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.

Company of Iron - The Start of Something Fun and Interesting.

For those that don't know CoI is a new skirmish level game from Privateer Press. It looks like a ton of fun and only uses about 10-15 models per side.

I've been pining for a game like this and the best part is that most of the existing models in the PP line up are legal to use in game. I'm hoping that with as low as the model count is I will see many more fully painted armies (well squads really) across the table.

With that in mind I picked up the box set and the special model that came in the new No Quarter magazine. The model is Eilish (something or other) and it's a pretty cool model. It's got a very D&D type feel to it and I wanted to play with colors like Purple.

For a free with magazine model the thing was fairly good quality casting. Think better than Bones and not quite GW hard plastic. It primed well and I was off to the races.

I also decided to use a resin base on this one as I wanted to play a bit with clear resin. I chose a swamp base for this and I think it came out well. I'm really happy with the color scheme I used. The main colors were P3 Pig Iron, Reaper - Russian WWII Olive, and Vallejo Game Color Warlock Purple.

Some much needed Red.

Hey there folks. I got a bit of time tonight to work on the bust. I was able to start on the red metallic of the shoulder armor. I started by masking off the skin with Silly Putty. That might sound weird but it's a fantastic way to mask, it does not leave any residue and is really easy to get into cracks and crevasse. More importantly it is easy to remove with no issues.

I started with Vallejo Model Air - Steel which is a bit bright for what I normally use but for this I want it to stick out a bit more before bringing it down with glazes later. Once that was dry I used P3 - Red ink and did a nice fine layer leaving most of the metallic shine.

Then it was time for the gloss coat to seal in the freshness.

I had a bit more time so I spent the next 2 hours building this guy. It's the latest large model for Khador from Privateer Press and is also totally in hard plastic on sprue. Which was nice but a heck of a lot of pieces for one large model.

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......

Day 2 of the bust.

So the build went well, and it was time to prime. And oh man did I prime. It took a full cup on my Patriot 105 to prime this guy. For this one I am using the Badger Stylrenz black primer. I switched over from Vallejo Surface Primer a few models back and it's like night and day. The difference is like when you go from a rattle can primer to an airbrush primer if that tells you anything about how good this stuff is.

The lessons learned on this day are a few. First and foremost the bust is too big for a normal holder. As it has that bit of round at the bottom I figured it would suffice. Well...... not so much. The bust is a bit heavy on top and it made maneuvering a bit wonky. You will also notice that I went ahead and attached the shoulder piece to the bust. I debated painting it as a separate piece but the way the angels come together it made more sense to go ahead and just put it together first. I did leave the hair off as it is going to be a nice bright red and I figure it will be much easier to just slide it into the slot later and not have to worry about over spray or under spray with taping.

The next step will be to go a head and add the under highlights. As this one is going to be a sickly green I am going to deviate a bit from my standard. I'll be using a series of whites and yellows for the undertones which should (in theory) set up a really nice nasty green when I shoot the green ink onto it.

So here it is. All black primed and curing over night.

A new year and a finished Sigmarine.

Well school is still in full effect (as well as work, and family life), but I was able to carve a few hours out and actually get some painting done. My goal for the year is to get the Warhammer Quest box set painted as well as the Super Dungeon Explorer box and the Rivet Wars set (can you see a pattern emerging?).

So with that in mind I figured I could at least knock out the first model and get the snow ball rolling. Here is the Sigmarine. I really like the gold, blue and red color scheme. And I have decided that yellow will be on every model in the box as a tie in. So here ya go. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when painting the model.

Odds and Ends.

I just noticed that it had been a over a week since my last blog post. As many of you know it's the time of year that those of us with kids love so much. It's been two weeks of getting children ready for the school year, getting my wife ready to go back to school to change careers and as many of you know I'm starting my Junior year of Nursing School (cuz you know life isn't hectic enough).

I guess what I am saying is that my posting schedule will be slowing down over the next few months. That's not to say that I am going away as I am not. I just wont be producing as much content as I have been. Basically I still love you and need you, I sadly don't have as much time to dedicate to you. So I figure when I am able to post I will really want to make it count......

Ok enough of that noise. So this week I am working on several things at once. I have a commission that is in progress on the Minions Blind Walker from Privateer Press. This thing is a huge gator with a crap-ton of bones and candles on it, and for fun they threw on what looks like the Olympic torch. I mean really how can you say no to painting something like that? I am also working on a throw back project of an old metal Khador Destroyer. This is just a nostalgia piece for me, and it will even be based like we did back in the early 2000's (no I'm not going back to the 90s with the horrible green bases!).

So here are some WIP pics. more to follow.

First some very early WIP of the Blind Walker

And here is some later stage WIP on the Destroyer. 

Karchev Completed.

My God, what a fun model to paint. I loved every bit of working on this one.

So without further ado (and a wall of text).......

The Model!