Here are the Slayer Sword winning mini’s done by my good friend Dylan Gauker.  We specifically wanted to get some better pictures online than the poor quality images at StuffofLegends.  The blending on these figs is wonderful, and the harsh lighting of StuffofLegends really ruins the impact of these great minis.  Anyways, more photos available on my flickr stream, or in the Demon Winners set.  (Hopefully these are labelled well enough; Dylan’s work is fantastic, and I don’t want to seem to steal any of the credit that is rightfully his).

These photos are the first taken of my recently painted Finns, sculpted in 15mm by Battlefront minis for Flames of War. These are rather tiny figures, half the size of what I’m used to. The sniper, for instance, is modeled on a nickle. On the other hand the small scale made it possible to paint up a company (about 150 men and 6 tanks) in less than 2 weeks. One day I shall paint a few soviets and take some “action photos” with scenery and combat. The Finnish fought off Soviet invasion in ’39 and ’44 (the talvisota and jatkosota, respectively) with little equipment other than captured Soviet tanks and guns.

Last month I painted up these Spartans sculpted by Steve Saleh. This whole big block of 36 minis came as part of the prize for best painted in the Warhammer Historicals Tournament at Adepticon in Chicago this past April. That’s about 1,000 pts of Lakedaimonian goodness for all the nerds! They were a joy to paint, very quick, and have the best (read: largest sculpted)  hoplon shields I have seen on 28mm Greek minis.

I just heard that Gorgon Studios plans to re-release these excellent minis in the near future, along with Etruscans and more to come! They have the very talented Dave Pauwels painting for them, so I can’t wait to see the studio collection grow!

Samurai, 28mm, completed May, 2008. This model is a plastic Citadel mini with a whole lot of sculpted epoxy putty to create the armor and Katana. This piece was started immediately after finishing the Inquisitor (busy month), and took roughly 150 hours to sculpt and paint. Great fun was had making the little 5mm orchids in the lower left corner from wire and paper. I hope to build and paint many more like him at some future point.

This model took the Slayer Sword in the 2008 Baltimore Golden Demon painting competition. It took me around 200 hours to paint (after 150 or so whos counting anymore, right?). It stands 28mm high, about one inch.

Champion of Nurgle, Riding a custom Maggot. Heavy conversion, large use of green stuff.  Slightly rude, but check out the detail in the rear shot …  You don’t screw with Nurgle Maggots.

Loads of photos available. My thoughts?

- The lighting doesn’t do the miniatures justice. While brightly lit, it is not soft enough, and reflects off many of the miniatures in a way that makes it difficult to see what is going on. For example, note the all the bright spots on Dylan’s winning Mutants of Nurgle Squad.

- Aaron Lovejoy’s Masque of Slaanesh is fantastic. (Gold Winner)

- I also enjoyed Andrew Cromwell’s Ogre (again, Gold Winner).

- And to plug the Minneapolis crowd (Dylan’s minis look horrible under this lighting, much better in person):
Dylan Gauker: Bronze Medal – 40k Monster
Dylan Gauker: Silver Medal- Warhammer Single Mini
Dylan Gauker: Silver Medal – Warhammer Monster
Dylan Gauker: Gold Medal- LOTR Single Mini
Bennett Blalock-Doane: Silver Medal – Open Competition
(and of course, Dylan got Gold and the Slayer sword for the aforementioned Nurgle Warhammer Fantasy Regiment).