This is it – the sculpting is all but done. Today’s guide is all about the fiddly bits of getting the thing together and turning it into a table worthy figurine.

Now it is time to take your jeweller’s saw and slice through her waist. Take your time and try to preserve any part of the pewter you want. File the rest of it to tidy up after your hack job.

Plan out your pin. I did a poor job of this, and had her slightly off center. I solved this by turning her so her right leg was forward like she was stepping forward onto that right foot.

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Tags: Hordes, Miniatures, Modeling, Privateer Press, Sculpting, Tutorial

Everblight 2012 – Part IX

Something has been on my “Blighted Mind” recently. I was wondering if Lylyth3 would have a tier list that could run 2 units of Raptors? It is an interesting thought. She very well may be raptor herself in her 3rd incarnation. It would make sense considering Lylyth1 has to have 2 units of archers in her tier list and Lylyth2 has to have 2 units of striders in her tier list. Why wouldn’t Lylyth3 be required to take 2 units of raptors? This thought process made me drool. Two units of Raptors with Annyssa just seems powerful on so many levels. Then on a completely unrelated note, I was thinking about Lylyth1 and I wondered if her tier list would provide +1 to my starting roll? (I had a wierd idea in mind for her) Then I grabbed my book and realized not only does her first tier provide +1 to my starting roll but it also says, “Raptors become FA:2″ and this is what inspired my article…Everblight 2012 – Part IX presents…

Lylyth, Herald of Everblight

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Tags: Annyssa Ryvaal, Everblight, Hordes, Legion, Lylyth, Raptors

I’m sure there’s a rule that you shouldn’t try to post a painting article on a site that the likes of Ghool and Althai write for.

If not, there should be.  I mean it’s just common sense.  Still, I figure that sometimes people may want to see the way mere mortals get stuff done, so Here Goes Nothing …

I’ll begin with my usual disclaimer – why are you asking someone still learning the craft rather than an expert like Arkentyre.  His Brushthralls tutorial is where I went to, and what I’m aspiring to here. It occurs to me that my pyretroll from Beginner’s guide to sculpting viii is probably the worst model to base this tutorial on as when the paint job inevitably looks plain average, you won’t know if it’s the technique, my mediocre painting skills, or my novice sculpting skills. Anyway, here goes …

You need to begin with a plan.

Choose your tartan and work out what paints you intend to use to achieve those colours.

Things you should consider:

• How will the pattern look when contrasted with your troll’s skin colour / leather colours / metals. Tartans are often bright. Troll skins are often bright. The browns you use for leathers can often be very saturated. If you’re crazy enough to be painting a sash for a pyre troll, the fire and the trolls back are going to be very bright. That has potential to be a lot of clashing colours. This is why all of the studio tartans from the trollblood clans are variations on browns not vivid colours.
• Can I bear this tartan? If you’re painting trolls, you could be painting an awful lot of this tartan. Be sure you do like it.
• Do I have the colours I need? I’m going to give you the first of my tips – make sure your base colour comes straight out of a pot. Don’t make it a mix of two colours. You’ll be patching a lot of small botches with this colour, and you want easy access to it.

I’ve chosen Clan Gordon Tartan as it’s my old high school’s tartan and I like it.

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Tags: Beginners, Hordes, Miniature Painting, Miniatures, Painting, Privateer Press, Tutorial

Many painters struggle with their brushes, and have as many questions as there are types and brands of brushes. What brand is the best? What kind of hair should it have? How do I take care of them? How long will they last? Are the high quality brushes worth the price? I’ll attempt to answer all of these questions in this review.

In order to give the most objective opinion on which brushes I find to be the best, I placed an order for several different brands, and in several price ranges. I opted to include the ‘Big 3′ that all the professional miniature painters suggest; Windsor & Newton, Raphael, and Da Vinci. I have also included in this compaative review one less expensive brand, which is the same hair (Kolinsky Sable) as the ‘Big 3′; Rosemary & Co.

My brush for measure is the Windsor & Newton Series 7. I have used these brushes for over 5 years, and they are the standard against which all brushes I have used since are compared. I will concede that I used little else in my time painting professionally. But I found that I had no need to use anything else, as they were available locally, albeit expensive.

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Tags: Brush Care, Brushes, Da Vinci, Product Comparison, Product Review, Raphael, Rosemary & Co., Windsor & Newton

Welcome to Episode 9, the last single digit Episode!!!

This time we take a look at some more Dark Age models, specifically the Numbskull, talk about an enormous model! We also take a look at the last of the new starter boxes, the Brood. We continue with the Black Sun Coverage from Anima Tactics with the Type-012: Hunter. We also start in on a new focus with battlefield accessories in some 40mm objective markers from Forgecraft Games, as well as the damaged jersey barriers from Secret Weapon

So sit back and enjoy, and thank you for joining me!!!

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Tags: Anima Tactics, Brood, Cipher Studios, CMON, Cool Mini or Not, Dark Age, Gameforge, Secret Weapon

Everblight 2012 – Part VIII

With this article I am going to break the mold. I want to compare two of Legion’s warlocks that bring a simmiliar game to the table but still have many differences. Which two warlocks am I talking about? Read on…

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Tags: Everblight, Hordes, Kallus, Legion, Thagrosh, Warlock

Today we will be playing a bit of content catchup with our friends over at Throne of Angels, so if you have also fallen behind or have not heard of them yet then check out some of the great content and insider info they have on a variety of the new games coming out

Welcome to Episode 7 and thank you for joining me!!!

Today we have the results for the Cipher Studios Force Painting Compition!

We also look at the Black Sun Starter for Anima Tactics, my continued progress on Cang the Implacable, the Skarrd Warband for Dark Age Apocolypse, and some of the resin pre-production models for the newly announced Wrath of Kings!!!

We’ve also got a bit of info on Confrontation Phoenix Edition as well as insider info on Wrath of Kings!!!

Enjoy!

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Tags: Anima Tactics, Cipher Studios, CMON, Confrontation Phoenix, Dark Age Apocalypse, Hex the Lost Tribe, Kau Cha, Norsgard, Wrath of Kings, Zenit Miniatures

Theme and Variation

“But wait a moment there Autumn Stone”-I hear you say.

“It’s all well and good you showing us techniques to make this one sculpt – we want to make our own personalised sculpt, and we don’t like the way you’ve chosen to do the [bodice/hair/trim/waist/arms - add or delete as appropriate]“

And you know – that’s a fair enough call.  I’ve done my best to stick to generic principals that I’ve figured out doing all this sculpting, and using the WIP of what I’ve done to demonstrate, but when all is said and done, I’ve just shown you this one sculpt being done.

In today’s episode, I’m going to try and show some variations that you might want to try out – and specifically I’m going to talk about first principals of how to do them, so you can try out your own themes and variations.

!!  Disclaimer  !!
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I’m no amazing/professional/talented/artistic sculptor.  I’m just some shlub who gave it a whirl.  There is no reason you too can’t give it a go.  What have you got to lose – the worst that will happen is you’ll have a small piece of greenstuff to throw away that never amounted to much.

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Tags: Hordes, Miniatures, Modeling, Privateer Press, Sculpting, Tutorial

In these two videos, I go over the basics of painting silver metallics, and briefly discuss some techniques for golds at the end of part 2.

Part 1

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Tags: Beginners, Hordes, Miniature Painting, P3, Painting, Painting Metal, Painting Metalics, Privateer Press, Tutorial

Whew. Back to things. Sorry for the delay on this (still wondering if anyone is following it). Due to health stuff, work stuff and other stuff Scott and I have been putting this one off. Thankfully we finally got things started again!

Recap:

So last time we saw the Rusted Heroes, Mordant had battle honors that granted him +1 to his attacks. The Beserker can re-roll one damage die and, sadly, Halsten got a concussion and could not charge. Rathar also took some damage and had his armor reduced by 1. So far the score stands at Dragon Knights: 2 Norse 1 with all painting being done on time.

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Tags: Campaign, Game Play, Game Review, Rusted Heroes