Friday, August 31, 2012

Tutorial #11

 

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It's been a while since I managed to prepare something worthy publishing but sadly when life issues strike - there's no other way than face them. Fortunately I had a short break from the life recently during which I managed to slap paint over some minis, play some Necromunda matches and of course: write this short walkthrough. The first question about the project should be: what for? After ~15 years in the miniature wargaming I realised that although fancy studio pictures of miniatures are very nice what REALLY makes me want to get some new toys is watching the precious models in the action. Nicely painted models placed on nicely prepared battlefield is something just stunning. I still can see beautiful Warhammer Fantasy armies from the battle book and Warzone corporations from Mutant Chronicles zine. Therefore last year I started building modular gaming board worthy our miniatures (and Necromunda campaign of course) but because my hobby time is limited and the table is rather big (work in progress aerial pic below) the decision was made to prepare small piece of terrain and paint it the way I want to see the battlefield one day. I was bored using printed backgrounds for taking photos so this small display piece should fix my problem.  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
 

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So as for the preparations: the base was planned big enough for about dozen miniatures. I grabbed thick pcv sheet and cut ~5" x 11" sheet. As for the back wall - it's height was determined by size of the gate (about 4") and spare space in my glass case. The gate was casted using Hirst Arts molds - instead of recommended clay I used resin with solid amount of filler. This stuff makes casts "crunchy" and much more fragile (bad idea for mass production) but also easier to work with when it comes do sandpapering or drilling. Of course using clay will also work - just there'll be a bit more mess on the hobby station.  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
And here's the assembled gate. All the edges were treated with sandpaper so it's easier to install into the frame.  

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Once again I used molds to cast the frame - not much more to write about here. The green slime is test of colors I was going to use for tox bombs - never let Scavvy boss out into the combat zone without supply of this nastiness!  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
And here's the gate confronted with the back wall. As you can see there's another frame around the gate. If I remember correctly all these cool parts can be found in the single sci - fi mold.  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
The entrance is done and inserted into the hole cut in the wall. The excessive bottom will be cut off and smoothed so it can be pinned and attached to the base.  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
And here's the general idea of some bits to be added: some floor tiles and some vents (made of headphones broken by one of my cats - thanks a lot Cruiser, you bastard...)  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
More bits! The tiles have been placed into the prepared holes (don't worry: wallpaper knife deals very easy with pcv sheet, almost as easy as blessed chainswod with heretic's throat) and also some windows were added. To make the job as easy as possible I simply cut long rectangle shaped hole, covered it with thin pcv frame simulating windows (2mm pcv can be cut with scissors) and added some nails so I can paint rust around them in later stage. Bright rust should work as nice eye catcher especially on dark metalics.  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
Another step was adding mesh into the windows - I really like such additions especially it looks really decent even if only slightly drybrushed and hit with some brown washes. The mesh was pain in the ass to work with and I had to use special shears to get desired shape. Hobby clippers definitely weren't enough.  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
Some more bits added to the junkyard. Also I attached another sheet of pcv to the back so you cannot see through the windows. Some metalics were painted as well (boltgun + black) - do it as fast and easy as you can, it's just terrain piece so doesn't need as much attention as models.  

www.demimorgana.blogspot.com And more bits - this time it's the final re-arranging.  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
Rusting!!! I meant painting... Like I wrote the piece was made to fit the battlefield concept: the gaming board is desert area (something inspired by Necromunda ash Wastes) with some ruins and abandoned, corroded installations. This brings my fav way of painting (easy and effective that is): painting sand is almost pure drybrush while with a bit of practice you can paint huge chunks of rust really fast. The natural decision was to start with the rust because I didn't want to see the mess on the sand. After whole metalics were painted I simply glazed them with different colors: browns, sepia, orange. Once the paints dried some chipped paint was added and also some shading. Details will be added later.  

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The desert: base was covered with white glue (the stuff you use for wood or static grass) and sprinkled with sand and some gravel. I use the same sand and gravel on bases of my gangers so everything fits nicely. As for the colors - once again I decided to make my life as easy as possible. Sand was glazed with some heavily diluted brown / sepia just to give it some hue and enchance shadows. After that there was a bleached bone / white drybrush and some chalks for the final. I sprayed varnish over the base to attach chalk to the base. Turps also works fine but it's pretty stinky and flammable so be careful with that stuff!  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
The material I used to cover the back wall was the filler - which I used for casting. It's sth like very fine sand. I didn't use the same sand as for the base because I wanted to achieve different texture: more like concrete than sand or rock. Again: layer of white glue, layer of filler and voila!  

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Painting wall was similar to painting base: glaze, drybrush and pigments. Also color choice was similar to keep whole thing coherent.  

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Some scale shot - still work in progress...  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
And the final: pcv edges were painted black, some more details added: turrets lenses, rust here and there, arch-villain posters, oil leaking from the barrels, blood splats. It's a prece of battlefield, not some sort of Xmas tree so try not to get carried away. I must say I am really satisfied how the thing came out - I used similar colors on the Scavvies so these nasty bastards fit the base just fine. And if I ever get bored but this scenery I will just paint some oldie sci fi models (like Cartel agents from good ol' Warzone), pin them into the base and put in the proper shelf in the display case.  

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Hope you like it. For more of my stuff - just visit www.demimorgana.blogspot.com or wait pariently for another text to be spawned. Cheers!  www.demimorgana.blogspot.com
 

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Tutorial #10

 plinth,socle,

basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Heya all!

This time it's something slightly different:
- first of all I will try to reduce bad language: I really don't mind swearing but I know some readers do...
- another thing are pictures: this time I was taking pics in hopefully better conditions (at least constant) and also uploaded larger pics so whole thing should look much clearer: small pics are 500 px wide, big ones are 1000 px wide - what do you think about this change? I'd really like to get some opinions about it directly, on the log or FB site - thanks a lot!!!
- and the last thing is the project itself: instead of painting new toy I decided to re-make already done Chimera model painted long time ago : memory of this piece is kept thank to Ches of Colors ;)

So lets's start!

As mentioned above this time I decided to re-make old model from the glass case.
There are 2 reasons for it:
I didn't like the blue color scheme. It was painted when I was considering starting IG force based on riot police but whole concept died after painting this apc, Sentinel walker and about 3 guardsmen. Warhammer sucks - Necromunda is waaaay better, no doubt about it.
I also didn't like the model just rotting in the glass case and getting buried by (time and) dust - I want to see it in the field therefore I decided to adjust it to Necromunda gaming.
At first I just wanted to add another vehicle to make gaming table more interesting (another piece of terrain) but recently I got some old Valhallan minis from Ebay. I examined them carefully and it turned out they will be great candidates for new gang!
Wasn't sure about the rules but looking at the weapon carried they will be Delaques (they even wear coats!)

The tank and new gang will get common display base, slightly larger than Goliaths' . Gang should be delivered in a few days so I decided to check some colors and techniques to be used on gangers. At planning stage all I knew was I want to see big contrast and lots of dirt so dozen troopers wearing bright uniforms advancing through mud (sump in case of Necromunda fluff) along battleworn armoured vehicle.
It should be fun.

So here's the victim:  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission First thing done was removing the turret - vehicle will be dedicated for transport. I also tore off all bags, Imperium marks lasguns and extra tracks. Didn't want the model look like a X-mas tree this time. Also hatches and back door were removed.Besides I had a plan to add some extra armour plates so smooth sides were a must.
Taking model off base wasn't easy because several very long pins but nothing is impossible for desperate hobbyist armed with pliers.  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission I also ripped off tracks - didn't like the previous base at all and it's much easier to paint tracks in sprues or wherever away from model: solid drybrush or airbrush are the best tools to get painitng done fast and easy. And while tracks are off you don't have to worry about making mess on the model.
As you can also see side panels have also been removed: it makes manipulating them much easier (sandpapering, preparing extra pcv armour and such).  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission I got sheet of mesh for another project some time ago and decided to use it here to give model more "scratchbuilt" look: gangers were adjusting vehicle for operating in deadly sump conditions. Besides fluff-wise the tank is very old machine and it's been repaired and modified numerous times in field conditions.
For starters I made front hatch opened and secured with mesh (protecting against thrown grenades, giant rats, millisaurs and other Necromunda goodies).
Procedure was pretty easy: all you need are pliers and superglue.
Adding front panel with vent was just a bit more tricky: first I cut piece of pcv to fit the model, then carefully cut "window" in it. Be careful because it's really easy to damage pcv. After that some mesh was glued from inner side of panel and whole piece was attached to the tank.
Pins were added first to make model look better but also to be sure panel won't fall off. You can never be sure enough after all...  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Redoing side panels was bit harder.
I had to rip them off so then can be sandpapered and so I could prepare pcv extra armour. I simply placed the part on pcv and outlined it's shape with pencil. Basic plan was to make the armour really thick but all in all I decided single layer was enough.  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Oil drums: Chimera is supposed to be transoport vehicle so I decided to add holders onto armour.
Basic idea was to make separate holder for each oil drum but it turned out there's not enough space for that (side panel was ~3mm too short) so to save the space holders were made to carry 2 drums.
I used brass wire but paper clips will do the job equally fine.  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Adding canisters was piece of cake:
they were simply glued to model and then secured with piece of wire. For the final I added 3 more drums on the top and the apc was ready for painting.  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission I am lazy so as always I try to make the job as fast and effective as possible. Before I get bored and abandon the project.
Besides it's not a commission nor contest piece so it doesn't have to be piece of art.
First thing was applying black basecoat. As you can see I didn't paint drums and canisters - they will be painted when the armour is done.
Next I sprayed dark olive tone (mix of dark green and some brown) which was highlighted using simple green.  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission I wanted my toy to look really dirty and battleworn so I applied a lot of mask on green.
After that whole model was sprayed bright grey.  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission 30 minutes later paint was dry so mask could be removed. I wanted to achieve effect of heavily chipped camo paint so you basic green color beneath is visible.  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Dirt-painting begun with applying several layers of brown, sepia and chalk combo. As always the mixture was heavily diluted but in case of vehicles you can thick paint to paint strains or mud. Didn't want to overdo dirt at this stage so just a few layers were enough.  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Tracks we painted separately: sprayed, drybrushed, washed and varnished - nothing requiring photos. After that I attached them to model using superglue and polymer glue (thick jelly). To make them bit more shiny some chainmail drybrush was applied. Masking tape was used to protect model from silver dust.
Also canisters and oil drums were painted brown (charred brown + some red for slightly rusty touch).  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Oil drums were painted with mix of turquoise and some olive (just tiny bit to break the color). Before painting I applied some mask to create chipped paint effect again - you can see thick "blobs" under paint, that's Maskol .  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Mask off! Lovely, isn't it?
There are details to be finished (flamer, reflector, mesh in lasgun sockets and such) but apat from that model could be considered done...  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission ...if only I wasn't so fond for dirt and mud!!! :D
Finally something I can sink in fresh mud muahahahahahaaaaa...!!!
To do that more layers of brown, sepia and yellow were added. This combined with powdered chalk is my fav way for painting mud. Also at this stage I painted some greasy oil leaking from drums and canisters (black + gloss varnish applied with toothpick).  plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission And final pics.
At least final so far: model will be based together with it's squad so I sadly have to wait with adding proper mud until all minis are done to keep everything coherent.
Really can't wait to put the beauty in my glass case and dominate Underhive game table!
Cheers!
 plinth,socle, basing,
tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission