Tablescapes Display Board Paint Test and Tutorial

Secret Weapon Miniatures' Tablescapes finally arrived and before batch painting all the display board tiles I thought I would paint a test tile first. Normally most of my terrain painting and weathering is limited to the bases so I wanted to test whether the jump to a 12"x12" format worked well, or if there was a need to do something different to make it tick. I was especially worried about avoiding the monotony of colours and textures. A separate worry was the amount of time I would need to dedicate to each tile, as there are 35 more to paint and I am definetely not the faster of painters.

The tile is from the Forgotten City theme, which essentially are broken tiles and boulders with some soil. I wanted the floor to be grey, the soilto be yellow-ish and link both areas with browns; essentially take advantage of those many cracks to fill them with dirt.

I also added a few flowers and bushes here and there to help break the monotony. Keep in mind this tile is part of  a display board and usually will be covered in miniatures - and perhaps a small terrain element - so there will be a lot less open space than in the pictures.

Fire Dragons about to be in a world o'hurt

Tutorial

Let me preface  by saying that an airbrush and weathering pigments are required to achieve a similar look to the pictures. It's not to say you need those to paint the tiles - in fact you can just use a large brush like in GW's tutorial - but they will make your like easier and make the tiles look better.

With that out of the way, I started priming the tile in grey. The primer color is an important decision as it will have a great influence on the look of the finished tile. In this case grey is the most neutral color, as it is neither too dark or clear, and it is similar to the color most of the tile will be covered with. Once the primer was dry, I airbrused dark grey in the spaces between tales, and also around the outline of the soil parts. The purpose is dual: darken the cracks and spaces that are naturally dark, and also provide some color graduation once the final colors are applied. Indeed, the grey will look clearer in the center of the tiles and darker around the edges where the dark grey is; this is why I deliberately allowed some dark grey outside of the cracks.

Next step is applying the base colors, grey and dust yellow. The important thing to keep in mind is to not spray the color all over the place, but paint each tile individually. By doing this we will achieve a better color graduation in each tile (as you are spraying at center) and also keep the edges more or less dark.

Adding more depth to the tile

For the grey tiles, I painted the edges with a lighter grey. I used an old Citadel large dry brush, which is flat and  about 1.5cm wide. I did not really drybrush anything, just applied gently a bit of paint through the edges. 

For the soil part, I applied some darker brown on the recesses and depressions of the areas; this will help define the volumes as the soil is indeed not sculpted flat, but has some nice variation. 

In the space between tiles and along all the many cracks this tile has, I applied a dark brown wash. Again, this is a gently application of color with a brush directy on the cracks/lines and not covering the tile in it. I used Mig Productions' Dark Wash, which is a very interesting product that behaves differently from Citadel's washes. This particular wash has a very strong capillary motion, meaning if you apply a little bit tin the intersection of 4 tiles (i.e. in the cross in between), the wash will flow its way through the four directions as a result of this motion. The idea is therefore to make small applications in selected areas, then use a fine brush to extend the wash if needed.

One small downside of this type of washes is that they are slow to dry, so take it easy and let it rest :)

Once the wash was completely dry -don't try anything whislt is still wet or it will ruin your work - I painted again the areas in which the wash had overspilled.

Pigments and bushes

Now it's time to dust out your pigments (you got it?) and again make gentle, controlled applications. In this case I applied a brown/red dust color in the cracks and between the tiles, and also in some interesting spots in the soil parts. It is difficult to explain with words but suffice to say there are interesting textures in these tiles where it becomes apparent a pigment might look interesting. Just give it a try and you'll see what I  mean :)

I also added some green pigment around the raised tiles, simulating the effect of water/humidity.

How were the pigments applied? for the most part I used an old brush and picked up very small amounts of pigment every time. The pigment was deposited in a crack or depression, and was extended with the brush or even with the thumb.

Note the subtle grey around the tiles and small color variations in the tiles that break the monotony

Once I was happy with the result I applied a coat of satin varnish. Because most of the pigments were in the cracks that was OK but in other situations you might need to apply a pigment fixer or the spray will take a away the pigments.

Now for the final touch - adding some flowers and bushes. I used Army Painter's Meadow Flowers, which you can see in the picture below. For about 4€ you get this strip with white and yellow flowers. Simply use the tweezers to get a small amount and glue it in place.

I also added a few bushes from Citadel's Mordheim bushes set.

Colors and pigments used

Please just take this as a reference of the colors that I used. You can make your own selection and most probably use whatever you already have.

• Primer: Vallejo Surface Primer Grey.
• Tiles: Vallejo Model Air Dark Sea Grey, Medium Grey and Citadel Administratum Grey.
• Soil: Vallejo Model Air Brown and Burnt Umber.
• Wash: Mig Productions Dark Wash.
• Pigments: Secret Weapon Miniatures Terracota Earth, Dark Earth and Sewage Muck.
• Vallejo Satin Varnish.
• Citadel Mordheim bushes and Army Painter Meadow Flowers.
• Plus an undetermined number of Moritz 25cl beers.

Hope you liked the tutorial and feel free to post any questions or comments!

Ulrik von Octoberfest Showcase and tutorial

A WW2 looking badass ogryn? yes please! This is my first attempt at a Scibor miniature that I painted just as a divertimento after so many crimson power armours. It's a pretty cool figure with a large machine gun, dog face, cigar and a decent scenic base, perfect for a mini project! The name is amusing as well ;)

You might notice the right arm is not the same as in Scibor's webpage, I think they mixed components from another kit - nothing that a bit of greenstuff can't fix. I used Citadel's liquid greenstuff by the way, and worked out pretty well.

Paint tutorial:

First things first, the guy looks boss and I don't want to spoil it with a shiny look, so it's going to be primed in black. I don't really have a preference for white or black primers (or another color), just think about what I'm trying to achieve and make a selection. For my Blood Angels army for example, I prime directly with a dark red/brown primer from Vallejo, as that gives me the perfect tone to begin with. This Ulrik could have been primed grey or even white, but it would have give it a slightly shiny finish to it.

The skin is painted with a basecoat of tallarn flesh, and from then working my way to the lights with a 50/50 mix of dwarf and elf flesh, gradually increasing the elf flesh until the final highlights that are pure elf flesh. Just make sure to leave recesses with the previous color as you build up layers. Ogryn flesh (the old wash) helps to smooth the transitions.

Something to keep in mind while painting is where the attention will be directed - in this case the face is a focal group and we want to spend some time here. They say the devil is in the details ;)

This means when I was done with the flesh layers, I spent some time with very controlled, thinned strokes of different skin tones to highlight the cheeks or nose, or emphasize shadows.

The eyes are painted with a simple method: 1) paint them black. 2) add some pure white with a detail brush, making sure to leave some black around the eye for definition and 3) paint the pupil with a gentle stroke of your finest brush. I know some folks use thin ballpens, and I'm sure there's plenty of other methods. Quoting something I read from Kirk Hammett a long time ago, if you have to go from A to B, and the way other people do it just doesn't work from you, then find your own way.

The lenses are painted with different shades of blue. There are two tricks here:

• Keep the angle of the transitions (you can see it has a rough 45º angle).
• Once the minitaure has been sealed with a satin varnish, add a glossy varnish to the lenses.

The coat was painted with simple brown tones, scorched and calthan if I'm not mistaken, then a devlan mud wash and working again some lights with the previous colors. I could have spent more time here but I wanted to have it painted in an evening so no more work here.

The gun was painted with boltgun metal, then badab black wash and then some deliberate washes over the barrels after Ron's tutorial at From The Warp.

The helmet was painted with catachan green, then added a wash with 50/50 badab black and thraka green. Then added the Captain marks (2 white vertical strokes).

The base is also pretty straigthforward, with some brown basecoat and codex grey for the rocks. I might add in the future some more details here, like a spent magazine or razorwire.

And that's all folks :) Painted in an evening at a decent tabletop standard. Hope you liked the tutorial, let me know if you have any questions!

How To Magnetize a Furioso Dreadnough

Hi there! today I'm going to show you how the magnetize a Furioso Dread. This is a great kit that comes complete with the options to create a Furioso with Blood Fists / Talons, Death Company dread (aka loldread) and a Libby Dread. The good news is that it only takes a few magnets (6 to be precise) to be able to swap between the three! and for a measly 4 more you can even add the magna grapple, searchlight or smoke launched! Continue reading to find out how.

What we need

Magnetizing is really a cheap business - we just need:

• Some 3x2 mm real earth magnets. I buy mine from Back2Base-ix, you can get 50 for about $10. Although these days I buy them in batches of 200. These magnets are really handy!.
• A drill tool or a power tool. A manual tool will give you more control and is probably safer, while a power tool will make things easier, just make sure you handle it carefully.
• 2mm and 3mm drill bits. Although I use 3mm magnets, sometimes you might want to make a small 2mm hole, then expand it to 3mm.

And that's about it. Using magnets greatly increases your ability to switch gear, and now 6th edition is starting it comes in real handy.

Getting started

Some smart use of the magnets consists in magnetizing the legs from the torso. What would I do that I hear you asking? well to begin with, it's easier and safer to transport, but it also allows you to play with the pose. It must be the kid in me, but I like to see my minis in different poses, or I would end up bored with them. It's just 2 magnets and a couple of minutes so really worth the effort.

This is what we need to do: drill a 3mm hole in the center of the round base above the legs, and another hole in the area below the torso/sarcophagus where it fits. If the hole is not exactly centered, that will make the pose slightly tilted, which is cool if that is how you want it to look. To fix the magnets in place, add some PVA (white) glue and stick a magnet. The flipside is that it will dry slowly, so refrain from putting the parts together or the magnets will detach. Some advices when magnetizing 1) obviously make sure you check the polarity before! and 2) make the hole slightly larger than the magnet size. This is because the glue will occupy space. We don't want the magnet to protrude from the surface, but to fit in it nicely.

The next part is a bit more tricky. In order to be able to swap the front plates, we need to create a point in the torso to place the magnet. There is no obvious place so what I do is to build a small cross with a suitable piece of the sprue, and place the magnet there. With a cross shape we gain four points of contact to ensure it will stay there. The front plates will need a piece of sprue as well to bring both magnets closer.

Adding the final touches

Now that we are able to swap the torsos, all we need to is paint them and the arms as well. The arms need no magnetizing at all as they are easily swapable (sounds obvious but do not glue them to the body!).Be aware though that some work might be needed if you want to use weapon arms from other kits, as GW decided to make them in different diameters. I hope they didn't do this on purpose although the contrary is difficult to believe.

If you want to use FW arms (the autocannon ones are rather popular these days!), then you just need to drill the hole in the arms to match the diameter of the dread's peg. Easy peasy. And you can always add magnets in there if need be.

We can also magnetize the upper part of the torso so the magna grapple, searchlight or smoke launchers can be added at will. To do this we'll drill in the center of the squared area in the top of the torso, right where the searchlight in the DC dread below is, or the smoke launcher in the picture above. These 2 options should be straightforward to magnetize, just be careful as these are small items and could slip while drilling. And that's about it, let me know if you have any questions!