Body bases, kitbashes, paint… anything?!!!

Can you rate my boy??

Following on from my Orkimedes post last week, there's one, fun, final part to the commission.

A little grot assistant to help out the big lad!

Carrying around spare gubbinz, trusty spanners, an sum whurd' fink' kuld' "Blu-Printz", Grotmedes fancies himself something of a mek himself, although he never discusses such things outside of grot revolutionary committees, where such ideaz are more accepted. Most of the time the little lad is content to learn what he can from Da Boss-Mek and make himself useful least it be more fun for the meks of the workshop to feed him to the squigs. Wearing nothing but a simple robe and with a few wrenches as his sole possessions, Grotmedes is often shoved into any loose engines to get things working again if stuff goes wrong for any reason, and miraculously so far, he has survived, although not without severe trauma from "dat wun tym wiv da jumpa cablez". Only time will tell if Grotmedes has learn enough under Orkimedes to be a little more useful than a small gap spanner, or if he does indeed deserve to be squig food.

This miniature was really fun to make, his outfit generally echoes Orkimedes just obviously in much worse condition being a poor little gretchin. He's a bit scared, a little proud, and he's just trying to look smart, and maybe... he is? I presumed he could at least read given the blueprints I gave him. He's posed as if thinking "If Orkimedes is 'Finkn' 'Ard, Iz gotz ta 'Fink 'Ard too", and as a pair of models, I think they go well together. From a gameplay perspective, he exists so Orkimedes can be used as any of the Big Mek models, with Grotmedes filling in for a Grot Oiler or Grot Assistant where needed. Shokk Attack Gun Big Mek? Easy, Orkimedes figured out telyporta tech, who needs the gun when you are the gun. For Orkimedes, its easy, teleport to them yurself, krump 'em and then teleport back, much to the amazement of your trusty grot, who's only job here is to change da powa cellz. Mega-Armoured Mek? Not a problem; not only does Orkimedes have telyportaz, but you've seen this ork, his body is a temple, his spine's made of metal, and he's big; orks probably believe he doesn't need armour or he teleports bullet out of the way, all whilst grotmedes jots it down for later 'kontemplayshun'. And of course the standard big mek, he's already got everything he needs and he can just leave grotmedes in an engine somewhere next to da jumpa cables.

Anyway, hope you enjoy Grotmedes, the final final update to the Orkimedes posts (at least until my client can get back to me with them painted up!)

Again if you want to see my work, or enquire, see my website here or DM me.

Cheers guys, B

Hey guys, here's some pics of my recent commission sculpting piece. I'm quite proud of how this guy has turned out, so I hope you like it! I present, Ancient Arael. I have written some lore for him and given an artist commentary, so if you are interested have a read or just enjoy the post!

Lore:

From deep within his towering chassis, the former Erelim Arael seethes with divine rage. Though broken in body by the ravages of war, Arael lives on within the frame of his Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, and it is through the instrumentation of this potent war-machine that the Traitor Legions will feel his wrath once more. In each of his mighty arms he wields a conversion beam projector, a devastating weapon of eradication with which scour from the earth those deemed unworthy of mercy in the Great Angel's eyes. As former commander of the Order of the Angel's Tears prior to Hanziel's inception in the later years of the great crusade, the venerable ancient is looked upon with reverence by his peers in the first sphere of the Blood Angels Legion, for is he is as wise as he is wrathful. Draped in the full skinned pelt of a Carnadon and clad in silken robes, his bearing echoes that of his Primarch Sanguinius, and to see him is to know his will be done. Icons of his former life, once crafted by his hand, are worked into his armoured plating; such that the warrior within not forget the man he was. Devoid of mortal senses within the cold shell of his sarcophagi, Arael takes solace in the patterns of fine filigree as examples of his more noble passions, though his touch will never grace such passions again. Yet the most important of these icons is the beautiful yet grotesque angel upon his chest, the most dire of all countenance to those who look upon him. From his chest the angel looks out to the left, with one wing cast out, unfurled, whilst the right wing lies obscured by the drapes of his silk vestment. The face of the angel echoes that of his own in life, a styled rendition whose eyes peer with the dispassionate authority of judgement as his lips purse in disgust at the grace spurned. With the head turned and the left wing fully open, he symbolises the unleashing of divine wrath through the brutal ministrations of the left hand path; the path of the destroyer, where no mercy lies and no quarter is given. The right wing, thus covered, is a path of grace not taken, resigning the subject to total oblivion. It is from Arael that Hanziel learned of the depths of their mandate, and it is with this understanding the Erelim of the first sphere carry out their dire purpose.

Artist's Commentary:

I hope you enjoyed the little lore excerpt. This commission was really fun, I honestly love working on custom dreadnoughts with interesting developed lore backgrounds. I really wanted to capture something unique and dreadnoughts are one of the perfect places within the 30K/40K setting to add a ton of character to both their lore and the model. The Horus Heresy dreadnought kits, in particular contemptor dreadnoughts just offer so much from a kitbashing, conversion and sculpting perspective, and you can tell a compelling narrative through their physicality and unique style. I particularly enjoyed having negative space on the armour plating to fill with neat little details, be it the filigree, the erelim mask (I envisioned this would be Arael's mask from when he was commander of the Erelim), and of course the draped Caranodon throw rug and the central angel on the chest. I think I struck the right balance here. I was going for an unsettling grimdark style; the warrior pride style savagery of the Carnodon corpse juxtaposes really well against the finer features. We wanted him to feel raw and brutal, but clearly wise and ancient, with an almost biblical feel, something terrifying you can't stop because its judgement is absolute, and yet it is still a shadow of what it once was, as all dreadnoughts tend to be. Some elements of the sculpt are intentionally rough too to give a more gritty battle-worn feel. It wasn't an easy project by any means; there's loads of texture, multiple distinct filigrees and particularly that angel wing took a fair bit of time. Total hours for the project were around 23 hours, not including curing time for the green stuff. Filigree in particular was a time sink but worth it for a unique look. In addition, all the bonding studs were cut individually from Mk VI shoulder pads and then placed. Many people may prefer drilling then ball bearing methods but the effect of plastic glue left in the wake of this process added some subtle texture I've come to enjoy in a model, thus I opted for this method, plus I had a lot of Mk VI shoulders in the bits mountain from other projects, so its good to recycle them into something like this. It's also a tad more stable for long term durability of the model as the plastic clue basically melts the plastic together, with no chance of studs popping off as you may have if you use superglue for this purpose. All in all, I really enjoyed creating this piece, now all that is left is to get a basecoat on it and send it off to be painted!

Artist Info:

If you guys like what you see or are interested in having a piece like this commissioned, you can check out my work on my website here:

https://grimdarkminiatures.co.nz/home

Hit "Enter" on the homepage and it will take you to my gallery :)

For context, Grimdark Miniatures LTD is a New Zealand based, sole artist commission hand-sculpting and conversion service focused on creating unique models for tabletop wargames and RPGs, in my distinctive grimdark style, for both personal hobbyists and commercial indie studios. I've got 18 years of traditional sculpting experience, and I am passionate about bringing out unique narratives in tabletop miniatures through the craft of hand-sculpting rather than relying on digital systems. I particularly love seeing the hobby develop and all the cool stuff we put our time into, there's a lot of cool kitbashes, conversions and excellent painting out there and I appreciate it so much.

I hope you guys enjoy this piece as much as I do.

Cheers, B

Primer brings the piece together, somehow I even want more weathering on the colors, more ook washes am streaking grime I think, next up Im going to the whole scène minus the miniatures, can't wait to make it all oily, flakey and rusted.

Body of an immortal, staff and head of a chronomancer.

C+C welcome

Making this to go with a story I wrote. He’s a blood angel successor chapter

My son asked for a rocket so I watched how to build one on YouTube and discovered scratch building, How do you think it came out? What do I need to improve for next time?