Testing miniature photography with my good old GUO...

I made several test shots of my Great Unclean One miniature using light tent, tripod and "daylight" bulbs... This particular photo has been quickly edited from JPG - more serious work in Lightroom on RAW format should further improve colors. I beleieve, it is OK as for the first time with a light tent...

Chaos Mutilators and a gallery of alternative models

Upon reading this two post (LINK, LINK), I looked closer at new Elite unit in Chaos Space Marines codex:  - Mutilators. Besides all tactical problems with using small, slow-and-purposeful, not-fitting-in-Rhino assault-only unit, there is one very basic (for me) problem - the official models are "not so great" looking... The official Eavy Metal paint scheme is so-so...

 ... but even the best painting approach I know up to date, have troubles to convert them into something really enjoyable:

(by ThirdEyeNuke at taleofpainters.blogspot.com)

I think one of the problems are their heads/faces. No offense, but they are like copy-paste from some American-style cartoon, which (IMO) does not fit into grim-dark universe of WH40K [so, what about all Tau empire? ... um...ehm...well....]. Fortunately, the models are multipart so we can easily use any heads we want.

 As my intention is to fit them into Nurgle-oriented army, I've chosen some possibilities from PuppetsWar range...

 

 ... but depending on your sense of humor, clearly there are other choices ;-)

Then, another option is using entirely different model. As for me the two most obvious choices are Terrorizers from Hitech Miniature...

... or Nurgle Plague Ogres from ForgeWorld.

 Both units are somehow expensive in real-world currencies, but give two clearly distinct approaches to twisted aesthetics of Papa Nurgle's children. Anyway, these are my personal choices ATM, but I'm not finally set on them, and still looking for alternatives. Thus, some other possibilieties:

Flesh Reapers from Titan-Forge are much cheaper and very interesting indeed, my solid third choice.

Crypt Horrors by Games Workshop are on the low-tech end of our gallery...

...as are Nurgle Bile Trolls by ForgeWorld. 

The latter company has also two types of Renegade Ogryns, standard and Nurgle ones, which may fit into the role:

 

Scibor Miniatures has a range of fantastic Sci-Fi warriors which with very little effort can be combined into a unit of Mutilators. The steep price is however a problem in this case [in my case, at least].

 Cryx Brute Thrall from Warmachine range is a little bit top-heavy but otherwise nice miniature:

 (painted by Adam Benesz from Mystic Art Studio)

Next viable option are various miniatures from Dark Age universe:

 

 (this Ice Arbiter has been painted by Alexi Z)

Finally, below are even more alternatives in no special order. They differ in style so much that should be possible to choose for virtually every army:

Incursion by West Wind Productions has a range of  heavy infantry.

 

Knight Praetorius by Chapterhouse Studio are substantially bigger than GW Space Marines, but unfortunately lack the twisted feel of Mutilators.

The Hosts from Troll Forged Miniatures are the fruit of recently finished Kickstarter campaign, and hopefully will be accessible for general sale in not so distant future.

 

Maxmini has this nurglesque Plaguebringer which is probably conceived as a Nurgle Herald alternative for Chaos Demons codex.

At the very last, a Warhammer Monster section at ForgeWorld has Skin Wolves and Fimir Warriors, which both are rather skinny, but may be took into account in this gallery of extraordinary characters...

 Beside all these above, Pig Iron Prodution has Wardroids models, and Blight Wheel has War Bot, but personally I do not see them as good option, in this case.

I'm sure, there are other better choices which I overlooked or forgot. So, feel free to propose them in the comments. Thank you in advance.

Aliens coming... (to Kickstarter, at least).

Yet another Kickstarter miniature project, I would like to support... But starting from beginnings, some years ago I have bought  at Troll Forged Miniatures some interesting alien models, like that one below:

That was an age of dinosaurs - I mean, plastic GW Trygon model did not exist, and that from ForgeWorld was very expensive...To my disappointment, during these several years an alien miniature line at the Troll Forged expanded only to a very limited degree. So, I was very enthusiastic when Edward Fortae started this crowd-funding project. Now it is funded and at the final hours. So, take a look at the pictures, maybe it is something for you...

I love plastic Warhammer models (demons)

There was a time when I preferred metal figures, because they were just better looking, more detailed, ect. But recent progress in plastic processing simply killed most of these arguments. plastic models are similarly detailed while are much easier for modifications. Thus, I really enjoy an announcement of new plastic Warhammer demons... even if, I already purchased resin Thunderwolves and do not need these Bloodcrushers so much...

 (UPDATE) My trusted sources told me that plastic Bloodcrushers box will be released August 21st, 2010.

(seen at http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net)

...and Advance Order from GW webstore:

Slug Demon - Tyranid creature or Nurgle fiend?

Closer look at Slug Demon, a resin miniature from Troll Forged Minis. Few weeks ago, I went through their offer during preparation of my small review. As it happened not for the first time, I have been attracted by some of the figures. This very specific demon is the first one which I bought. Let's begin with a store-painted photo, as it was the only one, I've seen before purchase.


Despite the long distance (USA-Spain), I got the parcel quickly and with reasonable shipping cost (~10 USD). Below you can find several photos of the model, which I did just after opening the package. This is quite important point to have in mind, as I didn't do ANY cleaning or preparation. Remember also that this photographs shows magnified details and in reality they are few times smaller.


I hope that, you already have an opinion about quality of the sculpt and the resin casting. As for me, I'm very glad of both. First of all, the cast is very clean (as well as the surface - no signs of releasing agent). In the pictures, I tried to show all imperfections, but don't be deluded - in reality they are easy to clean/correct, especially at so rich-textured surface. I was little surprised with 2-colored resin which they used but it has no impact on final result.
My opinion: 4.5 out of 5
In the next step, I will show this mini cleaned and monochrome primed. Stay tuned...