ScaleACT 2018 Photo Gallery

I didn't enter any of my work this year, as these days I'm too busy on the Saturday to make in early enough in the morning to register, and the entire day is usually taken up with life maintenance tasks anyway. This year, I think I didn't even make it last year, I managed to make the Sunday morning on the show and had a good chance to browse the displays without having to deal with crowds of graying old men or young families with overly excitable children.
I went in with the intention of not buying anything, as I have more than enough toys to keep me occupied for several years at least. However, in the end I wandered into the swap and sell for the first time ever and spotted a couple of smaller kits for comparatively cheap, and after my last couple of attempts I realize that I could use some more practice before I start on some of my more expensive kits. So I spent a paltry thirty bucks and walked out with three old 1:72 scale kits, which'll give me a chance to to practice some of my scale model techniques. In future I'd like to have a crack at larger and more detailed kits, but my apartment demands that I be economical with space in order to live comfortably, so there is only so much I can do before I literally run out of space to put things.
That being said, the vendors usually put on a pretty good spread. You can easily pick up a kit of just about any tank or aircraft you desire, though generally I find that the prices aren't much better than my local hobby supply place. The real draw are some of the figure painter suppliers that have a decent selection from most of the major figure painting bust and figure suppliers. I must admit the quantity on display was significantly up from previous years, which is good to see. I also saw many, many more busts and figures on display, significantly moreso than previous years.

Anyway that'll do for now, enjoy the gallery.

The Haul

The Pictures

Shaded Basecoat: Beast Mode

Painting the Chaos Spawn by way of Shaded Basecoat

The shaded basecoat has been a neat little technique for me that has kept on giving, especially for weirder and more organic models such as beasts and monsters. This technique came out very well for my Ycarne model, so I figured it would work well for other chaos creatures. Since I've had a chaos army for some time I realized I lacked a decent array of summonable creatures. While my Bloodletters and Demon Prince have some of the basics covered, I've been missing some spawn, and during last Cancon I had the opportunity to pick up a box in a discount bin at one of the big stalls.
I aimed for a very simple and quick paint job, as while I want the models to look presentable on the table, I'm not keen to win any awards with them, and I've got far more interesting projects in the pipe that I want to get to sooner rather than later. Still, I haven't done many monsters or gribblies before and this sort of thing is good practice for when I get on to other projects in future, especially if I ever get my hands on some unpainted Kingdom Death, either way on with the project.

1. Assembly

The models themselves went together very well, and the level of customization that was available to me was pretty remarkable considering it is a plastic kit, probably not a digital sculpt. I wanted to avoid the parts that make the model look like it has fantasy parts and go hard on the weird tentacles and spikes angle.

If you've done any model kit assembly before there isn't much I can tell you about how to do it. Once the kit was together I did my usual processes of fixing to the base and putting down my usual basing mix of cork chunk rocks and sand.

One quibble that I have with assembling the kit is that you can't rush it, as I found I have to put in a few spikes or tentacles, wait until it the glue was mostly set, then balance the model and set it aside for half an hour to wait for it to dry. Finally, repeat as needed until the model is fully assembled.

2. Undercoat

No need for pictures here, normally I use a combination of black all over and white zenithal to get a gradation of highlighting. Since I'm going to start from bright colours from the get go I'm going with an all over undercoat of Croax White all over for the undercoat. This is essential for ensuring that we can start with bright colours without having to build our way up at we would with a black undercoat.

3. Skin Basecoat

This is always one of the most time consuming stages of the project. The colours I am using are both Vallejo Game Colour using Squid Pink for one and Bonewhite for the other. This was applied by brush for at least five to six layers with significant drying time between each layer. The idea of this stage is to achieve a mostly flat initial base colour for all of the skin on the model, I didn't worry about being messy with the colour as I painted over any over spill in subsequent steps. This is where our white undercoat pays off, building up this colour from white was an order of magnitude easier than starting from a black undercoat.

4. First Wash Passes

This pass involves putting down many layers of washes. Each wash uses Vallejo Game Colour as a base colour. In the case of the Squid Pink model the colour is Warlord Purple, for the Bonewhite model the colour is Leather Brown. To create my wash I use Vallejo glaze medium and water to create a very thin wash.
To start with I applied an overall wash and let it dry. Next I applied successive layers of washes, each time starting at a spot further down the model until I had achieved a colour transition from something close to the original base colour at the top to a colour that is mostly the shade colour at the bottom.

5. Second Wash Passes

Next up I wanted to emphasize a few spots on the model with a darker colour. In the case of the Squid Pink model I used Hexed Lichen and Charred Brown for the Bonewhite model. I performed similar steps to the previous stage on the tentacles, gradually getting a colour transition on my chosen spots.

6. Basecoat, Wash & Highlight Claws

This stage was very simple, just a simple basecoat. For the pink model I used Khaki and Shadow Grey for the Bonewhite one. Once this basecoat is dry I applied successive layers wash to start darkening down the base colour. Once I liked the look of the claws I then glazed back up using a very thin glaze with a generous amount of glaze medium to ensure a very thin colour. Once a decent gradient was achieved, I did a few small highlights with with the original base colour as a high highlight. In the case of the brown spawn I highlighted the fur up another layer to give it a slightly different texture from the claws and bone.

7. Eyes

The eyes were relatively simple, I started with Sun Yellow until I had a decent layer to work with. Then I painted a small red pupil that I built up a gradient starting at a medium red and working my way up to orange in the middle. Once I finished up the base shape I gave it a glaze with Bloodletter, let it dry, then re-established the yellow and the red. I also painted some bloodshot eyes lines for the larger eye.

8. Gloss Varnish

The very final stage was a layer of gloss varnish on the eyes and for the creature with the mouth I painted the maw and lips with gloss to give the impression of spittle.

9. Paint & Dress The Base

Final stage is to paint up the base, I used my usual technique which I've documented that many times over the years that I don't feel the need to repeat it. Again, I also dressed the base with the usual array of grasses and tufts.

We're Done!

The final form result turned it pretty well for a tabletop standard, and the shaded basecoat approach is fairly easy to do and doesn't require a lot of fine brushwork in the initial stages. The kit itself was refreshingly simple compared the the usual over adornment of detail that is par for the course for most contemporary Games Workshop models. In retrospect I would've like to try more aggressive colour transitions such as a different belly colour or a speckled pattern, I had some ideas using a toothbrush flicking technique, which I'll probably try on a future monster model. Anyway, I hope that helps, see you on the next guide.

Economic Anxiety

Creative work is valued at exactly what people will pay for it, that is, little to nothing. This is painfully obvious when you hang around on the vast online communities centered around creativity. People have devoted their lives to creation, to mastery of an art, that quite frankly I could never achieve, and yet, every second post is a link of a Ko-Fi page, or a Paypal account begging for just enough money to make rent this month, it is heart breaking.

From my own perspective, it took me years to reach the mid-to-high tabletop standard when it comes to miniature painting. That includes investment in materials, brushes, paints, lighting rigs, airbrushes, mediums, and a whole plethora of tooling and material that I can't even remember at the moment. Going through it all may be a good idea for a future YouTube video, but I digress. That investment almost certainly has run into the many thousands of dollars, not to mention the time and labour of putting paint on plastic. Granted many other creative fields don't necessarily have the same entry cost as minis, but labour is labour all the same. Yet when an artist on the internet produces there is a presumption of no to pitifully low cost to access by the consumer, at least in this historical moment. All the while cost of living creeps up due to the ongoing consolidation of wealth by the returning rentier classes. The starving artist is well and truly back, probably never went away.

I don't need to do this hobby to live, a fact of reality for which I am truly grateful. However, for others, is there a way out of this situation for creative people forced to live in this reality? Probably not in the short term, because the only way to live on a low wage seems to be working long hours on multiple jobs. In the long term, who knows what the world is going to look like, though given current trends things aren't probably going to improve. Art and creativity will more and more be available to those that don't depend on their labour to survive, the sons and daughters of the wealthy that have the time and resources to engage in long term creative labour, to take the unpaid internships that allow them the build the networks required to get their art, whatever it may be, noticed. All the while everyone else gets forgotten, drowned out in a sea of content hobbyist, their passions crushed by the monotony of day to day living and surviving. Assuming the boiling seas don't rise up to claim us all, rich and poor alike, first.

Take a guess as to what my mood has been like lately.

What I have Painted

To start with, and with ScaleACT 2018 looming ahead I've dusted off a collection of old scale model kits and will build them to see if I can hit the necessary level of quality for entry into the show. To start with I pulled out the crappiest kit of the set, an old Hawker Tempest by Revell that I'm sure is based on tooling that may well be older than I am.

First off, the build didn't some out nicely, and my stubby hands made a mess of the hull by covering it with finger print impressions due to mishandling and glue over spills. The painting was a pain in and required way too many layers, finally I started on the enamel wash and forgot to put the transfers on first, thus causing me to abandon the kit as I felt saving it would be too much effort.

Next up were a few Colonial Vipers that I purchased some years ago, yet never go around to finishing as 40k and wargaming was taking up all of my time. First up, I messed up the build right off the bat by mixing up parts, not noticing it until the glue had set and finally also forgot to do the transfers before the enamel wash. Unlike the Tempest I felt the airbrush work was good enough to attempt to save the kit. So I cleaned up most of the wash, applied the transfers, then re-applied the wash. The end result was perfectly good and I feel up to standard for ScaleACT, so that'll be one entry.

I've just finished up a new batch of post apocalypse cars for Gaslands, the great little game that keeps on giving. They turned out pretty well, despite some initial misgivings with attempting to freehand designs, camouflage and even tasteless car art. This batch should provide me with more than enough hulls for the upcoming Gaslands bash at next year's Cancon, and odds are I'll have finished another couple of batches before it finally arrives.

The Clockwork Highway-woman, from Twisted Miniatures turned out fairly well. I'm not quite sure if it is a competition level piece yet, but we'll find out once I enter it in the Crystal Dragon at Cancon I suppose. I'm particularly happy with the way the tan greatcoat and the base turned out.

Yvraine and Ycarne, the last two models of the second triumvirate are done and in retrospect they turned out very well for a high tabletop level. Yvraine was painted separate from her base using more traditional techniques, apart from the black leather, which is a base blue, shaded down to near black with spot highlights applied for show. The sword is another favorite of mine, an off-white with verdigris glazed into the hilt and the entire thing highlighted with stark white for effect, her kitty also turned out pretty well. Ycarne on the other hand was an utter pain to paint, relying heavily on dry brushing and washes to get colour transitions happening. This was definitely one of those models that looked like garbage right up to the point it was finished, at that point it came into its own. Unfortunately the sculpt of this model meant that painting it as sub assemblies wasn't really an option, hopefully I won't paint any more models like this for some time.

What I am Painting

I've made a start on a good Tamiya Universal Carrier. Assembly is done, as is priming, now all that remains is the first airbrushing pass, which will probably not happen until the weekend at latest, possibly later as the coming Sunday is my usual gaming session and Saturdays are filled with chores and work.

I picked these two up on a whim because I do enjoy painting non-combat miniatures as well. They are from the WizKids lined of pre-primed D&D miniatures, they are made out of the same material as the Reaper Bones miniatures and as such they have some pretty nasty mold lines that don't clean up well. So these two ladies will end up as some painting practice, then I'll move on with my hobby.

What is Upcoming

I see red in my future, specifically hordes of brave heroes of the Soviet Union standing ready to smash capitalism and imperialism in the name of the international proletariat. In short, I'm planning an expansion for my Team Yankee Soviets, unfortunately my order has been held up due to lack of stock, so I can't fully finish this project in time for Cancon. In other news I'm planning to take these comrades for a spin in the two day Team Yankee tourney, hence the need to expand them.

I've also pulled some more random things off my current schedule to commence some of the preparation work. First and simplest are some chaos spawn, mostly as adds for my Chaos Space Marines.

I'm also planning to start on another Crystal Dragon competitive project for the squads category. Specifically, I have a copy of Steelheart's Champions and I have some ideas for painting their armour using VGC Verdigris to give them an ethereal look. I've already tested on a free Stormcast and I like the scheme, however I'll go for true metallics for the weapons rather than NMM.

That is pretty much it for me, still grinding onward, diminishing my pile of plastic a few pieces at a time.

It's Been a Long Road

As I put down my paintbrush, step back from the desk and admire the last figure, I feel a sense of loss. This list, this schedule, has been my life for just under a year. Everything on it is something I've either applied paint to, or have given up on, the failures marked off in angry red rather than somber black.

Fortunately this time around the failures were minimal, and not entirely my fault. A kit that had parts missing to the point of uselessness and some badly miscast metal infantry that I didn't have to willpower to try and save, so off to the discard pile with them.

Plenty of additional extras, unrecorded and unplanned also made their way onto this list, most notably my first Necromunda gang, an Escher outfit that I have named ''The Nightshade Crew" they have served me well so far in the local campaign and my enthusiasm for getting them on the table was the cause for them to jump the queue. The other major unplanned project were my first batch of Gaslands cars, after I was very taken with this new and quirky little system, as well as the novel source of table top miniatures. Other than that a few random minis got in the rotation, but mostly as a palette cleanser between projects.

The Final Tallies

28mm Infantry Figures - 237 (give or take due to poor record keeping on my part)
Monsters, Robots and Large Characters - 7
Vehicles and Bikes - 13
Gaslands Cars & 15mm vehicles - 10
Terrain and Objectives - 7

Where To From Here

It was always my intention to have four main 40k armies. Now that I have them I can see my 40k throughput slowing down to Kill Team sized projects and occasional small expansions or single models for display pieces. I've also got the Kill Team Terrain to paint up, which will be a fairly expansive project, but that is what the airbrush is for. The army sized projects in my new schedule will be a triumphant return to Flames of War for me, as I seek to paint new Commonwealth armies to a much higher standard than I could years ago when getting into it, and with the good plastic kits no less. This will also be a time for me to dive deep into my lead pile and start on things that have been languishing down there for a while. I've got a whole load of display miniatures as well as a few pieces of ephemera that I want to get painted. I'm also going to paint up some D&D monsters and heroes, mostly because I'm planning to get into a Song of Blades and Heroes. The biggest projects however are Gaslands, as I've got a lot of toys that need rebuilding and painting, as well as my remaining Necromunda gangs, Orlock, Van Saar and Goliath respectively. For weirder projects I'm planning to build a 6mm Team Yankee army, which I'm still acquiring minis for, and repainting my old Battlefleet Gothic. However, to start with, and since ScaleACT is happening very soon I'm going to make a start with some old scale model kits that I'll enter if I feel they are good enough.

Ever Onward

This new list looms ahead, hour after hour of entirely self inflicted labour for no real purpose other than the fleeting satisfaction of a job well done as items get checked off. Fortunately the particulars are far less demanding this time around, fewer armies and those that are exist are easier to speed paint due to my recent experimentation with techniques for batching 15mm models quickly. The big departure from my last sequence is that there are more projects that require quality rather than a mere tabletop standard. The downside to army painting is that I've failed to adequately grow my skill as a painter, so now is the time to regroup and give it another shot. The Crystal Dragon looms ahead in 2019 and while I already have one project ready for it, I fear it is not yet up to standard. Instead I'll see what I can do to lift my painting to the next level. On the subject of conventions, Cancon, the event that hosts the Crystal Dragon, appears to have several tournaments that I'm interested in, most notably, a two day Team Yankee affair and a one day Gaslands bash, so the miniatures I requires for these events will be bumped up the priority stack. Anyway, hopefully I'll post another one of these in late 2019, with an every shrinking pile of unpainted plastic, see you then.

It Sure Has Been a While

Painting has been chugging along at a decent clip, especially given that my main project at this stage is a brand new Dark Eldar army. Not all of it has been start to finish batch painting, in between major batches of troops and vehicles I've been painting either a handful of minis or a one off as a palette cleanser.

Distractions and Motivation

Motivation wise I have been in a bit of a state. My usual painting distractions have not been helping me as much as they used to. A lot of the podcasts I've been listening to are a combination of general gaming, board gaming, and tabletop wargaming stuff. Unfortunately there are only one or two stand out ones that still engage me, but the rest of them increasingly have very little to say that differentiates themselves from my faves, so I think I'm at my limit to the volume of internet games men I can listen to. I also listen to a variety of political and history podcasts which have been good in quality and content have left me feeling despair at the state of the world, and as such have ceased to be good as a painting distraction. Being well informed about the state of Yemen doesn't equate to motivation at the painters desk.

My YouTube backlog has been growing for a long time, but ultimately I managed to get through the last of it once I started aggressively pruning the overly long videos from it. Most of it is painting videos from a variety of my favorite YouTube painters and a few interesting games people, though those are a rarity and they have to be doing some very interesting for me to care. Lately though only a few of the channels have been able to hold my interest. I'll always listen to Doc Faust, but some of the other channels have fully migrated to Patreon or are churning out easy content to beat the algorithms, one of them has even stopped entirely, which means this source of content is rapidly drying up.

This turning away from my usual distractions have left me bereft of content to keep my brain distracted while my hands and eyes do the hard work of cranking through rank and file, or four layers of shade and highlights, depending on what I'm working on. In a surprising turn I've found that falling back on music, especially video game soundtracks and relaxation mixes have worked spectacularly well at calming me down. I've also re-watched a couple of things on Netflix, which did well in keeping my arse in my seat and painting at a respectable pace.

Streaming and Social Media

I tried streaming again and I got my first viewer that stuck around and actually engaged with me via the chat. He was quite nice, a far cry from mainstream Twitch culture as I understand it, but the entire thing highlighted the how stressful streaming can be. As the one on the stage, so to speak, not only do I have to maintain my own pace, but also engage with the audience and offer comment and critique on their work. While it is good to connect with other hobbyists over the internet, I must admit, I did not find this a fun experience. Once the camera rolls I feel like I need to be engaging at all times, which sucks when painting because at heart it is a slow, contemplative experience. To be effective at it you have to learn to externalize your thought process about your work and narrate it as you go, mistakes and all.
That being said, I find it much easier to cut together and make a painting tutorial and post it on YouTube rather than stream. I find it weird to say that, as streaming doesn't require the level of production value that making decent looking YouTube videos takes. Never the less, getting my recording set up and busting out clip studio pro again is something I will do in the future, once I get around to my next small filler project.

Regarding putting myself out on social media in general. I find the need to be entertaining and engaging all the time on the internet sucks, especially live on Twitch. Posting is far more tolerable as I can shoot something out and come back later and get a nice little pile of likes with an occasional reblogs. Yet in the back of my mind there is a part of me that is telling me that this entire endeavor is a waste of time unless is it monetized, as pretty much everyone else does it. I also have to remind myself that social media should never be a career, I'd end up working harder at it than I do my corporate job and still find myself sliding into poverty. I suppose the reason why I'd create is to feel creatively fulfilled, which is something I do not get at all from life in general and even at the height of my productivity with YouTube video creation I was not entirely satisfied with the result, after all, I don't exactly have a voice for radio, nor the charisma.

Painting

In spite of everything my painting has been extremely productive. I've completed all of the leg infantry for my Dark Eldar army project and am moving on to a batch of Venoms and Jetbikes. After that I have all of the larger vehicles, which I'll get done in one run.

I discussed the batching processing at length in one of my previous articles and overall it has been one of the most successful attempts at getting an army painted en-mass. I could in theory use this process for commission jobs, should I ever find myself unemployed and need to support myself by doing other people's hobby for them. The best part of this method is that it doesn't use an overall wash for the main colour, which removes the need to re-layer the mid tone, thus saves time. Though this may not work with some models, so a targeted pin wash may be able to work with a technique like this.

In between the batches of infantry I did a couple of smaller bits and pieces with the intention of both trying new things, and keeping myself engaged by forcing myself to do something different.

This free Sequitor was unexpectedly thrust into my hands while I was buying something at the GW located close to my place of work. I had intended to enter the finished model in the release day comp, but I missed the deadline. Either way, for me this was a chance to try out the Game Colour Verdigris paint before I apply it to the Shadespire Steelheart minis, which I'm going to use for a comp entry down the line.

While it was tough to establish that initial base coat, once it was down the results proved to be excellent. I'd only ever paint this colour onto a white base coat, otherwise the number of layers required for a good layer of starting colour will be nearly impossible to achieve. For shading I gave the entire model a wash with Drakenhof Nightshade, then did successive re-layers of the verdigris to re-establish the mid tones. Attempts to lay in some more gradual shades by diluting some dark blue gray didn't quite work as expected, so I re-layered the verdigris to cover up that mistake. In future I'll try thinned layers of the overall glaze to achieve a transition from mid tones to shades.

After that a some simple highlights of pure white and the armour was done.

I also tried NMM on this model, and again I'll never understand how to do it, it seems. How to achieve it properly, especially with the oddly shaped hammer head. In retrospect I should've applied a flat metallic coat and practiced my true metal shading techniques, the kind that uses successive layers of black glaze to achieve shades and Vallejo metallic medium for a highlight. I'll do it before I attempt it on Steelheart's band. On the upside, I think I nailed the NMM gold reasonably well, so I can at least say I tried it.

The Visarch here is the final result of an attempt to lift my game in terms of painting quality. First up, I aimed to give this miniature at least three passes of highlight and use some of my limited knowledge of colour theory to get some decent shading going, mostly with dark blues mixed with my deepest shade green to get a very dark blue green colour, washed on over successive layers mixed in with some glaze medium. The sword was also an attempt to work a decent colour transition, and this time was definitely the best attempt at it yet. Other than that the cloak and the fur were a decent enough job for a higher standard and work well with the rest of the model. On reflection I wasn't much of a fan of this model in the early stages, but as the colours came together I started to warm on it, to the point where I genuinely think that this is one of the finer pieces I've put out in years. I was certainly showered with praise on Instagram for it.

Finally some more additions to my active Necromunda gang. Due to recent combat experience it became clear I had a distinct lack of heavy and special weapons to bring to a firefight. So, an extra box of Escher gangers and a decent order of special and heavy weapons from Victoria minis and now I have a line of fully kitted up Escher to even the firepower balance. The painting wasn't too hard, mostly following over the method I'd previously codified for doing the first batch of this gang. The snag came when I realized that I had failed to record the exact colours I'd used. Fortunately I was able to reconstruct it from memory, and substitute when I couldn't remember. In the end the final result was pretty much indistinguishable from the originals.

Wargaming

I've got a new regular opponent that has an excellent narrative bent to the hobby. I've played a few games with him and all of them have been great. You can find his tumblr here, I especially recommend the battle reports. We've played a couple of 40k games of various sizes, as well as an intro game of Necromunda and Gaslands.

I've also been going along to the regular Necromunda night at my local FLGS. I've had one victory and one defeat in the campaign so far. Unfortunately, due to misery at work I haven't been feeling well enough to go out to the last couple of game nights. Wargaming can be hard, especially after a long day of staring at a screen, sometimes it is just easier to stay at home, have an unhurried dinner and catch up on some hobby. It also seems that many of the players have similar problems and likewise often stay away for similar reasons.

Upcoming

I am please to say that the list for my current cycle is beginning to dwindle and the prospect of making a new list and working on grows ever closer. So far the big projects that remain are what remains of the Dark Eldar, which are all vehicles, the final two miniatures from the Triumvirate II boxed set, the Yncarne is one I am not looking forward to painting. A full strength Astra Militarum Platoon, and a Twisted miniatures Highway Woman, which I'm going to try for a quality paint job as a potential future entry into either the Crystal Dragon or at ScaleACT. Speaking of which I should probably decide what I want to enter into ScaleACT, if anything. That'll do for now, I hope by the next time I write one of these I'll be back in the swing of YouTube video creation.

The Hordes of Commorgh

When I decided that I'd get back into 40k, and learn how to paint properly this time, I made a commitment to get two armies of the Imperium and two rival factions. This ended up initially shaking down as Imperial Guard as they were my first new test minis, though I soon chose Dark Angels and generic Chaos badmen as my next two, due purchasing the old 6th edition starter box. A large Impy Guard army was something I always wanted to do and as the project comes to a close I'm happy to see the end of painting green and khaki.
The Dark Eldar on the other hand are the other force that I always wanted to get into. They are my kind of evil, opportunistic pirates that desire nothing but plunder and slaves, and spend just as much time fighting each other for power and influence as they do other great powers in the galaxy. They are also so radically different to all my other factions, except possibly my chaos, but I only own them because they came in the core set.

Anyway, after putting it off for a very long time I've made my first dent into this project. After a furious burst of assembling and priming I'm now ready to talk about my new batch process for getting through the line infantry for this project.

Stage 1: The Airbrush

To start with I've fully assembled the models and primed using black first all over. Then a 45 degree zenithal highlight of white. Both applied with Games Workshop rattle cans, Chaos Black and Corax White respectively. After that the first big job, not just for the infantry, but for all of the other Venoms and Jetbikes that I've already got assembled, is the airbrush. The goal here being to achieve a decent first base coat with Incubi Darkness. This involves playing off the zenithal priming to achieve some of our first pass of shades and highlights. To do this we will take a light touch with the airbrush, applying successive layers of not too watery paint to prevent it running into the cracks. Obviously there is a lot of preparation leading up to this point, as to avoid having to break out the airbrush over multiple sessions.

Paints Used

• Chaos Black Rattle Can (first primer layer)
• Corax White Rattle Can (second primer layer 45 degree zenithal)
• Incubi Darkness (through the airbrush, thinned with Vallejo airbrush thinner)

Stage 2: First Drybrush

With the first layer of colour down, the next stage involves building up our highlights a bit more. This involves getting a large drybrush and putting down a layer of Kabalite Green, generally working with top of bottom motions with the brush to try and catch all the upper flat surfaces. We will slowly build this up until you are happy with the result.

Paints used

• Kabalite Green (Drybrush application, using large drybrush)

Stage 3: First Major Highlights

The most laborious stage of this project is the final overall highlight for the armour and clothes, which we've prepared in the last two stages using Incubi Darkness and Kabalite Green. The colour that we'll use is Kabalite Green. To apply this layer we'll use a fine tipped brush to perform an edge highlight on the armour panel edges, and all of the sharp edges of this clothing. This process will take time, easily the largest amount of work required and the most surface area that will need to be touched across all of the models.

Paints used

• Syrabite Green (Edge highlights with a fine brush)

Stage 4: Weapons & Belt Kit

For all of the infantry weapons we'll opt for a flat black colour. This does not include the power swords for the squad leaders, as I chose to try for a green jade look. First stage involves putting down two layers of Abbadon Black with the largest brush that I can get away with. Once the colour is even and dry we'll apply two edge highlights. The first is Dark Reaper, the second is Dawnstone, though applied only on the sharpest edges. We'll also use this stage to do most of the belt leather for tool belt that each model is equipped with, as well as a few pipes and fires where appropriate.

For the swords I we'll start with an overall base coat of Caliban Green. The goal here is to try and achieve blends and colour transitions on the blade. To start with we'll make sure our first coat is completely dry, then we'll immediately apply another coat. While working quickly, start on the next colour, Warpstone Glow, and blend the two on the model to try and achieve a colour transition in the intermediate areas, then let the colour throughly dry. Next up, we'll repeat the same steps with Warpstone Glow, blending into Moot Green on the highest surfaces. Once that is done, we'll give the sharpest edges a thin highlight with pure Moot Green, then a more selective highlight with Yriel Yellow. Once all of that is dry apply a final glaze of Waywatcher Green to tie the colours together.

Paints used

• Abbadon Black (Overall base coat with largest possible brush)
• Dark Reaper (Overall edge highlight, applied with a fine brush)
• Dawnstone (Selective edge highlight on sharpest edges, applied with a fine brush)
• Caliban Green (Sword basecoat)
• Warpstone Glow (Sword first blend)
• Moot Green (Sword second blend and edge highlight)
• Yriel Yellow (Sword sharpest highlight)
• Waywatcher Green (Glaze on the sword)

Stage 5: Cloth and Banners

Like with the weapons we'll start with an overall base coat of Daemonette Hide. Following that an overall shade of DruchiI Violet, being careful to make sure that shade stays off the armour. After letting it dry, at least half an hour, though I prefer half a day, re-layer the Daemonette Hide over about seventy percent of the raised surfaces. Follow that up with a fairly broad highlight of Warpfiend Gray, then an more selective highlight with Slaneesh Gray.

Paints used

• Daemonette Hide
• Druchii Violet
• Warpfiend Gray
• Slaneesh Gray

Stage 6: Skin & Hair

Due to this stage sharing a common wash colour I opt to do hair and skin together. As usual, lay the basecoats down, starting with Ionrach Flesh for the skin and Mephiston Red for the hair. Once down and dry lay down a shade layer of Druchii Violet. Once the shade is applied go over the model and soak up any excess shade, especially on the face to try and make sure the features are defined, but not overwhelmed by the shade.

Once the shade is dry, re layer the Ionrach Flesh to about seventy percent of the skin, focusing on raised surfaces, then do a more selective highlight of Deepkin Flesh, followed by highlights of Pallid Whych Flesh on the sharpest points, tip of the nose and cheekbones. For the hair, re-layer Mephiston Red, followed by Evil Sunz Scarlet, then Wild Rider Red at the roots and tips. I also paint decorative tassels in this manner.

Paints used

• Ionrach Flesh
• Deepkin Flesh
• Pallid Whych Flesh
• Mephiston Red
• Evil Sunz Scarlet
• Wild Rider Red
• Druchii Violet

Stage 7: Details

Details covers every other part on the model that are quite quick to execute in batch painting, so they warrant an entire stage to themselves.

Eyes

For eyes most people start with painting a black eye shape deep in the sockets. This is great for contrast, but does make the model look like they are wearing eyeshadow. I'm generally not a fan of this look, so I prefer to rely on the shading that I've already established when painting the skin. To start with, I paint the eye shape with Vallejo Offwhite, the lay down a pupil of Vallejo German Gray. Once that is done I touch up the shape of the eye with Ionrarch Flesh and Druchii Violet if I haven't quite got the shape of the eye correct.

Bones

For ornamental bone we won't get fancy with the paint composition. A simple layer of Zandri Dust as a base, followed up with a wash of Agrax Earthshade. Once the shade is dry follow up with a thin layer of Zandri Dust, then some highlights of Ushabti Bone.

Gems and Symbols

There are some raised detail and assorted gems and that need to be differentiated from the armour. To do this we'll start with Mephiston Red, followed up with a shade of Agrax Earthshade, followed up with another layer of Mephiston Red, then a few highlights of Evil Sunz Scarlet, then some spot highlights of Wild Rider Red to taste.

Banner Freehand

For some banner text we won't get fancy. Grab some plasticard and sketch out some vaguely evil, flowing shapes that could be text. Once we're confident that we can replicate the result on the model go ahead and lay it down, don't worry about highlighting the text, though you can where there are significant cloth folds if you feel up to it.

Paints used

• Ionrach Flesh
• Deepkin Flesh
• Pallid Whych Flesh
• Mephiston Red
• Evil Sunz Scarlet
• Wild Rider Red
• Druchii Violet

Stage 8: Metallics

For the metallics we'll start with an overall base coat of Vallejo Air Gunmetal. This paint is runny so we'll go in thin and lay the base coat down over two to three layers. Since this particular metal is very dark on black we won't worry about a liquid shade. So for the standard metal we'll use Stormhost Silver.

Paints used

• Vallejo Air Gunmetal
• Stormhost Silver

Stage 9: Basing

For basing we'll use my standard method. That is we've previously glued down some pieces of cork for larger rocks followed by some sand. This should already have been primed so we don't have to worry about any preparation work. To start with we'll grab some Vallejo German Camo Black Brown. This should be relatively thin, so as to allow it to sink into the sand and cork. Once that is completely dry do some heavy over brushing of Vallejo Flat Earth, this should not be at a dry brush consistency, but just enough to leave a decent stream on the base, but keep the original Camo Black Brown visible in the deepest cracks. Again, let that dry, then do a final dry brush of Vallejo Dark Sand.

Once the dirt is thoroughly dry we can start on the rocks, to start with use German Gray to establish a base coat on the rocks. Once that coat is dry put down an over brush layer of Gray Green over the rocks. Finally, some highlights of Sky Gray dry brushed on as a final highlight. Anyway, that is pretty much it. For all of you that want to replicate this result, I hope this helps.

Painting Armour for the Table Top

I've always found vehicles far easier and quicker to paint than line infantry. The broad surfaces are easier and quicker to paint and you can generally get away with techniques like drybrushing without the final result looking like ass. Over the years my techniques have somewhat codified into a bunch of standard techniques that I use across a variety of projects.

GW Standard Method
This method is extensively documented on a variety of sources, most notably the Games Workshop YouTube channel with their fantastic walk-through for painting Cadian Armour. I usually make some slight modifications to this base depending on the colours I'm using.

Prime Black
Like with most simple painting projects I tend to start with a black priming coat using GW Chaos Black spray. Sometimes I might use some additional zenithal GW Corax White rattle can priming for highlights, but I usually only do this when I'm aiming for higher levels of quality.

Base Flat Colours
I usually use an airbrush for this step, however many layers with a broad flat brush will also work. With an airbrush I apply many successive layers of my first base colour until the entire model has an overall even layer of the base colour.

Optional Camo Patterns
Next I apply an even layer of my pattern colours using my chosen pattern. I apply this with a broad flat brush first stippling it on, then I use a smaller brush to define a hard edge between regions of colour, using the first stippling pattern as a base. Repeat this process with each of your pattern colours, then you're done.

Pinwash
This stage involves lining all the cracks and recesses with a shade of some kind. For the most part the GW washes are fine, though you can make your own with a colour of your choice and glaze medium.

Drybrush Colours
For each of your pattern colours apply a drybrush layer with the distinct highlight colour for each of your pattern colours. I'd recommending using a smaller drybrush for this stage to maximise the control you have for each section colour.

Final Drybrush
This is the final highlight for your model. This should generally be a light brown or off white colour for vehicles that are brown or green in colour. For vehicles that are predominantly grey and black you can use a variety of grays. This layer should go over the entire model and will generally bind all of the different colours together.

This should give you the overall hull colour, all you need to do now is finish the other relevant details and you've got a finished model. I find that this method works best when you have a relatively complex camouflage pattern that you need to paint in by hand.

Airbrush Preshade/Gradient Method
This method is fairly common for airbrush users, as it allows the rapid painting of armour to a pretty good tabletop standard. However, not every wargamer has access to an airbrush, so this method may not be accessible to everybody. This method is particularly effective for batching mono-colour vehicles quickly, though additional steps are needed if you need to add a camouflage pattern to the base colour, that step will need to be accomplished with either extreme care, masking, or brushwork.

Prime Black
First thing, start with an overall black primer. This will act as our first deep shade and cover the bare material.

Zenithal Prime White
A fairly heavy 45 degree zenithal prime will generally catch the raised surfaces while leaving the deeper recesses on the original black primer, this is especially useful for airbrush painting as it means we can rely on the opacity of the main layers to play off the white and black for shading.

Airbrush Deep Shade
At this stage we need to lay down our preshades for the main colour. This is typically our darkest shade colour based on our preselected triad of shade, base and highlight colours. The purpose of this is to establish the spots where our deepest colours are in shade. In the above model, the Cromwell, these spots are the ninety degree angles between between the main hull and the track guards, the hull front glacis and the sloped front of the hull, the lower areas of the hull, the underside of the hull, and so on.

Airbrush Overall Base
At this stage we will establish our mid tone colour across the entire model. The goal is to lay down many very thin layers of colour so that the opacity is sufficient to allow for the shade colours painted in the previous step to show through.

Zenithal First Highlight
This stage is our first highlight and will provide a general highlight of our first highlight colour over most of the uppermost surfaces of the model. Again, we need to build this up over many subsequent layers to get a gradient of colour.

Improvements to Shading
In the very deepest recesses it may be necessary to enhance the deepest shades. This can be some with selective pin washing and line highlighting with a brown or a black as appropriate.

Final Drybrush Highlights
This stage should be carried out generally as the final steps of the painting process. Like with the final drybrush highlight of the GW Method, the colour you use should be a tan colour. Vallejo Dark Sand is perfect for this. It doesn't matter too much if you highlight metallics or other colours with this stage, as it adds to an overall slightly weathered looked, which is perfect for armoured vehicles.

Enamel Shading Method

This method involves using enamel based washes to achieve the shade. Furthermore the products themselves are not as readily available as most of the usual tabletop wargaming staples, and include enamel products from manufacturers such as MIG or AK Interactive, which make them harder to source and often more in the domain of scale modelling rather than wargaming. However, as Wargames knowledge cross pollinates with the scale model community more and more FLGs are beginning to stock the kind of products needed to achieve this effect.
This method can also be combined with the above airbrush method for a result with more colour variation.

Prime Black

Like with all stages, start with priming the model black.

Flat Mid Tone Colour
This stage involves getting an even coat of the mid tone over the entirety of the model. This can be applied with either airbrush or a large flat brush. If you use a brush make sure you break it down into two to three layers.

First Colour Drybrush Highlight
This stage involves laying down the first highlight for your base colour. If the hull is a single colour you can go ahead and do a fairly heavy drybrush over the entire model. If your scheme involves a camouflage you will have to do several passes of targeted drybrush passes over each colour.

Other Colours
At this point you may want finish off other non-hull colours such as tracks, metallics, cloth and tools. I also wouldn't worry too much about shading these colours as the enamel wash stage will take care of shading these colours as well.

Floor Polish Seal

The Good Stuff

The next few stages are particularly hard on the underlying paint job, so sealing the work so far down is essential. This stage involves using a high gloss wood floor polish to seal in the model. If you are an American the product to look for is Pledge Future Shine. For my fellow Australians the product to look for is Long Life Self Shining Floor Polish, available at Bunnings across Australia.
You want to put down at least two decent coats of this stuff, though three to four is ideal, because the enamel wash will attack your paint job

Overall Enamel Wash
In this stage we will apply our overall wash. Obviously, make sure that your gloss layers are completely dry. Once that is done all you need to do is slather the entire model with the enamel wash, don't worry about it looking like rubbish, we'll end up removing most of the colour in the later stages. The idea is to make sure we have total coverage and all the deepest recesses of the model are covered with this layer. Once the application is down the next stage is to wait for the model to be touch dry, overnight is preferable. At this stage it does look like you've ruined your work so far, but don't worry, it'll be fixed in the next stage.

Wash Removal
Before you start this stage make sure you've purchased, stolen, requisitioned, or otherwise acquired some high quality cotton buds, or Q-Tips if you are an American. You'll also need some mineral turpentine, or a solvent specifically designed for the enamel wash. A cloth or a load of paper towel is also required.
What you need to do is use your solvent to slightly dampen the Q-Tips, then you use them to start rubbing away the wash on the middle areas and high areas, while leaving the wash in the recesses and lower parts of the vehicle.
At the end of this stage the look should still be a little grubby, but only in the deepest recesses, and 80% to 90% of the wash should have been removed. The good thing about this product is that you can remove as much or as little as you like.

Second Floor Polish Seal
Once you are satisfied with the wash, you need to seal in the results with another layer or two of the gloss polish that you applied in the earlier stages. Again, let this dry overnight, preferably under the cover of a plastic container to prevent dust from settling on the model and getting sealed in.

Satin Varnish
Now we need to kill the gloss. You can use any matt or satin varnish you like, either spray on or brush on. My preference is a thinned out Vallejo Satin Varnish, thinned with Vallejo Thinning Medium, a thin layer applied with an airbrush.

Final Dark Sand Drybrush
To bind all of the colours of the model together and to give the tank a slightly dusty and weathered look, I give the model a very fine drybrush with Vallejo Dark Sand or equivalent. This 

Other Techniques

Painting Tracks
I personally find that tracks and road wheels are often the most irritating component on the model to paint. Getting them to look right is often one of the more overlooked aspects of painting armoured vehicles for the table top. Most painters simply layer metallics, wash, then drybrush and call the job done. This is fine as a stylistic choice, but if you are going for a realistic look, it is not accurate. Some tanks don't use fully metallic tracks, most are a common of metal links and rubber treads, some are entirely rubber. So when you are painting a real world tank, either contemporary or historical, I'd always hit wikipedia first and look for some good colourized images.

Decals
Decals, when not done properly look terrible. They have a sheen that doesn't sell the illusion of a painted on symbol. This is the result of the decal not properly bonding with model and air bubbles getting trapped in between the surface of the model and the decal. The greatest secret when dealing with decals has to be Micro Set and Micro Sol, by Micro Scale Industries.
These two products are designed to be used in conjunction with each other, though in reality the Micro Sol solution is definitely the better and more important of the two products.
To use this product the first thing you need to do is apply a gloss coat to the surface of the model. The purpose of this is to provide a smooth surface for the decal to adhere to. Once that is dry prepare the surface by coating the target site with a layer of Micro Set. Then soak the decal in water and slide it onto the target sight as you normally do, then give it a quick coat of Micro Set, then sponge off the excess. Once the decal is relatively secure apply a layer of Micro Sol, this is when the magic happens.
This works particularly good for curved and uneven surfaces, as this substance will melt the decal and cause it to form around the detail of the model. This works particularly well for shoulder pad decals as many subsequent coats will cause even the most stiff decals to gradually conform the the surface of the model over many subsequent coats. To use this to best effect, apply a single coat, let it dry completely then apply another coat of Micro Set and let it dry. Repeat this process until the decal is completely flat and totally formed around any detail on the model. Once the decal is completely flat, apply another coat of gloss varnish to seal the decal in, then once you've finished any other detailing kill the gloss with a thin layer of Satin or Matt varnish.

Pigments
Pigments are more for display models than for table top models, as if they aren't properly sealed down, they will not stand up to the constant handling from tabletop usage. For this reason I certainly wouldn't recommend them for tabletop models. However, if you do opt to use pigments, I'd definitely go with the more is less philosophy when it comes to applying pigments. The best way to apply pigments is with two brushes, a medium to small brush that is generally used to dip into your pigment and do the initial application, and a second larger one to brush off the excess. I'd definitely use cheaper brushes for this purpose. Dust tends to accumulate in the deep recesses on the vehicle, that is where you want to concentrate your effort, you can start by generally applying it to the target area, then use another brush to clean most of it off. Other pigments can also be used to stain the model, for example use black pigment to stain areas of the model to create a sooty effect. This is best applied sparingly with a cotton bud rather than a brush. Another use for pigments is to build up solid clumps of mud to work into the tracks of your armoured vehicles. To do this you can use a small amount of pigment mixed with some static grass to create clumps of mud. Once they is applied and dry you can further shade with washes and highlight the mud with drybrushing.

Final Thoughts
I find that tanks generally easier to paint than most other things in the tabletop wargaming hobby. They lend well to simple colours, heavy weathering and the lack or organic surfaces that require more subtle shading than most, and the large, flat areas lend well to airbrushing and drybrushing, thus drastically speeding up painting time. Anyway, I hope this helps out with your own painting projects.