Painting a Skull Icon

My current army has a paint scheme inspired by Erin Morgenstern’s, ‘The Night Circus’.  It’s a wonderful novel in the fantasy genre with some of the best imagery that I have ever had the pleasure of reading.   For anyone who hasn’t heard of ‘The Night Circus’, the style for the army is very close to a Frank Miller graphic novel, like ‘Sin City’.  The style is monochromatic with just a few hints of red.

1d193f1543c5464f2a53689b1d260081 TheNightCircus Continue reading

Tutorial: Glazing (Part 1)

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There are few skills more valuable than glazing to a serious painter. It can be used to make the smoothest blends imaginable, it can tweak colors, and it can even be used to smooth out layering blends. While there are other methods of blending (such as wet blending, airbrushing, and traditional layering) none seem to offer the same level of precision and versatility that glazing does. The drawback, of course, is that it is potentially a time consuming process. In this tutorial I hope to share some of my techniques and tricks for glazing. A word of caution, this is one of the more difficult techniques to master in my opinion because it is very counter-intuitive to normal painting. Additionally, paint transparency adds a whole new dimension to the paints. Regardless, the time spent learning the process is worth the effort.

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Tutorial: Prepping and Fixing Finecast models

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Since I’m currently putting together a Deathwing force for the 2014 HPC, I thought it might be prudent to get a Belial model and paint him up. Unfortunately, this model is only available in the much loathed finecast material. The internet is abound with horror stories about how bad finecast models are, and with good reason. The models are quite pricey and often have many problems. This issue is compounded with the fact that GW stores don’t stock many finecast models that aren’t brand new, so picking through a pile for the best example is often not an option. On the bright side, the material is reasonably easy to work with, and from what I’ve heard GW has a great return policy on them if you aren’t satisfied. Aside from returning models ad nauseam though, you’re likely to settle on an imperfect model. Here are some tips to get it into tip-top shape.

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Tutorial: Making Pier Bases for your Models

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Some models really shine when they have unique, custom bases.  Today’s tutorial comes to us from a new writer, Anthony Adamo.  Anthony is also from Northern California, just about 2 hours from the home base of LUMP.  Please let him know that you like his tutorial and he might just write some more.  You can find out more about Anthony, and the rest of the writers on our About Page here. Continue reading

HPC: Splinter Fleet Syvyys Color Scheme

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For the 2014 Independent Character’s Hobby Progress Challenge (HPC) I’m slowly working on my new Tyranids. I will eventually go back and repaint all of my old Tyranids too, but I have enough in front of me to last the whole year. This year’s HPC uses a 1K Zone Mortalis list for the February through June installation and 1K of expansion for July through November.

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How to paint Secret Weapon “Urban Rubble” bases

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I’m in the process of re-basing my Dark Angels army with a mix of Secret Weapon Miniatures Urban Rubble and Urban Streets themed resin bases. Prior to this project, I was using cork which apparently is heavily frowned upon in painting competitions. Basing is a bit like cleaning and prepping a model in the sense that doing it well likely won’t win you many accolades, but doing it poorly will degrade from an otherwise nice model. The method I’ve started using is fairly straightforward, but uses a few advanced techniques. The tutorial shown here can easily be modified with traditional washes replacing the oil washes, and the pigment phase can be skipped. Furthermore, many of the airbrush steps can be painted using a traditional brush and simply take a bit longer.

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Simple Airbrushing – Screamers of Tzeentch

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Ihad been holding off on painting my new plastic Screamers for some time (I actually painted them last September and have been searching for pictures I took ever since).  I won two boxes of three at the Nor Cal Team Tournament in Stockton, CA at Heroes on Paper in early 2013.  A painting award at Olde World Gaming in Elk Grove in mid 2013 netted me another box of three.  I love all my metal screamers for their sleek simplicity, but I also love the detail and ability to customize the new plastic kit.  I was able to assemble all nine screamers without any two models having the same options; love it!

They say mimicry is the greatest form of compliment.  This tutorial is my slight twist on one already published by Element Games.  You can find their tutorial linked just below.  The color scheme is the same, the general approach is the same, I’ve just made some slight modifications to technique, order, basing and a few other minor things here and there.

http://www.elementgames.co.uk/forums/1-day-daemons-painting-screamers-t236.html

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