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Last weeks I’ve been diverting more and more attention to Mordheim. Maybe that’s because I’ve been playing PC version lately. Either way, every couple of years I get that ‘Mordheim fever’ and delve deep into my imagination, staying up whole nights, making something cool for my own Mordheim collection. Right now I work on a brand new Mordheim gaming board thus I figured out to revive an old Tutorial from Mordheim Treasure Hunters blog and add it to the collection here at Scarhandpainting. More articles are already prepared, but I somehow felt like this one will be a nice way to close the 2016th.
Below I will show you a quick way of making a Witch Hunter’s Hat with basic tools, some green stuff and some plastic leftovers. The thing about Witch Hunter’s Hats is that they are extremely rare and yet they look just awesome. A lot of miniatures can be reborn as proper Witch Hunters just by adding this small detail. So, here’s how I do it:
* Modelling Knife,
* Sculpting Tools,
* Modellin File,
* Green Stuff,
* Super Glue,
* Some round and flat plastic bitz (heads in helmets will do too),
* Some tubular sprue plastic bitz (easy to get as they’re in almost every sprue),
1 I started with preparation of hat parts. For this purpose I used round shaped plastic bitz, cutting off the excess of plastic with Modelling Knife first, then flattening the top area with a Modelling File. Next I used a Modelling Knife to cut tubular sprue bitz into nice hat top pieces. This is how it should look like when done:
2 I then glued the pieces together, prepared a piece of Green Stuff and rolled it into a thin line. I also cut small pieces of Green Stuff loose and rolled them into small balls.
3 I applied some Super Glue around the connection between hat's top and brim. I then applied a Green Stuff rolled piece onto the glue and flattened it with a Sculpting Tool modelling it into a strap. For this purpose I used a rounded part just behind the tip of a Sculpting Tool.
4 I smoothed the texture of starps using a Sculpting Tool dipped in water. I then left the hats to dry.
5 Once the Green Stuff dried out I applied Super Glue onto a piece of plastic, sticked a Green Stuff ball onto the tip of a Sculpting Tool, gently dipped it in the glue and applied it to a hat's strip. I also flattened the ball with the other (rounded) end of a Sculpting Tool thus creating a clasp.
6 In the end I modelled a pattern on each clasp with the sharp tip of a Sculpting Tool. Once it was done I let the Green Stuff to dry out. Instead of modelling a clasp yourself, you can use any well sized bitz or even a piece of plastic. Actually anything fitting the hat's strap will do.
The final effect may not be outstanding but it will do the job of transforming your Imperial Mercenary, or any other miniature into a badass Witch Hunter. See for yourself in the Warband: ‘Scourge of the Witches’ gallery. Here’s a preview pic:
I hope you like the tutorial. It is an old piece but I really wanted to have it here at Scarhandpainting.
Winter is already here thus I thought about warming the theme a bit by introducing a tutorial of how to make candles for 28-30mm scale. Why produce such things? In miniatures hobby candles are rare bitz among what you get in the sets designed by main miniature producers. Even if a set contains some, their number is scarce. Why not make your own and adorn bases, miniatures and even scenery with them? Be it Age of Sigmar, Mordheim, Warhammer 40,000 or just a fantasy dungeon – candles will provide mood to both miniatures and scenery. Below is a quick and easy step-by-step of how to produce your own 28-30mm scale candles. Enjoy…
1 I started with preparation of candles-to-be by cutting toothpicks into small pieces. I tried to keep all of them between 5-10mm long, to better fit into the 28-30mm fantasy scale. Once I had couple pieces done I choose some of them and drilled small holes from one side. These will be used later to hold candlewicks.
2 Next I glued the candles onto the base. In case of scenery I usually drill small holes to hold the candles in place or just glue them as it is if I'm sure the scenery won't require enchanced durability. For the purpose of this tutorial I drilled some holes in an old square Warhammer base.
3 I then glued small pieces of wire into the holes, to look like candlewicks.
4 Then came the time to cover the candles with a basing glue, applying additional glue around the base of each candle to create an effect of spilled wax.
5 Next step was to prepare couple of small flames, using a wet paper tissue. I just rolled, then cut it into small pieces, which I then rolled once again.
6 The flames where then glued to the candles with super glue and once in place - covered with glue to harden entirely.
7 I left the stuff to dry, then painted it with mix of creme and white, washed the candlewicks and flames with some washes.
The end result will look more or less like this:
“It is a Dark Time.
The might of the Empire is dust, their crown is lost to them and their glory forgotten.
The promise of an age of peace and prosperity is drowned in blood.
This is your time. For the ruins of Mordheim hold prize beyond imagination: stones of power which can grant all your wishes.
But beware of your enemies.
Fear the Possessed, the Beasts of the Pit which roam the night.
Watch for the thieves of the Rat men, the Skaven of the Underworld.
Dread the corpses who walk like the living: the foul Vampires and their rotting minions.
This is Mordheim, the city of the Damned. This is the home of all your hopes. Be wary or it will be your grave as well.”
Mordheim rb.s.124
Following the previous Mordheim article I would like to present the “Toad Fountain” – another addition to my Mordheim scenery collection. The same night I started to work on “Dead Tree” I encountered difficulties with falling asleep. My imagination bombarded me with countless visions of cool Mordheim scenery pieces, ruined bridges, fallen temples and overturned carts. Among many otheres was a diamond in for of a big, eye catching fountain…
At first I approached this project from many different angles. Wasn’t entirely sure how to handle the main body of the fountain and even what to actually put on top of it. I only knew how I would like it to look in the end. I considered building entire fountain out of MDF pieces or even plasticard. In the end I decided to use a GW’s Tower of Sorcery bottom piece to base the construction at. With that behind me I could have predicted the size and role this scenery piece would fill in my newly developed gaming board. Be it a plaza filler or top piece of an urban hill – I was sure this one will bring a lot of dark and strange mood to my City of the Damned.
I started the project with cutting out the entire inner surface of the Tower of Sorcery’s base. I had to use a heated knife to do this, cause the plastic was really thick. Once done I cut a huge chunk of plasticard, mounted the construction on it and cut it to match the base of the fountain. I filled two canals in the base with skulls and bricks picked from scratch, then used modelling putty to fill any remaining holes. Having a firm floor in place I then used strips of plasticard to form the inner wall of the fountain. Smoothed the edges with modelling putty and mounted the inner feature, made out of GW’s scenery piece…
I then started to figure out which miniatures to put around the pool and on the main plinth. Had real problems with that, due to not enough statue looking miniatures. I had some old Sisters of Sigmar, but each one was a different piece. Any other stuff except Stormcast Ethereals was too diverse to be even considered, and the Space Marine like guys looked just ridiculous, and uber epic’ish to be mounted. Totally out of place which you can see below…
Salvation came in form of Talisman the board game, where four awesome looking frogs can be found. Frogs totally fit into Mordheim’s unhealthy, dark mood – so I decided to ultimately break down the Talisman set and use these four creatures as statues. But what to do with a center piece? I considered leaving it empty or building an altar on top of it. Nothing seemed fitting the space so in the end I decided to take a risk and try to sculpt my own Toad. To do so I picked a smooth, flat egg-like rock and used it as main body. Then I just built the texture around it, mounted it on the plinth and added arms, leggs and facial features. I used small crystal balls on the back of the main Toad so that it fit to the rest of the herd…
I was really happy with the result of my sculpting, especially while I am not at all that good of a sculptor. Usually I just use random stuff instead of making it myself. Still – this turned out pretty cool so a win for me. I even used the excess of the modelling putty to make more fish and creatures, mixed them with the ones created during the “Dead Tree” Special Project and mounted all on a piece of plasticard to be easily painted outside of the fountain. The scenery piece was ready for another step…
This one was painted side by side with the previous Special Project. I had a strong Mordheim fever back then and was so deep in trance as not to take any mid-paint pictures except for one. Real shame, but what’s done is done. What’s worth saying is that I airbrushed a lot, covering entire Fountain with Dark Sea Green from Vallejo and then moving up with Light Grey Green and other colours. Purple and brown points were added to the fray before entire fountain was drybrushed softly with Pale Wych Flesh. I then washed the interior of the pool with some of Vallejo washes and mounted all the newly painted fish on top of tiny translucent pieces of plastic cut out of a coca-cola bottle. After the paint and glue dried I just filled the basin with Crystalline 940 resin halfway up and let it rest for a day. I also cut thin lines of translucent plastic and modelled them to look like falling water using heat. Added them to the construction the next day and had to pack entire thing for transportation to a new home, along with all my stuff…
Something around two weeks later I finally got to work on the “Toad Fountain” once more. I added some streaks and soft glow to the frogs, filled the basin with resin up to the brim and added some leaves inside. I also applied leaves all around the fountain to keep it visually coherent with the rest of the terrain I’m planning to make.
You can see the finished piece below, while more pictures can be found in the “MORDHEIM TOAD FOUNTAIN” Special Project gallery…
This piece can also be found at CoolMiniOrNot, where you can vote for it.
I hope you like this piece. I have big plans for Mordheim, wish to bring even more Mordheim scenery pieces to life in the future. Right now I’m working on a complete redesign of my previous Mordheim gaming board. Have a lot of ideas, but due to lack of free time I plan to take small steps. If you want to see more of the upcomming Mordheim related articles, just stick around and they will certainly pop up from time to time.
“It is a Dark Time.
The might of the Empire is dust, their crown is lost to them and their glory forgotten.
The promise of an age of peace and prosperity is drowned in blood.
This is your time. For the ruins of Mordheim hold prize beyond imagination: stones of power which can grant all your wishes.
But beware of your enemies.
Fear the Possessed, the Beasts of the Pit which roam the night.
Watch for the thieves of the Rat men, the Skaven of the Underworld.
Dread the corpses who walk like the living: the foul Vampires and their rotting minions.
This is Mordheim, the city of the Damned. This is the home of all your hopes. Be wary or it will be your grave as well.”
Mordheim rb.s.124
Working with some awesome Tabbletop World terrain bringed back memories of Mordheim and how I used to create fantasy scenery for my own gaming table. The idea to revitalize entire gameboard surfaced in my mind on more than one occasion but such a feat was somehow beyond my reach. To satisfy the muse and pacify my deepest Mordheim desires I decided to go one small step at a time. My attention focused on a piece I wanted to create since the earliest days of Mordheim – a creepy, dead tree. I already made an attempt to bring life to this piece couple of years ago, but the overall effect was rather poor and I ditched the project. This time I was much more experienced and much more hyped, but most of all I have acquired a lot of new skills and got to know new techniques during these last few years. I was ready to take on this Special Project head-on.
The idea was to make a sickly looking tree, hung some stuff on it then compose the surroundings so that the entire piece of scenery would create a nice visual effect. It was supposed to be a cool looking, mood providing centerpiece. The most important features were to be looks and being totally impassable so that the terrain piece won’t cause any placement problems during the game. Along with the tree there supposed to be some sort of eye-candies in form of small detail like a hidden treasure, bones, animals etc. Also I wanted to include either a small crypt or a monument somewhere on the base to provide a stronger mood to the piece.
After selecting most of the initial materials and bitz for the project I started with the tree. I thought long and hard about where to get a long wire to base the tree upon, but in the end was able to get my hands on an old Ethernet cable. At that point I knew that I will have to strenghten the entire construction, but for the time being I concentrated on the base shape. I cut the cable into pieces, removed the excess of the outer layer and reshaped the inner wires into branches/roots on both ends of each piece. Then I grouped the pieces in twos and threes, taping them around the main trunk with a paper-tape. In the next step I composed the tree out of the newly created pieces and taped them together…
Having a tree I concentrated on basing it. Used a piece of PCV to cut the basic shape and glued a bottom piece of the statue I was going to add to the composition. I then cut the excess of PCV and modelled it a bit around the newly aded piece. I based the tree and added a huge natural rock to the base to serve as a sort of a sacrificial altar or something related to occultism (And to add weight to a base that was supposed to hold a big tree). I then used a basing glue on the entire trunk of the tree and taped it around with pieces of moisted paper towel. Left the entire thing to dry out for the night…
Upon waking up I started to add texture to the tree. There were two possible ways to achieve a durable and good looking effect. The first one was to use Green Stuff along with other sculpting putties to provide a nice texture. This one would take up a lot of time and cash so I ditched it in favor of the more simple and quicker way. Once again I used basing glue, but this time I covered entire tree. Once it was hard enough I added another layer and used a dryer to help it harden. I also applied a lot of Mourn Mountain Snow – texture paint from GW. Modelled a bit and then finished with a lot of Super Glue to harden the entire surface and strenghten the construction. This way I ended up with a nice looking, durable and highly textured tree…
Next step was to add more stones onto the base and provide a more natural shape to it. I used Green Stuff and some other modelling putties to create the base shape. It was a bit expensive, but I hadn’t had plaster around and wanted to progress without any delays. I even used up excess of the putty to quick-sculpt some fish and mutated creatures for another Special Project going on beside this one. Somewhere on the way I also started to add bitz to the tree so that it looked more Mordheim-like with hooks, nails, a dead body hunging by the neck etc…
Detailing took some time as I wanted to bring life to the piece. A short line of running rats here, A bird interrested with the candles there and a half burried treasure chest somewhere else. The work moved steadily forward and with each new feature the ‘Dead Tree’ look much more alive.
Once everything was in place I covered the entirety of the base with Stirland Mud – tecxture paint from GW. Usually I just use basing glue and sand, but this time I wanted to create something more detailed. ‘No shortcuts’ I told myself when applying the texture. Ended up with a complete piece looking like this:
What can I say – I was totally in the mood. Once I sat to paint this thing I couldn’t take a break even if only to take a work in progress picture. Just couldn’t stop. Took couple of hours to complete with me testing new recipes – wanting this one to look superior to all my previous Mordheim scenery. It turned out to be a concept foundation on which I intend to build my new Mordheim gaming board terrain series.
One thing that I can say about the paint job is that most of it is made using Vallejo Air paints and actually airbrushed. Some surfaces were drybrushed just to be lined with Flayed One Flesh. What is unusual for me is that I almost used no washes, which usually are the main source of highlights in my works. This time tho I decided to go in the direction of a proper airbrushing, rather than risk unpredictability of a wash. Either way – I finished the project by applying Birch-tree seeds to imitate leaves all around the base and in particular small spots over the altar and monumet. This complimented the entire colour scheme and deepened the mood of the scenery piece.
Here is a picture of the finished piece, but theres a lot more in the “MORDHEIM DEAD TREE” Special Project gallery…
Some pictures can be also found at CoolMiniOrNot, where you can leave your votes for this one if you like.
“Dead Tree” is not my last word when it comes to Mordheim Terrain. Even now I’m working on a brand new pieces, not to mention the ‘Toad Fountain” which was completed in the same time as this one. Hope you like this piece and will enjoy the entire series. I encourage you to leave feedback, especially in case of any questions related to the project.
Static Grass or Tufts? That is a question that each painter has to answer by himself before going commando with basing miniatures. My personal favorites are off course Tufts as they offer a great visual effect. Sure, tufting entire base can be a bit expensive in comparisson to using Static Grass, but isn’t the looks what truly matters? So Tufts it is – and during many years of miniatures painting I used a variety of them. Recently I work with Army Painter’s, Citadel’s and MiniNature’s but when I want to pop the visual effect of a base with something more colorful or just fancy – I bring Paint Forge to the table!
From what I know Paint Forge is a Polish painting studio, that produced tufts and Flowers for own use, then seeing how popular they are – started mass production. I first encountered their products by accident, just scrolling through online offer of a friendly hobby store – seeking something to fill my shoping cart with. After seeing the offer I grabbed a handful of different Tufts and Flowers to test them. Since then I already had to resupply as I used up couple of packages during INFINITY: TOHAA project. Must say that most of the time I’m happy with Paint Forge’s stuff but let’s take a closer look at how their products present themeselves…
Both Tufts and Flowers are of fine quality. Once you work with them you will quickly notice the lack of the flaws that most of the nowadays Tufts and Flowers have. There will be no huge, random chunks of Tufts that require you to tear them into smaller pieces before usage. There’s almost no need to prepare either Tufts nor Flowers before use as they go in shapely groups – self adhesive and ready to be glued onto the base. When I say ‘adhesive’ I mean – like really, really adhesive – these are based on some sort of goo that really sticks to the surface. Upon opening the package there won’t be hundreds upon hundreds of loose grass blades – only few of these. There’s also no Games Workshop-like shine of the grass blades. Some flaws are still present but it is common with this kind of products.
What can I say? Paint Forge’s Tufts ands Flowers just kick ass when it comes to Visuals. I know that it is a matter of taste but hell – I’ll just drop some pictures of the miniatures that I used Paint Forge’s stuff on:
Paint Forge’s Tufts and Flowers are rather functional. Most of the time the only preparation they require would be to pick them with tweezers and just put them on the base. Some things that I have issues with are:
These are not some huge flaws, still once they appear – they tend to consume time, and time (at least for me) is the most important factor in miniatures painting. Either way these are rare while the overall functionality of the products is really high. No need to remove a rough grass blade – it’s easier to stick the Tuft on the base so that this flaw will stay hidden. You can also try to reposition such grass blade into the goo. There are many quick ways to fix any encountered bug – while using the Tufts with ease.
Paint Forge’s products are well balanced when it comes to price. Not too expensive with price gauge placed somewhere around Army Painter. It wouldn’t hurt if they were a bit cheaper, thus competitive, but considering the quality – pricing is really ok.
Not too expensive, great looking and user friendly – Paint Forge’s products are a great choice to compliment the arsenal of Tufts and Flowers used to base the miniatures. Personally I fell in love with them and will expand my collection. I only wish I got to know them a bit sooner so that many fine projects would benefit from it – still there’s a lot of projects before me and you will notice Paint Forge’s Tufts and Flowers appearing in a lot of them.
Where to purchase? The best way is to contact Paint Forge directly via Facebook or to visit Vanaheim.pl/eu and order some!
Here are some Colour Recipes for Infinity Yu-Jing lvl 5 from GALLERY: INFINITY TOHAA lvl 5. Please take note that this is a simple colour scheme, not covering multiple overlapping layers and blends inbetween, that lead to the final product. It is supposed to be used as guidline not a step-by-step.
BONE armour:
Black Undercoat,
Earth (Vallejo)*,
Khaki (Vallejo)*,
Bonewhite (Vallejo)*,
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
White l&p,
SYMBIONT armour:
Hot Orange (Vallejo),
Hot Orange (Vallejo) + Pallid Wych Flesh (GW),
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Lugganath Orange (GW),
Lugganath Orange (GW) + Pallid Wych Flesh (GW),
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
BLACK weapons:
Black Undercoat,
Skavenblight Dinge (GW),
Fenrisian Grey (GW),
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
Dark Tone Ink (AP),
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
White l&p,
NECROTIC skin:
Dead Flesh (Vallejo),
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Necrotic Flesh (AP) + Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
White l&p,
ORANGE clothes:
Hot Orange (Vallejo),
Hot Orange (Vallejo) + Fire Dragon Bright (GW),
Hot Orange (Vallejo) + Fire Dragon Bright (GW) + Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
Mix Hot Orange (Vallejo) 3: 1 Bloodletter (GW),
Lugganath Orange (GW) l&p,
GRAY/BLUE clothes:
Eshin Grey (GW),
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Eshin Grey (GW),
Eshin Grey (GW) + Fenrisian Grey (GW),
Eshin Grey (GW) + Fenrisian Grey (GW) + Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
Dark Tone Ink (AP) shadows,
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
White l&p,
l&p – lines and points,
*Airbrushed (with multiple layers and mixes)
Every once in a while I encounter a visionary customer ending up head to toe in a ‘Special Project’ of someone else’s design. Such event occured just recently when I met Thomas, who is both a miniatures collector of grand magnitude and a great fan of Geckos. So, Thomas had an interresting idea of converting a Newt Warrior from Dark Sword Miniatures into a ‘Gecko Mage’. He was very specific about all the details for this particular project. He even drawn some concept arts to point out his expectations which is a rare thing. I was pretty much consumed by the idea and started to think about how I would proceed with it…
Alongside typical Gecko tail I was asked to create a torch and a book for the miniature to stand out as a ‘gecko mage’. Torch and tail were a matter of some time spent with green stuff and it went pretty smooth, but the book was a totally different thing. First of all I had to remove the miniature’s left arm, almost entirely covered by a shield. Taking that into consideration I decided not to rebuild this practically ‘obliterated’ limb but rather mask the damage and use a proxy hand to hold the book. Sculpting a new hand was out of question, as this would consume a lot of time and is on a verge of the limit of my skills. I used a Warhammer Ghoul’s hand instead and cut off one of it’s fingers to mark the other hand. Then I used some green stuff to fill the space left after previous ‘operation’ and masked the ‘wound’ using a book on the one side and a scroll-like bookmark on the other.
The base was yet another interresting idea. It was meant to be partially submerged with fish, plants and river bank being clearly visible. Alongside the mage, some books were to be added on the coast. Also three rats were to accompany the Gecko, being it’s familiar pets. As it happened, I had an old Micro Art Studio base with a tree trunk all over it. I decided to modify and use it as a major feature of the coast. Once it was prepared and placed on the base, I just added detail all around it and positioned the Gecko miniature in a slightly more dynamic pose. It looked well so I got a green light from Thomas and proceeded to painting…
The overall concept for the paint job was to use the original colour scheme of light green with underbelly creme and add a red pattern to the tail and back. I also got some specifics on the eyes and armour. Otherwise I had a free will to choose colours and their depth so I just did my best, providing a nice ‘Heroes Never Die!’ lvl 6 paint job.
I actually started painting with the base. While the Gecko paint job proceeded, the base was already prepared to get submerged. I used Fantasygames awesome tutorial to prepare the base then poured the resin in. As with all things – mistakes happen, and my first attempt ended up with a mess, resing pouring all over the desk, me trying to block it with blue tac and other stuff… I failed and restarted the process after clearing the base of resin. Second attempt was a success and after 24 hours I was ready to add a finishing touch to the base…
I had a lot of fun with this Special Project, mostly because I would have never had an idea like this on my own. Thomas not only provided the concept but also entrusted me with his vision. He had a great impact on the project and it makes it even sweeter. If only I could produce two identical pieces so that one would adorn my own collection 😛
View complete Gallery… Like/Don’t like? Vote at CoolMiniOrNot…
It’s been almost four months since I have ‘finished’ The Colony Special Project. Such grand endavours are the reason I’m into painting and miniatures wargaming. That wondrous feel of completion once a huge project hits the finish line. It always comes with a great satisfaction but once the dust settles, a void starts to grow inside my heart. I’m happy with results, yet long for the ‘process of creation’. That is why I consider every major project to be alive for at least as long as I am. In case of The Colony – well, a gaming table could always be improoved or use some more scenery. That is the exact way of thinking which led me to writing another part of this article…
That being said I must confess that I wasn’t able to invest much time into The Colony in the last few months. Other artistic projects fell on me from all around the globe and I lived a prosperous life by lending my brush to all those in need of decent painting. Still, once in a while I stumbled upon some cool looking items that just screamed to be unleashed onto my gaming board in form of some sweet looking terrain. Many sources provided me with items of great value, among them my girlfriend (cosmetics), my friend Garran (his personal collection of ‘cool stuff’) and even some of befriended companies like Micro Art Studio, or Ekograf, who (knowing my tastes) sent me some of their leftovers. I sincerly thank all of you, my beloved providers, and proudly announce that I couldn’t resist the temptation and used all the items, you so willingly parted with, to further expand my scenery collection and bring The Colony’s theme beyond the bounds of my early predictions.
Anyone remembers that picture? It was published at the end of “THE COLONY” SPECIAL PROJECT part six article. Some of this stuff still awaits being used, but more than half of it has already reincarnated in a form of these scenery pieces:
A futuristic sculpture made out of a Maybelline eyelashes mascara. Once I stole this precious item from my GF’s secret stash I had a real wrinkle with how to use it. So many ideas, including an antenna, a column, a laser tube – in the end I couldn’t decide so I got back into a well known territory of futuristic sculpures. It is only fair to use items stolen from my GF as pieces of art, otherwise she might not be swayed to turn a blind eye on my theft 😛
I got that awesome Dactari from my Girlfriend somewhere along two years of gaming. Untill now I hadn’t had use for it, as I was more into Corregidor-like miniatures, but finally I got the idea, made up what MDF pieces I will need to ‘cage’ this chick and ordered them from a friendly company. Once I got the stuff I just build the cage and here’s the result. It makes foir a nice rooftop piece or a great standalone scenery piece.
These can be used as objectives or just some random scenery pieces. I made them out of HDF pieces, leftovers and small plastic tubes* filled with shower gell. The tubes were given to me by Garran with which I tend to play Infinity, but also exchange concepts during our long painting/modelling talks. The guy is so nice as to share some of his stuff with me and I try hard not to let this gesture go to waste.
This is another source of endless inspiration. These are some throwbacks from Micro Art Studio’s production. MAS is very serious about their products – each and every one is checked for defects before it proceeds to packing. Once a defect is discovered, all imperfect products are kept as samples to avoid same kind of mistake in the future. In case of large quantities tho – some items may be sent to a friendly modeller to be used for awesome scenery building! One might even say that these can be used in a variety of crazy ways…
Six bridges are a bit too much on a 48×48″ table so I designed these scenery pieces to help me setup and then keep the gaming board in order. Simple yet effective, adding depth to streets and a nice futuristic note to the overall visual effect.
Made with playability in mind, these low planters are perfect to fill my choosen theme of white/orange/green scenery. They fit both at the ground level and in the rooftops. I made these using pleksi rulers to provide detail, while the rest is just plasticard cut to fit the empty spaces. The visuals vere enchanced by plants and HDF ‘orange’ pieces.
This plant compartment module is a pearl among the scenery pieces I’ve created lately. I’m really happy with how it came out. To think that I struggled for almost a year before I decided how to use two Yves Saint Laurent caps. But let’s get to the way these items (there are actually two identical scenery pieces) came to life. Some time ago I got a set of used up cutter casings from Ekograf to use in my quest of bringing imagination to reality. My friend Garran was the one to dig these out specially with me in mind (Once again thanks mate!). Once I layed my hands on these fine pieces I knew that something wondrous will come out of them. So I started planning and was quickly drawn to still unused Yves Saint Lauren caps. Their hexagonal shape fit perfectly to The Colony’s theme so I based the entire construction on them. After adding couple of PCV pieces to make the construction higher I used plexi rulers to add detail, then used cutter casings and some HDF leftovers to build particular compartments and mounted them around the central column. For the plants I used a fake Bonsai tree made out of gum. It was to fragile to be used as a standalone scenery piece, but inside the compartments it could easily outlive all the other terrain pieces. So I used glue and some tricks of my own to enchance the vicualts of tree stupms, added fake greenery and mounted these fine looking plants inside the compartments. ‘Orange’ elements followed and themed paint job done the rest. Now I have two LOF blocking pieces of scenery, that provide a lot of cover, fill empty spaces between the buildings and go along with the theme.
One thing still stood out of The Colony’s theme. The Micro Art Studio’s gaming mat (which I just love and don’t want to ever switch for anything else) was screwing with my colour scheme too much. I’ve figured to try and paint it, using sprays and airbrush. For this purpose I’ve airbrushed the entire mat with Vallejo’s German Red Brown, then used Vallejo’s white primer to lighten some spots and finished with Games Workshop’s Zandri Dust primer spray. Once the last layer was dry I moisted the gaming mat and used a piece of cloth on it to ensure that no paint will leave marks on my terrain, miniatures and accessories. Must say that MAS’s gaming mat holds the paint perfectly, while keeping it’s previous properties. The picture does not entirely cover the hue but rest assured that now the gaming mat fits perfectly to The Colony.
Last four months might not seen me The Colony-centered, still I’ve managed to improove the inicial concept of this gaming table. I’m really glad to be able to transform this:
Into this:
Are more upgrades incomming? As long as I live and am into Infinity – that’s not a matter of if, but when. Stay tuned for more of The Colony.
You want to learn more about The Colony? Check out the entire series using THIS TAG
Here are some Colour Recipes for Infinity USAriadna Ranger Force from GALLERY: INFINITY USARIADNA. Please take note that this is a simple colour scheme, not covering multiple overlapping layers and blends inbetween, that lead to the final product. It is supposed to be used as guidline not a step-by-step.
Armour & Uniforms:
Black Undercoat,
Dark Earth (Vallejo),*
Light Brown (Vallejo),*
Light Brown (Vallejo) points,*
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Flayed One Flesh (GW),
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
BLACK/GREY outfits & weapons:
Black Undercoat,
Skavenblight Dinge (GW),
Fenrisian Grey (GW),
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
Dark Tone Ink (AP),
Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
White l&p,
BROWN elements:
Olive Drab (Vallejo),
Gorthor Brown (GW),
Gorthor Brown (GW) + Pallid Wych Flesh (GW),
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Karak Stone (GW) l&p,
SKIN:
Bugmans Glow (GW),
Dwarf Flesh (GW),
Dwarf Flesh (GW) + Pale Flesh (Vallejo),
Mix Strong Tone Ink (AP) 1:1 Soft Tone Ink (AP),
Pale Flesh (Vallejo),
Pale Flesh (Vallejo) + Pallid Wych Flesh (GW) l&p,
*Airbrushed (with multiple layers and mixes)
l&p – lines and points,
View the INFINITY GALLERY…
Micro Art Studio does some fantastic paint job on their stuff. At some level it might even be considered a bit intimidating. Thoughts like ‘This stuff is amazing, but I will never be able to paint it anything like they did’ had kept me from purchasing some awesome terrain pieces in the past. I bet that some of you feel the same right now. Well – that is clearly a bad way of thinking. That’s why I prepared this small Step-by-step painting tutorial with which I hope to bring you closer to your ideal of a Gaming Table.
For this purpose I picked a Concrete Wall Set 2 by Micro Art Studio and tried to copy their style with a small variation of the colour scheme.
1 After unpacking the set I have cleared any extent of resin and prepared each piece for the undercoat.
I used THIS METHOD
2 I have covered entire set with Games Workshop's Mechanicus Standard Grey primer. Usually I use Black Undercoat first, but in this case the surface was smooth and I knew it will work well with a Grey undercoat. Do not feel obliged to use the exact same primer - you can easily use Vallejo Grey Surface Primer instead and Airbrush it over the surface. I used spray just to save some time.
3 I gently arbrushed Vallejo White Surface Primer over the set. First I tried to cover entire surface from afar (15cm distance, constant flow, see pic - dark spots), then I outlined center of each flat surface with additional layers (5cm distance, soft puffs of paint, see pic - light spots). This resulted in the surfaces gaining some extra shadows.
4 I used airbrush to apply Vallejo Light Brown onto the lower parts of each Wall piece. I mixed a bit of Airbrush Flow Improver to build up a nice transition from brown to white. The key is to paint in smooth lines, then go backwards building up colour. Too much paint in the same spot will result in paint spilling all around and ruining the paint job.
5 Then I moved to Army Painter's Soft Tone Ink and airbrushed it over Light Brown, with an addition of single strokes over the recesses of four oval Wall pieces. I was careful not to apply too much paint as in this particular case I wanted to build up a nice hume of colour, instead of 'washing' the surface with it.
6 Then I applied a thin layer of Vallejo Light Livery Green over and around each lamp. A lot of small puffs of paint helped me to keep the base shape of light around the lamps. Even if one or two puffs went too far, they were so delicate as to remain unseen once the majority of colour was applied.
7 To strenghten the colour I used a small brush and applied Games Workshop's Waywacher Green onto the lamps. I tried not to exeed the boundries of their slots and in case I did - I used a small piece of paper towel to clear the paint out.
8 Finally I applied AK Interactive Streaking Grime. Using a small brush I poured this weathering effect paint into holes, then smeared it dow with a tip of the brush. The more irregular it went, the better to the overall visual effect.
In the end I used a template provided by Reycast to airbrush a small Nomad prank onto the wall, with a Vallejo Black Paint. What’s left now is to purchase Micro Art Studio’s S-F Graffiti Transfers and job will be done.
Here is a result of my paint job:
