The golden fever #1

As far as I can renember, I always been fascinated by the Custodes . First of all, their appearance : massive guys in golden armour with some awesome combi bolter - spears . And, secondly, their role : Emperor's personnal guards . Everything is here to make me dreaming about those fantastic characters of the Warhammer 40k's universe.

Just before the first leaks of the Prospero's Burning  box, I was working on a Deathwatch army . You can imagine my surprise when I saw the Watchmaster mini with a custodian weapon named Guardian Spear . This was my excuse to kitbash a custodian mini to count as Watchmaster ! And here is the result :

Without being exactly on the right design, it's quite close from the fantastic drawings I've found on the Internet .  I've been very inspired by the fantastic work my friend Krauty (Eternal hunt) had already done on this subject .

Various Krautscientist's work on Custodes :

 But something was missing. I wanted mine taller than a regular marine or a terminator. And so, the solution came to me with the use of a Stormcast body. It's the right size, with a nice "artificer armour". I've find some examples still on the Eternal Hunt site :

First one by Ryan Stevenson

And the second by Noctus Cornix :

Those were enought to convince me that I was on the right track.

That's all for today. This first article is just the project's genesis. More to come soon. See you next time !

Why forums and other sites are so important

Hello followers... Today, I wanted to share with you my point of view on the forums and sites speaking minis.

I do not know if I can quantify the number of hours I spend to visit the different forums and solo artists sites. 

The fact is that I always find interesting things that either ignite my inspiration, or gives me additional information as a tutorial of paint for example. I'm hanging on the forum Ammo Bunker since May 2013, and I must say that I have made wonderful encounters. To name a few, I would say mainly Julian Bayliss, KrautScientist, Jeff Vader, Logan, PDH, or more recently, Drazul and Weirdingway. I forget a lot, and that those who do not read their names do not feel insulted ... you will be all in my hobby. 

Forums, are in my opinion the basis of everything (virtually speaking of course). It includes topics "basic" just dealing Warbands or killteams but there are also fantastic initiatives like Jeff's "Inspiration" or  Thistle's "Lord Nurglii versions - the remix's" . It is also an opportunity to participate in small challenges as Masterbuilder "March is make a mini from a movie" . 

Subsequently, the sites are "solos" as Ironsleet, Officio Convertorum Eternal Hunt, Four go to war ... that we always visit for read and reread. But the main point is that we can find common ground with this or that artist and, suddenly, it is based on his experience and his designs for progressing. 

I come now to what prompted me to write this article. Here is a warband of the standard type I painted it there for two years :   

Inquisitorial warband 25 May 2013

The buildings were more than basic, no real conviction. There was no treatment other than the wash, I knew nothing of Highligting and I refused to dry brush. The result was bland, tasteless, and lacked a touch of color to enhance the figurine itself as a focal point.

And there is my latest one :

Radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitor "Methus Swaire" 17 March 2015

In my opinion, although I am far from being the painter of the year, it's quite much better! There something living on it... Both, painting and modeling evolved thanks to everything I've read at the expert advices that were given to me.

So, this is why I found all of those important for the hobby life. Stay tuned!

Thank you for reading

A blast from the past part 1

In my previous blog (Legatho's workshop), I had begun to question all the artists who inspired me. Did not drop that idea , so I would like to get those old interviews to repost here. So here they are.

The firts one :

Hello all! Today, I'd like to present you one of my favorite blog :

 

 

Yep, "ETERNAL HUNT"... Why I love this blog? It's very simple.... When I discover it, I was looking for Khorne's berserks inspiration for conversions, and this blog is full of! But not only.. Inqu28, Blood Bowl, reviews... A real big part of the hobby is on this site. The happy owner of this blog's name is KrautScientist. Be warned, his work is very addictive.

Hi KrautScientist and welcome to Legatho's workshop!

  Hey there! I am KrautScientist, 32 years old, from Germany. I’ve been in this insane little hobby of ours since the early 90s. Like many hobbyists, I got into wargaming/tabletop gaming by way of HeroQuest, then Space Crusade, 2^nd edition 40k and Warhammer Fantasy. I took a longer break from the hobby during the latter half of the 2000s and got back in back in late 2010 with renewed interest – partly because of my cousin talking me into it, partly because I was in love with the – then brand new – Dark Eldar models. After getting back into the hobby, I discovered the awesome amount of talent and inspiration in the blogosphere and on the various forums, and it’s been a blast to come up with new little plastic men ever since – to the detriment of my wallet, I might add!
When it comes to armies, my most important project are my World Eaters, Khorne’s Eternal Hunt, but I also own smaller detachments of Traitor Guard or kitbashed Custodes, as well as a Blood Bowl team, the Orkheim Ultraz. And I am a really big fan of the whole INQ28 movement, so I come up with all kinds of shady characters for that setting as well.

Could you tell us your vision of Warhammer 40k/ Inq28?

Whoa, that’s quite a question there! Let’s see… To me, 40k is this enormous, eclectic universe throwing together things that normally shouldn’t mix: You’ve got science fiction mashed together with quasi-religious iconography, medieval art, renaissance stylings and a generous helping of body horror. And there is also this prevailing sense of tragedy, with everything slowly having gone to spit over a time of ten millennia –as a matter of fact, it’s so dark that it’s sometimes bizarrely hilarious as well ;)
Now where mainline 40k is all about these huge, sweeping battle scenes and the end of the world always being just around the corner, INQ28 is about the world in-between the cracks, about the shadows and the people (and creatures) that dwell there: Like “The Name of the Rose” set in the David Lynch version of Dune, if that makes any sense.
Consider, if you will, any John Blanche art from the days of 2^nd edition: 40k proper is the striking, but strangely medieval (and subtly disturbing) warrior dead centre. INQ28 is all about the strange and demented figures lurking in the background, the ones you wish you’d get a better look at – but then you are also happy that you don’t…
All of this is probably my rather roundabout way of saying that these settings are truly special! Unlike WFB, which sometimes seems like a collection of all possible fantasy tropes turned up to eleven to me, there’s nothing quite like 40k, nothing that will scratch exactly the same itch – which is why I am probably forever hooked on the stuff, I suppose.

 What are your main sources of inspiration?

 First and foremost, I get the most important part of my inspiration by looking at some of the amazing stuff other hobbyists come up with: Seeing marvelous models by people like PDH, Jeff Vader, GuitaRasmus, the Spiky Rat Pack or many others always makes me want to push the envelope on my own projects: We are very fortunate to have a hobby blogosphere full of amazingly talented artists, and looking at their stuff usually makes me want to create something to match that insane level of quality.

Some of the artwork and background created for the 40k universe also definitely count as a huge inspiration: John Blanche’s artwork and visions of the 40k universe are always an influence, of course, and there are all time greats like the (unwaveringly brilliant) 2^nd edition Codex Chaos or the Inquisitor rulebook. And, of course, there’s always an undercurrent of possible inspiration that comes from art, literature, television or video games. If I like it and think I can use it, I’ll try to make it fit one of my projects ;)

How do you choose your paint schemes? Do you stay on a coherency or did the mini told you how it want to be painted?

 If there’s one thing that defines me from a painting perspective, it’s that I am a big fan of easy recipes: I’ll never be a Golden Demon standard painter, and I have the attention span of a very small bird when painting, so most of my painting can actually be broken down into fairly simple steps. The colour schemes I employ, then, have to be similarly straightforward and, if possible, striking. Maybe that’s why I love World Eaters so much: red and bronze look great together. Add some pale skin, and you have a winner. INQ28 models are more subtle: Pale, often sickly skin and muted tones, with lots of added grime and rust. I may not always know what I am doing when painting, but I always get a pretty good feeling what does works and doesn’t work.

What are your favourite bitz?

 I am a huge bitz addict, so this one is really a toughie. Hmm, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that I love all chaos bitz, because they help me to build new, spiky and sinister servants for the dark gods. On the other hand, I really love those disparate, eclectic bitz that seem like somebody snuck them onto the sprue while no one was looking: The little snail from the Bretonnian Men-at-arms, the owl from the Wood Elf Dryads: Stuff like that often makes for the best INQ28 accessories!

 Do you have any project on your workbench?

 More than I can count (or paint, unfortunately). The project that manages to pique my interest more than any other at the moment is assembling and painting a squad of gladiatorial World Eaters: Each model in the squad is clearly an individual, and they are all patterned after historical gladiator types or general gladiator tropes. Working on these guys has been a blast so far, and I hope I’ll end up with a standout squad!

 Last step, choose one of your minis (your favorite one) and tell us why. I'll do the same with what you made I prefer.

Again, an extremely difficult question. I usually like whatever I managed to finish last the most, at least until the next project comes rolling around. When it comes to models I am still really happy with, possibly my favourite would have to be Inquisitor Zuul, a model I built as an NPC character for last year’s Inqvitational: Zuul was built to resemble an actual piece of artwork, which was quite a challenge. He may not be perfect, but I still think the model has quite a bit of character.

 

 

And while nobody’s looking, let me sneak in my (still unpainted) model for Lord Captain Lorimar, my supreme chaos lord: It took me ages to finally come up with a model to embody the idea of the character I had in my head, and I am still stupidly happy with the result! Now to work up the courage to actually paint him…

  

Ok so now, it's my turn, and one of my favorite is : Huntmaster Deracin, Keeper of the Forge. It's true that making a choice is very hard! But this one is really cool because made in the same way than a lot of Inq28 : a Wfb base for a mini wich have to fit in the 40k's universe.

 

Thank you for your answer.

Thanks for having me!

I hope you were pleased to read those archives from another age.

Thank you for reading