Friday, August 31, 2012

Tutorial #8

 plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission
Hello after long break!

I didn't plan this damn delay but life has proved me during few passed months it can fuck with anyone when it's least expected. Moreover - life doesn't use vaseline.
Besides - and much more important actually - I am constantly branching out so my hobby time was replaced with browsing stupid real estate papers - hope it'll be worthy all the time, effort and constantly growing unpainted miniatures pile...

Anyway - even though there's much less time for painting I just couldn't refuse myself playing a skirmish game once per a week or two and recently we've been working hard converting old Necromunda rules to make the game more dynamic, less predictible and hell more gory.
That leads to the definitely the biggest hobby achievement of last months which was finishing whole gang of Goliaths - based on EM4 minis (thanks Doug for the minis and Col. Kane for motivation!).
I like these bastards (there are actually 10 bastards + 1 gang-whore ;-) ) so much I decided to give them display base so they look nice standing in my display case and waiting for another encounter in the Underhive. It takes less than a day to finish base like I made and that's what the article is about.

What will you need?
Apart from ordinary hobby supplies try to get some plaster (or any other filler: the cheaper - the better), photo frame or display plinth of some sort and if you plan to take some wip-photos - wife, girlfriend or brother will be useful as well.

So I started by choosing photoframe - it's pretty cheap, you can buy it in store like IKEA and it's perfect for the job. First or all I removed glass - you can throw it away. I was also trying to mark spots for base sockets which turned out totally useless bit later.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Another material required is styrofoam sheet + hot wire cutter (yay Evilbay!).  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission First of all I broke wooden frame support off the frame back.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Another step was cutting the styrofoam sheet to fit the frame - sharp wallpaper knife was used. To get more precise cut I used hot wire thingy.
I inserted the sheet into photoframe - as you can see it fits pretty well so we can proceed.  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 The bottom was glued to the frame. I used solid amount of polymer glue to be sure it won't fall off or whatever. If you don't trust the glue only (you can trust no one nowadays) - hit the base with some paperclip pins.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Another step was cutting styrofoam sheet edges to make it look bit more natural.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission For better minis presentation I decided to add small elevation in the back of the display area. I plan to place 5 gangers on it and rest of the gang - on lower level.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Time to mark final destination of the miniatures on the display base. To do it I simple pressed bases onto the styro - it will be helpful while cutting holes for the sockets.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Cutting is easy - hot wire deals with styro as swiftly as meth with piece of brain. All you have to remember about at this stage is cutting holes slightly bigger than bases (and about staying away from meth...).
Also don't throw away cylinders left after cutting the thing - these will be useful a bit later.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission It's time to prepare styro-plugs for the work ahead. I simply cut them in 2 slim parts - don't have to be very precise at this step, these parts will be just a filler.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission The plan is to fill holes in the base with sockets and prepared styrofoam for better bond.
 plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission The socket was made of citadel paint pot lid: if you use these paints it's good idea to collect the lids - inner part is just PERFECT for 25mm round bases*. I still have some pots from Citadel range but because I mostly use Vallejo brand I made a single socket and recasted it for the whole Necromunda gang (this couldn't be done without you Przemas - thanks again! Maxmini FTW !!!).  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission The procedure is simple:
Put the styrofoam on the back and place sockes in the holes - I told ya to make the holes slightly bigger, didn't I? ;-) .  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Hit the sockets with some glue - once again polymer (it's really fine but it requires some time to try) and then cover it with slim styro plugs.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission After turning base on the other side you should get something like this - don't worry about the gaps around the sockets:  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Nothing new here - just repeat the procedure for all sockets.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Both parts of base are now glued together - some polymer glue combined with paperclip pins sould keep them well assembled.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Now we'll fill the gaps and give the base better surface to blue the sand bit later.
I took some plaster and mixed it with water until if got consistency of yoghurt (more less)  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission At first I was trying to apply it on the base with knife or some spatula but after 5 seconds I realised fingers are much better for this job. There are actually many jobs fingers are better took for than knife hehehehe... ^^
Remember I wrote there will be wife / gf / bro required? That's it!!! That's the stage!!!! I couldn't play with plaster and take pictures without making the camera really dirty (and probably - properly fucked if the wet plaster hit the lens)  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  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission The dirty job is dome - give it some time to dry. I applied pretty thin layer so after having a coffee (right side of the pic) and taking dog for a walk (~30 mins alltogether) I could continue the work.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Bases of all Agent Orange members are really simple: small gravel + sand painted with washes and then drybrushed. I think simplicity is ALWAYS the key especially in case of gaming models. Therefore making group base was no problem at all.
I prepared some fine sand and some gravel.
 plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Small part of base was painted with diluted pva glue, after that I sprinkled some gravel on the glue and then - some sand.  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 Repeat the procedure on whole base just remember - work on small area at once because diluted glue can sink into plaster if you give it some time.
When you got it done - leave the base to dry completely. And I mean it - be sure it's totally dry before the next step which is removing excess of sand with large, soft brush.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Now we have to make sure sand and gravel won't fall off during painting
Great way to ensure that is painting whole base with heavily diluted pva glue - some gravel will fall off now but not when you will be drybrushing the base. After pva dried I painted base once again - you can never be sure enough... ;-)  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Once again it's time for waiting game before some paint can be slapped.
Of course thank to the modern cosmic technology we can shorten waiting.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission I tried to paint the thing more less the same as bases of all gangers. So first I mixed devlan mud wash, a bit of smoke and lots of water. Diluted paint dries up a while but it is easier to control: you can add another layer whenever you think the base should be darker.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission After that I added some deeper shadows using dark olive - once again heavily diluted. I chose this color because I also used it to paint bases rims of my gangers - this trick should unify models with the big base.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Wait patiently until the wash dries - the next step is drybrushing:
I started with bleached bone and then applied highlights - skull white. Both colors were used to paint bases of the gangers.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission The base is ok but I want it dirty - I powdered some chalk (dark olive color) and applied it on the base. Chalk was sealed with matt spray but turpentine also works fine for this (I wrote about it in Gorkamorka Ork base text). Besides it's MUCH cheaper than ready to use dry pigments.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Both elements can now be put together: solid dose of polymer glue on the base should keep styrofoam where it belongs.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission The last thing was painting the sockets. My first color choice was black but all in all I decided to use olive. I mixed some matt varnish with paint to protect the paint - minis will be put on the base after every game.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission And the final result - still on my desk.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission And here are pictures of the final thing taken in the photo tent: I know black background isn't the best idea but black t-shirt was the only think big enough to use as background - base is pretty large after all...  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission As you can see I added plaque on the front - I also mentioned how to do it ine one of previous articles on Plinth Country.  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission And below you can see presentation of the Agent Orange gang: these bastards have been raiding Underhive Elblag for passing weeks :)  plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission

And here's another little treat for everyone who still play Necromunda and but most important: who chose the bad-boy version of the article instead of goodie-goodie Chest of Colors one =p
Shortly after the gang was painted and properly based we finished test Necromunda campaign: new rules were added and some stats modified. Agent Orange ended up in the display case (retirement ) so I am now slowly preparing new gang to raid the Underhive Elblag: Chaos Cultist Coven ov my beloved Chaos god :>
Below is final stage of the Goliaths I was playing (after 7 or 8 games) - they will surely come back one day to kick Deco's ass big time!!!
 plinth,socle, basing, 

tutorial, demi morgana, plinth country, painting commission Once again I hope you found my shit useful and once again I hope to update the site shortly.
I also take painitng commissions - if you are interested in or you have any ideas what tut would you like to see next - let me know .
Cheers!
Demi

* Please note: using pot lid as base socket wasn't my idea - I spotted it on Jakob Rune Nielsen's** page

** Who is actually one of my fav painters in the miniatures hobby

1 comment:

  1. Probably one of my favorite tutorials. You had it on the plinth site, it went away before I could print it. Glad I found your blog. It's going to help me with next year's armies on parade entry. Thank you.

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