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.

Adepticon angel?

Oooooohyeaaaaah, I remember sculpting this. God, something like a year ago, forgot that I did it but just ran across a picture of it. Took a few seconds to realize it was one of mine. This was set up by John Candice over at Sodapop Miniatures (which is why there is a little soda pop bottle at her feet) and has alt weapons and heads for those of you who like a little choice with their minis. This is the first female figure I have sculpted to go into production and I'm pretty sure the only "human scaled" figure I have done for anyone other then myself. 
Apparently it's limited to 500 and you have to have a ticket for Adepticon 2012 to get it so to those who go and get one I hope you enjoy.
Picture shamelessly snagged from Adepticon website  http://cart.adepticon.org/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=29&products_id=560 and figure painted by James Wappel

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

Super Dungeon Violator

I've been doing work for Sodapop miniatures for about.. A year or so now? John Candice has been giving me strange and interesting projects to work on which has been testing me, I mean, just because you can sculpt something dosn't mean you can sculpt EVERYTHING. Or at least sculpt it well which gets me into some funky situations sometimes. One of the odd things about this job is that if you do one type of sculpt well you end up getting pigeon-holed into doing the same thing over and over again. John has been giving me some assignments that are waaaay out of my norm, so much so that I have been unsure if I can do the art justice. But he took a chance and asked me to do work on his Super Dungeon Explorer core system. He actually let me play with the designs and bounce ideas back and fourth with the final product. If you have the game, "Rex" and all the dragon hatchlings are stuff done by me. One of the coooool things I love is that after looking at the concept art and talking to Mr. Candice I came up with the wee flying dragon miniature, that ended up having it's own artwork by Andrea Confrancesco. Checkitout!


http://graingnome.deviantart.com/art/Super-Dungeon-Explore-illo-208871650


 I love that, it makes me feel like I'm actually doing something to progress the hobby. 

So far I've been hearing good things about the game, people seem to be taken with the mix of chibi figures and old school vid game theme of the game. Something new and invigorating for the industry, it can't be all warhammers and grunting steroid men with skanky women in ineffectual armor, every once in a while we need a push in another direction to remind us all of why we do it.

For fun. 

So here is hoping you all have some.

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)