Wargaming Tradecraft: February 2012




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Stippling with Sponges

 Stippling, (or sponging) is a simple technique that allows you to apply a mix of colour to a surface.

There are multiple reasons you might want to do this. It can create the appearance of texture, or create detail in a large empty surface, it can look like wear, scratching, peeling, and is a great way to add environmental effects like mud, rust, camouflage and so on.

Weekly Update

Last Week at Wargaming Tradecraft


Busy week this week, but I've fit some painting in here and there on my Impaler. I'll try to get some pics up here soon.

Last Week in the Community



Weekly Update

Last Week at Wargaming Tradecraft


Painted up my Mauler this week. You can see the details here, here and here.

Last Week in the Community



Hordebloods: Mauler Final

 It's been a long couple days, but finally the Mauler is complete!

Hordebloods: Mauler WIP 3

More airbrushing... meant to post this up earlier, but here's where he's at. There's more colour all around, and I filled in some details with a red wash. Hoping to finish it up tomorrow.

Hordebloods WIP: Mauler 2: Airbrushing

MMmm, yes, after a long laundromat filled evening, I broke out the airbrush, and did I have fun!

There was a somewhat anti-climactic start, as it turned out I had to give it a good clean first, but that was fine, because once I did, this is what happened...

Weekly Update

Last Week at Wargaming Tradecraft


Great work on my Runeshapers this week, also put together my Champions and those pics will come this week. I've also primed my Mauler... so it's time to start airbrushing :)

Also, Lost Hemisphere Radio interviewed Norbert of the Orange Crush Foodmachine charity drive. It also included a mention of my contribution, which was kinda cool. I'm not actually sure who won... the draw's past, but there wasn't an announcement. If you want to jump to the interview about the project, hop to 1:57:30.
http://lhradio.blogspot.com/2012/01/lhrep46-whole-new-year.html


Last Week in the Community



Now sized for 1200 width

I've resized the site, giving more room to blog posts... it means the sites width is 1200 instead of 1000 now. People with monitor resolutions of 1280+ will be fine - are there people out there still using 1024x768? Speak up please, and I'll probably set things back.

Hordebloods WIP: Runeshaper Tauren 3


 I've been doing a lot of work to finish up the Runeshapers and it's really paying off.

I toned and smoothed out the horns. Basically, once I had the rough shape, I carved them to create more definition. Finally, they just need to be smoothed out. I did that by scraping and filing.



As I mentioned in my last post on the Runeshapers, the heads ended up looking a little big. My solution to this was to bulk up their shoulders and the backs of their heads / necks. This ended up giving them the shape, size and muscle structure that makes the Tauren look tough.

I gave them hairy knuckles... just to balance out the look.

Their horns are faced and curved in different ways, adds some variety. By applying hair to the faces differently, it also makes each of them look unique, even though I cloned the same base head for all three.

Weekly Update

Last Week at Wargaming Tradecraft


More Hordebloods work on Runeshapers and the Mauler this week... and a Guide to Makeshift Terrain.

FatherGeek has written a brief intro and very positive review of my Parents Guide to Tabletop Miniature Wargaming. It's a very "geek family" oriented site and an interesting source for information when it comes to relating kids to geekness, tech, gaming and so on.

And Aiomi Game Cultures Daily featured my Beginners Guide to Makeshift Terrain on their top stories today. I'm torn on this one, as they seem to just pull articles from lots of other people.. they make authors seem like writers for their site, which I'm not... but at least they're only posting the intro to the article and then direct linking back to me, so I think I'm alright with this.

Last Week in the Community


Hordebloods WIP: Mauler (Dire Troll)

 I've also completed the Mauler this week. Lots of green stuffing on this guy. Mostly to modify him, but also a lot to fix the mould fittings... if there's a negative thing to say about Privateer Press, it's that they seem to have issues getting larger models to fit properly.

Most of the model is pinned... that's a lot of pewter, so a lot of weight. I didn't want to chance anything falling apart after it's painted.

I debated changing his spiky mohawk to a realistic haired one... but I just like how he looks with it. I did tilt the head, which meant making him a new neck, so I had some fun with that. I'm also thinking I might put gems on his bracers like I did on Madrak.

Beginners Guide to Makeshift Terrain

vias: ork and trooper
So you've chosen a game system, picked your army and developed a few army lists, but now you're eager to try out some tactics and need somewhere to hold this battle.

Well, general rule of thumb is that a 4 foot by 4 foot table makes for a good gaming area - desks, dining room tables, folding tables or even hard floors (though it's hard on the back) or large pieces of cardboard on a bed.

This article's going to look at cheap ways to fill your battlefield with objects that block line of sight and force troops to move around them in various patterns. Mastercraft terrain in the form of detailed forests and rivers or abandoned buildings can come later - right now you want to play and the plan is to grab anything you've got sitting around the house.

Hordebloods WIP: Runeshapers 2

 Work on the Runeshapers continues, as I expand on sculpting the heads.

They're coming along quite nicely - I've got all the heads on bodies now. Next I'm adding hair to the heads and bulking up their shoulders / backs.