Rhinoes part 2

A small update on the rhinos/tanks. I've finished painting the big surfaces, metallics, washed in the details and did some minor cleanup. Also, I've tried my hand a bit on some NMM for the custom doors and the tank turret.

Next up: tanks/rhinoes

For the next project I started working on something that I've neglected for a while, my two Rhino/Predator chassis. I've assembled and magnetized the main guns and side sponsons a long time ago , but never got to paint them properly. Also, I've done some minor conversion work on the rhino and doors with the use of plasticard (long live!)
This is how everything looks in its current stage, and it will look better in the future.


Enjoy(tm)

Drop pod DONE

Finally, after about .. I don't have any idea how many hours .. I've finished the drop pod.


BEHOLD!

I'm so very glad it's over :) Not much to say about it except.. enjoy :)

Drop pod part 6

Theoretically I'm almost finished with the drop pod. I've finished the metallic parts, cleaned-up stuff, painted the rivets, did some edge highlighting on the edges pointing upwards.

For the next step I'll glue the model together, add the missing storm bolter , add some dirt and burn marks and it should be finally done.

Enjoy :)

Drop pod part 5

Another update, this time I've done the metallics, danger lines and some more cleanup on the black parts. After completing the metallic bits I'll go into full clean-up mode and after that proceed with weathering.

Enjoy :)

Drop pod part 4

Quite some time since the last update, mostly because other pressing business :). However, here is a small update on the drop pod. It's a huge model , with lots and lots of details to paint. What I've done so far is finish painting the big areas with their respective colors.
The white needed about 5-6 coats to get right, 2 of Astronomican Grey and 3-4 of P3 Morrow White.
What's left to do is paint the exterior metalic surfaces (now in black) , use washes and inks in the creases to add detail, do the danger signs on the drop pod doors and add the weathering.

Enjoy (tm)

Drop pod part 3

I have basecoated the green portions of the model with the regular Knarloc Green. It went pretty fast, because I tried to paint in a cross pattern and the foundation paints seem to love this way of applying paint.
Basically what I did is wet my brush a bit, squeeze almost all the moisture then get some paint on a large drybrush. With this I painted one layer from top to bottom and one layer from left to right. As you can see from the picture, the result is messy on the edges but very uniform where the paint should be. All the green areas took some 30 minutes with some slacking and waiting for paint to dry between layers.
Next up will be finishing the greens, then cleaning up and going for the white portions.

Drop pod part 2 and a celebration

I have finished doing the basic metallic drybrush on the drop pod. It's a great model, the best I've assembled until now as far as how everything fits together. The pod in the picture has many pieces that are not glued together, and is stable enough to handle and test various things.
The assembly instructions are lacking one small detail: the marine harnesses need to be placed on the pod's floor together with the central console, otherwise you would have to cut some of the plastic in order to place them correctly. This is what happened to me while building this drop pod, but it's not noticeable by any means.



Also, if you want to have a good looking painted pod interior you may want to paint the harnesses and the console BEFORE glueing them to the pod's floor, otherwise you won't be able to reach the console with your brush.

The picture above is the 100th picture I am uploading to the blog after about 1 year since I've started painting miniatures. It's not 1 year yet, but we're getting close. It's quite nice to see how much one person can progress from absolute 0 to .. more than that just by practicing and dedicating some (not a lot) of time to a certain field. So I guess the moral would be that anything can be learned up to a point if one practices enough.

Drop pods ahoy!

I got a new transport in the mail today that had 2 Drop Pods and a Land Speeder Storm, so I quickly tried to assemble one part of the drop pod, namely half of the interior. Much to my surprise, I failed to see some of the hints that the assembly guide showed me, such as gluing the panels on the top turbine upside down :) Oh well, now I'll have to live with a little strange drop pod.
One nice thing about the drop pod is the turret mount. That should not be glued to the rest of the turbine, because it can be fit with 2 weapons and it can rotate freely. Combine that with a spiral pattern on the turbine head and it should make for a great showpiece :)

Also, I have a few ideas how to magnetize the weapons to make the pod even more flexible (not that anyone would actually USE a Deathwind launcher , but still)

Warmachine/Hordes planner update

I've been doing a few small tweaks to the Warmachine planner:

• Added the official Retribution of Scyrah units for MK1 (the planner is , at the moment, MK1 only). This makes the database 100% complete for MK1 Warmachine and Hordes.
  
• Fixed some bugs.
• Made epic warcasters and warlocks respect the 750 point limit minimum. So, if you don't see them listed in there set the maximum points to over 750 and they'll show up.

Hopefully, if time allows, a new interface for the planner will be up by the end of the week and it will mark the closing of the development of this small piece of software. Following that, the MK2 planner will be in the works. Everything should be much faster and more compact while taking advantage of everything that has been done for MK1 so far.

Devastators squad done

Here are my devastators and the rest of the marines that I needed for my list. Heavy weapons are a bit "harder" to paint than normal bolters and handguns, because of their large surfaces and the need to cover them in more than one color unless you want them boring.

Here's the final result.



and some full frontal shots :)

Devastator squad in progress

After a week or more of not touching a model, here's a small work in progress shot of my devastator squad. The armor including highlights is pretty much done, however there are still some minor touch-ups to do here and there. Weapons are also WIP, but not much work has been done on them apart from metallic brushing and washing.

Khador Destroyer done

Here's the Khador Destroyer that I've finished. I tried two different paint sets on it. The body is done with Vallejo model colors and the arms with P3 paints. As you can see there is not much difference excepting for the paint fluidity which will improve with practice.

I tried to use as many P3 paints as possible to make the warjack look as close to the reference models as I could. It's not really there, but I'm sure the quality will improve with the next 'Jacks.

Warmachine forays

I've been working a bit on the warjack arms that come with the battlebox. I believe I'm quite ready with the red part over there, but I guess I'll try and to an extra layer of highlights for the Khador Highlight color, because at its current state it will blend perfectly after varnish is going to be sprayed on. I've cleaned up all the non-red parts with Thamar Black , and the next stage will be to paint the metallic pieces and make them look good.

Also, in the image above you can see my first attempt at non metalic metals on the bombard cannon arm.

The Warmachine planner has been updated with some minor fixes regarding field allowance (Fenris, Zerkova, Gun Mage Adept, Yuri the Axe) as well as made the epic versions of characters to exclude the non-epic from the list and the other way around.
Hordes factions and minions are also complete , so you can plan out your Warmachine AND Hordes list on the same page.
I'm considering some interface improvements but they will have to wait a bit because of some unexpected developments in a very important project I'm working on. I have also added a link to the Warmachine planner on the right navigation bar, right below the BOLS mini-banner.
Closing the Warmachine section, if you have any suggestions for the planner or spot any inaccuracies in the unit prices, field allocation values , etc don't hesitate to send me a message here or comment on the blog.


On the 40K front I'm seriously considering getting a couple of Land Speeders Storm to make a strong 1000 point list. Won't use them both at the same time, but still.

Librarian replacement done

Finally, after severe slacking in the painting department I have completed the librarian. I've also added added a small ripper to the base, just to make it look different.

First terrain piece completed

Here's my first terrain piece. It's a bunker made out of a Warmachine blister, plasticard, and some green stuff.

Warmachine planner update

I've been working a bit on the Warmachine planner. You can find it by clicking

HERE

Here are the changes since the last update:

• All Warmachine data is in
• Warcaster-dependent field allowance has been implemented
  
• Mercenary contracts have been implemented
• Field commanders (units who allow other units to be placed in a list) have been implemented

Also, the UI changed a bit:

• Unit tooltips have been partially implemented - I'll need to get a word from PP people in order to fully implement or eliminate them.
  
• Add units window has been altered a bit.
• Compressed view checkbox - this simplifies the army list a bit, only showing essential information.
  

Enjoy :)

Pseudo-librarian update

Here's the body almost done for my replacement standard librarian. It still needs way more scrolls and tabards , but I'll get there. Also in news is a brief appearance of his faithful servo-skull.



Enjoy

The missing models and road ahead

Here are the some of the models that I've been missing. The center guy, which is 50% done will stand in for the normal librarian, other guys are the devastator team, 2 extra rocket launchers, one terminator librarian and some AoBR marines that somehow eluded me ;)

750 Points list and missing models

I've been trying to build up a 750 point army that should be able to fend for itself in most situations, and, after discussing with a number of people that brought some valid points here is what I got:

• Librarian - 100pts
• 4x Scout Snipers +Heavy Bolter +Camo cloaks 100pts
  
• 10xTactical marines +Flamer +Missile launcher +Meltabombs - 175pts
• Rhino - 35pts
• 10xTactical marines +Meltagun +Plasma Cannon + Meltabombs - 185pts
  
• Dreadnought (Melta and CCW) with extra armor 120pts

Grand total: 750 pts

As it turns out I'm missing some stuff, but I shall fix it! See what's missing:

• Dreadnought - Still need to paint this.
• Meltagun marine - I wasted my melta gun on one of my commanders so I now have to build another marine and find a melta for it.
• Plasma cannon - the good news is I have assembled 6 marines from my devastator box, but it needs paint as well :D
• Librarian - I'm gonna make a librarian out of a regular marine but give him a paint job to stand out and SCROLLS. The base model is done and it should look good once it's painted, plus it's gonna be a test subject for my terminator librarian marine :)
  

Assault squad done and army update

Here's the last part of my assault squad. I've done the jetpack flames in a somewhat different way, trying to keep the darker portions of the flame between the beginning and the end of it. It was also much faster since the layering wasn't as complicated as the first flames. You can see in the picture below the new flame (left) versus the old one (right) at the two marines in the center.


Also, this just in! ARMY PIX! A brief sum takes this to about 1400 points. I still have one battleforce to assemble and paint as well as a Librarian, Predator, 2 Land Raiders , a Devastator and a Terminator close combat squad which would bring everything past 2500. Wish me luck! ;) Oh and sorry for the dust.. I've been living in a construction yard for the past month or so.

Assault squad & Khador

Here's half of my assault squad with the chapter logo freehanded on the left shoulder.




Also, some work in progress Khador. So far only the reds have been done. Much more work needs to go into them :)

Warmachine planner

I haven't posted for a long time, mainly because I was working on a little "secret" project. It's a small Warmachine army builder, and today I can start showing it to the world.

You can go check it out by clicking here: http://www.forceplanner.com/warmachine.html .

It's still under heavy development, so if you have any feedback on it don't hesitate to comment. But how is this Warhammer related ? The structure behind it is extremely data-driven and a Warhammer version of it should be very easy to make, providing I have all the required data.

Now, on to painting:

• I finished half of my assault squad, pictures incoming when batteries become available.
• Tried some Reaper paints for the first time. Their Olive Green (which is equivalent to GWs Camo Green) has an amazing coverage and flow. I'll play some more with it, but it seems that those paints are winners, at least in some nuances.
  
• Painted the armor plates of a Khador warjack using Vallejo Model Color paints. Very good pigment, good coverage, but vinyl paints dry very strange on the pallet and you tend to get some solid paint on your brush if you're not working fast enough.

Assault squad progress

Here's a shot of my some of my assault marines. 3 of them are almost done, only some minor tweaks and the bases need to be completed. Also, in the extremes are my tries to do burning jetpacks.



Enjoy

Predator DONE

Finally, finished the tank. Next up.. some work and the assault squad I keep postponing because of .. various reasons.




Enjoy :)

Predator WIP

Here's are some pictures of my work in progress Predator. The main chassis is almost done, but it still needs some more work. The turret, guns and sponsoons are also WIP.

The tank's main gun and sponsoons are magnetized so they can be swapped at will.


Enjoy :)

Necron warrior done and Sorscha WIP

I've finished my Necron warrior, together with his base. It has been a slow week as far as painting goes, since I've been busy with other issues.

On a side note, I cleaned up the Sorscha model that came with the Warmachine battlegroup and painted its cape using Vallejo colors. Still working on that :)

Tape masking tutorial

Ever since I saw the first painted tank I wondered how the pros did those impeccable markings and lines on vehicles and other miniatures. After trying several thing (without success) I tried something very basic, but which yielded a stunning result – sticky tape masking.

This tutorial will take you from the newly-cut Rhino top hatch cover to the finished product.

A checklist of stuff that I used for this article is:

• Large flathead brush

• Hobby knife
• Scotch clear sticky tape
• Knarloc Green paint
• Camo Green paint
• Astronomican Grey
• Vallejo White
• GW Skull White spray

First, we prime the top chaos black. After it has dried we proceed to coloring it to the vehicle’s color.

If you desire to have your vehicle black you may choose to skip the painting section entirely, but I still recommend reading it because it details the process of painting a light color over a dark background.

Painting the hatch

My chapter color is Camo Green, so I will need to make my Rhino hatch this color as well. However, Camo Green is a color that doesn’t have good coverage (pretty much like all the light colors in the GW paint range). Because of that, I’ll start covering the entire surface with a foundation paint that is the closest to Camo Green. In our case Knarloc Green. Foundation paints are less saturated colors but have an excellent coverage. Also, I use a large flat head brush for vehicles, because it allows me to paint fast and get very uniform paint coverage, without streaks. Only an airbrush beats a large flathead when painting large areas.

After I get an uniform Knarloc Green cover I start mixing the Camo Green with the Knarloc Green and applying successive layers until I get as close to Camo Green as possible. If I do this the following things happen:

• I combine the good coverage of the foundation paint with the saturated color of Camo Green. This means we get a Camo Green-ish color.
• In case I mess up with the painting there will not be dark streaks below my current paint layer, because the color below the current layer is very close to my actual color.

After each thin coat add a little more Camo Green to the mix. This should be done at least 4-5 times for good results.

After we are content with the color we leave the paint to dry really well (30 mins at least) because acrylics tend to break off the surface if you force them to do something nasty before they are ready. In our example “something nasty” translates by using sticky tape directly on the color.

Masking

For masking we use sticky tape. The best thing that you can use is thin clear sticky tape, because it’s easy to handle and it has a soft glue that can be peeled off easily. Do NOT use bandages, black insulation tape (the one used by electric technicians) or anything else that has a lot of glue, because this will leave a nasty seam in your paint (which you will have a hard time cleaning).

Now, proceed masking the contour of the arrow with sticky tape as shown in the picture.

As you can see, the only non-covered area of the hatch is the actual tactical arrow that we wish to paint. The most difficult part of this is sticking the two vertical pieces of tape, because you have two edges that must be cut and stuck perfectly.

There are a few important things to remember when doing this:

• Avoid touching the sticky side of the tape too much with your fingers. While it’s impossible to handle it without actually touching it, remember that glue will wear off on touch and make the tape edges curl.
• Always make sure that the edges of the tape that are towards the interior of the shape are tightly stuck to the surface.
• Always leave a healthy amount of slack outside the model so you can get a firm grip on the tape when peeling it off. You can stick some pieces paper on the slack so your grip is even better.

Painting the arrow

After everything is done, we start painting the arrow. We paint it in the same way we did the base color of the hatch: starting with the lightest possible foundation Astronomican Grey then mix it with Skull White until we get to the desired white.

Now, you may ask why didn’t I use Undercoat White since it’s also a foundation color. The answer is simple: while the basic composition is the same as with any foundation, Undercoat White has the poorest pigment of all the GW colors AND the chunkiness of a foundation paint, which leads to splats of paint and other unwanted results.

Another method of painting this is to use the Skull White spray paint, but if you choose to do this you need to cover the whole model with tape. Also, the spray color is so powerful it will seem unnatural if you exaggerate with it.

After the paint has dried, proceed in peeling off the tape from the hatches. Do this in a continuous slow motion, and be sure not to do any sudden moves because it may rip the base coat off the model. What you get if everything was done right is very precisely traced arrow that you can proceed to dent in some places to make it more interesting.

For this tutorial I have used spray paint. In the picture above there are two hatches, the left one done with spray painting and the right one painted with the method described above. The difference between them as you can see is minimal and the precision is roughly the same.

Finally you can see the Rhino with both hatches on, for comparison. The Rhino itself has been painted without using foundation paints, hence the slight color difference.

Wrapping it up

No matter what painting method you chose, you will find out that when the two pieces of the hatch come together, the line between them has all but disappeared. If you didn’t glue the hatch in one big piece you can dry-brush the interior edges to give the illusion of chipped paint along the hatch line. This will make the hatch look like a hatch, not some sort of huge boring metal slab.

You can use this method for any model whenever you need something made out of straight lines. If you have small hands and work really quick you can even cut shapes in the sticky tape and make fun stencils.. like smurfs and such..

Note: I have also posted this tutorial on http://www.miniwargaming.com

Necron scarabs done

I finished basing the Necron Scarabs.

Some things I did on the base:
*Ripped arm made out of a scout arm and some green stuff.
*Used gloss varnish on the arm gore to make it look freshly ripped.
*"Cloaked" the scarab posts by painting them with a camo pattern.

Trying my hand on some necrons

I've got a box of Necron Warriors, just to break the pace a bit.. here is what I've started. I'm going to try to make a more interesting base for these guys than the ones I'm used to. There's also a warrior in the works, but he's still far from picture material :)

Chaplain completed

RAWR

Chaplain body and Crozius done

Finally! Now the last 2 pieces remain, and assembly!