When I was considering a return to the hobby a couple of years ago there were a few artists whose miniatures inspired me, and chief among those was Julian Bayliss, and in particular his Chaos marauder warband – in fact one of my first purchases was a box of Chaos Marauder horsemen for their fantastic heads, although I squandered them on some quite goofy Goliaths. Recently, while working on Mordheim warbands, I got to looking at Julian’s images again and I was lucky enough to receive a couple of CDs full of images from Julian himself. He’s very kindly agreed to let me put some of them up here, although I haven’t put up too many just in case Julian decides to make his own blog one day (which he definitely should, especially since he is apparently considering an Inq28 gang, and has a Thor-themed army to show off).
I’ve cleaned up the photos slightly in Photoshop to try and make them look their best – one thing that I’ve found with my models as well is that, being quite dark and muddy, they don’t photograph as well as a more typical ‘Eavy Metal style. I think Julian’s are the same, although they do look pretty stunning. This is definitely the paint style I try to emulate.
The other thing I love about Julian’s models is that I can’t place the components used a lot of the time. I suspect this is due in equal parts to Julian being pretty good with greenstuff and to him sourcing unusual parts. Nothing puts me off more than a model where I can immediately place every part used, especially if the parts are over-familiar or of poor quality to begin with. A little greenstuff can go a long way to making totally unique miniatures, for example the female marauder (made from a daemonette) demonstrates how radically a few small changes can alter the entire feel of a model, and make it almost unrecognisable.
Thanks so much for sharing these! I can still remember the WD issue that featured Julian’s Marauders right next to Steve Buddle’s approach to painting (which really changed my whole outlook on painting) — definitely one of my favourite issues, and the Marauders are just stunning. As are the other models appearing in this little slideshow!
Those heads from the Marauder Horsemen kit are truly excellent, btw, and one can never, ever have enough of them in the old bitzbox ;)
Oh, and it goes without saying that I second your wish for Julian to start his own blog ;)
Next time you are over remind me to show you Julian’s female necromunda gang in mi display case – they are so hard to photo but in the flesh they’re are stunning ……
I am also a huge fan of Julian’s work , i had thought i was alone besides maybe JB in working against the the uber airbrushed style of painting perfection , and towards a more emotional almost visceral style, when i saw Julians work in WD , for me it was akin the moment in post apocalyptic movies when you realise you are not alone and that their are other people still alive .. a real jubilation followed by a a very real feeling of oh crap , not only are there other folks working in a style you are trying to achieve , but they are doing it much better and winning golden demons and featuring in blanchitsu to boot ! lol The marauders are brilliant, but the eschers are the best miniature collection i think i have seen ! my personal fave is the little Adept and cronenbergian spiderskull . Really great to see Julians work on here , it really is the perfect place for it.
regards
Neil101
I’d love to see those Escher I’d like to try and photograph them as well perhaps although I know what you mean about them being hard to photograph, I tweaked the levels and things in these pics so that they are easier to see but I am sure they look even better in person
hes the only person i know who uses rose thorns as high heels ….
Wow, thanks for sharing!
His female gang in WD (last year) were stunning, and his Vampire Counts army from a few years back really catalysed me away from ‘standard’ kit-bashing.
Second the motion for him to satrt his own blog!
Would love to see some of these pre-painted, just to check out his kit-bashing and sculpting work.
The female marauder from the daemoness and that wonderful vampiress are just stunning in his emotive painting style.
Thank you so much for posting these pictures, I’m in awe of Julian Bayliss’ work . I stumbled across your ex profundis posts on dakka dakka and your creativity and ingenuity have restored some of my faith in the hobby.
Hello,
may I ask what mini is the undead dragon?
Saw it on pinterest and I was stunned. Keep up the good work. Thanks in advance
I think it is a toy dragon, I’ll ask Julian