An Open Letter To Games Workshop

By

On 27th July 2020

In Blog

I didn’t write this, but it’s amazing, go read it, and share it wide because it needs to be seen and acted on.

An Open Letter To Games Workshop

What I Am Modelling

Decided to get the Sisters of Battle from the army launch box finished, so hit the Seraphim and got them finished.

I have had a very slow week, lots of pain which has stopped me from painting anywhere as much as I would have like to.

I did today finish up the last of the launch box stuff and painted the Sisters Repentia.

I also built both of my Space Marine sides of Indomitus, one which is going to join the Ultramarines, the other which is joining the Blood Ravens.

This does mean that my painting schedule hasn’t changed since last week at all.

  1. Millitarium Tempestus Tempestor Prime and Command Squad x 7
  2. Stormcast Eternals Castigators x 5
  3. Sons of Horus Tactical Squad x 10
  4. T’au Breacher Team x 10 & Devilfish
  5. Death Korps of Krieg Mortar Team x 3
  6. Blood Ravens Redemptor Dreadnought
  7. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Hunters & Knight-Zephyros
  8. Ultramarines Contemptor Dreadnought
  9. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  10. Blood Ravens Intercessor Squad x 10

What I Am Reading

Still making my way through Ghostmaker, but the issues with pain have made it very hard to concentrate on reading.

What I Am Playing

Me and Lindsay pulled out Pandemic Hot Zone North America on Friday night, we had two games of it because our first one ended in the first go because we pulled an epidemic straight away and ended up with too many outbreaks.

The second game was a lot easier and we managed to find the cure to all three diseases in good time.

Fantastic game and can’t wait to try it with Megan when she gets back.

What I Am Backing

I am not actually backing anything right now!

What I Am Cooking

My confidence in the kitchen is still very shot!

I did cook an omelette for breakfast on Sunday fir me and Lindsay, filled with cheese and mushrooms.

And today I did manage to cook up a little bacon to have some bacon sarnies.

What I Am Spending

This week I bought myself an extra copy of Conquest 68 for the Haemotrope Reactor to add to my Zone Mortalis Scenery.

Not so much spending but I did swap a set of my Black Library Celebration Custodes Dice for a set of the original Custodes dice, which means I have a set of each now.

And again, not spending, but GMT Games ran a Tough Economy Special whereby they gave away some free games to people who have lost jobs and work due to Covid-19.

Because all of my work with Asmodee for the year has been cancelled leaving me with no other work, they said I was eligible and thus they sent me a copy of Twlight Struggle, which makes me quite happy.

Of course the big thing this week was Indomitus!

I bought one copy for myself and another to split with Graham, plus I picked up a copy of Chapter Approved 2020, a pot of Tesseract Glow, pot of Death Korps Drab, can of Death Guard Green Spray and a Combat Gauge.

So from this I have one set of the Necrons to add to my pile from Forgebane and Kill Team, plus two sets of the Space Marines, one set going to my Blood Ravens the other going to the Ultramarines.

And inspired by Phil, I bought a pot of Sigismund Yellow Clear, because I am going to actually do something with my Warhound Titan!

A Long 24 Hours

By

On 22nd July 2020

In Blog

Well I did it, I did the 24 hours of painting, and I sadly failed to get all 25 models painted but I did paint 15 of them.

Here they are when I finished.

And when I finished basing them today, this how they look.

The good news is that I smashed my target of £200 and raised a whopping £402 for the Willow Foundation, and if you want, you can donate here still!

It was exhausting and at the same time amazing, I will be doing it again one day, but probably splitting it up into two shifts.

If you are insane, you can watch the videos here on Twitch at the Edge of Empire channel.

What I Am Painting

I started off by painting some Bullgryns for Niki’s Death Korps of Krieg army. These are 3D printed on his resin printer and are absolutely beautiful, a real pleasure to work with.

But now of course it reinforces my desire to get myself a 3D printer!

I then turned my attention to painting the test models for the Sister of Battle painting challenge.

I painted her to match Megan’s avatar which was fantastically drawn by

I am happy with it and the scheme is easily replicated and should be reasonable to get one in the 24 hours for all 25 models. Well I was wrong about that.

I also painted my test Penitent Engine, because this is the model I am most nervous about, but this was no where near as bad as I thought I was gonna be, I bought this specially to paint as a test.

After the 24 hour painting challenge I returned to my painting queue and I concentrated on and finished the Valkyrie for my Millitarium Tempestus.

And to add to Aeronautica Imperialis I painted a Valkyrie and Vendetta in the same scheme as the 28mm one!

So how does this leave my painting queue looking now?

  1. Millitarium Tempestus Command Squad x 7 & Tempestor Prime
  2. Stormcast Eternals Castigators x 5
  3. Sons of Horus Tactical Squad x 10
  4. T’au Breacher Team x 10 & Devilfish
  5. Death Korps of Krieg Mortar Teams x 3
  6. Blood Ravens Redemptor Dreadnought
  7. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Hunters x 10 & Knight-Zephyros
  8. Ultramarines Contemptor Dreadnought
  9. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  10. Blood Ravens Intercessors x 10

What I Am Reading

Still making my way though Ghostmaker, it’s taking time but I am enjoying it.

What I Am Playing

Sadly no games were played this week.

What I Am Backing

Project Infinite Hole has funded and I have completed the backer survey for it, I look forward to getting that later this year hopefully.

The 2020 GURPS PDF Challenge also funded and that raised enough that all 12 PDFs were unlocked.

For the first time in a while I have not got anything funding, nor do I think anything is on the horizon.

What I Am Cooking

This week me and Lindsay made some pulled pork. In case you haven’t guessed already from past posts, Kansas City pulled pork is my signature dish.

We cooked a pork shoulder for 6 hours in Newcastle Brown Ale with onions, garlic and black pepper, before pulling it and then cooking it for another two hours in my Kansas City BBQ sauce.

Lindsay made some red potato wedges to serve with it, and we accompanied it with a salad, coleslaw, bread buns and slices of Emmental cheese.

What I Am Spending

Nowt this week much other than the Lady of Sorrows audiobook from Audible.

Just a Few Days to Go

By

On 14th July 2020

In Blog

In just a few days I will be painting for 24 hours in support of the Willow Foundation.

I have set a target of £200 and am already at £160, everyone who donates will be entered into a raffle to win some stuff, a list of which you can see here, and you can donate via Just Giving.

I am going to be posting a lot more about this in the week so look out for updates.

The models are all now built and I think I have the technology sorted out, so let’s crack on!

What I am Modelling

I started the week by painting up the Autocannon Teams for Niki’s Death Korps of Krieg.

I love these models and may have to think about painting my own Death Korps of Krieg at some point.

I then painted up the Chaos Spawn for the Death Guard, mostly done with Contrast but I think they look good.

The Stormcast Eternals Evocators were being worked on between stages on these two previous things, so I then turned my attention to finish them off.

So that left me with just the Castigators left from the Stormcast side of Soul Wars.

Next on the list were my Blood Claws for the Space Wolves, 15 of them! And I also painted a Space Wolves Captain from Rogue Trader first made in 1991.

The Blood Claws were made from my bitz box and most use leftovers from my original building of the Space Wolves several years ago.

I do currently have a single Blood Claws Squad, of five Astartes, but decided I wanted a nice big squad of 15 so I can eventually put them in a Stormwolf Assault Boat and have that lot jumping out with a Wolf Priest!

The Captain was finished first ion Saturday evening, and I am rather happy with him, he will serve as a Wolf Guard Battle Leader probably.

I am trying to acquire a few of these old school captains from back then to add to the armies I do have, I have some bids on the Blood Angels and Ultramarines Captains on eBay.

The Blood Claws took a while but they eventually were finished today.

I think next year I will be going through the Space Wolves to get them rebased and the transfers and pack markings sorted out properly.

I have no put on my painting handles, the Tempestor Prime, Command Squad and Valkyrie for my Millitarium Tempestus, and the Ogryns for Niki’s Death Korps of Krieg.

I am also going to paint the Valkyrie and a Vendetta for Aeronautica Imperialis.

So what does this leave my painting queue looking like, well let’s take a look:-

  1. Millitarium Tempestus Tempestor Prime, Command Squad & Valkyries
  2. Death Korps of Krieg Ogryns x 6
  3. Stormcast Eternals Castigators x 5
  4. Sons of Horus Tactical Squad x 10
  5. T’au Breacher Squad x 10 & Devilfish
  6. Death Korps of Krieg Mortar Teams x 3
  7. Blood Ravens Redemptor Dreadnought
  8. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Hunters x 10 & Knight-Zephyros
  9. Ultramarines Contemptor Dreadnought
  10. Zone Mortalis Terrain

What I Am Reading

I started on Ghostmaker by Dan Abnett, the second Gaunts Ghost novel and that’s pretty good going so far.Millitarium Tempestus Tempestor Prime, Command Squad and Valkyries

I have been very alert this week so haven’t read as much as I would have liked to.

I finished Devastation of Baal and decided to listen to Dante, and now realise I should have done it the other way around, both books are pretty good to paint to.

What I Am Playing

I haven’t played anything this week 🙁

What I Am Backing

Alhambra Roll and Write funded and our pledge has been collected. Obviously as it’s a Queen Games Projects I am expecting it to be hugely delayed, but arrive eventually.

Project Infinite Hole is still going strong and should finish at the end of this week for some more amazing Paranoia content.

And I decided to back the Steve Jackson Games’ GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge because it’s basically 12 PDFs for GURPS for just $3

What I Am Cooking

I did cook some hot dogs for lunch on Monday, I made them with caramelised onions and melted gruyere. I have some ideas on how to make them better and once Megan is back I will be trying that out.

What I Am Spending

The big headline is my purchase of Indomitus, but I have to wait two weeks until I have that in my hands!

In the meantime I did grab a box of Ambots for Necromunda from Leodis Games.

And I picked up a preloved copy of Dice Forge from Drew and Rhi at Meeple Perk!

I also bought a few ebooks, Lady of Sorrows by CL Werner, Saturnine by Dan Abnett both in prose and audio, Soulless Fury by Will McDermott and both the Generals Handbook 2020 and Spike Journal Issue 9 from Games Workshop.

It Is For Everyone

By

On 6th July 2020

In Blog

This past week and a bit has seen the much hated Arch Warhammer explode in rage as Games Workshop launch legal action to get him to drop the Warhammer from his name.

My mate Darryl summed up the series of events quite expertly here, but needless to say, I think this is a good thing.

That some people’s first exposure to the hobby would be via him is genuinely horrifying, because in all honestly, he is a far right, racist, homophobic, bigoted arsehole.

He represents the worst of our hobby and I am glad he is being pushed further and further out of the hobby, although sadly the usual suspects like The Outer Circle are backing him.

Warhammer and wargaming is for everybody, but if you get enjoyment out of excluding others, then frankly I don’t want you in my hobby community. I will not tolerate those who are intolerant.

I want a diverse fan base, because more diverse players means more players who can utterly humiliate me when we throw dice, more amazing paint jobs for me to drool over.

So if the simply idea of a more diverse player base triggers you, then bugger off and go whinge about it on Parler and let the rest of us for whom simply being a decent human being is our baseline, happily coexist.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by abandoning the T’au and picked up the new hotness, some Zone Mortalis Floor Tiles!

Got them at 11:15am on Wednesday and finished them just after 4:30pm!!!

I then turned my attention to the Thermic Plasma Regulators I got at the same time, for which I am using a different spray, Wilkos Gunmetal spray, which in colour seems to be about halfway between Leadbelcher and Iron Warriors.

I decided to do these in a slightly cleaner style to show that they are actually working parts, which are sort of maintained.

I then went back to the T’au Pathfinders and got those finished up, the Devilfish was finished Friday and the Pathfinders, Drones and Darkstrider on Saturday.

On Sunday I tied up my desk and set to work on the remaining Warlord Battle Titan Weapons, these were a Macro Gatling Blaster, Paired Gatling Blasters and Paired Turbo Laser Destructors.

This means I now have a complete armoury for the Warlord Titan.

I then put on my desk some Death Korps of Krieg Autocannon teams for Niki. And I also put on the painting handles my Stormcast Eternals Evocators to work on them when the washes need to dry on the Krieg.

But I didn’t do any work on them on Monday because I was doing some prep work for the live stream and tidying up my desk.

What I did do was run a live stream in which I built a few of the Sisters models and tested the streaming setup, which you can see below.

So what does my painting queue look like now?

  1. Death Korps of Krieg Autocannon Teams x 3
  2. Death Guard Chaos Spawn x 2
  3. Stormcast Eternals Evocators x 5
  4. Space Wolves Blood Claws x 15 & Space Wolves Captain
  5. Millitarium Tempestus Tempestor Prime, Command Squad and Valkyries
  6. Stormcast Eternals Castigators
  7. Sons of Horus Tactical Squad x 10
  8. T’au Breacher Team x 10 & Devilfish
  9. Death Korps of Krieg Mortar Teams x 3
  10. Blood Ravens Redemptor Dreadnought

What I Am Reading

Not a lot but I did read Of Their Lives in the Ruins of Their Cities by Dan Abnett which I quite enjoyed.

I don’t know why I left it so long to read Gaunt’s Ghosts as I am quite enjoying them.

I am almost finished listening to Devastation of Baal by Guy Haley and should hopefully be finished with it tomorrow, it’s quite good so far.

What I Am Playing

Noting has been played this week, me and a Lindsay were gonna play Pandemic Hot Zone North America on Sunday but she watched Frozen 2 and fell asleep instead.

What I Am Backing

Fiasco arrived, which is nice, looking forward to trying this out when Megan returns.

I am still backing Project Infinite Hole for Paranoia, because it’s Paranoia!

And I have backed my 100th project in the form of Alhambra Roll and Write! I know it’s Queen Games so it will be subject to terrible communication, and huge delays, but I love Alhambra.

What I Am Cooking

Not much but I did make an omelette for breakfast on Sunday for myself and Lindsay, filled with cheese and mushrooms!

What I Am Spending

As mentioned in the painting section I bought the Zone Mortalis Floor Tiles along with some Thermic Plasma Regulators and some Typhus Corrosion from The Outpost.

I also bought a couple of cans of Grey Seer Spray from Battle Bunker which I need for my Nighthaunt, my Zone Mortalis Walls and my Age of Sigmar scenery, plus two pots of Mournfang Brown, a pot of Iron Warriors and some Iron Hands Steel Air.

I also mopped into Battle Bunker on Sunday when me and Lindsay took a drive to get out the house, I meant only to pick up a dry brush, but ended up buying a pot of Tau Light Ochre Air, XV88 Air and a mug in addition to the drybrush.

24 Hours Painting Challenge – Giveaways

By

On 4th July 2020

In Blog

So in two weeks I will be painting for 24 hours solid to raise money for The Willow Foundation.

You can donate here, and what I am going to do is run a little raffle for this with some stuff I have lying around unused, so lets see what you can potentially win!

24 Hours Painting Challenge Giveaways
  • Warhammer Conquest Issue 67 with Space Marine Scouts with Sniper Rifles
  • Death Guard Tallyman
  • Death Guard Easy-to-Build Poxwalkers
  • Space Marine Lieutenant with Power Sword
  • Space Marine Lieutenant with Power Sword
  • Nighthaunt Tomb Banshee
  • Nighthaunt Easy-to-Build Myrmourn Banshees
  • Nighthaunt Easy-to-Build Thorns of the Briar Queen
  • Stormcast Eternals Easy-to-Build Sequitors
  • Stormcast Eternals Easy-to-Build Castigators & Gryph-Hound
  • Art Prints x 4
  • Grey Knights Chibi
  • How to Paint Silver Templars
  • Silver Templars Sourcebook
  • Blade Oath by Andy Clark
  • Killbox & Other Stories
  • Mechanicum by Graham McNeil
  • Adeptus Titanicus Titan Battlegroup

To enter, just donate via Just Giving, and every pound you donate gets you one entry.

I will be doing regular draws throughout the stream, depending on how the fundraising goes I may set goals, but the Adeptus Titanicus Titan Battlegroup will be the grand prize and will be drawn only if we reach my fundraising goal and it will be the very last thing done on stream at 10:00 on the 19th July.

This painting challenge will see me attempt to paint up the Adepta Sororitas Sisters of Battle Army Box Set, which is 25 models.

I will be livestreaming via Edge of Empire on the podcasts Twitch and YouTube feeds, plus my own personal Facebook page too.

Next week I will be experimenting with the live stream set up as I build the models.

This will be a challenge and tomorrow I will be putting up a rough schedule to try and see if I can convince some of you to join me on the stream to keep me company!

Paint Zone Mortalis – Floors

By

On 2nd July 2020

In Tutorials

I have been asked by a couple of people, how I painted my Zone Mortalis Floor Tiles, so I will tell you guys how I did it!

First off, this scheme is the result of lots of googlefu and searching Facebook/Twitter/Instagram for ideas.

None of this is my own original thought, but I didn’t make note of posts that inspired me, so if you see a likely candidate, let me know so I can credit them. There are a few people who contributed to this and I am kicking myself that I didn’t make a note of them!

Step 1

The first step is to prime the tile black, for this I have used Wilkos Satin Black spray.

Step 2

In this step I lightly spray the tile with a dark brown, in this case I have used Rust-Oleum Satin Espresso, but you could easily use something like Land Rover Russet Brown from Halfords.

I aimed for about 80% – 90% coverage of this.

Step 3

Next I take some Burnt Siena, I got this from Amazon, and tear up a bit of cheap sponge to apply it, but I use a piece of kitchen towel to take off as much of the paint as possible.

I then apply it rather heavily to the tile.

Step 4

Next I sponge on some Fire Dragon Bright, but much lighter this time.

Step 5

Now I take some Humbrol Maskol, but you could just as easily use Vallejo Liquid Mask, and I sponge this on to the tile quite randomly.

Step 6

Now we give a thin layer of Iron Warriors, I applied this with a cheap make up brush.

Step 7

You can skip ahead now if you don’t want to put any hazard markings on your board.

But I apply a couple of thin layers of Averland Sunset to where I want to put the hazard stripes.

Step 8

Then some masking tape is applied to protec the parts I want to remain yellow.

Step 9

Then a couple of thin layers of Abaddon Black is applied to the uncovered area.

Step 10

At this point I now remove the masking tape and begin to rub off the Maskol, be that with a singer, it my finger.

As it comes off it shows the rust effect underarm the Iron Warriors.

I also paint any details I want to be bronze, in this case I used Balthasar Gold.

Step 11

The final step is to mix Typhus Corrosion 1:1 with water and apply it to the tiles, leaving it to dry for a few seconds before dabbing it off with kitchen towel.

And this is the final stage in how I paint my Zone Mortalis Floor Tiles.

And that how I paint my Zone Mortalis floors, I think it looks ok myself.

June Resolutions Update

By

On 1st July 2020

In Blog

It’s the end of the month and we are 50% of the way through the year now so let’s see where I am in terms of my hobby resolutions.

The complete 1750 points of 40k stuff is going to be reassessed once 9th edition drops but based on what I have seen thus far, that might be getting upped to 2000 points.

And with the Generals Handbook landing next month I will also have to reassess the Stormcast Eternals list.

But this month I have a huge success and have completed the first resolution to 100%!!!

Paint 867 Models – 88%

I have now painted 773 models, so just over 100 off my target!!!

This month I painted a few more Space Wolves, a few Grey Hunters Pack Leaders, a Repulsor and an Iron Priest.

And I started my contribution to the podcasts show army, the Sons of Horus.

A big jump in the number is down to two Chainrasp Hordes that were 40 models strong each!

Finish Painting the Blood Ravens I Own on 1st January – 85% Complete

For the Blood Ravens I painted all five of my Chaplains, a 10 man Intercessor Squad, a Primaris and Firstborn Ancient, a squad of Aggressors and two Repulsors, although only one of those contributes to the resolution.

So right now I have 7 units left to do in order to fulfil this resolution.

Finish the Death Guard – 83.33% Complete

No progress made in these this month.

Complete 2000 Points of Stormcast Eternals – 67%

So last month I decided to make it a 2000 point list I have to paint, so I have formed a list consisting of stuff I have painted and stuff that’s on the painting queue, and here it is:- 

+ Leader [580pts] +

Knight-Incantor [140pts]

Knight-Venator [120pts]

Lord-Aquilor [180pts]: General

Lord-Ordinator [140pts]: Astral Hammers

+ Artillery [220pts] +

Celestar Ballista [110pts]

Celestar Ballista [110pts]

+ Battleline [330pts] +

Vanguard-Hunters [110pts]: 5 Vanguard-Hunters [110pts], Astral Compass, Storm Sabre

Vanguard-Hunters [110pts]: 5 Vanguard-Hunters [110pts], Astral Compass, Shock Handaxe

Vanguard-Hunters [110pts]: 5 Vanguard-Hunters [110pts], Astral Compass, Storm Sabre

+ Other [830pts] +

Aetherwings [50pts]: 3 Aetherwings [50pts]

Evocators [220pts]: 5 Evocators [220pts], 5x Tempest Blade and Stormstave

Prosecutors [90pts]: 3 Prosecutors [90pts], Paired Celestial Hammers

Retributors [200pts]: 5 Retributors [200pts]

Sequitors [130pts]: 5 Sequitors [130pts], 2x Stormsmite Greatmace, Stormsmite Greatmace (Sequitor-Prime), Stormsmite Maul and Soulshield

Vanguard-Raptors with Hurricane Crossbows [140pts]: 3 Vanguard-Raptors with Hurricane Crossbows [140pts]

+ Malign Sorcery [40pts] +

Endless Spell: Celestian Vortex [40pts]

So far from this list I have completed the Knight Incantor, Knight-Venator, Lord Ordinator, Celestar Ballistas, one unit of Vanguard Hunters, the Prosecutors, Sequitors, Aetherwings and Vanguard Raptors, which is 1340 points.

So I started off the month by painting the Knight-Heraldor, Knight-Vexillor and Retributors which completes the original Age of Sigmar strater set, took me just under 5 years but we got there in the end.

I then got the Sequitors from Soul Ward painting and have left to do from that set just the Evocators and the Castigators.

Paint 1750 Points of T’au – 5.7%

Following similar logic to the Stormcast Eternals I plan to paint up a list for the T’au, but I need to figure out what I have first before I can do that.

In the meantime I got off the starting block with two Ethereals on Hover Drones.

Rebase the Blood Ravens – Completed

I started by rebasing the remaining Tactical Squad and the Captain, managing to cut my finger doing so, but I got those done.

Then later in the same week I rebased the last unit that needs doing, an Assault Squad.

And thus I complete the first of my resolutions, all my Blood Ravens which are playable are now on the modern day sized base.

I do have some other Blood Ravens stuff that needs stripping and repainting, but I plan to tackle those next year and fixing them up will probably be a resolution for 2021, and they will be rebased at that point.

Other Resolutions

  • Complete 1750 Points of Orks
  • Rebase the Orks
  • Paint Mortarion for Everchosen

Nowt has happened with these this month, but Mortarion is on my long term plan even though there probably won’t be an Everchosen this year and will hopefully be at least started next month.

So how what does my painting plan look like right now, well it looks a bit like this.

I will also be doing my 24 hours of painting challenge next month, and if you want to donate you can do so here.

  1. T’au Pathfinders x 10, Darkstrider & Devilfish
  2. Death Korps of Krieg Autocannon Teams x 3
  3. Death Guard Chaos Spawn x 2
  4. Stormcast Eternals Evocators x 5
  5. Space Wolves Blood Claws x 15 & Space Wolves Captain
  6. Millitarium Tempestus Tempestor Prime, Command Squad Members x 9 & Valkyries
  7. Stormcast Eternals Castigators x 5
  8. Sons of Horus Tactical Squad x 10
  9. T’au Breacher Squad x 10 & Devilfish
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Mortar Teams x 3

Not Doing My Best

By

On 30th June 2020

In Blog

I have been having a bad few days mentally, stuff in the world is really getting to me.

Feels like in all aspects of life, and the things I enjoy, stuff is going wrong.

I am barely painting, hardly reading and can’t even bring myself to pick up the TV remote.

I have spent most of the past few days staring at empty space.

What Am I Painting

I started off with a pair of Blood Ravens Repulsors, one that I got when it was first released, and the other from Warhammer 40,000 Conquest.

These are seriously lovely models, if a bit on the large side.

Then I hit up a horde of 40 Chainrasps which represents the last of the Chainrasp hordes I have for my Nighthaunt, and other than the five Dreadscythe Harridans I have, brings me bang up to date with the Nighthaunt.

These took a while to do, simply because it’s been very very hard to paint in the heat we have been having!

I am waiting for the other 5 Dreadscythe Harridans so I can paint them all together at once.

Whilst doing the Chainrasps I also did a few test pieces for my Zone Mortalis board too.

Started with a few pieces of the board it self.

Then did loads of experimentation to figure out the method I want to use for the tiles.

Before finally figuring it out this morning the bottom one is the way I am going.

I have now started on the T’au Pathfinders, Darkstrider and Devilfish.

So what does my painting queue look like right now:-

  1. T’au Pathfinders x 10, Darkstrider & Devilfish
  2. Death Korps of Krieg Autocannon Teams x 3
  3. Death Guard Chaos Spawn x 2
  4. Stormcast Eternals Evocators x 5
  5. Space Wolves Blood Claws x 15 & Space Wolves Captain
  6. Millitarium Tempestus Tempestor Prime, Command Squad & Valkyries
  7. Stormcast Eternals Castigators x 3
  8. Sons of Horus Tactical Squad x 10
  9. T’au Breacher Squad x 10 & Devilfish
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Mortar Teams x 3

What I Am Reading

I finished the audio book of Knights of Macragge by Nick Kyme and it was entertaining, but there were aspects of it that were less than great.

The sheer number of featured antagonist factions felt a bit much, perhaps it would have been better as two separate books, because whilst it was a good story, I didn’t get enough of either main part of it.

I am now listening to Devastation of Baal by Guy Haley.

What I Am Playing

Have been able to play anything.

What I Am Backing

Chai: High Tea has been funded, we look forward to eventually getting that, looks like a beautiful game.

I am also backing Project Infinite Hole, I know Lindsay and Megan are terrible at Paranoia as they just don’t get the whole being antagonistic towards each other, they are far too nice, but I love the game.

And BackerKits for Lords of Vegas and Car Wars were completed.

For Lords of Vegas we decided to add on the unified rule book and the charity promo card and for Car Wars I have added on two Miniatures Sets.

Currently my kickstarter situation is as follows:-

What I Am Cooking

I made General Tao’s chicken wings in the slow cooker again, worked a bit on the recipe to refine it, replacing ginger purée with ground ginger and adding garlic cloves instead of garlic powder and I think they taste a lot better.

We needed to keep the side simple and so we just used a mushroom stir fry pack from Tesco, cooked with some egg noodles and a Chinese sauce.

I also made a very bad breakfast of bagel, turkey bacon, mushrooms and omelette this morning for myself and Lindsay.

What I Am Spending

I sold a few things this week and got a nice tax rebate, and that allowed me to invest in Necromunda Dark Uprising, a game I have been after for ages.

This is going to be the start of my plastic Zone Mortalis board, and I already have pulled together a few things from Conquest to contribute towards it already.

Those being three Magnavent Walkways, a Haemotrope Reactor, some Galvanic Servohaulers, and a single Munitorium Armoured Container.

I also ordered a couple more Magnavent Walkways from Hachette which turned up Friday so now I have five of those now!

I also picked up a few pots of paint and some Necromunda dice from Games Workshop, the washes are specifically for the Zone Mortalis terrain, as is the Ryza Rust, the Leviadon Blue Contrast is for the armour of my Enforcers and I am out of Zandri Dust.

Sunday saw me grab a few bits and pieces to start painting the Zone Mortalis board, gonna try and really go to town on this one!

And I also saw that there were Zone Mortalis tiles in stock, so I ordered a set of them, to really get started on the board proper, plus a couple cans of Grey Seer, some Mournfang Brown, Apothecary White and Iron Warriors Air.

24 Hours of Painting

By

On 23rd June 2020

In Blog

On the 18th January I am going to be painting for 24 hours to raise money for The Willow Foundation, it’s a charity I have a particular affinity for as they helped one of my best friends, Lee Dunford, when he was seriously ill.

They organise special days for seriously ill young people, a lot of charities do this kind of work for children, but very few for young adults, who often find themselves facing a lot of despair with few geared up to their needs.

The Willow Foundation is amazing and in a normal year, the amazing Leestock, organised by some old friends of mine raises a lot of money for them in Lees memory.

But obviously this year is different, but there are still young people facing serious disease who need the a Willow Foundation to do the work they need to to, and so I am aiming to try and raise a little but if money for them, I have set my target at just £150.

My plan is to paint for 24 hours solid from 10am on the 18th July to 10am on the 19th July. The project, as voted for by my friends is the Adepta Sororitas Sisters of Battle Army, which is 25 models to paint.

It’s going to be a challenge and I need to plan it out correctly, but I am set on doing this.

I am going to be arranging to be joined by friends and will be streaming it on YouTube and Twitch, so I need to get myself set up to be able to actually do it properly.

But the aim is to have the models built and primed for the start and then hit it as hard as possible, and get it done.

I have a little prize pool to give away, so if you do donate, then you may end up winning a little something.

You can donate here at this link, and I would be grateful for anything you can donate.

I will keep you guys updated on the plans, in the meantime, my fiends the Wildman brothers are doing something similar for another amazing charity, and you can find their Just Giving page here.

It’s taken me a long time to get anything done, the honest truth is that this week has been hard for me, a birthday of someone I lost fell in this week.

It’s weird, I have never felt a death so keenly as this one, everyone else who I lost in my life it’s been a case of it’s sad they are gone, but they went at a good time.

There is one other passing I do feel keenly, but that was kind of expected as they had been ill for a long time, this particular death was sudden and very unexpected.

We were when we were younger extremely close and I loved this person a great deal, I am devastated that we had drifted so far apart before they died.

What I Am Modelling

When browsing Amazon at 1am I ended up buying some clear decal paper, utterly accidentally and when they turned up I was quite surprised. Lindsay was less than impressed as our household Amazon account is hers.

So first off I printed myself some basic squad markings for the Blood Ravens.

Annoyingly the design isn’t scaled right and the symbols are too high when printed at their native size so gonna have to design my own sheet to replace this one.

I started the week by building the Space Wolves bits from Prophecy of the Wolf, so that was Ragnar Blackmane and the Infiltrators.

I also built my Valkyrie for the Millitarium Tempestus, a couple of Attack Bikes for Megan to paint, the Valkyries from Skies of Fire, a squad of Death Korps of Krieg Infantry for Niki, a squad of MKIV Tactical Marines for the Sons of Horus and something for my super secret project!

I then primed these along with the 40 Chainrasps so that my next dozen painting projects are all primed and sat in the “in tray” ready to pick up when it’s their turn to be painted.

The first models to hit the painting table were the Blood Ravens Aggressors and Firstborn Ancient for the simple reason of my wanting to try out the new decals.

It took me five days to paint these because of a lack of motivation, but I am pleased with the final outcome on them.

I also painted alongside these a set of Paired Vulcan Mega Bolter for my Warlord Titans in Adeptus Titanicus.

I then picked up a squad of Death Korps of Krieg Infantry for Niki and painted them.

He gave me a bunch more stuff last time I saw him and has since been 3D printing some more, so these will be featuring in my painting list a lot more going forward again.

I now have in the desk some Repulsors for my Blood Ravens.

So what does this leave my painting queue looking like now:-

  1. Blood Ravens Repulsor x 2
  2. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  3. T’au Pathfinders x 10, Darkstrider & Devilfish
  4. Death Guard Chaos Spawn x 2
  5. Stormcast Eternals Evocators x 5
  6. Space Wolves Blood Claws x 15 & Space Wolves Captain
  7. Millitarium Tempestus Tempestor Prime, Command Squad and Valkyries
  8. Death Korps of Krieg Autocannon Teams x 3
  9. Stormcast Eternals Castigators x 5
  10. Sons of Horus Tactical Squad x 10

What Am I Reading

I finished First and Only and you know, it was pretty good, I have however put down The Founding and picked up Sons of the Selenar by Graham McNeil, which I got finished pretty quickly and really enjoyed.

What Am I Playing

I haven’t played anything this week other than a little bit of time playing Inquisitor Martyr on the Xbox One.

What Am I Backing

Chai: High Tea is still being backed and should fund very shortly.

The next Paranoia campaign launched, Project Infinite Hole, and you can bet your arse this will get backed!

What Am I Cooking

I made a beautiful pie for Sunday breakfast with Megan’s help. Inspired by the Sausage, Bean and Cheese Melt from Greggs, it was premade pasty, in a pie dish, and filled with some fried bacon lardons, two tins of beans and sausages and a generous helping of mozzarella.

Then baked in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes. Next time Lindsay wants to serve it with a side of scrambled eggs.

What Am I Spending

My Element Games order with Aeronautica Imperials and Prophecy of the Wolf arrived which made me a very happy boy. Also in there was a Regiment Brush and a Drybrush from The Army Painter.

And as mentioned earlier, I did buy some decal paper accidentally, so yeah, I am in Lindsay bad books for that!

I also ordered a few little bits and pieces of paints that I was running low on, as well as a Character Brush and an Imagifier for my Sororitas from The Outpost.

Now that Forge World are open I did spend a little money and bought myself a couple of packs of Grey Slayer upgrades, a Space Wolves Praetor, Vulcan Mega Bolters for Titanicus and a transfer sheet for the Death Guard.

These arrived but I forgot to get a photo of them before they got stuff done with them.

And finally I got some Ultra Pro Silver Series 9 Pocket Pages to store my Beastgrave cards in.

Working with Decals

By

On 21st June 2020

In Tutorials

I have been running out of my Blood Ravens Transfers pretty quickly, and Forge World no longer make them.

The first think I was running out of was the basic Chapter symbol, and I found some on eBay a few weeks ago, and they seem ok and it gets me 238 chapter symbols for shoulder pads.

Printing Transfers

But these don’t sort out the other essential transfer I need, basic squad markings, and so I was looking into printing my own, and whilst browsing Amazon whilst very tired at 1am I bought some clear decal paper.

I am quite lucky that I have a colour laser printer, I know not everyone has that privilege, it was pricey but well worth the investment, and to be fair it was made for use at Company of Legends as well.

So obviously the paper I have bought is for a laser printer, but you can grab the same paper for inkjet printers. However if you do this, you need to seal the decals with a fixative spray.

I am not exactly a graphics designer and everything I needed is in fact quite simple, and has already been designed.

So I was simply able to download the tactical markings from Bolter and Chainsword, I did have to do a slight bit of work in Photoshop which was to basically put two of the sheets onto an A4 image as these were designed to be printed on A5 paper.

The symbols themselves are actually too big to fit on Space Marines shoulder pads when printed at the native size, so I am going to be making a new design of my own to get proper sized symbols.

I did have to play with the printer settings a bit, so I set the paper to be heavy glossy, obviously other printer settings will differ. I have a HP Color Laserjet M252dw, so I imagine that other HP laser printers have similar settings.

Applying Transfers

I for applying transfers I have a tried and tested technique that works well for me, especially on curved Space Marines should pads. For this you will need a few things.

  • Ardcoat or another Gloss Varnish
  • Decal Setter, Microset is the most popular
  • Cotton Buds
  • Decal Softener, Microsol is the most popular
  • Lahmian Medium

So my process is pretty simple, I have been asked a few times about it and I do intend to do a video for it at some point.

So the first step is that you need to give the area a coat of Ardcoat, or any other gloss varnish, such as Vallejo Gloss Varnish. This creates a smooth surface for the decal to adhere to with minimum friction and a lower chance of air bubbles. I know some people have been using Stormshield, but I haven’t tried this yet myself.

Applying Ardcoat Gloss Varnish

It’s really important that you give the varnish a good time to cure, if it’s not fully cleared when you apply some of the other stuff it will cause the varnish to peel off. I tend to give it a few hours to cure, sometimes longer because as soon as I have the final colour on the shoulder pads, I apply the Ardcoat.

The next step is to cut the transfer from the sheet, most modern GW transfers are good because the decal is only a small area around the image itself, so you don’t need to be too close when cutting around it.

Cut around the transfer as close to it as possible

However for a lot of other companies, older decals and ones you print yourself, you need to cut as close to the edge of the image as possible.

I then place the decal in water for between 30 and 45 second and put it down on a mat to fully loosen and in the meantime I turn my attention to the shoulder pad.

Dip the transfer in water for about 30 to 40 seconds

I apply a decal setter, at the moment I am using Mr Mark Decal Setter Neo, but I normally use Microset, but I have been having a lot of trouble getting hold of it at the moment for some reason.

What this does is it creates a nice surface that is sticky for decals and helps them adhere more easily, it also mildly softens the decal so it will conform to the surface better and lower the risk of air bubbles.

So I apply a small coat of this to the shoulder pad, and once the decal is loose on the paper, I then move it to the shoulder pad and gently move it off the paper into place.

Apply a decal setting solution like Microset or Mr Mark Setter Neo

At this point I then take a cotton bud, and use that to manipulate the decal to try and curve it on the shoulder pad, as well as drying up the excess moisture, it also helps to force out any air bubbles

So you start in the centre and sort of roll it to the edge, this also helps to force any moisture from out from underneath the transfer.

Using a cotton bud to help curve the transfer on the shoulder pad

I will then leave it a little while before going in and applying a decal softener, I am at the moment using Mr Mark Decal Softner Neo, but I would normally use Microsol. What this does is, well it softens the decal so that it curves better on the shoulder pad, adheres smoothly and is flat for that painted on look.

After the first coat of this is dried, I then repeat this step with another coat of softener, just to make sure that the decals are smooth and flat. Sometimes I have needed a third coat, but not often more than that.

Once this is done I then need to do some work to seal the transfer and matte down the glossy should pad, and the best thing I have found for this is Lahmian Medium, and frankly there isn’t really a decent alternative to this.

I give the shoulder pads two coats of this to the entire shoulder pad and allow it to totally dry between applications and the end result is hopefully a shoulder pad with icons on it that look painted on.

If you are applying decals to vehicles, when doing the Lahmian Medium stage, it’s important that you do the entire panel, if you only do part of the panel, it will stick out like a sore thumb.

And at the end of this you should be left with the decal looking as if it’s painted on and blending in quite nicely.

That’s my method, other people will offer alternative method which is cool, as with many hobby techniques, you ask 10 of us how to do something, you get 15 answers!

If the need any help if any advice just drop me a message or comment below.

Page 43 of 63

Previous

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén