Wargames @ farfaraway.org » Hobby Skills

Battlefield in a Box!

Owen — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:00:20 +0000

As a small Thank You for hosting me for the day in Orlando I decided months ago that I’d try to make Clay a small gift – a battlefield in a box. We used it during the Scourge Bringer campaign. The idea was pretty simple. I knew whatever I brought over to him would have to go in my luggage and I didn’t want it to be wrecked! So I picked out a plastic storage box and decided I’d fill it with pieces of handmade terrain.

I love making terrain. It’s pretty easy and few things look better than fully painted armies on a nice looking terrain. The materials I used in this project were all to hand – 6mm plastic (MDF would do fine too), foam, sand, mattress liner (cocnut hair composite!), paint and flock. I had a couple of spare Woodland Scenics trees and a couple of precast walls.

Here are some photos I took when making the pieces – they’re pretty self explanatory!

Owen

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Redesigning Deathjack – Complete

Owen — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:00:53 +0000

Wow! He’s turned out to be some kind of monster. I’m not sure how well I like the horns on the arms, but they certainly bulk out the miniature and enhance its stature. I have just undercoated him, so I’ll reserve judgement until I apply some paint. I much prefer painting to assembling, so I’m glad that stage is finished!

Owen

PS Here’s a picture of him undercoated -

Redesigning Deathjack – Part 1 I think Privateer Press have some of the best sculpts...
Redesigning Deathjack – Part 2 In my last post I showed a jumble of bits...
Redesigning Deathjack – Part 3 More progress. It seems to be coming together quite nicely....

Redesigning Deathjack – Part 3

Owen — Fri, 28 May 2010 08:00:11 +0000

More progress. It seems to be coming together quite nicely. It’s starting to look very insect like, but it is definitely Cryxian in origin. The only thing I’m concerned with finishing off is the top part of the chassis. I’m sure I’ll figure something out! Anyway, here’s a short video update.

Owen

Redesigning Deathjack – Part 2 In my last post I showed a jumble of bits...
Redesigning Deathjack – Part 1 I think Privateer Press have some of the best sculpts...
Redesigning Deathjack – Complete Wow! He’s turned out to be some kind of monster....

Redesigning Deathjack – Part 2

Owen — Mon, 24 May 2010 08:26:44 +0000

In my last post I showed a jumble of bits and a beaufitul piece of artwork. Yesterday I got started to turn that mess into something. Hopefully that something will look a little like the picture when it’s done! Anyway, here’s a video of progress so far.

Owen

Redesigning Deathjack – Part 3 More progress. It seems to be coming together quite nicely....
Redesigning Deathjack – Part 1 I think Privateer Press have some of the best sculpts...
Redesigning Deathjack – Complete Wow! He’s turned out to be some kind of monster....

Redesigning Deathjack – Part 1

Owen — Sat, 22 May 2010 21:28:35 +0000

I think Privateer Press have some of the best sculpts of any wargames company. Deathjack, however, is not one of them – I really don’t like the shoulder skulls or the horns on the head. Of course that’s just my opinion, but I dislike the model so much I’ve not bought it and subsequently never fielded it. I’ve had an old Slayer Helljack model sitting unassembled for a number of years and the idea struck me – why don’t I convert up my own Deathjack! So, that’s pretty easy to say, but what do I know about miniature design. Nothing to tell you the truth.

I decided to do a little Internet searching and I stumbled on this picture (click on the picture for *FSitz’s Deviant Art page) -

Wow! was my first reaction. I thought this beast looked more like a Deathjack, but how could I build such a thing. I raided my bits box and came back with these pieces -

I’m going to increase the miniatures height with the pieces in the middle and broaden the shoulders to make it more imposing. The oversized horns will either look comical or work. Until I start pinning and sticking pieces together it’s hard to know what it will look like. I’d like a more dynamic pose so I’m going to try to position the helljack so it looks like it is just about to leap from a pile of rocks -

I’ve no idea how it’ll turn out. Next step is to clean off all of the components and slowly begin assembling the different parts. This could end up looking like a pile of junk, but then I’ve done no worse than buying the official Deathjack!

Owen

Redesigning Deathjack – Part 2 In my last post I showed a jumble of bits...
Redesigning Deathjack – Part 3 More progress. It seems to be coming together quite nicely....
Redesigning Deathjack – Complete Wow! He’s turned out to be some kind of monster....

Undercoating Models using Gesso

Owen — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:11:28 +0000

Gesso? What’s that? It’s the stuff that painters often use to prepare a canvas before applying paints to it. It comes in a variety of different colours, well at least white, black and grey, and is itself a water soluble acrylic. So, why would you use this stuff and not a spray? One word – consistency.

I find that sprays are prone to inconsistency due to varying climatic conditions and potentially over-spraying. I do most of my spraying in my shed (workshop) which can get pretty cold and is a dampish place. In winter it is too cold to spray effectively most of the time, so rather than just putting up with grainy or misty spray I decided to look for an alternative. That’s when a friend recommended Gesso. There are several different brands, but Liquitex came recommended, so that’s what I picked up.

(The models above are shiny as they are still drying. Gesso dries matt.)

Using Gesso is not for the faint hearted. It’s a gloopy substance that looks like it should never be put near a finely sculpted miniature. I water it down slightly, but as it goes on it still seems to obscure their details horribly. Here’s where a little faith is needed. As it dries it clings tightly to the detail. It dries in a few hours, but 24 hours is the recommendation. All of the detail is crisp and sharp and I find the process to be more reliable than spraying. The coverage is anywhere you can get a brush and the finish is a tough undercoat that will easily take your paints.

Anyway – that’s a long winded post to say, “Try Gesso, it’s great!”.

Owen

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My Miniature Painting Setup

Owen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:53:11 +0000

People often find it hard to know where to begin when staring to paint miniatures. I’ve been painting for a long time now and while I’m no pro, I do have a pretty organised painting setup. First off, I keep everything for my current projects on a tray – this allows me to quickly clear my desk for when I need to work. It has the side benefit of keeping everything exactly as I left it. I own paints from several different ranges, but Citadel (Games Workshop), P3 (Privateer Press) and Vallejo are my main brands. They are all acrylics and mix well together. I also have a selection of inks, washes and dips. I don’t dip, I ‘splash on’, but either way it’s too messy to do at my desk, so the dips are kept in my shed. I have two Army Painter dips out there and I only use them on 15mm soldiers (so far).

I store my paints in an old make-up case that my wife kindly donated to my painting cause. It stores about sixty paints and some brushes – I try to only have the paints on my painting tray that I need for the current projects. Otherwise it gets too cluttered. Another minor organisational thing I do is to write the initials of each paints name on the lid of the paint, i.e. Shadow Grey is SG painted on the lid in that colour. It just makes it easy to find each paint when I’m looking for it. I mix my paints on the mess that is my palette (seen in the foreground) and I only use one water well, but I am careful to always wash it out and refill it after using metallics. I have loads of brushes from different manufacturers, but again I try to only have a few out so I don’t have too much choice!

Above the painting area I have an adjustable lamp with a 100W equivalent energy saving bulb. I usually have the main ceiling light on (another 100W bulb) as well. I’ve toyed with daylight bulbs, but miniatures are rarely seen in daylight as most tournaments and clubs are lit artificially so I paint in artificial light. The only other thing of note is the old paint pot with blue-tac on the top. I use this when I’m painting hero miniatures – it gives a little more control than holding their base!

With the computer in front of my I often have music or podcasts (Iron Agenda and Focus and Fury being staples) playing. Anyway – that’s my painting setup!

Owen

PS Pictured are the Swamp Gobbers, Khador Mortar Crew and Drakhun dismount ready to be based. The latter two are my final Khador miniatures before MkII. I am now fully painted! More on them later.

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Basic Basing

Owen — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:37:29 +0000

It’s 4am and I can’t sleep, so here’s a quick (and basic) guide to basing. It’s weird but quite often I see armies that are quite well painted, but haven’t been based. Basing a miniature is analogous to framing a picture. A simple, yet cohesive basing scheme in an army gives all of the miniatures a common theme. For my Khador (which I started about 5 years ago) I went for a very simple basing scheme -

I usually wait until the miniature is fully painted to base it. This is a personal preference, but it is a shortcut too as you’ll see in the next step. The first step is to cover the base in (slightly watered down) PVA glue and coat it in Builder’s Sand. General purpose Builder’s Sand is great as it has a mixture of textures, but is still quite small. Once coated, wipe off the excess sand from the edge of the base (I usually just use my finger or an old brush) and leave it to dry.

Here is where the shortcut comes in. I apply a very watery mix of Graveyard Earth (1:1) to the base. Because it is so watered down the texture and different colours of the sand still show through slightly providing natural highlighting. Once dry I often pick out 1-2 stones with a medium grey colour (say, Codex Grey) and coat the base rim in black to cover up any stray paint (usually caused by drybrushing).

Finally, I glue some static grass (flock) in place with PVA glue. While still wet I tap the base of the miniature over the flock container to release any loose grass. I try to only use a small amount as it is more important to provide visual relief than fully coat the base.

There you go – very basic, but effective. An easy addition to step 2 is to apply two simple drybrushes of Snakebite Leather and then Bleached Bone. As I said I’ve been using that same scheme on my Khador stuff for around 5 years, and because it is consistent it helps to unify the miniatures. For the Cryx I added some patchy snow, but again because of the common basis I can use mercenaries in either army without their bases standing out.

I went for something a little different on my Legion of Everblight, but that’s an article for another sleepless night!

Owen

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