A Great Way to Watch Your Models Burn

Ok, we are not really lighting our toys on fire.

How about "How to make really cool looking vehicle destroyed markers".

I saw something like this on someone else's blog and had to try it out. it takes minutes to make and has a great affect.

You will need:

Cheep ass battery powered electric tea candles. (I got a 2 pack in the Halloween isle for $1.99)

Some clear and very sticky glue (I had a half a tube of Shoe Goo, but hot glue gun would work)

White cotton or something close ( I used some acrylic stuffing from a pillow)

Black spray paint ( I used some black primer)

Slather the sides and top of the tea light with glue, including the little flame part.

Mash the cotton stuffing around the sides and pull up and mash it all over to stick it to the glue.

Tease the strands up like smoke, and flip the little switch on on the bottom and watch how cool it looks while it glows and flickers.

Give it a a few short blasts of black spray paint to darken up the smoke affect, it also acts like hairspray and keeps it all together.

Next time you are playing and someone takes out your vehicle, flip the switch and set this on top so it looks like its burning. The flickering glow from inside is really cool looking.

make more!

These are really fun and easy, and look great, so try some.

John

P.S. here is a little video so you can see the flickering.

This Kroot looks like a Lizardman

Obessed as I am, I picked up another Tau model, a Kroot Shaper with a gifted weapon. It's a great model and I didn't change anything to it.

I didn't like the colors in the Tau codex though and went for a blue look instead.

He has these pins growing out of his leg and decided that they would have to look a little irritated when coming through the skin.

I kept the base the way I envision the main Tau world to be: arid.

Not much else to it, except to say this model was a joy to paint. Try it, even if you don't play Tau (like me).

Mike

We have 2 winners!

We have 2 winners! Using Random.org we picked

Kuffeh said...

I've never used the bases range, but looking at the minis I have seen on them and people use them I am pretty damn sure I could make good use of a set like that!

and

Kron said...

Basing is something I really should spend more time at, with these pieces I definitely would! The ruins in particular would look great with snow too... The swamps would be great for my Skaven..

Make sure to email us with your shipping info at mike.tess@charter.net. Give us an update on your blogs to show readers what you have done with your freebasesThanks everyone for joining us in this great adventure! Make sure to support the smaller, independent design companies that work hard to give our hobby extra shine. Our next Give Away will be in a few weeks and we got some very cool resin models for you, all the way from France. So stay tuned!

Thanks to Back 2Base-ix for their products. Hopefully they take all your comments to heart.

John and Mike

Back 2 Base-ix Give Away! Free Resin Bases!

Hey, time for another Original Santa Cruz Warhammer Give Away! This time we are giving away 2 prizes, two sets of bases from the Australian Company Back 2 Base-ix.

Here is a picture of the two prizes

I darked the shadows a little to show better detail, after all they are made of white resin.

The 40mm bases in both sets are from the Ruins type, the 25 mm are different as mentioned on the picture.

Here are some painted examples of stuff we used. John says: a while back I painted Terminator Librarian, that I remounted on a Back 2 Base-ix 40mm Ruins base.

Mike used some of these bases in a couple older posts. Swamp base:

Urban Rubble

So, here's the deal:

1. become a follower

2. leave a comment (maybe say something the manufacturer can use for further development)

No anonynmous comments!

Remember, Back 2 Base-ix and the other creative and independent companies are giving us this for free, so next time you need some bases, support them and get something great for yourself.

Just to let you know, all the bases Mike used he bought incognito, the base John used was sent to us in the batch we are giving away, but there was an uneven number so we used one to make two even batches. It's important to us: we don't get paid for this and don't secretly keep stuff the companies send us. When we like products we ask them for a Give Away and that is all going to you!

Here is a link to a previous winners blog, where he reviews the bits that he won from our give away.

You could be the next Winner(s)! We will draw two winners in a few days!

John and Mike

This Nurgle Lord eats Imperial Fists for breakfast

Recently I bought this model at my local store:

The sculpt is kind of old and the design has problems: it's very cluttered and cramped; when I look at it I feel the sculptor had to put too much into it. Besides, the lord should be looking at his loot but doesn't. The combi weapon is bulky and big and would have been better added to a stretched arm.

Anyway, here's my tutorial about making this model into this one:

So making Nurgle soldiers is fun to do and very easy. A little green stuff and some good bitz will do the job. Here's the model unpainted:

The belly is a big clump of green stuff, shaped in a nice bulging belly. The sore on the right was inserted after I made a small hole in the belly. With a needle I made the holes.

The belly had a pewter powercable added from Dragon Forge, which all of you will have to buy, since it is a cheap and invaluable bit.

After inserting the wire and having it end in the mouth of one of the existing skulls, I pulled up the green stuff with a long needle to make it tight and thinnish.

Here's the shoulder, on which I added some sores, pretty straight forward.

The head is from Pig Iron, you can find this one right here.

I didn't like the look of the combi weapon and I replaced it with a bolter on which I added a bigger nozzle. I removed the rock of the metal model under his foot.

Here's the painted version. I raised his arm with the helmet slightly and created a neck of green stuff on which I could put the head nicely, looking proudly at his prize. All this made the model feel more stretched out and less cluttered.

The back has the Nurgle logo painted on it.

I removed all the Khorne logos and made the powerfist look ragged and worn.

The base is from Back 2 Base-ix. This base worked out really nice, the bulky design with this model worked out well.

You can do this (and probably better)! Get you Nurgle mojo going!

Mike

Grot Tanks a la Jeff Hall!

I read this great post in the beginning of the year: Click first, then come right back for the story:

HERE

Let's start with that post for a long time ago, the one post I couldn't forget. I think Jeff Hall from the Adepts Forge had a great idea; one of these conversions where you start wondering why GW didn't come up with that. The model has so much going for it: funny, easy to convert, much more in line with 40K and the maneuverability of the Ork armies then the old, civil war style cannons.

But making a bunch of those would be hard. Unlike Jeff Hall, I don't have that many bitz laying around to build them. Besides; I love finding (cheap) models from different games to incorporate in our hobby. So here a $9.95 dollar RESIN model from ArmorCast. They call it a Patrol Steamer, here's the link to that little tank. It was the tank I was always looking for.

It's a cute little tank but for my purposes I ignored the two turrets it comes with and actually made the back of the tank the front, using the exhaust as a kannon. (These extra turrets will come in handy later on I'm sure).

Then I added my own turret, using a piece of plastic tubing. The rest was easy, like always process of thinking out the design is way harder then the conversion itself.

The side plates are those gold ones from the old basing set and I used some old glyphs here and there.

Here's the painted version, simple and straightforward. I used a bike base because I had to add an extra grot since each big gunz team has two grots.

You already know where this idea could take you, three little tanks with magnetized lasgunz OR lobbas OR kannons.

The base is from DarkArts Miniatures

This was the 3rd and last part of my little series about using non GW models. Here's part 1, here's part 2.

Enjoy and do check out Jeff Hall's conversions. This Ork Skorcha conversion is great.

My partly invisible Purple Stealth Suit !

OK, here's my very first Tau paint job. Obsessive as I am, I have cast IG and Nurlge to the side for now, bought the Tau Codex and begged John for one of his 100+ unpainted models to paint up. He relented with the stipulation it would have to go back home with him...

Anyway, I painted him purple and lined him with Dark Flesh. Lining is NOT my strong suit and I will do better next time.

All this is not as relevant as the real goal of this paintjob, which was to try and see if I could paint the Stealth Suit while it is changing its color to the environment.

At first I tried a decal, but that failed, all the print came off in the water, even after coating it with varnish. So to hell with that and I decided to paint it, doing it easy with a drybrush. The stone part was fine, but the electrical current around the change was hard.

Here's a link to some GREAT stuff, and I will try this again.

Despite all my moaning, don't get me wrong, I still like him and hope John won't prime him black right away when he gets him back....

Mike

I will NOT give up!

I have a serious complex about painting vehicles. Every time I try my hand on a large tank or plane, I get disappointed quickly. There is something about my way of painting that doesn't work. My heavy usage of washes works great on single miniatures but using that technique on large flat surfaces just looks like @*!!~&.

This Hellhound I had painted up completely, hated it and stored it away for about 6 months. Then a few weeks ago I decided to give it another try. I sprayed it black and started over.

This time I felt better...good enough to add the commander to it (a gift from John).

Constructive comments are welcome because I still feel fairly insecure about it. The Forgeworld modeling book is en route to me. The tank belongs to the Bishkek 2nd

Mike

Disaster!

Arrghh! I hate it when my elbow bonks this off the table......

I got so irritated with myself, I threw it all together in a jar and gave it the finger..

Mike

Mad Larkin on Monthanx

Sometimes a new base will steer you into a direction you haven't gone before. That happened this week when I got some swamp bases from Back2Base-ix, an Australian resin company. While I was pondering what to do with it, I flipped open the Gaunts Ghost novel about Monthax, which is the one in which Dan Abnett introduces all the main characters. The story with Mad Larkin talking to an angel was great, and I decided to dig up my old Mad Larkin model and thrown him on the swamp world of Monthax (I have had these models for years and never knew what to do with it; it shows that if you just get the models you like, eventually something will happen).

I didn't do anything except paint him up. The model is leaning forward once you remove the slotta metal piece, so the log on the base really did work out nicely. There is some great detail on that log, in a different, more greener setting this base could look very colorful.

I left his eyes like black sockets, which felt right because he is really sad in this story and he is a guy with a rough past anyway. I did make his face tattoo nice and bright. Because he was talking to an angel, I photographed him in front of Gustave Dore's last drawing of Paradiso from Dantes famous poem The Divine Comedy.

I kept the camo simple, did some washes here and there but did switch out the background for this last shot, making Larks look at the characters in the distance.

All in all a really satisfying little project from start to finish. Let me know what you all think of putting the name on the base...I like it a lot to give the model some indentity..

Mike

GW models or not? Part 2

Last week we got a lot of feedback on this post, which delved into the questions about using non- GW models. Most of the commenters said they always had their eyes open for great models, which made me very happy! Although GW does a good job and for instance the new Space Hulk models have received glowing reviews, there is still a lot or originality and dynamics lacking in their model range. To fill that gap, a lot of smaller companies are giving talented sculptors a chance to create cool stuff. Last week I used a French resin model from Fenryll, today I wanted to show you an amazing sculpt from Spain, made by Gamezone Miniatures. Its called a Vampire Counts Mournful Knight Hero:

At first I was just going to paint it because I loved the model. But after being busy with IG, I suddenly got inspired to make small changes. After seeing Dave Taylor be so busy with his Blood Pact, I settled on a Blood Pact Cultist Rough Rider It must have been the easiest conversion I have done in a long time.

Using the dynamic pose of the original, adding my favorite Empire Flagelant head...

and replacing the sword with a long lance, it became a powerful looking model.

I used a base that sloped down to give the horse even more visual dominance.

The length of the lance was important. It balances out nicely with the long front of the base and makes it look formidable at the same time. I decided not to add explosives to the tip of the lance, I don't think it would look good. The tip is from the sword of the GW metal Terminator Captain.

Here is the painted version:

The backpack, painted. On a how-to on this back pack, click here

The horse sculpt is crazy, I mean it looks really creepy and fits in perfectly with the Cultist look.

I positioned the horse slightly off, to make the rider the center of the model, not the horse. It looks like he has problems keeping his ride under control.

Gamezone doesn't have a real website, which is strange, but you can find their range here

Their models are truly astounding and I consider them the absolute finest and number 1 in metal models. They only do Fantasy though, so you should think outside the box if you want to use their stuff in 40K. I invite every one to check out their work, like the Wood Elves Eagle or the amazing Empire Knights..

The base was from Dark Arts Miniatures.

In closing: for me it's so much harder to come with the idea of the conversion then the actual work of changing the model. I am always on the lookout for different models and trying to convert them into stuff we can use in our games. Sometimes it takes me ages to look at a model before I suddenly know what I should do with it. The Gamezone model I bought 9 months ago and hadn't really touched. It's good to be patient. Best Advice I can give you: when you see a model you like, just buy it. If you are not ready to convert it right away, there will come a moment that you WILL know what to do.

Mike