A huge thanks goes out to MajorWesJanson for putting his memory to the test, and getting these all down on paper.
via MajorWesJanson
Most of my time was either in seminars, or hanging out talking to the luminaries at the studio guest table.
Will Hayes:
Contemptor Dreadnought Arms- Assault Cannon, Plasma Cannon, Twin Heavy Bolters, Twin Autocannons. Plasma gun in DCCW arm option.
Venerable and Chapter-specific Contemptors next, taking advantage of shoulders being part of the Dreadnought kit and not the weapon packs.
Discussed Crassius rules- limited use now, since only 30 capacity. I suggested making it 31 or 36, and/or giving command vehicle rule like Chimaera.
I asked about female princeps, alternate heads, and amniotic tank princeps options- unsure about female princeps possibility, I mentioned the one in Helsreach. Head options maybe, but likely not. Liked the idea of the tank princeps, perhaps as a special character, an ancient veteran princpes confined to the tank. Would maybe come with alternate faceplate or other options for making the titan distinct.
Warlord Titan- Not started yet, in the idea phase. 22-24 inches tall (60cm) based on an update of the beetleback design. Hadn't considered the secondary weapon mounts on the beetleback, likely would not include. Head likely skull-face appearance.
I asked about the correlation between shield generators and void shields in rules on the Mars warhound and Reaver. He hadn't thought about it, but agreed that it works really well to designate shields lost when played. Discussed placement of void shields on Warlor if 6 on there. Possibly two on each side rear, two in front on "hood."
Discussed carapace weapon mount. Didn't want to just flip the warhound weapons over. At that point I grabbed a sharpie and piece of paper and sketched out a quick turret idea. Will then drew his version- curved front slopes into flat back. Some mechanical gribblies on the sides. On the back, each gun would have a different ammo block that attaches, and the guns themselves would probably be mounted to a curved mantlet to attach to the front. I suggested mounting on a cylinder so the guns could be elevated. I still have the sketch.
Mark Bedford:
Elysian Veteran oncept pictures, mentioned as maybe too Halo looking. I thought they are great and urged them to be made. I also asked about a drop troop commissar. Elysians likely to be drip-fed models. Maybe a few with IA 11.
Most of the rest of my discussion with him was rehashed in the FW seminar.
Jes Goodwin
Void Raven bomber art, and pictures for SSlyth and poisoner.
Void Raven is larger Razorwing, with two more engines, angular glass canopy in the nose, stubby Void Lances. Discussed frame breakdown, likely to end up on three tank sprues.
Poisoner is female, wearing a mix of armor plates and sort of a kimono.
Sslyth is snake like. No legs, sits on tail. 4 arms, with CC weapons. Crocodile like head.
Used to allow pictures of concept art, but doesn't/can't anymore since other companies/individuals have used that art as a basis for knockoffs in the past. Especially unhappy with the argument that since his work is "derivative" that pirating the design is fair game.
Another thing he dislikes is how people say things online that they would never say in person. Mentioned an e-mail received from someone who hoped GW would go under. Responded asking if the person really wanted the company to shut down and employees to lose their jobs. Person seemed surprised, but still said yes.
I mentioned Warseer, and was surprised when he recognized me from here. He also gave a shout-out to Harry. We then segued into a major discussion of the internet response to GW.
Doesn't mind people who dislike his models, but anrgy when people call designers "lazy".
Haemculous and Beastmaster/beasts specifically brought up.
Haemi pose was intentionally cruciform, with a sort of "go ahead and shoot me, I don't care."
Beastmaster was done by Jes on spare time.
He asked what I thought of the Storm Raven, and I said that I leave the tails off mine for aesthetics. Otherwise, I kind of like them.
He asked what I thought the next major internet complaint would be, and I said that if Mat Ward was writing the Necron book (lots of hedging here by both of us, rather humorous) that there would be two weeks plus of whining and doomsday. Jes agreed that that was likely, and that some designers don't go online because there are so many people spewing vitriol. He thought it was unfortunate that people have such a narrow mindset that they prejudge a release even before knowing what is inside, or twist parts to suit their complaints. He mentioned that Ward especially gets this treatment, especially by people who would never say it to his face. Criticism is fine, but simple whining/hatred is not justified. Did not like seeing someone with a banner "taking the piss" about Mat Ward.
Female Imperial Guard- "People want what they can't have" and was joking with me about a comment I made about the quality of female models by GW.
Pricing of models is nothing to do with Jes. pricing done by others.
Medusae and Ur-Ghul in cabinet. Medusae has 2 different complete head options. Got to discussing the Ur-Ghul. Jes explained that it originally came from a throwaway line about a temple of the Ur-ghul, and when asked what they were, they ended up being expanded into a race and unit entry. Also got to discussing Urghul skin, and how it is like shark skin. Some Archons like to wrap the hilts of their weapons with Ur-ghul leather.
Ended when the FW seminar as about tostart and someone wanted to do an interview. Final discussion about pirates vs ninjas- Ninjas win was agreed upon.
I had a great time talking with all three people.
Jes, Mark, Will, thanks for putting up with all my questions and suggestions.
Few more things:
Jes is not currently sculpting anything that he can't tell us about, but instead is doing mainly design work and mentoring new sculptors.
Laughed about the whole Summer of Fliers rumor. There was little studio interest in fliers at all until the Razorwing came along, now people want to put fliers in books.
He also does not like the Lucius pattern Epic titan models, as they are too blocky and generic Sci-fi.
He's also checked dates and is confident that GW was the first to seriously do the big war robots in the US, as they appeared before official imports of things like Gundam or Macross.
Jes did mention a slight Evangelion influence.
Got to talking about the Emperor titan, and changes he would make now- Thighs were a big one.
Will Hayes- wants to redo the epic titans to match the new styling- current ones are far too small and out of scale. at 6 mm, Epic models are 1/5, so a Warhound would be 2 inches tall, and the Reaver about the size of the Contemptor dreadnought. Current epic titans are far too plain as well. If redone, more detail would be added, like how Aeronautica updated the various fliers in size and detail.
Lucius Warhound was basically his first project out of Uni, so it has a lot of problems. Flat and blocky for ease of design. Later Mars pattern more refined, far more warhammer looking. Still both Warhounds have major problems with assembly, making the interior and main body out of 6 parts that all attach to each other a bad idea in retrospect. Reaver design more construction friendly, with main body more unified.
Discussed heresy terminators, and possibility of re-mastering the Mark IIb land raider. Old master gone, thus poor fitting casts now. if redone, possibly include variants like redeemer.
Mk I Thunder Armor and Mk VIII Errant armor discussed, as well as more assault squads. MK VIII ought to include the concept art elements like the ankle discs, variant helmet, and heavy bracers.
Mk IV assault squad may have single turbine jump packs like Sanguinary guard, as IV is supposedly the most refined version. MK VIII assault may have jet packs that trade the circular exhausts for smaller flat versions. Mk IX armor joked about.
Oh, more stuff from talking with Jes.
Diuscussed the Thunderhawk, mainly the design. Blocky. Someone mentioned the old metal one and everyone winced at the thought/memory of building the thing.
As for Dark Eldar characters, I didn't see any pictures for them. Just the four court models and the Bomber. Two court models are already out, the next two may be in work. As for the bomber, I think it is at the 3D CAD and sprue design stage. We got to discussing how it would break down on a sprue, and he had some pretty solid ideas of how it would end up- 3 tank sprues to the fighters 2, main body as one piece, wings separate between the pair of engines (four engines total), front canards attached to the main hull to avoid a flat flat join. We spent so long looking at it I could probably draw it fairly well from memory. It looks like a heavier version of the fighter, both share many of the same style elements.
There was some thought to having the tips of the necrotoxin? missile be clear plastic, but the depth of cuts required made it look chunky and so they went with normal plastic. One unused missile concept was shark-looking, done as a joke.
Rumor generation was mentioned, with Jes saying how he may joke about something, then see it online a few months later as fact. Right after this he talked about an update to the old metal THawk in solid gold
I keep remembering stuff. Wish I had a computer Sat, I would have been more organized.
Jes on plastic mini-sprues. He really likes them. Designed for Fantasy, but likely to move over to 40K as well. Would like to make them as mini-kits, modular, not just monopose, but not his call. Starting to add options. No 40K ones yet, but he got really excited talking about a SM chaplain with a head variant.
Which plastic models? For sisters?
He couldn't talk about anything really down the line (other 2 of the court and the bomber seem to be the exception). I didn't specifically ask about Sisters, but during a discussion of GW and female models, Jes brought up the sister models as ones that he thought were well done sculpts, along with Escher gangs and some of the elf models from fantasy.
So no, nothing was mentioned about new sister models, sorry. He's currently not doing much sculpting, focusing on design work and mentoring some of the new sculptors in the studio. By design work, I imagine a mix of the concept art and design, and also when models are being translated from drawings to 3D, they sometimes call him in to consult on elements that come up in the 2D to 3D process in CAD.
From GW, I mentioned the idea of using the new plastic mini-sprues to make shoulder pad and conversion sets, but Jes pretty much shot that down as not being cost effective.
Dreadnought varieties? You mean Contemptors?
Normal is out. Venerable is coming up. Grey Knights were mentioned as likely to get one. Nothing specific on Chapters beyond that, besides mentioning a few of the first founding legions. Chaos mentioned as getting variants. Dreadnoughts are popular, so they are going to make a lot of them.
Arm weapons for the contemptor have mostly been seen so far- assault cannon, TL Heavy Bolters, Heavy Conversion Beamer, Plasma Cannon. Twin Autocannons was mentioned. For DCCW palm guns, the storm bolter and flamer are out now, and there is a plasma gun and graviton gun intended for release. Also a cyclone missile launcher with variant targeter head. Most of this is in the seminar video and pictures.
Someone asked about an Iron Hands MK IV Venerable dread, but I don't remember the answer, sorry.
I asked about Grey Knight specific Autocannon arms. No real interest in making them.