The Board Walk

Let's continue with our pirate theme bases!

If you are going to do an entire unit or army in this style of basing, it is always a good idea to get as much variety in your bases as possible.  Of course, some of this will be determined by the "footprint" of each figure, but this post shows a few variations on the original bases.

This is a more oblong shape than the base you saw in edpisode 1.

The cuts around the edges of the boards was a little more severe than the first base, so I had to be careful when cutting into the sculpey not to go too deep too fast, and crack it.

As before, the planks were carved with the wedge tool.  Keep in mind that you can have a much more shallow texture by using the very sharp scoring tool that I showed you in the previous post!

When you are making larger bases, such as this 40mm, don't make the same mistake I did in the past and make the planks bigger!  Yes... remember to keep them the same size as those on your smaller base, and just include more of them!

This is another unusual shape for a 30mm base.  It is designed for a figure that has a wider footprint.

This collection of 30mm and one 40mm base gives you a decent idea of how you can create a nice variety of shapes.

Sometimes I like to add another plank over the top for interest.  However, always keep in mind that you better leave a place for the figure to stand!  Of course, you could always place a couple of planks on the base and have a figure who is running (up on one foot) perched on top of the wood pile.

This works pretty nicely.  When it's painted, the top board will be a different shade, and that will make it stand out a little more.

The 50mm base could have many different options, such as a rope coil, cannon balls, and so on.  I will just create a nice set of planks first.

Voila!  A nice set of bases, all ready for extra touches!  The next post will show how I like to make masts for the pirate bases, so stay tuned!

How to Walk the Planks

You have seen some pirate theme bases before on the blog, but I thought a fresh article could still be useful!

As usual, the wood carving tools will be essential.  They are also very very inexpensive!  The carving tools generally come in a set of ten or twelve, with a number of different edges.  A few of them are fantastic for carving sculpey... and even hard to reach mould lines on resin figures.

The other handy tools are exacto knives, pliers and this scoring tool designed for carving into plasticard.

I have baked sculpey in a variety of shapes.  The sheets were pulled through a clay extruder (aka pasta machine), while the tubes were rolled on a ceramic tile.  Everything was baked on the ceramic tile in a regular oven.

Let's get started!  I usually break off pieces of sculpey that are similar in size to the base they will cover.

Save those extra pieces!  These are always handy when you want some extra broken tiles or shattered bricks...

I marked out the planks with a pen, so that I would know where to trim the edges.  Be sure to vary the width of the planks where possible.

The exacto knife is used to cut away that excess...

And the 90 degree wedge carver is the perfect tool for cutting out the plank lines.  These need to be somewhat deeper cuts, as the texture of the wood grain should be more shallow.

Here's what it looks like with all the planks defined.  The other reason I draw out these lines is to keep from missing one or two.  This happens a lot with complex tile patterns!  If I still see lines, I know I forgot to carve something.

Carving the wood grain might take some practice for you.  Also, you need to change the direction of that grain on each plank, because they are all different pieces of wood!

You can even put some knots in the grain, and build your pattern around that.

Looking good!  I will take the wedge carver and make sure that the wood grain pattern which reaches the edges of the sculpey sheet get a bit of texture as well.

You could also carve some nail holes at the end of each plank too if you like.

This is the conclusion of part one.  I enjoyed this kind of basing so much, it was one of the 12 basing videos that was part of the Painting Pyramid series!

That video covers not only wood textures, but making barrels and treasure chests.

You can find that one here:

http://www.kingshobbiesandgames.com/James-Wappel-s-Wood-planks-Barrels-and-Chests-p/jameswappelwoodplanks.htm

There are many more episodes to follow!  Stay tuned to watch me create masts, coins and more :-)

The Great Crystal Forest

Today we have the next objective marker from The Edge Awakening series.  The last crystal and stone marker was done in a classic green, so I thought I would paint this one in classic reds!

Just as I did with the green crystals, I tried to vary the shades as much as possible, so that some of the reds would be cooler (more blueish) and others more yellow, or warmer.

When you have a very repetitive surface set like this, it's very important to have that variety of color shades, or it will get quite boring to look at.

This set of images gives you a scale reference, and a view down into the crystal patch...

Side by side with the green crystals.  Here's a link to one of my Painting Pyramid videos, called Green with envy.  It's one of five "color theory" videos I made concentrating on specific colors.

I cover Reds, Blues, Yellows, Greens and even Gray!  They are available as a set from Kings Hobbies and Games.  A link to the video preview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnvuDEKF_ts

and to Kings:

http://www.kingshobbiesandgames.com/James-Wappel-Painting-Greens-p/jameswapgreen.htm

One last picture to show what the crystals look like next to an actual miniature!

Again, these were part of a recent campaign by The Edge Awakening.  Two more markers await, so stay tuned.

The First Age

This is a little different color palette for you.  If you recall the recent ruminations here about new palette influences and what had been my palette for years, this guy tells a story.

This bright blue and gold NMM was a "go-to" kind of color combo for me.

I think you can see a substantial difference between something like this and the more muted earth tones and grayed down color palettes of recent pieces.

It's not to say that I am not using bright colors.  In fact, I use far brighter tones now than I ever did before!  Much of that is in the form of the Vallejo Fluorescent paints, but it still counts!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/222098253746?

Lady in Red

Here's a quick pause from all the trucks and weathering!

This latest batch of barbarians would look very nice on an RPG table, that's for sure.

I still think they would be fun on a multibase for a marauder style Kings of War army.

These are also the new snow bases that were made with tree bark, and then a gesso/heavy gel mixture to create the snow banks.  The snow banks were subsequently painted to match all the older pre-made bases from this project.

There are many more of these to come, so stay tuned!

How's the weather?

Let's continue with the scratch sculpted Laffly truck.

This image shows that I have finally begun to apply actual 'regular' paint colors!

Yes, until now, everything used has been primer.  I believe this was a German Uniform Grey from Vallejo.  It was also painted on to most of the anti-tank gun and gun shield.

With each layer, a little more shape emerges.  As I mention all the time when I'm demoing this sort of thing. I like to cheat a bit with the placement of my lighter colors.  I try to place them strategically in areas where I want to have more paint chipping.

Doing so makes it a lot easier to show chipping, and the resulting rust streaks flowing down the diagonal or horizontal surfaces.

I wanted to try something with one of the new Secret Weapon paints to create some dried mud effects in a hurry.  As a reminder, I had very little time to paint these guys!  This meant trying to get the most out of every single application of paint.

I watered down this color, and hoped that it would sink down into crevices like a dark wash.  It did just that, because it is designed for just that purpose!  I dabbed away some of the excess on the raised parts of the tire treads, leaving the deposits behind.

I had all six tires dusted up in no time at all!  I'm sure this would work just as well on tank treads, so that's in the cards when the time comes for my own tanks.

I thought that I could 'kick up' some dirt deposits on a few areas around the tires.  There are no mud flaps on these, so I tried to anticipate where mud might be kicked up onto the bottom of the chassis.

Much more will be added to these when I get a few spare moments, including some weathering powder and crushed glass mixtures with realistic water.

That method would give areas like these even more dimension, as the mud would have some glossy moisture to it, and more 3D shape as well.

One way I knew I could save serious sculpting time on both of these vehicles was to paint in small details instead of actually sculpting them.  In this case, painting in the grille, headlights and vision slits on the cab gave a better sense of shape to the entire vehicle.

Ideally I would have liked to sculpt it all, but that was not the plan.

As I painted in those unsculpted details, I painted some insignia and markings.

While I could certainly add more later on, I felt that putting just a few hints here and there would break up the larger open surfaces, and make the green appear less monotonous.

This Secret Weapon color has become a favorite of mine, since it works wonderfully for so many techniques.  I am able to add paint chips, streaks, and even oil stains with this one color alone!

When it is thinned down, you get a fantastic greenish shade which you would not expect at first, since it is a brown after all.  However, like many of the new paints, it is designed to do more.  It is supposed to change color and tint when thinned down.  Quite handy!

There are a few different paints that work perfectly for rust as well.

I used this to enhance the rusted areas that I initially created with the orange primer, and to add some extra depth to some of the paint chips with rust streaks.

The underside of the chassis got one more layer of rusty paint once the wheels were glued on.

Paint chipping and rust were added to the gun and shield.  I am very glad that I magnetized this piece, since I could potentially use it as a regular gun emplacement or even a tow.

Stay tuned, because there is still some quick additions to do on this guy to finalize the painting.  I want to add some quick foliage and see what happens!  

Then I will be sure to get you some shots of the finished vehicle, and it's companion.

One of my favorite videos in my Painting Pyramid series that I created was A weathering and battle damage instructional video. It's 100 minutes long, and shows many of the same techniques you have seen.

This is a preview video that gives you an idea of what it's like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myke97g1D_4