ShimmeringSword

Nightsky Concept Sketch

I think someone recently asked to see this one, so here you are in luck!

The Nightsky came up on the priority list recently so I hopped on it. Such an appalling visual design haha, but everyone was on the same page about it being a "blow it up" design process.

While there are certainly "iconic" parts of the old design, as a collection they don't work so I had to sift down what could really be taken forward and molded into appealing shapes.
So of course, there's the face. I did ...

Salamander Miniature Painting WIPs 2

Here's two more nights of progress on the Salamander.

One session I put another wash over the whole mech now that all base colors were in. Then I did highlights and broad blending on all red sections. Those needed the most care to clean up the mess the wash creates. That got is starting to pop.

Second session was the same edge and blending session on all the dark and light grey sections. These were simpler to work on, and I did a lot less blending.

Now it's ready for a very ...

Salamander Miniature Painting WIPs 1

Hey how about something Protectorate Wars for once?

Having recently finally starting my minis painting journey, I decided I should finally paint up my Salamander mech that I had made so long ago. I looked and it's been a bit over 8 years since that kickstarter was launched. I've been sitting on this guy as raw assembled resin for around 6.5 years.

With my day off today I:
-Cleaned up the resin of dust, glued back fallen off bits.
-Primed it, with some zenithal effect.
-Re...

Flea 3D Sculpt

Another bug joins the fray! Maybe one if the least threatening looking mechs out there, it's too cute, the Flea.

Sergey Kolesnik modeled this one. I offered him the gig because I'd seen him do a cool fanart model of it before.
Looking at it again after a while away from it, I realize the torso is a bit more stubby front to back compared to what I intended in my drawing, but that's on me for not pushing the proportions around more carefully in the modeling stage.

I hope fans of ...

Penetrator Concept Sketch

Here's another design that was jumped on me, and fairly welcome.
While me and my crew sometimes get a bit of input on the designs we're assigned, often it's a bit too far into the selection process to push around too many picks. So something I've been meaning to put together is a big ranked list of mechs our guys want to work on and feel the community would want to see. I final got that made and everyone's choices in so that the CGL brass can reference it each time they're brainstorming pr...

Rifleman IIC 3D Sculpt

Sorry, bit slow on the updates this month. Rifleman sketch was dropped not too long ago, here's the 3D sculpt of it that was the base for Rec Guide lineart.

I think the translation from 2D to 3D went really well here. Marco on design and Alan on the sculpt.

A few people mentioned concern over the sombrero not looking big enough in the sketch. I think it looks a good size now in 3D. The interesting bit is they're the same size. Vertical cylinder shapes in a flat 2D sketch look smal...

Sagittaire Concept Sketch

Finally I have another sketch to show off!
Apologies $1 patrons, I've not had many sketches to show lately as work has swung more to the 3D side. I'll throw some 3D render sets towards your tier if the drought continues.

The Sagittaire is a favorite of mine, also a favorite of bossman Loren as he requested a redesign from me. We were just waiting for a reason to do it, which recently came through. No, I wont tell you what it's for :P

I've painted the Sagi twice before for commi...

Ostroc 3D Sculpt

Here's the Ostroc. Being the 3rd of the lot it was heavily guided by the two preceding it. Was nice to break up the egg shape with the missile launcher.

Alan Blackwell handled the sculpt on this one, including doing work on the back design.

Ostsol 3D Sculpt

Here's the Ostsol. Ostroc coming up next. Alan Blackwell handled the sculpting stage on all of them.

This one first came up for redesign when CGL needed it on the cover of a novel. Toppled over with those kids crawling all over it :D

Ost Mechs

I'm not losing my mind right? I haven't shown the 3D models for any of these Ost mechs yet?
I have single shots rendered out for the Ostsol and Ostroc, then when I made this group shot I realized I've got an Ostscout model too and threw that in. Sadly, no Ostwar right now.
Hope you enjoyed them popping up in the Reg Guides.

Gonna be mostly 3D renders for a bit. I DO have some really cool design sketches that I want to show off, but they've gotta stay low to the ground for now.

Vulcan 3D Sculpt

You've seen the sketch, now here's the Vulcan 3D model.
Came out really good. A fairly skinny mech so it'll stand tall among its 40ton peers.

Design by Bishop of course. Sculpt by Alan Blackwell.

420 Patrons!

Hitting 400 patrons earlier this month was amazing, but how can that compare to a nice round 420? Hahaha. Thanks everyone!
Welcome aboard all newcomers and those who've returned for more.

I asked you all recently if I should go ahead and splurge on an art tablet upgrade, and I did.
It was a bit of a process. I rolled the dice and bought a used model direct from Wacom, and when it arrived it looked practically new aside from a tiny ding on the back. However, when I finally dove int...

Firefly 3D Sculpt

No special moody shot for this one, because well, it's a Firefly :P
I'm going to skip mood renders on a few to make things easier, as that's one less 3D setup to mess with.
Better than going for more group shots to save time, as I know eventually the bosses will come asking for these individual renders anyway.

That said, if you have any group shots / comparisons you want to see, let me know.

Firefly sculpt by Alan Blackwell.

Caesar 3D Sculpt

Here's one that's been sitting and waiting to be shown for a while. Honestly it just bores me to death doing the rendering process on these, which is why you see me bias towards posting the sketches, easier and more exciting :)

Design by Bishop, sculpt by Alan Blackwell.

[insert space here for Bishop to brag about his cool gauss rifle design]

Pouncer Concept Sketch

Here's the "why are you doing this to me?" pair to the Wraith :D
The Pouncer was also tossed at me for a redesign job. Such a terrible looking mech. However, I was able to confirm that the old head was on the block for a full nuke job. In fact, my first head iteration was more faithful than this one, but more change was requested to I pushed it more. Now it's much more akin to an Adder head.

The rest of the mech was a lot easier to update from there. Along with the source Pouncer mat...

Wraith Concept Sketch

Here's an odd one that a few of you requested. Anyone surprised that we've actually worked on one? :)
This was needed for something special so it landed on my plate to push out.

Alan Blackwell and I collaborated on this one. He got it started while I did the second half of dialing it in.

We did further changes later on in the process too, so some elements here change in the final, such as some differing arm laser details, and more tube shaped antenna rather than fins.

I t...

Cicada 3D Sunset

Here's the usual public shareable mood shot I post for each mech. I made it a separate public post this time to separate it from the other special shot in the main Cicada post :)

Cicada 3D Sculpt

Here's the Cicada model. Sculpted by Aaron Harris. His second for the team I believe.
I think it came out great.

Also a render of the Cicada with a Locust was requested, but I thought I'd do a bit better and throw a bunch of bugs into one shot. There were a few more clan mechs with bug names too, but I decided to leave those out.

Double Quadruple

Lets start the final month of the year off with some early Christmas presents. A few of you have been asking, here are the quads!

Regardless of what products or forms they feature in, Ray Arrastia has wanted the two main unseen quads redesigned. The Rec Guides finally presented a perfect opportunity for them, along with the trickle of Clan IIC mechs you've been seeing roll through.

The Scorpion already featured in Rec Guide #19, and you'll want to keep you eyes open for the next r...

Milestones!

Welcome aboard everyone new for November, there are quite a few of you.

This month you all came together to hit a big funding milestone: At this point, patreon income is essentially covering my basic living expenses such as rent, utilities, and food, in its entirety!

My expenses have gone up quite a lot this year. I moved into a nicer place, more rent there. My junker car died on me, and the inflated used market pushed me towards getting a brand new car, hello to my first car loan...

Rifleman IIC Concept Sketch

A lot of you asked to see this one, so here it is! The Rifleman IIC.
I'll also tell you that you wont need to wait too long to see where this design is featured.
Does this cover all the IIC mechs? Or are there still more?

I had Marco Mazzoni redesign this one and as usual he did a great job. The biggest meddling I did was in the cockpit. We tried out a few of the more "robot face" style options, but in the end it was a committee decision to run with something more "typical" so tha...

Starslayer 3D Sculpt

Did you see this one coming? Not my first choice for a mech to be redesigned, but I'd drawn one waaay back for CGL and I can appreciate that it brings a unique kind of ugly to the game haha.

I assigned Harri Kallio to redesign this one, and Alan Blackwell to sculpt it, while I made touch ups to both along the way.

Who runs Starslayers in their forces?

Quickdraw Concept Sketch

Seeing that the Quickdraw renders were floating around, Harri Kallio asked if he could have his design sketch shared too for everyone to enjoy. I'm making this one a public post right out of the gate.

Quickdraw 3D Sculpt

Keen eyes got a peek at this redesign on a color illustration lately, well here it is in full 3D glory, the Quickdraw.

This one was definitely on the edge of making it into the kickstarter, but not quite enough of a blockbuster mech to make the cut. That left it near the front of the line for later, current efforts.

Harri Kallio got the design assignment on this one. The main challenge encountered was deciding how everything should be proportioned. It's gotta deliver both chunky a...

Regent Concept Sketch

With the release of Recognition Guide 21 today I can finally show off this design I've worked on. (as things are arranged now, I can't post completely "new to canon" content here before release)

I first sketched up this concept many years ago, but there was never a perfect time to try squeezing it into the game. Now with the Rec Guides introducing new mechs I pushed it forward again and Ray got it wedged in!

The base idea was to combine an Awesome with a Hauptmann, both in looks a...

Charger Concept Sketch

And here we complete the Bishop bonanza. You're all going to be stuck with a bunch of mech 3D renders next month due to me blowing through all sketches this month haha.

Also HUGE thanks for all new signups and the rest of you that have stuck around in place for so long. I'm only $13 away from hitting that crazy $1000/mo mark. I was hoping I'd hit that last year, but now is just as good a time. It really helps me not stress about finances, when stress is a great way to hamper ones artist...

Javelin Concept Sketch

Next on the Bishop Bonanza list, the Javelin.

I think this design falls squarely into the utilitarian workhorse look, so when it came to a redesign there wasn't much need to blow it up even if it's a somewhat mundane design.

In 3D we have the head tilted forward more, jut made it flat for easier art reference.

Clint Concept Sketch

Bishop Bonanza starts now. First up is the Clint.

Here's a mech I fought to have booted off the last kickstarter, only to have to drop back in my list haha. It's such a boring mech in our sea of veritech originating designs.
But here it is, with our usual process of Bishop delivering an idea and me nudging it somewhere.

Flea Concept Sketch

One more design of mine before I kick off a Bishop bonanza. Though much credit here should go to David White for his MW4 Flea design. I didn't change too much.

Not much to say on this one. I did clarify the design better to have arms with up/down articulation. Increased the cockpit glass and foot room to better fit a mechwarrior.

It's a Flea.

Protectorate Wars PDF Redemptions

Dropping a reminder to everyone that for every $15 of patronage you accrue you're entitled to a copy of my Protectorate Wars artbook and lore PDF. This means you can give one to friends also.

However, you need to PM me about redeeming copies and provide an email address/es for me to send them to.

Have a good day!