All Posts By

Craig

Basius + Fixit Sculpting

Posted on October 31, 2015

I went in with a friend on the Basius Kickstarter a while back. I initially tried using Milliput with it, with very poor results. The Milliput was too flaky, and pulled apart when I pulled the pad off. It also got stuck in the crevasses, ripping out detail in the base I was making and obscuring detail for future bases.

I spoke with a bunch of my wargaming buddies, in particular one who has been championing the Basius all along, about what they were doing. First they recommended a product called Fixit which was said to be a superior sculpting medium. You can’t get it in Canada, so I had to get in with another friend who was doing an order, having it shipped to a post box in Blaine, then going down to pick it up. It worked out pretty good, but it’s an annoying set of steps in this “global” world.

The easier step was to pick up talcum powder to keep the bases from sticking.

I think it worked out pretty good. The detail is excellent on the rough dirt. The railroad tracks are a little soft though, especially since I’ve been using actual model railroad to build bases previously, with great success.

You have to put a good amount of clay on the base to make an imprint, and then you have to carve away the excess as it “squirts” out the sides. Have a lot of bases just hanging around, as you’ll be able to do more than you think you can.

One thing I’m not super happy about, and it could just be my choice in Basius — there’s very little thematic cohesion between the bases I’ve done. From the same pad I’ve made railroad, dirt, muck, tiled streets and combinations of the bunch. I just finished attaching them to some Beast Handlers, and while I’m sure it’ll look fine in the end after some painting that brings them together, right now I’m wondering why half the squad is standing in the muck and the other half is standing on tiled street!

I usually cut into my bases and then slot the models “tab” into the hole to provide extra strength. The Fixit once dried is really hard and I chipped it in some places while trying to do this. For the Beast Handlers, I ended up cutting them off their tabs and gluing them directly on top of the bases. Only time will tell if this was a good idea or not, after they’re transported from place to place for a while.

Featured Images

Hordes – Immortals

Posted on October 27, 2015

These guys were fun to paint and relatively quick, but I feel like they need something more.

I did some image searching to see what other people were doing with these models, and found this guy’s painting log photo of his Immortals. Jade Immortals, I like it.

I started with a base of GW Caliban Green, then shaded down with SW Heavy Body Black mixed with the Caliban, then just the black in spots. Went up again with the Caliban plus some Skull White, then more Skull White in the mix. Then drybrushed with GW Fortress Grey since it was out when I was doing the bases, then another drybrush of just the Skull White in places.

The problem with them is that they’re very bland. There’s just this dull green, with a dull grey base. And sure it’s good looking, but nothing pops out. I feel like I should have painted their armour in the gold+verdgris I’ve been doing on the Titans to give it a little bit of umph.

I also had to re-figure out the bases, since I haven’t written about them at all during this project. Drybrush up with Codex then Fortress Grey. Watered down Abaddon Black all over. Then Guilliman Blue and Waywatcher Green glazes. I did some Nuln Oil in the recesses to deepen them a bit, then drybrushed up with the two greys again.

Then glue some Army Painter Tufts onto them. 🙂

Work-in-progress

Hordes – Cyclops Savage – Think I’m done

Posted on October 23, 2015

The photo doesn’t look all that much different, but I think the light at my desk is being weird and overly orange.

Just a few simple things after the last post — hightlighted the tassles with some white to bring a non-orange/yellow into it, black lined the recesses that didn’t have enough contrast, more yellow on the banners to bring that star out a bit more.

But I think I’m done. They’re pretty same samey, but I think that in a crowd, with a variety of models and a different coloured terrain around that they’ll look pretty sharp!

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – Human Basecoats

Posted on October 19, 2015

All of my human models, together in one photo. The guys with the green bases won’t be re-touched, although when you look closely at them they are definitely the victims of a pretty quick paint job. The guys with black bases are new, and I’m painting over another layer of paint (thankfully, just primer on half of them) so I don’t know if I’m going to get the same quality of paint job that I usually prefer.

It’s a pretty simple scheme of Mithril Silver, Mephiston Red and Alaitoc Blue.

I have a Comixininos order on it’s way with another Blitzer (because you need 4) and 2 Star Players — a Helmut Wolf and a Griff Oberwald — to round out the team. Also have an Ogre Paymaster waiting for me at Hammertime Hobbies to be painted up!

I’m looking forward to playing a team that has actual expendable linemen in it! 😀

Work-in-progress

Hordes – Cyclops Savage – More paint!

Posted on October 15, 2015

I put another quick layer of glaze on the next morning. It was simple, just some Waywatcher Green on the base and armour, Guilliman Blue on the base and under areas. Then I went to work.

After work I played a shit ton of Hearthstone. >.< But I finally beat Sapphiron on Heroic! Only Kel’thuzad left…

After I got sick of that, I put some more layers on. SW Amethyst in the recesses of the cloth. Drybrush up with Codex, Fortress and some Skull White on the base. Then some waaaaashes! Again, part of the reason I’m enjoying painting these guys is because I’m getting pretty good results quickly and effectively. Washes got a bad rep in some places, but at the end of the day “liquid skill” still looks damn good. I just can’t leave it as the end result! So here’s some Nuln Oil on the cloth and Seraphim Sepia on the armour. I love how it brings a ton of depth to the models which were previously very flat.

I just noticed that I accidentally posted the first draft of these guys out of schedule, so it’s been about a month since you saw them. 😛

Featured Images

2 Rings

Posted on October 11, 2015

I got married yesterday!

No photos of that here, because that’s someone else’s hobby, not mine (Miranda hobbied the shit out of this wedding), but I took this photo a couple days ago of the two rings in a ring box. Obviously the one on the left is the two rings that I made for Miranda. The one on the left is one that Russ and Shane have been working hard on making for me!!

It’s a Mokume-gane style ring, where the smith repeatedly heats and smashes different types of metals together (in this case, stirling silver and nickel silver) until they are bonded together. It’s used to create almost a wood-grain effect.

They also included, at my request, a band of red that visually links it to Miranda’s ring.

This thing is absolutely incredible!

Work-in-progress

Ring – Finished!

Posted on October 9, 2015

After all the polishing, it was time to drill some holes into the ring to put gems into it.

First we did some practice, as this was apparently a technique that Russ hadn’t done before (and obviously, neither had I!). It’s called a “star setting”, and it involves “bending” the metal in the corners of the gem over the gem so that it holds it in.

We started by drilling a hole smaller than the gem, so that it had a place to sit. Then we used a hart burr to create an angled shelf. Place the gem in the hole. Then use a graver to “dig” into the metal and effectively knife into it, and press up to take that little sliver of metal you’ve gouged out with the graver and bend it over the gem. Repeat 4 times for each gem to hold the corners on. He has another tool he uses to turn the sliver of metal into a little bead so it looks nice.

Here are some photos of the practice.

After some practice, it was time to do it for real. Russ did all of this, possibly because a failure at this point would mean going back to the entire beginning, and it was fiddly work. 🙂

Our original design had 4 gems, but at the end of this process I hadn’t given Russ enough space to set 4 gems, so we went with 2 of them. And here it is!

It looks odd because it’s been designed to nestle into the existing engagement ring, and it looks amazing when put together!

Work-in-progress

Cyclops Savage – Getting there

Posted on October 7, 2015

After the Seraphim Sepia and Nuln oil layer, it was time to add some colour and contrast back in. I started with a simple highlight of Mithril Silver over the gold edges and the models immediately popped a lot more.

I took some Amethyst to the undersides of things, and again in the recesses to try to keep some interest there.

The banners and fabric had a couple layers of Bloodletter glaze applied, in striped patterns on the banner and on the raised areas on the cloth. The banners I went over again with Lamenters Yellow glaze to start a star pattern, then did some more opaque layers with Vallejo Moon Yellow.

The sword was annoying, because I wanted it “bronze” but a different colour from the rest of the armour. I started by wet brushing with Mithril Silver with the edge, the tip pointing towards the edge of the blade. This looked like ass, so I tried to make some “distressed” areas by using Bloodletter and Amethyst, but that didn’t help. I used Blood for the Blood God, smearing it around to cover up some of the bad areas. Lastly, I stippled on Mournfang Brown and then wiped it away/around with a finger and I think they have enough going on to be interesting, and not terrible.

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – Humans!

Posted on October 3, 2015

After the success of the Pahaux Flamewalkers, I decided I wanted to change it up for the next season, starting in December or so. I have 2 Orc teams that I’ve played a bunch, a Vampire team that I absolutely despise and a human team that I usually give to my opponent when I’m teaching.

ie, I’ve never really played them.

The box is an ancient box that I bought from GW Park Royal during one of their yearly auctions, for a steal, and it came with the box teams painted by the staff.

In this photo, the staff painted model is the dude on the left. I only had 11 models in the team, so I went to eBay to buy some more and found all the models on the right. Them, plus an ogre and a couple models from Comixinos and I’ll have a pretty bad ass team!

(I don’t have a team name yet — if you can think of a good one, I’m looking!)

Featured Images

Hordes – Morghoul

Posted on September 29, 2015

When I started painting Hordes again, I felt I should paint up my warlock first.

This guy was super simple in the end. White primer. 2 layers of Bloodletter glaze made him really orange, so I went in with SW Red Black to darken it to an actual red. Dwarf Bronze and Mithril Silver for the metal. Seraphim Sepia. Waywatcher Green in places to give an extra colour.

Skin is Dheneb Stone, Vallejo Game Ink Skin Wash, Dheneb Stone.

I’m really liking painting these guys — detailed enough to be interesting, but most of the model is tending to be a few simple colours that work well together. It lends itself to being relatively quick to paint, but also satisfying to finish and look at when I’m done!

Older Posts

Newer Posts