All posts filed under: Articles

Cool Tools: Testors Model Master Plastic Glue

Published by Joe B

For anyone getting started in the hobby of building plastic miniatures you need three things: clippers, knife, and plastic glue. These things are so basic to our hobby that many of use still use the same tools and glue that we started with, often times the Games Workshop glue for those that started with their models. For me, I started this hobby in the model airplane world which is ruled by Testors, well at least at the big box stores in the US. Those of you who followed a similar path probably remember the tubes of doom that Testors sold as their plastic glue, think of those tiny tubes of super glue, but much bigger, and much messier. Fortunately at some point I bought the Model Master line of plastic glue instead that came in a nice applicator bottle and a metal tip. This changed everything. The tiny metal tip allowed precises control of where the glue would go, and since it wasn’t in a crinkly, old tube, it is also very easy to control …

Tutorial: How to Paint A Broodlord from Hive Fleet Behemoth

Published by Joe B

So after a good reception of my tutorial on painting a Hive Fleet Behemoth Carnifex, I’ve put together how I painted the Broodlord from the Shield of Baal box. My goal with these tutorials is two fold: first to document how I painted the model so I can repeat it for additional units in the army, and second, is to give back to the community. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers that I want to contribute my little piece to the greater whole. So if you are looking to paint up a Behemoth swarm, or just looking for ideas/inspiration for your own army, check out the steps below and see how straight forward it is to paint a decentÂ looking army. Broodlord Step 1 – Primer The first step I have been doing with all my models is a two-stage primer. First I give it a nice coating of black followed by an top over-spray of white. The black undercoat provides a first level of shadows, any time I have tried to prime just …

25mm to 32mm Conversion Ring Review

Published by Joe B

With Games Works change to Space Marine base sizes, I bought a set of Secret Weapon Miniatures 32mm Conversion Ring set to try out. I really like the end result, but the process was a bit of a pain so I figured it might be worth a tutorial post. As with any molded product it is first important to clean off any flash. The rings had a few sections of longer flash like the picture below, but overall were well done. The main area that needed trimming was the bottom edge of each piece so it didn’t interfere with the original base. Next up, I needed to drill out the hole a bit larger as it didn’t seem to be molded deep enough. I found a drill bit that fit within the hole and then used the xacto knife to round out the front edge. The big issue I had with the 32mm conversion rings are that they didn’t fit tightly against the base. To tighten it down a bit I sliced off a small …

Tale of Painters How to Paint Death Company

Good Reads 6 with a focus on painting tutorials

Published by Joe B

Now that moving is settling down and Nurgle’sÂ plague has ravaged our house, I can get back to posting up some great blog articles I have found around the net. This week I’m trying something a bit different. Rather than using justÂ posts from the last week I’ve been gathers themÂ into different categories on Trello such as the one here for painting tutorials. I’m hoping this does two things: reduces the stress on me to post every week, and provide more focused reading for my readers. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Let’s start off with Tale of Painters‘ How to Paint Blood Angles Death Company. Stahly has a great, very in depth tutorial on how he painted his Death Company marines. Black can be deceptively difficult to paint so his tutorial is helpful for any black armored soldier. Next up Adam on Sprue Grey has a great tutorial on painting his Farseer. Not only does Adam give some great tips on painting the robes and free-hand designs, he also provides some background …

Cool Tools: Wet Palette

Published by Joe B

A tool you will hear from many different painters in our hobby is the mighty wet palette. As much as it sounds like the start of some juvenile joke, a wet palette is simple a container holding a sponge with a paper materialÂ sitting on top. The sponge is kept full of water which keeps the paper moist, and in turn keeps the paint sitting on the paper moist. The theory is that you can use the paper as your pallet and it will stay usable as long as the sponge stays wet. Using a Wet Palette Using a wet palette isn’t too different than using a normal palette in the sense you take your paint out of the pot/tube and place it on the palette. The difference is first wetting the sponge with a nice bath of water, enough to make the sponge soggy but not so much that you have free standing water in your container. The paper material is then placed on top and allowed to soak. It is often advisable to flip …

Painting a Large Base for the Tyranid Carnifex

Published by Joe B

Another exciting tutorial for your reading and learning pleasure. This time I go through the steps of painting a large base, in particular, the large oval base the Games Workshop provided in the Deathstorm box set for the Tyranid Carnifex. So, unfortunately, I didn’t grab a before paint shot, but I used an old cork coaster to create some rock clusters around the base, including two that I planned to have the Carnifex mounted on. I then applied the great Elmer’s Glue in large splotches to apply the rest of the rock texture. I intentionally left a few areas bare of grit to create water areas. Painting the Base Layers The base was then primed with the rest of the models before given a nice heavy coat ofÂ Steel Legion Drab. A dry brush ofÂ Skrag Brown and then Ushabti Bone followed suit to provide the rock areas with a nice verity of colors and textures. The idea is to leave some of the base colors a bit thicker in some areas than others. The water areas …

Cool Tools: Airbrush Medium

Published by Joe B

One of the tips that nearly every Intro to Painting starts with is: thin your paints. It makes sense, the paint pots are fairly thick for one reason or another and painting straight onto your mini can create a thick coat, covering fine details. So what does everyone do? They add a drop or two of water, stir it in and make it work. When GW introduced theÂ Lahmian Medium technical paint it opened a whole new world for me in terms of thinning paints, without making them watery. Adding a bit of medium would dilute the pigment a bit, but wouldn’t turn the paint into a watery, uncontrollable soupy mess. After using up my first pot of the medium I released that $4 for a little little 12ml bottle would quickly kill my painting budget. I then found a bottle of acrylic matte medium at a local painting store and thought I hit the jackpot. It only cost a few bottles of Lahmian but was way bigger. I quickly realized though that artistÂ matte medium is …

Decurion Detachments for All – Good or Bad?

Published by Joe B

While I don’t buy into all the rumor mill that is a constant buzz online,Â Faeit 212 has a post rumoring about all future codex will have decurion like formations forcing people to buy “tax” models. It may never come to pass, but it got me thinking,Â is this a bad thing? A Decurion? A quick catch-up for those who did not buy the Necron Codex, the Decurion Detachment is a super FOC in the sense you need one ‘core’ choice and at least one to ten ‘Auxiliary’ choices. There is also a single ‘Command’ choice that can be added. For most of these choices it is actually a formation or units that have their own formation rules and when built into a Decurion Detachment gain an additional bonus. // In the Necron case, the Core is the Reclamation Legion made up of an Overlord, Warriors, Immortals, and at least one unit of Tomb Blades. Lychguard and Monoliths can be thrown in as well, but it is ‘tax’ of the Tomb Blades that seem to get people …

Getting to Happy Painting Tutorial – How to Paint a Carnifex of Hive Fleet Behemoth

Published by Joe B

I have put together my step-by-step tutorial on How To Paint a Carnifex, in my case one of Hive Fleet Behemoth. For the finished gallery, check out the post here. This Behemoth painting guide would be helpful for any Tyranid monstrous creature. Step 1 – Prime I’ve gone back and forth on my projects between black primer, white primer, and even tried brown. What I have settled on is a good black coat with an upper dusting of white. This leaves all the recesses dark (which helps with painting those pesky nooks) but provides a subtle shadow/highlight to the base coats. The dusting also emphasizes the details which make it easier to apply the base colors. The Base Coats Step 2 – Base Red For the Tyranids, I used my spray gun to give a nice coverage ofÂ Mephiston Red to all the skin areas. This saves a lot of time not having to paint them by hand. I also chose red over the base blue of the carapace because the blue covers red much easier …

Why the End Times will Save Warhammer Fantasy

Published by Joe B

Disclaimer First a bit of a disclaimer: I haven’t played Warhammer Fantasy Battles in years,Â around the release of 8th, so yeah that long. I also haven’t bought any of the End Times books – $50 really GW? Fortunatly there are plenty of others who have posted updates for the rest of us like Mengle Miniatures’ State of the End Times. Oh and this may be a spoiler: but the current Warhammer Fantasy World is ending – didn’t even need to read the books to see that coming. But why am I excited? I believe that the reasons I haven’t played or bought anything related to the fantasy line in years is exactly why Games Workshop is doing such a drastic, and risky, move. TheÂ Story Before the End Times One of the biggest reasons why I love the 40k universe and had issue getting into the fantasy as much is the story. Rules wise I actually really like fantasy and preferred parts of it over 40k, but why would my Lizardmen, on another continent, be fighting …

Using Trello to Organize my Painting Hobby

Published by Joe B

The Problem So I have noticed over the years that I am a hobby butterfly – much likeÂ many of you out there – especially the great Mordian7thÂ :-)Â But as my life is getting busier between work, my son, grad school, and other projects I have been trying to get some organization to my progress. So I want to share how I am using Trello to organize my painting hobby and make sure I keep posts ready for this blog. I’ve tried the excellent painting charts made famous by Mordian and Admiral DraxÂ using Excel and color charts, but it ended up being more work for me to know when something was ‘almost done,’ ‘done,’ and posted to the blog. It apparently works for them, but I needed something a bit simpler and general – as I have multiple projects going at once (as you can see in the picture above!). UsingÂ Trello to Organize my Painting Hobby For some of my other projects, I started using a tool called Trello that organizes your tasks into cards that you …

How to Paint an Ork Trukk

Published by Joe B

So after painting up my Killa Kans, Deffdread, and two trucks – I’ve put together my process on how I how to paint an Ork Trukk. My goal for painting the ork vehicles was to be quick, rusty, and characterful. To make it quick I used lots of dry brushing, andÂ very little highlighting. They clearly won’t win any painting awards, but I like how they turned out and I was able to finish them quickly. The rusty metal look was from combinations of brown and orange beneath the metal dry brush and the characterful-ness is the various colored panels that make it orky. Step 1: Brown Spray Paint. As you can see in the photo below I left out the driver, gunner, and wrecking ball assembly. The wheels were also left of and painted separately. The model was primed with black primer to give a nice dark shadow. After drying I then hit the top side with an over-spray of white to just lighten it up a bit. The whole model was then given a …