Heil Nurgle!

Hello again - for the last time in July!

As almost always there was something goint on in the hobby area so let's start!
First of all I finished assembling the very first military model in 1:48 scale: Autoblinda AB 41
It was actually one of a few military models I ever built yet is was lots of fun: model can be used in post-apo skirmish games, all parts were nicely casted so therere's only painting left:
I want to use desert painting scheme and test some new weathering tricks yet definitely don't want it to turn out as most of things I start weathering...
Bad news is painting will have to wait beucase I need to get some more paints for this model and because of short vacation next week - all painting plans are delayed.
But after coming back there will be some wooden bases waiting for me and one of them should fit the model really fine!

Another achievement was bringing the palaquin almost to the end: it's nearly done but I cannot finish it until I get some new bases: I want to see it in kinda swamp scenery and cannot do it now and somehow move on new base later :(
As for model - I am more-less satisfied: I wanted to paint it for a long time, too bad the trone sculpt is pretty poor. Yet it was one of my big painting plans for 2010 so yay for me :)
Besides thank to the fact palaquin is (nearly) done I can paint some side project: necrons warriors from Sławol or something for my mysterious miniatures provider...
After I put model on base I'll surely add some more blood and probably some glossy coat on the goo coming out from trone's back. What do you thing about it?

What else? The tattoo is healed in 95% but there are still pieces of damaged tissue on it so the photo report about getting inked has to wait once again. But no worries - you will see it for sure!
Apparently that's it for now - see ya in 2 weeks!

Cthulhu is complete!

Hello,

The week is coming to the end so it's time to update the site.
There was prerry much going on: the most important thing is I finally got tattoo finished!
I've been waiting for this for a while and I'm so glad the picture is complete now.

The pic above ain't spectacular but the tissue has to heal so green tones blend in nicely. After that I can take proper photo of the whole thing.
While the tattoo was being finished I've been talking with tattooist about expanding it even more so I think sooner or later I will visit the studio again... The only problem to solve is what do I want want to get inked first: chest, back or low arm. Well see :)

As for miniatures matter I decided to wash off Rackham troll. Assembling it took me lots of time and painting is ~1/3 done but I don't like the direction it's going. Apparently the more I try to paint something not in my standard way - the more zombish figure I get. But during painting I got some ideas for converting troll into sci-fi model so it should turn out unique.
So troll is to go and instead working on this model I FINALLY started painting palaquin of Nurgle!
Painting the champion was fun as I supposed it would be but the trone itself is just silly: I know the sculpt is old but parts of it are just ridiculous. Hope whole piece will turn out nice after banners and nurglings are painted. I will base it on wooden socle - they should be added to the store next weekend.

The last thing for today is another another plinth from the offer got model.
It's oldschool night goblin which I painted pretty long time ago for Forces of Darkness project on Chest of Colors forum - project I never managed to bring to the end. There are more minis painted for the same purpose so sooner or later they will appear on new bases.

And there's one more technical update of the Plinth Country site: on the left panel you can find Tutorials section - it's just temporarly version but I hope to see there whole module with articles
and not just links to the blog. That will probably mean the tutorials will appear only on PC site and not on the blog but it's nothing sure until I see the module finished and installed.

That's it for now - see ya next Sunday!

So damn hot...

Hello all!

First of all - I deeply hope wherever you live you have better weather whan it's here. Better = less leathal.
Apparently some stupid Polish camel stepped on Gork's (or Mork's) foot and now we're all punished for that by Evil Sun's death rays!
I hope this armageddon won't last much longer because I want to have decent weather during vacation not some fecking holocaust pouring from sky.

Anyway hot or not there was something going on in the hobby last week so it's time to write about it so without further introduction - 'ere we go!

Once again "hobby part" the week was dominated by working on the Plinth Country site - I've found some mionor typing errors, 2 unused sections were removed (thanks Butch!) and also I added links section - bottom left panel. There's even then first link added to one of friendly sides - I'm quite sure you know Voodoo - Monkeys - Team ;)
I'll try to add more links during coming week.

Another site update I'd like to see soon is adding section with articles: in fact I'd like to move them from the blog to the Plinth Country. Unfortunately site's engine isn't as user friendly as I'd like it to be so it might be a serious problem. Yet I'd really like to see another tutorial posted in new place *fingers crossed*

Since we're next to plinths - another one was used for rebasing one of minis from my glass case. I thought about it and I realised I didn't like previous raw wood group base for Hydra Warrior so another one was rebased. You can vote for the model on CMON site and also you can see in in small plinths section of the store ;)

The last thing to write about is Chaos Lord I got on auction some time ago has been finally finished (voters -> here ;) ). That means another large plinth got decent model. About 25 more to paint and the store should look decent. I like the model but it's not the mini I'd like to keep in the glass case so I decided to put it on Ebay - model will get 2 bases (showcase and gaming) so I hope it will find new home within 10 days of auction lasting.

That's it for now - the plan for the rest of a day is getting a cold beer from a fridge and start painitng Rackham troll - making it's base will be described in a tutorial but I can't start it until I can see whole model done.

Take care!

July brings many changes

Hey again!

Last week was busy. And I mean it - there were LOTS of things to do (not many of them were related to the hobby though) but somehow I managed to make it more-less safely to the Sunday.
So let's start!

Probably the biggest event was the fact I finished studies: final exam was on the previous Saturday but it was last Friday then I was defending my thesis. All I have to do now is waiting for the diplima. And of course start real estate valuation practice in October.
As I suspected it was strange feeling to go to univ for the last time. As I told to examiner professor I didn't think I might even think about missing that - but it's happening.
During last year I learnt lots of interested things and lecturers did all they could to make whole that law-shit as interesing as possible.
To thank them for everything I brought one of minis rebased on decorative plinth to exam - prof was pretty surprised when she discovered zombie model in a box ^^
But I suppose it was one of the most original gifts she ever recieved.
Text on plaque says: "For the first successful year of studies"

But there was also something going on in painting field.
I finally started painting lord of chaos. It will be similar to champions painted before - apparently these colors lure Ebay biders to my auction.
And as bonus model will be provided with 2 bases: square 50 mm for gaming and scenic plinth for glass case. Here's the wip:

Another success for assembling and posting basing tutorial #2: it was intended for Miniature Madness Magazine but since the zine wasn't eventually born I was left with some pics so I added new text and voila. Hope you like it and find it useful.

And finally: 3 days ago I finally managed to get Plinth Country operational!
Thanks to priceless help of my bro site is working (more-less fine) so maybe this will be good way to fund my hobby bills. At the moment there are only resin plinths available but I want to add wooden to the offer as well. If you visit the site and spot any bugs - just let me know :)
The tutorial was even posted on the main site of Heresy Forums :]

As you noticed I want use only models I painted so I decided to re-base some minis from my collection. I started with Hydra warriors - these deminiacs look much better on new bases and I think they are a bit more happy ;)

Till the next time!!! :)

Tutorial #2: Desert base

As I wrote in the previous tutorial - there will be the second part.
It took me much longer to assemble the text (post graduate studies were pretty time-consuming) but as some people say: it's better late than never, right? ;)

This time I'd like to show you my way to create desert. Please note - it's only one of MANY ways to create such base but I really like it: it's fast, easy to execute and result is decent so without more useless introduction - let's start the show!

Preparations:

Once again we have to start by choosing the proper base to work on. Ideas for choosing base were mentioned in the previous tutorial (Preparations section) so I won't repeat it here.
This time instead of block of wood I decided to use nice wooden plinth which is test Plinth Country base - it should look really nice under painting contest miniature. At the moment store offers only resin plinths but according to what I managed to learnt - it will soon change. Of course you can use resin base as well - these work equally well, the only true difference is you have to paint them.

If you decide to use nice, wooden plinth you should seriously consider securing it with some kind or masking tape: it should protect plinth's original color against any accidental painting, glue or whatever.
Next step was adding piece of tree bark on the plinth (the base will be rocky desert) and cut off the top of the bark so the model can be placed with no problems. Remember - if superglue isn't enough to place the bark you can always use greenstuff and after that apply superglue.

Adding details

After glue and greenstuff dried it was time to add a bit texture.
I didn't want just plain rock + sand this time (at least not under the contest model) so I added piece of skeleton and skull of some poor bastard next to rock. Apparently he didn't manage to find way to oasis on time ;)

After superglue gets totally dry (and I mean it: TOTALLY - you don't want to get the brush destroyed too fast) you can add sand and gravel. Wood glue ("white glue") is just perfect for this. Applying sand around skeleton should make it look half-buried.

When it's done and when glue is totally dry (again) it is a good idea to paint whole thing with diluted wood glue: is will slightly reinforce the bark but most important - should prevent sand from falling off during drybrushing.

Painting

So the time has come for painting. Desert can be painted in NUMEROUS way - practically only your imagination is the limit: it can be realistic, toxic wasteland, alien planet - just whatever comes to your mind!
This time I decided to give my base a reddish tone therefore I started by covering whole surface with diluted terracotta color. As you probably noticed in the meantime I added some leaves . I don't like boring bases, that's all ;)

Next I mixed base tone with drop of dwarf flesh and started drybrushing. I've been adding bleached bone to the mixture between layers of drybrush to highlight the desert and the final drybrush layer was almost pure white.
Important thing: remember the more intermediate colors between base and final colors you use the smoother transitions you will get. And it really doesn't take much more time.

Bones were painted during drybrushing so all I did was adding some washes and final highlights to make them a bit more visible.

The last thing was adding some dried foliage and pigments onto the base. Pigments are just an option but I like them because you can easily get dusty feeling.

The base is ready and is waiting to carry the contest model.
Hope you found the text useful. The next article will be about turning decorative resin plinth into forest base so stay tuned!