Eldar Exodite Dragon Knights

As a break from working on the Terminator range I have been working on my Tevari Tala Riders from Macrocosm Miniatures which I pledged for on their first Kickstarter campaign, who I will be using as Exodite Dragon Knights for my 2nd Ed Eldar army.

I wanted to paint these up differently than to my usual way as they need to match into the Eldar army that I purchased a couple years ago (pictures of which you can find in an earlier blog post).  This entailed some different techniques I'd not tried before such as pre-shading and not using any washes but building up layers with over brushing/dry brushing.  Also as my usual painting style tends to be quite dark I wanted to go with a more vibrant scheme which would fit the time frame of gaming I'm aiming to use these in, this includes green base rims (a rather conflicted choice for me)!

The miniatures required very little cleaning up and were good clean metal casts, the dinosaurs having been part of the Hasslefree range at one point I believe and the riders being Macrocosm's own sculpts.  They went together relatively easy with just a little green stuff work need on the joints for the dinosaurs, the thing I thought would be the biggest issue would be how the riders sit atop the dinos however they all had a natural place where they balanced and all the was need was to pinch the legs in to get a good tight fit.  The right arms then fitted very nicely into the correct position on the saddle.

Once I'd base coated them black it was time for a white dry brush as a pre-shade layer.  I'm not sure what sort of impact this actually had on the end result but it did make picking out the details while painting much easier.

Now was time for the colour scheme, I knew I want purple/blue 'Dragons' because space dinosaurs right but I wasn't sure which way to go with the riders armour (something natural like leather or bleached bone or perhaps metallic) but in the end after a quick check on a handy colour wheel I decided to keep the vibrant theme going and went with and orangey/yellow scheme.  Finally I painted up the weapons to match in with the ones from my existing army and painted up the bases.
I'm still not sure on the base rims as I always paint mine black so I'd love some feedback on them, do they look right?

Here are some further images of the finished Dragon Knights:

Overall I'm quite happy with these considering I wasn't painted in safe zone so to speak but would love to hear your feedback on them.

Next up on the table are the five remaining soldiers for the Terminator Resistance force so hopefully these won't take too long to finish off before I move onto a couple of characters and the another project.

Phil

Salute and the loot

Salute

Well last Saturday we made the snap decision to go to Salute and that we would drive there and back in one day, Amy thought I was mad but conceded in the end to my logic of "well why not?".  After a nine and a half hour round car journey and eight hours of being on our feet we arrived home safely with a boot full of goodies and still positively buzzing about the experience.

In order to get to Salute and be in at doors open we set of at 3:30 in the morning and made our way to London, we landed at the Excel centre with on one or two wrong turns (not bad being our first time in London) at 8:15 to see that there was already a queue for the queue!

 

So after quick breakfast bagel each we joined the pre-queue which was soon ushered into the queuing hall, where we rummaged through our Salute goody bags and passed the time by reading the enclosed magazine.  Now we knew Salute was big and I had read about last years attendance figures (somewhere between 5000-7000 people) but it didn't prepare me for the sheer amount of people that is, it was certainly quite the site just before they let us in.

This is a small portion of the queue, it was about double the depth and then the same again behind me.

At just after 10 they opened the flood gates and on plan of action kicked in.  We had printed out and marked on a map of Salute with everyone we definitely wanted to see and first up was Prodos where we could collect some of our Kickstarter pledge and the limited Alien Warriors.  Then we found Deep Cut studios who's gaming mats we've been eyeing up for some time, then we were off to Heresy Miniatures to say hi to Andy and pick up some of the Kickstarter miniatures as well as look at some of the work in progress sculpts and the master cast of Madame Ner'Gabba (she's bloody gorgeous), next came stops at River Horse who had a mock up copy of the Labyrinth board game (can't wait for this as it looked great), Mantic Games for some miniatures for Amy and then Steamforged Games to check out the Dark Souls board game.

 Prepare to Die!

The miniatures for Dark Souls looked good but I wasn't to sure on the game itself but as this as only a snapshot I'll wait for the Kickstarter to launch before passing judgement.  Next up was a stop at the Crooked Dice stand and a catch up with Karl on what was coming up and of course to pick a little something up as well, they were running an escape from Mos Eisley game (among many others) which looked brilliant as well.  Then finally on our first run around we headed to World of Twilight, again to pick up some Kickstarter miniatures and a pre-order along with some new bits they had brought along or I had forgotten to order.  It was nice to meet Mike in person and have a chat as well as catch the bug hunt demo game.

At this point it was 1:15 and we were weighed down with bags and boxes so decided to drop them off at the car and grab some lunch after which we could have a more leisurely walk around.  We wanted to make sure we checked out every trade stand before leaving to make sure we didn't miss anything and so ended up with a couple more bags by the end of the day and also managed to bump into a friend or two as well, you couldn't meet a nicer chap than Tony Yates who was manning the Foundry stand and we had a nice little chin-wag and then Rob from Hysterical Games who's new buildings are fantastic:

http://www.shattered-glass.co.uk/HystericalGames/index.php/shop/panzerfauste/scenery2016-04-15-04-03-37243656618

They'll be finding use in our games of World of Twilight and Dragon Rampant, we just need to pick up a few more now!

It was now just after 4:15 and we wanted to head back home before the masses of people did the same, a wise decision as the journey home was nice and easy with us stepping back over the threshold at just after 10:00, minds still whirring with the excitement of the day.

The Loot

Now on to the goodies!

Our condensed swag (there was a few more bags initially)

The Deep Cut Studios (http://www.deepcutstudio.com/) mat, we'll be picking up a couple more of these, great print quality

The Salute goody bag you receive on entry

The new Centaurs from Mantic Games, these are really nice sculpts with a Narnian feel

Various bits a pieces we picked up on the second run through (the Modiphius miniatures were actually part of a a pre-order I placed on the day for Achtung! Chthulhu  Skirmish game which looked very interesting)

The World of Twilight miniatures, should keep me going for some time

The Plast Craft church caught Amy's eye  so we brought one home.  It will fit nicely into games of Batman, WWWII and Doctor Who

A Gnome house from Hysterical Games, we love it

AvP Kickstarter picks ups and the 'limited' Alien warriors.  There's one thing you can't deny about these and that is that they are superb miniatures

Hersey Miniatures, so many uses for these; 40k 2nd Ed; Dragon Rampant; and of course Andy's own Netherhells once completed.

Sorry if I've gone on a bit but we really did have an excellent time and will be making sure we attend next year.

Finally I just want to give a quick shout out to some of the other stands we stopped at and had a chat with or just rummaged through their lovely wares; Clockwork Goblin (I have Konflikt '47 on pre-order and they had some painted 3D prints on show of upcoming miniatures); Warlord Games who had a few Doctor Who miniatures on display (the Zygons and Judoon looked good as did Wilf and Martha however the Tennant Doctor didn't look that great for me so it appears as though I'll be cherry picking from this range once released); Arcane scenery (who's resin stone circles and pre-historic scenery will soon be added to our collection); Otherworld Miniatures (for some stunning displays and of course more miniatures for Amy's Nature army); and Titan Wargames who's evil Dwarves will be finding their way into my Abyssal Dwarf army for Kings of War.

Phil

If you're reading this you are the Resistance - Terminator Genisys

I've just finished my next batch of miniatures for the Terminator: Genisys miniatures game, namely the resin Resistance soldiers.  These are fantastic miniatures with so much detail and though I've only done them to a table top level you could really go to town on them.

Two soldiers caught during their cigarette break 

Time to even the odds against the Terminators 

Some of the great poses you can make from the miniatures 

 Two men willing to do whatever it takes to bring down Skynet

Now for a nice option that comes on the sprue, Terminator Infiltrator heads (so the Resistance don't get all the love)

Though I do have more Terminator miniatures to go through I'm going to have a break from these and put together something I've been waiting for, Tevari Tala Riders from Macrocosm miniatures which will be joining my 2nd Ed 40k Eldar army and Exodite Dragon Knight Riders.

Here's a sneak peak of them on my desk at the moment.

Lastly it will be Salute this coming weekend, something we've always wanted to go to but it's always been difficult to attend.  Well not this year, in a last minute decision we've decided to drive there and back on the day making an 8 hours journey overall, hardly ideal and possible slightly nuts but we'll have all of Sunday to recover and it should be well worth it.

Until next time...

Madame Ner'Gabba - Heresy Miniatures

In a break from my usual post I'm doing a quick shout out for a new 'miniature' (a term which is lost on this fantastic sculpt) from Andy Foster of Heresy Miniatures.
I backed his Kickstarter for resin monsters and this is one of the pieces which came from the success of that campaign, she's slowly been taking shape since then and has now finally been cast, the result is simply mind blowing.  The details, character and charm of this piece combine in perfect storm of a miniature and I can't wait to get my hands on mine.
This is something that collectors, gamers and painters will want to have in their possession but for myself I can' wait to get her painted up and used in Dragon Rampant, potentially Kings of War and certainly a dungeon crawler (Andy is working on his own for some time now called Netherhells which I'm looking forward to) but I could see her being used in Age of Sigmar or even in a Oldhammer Chaos army as she does have a touch of the Nurgle about her.

I'll leave you now with a link to her page on Heresy's website along with a few select images I've taken from there (there are more to see of the website):

www.heresyminiatures.com/madame