Guest Post: Tzeentch's Gift

Since I'm clearly not doing any modeling these days, I thought I'd open the floor up to the person who actually got me into this hobby in the first place. We're going to be keeping it in the Pink family, though. May I introduce for his blogging debut: Brother Pink!

Or, you know, PinkPonny {sic}, as he prefers to be known.
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Never did I think I'd find myself devoting time towards the ruinous powers of chaos... but I got commissioned, sorta. I was paid in advance with this army case.

Our older brother had a friend who was into 40K, but he no longer wanted this case, so our brother asked if I wanted it, and I said sure.

I assumed it was a freebie, but when I opened it up, I found the following note:

Hydra Has a Home

Might just be time to get back to the hobby briefly. There have been more developments in the #spacemarine fiasco, one of the most interesting of them being GW actually acknowledging the situation, if not bending low enough to actually apologize, but it's something. They even managed to leave up everyone's angry comments about the acknowledgement post on their facebook, rather than summarily deleting them as you'd expect them to do (considering @VoxCaster was blocking anyone who referenced them on Twitter).

Anyway. More on that later.
This one is meant for my dear Hydra!

He finally has a home! HUZZAH! (click the image to be directed)

He's still getting it off the ground, but I wanted to share the link so that people could find it.

For a time, Hydra, Moloch, and I formed a fantastic little team of Tyranid artists. We were active on Warpshadow, but we spent just as much time bouncing ideas back and forth through the background medium of email. We collaborated at all levels, from concept through to actual models. It was a glorious, fruitful little synergy that I've also meant to post about for bloody ever, but I guess that full story will have to wait.

Anyway, though I've posted numerous articles here featuring the works of the Moloch, I have been woefully behind in sharing the work of the Hydra. Once again, it's something I always meant to get to but didn't manage. Of our little Tyranid shadow team, Hydra has ALWAYS been the most prodigiously productive. I've described the guy's inspiration and modeling through-put as a nuclear reactor of creativity.

Also, did you know the guy can fly!?

Stop that. That's silly.
Ahem. The best thing about Hydra's creative drive is that it's very much contagious. You hang around the Hydra enough, and you start to achieve things of which you never thought you were capable.

And now is your chance to bask in the boy's brilliance. He's a very busy man, so it might take him some time to get the site up to full operating strength, but best to follow it now so that you don't miss the amazing updates later.

H-Archive

And, because I can...

Deepthought: Wisdom of the Norns

This is a hobby editorial. I went to school to become and try to make my living as a writer. Though I love the hobby, and I'd like nothing better than to sculpt all day, posting amazing things on here for all to ogle, there are times when the urge to write strikes, and I try to use these interludes to delve deeper into important parts of the hobby. I hope you find the following article interesting, and I promise to get back to posting cool models soon!

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Alright. So. I've been kind of out of the world for some time, but every so often, I think about Modern Synthesist and worry that I should be getting back to it. I've been dealing with some change and uncertainty in real life, which has caused me to switch trains, slightly, and put models on the back burner as I looked for work that actually paid.

What's more, as it's a subject that relates to this article (which I wrote MONTHS ago), My Norn Queen of just over two years is no more. Well, she's still around, just not with me. That being said, she is a remarkable person and was the inspiration for this article. In the hope that there are more people out there like her, and in the hope that some people can empathize with the weird, personal stigma I felt about 40K, here is the article. Also, I'm not going to go in and change all the language to the past tense because that seems weird.
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This is kind of a weird idea for an Editorial (as most of them seem to be), so please bear with me...

So I've got myself a girlfriend, and I call her my Norn Queen. She does sweet stuff for me, like giving me tickets to GD UK for my birthday last year, and then being so interested in the event that she accompanied me to it. That seems like a perfectly normal act if this were any sane, equal relationship. However, unfortunately, I am a Geek of the 40K variety, so when a girlfriend buys me tickets to Games Day, and then asks to go with me, it is an Event: something to be celebrated and screamed from the rooftops...solely because she showed an interest in my hobby.

And, because you're all like me, you're probably thinking the same thing: wow! Amazing! What a girl! How rare!

Except...how does that make any sense?

Somewhere along the line, I--like I expect so many of us have--came to the conclusion that this Hobby we're into was certainly dorky and possibly reprehensible. It was something to be discussed with other people who I was sure were into the hobby, and not with anyone else. All through high school it was this way: where my Warhammer 40K hobby was my dorky black spot, and I tried to keep it from my non-hobby friends for as long as I could manage.

The Art of Yours Truly

Alright, so, I've been posting concept art, off and on, from--mostly--artists in the Tyranid community. Like I've said before, I love concept art and find it wonderfully inspiring. When I posted up my last ARTicle (see what I did there?), someone commented that, though I post sketches from all these other artists, I never post any of my own.

I tried to explain it away, saying that I wasn't much of an artist when it came to drawing, and that I got my ideas firmed up best in real models.

I later discovered that the Anonymous poster was, in fact, my own brother, which caused me to discount his comment entirely until he explained his reasoning. He said that he'd seen the kinds of random doodles I do to get ideas about how to lay out models/to preserve the images that flash through my brain. While he agreed that they weren't "Art," he thought that there may be people out there who were daunted by the idea of sketching something and who don't dare draw because they feel their drawings are terrible. He's a very different kind of artist than me, and I think that in this difference he has more patience with all kinds of art, while I tend to discount anything I do that isn't perfect.

All philosophical art posturing aside, he told me that I should whip up a post about the random sketches I do to show that cool models can come from random sketches. I think that maybe he's right, and in the vein of the How To Sculpt series, I hope that this post shows people that sometimes just doing something is enough: that you don't have to be amazing to at least be good.

If not, it should at least be good for some LOL'z.

Warning! Incoming Price Hike!

GW's generic announcement of their price hike at the end of May of last year. I had to really dig on their site to find this, and I haven't been able to find a similar one for this year's hike.

This is going to sound like belly-aching, but I just want to make sure that no one gets blind-sided by this. News coming in from independent retailers is that Games Workshop has sent around a message detailing products that are going to have their prices increased in June. The complete list of price increases can be found in the BoLS Lounge.

Price hikes are lame, and I think we can all agree on that. They're lamer still when they come out of nowhere with no warning. So, though the adequate response to a price hike should be a buying freeze, if you need to get some GW product right now, best to buy it soon before it goes up, and best to buy it from an independent retailer who offers a %-off and makes sure less cash flows into the company coffers.

Alright. Flame off. Consider yourselves advised. I promise I'll get back to making fun things now...

Announcements: Winners and Workshops

Howdy Folks,

I've now gotten in touch with both winners of the 10,000 View Giveaway, and they've both come back with their model choices, so I guess I'm good to announce them here.

Winners!
Krewl Rain from Warpshadow was our first winner, and she has asked me to whip up a Tyranid Prime for her, armed with bonesword, lashwhip, and some other mystery weapon. I feel rather guilty about it, but I haven't, actually, made a Tyranid Prime since the codex came out, despite having all kinds of decent ideas for them. This project will be a good kick in the rump to get those ideas down in a model.

Next up, Natfka, from Faeit 212 won the second prize, and he has requested that I craft him a convincing Asdrubael Vect (can you believe I've been calling him Absurdrael all these years? how fitting is that?) stand-in as the only current Games Workshop model for that powerful character is pewter and wears a funny hat. I've already envisioned the dark lord striding down the deck of his Dias of Destruction with his Scepter of the Dark City held aloft. I'm taking this as an opportunity to experiment with a non-combat pose, and I'm hoping that I can make Vect look at once menacing and regal. I'm excited about making the Scepter, as it should be the focal point of the model, but I'm also keen for the opportunity to really pimp out Vect's ghostplate armour.

I can't wait to start on both models, and I'll surely be posting progress here.

Workshops!
I'd also like to plug a Workshop that Simon Elsen (also known as Terrorfex on Warpshadow or Katan on 5th Dimension) is organizing for September. He's taking a step down the road of the Massive Voodoo kids and is offering his first ever painting workshop. If you're wondering why you should want to join Simon's workshop, you need look no further than the GW What's New blog, which he has been frequenting of late, or his galleries over on 5th Dimension.

The workshop is taking place in Germany, so if that is where you hail from, or if you can get there without too much trouble, check out the details over on 5th Dimension. So far they've only been posted in German, so I hope you're fluent.

10,000 Views Giveaway Announcement

The results are in, and I'd like to congratulate the two lucky winners of my first-ever Commission Giveaway contest. They were drawn earlier today by a special guest, and you can see the results without further ado in the following video:



If you were lucky enough to be selected, please get in touch with me and let me know what kind of commission you'd like me to make, provided that it falls within the aforementioned guidelines. If you weren't chosen this time, then don't worry as I'm sure I'll be doing another giveaway some time soon.

I can't wait to see what kind of projects the winners come up with...

Coven Raider Update

Here's an update for my Coven Raider project, but it's been so long since I posted it that I figure this may be the first time that some people are seeing the project.

My concept for the Coven Raider was something a little more than the common Raider+Tentacles. Though it was a little more expensive than slapping some tentacles on a Raider, I wanted to have a Raider that was powered by a Talos. My idea was a bit like the Talos would be pulling the Raider, except it would be built into the body.

Olden Demon Entries

Yes, that's right: Olden Demon Entries.

Despite fraternizing with and doing commissions for Golden Demon winning artists, I've never actually scored a demon for myself. Years ago I tried: once with a Red Terror and once with an Old One Eye (somehow that seems fitting). Though I've taken shots of these two models before, while I had my photography set up out to take some other photos, I thought I should try to get some nicer ones of these models as well.

Deepthought: We. Are. The Hobby.

This is a hobby editorial. I went to school to become and try to make my living as a writer. Though I love the hobby, and I'd like nothing better than to sculpt all day, posting amazing things on here for all to ogle, there are times when the urge to write strikes, and I try to use these interludes to delve deeper into important parts of the hobby. I hope you find the following article interesting, and I promise to get back to posting cool models soon!

First off, I'd like to state that this is not going to be one of those articles.

Anyone who knows me from Warpshadow knows that I don't go in for Games Workshop bashing. Though this may start with a bit of negative sentiment, I would ask you to stick with the article and read it through 'til the end as the end, in a way, is the most important part. That being said, it's a biggie, so best to grab a cuppa something to go along with it.

Though I don't go in for Company Bashing, I got very close last May, when it seemed like The Company was doing everything in their power to squeeze more money out of their Hobbyists (heck, at one point I was planning a revolution). On May 18th of last year, at the height of the Internet furor over price hikes, Finecast (and its further price hikes), and the restriction of UK-based, world-wide online retailers, Games Workshop CEO Mark Wells sent out a letter to hobbyists. If you missed it, the full letter can be viewed on Beasts of War.

There are many things I could take issue with in this letter, but the greatest and most glaring of them is the following, taken verbatim from the letter that Mark Wells, CEO of Games Workshop, sent out to a hobbyist:

...the simple fact is that European internet traders will not invest any money in growing the hobby in your country. Their model is to minimise their costs and free-ride on the investment of Games Workshop and local independent shops in creating a customer base.

For all my lack of Games Workshop bashing, that was a statement that rankled me. Though there may well be some free-riding internet retailers, there are also SCADS more internet retailers who support themselves by selling models so that they can spend the rest of their days writing hobby articles or creating cool conversions for other hobbyists to use. Some of these online retailers who invest a goodly portion of their time into growing the hobby online took the statement as what it was: a direct slap in the face, and they posted comments like this one from Matthew over at Miniwargaming.com.

The gist of this letter seemed to be the idea that Games Workshop invests more time and money than anyone in growing this hobby, so it makes sense to pay their prices and not to support freeloading online retailers. It got me thinking about just how much time and money all of us in this interconnected, online, miniature community invest into this hobby. I had a revelation about the nature of what our communities had evolved into: I thought that if we could ever herd together the 1,000 cats of our online community and convince them to dream a single dream, we would be the ones at the controls of this hobby community and not The Company. I came to a realization that is the first main thrust of this article. It was a simple statement that belies the foundation-shaking strength of the sentiment behind it:

We. Are. The Hobby.

You, and me; what we do here, and the interactions that hobbyists have on miniature-based blogs and forums all over the net. We are the hobby.