Myrmidon Space Marines (FoPVP)

Greetings all, today we take another look at some work by a Friend of Pirate Viking Painting: Jen Truby. Jen is an amazing painter and I'm looking forward to showing you all some of her 54mm work but for today it is her Space Marines: The Myrmidons

For those without a classical education: The Myrmidons were the elite fighters who led by Achilies and who were instrumental in the fall of Troy. From the picture above it might not seem like there is much Greek imagery on this chap, but take a look at the other side:

Every model in Jen's army sports Greek Key designs and lightning flashes which are easier to see on her Captain:

How cool is he? The classic spear and round shield combo of a greek phalanx combined with the ability to fly into combat, but look carefully under the jump pack and you will see the coolest part of this model:

She can field him without the pack by just lifting it off! Jen hollowed out the jump pack so it would fit over the normal marine pack. Now she did this a while ago but wouldn't you know it? It is the exact same method that THQ used to give Captain Titus a jump pack in their Space Marine game. I had to chuckle.

A look from the front of the shield shows how effective the Greek Key design is and how precisely it has been  applied. Next time we have a look at the Myrmidons we'll check out the terminators and dreadnought. For now though we will leave them. A final note, I have set up a group on Flickr called Friends of Pirate Viking Painting. I invite everyone to put up their favourite models on there and share their work! Especially anyone who likes to digitally sign their work. Games Workshop recently removed ALL of my pictures from their Flickr group for having the temerity to have a logo on them. Ho hum! Click on the picture below and you will be digitally transported to the group.

TTFN

Arrr! Me hearties! We're back!

Hello! The long silence is broken, we are mostly back in business! To open our dealings I present a model that I've been wanting to share for a while but have been prevented from doing so by competition rules:

This is a Black Scorpion Diamond Joe that I'm going to use as a Captain for a pirate warband that I am building as and when I find a figure that inspires me. I also entered him in the Golden Chef competition that Black Scorpion run. Whilst I didn't win anything I am chuffed to be on the "mentions" page. Sadly it's been so long since I painted him that I cannot remember a darned thing that I did!

The time lag however gives rise to an interesting comparison, take a look at the face above, now compare with:

This was taken just one month later after I had refined some of the new tricks that I was using to paint skin (some of which were developed for the pirate captain) and compare that with:

Older work again. Now each of these shots represents the very best I could do at that time and I was (and am, be fair Jeff) proud of all of these miniatures when I painted them but it just goes to show how much can change in such a limited time with constant practice. "But hold on," you cry, "you do this for a living Jeff, I just don't have the time to..." and at that point I would interrupt. One of the things I hear most often is "I don't have the time to..." to this I say rubbish. You probably do not have eight hours a day to lavish on your hobby but I bet, I just bet that you could find half an hour, or even a full hour. Think about times in the day when you are just sitting, watching TV for instance. Get a lap tray, a folding table, a comfortable cushion for the coffee table and get some paint on a model while watching Big Who Wants to be a Weakest Link Get Me Out Of Here or whatever. It is amazing how many shows do not need you to use your eyes at all. Adding an hour a day to your painting will add the equivilent of 45 of my working days to your painting time.

Think about that. What if we were all to paint a model a week? That's 52 models a year, enough for a small 40k army, a decent sized Warmachine host, a couple of gangs for Malifaux or one of the Specialist games. The list goes on and with batch painting you can probably do 5 models in the time taken to paint 2. That is more like 130 models a year. Most importantly of all, you would keep a paintbrush in your hand and keep the muscle memory going. Painting is no different to playing a musical instrument. Practice is essential and the ONLY way to improve. Also, use it or loose it, If I have a sparse painting month due to holidays or RealLife^TM  getting in the way then when I return I feel "rusty", tight, cramped. Takes a few sessions to get back in the groove.

Anyhow, hope that has made you think! I should be back to normal service very shortly (just waiting on a serial key for Photoshop CS3) and have lots to share.

TTFN

We are experiencing technical difficulties...

Hey folks, slightly grumpy update:

My computer has decided that operating normally is something that happens to other machines and has ceased functioning. As a result I have lost access to image processing for a while. Doh! While I sort out getting photoshop onto a friends computer there will be something of a lag in updates.

I am still working on projects (frustratingly I have some photos of harlequins now) but won't be able to share them for a little while. Given that I now have even more need of the money I will go cap in hand and ask that if any of you fine, fine people were thinking of having me work for you on a project then sooner would be better than later!

As you can imagine this has left me a little disheartened but thankfully painting is one of the things that cheers me up. Useful that! I will post again when I am once more up and running on borrowed machine. Until then if you want to contact me then use the "contact us" email button or send direct to pirate-viking-painting (at) hotmail.co.uk as I can easily pick those up from my phone. Until next time

TTFN