Time passes, skills improve, people grow better, aaand paint dries!

So, my models have been so far a bit... meh, right? I figured I'd go back to them, when I had decided on the Bloodmaws, to do some fine-detailing. This was also after I'd checked out Games Workshop's painting tutorials, so I had learned quite a lot, from only those 4-5 videos...

Other than that, I noticed some interesting things in the paint jars... A lot of people reccommend a palette. And here's the reason why:

That's dried paint, scraped off from the inner edges of the lid. Now, before I adopted the palette, I used the lip, and scraped off excess paint onto the edge of the jar. That excess pain accumulated, and when you closed the lid, it started drying there... There will always be some small amounts of dry-age, but by using a palette you reduce it by quite a lot.

Also, watering down your paint, just a little bit, can do wonders. Here's an example of a Grey Hunter with a slightly watered down white, and a Blood Claw, whose white has NOT been watered down. On the left, two brush-fills of white on the palette, and a brush once dipped in water. On the right, just dry paint.

Other than that, let's jump into the models, and how I've touched up on them! As a note here, the Grey Hunters had nothing to "touch up on", as I watched the tutorials while painting them.

Wolf Guard Terminators

Before, no wash, no finer detailing, no company shoulder-markings.

After, applied some shader (Agrax Earthshade) to the faces, painted the shoulders white in wait for the Bloodmaw company-symbol transfers. Oh, and the leader's hair/beard got a re-do as well.

Blood Claws

Before...

And after. Applied shader in the faces, detailed their backpacks with Balthazar Gold, painted their left shoulders white, and fixed their red/yellow pack-marking on their right shoulder. I also drybrushed the plasma pistol in the same way I did the plasma gun on the Grey Hunters.

Krom Dragongaze

Before, he had his shoulders still in bone-white, his axe didn't have any highlights, and his detailings were a bit dull...

Final product! Drybrushed the axe with white, giving those upper edges a little sheen, painting the details with Gehenna's Gold, to differentiate him from the other troops, who have the more bronze-like Balthazar Gold!

The Stormclaw box, part 3! Grey Hunters, company choice, and me, actually watching tutorials!

So, I actually started watching tutorials on youtube, both by Games Workshop, and by Miniwargaming, on how to paint properly! ...but only after I was finishing up with these guys, and had settled on what company my army heralds from...

Yes! While assembling and painting my Grey Hunters I decided on what company I want my army to be! Reading through the Space Wolves codex again and again, wrecking my head about which company I want them to be, as fluff is important for me, I was going back and forth between Ragnar Blackmane's great company, The Blackmanes, or Bran Redmaw's company, The Bloodmaws... They all had their "thing", their way of waging war... Krom Dragongaze, an HQ-unit I already had, is... not quite in my taste... Still, though, Ragnar Blackmane is a bit too... popular, I guess, for me to use? I'm not a hipster, it's just that I don't want to use something that's been overused! Also, I read a little into Bran Redmaw, as all the codex said about the Bloodmaws, was that their savagery is legendary, with enemies being torn to shreds, and that they're cunning; "Bran's numerous Grey Hunters will often lie in wait for the foe after the fury of his frontal attack forces their retreat." I found out that Bran Redmaw has the curse of the Wulfen; in laymans terms it would be comparable to him, transforming into a HUGE-ass werewolf-sort of creature in the middle of battle, due to rage. The Wolf takes him, and he slaughters anything in his way.

...so why did I pick the Bloodmaws? Don't know... Sounds relate-able, doesn't it? The rage within a man? It's one of the reasons I picked Space Wolves to begin with, with their pagan, savage ways...

ANYWAYS! Getting side-tracked here... Without further ado...

The Grey Hunters!

Okay, so for these I actually took some progress-pictures! First, the undercoat, then the basecoat, then the layering... Though for these I had to do something differently; couldn't attach their arms just yet. Their bolters would've covered up their torso, preventing me from painting their chest or the "inner" side of the bolter properly, so I had to do them separately...

Once that was all done, the models' torsos and guns painted, it was just a matter of slapping on their arms, curse them for not sticking, and continue with detailing! Note the center-one's power fist. I wanted it to have the company color on it, because why not? Plenty of people paint their Wolves so they have their company color on various pieces of gear (kneepads, gloves etc.).

Shoulder-pads and a banner! Now, at this point I checked that Miniwargaming "layering white" -tutorial. In said tutorial they talked about watering down your paint, so I tried. And I liked it! I started using a palette, adding just a little bit of water to the white when going for the shoulders, AND I LOVED THE RESULTS! ...you can see in the background some Blood Claws with white shoulders, but I'll cover that in a post in the future, how I had improved my skills since initially painting them...

There we go! Their right shoulders painted as well! As regular Space Wolves (not in terminator-armor) have their left shoulder for company-symbol, their right is reserved for their pack-pattern. Here is a standard red base with black "teeth", red/black being the color for Grey Hunter packs. I also tried drybrushing: the plasma gun has a green base, drybrushed with white, and drybrushed with green again for that plasma-shine. The plasma gun -user has his furs drybrushed with Ushabti Bone as well. Didn't really turn out as planned, but live and learn again...

So, there we have it! A Grey hunter pack with a plasma gun, and a Wolf Guard pack-leader, wielding a power fist!

Home-made battlefield terrain! Watchtower 1.0

To start off, I measured a handfull infantry models, to know how big these buildings have to be. I also started toying around with a software I got introduced to in school (studying electric/electronic/medical engineering), mainly used for designing both indoor and outdoor lighting for buildings, called DIALux. A simple enough 3D-modelling software, in which I could design my buildings somewhat easily, and see exactly how large something must be, etc. etc. etc...

...speaking of unit-measurements, have you ever heard of a rule, saying "Measure twice, cut once"? Yea, so have I... Though I still measured only once, it bit me in the arse quite heavily (which will become obvious at the end).


The image-layout didn't want to work, so the top two pictures are placed awkwardly. Live with it.

Watchtower 1.0

I found an image online, and decided I want to create something similar. BEHOLD! A WATCHTOWER! ...now only to make my own...

Crude concept-drawing.

Planning-phase: 10 cm from ground to tower-floor, 9 cm width to house 3x3 units (9 units max), and still be within 6 inches for squad coherency with ground-floor units. The base-pillars would be supported by cross-beams, all made of plastic. Base-pillars would reach all the way up to the roof of the cabin to support the roof. Cross-beams would have one of the beams cut in half to fit into eachother, and glued on a small cardboard-tile.

A word about concept-drawings, by the way... If you want to build something, don't just start building. Planning is half the work, and concent-drawings or sketches give you a good idea of what you're doing, and thoughts on how it'll be easiest to achieve.

DIALux 3D-model. Took me a couple hours to
figure out the software, and make something
I could be satisfied with.

The cabin would be 5 cm high to support the full height of units, and then some, for back-mounted banners or sword-waving lunatics. Walls would be made out of styro-foam, ceiling out of corrugated cardboard.

Building-phase: So, styro-foam is a no-no: it requires pre-handling or shite-tonnes of paint, which I don’t have. So, going to use cardboard for this, then! Double-layered corrugated cardboard again, filling the gaps with filler. Using the plastic frames from the model-material-frames for the posts.

The cabin-base, 3x3 units wide, with some Blood Claws to stand as models.

Cardboard for the walls around the base, had to make it double-layered to be thick enough. Again some top layer dents here and there for battle-damage.

Filler almost in place, we’re getting there! The sharp-eyed will notice holes in the floor, in the corners of the cabin. That's where the base-poles will come through!

Walls filled in, the units fit in there all good and proper. Next day's agenda: the base-poles.

Base-posts almost done! Turns out they’re a bitch to glue together, without glueing them to the table. Also, ladder is in progress… Don’t know how that’ll turn out, or even how to glue the pegs to the posts... Also: the cabin got its basecoat of black spray, painting it in the dark grey as the wall last time. Maybe going with a lighter sort of drybrush to have the blackness come through, don’t know yet...

The legs and the ladder are made from the unit-model-bases, right? The ladder was pure hell, because I decided to glue the steps inbetween the legs, instead of ontop or drilled in. Had to hold them there for quite a while until they dried, but it looks a lot nicer like this, in my opinion.

Ladder’s done, and the legs are in place. Got the cabin sprayed as well.

The Blood Claws are modelling ontop of the cabin. Need to make that hatch out of something, don’t know what yet, though...

Drybrushed dark grey on the cabin, and realized it made a LOT of a sweeter finish, than the ruined wall –bit I did on my first project, using only a thick layer of grey paint on black basecoat. The details, dents and cuts in the walls come out a lot clearer like this and it actually looks worn-out, rather than brand new! I don’t know yet if I’ll leave the white bits in the legs as they are, or if I’ll patch it up with grey... In other news, the roof-tiles are in a pile on the left side as well. Thinking of stripping the top-layer off to get a corrugated top (rain pouring straight downwards). Just need to figure out how to make a rust-coloring for it...

After browsing the net a bit again, I found something. How to create rusted sheet-metal! Awesome! So, for rust-effect: red – brown – metal, corrugated cardboard, ripping off the top-layer for the sheet-metal effect. First layer of red (Mephiston Red) looks good, no undercoat, and bottom-side got sprayed black because I can’t be bothered doing anything proper about it.

Then, the brown (Dryad Bark)...

And finally, the metallic grey (random acryllic dark grey)! Turned out alright! Too much grey was easily done over with a brown drybrushing. Fitting the roof ontop of the cabin was easy as one-two-three.

Only problem I ran into was the question of height. I first had the idea that it would only be a slit to shoot through; mounting wall to the roof, but after cutting the tower down to size it became apparent it wouldn’t really be possible... unless I wanted to heighten the roof by a couple centimeters...

As of right now, I’ll stick with this. One downside I noticed straight away that sword-waving lunatics are having a VERY hard time being inside the tower, due to the height (remember the "Measure twice, cut once" -rule? Yeah...). No-one carrying a banner can enter it either. OR I’ll just have the roof for dramatic reasons, and while in gameplay use it as an open-top, whilst saying “the roof is there”!

Finished product:

To raise the roof (and produce a slit to shoot through) I could easily just glue a piece of wall to the roof, and have said wall to rest on the base pegs, where the roof is now resting. Make the wall just so thick so it reaches the pegs and is safely an extension, but not going all through as to leave a ceiling for banners to get stuck on...

THOUGHTS:

• Only drybrushing the walls make them seem older, more worn, compared to slapping on a thick layer of paint
• Going open-topped allows units to actually be placed into a structure (or removed as casualties) during gameplay
• Plan for way more space. Model-base is 3 cm wide, I planned for character-width (arms and all) to be 4 cm, and it's TIGHT! Same goes for height. Model height is 4 cm, planned height was 5 cm. A little bit was taken off for thickness of the floor, and the banners/idols/sword-waving is way higher than 5 cm. "Measure twice, cut once" really shines here...

AFTER EVERYTHING WAS DONE:

...so, I tried fitting in a terminator in the tower... Terminators have the Bulky -special rule, sure (Bulky models count as two models for the purposes of transport capacity), BUT COME ON!!! ONLY 3 FIT IN THERE?!

WH40k home-made battlefield terrain! A simple wall corner

Always start out small. Always. Dream big, yes, but start small.

My girlfriend got her box of a Tau starter pack. She's a lot slower to assemble/paint her models (she doesn't have the burning passion I have, but I can't blame her), so I started doing some terrain, while waiting for her to catch up! And, as stated, I started small, experimenting on a simple piece of ruined wall...

Runied wall corner

"Knock knock, motherfekkers!"

So, I started looking around online for how to do it... My brother has an old bunker, made out of an old ice-cream jug. It's perfectly octagonal, quite okay height, so he just cut a hole for a door, and slapped on a ladder, made out of model-frame-sticks!

Starting small, yeah! But I wanted to create something from scratch, something of my own... So, I looked online, and found a nice site! Thought I'd make a small piece of ruined wall, the corner of a building, with tile flooring, and some sand/overgrowth to show it's wear-and-tear. Me and my girlfriend had just bought a new computer monitor for her birthday, so I had an abundance of two-layered corrugated cardboard for the walls and the base. I had tape, glue, scissors... And I even found some concrete-filler, from when we painted our living-room wall (fill in some old screw-holes), which. Is. BRILLIANT!!! Using an oblivious Blood Claw here as a measuring-stick, just to double-check the height of walls as I go. Small markings in the cardboard to mark which side is in contact with which piece where. Oh, the Blood Claw? I think I shall call him Nick.

Holes and "dents" easily made by ripping out the top-most layer of cardboard, with the help of scissors and a pencil. Adds a little "war-torn" kind of a feel to them.

After checking online for ideas on how to fill in the top and side –areas of the cardboard (the corrugated stuff), and reading about using masking tape (and then maskin the ENTIRE piece with filler), I decided to just fill the tops and sides with concrete-filler I had at home. Ended up quite neat! I used filler on the holes and dents as well, to make it feel more realistic in some areas, whereas others were left without it, to show inner pipes/workings of the walls. I’ll have to try some day with using filler on the entire wall with a brush, to create that crusty feel to them...

Walls and base, glued together, using a standard paper-glue -stick.

Spray-painted with everybody’s favourite Games Workshop black basecoat, and it looks quite nice, if I may say so myself!

Tiles for the floor! I’m going for floor-tiles that are a bit worn, due to overgrowth and battle-damage. Cracks and missing bits where the craters are in the floor, and going to glue sand inbetween the floortiles. How? Painting the tiles, putting a layer of glue on the floor, tiles and sand in simultaneously. Boom. Done. The tiles are made out of thin cardboard, from a cereal box.

Time for the glue! Who wants a sniff? Heh... Painting the floor-tiles and the inner walls before bringing out the glue, though… BUT FIRST! Dark grey on the walls! Turned out WAAAY better than expected, aaaaand I put a BIT too much color out… Note to self: use VERY little paint. Oh, and the paint? Some random acryllic dark grey I bought at a hobby-store, WAY cheaper than GW's paints...

That corner is mostly filling. The glue holds the cardboard temporarily together, whereas the filling, once dried, will REALLY hold it together.

In hindsight, it would've been a better idea to paint the tiles glossy side instead of the cardboardy-side. EVERY small imprint on the thin cardboard is visible, but oh well. The sand glued on quite well! The color here was a random acryllic light-grey, bought at a hobby-store. Much cheaper than GW's paints!

...aaaand Nick's in trouble... Told you he's oblivious!

What would YOU do, when you're chased by 3 terminators?

THOUGHTS, and what I've learned:

• The walls look a bit "plain". Insert bolts and thick frames here and there?
• Drybrushing the dark grey and leaving the black in the dents/holes is a brilliant idea.
• Filler makes for EXCELLENT fill-in for artistic stuff!

The Stormclaw box, part 2! Krom Dragongaze and Blood Claws!

In the last post I covered the Wolf Guard Terminators. After I got done with them, I started assembling and painting the Blood Claws and the company commander, Krom Dragongaze... So let's get started!

Krom Dragongaze

Not much to say about the assembly... Boom, bang, done. The PAINTING, on the other hand... Still a lot of trial and error here...

So, here he is, in all his splendor... Not. I didn't have all the paints needed, so hade to use some makeshift and temporary paintjobs. I also had no idea about shading and/or drybrushing or highlighting...

So, yeah. The vents on the armor's generator (the wolf-skulls on the back) should be gold, and his axe shoud be drybrushed with white. Didn't know how to do it, and din't have all the paints, so I went with this temporarily...

A hell-of-a lot of detail, a hell-of-a lot of time. No shading, no highlighting, no dry-brushing. Also, I STILL don't have proper paints for the hairs (saving money at the moment), so his head is pretty much undone...

Blood Claws

So, my squad of 5 Blood Claws... I figured I'd slap a Wolf Guard pack leader, because why not, eh? Unfortunately I took no progress-pictures of them, and thus I have only the (semi-) finished thing...

So, here we have them. One Wolf Guard pack leader, 4 Blood Claws with chainswords and bolt pistols. No shading, no highlighting, no dry-brushing, again... Still learning...

The Stormclaw box -set, and Wolf Guard Terminators

So! Not going to go over stuff I already did in the previous post, so NYEH! Let's focus on the more essential stuff!

THE MODELS!

The Stormclaw-box itself contains

• A rulebook
• An HQ-unit, Krom Dragongaze
• 5 Wolf Guard Terminators
• 5 Grey Hunters
• 5 Blood Claws
• Various Orcs (not focusing on those here at the moment, sorry...)

This was my first time ever assembling any WH40k -stuff, so a lot of this was trial and error. Me and my girlfriend also bought a Citadel Starter painting-set, and some extra paints for the Wolves.

Got yer models? Glue? Pliers and files? Something to cover your table with?
So git 'er done!

Wolf Guard Terminators

Assembly

IKEA Wolf Guard Termnators! Some assembly required!

These were the one's I started with... And let me tell ya, that cloak, on the squad-leader? To hell with it! It didn't want to stick, pretty much AT ALL!

At this point, it might be good to point out that I was learning everything. Hadn't even checked out Games Workshop's tutorials (which, in hindsight, I REALLY should've checked out on beforehand!). In all definitions of the word, I was a complete newb with painting... I did know to start with the undercoat-spray, though! ^^ ...not much of a defence? Okay, I'll shut up now...

Painting!

Undercoat, check! Basecoat on two models, check!

Undercoat's done. My brother used white undercoat-spray on his models, which, in my opinion, isn't that much of a good idea... EVERY tiny spot you don't get covered by paint shine through like christmas-lights! The black undercoat allows the hard-to-reach armpits and under cloaks to remain, well, black! It's dark in there anyways, so... Here I've started applying my basecoat (The Fang) on the terminators. While waiting for stuff to dry, I started assembling the Blood Claws in the background, but I'll cover them in a separate post...

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of the other steps of painting them... Using Russ Grey as my layer, here's a finished (not really) Power-Fist wielding Terminator! Now, as I said, this was still heavily trial and error, and I hadn't checked out the tutorial-videos on youtube, so... I didn't shade them at all, and I splatted on the layer paint pretty much all over the model...

...and no, before you ask, I didn't water down the paints, not one bit. Straight from the jar (I DID use the lip! I'm not THAT stupid! O_O), and onto the model. Covered up some of the details, like runes on the armor, with paint, I'm afraid... But hey! Live and learn! Detailing here and there with Balthazar Gold, fur done with Dryad Bark, bone done with Zandry Dust base and Ushabti Bone layer. Metallics done with Leadbelcher.

The entire squad

Yeah, the squad-leader's had a little run-in with the fireplace...

So there's pretty much the entire squad, except the leader painted. I dreaded painting him, due to all the detail everywhere, and the amount of different colors one has to use... I like to paint all Russ Grey first, then all Mephiston Red (power fists, stormbolters, leader's cloak...), then all leadbelcher and so on, but on a model like this, I constantly kept going back to paints, because I miss an area here and there... All in all, the end-result looked pretty neat:

"TERMINATORS!"

In hindsight I noticed how I failed with the terminator in the back-left... His left shoulderpad should be decorated with the Crux Terminatus (the metallic thing every other terminator has). I learned that AFTER i was done with them all... Before that I had just looked at art from the Stormclaw campaign-book... I followed said book maybe a bit too much to the letter, as in hindsight, I'd want to swap out some equipment on the terminators, but what can you do, eh?

Also, at this point I didn't know which great company I wanted to decorate my army with (because fluff is quite important for me), so their right shoulder-pads (that's where terminators have their company-symbol) were still in Russ Grey. Except for two of the idiots who had a pre-made shoulderpad with the wolf-symbol imprinted on it.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

Going back and forth between paints isn't a sin. Patience is key to completing a detailed model, so don't rush things. Also, eyes are almost impossible to paint! Seriously, how do they do it in the art in the codex?