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I’ve been having a blast playing on the Silesian Trenchline scenery set for the last two weeks. Spoiler Alert: The set has been completed for quite some time now. That out of the way, let’s rewind a bit and get right back to where I left in the Silesian Trenchline part two article. That would be the undercoat…
In order to save time I prefer to get everything built first, then apply undercoat wholesale. This is where two 2×4′ folding tables and a set of thin HDF trays tends to come in handy. I go one tray / large piece at a time, spraying black undercoat where it’s required. I then set the tray on one of the tables and get another one. Once out of free space, I stack the trays on top of the previous layer, using small plastic cups as supports with a minimal point of contact. Fifteen minutes later everything’s nicely black.
For the painting process I went with a trusted, simple color scheme. The goal of which was to produce effective results while being easy to repeat across the entire set or to return to with any new scenery additions in the future (Such as the Antenna Cross added later on).
The core list of paints and a video tutorial following each step of the painting process can be found at Tutorial: Painting Trench Crusade Antenna Cross.
Easy to say the painting process was much faster than the building and modeling part. One to two hours of airbrushing followed by a few more hours spent on detailing. Finally a break after applying the AK Interactive Dark Earth texture on top of each piece, to come back another day and finish with a round of drybrush, apply varnish, add a few dozen Gamers Grass Brown 2mm tufts and call it done.
Although the Silesian Trenchline was complete and I had a few games on the set, the inspirational release never came. A few days later I still felt hunger for more Trench Crusade scenery for my tiny dudesmen to explore. The set felt complete and was pretty playable, but upon giving it more thought I figured to double down on some fancy centerpieces – or at least fancier than the ones I already had…
First, I added the probably most iconic Trench Crusade scenery piece – the Antenna Cross. I used a widely available STL with a few tweaks to increase playability and set the piece within my existing scenery set visual cues. A large wooden step around the base of the cross with a small sniper’s nest mid way up the cross and some Sandbags here and there made it work. I felt sated for the day…
The very next day, I had to come back to the project for another round. Got super inspired with a set of DIY objective markers seen at a local Discord – just had to make a set of my own. Nothing special, just a mix of resized 3d printed weapons, crates, ammunition and candles. I threw in a Meshmixered statue of Saint Karen – Patron of Supplies Acquisition, for a strongly themed secondary centerpiece.
Done in two hours, with a bit more work put into making the objective markers pop on the gaming board, finally put my scenery hunger to rest. For now…
This is it. The Silesian Trenchline is now ‘fully’ completed, ready to be fed the blood of plastic fighters. Will it ever get expanded? Maybe, but I already moved on to more projects, including half a dozen commissioned lightweight Trench Crusade scenery sets. I also feel like putting a lot more games in, before deciding what scenery might improve the playability on the Silesian Trenchline. If you have any fun ideas – be sure to drop them in the comments below. Until then – keep your helmets on!
hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
It has been a few days in the grips of the Trench Crusade fever. The squad and I had a few games, and went deep into the no man’s land. With the construction of the Silesian Trenchline (part one) we have crossed the point of no return. In order to finish the scenery set and be able to play the game for real, an array of proper peripherals and extras had to be made. So here we are…
I kicked off with a set of most essential peripherals, being the walkways, ladders and firing steps. These are necessary to get the most out of the entire trench line. Fortunately they are also fast and easy to make.
For the walkways I used two thin pieces of 3mm thick plasticard to support the length and adhered some broken stirring sticks on top. I was considering cutting the sides to fit the ‘rails’ underneath but ended up liking the ramshackle look.
The ladders were made by gluing a few steps on top of two, precisely cut, stirring sticks. I then glued decorative halved balls to fake nails. Not very realistic, but a cheap additional detail to spice things up.
Finally I used the leftover sides of the XPS foam as the base for the firing steps. These got cut into 4″ and 6″ long pieces then covered with PVA glue and stirring sticks one side at a time. Once properly adhered, the stirring sticks got nipped off. The process was then repeated on another side until completed, resulting in a set of very light, but durable firing steps.
The Extras such as damaged barrels, stacks of ammo crates etc. are great to hinder miniatures movement and provide some additional cover on the board. Most importantly this type of scenery adds much needed detail to the composition and can be moved around easily for best visual results.
I used a bunch of 3d printed elements (full list at the bottom) and mounted them on a 3mm thick plasticard with cyanoacrylate glue. I then added some small gravel and poured thin cyanoacrylate on top, sealing it with an activator. This created extra texture and volume around the 3d printed objects. I then cut off the excess of the plasticard, forming an irregular shaped base for each piece. In my opinion this makes the scenery look less artificial and allows for individual pieces to be combined into larger shapes by siding them with one another.
The scenery set was taking shape, but it still lacked the most important thing – the ‘soul’. The Trench Crusade follows a certain artistic theme and I wanted to tap into it and create some memorable centerpieces. Elements of scenery not just to steal a glance or two, but seem significant on the gaming board. To try to achieve this goal I have built two shrines, by breaking and mixing 3d printed elements with stirring sticks. I then based both of them on 3mm plasticard, then combined them with two smallest pieces of the trench wall – both of which have a straight vertical space designed for this particular purpose. Gravel and super glue followed to build volume and texture.
No proper Trench Crusade board should be devoid of Bunkers and I have added three 3d printed pieces to the set. All properly based on 3mm thick plasticard and surrounded with extra details. I used this opportunity to introduce two rows of anti-tank fortifications to go alongside one of the bunkers, further enhancing the militaristic theme of the set.
In order to push the overall theme of the set one step further I glued a few dozen sandbag barricades along the trenches with the PVA glue. Initially I planned to keep these separate, but a few test games convinced me otherwise. The reduction of modularity was a fair price to pay for the decreased setup time, comfort of use and improved transportation.
With everything built and ready, the undercoat followed. A lengthy process of mounting every scenery piece on top of a tray with two sided tape, then spraying black undercoat all around. I do like my undercoat done right after all…
And with that out of the way the only thing left seem to be the painting process, but this I will leave for the next article – coming soon. In the meantime feel free to engage with me about this project at Scarhandpainting social media or down in the comments below. I’d be happy to chat 😉
List of used STL files:
Sandbags & Barrels by DICEVERSE
Bunkers by GRADDESIGN
Tanktraps by BIMBUSPRINTABLES
Cannon Ammunition Crates by MKHAND_INDUSTRIES
Cannon Shells by MKHAND_INDUSTRIES
Artillery by ALPINEWEISS3D
I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
The Trench Crusade got me my friends. Apart from the allure of the online hype, a lot of my buddies spent the last few weeks entrenched in mud, inviting me in. I gave up and fell victim to their plea for reinforcements. If you follow my blog for a while, you already know that when I get into a game I go all-in, thus here we are – I am making the Trench Crusade gaming board. Now put your helmets on and follow me into the Silesian Trenchline.
Usually, when planning a scenery set for miniatures wargaming, I start by making a rough sketch, or set up a provisional board to gauge how much scenery elements feel right. With the Trench Crusade, the community is wildly creative. Scrolling through some amazing examples of gaming boards online I got an idea of how much stuff there should be and how I’d like to approach things. I purchased a few pieces of 50mm thick Styrofoam (XPS foam), a large bottle of PVA glue, 1L of brown acrylic paint, few packages of thin wooden stirring sticks and got to work.
The core concept of the board was to have it modular, but not limited to square panels. The brilliant idea of creating trenches via stacking walled hills on top of the battlefield really spoke to me thus I went with that. I’m not one to sit down and precisely measure stuff and prefer to work fast and intuitively. The way I do things is cut a single piece of material, then use it as a measuring tool and cut the rest following the lines of the template and a piece of straight board or something currently at hand. I find minor lapse in precision working for the visual benefit and realism of the scenery set. This is what I did, cutting a single 4×4″ triangle and using it as a tool to mark core shapes in XPS. Once done I cut out the shapes with a wallpaper knife.
For the angled sides of the ‘hills’ I marked the top of each piece with a marker, following a previously cut piece of XPS about 1″ wide. This way I had the top of the slope, the supposed bottom being the actual edge of each piece. I then cut, focusing on holding the knife in a steady position and following the imaginable angle between the two lines, not caring if I made any slight errors on the way.
Once I had a few core shapes I set them up on a 4×4 gaming mat in order to see how the set ‘feels’ and how much I need to add to reach the goal.
I wanted to have my ‘trenches’ textured with something simple, but effective and look rough. I chose to go with gluing texture on top of the walls with PVA glue. For this I cut old wallpaper alongside a piece of badly damaged transportation paper into strips slightly wider than the height of the ‘walls’. Glued them one at a time on each scenery piece, then upon reaching the second round I used scissors to cut off the excess of the dried out piece, before adding another one beside it.
I then used a large synthetic brush and sealed everything with a mix of PVA glue and water. Left it to dry afterwards.
Once the scenery was completely dry, I used a portable gas burner to diversify the texture on top of each piece – done outdoors. I then used PVA glue to mount some roughly cut stirring sticks in semi regular intervals on the sides of the trenches. Finally, using Super Glue, I glued a lot of these 3d printed crosses on each wallpaper covered side, then cut the bottom excess using clippers. This provided a visually interesting setting composition with just enough detail to fit the world of the Trench Crusade, but not too much not to stand out from under the actual scenery.
The final step for the day was to seal everything again. I mixed water, PVA glue, brown acrylic paint and fine decorative sand then used it to apply texture on top of each piece. I then added a bit more paint and water into the mix and gave the sides a spin. With the help of my valiant daughter we’ve done another round just to build up volume and increase future durability of the scenery.
The pieces got stacked on top of one another and left to dry through the night, while I sat down to tinker with some extras, mainly walkways, ladders and trench platforms, but I will leave that for the upcoming Special Project: Silesian Trenchlines part two – Peripherals and Extras.
I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
Welcome to the Trench Bases tutorial. Here I will take you on a Step-by-step trip through the process of creating the Trench Bases the same way as seen at: Gallery: Trench Crusade New Antioch.
Before we start, some notes:
For this tutorial I will be using:
Step one: Trench Floor
I started by breaking wooden coffee stirring sticks into small pieces, then gluing them on top of the bases about 1 mm apart from one another to leave some space to be filled with texture paste during the end stages. I then cut the excess of the sticks and filed it down with a sandpaper stick to match the base’s edge.
Step two: Rubble
Next I put small piles of gravel on the bases and poured thin super glue on top of them and in-between the ‘planks’. I then sealed it with short bursts of aerosol super glue activator. This created an irregular texture made of partially evaporated glue.
Step three: Charred Vegetation
I then broke a thin branch of dried out grape into small pieces and glued one piece on each of the larger bases.
Tip: I highly recommend sealing each piece with thin super glue for extra durability.
Step four [optional]: Barbed Wire
In order to make barbed wire I combined a curved screw and a screwdriver. I then rolled the twisted wire around a brush handle to form a proper shape. This was then cut into smaller pieces and glued on top of the bases.
Side note: For the New Antioch warband I used a ready to use product, but decided to include this DIY wire version in the basing tutorial. It’s not perfect, but it does the job and is much cheaper.
Step one: Base shading
With the modeling part complete I moved to the painting process. After applying black undercoat I airbrushed Vallejo 71.056 Panzer Dark Grey all over the bases. I then followed with Vallejo 71.044 Grey RLM02 airbrushed on top of rubble and branches.
Step two: Wood & drybrush
Next I covered planks and branches with The Army Painter Grim Black Speedpaint and left it to dry. Afterwards I drybrushed Vallejo 72.046 Ghost Grey all over the bases.
Step three: Barbed Wire base
I started the barbed wire with a layer of Vallejo 72.060 Tinny Tin.
Step four: Wash
I have covered everything with The Army Painter Strong Tone wash – Baron Harkonnen style (almost).
Step five: Barbed Wire
Once Wash dried out and done its job, I have applied a layer of Vallejo 72.609 Rust FX* to random spots on the barbed wire. I then flatbrushed a bit of Vallejo 72.052 Silver* on top and followed up with Vallejo 72.610 Galvanic Corrosion FX, again applied to random spots.
Side Note: *Vallejo Rust and Vallejo Silver are both optional. Looking back I do think I’ve unnecessarily overdone the barbed wire.
Step Six: Highlight
Next I added a bit of contrast by highlighting the sharp edges of the gravel piles, edges of the planks and a few spots on the branches with the Games Workshop Flayed One Flesh.
Step seven: Earth texture
Moving forward I applied a thick layer of AK Interactive Dark Earth texture prioritizing flat base surface, small space between the planks and some areas on top of gravel, to better set all these elements in the scene. The texture was then drybrushed softly with Games Workshop Karak Stone.
Finally I applied a few Gamers Grass Brown 2mm tufts here and there, thus finalizing the visual feel of the base.
I hope you find this review interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
Warhammer 40,000, Infinity the Game, One Page Rules, Deadzone or Kill-Team – every proper futuristic miniatures game benefits from nice looking, properly themed scenery. Where to find proper scenery for your gaming board? Such issues can easily be resolved by dropping loads of cash on original scenery elements or 3d prints. Still, why not make your own great looking and finely detailed scenery, fast, super cheap and recycle some plastic while at it?
In this article I will present to you an easy way to make nicely detailed, in-scale Containers as presented in The Colony Gallery, perfect for Warhammer 40,000 and Infinity the Game with anything in-between.
Some notes:
The Material:
It might be a surprise, but unless you are living in the vicinity of the South Pole, there’s probably a lot of stuff you can recycle into Miniatures Wargaming scenery. It fortunately is the case with the Sci-Fi Containers. Milk, water, sodas all tend to come in bottles / containers with a plastic cap. This is a goldmine of resources to build scenery with.
The Building Process:
Building Sci-Fi themed containers is as easy as gluing two plastic caps of the same size with one another. I recommend cyanoacrylate glue with an activator for a strong bond. The ‘containers’ can then be mounted on baes or used separately, depending on your preference.
For painting I recommend a sprayed undercoat. The caps are not the same plastic as Games Workshop miniatures, the paint is prone to chipping if applied on top of manually painted undercoat (or no undercoat).
The Effect:
Once done the containers can be stacked to create a varied battlefield or to provide better cover. They can even be combined to imitate urban hills and industrial areas. Perfect for any game that shares their theme.
I hope you find this tutorial interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional warhammer 40k miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
Welcome to Ballsy Bases tutorial. Here I will take you on a Step-by-step trip through the process of creating Ballsy Bases that, although might not seem like it, were always canon, since the first of the Ten Thousand…
Before we start, some notes:
For this tutorial I will be using:
Step one: Landscape
I started by applying Super Glue onto a base then adding a small ball of Hey-Clay on top. I then used my fingers to gently caress the ball and shape it into a sack-like lump. Next I used a steel brush and applied pressure to add additional texture. I let it dry for approximately six hours, then went back and used a long, hard brush to smear the thick white PVA glue all over the base and seal it.
Step two: Fleshy Colors
I applied a matt black undercoat then painted the entirety of the base with a thick layer of Vallejo 72.107 Anthea Skin. Next, I grabbed a thick brush right in the middle, then drybrushed the whole thing with Vallejo 72.100 Rosy Flesh hard, then again with Vallejo 72.099 Skin Tone.
Step three: Curly Hair
There are multiple sources of natural and synthetic curled hair. For this tutorial I used the inside of a kitchen knife stand, but I recommend experimenting a bit with brushes or whatever you might come across during brave hobby exploration. I pulled a few single plastic rods out of the knife stand and wrapped them over a brush handle. I then cut them into, about 4cm long, small springs. These I have gently pushed into the ‘meat’ of the sack, followed by a small droplet of Super Glue to seal the deal.
Step four: Shag
Finally I glued a few Gamers Grass Alien Void tufts on top in seemingly random places. After repainting the edge black, the job was done. ‘perfection’
Thanks to Wargamingowy Shitposting for indirectly sponsoring this material.
I hope you find this tutorial interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
What if I told you it is possible to turn almost any old, damaged, badly painted Space Marine model into an Obliterator using trash and a bit of modeling magic? Sounds good? How about I just show you!
Before we start, some notes:
I have been playing Warhammer for over two decades now. Throughout that time I had multiple armies that I built, then painted, then sold out to get dough for another dose of ‘plastic crack’. At times I had to get rid of some really badly painted, out of date sculpts. Easy to say, I came up with a variety of ideas on how to make such miniatures more desirable in the eyes of potential buyers, one of which was turning old minis into Chaos Obliterators and Spawns. The key was to use an old miniature and as little extra bitz as possible to up the value on the gaming board. Nowadays Obliterators come in plastic and look cool, but I believe there is still value in recycling old minis, especially if you’re short on cash and would like to play CSM proper by spamming these bad boys all over the place. The method shown below can be used for anything, including turning Marines/Vehicles Death Guard, making Possessed or Mutants and more. I deliberately chose to make an Obliterator, but stay open minded and let me know in the comments if you would like to see some kind of dedicated Nurge’esque magic in the future.
Now buckle up and let’s jump straight into it!
Step One: Preparing the Miniature
Using Hobby Cutters and a Hobby Knife I removed front parts of the miniature’s arms to make space for the upcoming weapon extensions. I also removed any Imperium related symbols.
Step Two: Weapon Barrels
Next I cut an old lollipop stick and a few toothpicks into short pieces, then glued them onto the shoulder guards and arms of the miniature with Super Glue. I used remaining sharp toothpick ends to form spikes on one leg and the back of the miniature.
Step Three: Veins and Cables
I then added another thematic detail by cutting paper clips into small pieces, then bending them to form swathes of cabling. I also twisted a few to form double cabling/veins then glued all of them onto the miniature. Again with Super Glue.
Step Four: Glue Goo Magic
I followed up with the favorite trick amongst my arsenal – a mix of PVA glue and Super Glue. First I applied some PVA onto the miniature, then right after, I applied Super Glue on top. I then started ‘dragging’ the goo around with a tip of a toothpick to form veins and some sort of meat chunks. The curing Super Glue twisted and hardened the PVA glue underneath – MAGIC!
Step Five: Additional Detail
Here’s where I would usually add some leftover bitz. For this particular miniature I glued three skulls here and there to better represent the theme of ‘big bad Chaos thing’, but I invite you to experiment with stuff. I just wanted to keep things simple.
Job done – seriously. I know the miniature above looks like crap, but just take a look at this undercoated, drybrushed Chaos Obliterator below. It took me less than ten minutes to make and cost as much as an old mini that hadn’t seen action in a decade!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it interesting. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
Who wouldn’t like to play games on a highly detailed, great looking scenery? Fortunately for us – hobbyists, we’re living in times of abundance. Not only is the market saturated with ready to buy awesome scenery elements, but there are many ways to make our own scenery from scratch. Today I’m here to share with you the latter – my method of scratch building well textured, interesting looking trees, of any size and shape!
Before we start, some notes:
Just recently I decided to finally let my 10mm scale itch loose and commit to a new scenery related project. I chose a dark, fantasy theme for it, so alongside crumbling ruins, rocky hills peppered with tombstones I needed some twisted, creeping trees to better tell a story of the glory times long gone. Making scenery from scratch allows us to tell a different short story with each individual piece. This can only be enhanced with self made trees of any size and shape, thus I decided to go this route. The resulting Ghasthollows Cemetery set speaks for itself.
Without further ado here’s how I went about it…
Step One: Trunks
I have started by butchering an old Ethernet cable, removing the rubber cover and pulling out small rubber protected ones. I deliberately chose this type of cable because of the rubber shielding the wires inside. I have observed paint sticking onto it much better than to smooth metal surfaces.
Next I have cut a few pieces of similar size and bundled them together, twisting them in the middle to form tree trunks and leaving top and bottom parts separated.
Step Two: Roots and Branches
Next I based the tree, first forming roots from the lower wires with a set of solid tweezers and then sealing them alongside the trunk with Super Glue. Once dry I then formed upper branches and sealed them with Super Glue using the same method.
Step Three: Texture
To add texture and increase durability I covered the entire tree with PVA glue, immediately applied Super Glue on top and sealed it with Super Glue Activator. This way I ended up with solid, sturdy trees covered with a mix of twisted veins / rough bark-like texture.
…Painting
This one I leave up to you. Everyone have their own painting preferences, depending on scale and the effect they’re aiming for. My set was painted with grey pre-shades on black undercoat, then covered in brown contrast like paint to finally get a drybrush od bright sandy-brown. Nothing special, but on a 10mm scale it really does the job.
Step Four: Foliage
As a final touch I applied just a bit of Super Glue on top of each branch then, using a set of tweezers, glued a small canopy made of Green Stuff World Tall Shrubbery on top. I then sealed it with Vallejo Polyurethane Matt Varnish airbrushed all over, to keep small specks from falling off.
That’s all – a set of awesome looking trees for miniatures is now within your reach. As a final word I recommend staying open minded – there’s plenty of different materials you can use to make your own trees, not just the ones I presented. It is worth experimenting. Be sure to share your result with me.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it interesting. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
Armies On Parade – a yearly contest held by Games Workshop, pitting lovingly crafted Warhammer armies from across the globe against each other. I always admired all the stunningly painted pieces of art presented in the content with a mix of awe and jealousy. Deep down I felt (and still feel) the ceiling is just too high for me to reach. Then again the entire theme of this competition seems to be fun and participation, sharing our hobby joy, rather than trying to win against the very pinnacle of talented people out there. This year, seven days before the very deadline, I have decided to unleash my Crimson Fists and join the challenge!
Like all of my hobby projects, the Crimson Fists collection started out of nowhere. I was ‘divorced’ with Warhammer 40,000 for about ten years, after abandoning a huge Space Marines army back at the down of the sixth edition. The new Primaris Marines grew on me and for a long time I felt like it’ll be fun to start a new army. One day something broke and I went for it, getting just enough carefully selected boxes to build a solid 2000 points list. I had many ideas on where to take my miniatures, including multiple made up Chapters and color schemes. In the end, remembering the wrathful charge of the Crimson Fists from the “Crimson Tears” Soul Drinkers novel, I decided to follow up on a youthful dream of a Crimson Fists collection. Contrary to my usual practices of fast bulk painting to play, I focused on small numbers, cherishing the process and pouring my heart and soul into each and every miniature. I steadily grew the collection, adding a few units at a time, prioritizing unit diversity rather than chasing the meta. As it happens, expanding a collection by adding one or two units every month, allows for some awesome hobby experience – but also expands the available toolset to breathe fresh air into the gaming experience. With a lively, positive local community around the corner, I’m having the time of my life with miniatures games right now and am speaking from over 25 years of wargaming experience behind my belt.
Easy to say that having a main, living project – a growing collection to add to and have fun with, might have saved me as a hobbyist. I love my Crimson Fists army and it is for this reason that I chose to honor it by preparing a special diorama.
Once I’ve committed I had a really bad time sleeping – multiple ideas ferociously fighting with one another inside my head. I spent almost four hours laying in bed, trying to fall asleep, grinding thoughts on how to better present the army. In the end I chose to focus on a two level base with a part of an exposed ground level and a large vantage point. I have been building advanced Crimson Fists themed scenery for the last year and figured a relatively simple base would allow me to use everything I have to build an interesting background and add detail.
To spice things up I have added a decrepit bunker complex entry tunnel and taken it a little bit further with a set of small lights spread across its length. Because there was an entire vantage level coming in on top – I had to finish painting the tunnel before starting to work on the exterior area.
It took me about four hours from laying a wooden worktop on the ground to sealing the vantage floor on top of the finished tunnel. What was left was the exterior and this part was rather easy in comparison. It took less than two hours of the actual work (and a lot of AK Interactive’s Dark Ground texture paint apart from other hobby materials) to see the thing completed.
Once the painting process was finished, I was left with the tedious and challenging process of setting up the background, planning the scene and breathing some life into it. I always admired cinematic shots from White Dwarf magazines – never would I ever dared to imagine I would be taking one myself 🙂
It took a lot of time and hard decision making on which units to include and which ones had to be cut, but in the end I finally had my epic, cinematic shot. Or at least a test shot to be precise.
Now all is in the hands of Games Workshop’s team. Let’s see if I can get as much as a shout out from them. Keep your fingers crossed for me mates!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it interesting. Finally if you are looking for a professional warhammer 40k miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
Converting miniatures, am I right? There’s probably nothing more satisfying for Armada hobbyists, other than tinkering with their tiny resin ships. Adding bits and relocating parts to add more personality to one’s miniatures has always been an important part of the hobby, but with Armada it really takes a collection to the next level. This is doubly true for Ghost Fleets, that does not have dedicated miniatures. Still not everyone enjoys converting miniatures. There are many reasons for it, not having enough skill or idea to name some.
What if I told you converting ghost ships is far more easy than you might think? What if I showed you…
Before we start, some notes:
A good way to distinguish ghost ships amongst other fleets is to add significant hull damage. This can be done easily by cutting a chunk of hull with a pair of piers and/or drilling holes with a hand drill. The latter is perfect for damaging sails. For a natural damage look I drilled some holes then moved the drill bit up and down to produce a slightly more irregular shape.
To add more dynamism to the sails and some key features I used a tissue trick. First I moisten a piece of tissue and form a basic shape. I then glued the shape to the ship with Super Glue. I followed by smearing more Super Glue on top of the tissue with a tip of a toothpick. Once hardened the shape made a solid foundation for some more advanced techniques.
One of the most recognisable ghostly features is the body/hull distortion dragged by the etheric winds. A good way to represent this is by mixing PVA and Super Glue (cyanoacrylate) then smearing and dragging the resulting goo on top of ship features. The way I usually go about it is to apply some PVA glue on the surface, then apply Super glue on top and start smearing with the tip of a toothpick. I always try to smear the ‘glue goo’ in one direction to form dynamic shapes and interesting texture. Once the base shape is formed I let it dry and just let the goo do its thing.
An interesting way of presenting a ghost ship is to take it out of the water. A ship drifting in the air has a truly menacing feel to it. The way I did it was to drill small holes in the underside of the ship, then glue metal wires into them. Once glued firmly I then bent the wires to look like floating under the ship.
Next I modeled an underside of the hull using a Hey Clay, which is a plasticine-like toy for kids. It dries firmly pretty fast, becoming semi hard and very lightweight afterwards. Perfect for this kind of work, with glue goo to further improve its durability and texture.
To greatly enhance the theme of battle damage I have added some damaged woodwork. Ice cream sticks, toothpicks and skewer sticks are all a good source of properly shaped wood. First I cut them into small planks and mast elements, then broken each in half to get that extra feel of splintered wood. Once glued onto the ship it was all covered with thin Super Glue. This increased durability, which is pretty important when considering gaming with such stuff in the future.
Either 3d printed or pieces of other sets, a few extra bits to add character. I fancied myself an anchor dragged on a chain behind one ship – simple stuff once special chains for miniatures are around. Same for any ghostly visages coming out of hulls and sails. Nothing that a bunch of 28mm scale skulls can’t handle.
These are basically all the tricks I used while converting Ghost Fleet ships. The end result can be seen below and in Armada: Ghost Fleets gallery.
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