Buddy, the Six-String Samurai

This is an homage to Buddy, the guitar-wielding ronin of Six-String Samurai. In the post-apocalyptic far future of 1997, Elvis has died and Buddy must travel to Lost Vegas to become the new king of rock 'n' roll. On his journey, he is accompanied by The Kid.

Buddy

Buddy and The Kid

The Kid

3D prints from Imitation of Life.

Christmas Cultists

These festive fundamentalists are 3D prints from Imitation of Life.

I'm trying out Speedpaint 2.0, with mixed results. Early days.

A trial of chipping

In which I try using some Vallejo 73.214 Chipping Medium.

I had some gothic shipping containers lying about, and sprayed them AP Chaotic Red, then stippled on some orange. When dry, I liberally slapped on Chipping Medium with a brush, let that dry, and sprayed it white. After that had dried, I attacked it with a wet toothbrush. It wasn't enough, so I also used a wire brush. Again, when dry, I added some details and transfers.

Undercoated and stippled orange

It looks good, but I feel I can get a similar effect with a sponge much quicker. Furthermore, sponging on the effect gives me more predictability. It was a bit hard to control how much effect and where it would be. There's still room in my armamentarium for this.

What deathworld does this hail from?

The finished containers

Skull-o-meter™: 20

40K Tyranid Combat Patrol

The Tyranid slippery slope continues... so here's my Combat Patrol. I'm thinking of calling it Splinter Fleet Glaurung.

Tyranid Combat Patrol

They're led by a winged Tyranid Prime. I'm neither a huge fan of winged big 'nids, nor this sculpt's original pose with the wings down like a walking bat. It was an easy conversion to a wings-up pose.

Winged Tyranid Prime

The big beasty is a Psychophage, a gribbly that loves to feed on psykers and releases a corrosive ash from its digestive vents on its back. The original model has the smoke effects modelled on- it is easy to carve them off.

Psychophage

There are three Von Ryan's Leapers, named after a throwaway line in the 3rd Edition Codex (2001). They look pretty cool.

Von Ryan's Leapers

Another new gaunt variant is the Barbgaunt. There's a ganglio-parasite that pilots the main beast as it carries around a RPG-like organism that fires transfixing barbs. Targeted units are slowed down. Not my favourites, but nice to have them done.

Barbgaunts

Barbgaunt

Finally, twenty termagants. I 'merely' had to paint another thirteen after my initial brood of seven. These are the old sculpts, not the nice new ones.

Termagants

I've just acquired Jon Hodgson's Sci-Fi Backdrops book, which you will be seeing more of.

Behind the scenes of the VFX at 20th Century Barks Studios