Paint By Numbers Series - Additives

by Gabriel Diaz

You’ve figured out what you want to paint. You’ve figured out what brush to use. Now I’m going to share with you some things that will make your life easier. Please understand that these are things that I’ve gleaned from professional artists, painters and casual painters as well. I’m basically giving you three years worth of cliff notes with these little columns in the hopes that your desire to paint will be fanned and the flame of artistic fun will grow ever brighter. I will not say “You MUST go get this!” Because in that sense we are all kids, we don’t want to be told what to do. I’m going to point things out and you can determine if it’s something that you feel will help you along the way or not.

Quick and Dirty Water Stain Weathering

I’ve been working on my Dreadclaw pretty steadily for the last week.  It’s looking pretty good but I thought it still was a bit plain.  It needed some weathering… not your standard weathering, either.  This Dreadclaw needed to look like it’s been sitting on a wet jungle planet in a forgotten military base for 1000 years.

Demand Is High – Tentacle Makers Sold Out!

Well, since the great review by Ron at From The Warp things have sort of taken off for GSI.  I have a large-ish back order list and should begin seeing my latest batch of Tentacle Makers coming in from the machinist this week (he will hand deliver some tomorrow is what he promised).  I think the backorders should all be filled early August with the oldest orders being filled first.

Active WIPs

I’ve been working on a couple of things this week.  The first is: I finally just decided to paint my Dreadclaw.  I’ve been staring at it for a month to try and figure out what else I could add to it.  Well, I decided that paint would be a great thing to add.  I suppose I was victim to “analysis paralysis” because I just couldn’t bring myself to move forward.

Paint By Numbers Series: Brushes

Face it, we all miss Bob Ross.

Guest post by Gabriel Diaz

There is no piece of equipment more important in painting miniatures than your brush. This is your constant companion in all of your endeavors because no matter how cool a customization, base or background, unless you have a good brush to guide that paint onto the miniature, well it’s just subpar. This is something that most people learn over time because much like a wand in the world of Harry Potter, a brush is a lifelong companion to a painter.

Flight Stand Socket – Scratchbuild

You're grounded!

Last week I was using my Dreadclaw in a game over at Frontline Gaming when Keno and I had a bit of an odd situation: a Dreadclaw model doesn’t typically have a flight stand and seeing as 40k is True Line Of Sight, does it grant cover saves to units behind it even though it’s “Zooming” (Boy, I HATE the name of that rule) through the air?

Counts-As Aegis Sandbag Bunker Scratchbuild, Part 1

Gaming on-the-cheap is a must for me.  I wanted an Aegis Defense Line type of emplacement for my army but I can’t really justify spending the money on one right now.  I already had an Aegis Lascannon handy due to some frivolous (but ultimately fortunate) bits trading earlier in the year and I have a lot of Styrofoam, textured patch paint, and putty-like material (green stuff, clay, milliput, etc.) on hand in the man cave.  Everything I need to scratchbuild a piece of terrain that can double as a “counts as” Aegis line.

Marker Madness!

Wreck Marker

These are a couple of my latest finished products.  This first one is a wreck marker I made using a Revell snap kit I had laying around for bits use.  It’s the track portion tarted up with some plasticard and tubes made with various Tentacle Makers.  Most of the engine parts are random leftover Robogear bits.  It will fit eight 28mm bases with ease.

Paint By Numbers Series – by Gabriel Diaz

The Miniature hobby is an extensive and living thing. No really, if you think about it, you (as a player) are not only coming up with what army you want to use but also, troop choices, background for your army, names, in some cases, for your captains and of course, color schemes. Now if you are a webrat , like I am, you are constantly checking out your favorite blogs and boards checking out the work of others to see what they’re doing, how it looks and usually, how they got to where they are. Most players or hobbyists are willing to share information with you, sometimes they even put together tutorials with how to this, that or the other. The one thing that I noticed gets omitted is how to start. I think part of it is the fact that the general opinion is trial and error. You have to figure out what works for you because simply taking someone’s word for it just doesn’t seem like enough. That doesn’t mean you can’t have some guideposts along the way.

Drawing Winner!

We have a winner!

CSM & CD Allies List – First Try

OK, so I decided to try my hand at Allies.  My list follows with an explanation as to why I chose these units.  I think I’ll head over to Frontline later tonight to see how it works.

Free Download – 6th Edition Counters!

After scouring the 6th edition MRB this weekend I thought a fresh bunch of counters based on the new information were in order.  Also, I thought that they would help me/us in figuring out what is basically a new game by keeping things on the table crystal clear.