Tutorial: Cheap city/metal grate bases

I recently completed some Necromunda guys with some great metal deck bases, perfect for the Underhive or urban landscapes of the 41st millennium. They were cheap, fast, and easy to do, so I thought I would share.

First thing take a blank base (easier if they aren't slotta bases, but I had to use that for my necro) and put a glob of Green Stuff on it.

Next just smooth it out with your fingers and get full base coverage.

 If using slots, just dig out the green stuff  and open up the slot with a sculpting tool

Now find something REALLY smooth. I had the bottom of this resin mini, but anything flat will do, however you can put a ziploc or other plastic down as well to make sure you get a very slick, smooth surface. This also really helps keeping the green stuff from sticking to your object.

Now that it is smushed out, pry you slot back open if you made one/need one.

 AND WET THE BASE. LIKE SUPER WET. Sorry this is blurry. BUT you get the idea. ALOT of water on it. You want the impression you are making to happen but nothing to stick.

 Now I had this cheap brass grating from secret weapon miniatures, but any similar pattern/producer will work.

 Place it down, put your flat/smooth surface down once more (including the ziploc if you used that) and press down evenly. Enough to make a surface impression everywhere, but not to cut deep and completely smush out the base. It may take a few tries. if you make a mistake, just keep it wet, smooth it out and try again.

 Remove your flat object, remove grating, carefully pry open the slot if required. Let dry and cure (I put mine under a fan and bright light to speed the process, but you can leave them over night too). If interested, the mini is a toad I am going to use as a Beast of Nurgle for Blood Bowl from Toad King Castings.

 Prime. Anything cheap and black will do.

 Drybrush in your metallic colour of choice.

 Add rust effects as desired.

Wash (nuln oil or argax easthade work well) and drybrush again.

 Once competely dried and cured, if doing slots you may need to use an exacto knife to cut away any excess to get the slot to fit. I don't do this before it is dry so that I ensure a snug fit in the end. Finally you have CITY BASES! YAY!

Win the army of your dreams?!?!

So this is on the GW page right now. Clicking it takes me to a 404 error, however, seems we have a cool sweepstakes just around the corner!

"Win the army of your dreams"

Complete BaC Blood Angels Contemptor (repose and Magna-grapple added)

This has to be one of my fastest turn arounds on buying a model and painting it in recent years. BUT I need this guy for an event at Adepticon. While reposing his leg was a bit of a pain (wip shots here), I opted to only repose one leg (why most people do both I have no clue) and in the end he wasn't all that bad to do. Painting him was actually quite fun!

I thought about doing some more symbols or Freehand on his shoulders, but I didn't want to spoil how pristine the red looked to me. So I decided to leave him how he is. A few pieces of Brass etch and the grapple were enough.

He is magnetized on his gun arm and his magna-grapple. I had to procure and do some conversion work to add the magna-grapple the underside actually uses a spare part from a Forge World Thunder Bolt! I still have to paint his multi-melta arm, but I have too much other stuff to finish before Adepticon and I don't need that arm right now. I will finish it some other time.

 The nice thing about the plastic Contemptor is the arm and body are hollow, so magnets are really easy to do. Just glue them in then glue it shut.

Throwback: Space Marine Movie List

Found this jewel from back in the day recently... the "Space Marine Movie List". I think this was originally in White Dwarf 300...

 pdf here from Dakka Dakka

"I'm not a tough guy, but if I fight you in a movie that I'm starring in, I'll kick your ass!"

The idea of the list was that these were the Marines that would be in the propaganda films and Imperial Action flicks (a.k.a fluff accurate) rather than the ones we normally deal with on the table top. One Space Marine REALLY should be able to take on like 50 orks.

I think with some clever adaptations, you could still fit this into a fun/friendly game of 40k 7th edition (especially hull points and weapon strengths/ap's).

Road to Adepticon: Dark Angels Vehicles

As one of the four of us from Sepulchre of Heroes going to Adepticon this year, I have quite a bit of prep work to do - especially since I decided to use almost entirely freshly painted models. I'll be competing in the team tournament, the friendly and Necromunda, so there's plenty to get through. I've been spending nearly every ounce of free time lately on building and painting my force, and I thought I'd share pictures of some of the vehicles that I finished recently.

First up, we have a relic sicaran from Forgeworld - Gothmog and I each got one at the same time a while ago. Unfortunately only one of us is allowed to field it in the team tournament, so it will be a bit longer before you get to see his in glorious blood angels red. I think the Sicaran is a beautiful model, and I thoroughly enjoyed painting it. The Dark Angels emblems on the sides are brass etch, also from Forgeworld.

The other two vehicles will only be fielded in the friendly tournament, but the Ravenwing definitely needed some representation in my list there. Before I started painting it, I thought the shrine on the back of the Darkshroud looked a bit silly, but it has definitely grown on me. I used a slightly modified version of the paint mixes I've used in the past for Ravenwing bikers - a series of dark grey mixes with a black wash over the top to darken the overall color.

Lastly, the Ravenwing Nephilim Jetfighter. I still don't think it's a particularly useful unit, even after the latest codex reduced the cost and upped the missiles to S7, but I always really liked the model. Given the stated goal of the Friendly tournament at Adepticon, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to break it out and actually paint it. Trying to give some depth to the expanse of white on the wings was tricky, but I like the effect and I'm looking forward to actually having it on the table.

 I'll leave you here with some more photos of the sicaran, darkshroud and nephilim, as well as what I have left to go for Adepticon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything I'm taking to Adepticon, finished or not.

Next up: Necromunda Delaque Gang