It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming.This week we’ll get started painting 40K vehicles.
I’ve learned loads since getting back into miniature painting, but painting vehicles, especially pretty Space Marine vehicles, has always been intimidating to me.
Until now.
Here’s a very easy way to get started with painting your Warhammer 40,000 vehicles, and you won’t need an airbrush.
Get started right with a few coats of spray paint. All this guy needs is some detail work with a brush.
1. Prep
Clean your mould lines, like you would with any other mini. You can assemble as much of the vehicle as makes sense. This Land Speeder came to me fully built, so I prepped it for painting as a whole. You could also paint the vehicle on the sprue or paint each piece, bit by bit. Whatever makes the most sense to you.
One of the cool things about mini painting is that they’re your models, you can paint them however you want.
2. Undercoat
Now undercoat/basecoat the whole vehicle with a spray can. White, black, grey, whichever makes the most sense for your colour scheme.
Death from below.
Death from above.
This guy will be sporting Angels Encarmine colours, which I interpret as a darker take on the Blood Angels paint scheme. For this project, I wanted to try a zenithal undercoat, so I hit it with black on the bottom and white on the top. It seems to have blended well enough in the middle, but some people hit it with a grey coat in the centre of the vehicle for a more gradual blend.
3. Primary Coat
Lastly, I hit it with two coats of the primary colour. Let the mini dry properly between coats, and you’ll end up with a decent looking vehicle that only needs detail work.
Now to pimp my ride.
It’s really that simple, and you don’t need to get fancy with an airbrush. Two thin coats, with a brush, will get you where you need to be from here.
We’ll be back to help you get started painting 40K vehicles in a bit, so see you again in a few weeks.
It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming.This week I’m kitbashing an Ork Runtherd from a Black Orc.
Orktober has been great though. My Orks got a lot of love that they hadn’t gotten since the start of lockdown. Things are actually done. Progress has been made. It was awesome.
Black Orc Ork Runtherd
My brother gave me this little guy when he got him in the Warhammer, Shadow of the Horned Rat box. that game? I think it might just be the toughest game I’ve ever played.
The mini has been sitting around in a box for years, and my plan was to turn him into a banner bearer. those?
Choosing to turn him into an Ork Runtherd was a much better plan.
Grabba Stick and Grot Lash
I removed his swords, then drilled through his right hand to fit some wire. The top of his grabba stick is a bit of plastic from a nose spray. You know, that bit that stops you from accidentally spraying it. I wrapped some fine jeweller’s chain around it for detail.
The whip was made with modelling epoxy, which is very brittle. If I remake it, I’ll use wire with only a little modelling epoxy on the end.
Pistol
His sidearm is a pistol from a Dark Eldar mini. I stuck bits of plastic card to it to bulk up the holster and added a single link of chain for decoration.
Painting
Meh, probably not one of my best paint jobs. But, you know what, he’s done and I can move on. I’m very happy with how he turned out, I learned a bunch, and I had fun. That’s all that matters.
It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming.This week we’ve got an Ork Weirdboy kitbash.
Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the current love kitbashing, so I took the chance to add a little spice to my army. Happy #Orktober everyone!
I love the stabby pose, though the spear is ridiculously flexible.
Body Work
I chopped off the spear and drilled through his hands to accommodate the wire. I then added some plastic tubing to attach the shock prod.
I used modelling epoxy to replace his neck after hacking off the little orc head. Onto the new neck I stuck the head at a cocked angle to make him look more menacing.
Since he looked like a Runtherd anyway, I stuck the whip from the Gretchin kit onto his belt at the back, so now he can fill two roles in my army. Maybe hanging around with all those grots made him really weird.
Lastly, I attached him to a 40mm base and this Ork Weirdboy kitbash was done.
Nightscape: Red Terrors is in Print
Nightscape: Red Terrors, the game of cosmic horror set in post-Soviet Russia, is now in print through Drive-Thru RPG.
In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian government decommissioned several publicly hidden research facilities devoted to ‘arcane science,’ chief among them, PERM Laboratory 37. Recently, due to several strange energy emissions, the location of the PERM 37 facility has been discovered by various parties with an interest in the lab’s inventory of eldritch artifacts.
You’re an agent of one of these factions on your way through driving sleet to the facility. Dusk is falling as you through the broken security gate…
It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. It’s also Orktober, so it’s time to Waaagh!This week I’ll share what I’ll be painting for the rest of October.
The Goal
Paint 31 Orks by the end of Orktober. Simple.
Oh, and run a company, do adulting well, get enough sleep, and don’t burn out. Hey, if you don’t challenge yourself you don’t get anywhere. Let’s paint some Orks!
The Boyz (and Grots)
These are the models I’m aiming to finish by the end of the month. All are primed and ready to go, some are almost done.
The list includes:
1 Wierdboy
1 Mek
2 Runtherds (1 Kitbashed from an old Black Orc)
2 Nobz
6 Kommandos
1 Ork Boy with Big Shoota (AKA Lascannon, from back in the day)
6 Ork Boys (Kitbashed from old Warhammer Fantasy Orcs)
1 Ork Boy with kitbashed shoota and choppa stabby thing
1 Warboss
10 Gretchin (2 from the latest kit)
You’ll get a better look at all of them in the weeks to come. Some of them already made an appearance in our article on kitbashing Ork weapons.
And Gretchin count, so sod off.
There are two more Mondays left for Orktober, so I’ll post updates then and again on the 2nd of Normalvember. Next week it’ll probably be the Kommandos, unless they sneak off.
What Are You Painting?
We’d love to hear from you and see what you’re painting. I’ll be checking out the #Orktober and #HobbyStreak tags on Twitter for the rest of the month, so please connect with Rising Phoenix Games or myself there.
You can also drop a comment below.
Indie RPGs from South Africa
A bunch of South African indie RPG designers teamed up to create the South African Indie RPG bundle, which includes a bunch of great games from south of the Sahara.
The bundle includes Claustrophobia!, Bullet, Something Wicked, Children of the Fall, Might, and How to Plan a Murder, all at a massively reduced price.
It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. This week we’re painting the zombie white dragon from the Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game.
The zombie white dragon was such a satisfying and quick model to paint. You could easily apply the main technique we’ll look at here to other frozen creatures, perfect for your adventures in Icewind Dale.
Basecoat and Drybrushing
I base coated the mini white, then painted the whole dragon blue. Two thin coats applied with a big brush will make quick work of this frozen fiend. After that, lightly dry brush pure white over the model. I recommend two goes of this, otherwise it’ll look more like a blue dragon with white highlights. You’re building up levels here.
Detailing
I then painted the exposed ribs, teeth, and the hooks on the leading edge of the wings with Flesh Wash (like I did for those skeletons a while back). I painted the tongue, exposed flesh, eye sockets, and nostrils purple (I mixed red and blue). Then I edge highlighted the tips of the teeth and ribs with a flesh tone.
I painted the base black. For this, I found that a thin first coat and a thicker final coat gave it a really solid finish.
The last thing I did was edge highlight the large scales on the tail and head, as well as clean up around the jaws. All of this was with pure white, which muted the blue undercoat some more. I sealed the model with matt varnish.
Using Photos to Paint Better
If you look carefully in the photo above you’ll notice spots I missed. The great thing about taking photos of your minis is that you’ll examine them through a different lens (literally) and notice things you didn’t spot while painting. Photos also give you a great way to compare your progress. I learned everything I know about mini photography from Tabletop Minions. Check out How To Shoot Good Photos of Your Minis with a Smartphone on YouTube.
Explore Icewind Dale
Venture deep into the cold north!
Great Icewind-Dale-shaped things are happening in the world of Dungeons & Dragons, and Rising Phoenix Games has teamed up with other DMs Guild creators to bring you the Icewind Dale Ultimate Pack bundle. The bundle is packed full of adventures, player options, items, and more for your adventures in the cold north.
It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. This week we’ll look at a great little trick for getting your army painted.
The easiest part of this wonderful hobby is buying the miniatures. You can get loads of wonderful models, some at amazing prices, for just about anything. I don’t know about you, but the hard part for me is getting them all painted. I still have a good whack of metal and plastic from my high school days that are still a pristine gray. That, my friendly Internet blog reader person, is where this blog comes in, and today I’m going to share my little secret that’s winning the war on bland gray.
An MVP Army
MVP stands for Minimum Viable Painting. I swear it does. No need to look it up.
By MVP I mean the fewest number of miniatures you need to paint in order to play a game where all the models are painted. In an RPG, this might be four characters and the monsters for an evening’s worth of encounters. In Warhammer 40,000, this might be a small combat patrol including a squad and your warlord.
I’ve been collecting miniatures for Warhammer 40,000 for years, but recently I’ve been working hard to put together three armies, so I can have friends over to play (when lockdown ends). I’ll show you what I mean with these three races. For Orks, I can put together 10 Boyz with a Nob, plus a Weirdboy warlord, for 163 points. My Genestealer Cults army consists of a Magus and 12 Neophyte Hybrids, for 162 points. Lastly, my Angels Encarmine Space Marines include a Tactical Squad and a Captain, all for 163 points.
The total number of miniatures I’d need to paint if they were all fresh out of the box is 12 Orks, 13 Gene Cultists, and 6 Space Marines. That’s only 31 models.
Start Small
The point is that it’s easy to go out and buy a 2,000 point army, but much better to start with a small one and add to it as you go. This lets you learn your army as you go, is much easier on the wallet, and means you’ll never be demotivated by a mountain of gray.
This is one of the many strengths of the Games Workshop 9th edition starter sets. You get everything you need to play, and it’s the perfect seed for a bigger painted army.
Also, starting small and painting an MVP helps stave off buyer’s remorse.
Don’t Forget RPGs and Board Games
This principle works well for painting up board games and RPG minis.
If you’re a GM, you usually know what the players will face, so you can paint what you need for your next session.
In the case of board games, you can sometimes exclude unpainted minis, or you can focus on the minis that will see the most play. I’ve got a stack of cards for my Dungeons & Dragon Adventure Board Game collection that includes only painted (and pre-painted) minis, so whenever I play the models are all painted. As a bonus, whenever I finish up new models their cards get added to the game; it feels like a treat.
How about you? Do you have any painting tips to help us get through the gray and bring a painted army to the table? Let us know in the comments.
It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming.This week we’ll build a modular tavern storefront, because every adventure starts in the pub.
Modular Tavern Storefront
“You meet in the tavern…”
That line has probably started more roleplaying campaigns than any other, as cliched as it is. Having some tavern terrain is going to get a lot of use in fantasy tabletop games, so let’s build one. We’ll make it modular to get as much use out of this piece as possible, and we’ll use the magic of magnets!
The module tavern storefront without its sign.
With the power of magnets, the shop sign is attached. The Pewter Tankard is an obscure Warhammer FRP 1st ed. reference, and is the name of the establishment in our Pewter Tankard Tavern Map.
We make books, so we need a book shop, even if it’s only a mini one. More magnets and a quick switch are all that’s needed.
Overview
We’re making a sandwich, with the door and window in the middle, then the walls, then the wooden beams. This will give the model depth, but allow us to keep things thin enough to game around.
I’m sorry that I don’t have any pictures of the process of making this. I did take a few, but they’ve been lost in the general chaos of my Pictures folder. If I do find any I’ll update this post, but I’ll do my best to describe what’s going on.
The Frame and Door
Cut two pieces of card into rectangles. Mine is 4″ long and 2.5″ high, enough space to incorporate the door and window. Cut a space for the door and window in both pieces of card so you’ve got two copies.
Cut a rectangle of balsa wood to make the door. This should be wider than the space you’ve cut in the cardboard.
Cut lengths of balsa wood to form the outer wooden frame, for both sides of the model. Keep any offcuts for later.
Ramblings on Balsa Wood
A lot of people use popsicle sticks or coffee stirrers for wooden features, but balsa wood is much easier to work with, lighter, and a strip of it will get you through many projects. They build remote control airplanes out of the stuff, it can take a real banging. Believe me, I’ve crashed my glider more often than I’ve flown it.
Detailing
Use the back of a hobby knife to lightly gouge along the grain of the balsa wood. You can press harder to define planks, so the door is one solid piece that looks like it’s made of individual planks. This cheating saves time and glue, and keeps the model stronger.
Window
The window is made of stiff plastic, like the type you find in toy packaging. Cut a piece of this that is larger than the space it’ll fill. Use a ruler and a permanent marker to draw the black lines to represent the lead frame on one side of the plastic. Then, use a yellow highlighter to carefully color between the lines and color the opposite side too. Let this dry, and that the highlighter will rub off easily. Finally, carefully stipple gloss varnish over one side, leaving it to dry before doing the other. This should cause the yellow to pool and will texture the glass.
Assembling
Glue the door onto one piece of card. Then, using cutoffs, line the outer side of the card (the same side that has the door) and around the window. Fill all the gaps so you won’t see any when the second piece of card is ed.
Next, glue the outer wooden frame onto the walls.
Pro Tip: Don’t stick the second piece of card or the window on yet. Work with the two pieces until you’ve finished painting them, then glue the window in and the walls. This way, you won’t have to worry about getting paint on the window.
The Magic of Magnets
Glue a strip of metal above the window. We’ll hide this later, and then use magnets on the signs to stick them onto the wall.
Texturing
Mix up a small amount of wall grout and paint it onto the walls, between the wooden s. Be sure to paint it over the metal strip.
Base
Use strips of cardboard to make the slate stones of the base. As long as your wall isn’t top-heavy, the base can be quite narrow, making it easier for gaming around.
Painting
If you haven’t glued the two sides together or stuck the window in, this part will be easy enough.
Paint the walls an off white, then use a slightly darker version of the same color to paint the top of each wall section, drawing the brush down to make it look like weather damage.
Paint the wood black, making sure to fill in all the gaps. Paint over this brown, without filling the gaps. Holding the brush flat against the wood will help with this. Drybrush with a lighter brown over the edges of each beam.
Paint the stone gray, then drybrush with a lighter gray, picking out the edges again.
Use a small picture frame eye screw to make a door knocker. Stick a “U” shaped loop of paperclip over this to complete the look.
Finally, paint everything with a matt varnish, except for the window, then glue it all together. Done!
In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian government decommissioned several publicly hidden research facilities devoted to ‘arcane science,’ chief among them, PERM Laboratory 37. Recently, due to several strange energy emissions, the location of the PERM 37 facility has been discovered by various parties with an interest in the lab’s inventory of eldritch artifacts.
You’re an agent of one of these factions on your way through driving sleet to the facility. Dusk is falling as you through the broken security gate…
“The line between magic and science disappeared in the utopianism of the early Soviet period. Hopes formerly invested in religion and magic were transferred to technology and science. Stalinist political culture utilized ideas taken from the occult elements in its attempt to influence the masses.”
— B.G. Rosenthal
In Nightscape: Red Terrors you play an agent of Integrand General — an extra-governmental non-profit established to research the arcane sciences — fighting your way through the PERM 37 facility. You will be opposed by the horrific forces at the disposal of the Director. Modern weapons have little power against the most powerful horrors you’ll face, but a host of creatures do bleed. Arm yourself well and expect the unexpected.
Nightscape: Red Terrors includes everything you need to play, except for a few 20-sided dice and a group of friends.
Mini Monday is a bi-weekly blog series where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. The goal is to get through the mountain of grey metal and plastic we all have in our cupboards. Here you’ll find the complete list of articles, listed by project and project type. You can also find all the Mini Monday articles listed, from newest to oldest, by checking out the Mini Monday category.
It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. This week we’re painting Mr Frank N. Stein, the flesh golem from the Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game.
The flesh golem from the Castle Ravenloft Board Game is one of my favourite minis. The detail is crisp and he looks like he has just walked onto the stage of an Iron Maiden concert. I wanted him to have really gross, leathery skin, and I’m very pleased with how he turned out.
Undercoating and Flesh Wash Magic
I sprayed the mini white, then painted sections of his skin in off-green, off-blue, and flesh colour. I also left some sections white. It’s all in the name of visual interest.
Yum, yum. I think I might never eat sushi again.
I then went over this with my magical Flesh Wash. I’ve used it in a few projects now, such as the skeletons. Flesh Wash was perfect for getting that dry leather look, and the off-green and off-blue shows though enough to give it a sickly look. Perfection!
Flesh Wash for a Flesh Golem! I knew there was something to the name!
Stitches and Iron
After some experimenting, I painted the stitches black. If Dr Frankenstein was using thread, these would turn black from the blood it would soak up. I did try adding silver to make them look like staples, but that didn’t make sense to me in a fantasy setting, so I ditched the idea.
Okay, he has metal fingers under the flesh of his one hand, but I’m still not doing staples. I picked out the raised metal edges with silver paint.
Disaster
I didn’t want to paint every stitch, so I tried a marker pen instead. What I didn’t realise until I’d finished was that I was using a dry-erase pen. Whenever I added wet paint or varnish, the colour ran and pooled in an ugly mess. What seems to have worked was going over this with an actual permanent marker or dryish paint.
Live and learn.
Exposed Muscle
I painted the flesh golem’s exposed muscle pink, then went over the raised parts with a reddish-purple. I used a black wash to pick out the detail, and then made sure to use a gloss varnish to make this section appear wet.
Pants
We decided on purple pants to contrast nicely with the orangy flesh, and because this guy looks like an undead version of the Hulk.
I painted the pants the same reddish-purple as the exposed muscle, then dry brushed a lighter purple over the raised bits. The straps were painted a leathery brown and given metal highlights on the buckles. Finally, I used a black wash (watered-down black paint) to pick out the shadows.
The first layer of paint on the pants. It’s not very smooth, but the dry brushing will cover that up.
Final Details
I painted the tongue pink and the teeth yellow, then these also got a black wash. When I was done, I gave varnished the flesh golem with matt varnish, except for the exposed muscle, as I mentioned before.
Here he is again, in all his gory glory.
Rising Phoenix Games’ RPG Con is On
Rising Phoenix Games’ RPG Con is this week, all week, right here on the blog!
us for articles like this one, interviews, discounts, and more RPG fun!
It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming.This week I’m painting the Pathfinder Battles: Deep Cuts Familiars, produced by WizKids and NECA.
Deep Cuts is my favorite RPG mini range right now, because the detail, variety, and price are spot on. The Deep Cuts Familiars blister contains a badger, bat, and a fox, which is a lot of value, even if nobody in your party is keeping a familiar around.
These little critters taxed me to the very edge of my photography skills. This will have to do.
For all of the Deep Cuts Familiars, finding good references really helped. Look for quality photos of real animals. It may sound obvious, but when you spend most of your time painting fantasy creatures, the chance to refer to nature is a rare treat.
The Key to Fur
The trick with fur is to get the countershading right.
Photo credit: Erik McLean
Countershading is the tendency animals have of having a darker coloration on their upper side and a lighter coloration on their underside, like this fox with his lighter tummy. Our badger friend is an exception, but only in that it’s flipped around for him, with his lighter top and darker underside.
You can paint countershading in a number of ways, but the important thing is to know where the graduations are and where there’s a sudden change in color. Look at how the orange fur under his eyes suddenly becomes white, while on his forelegs the change from black to orange is more gradual.
The Bat
Priming is already done for you, so we can dip right in. The stone was painted gray, then dry brushed with a lighter gray. The bat was painted a chocolate brown, then I mixed in a little white for the dry brushing highlights. Lastly, I washed the stone with a black wash.
The Badger
I painted him the same gray as the stone on the bat mini, but then dry brushed white on the top and painted the muzzle white. I touched this up with gray over his eyes to form the distinctive patterns on the badger’s face. Paint the legs black.
For the badger’s stone, I had painted it gray, but there wasn’t much contrast, so I went back over it with a dark brown, then light brown highlights. This made all the difference.
The Fox
This might be my best paint job yet. See, I’m learning!
I painted the whole fox orange, then dry brushed a lighter orange over that, with white over the tail. The nose, eyes, and mouth were all painted black. Also note that foxes have black inside their ears and on their forelegs. Getting the patterning right is half the battle, but so satisfying when you get it right.
The base was painted dark gray and then dry brushed light gray.
Done!
The last thing to do it varnish them and stick them on their bases, then you’re done. I knocked all three out over a Saturday, so they don’t take much time at all.
I base coated the mini white, then painted the whole dragon blue. Two thin coats applied with a big brush will make quick work of this frozen fiend. After that, lightly dry brush pure white over the model. I recommend two goes of this, otherwise it’ll look more like a blue dragon with white highlights. You’re building up levels here.
