Custom paint rack

Hello dear readers!

Today I want to tell you all about this amazing custom paint rack I ordered.

Through Facebook I came in contact with Manuel, who apparently builds paint racks. I wanted to fit the paint rack inside a closet drawer so I had some specific demands when it came to size. After talking through the options we decided on a size. The rack would hold 60 paints. Then came the big question; 'how much is this gonna cost?' I was amazed to find out it would only cost me €14!(about £10 or $15,50) Of course you can get laser cut paint racks for a similar price but do remember that this is a custom build to my specifications!

The rack arrived quickly and well packaged

It arrived fully assembled

It's a perfect

Witness the power of this fully operational paint rack!

If you want your own custom paint rack you can contact Manuel through Facebook or by email (just click for the email address) His pricing is very straight forward. His standard rack holds 100 bottles of paint and costs €20. For every 50 paints you want it to hold the price goes up €10. For detailed information I recommend contacting Manuel. 

I want to thank Manuel for helping me clean up my workspace and I want to thank you for reading.

Till next time!

Product review: Vallejo Grey Pumice paste

Hi guys and girls,

Sorry for the lack of content lately but I have a valid excuse:

Small fracture in my left radius

Luckily for me no cast was required but it hurts and I am required to carry my arm in a sling. I am slowly getting my mobility back so typing is less hurtful and I can rest my arm on a desk now.

Okay, on with the subject of this article.

Vallejo basing pastes. Not a lot of people use these but I found that they are a great addition to a modelers arsenal. I have two variants, the Dark Earth #26.218 and the Grey Pumice #26.213. If you buy a pot you will get a 200ml. pot filled with a sandy or stony paste consisting pigments, resin and a texture like sand or an other material.

200ml. pot of basing paste

Depending on what you use it for this pot can last you a good while! I can imagine that if you are using this to base an army of gaming models that one pot will last you through the entire army.

Beneath the lid

Applying it can be done with either an old brush or a painting knife/sculpting tool. What I really like about this product is that you can really sculpt texture onto your base. Be sure to keep your good brushes away from this stuff as it will ruin them beyond repair! I personally use some very cheap, slightly bigger brushes with very stiff bristles. They are also sometimes used to apply woodglue to surfaces. They can scoop up a good amount of paste and its pretty easy using it to apply it to a base. You can really build up and sculpt your texture to a base.

A brush full of basing paste.

Be sure to cover the entire area you want to be covered with this texture. There is a little bit of shrinkage so you will have to keep that in mind. You can build it up quite thick but that will have a direct result in longer drying times, which are between 45 minutes to even days.

Dried basing paste

This is the result after about 10 hours of drying time. It is dry to touch and you can continue by painting it. While it will remain a little soft for a day or two it is dry enough to hold paint, receive a drybrush and being exposed to washes and pigments.

I really hope you guys liked this article and that it helps you improve your bases. If you have any questions or remarks please leave them in the comments!

Happy modeling and painting my friends!

Tutorial: How to paint a cape or cloak with an airbrush

Hello everybody! Happy Thursday!

Today I will share a tutorial on how I like to paint capes or cloaks with an airbrush. It is a nice and especially quick way to achieve nice shading and highlights on your cape. The easiest way to do this is if you have the cape as a separate bit not yet glued to your model. If the cape or cloak is attached to your model, some masking is required to avoid overspray. Best ways to mask are masking tape, putty or liquid mask. It all depends on the model and preference.

For this little tutorial I use the cape of my Godslayer Halodyne Demarchon. I pinned it so I have full access to all sides without having to touch it. The hole is where I glue the cape to the model so you won't see it.

This is a metal cape so first thing you want to do is clean the metal to have a nice and smooth finish. You can read on how I did that in this article.

Okay so after cleaning and priming lets start painting. This is the step where you define your shadow color. I usually use a set color combination for shadows and highlights.
This is what I usually use:

• Natural green - brown or purple shading
• Mechanical green - dark blue shading
• Red - brown or blue shading
• Blue - black shading 
• Yellow - brown or orange shading
• White - grey highlights

This is gonna be a red cape to match the army. For this cape I chose Vallejo Model Air Mahogany. This is a nice reddish brown that will fit the red that will be added later.

Cape with Mahogany basecoat

Using Vallejo Model Air White I painted the highlights by painting the raised area's. There are several techniques you can use for this like zenithal highlighting. The result should be similar to the picture below. The more white you use the less shadows you will have and the more color. Make sure to keep the transitions smooth.

White highlights on the cape

The white highlights will make sure that the color you will paint over the cape next will really pop. For me, that first color is Vallejo Model Air Fire Red. Just spray it over the brown and white. You will see that the white will really pick up the red color. The brown area's will get a red tint but will stay really dark. 

First coat or Fire Red

The last color will be somewhat of a highlight. I will spray Vallejo Model Air Scarlet Red from the top, making it a zenithal highlight. You will notice the red parts will become more red. 

Highlight with Scarlet Red

Finally, we get to see what the cape looks like on the model. I removed the paint from the 'contact points' with the model using a knife. This will improve the bond with the miniature. When the cape is attached to the miniature it looks like this: 

Final result

Pretty cool right? This is a nice fast technique you can use for gaming models. It is also a nice start if you want to continue layering or wet blending to improve the contrast or color.

I hope this little tutorial helped you all. If you like this tutorial please feel free to share it with your friends, because, sharing is caring.

See you next time!

Basic weathering test

Hi everybody!

Today I want to share with you a step-by-step weathering project I did a little while ago.

For this, I used a 1:32 scale oil drum by Tamiya. They come in a kit with oil drums, jerrycans and buckets. These are great for scenery or display bases but are also great to practice some weathering on!

If you want to reproduce what I did here, you are going to need the following:

• a model to practice on
• rust colored paints (I used these) 
• rust colored pigments (I used this one and this one)
• chipping fluid (I used this) 
• a non-rust colored paint
• some rustcolored, enamel or oil paints (I used this)
• white spirits or odorless thinner

To start with, you need to prime your model and paint it in a nice rust color. You can use different browns, oranges and red to create a nice natural effect. For inspiration you can take a look at pictures of rust to get a good reference of what your going for. Accept for paints you can also use pigments this step to get a nice textured look. Don't put too much effort into it, its gonna get covered up.

Once you are happy with the result, kind of like the picture above, give it a thin coat of gloss or satin varnish. This will protect your progress up to now. When the varnish is dry, spray several thin layers of chipping fluid (or if you can't get this, you can try and use hairspray) and give it like 5 minutes to dry. Then you can paint the model in the color you want to. If you use very thin layers you can use multiple colors to achieve some sort of color modulation or camouflage.

Once the paint is dry to touch get an old brush and some lukewarm water. Dip the brush in the water and stab at the model where you want to chip the paint. make sure to hit the edges as those are the most likely to be damaged.

Don't over do the effect. Chipping is only one stage of weathering so try to pace yourself. For destroyed or abandoned vehicles you can go overboard if you want to, but that is a whole different way of painting and weathering. Once you are satisfied with the amount of chipping you can spray a thin layer of gloss or satin varnish to protect your work and to make sure the chipping fluid won't ruin the effect you achieved so far.

Last but certainly not least, is the streaking and staining.
For this I used pigments and streaking effects but you can also use oil paints instead. Start with streaking. Make little streaks from chips leading down or from places where water would run down. If you are using oil paints you make little dots. You can use different colors  to create a bit of variation. Then take a medium sized, flat, synthetic brush and dampen it using white spirits or (h)odorless thinner. (Game of Thrones joke there, sorry) and drag the lines or dots out and fade them out towards the end. The varnish you sprayed on the model at the end of the previous step protects your paint against the thinner, which can strip your model clean of paint.
Once your streaks are done and dry we can proceed to the pigments. There are several ways to use these but what I did was to make a wash by adding some pigments to water, applying it to the model and later cleaning it with water. That way it will sit nicely in the recesses and it will give a nice effect.

Here you see the finished product. The different colors in the rust give the impression of old and new rust and the overall look has a nice aged finish. 

I hope this step-by-step has helped you in any way. There are many ways to do this so feel free to experiment but this gives you a nice impression of how I achieve this effect.

As always, thank you for reading.  

WIP godslayer halodynes

It's miniatures Monday! Yay!...

Erm...  No it's not.

Don't get me wrong. I have the out most respect for people that are able to think of, create and maintain a successful series using whatever media. I can speak out of experience doing a weekly live show called the Chilling Wargamers with my friend Spud Tate. It is very demanding of your offline life to schedule everything around whatever you have going and it is very hard to keep thinking of new, interesting topics and idea's for your series. A good series starts with a good name. Sadly, most things you will see are things like:

• Miniature Monday
• Tutorial Tuesday
• WIP Wednesday
• Chilling Wargamers Thursday (doh!)
• Fantasy Friday
• Showcase Saturday
• BatRep Sunday

Sadly I'm not that original so you won't see me thinking of some witty names. Luckily I'm not very structured so making a series with a specific topic on a set day is a no go for me.

Back to topic since I started derailing from the second line in this article. Sorry for that.

In my previous article (link) you can read how I prepare my metal miniatures. Meanwhile I finished preparing and building, basing and priming my Godslayer Halodynes. For the bases I used a plaster concrete slabs product by GaleForce9 for the rocks/tiles and Vallejo basing paste for the sand. (prod.nr 26.218)

I love using Vallejo texture paste as you can apply it really fast and easy using an old, beat up brush and get a realistic looking texture you wont get using white glue and fine sand.

For priming I used dark yellow airbrush primer from AMMO by Mig Jimenez. I believe in full disclosure so I can tell you I got it and many other AMMO products (AK interactive products at the time) for free as a promo pack. You can see me using loads of these products in future articles for sure!

Why did I use dark yellow? No real reason, I had it handy and I think it might be a better base for golds and skin color then light grey is.
The airbrush primer needs to sit and cure for 24 hours so I'm currently still thinking about what my next move should be. Should I airbrush the bronze /gold for the armor and paint the skin manually or should I airbrush the skin and paint the gold by hand?

What do you think? What would you suggest? Please leave a comment to help me decide.
As always, thank you for reading.