73 - Back! And On A Mission!

First off, apologies to my mates in the Tale of Even More Painters challenge. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate in the last 4 challenges because of real life (holidays, work, graduate school applications, etc.). Overall, though, it was great fun and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. It really did improve my painting/ modeling/ conversion skills and, in fact, in the time I've been away from the blog, I've actually assembled and converted an enormous amount of unpainted miniatures in my (not very much) spare time.

Which brings me to why I've decided to resume updating this blog. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've assembled quite a horde of unpainted miniatures over the last 3-4 months. They sit on my shelves, their gray and white metal exteriors silently accusing me for being such a lazy bastard. Well, after watching "Julie and Julia" with the wife, I resolved to embark on a journey of my own. For the next 365 days, I shall paint one miniature a day! Here are the ground rules:

1) I am allowing myself to prep models ahead of time (i.e., clean, assemble, even prime). In other words, I don't have to start fresh with a model still on the sprue every day. So long as at the end of the day, I have a completely painted, shaded/ highlighted, and based miniature, I will consider that day successful.

2) If I happen to miss a day or two, I will force myself to make up the missed miniatures over a weekend or a day-off from work. Bottom line - I need to have 7 finished miniatures at the end of the week or else I will consider the experiment a failure.

3) Ultimately, real life can take many strange and unforeseen twists and turns. There may come a time when I might have to put this project on hold. (I can already anticipate a week to 10 day cross-country trip to the West Coast sometime in May-June which would certainly interrupt my painting.) If something truly out of my control (i.e., anything other than sheer laziness on my part) forces me to stop painting for a bit, then I will try my best to make up the loss in painted miniatures. At the end of 365 days, if I can count 365 painted miniatures then I will consider this project a success regardless of whether I painted one a day or 7 a week.

4) At some point in this experiment, I might have to convert my one miniature a day into x number of painting points a week. For now, though, I'll try to stick to my one miniature a day project for as long as possible. If I have to resort to painting points, then I'll set the number of points at something equatable - like 7 painting points a week with no carry-over points (i.e., even if I painted a vehicle or 2 monstrous creatures in a given week, I won't carry the 3 left-over points into the next week).

5) For the first few weeks or so, I'm tempted to finish up some partially painted miniatures I have laying around just to get warmed up. I have about 4 Blood Ravens and 6 or so Orks sitting unfinished at my painting station that really need to get finished. We'll see. I'll definitely fully disclose in my daily posts whether or not the miniature I finished was already partially painted or not however.

Well, that's that. I'm glad to be back blogging and painting. I'll have to start visiting the various blogs I enjoyed out there as well. See you all tomorrow with painted miniature #1!

Note: the image for this post was used without Games Workshop's permission. If Games Workshop objects to my using the image, please contact me and I will take it down.

Leia Mais…

72 - First Attempt at a Scenery Piece/ Diorama (TOEMP #7 Bonus Challenge)

Well, it's not much to look at, but this right here is my first crack at creating a miniature diorama. It's not quite finished, obviously. A lot of painting still needs to go into it as well as some more landscape bits. Overall, though, I'm pleased with how it turned out. It may be rough around the edges (literally and figuratively) but it pretty much turned out the way I expected it to.

So, what is it? Essentially, it's the courtyard of a section of a bombed out Imperial city. The two wall pieces (made from foamboard) represent ruined buildings while the rectangular thing in the middle is a kiosk of sorts decorated with Imperial regalia and festooned with spotlights and speakers to blare out Imperial propaganda day and night. The plastic pieces come from a variety of kits - the piping along the walls and on the cobblestone floor are from the Stormblade superheavy kit and the Ork Stompa kit; the lamp post and the light fixtures are from the Manufactorum kit; the bits for the kiosk are from the Bastion kit; and the railing along the tops of the walls are from the Chaos Rhino and Land Raider kits.

The most interesting part about this diorama is the flooring. I was able to find 2 large rolls of textured plastic in gray cobblestone (which I used for the courtyard) and red brick (which I used for the sidewalks) styles at my Michael's craft store. The rolls were intended for miniature Christmas dioramas but they are the perfect scale for hobby miniatures as well. Best of all was the cost - I think I paid about $15 per roll, and when stretched out, each roll is almost 6' in length and 2' in width. Compared to the insanely overpriced textured plasticard I found in hobby-specific stores, the price was unbeatable.

Well, I won't be counting this particular diorama complete for TOEMP's 7th challenge just yet. I still have 1 more day to try to paint it up a bit. I very likely won't be able to make it in time for the bonus points, but I'm glad I made the effort. It was a lot of fun and a great learning experience. Next time I try to make scenery,though, it will most definitely be something I can use on a tabletop.

Please click here for more pics.

Leia Mais…

70 - Tau Empire Stealth Team for TOEMP Challenge #7 WIP

Seeing as it's been over a week since my last post, I thought I'd put up some WIP pictures of my Tau Stealth Team. At the moment, they've received 3 thin coats of a Purple basecoat, after which I then glued all of the various accessories on to the miniatures.

All of the Stealth Suits are equipped with Targeting Arrays (those antennae like things afixed atop their heads) while the two non-team leaders are armed with Burst Cannons. The Shas'vre is armed with a Fusion Blaster and also sports a Hard-Wired Drone Controller and a Markerlight (which is glued to the top of his Fusion Blaster).

The interesting thing about Tau models, for me at least, is how difficult it was to find reference pictures regarding which bit does what. For example, the things I'm calling Targeting Arrays could very well likely be something else entirely. I really have no idea. Googling "Tau targeting array" only gets me images of fully constructed Tau models without any specific pictures highlighting which part of the model is the targeting array. Same thing goes for the Markerlight and the Hard-Wired Drone Controller. For the Stealth Suit kit this isn't too much of a problem seeing as how the load-outs for the Stealth Team is fairly limited. But I can just imagine the difficulty (especially for the obsessive compulsive among us) of putting together a Crisis Battle Suit or a Broadside.

Well, overall I'm making good time on these figures. Honestly, the color scheme of the Stealth Team really lends itself to quick painting. The Black primer acts as a basecoat and aside from the Purple over roughly 50% of the figure, there aren't very many other colors represented. The only time intensive part I can see down the line is the highlighting. Due to the subdued and dark color scheme, these models are going to test my highlighting abilities in order to make them properly pop.

Maybe I'll be able to finish this team with enough time to spare to put together a scenery piece for them. We'll see...

Leia Mais…

67 - TOEMP Challenge #6 Update

Here's an update as to how my sixth TOEMP challenge is coming along. My GRE Subject Test was this Saturday, and now with it out of the way, I've allowed myself to relax a bit over the weekend by working on the hobby. For Challenge #6, I've chosen to do a full Company Command Squad for my Imperial Guard army. One of the extra requirements for Challenge #6 is to perform as many conversions as possible to your models, but as you can see from these pictures, I don't think I've fully embraced that particular requirement. You see, I'm still a wimp when it comes to green stuff. All I've yet used it for is to fill gaps in models and vehicles and while I hope to one day be able to fully sculpt detailed conversions with the stuff, that day is most certainly not now. But despite that, I tried to convert this Company Command Squad as much as possible by just swapping pieces here and there.

The picture to the upper left shows the 3 members of the Command Squad that are the farthest along. From left to right: the Plasma Gun Veteran, the Company Commander, and the Vox-Caster. I know it's hard to see, but the Plasma Gun Veteran has Catachan arms and a Space Marine Plasma Gun. I went with the Catachan arms to simulate how laborious it would be to actually operate one of these cumbersome special weapons; sleeves would either just get in the way or not offer enough ventilation from the heat. I had originally intended to make him a Meltagunner, but since meltaguns are at a premium these days (i.e., I had 1 meltagun to spare and I plan on using it with my Space Marines), I settled on a plasma gun. It works out, really, since with the Medic in the Command Squad, that gives me an additional layer of protection against overheating. The Vox-Caster is pretty much standard; I think the only change I made on him was to use a Heavy Weapons kneeling legs bit on him, but aside from that, everything else is straight out of the Command Squad kit.

The Commander pictured to the right is coming along rather swimmingly, I think. His head, torso and legs are from the Command Squad kit, but his arms (and molded shoulder pads) are from a Hellhound officer and the sword attached around his waist is from a WFB Bretonnian kit. I was actually a bit stumped as to what color to paint his greatcoat. I didn't want to go with Hunter Green because it seemed a bit "blah." I didn't want to keep it Black either or to paint it a brigher primary color like Blue. So I tried out Dolphin Gray and was pleasantly surprised with how well it turned out. He still needs another layer of basecoat, a wash, and some highlighting, but overall, I'm pretty pleased with him. (And he didn't take all that long to do either! The giant surface of the greatcoat really helped speed him along.)

The final picture (to the bottom left) is of the 3 other Command Squad members I plan on painting up. From left to right: the Bodyguard, the Regimental Standard Bearer, and the Officer of the Fleet. The Bodyguard is essentially a Catachan guardsman while the Regimental Standard Bearer uses parts straight from the Command Squad kit. The Officer of the Fleet, however, is a full conversion. I'm pretty proud of him. His torso is from a Baneblade Tank Commander. I carefully cut the tank hatch surrounding the bottom of his greatcoat away, then attached Cadian legs I cut off at the knees. This part worked out more seamlessly than I expected. The rest of him is a mixture of Shock Troop, Command Squad, and Baneblade Tank Commander bits with another Bretonnian sword strapped to his waist. At first, I was about to make him the Master of Ordnance, but I actually have a Hellhound Tank Commander laying around that I plan to convert into the Master of Ordnance using the same technique I applied to turn the Baneblade Tank Commander into an Officer of the Fleet.

Not shown in the pics is the Medic (primarily because he's unchanged from the standard medic that comes in the Command Squad kit). I also desperately want to put together an Astropath but I'm having a hard time finding the proper bits to convert one. I have a Reaper Miniature that I think could work as an Astropath, but he's a tad too big, scale-wise, to fit with the rest of the Command Squad models.

Leia Mais…

62 - TOEMP Challenge #4

The TOEMP Bloggers have received their latest assignment! For Challenge #4, we are given free reign to paint up 60+ Codex/ Army Book points worth of any models we choose. Afterwards, we are then required to write up a short piece explaining why we chose said models (e.g., to work towards finishing an army, because said models have been sitting on our workshelves giving us a guilt trip for oh so many months, because we were particularly intrigued by the look and character of said models, etc.). Perfect challenge to not only keep us all painting but also to give us something to write about on our blogs!

I've decided to continue chipping away at my Imperial Guard army by painting up a Heavy Weapons Squad (2 lascannons and a heavy bolter). Working on the Sentinel kind of got me in the mood for working on characterful and evocative bases that told little stories, so that's what I'm going to try to do with these 3 Heavy Weapons Teams. I'll probably continue with the tale I began with the Sentinel by sprinkling Chaos Space Marines (or at least their body parts, all hail the Emperor! mwahahaha!) throughout the 60mm bases.

The deadline for Challenge #4 is September 16. Plenty of time!

Leia Mais…

60 - TOEMP Challenge #3 Update

Unfortunately, real life over the past couple of days interfered with my painting schedule. I had originally intended to finish the Sentinel a day or two ago, but it's taken me until today to finally get it done. It's still not 100% complete though. I still need to thoroughly highlight it and get more coverage on the Hunter-Killer Missile before I'd officially call it done.

Overall, though, I like it. It was much harder to paint than I expected, but I think I slowed myself down by making some first-time mistakes that I hopefully will not duplicate. Some things I learned:

1) Prime a vehicle in the predominant color of the basecoat. In this instance, I should've primed the sentinel in Hunter Green instead of Black. I could've then gone over the parts I planned on painting in another color in Black, if I wished. Priming it in Black, on the other hand, forced me to spend way too much time applying the Hunter Green basecoat.

2) Don't bother painting the interior of a vehicle that will not ever see the light of day. With this Sentinel, since I glued the top of the cabin down, the few hours I spent painting the interior and the pilot kind of went to waste. I mean, yes, you can sort of see the pilot through the viewing hatches in front, but the rest of the interior of the cabin is basically invisible. At most, I'd paint the pilot and leave it at that. However, for vehicles where the interior can be seen by opening a hatch or a door, then I'll still go ahead and paint it up.

3) Make sure to use the right pieces when putting the vehicle together! This was just me being distracted and unobservant. For the cabin of the Sentinel, before I knew it, I had glued the open-topped side panels onto the cabin frame instead of the armored side panels. As a result, the top hatch wouldn't fit neatly onto the cabin. I had to resort to doing some cutting with my hobby knife and then filling in the gaps along the sides with greenstuff. I'm actually pretty happy with the greenstuffing (on top of this being my first attempt at putting together a vehicle, it was also my first attempt at using greenstuff to fill gaps and make corrections). Up close, it looks obvious I greenstuffed, but from a reasonable distance, the greenstuff appears pretty seamless.

All of these 3 mistakes cost me a lot of time and motivation. While I enjoyed working around these issues, they also tested my patience with the model, and that's not a good way to maintain interest in something.

Well, I've got roughly 2 more days to finish the rest of the base (the Khorne Bezerker and some sort of barrier to simulate a defensive position) if I want to complete this challenge 24 hours before the Sunday deadline. It's Labor Day weekend in America, and my wife and I don't have anything planned (except possibly watching "Inglourious Basterds" on Saturday or Sunday), so I should have plenty of time.

Leia Mais…

59 - TOEMP Challenge #3 WIP

So, the third challenge in A Tale of Even More Painters is to either paint up a Special Character (plus retinue, if applicable) while writing up a data sheet for him/ her, or alternatively, to paint up a Fast Attack/ Special Unit with extra points being awarded for creative basing.

I decided to go with an Imperial Guard Cadian Armored Sentinel. I could've chosen to paint up a Space Marine Captain with Command Squad, but at this point, I'm so sick of basecoating red that I thought, for sanity's sake, it was best to move on to another color scheme for the time being. The Sentinel is going to be exciting to do for a couple of reasons:

1) It's the first vehicle I'll ever be assembling and painting.

2) I love decorative bases, so this challenge is right up my alley.

3) It's been almost 2 months since I've added anything to my Imperial Guard army.

I've included some work in progress pics of what I have in mind for the Sentinel. Basically, it's a mini-diorama depicting the Sentinel about to crash through the front lines of a Chaos Space Marine defensive position. At the moment, only the Sentinel has been glued to the base. I'll be painting it up first before I add the fence and the Khorne Bezerker. The fence comes from a Chaos Rhino, I believe. I think it's part of the Rhino's dozer blade. I'll very likely also be adding rocks and rubble and shrubbery and such stuff as finishing touches.

I honestly can't wait to start painting this sucker up. Hopefully, under the deadline (Sept. 6th) as well.

Leia Mais…

56 - TOEMP Challenge #2 WIP (Blood Ravens Terminators)

Since we received our details for the second challenge 3 days ago, I've progressed rather nicely on my Terminator Squad. The pic on the left shows 2 Terminators from the 5 man squad practically nearing completion. The Termie on the far left is more advanced than the Termie on the right, but both are almost done. A few more basecoats, washes, highlights, and then fancying up the bases a bit are all that's left, really. I have to say, the Terminators have been a bit monotonous. I dunno. Their poses aren't all that different, their battlegear are almost identical, etc. etc. Even standard Space Marines have more customizability. Of course, these are the Termies from the Black Reach set, so lack of customization should be expected. And, yes, I could've performed a few conversions on them myself (such as cut a Termie or two in half and pose their torsos in a different direction), but I was being lazy. I do want to try freehanding the Blood Ravens Chapter logo onto their left shoulder pads and some heraldry onto the small shields near their right shoulders, so that will hopefully boost up the interest level a bit. Or boost up the frustration level considering how abominable my last attempt at freehanding (the banner on the Sternguard conversion) turned out.

The pic to the right presents the 3 remaining Terminators I have left to paint - 2 standard shooty Termies with the Terminator Sergeant in the center. The Terminator Sergeant looks fun, if a bit intimidating. I think I'll either do him next (just to break up the monotony) or save him for last. I'm afraid that if I save him for last, I'll end up rushing to make the deadline, but the advantages of doing him last is that I'll be able to commit all of my painting mistakes on the standard Termies and thus apply the hard-earned wisdom on doing the best job on the Sergeant.

So, 6 days left to essentially paint 3 Terminators. No sweat!

Leia Mais…

44 - Blood Ravens Sternguard Tutorial Part VI

Well, I'm going to make this the last post in my Blood Ravens Sternguard tutorial for a couple of reasons: 1) I'm personally getting bored with the model! 2) I intended to do a tutorial on free-handing the Blood Ravens insignia onto the banner, but realized that I really, really stink at free-handing! So I quickly wiped the offending blotch off the banner and decided to keep quietly working on my free-hand on unfortunate pieces of plasticard rather than ruin perfectly good models. 3) A 6 part tutorial on a single model seems like more than enough. Too much perhaps.

So, what I have here (pictured on the upper left) is my Blood Ravens Sternguard, 95% complete. After basecoating the fiddly bits with 3-4 thin layers, I applied controlled washes over the whole model - Devlan Mud was used on the Old Parchment (except for the shoulder pads - I wanted to keep them pristine) and Antique Gold parts; Badab Black on the Bridge Gray and White; and Baal Red was applied liberally over Opaque Red of the power armour and the banner. When I apply washes, I try to maintain as much control over the flow of the ink as much as possible. I'll load up the tip of a 0 or 00 brush with some of the wash, then carefully let it run along the recesses and cracks of the area I plan on shading. I just find a more controlled wash helps you cut some time off the next step when you bring the basecoat colors back up plus it also avoids the dreaded dried pooling effect that sloppy application of washes can sometimes produce. (I've read that adding a small drop of dishwashing detergent to the wash can help avoid the pooling effect, but I've only tried it once or twice. I don't know - I'm sure it works, but the result was so marginal for me that I just stopped doing it, mostly out of forgetfulness. Usually, unless something is so amazingly effective and obvious, I won't try to integrate it into my everyday practice.)

Overall, I was happy with how the Citadel Washes worked, as I have been since buying them 4 months ago. Games Workshop may rightfully get slammed for a lot of things, but they done good with their Washes, in my opinion. The only thing I wasn't happy with regarding this model was the liberal Baal Red wash I applied on the power armour. The result was splotchy, darkened areas all over the armor as opposed to just in the recesses. My thought process was that since the basecoat was a bit flat and the coverage of the Opaque Red wasn't 100% perfect, the Baal Red wash would fill in the coverage for the Opaque Red while at the same time adding some shine and depth to the armor. Well, it did add shine, but it didn't add uniform coverage, that's for sure. I had to go over the wash with more Opaque Red basecoat to minimize some of the splotchiness, but as you can see, I wasn't completely successful. I think I've learned a valuable lesson for any future Blood Ravens I'll be painting up: do not use a liberal application of the Baal Red wash on the power armor; instead, apply a controlled wash of Badab Black to the recessed, then use paint layering (from dark to light) to give the illusion of depth.

The base was basically decorative sand glued on with white glue, then painted over with a basecoat of Brown Velvet followed by a drybrush of Desert Sand and light wash of Devlan Mud. The thorny bush looking thing was decorative moss purchased at Michael's glued down with superglue, and the small brown rock bit was a piece of cork also held down with superglue.

Looking back, I'm not completely satisfied with either the model or the tutorial. I tried to make the tutorial as comprehensive as possible, and I think that was partially why it might not have been effective as it could be. It seemed too sprawling, included too much repetition and the laying out of too obvious steps. As I said in my last post, I think in the future, my tutorials will focus more on highlighting interesting things I might have picked up in regards to the various aspects of the hobby rather than on the more mundane things. Tutorials focused on clever conversions seem to be very popular with readers, so I might focus on that. As for the model itself - well, my interest in it waxed and waned as this process trudged along. This is the longest I've ever spent on a model. The first tutorial was posted on July 24, and it's taken 6 days to reach the end. I'm usually able to paint up a model in 2 or 3 days. By the Part VI, I did not want to even look at the miniature let alone paint it.

Okay, so as for what's up next on the blog? I have no idea! I have the Skaven Plague Monk and the Kroot Auxiliary still left over from the also-rans of the poll, but I also have an Imperial Guard Platoon Commander beckoning to me from my workshelf. We'll see...

Click here for more pics on the Sternguard WIP.

Leia Mais…

43 - Blood Ravens Sternguard Tutorial Part V

The picture on the left shows the Blood Ravens Sternguard with his right arm wielding his pimped out bolter and backpack attached, and primed with Black (brushed on). It's slowly coming together. I then proceeded to paint the backpack and arm Opaque Red, his shoulder pad Old Parchment, and his bolter Bridge Grey. I also finally decided to just paint over his knee pads Opaque Red because I desperately want to avoid making him overly colorful. He's a hardened space marine, for goodness sakes! I keep returning, for reference, to the image of GW's Sternguard as well as the two Tactical Blood Ravens I've already painted up in order to get an idea as to whether or not I'm on the right track. Primarily, I want this Sternguard to stand out from the Tacticals while simultaneously not going overboard with the bits and bobs. In other words, I want him to look like a well-decorated veteran of the Blood Ravens various campaigns against heretics and xenos scum but not so much so that he becomes a walking display board for The Bitz Barn.

3 thin basecoats later on the arm, bolter, and backpack, and we get the result show on the right. You'll notice that I've added a handful of embellishments (with 2 thin basecoats) to the model - a banner pole, a tabard over his right shoulder pad, a crux terminatus on his backpack, and a belt decoration from a Terminator sprue to his right shin guard (which was an attempt at copying the effect on the GW mail order only Space Marine Sergeant seen here - note the Imperial Aquila on his left shin guard). If I were more confident with my greenstuffing, I would have integrated the belt decoration more seamlessly into the leg of my Sternguard, but I'm not. Regardless, I'm pretty satisfied with the effect, and I can always come back at a later date and try the green stuff when I feel I'm ready for it. At this point, he's practically done. I'll very likely add 1 or 2 more layers of basecoats to the embellishments, then make an attempt at free-handing the Blood Ravens Chapter Marking on to the banner as well as some free-hand work on the shoulder pad tabard. After that, I'll move on to the wash stage, the bringing the basecoat back up and highlighting stage, and finally end with painting and sprucing up the base a bit.

By the way, check out Thomas Schadle's rendition of the Blood Ravens. His painting ability almost makes me want to throw my own Ravens into a tupperware container filled with Simple Green and start over. Ah, but then I notice he's done very well in the Golden Daemon competitions (even winning the L.A. Slayer Sword back in 2005 for his Blood Ravens Librarian) and realize how silly it is to compare myself to him. He's painting at a major league level, while I'm very obviously toiling away in Tee Ball at the moment. My wife remembers when I first started this hobby, I would constantly bemoan my lack of ability especially after browsing through the awesome paintjobs on CoolMiniorNot. Viewing the finished products of such accomplished painters almost made me want to quit until 2 things happened: 1) I noticed that so long as I kept practicing my painting, I actually got better (fancy that!); and 2) I finally came to the very sane understanding that a handful of months invested into anything is not enough time to become very, very good at it. (Unless we're talking about falling down. Maybe a couple of weeks would be enough to get very good at falling down, but you know, not even. Just ask circus clowns and stunt men/ women how hard it is to fall down convincingly without cracking your own head open. But I digress...)

My apologies for this tutorial going on so long. In the future, I'll cut out some of the more mundane aspects of putting these miniatures together and jump straight to the painting technique. I still need to refine my tutorial presentations to give you all a better look into how I paint, but I always knew that designing tutorials would be difficult. Hopefully, I've learned something from this first initial go of it.

For more pics of this work in progress, click here.

Leia Mais…

41 - Blood Ravens Sternguard Tutorial Part IV

After laying down the Opaque Red basecoat, I proceeded with painting in the details and fiddly bits. The picture on the left shows what the model looks like after one thin layer of Delta Ceramcoat Old Parchment on the helmet, the shoulder pad, and the purity seals; Americana Antique Gold on the chest design, the belt skull, and the purity seal medallions; Delta Ceramcoat Bridge Gray on the belt, the joint connection bits, and the pneumatic chords on the power fist; and Delta Ceramcoat's Christmas Green on the tiny electrical wires scattered throughout the power armor and eye lenses of the helmet. As usual, all of the paints were thinned with Flow Aid until the consistency of skim milk. This first layer of detail work took about 10 minutes, after which I placed the model aside for about 5-10 minutes in order for the paint to dry.

The detail work is actually my favorite part of painting models. Oftentimes, the basecoat is already prescribed for you - an Ultramarine will have a blue basecoat, a Blood Raven a red basecoat, a Cadian Guardsman a green and khaki basecoat, etc. It's the fiddly bits, however, where one's creativity is challenged. You get to decide, for instance, what color you want to make the wires or the purity seals or the lasgun casing or whatever. Now, you can't just willy-nilly apply a rainbow's worth of colors to the details because that'll just result in a cluttered, motley appearance to the model (which doesn't usually work unless you're painting up Eldar Harlequins, I guess). Rather, your color scheme has to not only reflect your own personal creativity, but also honor reality to a reasonable extent.

The picture on the right is of the model after 3 layers of thinned paint on the detail bits. Practically done - total painting time about 1 hour if you count the intervals waiting for the paint to dry. The basecoating of the detail bits usually takes less coats and time because of how little surface space is involved. You want to be sure, though, that your paint is thinned down even more when you basecoat because of how easy it is for the paint to creep into the really fine detailed and textured areas and clog up the works, leaving you with a shapeless mess.

As an aside - I use a Size 1 Round paint brush for both the basecoating of the large areas of the model and the detailed areas. The only times I switch to a larger or smaller brush are if I'm priming (whereby I will use a Size 4 Flat brush) or if I'm painting tiny, tiny areas like eyes and jewelry (whereby I'll use a Size 00 Round). I've yet to invest in a truly great brush (like a Kolinsky Sable) because a) I just don't think my skills are at that level yet (which is also why I'm still working with craft paints) and b) I'm terrible when it comes to keeping my brushes clean. I mean, I'll swirl my brush in the water glass after every 2 or 3 dips of the brush head into paint, but after I'm done for the night, I very rarely thoroughly clean my brushes. So until I become more conscientious about that, it's $4.99 cheap brushes for me.

At this point, the model is practically ready for shading via Citadel washes. I still have a couple of decisions to make though. For instance, what color do I want the knee pads to be? (I'm leaning towards just painting them Opaque Red, but a part of me wants to do them in Old Parchment like the helmet and shoulder pads.) Also, the Antique Gold studs on the Heresy-Era shoulder pad seem to blend too much into the Old Parchment - I think I'll actually paint the studs Black. Finally, what else do I want to add to this figure? I've got 2 tabard pieces ready to be primed and glued on, the right arm with the Sternguard bolter, the backpack, a banner possibly, and maybe the Dark Angels helmet wings. I'll leave those decisions for Part V.

Leia Mais…

40 - Blood Ravens Sternguard Tutorial Part III

Rather than devote an entire post to basing (especially since at this point, all I've done is apply some watered down glue to the base and dip the model into decorative sand), I will move on to the actual painting of the model.

The photo on the left is of the model primed in Black. You'll notice that I've gone ahead and attached the power fist and the Heresy Era studded shoulder pad. I've left the left arm, the Sternguard bolter, and the backpack off (as well as any fiddly bits I might decide to add later) because I felt they'd get in the way of the painting. For this model, I brushed on the primer. My preference is always to brush on primer rather than use the spray can because I feel it gives me more control over where the primer goes. Now, if I have 4 or 5 or 6 or more assembled models that need to get primed, then I'll use the spray can on them, but mostly out of laziness. Overall, I'm just not a big fan of spray on primer or varnish. I've had too many bad experiences with them even in the short 7 months I've been at this hobby.

The Black primer I used was thinned down using one drop of Liquitex Matte Medium. The reason for using matte medium is twofold: 1) never apply acrylic paint directly onto your models because the paint will go on too thickly and blot out the subtle textures/ details; and 2) I've had no luck thinning paint down with water - the paint just loses its consistency and adhesion too much for my taste when I use water.

After priming the model and waiting for the paint to dry, I went to work on the basecoat. The paints I used, unfortunately, are craft paints of the Folk Art, Americana, Delta Ceramcoat variety, so I'm not going to be able to give you a "counts-as" comparison to any of the specialty model paints like GW, Reaper, or Vallejo. I'll use the exact names of the craft paints though just in case. Also, I afix the model's base to the top of a Delta Ceramcoat 2 ounce acrylic paint squeeze bottle with some Elmer's poster tack in order to avoid touching the freshly painted model with my fingers as I spin and rotate it whichever way during painting.

The first basecoat I applied was Delta Ceramcoat's Opaque Red on the power armor portions of the model. I thinned the acrylic paint down with one drop of Liquitex Flow Aid, so that the consistency of the paint (and I'm sure you've all heard this before) was like skim milk. Again, I prefer Flow Aid over water because of two reasons: 1) it reduces the surface tension of the paint and thus gives me more control over where it goes (watered down paint has a tendency of running itself all over the model); and 2) it reduces, to an extraordinary degree, brush marks on the model. The image on the right shows what the model looked like after 1 coat of thinned down Opaque Red.

One of the most important virtues I've learned since picking up this hobby 7 months ago is patience. In the beginning, I'd try to get the basecoat on as quickly as possible. As a result, I'd do myself more harm by not only painting wet paint on top of wet paint (which is akin to trying to dig a hole in soft sand), but I'd also glop on too much paint because I was so eager to get opacity on the basecoat. These days, I take my time. This first basecoat was done in 15 minutes, but I don't apply another coat until the first one is fully dried. Usually, it just takes a 5-10 minute wait for the paint to dry, so in the meantime, I'll work on anther model or read or watch TV or surf the net or something.

The picture on the left shows the model after 2 more layers of Opaque Red (for a total of 3 layers). Not quite done yet, but almost there. Red is a notoriously difficult color to achieve opacity, so it doesn't come as surprise to me that it might take 4 or 5 thin layers to get the proper coverage for the basecoat. With another color - say Blue (if I were doing an Ultramarine) - I'm pretty certain I'd be done with the basecoating at this point. But since I chose the Blood Ravens...

You'll notice that I've kept the non-basecoated parts of the model fairly neat and clean. What I'll do after, say, basecoating the legs is immediately go back over the knee pads or the belt or the purity seals with a damp brush and take off the inadvertent paint smudges. I find that this serves two purposes for me: 1) it trains my brush strokes to be as neat as possible; and 2) it introduces me to the very helpful skill of "erasing" paint with a damp brush. This second reason has really served me well as I've progressed in this hobby. Before, when I tried to get rid of stray paint, I'd end up destroying whole swathes of nicely painted surfaces. Now, I'm much more surgical with this ability.

The picture on the right shows the model after 4 1/2 layers of basecoated Opaque Red. The power armor's pretty much done at this point. Overall time: about 1 1/2 hours (15 minutes per layer plus roughly 5-10 minutes wait in between layers for the paint to dry). I'll start the detail bits next, which I'll save for Part IV.

Click here for more pics of the model in progress.

Leia Mais…

39 - Blood Ravens Sternguard Tutorial Part II

I am now going to turn to the conversion of the standard Tactical Marine bolter into the Sternguard bolter. Let me first direct you, though, to WeeMen's post on converting the Sternguard bolter here, as it was a big reason why I even thought this particular conversion was possible.

The picture on the left shows, from left to right, a Rhino storm bolter, a scope from a Tactical Marines sprue, and a standard Marine bolter. The plan is to remove the box magazine from the storm bolter and graft it onto the standard Marine bolter in such a way as to mimic the appearance of the bolters on GW's Sternguard metal models. Now, this should be a very simple conversion - 2 small bits removed, one bit tossed away, and the second bit glued onto the Tactical bolter. The only tricky part is how small these bits are. One bad, hasty cut with the hobby knife, and some piece of important gray plastic is going to get ruined.

So, first, I go to work on the storm bolter. I suggest you place the storm bolter flat on a cutting surface and cut down with your hobby knife initially where the box magazine meets the barrel. Cut all the way through with slow, steady cuts. Very likely, all you will need are 2 or 3 of these cuts with pressure downward being applied with each cut. Then work on the side of the box magazine touching the rear of the storm bolter. When both side cuts are all the way through to the other side, you can then cut horizontally, along the top of the box magazine. This cut should also be done slow and steady and is, in fact, the most difficult one to execute because of the awkward angle. However, this cut doesn't need to be done all the way through because a half-way cut on both sides of the storm bolter (i.e., as if you were scoring foamboard) should be deep enough where you can then pry the box magazine loose with a plier or just with some elbow grease. The finished result should look like the image to the right.

Now, before doing any clean-up on the detached box magazine, you should proceed to converting the Tactical bolter. This is because you don't want to file down the box magazine too much until you can gauge what sort of fit is going to be required when you graft it onto the Tactical bolter.

For the Tactical bolter, you're basically going to do the same thing - i.e., remove the magazine so that all that is left is the bolter. You can also remove the pistol grip because when you glue the converted bolter onto the Space Marine right arm, you're going to have to remove the grip anyway. The cutting you will do on the Tactical bolter is going to have to be even more careful and measured than the storm bolter operation. This is because we didn't really care how badly we damaged the storm bolter while we do care if the Tactical bolter gets marked up, for obvious reasons. After cutting the magazine from the Tactical bolter, you can now go ahead and file down the gap in the bolter so that it creates a smooth, even space for the box magazine to slide into. See the picture on the left. (Note: even though the pistol grip is present in the picture, I removed it shortly after taking the picture because it was already hanging on by a, er, thread of soft, gray plastic, or something.)

Okay, and now for the final step (a two-parter) - we must glue the box magazine removed from the storm bolter onto the space left on the Tactical bolter from its removed magazine. First, dry fit the box magazine to see how much you need to file on both the box magazine and the Tactical bolter in order to get a even, flush fit. You want to line up the box magazine so that it sticks out the right side of the bolter. So, in other words, line up the bolter along the left hand side of the box magazine. Once you've smoothed out any rough, uneven edges, apply a little bit of glue on the Tactical bolter and then press the box magazine down into the gap. Hold the box magazine in place while slowly, carefully sliding it into place so that it is straight and not on a tilt. When you are satisfied with the placement of the box magazine, hold it the glue sets a bit, then lay it aside to dry. After the glue has dried, you'll want to finally attach the scope to the top of the bolter. If you look closely at the bolter, you'll notice an upraised piece near the rear. This is where you want to glue the scope. Now, make sure you file the scope down so that it fits smoothly along this small, upraised piece, then glue down and hold. After a minute or so, you should have the finished product pictured on the right.

Part III of the tutorial will be a short one involving basing and priming the model. And then with Part IV, we'll jump right into the painting!

Leia Mais…

38 - Blood Ravens Sternguard Tutorial Part I

Welcome to the first of hopefully many tutorials on my blog! By popular vote (big thanks to everyone who voted!), the first set of tutorials will detail how I approach - from conception to assembly to painting to basing - a Blood Ravens Sternguard Veteran. Now, seeing as this is my first attempt at putting together a tutorial, please feel free to include suggestions in the comments. My goal in doing tutorials is to help people in some aspect of the hobby in the same way I was helped by tutorials when I first started out. So, if my tutorials are hard to understand, lacking in detail, just plain unhelpful, tell me so and, with your suggestions, I'll try to make them better in the future.

Quick note: because I won't be using green stuff (I think) in this Blood Ravens Sternguard conversion, I'm left with merely trying to piece together a model from the existing bits I own. I hope the conversion will still turn out fairly characterful and different from the standard Marine. Maybe in the future, when I'm more confident with my greenstuffing abilities, I'll attempt a more radical conversion of a model using green stuff.

Research

Before I ever put paint brush to miniature, I always invest a little bit of time into researching the look, feel, and fluff behind the model. The time spent researching obviously varies depending on whether or not I've painted a particular type of mini before, whether the mini is of an elite/ special type as compared to a rank and file type, and whether I plan on converting the figure very much beyond its original form.

The image on the upper left - courtesy of Games Workshop - is of their Sternguard Veteran Squad set. Pretty cool looking bunch, and I'll be using them extensively as source material for this tutorial on how to conceive, assemble, paint, and base a converted Blood Ravens Sternguard Veteran. I've also found a few other images of converted Sternguard scattered around the web which I've found pretty inspiring (here, here, and here). The first link to Weemen has been particularly helpful, especially his tutorial on how to convert standard pattern Space Marine bolters into specialized Sternguard bolters. The Sternguard conversions for the second link begin after the Honour Guard conversions, and I must admit, those Sternguard WIPs are absolutely stunning and pretty much blow anything I will show in this tutorial out of the water. Check them out; they're awesome.

Gathering the Bits Together

After doing the research, I began sorting through my bits boxes and relevant kits to find the parts to make the Blood Ravens Sternguard. Based off of the images I linked to above, I knew that my two biggest challenges in regards to this conversion would be: a) making the miniature grand and eminent enough compared to the standard Tactical Space Marine without making it look like an overburdened Christmas Tree, and b) converting its Sternguard bolter.

With those two thoughts in the back of my head, this is what I ended up with, parts-wise (see image on the right). The torso, leg, and shoulder pads bits come from the Command Squad sprue; the backpack, bolter, scope, and right arm come from a standard Tactical Squad sprue; the power fist and tabards come from a Sergeant upgrade sprue; the helmet wings and Mk. 6 beakie helmet from a Dark Angels sprue (I will file off the dagger design on the beakie helmet as best I can in order to better fit this model into the Blood Ravens image, but I'll keep the wings which radiate out from the dagger and along the sides of the helmet because the Blood Ravens do incorporate wing icons/ symbols into their chapter design); the small shield on the bottom right comes from a Terminator sprue; and the storm bolter comes from a Rhino kit.

My plan is to convert the standard pattern bolter into a Sternguard bolter by combining it with the storm bolter from the Rhino and the scope from the Tactical Squad sprue. I'm still undecided whether or not to use the helmet wings - seeing as he's a Blood Ravens Veteran, I think the wings will fit, fluff-wise. We'll see.

You'll also notice that the gathered pieces still need a lot of cleaning up of the mold lines and excessive flash. I won't bore you with the details of that step of the tutorial - suffice it to say, it's my least favorite part of this whole endeavor, as I've probably written about already. I do have one small bit of insight regarding the use of the file in cleaning up models: I've noticed on many YouTube tutorial videos that people tend to scrape their file across the mold lines in a saw-like, back and forth motion. In my experience, moving the file in one consistent direction (say forwards only) tends to result in more consistent and cleaner mold removal. I think this is because files are designed with the rough edges only going in one direction, but I could be wrong. I personally think the longer one is involved in this hobby, the more quirky beliefs one develops - even if those quirky beliefs have no basis in fact. Which is perfectly fine, of course. I'm firmly in the camp that believes this hobby of ours is a legitimate artform, and as in every artform, eccentric and personalized methods oftentimes work just as well as the "standard" methods, if only because they allow the creator to work within a comfort zone.

Assembling the Model

After cleaning as much of the mold lines and flash as I could possibly bear, I began assembling the model. I always assemble my models in the same order - 1) put the torso bits together, 2) glue torso to legs, 3) glue head to torso, 4) glue model to base. I put off gluing the arms (for the most part) and backpack to the model because I don't want them getting in the way when I'm painting the chestplate or the back of the model. In order to figure out for sure whether a particular piece of the model will obstruct painting, I'll use putty to dry-fit the extremities of the model together (see left). Well, looks like the bolter arm will for sure get in the way, so I'll leave it off until after I've painted most of the model. I might glue the power fist on because it looks like it's in the clear though. Also, eeew, looks like I missed cleaning up some of the mold lines on the arms and the helmet. Argh, back to the salt mines then with my tools of ignorance - the ever reliable hobby knife and file.

As this post is already getting a bit long, I will save the conversion of the humble Tactical bolter into a Sternguard bolter for part II.

Leia Mais…

26 - Imperial Guard Veterans Squad w/ Heavy Flamer Operator

Well, it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. Sorry for that, but recently my wife and I went on a "Lost" marathon, watching 4 seasons in about 10 days. Pretty crazy, but kind of worth it, I guess. Seasons 2 and 3 were fantastic, but the show started to slip a bit in season 4, and season 5 was just very disappointing. Hopefully the 6th and final season will wrap things up satisfactorily (unlike BSG's last season - yeesh, what a travesty considering how great the overall series was).

Okay, so what I've got here is the 8th member of my Veterans Squad - Specialist Chule, heavy flamer operator. I had a lot of trouble with his figure. First, the arms that came with the heavy flamer didn't fit properly on a standard Cadian shock trooper torso. I'm guessing it must be designed specifically for a Command sprue torso. So, I had to substitute a left arm from the shock trooper sprue (the one with the hand holding the handle for the flamer), cut off the hand, and then use putty epoxy to fill gaps in the left shoulder and the left wrist. Then, I discovered that the fuel tube was not long enough to connect to the fuel tank. In order to remedy this problem, first I tried to use more putty epoxy, but the angle was so awkward and the putty so difficult to work with that I gave up. For a couple of days, I figured I'd just leave the gap and not worry to much about it, but the perfectionist in me could not abide the flaw. Thus, I improvised and glued a bit (the coiled rope thingie painted Antique Gold) from somewhere (I can't remember right now) to cover up the gap in the tube. As for the rest of the miniature - it has a Pig Iron Productions gas-mask head, a skull on a chain bit from a Flagellant sprue, and a purity seal from some Space Marine sprue. Very minor conversions compared to what I've done on my other vets, but I'm just glad they're almost done.

Paintjob wise, Specialist Chule ain't all that great. There's some very noticeable sloppy painting here and there, but overall, he's acceptable, I think. My plan is to finish up 3 more Standard Guardsmen for my Third Infantry Squad, and then move on to painting the Heavy Weapons Teams for both the vet and the infantry squads. To the right is the partially assembled Lascannon Team for my vet squad. My infantry squad will be joined by a Heavy Bolter Team. I'm very pleased with the heavy weapons kit - it's almost like a mini-diorama! Hopefully, this change of pace will rekindle my interest in completing some more of my Imperial Guard army.

As usual, click here for more pics.

Leia Mais…

12 - Imperial Guard Veterans Squad WIP

Here are four WIP (Works in Progress) Hardened Veterans that I'll be getting to soon. The image on the left is the first of the four. Let's call him Specialist Slagan. He's armed with a shotgun converted from a Space Marine Scout sprue. I had to, first, cut the shotgun off the Scout arm at the hand, then cut and file down the left hand which was gripping the shotgun at the barrel. After that, I just glued it onto an Imperial Guard arm from the Shock Troop box set. Turned out pretty well, I think, pretty seamless. The head with gas mask of Specialist Slagan is from a set of Pig Iron Productions bits I purchased on-line. The helmet on the Pig Iron head isn't an exact match for the Cadian pattern helmet, but it's close enough, especially when one takes into account the fluff of the Hardened Vets. In his left hand, I glued a Space Marine meltabomb, I believe it is, and will be counting it as a demolition charge. He is wearing a backpack from the Catachan Heavy Weapons sprue and a dagger from the Vampire Counts Grave Guard sprue.

Next, we have Sergeant Greyloch. At the moment, he has 3 different conversions, but I'll soon be adding a 4th major conversion piece which will fully bring him to life. The 3 visible conversions at the moment are a right arm from the Cadian Heavy Weapons sprue, a ribbon on his right shoulder pad from, if I remember correctly, a Space Marine sprue, and a Catachan head. The 4th conversion (which I've already done a dry test run on to make sure it fits) is a cloak from a High Elf sprue. The cloak will flow dramatically off his collar, giving the illusion of movement and dynamic action, I hope. Aside from cloak, Sergeant Greyloch will be getting a handful of fiddly bits in the form of pouches and most likely a holstered laspistol to round him out.

WIP number 3 is Corporal Ruddard. He's going to be a standard bearer. Due to the nature of how his feet are positioned, I couldn't get him to stand up on his own, so I leaned him up against a book. (It occurred to me later that I could have temporarily stuck him onto a base with some ticky-tack or something, but alas.) Ruddard's right arm wielding a plasma pistol comes from a Space Marine. Although the scale of the arm is slightly off compared to other Cadian arms, it helps that GW's (Games Workshop) models are all slightly exaggerated anyway, so the effect isn't too off-putting, I don't think. His head is a Catachan one, like Sergeant Greyloch's, and so is his canteen and sheathed machete. The feather dangling from the scabbard of his machete comes from a High Elf sprue. Glued to Ruddard's back is a pouch bit from a Warhammer Fantasy Dwarf Miner sprue. As for the standard which is left hand is supposed to be raising, I experimented with a banner and arm from the Dark Elf Warrior sprue, but the arm turned out to be way too puny. It almost looked like a shriveled up twig compared to the rest of Ruddard's body. But, it fit and it was one of the few left arm/ banner bits I had (the others are all right hand/ banner bits). Still, I'm going to keep searching for a more in-scale solution to the left arm/ banner problem, but I am willing to consider experimenting with green stuff on the Dark Elf arm if my search for the right bit comes up short.

The fourth soon to be member of my Hardened Veterans squad is Specialist Condan - the Special Weapon trooper. He's currently armed with a standard Cadian grenade launcher, but if I can get my hands on a Cadian Special Weapons bit, then I'll definitely swap it out for either a plasma gun or a meltagun. Condan's probably the least converted out of these 4 - his head is from a Bretonnian Men-at-Arms sprue, I think, while his backpack and backpouch are from the Dwarf Miner sprue and a Space Marine sprue respectively.

Well, I hope you enjoy a look at some WIP. I think I'll start doing more of these kinds of posts. Part of the pleasure, for me, about this hobby is all of the various ways you can let your imagination run wild when putting these little guys together. Converting is oftentimes even more fun than painting (while cleaning flash and mold lines is the least fun).

Oh, and by the way, the first two Hardened Veterans I posted are called Corporal Marsham (he's the dude with the 5 o'clock shadow) and Specialist Blacker (he's the dude with the claw). As for the squad nickname, I'm still working on it. Strangely enough, it's harder than I thought.

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