Resplendent in the finery of a bygone age, Black Knights are a decaying mockery of once noble templars. Now these baleful revenants are consumed with loathing for those who’s hearts still beat within their chest.
Quick post today guys, it’s been really busy again lately! Here are some more of Tim’s impressive collection of John Blanche inspired undead. This time we’ve got the first part of a unit of Black Knights. Continue reading
Ghastly shrieks and guttural howls come from deep within the necropolis. The charnel stench of open graves belies the presence of the corpse-eaters. Surely, to venture further through these forsaken crypts would be to consign oneself to eternal residence amongst the silent, desecrated dead…
Just a quick blog post today to show you some work on the first of a unit of Age of Sigmar Crypt Horrors I’ve been working on. Continue reading
The unquiet spirits of ancient warriors once again heed the summons war. Blasphemously tethered to their mortal remains they march from crypt and barrow beneath the tattered banners of a bygone Age.
Shambling from their tombs this week, a rotting regiment of Blanchitsu inspired skeletons. Continue reading
The fell winds of Shyish stir the bones of long dead beasts. Haunting banshee-howls pierce the night and then comes the carrion stench, thick and heavy in the air. Make haste traveler, the hunt of the Dire Wolves has begun!
Things have been a bit dead here at Technasma with real life getting in the way… However now things are not just dead, they are Undead and back from the grave with a vengeance! We’ve got some all sorts of grizzly and ghoulish miniatures to share, all inspired by Warhammer’s Arch Illuminator, the inimitable John Blanche. Continue reading
This almost was a lengthy, self-indulgent introspection on the hobby, but we’ll spare you that.
Really all we wanted to say was thanks to any and all of you that are out there reading this and supporting our little corner of this great hobby. Continue reading
Mindlessly driven by deconstruction protocols, the chittering swarm of Canoptek Scarabs decends on its prey in a horrific multitude of monomolecular razor-claws and particle cutters. Rendered down to its very elements and its atomic energy harvested, no trace of their prey is left behind when the swarm ascends.
The third installment of our Necrons of the Derelict Planet arrives today, ready to atomically flense your pathetic organ-bodies and short-circuit your primitive computer-comms arrays!
Our Canoptek Scarabs hover above an oxidised wasteland, illuminating the debris of the battlefield with the blue glow of their anti-grav repulsion fields. Amongst the debris are the radiation-blasted remnants of Necrontyr structures and warmachines.
The derelict exoskeleton of a Necron Warrior languishes on one of the bases. Its ocular circuits flicker as reanimation protocols are rebooted by the galvanising energy fields of the nearby Scarabs. We wanted to add some dioramic elements to these miniatures. As part of the rather venerable Necron Warrior kit, Scarabs can look a bit plain and boring compared to newer miniatures if just clumped together on a round base.
If you’re interested you can see the Necron Warriors and Catacomb Command Barge for this army and some info on how we came up with the colour scheme.
Your cognition-signals and bioelectromagnetic stimuli sustain us! If you have a point of view on our Necrons then please leave a comment below to be harvested for our mechanical overlords…
Enticed from the empyrean by the tang of sacrificial blood, a lesser daemon of Khorne manifests into the material realm.
Khorne has been getting a lot of love recently, so to honour the Blood God today we present one of his minions. This is a bit of a throw back to a mini that was painted a few years ago. This guy is the first of many models painted in a ‘Blanchitsu’ style, and ultimately spawned an entire army of Vampire Counts painted in this way!
In the same way as the Cairn Wraith that we featured a few weeks ago, the colours on the Bloodletter were built up from a dark crimson basecoat. Highlights were added with drybrushing and glazes of off-white and bone to emulate the style of John Blanche’s concept art. The scales were picked out in Vallejo Model Scrofulous Brown .
The hellblade was dulled down with several glazes of brown and sepia paints and some Devlan Mud wash. I then went back to pick out the sharp edges with Mithril Silver.
It was good fun to tackle a Khorne model that isn’t just blood red! They have a really creepy, almost alien feel to them, that I just love. At some point we’d like to work on a Khorne Goretide army for Age of Sigmar – the new models are simply fantastic.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
Manical from an eternity of stasis-slumber, the Phaeron of a long-forgotten dynasty rides to war. Behind him, vast and implacable hordes of machine-vassals march in unison. Once again the galaxy will face the wrath of the Necrontyr!
Time for the second installment of our collaborative project – The Necrons of the Derelict Planet – inspired by the fantastic artwork of Pascal Blanché! It’s back to 40K this week as we present the superb Necron Catacomb Command Barge. If you’re into vehicles then this is a real joy to paint. It has organic curves – perfect for fades and blends – as well as crisp edges for sharp highlighting.
As with the Necron Warriors we painted the Command Barge together over a few sittings. The colours are intense and vibrant, built up in successive layers initially using sponge and drybrush, with more controlled glazes and edge highlights deployed towards the end.
The underside of the Command Barge is left the dark teal green colours of the basecoat and picked out with Sotek Green. The style is inspired by the bold colours of Pascal Blanché’s Derelict Planet art, but we hypothesise that the underglow is from the craft’s grav-repulsor force-field. (That or it’s just a pimped out ride, fitting of an insane Terminator Space-Pharaoh!)
The Necron Phaeron was a perfect opportunity to try out some advanced painting techniques. His War-Scythe and Ressurection Orb were embellished with glowing blue non-metallic metal effects. We’re pretty happy with how they turned out. We used the iPhone app Snapseed to work out how to light the War-Scythe before painting it, to ensure the lighting looked correct. We’ll feature this in a future blog, but here are some close ups.
As ever we’d love to know what you think of our work, your feedback sustains us!
Also, we’d like to thank Pascal for tweeting our blog last time – great to have some engagement from such an inspirational guy! We highly recommend you check out Pascal Blanché’s art on his blog or excellent art book Derelict Planet.
Under the glare of a blood red sun a legion of immortal warriors march through the remnants of a derelict planet…
Sometimes all it takes to inspire a project is one idea. In the case of our Necrons, that seed of inspiration came from stumbling across the beautiful art of Pascal Blanché – art director at Ubisoft. His blend of post-apocalyptic and mythological themes, vibrant use of colour and techniques that span CG and digital artforms are beautiful to behold.
“Danu” ©Pascal Blanché. Used without permission. See more at http://derelictplanet.blogspot.co.uk/
“Sanctuary” © Pascal Blanché. Used without permission. See more at http://pascalblanche.deviantart.com/
Struck by bold, three-dimensionality of his work an the transition of contrasting colours we realised that this had to be applied to miniatures. And what better faction than Necrons to capture the alien marriage of corroded machine and organic shapes!
These Necron Warriors were painted surprisingly quickly. Keen to emulate the transition from dark teal green to oxide red we sketched the colours in with drybrush and sponging techniques. We began with a blue basecoat of Necron Abyss, working up through Stegadon Scale Green to Sotek Green. Successive red layers were then applied from above to simulate a vibrant red light-source. The final layers of orange were applied using thin glazes instead, and edge highlights picked out to give definition. We picked a cold blue as a contrasting splash colour for the glowing eyes and energy canals on their Gauss Rifles.
We’d love to know what you think of our Necrons. Have you been inspired by the art or ideas of another in the same way? Tell us in the comments below.
Also, we highly recommend you check out Pascal Blanché’s art on his blog or excellent art book Derelict Planet. Maybe you’ll find your next inspiration there!
A malevolent spirit returns from beyond the grave in today’s showcase! The Cairn Wraith is one of those wonderfully understated models – very simple design but perfectly executed and full of macabre character.
This is the first of several Undead miniatures we want to share with you. The palette is inspired by the reds, sepias and burnt umbers of John Blanche’s evocative Vampire Counts concept art. It was good fun to use a limited range of colours, starting with initially quite messy applications of brown and crimson, working up to successively more refined glazes of bone and off-white.
I like how the wraith seems to have manifested into a bloodsoaked death shroud – an effect that was completed with a few spots of Tamiya Clear Red.
Given Games Workshop’s obsession with vanitas and memento mori symbolism in the Warhammer world (a big part of what makes it so cool), this model is something of a homage (an homage?) to John Blanche. I added the tongue from a Bloodletter to give it a creepy twist, and freehanded the checkered pattern around the edge of the wraith’s cowl – a motif ubiquitous in Blanche’s artwork.
Hopefully this guy gave you the chills! We love to hear your feedback, so feel free to let us know what you think in the Comments below!
Technasma 
