It’s been a while since I last posted but I’d like to get things going again soon. So to start off with I’ve chosen to go for something new and original with this amazing project on Kickstarter. It’s a fantastic reworking of the contents of the classic board game Heroquest that first got me into this hobby in the 80s!
Whilst I’m busy going about reigniting this blog go have a look. Honestly, the sculpts are incredible!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zealotminiatures/twisting-catacombs-litchmyre-dungeon

Ultramarines Shields - Casting Magic!

Time for something a little different today. Having completed the Land Raider and deciding to make a start on ten Honour Guard I took some time thinking about the whole army and what sort of theme I wanted. Given that I had already decided to ramp up the pomp and pageantry with the Land Raider detail I thought it would be fun to do the same across the whole army. In the current Space Marine codex there is a rule for Marneus Calgar which allows you to take not just one, but three squads of Honour Guard. Tactically this may be awful, and I'm sure any gamers reading this will be cringing right now, but for me the joy of doing this hobby is to build and paint something unique that brings the fluff to life. Besides, I lose all my games anyway so why not do it in style! So I settled on a theme that excited me; a small formation of Scouts, sent forward to locate the ideal location on the battlefield for the irresistable force of Marneus Clagar and his elite spearhead of veteran Honour Guard to arrive and smash open the enemy line. Sounds good!

Anyway, my vision of an Honour Guard has always included shields. They come equipped with Artificer armour as standard and since I was planning on building the models with regular power armour it made sense to me that the added protection could come from adding a shield (just like Fantasy!). I had a small collection of shields that I had been saving for years. I can't even remember what they are from now, I think maybe an old Dogs of War unit? The problem is, I had only six shields and I needed at least thirty...it was time to learn to cast resin!

I spent quite a bit of time researching. The initial outlay isn't exactly cheap and I wanted to be sure I was getting the right stuff. There seems to be a whole host of different moulding substances and even more types of resin out there. Fortunately for any of you who wish to give casting a try I can make it very simple for you. Watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUQq-yZ3atU and this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTdv5P61llw and then order this http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/Products/silicone-mould-resin-casting-starter-kit.aspx.

So let's now go through how I made the shields. The first step is to make the masters. To do this I simply filed off the original design detail from the shield and then added two simple, but striking Ultramarine symbols from the Forge World brass etching sheet. I then glued these to a solid surface, in this case an Oasis table coaster (sorry Gallagher fans, myself included!). I then built and lightly glued an edge around it using Lego.

The mould was now ready for the silicone rubber mixture. Follow the instructions exactly as the video says. The rubber doesn't dry too quickly so take your time mixing the hardening solution in slowly to avoid mixing in air. Then slowly pour it into a corner and watch it gloop over the shields, quite a satisfying moment for some reason. However hard you try there will be some tiny air bubbles in there and I found it helps if you do a kind of gentle drum roll with your fingers on the sides of the mould or on the desk. The rubber is very thick so it wont spill when you do this. Once you are happy then leave it until tomorrow.

The next day you can pull apart the Lego and very gently peel off the mould from the base. Go easy as the mould could tear on any sharp edges which will, of course, affect later castings. Once you take it off it looks wicked!

Now we need to add the resin. In the kit you get loads of the stuff but don't get carried away with how much you mix up. It's a lot like Greenstuff, you think you need more but you always have twice as much as you used left over. It's also important to prep everything before you mix it as this stuff drys very fast..I mean within minutes and once it starts to thicken it won't flow into the recesses. So to prep the mould you need a releasing agent, for which I used talcum powder. Dust a little bit into the recesses of the mould and this will draw the resin into the extremities and also help you peel it out of the mould easily later. Also make sure you have your resin mixing pots, a mixer (I just used a matchstick) and something smooth and heavy to lay on top of the mould (something like a clean tile) as this will give the bottom of the shields a flat and smooth finish. Once you are sure you have everything ready then mix up the resin and pour it into the mould. Again, work fast as once you finish pouring you will need to do your drum roll on the mould to get rid of any air bubbles. After that, sit your heavy lid on top and wiggle it around so as not to trap in any air and leave it for at least an hour.

After an hour you can open it all up and peel your shields out. You will need to clean up the flash and possibly fill in any bubbles with Greenstuff but apart from that you are ready to mix up more resin and cast again. Over time, no matter how careful you are, the rubber mould will erode and lose some detail from wear and tear but that's not a problem as all you need to do is keep the master and just build the Lego and make a new mould again.

All in all this type of casting was relatively simple and you could use this technique to cast your own shields, bases and any other kind of flat detail quite easily. 

If you try it let me know how you got on!

Jericho

Ultramarines Land Raider - Part 2

Let me just say from the start that I hate painting tanks. Large flat surfaces, endless hours of edging, copious amounts of metal and a looming threat of flat painting, I hate it. Add this to the fact that I haven't painted anything in a long time and this was going to be my 'easing in' project, meant that I was not exactly looking forward to painting the Land Raider. A positive start.

To make matters worse the first stage of the project kicked off with a catastrophe. On the advice of the guy in the store, and against my better judgement, I bought a can of Macragge blue. I have never got on well with the colour spray paints from GW. The colour doesn't usually match the pot, they can either very watery and weak or dry and powdery and never seem to give an even covering. I should have known that the long way always gets the best results. I sprayed it black, then sprayed it blue then spent maybe three days stressing about how to fix it. The blue paint had a mind of its own. On some sections it was as rough as sandpaper and on other sections it was gloopy and smothered all the detail. In the end I had to actually cut off some of the Epic models from the roof and replace them as the detail had just vanished. It pains me to look too closely to the roof details as to my eye it still looks very thick. Shame.

Anyway, rant over. For the record, the colour of the spray did match the pot perfectly...however, I decided it was too light anyway and repainted the whole thing! After looking up a few painting guides and finally doing some tests on old models I settled on my own mix (a little tip, do these tests before you start painting your masterpiece...not half way into the project!!). For the basecoat I used a 1:1 mix of the old Regal blue and Macragge blue. This was then washed with Drakenhof Nightshade and then tidied up again with the same blue mix, just to paint over smears or pools of the shade. Then began days of edging. The first highlight was a 1:2 mix of Regal and Macragge, followed by Altdorf Guard blue and then, fittingly, Calgar blue for the final extremes.

The blue was by far the longest and most tedious part and really highlights the things I hate about painting tanks. However, once it's out of the way it feels great and you do feel a sense of achievement when you see it all highlighted up. Next step was the silver metals. Nothing out of the ordinary with this, Leadbelcher and a couple of washes of Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade before a silver highlight. After that I wanted to get the stone sections out of the way and, if I'm honest, I found this quite difficult. The detail I lost from the spray coupled with highlights and washes just not looking right meant that this section took a lot longer than I expected. It's a shame that the section I had been most excited about has now become the section I am least pleased with. Perhaps I will try it again on a Stormraven at a later date.

 

Closing in on the finishing line I then started the gold. This began with a Balthasar gold base coat followed by a true base coat of Gehenna's gold. The reason for the two base coats is that Gehenna's gold is a layer paint and will be very weak without the right colour underneath it. Once I had a decent coverage I then shaded with my favourite, Agrax Earthshade, and then highlighted up with my older paints of Shining gold and a mix of Shining gold and Mithril silver, depending on how light you want it to go.

All that was left now was the fun bits of detail as the whole thing starts to come together, like the chapter symbols, lights, purity seals and texts. A quick tip for writing text, as I'm awful at painting writing, is to go to an art or craft store and pick up some fine tipped artist pens. They come in a variety of colours but at least get a black and a brown one. You can now write the words with your usual dexterity without worrying about controlling the movable and bendy tip of a paint brush, plus the ink wont run out during a letter like paint might. Then, if it still looks crap get your girlfriend to do it as girls are better at handwriting (not that I did this...honest).

So there it is! A testing but ultimately rewarding project and I'm glad to say that even after six weeks of working on this I am still excited about Ultramarines and plan to continue the army. My next project will be to convert ten Honour Guard fit to thumb a lift in this beast!

Until next time,

Jericho

The Forge Awakens

I can't believe it's been a whole year since Shazam or I have posted on this blog. That's shameful! Equally awful is the fact that in that time I don't think either of us have painted a single model either. So when some friends of mine suggested a 'Tale of Four Gamers' style challenge I jumped at the chance. The rules were simple, 250 points of 40k each month. I decided quite quickly that I would try an army that I've always wanted to do, the Ultramarines. I've always been a sucker for the heroic and chivalrous good guy and in the 40k universe, for me, the Ultramarines are it. However, because the models are designed as generic Space Marines, I feel they lack the gaudy and glorious pomp that the Ultramarine artwork depicts. So there stood my challenge, an Ultramarine army with more bling than Mr. T.

Having been out of the hobby for a little while I thought it best to start with a single model that I could really sink my teeth into and be really inspired by, hoping that would keep me interested as I am notoriously bad at finishing projects. So what better than an incredibly ornate Land Raider, fit to carry the finest of the Emperor's finest into battle?

Drawing inspiration from the Land Raider GW created for Marneus Calgar I knew I wanted mine to also look like a shrine and monument. GW chose a Gothic feel, however, I decided on Roman imagery, in particular an idea I had a while ago of creating a great stone battle scene, like in ancient Roman architecture, but using Epic models.

The first stages involved using plasticard to cover over the side doors and create a new panel on which to work. I then used strips of thin plasticard to edge large sections of the tank that I would later paint as gold trim to make it all stand out. Once the whole tank was done I then started the fun bit of adding detail, starting with a few pillars based on Roman styles using more plastics and some sculpting.

After a few days scouring ebay I managed to get hold of some Epic models to make the battle scenes. I wanted two battle scenes on the roof and since the models I'd bought included Eldar and Orks I decided I would be commemorating the battles of Armageddon and Commrath. Along the sides above the pillars I then lined up a few spare marines ready for battle. To add the models to the tank each one needed to be sliced in half and filed down so that it didn't stick out too much...a very fiddly job!

After that I added some Forgeworld brass etchings and Ultramarine icons and the beast was ready to paint!

Come back for part two to see it turn blue!

Jericho

Fausto Coppi's 1953 Bianchi

The other great love of my life is... My wife, clearly.
But the other other love of my life is cycling, so when I was asked to build this as a favour to a friend I jumped at the chance.
The kit is by Italian manufacturer Protar, who as far as I can tell did a nice line in car and retro motorbike kits. And apparently, the odd bicycle.

Sometimes

Sometimes you just don't feel it.
The paint doesn't flow properly, your brushstrokes look messy. It's just, not, "there".
Tonight is one of those nights. So instead i'll have a glass of wine, watch a brilliantly dreadful movie and have another go tomorrow.
That's the important bit, tonight might be a bit of a letdown but there is always tomorrow to have another go. So, don't be discouraged and keep trying.

It's a journey, not a race.

Peace
S

Something Rotten this way comes



I fell in love with this model when I first saw it. Which is a little bit creepy when you stop and think about it...