All posts tagged: guest

How to Build Scenic Display Pieces

Creating Scenic Terrain for Bases and Dioramas with Andy

Published by Andy Schaffert

Greetings, this is my humble tutorial on how to build terrain, specifically a rocky outcrop with vegetation and trees. This is my way of making terrain pieces/diorama backdrops for miniatures; however, there are many fine ways to make great looking terrain/dioramas and bases, and I hope you do your research and experimenting to come up with amazing things! I would never be so bold as to say my method is the only way nor the best way. It is merely a way that works for me, and I have borrowed many techniques from other tutorials who need their just due. I want to welcome Andy to the Broken Paintbrush community with this awesome tutorial. I hope you enjoy the tutorial, and if you want to save it for later, fill in the form at the bottom and I will send you a copy. Namely Massive Voodoo Blogspot, 3-T Studios, Painting Buddha, countless others on Youtube and Coolminiornot. I apologize if I used some of your techniques and did not give you a reference; however, I …

Blogging and the Honest Truth About Running Ads

Published by Thor

The topic of ads is one I always find interesting. There seems to be a fair bit of negative stigma attached sites that run ads, and that’s what I wanted to discuss today. I wanted to clear the air on the subject and explain it from the perspective of the blogger, or website owner. Thor from Creative Twilight is back with more insight on hobby blogging. To check out more tips on improving your blog, check out the page here. I tend to use blog and website interchangeably when writing. For the sake of discussion, I mean no difference between them. Bad Ad Setups Ever been to a site that ran like eight different ads all over their site, plus one that floats at the bottom, and often a pop-up when you leave, or a pop-under as you’re visiting? Hell yes you have; we all have. Those sites are often so slowed down by the amount of ads they are delivering that you give up on reading what you went there for, and you just bail out …

Final Thoughts on the Inner Circle

Final Thoughts on the Inner Circle

Published by Ben Dake

Greetings readers! I am back for my final installment of the series I have been writing on GW’s Inner Circle event. I started down this road what feels like a lifetime ago, with grand schemes of what I hoped to accomplish. I didn’t win my local event, and I only scored 330 points. But I learned several lessons that I can pass along that will help you win your next painting contest. I know I’ll be using some of these! Lesson 1: Paint to the Rubric All painting contests should have a rubric to let you know what you are going to get scored on and how many points each item was worth. If they don’t, they really need to have one. Once you get your hands on the rubric, really see where you can maximize your point output. The Inner Circle event, for example, awarded extra points for units that had 10 or more models in them or more than 3 models for larger models. I had exactly zero points in this category. While …

Continuing Work on the Inner Circle

Inner Circle Article Two: Electric Boogaloo

Published by Ben Dake

Hey there hobbymaniacs! Ben from Moosehead Studios checking in again to let everyone know the ups and downs and progress that I’ve made towards my goal of having 18 fully-painted units for the North American Games Workshop Inner Circle hobby event. But first, I have got to catch my breath. The time between my initial article and now has been quite the rush. Professionally, my school has gone through standardized testing (which is great for late-night hobbying), and I’ve also started spring training for my football time (not so great for late-night hobbying). All-in-all, it’s been a positive experience so far, so let’s get some of the lower points out of the way. Hobby Lows Life, in general, has been much more hectic and crowded, as it always does at the end of the school year.  With work, my child’s activities, my family responsibilities, and maintaining a commission painting service, I sometimes don’t know which way is up, and my head feels like it is spinning. I don’t think I’m unique in that, though. Anybody …

Preparing for the Inner Circle Hobby Challenge with Ben Dake

Preparing for the Inner Circle

Published by Ben Dake

Hey, guys and gals! Ben here again from Moosehead Studios. In this series of articles, I won’t be offering advice on how to paint, but instead, I will be documenting my journey of preparation for an event, specifically a hobby-centered event. When I got back into the hobby four years ago, I openly said that I only painted for myself, and would never paint for competitive purposes. File that, along with airbrushing and commission painting, under “Times I’ve Had to Eat My Words.” The Holdups The problem for me, up until this year, has been the fact that most of your big painting contests were held at competitive tournaments. Which, as much as I would love to compete in them, I have never been able to because I have an extremely limited hobby budget. I could never afford what I thought I needed for a competitive list. I played mostly with models that I have had on hand for nearly a decade and re-painted, or the few models I could acquire throughout the year as …

Good Reads 46 – with Rory’s Finds

Published by Rory Priest

OK so I am not Joe B but I am instead Rory /Thousand Eyes from over at Stepping Between Games. I am the guest writer for this weeks Good Reads, the trick here being I use these posts to find the random wonderful blogs from around the blogsphere. As such many of the tutorials I have saved for reference actually came from here, but I am not one to shrink from a challenge. So here are a few good blog posts for you all: Creative Twilight Thor has done up a wonderful post on painting the skin on his Bloodbowl Ogre, he uses a few more steps that I could have imagined but the work speaks for itself. Truly a great guide to painting up any pink skin. Painting and Converting Legion of the Dammed This next Good Read isn’t actually from a blog but from a Relic News forum post back in ’09. It contains a wonderful set of instructions for making Legion of the Dammed, from converting to painting them up. It is …

How to Paint White - AdMech Style

Painting AdMech Part 2 – The White Sections

Published by Ben Dake

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 …

Conversion Points - an Outdated System by Rob

Conversion Points in Painting Scores: Why They Should Pass Into History

Published by Rob @ iToysoldiers

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 …

Guest Post by Ben on Painting Blue Adeptus Mechanicus

Painting Blue AdMech

Published by Ben Dake

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 …

Be a Guest Writer on Broken Paintbrush

Looking for You – Write for Broken Paintbrush!

Published by Joe B

With Dreadtober coming towards the end, I am starting to plan for November’s posts, and I need you! I’m looking for guest writers, contributors who want to write for Broken Paintbrush. Become famous(ish) but more importantly, add something to the community that your fellow hobbyists will enjoy. I’ll get into the hows and whys below, and I even have a list of potential post ideas if you want to write but need a muse. Post Ideas Below are the general topics I like to cover on Broken Paintbrush with some specific ideas to give you some inspiration. Don’t let it limit you however, if you have an awesome topic you want to add it, just let me know as well! Tutorials By far my favorite articles are those that share how you go from A to Done. Anything from assembly to painting to photography. If it helps a fellow hobbyists, let’s talk. How to paint a certain army/faction/tribe How to paint a color/effect/technique Painting tips for Beginners/Mid Level/Advanced How to Convert X into Y How to …