Space Marine Conversion

I thought I dabble in the art of conversion.  It's not something I've done before but having seen a few blogs I follow I thought I give it a go. 

As I have the Betrayal at Calth boxset available (and many other boxes that's in my wardrobe!) I thought I convert a 30K Space Marine in the fashion of a Ravenguard.  I never painted a SM before and always been a fan of the Ravenguard due to their looks and background. 

My initial thought process was to establish a point in Ravenguard history that was monumentum.  Since I have 30K spruces available I wanted to depict their survival in Isstvan V, Dropsite Massacre. The pose idea tells a Marine snapping back to action after taking damage to the head.  His survival was due to the safeguard of his helmet, which had taken majority of the impact from an in swing of a hammer, wielded by a traitor Marine.  Our Marine survived and the traitor Marine perished whether from the burst of fire from the Ravenguard's bolter or from cross fire.  Our Marine survived without a functional helmet and he picked up the hammer to rally on the fight. 

I started cutting and trimming parts to make fit of my Marine.  I had to use Kurtha Sedd gun arm and removed the plasma and replaced it with a bolter.  I've taken the hammer from the Solaq boxset and the head from the Sternguard marine boxset.

I will be painting each part first and then assembling afterwards to make painting easier.   The first step was to paint the head to get things going. 

Jakob Rune Nielsen - Post-Centaur Painting

I recently purchased a mini-booklet by Jakob which showcase 20 projects he did from 2011 to 2013.  The book is in A6 format and the works are stunning.  It shows how his works have developed in a short period of time and looks into his character building and use of colours for the themes they were set against.  This is a fun little book to and have inspirational models.

This is the first batch of 100 and priced at 14euros. Worth having in my opinion. You can see more of Jakob's work and how to purchase this book here http://miniatextures.blogspot.co.uk/.

Figure Painter Magazine - buy it now!

http://www.figurepaintermagazine.co.uk/

Being a new hobbyist in the miniature world, I'm always fascinated by the work people create and the realism they add through their paint work.    I do browse online a lot to look at people's work and to understand how they achieve the effect they do. 

When I was browsing on the interweb I found the website http://www.figurepaintermagazine.co.uk/.  People may already be aware of this site but they're are an independent organisation that produces a monthly PDF magazine for your miniature fix.  The magazine contains the latest news and releases on independent model companies, interviews with artist and creative tips, which have been useful.  The magazine contains a lot of pictures as well, all fitted into an average of 80 to 90 pages.  Also being a UK based mag, it features UK events.  Each mag is £1 which is a top deal considering all the contents you get.  Also once purchased you are allocated 7 times to download each mag, which is good if you manage to lose the PDF.

The advantage of having a mag like this was I got introduced to the latest releases and independent companies that I may not have known following my normal network.

Overall I'm a big fan of this magazine, this is definitely a fans' fan magazine.