February Monthly

The intention for this month was going to be terrain centered but I needed to store a vehicle in my gaming area and now I can't get to a bunch of things.  With those items being temporarily out-of-reach, my focus will shift to finishing up a lot of painting I have started.  Also, I tried out Thursday's for my weekly post (until the Week 4 one); didn't like it.  So for February I'll try...uhm... Monday's?

January Review:

What I learned:

I love the blends you can get with the airbrush but... I need to use larger color differences.  When I did the pajama part on the wood elves I used three colors and liked the transition but it didn't stand out enough.  Sometimes, I had trouble seeing where I was spraying which leads me to...

Find the point the airbrush is going to spray to.  Right now I haven't a clue about where the paint is going until it's there.

Milk?  People say paint should be the consistency of whole milk to spray best.  But for me that comes out too runny and I have trouble controlling the amount of paint coming out of the gun.  Maybe my understanding of "milk consistency" is off.  I need to figure that out.

What's Next:

Highlighting is something I struggle with immensely.  I often get the base layers of projects done and then stop for fear of messing them up. So, I'm just going to buckle down and do it.  As this month goes on I'll push myself to do that and keep record of it here.  I don't know how many models I'll get to this month but hopefully it's a substantial amount.

On a new creative front, a friend got a 3D printer for Christmas and we worked out a creation for paint reciprocation program so we'll see where that leads.  He showed me some heads and helmets he made for his son's Lego's and they look great.  We shall see what happens.

Also, it appears a new game shop may be opening very near to my house.  Hopefully all goes smooth for them and it ends up being a successful venture for them.

Weekly Update - 3rd Week of January - Choosing Colors

For inspiration for my wood elf team I scanned the interwebs.  I saw a lot of green and yellow, green and blue, and green and brown teams out there.  I didn't care for them.  I saw some green and red schemes that attracted me more but they still weren't right.  Then I remembered a video Les Bursley at Awesome Paint Job did a while ago and decided to watch it again.  It doesn't feature Blood Bowl but I liked the scheme.  He went with a reddish brown, orange, a greenish khaki, and gold metallic.  I decided to go with a variation of these colors, sort of a fall theme.

I often work up a drawing to out color schemes and this was no exception:

So I put this together and did a quick and dirty test figure:

I didn't like it.  I went back to the video and saw my colors were off.  So here is another markup:

So I gave that one a shot, used same model since it was just increasing contrast:

Better and truer to the scheme I wanted.  I brightened the orange and darkened the pajama brown.  I also gave the cloth a greenish tint.  Little pop of bright from the feather too. 

By next week I'd like to have the team done.  Hopefully, I can find time for a couple hour block to hammer a big chunk of it out with the airbrush.  I decided to paint the pajamas with that to speed it up, if I can.

Weekly Update - 2nd Week of January - Zenithal Priming

I know this can be done with a rattle can and I've tried it that way before.  But for some reason the air brush made me think of it again.

I have a bunch of third edition GW Wood Elf blood bowl players so I thought I'd give it a try on them.  I primed them with black in the air brush.  I sprayed them and thought I was done.  Then one tipped over.  The went from black to silver in an instant.  I'm not sure why I didn't think about it earlier but spray from the top obviously wont get on the bottom.  I went back over them to make sure the underside was covered.

Layer One

Single Fig

My phone crapped out on me last week so my search to find the correct way to photograph these miniatures is starting all over.

Here is the grey and white part:

Things I learned:

1.  Don't thin too much.  Finding the happy medium will come in time.

2.  Hold the trigger steady, let the pressure gauge do the work.  I did better with the grey and white.

3.  Tip the models to get all sides for dark color

4.  Cleaning the air brush is tough but I'm getting more confident.

Weekly Update - 1st Week of January - New Toys

Over Christmas, I received two new toys to use for my hobbying.  The Proxxon Hot Wire table for terrain and an Iwata Neo airbrush.  I intend to do a bunch of cleaning and reorganizing first... but I was too anxious to get to playing.

For the wire table, I cut up some foam scraps I had lying around.  These pieces might find their way into some future projects.  We'll see.

Harder than I thought.

The current rip fence I have (the one that came with it) is not heavy duty enough for me.  I think I'll look into other options.

Before the holiday I never considered getting an airbrush, but I got one and now I'm super excited about it.  I bought a lot of the goodies to go with it.  Special thanks to a buddy that helped me out with what I needed.  My first use of the airbrush was just learning on some paper.  I cant wait to do more!

The extras:

Compressor.  I went with a cheap airbrush compressor.  From what I could gather it has all the options I was suggested to get.  Station.  This was a simple but important suggestion.  I didn't even know about them.  Protection.  Respirator, gloves, and the compressor is super quiet so the ear plugs were overkill.

Fluids:

I will be spraying with a vent and in my "cold room" eventually, but that room needs to be reorganized first.

I know I'll find more stuff I need but this is a start.

I looked up suggestions and recipes for making your own air brush thinner and cleaner.  Here's what I'm going to start with.  All ratios are approximate and subject to change:

DWFA: 95% distilled water, 5% flow aid; this is a base mix I'll be using for a lot of things.

AB Medium:  70% DWFA, 30% matte medium
AB Cleaner:  40% DWFA, 40% glass cleaner, 20% isopropyl alcohol

I decided to do some priming too:

First lessons learned:
1.  Need practice with the trigger.  I either let out no paint or way to much.
2.  Keep moving.  Avoid webs and puddles.
3.  It takes more paint than I thought.  Took 12 drops to prime that cargo box thing.
4.  Maybe I need to adjust the pressure?
5.  Paint dries on the needle very fast.  May add retarder to my ABM mix.

I'll be playing more and trying to learn.  Both of my new tools will take some getting used to.

Happy New Year

2018 is here.  This is the season where we all write down our goals for the new year and most of us fail miserably.  Even though I've never stuck to any of my hobby related resolutions, I thought I should write them up anyway.

Hobby Related
1.  Clean up and Organize:  and keep it clean.
2.  Build new gaming table for inside.  (ideas already drawn up)
3.  Build modular tiles for TNT. (ideas already drawn up)
4.  Finish Raiders.  Current state - built, basecoated
5.  Finish Stormcast.  Current state - built, some basecoat done
6.  Finish human/chaos pact team.  Current state - built, some basecoat done, need a goblin
7.  Finish Apes of Wrath team.  Current state - built, some basecoat done
8.  Finish Mordheim Witch Hunters.  Current state - built, basecoated
9.  Finish Mordheim Skaven.  Current state - built, some basecoat done
10. Repaint GW Wood Elf Team  Current state - acquired
11. Re-base Initech Gangsters.  Current state - built, basecoated, shaded, highlighted, square bases
12. Finish Mordheim terrain.  Current state - built
13. Post Apocalyptic terrain for TNT.

Blog Related
1.  Weekly Posts.  Usually Mondays.  A recap of the week that was
2.  Update Posts.  Sporadically.   Trying new techniques, new projects, new products, etc.
3.  Monthly Posts.  Around the first of the month.  Showcases, news (This is January's).