Let's talk Terrain.

Over the last few years, some tabletop games have been moving over to using 2D terrain for wargaming. While I think it's a great for tournament organizers in so much that it's much cheaper, faster to setup and frankly less taxing on your painted models, I feel that it just looks and feels less immersive in the world that we create through our games. With this in mind, I set about trying to find great looking pieces of terrain that were also budget friendly.  If you have ever searched for resin terrain you will know just how expensive it can be, I stumbled upon Table Top World and I was just blown away. Their pricing is actually quite reasonable and the pieces are incredibly detailed (even the insides had details added!).

I chose the Inn as my first piece, mostly because I really like the look, and secondly because it was half off on Black Friday.

So here is what the resin looked liked naked. I found no mold lines and the only bubbles were tiny and on the bottom where no one will ever see them.

After a nice bath in warm water and Dawn dish soap to remove any leftover mold release, it was time to prime. I used Badger Stylrenze black primer on this (like everything else really), and let the primer cure for 24 hours. I then used Vallejo - Game Color Pure White to zenithal highlight before painting. I love this technique as it shows you right were your highlights and shadows need to be.

I started with the roof. I wanted to achieve an almost thatch feel to it, even though it's set up as wooden boards I figured the same type of coloration would really add to the overall look. For this, I started with Vallejo Model Color - German Camo - Medium Brown. for the exposed boards under the roof I used P3 Bloodstone. I carried the same color for the exposed wood on the sides of the house in these same colors. For the stone, I started with 3:1 Vallejo Model Color - Black Grey: to Vallejo Game Color - Stone Grey. I worked it up from there to a dry brush of 1:1 in the same colors.

After that t was time for the first wash. I used a basic wash of GW - Agrax Eathshade. On a model I'd generally use an oil wash, but this is a terrain piece and frankly, I didn't feel like varnishing and waiting and redoing the varnish etc.

After that, it basically became a matter of finishing up the details. I do want to speak to the windows as this was something completely new to me. I wanted to give it a reflective look but knew a metallic paint would not work. I found a solution by starting with P3 - Menoth White Highlight, and then glazing with Army Painter - Blue ink. I am really happy with the result. I think it gives it a good depth of color and a bit of a reflective look without overpowering the metal details in the windows. The windows metals and the door hinges were done with P3 - Pig Iron.

And here is the final product. I am really happy with this one. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Busting out!

Ok silly title aside.... I got a bit of work done on the orc bust today.

The first thing to do was set up where I wanted the highlights to be, for a model this size I really just used where the light fell on the model, which made it rather easy. I used Vallejo Game Color - Pure White for this one. I figured with the greens and yellows that were to be applied I did not want to go with a rosy skin town for the highlights.

Once that was dry it was time for the first ink layer. For this I used FW Artists inks - Green. Using the airbrush set at a low psi (about 8) I started just moving it around till I got the saturation I was looking for. The hard part is to get coverage without going too dark and covering up the highlights while making sure you get full coverage on the model. 

This is what it looked like after the first green was applied. You can see that there is a bit of highlight and some dark but it's not terribly differentiated. Again I used the Pure white to touch up the highlights 

Then it was time to apply the second layer of green. I wanted something a bit lighter than just a standard green so I mixed FW- Yellow with the FW-Green and thinned it to just about a water consistency. Which leaves us here. 

After that it was time to put on the first coat of Gloss Varnish and let it cure over night. 

Oh and I did a bit of work on the hair. Which if we are honest kinda looks like a red worm right now......

Kharchev 1.0

I was debating holding my next post for a finished model, but I have been having so much fun working on this one that I just wanted to share.

If you are not familiar with the Privater Press War Machine Line. This is Kharchev. He is both a big stompy robot (aka War Jack) and a War Caster. Basically he is all the cool things that draws one to the game.

First things first. The model is all metal and big with a capital B for something in all metal. Think about the same size as the old GW Daemon Prince big metal model for reference.

With that in mind, I started of course by removing all the flash and mold lines from each piece of the model. Then it was on to pinning, a lot of pinning.....

With that done I moved on to pinning the model to the base and primed with Vallejo Surface Primer - Grey. Once the primer was cured I coated the model with Vallejo Model Color Grey/Black, Then did the first under highlights using stone grey. I then shot the first red inks using FW - Red. Once that was dry I did the second under highlight using a mix of Vallejo Model Color - Flat Flesh and Vallejo Game Color - Red at a ratio of 10:1. Then I shot the second ink using P3 - Red ink.

It was then time to gloss coat to seal in the freshness. Once the gloss coat was cured I started working on the blacks that would both be on the finished model and for an undercoat to the silvers. Again I used Vallejo Model Color - Black/Grey. Once the tedious process of blacking was completed it was on to the brown undercoat for the golds. I used Vallejo Game Color - Beasty Brown. For the next step I needed to decided what gold I wanted on the model. I decided to go with something a bit darker, so I grabbed Vallejo Model Color - Bronze as a base. Then it was onto the silvers. Again I wanted something darker to start with so I chose P3 - Pig Iron.

Once all that was done I worked on his tiny little half face. Which is a great focal point on the model as its a huge contrast to the big shiny robot body. I started with Reaper - Olive Green as the undertone. then glazed Vallejo Model Color - Bright Flesh. Then I did a very light glaze of purple to give the skin tone a bit more depth, and highlighted back up to Bright Flesh. With all that work done, It was time to gloss coat it again.

Then I added the oil washes. For this model I did two. I used a black and Burnt Umber, The black was used on the reds and silvers, and the Burnt Umber on the golds.

So that's were we leave off. The only things left are to add the highlights and shades to the silvers and golds, work on the base, and add the snow effect.

A quick pallet cleanser.

I have so many things that are about to happen in real life right now, that I am busting my butt to get the painting backlog out of the way. I sat down to paint and wanted something fast and fun to do. As i scanned the models I had primed and ready to go the Privateer Press - Khador Spriggen just jumped out at me (not literally, that would just be weird).

Now for those that don't know, Privateer Press uses PVC for most of there "plastic" models. The mold lines are terrible and can be in some really hard to reach places. Unfortunately when trying to clean mold lines off of PVC you need a really sharp knife and a really steady hand or you will gauge chunks out of the models. With this in mind, I through caution to the wind and said "To heck with it!" and just started painting.

I kept the paint job simple but I think it works.

On a side note this is the first time I used Vallejo Game Air - Bronze and I am quite underwhelmed. The shine is just not there and it has a bit of an almost green hue.

But hey, it's another model painted so it's all good.

Bombardier Bombshell 2.0

I let the primer cure overnight and it was time to get some paint on the model.

I started with VMC - Black/Grey to set the base color as dark as I am comfortable (see previous rants about using strait black).  Then moved on to the under highlights with VGC - Stone Grey.

As you can see I went really heavy on the highlights. I want the red to really pop on this one so the brighter I go now, the more Cherry Red it will be when complete. 

I did a quick rinse of the airbrush while the paint dried and then it was time for the first red ink to go on. 

Once that was in place, The second highlight of VMC - Flat Flesh Tone was applied to give the highlights a warmer feeling. 

And onto to the second coat of red ink. 

After the ink dried (and that's critical) I gave the whole thing a heafty dose of Testor's Gloss Varnish.

And now we wait for the gloss to dry and cure. Next up will be the browns and base colors for all the fiddly bits and details.

The Countdown to WMW Continues........

In my quest to get fully painted for Warmachine Weekend. I have been working on getting all the models needed to at least a table top standard. What is table top you ask? Well to me its all about the 3 foot rule. As models on the table are seen from about thee feet away its all about looking good from that perspective. This is wildly different from a competition or display piece. A table top standard model usually take about 1-2 hours per and largly consists of blocking in your main color, contrast color and accents. Followed by a heavy wash and a dry-brushing of the highlights. Display pieces and especial competition models can take hundreds of hours. And then you though on the basing and on and on.

So with that in mind, and seeing as I only have another 4 days to be done. It's time for some fast and dirty painting.

Here are 2 units of Khador Greylords. As they are the same models in two seperate units I wanted a way to not only speed paint them but be able to see which are which at a glance. I kept the color schemes the same (again for speed. Seeing a pattern here?) and use the base arc markings to differentiate the two. One unit has my standard red stripes the other I went with a neon green.

As an addition speed boost I worked on the Koldon Lord at the same time. As he is kinda-sorta a grey lord he shares quite a few of the same features/colors.

So here is what I have for table top on these two units and the solo. The pictures were just taken with my phone on the painting table as I didn't feel like they were worthy of the light box and the good camera, nor did I want to spend the time in editing photos for these.

In case you are wondering, this leaves me with about 20 models to go before I leave Thursday morning!. 

Happy painting everyone, You know I will be!