WIP Update (pic heavy)

It has been some time since the last post but here an update.
Painted the boyz, they are ready except for the colour of the bases and some minor details. Additionally I started building a new cybOrk which is still not finished.
My runtherd is made in GS and is also still not finished, he needs some details on his Luger and cap,... Sadly the pics do not show his uniform in total, I will deliver some additional pics in the coming days.
Comments are very welcome, as always..

runtherd

(jesus, arranging pics in this editor is a real pain in the a..)

runtherd big bad grabba

runtherd

runtherd face

runtherd back

boyz

boyz

boyz

boyz

guess what, again the .. boyz ..

boyz

boyz

cybOrk 2.0

cybOrk 2.0 left arm

cybOrk 2.0 right arm

Librarian WIP & Da Waaagh

Here are some pics of my selfmade librarian (still working on it) and the first of my (test-)Orks! I am planing to set up a new blog for them as soon as they make any progress.

Please excuse the quality of the pictures, not doing it very often , taking pictures is still a new area for me.

A disaster & Pics

Not wasting any words on the ridiculous reasons why, the first day of our campaign can be summerized as a disaster. We were just able to play the first of our two games, the Kill-Team match. It was won by the loyal alliance. Allthough this game was very funny and very fast, the campaign-start could not have gone any worse. Disappointed, I hope to find some motivation to set up a second meeting.

But the upside is, that I painted some of my Space Marines and I am currently working on my librarian (pics later).


Here now some pictures from our first campaign day:

Quick WIP: Stern Guard I

Just a quick preview: These are 5 guys of my Stern Guard unit(s). This is just a WIP post and therefore mold-lines maybe there, shoulder pads and back pads are missing, heads and shoulder pads are actually not fixed yet. And of course the legs of one of the veterans are still missing. These guys are actually not forming a single unit but I have no more meltas left, thus I am not able to build the missing combi-meltas currently. For the Sergeant (the guy w/ the power fist) I did a conversion, placing his bolter under his p-fist with an ammunition belt.


Please  forgive the poor quality of the pictures, they were just taken in between.

Captain / Sergeant finished

I found some time to finish this Sergeant (which will sometimes work as a Captain). And I took this opportunity to improve my photographing skills...

Comments are welcome, as always.

Sergeant finished

I recently finished my Sergeant from the Black Reach Box. And took that opportunity to take some pictures because I  learned (but still have to learn a lot) something about taking pictures from a tutorial.

selfmade weathering powder / pigments

In the last time I read some articles about using pigments for weathering models. And yesterday I found this wonderful article(s) at 'ultrawerke'. 

So I started reading some more about it and I decided to do this myself! But this month I have to save some money so I could not just go to my local hobby store and buy me some pigments from Vallejo oder MIG. So I came up with the idea of producing some pigments for weathering and to share this with you in this tutorial.

To be rigorous I should say that this tutorial will mainly be about doing a dust, some rust and a mud effect.

Notice: If you are interested in doing this yourself, always do a test-run first!

So here are the things I used:

1. a pencil

2*. a colored pencil

3. Vallejo Matt Varnish

4. Vallejo Thinner

5*. Water

6. Sandpaper

7*. a knife

8. some container

9. brushes

10. sharpener

* : alternative

It goes without saying that we need a model to paint on:

In this case I used a part of an old Rhino. It was only sprayed with Boltgun Metal and only the parts needed for this tutorial have been painted. Namely the exhaust pipes. (Just for the sake of completeness: it was drybrushed with Boltgunmetal, washed with Vallejo Humo+GW Badab Black, drybrushed with GW Tin Bitz and Vallejo Hammered Copper)

How does weathering with pigments work?

Usually one needs different supplies, one needs a thinner, for this task turpentine or white spirit is often used. And one needs a fixer and/or a varnish. There are different ways to apply the pigments, mixed with a thinner or dry.

To say this right away, I have not tried working with this stuff but I read a lot about it and I am just showing a cheap and fast idea how to do easy effects on your models. For more professional results one really should use the supplies named above. As soon as I will have them I will make a second tutorial. Nevertheless the results of this method are surprisingly good!

So first we need to make our pigments:

I used a pencil (HB) which has as we all know a graphite mine (which is is one of the allotropes of carbon - as diamond) and not of lead! 

It has a dark gray color. I also used a a colored pencil for some rust or mud, it has a light brown color. To make our pigments we first need to use a sharpener (or knife) to sharpen the pencil. Now one can either use a knife and scrape over the mine or -as I did- one uses sandpaper and runs the pencil over it and collect the pigments. 

To avoid wooden impurities one has to resharpen the pencil many times.

 

  

The pictures show how I used to make the pigments.

Applying the pigments:

I applied the pigments in different ways. For the dust effect on the exhaust pipe and the mud/rust effect on the chain I first applied some of the thinner

Now its time for the pigments. Use a dry brush to take them out of their container and put them on the thinner without blurring them much on the surface. I just dropped them on the thinner.

Notice: I am just showing the dust effect on this pictures, the mud on the chain works equivalent.

For the (spontaneous idea) rust effect at the 'door' I used a different technique: I mixed the thinner directly with the brown pigments and applied them on the surface.

Now wait some minutes to let the thinner dry. And maybe remove some not-fixed pigments.

Sealing the pigments:

Know we need to seal the pigments to make sure they stay where they are.

For this I mixed Matt varnish with thinner

 

and applied this now on the pigmented areas

I applied the varnish by dabbing it with the brush and tried not to blur the pigments.

Again let it dry. (And maybe seal them again later)

And here is the result:

So you may think "ok, why should I use pigments when I am able to do weathering with my colors too?"

The answer to this question - I asked myself the same - is very simple:

"They look amazing!" just take a look at some pictures in the further up mentioned article.

And most important they add structure to your weathering and look very realistic.

I am thinking of using this easy method on the barrels of my Space Marine weapons. I did it on my Heavy Bolter but since I am absolutely incapable of taking good pictures the effect can not be seen very good on the following picture

 

(seriously if anybody could tell me (via email) how to take good close up photos with my digicam I would be very grateful.)

Other possible applications would be the tank chains, dozer blades,...