Step-by-Step Spiders...

I've had some people ask me general questions about how I paint figures...notably, quite quickly.  Here is the full process of reclaiming an old figure from start to finish.  Note how terrible the figure looks at certain points...and yet in the end it comes to a very reasonable table-top gaming standard.

Note:  This is not a how-to for serious painters.  But if you want to get decent figures on the table in a hurry, some steps here may aid you.

Figure received from ebay auction.

 Using clippers cut the edges of the slot itself.

This lets the slotta base fall off in two simple pieces --- this will avoid any bendage of the feed/slotta normally.

Using "Super Clean", I bathe the painted figures.  If you're not using an ultrasonic cleaner - leave them in the Super Clean for 12-24 hours and then (using gloves!) brush them with a toothbrush.

Using a simple $30 ultrasonic cleaner the process can be sped up to under an hour or so.

By the end of the Super Clean bath (and possible sonic bath) the end result should be a clean miniature.  On some metals the miniatures will turn a dark/flat grey.  This seems to be pretty normal.  However the miniature should essentially be free of paint and should appear as-new.

For this Warp Spider (models notorious for falling over) I've opted for a 30mm base instead of the normal 25mm.  I clip off the slotta-tab and file down the feet with a metal file so they fit flush to the base (textured side of the base is down).  File and clean any flash on the model at this stage as well.

Using Wood Glue Max, layer on a small amount of wood glue (I use small wood sticks to even it out).

I dip the figure/base into a mix of three sizes of ballast (seen in the previous photo).  Once dipped I carefully pat down the ballast, shake off any loose stuff and do a quick finger-wipe around the base to ensure no bits are hanging off the edge.  Allow this to dry (15-20 minutes will work for the glue I use).

The majority of figures I paint with armour will be based in a single colour of Army Painter primer/colour.  This was Skeleton Bone I believe.  Applied to the model and the base (we're going to pin down the basing material with glue...primer...dip...paint.)

Apply a standard paintjob (level of detail depends on how much I like the figure and how nice it is to paint).  You can see my infantry get simple block colour, a little drybrushing when needed --- nothing fancy.

Using some hobby pliars I dip my miniatures in Army Painter "Strong Shade" dip (kept thin with Mineral Spirits if needed).  I dip the entire model, base and all --- at this point the dip will help secure any basing material to the base.  I dip one figure at a time, using shredded bits of paper towel to draw out excess dip as it pools in certain areas.  Use shredded paper towels - not cut paper towels as the frayed edges grab dip easier.  If necessary I'll wipe areas with the paper towel or a q-tip if I need to remove some (the heads on these Warp Spiders were wiped gently with the paper towel).

This is the miniature immediately after being dipped.  Note the dip pools in recesses and automatically shades parts of the figure. It covers up a lot of mistakes!

Check back in a few minutes because sometimes large pools will appear -- the dip starts drying almost immediately.  It can take a while to get this process figured out.

Allow the dipped miniature to dry for at least 12 hours (I'd suggest overnight).  Once dried to the touch, hit it with Anti-Shine.  I use the Army Painter version, but any matte-spray will remove the shine, unless you want a shiny figure.

Using a watered down Tierra Earth from Vallejo (whatever colour you want your base) I do the whole base, edge etc.

Once dried, apply a drybrush of a colour of your choice.

To help increase the basing appearance I like to use Army Painter grass tufts as well.  I smear Wood Glue Max on a sheet of plastic (so it lays thin) and then I pinch the tuft, set the base in the glue and simply place it on the figure.

And you're done.  Cheating works!

A comparison between the ebay auction I won and the end result.

Save the Craftworld: Episode 6 (oh, and zombies!)

While I have obtained the majority of the metal figures I will need for my current planned force, I've been keeping an eye out on ebay for random lots of metals.  Here is a small grab of some guardians from last week.

While I'm done with my proper guardians, the idea has been stirring in the back of my mind to do a small pirate force (maaaaaybe even Exodites) to go with the Craftworld forces.  As such a smattering or random metals and some Dark Reaper bits (maybe some bikes etc.) will serve as the beginnings of a pirate force at some point.

GAMES: Zombicide Black Plague

While I haven't gotten into much proper wargaming lately, I have managed to get a small campaign of Zombicide: Black Plague started with my brother.  We played the demo game, and then started over, each picking characters and we've played through two quests so far.

The joys of rolling over 20 zombies in a single space...Red mode is hard!

"Campaign mode!  There is no such thing!  Blasphemy!" I hear you cry out.  Truth.  You speaks it.

We've developed a very simple campaign method.  I've explained it below:

-Choose a starting set of characters, as normal.

-Begin Quest 01 (the goal being to play through all ten quests and then move into the Wolfsburg Expansion and eventually complete the entire run of quests).

-At the end of a game, characters who are deceased are replaced by newly chosen characters (starting at 0 experience).  Surviving characters keep their equipment and may pay two pieces of equipment to heal each wound they have suffered at the end of the game.  So if your character ends the game with one wound, he can pay two pieces of equipment to heal this wound.  This helps prevent comical levels of equipment build-up.

-Take a picture or note of your characters...when you begin the next game, reduce experience tickers to the start of their current colour band.  So, if a character is five points into yellow, he resets his experience ticker to the first point in yellow.  The game begins at the highest experience level just like a normal game of Zombicide.  As such, you'll be into red-band quite quickly.

-Use the "ultra-red" mode from Wolfsburg.  This means that players can cycle through the experience band multiple times, eventually picking up the spare skills un-used on the previous cycle.

-If the entire party is eliminated or wiped out, start over and you luckily get to start at 0 experience.  We've decided that if we somehow lose all of the characters in my box, we lose the campaign (unlikely as I must have 40+ heroes!).

Thus far we lost one character in the first game, and one character in the second game.  We have some beastly characters built up already, but red zone is atrocious for zombies (as witnessed in the photo above!).  And we haven't even gotten to Wolfsburg.  I'll be adding the alternate abominations to the deck at some point.  Note: I don't own the Murder of Crowz or zombie archers expansions so that'll help us.

All the deadly ladies...

And a quick update for the unit everyone loves to hate.  Fast, nimble and armed with power swords.  It's the Howling Banshees!

The Guardian Host

Finally finished up the eight leaders for my guardian squads.  I suppose I should think up a name for my craftworld at some point.  These eight are the last of forty guardians I've assembled.  I doubt I'll ever use all four squads but I wanted to cover guardians for certain scenarios, or to allow me to play an Ulthwe-styled army for certain games.

The dip went a littly wonky on me and I'm not overly chuffed with the results (don't really like any of the guardians since dip sucks on white models) but they're done and now I can move onto smaller units of sillier stuff.  I'm immensely pleased to be done with the bulk of the force - the "boring" stuff as it were.  I figure it's best to get these fellas out of the way.

These four represent the squad leaders.  They represent the "corporal" element.  If I wish to run smaller guardian squads these will lead the remaining elements.  Likewise if I wish the leader to run with a rifle instead of a sword/pistol I can use these figures.

These four figures represent the proper "leaders" of the guardians.  They'll lead a squad of ten each.  Mixed weapons.

The combined leaders and squad leaders.

The Guardian Host assembled and ready for war.  Each squad consists of six guardians with shuriken catapults, two special weapons (flamers, meltaguns or a mix) a squad leader with a shuriken catapult, and a leader with close combat weapons.

Start Collecting: Eldar

When I started building a 2nd edition Eldar army it was around the same time that the "Start Collecting" boxes game out from GW.  Now, no one has ever accused GW of having good sales or phenomenal "value for money", but the Start Collecting boxes are close.  I was a little surprised there was no Eldar box and so I went about my business.

News just popped up that there is finally a box for Eldar.  At first I thought "well, it'll be guardians, warwalkers etc....stuff I don't need".  I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong!  The box consists of a Farseer/Warlock on Jetbike, three of the new Jetbikes, and a Fire Prism.  Oddly it fit perfectly into my force and will not be redundant.  I pre-ordered one for a hefty discount ($64 including shipping!) and should receive it in a few weeks when they release.

I may (may!) eventually get a second one - the only issue stopping me is the Fire Prism.  I may try to source a Falcon turret for bits, but I don't think I'll be running two Fire Prisms (maybe a Deathspinner instead?).  Anyway, it's on the way!

Assemble the masses! (oh, and zombies!)

I managed to knock out another 18(!) guardians.  I originally had planned for maybe three squads of seven or eight guardians apiece.  After sorting out my ebay auctions, some Eldar passed to me by my friend, and bits and bobs I realized I have enough components for four full ten-man squads.

I decided to go for it.  I may never use all four, but it'd be fun to do a huge game with heaps of Eldar guardians (and it fits many Eldar narratives).

I used the eight lasgun guardians I ended up with to make special weapon fellas for each squad.  Four were turned into flamers (above)

Four were turned into meltaguns.  The weapons have intentionally been painted different colours and given some highlight colours to help other players pick them out on the table-top.

The assembled new squad(s). 

The last eight guardians I have to paint are (luckily) my squad leaders, sergeants etc.  They're mostly different interesting sculpts.  Twenty four of my basic guardians consist of a whopping two poses!  It got rather tiresome painting these guys.  If it were anything other than my Eldar army I would have let them sit for years before attempting to complete a bunch of figures.

I paint quickly, but I've never ever enjoyed painting large numbers of similar troops - particularly not when the poses are limited/static.

Stay tuned for more Eldar!

PS: I did receive a treat in the mail yesterday (well, I had to drive two hours to a distant post-office to pick it up after they refused to change the mailing address when I moved!):  Black Plague from Zombicide...an absolutely fantastic game.  And boy was the box big!

(insert rather large shit-eating grin)

Kickstarter: Massive Darkness

The folks over at CMON have teamed with Guillotine Games again for another good looking Kickstarter: Massive Darkness.

This is a 1-6 player co-op dungeon crawl based around the Zombicide mechanics but with a lot of added elements (minor character development, optional character classes, a "darkness" mechanic for hiding from baddies - roaming monsters etc.).  Much like Zombicide Black Plague, this features no Game Master.  Already rocketing to $500,000 at the time of this post (a mere hour after the pledging opened up).

If you like dungeon crawls and/or like Zombicide this may be something worth looking into.

Massive Darkness Kickstarter

 

Getting Started: The Tools

I assembled this post as a simple primer for people interested in getting into miniature wargaming/modeling.  The miniature wargaming hobby is a difficult thing to put down into simple words when someone asks about it.

In short, playing tabletop games with miniature figurines (normally built and painted).  Numerous people have purchased a cool looking box of miniatures at a store only to get home and realize they're in fact multi-part models (this is how I purchased my first box of space marines, thinking I was getting what was advertised on the box lid!).

For those considering beginning the hobby I've provided a list of tools which will aid in building/assembling/painting the figures you plan to put on the table.

Disclaimer: I'm a mediocre modeler and a mediocre painter, but this blog post is aimed solely at entry level gamers.  I paint my figures to a tabletop standard --- this means the figures are not entered in painting competitions and I don't spend 12 hours painting a figure's eyeball.  As such my tools and tutorials will reflect this!

Setting the Stage:  The bare essentials!

A "hobby" surface is highly suggested to save your table.  Some cutting mats like this Fiskar's product are available for very reasonable prices.  I used a glass sheet for many years.  You need something robust which will hand paint, razor blade cuts and glue, etc.  Best if it can be swept clean occasionally.

You'll want one or more white lights over the desk.  More important for painting than anything else.  A very well lit hobby area is a must!  I run two lamps, one on each side of the desk.  White light is encouraged as paint will appear much different under say a normal room "orange" lamp.

Task One: Remove and clean miniatures, prepare them for assembly.

When you purchase most kits now days you'll receive either a metal figure, a resin figure or a plastic kit with numerous components.  These parts must be cleaned, trimmed and prepared for assembly.  Plastic components will have to be cut and cleaned, resin and metal may have "flash" which is extraneous material still present from the mold --- tabs and injection locations which need to be filed/trimmed down.

Clippers are a fantastic and quick way to remove items from sprues and to remove chunks from miniatures.  A collection of tweezers may aid in placing small pieces, and hobby pliers are great for holding/placing bits. I use mine to dip figures!

Every modeler will end up with a couple of X-Acto blades.  They are used for trimming flash, removing parts from sprues (though slower and a bit more dangerous than clippers!)

After the bits are removed from the sprue and you've clipped any large bits of flash, it's time to use some files.  A handful of small emory sticks are great.  They can be hobby-specific or picked up in the lady's nail section at your local shop.  X-Acto and several companies sell metal files which aid in removing larger chunks from metal miniatures.  Note: White metal miniatures are very soft and can be filed using emory sticks as well.

Task Two: Assemble the miniatures.  This may depend on how you wish to paint the figures - I frequently use spray paint on various sections so I may paint mine separately and glue later!  Remember if you're going to glue painted surfaces, be sure to sand/file them down so that the base material is showing --- this is what the glue will stick to.

You'll be gluing a lot of components together, and you'll need three types of glue.  Luckily they're all quite cheap!

• Plastic Model Cement: This is a fine liquid which is dispersed with a needle tip.  This is only useful for plastic-on-plastic.  The cement actually melts the plastic slightly and creates a chemical bond.  Use very sparingly.  Once fitted and dried, removing parts becomes impossible.
• "Super Glue": Super glue is primarily used for gluing resin to resin, or metal to resin, or metal to plastic.  I highly, highly, highly suggest using a super glue gel so it's easier to control.  I use Loctite as pictured, and it is dispersed very easily and precisely via a small tip.  Important with any gluing surface, sand/file the surfaces so they are smooth and clean of debris/paint before gluing.
• PVA/Wood Glue: Predominantly used on bases for attaching flock/gravel.  You'll see this stuff sold as "PVA" glue for $9 a bottle by some game companies.  It's white Elmer's glue!  Never buy this stuff from a gaming company.  They're cheating you.  I prefer using WoodGlue Max from Elmers as it is thicker, stronger and a little easier to work with.  

Task Three: Paint all the minis!

Over time you'll accumulate a variety of brushes.  Paintbrushes are an entire post themselves, and I'm barely qualified to make one!  You can buy great expensive brushes or cheapo brushes at the dollar store.  That's up to you.  Your material can be nylon/plastic/sable/etc.

A good ole mug you don't care about getting dirty will hold your water and if you're using dropper bottles (like the Vallejo ones in the back) you'll want a simple palette.  I use bathroom tiles.  They're easy to scrape or clean after use.  Some people prefer to paint straight from the pot (like GW pots).  I find a palette much easier as it allows mixing water with the paint as needed.  Google "wet palette" for some fancy tricks!

The other thing you'll need is a load o paper towels.  You'll use these for drying your brushes, wiping off excess paint, etc.

Extra Bits

Sometimes assembling large pieces of miniatures can be frustrating - particularly large metal-on-metal miniatures.  Many times people will drill into the opposing pieces and place a small stick of plastic/metal inside --- this is called "pinning".  If you're going to do this you'll want a small pin-vice drill or a small manual hobby drill.  Comes with several different size tips.  I use this drill to mount flying pegs/posts etc.

Used more for terrain than models, a larger metal hobby saw isn't a terrible idea.  Sometimes you need to hack through a big chunk of something!

Closing

Hopefully this post has helped provide you with an idea of the simple tools you'll want to assemble as you begin modeling/hobbying.  It may seem a little daunting but pick up a couple of tools as you go and find what works best for you.  Again, coming from a non-professional the above tools will cover 95% of what you want to do when starting assembling/building/painting miniatures. 

 

Ride in Style: Wave Serpents

After settling in a bit from my recent move I decided to knock out the two Wave Serpent kits I'd ordered.  The kits themselves weren't too bad - some flash, some poorly aligned parts, and far too many parts for a simple transport!

Modified the turrets so that they're captive but still rotate (they're provided with simple pegs instead of the captive turret like a Falcon - a cheap design decision).  Also ignored the comically incompetent single flight stand for a method I used 10-15 years ago.  I drill out three holes in the bottom of the Wave Serpent and use sanded down flight pegs to fit/glue into them.

This gives the Wave Serpent a tripod for hovering above the tabletop.  It's stronger, stabler, and more useful on crazy terrain than the silly single weak post provided with the model.

I went with fixed weapons and opted for a Shuriken Cannon on each, with twin lascannons on one and twin missile launchers on the other.  This gives me decent anti-infantry capability (left more to the infantry inside!) and enough firepower for them to act as light tanks, something Wave Serpents have always excelled at.

Sadly they're quite expensive but I have some options now.  I'll back these up with one or two Falcons in the future (maaaaybe a Fire Prism).

Games! Warhammer 40K, 2nd Edition.

I got together with a friend tonight and she kindly dragged out some terrain from a box and we set about play-testing 2nd edition 40K.  We'd decided on some rules changes to remove some of the clunk, but keep the feel of the game.

We made some progress but will need some more games to really dial it in.  All in all, a really good time despite being absolutely obliterated by her Chaos.  For those wondering, Chaos terminators still suck ass, 20 years later!

Late in the game with his entire host dispatched the Farseer runs for the Predator.  He ate two lascannons to the face and died instantly.

Pile on the glorious dead!

Scouty McScoutface.  The sole survivor from a slaughter of his squad.  He hid, recovered, survived several turns of shooting and finally shot across the table and killed a single marine before the terminators (all but ignoring him) finally slew him.

I forgot to take a pic of the table before I was nearly...tabled.

Another rescue arrived in the mail today from ebay.  I look forward to eventually starting some Exarchs!

Rescue Seven: Warlocks

Painted up two Warlocks for the Eldar force.  I applied some decals (after ripping several) and sadly they dried and pulled up a bit when dip was applied.  If they peel off I'll just re-paint the robes later.

Games! The Great War

I figured I would catalogue some of the games I get to play on occasion (oddly, just as I move from my gaming group!).

A game I've played a good bit of lately is The Great War, a game designed by Richard Borg.  This shares the design of games like Memoir '44, BattleLore etc.  I believe this is the Command and Colours design scheme.

If I'd only known the fate that awaited me...

 

The game is brilliant. It's the cleanest, nicest version of the rules set that I've played yet.  The genre fits the style brilliantly.  This time produced by Plastic Soldier Company the game features proper 15mm plastic infantry (including machine guns, mortars, grenadiers etc.).  There are supporting expansions including a Tank expansion which provides lovely Female/Male British tanks and the German A7V, as well as an option to buy local artillery pieces.

Overall a brilliant game.  Just enough strategy to enjoy whilst being limited by your command and combat cards.  I was absolutely crushed in this game when my card draws really left me in the lurch in the face of a huge line of British infantry.  I've played the game a good 6-8 times and have enjoyed it immensely.

The bad news: Apparently there is little interest in selling the game to the United States players.  With an MSRP of $60, the game is pretty much impossible to find beneath $85-100 and if you order from the UK the price expands to $100+ due to conversion rates and shipping.  I've emailed the company to see if they plan on really actually supplying retailers here with the game.  So far...no luck.

Rescue Six: Support Weapons + New Arrivals

I finished up two support weapons, a lascannon (brightlance) and a distort cannon on grav platforms.  I was originally going to attempt to skip the old metal grav platforms (HATE metal-on-metal models...) but I couldn't locate any of the new plastics for reasonable costs.

I also don't much care for the sunglasses w/ mohawk fella but they're painted, done, and will carry on!

The "before" picture is in a previous post.  I used plastic weapons on these (plastic glues better to the metal shield).  The distort cannon barrel was attached to a plastic missile launcher body to make sure it was lower weight and easier to glue.

In addition, I finally received some Warp Spider auctions from ebay...and I didn't have to pay $60+ for the damned things!

Warp Spiders are hard to get ahold of because they're particularly powerful right now in 7th edition from what I understand and the finecast models are crap (lots of bubbles, disfigured feets, etc.)

Unfortunately two of the figures have been fitted with metal bases and weapons grade epoxy which required me to carefully clip the miniatures off the base --- skewing the feet slightly.  I'll see if I can save them.  I believe I'll mount these guys on 30mm bases instead of 25's since they're always a little tough to keep standing if you don't base them well.

2nd Edition "Junk"

While assembling my retro Eldar force I've realized that I'll probably end up playing some 2nd edition Warhammer 40K at some point (more likely I can find an opponent doing that than running the minis in another game format).

To whit, I have picked up some templates from 4Ground and ordered some dice/stickers to make my own sustained fire dice (they sell for crazy money online, so screw that noise!).  So now, if someone says they want to play some old school 40K I can oblige for the most part.

Eldar Fire Support

I spent the day assembling/painting my first two war-walkers.  I'm not overly thrilled with the results.  First off, I don't much like the kits.  I spent some time trimming the fat to make them more resemble 2nd edition walkers.  I trimmed some fins and protrusions.  I assembled the damn wing-armour wrong and then had no choice but to do them both the same way (already glued one wrong!).

I dipped the driver and tried dipping the white parts which worked horribly.  Stripped and repainted them and then left the driver (who now clashes a bit with the non-dipped stuff).  I may go and try to touch up the driver with some white paint.

I dislike the looks of this new war walker more than I thought but now that I have them painted and built I'll run them.  The only thing I'd dislike more...is working with multi-part metal kits (such as the old war walker).  If I get around to re-doing my war walkers I'll sell these off on ebay.