Dipping

I've been reading plenty of things around the web lately about "dipping" miniatures in order to get a speedy paint-job, so I thought I'd post about that this week as this is the method I use to paint my Kryomek figures.

Dipping involves using a coloured stain all over the figure in order to give highlighting and shading without actually having to do any. There are plenty wood varnishes available fairly cheaply to do this, but I went with the Army painter range, because I've basically got better things to do with my time than compare different makes and colours of varnish. (Yes, I know I could save a few pennies and it's basically rebadged Ronseal, but it works for me and the tin looks nice)

First thing to do is block in the base colours. One thing to remember is to go for a shade lighter than you want for the finished figure as the dip will darken it considerably.

Next up, splash on the dip. Some people actually dip the whole mini in the can (hence the name) but I find using a bruch gives much more control, and much less waste. You'll need an old brush for this as the stain will kill brushes. It's also messy and a bit smelly. Leave it for a few minutes, then go back and soak up any excess where the stain is pooling.

At this stage, you may be tempted to cry, or at least curse me for having talked you into covering your cherished miniatures in sticky brown gloop, but fear not - give them 24 hours to set and hit them with a matt varnish.

Last thing to do is add details and a bit of flock and you're done. Obviously, you can take it further by adding in extra highlights, but I call them finished.

If you want to go super-speedy, you can start off with a coloured primer. I use bone on my bugs, again from Army Painter.

These guys aren't going to win any awards, but they look fine in table-vision and the method allows you to plow through a large number of figures fairly quickly.

Hope this has been of use.

Better Helcat Pics

Just a quickie today - I was able to get some better shots of the Helcats over the weekend.

Top to bottom - Cerberus, Fury, Loki.

New Year Round-up

Wow - 2011 already? I hope everyone had a great festive period. I thought I'd mark the beginning of the year by taking stock of where my various projects are, and where I hope to get them in the coming months, as well as a few resolutions (which may or may not be kept!)

The Cyclo Cention is inching towards completion. I only have 19 convicts left to paint and then it can be put to bed. This is definitely at the top of the list in terms of painting.

The first platoon for the CBUs is also coming along nicely. I've recently added a squad of Helcats as a bodyguard for the command squad.

Still to add to round out the platoon is another 4 TALOS units, the command squad, and a walker.

The SWAT platoon is also moving forward slowly. I've just received the first of 2 Colossus walkers which will accompany the marines. (It's actually a Tiger for Void but what the hey!)

That's his head. Still to add here are around a dozen marines, another Colossus, an APC, a few AFVs and a couple of Striders - plenty of armour in this force!

And finally the bugs. I'll be doing these as and when I feel the need. Thanks to Ebay I've got a fairly large box of gribblies to keep me going, and I've got enough painted for some decent games - a couple of Warmasters, 15 assorted Warriors and 30 Helions. Which brings us onto the resolutions:

• First up I've got to get a gaming surface done. Always one for a quick fix this is going to involve a nice piece of plywood I've "found" along with a can of textured spray paint. Quick and dirty! A bit of scenery wouldn't go amiss either, and to this end I've got some craters, trees, foamboard that need sorting out and painting. I've also been hoarding those containers that stacks of CDs come in which I think will make great colonist's housing. We shall see!
• That will allow me to ACTUALLY PLAY SOME GAMES! which let's face it is the point of the whole exercise. I'll be starting small, but I'm hoping to have some battle reports going up this year.
• Fluff - I'd like to expand on some of the material in the core books, notably some key locations and battles, along with coming up with some kind of map of humanic space-time and a planetary setting for an ongoing narrative campaign I'd like to run. Don't hold your breath!
• I also want to expand the game in a couple of different directions - I've wanted to do some Starship gaming for a while, probably using GZG's "Full Thrust" rules and I think there's plenty of scope for this in the background. I'll also be looking to use bastardised Space Hulk rules to game boarding actions. Again, there're plenty of accounts of this kind of combat in the rulebooks.
• Last but not least, I really want to get in the habit of posting more often. I follow a number of blogs, and the writers of some of them seem to do nothing but post up great pictures of fantastic miniatures and great games (stand up Inso & Gyro) - I don't know how they do it, but I'd like to try!

So that little lot should keep me busy! Let's see how we get on.