Some Airbrush Work

Many of you know that I have been striving to get control on my collection the last couple years. Part of those strives is consolidating or eliminating parts of my collection. With the implementation of the allies rules in 6th edition I began working on my Emperors Children. With the release of Forgeworld's Horus Heresy book, I decided to consolidate the usable pieces of my Black Templar into a loyal version. That would make one big army I could use. The Chaos parts as a Chaos Space Marine army, the loyalist parts as a Codex Space Marines army, and combined I will use them in Horus Heresy games I play.

One army, one color scheme and I settled on a pre-heresy purple and gold look. Specifically a more muted almost platinum looking gold. In addition I am using my airbrush to do as much of the base color as possible. What follows is the result of my 3rd attempt. Unfortunately I am unable to truely judge if I like them until the other colors are on the model.

The steps after the jump...

Airbrushing Base Colors: Part II

 So I promised some WIPs for my Chaos Marines and I was able to spend some time on them this week. Just as I show here, I have been working with using my airbrush for mass base coats. I am still tinkering with the process, but I am fairly pleased with what I have here. This is pic below is the finished product and what the rank and file of the army will look like.

After the jump I have a walk through on how I did the base color.

An Experiment...or rather, "Don't Leave Your Models at the Store!"

So, this post is actually a bit overdue. In response to the title, one of the guys from the FLGS has a bad habit of leaving his miniatures at the store. So to teach him a lesson I took two of his Grey Knights. I had a pretty good idea what he was planning on having in his army so I made sure to not take anything that was essential.

Now, Evil Homer had asked at one time about a way to do black metallic armor. I had several ideas of how he could have gone about it. I actually did some tests on a Necron to see what my ideas would look like. I was fairly pleased with the results, but I knew he wanted to use it on Marines and I was not sure it would translate over well. In came the Grey Knights.

Since that time though I believe Evil Homer no longer has the army he was intending on using the technique for. Even though Evil Homer no longer needed the recipe, I decided to use the ill gotten Grey Knights as my test subjects. I figured the owner would not learn a lesson if I simply gave them back.

One small note that I want to include. These models were assembled when I acquired them, and I did not do any cleaning on them before painting. That means the bolters are not drilled, and there is flash visible in several places. One of them was already primed and some of the detail has been obscured because of it. Before I start with the steps let me give you some info for those following along at home. VMA= Vallejo Model Air, VGC= Vallejo Game Color, and VMC= Vallejo Model Color.

Airbrushing for Base Colors

      Well I started this day with the idea I would write a short post about how you can cut a huge chunk of time out painting your rank and file by using an airbrush. I did some basic models to give you examples the only problem is what happened on the paint table did not transfer well in pictures. Even so I will put up the steps with a few explanations of how I did it as well as some things you can try with your own models. Here are the models after priming and the base coat color sprayed onto them.

More Terrain

     Well I have managed some hobby time for myself and with it I created another piece of terrain. I had someone comment that they liked the start to finish approach so this one took me a few days to get all the pics I needed for the post. No other formalities lets get right to it.

     I start out with some sort of base for the piece. This happens to be a piece of 1/4" plywood. Since I have really liked what I am able to get by starting with some pink poly foam on the base I cut a few pieces from the scrap and arrange them on the base. I like using this on the base because it allows me to do some work below the floor. I can make craters or carve out parts of the side. Overall I just like what it does to a simple piece of ruins.

     The rest of the process is after the break.

Wave Serpent Turret Conversion

So we are doing a build up for Ard Boys at our FLGS again this year and this year I will be working (or reworking) on my Eldar. Well almost any incarnation of an Eldar list I can come up with at this point is going to need at least one or two Wave Serpents. I do not really like the stock turret. I like the Forgeworld one, but since there is a good chance I will need several serpents for any larger list I did not want to go about paying $15-$20 to buy the turrets. So, I figured my only option was to make them.

Tag-Teaming Some Terrain Projects Part 3: Flock and Grass

Well I am nearly done with this terrain. This final post should be a quick one that really quickly covers the grassy areas I wanted. You can see the post where I textured the bases here, and where I painted the terrain here.

Tag-Teaming Some Terrain Projects Part 2:Paint

Well maybe I should change the title of this one. This tag team project that started here turned into a solo project. I guess it is still a tag team project as Evil Homer cast the bricks and built the terrain. As for painting the terrain, that never came to pass. My hobby interest has been starting to wane again so I decided to do what I could to keep it going. The other day I dug out my airbrush did some work with it on an old unfinished piece of terrain. Evil Homer commented he never managed to get the terrain from the tag-team project painted so I told him I would do it.

The how and why are after the jump. Oh and lots of pictures.

Making a wet palette.....and why.

I am going to start this article with a few simple questions that I hope to answer for you. What is a wet palette? What does it do? How does it work? Why do I need one? Finally where can I get one or how can I make one?

My completed and used wet palette

Tag-Teaming Some Terrain Projects

     So my actual hobby interest has been at an all time low the past month or so. I have not been working on anything of any real interest so I have not been posting all that much. Recently Evil Homer approached me and asked if I would help him with some terrain he was making. He has a lot of Hirst Arts molds and he likes to cast and build. For the most part he does not mind painting terrain. The thing is he either is not happy with his ground work or not entirely sure how to approach it.Either way he decided to ask me if I would help him out by working the basing.

      This should be a two part post maybe three if I can get Evil Homer to cooperate. He built the terrain. I am doing the preliminary basing. Then he is going to paint them and return them to me so I can do the green work afterwords. If I can get him to take some WIP shots as he is painting maybe I can write up some of that for you as well. Regardless you should see a second post in the near future when I do the green work after it is all painted. 

Easy Painting: Eyes

I spend a lot of time looking at others painted minis on the internet as well as in person. One of the things I think can really make a mini pop is the eyes. The face of a mini is normally a focal point and even a decently painted pair of eyes can make the difference.

Many of my friends comment on the way the eyes of my minis look. They are not spectacular in any way, but they do tend to say the right thing about the mini. So, as with all the other areas that people tell me they like about my minis I decided to do a step by step to help others who may need it with this area.

Step by Step: Pinning

     No matter what draws you to our hobby or what segment of the hobby you enjoy you will inevitably encounter metal models. If you prefer gaming you will most likely have at least one or two models in your army/force that are metal. If you prefer the modeling/painting aspect, some of the most dynamic and interesting models are made of metal. So you will find over time that super glue just does not hold well enough for those pieces such as arms, hands, or whatever you have. Well pinning is a good way to overcome this.

     Basically pinning is the process of drilling a hole in both pieces to be joined and gluing a piece of wire or rod in the hole. This increases the amount of area that has glue on it, and thus strengthens the hold. This post will cover the steps I take when pinning as well as some of the pitfalls I have learned to avoid along the way.

Easy Painting: Reds

     Well the title may be a bit misleading to some, but to me it seems easy. It can take a little bit of time, but the steps are easy.

     Several of the locals (such as Brent, or Evil Homer) comment pretty frequently that they like the way the reds on many of my models look. So at the request of Brent, I decided I would try my hand at doing a write up to see if it will help some of you out there that may struggle with the color.

Step by Step: Ork Boys

     I thought I would do another step by step for you to take a look at. This one is the beginning of my second unit of Orc Boys. When I paint models en mass like WFB units or 40K Squads I normally break then down into manageable groups. This helps me gain the feeling of progress as the unit grows, and it also help to cut down on the monotony of painting the same color in the same place...20 times. So this is the progression start to finish on the back rank plus one extra trooper I have laying around.

     Something to think about. I planned these minis the same way I have the rest of this army. There are really only a few colors used, and they all work well when washed with GW Devlin Mud. This way I can crank out the models in a fairly quick time frame. They have a decent table top quality paint job, and once I am finished I can go back in and do some extra work on special things like the standards and unit champions. My total working time on these six models is roughly 4 hours (2 hours a night for two nights) 

My GW Watchtower, Part 2 WIP and Finish

     Well, I finally got around to finishing my Watchtower. Let me start this off by telling you that I really enjoy making terrain. I should stress the making part. Painting, not so much. I also tend to get to a point on large models where I am basically sick and tired of looking at it, and I either put it down and walk away (normally for weeks or months), fight the urge to throw it against a wall, or figure out a way to fight through it and just get it done. I have walked away from many, luckily never thrown any against the wall, and the last normally affects the end result.

     The case with this Watchtower was I buckled down and just got it done. There are a few things I am not super happy about, but in general I am pleased. My borderline O.C.D. can be a bitch sometimes though and I simply have to tell my self, "It's done, it looks good, now leave it alone and do something else."

Sidewalks and Walkways from Spackle

     Ok, while I was working on my Watchtower I also started working on a few other pieces. On them I decided to try and add some walkways on to the base before I added the sand. I took a bunch of pictures of one of them so I could do a walk through for you. It actually worked out rather well. I think I am going to experiment with some other ideas with it and see what all I can use it for. For now, here is how I got this far. Please excuse the mess on the rest of the house. It is a work in progress.

WIP:My GW Watchtower, Part 1

     Well I decided terrain is where I would head next. So you get to see it. Nothing too indept, just picking up where I left off the last time I worked on it. I am working on several pieces at the same time, but I will let you follow along on this one. Perhaps soon I will do a building from scratch as I have a set of foam core tools I need to give a go at. Also a note..this is not mine, but a pretty picture for you to look at till after the jump.

Basing With Sand and Static Grass

     So I was talking with Brent from Strictly Average last Friday. He was admiring my bases and was curious how mine looked so different than his, although we were using pretty much the same material. So, I figured I would do a walk through on how I do them, and maybe some slight changes you can make to them for different armies.

Goblin Rock Lobber-Basing

     Ok, so I bored you with my post showing (or not showing) how I painted my Goblin Rock Lobber. Let see if I can do a bit better on this one. I actually did shots at every stage so I have already improved.

     Alright so I have already painted the lovely models and they are ready for basing.

Goblin Rock Lobber

Well, I have busted my butt today to get this thing painted so I can break open Master Manipulator properly with a hopefully helpful post. Let me give you a bit of back story here. I am the kinda guy who owns lots of stuff, but very little of it is painted/finished. Now, its not because of the lack of ability. I am not that bad with brush and paint. I just have a problem maintaining focus. I also tend to obsess about the details making my projects take longer than necessary, and that is one habit I have been able to over come with this army. I have tried to forgo much layering and just stick to some simple colors that all work well together.

 

 Here is a step by step (sort of) of how I painted by Rock Lobber, after the break of course....