Slow and steady wins the race!

With nursing school, my kids all in school, and my wife in school as well (let's not forget about working while we are at it!). It's been a rare gem to find time to paint.

That being said, clients must be a priority as well. I started working on a clients Privateer Press, Legion model called the Strider Death Stalker. First thing to know that this model is really cool. It has just enough detail to make it interesting, without going overboard and making it a burden to paint and look at. The simplicity of the model also means that doing it right comes down to highlights shading and color choices (but don't they all really?).

To start the models were cleaned and pins were set into place. The nice thing about these little gems of white metal is the fact that it's only two pieces. So the whole body and the bow arm. I decided to paint them separately, as the bow would get in the way of about 1/3 of the body for painting (and of course it's the detail part!). Pins also were put into the feet to attach to the base later.

Ah yes the bases..... I wanted to create something special for these. As they are on 30mm bases there isn't all that much room to tell a story. The client asked for ice theme and I love me some crushed glass. I started out with Secret Weapons Miniature - Swamp bases as they suit my purpose fantastically. They have tree stumps and most importantly a deep lip which makes poring resin a non-messy breeze.

So here are some WIP shots. Stay tuned for more next week.

Please note the resin is still drying on the base so it looks like white soup at this point. 

Kommander Harkevich - The Iron Wolf.

Well some of us are not at Gen Con, and still have painting to get done. I have always liked this model and like so many others before it had never really had a reason to get it painted. Now I am kicking myself a bit because of how much fun and how seemingly easy it was to get him looking good. As a side note this one came together pretty quickly. I think I did this in less than 4 hours. So score.

Ok enough talk look at the shiny pictures.....

Helldrake you say?

So the Helldrake is coming along quite nicely, now that the base is finally looking like I want it to. The first layers of weathering have been added and are drying. Soon it will be time to add a bit of pigments and call this one done.

I'm also really happy that I finally found a use for the monoliths I got from Secret Weapons Miniatures about 5 years ago......

So here are a bunch of pictures to make up for not posting about this model in a while.

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. 

Our very first video tutorial!

Today is a good day! We shot our first YouTube tutorial. We wanted to start out with something easy and fun, so naturally we went with crushed glass for snow effects. You have seen me use this stuff on several models, and I have been asked repeatedly how to use it.

So please take a moment to watch the video and please leave some feedback so that we can get better!

Enjoy.