Tau XV109 Y’vahra Battlesuit - Flying base

This is my first attempt at sculpting flames, which I am going to use as a flying base for my XV109.  As this is my first attempt it has it's problems, as in, the length of the flame coming out of the flamer is a little short, but that's due to the size of the base, I had to make do with the limited size and I didn't want to have him flying too high. and additionally and more importantly sculpting flames is hard :)

Once again I'm rekindling my love for Milliput.

I hope you like and hints and tips are welcome.

Sorry not 40K related....... but giant toy soldiers though :)

I thought I would put together a few images of what I do as my day job, it's hardly a day job, but what I get up to studying Contemporary Art at University.....  I am allowed to make giant toy soldiers... sweeeeeet.  Well only for this project anyway :( 

Here is a link to my art blog for a short explanation of this project link

OMG - THE NEW DEREDEO PATTERN DREADNOUGHT FROM FW

If you love marines the new Deredeo Dreadnought is awesome and so are the rules.  For me it looks like a mixture of Robotech Monstor and the Tau Broadside, can I have three please :)

New Riptide heads

Yes that's right I have another new Riptide.  "One can never have enough Riptides"  It's the XV109 and as it's a variant from the normal Riptide, I thought it needed a completely different head, I also wanted to keep the XV107's head in mind, so it's roughly based on his, but its not a fixed head like the XV107.  what do you think?

New Dark Eldar Grotesques or Aberrations anybody!

Wow two out of three isn't bad and cheaper than buying 3 Grotesques, I might have to have some of these and start converting :)

P.S. sorry for not blogging recently moving house and university assessments have gotten the better of me, but I'm back now....

Tau Skyshield landing pad - Concept through to design

Hi all, it's been a little busy in my house catching up on University work and I'm still un-boxing after our move.  I thought this would be a good time to re-visit the Tau Skyshield Landing Pad and as you can see I stole ideas from the web and began to develop on the back of these images into a working digital modal.  I was torn between what I wanted and what it would cost, I knew I did not have a massive budget for this project, I also wanted to produce something that could be laser cut by a third party.  I had to compromise on the 6 towers, as seen below I wanted big thick towers but to keep the costs down I changed it.  I also wanted to use the top of the landing pad walls as Tau Aegis defence lines (for future projects).  

Anyway I hope these are inspirational for others, I have also put the dimensions on the drawing so if anybody wanted to create their own based on these plans they could.  Enjoy :) 

2 weeks, 2 armies and 2 events "Armies on Parade GW Bolton" and "Blog Wars 8"

Well it has been a very busy couple of weeks and I have to apologies for the lack of posts during this time, while I have had a lot to share.  Moving house and not having internet for two weeks has seriously effected my addiction - talk about going cold turkey and stressfull doesn't even come close. 

Preparing for two events and adding some additional figures in the last moments while trying to move house was a little silly on my part, but as they say, the proof is in the pudding and winning two painting competitions with two armies back to back and one of them on my birthday, has to go down as a major achievement in my life, I just hope my wife doesn't read this, I'll be eating from of a straw for month, but joking aside she has been very supportive of my hobby/addiction (as long as all the chores are done :) ) and I couldn't do it with out her and her support.  

Well back to it - as promised images of my winning Armies on Parade army in the cabinet at GW Bolton and more images can be seen on the GW Bolton Facebook page, thanks to Ryan for a great day, Ill defo do it agan.

And secondly after an awesome weekend at Blog Wars 8 with Pete Butler (space wolves), Ben Houghton (necron) and Dave Western (nids).  Ok true, I did come dead last, adding to the saying "those who cant play, paint" not my best gaming moment, but I faced some good opponents and some fabulous armies.  It's not an excuse honest, but I like to look at it in another way, my dice rebelled against me because my luck was being channeled in winning prizes, money and goodies.  One Wooden spoon and £5 later, plus the addition of £10 for best painted Character and £15 for best painted army, And that's not all I won third place in the raffle - Space Wolves Venerable dreadnought sweeeeet.  Then Pete won the second prize, the Dark Eldar Void Raven Bomber, and we did a swap sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.  Wow so what was first prize you might ask, only an Imperial knight!

If people are looking for a great day out at a tournament but don't wont to spend a boat load of cash to do it, I highly recommend Blog Wars and all for £18.50 and you get lunch, Barginus..  Check out Alex''s blog "From the Fang" for more details

In the mean time some images from the event enjoy :-

My Urien Rakarth and his followers

Martin's drop pods and terminators appearing in my back line turn 1, holy moly.

Dave Western's (2nd place) Awesome Tyranids 

Martin Waine's (3rd place) kick ass Space Wolves