Wargames @ farfaraway.org » Step-by-step

Making Beach-style Bases

owen — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:44:36 +0000

I’ve used lots of different ‘piratey’ bases (see here and here) for my Warmachine Privateer army, but a sandy beach was one I hadn’t attempted until I was working on the last unit of Thamarite Cultists. I could’t find any good tutorials on this, but I decided I’d give it a go.

Step 1: Since I was using Warmachine rounded-edge bases, I decided to fill the inside of the base with Milliput. For these kinds of modelled bases I always work with the model off the base. Before the Milliput dried I pressed the base into fine (but not too fine) sand.

Step 2: When this dried I used a watered dow PVA mix to liberally coat the base and again dipped it in the sand. I’m not too concerned about uniform coverage as walked on sand is rarely smooth.

Steps 3 and 4: Repeat Step 2.

Step 4: Attached the miniature to the base. As always time spent pinning them on now will save heartache later on.

Step 5: Undercoat the miniature. I decided to undercoat these guys black, which was better for the miniature, but would mean a few more steps in painting the base.

Step 6: Paint the miniature. This is easy and should only take a minute or two, right?!

Step 7: Paint the base. I tidied up any mess from the earlier painting using Chaos Black. Next I used two watery coats of Khemri Brown to get rid of most of the black. A watery coat of Iyanden Darksun (a deep yellow colour) was applied next. I then drybrushed the base with this yellow colour. Next I mixed it 50:50 with Bleached Bone and did a light drybrush. Finally there was one more pure Bleached Bone drybrush. Take some Chaos Black and tidy the edge of the base.

(I painted the base and then the miniature, but that was the wrong way around as then you need to be very tidy when working on shoes, etc.)

Step 8: Add Seaweed. I grabbed some moss from the back garden and left it to dry overnight. I mixed a very watery PVA mix and then dipped the ‘seaweed’ in it and added it to the base.

That sounds like lots of steps, but when your basing a whole unit there is very little hanging around as (certainly with the painting) once one step is completed on all of the miniatures you can go back to the first model and start the next step. Easy and effective.

Owen

Malifaux – Painting The Executioner (The Guild)

owen — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:57:33 +0000

Here’s a step-by-step video guide to painting the Executioner. I only had two hours to paint him, so I had to rush slightly. I think he’s turned out pretty well and will fit in with the aesthetic of the Lady Justice crew.

I have a 30 soul stone game on Tuesday, so I’m looking forward to seeing how this guy performs.

Owen

Making Wooden Pier Bases using Balsa

owen — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:59:26 +0000

Here’s another quick tutorial on making bases. This time I’m making a wooden pier base. This approach can be used to create bases that look like ship decks or tavern floors too. The materials are pretty straight forward too. You’ll need a base of the appropriate size, a small coin (preferably one with a smooth edge), a piece of 3mm balsa wood and some Super Glue. You’ll need a hobby knife too.

Make sure the base is cleaned of mold lines and venting, then start off by gluing the coin to the base. Use the hobby knife to cut a 1cm wide strip that is about 2.5/3cm long. If you cut along the grain the knife will go though it like butter. 3mm is a little thick for the wood, so take the blade and use it to slice the strip in half. This gives a rough finish and it perfect for the exposed wood. Make as many strips as you need to finish the base.

Glue the strips to the coin and cut a small piece of balsa to represent a spot for tying up boats. You could leave it there, but it might be worth coating the wood in heavily watered down PVA glue (1:1) to toughen it slightly. If you’re doing a ship deck you should cut the wood so that it looks like planks and fit them inside the raised edges of the base.

Owen

Sculpting your own bases with Green Stuff

owen — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:19:53 +0000

I’ve been working on my Privateers for about a month now and they are coming along nicely. Most of them are on custom resin bases that I bought with the miniatures. These bases represent wooden and stone piers, but I’ve run out and am waiting for a consignment of bases before I can start work on my next unit (the Press Gangers).

I’ve written a basic basing guide before, but this time I decided to attempt to sculpt a couple of simple stone pier bases. With these done I can get Lady Aiyana and Master Holt assembled and painted. Here’s a step-by-step guide of what I did.

Step 0: What You’ll Need

The base I’m planning to build is going to be quite simple. It will be based on a 30mm rounded edge base (the kind Privateer Press use for small-based miniatures). I’m going to use half of a Games Workshop 20mm base as the bulk of the pier. Green Stuff will be used to sculpt the stones and Super Glue to stick the components together. That’s all of the materials required. On the tools side I’m going to use a sculpting tool, but a tooth pick/cocktail stick would do fine. You’ll also need a sharp bladed hobby knife. I also have an old plastic blister to supply something with a flat surface. Other than that I have a glass with some water, a piece of tissue and a bit of rough edged balsa wood (to make impressions on the back of the base – I’ll get to that later).

Step 1: Building the Basic Structure

When performing and kind of sculpting you want to minimise the amount of Green Stuff you use. It should only really be used for the actual detail and if possible used something else to form the structure. This is where the 20mm base comes in. The slot in these bases is off-centre, so I’m going to cut of the large half using the hobby knife. I also clean any mold lines or sprue marks from the 30mm base. Once these components are ready I used the Super glue to stick the 20mm half base to the 30mm base, being careful to try to cover the slot in the 30mm base with it. Ok – that’s the basic structure built.

Step 2: Adding the Green Stuff
There are several different types of two-part modelling putty, but I’m using Green Stuff as it’s the one I’m most familiar with. To prepare the Green Stuff cut a section of about 1.5cm (1/2″) off the strip and remove the plastic. As the yellow and blue parts are in the strip side-by-side the bit in the middle usually cures (i.e. it’s a bit hard!). I use the hobby knife to remove this tiny middle bit. The first thing to know about working with Green Stuff is that it is sticky. Before working with it I wet my fingers with a small bit of water. Now blend the yellow and blue bits until it is green.

Again using your finger, spread it over the 20mm half base structure. If you wanted to leave it cure for 10-15 minutes it’d make the next step easier, but I didn’t and it turned out fine.

Step 3: Sculpting the Base
After step two the base will be covered in finger prints. Use the empty plastic blister to gently flatten and smooth the Green Stuff. Again – make sure the plastic is a little wet or it’ll stick to the Green Stuff and possibly pull it off the base. If the blister doesn’t quite smooth out everything us a flat part of the (wet) modelling tool to smooth the rest.

Now it’s time to sculpt the stones. Lesson one in any sculpting is to decide what you want to do before you put the tool to the putty. I wanted defined edging stones that were reasonably big. I wanted the vertical edge (i.e. the one that goes into the “water”) to have long stones, with the bottom ones looking like they were submerged. The stones on the top would be small.

That’s the basic base built and sculpted now. I used the rough balsa edge to imprint on the back side of the base. I guess this would represent the fine rubble foundation on which the stone pier is built, but I did it as sculpting stones all the way around the base would look weird!

Leave your base to cure for about 24 hours and you can then pin your miniature to it. Viola, not too hard at all. If you are feeling adventerous, you can also add more detail at this stage. You could sculpt a sack of grain or dip a piece of fine string in some watered down PVA and add it to look like rope.

I’ve also built a wooden pier base from balsa. I’ll write a short article on that soon.

Owen

Seeing Red – Painting Khadorans

owen — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:09:11 +0000

Let’s face it, painting red is a pain in the backside. There are some really good thick pigment paints such as P3s Khador Red Base and the Foundation Mechrite Red, but painting them straight over a black undercoat leaves a dull and flat finish (and still takes 2-3 coats!). I don’t claim to have stuck upon a magic formula, but here’s my approach to painting red on my Khadoran models.

Before I get into that I did something very dumb. I needed to paint a Drakhun for a tournament about two years ago, but for the lists I made up I only needed the dismount option. So, despite having the Man-o-War Shocktrooper dismount miniature in a blister, I only assembled and painted the mounted Drakhun and horse. Now, about two years later I’m trying to get all of my Khadror miniatures finished before MkII and the dismount has found it’s way onto my painting list. Thankfully I have painting notes (the virtue of which I’ve talked about before), so at least I know what colours I used on the mounted Drakhun. Here’s that original miniature -

It was a quick paint job, too quick, but the result was decent. I need to reproduce this look in the dismounted version. I’ll focus on the red, but will mention the other colours later.

PAINTING RED

Image 0 Undercoat in black – I sprayed the minaiture with GW Chaos Black and the painted it with a watered down black to get all of the recesses.
Images 1-4 I’m going to suggest something that many painter would baulk at. As red is the most prominent colour I’m going to get it onto the miniature quickly with the biggest brush I can find! To that end I grabbed the Citadel Tank Brush, some watered down Khador Red Base and lashed it onto the miniature in four light coats. This way you get the majority of the miniature painted very quickly. The secret is that the coats should be well watered down, so not to obscure the detail. Don’t worry – the ‘mess’ can be cleaned up later.
Image 5 Next I made a 1:1 mix of Khador Red Base and Khador Red Highlight. With a smaller brush (let’s face it, there are few bigger!) I highlighted the raised surfaces. Be careful not to have too much paint on the brush and draw it slowly along the edges.
Image 6 Up next is a highlight of pure Khador Red Highlight. This highlight is finer. Again, don’t overload the brush.
Image 7 The next two stages are washes. Here’s where I grab the Citadel washes. Baal Red, watered down slightly, is washed over all of the red surfaces.
Image 8 Once dry I then add a small bit of Badab Black to Baal Red and do a deeper wash.

That’s it, the red is now painted, but the miniature does look a mess! I grab a fine brush and clean it up with Chaos Black and then begin painting the remaining colours (Image 9). The steel is Boltgun Metal washed with a 1:1 Badab Black/Devlan Mud wash. The gold is Shining Gold (painted on in 2 watered down coat as it doesn’t go down well over black) washed with Brown Ink. The handle of the pike is painted Bestial Brown and washed with the same wash as the steel areas. Finally the horse emblem on the shoulder was painted Codex Grey and washed with Badab Black.

Quick and easy. Basing is all that remains, but I’ll wait until I have a few miniatures to base before I get out the glue, sand and flock.

Owen

Feralgeist: Assembling and Painting Guide

owen — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:21:27 +0000

The Feralgeist is the easiest and quickest Hordes or Warmachine miniature I’ve ever painted. It took less than an hour in total. Here’s a step-by-step guide to assembling and painting it.

ASSEMBLING

Assembling the Feralgeist is straightforward enough, but you will need to apply a couple of advanced assembly skills – pinning and using green stuff. Don’t fret, this is a good miniature to try these out on. Clean off all of the pieces with a craft knife, file and Dremel. The body comes in two pieces, with the join happening at two narrow points. This is what needs to be pinned. I took out my pin vice to drill starter guide holes. This isn’t so important in the recessed fitting, but is needed for the corresponding raised bump. For these recessed/raised type joints I use my blade to take the top off the raised part (only partially) so I have a small flat surface to drill into. Once the guide holes were drilled I got out the Dremel and drilled holes that were about 3-4mm deep on each side. I use snipped paper clips as my pins and glued the pieces together (with pin in place!) using super glue. I then glued the jawbone in place and then the miniature to it’s base.

The join between the two parts of the body needs some putty (often called green stuff or brown stuff). These are two part puttys that you blend together and then let air dry. I rolled very thin sausages and laid them across the joins, then with a wet sculpting tool I smoothed the putty across the join and removed the excess. Once it is air dried (I usually leave it 24 hours) I grabbed the Dremel again, but this time with a filing attachment and smoothed over the putty work. The miniature is now ready to prime.

PAINTING AND BASING

Priming: As I was going for an ethereal look I primed the miniature using a white spray and then a watered down coat of Skull White.
Blue: I washed the whole of the Feralgeist with a slightly watered down Asurmen Blue wash. I then drybrushed all raised areas with Skull White with a small amount of Asurmen Blue.
Skeleton and Rubble: This whole area was coated with a heavily watered down Graveyard Earth. The skeleton was then drybrushed with Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather, 1:1 Snakebite Leather / Bleached Bone and finally pure Bleached Bone. I then painted the flat skeletal surfaces with a heavily watered down Bleached Bone.
Base: I glued (using watered down PVA glue) Builder’s Sand to the base. Once dry it was painted with a heavily watered down Graveyard Earth. One or two larger stones were dotted with Codex Grey. I applied a small amount of flock using PVA glue and then painted the base edge Chaos Black.

That’s it! It’s such a useful addition to any Hordes force and so easy to paint that there is really no excuse for not fielding one. Thraka Green or Baal Red, or any wash for that matter, could be used in place of Asurmen Blue, so producing a Feralgeist that fits the theme of your army is pretty simple.

Owen

Space Hulk Blood Angel Terminators: Painting Guide

owen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:11:20 +0000

Larger versions of this photo and the other views are available on flickr.

Ok – I’ve stopped hating these guys enough to write a short painting guide. They are easy to paint, but there is a lot of fine detail that needs to be painted, so they are quite time consuming to complete. I’ll do this area by area as it is more or less how I painted them. The areas are in the order I tackled them -

Armour As red is the predominant colour and the miniatures are already moulded in red plastic I decided not to spray undercoat them. Instead I grab the GW Tank brush (the really big one) and the Foundation Mecrite Red and undercoated them the slow way. I was careful not to put too much paint on the brush as it would be really easy to obscure the detail. Next I drybrushed the miniatures (in downward strokes) with GW Blood Red. This was followed by a lighter drybrush of P3 Khador Red Highlight (an orange colour). I washed the whole miniature in the miracle wash (1:1 Badab Black and Devlan Mud).

Eyes, Purity Seals and Crux The eyes were painted Foundation Knarloc Green using my smallest brush. The purity seals parchment was based in GW Bestial Brown, then painted with GW Kommando Khaki and highlighted with GW Bleached Bone. The seal was painted with GW Gore Red and washed with the miracle wash. The Crux was based in GW Codex Grey, washed in Badab Black and then highlighted (very lightly) with GW Fortress Grey.

Pipes, Sensor Lights and Gems The pipes were painted GW Shadow Grey or GW Fortress Grey. The sensor lights are based in GW Enchanted Blue and dotted with GW Ice Blue. The gems are Foundation Hormagaunt Purple, then dotted with a 1:1 mix of this colour and GW Skull White.

Metals By this point I was well and truly sick of these miniatures. They are gorgeous sculpts, the the superfluous detail is over the top. Anyway, the grey metal is watered down GW Boltgun Metal applied over a GW Chaos Black Base and then washed with the miracle wash. The gold metal is a 1:1 mix of P3 Brass Balls (a light brass colour) and GW Shining Gold. It was then washed with GW Brown Ink.

I painted the shoulder pads ‘half and half’ on some miniatures using GW Chaos Black and GW Skull White. The black areas were highlighted with GW Codex Grey. Finally I painted the base GW Chaos Black. Phew! Six down, seven (including the dead marine) to go.

Owen

PS GW have a good painting article for the Space Hulk miniatures here.

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

Eiryss (Alternate Sculpt): Painting Guide

owen — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:00:21 +0000

(Larger Version on flickr)

I’ve had this miniature since the No Quarter promotion and just didn’t make time to paint it until now. That’s probably because I’ve been proxying Eiryss with the Ordic Pistolier miniature which I quite like. I didn’t pick up the original Eiryss because I really didn’t like the sculpt. This alternate version is much more subtle and the advancing posture with her weapons at the ready underpins the supreme confidence she has in her skills. Anyway, last night I took out the painting tray and got stuck in. Looking at the image timestamps I can see that the complete paint job took less than two hours and for a character that I use very often I think that is a respectable amount of time to spend.

Photo 1 This is the starting point. Once the miniature was cleaned and assembled I brushed on a watered down Chaos Black undercoat (I’m low on black spray!). I want the final colours to be muted as Eiryss is all about hiding in plain sight, so a black base allows me to achieve a duller finish.

Photo 2 I begin drybrushing in a similar manner to how I tackled Gorman di Wulfe. Scorched Brown was applied in a heavy drybrush using a flat headed brush. I generally try to drybrush from just one direction so the highlight is consistent. In this instance I brushed downwards.

Photo 3 I added Graveyard Earth to the Scorched Brown base in 3 increasingly light drybrushes and then began adding Bleached Bone to this mix for another 3 drybrushes. This give me a good basis for starting on the other colours.

Photo 4 The flesh, eyes and lips were tackled next. I started adding Elf Flesh to the previous mix and drybrushing it (moderately heavily) onto the specific flesh areas. I did this in 3 increasingly light coats and then picked out cheek and eyebrow detail in pure Elf Flesh. don’t forget to paint the fingers as the gloves are fingerless and the flesh shows through. This was washed with a very light Gryphonne Sepia wash. For the eyes I carefully coated them in Kommando Khaki and dotted the pupil with Chaos Black (deliberately giving her a sideways glance). Her lips were drybrushed with Elf Flesh and a dot of Scab Red.

Photo 5a The cloak received a bit more attention at this stage with a drybrush of Snakebite Leather and then two more coats adding Bleached Bone.

Photo 5b This photo shows the back of the cloak.

Photo 6 Now it’s time to get into more detailing. I worked on the bodice and top of the stockings next. This is a 1:1 mix of Vallejo Middlestone and Vallejo Green Grey with Bleached Bone added for highlights. The scarf and arrow feathers were picked out with Bleached Bone.

Photo 7 The boots are next with the main part being drybrushed with Bestial Brown and then washed with a mix of Badab Black and Devlan Mud (my standard ‘miracle’ wash).

Photo 8 The next two steps add the metallic detail of the chainmail and the sword, including buckles, clasps and buttons. I used Boltgun Metal for the grey metals (armour, crossbow blade and sword blade) with the Mithril Silver highlight. This was washed with Badab Black. I also painted the sword leather handle with Bestial Brown.

Photo 9The brass metals (sword hilt, clasps at the top of the cloak, suspender clasps, buckles, crossbow detail, etc.) are P3 Brass Balls with some Graveyard Earth added. In this step I also painted the gloves and boot using Orkhide Shade and highlighted them with Knarloc Green.

Photo 10 This is the final stage. I used Bestial Brown to pick out most of the leather details, including the belts and straps. I used Snakebite Leather to lightly highlight the arrow quiver on her back. The wood on the crossbow was painted with a 1:1 blend of Bestial Brown and Snakebite Leather. The suspenders were painted in a Bleached Bone and Vallejo Green Grey (3:1) mix. Finally, all non flesh areas were washed with the miracle wash and that’s that.

Photo Final (Front)

Photo Final (Back)

All that remains now is to base and varnish her and Eiryss is ready to replace her proxy.

Owen

Gorman di Wulfe: Painting Guide

owen — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 11:45:37 +0000

I recently blitzed some unpainted Cryx models I’d been stockpiling. Cryx is a faction I’ve had for a while, but it’s always been secondary to my Khadorans (and probably in third place if you count my Legion of Everblight). So, I’ve recently started using the faction and decided to start with the Iron Lich Asphyxious to lead them. In the games I’ve had so far he has performed well and I like the way the faction plays. The only problem I have is that on a medium base Asphyxious can occasionally find himself the target of unwanted attention. In steps Gorman di Wulfe and his Smoke Bombs. I wanted to paint him in the same muted tones as the Cryxian force, but also wanted him to stand out a little.

I started by undercoating him with GW Chaos Black and then gave the whole miniature a sequence of increasingly light drybrushes. I started with Scorched Earth, then gradually mixed Graveyard Earth into that for the next 3-4 drybrushes. Finally I added increasing amounts Bleached Bone to this mix for another 2-3 drybrushes. From here I tackled the cloak as it was the most visible area of the miniature. I mixed a 1:1:1 blend of Vallejo Middlestone, Vallejo Green Grey and GW Bleached Bone. I then very, very lightly drybrushed this over the cloak area. This had the effect of tinting the previous layers and left a nice graduated outcome. It is this green hue that is quite different from the other Cryx models and will make him stand out. The highlighting and shading colours are similar though, so he shouldn’t stand out too much. He’s a little similar in colour to my Alten Ashley, who I must photograph.

The gloves were drybrushed with GW Fortress Grey and then again with a small amount of Skull White added. On the shirt I used the same effect with a light drybrush of P3 Greatcoat Grey and then GW Shadow Grey. The edge of the shirt was picked out in Bleached Bone and the face mask was also lightened with another drybrush of Bleached Bone. The gas mask was finished using Snakebite Leather and Boltgun Metal, highlighted with Mithril Silver. The hat was brought up through layers of brown, using Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather and then dulled using Scorched Earth. The vials were painted with Ice Blue and highlighted in 2-3 layers by adding Skull White. The boot straps were picked out using Snakebite Leather. Metals were either Boltgun Metal or a 3:1 mix of Brazen Brass and Mithril Silver.

All areas apart form the shirt and the cloak were washed with a 1:1 mix of Devlan Mud and Badab Black. The base is builder’s sand PVA glued down and then a very wet mix of Graveyard Earth and water (1:4) applied when dry. Select areas were then flocked. This basing scheme is consistent with my Khador and Cryx armies (except the Cryx also have small patches of snow added).

Photographing this miniature was a little challenging with a single light source as the wide-brimmed hat obscures the face when lit from above. I usually place the lamp about 6″ above and slightly to the front of the miniature at the 1 o’clock position. In these shots I had to lie the lamp almost level with the miniature. This casts a long shadow, but I can live with that. I really must set my lightbox up with multiple light sources.

Anyway, a quick spray of matt varnish for protection and Gorman is ready to include in Cryx army, or the Khador army to help protect the Butcher and Karchev for that matter.

Owen

Great Bears of Gallowswood: Painting Guide

owen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:55:30 +0000

The Great Bears are in many ways a very typical Khadoran unit that have several of the traditional colours you might use in painting the Khador army. I painted these guys using pretty straight forward techniques, so hopefully this guide will be easy to follow.

Step 0: Clean, Assemble and Undercoat
I’m not going to detail this step other than to say you should always -

Wash miniatures to remove mould release residue
Use a hobby knife to remove flashing and venting
File back any mould lines
Dry fit the components
Glue (and potentially pin) the components
Apply several light sprays of undercoat (Army Painter’s Black Spray in this instance)
Paint a watered down coat of the undercoat colour (GW’s Chaos Black mixed with water (3:1))

Step 1: Faces and Flesh
I subscribe to the “inside to outside” painting approach where you paint the miniature as though it were getting dressed, i.e. do the flesh first, then the next visible layer of clothing, etc. The flesh was base coated using P3 Khadoran Flesh (in 2-3 slightly watered down light coats), highlighted with GW Dwarf Flesh and then a lightly highlighted with GW Elf Flesh. That was then washed with a watered down Devlan Mud. I wanted these guys to look weather beaten so the deep wash and darker flesh colours makes it look like they’ve bivouacked for many years. The finished effect gives a slightly ruddy look appropriate for severely weathered skin. I wanted their hands to be gloved, so I didn’t paint them in this step. For the hair and beard of Volkov I used GW Bestial Brown as the base, highlighted with Snakebite Leather and washed with a 1:1 blend of Badab Black and Devlan Mud (if you only own one wash it should be this blend – it works on almost any colour). I also painted the neckerchiefs at this time using the same technique as for the cloak (see below).

Step 2: Chainmail and Mesh Armour
The next layer is the chainmail skirt underneath their armour. I used GW Boltgun Metal with a small bit of GW Chaos Black mixed in as the base coat. Base coat isn’t quite the right phrase as it is more of a heavy drybrush to pick out the details. I repeat this with pure GW Boltgun Metal, but with a lighter drybrush, i.e. more of the paint is removed form the brush. For the weapons I used the same colours, but instead of drybrushing I painted on a watered down coat and then highlighted by picking out the edge detail. All of these areas were washed with Badab Black.

Step 3: Cloak
Remember to change your water – otherwise you will have metallic flakes mixed into your non-metallic colours. The cloak was based with P3 Greatcoat Grey and highlighted by adding increasing amounts of GW Fortress Grey in 3-4 highlights. The whole area was washed with Badab Black. The fur edge was drybrushed with Fortress Grey and highlighted by adding a small amount of Skull white.

Step 4: Red Armour
Quite a bit of the miniature is covered in red armour and as red is notoriously hard to paint over a black undercoat a bit of patience is required. I use P3 Khadoran Red as my base coat, but I water it down and plan to apply 2-3 light coats. Patience is needed to not put on a very heavy coat that will dry in a blotchy manner and in ensuring the red doesn’t get on the finished detail (the chainmail is easily touched up, but the cloak isn’t, if you get red on them). Next I highlighted the red areas with a 1:1 Mix of Khadoran Red and Khadoran Red Highlight and then a highlight of pure Khadoran Red. All of these areas were washed with a mix of Badab Black and Baal Red (1:5) being careful not to let it run onto finished detail.

Step 5: Bear Pelt
The Bear Pelt was base coated with Fortress Grey in a very heavy dry brush. I had two highlighting stages – the first was a drybrush with a 1:1 mix of Fortress Grey and Bleached Bone and the second was almost pure Bleached Bone. The eyes and nose were picked out with Chaos Black and the visible leather was base coated with Snakebite Leather. All of the pelt was then washed the miracle wash (1:1 mix of Badab Black and Devlan Mud). I wanted the bears fur to look old and well worn. Polar bears (or whatever the equivalent is in the Iron Kingdoms) are not white, but rather a rich creamy colour. I deliberated washed it with a dark mix to make it look dull.

Step 6: Details
There are different metal areas on each miniature to be detailed -

For the ‘spikes’ I used the same process as for the weapon blades.
For the brass areas I used P3 Brass Balls mixed with GW Graveyard Earth (1:1) and a very light highlight of pure Brass Balls. This was lightly washed with Devlan Mud.
The brass buttons were pure dotted with pure Brass Balls and then washed with Badab Black
The Bottom of the chainmail skirt was painted in Greatcoat Grey and washed with Badab Black
The weapon handle was painted with GW Scorched Brown, Highlighted with Bestial Brown and washed with the miracle wash
For the strap on the weapon I base coated it in Fortress Grey with a bit of Chaos Black, highlighted using pure fortress Grey on the edges and washed with Badab Black

Step 6: Basing and Varnishing
I think that’s it for the miniature painting. The bases aren’t quite finished in the picture above (they are now, but I forgot to retake the photograph). I glued down builders sand, which is nicely textured and coloured, using watered down PVA glue. When dry I used a very wet Graveyard Earth to colour it. Being so wet it lets some of the natural colour of the sand show through. I sometimes will pick out larger stones in a grey colour and wash black. I then flock small areas of the base. The is a very basic basing technique, but it is consistent across my whole Khadoran army. All I need to do now is matt varnish the miniatures and the Great Bears are ready to join the rest of the army.

Here is a larger version of the above image.

Owen

Panzer Lehr Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers: Painting Guide

owen — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:28:22 +0000

This is a step-by-step guide for painting Flames of War 15mm Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers (armoured German infantry) from the Panzer Lehr Division (1944-1945). It is not intended to be a completely historically accurate guide, rather a quick and simple way to achieve good results in a short amount of time.

Each Panzergrenadier platoon constitutes 6 MG Teams, 3 Tank-hunter Teams, 1 Command MG team and 4 SD Kfz 251/1 half-track transports. That’s about 33 15mm miniatures and 4 vehicles. Here are the steps I followed to move from raw pewter to painted and varnished miniatures -

Infantry
1) Sort the miniatures out. Because these miniatures come from a large box set I need to check what miniatures should be in what platoons, so (by referring to the photos on the box and the web) I sorted the miniatures by platoon.

2) Clean and base. For the Panzer Lehr I have decided to stick the infantry to their bases before undercoating and painting. With the Paras I stuck them to strips of balsa and paint them before basing. So, after cleaning them off with the Dremel, I attached them to their bases, making sure there was a good mix of miniatures on each base, e.g. enough MG carriers and ammo porters spread across the MG Teams

3) Undercoat. With the US Paratroopers I undercoated them white and used watered down base coats to achieve a ‘highlighted’ look. With the Panzer Lehr I decided I’d spray them with Army Painter’s Army Green spray. The pro here is that the bulk of the base coating is done by the spray. The con is that I don’t have an exact colour match for the spray in an acrylic, so if I screw up something I’ll need to fudge the correcting colour. 2 – 3 light spray coats and they are ready to paint.

4) Base Coating. Since the spray did most of the work on the uniforms I just had to worry about the rest. Here are the colours I used -

Flesh (Faces and Hands) in P3 Khardic Flesh
Helmet in Vallejo 882 Middlestone
Canteen and Wood on Gun in GW Bestial Brown
Boots and Webbing (Belts and “Y” Straps) in GW Chaos Black
Gascape Folder and Breadbag in Vallejo 886 Green-Grey
Tentquarter and Ammo Boxes in Vallejo 873 US Field Drab
Bazookas and Rockets in 1:1 GW Kommando Khaki:Vallejo 873 US Field Drab
Metal on Guns, MGs and Ammo Belts in GW Boltgun Metal

5) Dipping. I used the soft tone dip on the US Paratroopers and that worked very well with their lighter uniforms. For the Lehr I used the Dark Tone Army Painter dip. I painted it on, rather than dipping, but used a generous amount. This instantly shades and varnishes the miniatures. It leaves a gloss finish (I’ll deal with that in the final step).

6) Basing. I painted the tab around the bases Skull White. Next I applied poly filler (ready mix) to the bases. This is white(ish) in colour and I lay it down to cover all of the base apart from the bevelled edges. I use my thumb to wipe off the excess and keep the edges clean. When dry I paint it with watered down Graveyard Earth and this leaves a muddy type finish. The edge is painted in the same colour, but with little water added. I finish off the base by adding some flock.

7) Matt Varnishing. The miniatures are well protected with the dip, but I apply a spray of matt varnish to bring down the gloss finish. Again I used an Army Painter product, their matt varnish, but I’m not that happy with it. It’s not as good as Tester’s Dull-Cote (now banned in the EU) and be sure to shake it a long time as I found it misted easily.

Vehicles
1) Sort the miniatures out. The half-tracks come in resin and metal pieces (the newer ones are resin and plastic). The main body is resin and the tracks, front wheels, driver and AA MG are metal. Make sure you have the left and right tracks for each vehicle, other than that there is little sorting to do.

2) Clean and assemble. Resin dust is a hazardous material, so be careful when cleaning it off. Thankfully they are well moulded and need little cleaning. Super-glue is all you need to fix the pieces together. I put the driver in place (operating an ‘Only paint what you can see’ policy!).

3) Undercoat. Again I undercoated these with 2-3 light coats of Army Green.

4) Base Coating. Since the spray did most of the work on the uniforms I just had to worry about the rest. Here are the colours I used -

Body in Vallejo 882 Middlestone
Wheel Hubs and Track Cogs in Vallejo 882 Middlestone Drybrush
Body Edge Highlights in 3:1 Vallejo 882 Middlestone:GW Skull White
Camouflage in Vallejo 924 Russian Uniform and Vallejo 873 US Field Drab (Brush, Vallejo no. 001)
MGs, Tracks and Tool Heads in GW Boltgun Metal
Tyres and Driver Uniform in 3:1 GW Chaos Black:Skull White
Webbing in GW Kommando Khaki, GW Snakebite Leather or 3:1 GW Chaos Black:GW Skull White

5) Dipping. Dark Tone Army Painter dip is generously painted it on.

6) Apply Decals. I applied the iron cross to each side of the vehicle along with the identification number. I also applied the Panzer Lehr ‘L’ to the rear (on the right rear door). I cut the decals from the original sheet using an hobby knife and then used lukewarm water, tweezers and a toothpick to apply them. A small piece of tissue is used to soak up the water once the decal is in place (by touching the edge to get the bulk of the water from under the decal and then gently dabbing it to remove the rest).

7) Matt Varnishing. Again I used the Army Painter matt varnish.

I think the results are pretty good for the amount of time spent on them. I’ve a lot of this army painted now – I’ll organise myself to post more pictures soon.

Owen

Iron Lich Asphyxious: Painting Guide

owen — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:56:05 +0000

I’ve been working on my Cryx over the last week and Iron Lich Asphyxious is the last miniature I’ve completed, so I decided I’d do a step-by-step guide to painting him. I tend to paint character models individually as they deserve a little more time and detailing as they tend to receive more attention on the battlefield (if only because they usually last longer!). The Iron Lich is my third Cryx ‘caster and I wanted to paint him to reflect the thematic colours of the army – muted browns and glowing pale blue.

Preparation and Undercoating
Asphyxious is an easy miniature to assemble. It comes in three parts – the body, head and the vents for the armour. I nearly always use the Dremel and ‘swan neck’ to clean off my miniatures as there is nothing worse than undercoating it only to discover mould lines. Before I work with the Dremel, I wash the miniature to remove any mould release (the white powdery substance on the miniature). Next I use a sharp hobby knife to remove vent flash and an large mould lines from the model and base. I then dry fit everything to ensure I know which parts are which (pretty straight forward in this case). Once all of the components are cleaned I again do a dry fit and check to see if I’ll need to fill any gaps. There were none to fill in this case – most of the Privateer Press smaller models are okay (the ‘jacks and beasts can require a bit of ‘green-stuffing’). Next I tend to drill guide holes for pinning , but again that wasn’t required in this case. I then hash mark the areas to be glued with the knife, apply a drop of glue and then hold the pieces in place until they are dry. I then cut some small pieces of thin plastic to cover the hole in the base on either side of the miniature.

I use the Army Builder Black spray to undercoat the miniature. I don’t think it is as good as GWs Chaos Black spray. It requires a lot more shaking and the nozzle velocity is a little too fast. I usually spray miniatures in 3 sessions – the first with them standing and I do a 360°, once dry I lie them on their front and spray their underneath and finally I do the same with them lying on their back. Before I paint I will wash them with a watered down GW Chaos Black to catch any missing bits.

Painting
I used the following colours -

GW Bleached Bone
GW Blue Ice
GW Boltgun Metal
GW Chaos Black
GW Fortress Grey
GW Graveyard Earth
GW Shadow Grey
GW Shining Gold
GW Snakebite Leather
P3 Brass Balls
Citadel Wash Asurmen Blue
Citadel Wash Badab Black
Citadel Wash Devlan Mud

I subscribe to the idea of painting form the inside out, i.e. start with the lower layers of the miniature and work to the upper so you never have to paint past detail you’ve completed. I also like to complete each colour as much as possible. I started with the ethereal ‘skirt’ and wanted to achieve a dark blue result. This was basecoated in Shadow Grey and then highlighted in 4-5 layers with increasing amounts of Bleached Bone. I use Bleached Bone or Kommando Khaki as the ‘lightening’ colour as it is less harsh than pure white. I then washed this area in a Badab Black / Asurmen Blue mix (a little more Black than Blue). In painting the skirt I got paint on the mesh that overlayed it. I lightly drybrushed this with Chaos Black as I knew I would be leaving some black visible later.

Next up is the blue spectral glow that emanates from within his torso. I painted this Ice Blue and washed it with a very light Asurmen Blue. Again I drybrushed the surrounding area black to cover up sloppy brush work.

The main colour on the torso was going to be a dull brown. I decided that Graveyard Earth was the main colour here, but I wanted to start darker and do about 10 layers. I added Chaos Black to the Graveyard Earth (about 1:2) and did about 4 layers up to pure Graveyard Earth. Next I added Bleached Bone in increasing amounts in 6 layers up to a mix that was about 70% Bleached Bone. This area was then washed with Devlan Mud.

With the main colours done it was time to get into some details. I finished the skull by drybrushing it up to pure Bleached Bone and used a mix of Graveyard Earth and Snakebite Leather to do the leather strap holding the metal eye. The iron metal areas (the weapon, the soul cage chain, some aspects of the arms and the eye) were covered in a watered down Boltgun Metal and was washed with Badab Black.

Okay, nearly there. The main metal effect I wanted was a brass colour. I mixed P3 Brass Balls and GW Shining Gold (1:1) and dry brushed the remaining metal areas (arms, fingers, vents, piping details, soul cages, and the mesh over the ‘skirt’). As it was a lightly layered drybrush I was happy with the effect and didn’t wash these areas. I then painted the gemstone in the weapon Ice Blue and dotted it with an Ice Blue Bleached Bone mix. I highlighted the edges of the weapon’s haft in Fortress Grey.

The final stage is the one I was nervous about. I did a small amount of light source experimentation on the Bane Lord Tartarus miniature and now it is Asphyxious’ turn. I want to show the glow of the blue chest light hitting the surrounding areas and catching the skull. The trick here is to highlight these areas without obliterating their underlying colours. I guess there are two options – try to mix a ‘blued up’ version of those colours and highlight or a very light drybrush of the glowing colour. I opted for the latter as I think achieving consistency across the different colours would be very hard. So I grabbed one of my smallest brushes and loaded it with Ice Blue. I the wiped almost all of the colour off and then proceeded to drybrush in straight lines from the light source. I’m moderately happy with how it turned out. I erred on the side of less is more and I think it’ll do.

I spent about 2.5 hours painting the Iron Lich and he turned out well for this time investment. Here’s a larger photograph, but there are much larger pictures available on flickr.

Finishing
As with the other miniatures I’m working on at the moment I’ll wait until I’ve finished the final unit (the Bane Knights, who are up next for painting) before I base and varnish everything.

Owen