Weekly Workbench 17 September 2017

    A little late this week, between Cub Scouts starting up, PME starting back up, and my mother arriving a day early for her visit it really threw my week out of wack for getting things done.  This includes the Painting Guide post which will be out on this Wednesday.  I did get in a game of Warlord Games' Test of Honor on TableTop Commander's After Hours Paint and Chat Ep.99 hosted by Rocky's War Room.  The game was surprisingly easy to learn, especially online with no rule book to refer to.  I had a lot of fun and won the first scenario.  Thanks to Matt for hosting and to Bob for being a worthy opponent! I will likely look at picking this up once the Frostgrave campaigns are up and running and my SAGA war bands are completed.

Fantasy:

    Here is where the majority of my work this week got done.  First up is Duncan's Frostgrave Summoner crew.  They have been base coated and washed and now just need some minor highlights and then dull coated.

First up is the Summoner himself.

The Apprentice bringing forth some extra-planar entity.

The Captain.

Sheppard's Garr War Dog from Reaper Bones is in the same state.

War Hound in need of some highlights.

And I also finished up six large Reaper Bones rats, always useful and playing a role in the first scenario.

Playing the primary antagonist in the first scenario will be the Alchemical Monstrosity, represented by this HD Minis D&D Displacer Beast.

Need to clean up the lines and add some dull coat.

Terrain:

    Dave Graffam is  having a sale on his paper craft sets over on Wargame Vault.  Most sets are only $1.00!  This is a cheap way to quickly get some terrain on the table and add some variety.  He has everything from fantasy buildings, medieval buildings, frontier buildings, ships, walls, bombed buildings, floor tiles, and accessories. The first set I printed out and started putting together are the Wooden Crates, which will add more dimension to the Alchemical Workshop in the first campaign and find uses in other scenarios as well.  I am using insulation foam to wrap them around for added stability and durability with the kids.  After attempting to cut the foam with a hot wire cutter and an xacto knife I found the band saw works just fine and provides the straightest, cleanest, and quickest lines.

The start of my crates.

    So far I have completed a 4x4x2, 4x2x2, 3x3x2, 3x3x1, 3x2x2, 3x1x1, (2) 2x2x1, (2) 2x1x1, and (5) 1x1x1s.  I still have (2) 4x1x1, (2) 3xx1x1, 2x2x2, (2) 2x1x1, and (4) 1x1x1s left from the first 15 page printing.  The kits look really good, though I will need to invest in some other color sharpies to handle edging as the black is really apparent on the crates, and pretty sturdy on their own when printed on 110lb card stock.

That is it for this week, the painting guide will be out this week and next week will have a terrain tutorial as I finished the painting last night.

Weekly Workbench 10 September 2017

Lots of different things getting done this week with my extra time off.  The big one was rearranging the work bench from one side of the room to the other.  I no longer feel squished into a corner, the lighting is brighter, and the room is much open!

This was done in part to add an additional space for the new photo station I received.  The make shift desk is temporary, once I have the funds for a second desk I will also be adding a spray booth for an airbrush.

Speaking of air brushes, a good friend gifted me this Paasche Talon from his modeling days.  I cannot wait to put it to use!


With the four different tips and three needles I will be able to use it on everything from detail work to large area coating on terrain pieces!  This should be a great time saver and money saver when it comes to priming large items.

I will be spending a lot of time with it and reading the handy pamphlet that came with it during the next week.

Historical:

Here is a better look at my Scots Thanes for SAGA with their completed bases and shields.  Much better results in the new photo booth!

The warlord should be completed this week as...

...a package arrived from Footsore Miniatures and inside...

...were a large number of reinforcements to include...

...the Picts/Scots Handler and Warhounds!  While the SAGA Scots army list does not have a place for the warhounds (Irish Wolfhounds), I am going to place one of them on the base with my warlord.  Some of the others will likely make it into some of the Frostgrave warbands for the kids.

Also in the package was a set of Scots Warriors with Hand Weapons...

...and three sets of Scots Warriors with Javelins to use as my levies!  All the Javelin throwers were the same four out of the eight possible variants but with Footsore a month behind orders due to their furnace breaking I cannot hold it against them.

Also included was the free Viking hero Torston Oakhammer, which will be available for purchase towards the end of the year.

Fantasy:

Three wizards and their apprentices were finished and are ready to enter the Alchemist Lab in Frostgrave's Felstad city once they hire some helpers.

First up are Shep's Chronomancers: Bubba Timehopper and Clara!




Next is Ivy's Elementalists: Rhea and Karana!

And last is Mugzy's Sigilists: Mugzeritte and Meadow!

Duncan's Sumonners and Gideon's Enchanters (that he is having me redo his paint job on new models) should be done this week and then the exploration will begin!

Terrain:

Speaking of exploration, more work got done on my first foam ruined building.  I glued it to a plywood base, added rubble to the sides, a broken ladder to reach the platform, and then primed everything black.  I have to touch up some of the primer in some tough to reach spaces and then should have it painted sometime this week!

I have another terrain project I working on as well but I am going to save that for the tutorial post the Wednesday after this coming.

That's it for this week but be sure to stop in Wednesday for a Painting Guide on Radagast the Brown!  See you next week!

Painting Guide: Gandalf

The instigator of this little party, Gandalf the Grey, has arrived and is ready to begin!  Despite him coming out a little dark, this is one of my favorite miniatures I painted from the starter box.

0.  Gandalf started with a Matt Black under coat (which was probably why he turned out so dark).
1.   Paint the flesh using Tanned Flesh.

1a. Wash the skin with Soft Tone.

1b. Highlight using Barbarian Flesh.

2.   Base coat the hair and beard in Monster Brown.

2a. Highlight the hair in Ash Grey.

2b. Add a second highlight Matt White.

3.   Paint the inner cloak and sword belt with Deep Blue.

3a. Highlight the above with Crystal Blue.

4.   Paint Gandalf’s scarf with Wolf Grey.

4a. Highlight the scarf with Ash Grey.

4b. Add a second highlight of Ash Grey and Matt White in a ratio of 1:1.

5.   Paint Gandalf’s over cloak in a mix of Uniform Grey and Matt Black in a ratio of 10:1. (In retrospect I should have done just the Uniform Grey).

5a. Wash with Strong Tone.

5b. Highlight with Uniform Grey.

5c. Add a second highlight Ash Grey.

6.   Paint the staff, belts, and shoes in Oak Brown.

6a. Highlight with Leather Brown.

7.   Paint Gandalf’s gloves in Monster Brown.

7a. Wash with Strong Tone.

8.   Paint Glamdring in Shining Silver.

Some last notes:  

A. The eyes were painted between the Flesh Tone Wash and the Barbarian Flesh Highlight.  The eyes are done with a 5/0 brush.  First paint a horizontal white line and then place a black dot in the center.

B. AP Soft Tone is a good wash for flesh and other light colored items.

C. AP Strong Tone is a good general brown wash similar to Citadel's Agrax Earth Shade. 

D. AP Dark Tone is a good black wash similar to Citadel's Nuln Oil.

I based the miniature with coral beach sand for the rocky/sandy caves of Goblin Town and added some Highland Tufts and Meadow Tufts from The Army Painter Battlefields range.  I then painted the edge of the base in Ash Grey. 

Think we are done with the free peoples?  Nope, a special bonus figure comes with the set, making a trip all the way from Rhosgobel on the western boarders of Mirkwood.

I must thank TALE OF TWO PAINTERS for the inspiration for these tutorials.  Unfortunately, I do not have step by step photos like they do as I found their site after I was a quarter of the way complete.  They painted the miniatures using Citadel paints.  I felt a guide using The Army Painter brand was warranted, especially as there is no readily available conversion chart for Citadel and AP brands like the other major miniature paint brands (Vallejo, P3, Reaper, etc.).  When I painted these miniatures I only had the 42 bottle 2015 Mega Paint Set II, so there was a lot of mixing of paints to get the right color.

 

Weekly Workbench 3 September 2017

Historical:

My Scots Thanes for SAGA finally got their shields (title photo) and bases finished.  I was able to give them an overcoat today with the drop in humidity so they will be ready to go for some action soon!  Final pictures next week.

I also primed and started painting the Scots warriors and hope with leave this week I will have them knocked out before the next update.

Sci-Fi:

The Boromite Gang Fighters for Beyond the Gates of Antares have been painted and washed.  Some came out very dark and you can see the differences in versions I have done.  I will need to do some serious highlighting with red to get some of these Boromites out of the purple skin tone they currently have.

Fantasy:

As seen in the cover picture, I over-coated Shep's Chronomancers, Ivy's Elementalists, and Mugzy's Sigilists, which I painted this week for Frostgrave.  Tone of detail work on the Sigilist wizard and I still need to add a gloss varnish to some of the gold and they will be done.  I also put together two zombies from parts out of the Cultist box sprues.

I also started building another wizard, apprentice, and captain for the #Triplespruechallenge with the remaining pieces from the three sprues.  This time I have an Illusionist who needs at least one more pouch and a cape made from green stuff, the apprentice who has Monstrous Form cast on him, and the captain with some crushed cultist skulls.  I also clipped the built in bases for these guys as it has been a pain basing the others.

During some spare time while waiting for paint to dry, I started painting my Dwarf Runic Golem.  Long way to go on this guy!  Definitely a miniature to have an airbrush as painting this by hand is going to take some time, especially with trying to avoid brush marks.

Terrain:

I cleaned, built, and primed the Goblin Town platforms from The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game starter set and should have them painted by the end of the week.  They will make a great addition to the Frostgrave table as well as The Hobbit.

I also primed the foam tower ruin and should get that painted up and finished this week as well.

While not terrain, I tried using a wet pallet again, going through a couple of variations. So far this one, with the sandwich box, paper towels, and parchment paper seems to be working the best.  Other versions with a sponge would have the parchment paper drying out as I painted no matter how much water was in the container and it would curl up as I paint.  So far with the paper towel that has not been the case.

Stop by next week, should be a lot more progress with me on leave, though Saturday I have a Spartan Race, as long as Irma decides to leave us alone.  Make sure to check out the Painting Guide on Tuesday for Gandalf!