Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Making a base for your Rivet Warriors!

Today we have a little treat for all you Rivet Warriors participating in the Kickstarter by Cool Mini.

You have seen my painted versions of the regular bases.  However, I wanted to present something new to you.  Making a specialized base for your figures.

I started out by cutting a piece of thick plasticard to the same size as the original base.  A piece of cork was added to that, extending the overall surface just a bit.

To create the sandbags, it was time to break out the Apoxy sculpt!

I folded out the clay in shapes that looked a lot like pillows.  I made sure to have the ends pinched down, so they would look more like sealed bags.

Then it was time to add more sandbags, just as if I were laying bricks.  I made sure to have any overhanging ends sagging downwards.  After they had set up for a few minutes, I used a sculpting tool to create a bit of a seam.

With the bags complete, it was time to get some rocks and gravel onto the base.  I took out my trusty oxide paste...

And applied it to the base.  Then I put on the heavier rocks, followed by the smaller and finer grains.

Time to see what the figure will look like!!

The painting was done with just a few colors, a light greenish grey, a chocolate brown, and a darker blue/brown.  I worked quickly with my larger #8 brush to get pigment everywhere.  The bags had more of the light greenish grey to distinguish them from the ground.

All surfaces covered.  Time to work lighter!

The light Green/grey is added to the chocolate brown on the bags, getting a bit lighter each time.

This is as light as I need to get, so now the glazing and shading begins!

I had a reddish brown glaze, a muddy brown, and a black.  These were alternated over various areas to get some differences in the colors.

OK, the glazes are done!  Time to let this dry...

And then add the miniature!

This is a basing tutorial that I want to create for my Kickstarter series of painting videos.

The conclusion of the Battle for the Warp Gate!

So, when we last left our intrepid heroes, they were desperately trying to delay the oncoming Chaos forces, which were closing in from all sides.

To make matters worse, demons were beginning to emerge from the gate!

There were a few fronts where Chaos had been eliminated, so what remained of the defenders began to fall back to the gate to bolster the waiting Grey Knight terminators.  The fight continued in the large building between the Grey Knight marines and Inquisitor vs the Chaos troops.  A few squads of Stormtroopers had been wiped out, and all the Chimeras had been destroyed.

You can see the main Chaos advance in this image, coming from the area where the Stormtroopers had been  eliminated, as well as the open flank by the bridge.  Some of these were fast units, including the bikes and Raptors.

What demons came through the gate were destroyed, and the special character was able to banish any more denizens of the Warp as he slowly gained more control over the gate...

The Chaos forces begin to coalesce around one rallying point, in order to make that final push to the gate.  Nurgle and Slaneesh marines were the bulk of the force, with the bikes and Raptors leading the way.  You can also see a group of terminators trying to advance in the far right.  They had been delayed...

The bikes and Raptors move ahead and charge, hoping to tie up the defenders in that spot to allow the main force to move up and surround the gate.  It was looking grim for the defenders!!

However, the remaining Stormtroopers sacrifice themselves, and the speedy Chaos units are dispatched, along with some assistance from the special character.  Anything in base contact with him in a close combat situation is pretty much dead, friend or foe.

After killing off the Bikes and Raptors, the lone Terminator squad move into position to defend the gate.  They are hit by the Nurgle and Slaneesh marines, which take severe losses to both the special character and to the waiting terminators.  The Grand Master also uses some of his psychic abilities to add to the destruction.

Still, a big unit of Chaos Terminators was now on its way!  Could they hold out until turn 8?

At this stage of the game, there was still some fighting going on elsewhere on the board.  The Obliterators and Predator destroyed the last Demonhunter dreadnought.

I mentioned that not much was left alive in the large building where the huge fight between the Grey Knights, Inquisitor and the Chaos grunts.  You still have the Inquisitor and one lone servitor inside!

Just for spite, the Defiler fired it's battle cannon into the building.  It may have been the wind emanating from the Warp Gate, because the blast template scattered onto the Defiler itself!!

Now for the main event!  The combat between the Grey Knights and the Chaos terminators turned out to be very lopsided.  The Grey Knights were able to use the psyker to great effect, killing most of the Chaos terminators by himself.  Some Grey Knights were lost, but enough remained on Turn 8 that the gate could be closed...

And so it was!  With the gate closed, what remained of the Chaos forces would eventually be killed off, or leave the field.  The Inquisition had once again prevented the pollution of the Warp from breaking through on this particular hive world...

Stay tuned for the rules of this campaign in another post!  I hope you enjoyed this...

New arrivals from Ultraforge!!

Well, folks, look what the cat dragged in.  Actually it as me. :-)

Here we have lots and lots of goodies from Ultraforge, the maker of some really nice "Big Guys".

I have a few blog posts with some painted examples:

As I have mentioned in other blog posts, these are very "playable" large creatures, in that the poses tend to collide less with the other miniatures on the table, and the removable wings allow for much greater ease in transport.

Also, the pieces are kept to a minimum, and they tend to fit together very well.  Much less work for me!

This is one of their newest offerings, the demon prince.  As you can see, it has some nice options (heads, hands, weapons) so that you can use it in different ways...

The Pleasure Demon is to be the subject of one of my painting videos for the Painting Pyramid Kickstarter, as are a few others.

I am really looking forward to these!!!