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AK – Interactive – a Spanish company behind a well established series of products for modelers. They managed to become one of the most recognized brands in the modeling world with continuously evolving range of paints, brushes, weathering products and effects. I have been a fan of their products for years now. Recently I decided to take another step and expand a range of texture paints at my disposal. Knowing the quality of AK’s products and lured by sweet pricing I went berserk and got a lot of Diorama Series textures.
Now I’m here to share my impressions.
Usually I do the entire Quality, Visuals, Functionality thing. This time though I decided to take a different approach and just jump right into testing the actual products, with pictures taken at every step. Consider this to be a Review/Tutorial hybrid. I will share my thoughts in the summary, so no worries 😉
Very happy with this one. Not too grainy. Perfect coloration. Two steps process with a final touch of white markings airbrushed through a stencil. End result – very satisfactory.
Say goodbye to sand on PVA glue! This puppy is now my favorite two-steps basing for fantasy miniatures!
Would have never expected to go with such a color, but seeing the end result I’m getting strong Star Wars The Last Jedi / Mad Max Salt Planes vibes… many possibilities!
No need to explain – just look at this! Two steps and your miniature is based on a desert!
This one didn’t hit the mark for me. I expected a more paste-like, smooth surface. More of a Dark & Dry Crackle end result (below). Either way the product itself is solid, just not what I expected, thus once dried, I didn’t follow up on it. I plan to give it another go on my next project so who knows…
This one required a third step to bring out the cracks as they are super tiny. The end result is very interesting. I’m sure that a mix with Dark Earth will bring magnificent results. Right now it looks like a trampled ground, or a road. Will definitely use.
Well… not what I’ve expected. Tried few times, taking different routes. End result is pretty disappointing. So much so that I just skipped further work with this.
Now that’s “crackled”! Three steps and it looks great! I bet it would look even better with Terrain Dry Ground. Count me in babe!
Working with these products was very comfortable. These are definitely high quality and very user friendly. I used a large brush to apply all the effects and simply cannot stress enough how great and easy it was! Growing up on Games Workshop’s products, moving onto these I felt like if I switched a worn out car for a new one, straight out of the factory! No more “fishing” for dry’ish conglomerates of grains to try and smear them onto a base. Nothing of the sort! Smooth. Great to use. Very easy. Zero stress. Just awesome!
Now Wet Crackle Effect turned out to be a disappointment, but all the rest behaved as they should and brought awesome results. The rest is so good that I’m willing to give Wet Crackle a benefit of a doubt and assume I’ve used it incorrectly. Will go back to it at some point and try to bring forth it’s full potential.
Other than that – these are pure gold! I love them. I will be working with them from now on and definitely prefer them over other products that I used until now.
Price factor is very important, especially with paints. You know how it is – you spill half of it, then use up like a one third and the rest dries out 😛 Just kidding, still I’m sure we can all agree that for many hobbyists pricing matters a lot. Just take a look at this:
What else is there to add? 🙂
Except for the Wet Crackle, the AK – Interactive’s Terrains series is a solid 10/10. On top of being extremely easy to use and very efficient, the effects look great. Full recommendation on my end.
I hope you enjoyed this little Review/Tutorial. Share your thoughts in the comments below. Cheers!
You can get these straight from AK’s web store, or if you happen to live in Poland, go to a well equipped Vanaheim online store.
Welcome to Rocky Bases tutorial. Here I will take you on a Step-by-step trip through the process of creating and painting Rocky Bases as presented in the picture below. This adventure is possible thanks to generosity of Gamers Grass and their easy to use, fantastic products.
Before we start, some notes:
As mentioned in previous Tutorial, when making bases, I usually aim for fast, simple, yet effective solutions. It is important to pick a basing method that is easy to copy onto large quantities of miniatures or coming back to a project. This is why I consider Gamers Grass Basing Bits a perfect solution. Nicely textured, ready to use straight out of the box – glue them on, add some texture around – you’re ready to paint. All that being said – for this particular base type I choose Gamers Grass “Rocks” basing bits.
Step one: Applying basing bits
I started by applying glue onto the base and gluing few basing bits on top.
Step two: Applying texture
I then applied texture with Games Workshop Stirland Mud.
At this point entire “Modelling” part is done. If it seem fast it’s because it really is. Just two steps and you’re ready to paint!
I choose to paint these Rocky bases in a classic Bron plus Grey style. Assuming these are meant to be used for a large collection, I want to keep things simple. Would be perfect to close in about three layers per color, with a single type of tufts on top. Just your everyday nice looking, coherent bases. Here’s how I went about it…
Step two: Undercoat
I applied a black undercoat.
Step two: Main color
I then painted entire base with Vallejo Charred Brown. Once dry I drybrushed Games Workshop Calthan Brown on top.
Step two: Secondary color
For rocks I went with Vallejo Panzer Dark Grey, followed by a drybrush of Games Workshop Fortress Grey.
Step tree: Highlights
Final highlight was done with a drybrush of Games Workshop Karak Stone for brown and a drybrush of Vallejo Ghost Grey for rocks.
Step tree: Tufts
Finally I applied Gamers Grass Swamp Wild Tufts.
And with that the job was done! Fast and easy – as all bases should be. I hope this was a pleasant tutorial and that you saw how simple the process is. If you want to learn more about Gamers Grass products – here’s my review:
Welcome to Temple Bases tutorial. Here I will take you on a Step-by-step trip through the process of creating and painting Temple Bases as presented in the picture below. This adventure is possible thanks to generosity of Gamers Grass and their easy to use, fantastic products.
Before we start, some notes:
In my opinion base is supposed to complement a miniature, not steal the spotlight. For this reason, when making bases, I usually aim for fast, simple, yet effective solutions. Important thing to note when deciding on what to use for your bases is to pick a method that is easy to copy. This is why I consider Gamers Grass Basing Bits a perfect solution. Nicely textured, ready to use straight out of the box – glue them on, add some texture around – you’re ready to paint. All that being said – for this particular base type I choose Gamers Grass “Temple” basing bits.
Step one: Applying basing bits
I started by applying glue onto the base and gluing few basing bits on top.
Step two: Applying texture
I then applied texture with Games Workshop Stirland Mud.
At this point entire “Modelling” part is done. If it seem fast it’s because it really is. Just two steps and you’re ready to paint!
I choose to paint these Temple bases in a bit of a Desert’ish style. Let’s say these are meant to be used for a large army. I want to keep things simple, best if within three layers per color, crowned with a single type of tufts. Nothing fancy, just nice looking, coherent bases. Here’s how I went about it…
Step one: Undercoat
I applied a black undercoat. This is my usual start for everything 😛
Step two: Main color
I then airbrushed Vallejo Desert Yellow over entire base. Once dry I applied Vallejo European Dust Wash.
Step two: Secondary color
For ruins I choose Vallejo Cold Grey, followed by a wash of water thinned Vallejo Dark Panzer Grey.
Step tree: Highlights
I then highlighted both colors with a soft drybrush of Games Workshop Flayed One Flesh. I also applied some highlights with the same color on the edges of ruins – just a bit to make them pop.
Step tree: Tufts
Finally I applied Gamers Grass Burned Wild Tufts.
Job done! There’s some poetry in both starting and finishing a base using products from the same company 😛 Either way – I hope this was a pleasant tutorial and that you saw how simple the process is. If you want to learn more about Gamers Grass products – here’s my review:
In this step-by-step tutorial I’m going to show you how to create Cityfight bases same way I did for Gallery: Tau Sa’Cea.
I used:
Step one: Special detail
Using a hobby knife I cut all the sticks, sprues, toothpicks, plasticard and tube into small pieces. I made sure to cut one side of each piece at an angle, to better position each piece on the base. I then glued random pieces on top of a base using Super glue.
Step two: Gravel
I applied PVA glue around previously glued pieces. I then applied Super glue on top of it and, before super glue hardened, covered entire thing with thick sand mixed with hobby gravel.
Step three: Texture
I then textured rest of the base using Games Workshop Astrogranite and Astrogranite Debris paints.
I started with Black Undercoat, then airbrushed a layer of Vallejo Cold Grey, followed short by Vallejo Stonewall Grey. I then washed everything black using Army Painter Dark Tone Ink and once it dried I drybrushed entire base with Games Workshop Administratum Grey.
For metal debris elements I used a mix of Games Workshop Warplock Bronze and Army Painter Gun Metal, followed by a highlight of Army Painter Shining Silver. I then washed all the pieces brown with Army Painter Strong Tone Ink.
For additional depth and effects I blended in some watered Vallejo Earth. Next I washed all metal debris with a mix of Vallejo Dark Red Ochre Pigment and Army Painter Soft Tone Ink. Lastly I drybrushed grey areas with Vallejo Ghost Grey.
Edges repainted black and job done!
You like this article? Don’t be a stranger! Let me know what you think in the comments below or at my Facebook profile! Cheers!
Welcome to second part of the “Mortician’s Pitch” Special Project part 1 article in witch I take you on a ride from bare meshed wood planks to a finished Guild Ball pitch. Stick around and see how “Mortician’s Pitch” came to being.
Let’s pick up where the previous article ended: Two thin coats of black wall paint followed up by a Chaos Black sprayed undercoat. All to reinforce the surface and prep it for a paint job. The paint job itself was divided into three parts: “paving stones”, “grave holes” and “pitch lines”.
This part was pretty easy. A solid coat of Vallejo 74.603 German Panzer Grey, followed by a 1:1 mix with Vallejo 74.601 Grey drybrush and then with pure Vallejo 74.601 Grey drybrush. All done with a 4″ wide brush. With these three layers done some brown haze was airbrushed here and there with Vallejo Air 71.133 Dirt and Vallejo Air 71.042 Cam. Black Brown.
Next part was to paint the insides of the detailed holes. I airbrushed most of it with a mix of browns, and then grays. A soft bright grey drybrush over stone elements, one layer highlight of the coffins and bony paint job of skulls – all complicated a bit due to the sheer size of the board pieces, but other than that simple and easy. That is because I planed for water effect to be darkened with few drops of brown ink. Paint job just didn’t need to be intricate.
Most dangerous part of the project was Resin. Working with resin is very difficult. The thing is messy AF, sticky, gotta be carefully prepared and poured in, but most importantly – a single tiny hole and entire thing ends up on the floor and all over the underside of a project. I know this, because it happened in the past with. More so, a tiny drop on your hand and you can be sure of glossy stains everywhere! With Mortician’s Pitch I actually came prepared. I prepped solid plastic barriers for the half-holes at the middle of the board. I also sealed any potential holes with a thin layer of PVA glue. The resin got poured in and the long wait started…
… and it all went to shit when over 24hrs later I realized that resin is still sticky. I gave it another day to coagulate with no positive result. If you worked with resin you probably know what that means – if resin is still sticky after 48 hours it will stay this way forever. I must had messed up proportions when mixing two ingredients with colored ink. A revitalization process started, with me spooning gummy “goo” out, carefully not to damage paint job underneath. Was very difficult and took few days to accomplish, but I finally landed at a point where it was possible to apply another (this time properly mixed) layer and seal it.
Last part of the paint job, finally possible due to resin being properly hard. I carefully measured distances around the board, covered resin parts with paper thin plasticard and used painting tape to mask most of the board. I then airbrushed the lines with pure white paint.
Revealing the final effect was hell of an excitement. Now I gotta play some games on this troublesome new board!
I hope you like the article. Don’t be a stranger and let me know what you think either in the comments or at my Facebook page.
My hype for Guild Ball is pretty strong. The game looks like a lot of fun and miniatures have a great feel to them, that makes me want to leave everything else and just start painting. My Mortician’s team being currently on hold I decided to focus all the Guild Ball related inspiration around another project – Mortician’s Pitch.
At first I thought about something blunt, like cobblestone texture with pitch features airbrushed on top. Thing would be both playable and looking nice. It all changed once I accidentally bumped into this magnificent piece of scenery by Brokentoad. Those half buried coffins almost catapulted me out of a chair. Such a nice idea. I knew I will order this piece, but first I just had to implement a similar feature to the project. This made “Mortician’s Pitch” evolve from a simple flat cobblestone into a more 3d design. Still, how to insert irregular shapes on top of what is meant to be a playable surface… and then I thought about clear resin…
Off course a man gotta pick a right spot to dig a grave, not to mention placing an entire graveyard. I decided to go with two 10mm thick, 100x50cm wide meshed wood planks as a base for the pitch. These are a bit wider than necessary, but playing different games throughout the years taught me to leave some spare space around the proper gaming area. This way if anything gets damaged it wouldn’t impact playability of the board. 10mm thickness means these would stay flat and be durable enough to withstand any random fuckups that might happen some day.
In order to allow me to “work” with the surface and nest any 3d elements I chose to cover the boars with additional layer of 5mm thick styrofoam.
I carefully planned the layout of the board. Figured that it would be cool to have goals and the middle point of the pitch additionally detailed. I have a huge amount of random stuff scattered around my hobby room and as it happened I had a perfect match for these features.
With goals in place I covered entire board with styrofoam, leaving only certain spots to reveal detailed elements from underneath. I also left two holes for the most important feature – coffins. Additionally I reinforced the edges of the board with thin planks of wood – just in case. I just like my scenery durable and sturdy.
For base texture I picked a trusted wallpaper that helped me with other fantasy projects in the past. Being easy to work with a wallpaper is a great way to texturize large areas, plus it helps keep wobbling models safe in case of a fall.
I glued the wallpaper on top of entire board. No measuring required – I removed excess wallpaper with a giant file. Fast & simple.
I uncovered all the detailed features by cutting the wallpaper around them, leaving approximately 1-2cm surplus, to then cut it into smaller strips to be glued inside the holes.
Now was the time to bring in all the coffins. These were made using 3mm thick plasticard. In projects like this I tend to save time and leave perfect measurements out. Once I measured and cut out a single coffin, I then used it as a template to cut all the rest. Fast & simple yet again.
These then got texturized using a medium sized stone. Plasticard is a durable material, but with enough force it gives in and stones are great to provide an uneven texture.
Next step was to insert the coffins and some additional detail elements into the holes. I used white plaster to partially fill the holes, then arranged all the detail inside.
With all the features arranged to my liking I textured the insides of the holes with Games Workshop Martian Ironcrust texture paint. Once dried I placed some dry twigs here and there and sealed everything with PVA glue. This last step was very important to ensure resin stays in once used.
Everything modeled it was time to undercoat entire board with trusted acrylic black paint. Two thin layers of a black wall paint followed by a spray coat of Chaos Black.
This project was planned to last approximately 48hrs, but working with clear resin can sometimes lead to unexpected (and messy) complications. More than a week into the project and some of the resin didn’t coagulate properly. I decided to scrape it off and apply another layer. This is also why I decided to divide this article into two. Undercoat seems like a great place to finish part one.
If you like the article and find it interesting – be sure to let me know either in the comments or at my Facebook page. See you in the next article, hopefully soon. Here’s a little sneak peek:
In this step-by-step tutorial I’m going to show you how to create gravestones. Please treat this article more like an inspiration, rather than tutorial.
I recently started collecting Guildball and decided to create graveyard themed bases for my Mortician’s. In the miniatures world gravestones are a rare bitz to come across. Sure there are some graveyard themed miniatures sets but getting them just for the sake of gravestones seem like a ludicrous idea – at least for me. Cuz why not just make your own? It is pretty simple you know…
Before we get into it, let’s talk all the charms, decorative beads and bronze gears. Ever heard of Aliexpress? Just search for “decorative charms bronze” and prepare yourself for a mind blowing experience – cause miniatures modelling would never be the same from now on…
Step one: Cutting plasticard
Using a hobby knife I cut 2mm plasticard into pieces of more or less gravestone size and shape.
Step two: Applying texture
I then “textured” each gravestone with a rock. I know how it sounds, but yeah – I simply rock’n’rolled on top of the plasticard to create an uneven texture.
Step three: Detail
With basic gravestones done I added some detail. I glued plasticard and some of the bronze charms on top and on the sides.
Good to know: Bronze charms are easy to work with. They can be broken into smaller pieces with tweezers and just a bit of force.
Well… that’s all. Job done! That was easy, wasn’t it? Plus it costed barely couple bucks for an entire graveyard worth of material! Not that I need as much 😛
Now just waiting for all the Mortician’s to show up. Can’t wait to get these painted!
You find this article helpful? Don’t be a stranger and drop me a comment below!
In this easy, step-by-step tutorial I’m going to show you how to create a Desert Scenery as could be found in “Gallery: Gaslands”.
* I started by cutting foamed PCV (or styrofoam) into basic rocky blocks.
* I then used lighter to gently heat blocks on the sides, avoiding heating up top and bottom surfaces.
* Next, using a hobby knife, I cut bases from 3mm thick plasticard.
* I then glued rocky blocks on top of the bases with basing (PVA) glue. I also glued some blocks on top of one another for the scenery to look more diverse and interresting.
* Next I crumbled a sheet of cork into small pieces and glued them on top of the blocks with basing glue, sanding them before glue dried out to fill the gaps inbetween separate cork pieces.
* I then used plaster (gypsum) to build a gentle transition between bases and blocks.
* A time has come for me to add some detail. Not much, just some texture to bring more life to the wasteland. I cut pieces of plasticard and used toothpicks, MDF leftovers and a toy car to create ragtag barricades and post-apo racing signs.
* Lastly, with a regular brush, I applied basing glue then sanded all the plaster, sides of the bases and some areas around cork pieces on top of the blocks.
Couple of hours later I have painted this stuff and added some tuftsthe end result looks like this:
In this easy, step-by-step tutorial I’m going to show you how to create a Toxic Sludge Base. I designed these bases for Warhammer 40,000 Death Guuard Plague Marines.
**Where I’m from there’s a small paper bag filled with moist absorbsion balls in every shoe box. If you can’t get that, just use some grains or make small balls out of green stuff or modeling clay.
* I started by covering entire base with a layer of basing glue.
* I then put couple of tiny balls onto the base, creating 'buubbles' and let it all dry.
* Once dry, I covered are around the bubbles with another layer of basing glue.
* I let it all dry for about an hour, then undercoated entire base black.
* I then airbrushed a layer of Vallejo Interior Green over entire base.
* Next I airbrushed a layer of Duck Egg Green concentrating on bubbles and surrounding areas.
* Last thing to do was to airbrush two layers of Light Livery Green over entire bases and paint the sides black.
In this easy, step-by-step tutorial I’m going to show you how to create a Seed-Embryo marker, same as from Infinity SHASVASTII lvl 5 ‘Witness Me!’ gallery.
* I started by straightening two office clips, leaving both ends curved.
* I then wraped them around one another and once done, cut a piece with hobby cutters.
* Next I applied a drop of basing glue, followed by a drop of super glue onto a base.
* Then I glued wraped up office clip piece on top of the super glue spot.
* Airsoft gun ammo ball followed, on top of the office clip piece. First a drop of super glue, then basing glue, then I slightly dipped the ball in super glue and glued it on.
* Lastly I modelled three growth pieces on top of the ball, applying a small dose of basing glue with a tootpick, then covering it with super glue.
And that’s it! The Seed-Embryo markers ready in few minutes. Just make sure you let them dry before painting – I recommend about 4 hours for super glue – basing glue mix to fully dry out and produce awesome texture.
Do you like this tutorial? Have you made your own Seed-Embryo markers? Be sure to let me know in the commets below!
