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Blog Old Mossy's paint log - Some terrain and lizards (and OnGs!)

Discussion in 'Personal Paint Logs' started by Old Mossy, Jul 25, 2011.

  1. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Hey all, just started getting into warhammer, and thought I might share some of my conversions/models. Hoping for some advice/inspiration mainly, but maybe someone will find something useful on here themselves.

    So my first project was a pyramid, complete with star chamber, sacrificial altar, and some sort of decorated top piece. I wanted it kind of similar to one of the Mayan temples at Tikal, but decided I wanted the chamber to actually be able to fit a Slann on palanquin with a temple guard host. I wanted it to feel like it was rising out of a swampy area, maybe look like blasted earth.

    I'm using 50mm thick extruded polystyrene, and decided to plan everything out on grid paper, so that I minimised waste. In the end, even with all the angled walls, stairs, etc. I wasted almost no foam; use the off-cut off one wall to make the opposite wall angled. I was pretty chuffed with that actually. The early WIP photos are on my dead phone ( :( ), but here's what I've got so far:

    2011-07-05133150.jpg
    Undercoat
    2011-07-25202823.jpg
    Now with a colour, and inhabitants for scale!
    IMG_0394.jpg
    Inside star chamber


    I think my main concern is that I'm not sure where to take it from here. It looks a bit dull, and the glass mosaic tiles in the star chamber REALLY clash, but I like them. I'm trying to add another dry brush layer to tie it all together, before I add any last details (like on the altar), but I'm not sure about what colour; I can't see it in my head.
     
  2. n810
    Slann

    n810 First Spawning

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    I noticed a lot of foam still showing, you might want to mix up a batch of dark red wash and see if you canget those parts protected.

    Overall, I realy like the pyramid shape and design, I have been paning on making one similar to this one for a while now.
     
  3. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    Yeah, it's not so bad in natural light, but the camera doesn't lie. Will definitely have to give a heavy wash all over. Yikes.
     
  4. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    It looks good, and very big! Great work!
     
  5. Lord Tsunami
    Salamander

    Lord Tsunami Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    very cool thing you have going there, but i think it would be worth the extra effort to go back and fill in the gaps with black, so you cant see the poly styrene (or the glue) at all. its a very epic building and a huge project, and its a shame if the effect is spoiled by just a tiny bit of sloppiness ;)
     
  6. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    lol, you'd don't even know how epic. In cutting the walls for the star chamber, I got distracted while making, what I thought was, a simple final cut with a dull-ish stanley knife. Yeah... turns out, not dull, just a thicker blade than I'm used to. Severed an artery, shaved some bone off, lost a big chunk of finger. The Old Ones exacted a toll for the star chamber's creation.
    So, a PSA: Be careful with knives. You should probably already know this one.

    But yeah, definitely going to give it a re-wash.

    For terrain, how big do you find is too big? This is about 42cm x 35cm, and I think that's probably pushing it to a deployment zone and nowhere else for a smaller game.
     
  7. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    I guess I may as well post all my painted stuff. I've never done any painting or converting before, so it's all pretty fun to me. With the first few units, I haven't really taken my time, and it shows :p
    Tell me what you think. Right now, I think I'm finally understanding the point behind thinning your paints, and what highlights/shading is actually meant to accomplish. Looking forward to painting my next model, now.
    Anyway:

    Cold One Cav - water just done with 1 layer of gloss varnish with some stonegrey for murkiness, and a dark grey/dark angels green mix for the base.
    2011-07-05140857.jpg

    CoC Running!
    IMG_0397.jpg

    Old Blood - kit bashed together from temple guard body/tail/head. The weapon top is from 2 dark elf corsair blades. I was trying to make it look like a snake tongue. Partial success, I think. Lol only just noticed I stlll have a bunch of green stuff showing
    IMG_0399.jpg

    Scar Veteran with Great weapon and battle standard (removable). Kit bashed from 2 temple guard halberds, CoC head, and a bunch of other stuff from saurus kit.
    2011-07-25221904.jpg

    Same scar vet, showing the sad frosting he's obtained :( super glue, I believe... careless
    2011-07-25221825.jpg

    Terradon, magnetised to a statue of a coiled snake.
    2011-07-08223238.jpg
    2011-07-08223107.jpg

    Stock standard saurus. Looks very Australian if you ask me
    IMG_0401.jpg

    Skink skirmishers
    IMG_0402.jpg

    Skink skirmishers with a horrible, horrible attempt at stippling (right term?). I tried to use a toothpick, but I'm pretty sure that's not fine enough.
    IMG_0403.jpg

    For my next unit, I'm thinking I want to mimic this guy a bit:


    Phew, that was a lot of pics. Sorry bout your download quota. ;)
     

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  8. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    Oh lordy... I thought to myself last night that I needed 2 unit fillers to bump my 20 saurus up to 30. So I got my off cut pieces of foam out to see what I had to work with, and "oh yes, that could be a slann statue". Now, regardless of hilariously cute and terrible result, I can't help but think if it does look like a slann, rather than winnie the pooh, how on earth can I salvage it to look less... cartoony?
    2011-07-29080337.jpg
     

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  9. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    Well, my lizzies performed as poorly as it is possible to on the weekend (possibly something to do with their commander, possibly something to do with some tough rulings); at 1500 to 0 at end turn 4 in 2k point game, I forfeited.
    But, that aside, I decided to persevere with my winnie the pooh old one, Tehe'Gar (look in your Lizard rule book :p)
    I'm going to put a kneeling/praying saurus, but I think the angle might be a squeeze. Here's a peek, but I've also started on my second unit filler, which will be paired in the same unit.

    He's actually kneeling on the ground in this one, with one fore-leg along the ground
    2011-07-31223752.jpg

    Second filler. The saurus reminds me a little of a wookie, for some reason. :artist:
    2011-07-31223504.jpg
    2011-07-31223514.jpg

    Pyramid's no longer showing foam, but I still haven't decided on another colour. We decided on some simple rules for it last game:
    - the whole thing counts as a building, with 3 levels
    - you can only garrison/assault by contact with front of stairs
    - you can only deploy with stairs facing across the table (so 1 player doesn't get a ridiculously
    - the roof is only accessible via flight, and can be landed on while the building is garrisoned
     
  10. dictator
    Cold One

    dictator New Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    So the new sauri unit filler is going to be some kind of snake or lizard? Will you put a carved head on top or am I missing something? Cool stuff and great idea to make rules for that monsterous temple.
     
  11. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    Cheers! They're simple rules, but I like em that way. The statue is meant to be a simple snake, with the head already attached at the bottom. It's small, maybe not the right proportion, but I like it (it stands out more when in focus :p). The real trouble I'm having is making the saurus kneel. His legs are in 3 pieces, and nothing wants to co-operate. I'm enjoying doing lots of things at once, though. I find it misses the point when you're focused on painting a whole regiment, and just get stuck in the mindset of finishing it off (which is a trap I fall into).
     
  12. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    Just a quick post to say this is not dead :oops: - been busy IRL (you know, that doorway that leads away from your paint station).
    I've done a few other little things, but right now I'm experimenting with making my own washes. I'm more or less using the recipe from here, however I only bought 1 coloured ink to trial (not the same brand, a cheaper one, and I think its made a negative difference), and just normal GW/Vallejo paints. I'll post some before/after shots tomorrow sometime.
     
  13. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    Ok, so I experimented a bit with paint/ink and the wash mix. I think I ended up adding too much paint to the solution, and it didn't flow as well. So the one pictured here was done with some green ink, black paint, and dark angels green paint.

    Pre-wash:
    IMG_0406_2.jpg

    Post-wash:
    IMG_0419_2.jpg

    I'm ok with the result. Wasn't brilliant, but I think with some playing it could work well, and it's great to be able to make any coloured wash. Has anyone else used this or a similar recipe and gotten a good result?

    Edit: Actually, after looking at the models again, I'm really happy with the result. I'd definitely recommend checking out that link to the wash recipe. All the ingredients were available at my local craft store, too.
     
  14. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy slopping red all over the place

    And a pic of my new skink chiefy, Qua`Tli. I did have a completely different colour scheme in mind, but I said that if the Queensland Reds made it to the rugby final, I'd dedicate him to the serve the rugby gods.

    IMG_0416.jpg
    IMG_0410.jpg

    .. Seeing that second picture big and upclose, I do have a question... what is with the crotch bulge? They just spawn out of pools, soooo...
     
  15. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy's paint log - Update: Magnets for my minions

    Not sure if anyone's interested, but I'll keep blogging all the same. Maybe someone will find something of use.
    I've got a whole bunch of different projects going at once (saurus unit fillers, temple pyramid, river system, home-made flock), but there're all progressing typically slowly. I did manage to finish off my terradon for the current competition, so here's him:
    2011-09-13180553.jpg
    2011-10-12222710.jpg
    2011-10-12222756.jpg

    I'm a nightowl; it's hard to find time in the day to take photos.

    So I'm reasonably happy with him, but I'm MUCH happier now that I got all my terradons magnetised :D
    The first guy was a bit of a hassle (read: cause of everlasting fury) trying to get in the right spot, but the other two were quite easy.

    Terradons magnet mounted:
    2011-10-21211215.jpg

    ...and terradons after being pin-cushioned in a recent game:
    2011-10-09140727.jpg
    Gotta love the blue card river (can't wait to get my plasticard to start on my river system)

    The main trick is just finding the right pivot point, which, for mine, didn't prove to be on the hole where the stand inserts. I just felt with my pinky until I found a sweet spot, and glued on a neodymium magnet. The really irritating bit is that you really can't test if it worked for about 12 - 18 hours, otherwise the magnets just pull eachother off the model/stand.
    You've also got to make sure you scrape off all the dried glue from the faces of the magnets that will be in contact with one another, otherwise the force will be a lot weaker, and your model will probably topple off. Seems obvious I guess, but I didn't get all of it the first time, and had some trouble.
     
  16. T`hinker`er
    Salamander

    T`hinker`er Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy's paint log - Update 21/10: Magnets and Terradons

    I feel your pain on putting these guys together. Mine are still in bits. I did one of the new ones - it seems from your photos and the ones on the GW web site that the wing position on the new terradon is the same in all the blister packs. Lots of pieces (really liked the older ones where the tail and legs were part of the body...), but the only variation is that the terradon that comes with TicTackToe has a different head. I was able to get some nice variation with the old terradons (although I need to sculpt riders, which will take a while to get to). Look for photos on my army blog soon (just finishing my second Sallie, then 7 more chameleon conversions, then Saurus Spear...then finishing those Krox sculpts...hmmm, o.k., photos of terradons may not be for a while...)

    Most likely not going to use the clear plastic flying stands either. They stick out like sore thumbs IMO, and a solid brass wire painted black would be far less noticeable, I think. Not sure I have the patience to much about with magnets - kudos to you for taking the trouble to figure this all out!
     
  17. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy's paint log - Update 21/10: Magnets and Terradons

    Mmmm, wasn't sold on the clear stand either. I think next time i'll just go with a long nail or something, and like you said, paint it grey/black/sky blue or something. I got the terradons from ebay, and 1 is an older model. It wasn't until I (rush) painted the terradon that I realised I'd missed greenstuff-ing him completely. :oops: :oops: But yes, I'm pretty sure all their wing positions are the same.

    Meanwhile, the magnets make travel so much easier. Zero chance of breaking. It does look a little out of place though, as you can see, but if you placed on top of a bit of brass/nail, instead of the stand (or if you painted the stand), I think it wouldn't lose anything visually.
     
  18. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy's paint log - Update 23/10: Making my own flock

    I'm trying to get a lot terrain making done over the next couple of months (full modular river set, with lake, marsh, island, ford, bridge, and waterfall), so I decided to try my hand at making flock, in the hopes that it will speed my efforts up when I move on to the terrain. I had a look over this as a general reference. I happened to find some sand with a nicely varied grain-size, so I did up 3 batches of about 400mL of sand.
    IMG_0462.jpg

    First was dark green, using ink instead of acrylic paint, as a bit of a test. The ink didn't seem to be getting good coverage, so I kept adding and adding ink. It got a weeee bit slushy:
    IMG_0464.jpg

    The second, I decided (for some foolish reason) to mix the paint in the tin with water before adding the sand. It got VERY slushy:
    IMG_0465.jpg

    The last, I added just paint, and added it after putting the sand in first:
    IMG_0466.jpg

    I've left it out to dry, so hopefully tomorrow afternoon I'll have a result as to whether this actually worked. Hopefully it works as well as sawdust.
    Drying:
    IMG_0468.jpg


    On a different note, I've decided to re-start work on my pyramid. I lost interest when my usual opponents decided it was too big (Wood elves didn't like the LOS blocking ;) ), but I've added a few extra details: The trimming, which I'm going to paint turquoise; and the heads at the bottom, which I'm still not sure if I'll add tongues to.
    IMG_0461.jpg
    IMG_0460.jpg
     

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  19. n810
    Slann

    n810 First Spawning

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    Re: Old Mossy's paint log - Update 23/10: Making my own flock

    Very kool, curious as how the died sand works out.
    That temple is awesome, you should definitively finish it.
     
  20. T`hinker`er
    Salamander

    T`hinker`er Active Member

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    Re: Old Mossy's paint log - Update 23/10: Making my own flock

    I meant to say also that the little base full of arrows looked pretty cool. What do you use that for in the game exactly?
     

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