Wargaming Tradecraft: February 2014




Donate

Hordebloods - Tauren Warders pt2


In the first post about my Warders, I looked at attaching horns and sculpting hair on the heads. As I found with my Runeshapers, when you put a big Tauren-looking head sticking out of a troll's body, the scale gets funky and the torso looks too small.

In todays post I'm focusing on sculpting larger shoulders to beef up their upper body, merging head and shoulder hair, creating eyebrows and putting the final touches in place.

My Warders are now at a point where I'm happy to field them until I'm ready to touch brush to primer.

[UPDATED] Happy Seppuku Stamp Review


[UPDATED] Happy Seppuku Stamp Review

Since the Kickstarter completed, I received the stamps I purchased and have updated my original review as such.

Basically, I still think they're an affordable product for easily creating custom bases, but manufacturing defects mean either settling for flaws or spending time correcting them before your putty dries.

Kinda scary when the epoxy putty you're provided starts eating through the plastic bag.

Hordebloods - Tauren Warders pt1



You may recall my previous Tauren conversion for my Runeshapers. I've picked the ultra tough Warder unit to also get the Tauren treatment. Like the Runeshapers, I used the same standard head and molded copies from the original as a base, but made slight modifications here and there. The charming fella up above had his mouth cut open and teeth added to form a grin.

Something else I've done is given more texture to the horns. Didn't really do this on the Runeshapers, just smoothed them out.

Here's the unit without their horns... Lookin' mighty fierce.




This is the process I got through for sculpting fur.

First, I cover the face in a thin (but not too thin) layer of green stuff and smooth it all out in to roughly the shape the fur will flow.

Next, I use an edged tool to make lots of little slices in the fur.

In areas I want to stagger the hair, I'll push up with the tool some so it looks like the hair is layered.

As long as there's close ups on the teeth, I'll note they were easy. I cut off his lower jaw and glued it back in to place somewhat open. The cut area is covered in fur here, so no problem on appearance. The teeth themselves are just a blob of green stuff with slices through it.

As the hair reaches his torso, I'll cut it apart and against the body so that it spreads and lays naturally.

Also seen here are more close ups of how a little scratching on the horns gives a nice texture.


More to follow soon as I'm working on all 5 of these guys at the moment. More facial hair, bulking up the shoulders and probably a little hair on the hands.



For reference, here's the "before." Photo and painting are Privateer Press'.


Hordebloods: Lanyssa Sylvanas



I haven't been super active on the blog, I know... I need to take my own advice. But while I wasn't posting, I have still been painting. I've been trying something new for my works in progress - posting stuff to Facebook as I work. So to start, a quick reminder,

Follow Wargaming Tradecraft on Facebook.

You can see what I'm working on as I'm painting and ask questions for your own works. Meanwhile, I plan on ramping content creation back up here.


Now, lets take a look at Lanyssa Ryssyll, who I've painted with inspiration from Sylvanis Windrunner.

Side note - I love the close up on the left.

Guide to Getting Started with the Hobby


Example of more recent work compared to how I began
DON'T get discouraged looking at
stuff from other artists.
I've got a lot of content on this site for beginners, but the fact that I get questions about getting started tells me I need to put together some kind of overview on where to begin - so here it is. For younger hobbyists, parents can get an idea of what their children need to get ready and kids can point them here to do so. (Parents should take a look at my Parents Guide to Tabletop Miniature Wargaming for an in-depth look at what your kids are getting in to.) This will be a living document, meaning I'll update it as I write more docs or I feel I need to.

Remember, this is just a guide on the BASIC stuff you need to get started. When you want to expand, this site's got tons of information and you can always feel free to ask me a question.