Inspection (Art Monday)

 Greetings and welcome back to another Art Monday.*  This was going to the cover to BMQ #1. I talked about what BMQ was a few weeks ago, but to sum it up, it was a 40k fanzine that was never published. This was a big piece of art considering that it was a 22" x 17" full page spread, it's definitely the biggest piece I have shared on here yet. 

This was totally intended for color and as a result the black and white piece doesn't have a lot of black areas. I showed this to the late Tom Lyle at a local con around 2000 or 2001 and suggested to me that I should blacken in the boots, and if this was ever going to be printed I would probably follow that advice.  Anyway, I don't seem to have any of the color pieces handy but I know that Trevor has the final one framed in his house. I particularly remember masking off the characters so I could color the sand by flicking brown flecks onto the dessert colored parts via an old toothbrush. I do recall that I was very pleased with the final product. 

What is going on here is that a squad of Stormboyz are lined up for inspection and one of them has not passed. It's a bit subtle in that sense but if you look at the stormboyz you'll spot his grievous infraction. I intentionally arranged the characters so that you couldn't see the guy being shot on the front cover, you would have to flip it get the full effect. 

There is quite a bit going on here. In the background you can see some grots scrounging over the debris of a downed Thunderbolt Fighter. Gorkamorka had just been released and the trukks from it were the inspiration for the design of this one. The Thunderbolt fighter was a lot of fun to draw and I do not understand why to this day a model of it isn't available in plastic. It is the main fighter craft of the Imperial Navy and is commonly employed by the armies of the Astra Militarum. I do have the Forgeworld version I would like to build some day, but plastic is the form it should be available in. 

And finally, my favorite character in this piece is the Grot Attache. If there were miniatures of grots like this my Blood Axe army would be already done! (Well, it would be bigger any way). 

*Yeah it's going up a day late because I have a bout if Nurgle's Crud.