Weekly Workbench 29 October 2017

    Missed a post last week, not due to lack of progress as I had plenty of that, but due to not having time to get pictures taken and a post up.  So we will cover the last two week's worth of work in this post.  First though, I have to thank everyone for the overwhelming response to the Birdhouse Towers post, 1399 views, which is almost double my next highest view post!

     First up is Shep's war band, all finished and based and ready for the Skeleton Run!  From Left to Right: John the Archer, Bill the Infantryman, Gu'ard the War-Hound, Sam the Thief, Bubba Timehopper the Chronomancer, Clara the Apprentice, Robin the Thief, Captain Harkness, and Bob the Crossbowman.

    Next was Duncan's war band, finished and based as well.  From Left to Right: Soul Launcher the Archer, Viper the Infantryman, Thief 1, Bob the War-Hound, Zombie 1, Bone Crusher the Summoner, Zombie 2, Quick Shadow the Apprentice, Thief 2, Captain Tough Nut, Death Arrow the Crossbowman.  He still has a number of his summoned creatures that need to be finished but the basic war band is done.

As you can tell from the boys' warbands I gave them all textured bases that I made.  The first step was to drill holes in the MDF bases and add some rare earth magnets.  This allows the miniatures to be moved in their display cases without worrying about them crashing around.

I then used my textured rollers and green-stuff to make the bases.  I used the Cobblestone for Shep's and the Frozen for Duncan's.

Base colors for the Frozen were Army Painter Ice Storm and Space Ship Exterior followed up with a Blue Tone ink wash.  The Cobblestone base colors were Army Painter Field Grey and Dungeon Grey with a Dark Tone wash.

I then did a highlight of Gorgon Hide and another Blue Tone ink wash before using Vallejo Black Primer for the edges on the Frozen.  For the Cobblestone they were dry brushed with Castle Grey and a second Dark Tone wash with Vallejo Black Primer on the edges as well.

I also got the Eternal Guard Skeletons based as well, just in time for the Skeleton Run for Dark Alchemy Campaign of Frostgrave.

Realizing I would need more than five skeletons during the Skeleton Run, I knocked out these Reaper Bones skeletons as well, using the Vallejo Grey Sand Ground Texture for their base, it makes nice snow when painted.

This weekend I started work on Ivy's war-band, here are her Knight and Archer, both from Dark Sword miniatures.

Here are her two thieve's from Wizkids HD Minis.

Last is her snow leopard (summoned during her first game), and Crossbowman from North Star.

Saturday night Shep got in his second game of Frostgrave, completing the aforementioned Skeleton Run of the Dark Alchemy Campaign.  The battle report should be out this week.

Here is the update for this week.  A little behind on Ivy's war band and I am probably going to switch to Mugzy's instead of Gideon's this week as I will have a paper to write for C&S this weekend which will take up some time.  See you all next week!

Weekly Workbench 8 October 2017

The short break due to my mother's visit is over and I am back to work.  Before she left I did get some painting in and presented her with the mini diorama above, made up of the Irish Wolfhounds from Footsore Miniatures.  Her grandfather used to raise them and she has fond memories of them, but not so much their tails.

Not only a lot accomplished on the workbench but all the kids have completed the Alchemical Monstrosity adventure of the Dark Alchemy campaign for Frostgrave and we will begin the Skeleton Run this week!

Table Top Commanders' started their Winter Warmer Challenge this week and I pledged the following:

1 x SAGA Scots 6pt Warband
1 x SAGA Viking 6pt Warband
6 x FROSTGRAVE basic warbands
2 x Diorama's for Christmas Presents
Finishing the Normandy Diorama

Fantasy:  The largest portion of my work as I try to get the full Frostgrave warbands done before the kids start competing among themselves.

First up is Gideon's wizard.  He is from Wizkids new D&D Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures line.  They come pre-primed with Vallejo primer.  While there is some minor mold lines that were not cleaned off, the sculpts are excellent, the clear plastic energy pieces are nice, and you get two miniatures for $4.

The second miniature of the set is Gideon's apprentice.  I have a number of other miniatures from this line that will also be making an appearance in the near future.

Lot's of building got done while visiting with my mother as I cobbled together the warbands using the Soldiers and Barbarians box-sets from North Star Figures.  Most of these still need some putty work before priming them as soon as the humidity drops.

First up is two thieves.

Here are three Treasure Hunters, who will double as thieves until the kids upgrade them.

Two Crossbowmen.

Three more Crossbowmen.

Two Infantrymen and a Man-at-Arms/Captain

My Captain with a two handed axe and my Tunnel Fighter.

As the next adventure in the campaign is Skeleton Run I wanted to get some skeletons ready beyond the plain Reaper Bones ones.  Here I have Alternative Armies' Eternal Guard painted and dipped.

Tomorrow I will dull coat, add some rust affects, and base them.

Historical:  I also continued work on my Scots warband for SAGA, getting in some painting as I waited for other items to dry.

Three Archers, also to be used in Frostgrave.

Some warriors.

And three more warriors.

That's it for this week. I have a paint guide, with step by step pictures this time, I am putting together for the dwarf wizards, which should be out in a couple of weeks.  First up though is this week's terrain tutorial I have been teasing about (long finished by waiting to get in the lineup), and then a tutorial on the goblin's of Goblin Town, to finish out that series.  We should also be seeing another battle report as Bubba Time-Hopper makes his way through the Skeletal Run! 

Treasure awaits from Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures!

Weekly Workbench 06 August 2017

My Boromite Worker Gangs are glowering at me from underneath their stony brows, but despite their neglected status I did manage to get a decent amount of work in this week even with losing a couple of days to the youngest spending two days in the hospital.

Boromites demanding to be finished or they start an insurrection!

Historical:

Viking Bondi ready for glory.

Most of the week's work was spent here on my SAGA war bands.  The Vikings had five of their bondi completed from start to finish.

My Scots had their warlord, heathguard, and a couple of warriors cleaned, filed, and primed for painting this coming week.  I have to say I am not a fan of these metal sculpts from Gripping Beast as there is a lot of flash, mold lines, and filled gaps (especially the hands where the weapons are supposed to be attached).  This is somewhat surprising considering how well Gripping Beast's plastics are.

Scots Warlord, Heathguard, and two warriors.

Sci-Fi:

As mentioned above my Boromites are still waiting to get to work but I did manage to finish the Beyond the Gates of Antares anthology Open Signal.  I thought it was a well edited tome with surprisingly almost zero contradictions, which is really surprising for a game universe that is being created by the players as it is by the publishers.

Fantasy:

Winter Wargs on the prowl!

No new models were started this week but I did finish both the Winter Wargs for The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game, and the Frost Giant for Frostgrave.  I used Vallejo's 26.215 Grey Sand ground texture as the base for snow before painting and highlighting it (I found out last night in a new video posted by Vallejo they have a snow texture as well!).

My first go at Green Stuff scultping.

For the Frost Giant, I completed my first sculpted base using Green Stuff for both the ground, a fallen pillar, and some snow fall.

 I did learn I should have left the pillar off until after it was all dry as it bent a little pressing it into the base for it to dry attached to the base.

Overall I am happy with the result.

Terrain:

A new segment as I am doing more of it and a lot of the terrain will be interchangeable between the three above segments.  This week I applied the base color to the wall segments from Stone House Miniatures.  This was done with Aniata's Charcoal craft paint.

Top half washed in Strong Tone.

I then washed half of them (mostly the ones with a grey or white primer) with The Army Painter's Strong Tone.  The other half (most of the black primed ones) with Anita's Rainy Day Grey craft paint. I am going to spray these with dull coat at this point and just make some snow drifts and caps from Green Stuff so I can use the wall sections in other games beyond Frostgrave.

Highlighted and ready for the protective coat.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you next week and for my hobbit lovers be sure to stop by on Wednesday night for Bifur's painting guide!  

Weekly Workbench 26 March 2017

Still not getting as much time as I would like painting each week, kids keeping me busy.  I did manage to get some stuff done and even used some new products.  After watching Next Level Painting's YouTube episode The Best Hobby Products, I purchased a couple of the ones he talked about, or variations thereof.  I picked up Vallejo Brown Earth Texture (26.219), Grey Sand Ground Texture (26.215), and Black Surface Primer (73.602).

New basing supplies!

Historical:

Our mortar team starts digging into the clay mud!

I finished painting Warlord Games' Bolt Action 60mm Medium Mortar Team.  I only used one new color, True Copper for the buttons, sticking with Oak Brown for wood, Leather Brown for leather, and Gun Metal and Black for steel.  I did use the Military Shader wash on the uniform which is lighter than the Green Tone I have used before.  I also used the Mid Brown wash on the rest, and as I found out on the Boromites, it places a red-brown wash over the model.  In this case that was nice, as many of the islands the Marine's fought on during WWII had a red clay soil.  Once all this painting was completed I glued them to the base and added the Vallejo Brown Earth Texture (26.219).  Tomorrow I will finish the basing once the Brown Earth dries completely.

Sci-Fi:

Boromites still figuring out cammo.

For the Warlord Games' Beyond the Gates of Antares Boromites I washed one miniature with Soft Tone and another with Mid Brown.  Neither came out with the dark crevasses I wanted.  Instead, both left the grey relatively untouched and the Mid Brown wash left an additional reddish hue on the equipment.  I think I will have to use a Dark Tone to get the effect I desire.  I also highlighted the skin with Dragon Red to brighten the purplish Vampire Red.

Fantasy:

Wargs on the prowl.

This week I began on Games Workshop's Fell Wargs.  So far I have only gotten to dry brushing the Black base coat with Werewolf Fur and will need at least one or two more fur colors to help bring out longer fur.  In addition I will be painting their fangs, starting with Drake Tooth.

Make sure to stop by next week for another update and check out the mid-week tutorial on painting Ori from Thorin's Company!

*All paints and washes are The Army Painter unless otherwise indicated.

Weekly Workbench 19 March 2017

Not a lot of painting this week but managed to get some done in each genre as well as some organizing done at the desk.  The organization came about with the help of IronHeart Artisans.  With my birthday check from my in-laws I decided on some paint storage options.  I was very happy with their service, I placed an order after hours and 32 minutes after they opened the next morning the package was waiting for mail man to pick it up.  That was on the 16th and I had the package on the 18th.  The pieces went together very easily and with no issues whatsoever.  I cannot recommend them highly enough!  In order to accommodate all the new paint I chose three different products in order to fit around my work space.

IronHeart Artisans' Inverted 72 Dropper Bottle Paint Rack

The largest is the Inverted 72 Dropper Bottle Paint Rack, with six rows of twelve.  This holds the majority of my paint off the desk on the drawers to my right.  This holds my Grays, Blues, Greens, Browns, Yellows, and Whites.

IronHeart Artisans' Inverted 48 Dropper Bottle Paint Rack

The next is the smaller Inverted 48 Dropper Bottle Paint Rack, with four rows of twelve. This fits nicely under the left of my main monitor.  It holds the Reds, Purples & Pinks, Flesh Tones, Metallics, and the nine Effects paints.

IronHeart Artisans' 4 Tier Stepped Paint Rack

The last item was the 4 Tier Stepped Paint Rack, Each tier will hold fifteen standard dropper bottles or ten 10ml Tamiya Color paint bottles. The top tier also has ten spots for paint brushes if you are using ones with small round handles like ProArte.  I placed it under the right side of my main monitor.  This rack holds my eleven ink tones, my Vallejo paints, my Tamiya paints, and some of my glues (the Tamiya Cement hexagon bottle does not fit).

Newly organized work-space thanks to IronHeart Artisans!

This organization is nice, though with all the paint out and accessible I had to get rid of the cup holding my paint brushes and instead placed them laying down in the 100 Yen Daiso container on the left side of my desk.  Now on to the miniatures!

Historical:

Almost ready to launch some fire support!

I continued work on Warlord Games' Bolt Action 60mm Medium Mortar Team. I highlighted the flesh with Elven Flesh and then washed it down with the Flesh Wash.  I went over their web gear with Troll Claws and gaiters with Hemp Rope.  I am looking forward to finishing the painting tomorrow and see how new colors look once washed.

Sci-Fi:

Boromites on the move.

I did not touch the Warlord Games' Beyond the Gates of Antares Ghar Assault Squad member this week and instead focused on my Boromites. Having re-primed them in grey I chose to dry brush them with Vampire Blood and then paint their equipment with Sulfide Ochre.  Next I will wash it all down and then highlight the gear with Phoenix Flames.  Next time I do these though I will make sure not to hit most of the equipment with the red as it takes multiple coats of yellow to cover enough up to proceed to the next step.

Fantasy:

What has it gots in its pockets my Precioussss?

I finished the majority of the painting for Games Workshop's Gollum, just need to do some touch-ups and edge the base.  First I washed the skin with Flesh Wash.  Next the hair was done with Necromancer Cloak, and the eyes with Hardened Carapace. His loin cloth was painted with Leather Brown.  For the stone I painted Hardened Carapace over the grey base and then highlighted with Dark Stone.

3 sided plyo-box, 20 x 24 x 30 inches.

Lastly, for the great group of guys on Tabletop Commanders Forum's Saturday Paint and Chat, here is the plyo-box I was working on during that session.  See you guys next week and do not forget to check out the tutorial on painting Nori this Tuesday!