Born Painting Miniatures

I recently took on the task of completely redoing this Imperial Knight. It came to me well painted in a very traditional blue and gold color scheme but when he broke, I figured it was time for an overhaul.  So I popped it apart and in the Simple Green it went.  The knight was previously a Knight Paladin with double battle cannon and reaper chain sword.  A Knight Gallant seems to be more of what I will use on the table top so I built up the power gauntlet.  Also to keep him cheap but swappable, I magnetized the heavy stubber on.    After a few rounds of stripping off the old paint, the knight was ready to be primed.  I started with airbrushing the entire thing in black primer.  The under detail/ mechanical bits were airbrushed with grey, silver and nuln oil.  I later did edge highlighting and brushed on more nuln oil.  For the armor, I airbrushed target raised areas with elysian green and then the same but mixed with yello...

How to strip paint from miniatures  This poor trooper came to me covered in chalky textured paint. This can be the result of spray priming from too far away, using old paint or any number of other spray issues. Clearly sometimes miniatures need repainted.  This could be due to a model crisis like the one seen above or perhaps it's just time to give them a fresh look.  Stripping paint is a task that can be super easy but can also come with fear of damaging those expensive miniatures.  Below is the step by step method that I used on the storm troopers and seems to be the tried and true method for stripping paint from models.  Before we begin I should start with a few warnings:  Gloves are recommended.  I didn't use them and the chemical left my hands a bit dry and irritated. Follow product safety guidelines. Tools required for paint stripping  - Simple Green cleaner -  I've used other chemicals in the past such as Pinesol but t...

The force is strong with this one!   This week I fell even more in love with Star Wars Legion from fantasy flight games as my commissioned project was the Imperial models from the core set.  The set included 14 storm troopers, 2 bikes and Vader.  As expected from fantasy flight, the models for Legion are stellar hard plastic and a blast to assemble and paint. My technique for the troopers: airbrush white, nun oil wash, airbrush white and add details.  Simple, effective and fun. For the basing I applied the following: a sand layer, watered down brown, dry brush of baneblade brown, dry brush of ivory, agrax earth shade wash, and patches of scorched earth.   Since this is to be featured in a miniatures event in a few weeks at a friendly local gaming store, I went ahead and did some simple airbrushing on the barricades, templates and range ruler. Of course Vader and the speeder bikes needed some attention too.  T...

Straight to the point You say to yourself "I worked hard today, I'm tired". You have a running list of things that you think you ought to accomplish but then put them off day after day. That was me for about the last 10 years.  But I did the math and realized the track that I was on wasn't heading where I wanted to go.  Every day closer to the end with no meaningful middle.   Start today and make something every day.  One of the most powerful tools in your toolbox for happiness is self expression - Use it

Hi all - as promised I am bringing to you my experience having attended the Michigan GT 40k team event this past weekend.  My friend Chris played Hawkshroud Warhammer 40K: Imperial Knight Warden  and I played a Catachan battalion based on the guy wearing flak armor with muscles bulging from the Warhammer 40k Astra Militarum Catachan Command Squad  . Our Team was named Krastellan Defenders. You can check out my video on Catachan combos here:   Chris and I put a bit of work into his models the night before the event by adding basing and cleaning up some edges.  I ended up fixing his airbrush and he wrote a back story for the army and printed off army lists.  I was glad to see some familiar faces at the event - Team Channel 4 News, Team Bad Decisions and others I recognized having attended Buckeye Battles.  Since I've been doing more and more airbrushing, I picked up an airbrush stand from Badger. Now on to the games!! Round 1, we...

It's Orktober so of course today is full of space orcs! The idea behind these guys was to give them an industrial theme. The shirts were done as cut off white T shirts.  The pants and straps are jean overalls and the bases were done with texture plating. Games Workshop Warhammer 40k Ork Boyz Agrax earth shade was used to dirty them all up and Ryza rust added to the metal parts for that rusty look.  Simple techniques for a good looking orc worker mob! Now its time to pack up as tonight I'm heading to Michigan for the 40k team tournament this Friday. More on that later.. Happy Painting! -Brendan To help support me on my journey through this world of tabletop miniatures you can purchase your own space orcs or any other hobby supplies following the link below.  Thank you all!

Hi all, I'm Brendan and this is my first post.  My passion is painting miniatures and attending table top events.  Yes Warhammer 40k is my main game but I love so many different systems from Star Wars Imperial Assault to board games and when I really enjoy a game, the miniatures get painted!  I have been doing this hobby for over 22 years and it's about time I start sharing this journey with you. Earlier this week my project was a space marine captain. Games Workshop Warhammer Vanguard Veteran Squad (2015 Edition) SW The client specified that he wanted the model to be done in flesh tearer armor and have some snow on the basing. The build itself was his design using bits from different marine kits.  He is obviously dark angel influenced with the shield and cloak with sanguinary guard wings and a space wolf thunder hammer. The base came plain black and I knew it needed some extra love.  The rock is a few layers of built up cork and painted black a...