Something Titanic! - A new project is coming, here's a taster.

ForgeWorld Event Only Titan Princeps Majoris

So...the Mars Pattern Warlord Titan...

Photo by Rictus from Recalcitrant Daze

Should I get one? Would you all be interested in me doing a series of videos (my first ever) about putting it together and painting it?

Oh my goodness! What am I saying?

Mechanicum - Acting as a Mechanicum Forge World

Sorry for the radio silence, I've been too busy to snap any photos of all the hobby work going on at the moment. In addition to my own Knights, I'm working on a big Napoleonic commission, a FOW US tank army commission, a handful of US tanks in payment for some 3D modeling I had done for my Knights, and this beauty - The Etruscan. My friend Dave Pauwels has a great many wonderful ideas, but often nowhere near the time to achieve most of them. To this end he commissioned me to clean and assemble his Cerastus Knight-Lancer. Last Fall I did the same thing for his Warhound - Venatrix Nocturna.

I wanted the Knight-Lancer to be in a wary, combat-ready pose, crouched behind the shield, feet moving (rather than a locked/power stance) to give the impression of circling, as this Knight will be doing at AdeptiCon 2015 in one of the new Knight Gladiator events (more details on those as soon as I have them).

And my custom decals have arrived. Although House Taranis have decals on the sheet that comes with the box, they are designed for the 40K-era House Taranis. Based on the eveloution of the heraldry shown in the lush sourcebook The Imperial Knight Companion, I decided to scale the heraldry back a bit, and make the icon a little more complex.

Now I just have to start getting these elements onto the Knights : )

Cheers
Dave

AdeptiCon Titanicus!

Well, it sure has been a busy seven days! Almost as soon as I arrived home from Chicago, my wife jetted off for a conference in decidedly-warmer California, so I've been wrangling our two little ones.

Anyway, on to the AdeptiCon Titanicus (AT) game! For those of you not in the know, the AT game was set up by AdeptiCon organizers Hank Edley and Matthias Weeks. Following some spirited discussion about old games and the joy the had with them, it was a fairly short jump for the guys to take it to the extreme!

Hank is a resin addict from way back, and Matt has always loved Epic/Space Marine/Adeptus Titanicus with a passion, so the idea of reviving the game in 28mm scale was a perfect fit.

Twenty Princeps brought along their Warhounds of Reavers to do battle over a 16' x 16' surface with spectacular buildings created by my buddy Alex Landing of Ironheart Artisans and inspired by the original cardboard buildings from one of the early Epic boxes.

We were using a modified version of the Adeptus Titanicus rules, with everything scaled up. Playtesting had been done by Hank and his crew earlier, but nothing can actually compare to herding 20 power-crazed Princeps in their stockinged feet as they bounce over-sized foam dice around.

Although the Chaos Warhound pilots began the game by racing down their left flank into what seemed the jaws of destruction, things turned out to be much less lethal. In fact, only one Titan suffered any significant damage on the tabletop. Despite this, and the late hour, all involved had a fantastic time!

Another great thing was the variety of models on the table, including a classic Reaver and Warhound originally from Armorcast and a Warhound scratch-built by John Christensen, with spinning mega-bolters, flashing lights and a general air of Awesome.

The view over the carapace of Primaris Secutar, turbo lasers targeting Venatrix Nocturna (the very Warhound I help build).

Hank has unnecessarily apologized to the Princeps, pledging to test things out more during the year and ensure that there is a great deal of lethality prepared for the next event. We'll be ready Hank!

I hope you enjoyed the photos, and that they inspire you to get cranking on a Titan of your own!

AdeptiCon Report - A preview.

After four incredibly hectic days at AdeptiCon (each 18 or 19 hours long and a complete blast!) I've finally made it back home, and will be posting photos from the show. Here are a coupler of teaser shots from our Guns Of April game on Friday night (below) and the AdeptiCon Titanicus game on Saturday night. I now hope to get a bit of sleep, and put a few more posts together later this week.

Thanks to everyone who made it such an excellent event!

Cheers
Dave

The Knights of House Coldshroud stand ready.

As this goes live, I'll finally be on my way to the hallowed grounds of gaming - AdeptiCon!

This will be my ninth trip to the most excellent of wargaming Meccas, and I'm certainly looking forward to it. I have three nights of gaming lined up, as well as doing some coverage of the show.

The Knights you've seen me painting have already arrived at the show, and will soon be in the hands of their owner. They may or may not see the gaming table on Saturday night as part of the AdeptiCon Titanicus event, it all depends on the number of titans that eventually show.

To ensure maximum flexibility, both Knights have magnetized weapons, so can be fielded as either Errants or Paladins. You can also see them on their lovely Dragon Forge Designs Urban Rubble bases. Gluing them onto the bases was a little tricky, as the rubble is so irregular and the ankles don't flex at all. I ended up put balls of greenstuff under the center of each foot in order to ensure a secure bond, and filled any small gaps by cutting some of the toes off, realigning them, and wedging the odd "brick" (made from plasticard strips) into any small gaps. I'm pretty happy with the result : )

This first Knight above is set up as a Knight Errant (with the melt fuel canisters attached to the gun arm), but it can work quite well as a Paladin too, as seen below.

And this one is set up as a Knight Paladin, with the ammo hopper attached, but again, it could work just fine as an Errant.

House Coldshroud are pledged to support the Legio Gryphonicus (War Griffons), and as such I used the House Hawkshroud icon, repainted in a cold white against a blue background.

Hope you like them, and stay tuned for more from AdeptiCon!

Cheers
Dave

+++Primaris Secutar enroute to Lombard III+++

Primaris Secutar, my Reaver Titan from Legio Crucius, is now battle-ready. In fact, as I type this she is probably somewhere in western Pennsylvania, on her way to walk on the hallowed battlegrounds of AdeptiCon.

Time slipped away from me at the end there, and I was unable to do all the shading, chipping, and weathering I wanted to do. A little disappointing, but I will be able to really spend some time on her once she returns to Baltimore (and before the big 30K event at the end of May).

And thank you to Forgeworld for this wonderful image that inspired/informed much of my paint job. Originally I was going to give her kill marking banners, but I thought it might be best to simply record her achievements from the games she fights in, starting with Saturday night's AdeptiCon Titanicus extravaganza : )

Cheers
Dave

Welcome… to Dave Taylor Miniatures

Over the last 20 years I've had the good fortune to work for the two largest wargaming companies in "the industry". I have recently decided to resign my post as US Editor of Wargames Illustrated to pursue a future in helping smaller companies bring new product to market, and promote their existing products as well.

To that end I've started up Dave Taylor Miniatures, a small production studio that means I'll be able to work on a lot of great projects with a lot of great people. I hope to bring my years of experience and decades of enthusiasm to every task ahead of me.

My blog will undergo a few small changes in the coming weeks, and the links here are to my "resume" site - davetaylorminiatures.com, which won't really change too often. If you are interested in the services I'm offering, feel free to shoot me an email via my contact email on the site.

I'm very excited about the possibilities!

And never fear, my Titan is still under construction. Here's a shot of the base and legs. These have since been primed : )

Cheers
Dave

Primaris Secutar - Part Two

A little more work on the Reaver Titan. Here is the Princeps and crew ensconced in their command stations. Hopefully I'll get some more work done on the Titan over the coming week.

Cheers
Dave

Primaris Secutar - a Reaver Titan build - Part One

I think I mentioned that I'm playing in the Adeptus Titanicus game at Adepticon this year, right? Well, if I didn't mention it earlier, you know now.

I'll be building the Rever Titan Primaris Secutar of the Legio Crucius. This is the Reaver that I purchased "mostly assembled" around four years ago. It has been sitting in a drawer, waiting for the right moment. And that moment is now.

Here are the PIP knee pads, with the one of the left sporting a sculpted icon of the Legio. This will be a reasonably long road. As a friend pointed out the other day, it's only 11 weeks or so until Adepticon 2014!

Additionally, the pics of the Mechanicum Myrmidon models in the back of the January WD inspired my to start converting up a few of my own. Now I just have to get a few Necron specialist box sets to keep rolling. The bases are from Dragon Forge Designs.

Cheers
Dave