Imperial Robot #1 (Art Monday)

 Sorry about the pause in Art Mondays, but I have returned with more BMQ art. This one was for a Imperial Robots article we were going to do. At the time Warhammer 40,000 was in it's second edition and the old Imperial Robots were simply gone from the game. Maybe if GW had ever gotten around to producing Adeptus Mechanicus miniatures and rules at this time just maybe we would've gotten updated robots back then. Maybe? I think what was eventually produced was ultimately worth the wait, but one can't help but imagined what we would've gotten back then or what their rules would've been like.

Trevor and I liked those original program rules from the Rogue Trader era and had worked up a simplified version for 2nd edition. This imagine (this is one of a pair) was for that article. I forget the name of the robot this is supposed to represent but I think I was trying to give it an auto-cannon to resemble the one from the original plastic Predator tank. It looked cool at the time anyway...

Deathwatch Landraider (Part 1)

 The Landraider is probably my favorite Warhammer 40,000 vehicle. Both versions. The original one I like for it's crudeness, it's brute force and power. The current one I think is just a magnificent model and kit that is, in my oh so humble opinion, one of the best pre- CAD examples of Games-Workshop's models. 

Death Watch Landraider, fully armed and operational. 

And in recent times I ended up with two of the current ones, used and assembled. This is the one I got in the deal that I got the late '90s grots in. But I wasn't sure exactly what to do with. I was tempted to let my Celestial Lions have it, but I am still resistant to the notion of expanding that force. When this Deathwatch force sprang into existence it made sense to let them have it. 

But some work needed to be done.

Chaos removed, but the damage is done. 

Not much luckily. The only issue it had was that it had a big Chaos icon on the main door. Removing it was a minor challenge but it revealed an acquilla that had been badly damaged by the glue that was used to attach it.  And it left a really ugly scar. 

Before the dremel.

Well, a good weather day occurred and a fleeting moment of free time coincided with that so I broke out the dremel and took the model outside for cosmetic surgery.  

After the dremel. 

After I removed the lumpy bits, the model was looking somewhat more scarred up than I would prefer, so I attached a sanding bit to the Drexel. That worked out great.  I got it fairly smooth even though it probably doesn't look too pretty in this next pic.

After the sanding. 

Priming it black was the next phase.

Primed!

I used Tamiya Red Brown to spray the interior and I tried to spray the tracks but the can was almost empty and it sputtered when I sprayed it. This made an for an interesting, though messy, look.

Brown added to the tracks. 

Reattaching the parts used during the Rhinoback project makes the model feel almost complete. I may build some of the secondary options such as a storm bolter or a Hunterkiller Missile for this tank to have exclusively. 

First expedition to the muddy wastes. 

While taking this photo a large xenos monstrosity was encountered, however it was less than impressed by the pair of twin-linked lascannons and the Landraider had to be reeled back before the creature could attack. 

"It didn't die! Know fear! know fear!!!"

Deathwatch Rhinoback (Part 3)

 The Rhinoback is now done! Let's review it from all the different angles: 

It was an easy and fairly straightforward thing to paint. I added some random silver flecks on some of the corners, as depicted on the box photo, to represent scarring and scratches. 

 I added the radar dish to the back as I wanted it to be a permanent feature on this tank. The scroll on the back door is blank in this photo but it now says 'Purge or Bust'. I think that may be this vehicle's informal name. 

The fuel cans and tool box was also kept simple but I used colors on them that don't appear anywhere else on this model so that they stick out a bit more. 

It's an interesting, but absolutely useless, detail to have this blast shield able to rise up and reveal two windows. I painted them anyway because it never fails that someone would check that and call me out on it at the game store the first time i take this thing in for a game. 

I am keeping the Heavy Bolter and the Las Cannons loose so they can swivel and be interchangeable. 

And I can also use duel storm bolters even though they fit awkwardly together. But it'll work just fine for game play.

The gunner was a bit of a conundrum as I was unsure which chapter I wanted to go with. I knew I wanted something I hadn't done before and I threw out to rabble to pick one of Cheef's gazillion chapters and the only response was from Cheef himself suggesting Rainbow Warriors. Which I seriously did look into running with but...

 ...I decided instead to go with something I could use a skull decal with. A much easier way to go than trying to hand draw the Rainbow Warriors chapter badge. After searching various tomes and websites I settled on The Emperor's Swords. An easy (-ish) design to work with and they have a very weird history (-ies?).  Who knows, perhaps this guy is the sole survivor of this Chapter? 

And that's a wrap for this project, now to figure out how and when to get this onto a tabletop... 

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. 

Luccini the Navigator (Art Monday)

 Hello. After last week's concept sketches I figured you guys wouldn't mind seeing another one. This one is particularly odd since I had completely forgotten about it because it wasn't done in my sketchbook but on the back of the photocopy that I shared last week. 

Luccini the Navigator.

The reason for this, If I recall correctly, was that I had decided to expand his role in the second installment of the comic adventure that I was developing (he just gets sort of a cameo in the first part). So I just whipped it up on the first thing I had on hand apparently. 

The full page scan.

As you can (faintly) see on the left Luccini is armed with a sawn off double barrel shotgun with was copied pretty much straight from the Confrontation weapons sprue, and a Force Dagger. I am not sure if Navigators can, or rather could, utilize force weapons or not but it seemed cool so why not? 

Next is a sketch from the lower edge of the paper. I am not sure if I was toying with changing styles or what was happening with this, but I got a kick out of seeing it again. 

Smaller sketch of Luccini.

Ther you have it, until next time! 

BMQ Concepts (Art Monday)

 

BMQ, the zine that almost was...

Greetings. Welcome to a very special Art Monday. What you see below is a 11"x 17" copy from my sketchbook of some concepts that we, Trevor and I, were working out for our Warhammer 40,000 fanzine in the mid to late '90s.  Our fanzine was going to be called Battle Methodology Quarterly. We had hoped to produce this thing 4 times a year and be everything we ever wanted to see from a 40k zine or even GW publications like Citadel Journal or White Dwarf.  

It's important to know that this was during Warhammer 40,000's 2nd edition. One of the most driving features in White Dwarf at the time were the brilliant battle reports that they used to publish. (They are still oh so lacking now) But we wanted more, and we waned to show some of the stuff that really involved players of the game typically experienced. For example, the GW battle reports never really showed just how cheesey the Eldar of the 2nd edition could be, or the weird and wacky stuff that Orks could pull off, or grenades being used to their maximum potential, etc. And we wanted to show that. A lot. We would also use these as a type of forum to workout and explore some of the more trickier aspects of the rules 

BMQ was going to be robust. 100 pages per issue. If I recall we were looking at something like 50 pages of Battle Reports, 25 pages of articles and a 25 page comic book (by me!). In every issue. In hindsight, I think our bite was going to be bigger than what we could chew. But we were young, hella ambitious, and just enthralled by everything Games-Workshop and Warhammer 40,000. After securing a blessing from GW's Alan Merrit we launched into the thing.

We had all the battle reports played and written for the first issue. Including a Blood Bowl game that Trevor and I played via email. I had most of the art done for the first issue and had some finished or started for the second one. The comic was done for the first issue as well. We had articles written and more planned. The Ornsworld PDF was going to be in issue 2 and issue 3 was going to be a Death World list where the player fields and army of plants. Yes it was ambitious for sure. We had a board game written and play tested and nearly ready to go as well. We even had an interview with Rick Priestly (which we did at Games Day '99 in Baltimore). My brother even designed and launched a website for us (it didn't make into this century sadly).

 But... we took too long. 3rd edition was now coming out so we waited to see what was going to change. So we waited. After all, who would buy a fanzine for last edition's game? Then it came out and was so radically different from 2nd edition that we had the wind knocked completely out of our sails. Also, not long after that, GW got into the comics publishing game with Inferno and Warhammer Monthly. And we were not under the impression that a fanzine with a full-sized comic strip was going to fly with GW. So we moved onto other things. 

 But the art still remains! So here is a concept piece that I hope you get a kick out of :

This is the full page. 

There is A LOT going on here. So let me try to break it down. 

This first bit is an idea that I had to make rules for the Emperor's Youth. The idea is a fusion between the Hitler's Youth from World War II and Boy Scouts programs from my youth (I was in both the American and British Cub Scouts and still have their handbooks).  Even back then the 'Grim Darkness' of the Imperium was not a subtle thing, and an indoctrination / officer recruitment program targeted at the youth of the Imperium's hiveworlds seemed like something that would be a thing. I had even incorporated them into the comic I was working on. So I worked out how their badge program would work, what their kerchief looked like, etc. We were going to do a list for Necromunda and a unit entry to let you take them as an Imperial Agents unit for 40k. What you see here are the concepts worked out, and not what would have been the finished art. 

Best of luck trying to decipher my handwriting

They were going to be led by a Commissar (that smile could be right off of a Propaganda poster couldn't it?*) and the models were going to be converted Necromunda Youths. I imagine lots of green stuff was going to be used. 

Next are the three main characters from the comic strip. The Gothic warship Captain and the Ratling Colonel was shown already in an earlier Art Monday post. I could talk about them more here, but wouldn't you rather that I just post that 25 page comic instead? 

These guys were a lot of fun to draw.

* Indeed, but I wasn't thinking a historical one but rather the fictional one from the original V series from the '80's.  The subversive implications can't be denied. 

...as food! 

Deathwatch Rhinoback (Part 2)

 Just a quick update this week. Since the first post I have modeled up a few more options and primed the model. Being a Deathwatch tank, heck, a black prime damn near completes it!   

I like running Rhinos with two storm bolters and it was really bugging me that I didn't have an option for a second storm bolter.  So I gave in and built a guy manning one. It's not a perfect fit, but it fits nevertheless. Plus I thought it would be neat to have a gunner up there. What chapter will he be from is still something I have yet to decide. Maybe I will randomly pick one of Cheef's Chapters? 

If you look to the rear you'll see that I added a radar dish; I just thought it looked interesting back there.

So, that's all for now. Next will come the basecoats and the rest of the proper painting.