Salutamus WIP1

More pictures of progress on Governor Salutamus. He's looking alot more 40k with the purity seals, that gnarly face and Tommy-Lee Jones bags under his eyes.

The big skull hat is the next thing. The Blanche picture makes it look like a giant skull but I was wondering if it should be a skull-faced mite instead. But I also like the idea of making as just the skull that is some kind of machine from the dark age of technology that no longer works but has become a symbol of power on Salutamus' world. Opinions?

WIP Up-date 1

A WIP up-date. Since the last post the paragon knight has been undercoated and based, I’ve started on my next project and committed a bit of nostalgia. Sorry about the lack of posts I've had real life take over toy soldier life.

  
Sir Junkie looks much better now. I think that he just needed some bulking up around the shoulders and 40king up some. The eye lens and the ubiquitous 40k tubing has helped a lot on that score. I tried the epic marine commander on the helmet but he seemed too flat. The laurels with the tactical marine seem to do the job though. Next I need to work out some colours for him. At first I was planning a blue/green palette to show up rust and brown grime on his once pure “white” (silver) armour but I’m not so sure now.

The next project is a planetary governor based on the great John Blanche picture of a high lord of terra in the old 2^nd edition Codex Imperialis. He’s part of my fallen paragons so is not a heroic figure; he’s a confused old man wrenched from his palace and caught in a battle he doesn’t understand. To begin with I was converting one of the Empire battle wizards but found the weird pose too restrictive. After a couple of days struggling with it I abandoned what I’d done and pulled out the sculpting tools. I know that this may be a faux pas in the world of =I=28 to sculpt a whole model but it was the only way that I could get something that I was happy with. Please forgive me.

As a side note the original picture makes the high lord look like a hard arse. It’s not something that I imagine that they would be; in my mind they would be standing by a brass-bound cogitator attached to the Golden Throne endlessly waiting for a message from Him that will never come as the scribe whose job it was to stock the machine with punch-cards died 5,000 years ago and, because of a administrative error, was never replaced, or sitting in a dark, gothic board room reading endless centuries old casualty reports and trying not to let the state of the Imperium crush them.

Finally, I’ve also been working a few other bits and pieces: an astropath that I saw on eBay and could not resist; Lt. Varras for my Imperial Fists; and some old eldar. This October marks 20 years of toy soldiering for me, and the eldar were some of the first miniatures that I got. My plan is just to paint ‘em up nice. Better that I could in ’93 at least :-)