Art Tribute - Bastien Lecouffe Deharme

Welcome! Some years ago I did a 'side-post' to show off some art from a mobile game I used to enjoy playing until the studio called it a day. That particular game was called Hellfire and it had really good orb-flick mechanic that meant you had a proper interactive experience with it. And it had some very decent art to collect <post link here>. I think it lasted about 3 years. At the same time I started Hellfire, I chose Legend of the Cryptids as another game that satisfied my art cravings. 

(I've been an art book collector, mostly sci-fi, since my teens. Think of the book basement of Forbidden Planet in London).

Anyway, LoC will be celebrating 12 years next month. How it keeps going is a wonder, it must have a serious supporter to sustain it given it's much dimished player base*. But old players come back, usually moaning about lost accounts and having to start over. It has got into quite a bad habit of recycling art for its cards - just update the stats, adjust the name, sorted! But new art is still being commissioned, but those are really limited to the paying player base that, thankfully, keep the game afloat. In just under 12 years of playing, I think I bought gems once. I get by as a free-to-player, doing just enough to get fresher cards, and every now and then I get in some trading. 

*What happens to games when they die? What about all the art assets that were made for it? I think there are serious considerations about preserving art from a game like LoC. Once the servers stop for a game that relies on servers, a mobile game is just vapourware.

As the post title suggests already, I am really into getting examples of Deharme's art created for LoC. Let's have a look at an example of his work that got me really enthusistic about his style...

{Fiora of Cursed Blades}

I want this as a high-quality print to frame and hang. This particular artwork was so well regarded by a publisher of glossy coffee-table art books it made the cover of one issue (I forget what it was called - d'-something? d'artiste?). 

Not going to finish this post in good time so will leave it here for the moment, and follow up with a part 2. Legend of the Cryptids is still available for Apple devices and from Google Play. 

~J~

Prompt : : :

 Just for fun. 

 Generate some images of a hobbyist painting wargaming miniatures in a caricature style

Could be worse. Has trouble rendering small faces but the overall impression of the figures is fairly decent.

Create an image of a master miniature painter, building a diorama.

Much better. The first in the batch is accidentaly meta.

Created with Microsoft Copilot.

~J~

GW & Plastic Waste, Part 6b - Single Use Plastic

I started writing this draft back in January, so predating the sprue collection scheme now running in GW stores. Good news then, in principle. Now that this critique is largely moot, in future I might write about using alternatives to fossil fuel plastics for mini manufacture. 

***

Government announces widespread ban on single use plastic. Rare and uncommonly good piece of good news from this wretched government.

But let's consider what defines 'single use' in the context of a Games Workshop plastic sprue.

Obviously, the miniature on a sprue is far from being a single use object. 

A standard Necromunda gang box has two identical frames, and makes for a perfect illustration.
So consider the Delaque ganger sprues below...

A sprue has one job - to safely harbour model parts until it gets into a customers hands. A sprue really doesn't have to be like this, at all. 

***

A sprue can be so much more than this to a hobbyist, but change is hard, and people often don't like change. 

~J~

(5/10/23)

GW & Plastic Waste, Part 6a - Numbers Update

Doesn't get any better  :-/ 

(edit: now with pic)

McDeath, part 4: first dress rehearsal

 It's late, I'm bored, I can't watch anything on streaming because my mobile data speed is utter shite. 

So here we have a field rehearsal on a piece of wood from my bro's workshop. I was prevaricating between 10 or 12 inches, in the end my dad just pulled a sheet of offcut and oh look it's 11 inches wide. Choice made and it split the difference. 

What now. An electric drill so I can pin together the Dart mini. Buggered if I ever do that unpowered ever again. I need an alternate Chaos Hound so I can perform a head swap. I need to fashion a Quicksure. I've been studying late 80's multi-part knights, and I think they will do. I need more fighters for the good guys. I have some dwarfs to add, but matching the Goodwin style is challenging, and I might include some Asgard barbarians. Just a few more running orcs, but lots of orc casualties to litter the foreground.

There is no suggestion that Banquo is a'reddy deed going by the scenario book. I have a mind to have him as a ghost in the background.

~J~