Site change

I have created a new blog at Blogger and I will stop updating this site. A lot of people reached my site looking for Imperial Guard Valhallans and, altough my army nick name is Valhallans it is actually a Cadian army.

Please go here to check the new blog:

http://613stormers.blogspot.com/

My second infantry squad

I started today the modelling and painting process for my second infantry squad. This squad is part of the infantry platoon I will be using for my first game, a combat patrol as I still don’t have enough models to fill a higher point army.

The second infantry squad will be just like the first one: it will field a heavy bolter, a grenade launcher and the sergeant will use a lasgun instead of a laspistol and close combat weapon. Looking at my models, I saw I still had 3 from the remove paint procedure I did a couple of months ago. All three were partially painted. I decided to finish those models and get rid of them now so I could focus on clean models next time.

I still had to magnetize the sergeant to have his arms replaceable. Luckly, the model already had the 1/8″ magnets attached to his torso, as seen in the picture below:

The magnets attached to the sergeant’s torso

The magnet in his back is used to attach a vox radio or flamer fuel tank, in the case I want to change the model later. For the arms, I will be magnetizing some standard lasguns and some chainswords and pistols of various kinds. Just don’t go nuts and try to magnetize everything. 90% of your infantry will be standard lasguns. I usualy convert only 2 models per infantry squad, 1 for the seargeant and another one for a special weapon.

One of the arms already had a magnet as well, so I only needed 3 more. One 1/8″ to attach the arms to the torso and two 1/16″ to fix both arms to the lasgun.

Where I will be placing the magnets

The process starts with a hobby file I use to mark the spot I will be drilling. This is to prevent the bit from running away, scratching the model. I don’t worry anymore about how small the area I will be drilling is. You would be amazed at what places you can safely place a 1/16″ magnet.

After marking the spot with a file, making sure it is deep enough to hold the bit in place, I start the process. I use a Dremel rotatory tool for the job (you can buy them cheap at amazon) along with dremel bits number 191, 194 and 106 (High-Speed Cutter 1/8″, High Speed Cutter for wood and metal, and Engraving carving Cutter respectively). If you would like to see how they look like, just check this post: http://www.weetoysoldiers.com/wp/?p=283.

The 1/16″ magnet is a little tricky. Although the cutter is also 1/16, it does not make a cavity large enough to fit the magnet in. I have to apply a little pressure to the sides to make the hole biggger. I have also to drill a little bit deeper because the cutter does not have a flat surface. This is not aproblem for the 1/8″ magnet, as the 1/8 cutter with the flat surface creates the hole exactly the size I need it to be.

After the holes are made, I apply green stuff to them. That’s because I usually drill deeper than I need to. Also, the green stuff helps the superglue to bind the pieces together.

Green stuff applied to the hole in the hand holding the lasgun and…

…where the left arm will join the shoulder.

After the green stuff is in place, I just drop the superglue and apply the magnets.In this step I have to be VERY carefull to glue the correct polarity of the magnets or else the pieces will repel instead of attract each other. I also create a pattern for my army so that the parts can be interchangeable between all models.  For example, all torsos have the same polarity exposed, and all arms have the same inverse polarity to the torso. This way I can put together any pieces I want.

Magnet in place

When the pieces are attached, we get an almost perfect fit. The imperfections could be covered with green stuff, but from the angle people will be looking at my army they will not see them so I won’t bother for now.

The sergeant with his arms in place

After fixing the magnets I went to priming the pieces. The only thing I glue together before painting is the torso and the legs. The rest I stick to needles and paint unassembled.

I decided to keep using black gesso for priming. I added about 30% to 40% water to the gesso and applied freely. This time I didn’t even bother to soak the excess out. After I finished priming the last part, the gesso was almost dry in the first one and started to reveal the details.

Drying gesso

That’s it for today. Next step will be to apply the basecoat and maybe the first ayer of paint.

Back into action, painting diary

It’s been a while since I last updated the blog, but for a good reason. My parent came to visit Montreal and we spent 3 weeks together. I had finished my first infantry squad before their arrival but I just needed to matte varnish their heads, which I did today. Here’s the result. The bases could surely use a retouch and I will add the details (grenades and other equipment) later.

The final result for the first infantry squad of the 13th Valhallans

I don’t know why, but the matte varnish I applyed this time to protect the paint job looks a little… glossy. I used the same brand as before, but after 1 hour that I applied them it is still shining. I remember some people complaining about matte varnish giving a shinny effect instead of the opposite. Don’t know what happened this time, as I used the same procedure. I will just wait a little bit more to see what happens and try again tomorrow. Maybe I didn’t shake the bottle or it got too old?

Anyways, problems apart, I decided to document the process of painting my army. I plan to update the blog frequently with the most relevant information. I will spare you (and me) of repetitive steps, focusing on the important stuff in the hopes that I can help other people in the same learning process I am sitting right now. Keep on to the next entry.

New tools, new colors, another try

These past two days were busy. I did a lot of reading, research and experiments. I was pretty upset that I had to remove the black primer I had applied earlier on my minis, just to find out that even with grey gesso I would need at least two coats of white gor it to stick. Even worse, the cleaning was not 100% successful and after reapplying the gesso I got a very rough and lumpy primed surface :/. At least I learned how to remove paint (sort of) and could essay gesso a little bit more.

The final result after trying to remove the paint

What I was looking for these days was how to paint my minis white with the minimum amount of layers. And today, at my local Games Workshop store, I got the hint that could help me: Dheneb Stone foundation paint. By the guys over there, the foundation paint will cover in one single coat and since the Dheneb Stone is a very light color I could apply a layer of skull white over it and it should work.

I’m thinking into doing something different though. I will add the foundation paint to the white gesso in the hope they will give me a lighter color then grey and also the coverage power of the foundation paints. If that works, I will finally be able to easily paint white on my models.

I also visited my favourite art shop. I bought some more stuff for me, more precisely a wetting spray, a matte varnish and some brush cleaners.

My new Liquitex friends. One for each step: priming, painting and finishing.

I’m particularly happy with the palette wetting spray. I’m using it to water down my paints. The good thing is that it kepps your paints from drying. The matte varnish is also very good as it is 100% transparent when dry and helps protect your job.

I also bought a new set of paints, and I have created my new color as well which I proudly call Valhallan Blue :). I could finally finish my first model. It’s far from good, but at least I learned a lot during the process. The rest of his unit will probably look as bad as all of them had their paint stripped and re-primed. Also, I used Dheneb Stone to wash the model. I didn’t like the result that much. I will use Astronomican Grey or any other grey color next time.

The new incredible color Valhallan Blue (1:1 mix of Mordian Blue and White)

This the final result for my first model.

Front

Side

No, I have not highlighted his hands. I forgot to buy the skin tones and was eager to test the varnish. A note on that: I applied the varnish in the assembled model (his arms have magnets). When I removed his arms, the varnish cracked the paint were the gun touched the body. I will have to keep this in mind for the next time.

Oh well… Let’s hope I get the next unit right…

Priming with gesso

If you like to do a little bit of research before you start working on something, like me, you probably heard about priming your minis with acrylic gesso. There is a lot of talk about the effectiveness of it, so I will spare you of yet another gesso article and talk about my personal experience with it.

First of all, if you don’t know what priming with gesso is, take a look at this great article from WeeToySoldiers site: http://www.weetoysoldiers.com/wp/?page_id=34.

Ok, so after checking my painting skills with the Battle for Macragge starter set, I felt confident about trying new stuff on my IG army and I went out to buy some acrylic gesso. Altough is rather easy to find acrylic gesso in any art shop, I discovered that finding black gesso is not an easy task here in Montreal. I visited a couple of stores, including Omer des Serres, but could find only white gesso and 1 single silver gesso pot. I was resolute to find it in black though and after some more research, I found one last pot of it in a store called Art Tec. I grabbed it and went rushing back home to try it out.

The only pot of black acrylic gesso I could find in Montreal

I ran two tests with it. On one of them, I watered it down little bit and in the other one I used it straight from the bottle. On both tests, I applied it freely and without care, just as mentioned in the WeeTouSoldiers article. Unfortunately, at least with the brand I bought, it did hid some of the details of the mini.

As you can see from the picture above, the gesso hid some of the details under the 2 left-most arrows, but not from the inscription in the center

It’s up to you to test it out for yourself and see what works for you. In my experience, you can still apply it freely, but just make sure to take the excess out with your brush. Also, I prefer the watered down version as the thickier one leaves the surface too rough for my liking.

I would like to finish this post with some pros and cons of using gesso for priming your minis.

Pros

• Very good coverage, sticking easily to plastic miniatures;
• Fast, as you can apply it freely and without too much care;
• It shrinks after dried, leaving you details intact (please check above);
• The paint sticks to gesso better than it does with regular Games Workshop primer;
• Cheap: one 250 mL bottle cost me around CAN$ 11.00, as opposed to a CAN$ 4.50 12 mL bottle of chaos black, and
• Chips easily off of your minis, allowing you to easily strip it out if you make a mistake.

Cons

• Chips easily off of your minis, so you must take extra care while handling it. Also, some varnish coat will be needed to protect your job.

Stripping paint out of your minis

I originally named this post “Good job gone bad”, but I decided to change it after giving it a little thought. As mentioned earlier in previous posts, I’m collecting an Imperial Guard army to play Warhammer 40k. I still haven’t written the fluff for it but I have some ideas. From the name of the site, you can tell where my army comes from: Valhalla; and since Valhalla is an icy world I opted for a light blue color scheme.

I had primed a few of my minis with black gesso while creating my army list for combat patrol. After I primed the first infantry squad, I started the paint job on it. I used the same color I previously applied on Lt Varras Battle for Macragge mini: a 1:1 mixture of Mordian Blue foundation paint with Skull White. The color stuck easily on the gesso primed surface and only 1 coat was required. I was happy.

I proceeded to paint the rest of the squad’s flak armor and when done, I started to think about the second color. I just realized that white would be a good choice, but then I remembered: I used black for priming. I was avoiding white altogether just because I read somewhere that black is easier for beginners. I have no idea why and just followed the advice. I had some trouble with red paint over a black primed mini while painting the nids from the Macragge box. I had to apply several coats until I was satisfied with the result. I knew I would face the same problem with the white color.

Surprisingly, the gesso proved himself a good option for priming once more: I had to apply only 2 coats of white paint. Great! :). The results can be seen below:

First try at the 13th Valhallans

Although I was happy with the results, I decided that applying two coats of paint would take too much time. It was time to try some paint removal tips. From the various methods I read, Pine Sol was the only one option I had at home. But since I used gesso for priming, I thought that it would work great.

My minis take a bath into a pine sol solution

You can already see some of the paint peeled off of the mini in the bottom of the image. I used a regular dishwashing scrubbing sponge (the one with a hard and soft surface) and an old tooth brush to take out the paint. I will update the site when I’m done re-priming them with white gesso. Until then.

First post, first job

Well, I’ve been having fun with Warhammer 40k for the last month. I didn’t play any games so far, as I’m still building my army, but I’m having a great time learning how to paint. Even though I’m doing more “advanced” stuff right now, I would like to start this blog with my first painting job. Not exactly my very first painting job, but the first one I used the core techniques of washing and drybrushing.

The minis below are from the Battle for Macragge starter set. Lt. Varras was the last marine I painted and the only one I really used the techniques.

I didn’t have a good selection of paints when I started working on Varras (well I still don’t have). For his robe, I used mordian blue foundation paint for the base coat, added chaos black and more water for the wash and skull white for the drybrush. I didn’t want to use the base blue color for his upper armor plate so I painted it with the drybrush mixture. I really liked the blue tonality and, as a matter of fact, this color will definitely be a major component on my IG army: the 13th Valhallans :).

A quick note about his eyes: can you see how crazy he looks? Well, I got that completely by accident. That was my first time trying to paint eyes and, as I would find out later, part of the iris should be covered by the eyelids. But anyways I think it is looking good, better yet in the context of a battle.

Now he has a lot of reasons to be mad :D. I would with all those nids after me.