kickstarter

Mohawks & Guns.

As I wanted to build a Kill Team I started looking for old illustrations so I could get some inspiration to paint mine. And do you know what? There are only a few.

Wilbur the Red

Dec 3, 2023 • 4 min read

If you've been watching the Kickstarter/Patreon* miniature scene lately I'm sure you've seen this KS by Stephen May (Dead Earth Miniatures), an ex-FW & Citadel sculptor.

His miniatures work wonders as a modern iteration of the old (OLD) Space Marine Scouts from Advanced Space Crusade, Lost Patrol, etc.

Imperial Crusade Recon trooper by Stephen May.

As I wanted to build a Kill Team (I've only played one game with Custodes, after the game release, so don't ask me if this is any good) I started looking for old illustrations, specially in color, so I could get some inspiration to paint mine. And do you know what? There are only a few.

So I decided to put them all here (for reference). Here they are:

Chris Achilleos' cover for Advanced Space Crusade:

That time Ultramarines look cool (never happened again).

Chris Achilleos' unused art.

Found by David in an art book.

Dave Gallagher's cover for Lost Patrol.

This was used too for the cover of the Tyranid Attack rulebook (in B&W). I'd say this is the one that made me decide to buy the models and paint them (hopefully March 2024).

Adrian Smith's B&W illustrations from the Advanced Space Crusade rulebook.

The only source I couldn't find was White Dwarf #159, with a 5 page article by Andy Chambers named "Warhammer 40k Scouts" containing SM and Eldar Scouts rules for Rogue Trader. But thanks to my friend Mr. Vasiljevic we now know that the picture was... (drumroll):

John Blanche's Space Marine Scouts (White Dwarf 159).

*note: As my friend Décimo likes to say: 3d Printed miniatures' Patreons are hostage situations nowadays.

** another note: And Eric 🤨 . Eric always says the same about KS. 😉

Edited on January the 20th, 2024: The campaign was over successfully and it's supposed to be posted in March this year. If you are worried because you've read some comments online about Steven not fulfilling all the shipping from his 2 previous KS, it looks like that is true, and some people think that maybe the scouts won't be on time. I talked to a friend about this before launch and we both thought it wouldn't be a problem: Looks like we were far from the truth. If your models are delayed (from any Dead Earth KS ) please tell us your story in the comments.

Edited again on August the 14th, 2024: Of the 21 updates on the campaign sent by Stephen, the last 6 (from March to July) were excuses about the lack of news or an estimated shipping date. We've not seen some of the models yet, we do not have a timeline (other than "I am anticipating being able to start shipping in late September - but I will be able to give a much better timeline later in August for you") and no one is expecting to see or touch them anytime soon. The lack of trust in the author is now in the mainstream (YouTube, Insta, etc) and it doesn't help that Stephen never replies to questions or comments on KS, only sends those monthly "I've been busy/ away from my computer emails.

🔥

I want to say that I'm sorry if the original post here or any of my messages on Mastodon made you contribute to this Kickstarter campaign. I didn't know that the sculptor wasn't trustworthy (although I don't think there's been bad faith here, the fact that he stopped showing the renders the very moment the KS ended makes me think he hasn't been working on it as he said, but that's only my uninformed guess).

[LOL] Edited again on August the 14th, 2024: 5 hours after I updated this post (and commented on KS) Stephen sent everyone this message: