What I've been doing recently, a painting and modelling log...

[Raven Morpheus]

I've heard/read about that, but I don't have any Milliput. Green stuff can be sanded after 24hrs.

The problem for me is getting it flush and looking round to match the shape of the base, so whatever I use I think the same problem would occur. I thought about using a sanding drum on my dremel, and letting the base roll against it, like two wheels meeting, but I'm not sure how well that would work, especially on oval bases...

I'd love to be able to just scrape the excess off, like you do when putting pastry on top of a pie - just run your knife round the edge of the tin and easily cut the excess off.

And that is what I tried, prior to sanding!

Doesn't seem to work that way for me with green stuff though, it's not soft enough for that when it's in a state that you can handle it without marring the details. Milliput would make it even less soft as I understand it.

I guess the more accurate way to do it would be to roll the green stuff flat on a surface, then cut it out with a circular cutter (like a cookie cutter), but the tops of GW style bases aren't a standard cookie cutter size, i.e. 21mm top on a 25mm base, 26mm (I think, could be 28mm) on a 30mm base, and 46ish mm on a 50mm base!

I'll work out a process that works for me eventually, it's all learning (and spending on tools!).

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Not feeling up to much today due to problems with arthritis in my legs and probably fatigue from the meds I take for it, however I felt like doing something simple this afternoon, as I was getting bored surfing the interwebz whilst mother dozed off.

I do feel that I have been somewhat sacrilegious, by opening an almost mint in pack trio of Battlefleet Gothic Sword frigates!

Bought these last year, the price on the pack is £5, yeeeeah, we can only wish they are obtainable at that price these days!

30 minutes later and I had ground out the holes in the bottom using a Dremel and a grinder bit (warning - metal gets hot when you drill or grind it) and the stems now push fit reasonably well into the holes. Could do with being a little tighter though so I may sand the stems down a bit. Whilst at the table I couldn't recall how I did the other 3 frigates I've got in my BFG Imperial navy but I thought I used drill bits. Couldn't find the ones I would have used though?!

Probably going to paint these later today, as it's a fairly simple process, a couple of airbrush layers, shade wash, a couple of passes of drybushing and a some details to block in.



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Mr. M]

It's wonderful to see old models like these getting assembled, painted, and (hopefully) used! Plus, they'll look better painted up and in your fleet than they do in the package!

 

[Raven Morpheus]

It's wonderful to see old models like these getting assembled, painted, and (hopefully) used! Plus, they'll look better painted up and in your fleet than they do in the package!

Yep, they will get used, eventually. I plan on going round my regular gaming buddy's apartment mid to late April for our first game of Battlefleet Gothic. Photos will be taken. Depends how mother is though, what my health issues are like and other stuff, like buses running when they should...

 

[Greenthumb]

Ben s is very correct. Not as spongy, faster to set. Cheaper to go goes further. Miliput blend 50/50 for the win

 

[Pacific]

A great feeling opening up an old blister pack like that! I always feel a bit guilty doing it (on the few occasions I have over recent years) but then I think the destiny of that pack of miniatures is being realised

They are really great models. If you are after similar (at a less eye-watering price than much of the BFG stuff is now) you could check out Vanguard miniatures, who do a whole range of 'inspired by' BFG ships, and a few even that look like they would belong in Spacefleet.

 

[Punktaku]

I don’t think I’ve ever felt guilty ripping open a pack of ancient minis. MINE!!!

 

[Raven Morpheus]

So, I didn't paint the Sword frigates on Thursday...

...I sat at the table and did them today instead.


Nothing special, just a quick paint job. I am hoping though that the varnish layer that is drying in this photo dries a bit more satin, as it's looking a bit shiny at the moment...

Whilst I was waiting for various bits on the Sword frigates to dry I took a bit of a detour...

Way back in 2020 I bought Citadel Contrast Fyreslayer Flesh. For the life of me I can't recall what I bought it for?! Since then I've discovered Vince Ventruella's Hobby Cheating video about bronze, and I've been using Fyreslayer Flesh for when I want do bronze. However I've never used it for an actual skin tone. As I want to paint the Centaurs in a tanned skin tone I thought I'd have a go and test on a miniature I've had for a number of years...

...This is Dantrag of Heimdall (yeah, I don't know either?!), by Sandra Garrity, from Reaper's Dark Heaven Legends line. I bought him way back in 2017-2019 when I was acquiring the core box set stuff for Warhammer Quest '95, and I started to replace the original adventurer models. He's a bit undersized compared to GW's scale so I never painted him up for use in WHQ '95 as a barbarian, but he was the perfect candidate for a tanned skin tone test. I have another Reaper DHL barbarian, Brom, but he can wait for another time -

I suck at doing skin, especially on humans, so I'm happy with that. Apart from the gold, silver and a drybrush on the fur, it's all Contrast paint. I have no idea what the base was meant to be, and I did start trying to hack it off, but quickly gave up on that idea - I hate models with bases like that!

For reference (mostly mine), the skin was done using 2 globbed on coats of Fyreslayer flesh thinned with Contrast medium in a 2:4 ratio (paint to medium), over a Citadel Wraithbone airbrushed on undercoat. I perhaps could have done with a little less Contrast paint on the skin in some of the areas where it's dark, but overall it's turned out OK.


I'm off to watch the '80s Conan films...



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Spent a few hours this evening making a start on the Centaurs for WHQ '95.

Quick mobile photos -

Before I did it on the other two I did one of the Centaur's beard/fetlocks/tail in the fiery yellow/red I wanted, just in case it didn't look good -

The fiery yellow/red turned out OK, I was worried it might be too bright and be too over the top. A drybrush of Citadel Averland Sunset followed by a highlight of Citadel Flash Gitz yellow and a bit of white at the tips and it should look reasonable.

Oh, and yes, the green stuff has blended in quite nicely...

Much still to do though, particularly the human body skin, and I may go over the equine hide and the leather work with another brighter highlight as the highlights on them so far seem too subtle...




Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Wasteland]

So, I didn't paint the Sword frigates on Thursday...

...I sat at the table and did them today instead.


Nothing special, just a quick paint job. I am hoping though that the varnish layer that is drying in this photo dries a bit more satin, as it's looking a bit shiny at the moment...
View attachment 150910


Whilst I was waiting for various bits on the Sword frigates to dry I took a bit of a detour...

Way back in 2020 I bought Citadel Contrast Fyreslayer Flesh. For the life of me I can't recall what I bought it for?! Since then I've discovered Vince Ventruella's Hobby Cheating video about bronze, and I've been using Fyreslayer Flesh for when I want do bronze. However I've never used it for an actual skin tone. As I want to paint the Centaurs in a tanned skin tone I thought I'd have a go and test on a miniature I've had for a number of years...

...This is Dantrag of Heimdall (yeah, I don't know either?!), by Sandra Garrity, from Reaper's Dark Heaven Legends line. I bought him way back in 2017-2019 when I was acquiring the core box set stuff for Warhammer Quest '95, and I started to replace the original adventurer models. He's a bit undersized compared to GW's scale so I never painted him up for use in WHQ '95 as a barbarian, but he was the perfect candidate for a tanned skin tone test. I have another Reaper DHL barbarian, Brom, but he can wait for another time -
View attachment 150911
View attachment 150912


I suck at doing skin, especially on humans, so I'm happy with that. Apart from the gold, silver and a drybrush on the fur, it's all Contrast paint. I have no idea what the base was meant to be, and I did start trying to hack it off, but quickly gave up on that idea - I hate models with bases like that!

For reference (mostly mine), the skin was done using 2 globbed on coats of Fyreslayer flesh thinned with Contrast medium in a 2:4 ratio (paint to medium), over a Citadel Wraithbone airbrushed on undercoat. I perhaps could have done with a little less Contrast paint on the skin in some of the areas where it's dark, but overall it's turned out OK.


I'm off to watch the '80s Conan films...



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

Where is the dwarf, elf and wizard?

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Where is the dwarf, elf and wizard?

On page 1 of this thread, I've never used that Reaper Miniatures barbarian for WHQ '95.

 

[Wasteland]

On page 1 of this thread, I've never used that Reaper Miniatures barbarian for WHQ '95.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Forgive me father for I have strayed from the path of Warhammer...

...I've been playing video games during my "hobby time" the last 2-3 weeks and haven't done any painting/model stuff...

...that's partly because I was getting fed up with the lighting in my "workspace" (read, the dining room). I don't know if it's my eyes going or the LEDs dying in the lights I've got (again, I already replaced the bulbs this past 2 years) but it has seemed that light has been diminishing in my workspace and shadows have been creeping in, at all times of the day/night...

...so I decided to try to do something about it, and not just buy new LED bulbs.

It's aliiiiiiiiiiiiiive! Cue dramatic thunder and lightning sounds.

Yup, I built a light arch.

I think, by accident, it's somewhat portable, if I unscrew the bar on the front (which I may relocate to the back), which is holding the arch in shape, and rotate the wood blocks so they're in line with the arch. I can then put it into a poster tube or something similar.

It's useful for photos also. Some quick photos I took with my mobile below, of old lobster claw Yarrick, that I painted (badly) circa. 1995ish. No background or anything though, so they may come out better with my black background.

With room lights and general ambient light only -

With room lights and general ambient light + the arch -

And this is using the arch only with general ambient light -

I've tried diffusing the light using some A4 white sticky label. The LEDs are daylight (6500K) in colour temperature and are white without diffusion. The label diffusion appears to have turned the light a bit yellow. I will try some of that Scotch magic tape, the stuff that's frosted and almost white, instead and see how that looks. Just some final tweaking to be done.


This is my "workspace" -

A window, which doesn't really let much light in, the kitchen is to the left of this photo, that and the dining room are basically two rooms knocked into one, the kitchen has a door and small window in it, which let in a little more light, but not much more -

A ceiling light with 3x 800 lumens daylight bulbs, which seems to be the brightest/most powerful that you can use in a Small Edison Screw fitting-

A cheap V-Tac floodlight, bought circa. 2016, with half a dozen layers of tracing paper taped to it, hanging about 2ft above the table -

The table -

Yeah it's a mess...

That tray full of "stuff" gets moved to the chest freezer we have in the dining room when I'm "in session", which is also where I take my photos...


I have a desk lamp (£20 from Argos) with a daylight bulb, that I occasionally use, to situate behind me and shine on the table, but it's not an ideal solution by any means and generally I've found it doesn't do much.


The arch was made using PVC electric cabling channel, bought from Wickes (a DIY/trades chain store here in the UK), for £3 per 2m length (I bought 2 lengths), pre-wired LED adhesive strip bought from an ebayer for £5, USB extension cable costing £1.59 off ebay, the USB power plug from my Tesco Hudl2 tablet (because it's 2 amp 5v), 2 bits of wood, part of 1 A4 label, and 6x 1" screws. And all in, cost less than £15! The channel was even a convenient size so that the LED strip just "clipped" into it!

Looking around it might have cost more had I had to buy the power plug, because 2 amp single port USB plugs don't seem to be all that common, most seem to be 1 amp, those that I came across on t'interwebz were £10+ each! And obviously you can't generally buy only 6 screws, an 18" 1x2 length of wood, and 1 A4 sheet label.


The light arch should help me greatly to see what I'm doing now though! And it uses peanuts in electricity being 2 amp 5v USB powered!



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Finished off one of the Centaurs for WHQ '95 yesterday/today.


Quick (not very good) photos taken with my mobile (using my light arch and ceiling lights + the little ambient light there is in the dining room) -

The green stuff base turned out looking OK, I decided to paint it Citadel Karak Stone instead of my usual Citadel Mournfang Brown or Citadel Dawnstone shade of brown or grey.

The light arch definitely makes a difference, I've removed all the diffusing label stuff I put on it so it's just white light now, but still needs diffusing as it's a little harsh. Using it today was better, but yesterday it's harshness wasn't helping much, mind you I was tired and my eyes go funny when I'm tired, so it may have been that also...



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

So, Mordheim terrain...

Whilst I've not visited my gaming buddy since January 14th, due to Mother coming out of hospital, going back in, coming back out, and needing supervision, she is now getting back to a state where I feel she can look out for herself during the day, even if just once a week (yeah, been here before...).

So, I've considered starting up terrain "building" again for Mordheim, seeing as my gaming buddy and I have only had one game, and "the table" ideally needs more Mordheim-esque architecture.

However, I've been mired in having to either -
a) source more of the original GW plastic quoins and beams (not really a financially viable solution), and then sitting applying printed artwork labels to cardstock and cutting it all out.
b) make my own quoins and beams, and sit and cut out labels/cardstock, and making beams/quoins hasn't worked out particularly well so far.
c) obtain stuff like Fat Dragon's buildings, which are pdfs that you print and cut out yourself...
d) find an alternative source of cheap (relatively speaking) ruined buildings, that I don't have to sit and cut out of cardstock, and can (relatively) quickly pull apart and put together at will, each time I visit my gaming buddy for a game.

And both b and c of the above options meant I'd likely be faffing about with magnets to make the buildings somewhat sturdy, definitely if I carry on down the homebrew quoins and beams route.

Plus, like sitting and making 30-60 bulkheads for Necromunda, and associated cardstock platforms, I seem to have lost the enthusiasm - for me it's just too time consuming vs overall quality/look.

I think though that I just came across the perfect solution to my Mordheim terrain woes!

Village Ruins - Battle Systems

Wood and plaster may be cheap and effective building materials, but they can’t withstand the destruction caused by war, or fire, or falling meteorites! What’s left behind is a blackened, abandoned shell of the civilisation that once stood, although it can provide rich pickings for raiders and...

battlesystems.co.uk

Not my image.

They are card (I may be wrong, but it looks like 1mm card, the same as GW used, and I've been using to make Mordheim buildings, all 4 so far) and they use a plastic clip system to secure the parts.


I came across Battle Systems before, when I was looking for terrain for Warlord's Judge Dredd game, but I disregarded them, for reasons, mostly cost given it's cardboard and how much you'd need - I'd have needed 4 of their city block set at £80 per set!! I'm also not sold on the "scatter" terrain stuff, barrels, chairs, fences etc. that you appear to get in their fantasy packs, as it looks slightly fiddly and stuff like barrels don't really "work" when made from folded up card...


I am intrigued by their plastic clip system though - I didn't notice that's how their stuff goes together when I glanced at their stuff before.

Handily, they sell the clips separately in packs for about £7 and they come in a brown colour, so would be less detracting from the overall look. And I'm thinking that they can be adapted to make GW's original buildings, with some glue used in key places and some thought about how to join levels...

Obviously they won't be as nice looking as the original GW plastic beams and quoins, and there's still stuff like doorways and windows to source somehow, but Battle Systems clips might make making another 11 buildings quicker and easier, although cutting the cardstock will still be tedious.

And then when I have 11 buildings made I can always go back and dress them up a little by faking at least the beams, possibly even the quoins (if I can work out how to attach them nicely without a split down the corner).

I'm planning on buying one of their Village Ruins set anyhow to see how it looks. It'll be a bit of variety on the table anyhow and it appears to make at least 3 buildings.



Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.

 

[Mr. M]

That really looks like a nice, affordable option. Getting 3 ruined buildings, 4 ruined corner pieces, and some catwalks for $35 that you can pretty much immediately use seems like a decent deal... and if the clip system is easy to make your own stuff for, that's a huge bonus. Brown clips would definitely look better than the grey ones in the photo. Since you've already got some card-based Mordheim terrain, this looks like it would be a great way to fill up some of the open space on your table.

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Yes, it does look quite good. Been watching some of their tutorial videos. Their watch tower and wizards tower looks great. They'd look a bit out of place in Mordheim though, unless you ruin/warp them etc. and at £25/£35 ($35/$50 USD) I'm not sure I'd want to do that without having pristine spare parts...

I am heavily leaning towards buying a village ruins set a month though and in 3 months "the table" will be fairly well filled with basic buildings...

 

[Mr. M]

I was also noticing in the photo, they've used quite a bit of moss or lichen... Maybe you could use something like that (or PVA and green flocking) to make some creeping vines that disguise some of the clips. Probably would be hard to tell if that was even possible without seeing the models in person though.

 

[Greenthumb]

I have one of the sci fi sets I can confirm its actually a very good system. Flat packs again if space is in issue. Very sturdy when all together. Held a metal dreadnaught sturdy (slight bowing) also a good system if you plan to play at a buddies or on the move as the whole battlefield including mat fits into a box roughly small shoe box can take a little while to set up but is quite therapeutic in itself

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Spent a few hours this evening printing on A4 labels, sticking them to cardstock, and then cutting out the parts for the 5th and last building of my OG Mordheim set of buildings.

Last November (it seems longer ago than that!?!), I only bought 7 quoins, 6 beams, 1 door, and 4 corner feet, because that's what was cheapest on evilbay...

I used 3 beams and all 7 of the GW quoins that I have, to mock up this final building, - it's missing one quoin at the bridge area, is potentially prone to falling apart as two of the beams (on the main part of the building) seemed a little loose fitting and I had to cut the floor off the two end gable pieces in photochop because that part is larger than an A4 sheet and it was tidier than printing the original in two halves, but other than that it looks OK.

I'm actually a little surprised at it's size, it's sitting on an A3 cutting mat and is taking up a good portion of it! -

Tonight I purchased a complete sprue of 8 quoins, 4 beams, a door and windows/corner feet parts, so I can at least have this building use all OG GW plastic parts - it'll work better than the DIY quoins I have in progress. But that's all I'm buying of OG GW Mordheim plastic building parts, they're just not reasonably priced (on evilbay or elsewhere) when you need enough for 10+ buildings!

There's windows to glue on (if I have enough, I think I have), but I'll do that when I get the sprue with the door on it and I also need to make the roof piece, and tile the other roof piece that sits on the tavern...

Still want the two dormer window parts, and could do with another door part, but I can live without those, they're not essential parts, and I purposely didn't cut out the slot for the dormer window on this building because I don't have the part...

So, that's my OG set of Mordheim buildings pretty much made, bar final fettling and detailing.


I like terrain like this though, it's not fancy GW full on plastic stuff, but it's relatively inexpensive (the cardstock is at least), flat pack, thus can be very easily transported (essential for me as I don't drive), looks reasonable on a table and the cardstock is easily repaired/replaced.


I was going to visit my gaming buddy the other week for a game, but arthritis in my legs got in the way, we're due to play BFG when we do meet next, but I'll definitely make sure to take photos at the start of our next Mordheim game as we'll have a full set of OG GW buildings on the table, hopefully supplemented by some Battle Systems buildings...


Thanks as always for looking, C&C welcome.