A Medal for Ireland.........well............ ;)

Damn hell but it's been an age. Lots been going on, lots been happening and the humidity still won't fuck the hell off! Hotter and sweater than the devil's ass cleft here for the last month or two. But some painting still been getting done. Not as much as I'dve liked but hey ho.

In bigger n better news - the Facebook group 'Eavier Metal had their annual 'Eadbanger painting competition. Loadsa different categories and I entered pieces in 4 of them. First time entering a proper painting competition so needed to seriously get my shit together. The level of talent and painting that goes into this comp is phenomenal!! Seriously top class

Anyhow......it's done and judged and the result are in.......

 I entered a squad of Sicarian Rustalkers from my AdMech war convocation. Should really have built a stand or base to house them. Happy getting an honourable mention here. Next year definitely upping my game on this one.

For the Diorama/Vignette category I went with something a little more personal. A while back Buttery Commisar over on Dakka sent me the now OPP Gaunt's Ghosts figs in the old white metal. I love those books and they're what really got me back into 40K so they deserve something extra special when it comes to the paint. The plan is to build a vig for each of them showing a scene from the books. For Larks - it was always going to be the scene from his own short story 'The Angel of Bucephelon' (If you haven't read it already, go pick up a fething book and do so). I had a fairly good idea of how I wanted to do this but the trouble was how to include 'the angel'. In the book the angel is in the form of a statue that talks to Larks but I didnt want to include another fig in the scene to emphasise the lonlieness and solitude that Larks suffers from. So with a little artistic license I decided on an angel in a broken stained glass window behind him. Anyways, I talked about all this before in a previous post here - http://warpbound.blogspot.kr/2016/06/i-saw-angel.html   Larks got me another honourable mention :) I had hope he would do better as it was quite a personal piece but the competition was fierce and the winners rightfully deserved their places at the top.

Got another honourable mention in the Monsters/Armour category with my Thanatar. I think I spent the most amount of time on this guy and his base. Tried out a whole rake of new techniques an stuff on him. I thought he might do a little better but hey ho - tis all good :) Better pics of him in an earlier post here - http://warpbound.blogspot.kr/2016/05/step-forward-big-fella.html

And finally the big one. The Showcase category! I went with 'The Nurse' from Thirdman Studios, sculpted by the amazing Alexandre Aragon Marks. The base is totally scratch built (I have WiP photos somewhere but can't be arsed finding them right now!!) and boy those spiral stairs were an ass to make!! The wall is just several layers of plasticard then painted and distressed a lot!! I carved into the wooden base and then filled it with BFTBG paint. Anyways - was absolutely delighted when I found out that she placed and took 2nd prize in a really hard category. When I first finished painting and based her, she recieved kinda lukewarm reactions. I know that style of boutique figure is not everyone's cup of tea but I was kinda surprised so having her winning in such a high talen leveled competition felt good. Really REALLY good :D

Well, that's about it. I have a whole pile of other stuff I've finished recently but I'll save that for another time. In the meantime, I really rec/mnd you go and check out all the other winners from the 'Eadbanger competition. There are some seriously amazing and beautiful pieces on show. Check 'em all out here  - 'Eadbanger 2016 Winners

Till next time

 Jan

"I Saw An Angel"

Hlaine 'Mad Larkin & 'The Angel Of Bucephalon'

Morning All - just a really quick wee update while I try to get my morning coffee into me and vanquish morning stiffness.
Recently finished up a vignette I had been working on for one of the 'Gaunt's Ghosts' OOP figures. A most excellent and really generous painter over on DakkaDakka sent me 5 of the old metal character figures from the range and I figured they each deserved their own little vignette of a scene they played a role in from the books. Previously I did the Aexe Cardinal farmhouse scene (which you can see here - http://warpbound.blogspot.kr/2016/03/commissions-done-back-to-mech.html ) which turned out rather well. So it was time to do another. First up - my favourite of Ghosts - Mad Hlaine Larkin.
In the books, Larkin is one of the saddest of characters. Originally a poacher back on Tanith, he suffers from a few mental disorders and is the 1st's Master Sniper. I'm not going to go into him too much here as you can read all about him in the books, which you should have already done. If you haven't read the GG books yet, then go and get stuck in for feth's sake!
Anyways - there is a short story featuring Larkin called 'The Angel of Bucephalon' where Mad Larks imagines (or does he??) that he is visited by an angel while he is getting ready to assassinate an enemy Chaos Magister, Nokad the Blighted. It's an awesome wee story and shows us a very intimate and sad portrait of Larkin. This was the scene I decided to do for his figure's vignette.

In the story, it's a statue of an angel that comes to life and starts talking to Larks. I didn't have an angel/statue figures to hand and I didn't really want another figure beside Larkin in the vignette as I wanted the scene to also portray the isolation that Larkin suffers due to his condition. So rather than showing the angel as a statue, I decided to try and make a broken stained glass window with the remnants of an angel in it. This was something of a challenge!! And the results......well.......judge for yourselves!!
I give you 'Hlaine 'Mad' Larkin & 'The Angel Of Bucephalon' '

 And there we have it - hope you like him and cheers for stopping by. C&C welcome as always

Cheers folks and catch you for the next one :)

Jan