My wife and I just completed the move to our new place, and my studio is finally unpacked and set up.
I've got more floor space, and I think I'll get some lumber to make a permanent worktable to go in the center of the room for those large terrain projects and (on the off chance that I ever find time to play again) to serve as a game table. Haven't had this much open wall space in a while. Got to get some posters up there...
New Facebook Page
For those of you who follow me on Facebook (or are thinking of it), I'm starting a Rob Hawkins Hobby Blog fan page:
I hope you'll follow me there. I'd also like to get this blog on a more consistent schedule. I've been putting up a post every week, but it would be nice to have a regular day for blog posts. The Facebook page will be useful for little updates and random discussion, and then have the major content here once a week.
The Project Queue
In addition to my freelance and commission projects (which can't be discussed until after they're finished) I'm using this move as an opportunity to reorganize my personal projects and set some goals for the rapidly approaching end of the year.
The Legion of the Infernal Skull
I've been giving a lot of attention to the martial aspects of the army– The Blood Dragon vampires and their legions of Grave Guard, Black Knights, and regimented skeletons. There are quite a few projects brewing that will give more attention to the feral side of my army– Dire wolves, ghouls, and all manner of monstrosities whose names utilize the prefix 'var,' the suffix 'gheist,' or a combination of the two. I've been promising a tutorial on my Dire Wolves pretty much since I began this blog, so they're at the top of my to-do list. The Terrorgheist came with a Ghoul King that's so awesome in combat, it's just itching to be the next incarnation of Marduk the Wolf.
Skryre Lord Skreekits' Lightning Engineer Cult
My Skaven army is the only one without dozens of half-finished projects lying around. Those unfinished Globadier models are starting to tarnish that record, so I really need to finish them off. Shouldn't take more than a quick afternoon or two of painting.
Black Templars: Axalon Crusade
I've put off painting my Space Hulk set for far too long (like a year, to be precise). Those Blood Angels Terminators are going to get Templarized to fit with my army and while I'm at it I'll work on the Space Marines from the DarkVengeance starter set.
Terrain
I'll finally put the Garden of Morr to rest (get it?) and finish off a few cityfight pieces. I've got a lot of resin sets and kit-bashed rubble piles on the painting block. From there I'll start tackling my plans for more ruined buildings. They'll be useful for 40K and I'm considering getting into Infinity. From what I understand, it requires a lot of urban terrain.
So, the goal is to put a significant dent in all of these projects by the end of the year and, in the process, work in some bits and bobs that could turn into sellable products for next year.
'Til next time!
One of the projects I've been working on these past months is a series of articles for No Quarter Magazine featuring Iron Kingdoms RPG character archetype conversions. The first article is out this week in No Quarter #44, and features combinations of the Gun Mage character class.
Now that the magazine is on the shelves, I can finally show off the miniatures. For the step-by-step assembly tutorials, check out No Quarter Magazine, issue 44.
Human Gun Mage/ Rifleman
This guy is armed with a magelock rifle, and wearing an armored great coat. The armor plates were sculpted around the base of the coat, and the figure was created with pretty basic head and weapon swaps.
Parts List:
Widowmaker Trooper #2
Kara Sloan Gun
Gun Mage Captain Adept Left Hand
Hammerfall Highshield Gun Corps Head #2
Iosian Gun Mage/ Duelist
She's probably the most complex of the conversions. The holsters and shoulder cape are sculpted with modeling putty. The magelock pistols she's equipped with came from Epic Caine, cut at the elbow, and the upper arms are sculpted over a wire armature.
Parts List:
Mage Hunter Assassin Alternate Body
Mage Hunter Assassin Alternate Leg
Epic Caine's Left Arm
Epic Caine's Right Arm
Venators Sword
Rhulic Gunslinger/ Bounty Hunter
Very minimal sculpting on this one. The original head had a welder's mask that needed to be removed, and the goggles and hair were added instead.
Parts List:
Hammerfall Highshield Gun Corps Body #2
Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps Right Arm #3
Thor Steinhammer Head
Drake MacBain Gun Arm
Drake MacBain Sword Arm
Greylord Ternion Koldun Axe
Horgenhold Forge Guard Backpack
I'll have another batch of these when the next issue comes out.
'Til next time!
I got my 40K Dark Vengeance starter set earlier this month. I'm still reading over the rules, learning all of the changes from the previous editions. I played a lot of 3rd edition, a few games of 4th, and completely skipped over 5th edition, so this is a pretty significant change for me.
As for the models in the set, I traded away the Chaos miniatures for double space marines. The plan is to remove all of the Dark Angels iconography and replace it with Black Templars iconography. That leaves me with six Space Marine bikes to convert over.
This inspired me to take some photos of my current bike squads. The riders are converted with the metal Templars shoulder pad, and the smaller backpack from the special edition Emperor's Champion. These were build before the advent of the oval "bike base" so I modeled them popping wheelies and skidding through turns, which adds a lot of action to the models.
The windscreens on the bikes are modeled from plastic Empire shields. A windscreen is kind of unnecessary when the rider is wearing power armor, but it looks cool and adds a little more protection for the rider.
I also have a couple of attack bikes primed and ready to go. Once I get through the new rules and see what the new codex has in store, I'll get back to working on my Space Marines, and finish these off.
In the meantime, I've got a move coming up. The studio is in a state of disrepair as I pack everything. Once I get set up again, I'll need to take stock of my projects and re-prioritize everything.
'Til next time!
With my Skaven team assembled, and the weekend-o'-gaming just around the corner, I needed to paint them fast as lightning. Good thing that's always been the mantra for my Skaven miniatures!
Painting the Skaven Team
To paint these models as fast as possible, I planned to use sprays, basecoats and shades. (I'll have a short review of the Citadel Shades at the end of the post.)
After priming the team black, I sprayed them with a dusting of Tamiya Dull Red, then sprayed a light dusting of Model Masters Light Earth from above. This gave them a reddish-brown basecoat similar to the old GW Vermin Brown.
Next I spent about ten minutes drybrushing them with a mix of GW Snakebire Leather and Bleached Bone.
I basecoated all of the leather straps with P3 Gun Corps Brown and the bandaged areas with GW Desert Yellow. While the Desert Yellow was out I also gave the wristbands a bit of an overbrushed highlight. This all took about 1/2 hour.
The fleshy bits (hands, feet, tails, and faces) were painted with P3 Midlund Flesh. Because the Rat Ogre had larger patches of exposed skin, I mixed in a little GW Bestial Brown to shade some of the recesses. The ball in the thrower's hands was painted with straight Bestial Brown. The teeth, claws and football laces were then basecoated with Bleached Bone.
With the main basecoats finished, I washed all the miniatures with Agrax Earthshade. All together, I'd spent just under 3 hours to get this far on the team.
When the shade had dried, I used GW Shadow Grey/ The Fang to coat the loincloths and armor, being careful to avoid the straps and ties.
Then GW Nuln Oil shade was painted over the armored areas.
The metal spikes and buckles were picked out with P3 Cold Steel, and the noses were painted with P3 Thamar Black.
The final step was to paint the bases with GW Catachan Green, and add the flock. The numbers and stripes on the bases were added with straight Bleached Bone.
The total time spent painting the team was about six hours.
Blood Bowl League
I got in three games this weekend, two with my Skaven, and one with my Khemri. I drew with the Khemri (1-1) and lost both of the games with the Skaven (3-1 and 4-1).
I think I hamstrung myself during team building by taking three Gutter Runners for my 11-man lineup. Early games tend to be slugfests, and strength 2 players can't hold their own. Having three of them meant my linemen were outnumbered, overpowered, and the Gutter Runners were quickly caught and dispatched. One was even killed in the second game!
We played with the current ruleset (Version 5.0), and I have to say that I'm a little disappointed compared to the last version I played (3.0). Somehow, an elegantly streamlined game has become overcomplicated with the addition of rules like FAME.
FAME, in particular, seems to vastly skew a lot of game elements in favor of whoever rolled higher for the Gate (attending fans). Kickoff results of Cheering Fans, Pitch Invasion, Brilliant Coaching, and Throw a Rock, will always benefit whoever has more attending fans. This can be mitigated by having cheerleaders and extra coaches, but those are rare on starting teams.
The attending fans and winnings have also been reduced, meaning more games are required before you can start adding players to your roster. After my second game I realized that I'd have been better off firing my Gutter Runners and replacing them with the free Journeymen linemen (another new rule).
All the changes aside, I still had a great weekend. (Thanks again for hosting, Brian!) Blood Bowl is always a blast and I'm looking forward to the next league and maybe building my own "home team" pitches.
Citadel Shades: A Short Review
I first used the new shades on the miniatures for the Wrath of Kings diorama, and again here on the Skaven team. I might be a little late to the party with this review, but in using them I noticed a few things that I hadn't seen anyone else discuss.
The shades need to be used straight out of the pot. Whereas inks and paint can be thinned with a touch of water to your brush, adding any water to the shades will cause them to pull out of the recesses, forming the dreaded "bathtub ring."
They also dry completely matte– as flat as Testors Dull Cote, which is a good thing, as inks tend to be shiny after they dry, requiring a matte spray to level everything out. This makes me wonder if the new GW Lahmian Medium dries with the same matte finish. If so, it would be perfect as a brush-on version of Dull Cote. I'll have to look into that.
On that note, Dull Cote can sometimes frost if the conditions are right (or rather, wrong). Too much humidity, bringing the sprayed model into an air-conditioned room, or putting it in the case right away can cause frosting in the recesses.
I noticed that a few of the Skaven players had a bit of white in their deep creases after the Agrax Earthshade had dried (without spraying Dull Cote on the figures). Not a problem, because I covered it up when I added the Nuln Oil shade, but it makes me think that the Citadel Shades use a "dulling" medium similar to what's in Testors Dull Cote, and therefore may require similar working conditions. I don't foresee this being a serious issue, just something to be aware of.
In all, I think the shades work very well for what they are– a quick way to shade a basecoated model. Adding a couple highlights overtop will really benefit the paint job. I still prefer the old GW inks (Brown Ink in particular) because they had a little more pigment and could work as a glaze or shade, providing a wider range of tone and opacity. But it did require a little more finesse to work with the inks, while these shades are basically fool-proof.
I can't see myself using the shades on really high-end units or character models where I'm willing to spend the time on a top-notch paint job, but I'd definitely recommend them for speed painting armies and cannon fodder troops. Like every tool, the shades have their roll, and have found their spot in my painting toolbox.
'Til next time!
Blood Bowl was the first miniatures game I ever played, before I really even knew what a "miniatures" game was. To me it was just a fun little board game with cool figures. Years later, after being introduced to Warhammer, I got back into Blood Bowl and was able to appreciate the hobby aspects of the game.
In 2004, While working at GW HQ in Glen Burnie, I participated in a staff-run Blood Bowl league. My Khemri team, The Baltizzar Embalmbers was assembled using a mix of skeleton and zombie parts, combined with metal Khemri bits.
My giant Mummies were converted from Tomb Kings Ushabtis topped 40K Ork heads.
The crocodile and falcon heads, removed from the original Ushabti models went into making the Blitzers and Throwers (called "Blitz-Ras" and "Throw-Ras," respectively).
The team has a few Cheerleaders, and other scenic pieces. Even a skeleton referee and Sphinx mascot in the works!
Suffice to say, the entire Khemri team is less than agile, making it difficult to pass or catch the ball and dodge around the opposing players. I would watch as the Skaven and Dark Elf teams scored fantastic one-turn touchdowns and racked up point after point while I took a full 8 turns (half the game!) to slog the ball into the end zone.
Looking back over my record sheet (I still have it!) I never scored more than 2 points in a single game. That's fine. My Blood Bowl motto has always been "If you can't win, kill." And, after 17 games, the team had racked up close to 40 casualties.
For my buddy's league this weekend, I'm putting together a second team (with only a few participants, we'll likely bring two teams each to vary the field a bit).
I scavenged my Warhammer Skaven Army to put together a team with a decidedly different (but hopefully still dirty) play style. The Under-Burg Bolts will take to the pitch to win glory and honor for the Under-Empire, and maybe I'll finally get to see what it's like to throw passes and score more than twice a match!
I put the team together in an evening, mostly with parts from my bits box, including a Mordheim Rat Ogre that I never assembled for my Skaven army. The shoulder pads were made using a simple press mold and modeling putty, and I did a little sculpting on the Rat Ogre's shoulder gear:
The Gutter Runners and Throwers are pretty much Skaven Clanrats in light armor with their weapons removed. I like to imaging the Thrower with the knife getting ready to toss an "interception."
The Linemen use the armored Clanrat torso with the broader shoulder pads. To make the Blitzers, I used a pair of Stormvermin standard bearers that I had purchased in 1999 simply to get their banner tops to use in my Undead army. After 14 years I finally found a use for the leftover "core" models. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Never throw anything away!
Now, if it would just stop raining long enough for me to go outside and prime them...
'Til next time! (We'll see just how quickly I can get this team painted and I'll let you know how the league went.)
As I was working on the Wrath of Kings table, questions were popping up in the comments section that I wasn't able to get to. I mentioned a few weeks back that I'd address them in a Q&A post, so here we go. Feel free to add to the questions in the comments section at the end, and I'll get to them as well.
Questions and Answers
Neil Hubbard asks: "Could you explain how you get a nice finish with the static grass please?"
The trick to getting a consistent finish is thinning the wood glue just a little with water. It should be the consistency of melted ice cream. Then paint it on evenly, thick enough to not have any dry spots, but not so thick that it runs or drips. Then pour the grass overtop. Pile it on so it completely covers the glue. (I'll use an entire shaker of grass on a table but once dry, most of it gets collected back up.)
Then gently press the grass down with your hand. This ensures that the grass really gets into the glue, and isn't just sitting on top. Let it dry overnight, and then dump off the excess. If you've got a vacuum it will help get any stray grass fibers out of the nooks and crannies.
I'll mix a few colors to get some variation, like on the Wrath of Kings table, or apply a layer of flock, let that dry and then add patches of grass in the center for a more layered appearance. Most of the terrain I made at Privateer Press used the latter technique.
Anonymous wants to know: "Where do you buy your pink foam at?"
My pink foam comes from Home Depot. Funny story about it: Not too long ago Owens Corning sold insulation foam boards that were a lighter shade of pink. Now all I can find is the darker pink foam, the one with the big picture of the Pink Panther on it. This foam seems denser than the old stuff, and it doesn't model as well in my opinion. But it's got the same serial number, so maybe it's a change in formula to save costs and we're all out of luck. I can't find the light blue foam anywhere. I've been to every Home Depot and Lowes in my area and no one has it.
There are also different styles of the boards, some have a flat edge, some have a tongue-and-groove edge. One store only carries boards with a 2-inch alternating lip cut out of each side, useless for making modular tables! Lowes only seems to carry its own brand of awful foam, covered with a peel-away film and only in a 1-inch thickness.
If anyone has a line on where to find the blue foam, I'd be very grateful.
Mananarepublic asks: "What did you make the "walls" for that mold in and do you have to coat the mold with something before you cast it?"
Luka pretty much covered it in the comments, but I'll just clarify– The mold box is made out of PVC card. It's a little lighter than styrene, but still thick enough that it doesn't bow under the RTV. It glues pretty well with super glue (in fact so well I had to destroy the walls to get the box apart).
I don't coat the mold with any release agent; the RTV pulls out pretty smoothly. When we made molds like this at GW, I believe we sprayed a release agent on the part just to be safe. When the piece I'm casting has foam or wood parts, I will coat them with a thinned layer of wood glue to seal them so the RTV doesn't bond to the porous surface.
Something else I learned: Make sure your rubber spatula is actually plastic, and not silicone, or the RTV will bond to it. Usually I just peel the excess RTV right out of the mixing bucket, and off the stir stick and spatula. Now my spatula has a blue skin hanging off of it!
Luka added: "It certainly looks like there's tape on the outside, but the inside corners appear shiny. I can't tell whether that's tape as well, or if he's glued them to prevent the silicone from escaping between the strips."
Both, actually. I super glued the walls together, and then put packing tape around the outside to make sure nothing popped apart under the pressure of the RTV or leaked out of a tiny crack. If you look closely, you'll see that I started to add a bead of hot glue around the inside, but quit because it was difficult to get the glue gun in there, and it was overkill anyway.
I don't use Legos to build the walls mainly because I'd be afraid of the RTV leaking through the tiny cracks between bricks. I think Legos might be more expensive than the card, as well.
On July 15, redmanphill asked: "How long did it take you to make this much progress?"
That was after "Part 2" so this was two weeks into the build, probably close to 80 hours. Most of the first week was spent gathering supplies, planning, and building the crate, with minimal time spent on actual table construction.
The entire project (including the miniature painting) took around 200 hours. The blog posts were up to date with the construction each week, so you were watching this get built in (sort of) real time.
TheBugKing asks: "A question on the commission process: How do you decide on cost? I've done a few pieces where I tried to estimate each section of a board and it got prohibitively complex."
I estimate the cost of the materials and supplies and how much time it will take to complete the piece. I try to work out a quote so I'll earn a respectable "doller-per-hour" rate after deducting the material costs.
For me this works better than billing at an hourly rate that could wind up costing the client more than they were expecting if a project runs long. They get the piece at the price quoted and the responsibility is then on me to work efficiently to keep my time and budget in check.
I went a little long on this project, but I kept track of the expenses and time involved, so I'll have a better analog for next time. The more work you do, the better you get at estimating time and costs.
Mr Saturday ased: "Maybe I missed it in the post, but how did you do the foam stones? Are they individual bits?!"
If you mean the rocky cliff on the back side, yeah I sort of glossed over that. Here's a little more explanation on how the stones stones shaped up:
The trick to making effective rocks, cliffs, and such is in hiding the separation between individual chunks of foam. Each "boulder" is not a separate piece (that would take forever), rather the rocks are cut into a piece of 2-inch foam. They are built up in layers, and each piece of foam is angled or turned so there's no recognizable "stair-stepping" effect.
These are colored photos from the previous blogs. Each colored section is a single piece of foam, to give you an idea of how the pieces layer and jigsaw-puzzle fit together. The blue rocks are single stones that I glue in to fill gaps and break up any straight lines.
I cut away the layers of base foam and replaced them with chunks of sculpted 2-inch foam.
And finally, Rob Akins asks: "So, when can we expect to see your own line of resin scenery hitting your online store?"
Someday, Rob. Someday. Who'd buy it?
That's all for now. I've got some commission models to work on, and a weekend of Blood Bowl coming up. Got to re-read those rules because I haven't played in years. The last time I rolled a block die was in 2004!
Thanks to everyone for the questions and for following along!
'Til next time!
