Bit of an unplanned project this one... when moving some models around in my display case, my Imperial Knight fell off its base! I wasn't very upset by this; I never really liked how I originally based the Knight anyway! (original base can be seen here) What this occurrence allowed, though, was for me to strip the base down and do something better!
I wanted to go with an urban rubble style base and I used the below video as inspiration.
Using the above video in combination with the ForgeWorld modelling masterclass book, I followed the steps detailed below:
Step 1: To get some additional verticality, I glued some spare lozenge shaped bases onto the Knight base. These were placed where the Knights feet sit on the base. Next up I covered the base with DAS modelling clay and, whilst the clay was still pliable, I placed various items of detail such as a Bolt Gun, Rhino door, Chaos Marine backpack.
Step 2: I covered the base with PVA and applied various sizes of grit, stones and sand to create the main texture on the base. Once the initial cover of PVA had dried, I applied a further diluted coat to fix everything in place.
Step 3: I primed the base with Vallejo Black Primer through the airbrush. I then picked out some details with Vallejo Grey Primer.
Step 4: On to the painting! To match the colours used for my Space Marine army, I used Mournfang Brown as the main colour. I then used various lighter/darker shades around the base.
Step 5: Painting the details. I airbrushed the rocks and rubble with Mechanicus Standard Grey and highlighted them with Dawstone and Administratum Grey. The skulls were painted Zandri Dust and highlighted with Ushabti Bone and Screaming Skull. The Rhino door and white details on the Storm Shield were painted Celestra Grey and highlighted Ulthuan Grey and White Scar. The various Space Marine details were painted to represent the colours of the Chaos army my friend uses - Khorne Red and then highlighted with Wazdakka Red and Squig Orange.
Finally, I airbrushed a very diluted mix of Steel Legion Drab and water to represent dried dust. This helped tie all the details together prior to shading and highlighting the base. To protect the base and prepare if for shading I applied airbrushed a couple of coats of Vallejo Gloss Varnish.
The following steps will involve using Brown and Black washes over the gloss varnish. Once those have dried, I will drybrush the various details to bring the colours back up and provide more contract. Further weathering will be applied before, finally, sealing the base with matte varnish.
Quick post covering what I've progressed whilst working away.
Being away from home sucks for many reasons. In terms of hobby progress through, it has meant that my progress has been stopped in its tracks as I only have a few hours each Sunday to get my 'hobby on'.
A couple of weeks ago I picked up the Start Collecting Sylvaneth box with a view of providing the opportunity for away from home hobby progress. I'm happy to say that its been a success! On my first week away I built 16 Dryads and last week I base coated and shaded the armour on some Stormcast Eternals.
Whilst I'm at the mercy of varying hotel rooms and specifically the quality of lighting; I think I have enough models to facilitate hobby progress whilst away from home... and that's the goal :)
Whilst on annual leave a couple of weeks back my wife and I dropped in to Warhammer World. This was my 4th visit and my wife's first. I haven't visited since GW re-modeled the entrance and exhibition areas; so was very excited to see how it had changed.
The visit was also a week before my birthday and so my wife was armed with her credit card. At one point I had to refuse her offer to buy me the exclusive Warhammer World Space Marine tank bundle. Yep, she's a keeper! Whilst on the face of it, refusing such an offer would be bonkers, I can't complain about the haul I did leave Warhammer World with (and its nice to leave something for me to pick up next time I visit!):
Since reading the initial Horus Heresy novels last year I have been captivated by Loken and Abaddon. Therefor when I had the chance to pick up whichever HH Character Series I desired, since there is no Sanguinius (yet), it was an easy choice!
The next item on my shopping list, and a book I've wanted to pick up ever since I bought Volume One in the series, was the Imperial Armour Model Masterclass Volume Two. I haven't had the chance to analyse the techniques included in this volume in any detail yet but I'm looking forward to testing out the techniques and following that, during future projects.
Finally, I picked up two of the exclusive Warhammer World miniatures. As I seem to have 'accidentally' started a Stormcast Eternals army (I have the Storm of Sigmar starter set), I figured the Errant-Questor would be a good purchase. Alongside him, I've always wanted a Josef Bugman model... so he ended up in the basket as well!
Overall it was a fantastic day out. I took lots of photos, bought some cool swag and drank some nice ales at the home of GW. This post is the first in a small series of 5. The following 4 posts will cover photos from the Exhibition Centre- which is bloomin' epic!
Todays post centres on my final Blood Angels test mode which I've been working on this week. My goal was to reach a point where I had tested and documented the main steps in the process I will follow to paint my Blood Angels.
The process steps are detailed below:
Undercoat
Airbrush Vallejo black.
Airbrush Vallejo grey (zenithal highlight)
Basecoat
Airbrush GW Air Mephiston Red
Airbrush GW Air Evil Sunz Scarlet (zenithal highlight)
Paint details with GW/Vallejo base paints
Paint base with GW Steel Legion Drab.
Paint lighter areas of base with mix of GW Steel Legion Drab + GW Skull White
Pick out individual details on base with base colours
Apply gloss varnish
Apply decals
Seal decals
Shade
Apply brown/black oil wash to model and base
Tidy up shade with white spirit
Apply washes of thinned GW Steel Legion Drab mixed with earth coloured weathering powders to recesses on the base and lower areas of the model
Highlights
Highlight details on the model
Dry brush base with various earth coloured paints e.g. GW Tallarn Sand
Tidy up base
Seal
Vallejo Satin varnish
This process has been formulated from techniques observed on Youtube and from within the ForgeWorld Modelling Masterclass Volume 1 book. The scheme has been designed to combine elements of the Blood Angels livery from both 30K and 40K- hence the gold hand and other areas. Whilst the quality of the model isn't the highest (which wasn't part of my objectives), I feel as though I have sufficiently tested and learned enough about the scheme to move forward with starting on my army. The only tweak I will make is around the base. I didn't water down the GW Steel Legion Drab enough and so the base isn't to the quality I am trying to achieve (I want to get as close to the base on my Contemptor Dreadnought as possible- as it looks awesome!).
Next up I will be starting to work on my Blood Angels units... at last!
After my experimenting with Blood Angels test model, this week I have mostly been experimenting with bases! The bases photo'd in this post all use GW texture/dry paint combinations and basing stones.
I haven't completely settled on which colour I will go with for my Blood Angels although I'm leaning towards the 'urban' Astrogranite/Longbeard Grey combination. I'm also not entirely certain whether I will use the texture paints as I found them quite hard to apply. no matter that decision, it has been very useful to built this suite of test bases. No matter which style I choose for the BAs, I will retain these testers for any future projects.
Last night I spent some time working on further Blood Angels test models. Following my post earlier this week, I wanted to spent some time experimenting with a technique which would be quicker to paint and could result in a higher standard of paint job! a.k.a. a win/win!
So, these three, roughly, follow the same base coating/washing process (with some slight differences on each model, which I cover below):
As I mentioned in a previous post, I ordered some Tempestus Scion heads for use on the Land Speeder Storm model I am currently building. These arrived this afternoon so this post covers what they look like 'in situ'. I haven't yet completed removing all of flash and mould lines so please excuse the messy plastic work in these close up photos. I hope you agree that they look pretty awesome and really do add to the aesthetic I'm trying to achieve with unit/model.
For most of us (unless your name is Carl Tuttle [from the Independent Characters]!) hobbying, and specifically it's cost, needs to be considered in the context of our adult lives. e.g. if I spend £100 on a boxed game of Warhammer Quest, Betrayal at Calth, Renegade etc. what cool thing will I be unable to do with my partner, or what other more essential 'stuff' will I be unable to purchase.
As I've mentioned in a couple of posts, 2016 is the year I get married. Weddings and honeymoons are expensive. Not only is my monthly pot of 'spending 'money' smaller than it has been in the past, it will likely always remain that way as, ultimately, I need to pay my way and would prefer to have the ability to take my Fiancee/future Mrs. Banjo on surprise holidays (or more local adventures to the pub). The challenge which needs to be considered is, I am passionate about Warhammer... which as we know, is a rather expensive hobby... and it is much easier to buy models than dedicate the time required to prep/build/paint them.
Taking this (self imposed) limitation into consideration, and bearing in mind just how easy it can be to end up with a load of boxed models which will most likely remain in that state for years, I have recently taken to clearing out a lot of miniatures. The goal is to free up cash to fund my next project, Blood Angels and keep my hobbying back log 'lean'. This BA force, as with all that I undertake moving forward, will be of a smaller scale than my Space Marine army. For example, for Blood Angels I will focus on the fast attack/combat specialisation of that Chapter and will built a 1500 point (fluffy) list consisting of as many specialised Blood Angel miniatures as possible. I will cover my planned list in an upcoming post.
Interestingly, to co-incide (or maybe kick-start this clear out) with this action I watched a good video by TableTop Minions titles 'Dont Be A Warming Hoarder' (linked below) and whilst my backlog of models is much smaller than Atom Smasher's (host of the video), I can relate to the point he is raising. I guess the message is; be lean with you hobbying, be agile and don't waste money. This will be my mantra with hobbying from now on.
Having written all this, yesterday I was in Warhammer Bath and to be honest, I don't quite understand how I exfilled the store without a copy of Warhammer Quest under my arm.
The passionate mind is not logical... so lets see how these grand plans play themselves out shall we? :)
Immersing ones self into this hobby of ours is a wonderful, but also potentially hazardous journey. Let me explain... so, as mentioned previously in my post about painting progress, momentum and how easy it can be to get bogged down, I feel that there is a huge 'mental' element involved in painting/hobbying for a lot of us toy soldier collectors. The exposure to, whether on Blogs or Facebook groups for example, gorgeously painted models and thus the ability which many experienced hobbyists possess can be quite off putting if compared to ones own standards (if they aren't quite as good).
I was having a conversation in the pub recently where I was showing a couple of non hobbyists work chums my work (specifically my Cypher and Drod Pod) via photos on my iPad. This conversation took place a good 4 or 5 pints in to the evening so was rather lively but I remember saying that although objectively I am happy with my standard and I can see that my ability is slowly improving, on one level I am always disappointed with my models and that they are a million miles away from the quality of some painters. I cant imagine that I am alone in feeling this way and so find it fascinating that something which we love doing can elicit such contrary feelings.
Of course the flip side of any potential negative effects of getting balls deep in to the hobby is that there is no limit to the potential inspiration one can find out there on the t'interwebs. All our hobby blogs, Facebook groups, gaming clubs etc are such a wonderful source of ideas, tips/tricks and general awesomeness.
Personally I love seeing what others create and the blog scene is fantastic and I would love to hear anyone's thoughts or experiences relating to what I have written in this post.
I've noticed that a lot of hobbyists choose to add weathering effects to their models. This is something I've never really done- my first steps being to experiment on my recently completed Rhino, Predator and Thunderfire Cannon. I do however want to delve deeper into this area as I think it can be one of those finish touches (alongside decals) which really pull an army together.
Whislt researching how to add weathering effects I discovered that there are many techniques out there! some which involve very complicated processes (for example using hair spray on your models)... which to be honest I cant be arsed with, so the below technique looks like the way I'm going to go.
If anyone has any feedback, thoughts or tips on weathering please leave a comment.
