The Warhammer Models Thread III: A Brush With Death

[Ogremindes]

I'm gonna try drybrushing my minis soon (dark gray on top of a black basecoat). Any tips for a newbie?

Use a specialised brush (preferable) or a brush you don't care about destroying. Load the brush then wipe off all the paint onto a paper towel, then drybrush. It may be useful to let the paint dry on your palette slightly before use.

[dsmiles]

COME OOOOOOOOOOON, REAPER! Gotta make it to $525k. I want those Chronoscope minis.

[CreganTur]

Agreed. We're going to hit the 475k dragon goal any minute now.

Amazed at how the community keeps pushing through these goals.

[Penguinizer]

There are way too many cool minis as goals. I'm probably going to end up increasing my pledge to 200 since I want these giants in addition to the dragons.

[Tome]

Welp, there goes my spending money for the month.

Brought into the Reaper kickstarter at the Vampire level with a bit extra for those lovely giants and dragons.

Especially the dragons.

Mmm... Dragons.

[TheSummoner]

So... Due to a friend of mine being bad with money, I got a TON of unassembled VC stuff. Free.

These are the first models I've put together, so some of them are a bit rough and need a bit more touching up before I paint them, but here's what I got so far...

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A shot from the front. There's 40 there in total.


Same setup but at an angle.


My champion. Based mostly on the one in the instructions, though not identical. If I pick up another box, I'll build another champion differently.


Musician. Ditto the above. Because of the way I decided to pose the instrument, I had a hellish time getting a pose I liked with the spear. And even then I'm a bit iffy on it.


My Standard Bearer. This guy has a tendeny to fall forward, which is why I'm holding him down. I plan on getting a bunch of little magnets and gluing them under the bases, then putting some thin sheet metal on my movement trays once I get around to buying some.

And now a few of my favorites from the lot of them...


Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him.

Yeah, I actually named this one Yorick. I don't think anyone would mind that he's not holding a shield, but if they do, I'll just toss him in the back where it really doesn't matter. I thought the idea was clever so I had to build one like this.


This guy was one of my first skeletons. I made them 10 at a time and of the first 10, I thought he turned out the coolest so he holds a special place.

I really need to touch up that bit near the top of his spear...


I made this one earlier today. I just love the way his head turned out... Like he got bashed in the head and it broke his skull and snapped his neck and that's what killed him. Yay battle damage!

I used up all my bases, so I'll have to pick up some more before I can build the other stuff my friend gave me (I think he just threw a handful of bases in the box), but all in all, it's a good start.

Not sure when I'm gonna be able to get around to the actual, but I do have a color scheme in mind... Black and silver (probably a light gray since I don't want non-metal bits to be shiny) for the main army colors. Either blue or purple where I need a third color (haven't decided between the two).

[CreganTur]

If you want dark metal paint the spears with Boltgun, or whatever GW calls their darkest silver metallic. Then apply some washes of Babab Black and Devlan Mud to tone it down, darken it, and dirty it up.

[Erloas]

Well the Red Box Games kickstarter is down to its last 2 hours.
I hope I'm the only one that missed seeing this one until it was almost over. There are some very good looking models, not nearly as cheap as Reaper's Bones, but it still seems like a good deal for some very good looking models.

[Penguinizer]

I have a question. How should I magnetize the weapons on a Defiler. I'd rather not glue them on for transport purposes but so far haven't fouind any sensible way of attaching them beyond that. At least the legs+lower arms don't need any special attaching but still.

In other news, Wargames Factory's Shock Troops are fantastic and are replacing the Cadians in my renegade guard army. Just waiting on my melta gun bits. I'll probably keep the Cadians for apocalypse games but the shock troopers just look so much better.

Edit: Holy crap the kickstarter is just breezing through the stretch goals. So many cool minis, I did come to the conclusion I wouldn't be donating more than I already have though.

[Forrestfire]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this, but does anyone know an online store where I can get Thunder Hammers or some other sort of hammer for use on terminators? I have scratchbuilt some, but they look pretty crappy when compared to the real thing.

I've checked online, but I can only ever find them in pairs with storm shields for $20ish for a set of 5...


Also, once I get my hands on a camera I can use, I'll post up a few pics of some models I've been working on. Mostly my Belial stand-in, since I need some advice on him. My cellphone camera refuses to send, though

[Squark]

Couple of questions about conversions;

1) Does green stuff (that doesn't have much detail work) need to harden before it's primed? I've added a cloak to one of my models, and I'd like to prime them before I leave home to go back to school.
2) 40k specific question; Does anyone have any recommendations on converting power mauls? I think I've figured out how to make one handed power axes with the space wolves kit (cut off the axe head and put it on the thunder hammer arm once you've also cut off the thunder hammer), but I'm less sure about power mauls.

[HalfTangible]

Couple of questions about conversions;

1) Does green stuff (that doesn't have much detail work) need to harden before it's primed? I've added a cloak to one of my models, and I'd like to prime them before I leave home to go back to school.
2) 40k specific question; Does anyone have any recommendations on converting power mauls? I think I've figured out how to make one handed power axes with the space wolves kit (cut off the axe head and put it on the thunder hammer arm once you've also cut off the thunder hammer), but I'm less sure about power mauls.

I've seen a power maul coverted from a thunder hammer (cut off at the hand so that it would appear to be one-handed)

[Squark]

I've seen a power maul coverted from a thunder hammer (cut off at the hand so that it would appear to be one-handed)

There are two handed thunder hammers? All the thunder hammers I've seen are one handed (It's the Axe in the Space Wolves box that's one handed). Anyway, I've considered that, but all the space wolves thunderhammers look to, well, hammery. The stylized wolf heads would be a pain in the rear to get rid of smoothly (Although, that would probably work for the Thunder Hammers in the Space Wolves terminator kit. Well, if I ever pick up some wolf terminators, at least I now know how to make enough power weapons for them).

[HalfTangible]

There are two handed thunder hammers? All the thunder hammers I've seen are one handed (It's the Axe in the Space Wolves box that's one handed). Anyway, I've considered that, but all the space wolves thunderhammers look to, well, hammery. The stylized wolf heads would be a pain in the rear to get rid of smoothly (Although, that would probably work for the Thunder Hammers in the Space Wolves terminator kit. Well, if I ever pick up some wolf terminators, at least I now know how to make enough power weapons for them).

Well sure, for terminators. Death Company's are two-handed, as are others.

[Renegade Paladin]

Well sure, for terminators. Death Company's are two-handed, as are others.

Which is funny, since you can give Death Company two thunder hammers apiece if you feel like spending 3k points on a single unit.

[Squark]

Well sure, for terminators. Death Company's are two-handed, as are others.

Huh. Wolf Guard wield their thunder hammers one handed, even in power armor (Of course, very few people give them thunder hammers, because it's cheaper to make a hammernator setup with terminator armor than it is with power armor. And Space Wolf hammernators cost 63 points)

[HalfTangible]

Which is funny, since you can give Death Company two thunder hammers apiece if you feel like spending 3k points on a single unit.

... How many DC do you think are IN that dual thunder hammer unit?

[Renegade Paladin]

... How many DC do you think are IN that dual thunder hammer unit?

Thirty.

[HalfTangible]

Thirty.

Thought the limit was 20

[Renegade Paladin]

Unit starts with three, add up to twenty-seven more. Right in the army list. With two thunder hammers and a jump pack, they're nearly a hundred points per model, and then you toss in Lemartes and play Apocalypse with only one squad.

[HalfTangible]

Unit starts with three, add up to twenty-seven more. Right in the army list. With two thunder hammers and a jump pack, they're nearly a hundred points per model, and then you toss in Lemartes and play Apocalypse with only one squad.

You're missing an HQ and a troop.

[Renegade Paladin]

You're missing an HQ and a troop.

Apocalypse has no FO requirements.

[Forrestfire]

Hello again. I finally got some (admittedly crappy) pictures of my models, so I felt like sharing:

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This guy will be my counts-as Belial. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can bling him out a bit more? I feel like he should be more "commander"-ish, but I'm opposed to bareheaded space marines, so that avenue was closed to me.




Front and back.

And he's magnetized! For when I get some thunder hammers to go with my homemade storm shields, and some lightning claws for people who don't want to let me use two swords as lightning claws.

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Here's a terminator sergeant with twin lightning claws. He's almost fully painted; I have to redesign and repaint the chapter emblem.

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And here is what my custom storm shields look like. I'm not a fan of the GW storm shields, so I made my own out of flying bases and fantasy goblin shields.

Thoughts/comments/critiques? (and sorry for the cruddy pictures)

[Squark]

Belial looks fine (If you haven't gotten a purity seal or two and some dark angels specific iconography like the wings, I look into seeing if those look good on him), although I'd see if you can get a powerfist-lightning claw setup once they finally FAQ how specialist weapons work (assuming that can be done with Belial, of course). Paint jobs look pretty good, but I think the storm shields need more bling on them. Also, is this a custom successor chapter, or one who's iconography isn't on Lexicanum, if I may ask?

[Forrestfire]

This is a custom successor chapter. It started mostly because I had leftover homemade verdigris wash from my orks, and tested it out on brass-painted space marine and thought it looked good.

The emblem is my own, but I think it looks kinda dumb, so I'm changing it to the one on the right:

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A stylized wing looks better than some random triangles.

It's funny you mention adding more bling to the storm shields. I originally had some extra stuff on the inner circle bit, but it ended up looking bad when painted, so I took it off of them. What would you suggest?

Also, Belial's loadout is either Hammer/Shield, 2 Lightning Claws, or Storm Bolter/Sword of Silence, which is really, really bad compared to the former two options.

[Mystic Muse]

Hello everybody.

Haven't posted in one of these threads before. Haven't had much reason to, since I don't really know the rules, but I recently obtained a reason.

My DM gave me a few minis to paint, and one was an old plastic space marine.

I also recently acquired a Tyranid Mawloc/Trygon on Ebay for a total of $38 (Squee!), and I now have a desire to paint them.

However, I don't know anything about painting plastic miniatures really. I was wondering if I could maybe get some general tips? Especially in terms of best brands to use in terms of glue and such.

I did not see this thread, so reposting from the other one.

EDIT: http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...cbyIslands.jpg here is the color scheme I was hoping to use on the Tyranid. Any advice for that, and could somebody maybe point me to which paints I'll need for that?

I've also been told I need to thin my paints and primer, but I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to do that, especially since my primer is in an aerosol spray can.

[Squark]

Generally, I'd say plastic glue (Often called cement) should come from a hobby shop for a first timer, since It's not the same as traditional plastic cement, so Identifying it in a hardware store (where it would most likely be cheaper, although perhaps not with a good application tip) would be tricky. Super glue, for resin and metal, can be picked up with a good minute application tip at any walmart sized store if you no where to look, for less than game stores charge, and in a nicer bottle.

Aside from that, you're going to need a craft knife (often called an exacto knife after a popular brand) for cutting things. Aside from paint and primer (I don't have a good reccomendation for those, I'm afraid), that's enough to get you started. If you want, you can buy more specialized tools like clippers to make getting models off their sprue easier, but those aren't essential.

You'll probably also want some green stuff (A 2-part epoxy. You mix the yellow stuff and the blue stuff together with your hands, sculpt it and detail it how you like, and glue it to the model. Come back in 24 hours, and it's hardened completely). If you know where to look, you can find it in a hardware store, or you can just buy it for more at a hobby shop. Green stuff is used primarily for conversions, but it can also be used to hold joints in place when you're working on a bit that requires several points of contact, like a weapon held with both hands.

[Zorg]

To answer your comment from the other thread, clippers can wrok to an extent, but they don't get close enough. I use clippers to remove a model's bits from the sprue and then a knife to cut the flash (the excess left sticking up from the part you want) away.
A knife is also good for shaving off mould lines, which clippers cannot do.


The very, most aboslute basics of painting are:

Undercoat - either white or black usually, using an aerosol primer for the most part (it's faster and proper primers have a different composition to normal paints). This is a must as it will stop your paint from chipping at the slightest touch and the colours will show up nicer.

Base coat - the primary colours blocked out*:

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Shading and highlighting - As illustrated above the colours are very flat. What are either called inks, washes, ink washes or shading** is used to darken the recesses. Washes are basically very watered down paints, so they flow into the darker areas and create shadows:

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Note the fur in particular:

Highlighting is creating the opposite effect - making the raised areas brighter. This is done either through line highlighting - painting the highlights on with a lighter shade, or drybrushing.
Drybrushing is my preferred technique, so I'll leave line highlighting up to someone else ;) to drybrush you get a larger brush, put paint on it then brush most of it off. Ideally you'll use an old brush, or a specially designed drybrush (they look like miniature shaving brushes).
The technique is to lightly dust the raised areas of the mini so the paint only sticks to the raised areas.

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If you note the very edges of the scales on her 'armour' you'll see they're very silver. I painted the armour black then drybrushed with a dark gunmetal and a lighter coat of silver




For consistency, here's the first mini finished - you can see some of the highlighting on her thighs and abs in particular.

Now, if you want to be quick and dirty, you can just do basic colours and an ink wash to shade and call it a day - its a very common thing for guys painting seventy bajillion orks for an army.


* the base colour is, after shading and highlighting, effectively the mid-colour. There are fancy tricks and techniques that involve using completely non-logical colours for the base, but I won't go in to them

** Inks, washes and glazes are actually very different in how they shade things, but they're close enough for now.

[Mystic Muse]

Is there a particular brand of primer I should use, or will any hobby primer work?

[Zorg]

An actual primer is better than spray paint. Etch primers contain a solution that counteracts any mould release residue left on the model to adhere better. Spray paint doesn't, so isn't quite as effective.

I use Games Workshop spray, as it is easily obtainable. I've heard a lot of people swear by Krylon brand. Auto body spray is also a good buy, but check that its not an emamel spray first.