Since last year, Games Workshop have released the Venerable Dreadnought kit, which means that I don’t need to purchase a Forgeworld dread in order to get the head I want.  I’m actually sorely tempted to base it on Bjorn the Fellhanded – although as GW no longer sell the old model it could well be destined for a new release between now and September.

I think that in comparison to what I did last time (lots of armour cladding), I’ll go for a more simplistic design with runes and norse style knotwork.  I’m also thinking of going for a non-symetrical design, to add a bit of flavour to the whole thing.  I also need to think about what enemy I wish to have as last time the Chaos Space Marine looked truly crap.  Thinking about it, I may actually start with the base rather than the model

On that note, I’m going to have to have a rummage around and start purchasing the components I want.

Useful Links:

New ForgeWorld Space Wolves Dreadnought – looks ace and I like the simple banding around the various details.

One thing that is interesting is that it’s currently rumoured that the Tomb Kings will be getting a new army book during 2010 – in fact it’s currently rumoured that it will be the army released after Beasts of Chaos – which would make it a April/May release I reckon.  On a positive note this means that should I decide to do this as an entry that I could add in lots of nice new miniatures – in other words I have till May to get the scenary done and then June till September to do the miniatures

Useful Links:

http://images.mmosite.com/photo/2009/04/22/warhammerw490CIV48h51S.jpg – Witch Hunter Fighting Tomb Prince
http://www.wouldyoukindly.com/wp-content/uploads/warhammer1.jpg – Knight fighting Tomb Gaurd + interior
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/images/newsletter/2009_02/TK_Pendulum.jpg – Pendulum Trap
http://www.ogeworld.com/document_general_info.html?products_id=3366 – Article on planning tomb king expansion
http://war.mmolecule.com/articles/id/2031 – Another article with lots of exterior shots

So whilst I’ve been looking on the internet, I’ve always had in the back of my mind that it would be nice to have something suitable for this maximum sized cube – and I now think I’ve got it.  Basically it’s a Tomb King dungeon scene, where a party of intreped adventurers have broken into a tomb complex, battled their way past various traps and found that the treasures are actually protected by all manner of undead gribblies.

The concept is that the piece will be a two-level cross-section.  The walls will be embossed in some manner, allowing for all of the various Tomb King murals to be incorporated into the piece.  Painting the environment will be pretty straight forward as all of the sandstone can be done using an airbrush, which should create quite a bit of depth and atmosphere.  There will be an upper level that will contain the ‘outside frontage’, which will lead into a small chamber via a hallway (including devilish traps), at the end of the chamber will be a spiral staircase (because all good dungeons have one) which will then lead down into the lower level and then into a final large chamber with Tomb King and sarcophagus.  One thing that I want to do is to make the last chamber appear untouched by the ravages of time as if preserved by some magical statis field – hopefully I can incorporate water fountains in this as well.  The top level needs to look decrepit, plaster falling off the walls, cobwebs, long dead bodies etc – similar to how ancient egyptian tombs look now (well without bodies).

I will need to investigate a good way of making realistic sand as real sand is too coarse to just glue on and expect it to look right.  I have had some thoughts about the walls as well.  If I get a piece of plasticard and glue on thin wire in the shape of the required embossing (sealing the edges with PVA glue or putty), I could then pour a thin layer of super fine plaster of paris over it.  When this has set I can then grease patches where I want the plaster to fall off (poking a hole through so I know where to bash) and then pour a layer of regular plaster.  Finally once set sand the back off and fix to some plasticard or similar to make a solid wall.  I can poke and gouge the areas that are greased which should flop off as it it had in real life.  I also think that I could get a mini sand blaster and spray the outer layer to weather it (you can get one for around £30).

I think that this could be ‘the one’, in which case I’ll start planning out the construction.  In principal, two 1ft squares of mdf and four corner spacers will be the starting point.

Userful Links:

Inner Lower Chamber
Outside Idea 1
Outside Idea 2
Chamber Idea 2

One of the really nice things about what is in essence a Space Marine vehicle is that it doesn’t need billions of rivets like a Imperial Guard vehicle would.  Although it would be a large project, the most complicated pieces are the two jet engines.  All of the weapons can be purchased from existing plastic kits.

Useful Links
http://www.grafstar.com/wh40k/resources.html – Contains some very rough plans (useful for scale)
http://www.ironhands.com/thawk.htm – A 2001 home grown one, using various plastic toys

First off is a Warhammer Quest dungeon scene, but using modern models.  A bit like the one Mike McVey did years back where the whole thing is split into a number of micro-dioramas with different monsters and party members.  For the barbarian I think it would be possible to convert a Chaos Knight into a much more ‘Conan’ style character, Wizard would be the new empire wizard box, Elf could be one of the wood elf range and Dwarf could be converted from any number of Dwarf models.

Whilst searching (the wonders of Google Images) I also came across a number of pretty cool Tomb King landscapes (mostly from Warhammer Online), which would make a quite refreshing backdrop to a diorama as it would use light sandy colours and rich Turquoise and gold’s, plus you could create some pretty cool ‘sand effects’ with things bursting out of the sand

Useful Links:
http://www.warhammerlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/hoodoo.jpg
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/images/newsletter/2009_03/Dungeon-Dock.jpg
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/images/specialfeatures/Necropolis_header.jpg
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/herald/images/liveevents/2009WildHunt_07.jpg

What strikes me about this as a project is that it’s going to be pretty unique.  It’s a massive modelling project in it’s own right and lends itself to a significant portion being airbrushed.  For me it’s quite cool as I enjoyed and spent far more time on the modeling element of my Dreadnought than I did on the painting element.  One of the pretty cool things about Tzeentch is that the structure has to look impossible, unstable and slightly disturbed.    The pyramid is in essence composed of ‘layers’ in a similar design to a flower’s petals.  What I’d love to do, is to have parts of the model floating with the use of magnets (a bit like those levitating pens you can buy).  Some kind of movement would also be pretty cool, but would have to think about both of these items as it could add unecessary weight onto the floating element.

I need to sketch out some sizes, but it would be good to be able to have the paths able to take three or four mounted miniatures – i.e. 4 inches across.  This would likely make the eyeball huge – at least 3 inches in diameter – providing I can paint it well it will make a fantastic feature centre piece of the model.  Once I’ve done a sketch or two, I’ll create a mock out of card and artboard to see what it looks like and it I’ll carry on with it.  I’ll also add some miniatures onto it – probably chaos warriors as they can be painted in the purple hues of the actual structure.  What would be really cool would be to sculpt the bridge over a valley and somehow model false perspective to make it seem like the valley bottom is far away.  In addition to the large eye on the top of the structure, there are also two eye like spheres set in the walls of structure (on either side).  What I want to do is to try and paint them so that they appear to follow you within a relativly wide arc.  If you’ve not already guessed I have plans to make the whole model slightly disturbing, but equally fascinating at the same time.  Now obviously I actually need to work out how and indeed if some of these ideas are actually possible within a modelled world, but fingers crossed and this will become a reality

Useful Links: http://img.war-europe.com/syndic_img/news/maymnl/TheBridge.jpg

So then, whatever I decide to do for next year Golden Demon has to be bigger, better painted, better planned, more colourful and generally the mutt’s nut’s.  Easy then!  Now in reality I probably spent a total of three ‘average’ months on my model (i.e. 12 weeks) – I reckon I put in a but under 90 hours work in total.  So lets reckon I have 45 weeks with which to do things before the next Golden Demon (giving me 7 weeks for things like Christmas, leaving home, holiday, etc) – that’s between three and four times the amount of time, putting in 7.5 hours worth of work for each of those 45 weeks – 330 hours in total.  I should be able to force in extra time over this period as well.

What this does put into perspective is that I need to ensure that whatever I choose to do is realiastic.  If I can spend 90 hours and not actually finish a dreadnought, then I don’t want to do a entry that has four heavily converted dreadnoughts and a vindicator in.

I’m going to presume that the categories aren’t going to be any different than they were this year, although there is the potential to change I think that it is highly unlikely that this will happen.  Now I personally don’t think that there is any point in entering the single miniature or squad/unit categories.  These are some of the most hotly contested categories in the whole competition, plus I am concious that I could loose interest if I plough on down this road.  This leaves vehicles & monsters, dual and diorama (leaving out lotr).  I’m currently verging on the concept of a diorama of some kind.  It having a substantial ‘modelling’ element (building/feature) with a handful of miniatures interacting.  What I wouldn’t want to do is have two models fighting each other – which is what there seemed to be quite a bit of this year in cabinets.  I’d also want to make it as close to the 30cm cube as possible – the winners this year all seemed quite small.  Of course one thing to remember is that a diorama doesn’t have to have any fighting element to it.

So, concepts that have come off the top of my head:
Tyragon smashing out of a frozen ground to attack some imperial base (think starship troopers)
Space Hulk / boarding action (could be imperial onto other or the other way around)
Warhammer burning mill surrounded by demons
Warhammer Quest style party in a dungeon
Warhammer fortress attack
Necron attack of some kind
Warhammer farm being looted by marauders and a giant (it’s a Warhammer Online PQ)
Reikland Factory
Dwarf Brewery

Another idea is that there was a concept sketch of a Space Marine Dreadnought that looked brilliant – basically more like the old fashioned Dreadnought, but much more modern and with more armaments on.

Now although I realise that the key element of any entry is the painting, I don’t want to have too many miniatures that require intricate and fine detail’s painted on.  My free hand isn’t that great and I actually dislike large scenes that are festooned with intricate detail as it’s largely lost in the background.

Links of use:
http://pc.gamezone.com/gamesell/screens/s29066.htm
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/208658.page
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/7986/imperialrobotsvx7.jpg
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/2320/imperialrobots2un4.jpg
http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/71642/Empire%20Windmill_qjpreviewth.jpg
http://warmodels.narod.ru/ctat/fotogd2007/pict84.jpg
http://www.warguru.com/articles/99/the-reikland-factory-dev-diary
http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=411