Storming into 2013

Hey guys,

Welcome back after a very busy December and Christmas period. Unfortunately, life has been rather hectic over the past month or so and as a result, I have not been able to devote as much time to hobbying as I would have liked. However, I did get a load of new toys to play at Christmas including a custom, handmade wooden hobby station from the girlfriend, which has allowed me to dive straight back into things with reckless abandon!

I finally finished my Grey Knights Stormraven and updated BLOODYdice with a small showcase which should be up in a couple of days. I spent a lot of time painting it all nice and pretty then ruining ruining it all with weathering to add some character. I was very pleased with final result and got some lovely pictures for you all!

Of course, the model would not be complete without a suitably epic base. Initially I just created a very plain base as I didn't want to detract from the model itself but that just looked to boring and very much like it was a last minute addition "because it had to be done". So I stripped it all down and went back to the drawing board with my box o' bits...

I took a hacksaw to a spare Chaos Bike I found and added some bits from the rider. I decided to go for a nice red and gold theme to mirror the Chaos Space Marine's World Eaters... my friend Dave is a little obsessed with them and we find it fun to depict their shattered remains on some of the bigger bases! I think this scenic base adds a lot more life to the model and allowed me to experiment with loads of basing supplies I also got for Christmas (my girlfriend kinda spoilt me a little!).

Lastly, I want to share with you an awesome technique I have only recently come across called Focus Stacking. For the uninitiated, it involves taking a load of photos while focusing at different depths across the target, then stacking them together to create a perfectly in focus picture. The program I am using to achieve this is called CombineZP. I attempted to create a few pictures to show the development of the Stormraven's base. Please appreciate that I am still experimenting with this technique so the photos are by no means perfect!

Stormraven base - Initial build.

Stormraven base - Base coated and detail painted.

Stormraven base - Completed base.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much I as enjoyed taking and messing around with them. Keep posted, more to come soon!

-Lucifer