miniatures

September and October Hobby Update

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Wow, I cannot believe it has been two months since our last update, as you’re about to see, I have kept myself busy the last 60 days. This was a very fun stretch of time, full of new hobby experiences so enjoy!

September and October Hobby Update: Adventures in Eriador

Ever since my Dad took me into a gamesworkshop and bought me my first box of models (the Fantastic Fellowship of the Ring Starter set) I have wanted to create my own gaming board set in Middle Earth. Fast forward about 20 years to 2024, and Gamesworkshop releases the new Fall of Arnor supplement, and my lovely fiancé heads out of town for the weekend and the timing was perfect for long weekend project.

Taking full advantage of my free weekend, I ordered the supplies (so, so many supplies) and that Thursday night, I leapt to work! I will now walk you through the long, and labor intensive project step-by-step! Please enjoy my slow descent into the world of middle earth (and potentially madness)

Forming The Landscape

The first step was to create a sturdy frame for the board. I plan on bringing this board to events or game days outside of my house, and as such, I needed a solid wooden structure to prevent damaging the board during travel. This process isn’t necessarily hard, but I quickly found that most of my power tools had vanished, leaving me with nothing but a handsaw to cut the pieces to size hnurting both the speed and the crispness of my cuts.

nonetheless, I persevered and I ended up with some mostly straight wooden frames.

The finished framing of the board (taken from inside due to frequent and continuous insect attacks)

Once the framing was completed, the fun really began in earnest. The next couple stages were the longest, but also the most fun and impactful. This is where I was able to really determine the literal lay of the land.

The first step of forming the landscape is to lay down foam carved in the rough shapes of the hills and valleys that you want to make up the board. You can be very rough with this as you can see below. You’re really just aiming to get the general shape of the land, it will all be smoothed out in the next steps.

Once the foam is locked in place, I carved the foam to give it some more natural, rounded edges
Once you have the general shapes, its time to add in rocks to give the rough “cliff” faces a more natural, rocky texture

I decided to stick with the semi modular layout you see above. I took great inspiration from the old plastic citadel realm of battle and I love the layout that I ended with.

The next phase is the longest, but most certainly the most fun. Taking about 5lbs of sculptamold, I slopped down the groundforms, smoothing out the hills and laying down a thin layer of plaster that gives the ground a more natural texture compared to the foam and wood framing.

After laying the ground form, it took a full 3 days for the sculptamold to dry and solidify, after the second day I was starting to get worried about mold but pointed the biggest fan I had and started blasting. The results were fantastic and the board dried 3 hours later.

Once completing the ground shape, it was time to get painting! I used a variety of browns for the dirt, and some greys and ochres comprised the rock color palette. I’m very happy with how the ground cover turned out.

The longest steps done, it was time to give the ground a realistic texture. To produce the ground texture, I used a mixture of actual dirt (nothing like dirt to look like dirt) and some brown tile grout. As the below pictures show, this turned out perfectly!

Last stage, was adding the grass! I used a mixture of three flock colors to provide a more natural, interesting texture.

I absolutely love this board, I have a long list of things I would do differently but I absolutely loved this process and look forward to using it as a backdrop to the Fall of Arnor campaign I plan on running this winter. Just needs some stuff to put on top of it…..

Filling The Land

Once the board was done, I needed to fill it with the beasts, spectres, men, and elves that would call it home.

First up, I painted a pair of Barrow Wights, I was heavily inspired by the Barrow Wights from the Rings of power.

Next up, the brave men of Arnor hopped onto my painting table. I picked a more foresty green on these, a choice I was very happy with. The green cloaks matches the dark blue color pallette of my Gondor army and I think this mirrors the “sister kingdom” vibes.

I was prolific with my Arnor project, finishing both 13 warriors, 12 rangers of Arnor, as well as 2 heroes; Malbeth the Seer, and a noble Captain of Arnor. I ran through all of my warriors this month, just recieving some reinforcements in the form of 6 knights of Arnor this week. I hope to get these, along with some of the new Arnor heroes built and painted by the next article!

Next up, I painted up some terrain, a very sweet Barrow (for the wights) and a small ruined building. Both of these turned out very nice and I fully plan on adding several more of each to fill the board.

A Storm of War

In Mid September, the newest edition of Bolt Action was released. I wasn’t particularly excited about this to start, but as I walked in and out of my local Hobby shop, I found myself more and more engrossed in the idea of trying it out, so I bought the new American Rifle Platoon in winter Uniform box and the rest was history.

I blew through the construction, and even made some incredible painting progress!

I’ll talk about this a little more in the next article though, I can’t spoil you lot too much!

Ok, you get a small spoiler!

Kevin C.

So, I missed last month. After NOVA Open ended, I had a few days of rest and time with the family before trucking off to France. Biked over 200 miles in southern France, drank a ton of wine, and overall had a great time where I did zero work, both professionally or hobby-wise.

Admittedly, when I got back in late September, I had a pretty bad hobby slump. Many of you know the feeling: you look at the thing you were planning on painting, and you are just not motivated to do anything about it. You actively look for things to do other than put paint on the brush.

This is the sight I came back to. I had already assembled the substructures for the titans, and even added magnets to some of the Warhound weapons, but I was just not motivated to move further for 2-3 weeks after returning. 

I have heard others suggest, in order to get out of such a slump, to find a miniature or project that you are excited about and to start on that. I have never found that this works for me. In fact, what works for me is close to the exact opposite – find a project you don’t care about, and just put paint on it, no matter what it is. 

This prevents you from getting to much in your own head about how it will look, and suffering what I would call “analysis paralysis”. I normally use terrain to do this for, since I am not as keen on making terrain look great as I am my own models. Sadly, I did not have any terrain built on hand, so I sucked it up and started putting paint on my titans.

Legio Invicta Titans

I started with my Warhounds, partly because they were already magnetized, and partly because they were the smallest and hopefully the quickest to finish.

I chose Legio Invicta, which does not have any rules in Adeptus Titanicus (yet) but plays a prominent role in one of my favorite novels from Black Library, Dan Abnett’s Titanicus. I plan to play with these in Titandeath games of Legions Imperialis in the near future.

I got many of the titans that I painted from friend-of-the-blog Tom second-hand, in a trade of my completed titans for his uncompleted ones. This may sound like I got the raw end of a deal, but I did not like how my titans turned out, and I wanted a fresh start. After basing them in red, and peeling off the pieces of armor that were heretical, I got to work on building the layers back up.

The skeleton was straightforward, and applied across the entire miniature: Leadbelcher Base, Nuln Oil wash, Balthazar Gold Details, Agrax Earthshade wash, and a drybrush of Necron Compound.

The armor was more time consuming, although fewer steps: Mephiston Red base, Sycorax Bronze trim, Agrax Earthshade wash, and a final retread of Mephiston Red. I tried putting in a few highlights of Wazdakka Red, but there are not a lot of edges on the armor, so I started skipping this step.

I used the same combo for the bases that I used for my Legion Imperialis army: Wraithbone Base, Seraphim Sepia wash, White Scar dabs. I think it works quite well with the red and brass of the Legio Invicta colors. 

For the muzzle burns which I applied to almost all of the weapons, I used a layered rainbow of five contrast paints: Nazdrag Yellow, Gryph-Hound Orange, Volupus Pink, Magos Purple, and Akhelian Green. It’s not the best weapon style I’ve done, and I did it rather haphazardly, but it was neat to experiment with the process.

The Reavers were much harder to magnetize, and I’m still not entirely pleased with how I have magenized them. That being said, the weapons stick, and that is what really matters.

Finally, I was able to complete my Warlord Titan before the end of the month, marking the end of October. The only thing I need to figure out now is names to give these mighty walkers of war.

Next Project

So, given that there is an anime movie coming out from the Lord of the Rings universe based on the Rohirrim, and that a new edition of the Lord of the Rings game is coming out (which I have never played but looks intriguing), and I have tons of Rohirrim assembled and unpainted, I will be finishing the year painting my Rohirrim Army. Lots of horses to follow in the coming months.

And here I thought that I’d be done painting horses after finishing my Bretonnians…

Austin B.

Post-NOVA Break and Distractions

Much like my other compatriots, the time post-NOVA has seen my hobby progress slow down considerably. It was not helped by my work picking up again and keeping me busy and drained of motivation. But I tried to keep up the hobby work, and I have certainly kept up with the gaming (more on that shortly), doing at least something to both effects each week even with my limited time. Though, due to certain recent events, it hasn’t been painting almost at all! While I am slowly working through my Black Powder as shown off last article, something else did grab my attention in the post-NOVA shuffle. IF any of you are familiar with other games, and have seen my previous posts, you may know to what I am referring. Yes, Bolt Action third edition! 

Having released late September, just as I was getting back into the swing of things after NOVA, the edition’s release and how it’s changed up the rules has thrown a bit of a wrench into things. I have had to reconfigure armies and even shelve some projects for it. Both my Canadians and my FSSF, the latter of which I have shown off on here before, now need some updates for the new edition, mostly in the form of additional officers. While I am still waiting for some of those models to arrive, I also reassessed my two Axis forces to see which I could move forward on – as I had been holding off on both till we got a clear idea on what the new edition would be like. My Italians, unfortunately, have been temporarily shelved in their partially-finished state, due to just not working in the new edition as they were focused around a special campaign book unit that has no equivalent anymore. But my Germans? Well I can move forward on them with relative ease! The only issue? They were unbuilt, and in some cases, unbought! So I spent a week or so rejiggering lists for the new edition, seeing what I needed, and buying more than that to cover for any edits or allow for larger games (as my group tends to prefer 1500+ games, when the standard is 1000-1250.) 

While I am still awaiting some models (orders from Artizan always seem to take forever), and I still have others unbuilt (some Pioneers for the Germans, awaiting some Blue Stuff so I can mold more pioneer packs), I can safely say I’ve still built an army and then some for the Germans in what little spare time I’ve had. A few dudes here, a tank there, just chipping away at it week by week, till now. Due again to a busy streak these past two weeks, I haven’t gotten to really start the painting as I hoped, but I likely will be very shortly. In the meantime, we can bask in the glory of all these assembled models!

So many Germans! So many vehicles! The plans for the army is undoubtedly late war, particularly focused around the fighting in Italy in 1944 and 1945. The battles of Anzio and Rome were my central focuses, but I have included some items which might feature later in the war in Italy, such as the Hetzer. Each of the squads is built with some options as well, to give me some variety when building lists, and I’ve constructed a few extra men to help serve the same purpose. Mostly what is missing now are sufficient officers to lead the troops. As well as duplicate mortar and machine gun teams, but those should be arriving shortly with my Artizan order. Eventually I will be adding a Pioneer platoon to this as well, once I have the tools to complete those models. But for now I want to finish my 1250-1500 point lists, which requires me painting most of the primed infantry above, and a shifting selection of vehicles. The plan is to have that force at least done by or around the release of the German army book in January – though I will likely intersplice that with a few other projects, such as my Black Powder, Shatterpoint, and a Vampire team that is in desperate need of completion…

But not all of the last two months has been building. I did finish painting at least one model! And a fairly large one at that!

Yes, I have completed a Churchill tank to add to my Canadians. With two different turrets! This specific Churchill belongs to A squadron of the North Irish Horse. Wait, North Irish? That’s right! IT’s not Canadian! But then why am I adding it to my Canadian force? 

Well, I’ve been sitting on this Churchill for quite some time, not sure what to do with it, as my Canadians, whom are also themed around the battles in Italy, wouldn’t have had any Churchills of their own at the time – having ditched them just before the Invasion of Sicily in favor of the Sherman. But one came with the starter set, and so I just had to eventually make use of it. Upon digging, I found out that the Canadians in Italy were supported by the North Irish Horse on a few occasions, whom were mounted primarily in Churchills! And so I finally had my solution! Even more fun, the North Irish Horse were actually asked to add the maple leaf to their unit insignia for their dogged support of the Canadians in the breaking of the German defensive lines in Italy. You may just be able to see it in the brigade insignia below….

But with that, I’ll be calling it a month! I’ll catch you all in the next, perhaps with more painted this time around!

Michael S.

I got to work on a variety of projects this month across some different model lines. Due to a little bit less hobby time, I tried to push myself to move a bit faster than my normal meticulous pace when it comes to painting. This involved some trial and error getting techniques right that I wouldn’t have used before.

First up are some second-hand Lumineth from Age of Sigmar. These fellows were originally painted a bright red. I decided to toss them into an ultrasonic to see if I could get down to bare plastic using some LA’s Totally Awesome. With 2 scrubs and a handful of ultrasonic cycles I was able to get the original primer off. It did leave behind a textured surface in some areas, however.

At this rate, I was taking more paint off models than I was putting on. I opted for a “speedpaint” style scheme that would let me use a lot of my undercoat in the finished product without looking unfinished. This led me towards a more grimdark paint job.

Given the models’ looks, I wanted something that looked like it walked out of Elden Ring. Leaning heavily on a sponge, I put down some base colors for the near-black cloth and chipped armor. I quickly went back in with some very dark red to hit any details like the crest and ribbon. It still lacked visual interest, so I also decided to line the armor filigree with brass. To add contrast to these dark, muted colors, I added some extreme highlights and was left with this.

All in all, quite happy with how it ended up given the departure from my normal painting style and a time budget of about an hour.

Next up on the list are some Eldar that have been featured on and off this year. I finally got some color down on the converted Dire Avengers, though I ran into some issues with the contrast paint I tried to use drying oddly. After mixing for a few years, I managed to get it to behave properly. Lots of work to go on these, but I did manage to get an Autarch nearly painted up.

Last up is an hour or so of last-minute work on my Imperial Fists. I brought out a Tactical Squad and laid down some base colors. Nothing much, but it’s a start!

A Tale of Many Warlords- May

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Austin

Gnomes! Gnomes In The Dungeon!

I thought you ought to know…

…that I completed my College of Shadows team! I had showed off my single test-gnome at the end of last month’s article, so it seemed only fitting that I start this one off with the completed team! Representing the College of Shadows is my team, “Hello From Down Under,” sporting two Skaven Blitzers, two Gutter Runners, one Skaven Thrower, one Witch Elf, one Dark Elf Lineman, two Woodland Foxes, one Gnome Beastmaster, one Gnome Illusionist, and two Gnome Linemen! Quite an eclectic mix, no? But that’s what I love about the Dungeon Bowl teams. They offer an amazing opportunity to bring together the various Blood Bowl teams. And with the recent addition of Gnomes to their roster, I figured it was high time I get the College of Shadows painted up! Here are some close-ups of the various members…

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I went with grey foxes for the Shadows team, since I felt they fit in more with the team’s color scheme than the starker red fox one might expect. And I am pretty happy with how they turned out!

You may also notice one additional, mysterious member I have yet to mention. That, my dear readers, is my Wizard! Alongside the eight Colleges, I want to also make up eight Wizards to act as sideline tokens for the Inducement. This is the first of those, the Grey Wizard, who quietly sports his team’s colors with the dark blue frill on his robes and an emerald scarf underneath them. While most of the Colleges are fairly easy to build from the Collegiate Arcane/Empire Wizards kit, the Grey Wizards are unrepresented, so he ended up requiring a bit of work to get right. The hat I had to sculpt, and the skull was added to the staff by replacing one of the other ornaments. Fun hobby tip, floss makes great rope or bandages, and I used that to tie the skull onto the staff.

With some playtesting already done, it is likely that I’ll have a few more members still to paint up for this team, to beef up the roster slightly. But at least my initial roster is complete! That said, the College of Shadows team was not the only thing I have done this month for Blood Bowl! With our local league starting up I decided I needed to get a team finished up for that. I had initially figured I’d run Vampires, but with them being rather overrepresented in the league by the time I was signing up, I switched my decision last minute to… Gnomes! Yes, more Gnomes! I really love the new Gnome models, and I had bought a second box to do up an 11s team. Given I had just gotten some experience painting them up, I figured now was a decent time to continue with them, just in a different color scheme. And so I am proud to present to you the “Poppin’ Daisies,” my Gnome team!

They’re not quite complete yet for this article, but they likely will be done within the next week or two. Alongside some Star Players that I plan to play with them. And speaking of Star Players…

I have completed an Akhorne the Squirrel! This was a fun little side project I had been wanting to do for a while, and now with a League to join and the opportunity to make use of him, I figured I would get the little bugger done! The skull pile in particular was really fun to figure out. The center is actually just filled with modelling putty, with the skulls pressed into the sides. Plus a few loose jaw-bones to fill in gaps here or there… That Skulls kit really is great.

Now hopefully by next month I will be able to show you the full Gnome team, Stars included. But atop that, as I said last month, I do really need to return to my Vampire team, who may well be getting their own Stars to show off! I do need to get them done for NOVA – or maybe even the Goonhammer Open, which I intend to attend! So work needs to be completed on them post-haste. 

May The Force Be With You

Alongside all the Blood Bowl stuff I have completed this month, I’ve also been more slowly working through my Shatterpoint backlog, which is growing larger with every month. And with there also being a Shatterpoint event at the Goonhammer Open, I may be needing to speed up the process in preparation there too! Plus we have new boxes coming out next week… Yeah, it’s rough! But you know what’s harder? Painting white! Or at least I thought it was…

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Yes, what I have added to the completed pile this month is some Stormtroopers! And they were not quite the pain to paint as I thought they would have been. But then I think that might have been aided by some new paints I procured. The release of the Warpaints Fanatic range has certainly taken local painters by storm, and all the good press I have heard regarding the line convinced me to pick up a few paints to give them a try. I think the results speak for themselves. The white here is fairly simple: GW Grey Seer primer, washed with GW Soulblight Grey – which is pretty much my standard start for white nowadays – then layered over with the new WPF Brigade Grey, and then highlighted with the WPF Matt White.

I have had a ton of issues with other companies’ white paints before. GW’s tends to dry up in the pot (though all their paints to, the white just does it faster) and is rather chunky, while Vallejo’s tends to get clogged in the dropper top and separates constantly. But these two paints I have yet to have any issues with. I have cautious optimism moving forward with the rest of the Fanatics range, but I have been duly impressed thus far. Oh, and pre-loaded mixing balls. Need I say more?

Beyond the Stormtroopers, I also tried my hand at the iconic black armour of many other Imperial units by painting the Fifth Brother. This model was more of a hassle to paint, though that primarily came down to the paint scheme more than anything. Black on black is very difficult to pull off. Differentiating two or three different blacks on the same model was a challenge and, while I am happy with the end result, I do not thing I quite achieved what I was going for. Further models will probably go with a grey for cloths, to have at least some difference.

In The Far Future…

…there is only more to paint! Alongside the upcoming events and the necessity to paint through all these models for them, I’ve also volunteered to be the Arbitrator for a small Necromunda campaign with some other friends of mine. While I might not have much to show for it next month – as I am only in the preparations stage at the moment – I will be working on an Escher gang to play in this campaign, as well as terrain for it which I will definitely show off once I get around to it. I have already gotten back into the swing of things with a quick palette-cleanser/test-subject in this Hive Scum, for whom I used as an experiment piece for a process for dirty white armour. That might show up with a few models in the future as well… 

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Kevin C.

Bretonnian Pegasus Knights

After a month of losing progress on my Bretonnians, I am back to it! I wanted to make sure I finished all of my knights before working on the filthy peasants, so this month was all about getting the Pegasus Knights completed. For these, as with my regular knights, I painted the knights detached from the mount, and glued them when they were complete.

In contrast with many white and light-colored Pegasus knights I’ve seen online, as well as my old Pegasus knights, I wanted to paint these mounts brown. This way, I could really explore the color spectrum along the wings, and get some cool feathering effects. I’m not sure I am entirely thrilled with the blend I instituted on the wings, since the colors were not quite as smooth of transitions as I would’ve liked to make them look natural. But, as always, washes and drybrush cover many sins.

My hope is that, next month, when I work on the Royal Pegasus (which will be white), it will be a good contrast to the more rustic look of these “normal” Pegasus knights.

Legions Imperialis Solar Auxilia Support (Rapiers and Cyclopses)

The support batteries were rough to hold onto – they had to be assembled beforehand, so I couldn’t simply paint them on the sprue like I did with the tercio infantry, but they were much smaller than the tanks and liable to get lost. In the end, I had to store them in a bin until I could get to painting them. Finally, I was able to do so this month.

I did nothing fancy with these guys – just Iron Hands Steel with Nuln Oil on any of the metal bits, and my Vostroyan tank paint scheme:

  • Zandri Dust Base
  • Ushabti Bone Heavy Drybrush
  • Athonian Camoshade Wash
  • Screaming Skull Light Drybrush
  • Blood Angel Red for any detail markings

Thank goodness I painted the bases beforehand. I think that saved me a massive headache of trying to do these in conjunction with the miniatures.

Inquisitorial Stormtroopers (Kasrkin) Kill Team

My final main project for this month has been the Inquisitorial Stormtroopers I’ve been wanting to paint up for a while now. I like how they play as a kill team – no synergy shenanigans, no layering dependencies, just reliable firepower – so I’d like to bring them to NOVA this year if I can.

I used to play a lot of Darktide back in the day (you know, six months ago), so I figured that it’s only natural that I do an Inquisitorial Stormtrooper squad paint scheme. I used much of the advice from Peachy’s video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_8wtU28oJw), though it is less of a “speed paint” than one might believe watching the video. It took quite a bit for me to finish this squad, but I got it done.

When I finished painting them, I thought they looked good. However, once I finished painting them, I sprayed them with dullcote. Sadly, it was less “dull” than I was hoping, and it is still quite shiny, so the pictures do not make them look great. 

True to form, I wanted to make sure all the troops had masks on – except for this mad lad. He’s the Warhammer+ miniature from last year, which I decided to paint at the same time in the same skin. Maybe I’ll use him as a proxy or something.

Other Projects

As you well know, dear reader, we are preparing for a campaign in Legions Imperialis, so we are trying to paint up as many buildings as we can. Using a pretty simple paint scheme that have been used for Osgiliath Ruins (detailed here: https://youtu.be/QbYRtcSU5fs?si=assJoiAuH9IWzf7p), I painted up two additional buildings for the campaign.

Jerry S.

Howdy readers! I gotta say, May was a great month for me in the hobby space. I was able to get a solid start on my new Solar Auxilia, finish painting my Legions Imperialis Titans, build a firstborn tactical squad for Killteam, 3d-print a board for the squad to fight on, completely build a Thunderhawk gunship, and get a couple units done for my Tomb Kings! A busy month indeed over in my studio, hopefully June brings just as much productivity my way.

First up, I want to show you readers the Solar Auxilia that I painted up this month. I’m particularly proud of the paint scheme of these models as it was relatively quick and looks absolutely fantastic on the tabletop. I mostly followed the painting guide here from Feral Painter. his metals and fatigues are almost an exact match for what I ended up with, the only real changes I made to the scheme were changing the helmets and shoulders with Kantor Blue with a Thrash Metal Drybrush overtop to give a nice weathered blue look to these guys. I love how the red eyelenses contrast with the blue armorplates. This scheme was so quick that I was able to paint up 20 of these guys in just one week!

Staying in the Heresy era, I was able to finish painting (sans basing and decals) my Epic Scale titans- Two Warhounds and a Reaver titan! I love the Legio Astorum scheme that I’ve settled on and I look forward to getting these guys on the tabletop soon. As Kevin mentioned, our gaming group is starting a campaign in July and I have a TON of models I still need to get built and painted before I can play a proper game. The main thing holding me back was deciding on a basing scheme for the army but I am happy to say that I think I finally have a winning scheme picked out. A simple wasteland basing to make the Whites of my Space Marines pop, as well as contrast the Blues of my titans well. Looking forward to having the whole epic force painted up soon.

switching gears away from massive armies and grand battlefields, at the behest of Kevin, I have started a space marine killteam (pictured below) using some first born bits on Tortuga Bay bodies. I love the look of these guys and I expect to get them painted in the near future.

Of course, I can’t start a new game without creating a whole board for it, and as you can see, my printer has been very busy this month creating a space for my and anybody else in my gaming group a space to play.

Switching gears once yet again, I managed to put in some more work on my Tomb kings army, building and painting my first Old World Monster-The mighty Bone Giant! This isn’t my favorite model in the world but It was a quick paint and stands out on the tabletop.

Also painted this month was “most of” my casket of souls. As you can see, I left out the mortuary priest. This was mostly because I intend to paint all four of the army’s priests at the same time, or at least close together, to preserve the uniformity of the cult.

Last but certainly not least, I finished the build of my Thunderhawk. I think by mass this is the largest “mini” I have ever built. I absolutely love this model, it was a challenging build but not as bad as the Warhound titan’s I’ve built. I’ll probably write up a side article detailing my building process in the future so stay tuned!

In the meantime- please enjoy looking at this beautiful bird resting upon its roost.

That’s all for me this month, and what a busy month it was! The month of June will likely be a good hobby month for me as I race to finish my Solar aux and thunderhawk for NOVA as well as paint an entire legions Imperialis army for our upcoming campaign in July so stay tuned!

Michael S.

This month I took some time to build and prime up a number of models from various projects. I did manage to get some paint on a couple, but most of my hobby time was spent on the less glorious parts of mold-line trimming and laying down enough yellow primer to finally get good coverage (It takes more than you’d think!)

I painted up one of the squads I primed for my Templars and was quite happy with the way they turned out. They were slightly altered from the typical assault intercessor kit using a few bits and bobs leftover from other templar kits. Edge highlighting tends to take me a while, so I was happy to get these 5 done in a few hours.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/740399580587360308/1246228232001290250/BT-Assault-Intercessors.png?ex=665d9a3c&is=665c48bc&hm=ede83628fcedcebebadf957bd7d606412feb51340478e99e966a0f53994ac49f&

I also primed and built about 20 Imperial Fists models. I threw a bit more paint on one of the lieutenants to get a feel for how I wanted the armor to look. I’ve tried a few different methods for getting the right shade of yellow, and I am happy with this method I’ve come up with.

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I started with a Yellow-Brown basecoat and relied on a mix of some enamel washes to get the right shading in the recesses. Using enamel washes is much faster than acrylic due to the similar properties to oil washes. 

Last for painting this month, I tested out a scheme for the Imperial Guard Combat Patrol I showed earlier on the blog. I got all the models fully primed, and a few fully painted.

May was a bit of a slower hobby month, so that’s all for me! I am aiming to jump back to my Death Guard/Tomb Kings in June!

A Tale of Many Warlords- February

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The weather is starting to better, the days are getting longer and it’s finally time for another installment of your favorite Warhammer blog series. This was the first full month many of us had our Warhammer: The Old World minis and as you are about to see, we made a ton of progress, if not a lot of painting progress….

Michael S.

This month I spent more time than I hoped assembling models.

The Stone Age

I am naturally a bit slower than most when it comes to the building and painting process. I absolutely HATE seeing mold lines on a mini while I am painting, so my excitement to build some retro models lasted about 10 minutes, or as long as it takes to trim horrendous mold lines from a single skeleton torso. Many years of building modern kits has spoiled me on what I consider a long clean-up job for a mini, so after crawling across the finish line for my first 10 skeletons, I knew I had to change something about my process.

The Industrial Age

Knowing I had to build another… checks notes… 62 skeleton warriors drained me of most of my remaining excitement. I was in for the long haul and there was no turning back.

One of the few redeeming qualities of miniatures made in the 90s/2000s was the ability to mix and match parts. Very few pieces were numbered, and all you had to do was glue some arms to a body and that body to a base. It wasn’t until somewhat recently that mono-pose kits became the norm much to the displeasure of kitbashers everywhere. Another bonus of these interchangeable parts was that there was ALMOST no way to assemble your minis incorrectly. With this in mind, I pulled out my heavy duty clippers and got to work clipping out all the remaining skeleton spearmen. After about 15 minutes of focused work, I was left with my very own homemade box of citadel skulls!

My gameplan here was to streamline the process by building them all at once in an assembly line.

  1. Clip out all the parts
  2. Use a sharp hobby knife to cut away any extra material left from the sprue
  3. Use a dull hobby knife to scrape away any mold lines
  4. Use some fine sandpaper to smooth out any harsh lines left by previous steps
  5. Assemble

With a plan in place, I wasted no further time. I trimmed each piece, and moved it to the other side of the bin. Each step only used a single tool, so I didn’t have to worry much about picking up and putting down the same tool hundreds of times over the course of the whole kit.

This was the most time consuming part of building, but if you want great looking models, you have to start with a cleaned miniature. This is even more important for older models where the molds aren’t in great condition. The images below show a before and after of some pretty severe mold slips. That’s definitely going to leave a mark if not addressed in assembly. You’ll notice a few mold lines on the spine that just aren’t worth the effort, but the legs trimmed up nicely.

Mold lines that follow sharp edges on the model are often missed. I find taking a few seconds to clean these adds a lot to a mini’s final appearance. Edge highlights on super sharp edges (Like the shield on the right) have a tendency to be unnaturally thin compared to even a razor thin edge highlight on more rounded corners. Making sure all of your “sharp” edges are similar in shape makes it easier to get a good consistent edge highlight. Since the shields are going to be a major focus of these soldiers, it pays to take a little extra time now to prep them.

Once I took my final pass on all the parts, I sorted them as I went into small bins to keep parts of each type together. This made the assembly stage fly by. All in all I was able to assemble the other 30 spearmen in about 9 hours from start to finish. While it is by no means blazing fast, I am reasonably happy with the amount of time I spent given I was able to make all but a few mold shifts completely disappear.

From here on out, the rest of the process felt like assembling a lego kit.

The Information Age (Learning From My Mistakes)

Don’t play tomb kings.

Just kidding! Despite my desk being covered in a fine dusting of plastic shavings, ranking up my first two squads of warriors brought back all of my excitement and more. With larger projects, it easy to lose sight of the end goals, so breaking it down into smaller chunks really helped me stay motivated.

Tools For Retaining Your Sanity

Flash Scraper

Throughout my build of my Tomb Kings army, my most valuable tool has been a very dull hobby knife. A dulled blade is the perfect tool for scraping at mold lines, and is much less likely to damage a part then a sharp blade is. I have tried several other tools, including some dedicated micro deburring tools and have yet to find anything that is as easy to use and effective as a dull hobby knife.

Extra-Thin Plastic Cement

Some textures are just plain awful to clean if a mold line runs over them. In particular, plasma coils and rib cages come to mind. My preferred method for quickly tackling these is a quick light scrape with my dull hobby knife and some extra-thin cement. Brushing over just a tiny bit is usually enough to melt any shavings stuck in the detail and help hide the join.

Rubber Bands

Another useful tool was a handful of rubber bands in various sizes. Some parts, particularly the Skeleton Horses, just don’t want to stay together. Snapping a rubber band around parts as they dry helps speed up the assembly line process of building immensely. The Necrolith dragon also benefits from the added pressure to keep the ribcage together as it dries.

Other Projects

I sadly did nothing else this month except clip, sand and assemble tiny small skeletons.

Austin B.

February Progress?

Unlike the others, I have had to build fairly little this month. Between the fact that my army is composed of primarily of the mono-pose, single piece Night Goblins from Battle of Skull Pass, and I’d already done a fair bit of building last month, all I really had to do this month was rebase… checks notes… 90 goblins! Not really the most exciting process, but a far cry from removing mold lines from and assembling models nearly as old as I am. A simple afternoon and that was done. So now it was time to paint them, right?

Nope! Unfortunately I had some rather personal issues arise that tore through the first three weeks of this month, leaving me both short on capability and motivation for anything hobby related. While I have now begun the long process that is painting a veritable horde of goblins within the past few days, I am not even close to where I had hoped to be. Still, the process has been started, and I hope to have all or most of these basic bobos (gobos?) done by the next update.

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Shush on the desk. It’s organized clutter, damnit! Maybe… Now, where did I put that pot of Nuln Oil again…?

Now, progress wasn’t on a complete standstill during the tumultuous early weeks of this month, and I was able to assemble a few further hero models and some unit fillers, mostly comprised of spare bits and the Looncourt models from Warhammer Underworlds. I won’t show those off quite yet though, as I still have a bit of work I want to do on them.

“February” Progress

Now, despite what was stated above, I am not without any work to show off! Between the time of our last post in January, and my unfortunate incident in early February, I was able to get a few more miniatures painted. Firstly, I finished up four more members to join the Squig Hopper unit for the model I showed off in the last update. The other five will come in time…

Furthermore, I was able to get ten Squigs done for a Squig Herder unit. They’ve been let loose! Where are their herders? Well, you’ll hopefully see them next month, so they can round off (or round up) the unit.

And last, but not least, I was able to paint perhaps one of my favorite models from the new Gloomspite Gitz range, the Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig. While he cannot lead my armies in the Old World, he’s still certainly an intimidating presence! The sickle-blade, the mask, the giant squig tongue… Ugh, I just love everything about this model.

Well, that’s it from me! Hopefully I have more to show you all next month. Much more…

Kevin C

So, as this is being posted, I am currently out of my house due to asbestos abatement, so my hobbying availability has certainly taken a hit in recent weeks. That being said, I was able to assemble the entire boxed set of Bretonnians before I left. Here are my thoughts:

The first thing that came to mind was just how much the sprues have changed in the past 20 years. Compare and contrast the two sprues, Men-at-Arms basically unchanged from when they were released back in … checks notes… 1998, and the Lord on Pegasus that was just released.

The tightness of the Lord on Pegasus sprue is definitely more in fashion these days, I assume thanks to the significant advancement in CAD software over the intervening years. I do appreciate the lack of waste that the smaller, tighter sprues offer, but at times they make it hard to cut pieces off the sprue cleanly, due to the weird angles. I have definitely had this problem with some of the newer kits, like the kill teams and this Lord on Pegasus. More on him later…

Knights

The knights were delightfully simple to build. I chose to keep the rider and the shield removed from the horse until after I have painted them, so that I can get to the hard to reach spaces while painting. 

Don’t mind the reindeer water mug…

I like keeping helmets on all my models whenever possible. Not because I am bad at painting faces (or, not only because I am bad at painting faces), but it helps to build the uniformity of the unit. I will be differentiating them in different ways, however, mostly through heraldry.

Archers

Don’t get me wrong, I like archers. However, they definitely have the peasant, unclean look. I actually prefer the older monopose archer models from the early 1990s which always looked … healthier to me? Anyway…

It is a good thing we have those stakes and braziers – they are a must for any Bretonnian player. That being said, even though there are tons of stakes with these archer sprues, there are only two 100x25mm bases for them to go on, meaning you can only construct a single unit with stakes. I’m going to see if I can procure more long narrow bases for more stake emplacements.

Men at Arms

So, I’ll be honest, I don’t like the look of these guys. Filthy peasants. That being said, I am so glad Games Workshop made the decision to move all infantry to 25mm bases. These guys can actually finally rank up cleanly. Well, with the exception of the banner knocking the guy behind him in the face. You know, the banner that doesn’t count for VPs for your opponent? Yeah, that one…

Similar to the knights, I have kept the shields off these guys, in order to be able to reach the rest of the miniature behind the shield. On the table, I will probably run these guys as a single large unit, but I ended up building two command sets, just in case.

Duke on Pegasus

Alright, now I’m really going to gripe. This was easily the WORST kit I have ever had to build. The instructions were bad, but I’ve had that before. What really made this kit terrible was two-fold: the miniature itself is hollow (most likely to reduce cost of plastic), and the joins were flat. This means that I have to hold the pieces together, often at weird angles, and they did not want to stay together.

Even after completing the model, instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment of a job well done, I just lifted my hands in disgust and said “good riddance”. I am not entirely confident it will stay glued together through the painting process, namely because the joins are so flipping precarious. As I said, I hated building this model.

Putting It All Together

Well, despite delays in shipping thanks to freak weather in Memphis, and having to deal with unexpected home repairs this month, I was able to build the entire army in the month of February.

My hope moving forward is that I will be able to finish painting a unit for each of our future updates, and given that, should have the entire set done by mid-summer.

Now to wait until nice, low-humidity weather, to be able to prime. Meanwhile…

In Other Hobby News

I was able to finish the rest of my Legions Imperialis miniatures, as well as a pair of Baenblades. I still do not like painting the infantry, but having them all complete is a nice feeling.

I put everything I currently own for Epic together (that has been painted, at least). What kills me is that, it is 20 tanks and 88 infantry bases, and the whole of it only adds up to 1850 points. Still waiting on those aircraft to get back into stock, as well as those support boxes…

I was able to get a good game of Legions in against my buddy Pox a few nights back. He has been printing terrain almost nonstop for the past two months, so he’s got a pretty sizeable and impressive table. I still lost, mostly due to my own mistakes, but it was good to finally put a fully painted army on the table.

Jerry S

February was one of those months in my hobby journey where it felt like I was getting nothing done. Looking back at the pictures of what I worked on this month however, nothing could be further from the truth. While I wasn’t spending my hobby time painting, I was certainly still moving my project(s) along.

After finally getting (most of) my Tomb Kings kits from Games-workshop, I was able to start the long and arduous process of building my skeletons. Michael detailed that terrible process more eloquently than I ever could up above so I will spare you the details.

My goal for the month was to get my “Battleline” built and ready for the painting booth and I am happy to report that I was successful! I actually was able to sneak in a couple Sepulchral Stalkers and some Ushabti as well(not pictured).

All told I’ve assembled 40 skeleton spearman, 20 archers, 20 Tomb Guard, a Casket of Souls and several different character models.

I still have a pile of models to build but I thought this was a good launching point to begin the painting phase. I’ve always been a sucker for teal tomb kings livery. To me, it just works perfectly with white and I had a ton of fun painting different shield designs on each of the warriors. This something I haven’t often done in my hobby history so I took every opportunity to vary the shields here. I already have some more ideas for the second and third batches of spearmen as well so we all have that to look forward to!

While this first block isn’t perfect (I already have some ideas for improvements I want to make), I am happy to have locked in my scheme and I am sure to refine it over the next…100 skeletons….

In other hobby news, after many years of wishing and wanting, I finally decided to snag a PLA printer. I grabbed the P1S after seeing the incredible results one of my friends was getting from his and I am absolutely in love with this machine. I’ve only had it a week but I have been testing and printing at a furious pace.

The main reason I bought this printer was to print terrain for my various game systems and to test it out I printed the below tower and cottage. As you can see the detail is outstanding and the setting I used were more “fast and dirty” than I would use going forward so I have high hopes as I learn how to use this amazing tool.

One of the main draws for Legions Imperialis for me is the ability to create the truly epic landscapes that we all imagine our battles to be fought. The next couple pictures are some proof of concepts for an industrial spaceport board that I plan on printing, building and painting ahead of a Legions Imperialis campaign this summer.

While I did not get as much final product done this month as I would’ve liked, there is no denying that I got a lot of work done. I hope to get some more finished minis out in March though. My goal as of today is to get my block of 20 Tomb Guard finished, quickly followed by a character or two from my tomb kings. After that I hope to get some paint on some Legions Imperialis titans as I wait for jetbikes to release.

Finally, I am hoping to keep up the pace with printing, I have a ton to learn with CAD and I hope to get some epic terrain pieces out here in the coming months.

Mike P. – https://www.instagram.com/middleearth_mike/

An Epic Saga of Mike’s Miniatures

Oldhammer Heroes

It’s been quite the month, albeit with precious few hours to dedicate to my hobbies. Work, life, you know how it goes…

However, amidst the hustle and bustle, I’ve managed to make some progress on my builds and put paint to a few models. In today’s article, I’m excited to showcase some of these creations along with the meticulous steps from inception to completion.

Currently, my focus lies predominantly in the realm of the Old World. There’s a certain charm to those aged metal GW sculpts, each one brimming with character even after two decades.

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Following the assembly of the models—admittedly less labor-intensive with metal ones—I embark on a methodical assembly line process. Any gaps within the bases are deftly filled with green stuff (special thanks to Jerry for supplying me with this same line of green stuff a few years back). This meticulous step ensures a seamless finish, ready for the application of texture, typically sand, onto the base. Once the green stuff has set, I meticulously apply a uniform coat of PVA glue onto the base before plunging it into my sand pit. Though this entire process can span about an hour, the crucial point lies in allowing ample time for the sand and PVA glue to fully cure before progressing to priming.

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Once the sand has fully set, the model is primed and ready for the next stage. For priming, I rely on “Stynylrez” primer applied through an airbrush, ensuring a flawlessly even coat. Gone are the days of struggling with old rattle cans, where achieving the pristine flatness I desired seemed like an elusive feat. Given the material of these models, multiple layers of primer are essential to guarantee a solid coat, a meticulous process that demands patience and attention to detail. I can’t count the number of models I’ve had to abandon due to botched priming attempts, underscoring the importance of taking the time to get it right.

Once the primer has fully cured and every layer is meticulously covered, it’s time to dive into the exciting realm of painting. My approach to painting involves a blend of simple yet labor-intensive techniques, including basecoats, washes, layering, and highlights. It’s a methodical process that demands patience and attention to detail. With each miniature, I find myself investing hours, ensuring that every brushstroke contributes to the final masterpiece. While this meticulous approach may result in slower progress, the end result is undeniably worth it.

In the past, I’ve experimented with prioritizing quantity over quality, rushing through projects in an attempt to churn out as many miniatures as possible. However, I’ve come to realize that the depth of my affection for a model is directly proportional to the time and effort I invest in it. The miniatures that receive the full extent of my attention and care hold a special place in my heart, each one a testament to the passion and dedication poured into its creation.

Introducing a recent addition to my painting arsenal: the two thin coats paint range. In fact, I dove headfirst into this new venture, acquiring the entirety of wave two and half of wave one without hesitation. Let me tell you, these paints have exceeded my expectations in every aspect. Their smooth consistency and vibrant pigmentation seamlessly complement my existing Citadel paints, resulting in a harmonious blend ideal for layering and highlighting techniques.

After numerous painstaking hours of meticulous brushwork, I proudly unveiled the final iteration of the three models I had been diligently working on. The culmination of this laborious process revealed a level of detail and depth that truly surpassed my initial aspirations.A figurine of a person with feathers Description automatically generatedA figurine of a viking with wings and a cape Description automatically generatedA figurine of a person with a sword Description automatically generated

As you can see, we are all hard at work over here at Urban Cowboy Hobbies and I can honestly say the best is yet to come for each of our warlords. Stay tuned as each of us keeps moving forward with our hobby goals and I hope that we have motivated y’all to get after it yourselves.

Adios,

Jerry