Gnarlhorn Satyr (Part 5)

Been awhile since i put an update up... haven't made a whole ton of progress on my army.  I have all but finished the gnarlhorn though.  All that's left is to seal/varnish him and finish the base with some flock/grass/lichen.   Here's the finished paint job.  Unfortunately my phone camera washed out a lot of the contrast and you can't see the dark shadows and bright highlights, but you get the general idea.

Gnarlhorn Satyr (Part 4) and Kromac Update

Ok.. tonight i spent most of my time working on my foam trays.. but i did get a little painting done.  I started laying down some of the metallics on my gnarlhorn's armor, and i started practicing the layering technique on the blues on both gnarly and Kromac.   The blends are smoother on the gnarlhorn, but the highlights are kindy funky (random light sources? lol).  Gonna hafta fix those...

As you can see i haven't finished painting all the metallics.. half of him still needs done.  What you see here is VGC gunmetal with black ink.  I'll highlight up with plain gunmetal and some chainmail into silver/glazemedium.  His textured hair regions are still a big sore spot with me.  Haven't quite got the color i want yet, still experimenting.. i finally found an image on google that perfectly depicts the color i want.. orangutan.jpg (the goatee).  Some of the kind folks @ ppforums gave me some tips on getting that color so i'll try that tomorrow perhaps.

KROMAC!!!

Kromacs blends aren't quite as smooth, but they look much more natural.   The only parts of him i've painted is the blue parts.  The rest was painted by someone else, but i plan on painting over most of it.  Or at least touching it up.. was too lazy to strip the whole model, and besides.. it was actually a pretty good paint job.. i'll just enhance it up a little :D

Wet Palettes.. freakin awesome!

So i saw this tip linked in a few places (brushthralls was the first place), and people seemed to be praising wet palettes and they seemed really easy to make.. so what the hell.  I gave it a shot.

Just take a privateer press blister package, cut the foam to fit into the bottom of the "bowl", then fill about 3/4 way full with water (just below the top of the foam).  Cut out a piece of parchment paper to the same size as the foam, get it wet, lay it flat on the foam and that's it... you have a wet palette.  The best part is, the blister is already made to snap shut, so you can seal it up and use it later.  I've had paint on mine for 2 days now, and its still wet and very much usable!

This saves a TON of paint!!  And, it keeps your paints nice and wet so you don't have to worry about rethinning, adding retarder, more water, getting clumps, etc.  You will occasionally have to add more water to keep the parchment sticking to it and damp.  You'll know when you need to add more water cause it will dry up and start curling up on you.  You'll know its too much water if your paint just bleeds everywhere and is unusable.  The picture above was taken after its been sitting for a day.  You can see the corners curling up, but the middle is still damp and the paint is still wet :)

Gnarlhorn Satyr (Part 3)

Didn't get much done on him.. just a couple coats of the blue armor inlay to finish that basecoat.  The raised parts of the armor I plan on doing with Chainmail VGC and highlighting up... unless i magically get good at NMM before i get to that part lol.

This blue was a mix of  VGC stormy blue and VGC imperial blue.  Matches pretty good to P3's dark blue.

Still trying to decide what color i'm going to do his fur/hair in.. I'd really like to blend it into a brown-orange-black scheme you see on some goats, with black horns, but not sure that color will go with my flesh color.  Black would look best, but i'm so set on black horns, not sure if i'd have enough contrast doing both in black.

Undecided on the loincloth as well... black and blue is my army's theme.. i'm either going to do black with a blue gem, or blue with an orange gem.  Orange looks awesome with blue and black and i think i'm gonna tie in oranges to my models for more contrast and pop.  Only on very subtle things tho.. like that tiny belt gem.. parts of weapons..

Anyway.. here's the pics:

Small Update: Practicing layers on highlights (pKrueger)

Just a small update before bed.  I got a chance to practice my layering technique on krueg's blue parts tonight.  It was fun, and offers a lot more control and realism over drybrushing.  Pics below.. Not bad, but i think I need a bit more color depth to the layers.  All my highlights look almost the same color, even tho i progressed up adding more white to the mixture with each layer, and applied in smaller spots to the brightest point.  Or at least that's what i tried to do lol.  One nice thing about posting these pictures, is the super zoomed view lets me see a close up view of where i should be putting highlights, and where i shouldn't.  I need to get one of those super magifiers for when i'm painting....  I always notice the wrong placement of highlights on these pics, but not while i'm painting!! details are too small! lol

Gnarlhorn Satyr (Part 2)

Ok, got the gnarlhorn's flesh basecoat and shading done.  I'll do the highlights after i get everything else basecoated.  Don't wanna have to redo the whole process if i mess up on the armor/surrounding pieces.  The more i work on this guy, the more he's becoming my favorite Circle model.  He's so badass looking, and i love the pose i have him in.

Here's my progress

As always, now that i see the super close up pictures, i see some areas i need to fix.  Probably hit those up tomorrow.  Few areas that need a couple more layers of shading applied

Making my own foam trays (Part 1)

In a grand effort to save a bunch of cash as well as get better, more customized trays for my troops, I have started a project... Build my own foam troop transport trays.  I will be sizing them for Sabol Designs Army Transport bags, as I am getting a very lucrative deal on their new "Armored Company" bag.  32" of foam space in that bad boy!!

So i have received my arse load of foam for pennies on the dollar, and its really good stuff.  I think i actually like it better than Battlefoam's foam.  For the base piece, i'm using some 1/4" hi density blue foam.

And... after a day's work, i have finished my prototype tray.  It turned out pretty good despite the "roughness" of it... i learned alot in the process as well, and have noted a few improvements to make on the next ones.  Most notably, I decided that measuring, drawing lines, and cutting foam without a template sucked balls.  So I went to Lowes and had them cut me a piece of wood to size, which only cost $4.50... as you'll see from the pics, the pieces i cut without the template are much rougher.  Thankfully i wised up after the first tray.

Materials list:
-large roll of 1" foam
-large sheet of 1/4" high density foam
-utility knife (want a blade at least as thick as your thickest tray, for me this is 4")
-13x7.5 piece of wood to serve as a tray template*
-foam adhesive spray (i'm using 3M's)*
-tacky glue
-xacto knife
-cardboard (if you want to make templates)
-cutting mat (a good surface to cut your foam on)

Note:  Starred* items are only needed if you're cutting out your own trays from bulk foam.  This would have been much faster/easier with foam sheets in the thickness for your trays.  Fabric stores will often have this for you.  I was not able to get foam worthy of a tray in sizes i wanted, so i got 1" foam roll that i had to cut and adhere the layers together.  It was also significantly cheaper this way. 

Here's the process..

1.) Cutting out the foam trays and bases into 13x7.5 pieces.  Put cutting mat under the foam to be cut, place your wood template on top, line up your utility knife flush against the wood and slowly begin your cut.  I found the best method for me was a stabbing, saw-motion type cut.  This reduced almost all tearing and helped keep the blade flush against the template for a nice straight cut.  The high density foam cuts much easier, and you can just press your blade through and run a normal line cut.  Sorry, no pics of this step.

2.)  Adhere the 1" sheets together to make one solid tray.  My first tray is going to be 2" thick, so i took 2 sheets and used the 3M foam spray on both sides and stuck them together.  In the pics below you can see the layers.  My first attempt was a bit rough, again due to not using a template to cut, and not quite knowing how to use the spray adhesive (you can see some overspray on the sides).

3.)  Planning model layout and templates.  I started out by making cardboard templates by tracing around the model with a pen then cut out w/ xacto knife.  I later came to realize it works much better just setting the models on the foam and cutting around them.  Not so much wasted space and a lot less effort than cutting and drawing around templates.

3.)  Cutting out the models' holes.  For this i used a similar method as cutting out the trays.  Start slow with a stabbing motion until you work the utility knife all the way through to the bottom.  Once you reach the bottom, continue to "saw" around the model/template until you've completed the cut.  I then smushed the foam down and test fit the model to its hole and went on to the next one.  This helped me keep a sense of spacing and ensure my cuts fit.

4.)  Gluing the base to the tray.   This was another learning experience for me.. Because the spray adhesive requires both sides to be sprayed I had to think about how to do this part without getting glue inside the holes.  Don't want glue sticking to my paint jobs after all!  So i figured I would plug the bottom of the holes with the cutout pieces of foam, then just spray the whole thing, spray the base tray, then quickly pull out the plugs, then stick the pieces together... well this worked great until i realized that there was now foam glue at the bottom of each hole, because i sprayed the entire base.  (insert 4 letter word here!).

The only solution i could think of, is to use some Tacky glue and just apply it around the holes.  This should be fine as i've seen a few guides for making troop trays that recommend tacky glue.  We'll see on the next one i guess lol.   This screwup actually ended up not being so bad afterall.. once the foam adhesive had dried, there's almost no tackiness left to it, and since my models will be standing up on their base, no big deal.

5.)  Once the foam pieces are glued together, you need to let them fully dry over night with some weight compressing them together to ensure a full even bond.  I got a board and set a box full of glassware on top of it.  Next morning it was fully dry and STUCK.  Would take a lot of force to pull the foam layers apart, which is a good thing.

6.)  Fill with models!

Customized fit for models to stand on their bases.  Perfect!  I hate laying my models on their paint jobs (even with clear coats for protection).  The tray is very sturdy as well, thanks to the hi-density foam base piece.  They don't bend/sag down at all when you hold them.

A few of the holes look a little big for the models, but that's because they have pieces i still need to glue on, or they are just a filler model because i don't have the right one put together yet.  That empty spot in the middle was because i cut the hole above it too big on accident (dog was being anoying) and it didn't leave room for the one i had planned to go below it (grr).

So there you have it... pretty easy process once you figure out a few of the tricky parts.  My subsequent trays should turn out a lot cleaner and professional looking, and be done much quicker.  Hopefully this helps out some people who are looking to make their own troop trays.

Mohsar the Desertwalker (part 1)

I got my favorite caster, Mohsar, primed and ready to paint.  I wanted to do something cool for his base to show just how epic this Circle Orboros omnipotent really is... but i couldn't really think of anything outside the normal boring stuff... that is until this afternoon.

This afternoon I got a sample of some hi-density foam today from someone i'm looking at buying some bulk foam to make my own version of battlefoam trays.  They are getting rid of it SUPER CHEAP so despite not being good for miniature trays i thought i could make some cool terrain out of it.  Then it hit me.. cut a out a rough pillar and base Mohsar on a pillar of rocksalt..  I thought it sounded pretty epic considering Mohsar's bread and butter spell is Pillar of Salt..

So a rough cut test run of Mohsar on his pillar of salt:

And here are some examples of how i would try to paint it:

Anyone have any suggestions on how to pull off painting anything like the above?  I'm sure ideally there's probably a better material than hi-dens foam for this... like salt rock... lol.. but i don't really wanna hafta go buy anything else and i wanna use this foam for something lol.

New additons to the hobby area

Just wanted to post up a pic of my new additions.. Ottlite lamp that was 40% off and my paint carousel. Sorry for the blurry pic..