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Saturday, February 28, 2015

Quick Test Video Post

Hello all!  I got my new camera in the mail this morning.  I'm pretty happy with the quality based on my initial tests.  I recorded a quick introduction below so you can see what to expect in the future!


Friday, February 27, 2015

New Photo Template

I've been playing around a bit with some background images for when I take finished pictures of models.  I'm pretty happy with the results.  It was suggested to me that I should also start tagging my photos with the website address just in case people run across a pic on Google Image Search and want the source.  I figure...  why not?  It's about 5 min of extra work every so often.

Here's my first test pic.  It's of my custom Tau Ethereal model.  The model itself is based off of a Fantasy Empire Wizard.

Custom Tau Ethereal
In other news, my industry certification exam is today at 8AM.  I REALLY, REALLY hope I pass.  I've been studying more or less non stop for several weeks now.  I just want this to be done and over with.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

More Necrons! Warriors WIP

I needed another break today, so I decided to get started on a basic five Necron Warrior unit.  I'm sticking with my Nihilakh Dynasty paint scheme.  I'm pretty happy with it and I think it's safe to say that the remainder of the Necrons will come out this way.

Warriors are a little bland.  They're also one of those Troops choices that has basically no options and no "sarge" model.  To get around this a little I went with some of the fluff from the new codex.  It more or less says that those Warriors and Immortals who would be "sarges" will get a brass/gold death mask instead of the standard silver.  They also might have a basic glyph on their one shoulder guard.  I decided to do both and am pretty happy with the result.




The plan is to continue doing Warriors in blocks of five with one "sarge" per block.  It takes very little additional time to paint the head and the glyph.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Actual Painting! Necrons C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer

I needed a break from studying today, so I sat down and cranked this sucker out.  It didn't take very long at all...  maybe an hour and a half.  It's a pretty simple color scheme, but I'm happy with how it turned out.  I think it'll look great with my Nihilakh Dynasty Necrons.

Next up I'll be painting two Crypteks so that I can have a Conclave of the Burning One formation.

Nihilakh Dynasty C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer

Friday, February 20, 2015

GW Paint Tutorial - Necrons - How to paint a Necron Overlord.

I'm posting this mainly because I don't have much time to post something of a really high quality right now.  I'm planning on spending a good portion of this weekend catching up on some hobby work, so there's a very good chance that unless the real world intrudes, you'll be seeing some good pictures this coming week.

Having said that, these video tutorials that GW is putting out are really top notch.  If you haven't see them, do yourself a favor and watch one.  There are a ton more on their YouTube channel.  I can't recommend these enough.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Youtube Test - How to Paint Space Marines

This is a test post.  This is also a hint of things to come.  I need to make sure that I can have inline video working.  I'm in the process of setting up a little camera situation so that I can try and make some video tutorials.  The plan is to do the first one this weekend.




Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Custom Codex Work in Progress

I'm definitely still feeling like crap, but at least I did some work on my custom codex.  The intent with this thing is to put together a sort of Codex: Unbound by reformatting and collating all the eBook Codexes I've purchased thus far.  I'm really happy with how it's coming along.  I'm a little hesitant to post pictures as it might seem like I'm spreading copy written rules, but I think it's ok to post these as the rules are currently freely available in the Forgeworld downloads section.

This is the template I've created and decided on.  The idea is to have everything you need to play the model on one double-sided sheet of paper.


Each unit entry is on one double sided piece of paper.  The paper itself is 5.5" by 8.5".  It's considered "Half Letter" or Statement size.  I basically went out and bought fancy resume paper and then cut it in half since I couldn't find any Statement size paper anywhere in a decent quality.

For the actual book itself, I'm using a blue, leather-bound Arc Junior notebook from Staples.  You can buy one here from Staples.  The black (linked) costs 17.99 USD only.  The colored ones are a little more.  Here it is from Amazon.com for non US visitors.  It's a little more (24.99 USD), but probably easier to buy.  One really nice thing about the Arc system (also called Levenger Circa) is that the pages can be removed and put back in very easily.  This is great for an in game situation where you might want to pull out one or two units for reminders.

I made one of these for a friend previously on a less ambitious scale.  That one was more of an Orks only sort of thing.  This is intended to encompass all armies over time.  It's a little time consuming reformatting the unit entries, but this entire hobby is a labor of love.

Below is a picture of what this actually looks like in the notebook.  I've already finished Codex: Imperial Knights as well as all the miscellaneous Forgeworld and White Dwarf Knight units.  I'm also about 75% through with Tau Empire.  I think Necrons will be next as that's the army I'm currently working on painting.


Monday, February 16, 2015

Still Sick

gurgle gurgle

That's the sound my inside are making right now.  I have done literally nothing all weekend.

:(


Friday, February 13, 2015

Feeling Guilty...

I was feeling guilty about posting nothing, so I thought I'd at least throw some hobby ideas out there.

#1 I picked this up at an Arts and Crafts store.  I think it'll be perfect for making some Sisters of Battle Rhinos.  Just the one in the middle, obviously.


#2 I found this little guy on Moddler.com.  I don't think it's for sale (or if it is, I can't figure out where), but it would be perfect for stand in Tau Gun Drones.  I might try to 3D design and print something similar.


#13 Last, I'm in the process of casting some more of my life sized purity seals in resin.  I'm experimenting with tinting the resin red before the cast.  Then I should be able to just wash with a black wash and call it a day.  I'd like to be able to use these on my hobby bag as the fasteners.


OMG... I am so sick

I am making a point to post something.  Honestly, I'm sick as a dog and I'd rather be sleeping.

You know what, screw it.  I'll post something worthwhile this weekend.  Sorry guys.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Terrain Day! - Crashed Aquila Lander

On a whim I decided to go ahead and paint one of the two Crashed Aquila Landers that I have.  I think it turned out pretty well.

Here's the paint scheme...
  1. Prime everything blank.
  2. The blue areas...
    1. Overbrush of Macragge Blue.  An overbrush is like a drybrush, but with more paint.  Make is sloppy, but even.  This should leave lots of black in the cracks.
    2. Heavy drybrush of Caledor Sky
    3. Drybrush Calgar Blue
    4. Light Edge drybrush Fenrisian Grey
  3. The metal areas...
    1. Drybrush Boltgun Metal (or whatever it's called now, I have an old pot)
  4. The ground areas...
    1. Drybrush dark brown
    2. Drybrush ochre yellow
    3. Light drybrush bone
    4. Glue on some standard GW static grass
Start to finish (not including priming), this took less than 30 minutes.  If there is one skill you're willing to learn, it should be dry brushing.  It's endlessly useful.

Crashed Aquila Lander - All Pieces
Crashed Aquila Lander - Detail
Crashed Aquila Lander - Detail
Crashed Aquila Lander - Detail
More to come on Friday!

Monday, February 9, 2015

Finally Some Priming + Real World Responsibilities

OMG...  the weather was amazingly nice outside today.  Warmish and dry...  perfect weather for priming.  I was able to get quite a few things primed up.  I now have enough to get me through the next couple of months and you guys should start seeing more painting work in progress shots.

Here is a sample of some of the things I primed up...  mostly terrain related in this shot.

Various bits of primed terrain

My local gaming store shut down a while ago and decent terrain has been hard to come by.  I made some cork and sand scatter terrain.  I'm going to paint that up and also paint up the Necron like sand castle thing (in the picture above and from previous posts).  Lastly, there's a crashed Aquila Lander in there.  I have a second from the auction I went to a couple of weeks ago.  This one was salvaged from a GW store demo table that was being thrown away.

In other news, I have a major certification test coming up at work in three weeks.  I'm still going to post three times a week, but some of the posts may be less than exciting.  That's the main reason you're seeing lots of terrain bits and bobs above.  They're easy as crap to paint.  Lots of drybrushing!  I'll likely post a full blown scatter terrain tutorial at some point over the next several weeks.

What the certification does mean is that I'll be studying...  lots and lots and lots.  If I don't pass the test, I can't keep my job.  So, it's immensely important that I do well.  It shouldn't be terrible.  It's an industry standard test and everyone in my role in the entire US has to pass it.  I'm probably more worried than I ought to be, but that's better than not being worried enough.  Wish me luck!  The test date is 2/27, so after that I should be pretty relaxed.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Perfect Necron Scatter Terrain

I stopped by a local arts and crafts store and these things caught my eye.


They're supposed to be little forms for building snazzy looking sand castles.  But they totally looks like Necron tech.  Imagine the domes painted as green energy balls with silver around and blue armor plating around the bottom.


If I can work out a way to prime (it's still fething cold here!), these should be a really quick paint job and a way to add some little barricades or objective markers to my army.

Fun times!


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Green Slime Basing Tutorial

It seems like people like tutorials.  My casting tutorial from a couple of weeks ago is currently my most ever viewed post.  That tells me that I need to do more!

Today's tutorial is a glowing green slime base.

First, the money shot.

Glowing Green Slime Base Effect
I saw something similar to this online and decided to give it a go.  This is STUPID EASY to do.  Literally anyone can do this in about 5 minutes or so.

First, start off with your model.  I glued on some cork, glued on some sand and primed black.  I then drybrushed with a dark brown, medium brown and bone color.  Nothing complicated.

Glowing Green Slime - Step 1
Next, I took some Moot Green and dry brushed the edges of the cork as you can see below...

Glowing Green Slime - Step 2
Now, it's time to go crazy.  I went to Michaels, which for those of you who don't know, is an arts and crafts chain store in the United States.  I bought some Tulip brand Glow in the Dark Dimensional Fabric Paint.  It can be purchased from Michaels, or also at Amazon.com.  It's normally ~13 USD at Amazon and ~11 USD at Michaels, but is currently on sale for 6.59 USD on the Amazon store.  This stuff is totally worth it.  It comes with orange, red, white, blue, green and yellow.  I'm using green, yellow and white for this tutorial, but blue/orange slime would work the same.

The Tulip paints I'm using.
The paint tubes have a nice applicator nozzle, so you can use it to put glue directly on the base.  It has the consistency of thick PVA glue, so slop it on.

The Applicator Nozzle is the perfect size for models.

Glowing Green Slime - Step 3a
Next, do the same for yellow and white, but put less on.  Just put the yellow in the middle areas of the green and then the white in the middle areas of the yellow.  The glues will sort of mush together a little, so you'll get a nice graded effect.  I didn't take a photo of the white stage, but just pretend there is a Step 3c photo with some white on the yellow.

Glowing Green Slime - Step 3b
Last, but certainly not least, we're going to do a little basic object source lighting, or OSL.  We're going to make it look like the slime is glowing up onto the model.  To do this, take the same old Moot Green and just dry brush it onto the undersides of the model.  Imagine that the slime is actually glowing and think about the areas it would actually hit.  On my model, I mainly dry brushed on the metal areas as I though they'd be more reflective in real life.  This step took literally 10 seconds.

VERY IMPORTANT...  Moot Green is very watery.  Make sure your brush is pretty dry or else you'll get streaks.  If you get streaks, you can wipe them away with your finger immediately.  If you wait, you're stuck with them.

Glowing Green Slime - Step 4
There you have it.  To me, this looks awesome and takes practically no time at all to do.  Of course, it's easier to do on larger models, but can look just as nice on smaller ones.  If you're working on 25 or 40mm models, I would suggest no more than 1-2 "pools" of slime.  If you're working on anything larger, go crazy and practice.

Here's a wider shot of the finished model.

Glowing Green Slime - Final
Oh...  and it glows in the dark, which is awesome!!!

And it ACTUALLY glows!



Monday, February 2, 2015

Codex: Necrons and Next Steps

Codex: Necrons!!!


I picked up the Codex, Datacards and new Plastic Overlord over the weekend.  I've been reading through the Codex and am generally happy with what I'm seeing.  There are some changes that I'm really happy with.

  1. Lords and Crypteks as normal HQ choices.  This is great.  I can actually field a legal army without having to take an Overlord or named character.
  2. Formations, formations, formations.  I'm pretty psyched about this.  I finally have a legal way to add a Canoptek Swarm to my armies without having to go with the rest of the Necron stuff.  I'm thinking that a Canoptek Swarm would add the close combat punch that my Tau Empire army needs.  Maybe a Destroyer Cult also.
  3. Speaking of, Destroyers are now Jet Pack Infantry.  This means they move like Tau Crisis Suits.  Jump, shoot, jump is awesome.  They also have 2 wounds now, which is a much needed improvement.
  4. Lots of other stuff.
There are a couple of real issues with the Codex that will most likely need to be corrected with an FAQ.  One example is Triarch Praetorians can take a Night Scythe as a Dedicated Transport...  but as Jump Infantry, they have no permission to be embarked on said Night Scythe.  The Storm Raven has a specific permission allowing Jump Infantry.  The Night Scythe has no such permission.  There are a couple of other similar issues, but I think most can be solved with common sense and two minutes of talking to your opponent before a game.

The artwork is also amazing.  The Codex is laid out a little differently to other books and has more of a Forgeworld feel to me.  I like it.

Some examples...



In terms of hobby activity...

I plan on having one of these fully painted by the end of the week.  Pics to come.  I actually have six Wraiths fully primed and awaiting paint, so I'm ready to get started.


The work done so far... Pardon the bad lighting.  I actually ordered a proper light box and am just waiting on it to arrive.  Expect better photos in the future.



Additionally, I have a new basing tutorial in the works.  I've already done a proof of concept and I'm extremely satisfied with the results.  It's a sort of green slime thing.  More to come.

I REALLY need the weather to improve so I can do some priming.  I have a limited number of things primed and ready for paint.  I really want to work on some other things, but can't get past the priming step.  Anyone have any advice for priming when the weather is nasty and cold out?