Tournament Tray Update.

Hey sports fans. I just wanted to give you a quick update on the tournament tray. I sealed in the paint job with a gloss varnish and once dried applied a few decals to break up the monotony of an all black space. I'd like to give a huge shout out to my wife for doing the vinyl work.

Here is the finished product. Looking back, if I did it again I would fill in the holes the Forschner bits left in the bottom of the cut outs.

Iron Fang Kovnik. Quick and Dirty.

I needed a quick palette cleanser today. Something I could paint quickly and do a decent job on in about 2 hours or less. I chose this model for its simplicity and frankly nice swaying cape. On the issue of capes, what's the deal with fantasy models always having them? They serve no real purpose and I would imagine that they would actually get in the way while fighting. O.K. now that my mini rant is out of the way let's get back to the painting. This one was pretty simple. I used the red ink technique on the reds. P3 - Pig Iron for the silvers and Vallejo Model Color - Gold for the well... golds. Once everything was good and dry I dipped into my last remaining bottle of GW Devlin Mud and added a big ole dose of it. And viola a model is in the display case and ready to hit the table.

Display Base for the Kodiak.

Alright folks, I have decided to enter the Khador Kodiak into the painting competition at Warmachine Weekend. In looking at past entries from this and other competitions it's clear to me that I need a display base. As I have never actually made a display base I did what we all do in times of need and headed to The Google. I found a few fantastic articles on Massive Voodoo and other sites and a few painters have offered me some great advice.

So with a bit of research in hand and a whole lot of "hold me beer while I try something" I decided it was time to get it done.

I started with the plinth. I picked up a good size piece of wood at Hobby Lobby for about $4, after which my wife suggested that I probably would have been able to get the same piece from a hardware store for free..... I then sanded it down and rounded off the edges. While at the Hobby Lobby I grabbed a package of air dry sculpting clay for the ground on the base. I am using clay for a few reasons. First it allows me to create slopes and uneven terrain, Second it gives me something to ancore the "trees" and "rocks". Last but by no means least its a heck of a lot cheaper than using Green Stuff.

For the trees and rocks I sent my kids outside to look for sticks and bark. In 28mm scale twigs look a lot like a tree. I've let them dry in the basement for a few weeks to get any moister out.

On to assembly. I started with getting my fingers a bit wet to work with the clay. Once it was in place and I was happy with the slopes and stuff. I basically stuck the trees into place. Then added the bark that will simulate rocks. Now its time to let the clay dry for a few days and then it will be time for the paint, bushes, snow etc.

As a last thought. The more I look at the base, the more I am thinking of removing the front piece of bark and going with maybe some run off water from melting snow.

Khador Kodiak.

I painted one about 5 years ago, when I had first started Warmachine. I hadn't ever picked up an airbrush at at point and it was a used model that looked like someone had put together with some sort of two part epoxy.

Here is what it looked like when I was finished with it. At the time I hadn't figured out highlights, shading etc. It was all base coat, heavy wash, varnish and done.

Let's fast forward to today. I picked up another Kodiak as I really like the model and wanted to try again. Some people like to strip and repaint models. Personally I like to keep them as a reminder of how far (or sometimes not) I have come with my painting.

Here is the Kodiak I have been working on this week. The paint job is done. I have to work on a base for it and I think I am going to enter it into the P3 competition at Warmachine Weekend this year. Now I just have to learn and execute a display base worthy of the model.

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.

Khador Berserker - Finished.

This was a quick project, and a good pallet cleanser. Now onto units of army mans, cuz nothing says fun like painting 10 man squads....

Have some pics for your trouble.

Khador Berserker 1.0

This is a really old model. I think it might even have been one of the original releases from Privateer Press back in the old days of Warmachine Mark I.

That being said, its still made out of white metal. It is  2lbs of awesomeness. I started with the usual as in priming with a medium grey. I left the primer to cure over night. Then it was time for the undercoats. I have shown this before, I start with Vallejo Model Color Black/Grey, then add Vallejo Game Color Stone Grey for the highlights. Once dry I use FW Red ink to give it a good dark base of red. Then its on to the second highlights. I used Vallejo Model Color Bright Flesh and it was off to the second red ink this time using P3 Red Ink.

On to the details. I went back over some surfaces with VMC Black Grey (on the shoulder pads etc.), added P3 Pig Iron for the base silvers and VAM Old Gold and VMC Brass.

So here is where we are now. Just the highlights and cleanup is left to do. Not bad for about 6 hours on a Sunday.