DKK Bodyguards, and what bodies...

Although not part of the DKK army I found these two among the resins and decided to paint them as bodyguards for the regiment commander.

I am not sure who the manufacturer is, but I am pretty sure they are part of a Weird War II range. They have the feel of Nazi S&M pinups. [Edit: They are West Wind Secrets of the Third Reich]

First, the slightly more sensibly clothed one! The MP40's she has in each hand had very shallow detail and thus didn't respond well to drybrushing or washing. As such I lined in the edges with mithril to give them some definition. I contemplated painting the gas mask in the same canvas colour as the rest of the army but it was clearly sculpted to indicate rubber. My usual method of charadon granite with a badab black wash and some grey highlights served me well and gave her quite a sinister look.

Both models have nicely modelled bases that benefitted from careful painting and weathering to add interest but avoid detracting attention from the miniatures.

Now for the slightly less subtle figure! The stockings and shirt were the cause of a fair amount of experimentation. I wanted the shirt to look like thin cotton and thus appear slightly shear at areas where it was pulled tight over skin (shoulders, back, bosom, upper surfaces of arms). This effect is annoyingly difficult to photograph as it is more subtle than the translucent effects you often see on fantasy miniatures (have to paint one like that one day). It is a simple matter of adding the top highlight of your skin tone to the colour used for the fabric, you have to be careful to make the effect blend very gently as otherwise you make the fabric transparent.

The stockings caused a bit of head scratching, I didn't want to paint them in the same way as the shirt as I thought the effect may be too obvious. Instead I decided to take the slow path and build up the colour in very thin layers. A 50:50 mix of Vallejo Smoke and Black inks was thinned by at least a 5:1 ratio. Very, very thin in other words. This was then gradually layered on until I achieved the desired denier.

These were fun figures and a bit of a break from the norm for me, also gave me the chance to try some new techniques. Having cleared all my current commissions (now is the time if you want something done fast!) I've got a personal day tomorrow. Hmmm, Blood Angels, Dark Elves, Warmachine or cowboys tomorrow...

TTFN

Iron Within, Iron Without...

Today we are back to one of my favourite subjects: Tanks! Iron Warriors Predators to be precise:

These were painted for my regular chaos client and were an interesting challenge to work on. The challenge was mainly to make them look realistic despite being just metallic. I could have just drybrushed on some boltgun metal, added hazard stripes and called it good but that just isn't how I roll...

The main bodywork of the tank needed to look like old, heavy iron. I therefore started the painting process from a heavy covering of Tin Bitz to add the shading within the texture of the metal. This is important to give the smooth plastic a sense of unpainted metal. The smooth thing is fine for paintwork. Not for metal. Sequential drybrushing and stippling with a mix of highlights all the way up to chainmail with a little mithril added. Brass areas were painted Vallejo Brassy brass, shaded with brown ink and highlighted with a mix of the brass shade and mithril silver. The hazard stripes were a whole other thing! You need them to be about as precise as you can, using a small steel ruler that I keep for a cutting straight edge and a really sharp pencil I roughed in pencil lines roughly 3mm apart following the nearest predominant angle. This was over an Iyanden Darksun basecoat. I then filled in the lines with Chaos Black. A thin Gryphonne Sepia glaze brought the yellow to life and highlights of Darksun and White defined the edges. I then relined the black to create the most precise edges I could. Don't be tempted to do too many of these as it will be overwhelming and don't do them too thin or they will look messy.

In an effort to introduce some more subtle colours to the scheme I painted the tops of the batteries a verdigris copper shade and painted the rings of the lascannons as green glass electrical isolators. Little details could now be added, the client wanted the names "Boomhowler" and "Warmachine" added to the vehicles so I picked one of the few open areas - the turret - and went for as precise and mechanical a handwriting as I could manage. Anyone know of a company that makes really small dry transfers for lettering? All the ones I've found are huge in scale! I also added a pseudo-barcode above the name reasoning that the heavily bionic augmented Iron Warriors would include many warriors whose eyes would read machine code faster than script.

To further distinguish the two vehicles I painted some personal decoration on the gun mantlet. Boomhowler got a half chaos star and Warmachine got a line of devotional script in chaos runes.

These were fun to do, even if the hazard lines created a dazzle painted effect that messed with my eyes! It's difficult to see in the photos but as you turn the vehicles the lines do mess with the angles. I ended up adding some scrapes and dings to the edges of these areas to break up this effect. I like the look of the metalwork to the extent that were I to do another chaos army for 40k I would be sorely tempted by the Iron Warriors. That's all for now, so 'till next time:

TTFN

Finecast review 2 - revenge of the Finecast

Part one of this review (looking at the rather badly mangled kit) can be found here.

After the disappointing showing of the first kit I sent photos of the problems to GW customer service. To their credit, the next working day they dispatched a full, free replacement kit and many apologies. So here it is:

The first thing to notice is the lack of warping of the frames in this kit. Compared to the first one this is a major improvement. There aren't any really miscast parts but the problem of the "sword and scroll" dude's tiny thin ankles is still there. That is the fault of the original sculptor though, not the caster. The same mold-slip lines are present but are incredibly easy to carve off. The entire kit took me 15 minutes to clean up and assemble. The same metal kit has taken me upwards of an hour in the past.

Most of this speed is down to how fast and hard the superglue grabs the resin. I didn't mention this the first time but it is AWESOME. My advice to modellers before when using metal was "Hold it until you think it is dry and then hold for another 30 seconds to allow for impatience" and it still would not be dry. 3 seconds is all I am holding Finecast parts for, 3 seconds. With the lack of weight I am seriously considering selling the metal Azhag that I've got and replacing it with the Finecast version so that I can put it together in less than a month.

I may have been hasty in my first review when I said that Finecast wasn't designed for war machines. This cast is lovely for the bolt thrower and as you can carve the surfaces smooth easily you can get razor edges and smooth curves even on internal surfaces. Really nice material to work with.

Forgive the slightly hasty clean up job on the crew folks. I'm not going to be using them (I'm using corsair models to help the kit fit in with my corsair raiding army) so I just got rid of the obvious bits of flash to show off how nicely the finecast deals with things like the roped skull, the breastplate and the scrolls. The undercuts are all crisp and allow for really precise modelling. Really nice.

To summerise then. My conclusions from last time are still valid. To them I will add the following advice, when Finecast is good it is very, very good and when it is bad it is rubbish! Same as metal really. My advice is to check the castings carefully in the clamshells or, like my boxed set, if you find a problem let GW know immediately. They are not in the business of selling rubbish figures and will replace any problem pronto. I'm glad I got a decent one to show you all and am just a bit gutted that my first one was unlucky! Guess I'd better paint these now eh? Till next time

TTFN

Death Korps sir! Thousands of 'em!

A very short update today as there is only one picture that matters, this one!

This is the first time I have attempted to shoot such a large amount of figures and I reckon I've got some learning to do. Regardless, that is 181 painted figures! They make quite an impression, can't wait to get a place big enough for my gaming table so I can take shots like this on pretty scenery rather than the planet woodwork. So that is it for now on project Death Korps. No more, all done. We're probably going to revisit at some point in the future to add some more units or to expand the army.

Next post will be Finecast 2: Revenge of Finecast. GW very quickly got me a replacement Repeater Bolt Thrower and it is everything I hoped the first one would be! I'll take some shots and get you a review of what Finecast should look like over the weekend. Toodles, folks and

TTFN

We'll keep the khaki flag flying here...

Well, this is it! The last Death Korps! I decided to leave the banners for last as a treat so here they are:

This fellow is the Command HQ standard bearer, almost more of an icon bearer than a true banner bearer. I thought about doing all kinds of fancy painting on the pennants but quickly realised that it would detract from the central icon. Thus I wound up keeping it simple and maintaining the colour pallette that had served me well thoughout the project.

The other three are the Lieutenant's standard bearers, these are the classic "flappy flag" style of banner and look lovely for it. The banners are moulded from resin and are seperate componants to the bearers. You need to use a metal pin to attach them. Be very careful when drilling the flag for the pole as it is very easy to go right through. Search as I might I could not find the finials from the top of the banner poles. As a result I needed to find replacements, beads superglued on and painted made a decent job of it.

The banners themselves were painted with the same colour pallete as the rest of the army but with pseudo non-metallic metal gold edging and detail to make them stand out and thematically link them to the brass of the officer corps. This colour is based from Snakebite Leather and is shaded and highlighted with nothing but black and white. Normally this is a disaster but works well with NMM techniques. Obviously, this is not true non-metallic metal, there are nowhere near enough layers, shading or highlighting for that. The main reason for this is that the flag would not be gold either, just heraldic "gold" yellow. The "Unto Death" motto was chosen for two reasons, first, it fit the morbid Death Korps vibe. Second, it was two short words that would actually fit!

And with that the Death Korps project is finished. I am told that we will be doing some more at a later date but the vast bulk is all done. I will be doing quality control over the next day or so to check that there is nothing glaringly wrong. You would not believe how easy it is to miss an entire limb or a base when batch painting. You answer the phone, pick up the next model rather than the one you were working on and everything goes wrong! On such a large project I confidently expect to find 3-5 miniatures that will need some form of remedial work before I dispatch them to the client. Already working on the next projects: a pair of Iron Warriors predators and a super-secret present for a friend of the commissioning client. I'll post up a mass group shot of the painted DKK army once Quality Control is over. Till then,

TTFN

Finecast - a review

IMPORTANT EDIT: I NOW HAVE A WELL CAST VERSION OF THIS KIT REVIEWED HERE

So here it is, Citadel Finecast has been released and I have my hot little hands on a model for my current Warhammer project: A Dark Elf Repeater Bolt Thrower. Handily I have built several of these for various shops and individuals over the years in its metal incarnation so I can compare fairly easily.

At first glance, not a lot changed save that banner at the bottom and the slightly more obvious 12+ sticker. I gotta say I much prefer the look of the new clamshell packs for the smaller minis to the old blisters. Big improvement but that is by the by, lets crack this bad boy open and see what we have here!

First surprise was: Sprues? Really? Ok, cool. Second thought that struck was "my lord, flashtastic". A fiddle with the flash though showed it was paper thin and tore off like a stamp. Not a big deal. The material is something a little new, for all the cynics out there I had to hand a sample of Forgeworld resin and Privateer Press "plastic" to compare with and it is not really either of them. It is way more flexible than both of them. Easier to cut and shape than the Privateer Press stuff and doesn't have that greasy mold release feel of the Forgeworld. Then the third thought struck me:

What the hell? My crewman has a mangled foot! A real shame as this was my very first of these Finecast figures to get a broken one. Will wait to see if the odds were against this or whether it is a common occurance. As it happens the foot was too badly damaged to be easily saved. Grump, will keep you informed about how open GW customer service are to replacing these parts. I started clipping the components from the sprues and looking toward clean up.

Most of the mold lines seem to be these minor mold misalignments (try saying that three times drunk). On a metal model these would be disasterous and take forever to fix. On these figures, one pass with a sharp knife and a quick rub with a sanding stick.

Then ran into the next problem: Warping. It was at this point that I had to remind myself that I was not comparing finecast to plastic. I was comparing it to metal. Metal warps too so it isn't such a hardship to deal with in the new material either. My heart did sink though as I was expecting to do the usual resin palava of hot water dips and reshaping followed by a cold water plunge to set. Unlike Forgeworld resin though this was able to be just bent back into shape. Nice surprise. Disapointing that you have to correct this at all but good that it is a fairly easy fix. Here it is after correction:

It is worth doing though as otherwise you will have some very odd looking parts as the next picture will demonstrate:

The parts really fly together with superglue. Believe me, I've made a lot of these in metal and they are a regal pain in the bum. This one was a doddle. It is true that we can forget pinning, these figures just don't need it. Unfortunately on the next parts I found the first real problems:

Terribly warped upper arm of the bow, I had to spend some time twisting and recarving this part with my knife. Mercifully I have the skills to do this, many do not. Then:

Voids. Really bad ones, I can handle a little bubble in the resin, you just dot it with superglue and sand it flat. Some of these clusters of bubbles had all but destroyed the part. I rescued them with carving or hiding them on underneath surfaces (in the case of the arrow) but these are pretty bad. I hope this is just a symptom of casting a new material being learned rather than a systemic problem. Time will tell. I suspect that Finecast just is not designed for war machines like this because as we are about to see, its real strength is the organics:

Now, I don't even like the crew miniatures for the bolt thrower much, I bought the model for the machine, but just look at the casting. The scroll and wrapped cloak in the inserts especially. Again comparing with the metals I have put together of this figure there is no contest. This is a much better medium for capturing those thin details, ignoring undercuts and allowing crisper edges to cloth. I imagine we will see a gradual shift into plastic for anything but character models as this will allow the resin material to shine and use the plastic for what it is best for.

So, lets sum up then, good points first:

1) Very light, very easy to stick together. The whole process including photography took just 40 minutes.
2) No need to wash or prepare beyond the normal removal of mold lines
3) Really crisp details
4) Easy to carve, cut and sand.

And then the not so good:

1) Broken componants, remains to be seen if a systemic problem or just bad luck.
2) Warping, although this is easier to solve than in metal or normal resin.
3) Bubbles, this is the real problem, until this is solved I think we will be doing a LOT of filling or exchanging parts.
4) Delicate, I hadn't touched on this but you cannot be heavy handed with these. Granted, this is a slender model and was designed to be moulded in metal but seriously. Keep clumsy people away from these and base them!

All in all, not too bad. Very disapointed about the breakage, worried about the bubbles but impressed by the potential especially when we start to see models designed to by cast in this material rather than metal recasts. I will keep you informed of my Finecast adventures, especially on the second bolt thrower (will it have identical problems? If so, that will be more concerning) and on the single miniatures that I feel this medium is designed for.

To finish off a final thought: I think on balance resin and metal are close in merits, both have virtues, both have serious flaws. Plastic is still the best material for modelling, especially in this day and age of CAD modelled tolerances and super fine detailing. Given the way that GW has been going we will see more and more plastic. I really think that this finecast material will simply fill a stop gap between the current situation and a time when virtually everything is plastic. Back to painting for the next post and the final Death Korps! Very exciting, till then:

TTFN

Exterminate! EXTERMINATE!

Here they are, the on-ly tru-ly su-per-i-or be-ings in the gal-ax-y! The Daleks:

I couldn't let my Doctor continue for long without his arch nemeses. The problem with Daleks though is they are very definately recognisable as Daleks, you can't make "Pepper Pot Space Robots" and expect to get away with it. As a result there is only one source for 28mm Daleks out there: Black Tree Designs (formally Harlequin) who have the license for the pre-Eccleston years. Now I was not expecting perfection from these figures. They are after all really quite old sculpts, I was however expecting little more than the results when they arrived.

This is the back of the figures. Now this is after I spent some considerable time cleaning them up. There is a huge mold line up the front and the back row of nobbles were fused into long ovals. I ground out the nobbles with my dremel but short of carving out and resculpting the back section there was nothing to be done. After a good bit of grumbling I decided that I would just give them a fairly simple paint job rather than trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I suspect that the problem is mold degredation. Normally you would cast a new mold from tins taken from the master mold but I have a nasty feeling that it is the master mold that may be on the way out for these fellas. Still, they are Dalek shaped and that is the main thing.

On the positive side the eyestalks are ace! The plungers needed to be dremelled out to give them more of a plunger "dip" in the middle (could have said concave I suppose!). As far as painting I was in a quandry. There are many different shades of Dalek schemes, While I like the Eccleston/Tennant era bronze I was always more fond of the old school grey/black. I do have another three of these which are getting converted (two into the WW2 Ironside Daleks and one Bronze/brass one to represent the participants in Victory of the Daleks) to allow me to field all sorts of different era Daleks (how? With what rules? Under what circumstances? Who cares?! I'm geekin' out here). The paint scheme was created with an Adeptus Battlegrey and Boltgun Metal mix to give a metallic grey. The nobbles were painted a dark grey and given a gloss vanish. Any glowing blue bits were simply painted flat white and then glazed in blue ink. Oh and while we mention the nobbles there are 52 on each Dalek. That is 204 for the four. This was not a quick job.

To give the Daleks someone to O-bey, I painted the fourth Dalek as a black Dalek Supreme (mostly for variety). Essentially he is just highlighted black with a gloss varnish and nobbles painted in the same mix as his more basic comrades.

Well, there we go, not the greatest models on Earth but they are Daleks and thus cool! They are the right scale to fit in with Heresy's Dr Hugh and from the front aren't bad looking at all. Now if only someone would sculpt some cybermen worthy of the name! As a final thought, while Black Tree own the classic Doctor licence I can't understand why anyone hasn't gone for the new era license. With all the various companies and sculptors making tribute figures would it not be better to be able to make the Ood? The Sontarans? The Judoon? Heck, if everyone making tribute now was up for it I would apply for the license and retroactively commission the real figures. We could make quite the co-operative venture. Anyone interested drop me a line ;)

Check back on Saturday for my review of the Finecast Dark Elf Bolt Thrower kindly reserved by my FLGS (thanks Firestorm Games). I'll give it a fair and open review and I've got samples of Forgeworld and Privateer resin to compare against. Till then

TTFN