House Painting

After allowing the glue and oxide paste enough time to dry thoroughly, it was time to get some paint on these ruined buildings!  Using the Badger airbrush (Patriot 105) and some primers would not only make this task faster, but save some abuse on the buildings by not hammering away at all the deeper areas with a brush!

I decided to start with a neutral gray Stynelrez primer to seal everything in, and set the stage for the other muted colors.

I tried out these "terrain paints" from Badger for the first time.  They are like weathering powders in a way, comprised of many earth tones and greens.  I thought they might be handy for the brick piles, exposed wood and brick, etc.

I began with the Weathered Black, which was a darker, warm grey.

I worked on all 4 buildings at the same time.  On the "intact" building, I will be putting printed carpets on the floor.  The walls will have wallpaper, just like the ruined structures.  So, the interiors walls were kept pretty simple, focusing on darker grays in the corners.

I also made sure to have some darker shading around shell holes and over the burned out windows.

The airbrush certainly made it a lot easier to reach all those crevices, especially on the multi story ruins.  It also meant that I didn't have to risk breaking away my bricks to get color down underneath them!

Once I had established where the darks would be, I began to work lighter, trying to catch some of the highlights without getting too bright.  I still have to add the browns and reddish colors for the bricks!

You can see the difference in tone once those warmer colors are added.  This is why I wanted that neutral grey to start out, so that the browns and reds would not be as intense as they might have were these primed black instead.

The open ruins structure shows off those warm colors.  Keep in mind that many more layers of powders and other paints will be added!  These are just the initial shaded basecoat setup layers.

You can see the color temperature difference even more on the intact building as the warmer lighter colors contrast with the cooler gray.

An even lighter series of tan/creme colors were applied to give more contrast to the outer walls.

You can see that I am trying to create stains and scorch marks already.  These will be further enhanced with more details later.

A reddish color was sprayed on the exposed brick walls and the piles, making sure not to get too much of a "single color" look.  I have some very fun details that will be added to the bricks to bring them out even more that I will show you in a future episode.

The next episode will feature something very interesting!  I am going to use one of my old spacescape painting techniques in order to lay out where the shattered walls will expose the darker bricks.  Stay tuned!

By the way, you can get these Badger airbrush products at Webairbrushes.com with a link below.  If you use the coupon code wappellious, you will get a 42% discount.

http://webairbrushes.com/

The Marshall

I have painted a few of the Ladies of the West now... but finally one of them is ready for my Lawmen of Wappelville!

Continuing the theme of painting figures that require similar colors,  the palette of this figure matched those of 3 other genres that I was working on at the time.  For instance, if I am working on a skin tone, I will try to find as many figures as possible that require something similar and do that all at once.

I even used some of these same colors on a treeman and a troll... even on a giant birdman and WW2 figures.  The list goes on, and so does the progress.  As I have said before, it is a fantastic way to keep the line moving and get things done more rapidly.

Lately, however, I have noticed the "side" benefit more and more, which is keeping the energy level higher.  Instead of getting bored painting the same thing over and over (especially if the figures are not favorites!!) I can switch to something else that I do enjoy, and take the sting out of painting things that really don't interest me.

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322794250839?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Chaibo

There are many new interesting miniature lines these days, and one of them is certainly Siren Miniatures!  Each figure is sculpted with incredible details, like little Chaibo here.

Every time I turn around, there's a little touch of detail, but not something that is overwhelming, or intrusive.

I have painted many of the dwarf characters, and each one is very unique.  The way the muscles are sculpted reminds me of the old Ilyad Games figures.

These details allow for all kinds of color transitions, which is what I did here.  There are bright lemon yellow colors next to muted purples and greens, while grays and reds balance against those combinations.

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322792146759?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

News from the Front!

Let the terrain mania begin!!!  

Some fantastic new battle mats have come in from the folks at TableWar, and each of them will be the setting for entire ranges of terrain.  These will generate dozens of how to articles here on the blog, where I not only show how to make the terrain pieces themselves, but also how to unify them more with something like a battle mat.

I really enjoy the carrying cases, as I will be using them very often.  They also keep the mats safe and dust free when not in use!

Here's a link to the website:

http://www.tablewar.com/the-f-a-t-mat/6x4-f-a-t-mat/

These are heavy, strong mats for sure!  I think they will stand up quite well to any kind of punishment I will inflict upon them.  

Each mat is rendered with subtle designs such as these nice designs.  The terrain pieces I have been working on were done before before I had this mat in hand, so I didn't have the opportunity to generate specific pieces to best take advantage of the innate design elements seen here.  I will try to modify them a bit so that they mesh even better.

Future terrain pieces will be made with the mats in mind, as I mentioned.

Still, I could not wait to start putting out some of my finished pieces on this mat!!  I didn't get too involved with trying to figure out which way to orient the mat itself.

The exposed dirt/trail seemed to be a fun element to build around, so I tried to position my tree stands and central hill to take advantage of that.

Hehe, I could not resist plopping down one of my wagons onto that trail!

I added more and more of the smaller trees stands, trying not to cover up any interesting rocks or other graphics.

Here's the view from one side of the board.  I found a small easel which I will try to use for my painted backdrops to cover up all the nasty shelves which normally appear in these shots!  I already have something figured out for the long table sides.

Now from the opposite end of the board.  After seeing the terrain pieces on the nasty, dirty tablecloth, I am very pleased to see all that hard work resting on such a great mat.

I will also be adjusting my lights a bit.  Believe it or not, I have too much of it right now!  I have a host of 60-100 Watt LED bulbs which had been secured for an older camera.  That camera was horrible in anything but the brightest lighting, but the new version requires far less.

That is probably something else that I will get into when I move forward on the future terrain articles.

While I thought that my large pieces would cover up too much of the mat, this view made me realize that they work quite well, and there is still plenty of mat to see.  I will try many other configurations to see how that looks.

I can even add other smaller pieces of scatter terrain, such as fences, small bushes, more animals, etc.  Farmland is another aspect of terrain building that I have experimented with, but you have not seen.  

Farm fields, bocage, cottages and farm houses should also look very nice on this mat.

One final view... I think I may just have to do that inaugural battle report now.  As always, stay tuned!

Mystery Troll

When you do miniature painting for a living, all kinds of things end up on the painting desk.  Some ordinary, some exotic... some are not very good, and others are amazing.

Every so often, you run across figures that are almost "alive", like this guy.  He's also quite whimsical!

I had a lot of fun doing subtle color transitions from brown to green, brown to purple, and so on.

A few folks have talked about who makes this figure.  He seems to originate from a kid's TV program?

In any case, he is kinda large, as he's standing on a 60mm base!

He certainly has a lot of personality!  The face is far an above the vast majority of those you see sculpted for trolls.  It was quite fun to paint.

Out For a Drive

The British get a little more mobile fire support in the form of a Humber armored car.  This particular kit is from Warlord Games, intended for our Bolt Action battle reports.

It was painted with a combination of materials.  The initial layers were done with the Badger Stynlrez primers, just a simple series of light and darks established using greens, browns, light tans and so on.

The majority of the actual painting was done with acrylics, using Vallejo washes, Secret Weapon weathering paints and even Reaper Liner paints!

The dirt and mud effects were done using the Mig AMMO oil and powder weathering products.

I used a variety of mud types, from the "Splashes" to the "Heavy Mud", which was mixed with some static grass in some areas.

I think that these overhead images show some of the color transitions in the greens.  Not only are there differences between the light and dark areas of green... but there is a "color temperature" difference as well.

If you look closely, some of the greens appear more blue or more yellow, and some are more 'saturated' while others are more muted.  This shows the effects of sun bleaching, possible repainting of selected areas (or parts that have been replaced/added later by the crew), etc.

You can see more of the dirt and mud effects in these images.  I didn't want too much on the vehicle, but a wheeled car off road is probably going to churn up quite a mess! :-)

I will be painting a desert version of this (in 1/48 scale) which should make for an interesting comparison!!  Stay tuned.

A River Runs Through It

One of the final tasks on this forest and hills terrain board is to add the water effects to the river!

I tried to make sure that some of the flock made it "inside" the river to represent plat life, moss and other things growing in the water.  The focus was on the brownish colors, because they will turn much darker when the water effects hits them.  This will create a false 'depth" in the river, as the darker colors will make it seem much deeper!

I had Secret Weapon Water Effects on hand, so I will be using that.  Be sure not to shake the bottles... a habit we try to break by writing that on the bottle itself :-)

I don't get too crazy with the first application of water effects.  The goal is to get the effects into all the foliage and crevices at the start.  Later on in the subsequent layers, I will try to make it look like deeper water.

The Secret Weapon effects dry crystal clear, and don't take as long as the Woodland Scenics or Vallejo effects. The rocks that I placed in the river bed will also create waves by default, something that I learned on the Barbarossa board.

Once this first layer (or even a second if you wish) of water effects has dried, it is time to add some actual waves!

This Liquitex Heavy Gloss Gel is fantastic for many effects, and creating waves is certainly one of them.  A few of the #8 round craft brushes will do the trick.

You can see how heavy and thick that the gel is.  Always remember that it will dry very clear, but large piles of it will take a while to dry all the way through!

I concentrate on all of the places where something is protruding from the water.  For various reasons, I made a lot of stuff sticking out of this river. 

First, it helps to create that false sense of depth, second, I can use more of the heavy gel for water effects, thus saving on the number Secret Weapon Water Effects pours.

Finally, there are more obstacles to show why wheeled vehicles and infantry cannot cross this without the aid of bridges and boats...

You have to determine which way you want your river to flow, and be sure to follow that flow on every single object.  This image shows how the water "piles up" on the leading edge of the obstacle, and then flow around and behind it.  Keep in mind, the thicker you apply it, the longer it will take top dry!

This shot really demonstrates how important it is to keep that uniform flow of the current.  Another reminder... all of the white tones will go away as the water dries.  Eventually I will do a final layer with some paint added to make those white caps.

Once this layer of gel dried, I added a few more.  I will get you some images of what the river looked like after the final layers have dried, and the white caps added.

Stay tuned!