Wargaming Tradecraft: 2018




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Using Colour Shift Paints


This post is designed to be both a tutorial and review on some of the colour shift paints available today. Many of you are familiar with Green Stuff World's line, but there's also paints available from Turbo Dork which have been creating some interest in the community lately.

What are colour shift paints? Essentially they're paints that are a different colour depending on the angle you're looking at them or the way the light is hitting them. Typically you have one colour in the light and another in the shadow. You may have seen these kinds of things on sports cars or in nature like on beetles and pearls.

You can see an example below, in how the colour shifts between green highlights and purple shadows with the Martian Green paint from Green Stuff World:


Then how it shifts between blue and purple with TurboDork's 3D-Glasses paint:


This post is two parts:

First, I'm going to cover how you're supposed to apply colour shift paints to your miniatures.

Then, I'm going to discuss some alternate Do's and Don'ts when painting with them and include unique techniques that you can use.

Finally, I'm going to summarize my feelings on the differences between the products offered by TurboDork and Green Stuff World.

Full Disclosure, TurboDork sent me a few free samples for review purposes.

Painting X-Wing in Black and White (and Re-Posing a Protectorate Starfighter)


A while back I posted a full article on my X-Wing Miniatures fleet - Core Couriers. I offered some tips at the beginning of that article on how to paint the ships, but wanted to put together a tutorial covering the process in a little more visual detail. In addition to that, you can read how I've modified this starfighter's wings to be in a rotational position. (More on that at the end of the article.)

As a reminder, my primary project are the Hordebloods, so the repainting of this fleet is just a quick tabletop quality process. Definitely comes together well though and I'm a big fan of the contrast between the dark greys and bright greens.

Traders Galaxy - Lamiar Gun Slaves Review



This week I'm taking a look at a company down under called Traders Galaxy. They've got a unique science fiction line of Dwerg, (Dwarves) Tamarin, (Chimps) Technomancy and what I'm looking at today - Cult of Lamiar.

* Full disclosure, they provided a free unit for review purposes.

Above is the miniature I painted while writing the below review and to the left in more of a flesh tone is pictured the miniatures from their website.

You're able to purchase directly through their webstore and despite being on the other side of the world, shipping was pretty quick. Their blog goes into some army background and even has some links to fan codexes people have written if you want to try these armies in Warhammer 40k.

Read through the review below or scroll down to the bottom for the summary.

X-Wing Rules Differences between Mk 1 and 2


Now that X-Wing Mark 2 has released, people are going to be wondering what's changed from the first to second editions. Overall, the game appears to be fairly similar to the first edition, with a few things streamlined, some additions and a new approach to building lists.

A great step in line with other wargaming companies is that all the rules for X-Wing are available on Fantasy Flight's website if you scroll down to the Support section. Start with Quickstart if you're totally new, the Rulebook for detailed play and the Rules Reference for a great alphabetical index of all the rules. (I'll probably print a copy of this to keep in my P.A.C.K.) They've also released a Squad Builder on both their Website and as an Android app.

Oh, and if you want to see more details on my own greyscale Core Couriers fleet including a little background story, take a look.

Now, lets get into the nitty gritty...

Mordheim Pit Fighters


I painted a band of Pit Fighters a little while back for Mordheim, using a variety of models but mostly some Tzeentch cultists. I also did a few unique things when it came to painting them that I'll also discuss the details of at the end of the article.

Basically since I was painting for an old school game (Mordheim) I decided to try my hand at more of a Games Workshop grim dark style with less contrast and less highlights... it's so unlike what I usually paint that I'm not sure I'm happy with how they look. I did enjoy creating the blue chitin armour though.

The following is a 360 degree video of the warband, after while I'll show some images of each of the models and talk about them and at the end of this article I have the paint formulas for everything.


Count Vlagorescu's Midnight Court


Overview

This was a project that I completed for two reasons. The first was that I've been wanting to build an Age of Sigmar army to game with the folks at our new local Warhammer store. Then came along Armies on Parade 2016. That was the push that I needed to complete it.

Now, admittedly, my Hordebloods are my primary army which consume the focus of my high end painting efforts. I wanted an army that I could complete in a reasonable amount of time so I painted this one a little above tabletop quality.

Because I couldn't leave it at that, I took this as an opportunity to create something with an artistic angle. Looking at some of the other styles I've wanted to experiment with, black and white came to mind. This was a scheme I'd pictured at one point for Tyranids, but works great for a ghoul army too.

Did I ever get to play it? Only a couple times to be honest. However, I love how the undead-bat-monster-dragon-thing came to life, I've used it at shows from time to time and the display board has been an awesome attention grabber at some of the community events I've engaged in. (Maker Expo, Artist @ Work at our local libraries, etc.)

Fixing Broken X-Wing Peg Mounts


What should you do if you need to repair broken peg mounts on X-Wing Miniatures ships?

Relax, it's not actually that horrible and the process isn't too hard. The plan is basically this:

  1. Cut off the broken peg.
  2. Drill a hole in the body of the ship.
  3. Cut the female end from another peg.
  4. Glue that end into the hole you drilled.


Easy, right? OK, the drill step could be a little tricky. If you want to avoid that, here are some other tips:

  • Use the above method, but simply glue the female end to the bottom of your ship without worrying about drilling a hole for added stability.
  • Roll a small cylinder of green stuff, push the male end of a peg in and let it dry. Once dry, clean up the green stuff and super glue to the bottom of your craft.
  • Buy one of the kits out there that will allow you to magnetize your ships and convert.
If you're ready to learn how I fixed my ship, click on through.

Did you just find my ships and would like to see more photos of the completed fleet? I've got those too.

Fletching (Creating) Arrows


You may have noticed a wound on the wrap up post for my Hordebloods Axer Blademaster. It was an arrow that I made out of guitar string and feathers - pretty straight forward stuff but a nice way to add realism to a project.

Little details like this, wounds for example, add a nice touch to make your miniatures seem like they're interacting with an environment somewhere. You don't need to go overboard, covered in damage and blood - be subtle.

This process would also work quite well for notched arrows, (arrows in crossbows and pulled back in bows) adding arrows to bows or even just arrows slung in a quiver.

Strange Magic - Part 2


When I last looked at creating some movie magic from Doctor Strange and applying it to miniatures, it was for the floating runes.


This week I'm going to look at the invisible swords that were created by the antagonists. Now, to be fair, I created the below sword well before Doctor Strange... but since I wrote up THAT tutorial, it made sense to align this tutorial with it.

Below is the effect we're going to learn to create today.


Disassembling Miniatures


Today I'm looking at methods to disassemble miniatures so you can re-use their parts in future projects. As a bonus, there are a few tips on converting and re-posing as well! Thanks to my buddy Mark for the use of his Tau Gunship. Additional thanks to my wife Amanda, brother Adam with his girlfriend Tiffany and parents Gail and Manfred.

Hordebloods - Forsaken Fennblades WIP

I've been working on my Fennblades for quite a while now and it's past due that I post a Work in Progress post about them, especially as I'm quite proud of how they're coming along. The theme of these miniatures is undead, deep blue armour, worn weapons, with a variety of skin colours

The first gentleman off the workbench was my Fennblade Kithkar - the hero. Didn't get much in the way of WIP for him, but I was mostly creating and using him as test case for the rest.

I'm also leaving the basing for when everyone's completed, that way they'll all be uniform.

I'll also admit to breaking one of my rules during this project. Usually, once I start painting a miniature, it gets pulled from the battlefield until complete. But I've been working on them for so long, they've continued to see their fair share of combat.


Building a 3D Game Board

Talk about older projects that deserve to be highlighted... OK, not directly Wargaming related though I could see applications for the skills you're about to see. My dad and I built a 3D game board many years back for an underwater Dungeons and Dragons campaign that my wife was running. (Speaking of, have you seen the Spell Abacus I designed?)

The idea is that for underwater combat, there's multiple levels that things could take place. It's easier to see what's going on since each level is clear. The whole thing tears down easily and is transportable.

Create an Airbrush Carrying Case


My wonderful wife picked me up a new airbrush a while back. It's another Iwata, but moving up from a 0.35mm to a 0.2mm and yes, it makes a difference. But before that I kept my airbrush on my hobby shelf, nothing fancy and now I have a second one to take care of. I wanted to make a nice case for it for a few reasons.

First and foremost I needed a nice case to store and protect them, but also because my Favorite Local Gaming Store has a painting bar with airbrush compressors and I've been working on getting a little more mobile with my hobby supplies.

Hordebloods - Axer base and Final Photos



Wrapping up the Trollblood Axer, I'll touch on how I created his base before showing the final photos. It's another opportunity to see some of the uses of the many sculpting gels that I work with. Today I'm using it to add form and motion rather than using it as a special effect.

The point I want to make today is how miniatures can look so much better when they appear to be alive and engaged rather that static or stoic.

Realistically Wrapped Weapon Grips

I've used string before on bows, though that's a much more subtle use than you're going to see today. The idea here is to wrap an entire weapon grip such as a long axe shaft in this case, though you could easily apply it to sword hilts, terrain columns, large battlefield weapons like catapults and more. If you read my terrain tutorials, you'll see I often work with real supplies because I feel it adds an element of realism and credibility to your art which brings our miniatures to life.

What I'm trying to change is the basic sculpted leather wraps. As you can see in the photo here, there's a difference.


Black 2.0 - Worth the Hype?

I've seen a lot of questions about the validity of Black 2.0, supposedly "The world’s mattest, flattest, black art material" (According to their website.) and decided to order a bottle and find out the answer myself since most articles about this product are just re-using the same imagery from the company behind it.

update: I'm tagging this post with Black 3.0 as well because people should have a legitimate review of the product. Other reviews of Black 3.0 are just using Kickstarter marketing materials. My concern with what Black 3.0 will actually be like is based on their 2.0 marketing images (as you can see below) and what the product actually looked like when I tested it. Decide for yourself, but this is another instance of why I won't post reviews based on marketing images.

Vantablack

Before getting into the review, a quick look at the baseline of what we're aiming for. Basically, a company called Surrey NanoSystems developed a paint called Vantablack which absorbs 99.96% of light that hits it. Without light reflecting from objects, all you see is a black blob without any detail no matter what angle you're looking at it.

Vantablack
Unfortunately, an artist named Anish Kapoor bought exclusive rights to this paint, which means we're not going to get access to this stuff any time soon.

What I'm going to look at here is a paint that bills itself as the next best thing.

X-Wing Miniatures - Core Courier Services

A little while ago we started playing the X-Wing Miniatures game and to properly represent the Scum and Villainy faction there were two things I needed to do. First, because it's a miniature wargame, they needed a quick paint job. I'll cover that first. Second, a friend asked, "You're Scum and Villainy - what's your crime?" That got me thinking and I've provided a write up after the jump.
Painting them was quick as outlined below, but you can also read a detailed post on the process.
  1. Paint the Ship Bodies
    1. Primed Black.
    2. Airbrushed Dark Grey, Medium Grey, Light Grey, White.
    3. Washed Black.
  2. Paint the Windows
    1. Paint Black.
    2. Thin Bright Green down and carefully paint around each window.
  3. Paint the Trim
    1. Thin Bright Green down and run it between some of the natural hull plates.
  4. Paint the Engines
    1. Paint the engine holes Bright Green.
    2. Paint the center of the engine holes White.
  5. Varnish
    1. Spray Satin or Gloss Varnish over the ships. (Hard Coat)
    2. Airbrush Liquitex Matte Varnish or Citadel Matte Varnish over the ships. (Dull Coat)
    3. Paint Liquitex Gloss Varnish over the windows.
Core Couriers - Front View

Also, for anyone curious about the logo, it's just the "C" from the Star Wars common alphabet doubled up.
Click on through to see individual photos of the ships and read the background I've created for my fleet.