Few things have enlivened the Miniature Wargaming Hobby as much as the recent emergence of crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. One particularly fascinating, creative and daring project on Indiegogo in particular stood out for me: Last Days of The Angels by Spanish painting studio BallisticSkill4.
What is Last Days of The Angels?
Last Days of The Angels is certainly not your typical crowd-funding campaign to publish a new game or miniature line such as, to name but one example, CoolMiniOrNot‘s recent smash-hit Relic Knights. In contrast, Last Days of Angels aspires to find funding, fans and backers for but one enormous project: A compilation of eight to fifteen 40K dioramas showcasing the fictitious end of the Space Marine Chapter known as Blood Angels. Together, these dioramas will combine to become the largest diorama ever made.
From Indiegogo: We are Ballistic Skill 4 painting studio and we are trying to do a compilation of dioramas telling a fictitious end of the space marine chapter known as Blood Angels.
Our goal is to make between eight to fifteen dioramas. Each one tells how the invasion goes taking strength and how the blood angels organize the last stand until the final breath. It´s something like a movie, a 40k movie.
BallisticSkill4 Talks about Last Days of The Angels
BallisticSkill4 is an up-and-coming painting studio from Spain. They have done a lot of Blood Angels in particular. If you have any doubt about whether their painting skills are up to this mammoth-project or simply interested in what their Blood Angels will look like, check out their 40K Ebay Store.
As I stumbled across their Indiegogo-campaign, I could not help but send them a few questions about this stunning and unusual project. The guys from BallisticSkill4 were kind enough to answer me my queries. Here is what they said about their project.
PinsofWar.net: What inspired you to build this diorama?
BallisticSkill4: First of all, we want to tell a story, a good story. [...] There are thousands of dioramas about Space Marines, but we wanted to make this one different. Above all, this is a compilation of dioramas that will tell the epic story of the end of the Blood Angels. We also want to make a last video with all the work. It will be like a movie, a movie made with miniatures.
PinsofWar.net: Why did you choose Blood Angels vs. Tyranids?
BallisticSkill4: What better than Blood Angels. I have made commissions for a year; Blood Angels commissions in particular. You can say that we specialize in Blood Angels!
We also needed a good enemy. We choose Tyranids because they are so cinematic. Everyone has seen films such as Aliens or played games such as Starcraft… We wanted an overwhelming mass of creatures flooding the corridors like an avalanche. I think we have succeeded in capturing this feeling of being overwhelmed.
PinsofWar.net: Will there be opportunities for people to see the finished dioramas in person?
BallisticSkill4: The idea of the campaign is to reward the people than give us money with pieces of the dioramas, or even the entire dioramas. Therefore, it will not be possible to see all the work in one place. But have planned an amazing amount of multimedia work: videos, photos, pdfs, “making of”, tutorials. All this information will be available in the end.
We also have plans for more projects in the future. For one thing, we want to do a real miniature movie with stop-motion, as well as other techniques for dramatic story-telling. You will see a lot of crazy things come from this.
Why I like Last Days of The Angels
What I find so refreshing and thrilling about this project – spectacular painting aside – is the story telling element. Last Days of The Angels literally want – in the words of the painters – to tell a 40K story through dioramas.
But… Why dioramas?
Easy, we love miniatures and paint them. And think a diorama can to tell a good story. And what better than a story about warhammer 40000?
Indeed, check out their campaign video, which showcases scenes from the first diorama, and thereby the beginning of their story.
The Making of a New 40K Epic
The best thing about 40K to me has always been its sandbox-setting. From lost legions to successor Marine-chapters to all the little “mysteries” and “riddles” strewn throughout the universe, 40K literally tells you to grab it and use it, to build on it and expand it in your own game in ways no other game does. And yet, far too many 40K players these days seem to take the things written by GW as holy scripture – immutable and absolute – and shy away from adding background of their own.
BallisticSkill4 aspires to both kick-ass painting and to story-telling. What’s more, they even invite their fans and backers to help them build and flesh out the story of the Blood Angels’ final days. They have laid out their story in 8 (diorama) steps so far. But that certainly is not all there is to it. As they write on their campaign site:
From Indiegogo: But this isn´t the end… Seven dioramas more missing to complete the 15 of the total. What happen with the last survivors, where are the Tyranids at the Flesh Tearers arrive? and why does the blood angel fortress fall so quickly?…
If you help us to do the LAST DAYS OF THE ANGELS will see all this and more.
I for one am very excited and eager to see how this story will unfold. As I write these, BallisticSkill4 still needs your support to make their project become reality.
What are your thoughts about Last Days of Angels? Let me know what you think below!
Z.
About Zweischneid
