Halloween Hot Armor Standoff...

Hot off the compositor.... Big scary Mecha for Halloween.

Desert Apocalypse!

The apocalypse is coming, May 1st...

Working on my midnight in the desert scene, with the Apocalypse tank, developed for ClearHorizon Miniatures.

Merry Christmas!

3 ships from the 25th Quiet Storm Squadron, dumping a multi-morphic programmable flare show in form of this traditional seasonal greeting (Its great for shaking off the Evil Robot Santa too!).

This year has been just crazy, for so many reasons, work and personal, sadly, I have had no time to blog recently, with just over a week left of it, where did 2014 go, hmm?

I wanted to cover so much more, but it has not happened, much to catch up with in the coming months. I promise more frequent updates and hope you all enjoy this christmassy image, made using one of this years (and so far undocumented) Aurora VTOL special-ops aircraft, a miniature prototype constructed for our good friends, Clearhorizon miniatures. 

I wish you all the very best, have a great holiday!

-Steve.

Introducing "El Diablo" - 15mm Scale APC

Hello all, soon I hope to have the long awaited 15mm version of El Diablo available on Shapeways!

 This miniature has been in development for a whopping THREE YEARS, a 6mm version is presently available on Shapeways.  Speaking of which, Shapeways have introduced a great tool for confirming the models printability which is going to save a lot of time checking the complicated geometry. It comprises a system which breaks the model down to print layers and reconstructs the model for analysis purposes - if you look closely it adds a roughness that wont exist on the model which is sent to the printer.

Print failures are the bane of a shapeways creators life, costing sales and wasting time, once everything on a model is green, we should be good to go.:)

note the rougher texture, this is an analytical model, the system reconstructs the uploaded model in a way that it can digest and check for thickness issues.

 A unique feature of this model is the working, poseable suspension and steering, each wheelset has fully independent, double wishbone suspension and ackermann steering, hit the play button for a demo of the movement range. 

This system allows for off road with great ground clearance, or a low riding, ground hugging high speed highway setup - this setup is best with the additonal aero armor (as pictured at the top of the post), which gives it a mean and exotic look. 

The (hopefully) working suspension system, just a few issues - this is working out pretty great so far!

be sure to check out my store on shapeways, all sales help fund this and other projects!

Direct links to the 6mm versions presently available (Thanks Gavin):

https://www.shapeways.com/model/728890/el-diablo-6mm-scale-pack-of-three.html
https://www.shapeways.com/model/728130/diablo-apc-6mm-scale-with-aero-mods.html

Order in Ultra Detail or Frosted Ultra Detail for best results!

Columbiad MAG Droid

Another recent one, the lead model of an entirely new line designed and modelled by yours truly.

This fully automatic armored drone unit has been designed for a specifically fearsome appearance and I think packs a ton of attitude which should give its diminutive size (for a tank) a great deal of presence on any gaming board.

Front wheel drive: the propulsion systems provide thrust from the forward pods, exhausting through those slatted ports in the armor, 'dragging' the machine behind them.

I wanted the weapons to look like something other than the usual barrelled guns, some kind of emitter with integrated cooling systems.

I designed a custom base peice to elevate it over the playing the surface, just pretend its not there... future miniatures will have a superconducting system to elevate them for real... (just kidding - plus they'd go everywhere if someone sneezed.)

As well as solving some potential production pitfalls, the separated front hull/propulsion modules represent the real construction of this fictional vehicle... I figured they would be allowed some play, to enable the machine to tub up hills and soak up any forward impacts.

The unpainted production mini - Image courtesy Dwartist

 Pick up a pack or three from Khurasan, today!

Cars! Again...

Here in my car / I feel safest of all / I can lock all my doors / It's the only way to live in cars.

 I designed and built WAY back in summer 2012 (I think some obscure primitive sporting event was on in the UK)  in a particularly hectic month where I also started working on big spaceships for Halo IV 

I tried to give each vehicle a sophisticated, integrated look, no jagged sticky-out bits or machinery visible, everything contained within a soft rounded shell suitable for use in a city with lots of soft, squishy people around, or smoothing the airflow on the aerobahn.

To give the limo a touch of extra class i went for a pillar-less look and butted each frame of glazing against the next, giving it the appearance of a more expensive style of manufacture.

Here's a couple of pics of painted production models.

The Wrap-around glazing offers an unfettered canvas for those looking to push the boat out... swish.

wicked paint jobs, looking like something out of Bladerunner, now, where did I leave my stim pills and sexbot?

Whar?  Not enough cars for ya? Thirsty for more? Head on over to JBR's 3D compound in the desert for his offerings available from CMG.

Phalanx Gunship

"Some amazing heavy gunships" - Mr Harold

Why thankyou, Mr Harold:)

Here are some wintery, HD desktop wallpaper sized renderings, enjoy!

And some pics of painted production models:

Paint credit: Dwartist

Draconus Interceptor

The first of a new line of spaceship miniatures, the scale of these are roughly equivalent to a 3mm figure scale.  Three further examples of this range have been completed, these will be shown in future updates.

The ever delightful Dwartist has a painted example of a production miniature here.
http://dwartist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-draconus-class-interceptor.html

 Here's a sneak preview of one of the accompanying ships, the twin engine Altair fighter - smaller than the interceptor.

And an even sneakier slice of... Something.... 

Clear Horizon Miniatures - Drop Pod!

A fairly recent work, these have had a very quick turnaround by newcomers to the miniatures market, Clear Horizon.  I enjoyed a great deal of freedom with this project. Its designed to drop from an orbiting spacecraft and deploy 6 troopers into a combat zone.

Initially this model was requested to be made hollow, with a basic interior, seating for 6 with their backs toward the centre, knees toward the door, much later it was decided to fill it in and block the openings with interior doors. Either way I would have roughed out the interior layout to ensure the model is as small as possible and still comfortably (well, relatively, this is a military machine!) accomodate its passengers.

Not winning any awards for neatness here, but this was just about conveying the basic idea, the model evolved as I worked on it, and making sure its doing everything that the client wants it to do - form following function.

I guess this is unique in the sense that everything else I build is intended to move in some way, so I tried to make it look more dynamic with the elaborate landing gear and the petal-like array of doors.   I think the idea for the shape came from thinking about actual planetary landers like the Viking series... Like "what if" that lander was built from flat armor sheet, as well as something like a little fortress, notice some slight crenelation like detail around the rim, though theres no room for a parapet, perhaps they might help cover someone who's shooting out the upper hatch, maybe its like that for an entirely different reason. 

The round feature is the upper hatch which the troops would load into from the mothership. Like an escape pod in Star Wars, it pushes away and de-orbits with three thrusters one on each corner.

A neat side effect of the tear-drop shape and the doors on every side, is that if something goes wrong and it tips, the pod will always land on a door, deploy the doors on their hydraulics and the pod will be automatically righted.  I also made sure the geometries of the mechanical linkages really worked, its easier to fake them but always looks less authentic, I like to really engineer things where possible.

 

Some pics of my own production copy, in the flesh, well, resin.

I really must get a tripod, or drink less coffee, or both. Here's a spectacularly colorful paint by Third Fate, nicely illustrates the landing motor.

O.M.G!

Image Courtesy Dwartist: http://dwartist.blogspot.co.uk/

Additional:  18/02/2014

Here is a really nice review from "Little Nicky":

http://littlenickysgameroom.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/15mm-sci-fi-clearhorizon-miniatures.html

"I think my first picture shows how beautiful this model really is and how much flavor it actually has for essentially a box that falls out of the sky."

Thanks Nicky!

Underfire Wargaming - Infantry prototypes

Another one from a while ago, these dog-legged infantry units were built for Underfire Wargaming for use as 15mm scale figures.

Armies Armies - Neo-Sov VTOL APC

A few months back I completed a prototype for Armies Armies, something similar to a Soviet BTR, with a twist - a flying framework or harness to enable deployment from some airborne carrier or from orbit.

I designed it around a loose version of the 1970's era BTR, which looks more distinctive, its actually very close dimensionally to the real thing and I spent a lot of time on that to give it an authentic feel, but with more sci-fi styling.

Here are a few renders of the 3D prototype:

And a wee piccy or two of the printed hull of the APC, courtesy of Armies Armies:

These are in 15mm scale but I'm sure it would look great @ 28mm too, as many of my clients like to upscale and get 2 or more scales from one model.  Lets hope this happens in the future!

Welcome to Coolhand Customs!

This is the *NEW* wargame miniatures development blog of Steve "Coolhand" Tyler, one of the premiere freelance digital sculptors in the industry. Lots more to come, hundreds of miniatures to detail! Stay tuned.