Watch This
Published on September 1, 2016
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Watch This: Painting Tablescapes from Secret Weapon Miniature

written by Joe B

Another new video is ready for Watch This series, this week is with Designer Warfare and painting Tablescape Tiles from Secret Weapon Miniatures. He paints up a few sections of the Urban Road (Clean and Damaged) with his airbrush for our enjoyment.

Watch This: Painting Tablescapes from Secret Weapon Miniatures

I’ve been looking at picking up some of these Tablescape Tiles for my own gaming table and found this video super helpful. I hope you enjoy his fairly quick video on painting the streets and check out my cheat sheet notes below for later reference.

Quick Reference for Painting Tablescapes

  • Due to the manufacturing, some tiles may have variations in the plastic color
    • Doesn’t affect the physical nature and is easily covered in primer
    • (large plastic injection molding is hard and can leave harmless ‘sunbursts’ in plastic)
  • Prime each tile with Grey Primer
  • Use Model Air Pale Blue Grey, focusing on the sidewalk areas
    • Keep some variation in the spray to add interest in each tile
    • Avoid the cracks and recesses
  • Paint craters with Army Painter Oak Brown
    • Start at center of each and work outwards
    • Avoid the rocks and debris
  • Add soot to craters with Model Air Black
    • Thin 1:5 to make it more like a transparent ink
  • Spray the largest cracks with thinned down black to add shadow
  • Handpaint all the metal areas with Army Painter Gunmetal
    • Be careful near the edges not to get it on the roadway or sidewalk
    • Rotate the tiles to make it easier to use the brush
    • Thin paints about 1:2 with airbrush thinner
  • Spray Secret Weapon Miniatures Concrete Wash to shade
    • Used over large areas to add variation
  • Mark the center of the road with a tape measure and marking it with water
  • Apply the 1/4″ masking tape along the center line
    • Double check each side and adjust as needed
    • Cut tape against center details like manhole covers
    • Actually recommended doing center stripes before weathering (lessons learned for you!)
  • Add 1″ painter’s tape to each side,
    • make sure it is 1/4″ away from center tape
    • Again, cut and press tape around raised features
  • Spray with Army Painter Demonic Yellow
    • Next time he would use more of an orange-yellow
  • Once yellow is dry, peel up the paint
    • Pulling it back against itself
    • May need to use knife to remove smaller pieces on raised sections
  • Re-apply wash to cracks along the yellow stripe
    • Wouldn’t need to do this if yellow was painted earlier
  • Apply Secret Weapon Armor Wash to metal areas
    • Stipple it around the surface to keep it uneven (more interesting)
  • Weather metal using AK Interactives Light Rust Wash
    • Add one large pool to certain areas and stipple outwards
  • Apply a Matte Clear coat to everything
    • (I would do about 4 on these gaming tiles)
  • Estimated 15 hours to paint the original 4 tiles
    • But only 5 hours for the other 8 (still has a bunch to go!)

Wrap It Up

I hope you enjoyed this Watch This video with Designer Warfare on Painting Tablescapes. You can check out his YouTube channel for more videos and give him a follow.

Have you painted up the Tablescapes sets? I am interested in how others have done it and how they work with various building manufacturers (Games Workshop, Pegasus Gothic, Mantic Deadzone, etc). If you have a post or pictures you can share, hit up the comments below so we can check it out!