Rossamund Bookchild is a foundling boy with a girl’s name. This name was given to him by the paper pinned to his blanket when he was left on the front stoop of Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls, and it has tormented him ever since. As the object of frequent jibes and bullying fists, he eagerly looks forward to the day when he can leave the foundlingery and enter the navy, and thus a life full of adventure on the high seas. His dreams are dashed, though, when he is chosen to be a simple lamplighter. The hopelessly boring life that he anticipates, though, ends up being anything but (at least for the moment), as he is abducted, rescued, and then forced into service by one of the most famous monster hunters on the Half-Continent.
Foundling is the first in the interchangeably titled Monster Blood Tattoo/The Foundling’s Tale trilogy by Australian author D. M. Cornish. (This trilogy was titled Monster Blood Tattoo for its first American release but didn’t do very well, which prompted the publishers to change the name to the more benign and significantly less interesting The Foundling’s Tale.) Because of the depth the author has built into its world, the trilogy has been compared to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, a classic renowned (and notorious) for the level of detail put into the cultures that populate the setting. This is a deceptive comparison at first, as there is nothing remotely epic about the storyline, nor any high-stakes goal that has to be reached (nothing on the level of Destroy-This-Ring-or-The-World-Will-End!, anyway). It’s just a kid running into trouble as he travels to a distant city. The deeper into the story one reads, however, the more sense these comparisons begin to make.
Cornish is a detailed creator; his dark, pre-industrial, monster-ridden world of the Half-Continent is among the better-realized in modern YA fantasy. The majority of his detail, though, is devoted to the culture of his monster-hunters and the alchemy-like magic surrounding them. These monster-hunters are not born magicians but people who, for example, employ a violent form of chemistry to dispatch monster threats or even have extra organs sewn inside their bodies to attain near-magical powers. Half the fun of reading this novel is simply relishing in its morbid world-building.
The novel’s main strength, however, ends up causing some of weak points, too. Early on, I felt so overwhelmed by the intricacy of novel’s world that I had to stop reading for a while, just to get it all organized in my head, and even after I picked it back up, there were multiple times when I thought, “GRRRRGH! When is something going to HAPPEN?” So much energy is spent introducing the reader to the mechanics of the world that its plot and pacing suffer significantly, at least at the beginning. Once I hit the middle of the book, I read voraciously to the end and was disappointed to discover that the last hundred pages of my book were actually not story, but appendices about the world of the novel (another similarity shared with Tolkien, who was a huge fan of super-detailed appendices).
All this said, this is not a novel for casual fantasy readers. This is a novel for readers who have read the popular fantasy novels and are ready to graduate to the deeper cuts. This is a novel for the readers who are okay with a little bit of slowness because the setting in which the slowness happens is just that awesome.
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Warhammer 40K: Chaos Daemons Tzeentch Pink Horror Conversions
Presenting my Warhammer 40K Chaos Daemons Tzeentch Pink Horror Conversions.
Modeling the Tzeentch pink horrors was the best part of making this army. Every model is unique.

With the plenty of Chaos spawn and space marine parts at my disposal, along with plenty of green stuff, I let my imagination run wild. Wherever possible, I tried to emphasize how this weird, chaotic flesh was bursting out of the space marines. The best part is, no matter how crazy the conversion, it felt right at home in a Chaos Daemons army. I had a lot a fun making these guys.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Chaos Daemons Tzeentch Herald Conversions
Presenting my Warhammer 40K Chaos Daemons Tzeentch Herald Conversions.
With the chaotic nature of a Chaos Daemons army, it’s hard to go wrong with something absolutely crazy. My Tzeentch heralds are no exception to this. Two of the heralds are basically a lot of spare bits stuck into a central glob of green stuff. Really, nothing too special there in terms of modeling. However, Smiley is a different story.

In order to make Smiley, I started with a rough frame built from pieces of sprue. I then began layering green stuff on top of that until I had the outline of a very chaotic face. Since this is a Tzeentch herald, I decided to add plenty of guns to the model to represent the model’s arcane firepower. It’s teeth are bolters, and its eyes are lascannon barrels. The weapons on the sides came from a dreadnought.
If nothing else, he/she/it certainly gets a lot of comments from my fellow gamers.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Chaos Daemons Army
Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Chaos Daemons Tzeentch army, with 95% conversions.
My Chaos Daemons army is easily the craziest modeling project I’ve ever embarked upon. All but one model in the entire army have some sort of conversion work, and many involved extensive conversions. The theme behind the army is a space marine force gone horribly wrong. It’s what happens to space marines when they pass their expiration dates. I wanted the chaotic elements to look like they were exploding out of space marine armor, which involved a lot of Chaos spawn kits, as well as a friend’s Dark Angels army.
Yes, that’s right. I purchased a friend’s Dark Angels army for the sole purpose of mutilating them beyond recognition. After dunking them in Pine-Sol, I began plucking off limbs and cutting them up with a hobby saw. Mix in copious amounts of green stuff, and you can clearly see the results.

I purchased 3 daemon princes for this army. The wings went to my Tyranids so that I could have flying hive tyrants. That left me with a lot of spare daemon arms with really cool weapons. But what to do with them? I decided to use them as Khorne bloodletters. The imagery of these giant arms growing out of space marine halves is pretty ridiculous, so it suits me just fine.

The Nurgle plaguebearers were the simpliest conversions. I used mostly-whole space marines with some green slimy tendrils coming out and green fluid leaking out of the armor. And there they were. A pack of plaguebearers. Nothing to it.

With all the Chaos spawn kits I went through, I had a lot of spawn torsos I wasn’t using. I put the torsos on top of inverted Space Marine jump packs and build them into my Tzeentch flamers. Ridiculous, I know, but that’s just how I roll with this army.

My Tzeentch screamers were made with the stock Tzeentch pink horror kits, minus the arms and legs. The only tricky parts here were drilling the holes for the flying bases and filing down a few knobs on the models where the legs are supposed to attach.
But, my favorite parts of the army are the Tzeentch Heralds and the Tzeentch Pink Horrors. I had a lot of fun coming up with some really crazy conversions.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Romeo and Juliet: The War by Stan Lee, etc. – Graphic Novel Review
Comic adaptations of Shakespeare are hardly new, but in my experience, rarely are they well-done enough to be appreciated outside of a “Here, read this comic because you’re having trouble with the Shakespearean language in the play” context. Of the several that I’ve attempted, only a few have been books that I’ve reread for their entertainment value. Most of the others I haven’t been able to finish, and all of those left me with exasperated groans in my throat, just waiting to be unleashed when I came upon the next Shakespeare comic.
In fact, that is exactly what happened when I came upon this comic. When I first saw a thumbnail of Romeo and Juliet: The War, my reaction was *EXAGGERATED SIGH-GRUMBLE*, “Does the world really need another futuristic Romeo and Juliet ripoff?” The fact that it was Romeo and Juliet made it worse. Generally I hate stories that feature protagonists being both in love and stupid at the same time, which is what Romeo and Juliet is, at its heart. Oh, the original has all that iambic pentametered loveliness, too, but I can get that in every other Shakespearean work, many of which are far more interesting than this one.
Key to my exasperation with this book was the fact that I was looking at a thumbnail that was the size of, well, a thumbnail.
Then, one day, I came upon the actual cover in person, which sent me into fits of fangirlish glee:
This version of Shakespeare’s classic sets the familiar story in the far future, making both families consist of cybernetically- or genetically- enhanced supersoldiers, and then having them duke it out in a wondrous spread of futuristic glowing lights and shiny metal that makes the book look like a printed cousin of the Mass Effect games (which is not a bad thing because even the loading screens are fun to look at in Mass Effect games.)
Romeo and Juliet: The War is not simply a slapdash adaptation of a classic made for SparkNotes purposes, either. (Not to hate on SparkNotes, by the way. The SparkNotes graphic novel version of Hamlet is one of my favorite Shakespeare-inspired comics.) It’s an impressively crafted work, and despite all the crazy technological changes, the basic story is still intact. I wouldn’t recommend reading in lieu of the original if you’re reading it for class, as you’ll end up answering questions like “Why were the Montagues and Capulets enemies?” with “Because they were such awesomely superpowered soldiers that they defeated everyone else in the world, leaving only themselves to fight!” (which, FYI, is not the Shakespearean reason). However, as a complement to the original text, it’s pretty good. Some changes are made to certain minor points in the plot, but—dare I say it?—these changes actually improve upon Shakespeare’s story, or at the very least make it more dramatic reading.
Basic accuracy is the least of this book’s good points, though. All of the other good points rest in its art. The art in this comic is not merely pleasant to look at. Everything about it is expertly accomplished, from the dynamic panel layout, to the characterful color design, to the wondrous and colossal scale of it all. The book makes frequent use of detailed full-page and multi-page spreads, and more than once I found myself stopping in the middle of reading simply to gawp at what was on the page before me. This is a graphic novel that comes very close to reaching the height of Capital A Art.
The only truly disappointing part of the book, for me, was the lack of an author or artist’s note in the back, as I was genuinely curious to know what happened to make this unexpected bit of awesomeness come about. The only extras included are some pieces of concept art, which are cool, but not as interesting as a look into the writer’s and artist’s minds would have been. I also had a problem with Romeo’s hair, which being the shaggy mop that seems to appear on every stylish teen boy’s head these days is going to look dated as soon as we’re out of the 2010s. But that’s just me being picky because there’s nothing else to complain about.
Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Wolf Guard Conversions
Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves wolf guard conversions.
The wolf guard conversions form the meat of this army, and they take a lot of forms. The large size of the terminator bases, as well as the models themselves, presented a lot of opportunities for some really dynamic poses and interesting bases. I used two Imperial Guard Cadian shock troop kits for victims, and tried to put in a lot of variety.
I modeled most of this army over a friend’s house while he worked on his Blood Angels. A few times, I showed him what I was working on.
***
“Do you think this is too extreme?” I asked.
He looked up at my latest creation and burst out laughing.
“Too much?”
He shook his head. “Naaahhhhh.”
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Vindicator Conversions
Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves vindicator conversions.
What do you get when you cross 3 Space Marine vindicator kits, spare Cadians, a lot of green stuff, and an overactive imagination? Something like this!
Each vindicator kit comes with a cannon shell. I took one, built up a plume of green stuff, and attached it to the cannon. That gave one of the vindicators a nice, “I’m firing!!!” action pose. On another shell, I used a Chaos spawn tentacle and had it grab hold from the back of the vindicator. I also added various blue glowy things oozing their way out of the vehicle, reinforcing the sense that not all was as it seems with these machines. And just because that wasn’t ridiculous enough, I added some poor victims being pulled in and eaten.
As usual, I had a big glob of green stuff left over. So I put it to good use. The grotesque “ball” is not attached to the vehicle. It’s one of my objective markers for this army, which normally gets some interesting comments from fellow players.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Dreadnought Conversion
Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves dreadnought conversion.
This dreadnought conversion was actually a little trickier than it looks. The model is mostly stock, except the feet were adjusted slightly to allow it to stop on a poor Cadian. Getting the angle right proved difficult, given the lack of mobility in the stock model. Green stuff and Chaos Spawn parts went into the blue glowy growths. The Cadian on fire was easy enough to make with a big blob of green stuff and some simple sculpting to make it look … at least a little bit … like a burning fire.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Army
Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves terminator army.
I’ve loved terminators for about as long as I’ve loved Warhammer 40K, and I always had this itch to do an all-terminator army. When the 5th Edition Space Wolves codex came out in 2009, I picked it up and was immediately drawn to the customization options with Wolf Guard. Since taking Logan Grimnar made Wolf Guard count as troops, I knew what I had to do next … start buying terminator kits!
The army consists of 2 Space Marine terminator kits, 2 Chaos Space Marine terminator kits, the Space Hulk terminators, and a Chaos terminator lord all put into a blender with Chaos spawn parts. It was a blast to put together!
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Tervigon Conversion
Presenting my Warhammer 40K Tyranid Tervigon conversion, with vomited termagants.
I used the trygon kit to build this tervigon. For the “birthing” part of its rules, I decided to show it in a rather unconventional way. My tervigon vomits termagants! I used the Mawloc jaw as a base along with green stuff and half a termagant. I also expanded the throat with green stuff, giving the model a bulge the rest of the termagant could exist in. A glowing, gooey pile with new termagants reinforces this odd premise.
And, of course, I had to throw in a dying space marine. Just because.
The local ultramarines player really didn’t care for my tyranid models … not sure why …
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Mawloc Conversion
Presenting my Warhammer 40K Tyranid Mawloc conversion.
The mawloc is based on the trygon kit, but I heavily modified the head. I used the mawloc mouths and tongues from three trygon kits along with green stuff to form the head. The space marine was easily add by cutting the ends of the tongues, gluing the space marine body in place, and gluing the tips to the space marine.
I wanted the mawloc to look like it had just crashed out of the ground, and so the other space marines are positioned as if they were just flung from the mawloc with impressive force, one of them in two directions at once. After completing conversions to the body, I had green stuff left over.
I couldn’t let it go to waste, so I added a big ribbon of blood between the severed halves of a space marine … because, you know, the model wasn’t far enough over-the-top yet.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.
Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Hive Tyrant Conversions
Presenting my Warhammer 40K Tyranid Hive Tyrant conversions.
With only a few minor modifications, I used a carnifex kit to make this hive tyrant. The most significant change is to the area where the legs and torso meet, where enough material had to be shaved off in order to get the tyrant to stand up straighter. He’s a general! No slouching!
The tyrant guard were easy enough to throw together with tyranid warrior parts and spare carapaces from the carnifex kits. The lash whips are based on ammunition feeds for the larger bioweapons with green stuff and extra spikes on the ends.
This winged hive tyrant is based on a trygon kit. I took one section of the tail out and joined the gap with green stuff to help differentiate it from the trygon in my army. I also left off the side pincers on the head. The wings are from the chaos demon prince kit.
Even though the model is plastic, it’s positioning is so extreme that the base required a lot of weighting. Those are old school metal terminators.
The second winged hive tyrant has a less extreme pose. Again, I used a trygon kit, shortened the tail, and used demon prince wings. I closed the jaw and added green stuff to fill the gaps, to help give it a different look from the first winged hive tyrant.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.