The Scale of 40k: Learning Illustrator

     Hey everyone! So I have seen a lot of discussions (debates) about what the actual sizes of things in the Warhammer 40k universe. Even when people agreed on the sizes, It was always expressed as the height in feet, meters, km, etc. That is great, but I want to be able to get the sense of scale as it is described in the novels (the way a normal human feels tiny next to a space marine). I thought the best way to do this (that was within my skill set) would be to make up a bunch of silhouettes of vehicles, weapons, and armour and place them next to each other.
      Eventually I want to make an animation where it starts zoomed in on a human, and slowly zooms out all the way to an imperial battlecruiser! I'm also planning to do some for xenos races as well. 
     The way I have been determining the scale was by following the diagram in the back of the Imperial Armour books. I'll have to use some other methods of finding the size of the things that aren't in there (xenos stuff) but that shouldn't be too hard if I use the models as a guide, or any other references that I can find. Since the models aren't to scale, I only use them as a starting point.
     So what do you think? The Land Raider and Rhino actually look like they would be able to transport the amount of troops that the rules say, boltguns are huge, and a powerfist is the size of a human torso! This really helps me to get an idea of just how big things are in 40k. Make sure to view the photo full size, and let me know what you think, or anything specific you'd like to see sized up against everything. Thanks for reading!
    

Deathwing conversions: Belial, champion, and sergeants

      Hi everyone! I just wanted to show you a little update on the Deathwing. The picture above is my take on Belial. Like many of you, I really wan't a fan of the finecast Belial, and the deathwing box has so many great bits that It wasn't a problem at all to make my own. The model is just held together with stickey tack right now, and I had to photoshop the thunderhammer on there too. I didn't like the pose of the sergeant that came standard. It was just too stiff and static, so I swapped his legs with one of the others (it was much harder than you might think) to give a bit more movement to the model.  Read on for more!

Plans for the Space Wolves

    

     Hello again everyone. I just wanted to show a few of the photos that have inspired the Space Wolf army that I'm currently working on, and show where I am currently on the project. First off, I have to make a confession. I used to hate the wolves. They didn't do anything wrong or anything, but I couldn't stand the baby blue color that GW paints them. I mean, they would look more at home in a brand new baby's nursery than in the grim dark future of Warhammer. But alas, I have been converted. When 6th edition was fresh off the press, I picked up the big rulebook and after excitedly pouring over the new rules, I took a look at all the great artwork and models at which point I saw these beauties:

     I really liked the dark grey armour, and the multitude of conversions all packed into a nice little viking army. After that I took a look at their rules and found that they really enforced the raw power that I saw in the models. So needless to say, the vikings in space had won me over. And next thing I know, my brother got me a box of grey hunters and thunderwolf cavalry for Christmas! So now I had the problem of figuring out what my army was going to look like.
     Although the space wolves in the rulebook were the first to catch my attention, I wasn't fully in love with everything about it. I saw the picture of the space wolves contemptor and really liked the color scheme.

     So that was it. Dark grey with black shoulderpads and a touch of red every once in a while. I'm going to be avoiding the yellow, but the long fangs will probably have some white here and there.
     It wasn't long before I found the awesome blog Poingo's Projects which has some amazing space wolves:

Every model is different, and he has written a backstory for each of them too!

HUGE chainsword! Awesome.

      His color scheme is pretty close to what I'm looking for, but what really caught my eye was all of the incredible conversions. I knew that I wanted each and every one of my space wolves to be converted at least in some way. There will be no assembling straight out of the box for this army. And it is really the perfect army to do this with because they come with so many extra bits, and the models are just demanding to have extra character built in.
     So what exactly am I planning for my army? Well as I said before, the armour is going to be dark grey with dark red here and there.

      My current army is very clean, so I wanted to mix things up and make these guys look like they have been out in it for a long time. Their armour is going to be extremely worn and battle damaged like this land raider by John Beech.

     The details are going to be in a corroded bronze similar to the model above by Brandon Griffith.

     I'll be adding a bunch of details in greenstuff like these wolftooth decorations by Night Runner. I'm also thinking of adding some chainmail as well because that would look really cool and fit well with the viking theme.
     And to further the image of brutal warriors, there will be blood on all their weapons using Tamiya clear red as in this tutorial by Lonewolf.

     For the bases, I am definitely wanting to add some snow, and the method that I am liking the best is the one that Poingo uses in his tutorial using baking soda. But you need something to put the snow onto, and for that I am using pine bark as rocks which I learned from 3T Studios who have some incredible tutorials (don't be put off by the first picture, it's an example of what not to do). I will also be using some sculpey like I did with my Cultist Champion so I can add some runestones.
     So now, onto my stuff! I got myself some spears and axes from the chaos marauder horsemen kit which I am using to give them some close combat weapons other than chainswords.You can see one of the axes that this guy is carrying.

      I put this picture in black and white so the bark on the base actually looks like rock. I love how all Grey Hunters have a close combat weapon, bolt pistol, and bolter. Not only for the extra attack, but also because it is much more interesting to make them models when the whole squad is holding different weapons.

     I also made this thunderhammer for the thunderwolf cavalry. The head of the hammer is made from super sculpey which I carved into a boxish shape. It's going to be painted up to look like the space wolf carved it himself out of stone. I'll probably carve some runes into it as well.

     One of the other thunderwolves is going to be throwing a spear with a few more strapped to his back. It seems like a spear would be a better weapon than a chainsword when you're sitting on the back of a 6' tall wolf.
     So that is the current direction of my space wolf army. Now that school is just about out I'll hopefully have some models converted and ready to paint soon. Thanks for reading!