through the whole project then it wouldn't have turned out as nice as it did.
One of the major problems with sculpting large things like this is the threat of the miniature collapsing under it's own weight while you are making it. The armature can support only so much before bad things begin to happen, using lighter, non bakeable puttys or clays like Chavant or Castilene is a way to combat that, or using armatures that are much more rigid will support it. But considering it would have to be cut apart and the armature removed for production as well as shipped in the mail then that restricted my materials to work in. Super Sculpey would have been ideal due to it's light weight but is kind of brittle after baking and Fimo is far tougher but much more heavy so I ended up making a mix of both in hopes of getting the best of both worlds. It sorta worked... Sorta. One other thing was I didn't break the model down when done. Normally the main body would be split open and hollowed out to cut down on material costs and shipping weight but outside of the arms and head/tusks being separated from the main body he was left intact otherwise the sculptor after me would have to reassemble it just to add his work. I did what I could to keep it as close to the concept art while making sure there would be enough space for the other sculptor to add the armor. I hope it went all right.
Regardless, my hats off to the other person who worked on this project for making some stellar armor to put on my dude. He looks a whole lot better then when he left my hands.
Picture provided by Privateer Press, painting by Privateer painting staff, sculpt by me and... Someone else...

Edit: Sean Harrison did the armor, thanks to http://daughteroftheemperor.blogspot.com/ for tracking down the info. 

"Ping Pong" The steamjack of crushing might!

Blast from my past, I did this guy sometime back in '03 I think and was one of several Iron Kingdom themed figures I made to show off to Privateer in hopes of getting a job as a sculptor. Funny thing is is that I was already sculpting steampunk themed figures before I knew about Warmachine as I was in a D&D game that had that element in it. Steam and fantasy was a concept who's time had come but there wasn't much in the way of figures available in that genre. I think Mage Knight was the closest but I wasn't a fan of their figure production so I started to make my own. When I found out that there was going to be a new game that had all the things I was trying to do myself I got excited and started to make figures inspired by the Iron Kingdoms.
At one point I was invited over to Mike and Ali McVey's place and in his work room he had the masters for Magnus the Traitor's jacks there. After taking about techniques for sculpting armor and mecha I got inspired to give it a shot. I really liked the idea behind the mercenary mecha and I knew I wanted to make a utilitarian jack turned into a make shift war engine. I came up with the idea of a mining machine with a drill for digging and a massive claw for moving rubble. With that rough idea I went to work and just sorta free form built it.  Ping Pong is primarily made from Plastruct, brass rod and screws, acrylic spheres, brown stuff, some guitar wire and... A ping pong ball, (Which is how he got his nickname.) The head is the only part I didn't entirely sculpt and is an old Khador Destroyer head modified as I was still leaning about sculpting and wasn't comfortable just doing one from scratch. All the spikes and studs were done using a process I had never considered at the time; press molds! God, I wanted to smack myself silly after learning that and just how simple it was and how many problems it fixed. I remember the drill being an odd, spur of the moment inspiration where I glued varying sizes of plastic tub inside each other to make it solid, carving and sanding it down to a cone then heating a strip of triangular shaped Plastruct with a heat gun and wrapping it around the cone in a spiral. Don't know where I got the idea from now but at the time it was so obvious how to do it that it was spooky. I think I made him over the course of a week during the down time I had working graveyard in a porn shop, which there was a lot of. He stands just shy of a whopping 90mm which is even taller then the extreme Juggernaut I think. But, he does fit on a standard large base, so, he's got that going for him at least.
Soon after I had a meeting with the head honchos at Privateer's production site. Mike introduced me to Matt Wilson and Brian Snoddy and I showed off my stuff, Matt was kinda surprised by Ping Pong as he said he was working on something similar, some kind of warjack for the dwarven faction. Funny but it's not the first time my work has paralleled Matt's. Kelly Yeager who is head of casting joined the meeting and Mike wanted to know if the jack could be reproduced but it was a definite "No" as he was made from plastic and wouldn't have withstood the molding process, (Privateer had yet to make he push into resin so everything was metal cast.) But this guy, a new necrotech figure and a couple of concept pieces of what an Ios-ian soldier and Scorn warbeast  would look like was enough to pique Matt's interest in hiring me on at PP.
Every once in a while I look at this guy and want to do touch-ups on him. Fill in gaps, add detail or just refine him but I always stop myself since it's an example of my early work and to mess with it would ruin a reference point of my life so he stays as-is. I do get cravings to paint him too but something always comes up, who knows, maybe he will get a makeover some day.

I used to draw

...Like, a lot. I was so-so at it but I was always doodling or drawing comics or something but since I got a job as a sculptor I rarely have time to sit down and just draw and to be honest, it's not as satisfying as sculpting. In fact, if I am working on a personal project I usually skip the concept art stage and jump right into the sculpt. I always work on artwork provided by the company I am doing a job for and there is something satisfying by just working off of a loose idea and free form sculpt from there. 

A few years ago Ron Kruzie ran across a sketch I did for one of his Warhammer armies from, "Back In The Day," when neither of us did anything on a professional level. ( You can reference some of this story on the Iron Back Spitter post I made a while ago http://monster-zer0.blogspot.com/2010/11/ironback-spitter-king-of-koopas.html ) Ron asked if I was capable of producing concept art? Good question. It had been years since I did anything 2D and the best way to find out was to do it and see what happened.

I did three pieces of art and sent them in, nothing ever came of it but I thought I would post them here just to share. Now, before we get into it I have to do a disclaimer: These are NOT concepts that Privateer will be releasing! I am NOT showing you a preview of, "things to come." These pieces of art are my own ideas based off of Privateer Press's products and was only to see if I was creative enough, and capable of conveying a dynamic idea in the form of a drawing. So that being said if you start the rumor that these are in the works it's all on you.

(And yes, that is what my handwriting looks like, misspellings and all.)

First up is, "Wulg," Mulg's welp. Remember when I told you the bedtime story about how Mulg came into being and the original concept behind him? If not, go look. S'cool, I'll wait... http://monster-zer0.blogspot.com/2010/07/hello-my-name-is-mulg.html Anyway, The idea was that Mulg had suffered from some kind of horrid magic attack, something his troll metabolism just couldn't entirely deal with and the club fist was the best it could do (also the reason for the scar across his eye, chest and arm) So, Wulg was the product of that accident, A welp spawned from, "the most ancients," blown-off arm. Even though he's a welp being from a dire troll and more muy especial then just any old welp (imbued with an ancient earthborn dire trolls abilities and whatever residue magic that caused the accident in the first place) he's grown to the size of a trollkin. One massive stone hand from whence he grew is his main weapon and since he is from a dire troll he's got all the bad attitude that comes with one. some of the fun ideas for rules would be causing earthquakes (a cone effect) by slamming his fist into the ground, being able to move terrain by 1D3 inches in a direction of his choice. The other was that Mulg has animosity towards the welp; if on the same battle field and within a 6" radius of each other the player has to flip a coin; heads Mulg goes about what he was doing, tails and Mulg tries to eat the welp in an attempt to get back the power the little bastard stole from him. I thought it would have added a random and fun element to the game, sorta like some of the older rules for Orks in 40K. I chose the name Wulg as a play on the Mario/Wario nonsense Nintendo did a while ago and in the drawing Wulg's bigass arm should have been his left since that was the arm Mulg had lost in my original concept.

Next is, "The Blessed Of Everblight" A crazy-ass Nyss Warlock uses a complex spell and submerges himself in a spawning cauldron (willingly and still alive) in attempt to become closer to the dragon he worships and this guy is what came out. A Nyss / draconic hybrid, basically a warbeast that can cast. If you look at the chest you can see his head, chest and arm sprouting out of the beast. 

"The Privateers" - This was an idea for MonPoc I had a while ago, a fleet of intergalactic pirates come to Earth to plunder it. Ala Captain Harlock, Star Blazers, Macross, stuff like that. Space cruisers with a battleship theme to it. I thought it was a fun nod to Privateer Press.

Even though I am waaay out of practice I hope you guys still get some enjoyment from this post.

"The Thing that should not be..."

Here is something for you Monpoc fans, a proposed figure that was never used for the Lords of Cthul faction. Much like the, "Extreme," sculpts I did; as in: "I'm inspired to sculpt something on my own," this guy was sculpted after I had done all the figs for the faction. My understanding was that even though PP liked it there was no current place for it so it has been sitting around my works space for a couple of years now. I've got far too many things like this half finished and floating around but I thought I would post this guy to see how or if people would react to it.

I changed the overall design and instead of a fat gut and larger lower body I made him look emaciated, switching the mass to his brain. I remember watching the movie "The Time Machine," ('02 version,) and really liking Jeremy Irons character. The idea of a brain growing down the back really appealed to me and I decided to make that the central focus of the sculpt. His hands and feet are all webbed and three fingered/toed keeping the aesthetics from the other figures in the line but I made them more wiry and lean as if all it's body's nutrients are going straight to the grey matter.  I also had him squatting like a toad from the bulk of his brain and added a fifth eye. A third eye wouldn't seem that impressive since there is already Cthul who have 4 so five makes it just that much better... Right? He is about the same size as guys like Yasheth or Cthugrosh but only because of his vertebrae. 

The general idea is that he was a psychic attacker/defender. Maybe causing madness in the opposing forces by flooding their fleshy minds with disturbing nightmares or images of other realms. Anyway, hope you enjoy a bit of what might have been; cortex and tentacles.

Pyre Troll part Deux

Heeeeey! Privateer released my Pyre troll! This guy was done around November of '10 and was sort of a side project with Ron Kruzie. Something that was a bit off about the original was that he was kinda on the small side, more of a Trollblood then a Troll so we wanted to get his size increased as well as a new pose. I wanted to do something different in that regard so there was diversity on the battlefield, I ended up with a Hulk-like pose of the Troll charging into battle rather then spitting fire. The two things that got changed was that he had fire coming out of his mouth that ended up getting removed, not like a fire ball but rather that his insides were on fire and the flames were licking up the sides of his face. Like a furnace on full blast. The other was the pose; originally he was balanced on his forward foot which I thought made a more dynamic charge but they didn't like that and requested he be re posed so that both feet were touching the base. This was done with a simple cut on the right foot's ankle and the figure leaned back about 30 degrees. I kinda felt that this took away a lot of the implied momentum and made it look more like he was strolling forward to give a hug. Oh well.

Picture provided by Privateer Press, painting by Privateer painting staff.

Storm Trollhammarin

Yup, 'nother Troll. This one has the Ben and Jerry's flavor of lightning added to it, my guess is he drags his feet on the carpet a lot. I'm pretty sure I did this guy sometime around March/April of last year.
Picture provided by Privateer Press and paint by the PP painting staff.

Carnivean Extreme

Wow, at last I can talk about him. This guy was finished in Jan of '10 and has been lurking around Privateer waiting to be put into production. This was the first Extreme sculpt that had concept art provided for me to work off of. All the others were my take on the icon creatures /machines of the factions but I guess they were nervous about what I would do with this guy when I started on him. Chris Walton did the art for it and drew up pretty much exactly what I was going to do already with a couple of exceptions; the skin texture was my contribution to the design, (something I wanted to do for the Carni as I thought it looked more disturbing and unnatural) and I didn't do the pose I was originally planning which was far more gruesome. Before I was given the art I had planned to have the Carnivean feasting on the corpse of a Dire Troll Extreme, the troll being part of the base while the Carni pulled great bloody gobbets from an exposed rib cage.  I thought it would have bought the whole Hoards beast thing full circle since it was the DTX that started it but maybe it's best I didn't, people can be so reactionary. Something I thought was funny is that PP plays their cards close to the vest when it comes to future projects so I thought it interesting that in Chris Walton's profile pic on the PP site that had been up for a couple of years had the concept art for the CX in the background. Accident or on purpose? Who knows but squint in the upper right of Chris's profile pic to see how things hide in plane sight. Anyhow, here is the latest of the Extreme sculpts and kudos to the painter who got this guy presentable in record time.

So, usual suspects for credit on this; pics provided by Privateer Press and paint by Privateer paint squad.

Let me be your hawg!

The Road Hog was not one of my favorite designs to work from, I thought him too goofy and the face didn't look much like a boar's, the tusks were too far back and the goggles insinuate that his eyes are forward and not more to the sides. On top of that the odd douche-gun arm is just... Well, odd. Oh well, it's not my place to be artistic, just to reproduce the art given to me. Speaking of which, this design wasn't done by Chris Walton who did the War Pig so that is one of the reasons why there is a drastic difference in style. But, here he is.
Photos provided by Privateer Press, paint by Privateer painting crew

TROOOOOOLL!

Dire Trolls, lots an lots of Dire Trolls. Privater has had me working on this project off and on for quite a while. It started with the Boomer (and getting all the kit parts set up for all the variants) and finally ended with ROK just a few months ago. So... Something like 2 years I think? Finally I can talk about it. The info on the Boomer has already been made here  http://monster-zer0.blogspot.com/2010/07/so-here-we-are-at-latest-incarnation-of.html if you feel like reading about it. The Blitzer was I think the only DT that I did not originally sculpt so now at this point I think I've managed to get my filthy digits on all the Trollblood's Dire Trolls. The Mauler was my first production miniature and was also based off of the art from the Monsternomicon and talks with Mike McVey where as this version had strict artwork to adhere to. If you are interested in reading about the Mauler you can find that here.  http://monster-zer0.blogspot.com/2010/05/so-i-thought-that-i-would-give-little.html. ROK was just finished recently and reminds me of Jerry Garcia on a bad acid trip, not sure what it is specifically but when I was sculpting him I had "Touch of Grey" stuck in my head for days. Uuuugh.

So, yup... Lots of Trolls.

Pics provided by Privateer Press and paint jobs by Privateer's painting crew

Monsterpocalypse was my big project for a while, I was under contract with Privateer for a year to complete the project and during that time I sculpted all the monsters and some of the bases for the Empire of the Apes, Lords of Cthul, Planet Eaters, Savage Swarm, Terrasaurs and the Tritons with the exception of the vehicles. I think it was sometime early in '08 I got sent the concept art for Terra Kahn as a test piece and right after finishing him up the concept art started flooding in. This was an amazingly stressful and busy time as I was cranking out something like 6 sculpts a month on the average and some of the designs were requiring details that I wasn't sure how I was going to pull it off. I even had to build special tools for some figures like Anglax to get that fish scale effect and once the fig was done I haven't used that tool since.

While I don't feel these guys are my best as I was so rushed it was a crazy trial by fire in creative problem solving which got me thinking it different directions. I had actually done so many figures and their releases had been so drawn out that I had forgotten what I had sculpted, I would see a picture online or down at the game shop and recognize a figure I barely have any recollection of working on. I was pretty surprised to find out that Monpoc is getting optioned for a movie, if I find it surreal seeing product that I have worked on at a game shop I can only imagine what it's going to be like seeing these monsters I worked on stomping around on the big screen.

The pics I chose to show for this are of the last three I did and to my knowledge these have yet to be released to the public. Also, I don't normally post pics of my "greens" so I thought I would do something different.

Empire of the Apes:

Gakura

King Kondo

General Hondo

White Dijan

Airborne Ape

Command Ape

Howitzer Ape

Stealth Ape

Frontline Ape

Rocket Ape

Lords of Cthul:

Cthugrosh

Yasheth

Mogroth

Ulgoth

Ancient Osheron

Meat Slave

Spitter

Squix

Task Master

Corruptor

Snatcher

Cthulabitr

Tanglex

Planet Eaters:

Gorgahadra

Rogzor

Xaxor

Zorog

Vorgax

Belcher

Crawler

Destructomite

Explodohawk

Chomper

Scorcher

Constrictor

Explodomite

Harbinger Comet Shard

Savage Swarm:

Mantacon

Mucustos

Dynastavus

Xixorax

Cliff Hopper

Razor Beetle

Spy Fly

Steel Back Roach

Dire Ant Warrior

Vice Pincher

Terrasaurs:

Armodax

Terra Kahn

Pterodax

Rakadon

Tyrranix

Brontox

Carnidon

Raptix

Spikodon

Bellower

Pteradactix

Spikasaur

Tritons:

Anglax

Krakenoctus

Crustaceor

Leviathron

Steel Shell Crab

Psi Eel

...Whew.

Pictures provided by Privateer Press

Hmmmm... Another Trollblood figure, anyone seeing a trend to my assignments? A while ago I got an emergency job from PP for Borka, apparently they were unhappy with the original sculpt (not sure who did it but I have my suspicions) as it looked too comical and... goofy, I guess. Anyway I think I had 2 weeks to do this in which was kinda fast for me as I had yet to do a figure of this size yet let alone a character. I was asked to make him "bad ass" since he is supposed to be a symbol of male-ness... ess. Lotsa testosterone. I think the one glaring thing on this sculpt I would like to redo is his face; that upper lip bugs me a lot and I wish I had a bit more time to get it right but, a rush job is a rush job. And while I did sculpt Borka I did not do his little keg-gimp, if I knew I would tell you.

Painting and photos by the usual suspects (PP)

Earthborn Dire Troll

Did this guy a while back, the trick was getting him balanced on that fist. Bit of note: For some reason when they put this guy together his hand that is flung back is upside down from the concept art. When I sculpted it the palm was pointed down so I was surprised when I saw the finished pictures that they assembled him that way. I didn't even know it could do that.

Pictures provided by Privateer Press, painting by Privateer Press painting team

Drago

For the amount of time I had to work on Drago I thought he turned out decent. I had been given 3 assignments to do at once with a month-and-a-half to complete it in; The new standard Khador jack chassis (which was scrapped and replaced with the extreme design) Beast 09 and Drago. This guy had some complex design stuff going on with him in the shoulder department. If you have seen the model he has got a bunch of piston work in that area and normally on the jacks that kind of thing is armored over and you don't get to see the detail but it was pretty key to this guys look. So lots of building and back filling to make it castable. In fact, since I suck at sculpting chains I used real chain which meant that I had to back fill all of that as well. Defiantly one of those "WTF am I DOING!" moments as I was working on his arms. Made with Magic Sculpt, lots of aluminum tubing, real chain, Fimo and green stuff and done in something like 2 1/2 - 3 weeks. Anyway... Yeah, Drago.

Pictures by Privateer Press, painting by Privateer Press painting team

Extreme Juggernaut

I'm not a big fan of my own sculpts, I'm not sure how others in the business view their own work but but for me I constantly see mistakes and things I should have done. Time constraints and mold restrictions pretty much ensure I am always releasing stuff that I am never satisfied with but if I had to pick a favorite miniature it would be the Khador Extreme Juggernaut. Right after I had finished the Warp Wolf Extreme I asked Matt if he had any requests and he said he would love to see an Extreme Destroyer. Funny, since I was thinking just about the same thing and all I needed was an excuse to do it. Khador's jacks are some of my favorites, I really like the design and the concept behind them but how to make it fit into the "Extreme" line? First was size, it had to look like it would go toe to toe with the scale of the other Extreme figures, also, Khador jacks are the biggest on the battlefield due to the fact that they use the biggest chassis and the most armor out of all the armies so if I was ever going to do any other jacks for this line then this guy would be the biggest. It also had to be beefy enough so that customers would feel like they got their moneys worth, since it was probably going to be on par with the price range bracket of the other Ex figs I didn't want to put out something that made the customer feel like he was getting left out. But what else? Extra stuff? No, can't add anything that could be misinterpreted or effect the rules and just adding pretty flourish seemed weak. What I thought would do the trick was articulation.

I love action figures and how the sculptors are able to hide points of articulation and with the Jack here was a great opportunity to do just that. I wanted to make a figure that would give the modeler the opportunity to maximize the custom potential and ensure that no two would look the same. I asked Matt for the original artwork for the jacks and began to go over the sketches. Something I try to incorporate in my sculpts is a level of plausibility and with the Khador jacks there are some design flaws that make it look unworkable as a robot; namely the elbows and shoulders. Going back to the original artwork I immediately saw where I could change it and give it the articulation that it needed. First was the shoulders; a rotation point was added there so that the arms could swing forward and back while the ball socket (that seems to get used for the full range of mobility in the arm with previouse sculpts) would handle the pivot outward and in, with these two points added the figure already had a massive leap in believability as a working automaton. Next was the elbows; the connection point normally was midway down the arm and while this gave it a battering ram look it didn't give it reach. It reminded me of a T-Rex which is a detriment to something that uses its arms for combat so the elbow was moved farther back . Also the angular rectangle aspect of the forearm was rounded out because I wanted to add wrist articulation as well. I haven't seen the pewter version of this but the original had articulated fingers too, this way the builder could decide which hand they wanted the weapon in and it also meant that if any variations were done only the weapon would have to be sculpted. There was only one point I had to sacrifice and that was the knees, originally there was a pivot there but by that time I didn't think it could structurally stand having another possible weak point and with this thing being cast in pewter the knees were too iffy so the thigh and lower leg were made as one piece. But with a ball-and-socket in the hip and ankle it still had some pretty spiffy articulation in the lower half.

I sculpted him almost entirely from Magic sculpt, a tough 2-part epoxy that when dry is like a rock, I can cut, sand and drill it without worrying about it tearing or shattering like greenstuff or Milliput. It took me about a month-and-a-half to two months to finish him up but once done Privateer didn't know what to do with it. Sure, it looked great but the logic was that it made sense that monsters like Dire Trolls an such could grow, jacks don't. Yes, this makes sense to me as well but since I was asked to do an Ex version of the jack I'm not sure what was expected; a jack the same size as all the others but with a really big ass base? So, he sat on the shelf for... what, a year? I don't remember now but it was quite a while. During that time I did a rush of Khadors jacks, Drago, Beast-09 and the new, revamped Juggernaut. But, there was a problem with the new Juggy and apparently something catastrophic happened to the original sculpts and Privateer didn't have a replacement for it... But I had. I got a call from Ron describing the situation and asking if they could get the Ex from me. They would shrink the jack down to the appropriate size and use it as the basic jack for the new plastics (something I had suggested a year prior but was rejected) I said "sure" and gave them a price break on it as well. Normally I get paid a bunch more for the Extremes but since this wasn't going to be released as one I went with the standard cost of what a jack normally goes for. Well, it got released as an Extreme and the basic plastic jack AND used in the Grind game. So, I guess they really got a deal out of me.

I had big plans for this guy, I put a lot of forethought into the design and customizability for the figure and planned to do weapon variants for the different jack types. One of them was the Destroyer but PP didn't like the alt pieces I made and got Sean Bullough to make new ones that resembled the original concept art. I had also begun to make "prestige armor upgrades" pieces that would fit over the existing model allowing for further customizing, giving the jacks a more unique look with bits of flourish and character. These parts were not wanted by PP and never went into production. I've included a picture of two pieces of shoulder armor and a piece of cowl armor with a blade that would have fit on the armor over the head.

Whether you like him or not this guy was a real labor of love for me. I made him from the standpoint of "If I was buying this thing what would I want to see" and as far as product went he turned out pretty well. Tons of potential for the modeler as well as an intimidating presence on the board.
Pictures: me and Privateer Press, painting by Privateer Press staff

Gorax part deux

About a couple of months ago I finished up the new Gorax sculpt for Privateer. I know Ron and a few others weren't too thrilled with the original sculpt. This time since there wasn't a huge rush on getting him done as there was already a model out for it we got to take our time. That neck harness threw everything off on this guys anatomy, getting the head into the necessary position and the chest flexing with that object in the way made sure I was plenty frustrated with getting it to look like the art as well as like it could be a living creature. Geah.
He's not dragging a stone behind him this time and the sculpt is based off of the Hords book art of the gorax and not the concept art. Anyway, hope this goes over with Circle fans, I know from doing the extreme sculpts that people hate to have new interpretations done of their warbeasts.
Pictures provided by PP and paint by PP's team.

Ironback Spitter, King of the Koopa's

Story time!
So, back around '00 I worked at a gaming store in Seattle called Games and Gizmo's and Ron Kruzie was one of our customers. He had his award winning fantasy beastman army on display there and would come in and play his Imperial Guard army or do some work on one of his latest projects. He had planned to do a lizardman army and wanted to do a special project for his Slaan mage as he didn't like the howdah version that was available at the time. He wanted to have his priest riding on top of a giant snapping turtle and I did some concept sketches for it and gave it to him. Soon after G&G went out of business and forced everyone to go elsewhere for their geek-fix. Years later I was working at Privateer Press as a sculptor/mold maker/caster and Mike McVey had bought on this freelance painter for the mini's line and low and behold it was Ron. After I moved out of the area Ron went full time and is to this day they guy who I deal with directly for my Privateer jobs.
Skip ahead to summer of this year and Ron sends me the concept art for the Ironback Spitter. We talked on the phone and during the conversation I remind him of the Slaan mount I sketched up for his army and we both had a laugh at the irony; 10 years later and we finally got around to working on a snapping turtle.
If PP kept the parts breakdown like I did them I managed to slip in ball and socket joints at the torso, shoulders and neck to hopefully add a little variation when people put the guy together.

Picture provided by:Privateer Press, concept art by Chris walton, paint by PP paint crew

Merc jacks part II

The first jack I did for PP was the Grundback Gunner, a wee chap who people on the forums call "gun bunnies." I as mentioned in the previous post I like to make figures pose-able and since I knew these guys would be fielded in groups I made sure there was plenty of ball and sockets on them. (Kinda hard to make a dynamic figure when all you have to work with is legs but I did my best.) Something I suspected but was never told was the possibility for weapon variants so I made sure the gun was separate. The one thing that I find odd is that every picture I have seen of the figures they are leaning back as if they are looking up at something. Its weird to me because all the art had them leaning down with their head closer to the ground and their ass up like a sprinter getting ready to bolt. Oh well. The guns for the Blaster version of this jack was done by a different sculptor, I don't know who otherwise I would give him credit for it.
The Basher, my boy! One of my own designs and I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. Back in January of '08 Ron hit me with three jack sculpts at once and all were of the highest priority, Normally it takes me about a month and a half just to get one done but I had three to do in the same amount of time. Needless to say it was the first deadline I missed. I make jacks bass-ackwards from doing monsters; with monsters I build the armature and add the muscle mass so by the end of it I know what the figure looks like and then cut it up for molding but with jacks I have to do all the bits separately and then fit them together after the fact. So I had a lot of failed pieces that were either too big or just not shaped right. While waiting for some putty to cure I started to fiddle around with the scrap bits, putting them together and I started to get a shape I was liking. After an evening of thought I got the epiphany of doing a Rhulic jack and began constructing the bits for a big two legged engine.
Since almost all Rhulic jacks are practical and functionary devices turned into something to be used on the battlefield this guy had to be the same. So the story I had was that down deep in the mines before the tunnels were shored or had the wench systems for the ore carts these jacks were used to drag out the heavy stuff, effectively mini locomotive engines with legs they would haul out the rubble and ore carts to the higher levels. One of their quirks was that they were single minded and bad tempered, something to do with the low grad cortex they were given but they were notorious for injuring inattentive jack marshals. Stomping on toes or shouldering workers into walls as they tromped up and down the shafts. Some of the ideas I had for the rules was that they could tow larger jacks into battle faster allowing the more heavy jacks to get out on the front lines quicker. The other was a ramming attack, the idea was that every round they stayed in motion their distance would increase incrementally as would their damage but it had to be in a forward cone like direction.
Since I'm not a rules guy they changed much of it but kept the spirit which pleased me (they were only ideas anyway) and they added (and subtracted) some detail to the figure. A front boiler plate was added (makes no sense to me as the boiler is in the back and a front mounted one is a big weak point in the armor) the grenade launchers were also put on his sides (I like that) but they took out the joint I put in the knees and tilted his toe talons up instead of digging into the ground. The knees is what bugged me the most but luckily I made a RTV mold of it before I sent him off so I have plenty of ultra positionable Bashers for me.
This guy and Mulg are the only figures I have designed for PP so far.
Pictures by Privateer Press, paint by Team Mcvey

Merc jacks part I

Uuuuugh. Need a break from sculpting... so I'll talk about sculpting instead, not much of a break. The Nomad was the second warjack I did for PP and the Mule followed right behind. Some of you may have seen what the artwork the sculptors work from look like by checking out Chris Walton's stuff http://christopherwalton.daportfolio.com/ and its an excellent example of what passes for the norm but the art that I got for this project was from Brian Snoddy, http://www.snellsoftware.com/briansnoddyart/ a totally cool guy who I still work with and occasionally hang out with from time to time. The difference in the art is that Brian's was more of a drafted technical drawing with front, side and back views. There was no action pose, parts breakdown request or anything like that; in short, I had free reign to come up with what I wanted to.
whenever I can get away with it I like to put in ball and socket joints or pivots allowing the customers the option of posing them and giving the figure their own personal touch. Its what I like when I buy a mini and I think it helps break up the rank and file look of an army if you end up fielding more then one. After talking with Mike McVey about what would look suitably dynamic I set to work. Jacks, mecha and tech looking stuff is not my strong point, it takes forever for me to get it done as I tend to file, cut and sand to shape the pieces rather then just sculpting them. This is the only way I've been satisfied with to get that sharp and hard look for metal. So, after a month I had the Nomad up and going and within another three weeks or so the Mule.

Pictures by Privateer Press, Paint by Team McVey