More Grey Knights!

Hey there web readers, 

Just finished another pair of Grey Knight goodies.  This time we have a Stormraven and a Venerable Dreadnought.

Let me know what you think!

A wild Hypnos appears! (tutorial after the pic)

Hey Folks, 

No Outcasts, but I finished Hypnos today.  Mage Hunter Strike Force with Commander are up next!

So, people had asked how I do my glow effects, and I neglected to take photos while doing Hypnos here.  Here are my steps for a glow effect though, and this takes place after all the white and metals are painted / washed.

1.  Put a gloss coat of varnish on the mini.  I airbrush it on with 3 thin layers.
2.  Mix up an oil wash.  Here I use Windsor & Newton Winton Oil Colour 43 Viridian Hue.  The mix is made with a bit of oil paint and Mineral Spirits.  Look at the consistency of GW washes and try to match it to that.  It takes a few tries, but if you screw up, don't worry. You can fix it.
3.  Paint the oil wash into wherever you want the glow to be.  It's ok to be messy.
4.  Let it dry over night.  I use a blowdryer to speed it up.
5.  Take a cotton swab / Q-Tip and get the end wet with Mineral Spirits.  This will reactivate the oil paint we put on it for clean up.
6.  Use the cotton bud to clean up any areas that you didn't want the glow to be.
7.  Let dry again.  I use a blowdryer here to speed it up.
8.  Toss on a few thin coats of Matte or Satin varnish, to you liking.  I use weathering pigments after this step, so Matte varnish would be a bit better.

Thanks for reading,

Cody.

Weekend Goal - Outcasts starter

Hey Folks, 

New 30ish hour goal!  I am going to finish my Dark Age Outcasts starter by Monday!

Here's the Scuts all finished up.

Shadowsword Complete!

Hey Folks, 

Here's my first completed superheavy!  Andrew wanted it to look like it was requisitioned by his Grey Knights force with minimal weathering.  Enjoy!

German V2 Rocket Complete

Hey There, 

Here's a finished German V2 Rocket kit from the 1960's!  I aim to have the Stormlord/Shadowsword finished by Sunday, because there will be some pretty awesome hobby action occurring next week!  But more on that later...

2 new WIP commissions

Here's what I have been working on tonight. Pics from my iPhone.

German V-2 Rocket

Grey Knights themed Shadowsword / Stormlord

Weekly Goals

Hey There Web folks,

Here's the plan for this week:

For Andrew
1 Shadowsword / Stormlord - basecoated metal bitz (he wants it to look like a Grey knight vehicle)

For Mike
1 1960's WW2 Nazi rocket - finish building tonight

For me
The Dark Age outcasts - flesh has 3 layers on it.

Now, I will have 3 good hooby nights this week, as Operation: Tough Mudder prep begins with my first On-Ramp classes on Tuesday and Thursday.  Sure, they are only an hour long, but the way I see it is that if I am not vomiting at the end of it I am not doing it right.

Canis Wolfborn Complete

Hey Folks, 

Here's a shot of a Canis Wolfborn that I finished tonight.

And now I don't know what else I want to work on.  I built Hypnos yesterday, but want to wait for a Mage Hunter Commander before working on more Retribution...

Maybe I'll finish off my I.S.C....

Cody

Weekly Goal Complete!

Hey there, 

Finished off 6 Infinity mini's for Steve to use for demo games at Legiocon.  A bit less than I normally put into tabletop quality minis, but if strangers are going to be fondling them I won't be as hurt when they break this time.

Haqqislam

Yu Jing

And a little display tray for them:

I am starting a Canis Wolfborn for a comission tomorrow night, so I am holding off from pulling down any Malifaux to work on.

Side note; if you like anime and mini's check out CMON and Sodapop Miniatures Kickstarter campaign for Relic Knights.  Looks badass and I can't wait to see how high it can get.

Weekend Fun and Weekly Goals

Hey There Folks,

A lot of random building and good gaming happened this weekend.

Building!
On the building front I built, primed and basecoated Dark Age Outcasts.  Here's a quick WIP shot of them:
I also built all of the Relics Vaettir I got on Friday.  I disn't take any pics since they are just bare metal with textured paste on the bases.

Gaming!
I went two for two with Rhyas (2 Scythean, Throne, Max Swordsmen w/UA, Succubus and Shepherd) on Sunday against a Khador list (Harkevich, Conquest, Black Ivan, Destroyer and min Mechanics) and a Denny2 list (a bunch of pirates and small jacks).

Lost against Garth's Stormravens (I killed the rest of his army by Turn 4) with my Dark Eldar in Turn 7 playing Big Guns Never Tire.  I think that I am going to have to add more flyers to deal with the chance of facing them.  I am going to post potential list changes tomorrow.  I know that the FAQ's in September may change some elements like huskblades and the impending Voidraven release may change my mind too...

This Week I plan to:
Finish 4 haqqislam mini's for demo games at LegioCon
Finish a small display board for the above mini's and the opposing Yu Jing (there will be a tutorial on this as well.)

If these wrap up today, I'll move into Malifaux for some Dead Heat action this Sunday at Maxx Collectibles.

Tutorial: Painting Post-Apocalyptic Bases

Hey There Folks, 


Here's the second half of the basing tutorial from yesterday.


Here's what I used for painting these bases:


Vallejo Air Grey Primer
Vallejo Air US Dark Green
Vallejo Air Barley Grey
Vallejo Air Sand
Stone Wash
P3 Trollblood Highlight
P3 Gun Corps Brown
P3 Thamar Black
Secret Weapon Pigments: Red Brick


1. Airbrushing!
I just find that it saves time.  about 10 minutes overall for all 8 bases that I painted while doing this tutorial.  
I primed it grey, then gave it a solid coat of dark green, dusting areas with Barley Grey and Sand afterwards. 


I love the translucency of using an airbrush, as I wanted to see some of that green through it.

2.  Wash!
I gave it a liberal coat of Stone wash.  No pic because I did this step late last night!!!!


3. Drybrush!
Using a nice wide brush I went around the edges of the concrete with Trollblood Highlight.  Move the brush from the outside to the inner part of the tops of the concrete

4. Paint the Dirt!
I painted the dirt with Gun Corps Brown. You can be a little loose with the paint here, because we will transition the dirt / dust in the next step.

5. Pigments!
I brushed Red Brick on top of all the areas that were brown, blowing off the excess pigments.  A few brushstrokes on the top for blowing dirt and then you're set.

6.Black edges and Varnish!
I went around the edges of the bases with Thamar Black.
Always seal your minis!!!! But it's especially important when using oil paints and pigments.  Oil's never really dry, and pigments can be rubbed off.


Here's the finished set:

Weekly Goal Failed, Presents for Compensation!!!

Well, 


I bit off more than I could chew and didn't know how to tackle it.  I'm calling it a learning experience, focus on one unit instead of many.  I did finish the actual armour on both warrior units, but there's so much fiddly bitz they look very far from completion.


On a plus note both my Relics Indiegogo support pack and my Dark Age Outcasts arrived on Thursday, with some Vallejo textures too.  There's where the present comes into play.  Here's a quick tutorial on how I am doing my post-apocalyptic bases for my Dark Age minis.


Materials!
Cheap as all hell floor tile (28 cents / sheet from Home Depot)
Superglue
1:48 Bricks from Secret Weapon Miniatures
Your choice of putty (I am using miliput superfine white because it was on my desk)
Pebbles (don't be a creeper and take them from a playground as kids are in the sandbox)
Texture paint (Here I used Vallejo Red Oxide Paste, but paint and fine sand or any other brand could work too)


1. Here's your base!

Step 2


I broke the tile up and stacked it with enough room to glue a mini 

Step 3


I used the putty to fill in the bottom and cover the slot.  Don't make it flat, since this is going to represent overgrown earth.  Just make sure to keep the edges clean.  One the of the things I like about miliput is that it is a lot like clay, so water cleans up well.

Step 4
Glue random things into the putty.  I used superglue to make sure it doesn't move.  If you're trying this with GW products, here's the obligatory step to add moar skulls. 

Step 5
 I painted all off the visible putty and un puttied base with the textured paint. Some got on the bricks pebbles, but I just loaded a brush with water and cleaned it up.  Here I also scored, stabbed and filed the floor tiles to make them nice and worn.  I used a sharp knife blade and a triangular file that I found at Princess Auto.

I am going to photo the painting of these bases and do a similar tutorial on using pigments.  


I also have a Retribution glow tutorial in the pipeline.  I am just waiting for a jack to paint and photo along.


Hope you enjoyed this.  If there's anything else people would want to see post a comment!


Cody