Taking a Rest as the World Burns

Six weeks ago a new challenge was launched over at the Oldhammer Facebook group, celebrating the brilliant illustrations of Tony Hough. Tony's artwork was ever present in GW's output of the late 1980s, gracing the pages of Rogue Trader, Realm of Chaos books and White Dwarf. He also single-handedly drew most of the claustrophobic illustrations for Space Fleet. I'm lucky enough to own a couple of Tony's originals, and he ranks as one of my favourite GW artists. 

Here are the rules of the challenge:

The aim will be to recreate one of Tony Hough's incredible and evocative scenes into miniature form, sculpting, painting or even better, both, and this time you have 6 weeks to complete the task so right until the 30the of June on midnight!

I knew instantly that I wanted to evoke the brilliant illustration that features as a two-page spread on p126-127 of the Rogue Trader rulebook. The artwork shows a mercenary, or perhaps an Imperial Guardsman relaxing on an access ramp, tending to his weapon. In the back ground, a second character is guiding in an insectoid spaceship. The whole scene is set in a cavernous hangar of some kind.

No Muties! A Johnny Alpha Display Base

A very quick update just to show off the display base that I made for Johnny Alpha and his companions.

Project Homework - A Japanese Garden Diorama

I dread it when the kids require help with their homework: "Research the Ancient Egyptians and present it in an interesting 3D way", or "Write a rap song to help you remember long division". These are actual real life examples, in case you think I'm kidding. But sometimes, it can be fun - we once shot a film about superheroes in the garden.

A week or so back, my eldest daughter (aged 10) was set homework which required her to "Make a 3D Japanese-themed diorama." That sounded more up my street!

I sat down with my daughter and asked her what she wanted to make a diorama of. She wanted to make a Japanese garden, with cherry blossom, a lake and a bridge. So we did some research and settled on two photographs for inspiration: