Speed Painting: Protectorate of Menoth

Ever since my son was born, I've managed very little in the way of hobby time, and even less in terms of actually playing games.  Funderhammer is the Pressganger for my FLGS, and he told me that they were starting a Journeyman league in a few weeks.  I had been feeling a bit stir crazy, and some of you might remember from this post that I already had an army, brand new in the box, waiting to be played.  I discussed it with my wife and she was willing to give me one night a week for gaming.

If you're unfamiliar with Privateer Press' Journeyman League, the basic idea is that each player starts week 1 with a faction's starter box, and the point size of the games goes up every week or two.  You earn points for playing games, but also for building & painting new units.  By the end of the league, you should be pretty close to having a fully-painted, tournament-sized army.

But wait - I need to go from not building & painting at all, to building & painting a couple of new units every week?  On top of that, my chosen faction (Protectorate of Menoth) is traditionally mostly white, a notoriously tricky color to paint?  I was gonna have to come up with some ideas, quick!

Any thoughts of "competition quality" -painted models quickly went out the window - we're aiming for quick 'n dirty "tabletop" quality here.  These models were mostly going to be painted in 30- or 45-minute chunks of time that I managed to carve out of the days I'm on babysitting duty, and are meant more to shake the rust off than push my skills.  Washes & drybrushing are the rule here, not the exception - once I have a basic 50-point force finished, maybe I'll take more time on a few "centerpiece" models, but not now.

Here's the technique I came up with:

Every model was primed with Army Painter Matt White Colour Primer.  When they were dry, they all received a heavy coat of Army Painter Soft Tone ink (but GW Seraphim Sepia works well, too):

This pretty much leaves the models khaki.  (Note: this would be a great, super-quick way to make a khaki army, Imperial Guard players!)

Next, the models receive a heavy drybrush of off-white (I used Reaper MSP Bleached Bone):

Next, the purples were done with Vallejo Model Color Magenta - this is several shades lighter than I want the end result to be:

Next, the purple is heavily washed with Army Painter Purple Tone ink:

The metallics were painted with Vallejo Model Color Brass & Vallejo Model Air Steel:

The brass was washed with Army Painter Soft Tone ink, and the steel with Army Painter Dark Tone ink:

...and that's pretty much it.  On models with a LOT of metallics I might do a quick drybrush with Vallejo Model Air Chrome, and when the whites get a little too muddy I occasionally make a glaze with Vallejo Glaze Medium + Army Painter Pure White to bump them up a bit, but usually that's more on infantry units.  Quick, easy, & "good enough"!

Quick 'N Dirty Tournament Tray

...so one of the booths I stopped at and chatted for a while during Adepticon was Broken Egg Games.  They make various cool items, but a big focus is their very cool tournament trays.  "I should get one of these", I thought.

Oh wait.

I did get one of these.

Last year, at Adepticon 2015.

...and it promptly got a half-assed coat of primer, and has been sitting on a shelf in my garage for a year.

So anyway, I decided to remedy that - I've actually been playing every week lately, and am halfway considering a tournament in the fall, and a tournament board would come in handy.  However, I needed it to be done as quick and easy as possible, so here's what I did.

Here's what I was starting with: it's the MDF Large tournament tray from Broken Egg Games.

  I think I bought the unfinished MDF version because 1.) I'm cheap, and 2.) I originally had grand visions of doing some elaborate custom finish to match one of my armies.  As I said, I started to prime it black, but I vaguely remember the primer going on fuzzy, or I ran out, or something else frustrating, and it got tossed on a shelf.

I gave it a couple more coats of primer - I realized later that the MDF was literally soaking up spray primer as fast as I could put it on.  I'd recommend using a brush-on primer, possibly even a latex house paint -type of primer to save some grief.  I touched up the finish with some brush-on primer:

(Note the festive tablecloth, compliments of my wife).

Part of my original plan was to mask the interior of the cutouts to have a contrasting finish - but, I was not relishing the idea of that much time-consuming work with painter's tape and a hobby knife.  I played around with some ideas, like possibly stuffing the holes with poster tack or silly putty, but I'd need a lot of silly putty.  I thought of just using bases, but I didn't have that many spare bases in various sizes I'd need, and I'd still have to mask the slots in the bases.  But wait: remember those MDF blanks I mentioned  I'd bought at Adepticon in my last post?

I think I paid $10 for an entire quart-sized take-out container of these.  I stuck 'em in the cutouts that I wanted to mask:

Next, I grabbed a can of Krylon "Natural Stone" finish paint, which is a very easy way to get a stone-like finish.  (Note: they actually make this in a "coarse texture" version, which is what I wanted to use, but they were out of it when I stopped by the craft store):

Then I gave it a couple of coats:

Then I pulled out the MDF blanks:

Success!  There was virtually no bleed over into the black areas!

Next, I grabbed some black and some white paint and a small brush, and laid down some quick "cracked earth" effects in the flat areas:

Now, I needed some felt for the dice/token storage area on the side.  (The guys at Broken Egg included a piece of self-adhesive red felt when I bought the board, but it's long since gone missing).  I raided my son's arts & crafts bin and stole a piece of bluish/purple felt:

Then I cut it to size:

Next, I raided my wife's scrapbooking supplies and stole her cutter that is used to "round" the corners when cutting paper:

...then I glued the piece into place with some spray adhesive:

I also painted up some spare bases to use as blanking pieces:

(I had a spare 120mm base, since I bought a custom base for my Judicator).

...as a final touch, I added some adhesive rubber bumpers I got at the home improvement store as "feet" to prevent sliding:

(Note my faithful assistant's hand steadying the project for dad in the above pic).

...and there you have it - one (relatively) quick 'n easy tournament board!

Khador Manhunter Solo

I finished a Khador Manhunter Solo the other day:

...this was probably one of the first models I bought beyond the battlebox because it's a highly recommended addition to a Khador army, but it's been unfinished forever - because the *&%#@ arms kept breaking off.  Every. Time, I. Turned. Around.  Every time I opened my bag the GD arms would be broken off.  I finally scraped & drilled the sockets, stuck them on with Super Glue and Green Stuff, and have resolved to throw it in the ocean if they break off again.

Painting was pretty unremarkable, except I came across a bottle of Reaper Flesh Wash in my newly-filled dropper tray while I was working on it - I have no idea where it came from, as I didn't buy it, and don't remember getting it as a sample in a swag bag.  I was even hesitant to try it, as it looks VERY purple right out of the bottle - but I wasn't really happy with how the skin tone was coming out on this model, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I was really pleased!  It's much more natural looking when it dries than GW's Baal Red wash or the Army Painter red ink that I've been using lately.

Hobby Time!

One of the deals I struck for my birthday was for some hobby time - I was off work, the baby was at Grandma's, and my wife was working, so lars4life & I got to spend a day hobbying:

It felt good to be working on stuff again.  Above you can see my new portable set-up, which I'll be detailing in an upcoming post...

Khador: Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince

Another model I finished recently:

This is Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince.  I originally started this model quite a while ago, but it wasn't holding my interest, so it got thrown in my bag.  I dug it out recently because I've resolved to finish all my partially completed/needs repaired/etc Warmachine models before moving on to new ones, and I sat and sat and tried to come up with a novel technique or conversion for this one... turns out, it's just not a very interesting model.  Really.  He has some neat abilities that I want to try out, but as far as the model goes it's just not terribly compelling.  So, I just finished 'em off and ran with it...

Khador: Battle Mechaniks

Hey, look at me - I actually painted a unit for the first time in over a year!

These are the Khador Battle Mechaniks that lars4life got me as a birthday gift... two years ago, I think?  They've been primed and knocking around in my bag since then.  While we were at Adepticon we decided to go downstairs one night and make use of the open hobby area, and next thing I know they were 90% done - a few touch ups, some clearcoat & basing and they're done!  Cetainly not my best work, but not bad for shaking off the rust...

Review: Ironheart Artisans Dropper Tray

...so while I was at Adepticon this year, I stopped by the Ironheart Artisans booth.  Mainly to see what new stuff they had, but also just to say hello - I always enjoy talking with them.  They're great guys (& a girl) and, for some reason, are one of the only vendors with the foresight to bring spare hobby supplies (glue, paintbrushes, etc) to a hobby convention.  (They pretty much sell the hobby supplies at MSRP as a courtesy to us gamers).

Anyways, last year I bought one of their paintbrush racks & a couple of their 4-tier stepped paint racks to organize my airbrush paints, and was pleased with both purchases.  This year, they had a really cool prototype paint tray with handles & locking cover, but the problem was it's designed to fit the P3 paint pots - I really don't use that many P3 paints.  But, another item caught my attention - their dropper bottle tray:

See, since my son was born, I've had to go semi-mobile with my hobbying - I watch him a few days per week, so I needed something to carry the essentials.  I grabbed one and brought it home to try it out.

Like most of the Ironheart pieces, it's laser-cut MDF and comes unassembled:

It went together pretty easily (MUCH more easily than their 4-tier trays) and I just put some wood glue on the tabs & edges when I assembled it:

(Now with 100% more festive Easter tablecloth, courtesy of my wife)

And here it is loaded up with 70 of my dropper bottles:

One of the nice things is that the tray is deep enough to hold the bottles securely, but shallow enough that it's easy to read the labels.  This also makes it easy to group certain paints together - for example, all my flesh tones are along one edge:

...and all my "utility" paints are along one edge:

(You might have noticed that most of my paints these days are Reaper, Vallejo, & Army Painter.  I'll cover the reasons for the switch away from GW in an upcoming article.)

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with it - it's cheap enough to buy on an impulse, but sturdy enough that I can toss it on top of my bag and it doesn't break.  (As long as you use a good quality glue to put it together - I used Gorilla Wood Glue).  So far Ironheart Artisans are three for three on stuff I've bought from them - I look forward to seeing what they come up with next!

AdeptiCon 2015 Part II

Saturday

On Saturday, our first class was "Six Step Eyes" with Meg Maples:

Meg showing us how it's done

In the past ten years or so, I've probably taken half a dozen classes just on how to paint eyes.  It's probably the first major hurdle of taking your painting beyond "tabletop quality" for most painters.  I've tried different methods, technical pens, etc., and it's still 90% luck for me.  This class came closer than any other to giving me the ability to actually be able to paint eyes - I think with a little practice, I'll be able to replicate it consistently.  I'll even give you the six steps so you can try it yourself:

1. -Paint entire eye socket black
2. -White oval (eyeball)
3. -Black dot (outer edge of iris)
4. -Color dot (iris)
5. -Black dot (pupil)
6. -White dot (reflection)

(Optional): Gloss coat eye so it's shiny.

That's it.  And it made sense.  Here are a few of my attempts:

...so it's not great, but this is far better than I've been able to achieve in the past.  Plus, I was having a really hard time picking out the eyes on this model - Reaper claims you don't need to prime their "Bones" models, but I find it necessary just because I can't see the details on that bright white finish they come in right from the factory.

Our next class was "Painting Sheer Fabric", again with Jessica Rich.  Man, this class was hard for a guy who mostly paints power armor 90% of the time.  And, as Jessica warned us, when you paint a model using this method, it has an extremely long "this looks like crap" phase until everything starts to pull together.  Regardless, you can see a (very) little bit of the intended effect in this WIP pic of my model:

Compare that with what Jessica is able to achieve, and it's pretty sad.  Still, it was fun to try.  lars4life & I have already been talking about where we might be able to apply the technique to our own armies.

After classes, we headed out for dinner - we usually budget for one "nice" dinner per trip to AdeptiCon, and this year we went with Weber Grill Restaurant:

...which was fantastic.  We headed back to the hotel and hung out for bit before calling it a night.  The next morning we made one last lap through the dealer room (I made a few purchases that I'll be reviewing here shortly) and headed back home, another AdeptiCon in the bag!

AdeptiCon 2015 Part I

Thursday

...so after doing little-to-no hobbying for most of the past year (for reasons, see my previous post) lars4life & I headed out for Adepticon 2015.  The big change this year was that the con moved to a bigger venue at the Renaissance Schaumberg Convention Center:

The hotel was pretty nice - pretty much on par (amenity-wise) with the former venue, but much bigger.  It was nice to have more space, but I get the feeling that the folks at the Renaissance didn't really "get" the needs of the con just yet, but hopefully that'll work itself out in the coming years.

After putting our bags away, we headed downstairs to get out badges & swag bags.  As usual, the AdeptiCon swag bag was one of the best out of any convention I attend:

...A Protectorate of Menoth battlegroup, Badger & Reaper paints, brushes from Games & Gears, minis from Palladium, Victoria Miniatures & Soda Pop Miniatures, as well as a ton of coupons for more freebies & discounts in the dealer room.  I really wish some of the other cons would take a lesson from AdeptiCon in the swag bag department.

Since the registration desk was right in the dealer's hall, we took a quick lap while we were there.  I wandered past the Forge World booth and was a bit taken aback that there wasn't a line - last year, I got my stuff after a thirty-minute wait, and that felt like a gift.  I walked up to the nearest employee and said "Can I pick up my preorder?"  He said "Sure!" and grabbed the box.  I kept if pretty small this year - I got the Caestus Assault Ram (just because I've been drooling over that model since it was released a couple of years ago), a Khorne Blood Slaughterer & some chain axes to outfit a Chaos project I've got in the works (more info coming soon!)

After that, we pretty much just wandered around the con, checked out the displays, and said hi to some friends before heading off to bed.

Friday

On Friday we had out first class - "TNA: The Art of Painting Hot Chicks" with Jessica Rich.  This class was all about the proper way to shade muscle groups on minis that are sculpted mostly (or completely) nude.  Jessica is extremely qualified to teach this, as shown by her piece that took 3rd overall in the Crystal Brush this year.  Needless to say, my attempt was a bit more rudimentary:

But, I can only accomplish so much in two hours, and the class was extremely helpful in breaking down the steps in painting anatomy.

Our next class was "Hands On With Two-Brush Blending" with Matt DiPietro, a studio painter for Privateer Press.  I had previously taken a version of this class with Meg Maples, who also used to paint for Privateer Press - this is pretty much their "signature" technique.  And, like before, I wasn't really crazy about it.  I get it, and I can do it given enough practice, but I'm just not convinced that the results are worth the effort, or at least that I can't get similar results with other methods that are more natural to me.  Sorry, it just doesn't "click" with my brain for some reason.

Our last class of the day was "Blood, Guts, Puss and Gore" with Michelle Blastenbrei.  I didn't realize it when I signed up for it, but I had actually taken this class with Michelle at GenCon a few years ago - this actually made it kind of interesting, because I was able to see how Michelle had expanded and changed the methods she teaches.  Regardless, it was a lot of fun, and Michelle gave every student a whole box of goodies to play with!

After the class, a friend of ours from out of town showed up, and we all made our way down to the open hobby area in the lobby and painted for a couple of hours while meeting new people and trading techniques.

Next: Part II!