Wooden Plank Base Tutorial. 

I am working on a model for competition and want it to really stand out. One of the best (or if done poorly worst) ways to highlight your models is to put it on a truly inspiring base. 

As this is a bigger model and the base size is 120mm (think the size of a DVD) it gives plenty of room for creativity. 

I have always wanted to try a wooden plank road and this was the perfect opportunity. 

First I gathered up the supplies. 

1. 120mm Round Base (came with the model)

2. Wooden stir sticks - I went with the smaller ones as they are more in scale. I picked them up at Hobby Lobby for $2.20. 

3. Air dry clay - The reason for air dry is that you can't bake the plastic base (fumes are bad.....)

5. A sharp knife

6. Bits to fill in the space. 

With the supplies in hand I started by figuring out how many sticks I would need. 

With that sorted out it was time to cut them down to size. To do this I took the model and measured out a few milliliters out from either side to keep it in scale. 

The next step is easy but time consuming. I marked and cut all the other sticks to size. 

Then it was on to dry fitting to make sure (again) that I had enough of them. 

As you can see not all are exactly the same length and that is on purpose. I want the "road" to have a realistic feel to it. 

Up next was breaking out the clay. I picked this stuff up at Hobby Lobby using the 40% off coupon. The really nice thing about this clay is that its nice and moist and really easy to work with. The down side to air dry clay is that it takes about 24 hours to harden and cure. 

Putting the clay on the base was rather simple. I made sure to leave it pretty lumpy to simulate muddy, bad terrain that would need a road of sorts. 

With that step out of the way it was time to lay out the planks. 

The goal was to lay them out in a semi-organized fashion. Enough to make sure it looks like a road but not OCD to the point that it looks unrealistic. 

As a last step I dipped into the bits box to add a bit of eye candy to mud. I used a gears, a shield from a model and the top of a club. 

And now its time to let the whole thing dry and get ready for priming and painting. 

Back from Vacation!


Have you ever not realized that you seriously needed a vacation? Well if you have then you know how I felt. We had set up a 4 day trip to Nashville to visit with friends and wound up staying for almost a week! That being said I hadn't realized how much good a break would do me.

I have been home for a few days and finally found the itch to paint. I have been working on a commission for another Blighted Bather from Privateer Press. I love working on alternate models. Especially fun stuff like this. This customer wanted the skin tone to match the normal Legion of Everblight colors and who am I to say no.

So here she is. All done and ready for her owner. I still chuckle when I look at the rubber ducky like Shredder.

Making a Tournament Tray.

I am heading to Warmachine Weekend in November. It is my first Con, and I am about as excited as a seven year old on Christmas Eve. That being said. I am getting everything together and ready to go. I have about 65 models that still need to be painted. Tokens to get, a bag to carry everything in etc., and trying to save a bit of money is a must. I need a tournament tray and sadly the ones that would fit my armies would run in the $125- $150 range. Stores like Broken Egg Games has amazing trays but I honestly can't justify the cost. So I set out to see if I could do it myself, and still have a high quality tray.

I started where all married men do, by asking my wife. She is a graphic designer and she helped (well made the whole thing really amazing) by laying out a template for slot spacing. I picked up a piece of scrap wood from Ace Hardware for $7. I got a 17"x 21" composite MDF board that had an actual grain on it. My wife then printed out the stencils and marked the board for drilling.

In the picture you can see how the original thought was to have all the model slots around a large middle rectangle that had a card holder in the middle. 

Cutting out the slots was done on a drill press with, 31mm, 41mm and 52mm router bits. Surprisingly there was not too much splintering on the wood during drilling. 

Instead of drilling the center storage of the board I found it made more sense to create a little box. I took a 36" piece of pine cut it to length and used wood glue to secure it to the board.

Then it was time to sand, and sand, and sand..... each individual hole needed to be sanded smooth.

I also rounded the corners a bit as sharp corners not only hurt, but they can chip and splinter.

After sanding and all that work, I realized that I had missed two 50mm slots that I needed. I had to knock out some of the middle box. I decided not to remove the sides and shorten them as removing just the one smaller piece of pine caused a bit of damage that took about 20 minutes of sanding to fix.


Then it was off to the paint shop. I used a black enamel paint that seals and protects the wood. It required a few coats and about 6 hours to cure.

But now I have a tournament tray ready for use that will last for years. The best part? It cost a total of $12 (not including time) and the project took about 10 hours (including my wife's design time) from start to finish.

Lessons Learned Part 2.

It has been quite a while since I posted about what I have learned about airbrushing and painting models in general. As I have not really had much time over the last few weeks to really work on models I feel that it is a good time for reflection.

1. PSI. When I first started airbrushing I think I was spraying at something like 30psi or above though my Patriot 105. It was impossible to do any kind of detail work and I was wasting a good deal of paint. I figured out pretty quickly that with properly thinned paint I had much more control and used so very much less paint. I now spray paint at 10-15psi and inks at around 5psi (inks are another lesson further down the page).

2. Thinning. I was one of the folks that fell for the VMA "you can spray it right out of the bottle" line. You can.... but for better results I have found that mixing VMA at 1:1 is about right. For others like GW, P3, VGC, VMC ect I mix at 3:1 (paint to thinner).

3. Nozzle size. At first I only had the Badger Patriot 105 with its 0.5mm nozzle. It is a true workhorse and I still use it for priming models, large models and terrain. For just about everything else I now use a Badger Khrome. I love the Khrome it has a 0.2mm nozzle and can do some astoundingly fine detail work. I really like being able to get a specific color into a tight area without too much over spray.

4. Trigger Control. Being able to control both the air pressure and the paint flow is a blessing now. When starting out it was more of a curse. Oh how many times did I mess up a perfectly good paint job by not having a good feel for my airbrushes and hitting it just a bit too hard. I would recommend practicing till you "just know" how hard or soft to pull back and push down on the trigger.

5. Inks. I have only recently discovered the amazing power of using inks though an airbrush. I love using its transparency to my advantage. I am a huge fan of being able to build up the highlights with ease and having it look so very seamless. I use both Dalor Rowney - FW and P3 inks. The Dalor Rowney tend to be a bit darker and are great for the first coats to give the model really dark shadows and the P3 are very bright and extremely useful for the last coats to smooth and blend the highlights.

6. Cleaning. Proper maintenance of equipment is not just for airbrushes. However we are talking airbrushes so I might as well stay on topic. I have found that a proper cleaning and lubing will prevent so very many headaches that it is worth the time after every session. For most applications a basic cleaning of taking out the needle, removing the nozzle housing and nozzle cleaning them and the cup of paint, then a thin coat of lube on the needle and screw in parts is all you need. When dealing with inks I have found it very important to break down the entire brush for a deep down cleaning (the stuff just gets everywhere).

7. I'm still a beginner. I feel like I have learned so much over the last year and a half, but have so very much more to learn. My goals over the next 6 months are to learn more traditional blending, and to work with smaller models. I still have no idea how some of the folks on YouTube can paint an entire model with just an airbrush, but hey, ya never know where I will be in a year or so.

Thagrosh Painter of Everblight 2.0

I was able to work on this today. I started with a 5:1 mix of VMC -Dead White and VGC - Stone Grey. This was laid down as the base skin color. I need something whitish that will hold the blue and then purple inks later in the painting process.

After that dried it was time to add the red glow/gore on the torso. I used FW Red ink and shot it through the airbrush at about 5psi.

Then added on P3 Jack Bone for the spikes and nails.

The cape... ah the cape. I used the Jack Bone for the skulls then P3 Blood Tracker Brown, P3 Beast Hide, and another paint that I didn't right down and can't remember for the browns on the cape. Now to let it dry and then I'll start the blending on the cape to really bring out the highlights.

While everything was drying I started working on the base. The stone is drybrushed in stages from black grey up to stone gray. Then I used VMC - Russian Green as the base color and went up to Neon Green to give it a bit of texture. I poured the Still Water in and now that will cure overnight.

Ah yes past the wall of text and now for the pictures.

GW Models for a change.

Well I finally got to working on some 40k models for a friend.

I had been putting these off for a while, but today inspiration struck. I wanted something flashy that will work well in contrast. These are undercoated in an almost neon green bordering on yellow. I am using a kinda modified hairspray technique to get a crackled paint look. I am really digging the purple and green together.

This one should get pretty interesting. I am thinking that any silvers will have to be very very dark, almost like the dark bluing you would see on real rifles. And for the golds I will be using Vallejo Red gold to give it a good dark look. Stay tuned this one is gonna be fun.

Warning! - Another Fraudulent Commission Painting Business - Battle Grounds Wargaming.

This "Company" is based out of Brampton, Canada. They have been taking in peoples models and money. Apparently this has been going on for months. so much so that frustrated clients have taken to forums in the hopes of shedding some public light on the issue.

To make matters worse the owner of this company has joined the forum and began arguing with the customers. One in particular has asked multiple times to have his models returned, not returned with money spent. Just wants his models back. This has not happened. Another customer traded in a GW High Elves army for a painted GW Spaces wolves army. The customer after months received an unpainted Space Wolves army and was told that the High Elves had been sold and could not be returned. No refund was offered but a "painting credit" was given..

When confronted on these issues the owner is now threatening to declare bankruptcy and let everyone else's models just go away (meaning he gets to keep them).

Here is a direct post from the Owner
"I can really careless. I was being nice before to show my sympathy. Like I said this business name means nothing. This business cost me nothing to start and another on will cost me nothing to start. I've explained to everyone in personal detail through email. There is nothing more I can say. So either take your models or be patient and let me paint to them."

So please place an order with this company at your own risk.

Here is the thread if you wish to read it

Dakka Thread