All your base...

..are belong to me! I wanted to make a slightly more general post today, and as you probably guessed the topic is about basing. However, not just regular unit-bases, but also movement trays... These simple plastic or resin trays allows placement of multiple units inside and hence allows fast and well-organized movement on the battlefield. Alternatively, they can simply be a nice addition to exhibited units and armies.

While GW do sell a limited selection of these themselves, there is an unlimited variety and supply out there on the WWW.  I found a bunch on ebay (sold by wargamestournaments), in various sizes and shapes, with both square and round holes. Each was around 7€, give or take. These particular trays are cast in resin and were quite rough on arrival. Nothing a little sandpaper couldn't handle though :) Here is an untreated 10 unit (round 28mm) tray straight from the package.

In order to make the trays fit the bases of my current units I've opted to add some texture before painting. This is easily done using sand. I'm lucky enough to live near the sea and can simply go down and scoop up a can-full.  Below is shown the basics needed for some quick base pimping; glue, sand, an old brush and some toothpicks.

All desired surfaces are covered in glue which is spread evenly with the brush. The whole tray is dipped in sand and left to soak for a minute or so. Afterwards the toothpick is used to pick out unwanted splodges of sand and glue... I usually leave the bases to dry overnight before moving on to the next step.

To undercoat the trays they are spray-painted with Chaos Black to ensure that all colours will stick properly afterwards...

To now apply a base colour, strongly watered-down paint is used. This allows it to soak into the sand for proper coverage. In this case Scorched Brown is used..

After the initial layer of paint is dry it's time for some drybrushing. By applying paint (first layer is Calthan Brown) to a special drybrush (with short stiff bristles) and then wiping the excess paint on a piece of kitchen-roll until almost none remains. Now I can simply "brush" across the structured surface and only a very small amount of paint will collect on the tops of the surface. The image below shows a half-finished tray for comparison.

After 2 layers of drybrushing (second layer here is Bleached Bone), the trays will look something like this...

Now all that remains is to apply some static grass to finish of the scenic trays...

Finally, here is a bunch of my finished trays in use by my various unites... Hope you enjoy :D

Ork Boyz finished!

After being engaged in a few side projects (like my two Gandalf miniatures), finishing reading A song of Ice and Fire (up to book 5 at least) and plowing through 10 or so Star Wars books,I finally again found time to get my Ork Boyz finished. In my previous post I had the characteristic green sorted, but everything else was pretty much lacking... Again I've been a bit lazy with the WIP pictures, so I apologize for the small amount of images...

First step was armor, which I decided to keep mainly black, while painting the various leather straps, belts and stachels in either Clathan Brown or Scorched Brown (washed with Devlan Mud). Metal parts are painted with Leadbelcher, while the black boots and trousers + shirt are highlighted with Dawnstone (both washed with Badab Black)... 

Second order of business is the weapons.  Blades such as axes and swords are painted in Leadbelcher with the sharpened bits being Chainmail. Guns are kept mainly black, but metal parts are also painted with Leadbelcher. Sword-handles are painted with Tin Bitz for a lovely worn bronze colour. Everything is washed with Badab Black and highlighted with their respective colours...

Finally the last few details are line highlighted, static grass applied and everything is cleaned up etc. The final product is something I'm really proud of and honestly has turned out way better than I expected! Hope you enjoy and stay tuned for some (hopefully fast) updates about my next project, my Space Marine Terminators...

Gandalf and Shadowfax

As mentioned in a earlier post (http://kunstmanns-workshop.blogspot.dk/2012/10/finecast-gandalf-white.html) my dear girlfriend gave me this awesome Fincecast of Gandalf the White, which contained not one, but two full models! The second model consists of both Gandalf and his trusted horse, Shadowfax (Lord of Horses)...

Though I finished the model some time ago, I've kinda forgotten to get my blog updated with the WIP and final paintjob pictures. However, here they are now, enjoy!:D

Here he is all glued together and fixed with some liquid Green Stuff. Ive added a few rocks to the base to create a bit more interesting surface...

The base is now finished with several layers of drybrushing, and Gandalf (and his horse) has been based with Skull White...

I've clearly been a bit slacky with the WIP pictures, so here the figure is in its final form:D

Really happy with how the horse and his robes turned out, but the face could still do with some more work, clearly not my strongest side... I might get back to redo that later. For now he's guarding the entrance to my office and YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

WIP: Ork Boyz (part 1) - green aint just green

Having finally completed my first squad of Space Marines, along with my other side projects, I can now finally turn my attention towards the other half of my Battle for Black Reach set, the might Ork Horde!

To kick this off I've decided to paint 10 of my 20 Ork Boyz. I reckon that doing all twenty at once will just make it seem like to big a task...The Boyz are already assembled and based with Chaos Black along with my Space Marines months ago, so following my standard procedure I've started with the inside elements. In this case eyes and mouth

Eyes and tongue are painted Red Gore and washed with Biel Tan. The teeth are painted with Khemri Brown and highlighted with Bleached Bone. Now for the Ork skin. After many attempts I decided on the following combination of colours and washes...

All skin areas are covered with two thin layers of Warboss Green (thin smooth surface) followed by highlights using Moot Green. These highlights really help define the muscle structure. Finally, 2 washes with Biel-Tan to help blend the colours together, resulting in a super nice finish... Now to repeat for the other 9 Orks, starting with the base colour of Warboss Green

And then Moot Green highlights... I'll save the washes until I cleaned up the black areas and done other remaining details... To be continued :D

Space Marine Tactical Squad Sergeant

Having finished my Tactical Squad a few weeks ago (here) it's now finally time to complete the 10man squad by painting their beloved Sergeant. As with the regular marines, I've first painted the inner elements (in this case only the flex-joints), before moving on to the base colours. Here's the guy with base, armor, tabard and purity seals painted

Tabard and seals washed and gold elements painted with a warm brown to get the proper toning later...

And here with most outer elements painted, along with all gold and a base colour on his face

And finally here he is in all his glory after a wash and some line highlights..

With the first squad of my marines finally done its time to get working on some of the Ork Horde, stay tuned for updates soon...

Finecast: Gandalf the White

Out of the middle of nowhere my lovely girlfriend Lauren decided to buy me this guy, the one wizard to rule them all, Gandalf the White! He's a Citaldel Finecast and the box comes with two models, one of Gandalf standing in a powerpose and another of him showing off on Shadowfax... As a token of my gratitude I decided to paint posing Galdalf first as a present for Lauren... I decided to mount him on a "giant rock" to make him stand out a bit more. After some cleaning, glueing and base-coating this is how he looked

This is the first time for me painting human faces, so this took quite some experimentation. Here he is with a base flesh-colour, along with some initial base colours

Here he is now with a lighter skin-tone and some shading to the face and hands. I've also drybrushed the rock with a dark grey to enhance the borders, along with hair and beard (painted light grey and brushed white)

Skip forward to an almost finished miniature. His outer robe has been painted with a 2:3 mixture of bleached bone and skull white and then drybrushed white to highlight. The inner robe is painted with a 1:3 mix, while his "under-robe" is left in skullwhite...

Finally here's the end-result, which I must say I'm really pleased with! He now guards over Lauren's PC and YOU SHALL NOT PASS! :D

Khorne Chaos Lord on Juggernaut

Wow... This guy has really been a challenge for me. Considering I got him for my birthday in November last year and just now finally managed to finish him really says it all. The miniature itself is simply awesome looking and it has taken me a lot of brainpower and snooping around on the net to decide how to paint this guy...  As mentioned in an earlier post I started on the Juggernaut itself months ago, so finishing this was the first step. After painting every detail, a few careful washes and line-highlights this is the result

Finally happy with the mount I moved onto the Khorn Chaos Lord himself. This is how he looked prior to being mounted, washed and highlighted...

 

And here's the final result! I'm really proud of how this guy turned out and know he will look just great next to his fellow Chaos Warriors. Enjoy the pics :D

(On a final side-note, his base is deliberately left half-empty as I'm wanting to put a pile of skulls there once I get hold of some...)