The 2015 Eternal Hunt Awards, pt. 2: The Hobbyists

2015 has been a frantic and pretty spectacular year for GW, but what about the hobbyists? In this second part of the 2015 Eternal Hunt Awards, allow me to share the best work I’ve seen from fellow hobbyists all around the world this last year. This will be quite a post, I am afraid, but you’ll walk away with quite a bit of inspiration and a new link or two for your blogroll — I guarantee it! 🙂

 

Hobby blog of the year

Before we get to the most impressive blogs and logs of the year, it goes without saying once again that many of the past entries from this category have managed to remain just as fantastic and inspiring as ever! However, in the interest of variety, I have once again decided to only feature blogs that haven’t appeared on the Eternal Hunt Awards yet. So with that out of the way, here are that blogs that blew me away in 2015:

 

Ed’s Heresy Kill-Teams

Not actually a blog in the classical sense, but rather an ongoing WIP thread over at The Bolter & Chainsword, EdT’s log is nevertheless my favourite 2015 hobby blog, as the amount of sheer inspiration contained in it stands a head above the rest of the competition: Ed originally started out building and painting small Heresy-themed warbands for various Astartes legions and Imperial factions that were perfect little slices of the background, exploring the Heresy in a way that was at once interesting and highly original. He ultimately graduated to creating even more involved projects like the absolutely stunning Custodes-themed diorama shown above and below, possibly my favourite piece of his work:

models built and painted by EdT

There are many more fantastic dioramas where that one came from, however, and most of them are even accompanied by some truly fantastic writing, such as the brilliant “Barque of Neter-Khertet” here:

models built and painted by EdT

You will really have to explore the thread yourself in order to see how cool it is, although let me point out two of my favourite parts about Ed’s work: One, his boundless creativity when it comes to creating perfect little slices of the 32nd millennium. Two, his growing ambition, as you can really see him growing as a hobbyist over the course of the thread. To wit, his latest project, featured in a thread of his own, is a Cerastus Knight Lancer designed through the lense of East-African cultural influences. Pretty ambitious, wouldn’t you agree?

For these reasons, EdT’s thread is easily my favourite hobby blog of 2015. Yet it is with a certain bitter-sweetness that I tell you this, for Ed has recently decided to quit the hobby after finishing his latest project. While I respect his decision, I still think that’s rather terrible news! On the other hand, I have no doubt that his creativity will lead him to success in whatever field he decides to apply himself to next. And in any case, his thread’s still there, though, so make sure to check it out and be blown away!

 

Ex Profundis

There are few blogs with a style as utterly distinctive as Ex Profundis — which is even more stunning when you realise that the blog showcases the work of several people and a couple of recurring guest artists. Even so, there’s nary a blog to be found that presents an equally dark and compelling look at our favourite hobby. While also featuring some of the most kick-ass modeling and painting work in existence, no less.

Dark Mechanicus House Sinekai by Bruticus

From Bruticus’ wonderfully gritty and sinister INQ28 warbands to Meade’s brilliantly creepy Dark Mechanicus and mutant hordes, Ex Profundis shows us a very particular and dark side of our favourite setting that we don’t really get to see anywhere else — and that is definitely saying something!

Mutant by meade

 

Mutant by meade

 

Mutant by meade

 

Mutant by meade

The pervading style and unique voice of the various projects really make this blog into something special. And even better, in addition to the fantastic modeling and painting projects, those guys even have something worthwile to say about various artistic subjects ranging from the artwork of the standout Manga-series Berserk to a rather insightful post on the importance of skulls in WFB and 40k...

Oh, and GW should probably let Bruticus do some of the world building for Age of Sigmar — I think the setting would really profit from that… 😉

Anyway, a standout blog that you should definitely check out at your earliest convenience!

 

Death of a Rubricist

I have to confess that I am pretty late to this particular party, as many of you will probably already know Apologist’s excellent blog. After all, he owns what is probably the most impressive Ultramarines army around — and those guys are all true-scaled, natch!

Ultramarines by Apologist

Indeed, the army has seriously made me reconsider my stance on the XIII legion, as both the models as well as the amount of care Apologist puts into their construction and the narrative behind them really turns them into the awe-inspiring force we have always read about in GW’s materials. I would never have expected to be interested in the XIII legions armour markings, but Apologist’s posts on the matter unfailingly have me spellbound — NUTS!

True scale Ultramarine by Apologist

To wit, Apologist has even managed to come up with a model of Roboute Guilliman that I think is actually cooler than Forgeworld’s official model — at least it’s closer to how I imagine the Lord of the XIIIth:

Rouboute Guilliman by Apologist

But it doesn’t stop there, as this amazing level of quality and dedication is typical of all of Apologist’s work, regardless of whether he creates more Ultramarines or some equally excellent true-scaled Iron Warriors,…

Iron Warriors by Apologist

…or a growing collection of wonderfully dark and medieval INQ28 models centered around the eponymous Rubricist…

Rubricist by Apologist

…or even the odd Xenos model:

Eldar Prince by Apologist

Whatever part of the grimdark future Apologist puts his mind to, he produces outstanding work! And his accompanying story vignettes unfailingly cut to the heart of everything that is awesome about the Horus Heresy or 40k. A wonderful blog and an excellent discovery, even if I was kind of slow on the uptake on this particular occasion 😉

Anyway, go explore Death of a Rubricist by following this “inload” (see what I did there…?)!

 

Nicolas Grillet’s blog

A fairly recent addition to my blog roll, this one, yet Nico Grillet’s blog has still managed to shoot straight into the list of my favourites. He has managed to produce an utterly fantastic warband of AdMech Explorators, for one:

AdMech Explorator warband by Nicolas Grillet

But that’s not nearly all, because Nicolas has also come up with a breathtaking, entirely scratchbuilt Underhive board for his Explorators to inhabit and …well, explore, I suppose 😉 The terrain is unbelievable in scope and quality, and on par with perennial favourites like Neil’s Yggdrassillium board or ThenickeNinja’s underhive terrain. Just take a look:

Underhive terrain by Nicolas Grillet

 

Underhive terrain by Nicolas Grillet

 

Underhive terrain by Nicolas Grillet

 

Underhive terrain by Nicolas Grillet

To top it all off, all of this modeling and painting goodness is merely one slice of Nicolas’ blog, because the guy is also a kick-ass illustrator. So make sure to head over there and take it all in in big, greedy gulps. Brilliant stuff!

Best models of the year

The quality of a lot of the stuff I am seeing online regularly manages to blow me away. Yet there are some models each year that manage to stand a head above the rest — not necessarily because they are flawlessly painted (although that certainly factors into the equation), but because they manage to perfectly embody a particular aspect of the background, and each and every detail is masterfully applied to support that effect. The level of quality when it comes to hobbyists’ creations is really quite off the charts by now — it’s almost unbelievable how many quality projects, logs, blogs and galleries can be found online! But even in this Golden Age of creativity, there are some that rise above the crowd. So let me present you some of the best pieces of 2014:

 

Queen Bee by Jeff Tibbetts

Queen Bee by Jeff Tibbetts

Well, there really cannot be any other model to open this section but the Queen Bee: I’ve heaped gushing praise on the model before, mostly because it was one of my most valuable inspirations when building and painting my own Knight, but it has to be said again: The Queen Bee may just be the best Imperial Knight model currently in existence, period.

The reason for this is that JeffTibbetts didn’t cut any corners when creating the model, but did rather do everything in his power to imbue the piece with a sense of underlying narrative: There’s a real history in the peeling layers of paint, the battle damage and the countless little details adorning various parts of the model — there’s even a little bird’s nest precariously balanced on one of the Queen Bee’s arms, for crying out loud!

This tendency continues with the actual paintjob, as Jeff has spent an unbelievable amount of work and care on replicating certain effects you would expect of an ancient and hallowed machine like this: The rust, the grit, the flaking paint — all of those brilliant little touches make the Queen Bee into a character rather than just a playing piece, and that is the biggest compliment I can probably think of.

Queen Bee by JeffTibbetts

In fact, let me single out just one particular detail, because it’s probably my favourite part of the model and because I had the honour of playing a small part in its inception: JeffTibbetts wanted to feature a sort of pinup on the Knight’s heraldic shield, as a shout out to the machine’s humble origins as little more than a glorified wood-clearing machine or construction engine during the Dark Age of Technology. Over an extended discussion over at The Bolter & Chainsword, we thought about how more than ten millennia of cultural and technological regression might influence such a pinup picture, turning it into something much more medieval and quasi-religious. And Jeff really knocked it out of the park with the finished design:

Queen Bee by JeffTibbetts

Possibly the best part is that the classic pinup pose is still there. But the design is steeped in the hallmarks of gothic madness and religious fervor we have come to expect of the 40k universe — utterly brilliant stuff!

In a moment of sheer brilliance, the Queen Bee’s excellence even managed to make it into an unlockable skin for the player’s Knight in Pixel Toys’ recent Knight-themed IOS game Freeblade, with a surprisingly faithful recreation of the model appearing in the game, as can be seen in this comparison shot made by Jeff and nicked from his own blog:

And what do you know, they even featured my favourite part of the model in the game as well:

JeffTibbetts’ Queen Bee stands as a towering triumph, as a proof what dedication to a model can produce — and how it can ultimately be rewarded in the coolest possible way. It’s a stunning piece, a fantastic inspiration to anyone building and painting an Imperial Knight of their own, and easily my favourite model of 2015.

Jeff’s work on the Queen Bee be has been extensively – and invaluably – chronicled over at his blog, so may sure to read up on it!

 

Lukas Kupferberg and Scarabée Intrépide by morbäck

models built and painted by morbäck

Morbäck is easily one of my favourite hobbyists, both for his unbelievable conversions and his very distinctive style of painting. So it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that his models make an appearance in this post, right? Well, even so, this year’s offering ist really something else. But all in good order:

First Morbäck managed to create a single miniature that was simply gorgeous and just about perfect. I am talking about Lukas Kupferberg here:

Lukas Kupferberg by morbäck

Everything about this model is spectacular: The fantastic paintjob, the wonderfully inspired conversion — what really gets me going, however, is how Morbäck has skillfully used some Skitarii parts to make this guy look like a pilot: The Vanguard helmet just works perfectly, as do the backpack parts on the shoulders. All in all, the model looks so delicious that I’d like to eat it!

Amazing as Lukas Kupferberg may bee when seen on his own, however, the model was merely a prelude to an even bigger project: He was created to serve as a character in a scenario called “Burning Skies” that, as far as I’ve managed to understand it with my lousy French, basically consists of playing something akin to Aeronautica Imperialis at the 28mm scale — and with a much reduced cast of very characterful aircraft and pilots!

Towards this end, Morbäck also built an aircraft for Lukas to pilot. The Scarabée Intrépide. Just take a look. Words don’t do it justice:

Scarabée Intrépide by morbäck

After you’ve picked your jaw back off the floor and stopped asking yourself “How did he do it?”, you start noticing some of the brilliant detail:  Not only does the vehicle feature an excellent seated and helmeted version of Lukas Kupferberg in its cockpit…

Scarabée Intrépide by morbäck

…but it EVEN TRANSFORMS SLAVE ONE-STYLE, for crying out loud:

Scarabée Intrépide by morbäck

Again, I really don’t have any words for this…

None of Morbäck’s creations are never less than spectacular, but he has managed to outdo himself this time. Unbelievable stuff! I can’t even. 😉

Make sure to check out Morbäck’s excellent, more detailed posts on Lukas Kupferberg and the Scarabée Intrépide, respectively. And take a look at the other Kouzes’ fantastic work as well, while you’re over there! 😉

 

Empyrium Emulation Chamber by Cerebralerebus

Empyrium Emulation Chamber by Cerebralerebus

2015 definitely was the Adeptus Mechanicus year. But even with AdMech now a playable faction and one of the most gorgeous 40k armies, let us not forget those hobbyists who blazed the trail with their own, scratchbuilt AdMech armies, long before it was cool.

Cerebralerebus is one of those hobbyists, and his deliciously yellow/orange AdMech army is truly spectacular. What’s even better, though, is that he returned to his army in 2015 and proved that his conversions easily hold up when compared with the “official” models. In fact, his brilliantly creepy “Empyrium Emulation Chamber” is precisely the kind of insane gadget that is yet missing from the official releases, if you ask me:

Empyrium Emulation Chamber by Cerebralerebus

There are tons of clever little touches on the model: The way it seems to be floating. The way the tortured psyker souls in its main compartment seem to be floating. The Admech personnel guarding and controlling the machine. You can spend an hour just looking at all the intricate little touches and try to think about the function of this machine in the back of your head — whatever the chamber is supposed to do, it surely doesn’t look pleasant:

Empyrium Emulation Chamber by Cerebralerebus

I won’t mince any words: Can we please get a kit for this thing as part of the next rumoured Adeptus Mechanicus update, GW? Thank you! 🙂

More on the Empyrium Emulation Chamber can be found here, along with the rest of Cerebralerebus’ absolutely stunning (and entirely converted and kitbashed) Admech army.

 

Einherjar the Eternal, Daemon Engine of Khorne, by Augustus b’Raass

model built and painted by Augustus b’Raass

It shouldn’t surprise you that this list always has to feature at least one massive, spiky Khornate model, and this year’s slot deservedly goes to Augustus b’Raass’ absolutely amazing Daemon Engine: I suppose the Lord of Skulls would have been far more popular with the crowd if it had looked a bit more like this 😉 Anyway, the model is massive and menacing, and the perfect centre piece for Augustus’ small (but hopefully still growing) detachment of World Eaters. Khorne is pleased, Brother-Slaughterer! 🙂

Check out Einherjar in more detail in Augustus’ showcase thread over at The Bolter & Chainsword.

 

Necrotic Rotstalker by Jeff Vader

Rotstalker by Jeff Vader

Leave it to hobby prodigy, illustrator extraordinaire and all around great guy Johan Egerkrans to blow us away at the eleventh hour: In spite of taking a longer hiatus from building and painting little plastic men in 2015, Jeff exploded back onto the scene late in the year and effortlessly created one of the standout pieces of 2015: The Necrotic Rotstalker. The model is a perfect combination of the trailblazing work performed by Kari Hernesniemi on his “Stryderre” model in 2014, the creepiness of the Sicarian Ruststalkers and a healthy dose of Nurgle’s Rot (the visual approach, not the eponymous technical paint). I hate you so much, Jeff Vader, because you make it all look so very easy! 😉

Take a closer look at the Necrotic Rotstalker and his upcoming buddies here.

 

Inquisitor Lucanus Molnár by Adam Wier

Inquisitor Lucanus Molnar by Adam Wier

Conversions of non-GW models for use in GW settings often don’t end too well — there’s just something about the look and feel of GW’s own products that can be a little tricky to approximate when working with base models from other manufacturers. In this regard, Adam Wier’s conversion for Inquisitor Molnár is an especially huge triumph, as the model looks right at home in the 41st millennium while seamless combining one of Dreamforge Games’ (excellent) Valkir Stormtroopers with a clever selection of actual GW bitz.

Beyond the elegance of the conversion, Inquisitor Molnár is a fantastic character in his own right: A hulking representative of the Ordo Machinum (the Ordo overseeing the Adeptus Mechanicus), and each and every part of the model comes together to create a stunning piece — even more stunning, actually, for the fact that it’s one of the first models Adam has painted in years. Quite a return to form, I must say!

Read up on the model and its creation here.

 

Inquisitor Eisenhorn by Nordic

Inquisitor Eisenhorn by Nordic

Well, what is there to say? Everyone loves Gregor Eisenhorn, and Nordic has just managed to come up with just about the perfect 28mm respresentation of everybody’s favourite 54mm miniature. Incidentally, as we will be seeing in a minute, Nordic’s prowess at creating stunning INQ28 models based on character concepts from the Inquisitor rulebook and original set of 54mm releases has to be seen to be believed, but even amongst a brilliant collection, the Eisenhorn model stands out!

 

Army/warband of the year

And finally, to top off our annual collection of eye candy, let’s escalate things a bit and look at 2015’s best armies and warbands. This will be quite a treat. Trust me! 😉

 

First Claw by Augustus b’Raass

First Claw by Augustus b’Raass

I have yet to meet a hobbyist that wasn’t instantly turned into Night Lords fanboy after reading Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Night Lords trilogy. ADB’s novels always feature an impressive cast of rounded and compelling characters, but the “Certainly not friends/possibly actual enemies/still brothers in spite of everything” dynamic of First Claw has to be one of the high-points of his literary work. It’s no surprise that many people love Talos and his crew, and quite a few have come up with their own attempt at capturing First Claw in model form.

And to make a long story short, nobody has managed to nail it quite like Augustus b’Raass with his version of First Claw. Each of the squad members has been painstakingly and beautifully recreated, and each is a pretty much perfect representation of the character. Personally, I think I favour Uzas — but then he was my favourite in the novels as well 😉

Even Aaron Dembski-Bowden himself was blown away by Augustus’ models — and rightly so! Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I have to thumb through my copy of the Night Lords Omnibus again…

A closer look at First Claw and its various members can be found here, once again as part of Augustus’ showcase thread.

 

Inquisitor Machaius’ retinue by Nordic

Inquisitor Machaius’ retinue by Nordic

I already mentioned Nordic’s knack for building stunning INQ28 models based on sketches from the Inquisitor rulebook above, and Inquisitor Machaius and retinue are just the perfect example: Almost all of the models in the retinue are excellent representations of a piece of artwork from the book and/or a sketch from John Blanche’s Inquisitor sketchbook. And the resulting warband is simply amazing! In fact, Nordic’s entire INQ28 related output for 2015 has to be seen to be believed!

INQ28 year one collection by Nordic

Likewise, Nordic’s thread over at the Ammobunker is full of massively inspiring work — which is why you’ll have to read through it all, I’m afraid. Trust me, though: It’s well worth it! 🙂

 

Nurglite warbands by Jeff Vader

Nurgle Warband by Jeff Vader

In a way, these form the perfect bookends for 2015, do they not? One warband each to explore what the concept of Nurgle can be, both in the dark past and in the grimdark future. And without over-relying on any overly tired Nurgle tropes, natch! There’s also the fact that Jeff Vader is always at the top of his game when creating excellent and evocative plastic conversions. And I don’t even need to talk about those paintjobs — I’d probably sacrifice a small kitten to be able to paint like that (on second thought, no, I probably couldn’t do it, but I hope Jeff Vader will appreciate the sentiment 😉 ).

It’s a testament to the quality of hiw work that he can take a few months off from building little plastic men and still create some of the truly defining work of 2015. Amazing stuff, all around!

You’ll find more information on those stunning Nurglite models over at The Convertorum — but you already knew that, I wager. And if you weren’t, well, then what in the seven hells are you still doing here? 😉

Nurgle Warband by Jeff Vader

 

Pitslave Gang by Bruticus

Pitslave Gang by Bruticus

I already mentioned Ex Profundis’ distinctive style further up in this post, and Bruticus’ wonderful Pitslave Gang can serve as a wonderful example of it: He has created a wonderfully gritty, very visceral and utterly believable gang of models that is equal parts Mad Max and Necromunda, and all the better for it:

Pitslave Gang by Bruticus

The variety of different kits that has gone into making this warband is truly staggering, but Bruticus pulls it all together into a cohesive whole, giving us both gangers that are very heavily inspired by classic post-apocalyptic tropes,…

Pitslave Gang by Bruticus

 

Pitslave Gang by Bruticus

…while also incorporating more heavily augmented cyborgs and brutes that look very different but seem perfectly at home in the collection:

Pitslave Gang by Bruticus

 

Pitslave Gang by Bruticus

All of this is achieved via one of Bruticus’ trademark fantastic paintjobs, combining a deceptively bright main colour with lots of dirt, grime, blood and oil and that delicious blue as a spot colour. Spectacular stuff!

And to add insult to injury, he has even built a wonderful vehicle to accompany his pit slaves:

Pitslave Gang by Bruticus

Bruticus’ style is immediately recognisable, and there’s nobody who paints in quite the same way. And nowhere does his trademark style work better than on his gorgeous Pitslaves!

Check out Bruticus’ Pitslave warband in more detail here.

 

Heresy-era Emperor’s Children / Heresy-era Astartes by kizzdougs

The Sekhmet -Emperor’s Children army by kizzdougs

Kizzdougs has been an absolutely stunning painter for quite a long time, but he really blew me away time and time again in 2015 with his ongoing WIP thread over at The Bolter & Chainsword. For starters, it features his army of Heresy era Emperor’s Children – the Sekhmet – a gorgeous collection of models, and arguably the best III legion army around, including, for instance, what may just be the perfect Horus Heresy model:

model built and painted by kizzdougs

Stunning as the army may be, however, that’s only the half of it:

In recent months, Kizzdougs has also begun building several test models to represent each of the (traitor) Astartes legions, relying more and more on the new Mk IV plastics from the Betrayal at Calth box. And not only are the results perfect little slices of the 32nd millennium come to life, as you can plainly see yourself,…

Heresy era Legionaries by kizzdougs

…but they also show how far some careful kitbashing and a brilliant paintjob will get quite some variation out of those – very vanilla – stock models and create wonderfully evocative pieces — it really shouldn’t surprise you that Kizzdougs’ World Eaters model shown below was one of my main design templates when starting to paint my own first 30k World Eaters. His example even made me try my hand at sponge-weathering, and I am really happy I did!

Heresy era legionaries by kizzdougs

So, to make a long story short: If you are even the slightest bit interested in Astartes, make sure to visit Kizzdougs’ brilliant ongoing WIP thread over at The Bolter & Chainsword.

 

Honorary mention: Navigator House Merz-Itano by weirdingway

Navigator House Merz-Itano by weirdingway

Now I’ve actually made it a part of the – pretty rickety rules – of this contest that no army will receive an award more than one time in a row. And yet, this section simply wouldn’t be complete without mentioning weirdingway’s wonderful Navigatorial house yet again: He may have won last year’s award which should exclude him from the competition, but his growing collection of wonderfully original and unconventional models is, simply put, the most exciting and inspiring 40k project in existence right now.

Weirdingway has an absolutely amazing ongoing thread over at The Ammobunker, and it’s even more brilliant now than it was last year, obviously. Check it out at your earliest convenience — you can thank me later! 😉

 

So yeah, this is it. Quite a ride, wouldn’t you agree? Anyway, congratulations to all the “winners”, and I believe all you beautiful readers will have a list of blogs to check out now that will see you through until the third and final part of the 2015 Eternal Hunt Awards, in which I will be taking a look at my personal hobby year.

Until then, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more! 🙂