Well, I made a little progress this weekend. Once again I got sidetracked and built the rest of Sgt. Harker’s squad as well as another veteran from the second squad.

Current status of command squad. Working on grenade launcher vet. Need to get motivated ot finish squad before moving on to others.

Current status of Sgt. Harker's squad. The far right sniper is using a traditional Kellian large caliber hunting rifle (Kell is a semi-feral world).

I’m still undecided on whether to use the plastic Harker I made or the forthcoming metal one. I think I’m going to go ahead and paint the plastic one and if I like the metal one I will swap it in.

Side view of first armored sentinel. Need to finish windows and stack weathering.

As I mentioned, I couldn’t help building one of the forgeworld veterans with shotguns I just got in the mail. Most of the second squad will be armed with shotguns, along with the sergeant’s plasma pistol and three meltaguns.

Veteran with shotgun and veteran sergeant from second squad.

Until next time…

Well, a little more progress on the 24th Kellian. I have finished the Guardsman Marbo miniature and most of the second Bodyguard and the legs and base of the first armored sentinel.

Painted models as of today. Second bodyguard (far right) still needs camo, highlights and basing.

Rear view of painted models as of today.

Current status of command squad. Need to finish higlights and base of second bodyguard before moving on to other members of the squad.

Marbo front view.

Marbo back view.

Sentinel legs. Trying to use techniques from Forgeworld's painting guide (thanks Erik!), but am not entirely happy with how it's coming out so far.

I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but I started construction of the first veteran squad led by Sgt. Harker.

GW is making a metal Harker model accoring to the latest issue of White Dwarf. Not sure if I will use that one or this one. If this plastic guy gets the call, I need to fix his right arm since i had to pose it away from the torso leaving a large gap at his armpit.

Until next time…

I think all gamers have a form of ADD to some extent. I am certainly no exception. While trying to make some headway on the 24th Kellian Light Infantry Regiment, I find myself glancing at all the tanks I have built for my IG, none of which are used by the 24th. These tanks were going to be part of another IG regiment based on the cool Vostroyan miniatures. However, I like unique or at least different looking armies, meaning conversions. Metal minis are so hard to convert and I can’t imagine doing an entire IG platoon of them so I decided to work with the Cadian plastics, especially after finding some of the Pig Iron Productions heads on ebay.

I wanted to make them very different looking than a Cadian so they are equipped with autoguns rather than the ubiquitous lasgun. The troopers don gas masks and gloves and do not wear leggings over their boots like the Cadians. I also wanted to add a little difference in their gear so I made a new canteen and some will carry collapsable entrenching tools.

Anyway, here is the primered prototype model. Hope you like it.

Front view. I need to correct the sagging autogun barrels on future models.

Back view showing different gear.

Until next time…

Ever since I read The Lord of the Rings as a kid and saw the beautiful maps inside and the languages described in the appendices, I have imagined creating my own world. I had created a few when I was much younger, but have since lost them. The first world was really only an island nation called Heathcliffia (yes, Heathcliff was my favorite comic strip and I did have a stuffed Heathcliff). I created a language for them using Tolkien’s dwarven runes and even, after finding some blank forms at the library, created tax return forms for the nation in their own tongue. I wish I still had those, but I can remember them clearly.

My second world was much larger. The map was so big I had to tape several sheets of computer paper (the kind used by old wide-format dot matrix printers) together and place them all on the floor of my bedroom (thank God for wood floors). That world still borrowed heavily from Tolkien for place names. Dagorthoria was my favorite nation (home of the Dagorthoron). If you’re familiar with Tolkien’s languages at all you can probably guess what that nation was all about. Sadly, those maps too were lost.

Since those early days I have still dreamt of new worlds, but have very rarely brought them to life. Until recently. I learned about Profantasy’s Campaign Cartographer not too long after the first version was released and purchased a copy. Over the years I have upgraded, but have never really learned how to use it or any of its sister programs.

But that has changed. Below are a few images from the world that I am working on in Fractal Terrains. Eventually this world will be exported into Campaign Cartographer 3 so regional and local maps can be created. And sometime down the road this world will be populated, but that’s another day.

Spinning globe made with frames from Fractal Terrains imported into Photoshop for animation.

The New World. Need to work on the large white mountains on the top right continent as well as improve the arid regions.

A quick export to Campaign Cartographer 3 showing climate.

Another quick export to CC3 showing basic altitude of the most populated area of the main continent.

Anyway, hope you like them. Until next time…

The good news is I am making progress on the updated 24th Kellian. The bad news is progress is slow. I doubt I will be able to catch up with the rest of the Dark Tower gang. They have finished their first 300 points and are working on the second 300 points out of 1200 for the army. In light of this, I am going to work on a lot of the higher point value units in my own army to see if I can catch up. That means the Company Command Squad, Guardsman Marbo, and Sentinels.

Here are a few new pics:

Company Command Squad. Still need to acquire an Astropath and Master of Ordnance models.

An old guardsman along with the two that are complete from the updated army. Theone on the right is a bodyguard for the company commander.

Rear view of the above minis. Hopefully my paint job has improved a little since the original 24th Kellian was done back in 2004.

Updating my favorite veteran sergeant (old one on left) along with my Guardsman Marbo mini.

That’s it for now. Until next time…