Showing posts with label DragonForge Designs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DragonForge Designs. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

News from the Forge


DragonForge Designs has an interesting kickstarter under away.


These are sheets of sci-fi/high tech materials which you can add to your bases.


Plus some additional fun items such as this column.


There are also some base sets:


Getting bigger!


Getting huge!!


It seems like any game of 40k requires dozens of flyer/Knight bases these days, so here you go!



Speaking of Knights...


Here are the sheets and tubing which I mentioned earlier.

A link for you:


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Don't let yourself get rusty


Fun time jars on the palette!  Glazing the DragonForge bases.


A blue/black mix is the order of the day for the deck plating...


Aside from wiping away the glazes in key spots with a dried brush or my fingers, I will keep some extra soft tissue around.  This blots away the excess glaze and even leaves a next texture behind.


You can see the difference just one shot of the glaze can make on the metal parts.


These were some pretty huge areas to cover though, so I had to work very quickly!


I think this shot shows you how much color variety I try to establish as I continue with the glazes.  Not just brown or black.  I have some green in there, some reddish brown, and so on.


This image shows me blotting away some of the edges of the applied glazes with a dried brush.  I can get some interesting lighter and darker transitions in this manner.


I will also use Reaper liner paints in my glazes... especially where I want some very rich, deep darks.  Here I am using a mix of brown and blue liner paints.


That just about does it for glazing and tinting!


Which meant it was time to finish them off with a bit of rust!


Sunday, September 14, 2014

More from the Forge


Time to paint some more bases for Mechanicum big guys!  These are also from DragonForge Designs.


If you are familiar with all the other Mechanicum bases, I have tried to keep the same set of colors working on these two.


This means having a balance of reddish, green and even some yellow hues in the stone areas.


In typical Shaded Basecoat fashion, I went a little bit lighter to make 'space' for the later glazes.


To get some color contrast with the stone areas, the metal plating was immediately painted in a blue/gray.


You can see the "light to dark" transitions, especially on the right hand base.  It also contrasts a bit with the light areas on the 'warm' colored stone.  Light against dark.  Creates interest!


Still working lighter, but now putting in some 'warmer' grays... even in the metal areas.


Working lighter still...


A few colors on the wires!


At this point, the Shaded Basecoat phase is nearly complete.


Which means I can toss down some food at the workstation and actually see a play or two of Today's games.  Then it's right back to it, and the glazing/shading.  Stay tuned!!


Thursday, July 24, 2014

The batch is almost complete!


All right... here are some quick shots of the bases as they stand right now.

More adjustments will be made to them once the miniatures are placed on them!


Dragon Forge bases are quite nice, since you don't have to deal with mould release, air bubbles, concave or sanded undersides, and so on.  The textures are always very clear and neat, which makes them easy to paint.  And that makes a painter happy!


I put a Mechanicus symbol on one of them, since I could not resist!  I will be painting that icon many more times in the coming weeks, that's for sure!


Here are the four different designs.


And the full group of five.


Now let's add one of the BIG bases to these 60mm bases.


You can find them all at:


Tuesday, July 22, 2014

A glaze here and a shade there


Glazing!  We have an array of glazing materials out here, including some of the Secret Weapon washes.  I have a range of reddish umber to more green/brown, all the way to blue and black.


Beginning with these blue and black glazes, I started to hit the darkest recesses of the metals.  This is the key... glazes are controlled washes, so you target certain areas with them.


The glazes out on the palette.  These are used in more of a watercolor fashion.  They will be mixed together, and also with water.


So, a more pure mix is placed in the recess...


And the outer edge is drawn away using a watered down brush, holding it at an angle.  You can see how the hard edge is gone, and it is 'feathered' to nothing! :-)


This is done in many areas of the metal, trying to create a variety of light and shadows.  Notice how the lighter colors of the stone work are much more visible with the increased contrast.

I did something very similar with the stone work, using the sepia, armor wash, and baby poop.  I also mixed in the blue and black in places, so that some parts would be 'warmer' and others 'cooler'.


Once again, the idea is to make the lights lighter by doing what is called "negative painting".  That means painting the dark areas around a lighter color, as opposed to piling up layers of lighter colors.

I have said many times that several transparent layers take less time to apply than on or two opaque layers!


Now for the Reaper liner paints.  I LOVE these.  I use them all the time.  They are super high pigment colors, but they are very dark.  They are also relatively thin, which means that they can be excellent colors for enhancing dark areas with semi- transparent applications.


With these darkest colors, I began enhancing the lines between the stones, and also darkening entire blocks, so that it looked like it was either stained or a different type of stone altogether.


Now we are ready for weathering!  Stay tuned!