SteamFrost

Blogging my way across the tabletop

So with my starting to rebuild my trollbloods army I’m at the stage of painting my Fennblades where I’m debating whether or not to paint them with tartans.

Fellblades

Fellblades

I’ve always been impressed with well executed tartans, but I don’t find them necessary. Then there’s always the risk of messing them up and having to repaint them is something I’d rather avoid.

What do you think? I kinda like it with just the cloth but it would be something else if I added the stripes.

Once this unit is done… I’m either going to start my Earthbound Dire or a full unit of Long Riders

Do you suffer from Gamer’s/Painter’s ADHD?

Is your painting table cluttered with hundreds of different models, for different armies or worse games?

I find that I am a sufferer. I’ll start with a clear idea. Like this time for example, I started with the idea that I would work on my Cryx army for the Wrath Book Release event.

I went out, bought a ton of new minis for the list. Spent a good while working on their decorative bases and when I didn’t have time to work on them, I’d be soaking up as much fluff and looking at pics as much as I could… “OooOo there’s a cool pic of Menoth Jack X in there… Oh… I loved my Menoth… no! I need to concentrate” Then I meet up with a guy from the club to buy some used minis… and we start talking, when he asks, “Aren’t you going to be playing Menoth?” GRRR!!! There’s that seed germinating! Then, the 2 player box set comes, I pick it up and now, my desk is cluttered with Cryx and Menoth… and Khador…

Oh Great.. one army I’ve managed to avoid in the last decade… This was the last week or so… now, if you look at my desk, it’s got… some Cryx, some Menoth, some Khador and some Trollbloods???

Yes… Something happened and I saw a shinny Dire Troll Bomber in my shelf and now I’m to my ears in trolls…

When does the madness stop??? How could I concentrate on just one… when they’re all so pretty… so precious…

At least this time around I’ve managed to keep the Infinity minis, the Malifaux minis, etc at bay…

However… one of the LGSs does have Puppet wars in stock… Gotta go…

So I’ve been wanting to add some more cover and linear obstacles for my Warmachine table and what better than some supply crates.

The crates are made with some wooden blocks I bought from a local craft store.

Wooden Blocks

I scored them with a hobby knife in order to make it look like it’s made with wooden boards. Be careful as this wood is quite hard and I’ve cut myself a few times doing this.

Scored Blocks

I then took some thin plasticard to make metal lats to hold the crate together.

As you can see, I have made different types for variety. The corner pieces are done with a corner shaped plasticard I got at one of the hobby shops in town.

Finished Crates

At this point, if you want, you could simply stain the wood and it could look pretty nice. I’ve actually done this with wooden barrels. However, I decided to paint mine.

I first primed the crates with black, using spray cans… way faster
Then I painted the whole thing with Vallejo Hull Red
I inked it completely with GW Brown Ink
Drybrushed the wood with GW Graveyard Earth Inked cracks with GW Brown Ink
Then I had to paint the metal.

To get the rusted look, I started with a base of Vallejo Hull Red
Then, I added some GW Foundation Macharius Solar Orange in spots
Followed by painting it roughly with GW Boltgun, letting some of the red and orange show through
Then I coated everything metal with GW Badab Black
Finally, highlighted the edges with GW Mithril Silver

Doesn’t look too bad if you ask me…

You can also add on logos, but I’ll save how to distress paint for an other tutorial.

So the club is hosting a Wrath release event at Fandom II.

Not sure if I’ll field my Cryx or Menites…

If I go Cryx, I already have Scaverous and the Wraith engine which give me more points. As for menoth, I’m not a fan of the new castor (don’t like the daughters or menoth much) but I do want to get the altar…

Decisions decisions…

My wife was working late last night, so you’d think that would be the best time to continue assembling minis, since I have a bunch of Cryx and Menites to work on…. Nope… I spent the evening finishing the floors in my studio. But! They are done! So I can start moving stuff back in there and set up the airbrush station and all that.

However, later in the evening, after going to pick up my wife, and after she was in bed, I did manage to assemble a Dervish, some more Choir grunts and Lord Exhumator Scaverous. Can’t wait to start painting!

So, with my typical break between painting and gaming etc…  I just noticed that I never wrote down the colors I used for my Cygnar… which wouldn’t be so bad, if I was just going to paint new units and jacks… but I don’t even have a minimum unit of Trenchers painted

I have the color schemes saved for my Menoth… which I’ve restarted and won’t be doing the same scheme.
I have my orks, and several other things… but not my Cygnar

Guess they will just get shelved for now… I’ll concentrate on Menoth and Cryx for now

In other news… yes I’m back…

I’ve bought a crap load of Cryx and Menoth to get me back in… I also bought a new airbrush and compressor (can’t wait to use them) but first, I need to finish the floors in my studio. (Installing laminate and I’m about 2/3 done)

Always loved Gretchins and Snotlings.
When GW came out with new plastic grots… I jumped on them.

Since my Ork army is based on the Bad Moon clan, I obviously needed lots of yellow on them.

Grots

Here’s some more shots of the grots.

Lone Grot

And here’s the Runtherd with his pet squig

Runtherd

I finally started to paint my Malifaux Gremlins

Here’s Pere Ravage

Pere Ravage

Next up Ophelia LaCroix

Ophelia LaCroix

I still have work to do on the bases and some touch UPS here and there

I decided to get more Malifaux minis to my collection and ordered McMourning’s box, both blisters of puppies, the evil evil Zombie Chihuahua and Kirai’s box set.

Can’t wait.

I’ve been working on a table in my games room… the plan is to have two different Iron Kingdoms themed tables.

The first, is a section of Sul, a Menite city (how appropriate since my favorite army, and my main army, is the Protectorate of Menoth).. it’s going to be filled with rubble, middle eastern style buildings and cacti and palm trees for the “forest” sections. As for the second table… I’m torn… I want to make a Cryx themed table, but I also want to make a nice forest that could pass off as part of Khador or Cygnar… but a port town would be cool too…

Anyways…

I had found these 2′ X 2′ plywood floor boards at the local home hardware store and figured they’d be perfect to make a modular board.

My big issue with that was that it would be too easy to determine distances. So I decided to attach them together, but still wanted them split in at least two, in order to be able to transport them if I have too.

Prep Work

Gluey Mess

Once they were attached, I added some wood glue over an area where I would add some foam board.

Weight on Glued Board

The foam board was added, and I placed a heavy box on it over night to make sure that the foam doesn’t curl up.

Unfortunately I didn’t take pics of the next few steps. Once the glue was dry and placed where I wanted, I used an angled foamcore cutter to trim the foam into a more organic look.
I then brushed water all over the foam core, and started peeling off the top layer of paper in order to draw some stone into the foam, using a ballpoint pen… I then went over the lines with an Xacto, and then ran the pen in the cuts to split them more.

I also cut up some cobble stone rubber from Michael’s. I used the wood glue and staples to hold the rubber mat in place.

Next step, I poured wood glue all over the table and used a putty knife in order to smooth it all over. Once smoothed, Icovered it all with fine sand.

At this point, I had to let it dry for a few days. Once dry, I used a can of pressured air to blow off the loose sand.

With the table dry, I added blotches of white glue and added rougher sand, I also did the same thing to cover up the staples and to show the road being destroyed.

I then painted the whole thing with a dark brown paint… let that dry, dry-brushed a dark tan color all over. Next was a light beige color, dry-brushed all over the sand areas. Once dry, I painted the rough sand with the dark tan color.

Board Close Up

Board Close Up

Next step is to dry-brush those sand patches, and airbrush around the roads and damaged areas.

You’ll also notice pink insulation foam on one side… I’m not exactly sure what I was thinking when I glued those on. I’ll either crave them to be a higher level of the city… or just hills.

More pics to come as the table is completed and the terrain pieces are built.