How To Improve Your Hobby Skills Through Sculpting 1 – Tools & Putties
Get started sculpting with an introduction to tools and greenstuff from Mr Pink of the How to Sculpt Miniatures series and blog Modern Synthesist.
All posts filed under: Articles
Painting AdMech Part 2 – The White Sections
Hey, everyone! Ben here again from Moosehead Studios with the second and final part of my painting AdMech articles (for now, at least). In this article, I am going to cover the second-largest section of my Skitarii Vanguard and Rangers: the white sections. If you missed the first article it is where I painted the blue sections. White is one of the most difficult colors to paint, right up there with yellow and black. What I have discovered works best for me is to build up layers on whatever it is that I am painting and trick the eye into believing that what it is seeing on the model is pure white cleverly applied instead of several layers of different colors built on top of each other. And I can’t stress this enough when painting white: it is always better to apply several thinned layers of paint instead of one thick. I mean, this is the cardinal rule of painting as spoken by the one and only Duncan Rhodes (@WHTV_Dunc on Twitter). When you are …
Book Review: Color Theory by Patti Mollica
While doing research for my painting basics post, I pulled out a book I’ve had on color theory. After reading through it, I thought I would provide a book review and my takeaways from this book. Color Theory by Patti Mollica is a fairly short but dense book in the Artist’s Library Series aimed at more traditional artists. What I mean by this is that the colors she mentions and tools used are the typical set used by canvas painters. So while the topic of learning color theory is helpful, we just need to translate it into painting miniatures. I am listing learning color theory as one of the things to help painters improve. By learning how colors interact and mix, you can create moods and feeling, or create focus to particular areas of the model. Book Contents At only 52 pages, it is easy to skim through Color Theory and get a sense of what it offers. Patti breaks the book down into five sections: the history of color, color basics, pigments & paints, communicating with …
How to Improve Your Hobby Building Skills
In a rush of excitement, you rip open your brand new model kit. While thrown back at first by the sheer number of tiny pieces, you smash it all together with glue, slap paint everywhere you can, and plunk it on the table top. But at some point, you realize that you are unhappy with how it looks, especially compared to your buddies models. If you are new getting into the hobby, or a long timer gamer wanting to improve the look of your army, then you understand the frustration of trying to figure out what to work on. Or comprehend all these terms thrown about by veteran hobbyists. This is why I put together this list of ways to improve your hobby skills. I’ve created the series From Beginner to Happy to get you to the point of being happy with your hobby skills. While this won’t be an exhaustive guide to all the hobby basics, I made an overview of topics you can work on to bring your models from 3-color minimum, so something you are happy to …
Hobby Spend Resolutions of 2017
I know I already talked a bit about my hobby goals for the year, but after talking with a few guys on Twitter about not buying any new kits, I wanted to revisit it here. Thus I present my Hobby Spend Resolutions of 2017. As some of you may know, I have my version of the Closet of Doom (TM) with way too many kits that need to be built. To combat this pile of gray sprues, keep me motivated to finish more projects, and yet reward myself for completing mini-milestones I have put together the following plan. We pretend that Closet of Doom has been trademarked by the great Mordian7th as he is the first to have used the word. I’ve broken down each of my major projects into Must Finish and Wish List. There are more things in my box of sprues than are on the Must Finish list, but I figured this would be an excellent way to make it easier to accomplish some smaller goals first. Ork Dead Mob Must Finish …
Guide to Painting Black – How to Paint Black Cloth and Armor
I’ve received the question on how to paint black a number of times so a few weeks back I put the question to the greater community and have compiled this guide to painting black armor and clothing. I broke this guide down into a few different sections: background/color theory of black, general tips on painting black, three different methods to paint black, and further reading with tutorials by other bloggers. Want this as a PDF? I took the extra time on this post to create an eBook for you to download and take with you. Check out the form at the bottom of the post to grab it. So let’s jump in! What is Black and Why is it Hard? What makes black such a hard color to paint? Painters suffer from the opposite problem as painting white: it is hard to shade black. Reds, blues, yellows, they can all be shaded and highlighted. You can change the tone or saturation by mixing in other colors. Black, well is black. So while you can’t shade …
5 Steps to Creating an Inspiring Studio Space in your home
Adding an artistic touch to your life can make a big difference considering the quality of your overall lifestyle. Therefore, having a place to commit to your own artistic ideals can mean a lot when days are busy and stressful. Also, depending on whether you’re a professional, semi-professional or an amateur artist, you’ll have to invest and organize this space accordingly. This guest post comes from Emma who is blogger based in Australia. While she comes from outside our hobby niche, she has some great insight on creating artisitc spaces and DIY. If you want to see more, check out the links to her bio at the bottom. For professionals, their own studio will act as their home office while those who enjoy such creativity as a hobby can recreate their own little sanctuary with few helpful pieces of advice. For hobbyists, a dedicated space reduces the barrier to getting some extra painting done and keeping the rest of the house happy. 1. Plan your budget The budget for your perfect studio space won’t be the same …
My Favorite Board Games
While I haven’t been able to play a game of 40k in many years, I have built up a good collection of board games that I love playing with my family. Some are fun and quick games, others are epic times when family visits for the holidays. While some of these are more common than others, I’ve added all the games we have played multiple times and really enjoy. A few others have been dudes, or just way too much setup time. What’s great about most of these games is that they are fairly easy to learn and get playing. This is an important factor with two little boys in the house who want to “help.” 🙂 Note: The links below are affiliate links to Amazon. There is no price difference to you, but I do earn a small commission if you buy it. This is how I pay for hosting services and keep this site alive, so if you want an awesome game and support Broken Paintbrush, I would appreciate the clicks! These games …
Importance of Community
I had originally titled this post “Why I Comment” but decided there was more to it than just leaving a note on other blogs. Instead, I want to speak of the importance of the community, in particular, the importance of the online hobby community. As this blog is nearing its 10th birthday, I’ve had a lot of up and downs with both the hobby as well as the blog. The thing that has sustained me through so many low times is the fantastic community of online hobbyists. Shortly after starting the blog (named 14th Grand Company at the time) I joined an online group doing the Tale of Even More Painters. We had a monthly challenge to paint a particular type of unit for our armies. It was a productive time, but more importantly, it was a chance to build roots into the community. What got me thinking about all of this, and finally write this post, was one of the responses to a survey I sent to all the Dreadtober participants. “People not helping other …
Community Questions: Painting Tips for Black and White
Mixing it up a bit today. Rather than share a post with you, I’m looking for your thoughts on painting the ‘hard’ colors: Black and White. As I’ve been building up the blog, I’ll get a ping on Facebook or email with hobby questions, and the one I get the most is how to paint black or how to paint white. Both are hard colors in the sense of highlighting or shading without it looking too harsh. So I turn to you, my awesome readers. What are your favorite tips for painting black or white? Post them in the comments below so everyone can learn. Have a tutorial as well? Post the link!
Conversion Points in Painting Scores: Why They Should Pass Into History
Good morning, class. In today’s “History of Miniature Wargaming†lesson we’re going to talk about a concept called, “Conversion Points†and how they factored into painting scores, why this approach was introduced, and how some forward thinking event organizers led the charge to make the conversion points a thing of the past. Much like the fossil fuels used in the 20th and 21st centuries, conversion points were added into painting scores for a number of really great reasons but as miniature model technology improved the need for them to be present was eventually phased out. To extend the metaphor, Zero Point technology made oil based industry obsolete. And like ZPT and the Oil Wars, conversion points led to massive conflicts before their use was deemed obsolete. For the next eight hours (Solar Standard) we’ll be discussing this topic and the impact it had on the history of competitive play in relation to miniature wargaming… I jest, of course. There probably won’t be a war. But this blog post really is about how conversion points in …
Painting Blue AdMech
Hi there fellow hobbyists and welcome to the inaugural “Painting With The Moose†article! Ben from Moose Studios joins Broken Paintbrush as a guest writer with this great tutorial on painting blue AdMech. His social accounts are at the bottom, so welcome Ben and give him a follow! In the next few minutes, I will break down how I achieve the blue paint scheme that I have chosen for my Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation. Before I begin any painting project, there are a few steps that I go through that save me some time and headache as the project progresses. Painting In Sub-Assemblies First, I always paint my models in sub-assemblies. For this project, I separated the individual models into four parts: torsos, heads, legs, and arms. All you need to do this is an inexpensive box of push pins. I treated myself and sprung for the jumbo push pins. This makes it easy to hold and paint without actually touching the model. Trust me when I say that once you do this, it will …