Sidetracked Mercenary

I just finished this epic piece of a commission work. My client, who wants to be referred only as Timeless wanted me to build this piece, based on my earlier commission but with Skaven involved this time.

Awesome project! lot of work though, but equal amount of fun too ;)

Soon these little fellas are packed into box and shipped to US of A to their new home! May the gods of greenstuff offer them a safe journey!


This commission has delayed my work on my =I= warband a bit but now Im back on the game again! Next I must jump headlong into the Punk Moth and catch up Kari before it's too late! The time of Inquisitor has come!!

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We get queries concerning comissions every now and then and if our =I=miniatures are for sale. So far, we have politely declined most of the offers, but that thing might just change very soon... in a very interesting way ;)

Caterpillar Planning...

OK, the Punk Moth project is back in action, hooyah! Time to wipe out the dust and continue to model the base. As you can see, I'm almost done with the first half of my 2-piece base. Not quite there yet though, still need to add hell-of-a-lot of dirt and junk all around... and paint it!

Designing the interior of the Basilica was very fascinating. I really had to think how the building would work more like a playable diorama rather than just a bulky terrain piece blocking strategic LOS. Also, my intention was to make it look like a real administrative building with an interesting and very playable layout yet easy to move around and manouver. That's where I came up with the idea of separating the building in half, "blowing" its core to the pieces and giving it some air to breathe. When we'll be photoshooting our game, if there's any action happening in the centre of the building, we can just separate the two boards and take nice low angled shots.

But now, lets take a closer look of those numbered areas...

1. Defence turret might be one of the secondary objectives to either of the Inquisitors. Maybe other side needs to destroy it before their pick-up can land on the hi-ground nearby?

2. Cargo area will be filled with the supply boxes and barrels to make the area more like a small labyrinth. It will be great place for some of those okkiW's CQC-specialists to hide and make ambushes.

3. Ruins of Basilica hide many horrific secrets within...

4. This was the southern defence line of the XXII platoon (Fifth Imperial Airbourne Brigade) before they were beaten and forced to flee by the overwhelming counter attack of the opposing force.

5. Public Halls of the Basilica was the main entrance to the building before it was bombed to the ground by the fierce artillery of the opposing force. This hall has many entraces and is perfect spot to ambush any unwary scouts.

Here's some more WIP shots of the board so far...

Ambient Imperium I

It's been a while since I posted anything at the Spikey, shame on me. Well, I think it is time for me to break the radio silence and yell something out...

Today I would like to introduce you to our new series, Ambient Imperium. Ambient Imperium introduces you to the world of noise and music - sounds that the Spiky Rat Pack finds proper to colourize our visions of the Dark Millennium.

The idea for the Ambient Imperium was born when I was gathering mood music to inspire me while I was painting. I wanted to find a certain theme for the soundtrack and before I even knew it, I had a nice collection slow ambient music, buzz noises and chilly hums dug from the depths of the Spotify to put me to the right mood.

Here's the first three to dim your minds...

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Penrose Rabbit Hole by Shadow Of The Beat
Dead Soil by Black Sun Temple
Deep Drone by Terry Devine-King

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Sorry for being narrow-minded and only sharing Spotify links with you.

For something similar in visual terms, please check out Fulgrim's The Tears of Isstvan and Neil101's Opus Maius. Both Fulgrim and Neil101 scavenge the WWW and share their curious and wondrous findings with the rest of us, treasures that brilliantly tell the tale of the Warhammer 40.000 universe in the form of modern photographs.

R0B0-Boy

I found this magnificent piece of "artwork" from the bottom of a drawer at my work, at the other day.
It is a mess, randomly generated by oil, coffee, and various tools that had been lying there.

It is a nasty reminder that no matter how hard we try,  series of random accidents can still out-do our best attempts ;)

I call it R0B0-Boy -

What do you see?

"Blacktail" Skaven Commando From The 88th Reconnaissance Battalion

Edit -

The idea for this kitbash/conversion came from the fact that Im thinking of using GW plastics to create my Inquisitor Pherion for our Punk Moth project.

I am also working on a major commission project at the moment that has something to do with Skaven, so I have plenty of Plastic Skaven lying on my desk. One day I just remembered the story about how GW first tried to fit Skaven in to the wh 40k universe without success. (The story and the original sketches can be found in Jes Goodwin's book The Gothic And The Eldricht)

I wanted to give that idea a try, a good warm up project for the inquisitor I thought.
In the 80's GW tried to get the WW1 look for their Space Skavens. I decided to go for the modern look - U.S. & British troops fighting in Afganistan.
Being a huge fan of military gear (I work in a military surplus store) I felt that I had good understanding about how that gear works, so that came very naturally for me.

The process itself was very simple - Skaven body with armor plates, Guardman weapon, Spiky Rat magic tricks, Space Marine helmet targeters & pouches, little bit modeling putty and Voila'!


I would love to do a small squad of these commandos with dedicated APC-transport someday.......someday;)

Take Two

Our first go with the terrain landed flat. The base - 3 mm foam PVC sheet, covered with 25 mm polystyrene strips - was way too elastic and bent after the glue had dried. So it was time to go back to the drawing board and rethink the process.

Learning from this mishap, we decided to use plain 50 mm polystyrene plates for the base.

Crushed ground and bombed foundation (with mock-up building).

I have to admit, I thought that the process of building terrain versus painting miniatures wouldn't be that different, after all, the scale is same and you need to be good craftsman in both cases. Well, so far I've prooved myself wrong. While the scale is same, the wast amount of space and possibilities of my 50 x 50 cm board has made a tremendous obstacle for me to cross over. Not that I don't like the challenge, but I've very limited time in my hands when it comes to doing hobbystuff (don't we all?) and the size of ONE board really hit me. Choosing the facing of the cathedral's corner alone was very hard decision for me to make, not to mention how tall the building was going to be. Well, the inner perfectionist in me will cry for the compromises I'll have to make.

Even though there's been couple of setbacks, it has also been refreshingly new and fascinating trip so far. Trying all the new tricks and techniques while building the terrain has been really fun - you know, smashing the foam with fist-sized stone and poke the surface with crafting knife like a mad man... Something totally different to kit-bashing and micro-accurate greenstuffin' I've used to do. It's both liberating and lustily airy.

Task Force Pherion

For what task? Who is Pherion??