Karchev the Terrible & More Cinematic Effects

...as I mentioned in my previous post, I tried to buy some cinematic effects from Armorcast while I was at Adepticon, but they were sold out of the ones I wanted for my Freebootas.  However, at the time my gaming group was really starting to dive in to Warmachine, and I remembered seeing this pic while looking through the cinematic effects on the Armorcast website:

picture from Armorcast

...needless to say, I thought that was pretty cool.  Around this time I had also picked up the Karchev the Terrible warcaster model from Privateer Press, and was excited about painting it - I decided that I'd pick up some of the cinematic effects and give them a try with the Karchev model.  Before leaving Adepticon I stopped by the Armorcast booth and picked up a couple of the Large Smoke Plumes.

Here's the smoke plumes right out of the package:

...and here's the built Karchev model:

Hmmm.  Most of the warjacks have a single exhaust stack at the top, but Karchev has six, three on each side- the smoke plumes aren't going to work as-is.  To solve this, I took my hobby saw and cut the smoke plumes down to the approximate width of the row of smokestacks:

Then I sunk some pins into the smokestacks, and drilled out the smoke plumes:

I mixed up some Green Stuff and sculpted the area where the plumes joined the smokestacks:

After the model was primed, I painted the reds with my airbrush, as seen in my zenital airbrushing tutorial:

I used the airbrush with some oranges & yellows to fade the appropriate colors into the recesses of the smoke plumes:

To do the "outermost" part of the smoke plumes, where they would be the darkest, I turned to Forge World's "Black Soot" weathering powder:

I mixed it with some water and applied it to the spots where I didn't want any color to show through at all:

Then, I applied the dry powder with a brush where I wanted it to be somewhat transparent:

I had had problems before with the weathering powders getting where I didn't want them, so I decided to fix them before moving on to the rest of the model.  I masked the rest of the model off with an old shopping bag and applied some Krylon matte varnish:

Oh no, what's this?!?!

I had the dreaded "white fuzz" appear on the smoke plumes immediately.  It actually happened right before my eyes - I think the weathering powder was absorbing all the propellant/medium in the varnish almost instantly, making the varnish dry too fast.  (I was spraying indoors, and I've never had a problem with this matte varnish before).  I tried re-coating it, with similar results - after looking around online and talking to some people via Twitter, I used a paintbrush dipped in mineral spirits to remove the fuzz:

Then I gave the smoke plumes a coat of Testor's Dull Kote, which I usually abhor:

Okay, crisis averted.  Unfortunately I lost some of the color on the smoke plumes during that little fiasco, and I had to spend some time touching them up with some more orange & some yellow ink.  Now at least I could move on to painting the rest of the model.

I started by giving the whole model a wash of 50/50 Baal Red/Devlan Mud:

Then I started adding the colors, mostly the black & metallics:

...about this time the freakin' model broke on me AGAIN, in a spot that had already been pinned AND epoxied (those annoying fringe "skirts" around the back).  This time I resorted to JB Weld and a clamp to repair it:

...the pictures of the painting process get kinda sparse around here, since the clearcoat fiasco & the breakage cost me a couple of days, and I was rushing to get done.  Mostly it consisted of finishing the weapons, face, and painting a billion brass rivets.

Since I'm doing a winter theme for the bases on my Khador models, I bought these cool little icicles from Dragon Forge Designs:

I cut a small section and glued them to the side of the base:

(I realized later that I actually glued these on backwards, since there was a big nasty vent mark on the section I chose - oh well).  I wasn't concerned about cleaning up the top edge of the icicles, since I was planning on covering it with snow effects from Secret Weapon Miniatures:

...another cool item I picked up from Dragon Forge with this model in mind was this cool large resin display plinth:

After giving it a scrub, I gave it a couple coats of GW Chaos Black Spray:

Then a quick spray with some Dull Kote:

After everything was done, I pulled out the light box & good camera for a photo shoot:

Finished pics:

Overall I'm fairly pleased with how he came out, although I didn't get to do everything I wanted - my original plan was to do his weapons with non-metallic metals, and I would have liked to have tried some OSL effects from the fire like in the Armorcast product photo, but I just ran out of time.  Building the model was an exercise in frustration (there are more pins in that model than in Evel Kinevel's spine) and it broke on me multiple times when I was handling it during painting.  That, plus the complications with the varnish, plus the fact that it's become pretty obvious that Karchev is not going to be my warcaster of choice for my Khador force (The Butcher & Sorscha are both too good) meant that I was ready to be done with this model...

Armorcast Cinematic Effects

...one item I became aware of a while ago were the Cinematic Effects from Armorcast.  Basically, these are sculpted muzzle flashes, smoke plumes, etc., that make your model's wargear look like it's actually functioning.  While it's kind of a neat idea, I wasn't really sold on them because 1.) the larger effects can get kinda pricey, and 2.) I'm an obsessive completest - if I started buying these things and liked 'em, I wouldn't stop until every model in all of my armies had them, and every single one of my models would have fifty dollars worth of accessories attached. :-)

But, one of the units I got in a Craigslist lot was an old unit of metal Stormboyz - and the models were boring.  I really liked the look of the ScrapTech Jump Rocket Blast, and thought it might be a good way to spice up the appearance of the models.  One of the first stops I made in the Adepticon dealer room was the Armorcast booth - I had written down the SKU number and asked for them.  "Sold out", they told me,  "we brought a dozen of 'em, and one guy came and cleaned us out".  That bummed me out, but when I got home I ordered them off the web site and had them a few day later:

As I said, they're kinda pricey ($10.00 per three-pack), but they do look really cool - I don't know how the sculptor was able to get such an "organic" look to these, but they nailed it.

Of course these all needed to be pinned:

I waited until after I had the rocket blasts mounted to attach the models to their bases, since the blasts are long enough that if I mounted the models to their bases flat-footed, they would sit funny.

New Warmachine Stuff

I picked up some Warmachine items for my Khador force the other day:

Some Doom Reavers & Winter Guard:

...and some templates:

(The templates make life so much easier).  Look for painted pics soon!

New Paints

I picked up some new paints the other day:

The P3 colors are for the Protectorate of Menoth battlegroup I got at Adepticon - I love the color scheme, but since white tones are notoriously difficult, I decided to get the paints that are purpose-made for those models.  The Bleached Bone is because I'm using a ton of it on my Freebootas, and the Dark Flesh is because I went to use it the other day and mine was all dried up - I've noticed this seems to be a common occurance with Citadel paints in the red family.  Anyone else have this problem?

Secret Weapon Miniatures: Snow Effects

...so a while back I mentioned that I had used some snow effects from Secret Weapon Miniatures on one of my Khador warjacks, and I wanted to give a little more detail.  The item is on their web site under the "Scenics" section, and is the "Masterclass Scenics: Crushed Glass Bundle".  I've heard of people using baking soda or other methods to simulate snow, but I was a bit worried that that wouldn't be very durable, or would discolor in the long run.  I also saw this model by Matthieu Fontaine, which pretty sold me on Secret Weapon's product.

The kit actually consists of two products, a jar of crushed glass (which is labelled "Warning! Contains Crushed Glass!" oddly enough) and a bottle of "Realistic Water Effects", which is essentially gloss varnish:

One thing to consider: part of the appeal of this product is that is makes a very realistic "wet snow" effect - I assume this is because it is gloss varnish.  As such, I would recommend applying it after you've sealed your model, if you use matte sealer.

There were no instructions included, and I wasn't quite sure if there was a "mixing ratio" or anything like that - after poking around for a bit on the Secret Weapon blog, I found this video that gives a step-by-step overview of using the product.  Turns out, there's no ratio - you pretty much just "eyeball it" until you get the look you want.  To start, I grabbed an old plastic blister pack I kept around for just such an occasion and sprinkled in some of the crushed glass:

WARNING: WEAR A MASK!  As mentioned above, Crushed Glass contains, amazingly enough, crushed glass.  It would be a very, very bad thing to get in your lungs, and it's the consistency of very fine sand, so it could happen easily enough.

Next, I added the Realistic Water Effects a few drops at a time & mixed it up, until I got the look I wanted - a wet, slushy snow:

Then I used a cheap plastic sculpting tool to spread it on the model's base:

I'm going for a "spring thaw" -kinda look for this army - where the snow is starting to melt, and maybe the remnants of dead grass are starting to poke through the snow here and there.  For an added effect, I used a piece of Winter Tuft from Army Painter on the base:

...and here's the result after the snow has dried:

I'm pretty pleased with how it came out - I think I need to use a slightly darker grey on the rocks so there's a bit more contrast with the snow when it's finished, but the snow effect looks great!