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

Bull Snapper

Latest from Privateer Press, a little(ish) guy for me. I didn't hear any complaints from their end so I guess it went into production without a hitch, whitch, considering the drastic twist in the body I'm kinda surprised. Concept art by Chris Walton who is no longer working directly with PP unfortunatly. But, we are still working together, Mua-ha-ha-ha!

Pictures by Privateer Press, paint by Privateer Press paint crew

So... I worked on a line of toys?

A while back I got an emergency call from Matt Wilson who had a friend that needed some sculpts done ASAP, I said sure (I could use the money) and got sent some concept art for a super secret project. After it was all done I didn't hear anything about it, I had no idea what I worked on or if it was even released to the public. Today I was scooting around Toys R Us and something caught my eye in the discount section. Something that looked strangely familiar. Turns out I worked on something called Nanovor by smith and Tinker; some kind of Pokemon, Digimon-ish game where you can collect wee beasties and have them battle each other via cards or small electronic devices. One of the two sculpts i did is called "Electropod" and is released, the other called "Plasma Lash" and I have no idea if he is out yet or ever will be, considering that I found it in the discount bin I'm guessing sales are not the best. Still, totally odd stuff

Stitchupmahbutt

Quick-ish post as I am supremely busy at the moment. The Bloat Thrall is one of the few Cryx figs I worked on, originally it was sculpted by another artist but PP was not happy with the final project so they gave the job to me. I was in the mold making department at the time so this guy had a tight deadline and it had to be done on my spare time. The tough bit about it was how big this guy is. I mean, he has a lot of mass all the way around, huge pieces lead to deformations in the molding process but at the time it seemed unavoidable. Not only that but all that pewter balanced on those spindly legs... Geah! One of the fun things was that the back detail only showed from the lower back up and me with my logic decided it made seance that if this guy was a giant skin sack holding caustic fluids that you would want all orifices that didn't lead to the gun closed off, right? So, stitch up his butt. I didn't think too much of it at the time but I guess it ended up being kind of a big deal, sorta like the junk on the original Dire Troll Mauler. I think Matt makes sure that any concept art I get now has any ambiguous spots on the sketches clearly detailed.
Pictures provided by Privateer Press, painted by Team McVey

Frankenswine

Here is the latest figure (that I can talk about) that I did for Privateer Press; the War Hog. It's rare that I feel good about my sculpts after finishing them, they usually look like so much chaos with an upwards of four to five different mediums to get the desired effects. It isn't until after PP posts pics of the finished painted figure that I end up feeling a little better about it. This guy was an exception and I had a satisfied feeling of accomplishment once he was ready for shipping, but that didn't mean that I was without doubt...
For me, when sculpted a monster its fairly easy. I make the armature, bulk up the body and start the anatomy. By the time I get to doing the details like hands, face armor, etc. I already have a good idea of what he looks like overall. When sculpting a jack its bass-ackward; all the pieces are done separately and then put together to make (I hope, I hope) the finished figure. Things get more difficult when you end up with one piece that acts for both a left and right part to get a complete picture of the figure as a whole. The War Hog was something of an amalgam of both which ended up with me putting in late nights and early mornings questioning my skills and choice of vocation. All the cybernetic limbs had to be sculpted first, assembles onto a piecemeal armature and then the meat parts sculpted around it. If I screwed up the scale of the limbs it would mess the whole thing up.
I was even more happy to see the painted pics, the painting crew at PP did a great job. I hear this mini is going over decently with the Warmachine/Hoards players so I'm looking forward to lurking about on the forums to see what kind of paint jobs and conversions people will do to him.

Picture provided by Privateer Press, painted mini by Privateer paint team, concept art by Chris Walton

Coming full circle...

So here we are at the latest incarnation of Hordes and I was asked to do the Dire Troll once again but this time with artwork to go off of. No real story behind this guy except that he is a new beast type for the Trollblooded faction. I know this guy was designed by Chris Walton who is now the primary concept artist at Privateer Press.
Picture provided by Privateer press, figure painted by Privateer Press paint team.

Hello, my name is... MULG?

I think it was around Halloween of '08 when I had gone up to visit with the crew of PP for a party they were throwing; I had just finished the Juggernaut EX and was pumped about the response it got from Matt Wilson. By the time I got home I was itching to start a new personal project and I knew just what I wanted to do; I wanted to do a dire Troll character. Over the next 4 days I was in a sculpting frenzy, since I was between business projects I could devote all of my attention to the new sculpt. Usually when I sculpt something a story begins to form about it to explain why does he look the way he does. In this case I liked the idea of Hoarluk Doomshaper and his ties to dire trolls, if I remember right he disappeared into the wild and came back with a strange hold over the dire trolls, the idea I had was that during this time he went on a quest to find an ancient Krielstone high in the frozen cliffs of the mountains, little did he know that it was attached to the back of the most primeval of trolls. The beast had been waiting for him as Hoarluk's comming was prophesised, bestowed the name Dommshaper upon him and performed the trollish blood bonding ritual as well. The idea being that the dire tolls smell the ancient blood of their elder running through Hoarluk's veins and it is this blood that gives him such an affinity for the warbeasts.

The Concept that formed around the Dire Troll was that he was one of the most eldrich of his race and his massive stone like growths upon his back had some ancient and forgotten text carved into it turning him into a walking Krielstone. Whether the runes' power bestowed a greater-then-average intelligence or it was because of this intelligence that he was chosen to receive them was a mystery. But he was a walking artifact of a time before man and the trollblooded were still young.

The three things that I focused on for his character was his scars, his krielstone and his pose. Since dire trolls regenerate they don't bear scars, but this guy has a huge one going across his left side. His left eye, chest and arm have a trench of stone growths protruding from puckered flesh and originally his arm (where the club is) was a mass of jagged rock turning his fist into a savage living mace. I was attempting to make it look like he had his hand wrapped around something that might have exploded, something magical and volatile that did such damage to him that his regeneration could not cope, instead replacing his flesh with the calloused stone-like protrusions that usually form on the back and joints. The huge growth from his back (his quills of youth replaced by the mane of shards to signify his age) was turned into a krielstone, he would be the guardian of whatever knowledge had been carved into him until his death. The last was his stance and this was tricky. Practically every dire troll is rushing to get at the enemy, all pissed and yelling. That didn't seem right for something venerable like this guy, to reach his age he would have been more clever and maybe because of his age, more grim. Sure he was still dangerous and easy to anger but I wanted him more wise and battle hardened. Instead of flipping out I imagined him stalking across the battlefield, implacable and inevitable, saving his anger for the mighty blow that would surly come once he arrived at his destination. So for this, instead of a charging motion I went with a stride and a look of impending doom on his face like someone was going to get it.

Once I finished I told Matt and Ron about it, sent it up with the proposed idea and awaited their response. They liked the sculpt but sent it back with one correction; his left arm that was the mass of stone was to be replaced with a whole hand and was to carry a club. Some sketches of what they wanted was provided and in a couple of days was sent back up with the new bits. By December of '08 painted preview pics were posted and that is when I learned that he was to be called "Mulg.' I still don't know just how much of his character concept was kept as I have yet to get the Hoards book he is in or have been able to read his fluff, but I'm pretty sure that's him on the cover of Metamorphosis.

So, how cool is that? For a lowly sculptor to whip up a mini in 4 days and get to have rules made for him and to appear on the cover of a rule book? I seriously doubt that any other company would have done that, so my hats off to Privateer Press for putting up with my patented brand of spaz, it was a nice little ego boost to think that one of my own ideas would influence the game.

Pictures provided by Privateer Press, paints by Privateer Press paint team