Progress Report: Photos, photos everywhere

Hi again,

First of all, sorry for not being able to post pictures of last Monday game but it was so fun I completely forgot my intention of taking pictures. Nice victory of Vlad2 (Khador) against Haley1 (Cygnar). His turn feat is devastating with Man-O-Wars, just saying. I will try to take pics next time.

So now that we got that out of the way, let's get to the main topic of the post.

Today I received my new light box so now I should be able to take better photos. Still a lot of advice to apply and tricks to learn but I couldn't wait to flood the internet with photos of everything so far. I will even include a few shots of the latest model I have been painting, the Scrapjack, which is still a Work In Progress.

So, without further ado, let's show the pics.

Khador Destroyer Warjack

War Dog

The Old Witch of Khador

Scrapjack (Work in Progress)

I hope to finish the Scrapjack during the weekend. What to paint next, no clue.

Blast away! An area template mini tutorial

Hello again.

I haven't painted much lately but there is still something to show that I....actually, we (thanks darling) did last week, and no, it is not anything dirty. 

It's all about templates. Most wargames use templates to see what models are affected by area damage, be it explosions, flamethrowers or any other nastiness that can kill several models at once. Pictured above is the set of templates that Warmachine and Hordes use. It is in fact a must to play the game. You can opt for the free version, photocopying the page in the manual that shows the templates but having the acrylic ones is way better. These templates and how many different ones are there, their rules and so on will differ from game to game but usually there is at least one spray/flamer kind of template with a tear drop shape and one or more circular templates for explosions.

In Warmachine/Hordes there are circular blast templates of 3",4" and 5" diameter and a spray template that is more an elongated triangle than a tear drop, more angular and less rounded. For most situations, you just purchase the official template pack pictured above and you are good to go, but this particular game has another quirk: there are a lot of effects that last for a whole round. This means, you put them in place during your turn but they will be in play and have a certain effect during your opponent's turn. Examples of this are explosions that leave a crater that is then considered rough terrain, areas that someone is constantly firing upon and will damage any enemy models that cross the area, models that use smoke grenades to provide a cloud effect as cover for friendly models and things like that. 

Example of templates in play, image from http://mageknightkevin.blogspot.co.uk/

What that means is that there are a lot of situations where you really need to put something in the table to represent the area of these persisting effects. If you have few of these effects and you don't use them often you could probably just put your existing template in place, but as soon as you need it for another shot you have to resort to mark the area with dice, removing the template and putting it back when you are finished, and that kind of shenanigans.

Introduce the blast markers. Several companies produce game aids like tokens and templates for different games in a variety of materials: laser cut MDF and acrylics, resin, even metal. The only problem with those is that they usually don't come cheap and if you are in a budget you would probably prefer to spend your bucks into new shiny models to use than in gaming miscellanea. 

I had seen a lot of people in video reports using very simple metal rings to just mark the border of the effects instead of the whole area. That has an advantage in that the process of placing and removing them is less disruptive as you can usually leave the models where they are instead of removing them from the table and sliding the template under them before returning them to their previous positions.

So, with that in mind and looking for something relatively cheap I had been searching all over the interwebs for that kind of metal rings. So far, I hadn't had any luck, finding some overpriced websites, others that didn't really provide any reliable measurements (a must for this hobby, the templates need to be exactly their supposed size to avoid discussions during the game) until I finally found a craft shop that had exactly what I was looking for. They sold them for people that wanted to create their own lamp shades. Each of them was less than a pound and they had a lot of different sizes, including the required 3", 4" and 5".

And now, the tutorial part on how to personalise those metal rings to fit better with the army.

Before...

On inspection it was very clear that the soldering on the rings was a bit rough so I decided to use my dremel to fix it. 

... and after

As the main colour of the army was going to be red (or as explained in the previous entry it will still contain a lot of red) I decided I wanted to have them on that colour. I could just paint them but I decided to go with a different approach and cover them with electrical insulation tape. This serves another purpose in that it would provide a softer surface so there are less chances of chipping paint on the models when placing or removing them.

Some photos of the process, courtesy of my girlfriend who is more skilled than me in this sort of crafts and arts processes.

Beginning of the process

The tape was to wide and was leaving some wrinkles because of that so it was cut to half width with scissors. Then the tape was carefully stretched around the outside of the ring, which proved to be a mistake, more on that later. 

Placement of the tape is finished

 Now carefully twist the tape around the inside of the ring, pressing with your fingers until it is completely round and hopefully without any wrinkles.

And finally this is the finished product

In total I decided to do 7 of the 3", 3 of the 4" and 3 of the 5", just in case.

The day after finishing we discovered that it was a bad idea to stretch the tape so much along the edge while placing it. Electrical insulation tape is somewhat elastic and it has shrunk in size a bit leaving small gaps where the bare metal is still showing. Nothing that cannot be fixed by just applying a bit more of tape but could have been prevented for a smoother finish.

That's all folks, hoping to get a good game next bank holiday and hopefully put a battle report if I manage to take some pictures.

Progress Report: photo quality and other concerns

Let's start with the progress report.

There has been some progress during the last week. However, if we measure progress by a ratio of models painted / total models it could be considered negative. One miniature, the Old Witch has been painted but several miniatures have been bought and assembled which in effect decreases that ratio. Anyway, as some people in the club say, if you can see out of the window you have not got enough toys in the lead mountain.

The most important thing to do at the moment is to do something about the photo quality. I have had some really good advice from a friend (thanks Ivan) about how to improve the images I post. I definitely need to apply some of that advice and improve the lighting, and the setup I use for taking pictures. So far, pics have been quickly taken with my mobile against a white background with a single lamp providing illumination. The photos were taken just to share them with friends. Now that I am running a blog I should care a bit more about their overall quality.

So, the next thing to do is to create or obtain a proper photo-box. I have found a few that are fairly cheap on eBay (around 30 pounds depending on size) that come with the lights, tripod and all but I am not sure about their quality. On the other hand, it would probably end up being more expensive in materials to make my own so it's worth a try.

There is also a ton of videos and tutorials about how to take good photos of your painted miniatures all over the internet, including some about how to create your own light box setup for cheap.

Because I intend to do something about the photos and hopefully get better ones soon(ish) I will only post a couple of pics of the painted Old Witch as a preview including a Work In Progress photo.

On another topic, I start to have some doubts about the paint scheme and feel that switching the proportions of white and red in the paint scheme would end up nicer. I will have to experiment a bit but maybe in the repost her shoulder pads will be white instead. The reasoning behind the switch is that weathering and rust effects look a lot better over white as there is more contrast.

I guess it is better to make those changes now that only three models have been finished, isn't it?

Progress Report: The story so far

As I mentioned on the introduction, the main purpose of this blog was to serve as a painting progress of my Khador army for the upcoming SmogCon.

So, let's talk about the progress before the start of the blog. Not counting some colour scheme tests, the tally count so far is an astonishing 2 models! I must definitely increase the pace or this will never end on time.

Before showing the actual models let's talk a bit about inspiration. The official colour scheme from Privateer Press for the Khador army is mostly red.

And I like it, but would prefer to use a darker shade of red as a basis as the highlights would end up being a bit orange otherwise. So that is the first step of the plan, start from a reddish brown and highlight up to a bright red. 

There are other sources of inspiration for the colour scheme I went with.

Personally, I don't like the "fresh from the factory" look. I prefer the model's armour to show some signs of damage, paint that has been chipped, some rust, and that in general shows that it has seen some action. That is why I loved the models I first saw on eBay from Tiny Worlds, definitely some of the best weathering I have seen on Khador models. I loved the addition of white parts to break the red monotony so much I decided I would steal that idea and incorporate it as well.

I had also seen some mostly white Khador models and I liked their looks so much as to struggle to decide if I wanted my army mostly red or mostly white. White has the advantage for weathering as if you go for chipping effects and rust, the contrast is way better than between rust and red. Another good example of this and good weathering as well is this model from RAMTRAZ.

Finally to add a third colour that is also very common in Khador armies I decided to go with black after seeing those models from Mike Mutiny in the Privateer Press forums. Those are probably one of the most perfectly executed and clean paint jobs I have seen. He has added some really effective weathering without overdoing it but is still a neat paint job, I am jealous :)

So, dark red-white-black it was. With heavy weathering. Let's start the show. The first model to be finished was:

Khador Destroyer Warjack

There have been a few issues with this model as it was the first done from start to finish. It ended up being darker than I was hoping for because of excessive darkening after applying the oil washes and the matt varnish. Also, as I was using some new techniques that I was learning I seriously blotched it when applying the dry pigments and ended up doing a mess that forced me to race to the bathroom to remove the excess with tap water and redoing most of the weathering, which didn't look as clean as the first time I had done them. Lessons learned and I hope to do it better on the next warjack.

The second model to be finished was:

Khador War Dog

The trusty canine companion preferred by all Khadoran warcasters. I am very happy with how this ended up looking.

So that is it so far. I plan to do The Old Witch of Khador and her companion Scrapjack for the next blog entry, hopefully sometime this week.

Paint stripping and the nightmare of second hand models: Second Round

... and the experiment has been a success. For the first part of this article click here.

The dettol antiseptic has proven to be a good product to remove paint without damaging the miniature. Let's see how it went.

This is after letting it submerged for around 16 hours. The paint seems a bit cracked and is starting to peel a bit in some areas. 

The next step is messy. Using an old toothbrush to scrub the paint off. As the antiseptic has a very strong smell I decided it was probably a good idea to go to the patio and do it there in the open. Alternatively use a dust mask or respirator. Also, get some latex gloves and cover everything with old newspapers: scrubbing action will spray the liquids everywhere... I learned that too late and the table was already a mess (sorry love!)

That's me during the process of scrubbing the paint off. It didn't require to apply too much strength for it to get off. I had tried other cleaning products before that had worse results and required a lot more muscle.

After removing most of the brown mess from the model with a paper towel.

This is how it looks after washing it with soapy water to remove all traces of the antiseptic cleaning solution. Not bad at all, almost as good as new and no damage to any of the parts.

And here it is, the assembled Black Ivan, ready for some test games, priming and painting.

I hope you liked the tutorial. I definitely recommend using this as a paint stripping method.  See you all around.

Paint stripping and the nightmare of second hand models: First Round

Hi there,

This is going to be a rant but also (hopefully) the beginning of a two part mini-tutorial on how to deal with second hand models from eBay (or any other source).

The facts

Let's face it: this is an expensive hobby, we all agree on that. So it is natural for us to look for alternative sources for miniatures to try and shave some pounds off... not that we are trying to save money for other more important things, but it is just a desire of getting even more models to add to the infamous mountain of lead (or plastic crack depending on the material).

Nowadays most of us do the majority of our purchases online, in any of the different discount stores like Element Games, The Outpost, Wayland Games just because they offer at least a 10% off the recommended retail price. But, from time to time we are tempted to look for even cheaper alternatives like resorting to eBay. You can also get new models on their original packaging on eBay of course, but a lot of times it means buying something that has been assembled, primed or even painted, and there is where nasty surprises could happen.

The paint splattered nightmare

Oh, the horror! You just got your item from eBay only to discover that the paint or primer is a lot thicker than it showed on the pictures. Sometimes the pictures on eBay don't have enough quality to be able to discern this issue or it was such a good deal that you risked it and bidded anyway. But now you are wondering, how am I supposed to remove all this excessive amount of paint that is ruining the detail on the miniature?

The blob

If you need to disassemble some of the pieces for painting or for any other reason you could face an even worse problem if the miniature has been bathed in super-glue (Cyanoacrylate) or if it is a plastic miniature and has been glued together with plastic glue (Polystyrene glue). If it is the second case you are out of luck.The polystyrene kind of glue actually melds the two pieces of plastic together so they form an almost unbreakable bond. Separating the pieces without actually breaking one of them is going to be very difficult if not at all impossible. If it is just excessive super glue you can still succeed but it will often require a huge effort, tooling and will more than likely damage a bit some of the pieces.

A practical example

So this just happened to me. In Warmachine, there are certain warjacks  (massive steam powered robots controlled by a mix of engineering and magic) that are special characters (they are supposed to be unique in the game background). Some of them have full kits, others you need a standard warjack and you exchange/add some pieces from an upgrade kit to create them.

So, I had the upgrade kit for Black Ivan, and I needed a Destroyer warjack to use as a base so, I found one relatively cheap on eBay and purchased it. That's where the nightmare began.

First of all, it was damaged during transit. One leg was broken at the hip, the other one at the ankle... nothing I cannot fix by pinning them.

Second, in order to build Black Ivan I needed to remove the fist with an axe of the Destroyer to put a mechanical claw on its place. It was just impossible to do it without destroying the fist as it had tons of glue. I also had to cut the arm at the elbow to be able to tool properly and cut the fist off after several hours of effort, sweat and even some blood from minor cuts (note to self, be careful with scalpels).

Third, the paint was too thick for me to just paint over it so I wanted to experiment with a stripping process I had first seen here.

So here are some pics of the process so far.

The mini after the long and painful dismantle process. Legs came as they are (but glued to the base). Arm and destroyed fist and removed head has been done by me.

This is the product I am using for removing the paint.

And this is the mini submerged in the cleaning solution. Now we only have to wait to see if tomorrow there is a model with less paint on it or we have a soup of half dissolved plastic goo (Yummy!)

That's all for now... to be continued.