Op Sternguard rescue, part 2

Finally done with the cleaning phase. It took some tedious scraping with a fine needle to get all the brown goop out of the armor recesses. I discovered some blue primer in the very bottom of the layers, interesting! Anyways, the next step is basing after the greenstuff and superglue has completely set. I will leave some of the arms off as you see in the picture, to be able to paint the chests properly. Two arm fittings are the worst, but I will help it along by doing some greenstuff pre-fitting at this stage. That will make it so much easier to just pop the arms in place after the parts have been painted.

Operation Sternguard rescue

It's time again. I know I know, I promised myself not to buy any more second hand models on eBay. It's just not worth it with all the cleaning and the horrible horrible epoxy glue and ruined bits. But this had to be an exception. Since GW rolled out new models for the Sternguard Veterans, I knew I wanted a set of the old ones before they become hopelessly hard to get hold of. And I knew I wanted the metal ones, so there was at least a shimmer of hope of getting them clean. After only a couple of days of browsing the Swedish version of eBay, Tradera, I found these beauties for the bargain price of $14 plus shipping.

Mmmm that's a gorgeous paint job right there. I have to admire the brush control here. How in the name of Jebus himself did this guy manage to get such a thick coat of paint on so neatly? I also like the ambitions. "Three colours to play in the tournament? Ok, you got it! Blue-black-red-DONE."

Nevermind though, I'm sure he (or she) is very nice IRL. And I love Crimson Fists, I wish I had done my army in their theme. Now, on to my project. Time to see what these suckers have under their coat(s) of paint.

Emperor, I am melting!

After the first dunk in the acetone free nail polish remover (thank you, darling!) he is looking very surprised and a bit soggy. The top coat basically falls off, and the black plastic in the slotta base melts and gets stuck to the skin of my fingers. A hot tip is to break off all plastic parts if you can.

You used WHAT as a primer?

This is after a good scrubbing with an old toothbrush. That brown stuff is really awful and just won't come off. It's not regular primer because it sits quite thick in places. Two or three dunks in the bath of horror later, and they look like this:

Almost there now.

Good thing that these guys use regular space marine backpacks, because the original ones are ruined...

Stay tuned for part two - reassembly and priming!

Tau Cadre Fireblade

A model I actually bought just because wanted to paint it. I don't even own the Tau codex (yet). I'm glad I did though, the new plastic single characters from GW are really fantastic quality and makes me feel even more hesitant when it comes to Finecast.

Tidy base rims

If you are like me then your base rims look quite messy after painting the base. Drybrushing, spilling etc leaves a lot of paint marks. I had problems getting the right shine when painting the rim black - it didn't look like a factory fresh plastic base. Then I found an old paint pot I had discarded because of its strange shine: Undercoat Black. And it works perfectly!

Paint bottles, part 2

I have been very happy with the switch to bottles, but some of them have pretty bad clogging. So I did what I always do - browsed eBay! These nail polish mixing balls are a top tip for solving that little issue. Just make sure they are smaller than the diameter of the bottlenecks.

The Redchapel gang, extended

So I promised one of our readers to do a post with my entire Malifaux crew as soon as I was done with the last one. That took a whole lot more time than expected, but that is life when there is a new baby in the house. Here they are, in no particular order, bathing in the evening sunlight!

Seamus, avatar of dread

Seamus the mad hatter

Madame Sybelle

Rotten belle #1

Copycat killer

The hanged #1

Rotten belle #2

The hanged #2

Rotten belle #3

Grave spirit

The whole gang assembled!

The Dreamer and Friends

Hi

I'm a new contributor to this blog, and it feels really nice to be able to post my finished The Dreamer crew as a first entry.

I hope you like it!

The Dreamer and his nightmares

How to: dropper bottles

This might strike you as a somewhat obvious tutorial, but maybe I can inspire you to get it done even if you have thought of it yourself. Buy bottles off eBay. I bought these, because they take slightly more paint than a standard GW pot (so I can put one full and one half empty in the same bottle). Also, the diameter of this bottle fits my paint rack.

Water down and stir your paint thoroughly. Use clean water and make sure you stir up the often dried up paint in the bottom of the pot.

Pour paint into bottle carefully. Use a funnel if you have one small enough. But with a steady hand you can avoid having to clean a funnel, it is not very hard to pour since it is thick and slow.

Clean up any paint that got on the sides of the bottle and put on the dropper top and cap, then remove the label from the old pot. This should be very easy, it just comes right off. Don't touch the sticky part if you can avoid it.

Fasten the label on the bottle as high up as you can, so it is not obscured when sitting in a paint rack.

Profit!

A new format

Dear readers,

You may or may not have noticed a small but very significant change in the title. To make this blog more interesting, more active and with even higher quality content, it will from now on be written jointly by several dads. A very warm welcome to Stefan and Joakim - I know they can beat me at painting but I think I can beat them in other areas. ;-)

The focus will be even more narrow now with almost exclusively painting and hobby oriented content. We hope this will make the blog more useful to you.

Watch this space for tutorials in the future!

- Andreas

PS. All of Stefan's content has been merged into this blog, so be sure to browse the archive and tags!

The crew, assembled

Let me introduce you to Seamus the Mad Hatter and his gang of undead ladies of the night. I finally finished the Grave Spirit totem (in front), completing a kind of sucky but playable crew. I promised myself not to buy any new models until I finished these ones, so now I am off to the shops! ;-)

Anyways, hope you like them. Criticism and suggestions is as always welcome in the comments.

Essentials

I just have to tell you about a couple of products I have grown to love over the last few months. They are by no means obligatory for successful miniature painting, but they sure do make life a whole lot easier.

From left to right:

• Tamiya Clear Red (X-27). This is a glossy acrylic paint that flows very nicely from the brush and looks just like fresh blood when it dries. Perfect for splattering on a sword or dripping from a wound!
• Citadel Lahman Medium. Mix in a drop of any acrylic colour in this stuff and you get a glaze of that colour. Extremely handy for when your washes doesn't quite match up with the basecoat and layers you are working on.
• Vallejo Matt Varnish. Wow. Take a big brush and paint this over your mini once it's done, and you have a piece that will not chip or wear down when gaming and transporting it.
• Vallejo Surface Primer. Get rid of your expensive primer spray cans! Well, if you don't own an airbrush, keep them. But this stuff is really good since it can be painted on with a brush. I'm guessing here but I think you use 1/10th of the primer compared to spraying with spray cans. Also, it does not leave streaks on the model when painted on.
• Vallejo Gloss Varnish. Simply perfect anytime you want a wet look. Gore, slime, water, wet mud, etc. Also protects the paint underneath really well of course.

State of painting

So what's up, you say? Well I'll tell you!

The Malifaux project is churning along nicely and I now have three models painted from my crew of seven. More on that further down. In the hobby gear department I purchased a paint rack from the good polish people at HobbyZone. Great quality and construction, at a reasonable price. I could almost fit all my paints in it... so here is my current painting setup:

The big thing about this setup is that I can take it out, paint, and then stow the whole thing away. I am blessed with a very understanding and patient wife, but still, the place has to look nice.

Below is my Copycat Killer totem, a fun little fellow who is quite high up in my want-to-paint queue at the moment.

And next to him you can see another new purchase - grey primer in a bottle. This stuff can either be airbrushed on or painted on with a brush. I did the latter on the Copycat Killer, and I think the results are stunning. The paint goes in everywhere and does not leave any streaks that I could see. So if I'm just going to prime one little model, I will not waste spray can primer on it anymore. Love it!

The next pic is my current WIP gang, excluding the Copycat Killer. The Big Mek is also something I really look forward to painting, but I promised myself to finish the boyz before painting another ork unit. So he will have to wait. I took a break from the orks and now I am actually starting to feel quite inspired to paint them. That's a good thing!

Madame Sybelle was in the WIP shot above, but by the time I started writing text to these pictures I had actually finished her. So here is a group shot of the painted half of the Redchapel gang. I have stopped using spray varnish to protect minis since it usually leaves a nasty frosting. These are instead varnished with vallejo matte varnish on dropper bottle, a product I can't believe I could work without. It dries totally clear and matte, without disturbing the colours at all.

Seamus is in the house!

So I finished my first Malifaux model. Here he is! Now I'm moving on to the rest of his crew.

The Mad Hatter

Getting sidetracked is to me not a negative thing, at least when it comes to my free time. It is me, it's what I do and it's how I stay creative and learn new things.

I recently had my first test game of Malifaux with a friend and I must say I am intrigued. Its high accessibility combined with depth of strategy and relatively quick playtime is very appealing to me.

Here is my crew, the Redchapel gang. Feels like a good start to get an understanding and at the same time with pleasing aesthetics which will make painting them a joy.

Assembling them on the other hand was not very joyful. These little metal guys require some quite intricate pinning. My hands were sore and full of glue a couple of hours afterwards, but that was an ok price to pay!

So far I have purchased the following:

• Redchapel starter box
• Zuzzy game mat 3'x3'
• Two totems for Seamus
• The fancy bases the gang is mounted on
• Two fate decks
• The 1.5 core rulebook
• A couple of terrain pieces from Sarissa

All of which will be very easy to sell, should I not like this endeavour into the Breach. However, I already have a positive vibe. Let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Pants on head crazy

At last, some more progress! All pants basecoated. I have been away over the weekend and have had little to no time for painting. On the upside, I am super motivated to get my boyz done. Also, I ordered a Big Mek with KFF. That should be super fun to paint. But not before this lot is done. :)

Ork skin done

Finally the skin is finished. Five layers in total, and I think it is good enough. The skin is very important for the overall look o the orks, and if I put some extra energy on that I think the army will really pop on the table.

As the "army" stands now, it is 358 points strong. I will not rush an expansion yet, instead I will try to coerce my friends into playing low point games with me. But Lootas are high on my todo list. :)

Ork boyz, part 3

Layers 3 and 4 done. Some kind of definition is starting to show. Only two layers left on the skin, and each layer goes a lot faster than the last. When I get the metal and yellow areas basecoated these guys will start to look playable. Can't wait!

5 shades of green

Tonight I amused myself with timing each Ork as I laid down the second layer of green. It takes consistently around 2 minutes per Ork and layer. Think I have to cut down on quality... :)

Got to be startin' somethin'

So my AoBR warboss is painted and done. I followed the 'Eavy Metal masterclass pdf that details the painting of that very model, albeit with a bit more conversions going on. Turns out I loved the new techniques I learnt so much that I feel I should put them to use.

So here goes nothing. Batch one is 22 boyz, with 4 more incoming as soon as an eBay purchase for 4 pairs of legs arrive (the boxes have bits for them but no legs). Not much to see yet, just the skin basecoat laid down. Working on 22 detailed models at once is a daunting task. Enjoy!

Contemptor done

Finally! I actually learnt some new techniques on this one, plus it was super fun to build. I also really hate my gold paints, I have to I get me some of those new GW pots. Anyhoo, here it is. Hope you like it.

Here's an imgur album with more angles:

OOP is the new black

One oldschool powerfist sergeant I bought on the cheap on the Internet. Good stuff. Painted in one evening.

Greenskinstuffing

Using the Citadel sculpting tool and some water I was able to get this AoBR warboss arm in a much more gangsta-like pose. Happy with the results! Now to let it cure over night...

PS. Why do I sculpt on an Ork? They are my secret passion... ;)

All her children

So the basecoats are done on the regular termagaunts. I'll sleep some on the highlighting; right now I'm thinking drybrushing is the way to go.

Tyranid speedpainting training

Back again on my good pal's nids. This time it's an effort to get lots of grey plastic up to tabletop level. A good chance for me to practice speed and "good enough".

The method is currently:
Prime white
Wash in sepia
Drybrush bone
Basecoat shields
Basecoat claws and hoofs
Highlight
Paint bases (maybe)

I'm down to about 8 minutes total per termagaunt at the moment, but those are probably the least detailed models...

Fun!

Army shot January 2013

Oh my, so much plastic. It's easy to see that by focusing on getting some stuff at least basecoated blue, the whole army would look a lot better.