Thursday, April 21, 2016

Tablescapes: Urban Streets Tile Painting 1

I admit, I'm super scared of my airbrush.  I think the older I get the more I realize there is a learning curve on new skills and question whether it's worth diving into it.  Sad, huh?  But I decided what is a better way to learn airbrushing then some relatively flat tiles.  Maybe if I get the hang of that I can start trying out miniatures.

I figured I also am super scared of doing weathering powders and oils... so why not jump full on and try all these new skills!  I'd love to apply it to vehicles and terrain.

I picked up a ton of the Secret Weapon miniatures tiles.  I have enough of the clean and damaged urban streets to probably do 12 or 16 feet of gaming tables.  I originally thought I could use them for Infinity but the roads are a little too wide.  Now that I'm on a Death Korps kick, I thought it would be cool to do them in an urban setting as they're trudging through a bombed out city.  I'm also tempted to do a genestealer cult and Deathwatch pairing duking it out in an urban setting.

With that said, I dove in now that the weather is nice.  I primed all of the bases black then started with my first couple of spray paint coats.  I first started with Rustoleum Self Etching Primer.  It's an awesome greyish color with a hint of green.  The picture outside makes it out to be way lighter then it is, but you get the idea.  I hit all the roads with that in an uneven pattern.


I then masked off all of the roads and hit the sidewalks and concrete areas in a base of the Rustoleum Nutmeg.  It'll give me a brownish undercoat that I can layer on the grey. 


I kept with uneven coats through that, letting some areas of the black undercoat show through.  Here's most of my stack of the tiles I'll now begin airbrushing.  I started last night and after a ton of mistakes and learning, I finally got the hang of it. 


I worked in the Minitaire Concrete Slab into the sidewalks and then added it into the highlighted areas in the streets after I pulled off the masking.  Funny enough the first picture was with the garage door closed at night, and the other two were from this morning.  Lighting makes a difference.


I ended up finishing about half the tiles, and got really fast towards the end.  Next steps I'm going to work in more earth tones, and figure out if I paint the striping on the streets or do the blast marks next.  Then on to the scary oils, washes, and weathering!

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Death Korps of Krieg - Next Big Project

I think I've solidified it that I'm going to go Death Korps of Krieg as my next big project.  I've had the models since they first came out and I absolutely love the sculpts.  I think I'll go a pretty traditional greys on the uniforms with khaki color pants. 


For basing, I'm thinking of doing some sort of burnt out city.  Demolished urban setting.  I think it would be pretty sweet to make cool themed terrain for them to walk over. 

The biggest challenge I have is how to do weathered and battle damaged tanks.  I've never worked with weathering powders and my tanks always look pristine.  It's intimidating.  I could use any recommendations on books, or tutorials that are out there. I want to spend the extra time to make the product really pop.

My first list is going to be modeled after the Krieg Assault Brigade.  It'll get me the chance to paint up a bunch of infantry and some small artillery pieces like mortars and thud guns.  Also a mix of a few tanks.  I'll tackle a cavalry and heavy artillery list in the 2nd wave. 

Any thoughts or help on weathering & battle damage would be great!

Friday, April 8, 2016

Adepticon Recap

Adepticon has come and gone and I'm in detox mode!  Making things up to the wife for being away so much and cleaning up the wake of my mad hobby cramming.  It was a blast.  I wish I had the chance to practice with my army, but in the end I had a great time.

Started off with the 40k champs.  I got smoked and got very minimal battle points, but it seemed like whenever I needed the game to go on, it didn't and whenever I needed it to end it kept going!  I won't use those as excuses, had 3 out of 4 games were a ton of fun. 


I didn't expect it, but my army ended up placing 2nd for appearance points.  For something I finished up late the night before (and had to take some shortcuts), I was really happy with the results. I'm thinking I should keep on the chaos kick and paint the miniatures I wasn't able to get to. Might as well while I'm still into the army even though I'm a bit burnt out. 

Friday was the 40k Friendly. Jeff and I did the Blues Battle Brothers as a theme this year and everyone seemed to have a good time. Unfortunately we were a little short staffed so I was stuck behind the computer most of the tournament.  Next year we'll rectify that... and we're very close to having a theme for 2017.


Then the team tournament.  The display board turned out great, and didn't get damaged as we assembled it on site.  Whether or not it's OK now is another story, as I have yet to reassemble it as parts are in my garage awaiting it's permanent stay in my basement.

We did pretty average on the games, I won big or lost big and ended up getting three max scores and two zeroes for battle points.  One of the losses we were in it to the end, it was close to being a tie had I played a little bit smarter. 

Here's some pictures from my camera on how the base turned out, I wish I would have taken better shots.  The lighting didn't seem to come through.


We were so trying for best heretical team.  As the awards ceremony went on, we were bummed we missed that and best display... when we got totally surprised and our team won best theme.  It's the ultimate for us, and everyone's hard work paid off. 

Over the next few days I'll post more of the miniatures I painted up over the week.  I think I've decided on my next few 40k projects. 

- Add some necrons for a few fun builds
- Work on a marine gladius list, flush out my marines
- Finally tackle the death korps of krieg. I've had these miniatures ever since they came out.  I've been dying to get some paint on them.  It might even be my big project for Adepticon next year.

Now on to cleaning the house!
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