Dead Grass Basing

I have been using ruined city scape basing for a few armies now, but decided that I should do some experiments to see if I could get another couple of basing styles down. I decided to go for a rocky desert with dead and dried plants. I started the usual way, with rocks and sand, and a few bits from the bits box, and then tested out my new bootstrap leather P3 paint. The moment I dipped my brush in the paint I knew I liked it. It has a very fine consistency and is very smooth. After over-brushing the brown onto the base I dry brushed some foundation yellow followed by bleached bone. It was at this point that I mixed 50/50 water elmers glue and gave some gale force 9 static grass a try. It turned out ok, but lacking any way to easily create a magnetic field, I had to deal with having clumps of grass. Seeing as how I can't stop when I am ahead, I added some forge world rust and dirt pigments to the base. When I sprayed on the dull coat the pigment radically changed what it looked like, and produced what you see in the final photo. These bases are not bad, and can be produce in mass quantities if needed, but they don't thrill me. I might try adding some snow and water effects to them.

Who Likes A Pink Ork

No this is not a spoof post! I really did paint an ork pink. I did it for good reasons though. I am rather spooked about starting my voystroyan army, or my death corps unit, so I am trying things out on some old ork models bought way back in the rt days. Every so often on of these weird test miniatures earns a finished paint job. This is rare, very very rare though, as most of them end up as unrecognizable paint slag waiting for simple green to clean them off and prepare them for more painting abuse. On the pink ork you should be able to see three different washes applied to the skin. Dev Mud was applied to the face, sepia to the arm on the left, and purple to the one on the right. If I paint up any psykers I know I will choose the purple wash now. If I need grizzled vets I will choose mud. For female models or those away from the battlefield dirt I will use the sepia. With some blending I can really see these three washes working out for me. The two other orks are just tests of red, bronze, and a few types of brown. I had planned the voystroyans to be red so they fit in well with the grey knights, but maybe a brilliant blue would be a better choice.....well got to go paint some orks blue now!

Photos of Weathering Using Pigments, and Pencils

I have had these tanks for a while, and have been using the forger world Model Masterclass Volume One for my weathering techniques. I started the chimera tread weathering last night, and have not decided how far to take it. I thought I had used the same mixture of pigments, rust and dust, but the tracks look really different. If only I had built these models better originally! Maybe that is the thing with weathering, since it is primarily a texture thing, maybe it is even more important to clean up the model prior to painting. I really hadn't thought of myself as a model builder, but more of a painter until recently. With the no holds bared use whatever works style of forge world I am really digging the modeling experience. I still have not used any of these tanks in a game. On the Oni aquila rating scale I give the FW pigments a 4.5 out of 5.

Last Blood Angel Honor Guard

I've finally finished painting the last major portion of my Blood Angels Honor Guard squad. It has taken a year, probably because I never played large enough games to field these guys, and probably because my initial dry brushing was done poorly. A bad start can easily end a project for me. This last mini was a pain to paint. The casting was pretty bad, and apparently a year ago I did not believe in trimming flash or filing off poorly cast details on the model. However I am pretty happy how the squad turned out. They are not my best minis, but the look good together and are pretty interesting models. Now......... the horrible bit...... These guys have weird scenic basing as part of them. Since my blood angels are all on flat desert bases, I need to fit these guys in somehow. I am now behind on my basing for about a dozen models, so I need to buckle down and take care of things.

Original Rhino Photo Parade

I've played and painted warhammer 40k for a lot of years. When the first rhino kit came out you got three rhinos per kit! My custom space marine chapter, the Iron Scythes, have a rather patched together relic-like motor pool. I thought about simple greening these tanks, and turning them into my chaos tanks, but I think they are kind of fun the way they are. All kinds of wrong bits, terribly thick painting, skeleton parts do not detract for me. Had I taken a shot of the bottom's of the tanks, you would have seen the original grey they sported when they carried the Imperial Guard! The predator and the demolisher are the only tanks that have always been space marine in the force. I am building up an Inquisitional force just so I can throw guard in rhinos again.

Weathering Rhino Tracks With Powers

So I decided to try weathering some extra rhino tracks using the following steps:

1) paint on dry powder

2) heavily douse with thinner

3) wait

4) take a pencil and highlight the treads

I am really not sure I like this method more than just dusting the model and wiping off the excess dust. The tracks did dry a little nicer looking than they were when wet. They are definitely an improvement to some of my older vehicles, but I am not sure making all my vehicles look like scavenged derelicts is a good thing.

*EDIT I added a photo of a second track link where I used the ash color, and then dabbled in a little bit of the rust. I think the second one might be the keep. The photo is very large so you can see the texture better.

Weathering Powders

With my recent forgeworld purchase I received a set of the weathering powers. I have used charcoal before, as well as pastels for weathering, but this is my first attempt at using the real stuff. Initially I added acrylic thinner to the powder and dappled it on, but towards the end I ust put the powders directly on with a damp brush. I like the way the black soot turned out, and I like some of the rust. It is a little hard to imagine a unit wanting to use a tank that looks like this. I am considering adding rust, soot, and the light and dark soot to my IG motor pool.

Incidentally this last photo is the side of the turret that I accidentally sprayed white after grabbing the wrong can of spray paint. I rubbed most of it off, but the transfers took a pretty big hit.'

I was planning on using the Oni Aquila scale for rating the powders, but I am just not sure about them yet. Any thoughts from other raw pigment users?

Chaos Terminator WIP

I had a little problem with the white primer, but plowed ahead anyway. I suppose I will finish off the other two squad members and simple green them at some point in the future if I run out of other stuff to paint. I guess today was one of those days where I should have just stopped painting when things started to go wrong! From a distance the mini looks ok, but the surface is covered in earthquake like primer cracks, and the detail is muted due to excess primer. Maybe they will look better when they are properly based and in a squad.

*edit. I just added a shot of some recently painted Imperial Guard. These guys look like old school Russian soldiers. I love these old minis, though I only have two of them. I decided to make them a weapons team instead of a basilisk crew because they just looked too small as vehicle crew. They are on my bog standard ruined city basing, though it needs a little more orange wash to bring out the rust.