Progress Report: April 2012

Hey guys,

this month I got quite a bit done. I took a painting vow over on DakkaDakka, what I wanted to achieve this month (finishing my Cygnar Battle Engine) and it really helped keeping me focussed. Because of this I finished two very large models, the aforementioned Storm Strider and my Ol'Rowdy, which has been on my workbench for months.

So there you have it, my update for April 2012:

Purchased

• Field Mechanics - Cygnar Unit Blister

Assembled

• Captain Arlan Strangewayes, Arcane Mechanik - Cygnar Solo

Work in Progress

• Lieutenant Allister Caine - Cygnar Warcaster

Finished Miniatures

• Commander Coleman Stryker - Cygnar Warcaster
• The Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Cygnar Character Unit
• Stormguard - Cygnar Unit
• Hunter - Cygnar Light Warjack
• Journeyman - Cygnar Solo
• Charger - Cygnar Light Warjack
• Cyclone - Cygnar Heavy Warjack
• Defender / Triumph - Cygnar Heavy / Character Warjack
• Squire - Cygnar Solo
• Reinholdt Gobber Speculator - Mercenaries Solo
• Lancer - Cygnar Light Warjack
• Thunderhead - Cygnar Character Heavy Warjack
• Major Markus "Siege" Brisbane - Cygnar Warcaster
• Stormsmith Storm Tower
• Sword Knights - Unit Box
• Storm Strider - Cygnar Battle Engine
• Ol' Rowdy - Cygnar Character Heavy Warjack

Online Store Review - Der Fantasyladen (The Fantasy-Shop)

Hey guys!

We all have our brick and mortar stores we love to go to - often just to browse the merchandise and chat with our fellow gamers. But often enough, we do go online to buy our hobby needs there - maybe because they are cheaper or sell hard to find items, or even because their inventory is much easier to browse through.

In this new section of my blog, I will review the Online Stores I've already purchased hobby items from, to give you an impression if the shop is any good.

To start this off, I will begin with Der Fantasyladen (The Fantasy-Shop). 

The cute store logo :-)

This is an Germany based store, so the layout and contents are much better in the original german language, although there is an english option.

What do you think of the new design?

Hey you guys,

the title says it all :-)

What do you think of the new design? Hit or miss?

Cheers,


IK-Painter

Prep before Painting: Assembling and Pinning Ol'Rowdy - Cygnar Heavy Character Warjack

Hey you guys!

As with my Thunderhead Heavy Character Warjack, the assembly of Ol'Rowdy was quite difficult, compared to the Warmachine models I built up to this point. So I wanted to take my time in building this hunking piece of metal. I even did my first little conversion work on this one, which turned out really good in my opinion.

One piece of advice when assembling such a large figure:

ALWAYS DRY FIT ALL PARTS BEFORE APPLYING THE GLUE!

This saves you much hassle in the long run, trust me...

I started out with washing all the pieces in warm and soapy water to remove all the mould release agent and removing all the mould lines from the model with my hobby knife.

All the parts cleaned and ready for assembly

From Zero to Hero: Stormsmith Storm Tower - Cygnar Unit

Hey guys,

it's been a while, since I posted my last step by step. But as I've been busy painting for the last few weeks, I was able to finish a few figures. So you can expect a few more painting tutorials in the future.

I'll be kicking this off with my Stormsmith Storm Tower, which was very fun to paint.

Preview of the finished models

Tools of the Trade: Airbrush Cleaning and Maintenance

Hey all,

today I wanted to show you, how I clean and maintain my Iwata HP-C Plus. For this, I differentiate between two cleaning processes: Basic and Thorough. Also quite important is the part about proper maintenance, so your airbrush will perform correctly.

I even edited my first Youtube video for this post, because the process is easier to show then to explain: enjoy:

1. Basic Airbrush Cleaning

If you use a brush to wipe down the paint cup, be careful not to press to hard, as the metal ferule of the brush can scratch the inside of the paintcup.



2. Thorough Airbrush Cleaning

But what to do, when your brush really is gunked up and needs special attention? You basically have two options here, both of which include disassembling your airbrush.

My airbrush completely dis-assembled

You either can clean all the parts by hand, or use an ultrasonic cleaner. This thing really is something else. After a 7 minute cleaning cycle you can see all the tiny paint particles, which where deep inside your brush.

The ultrasonic cleaner at work

After the cleaning is done, rinse all the parts with clean water, so any residue of paint or cleaning solution will be gone. Just be careful, not to lose any of the parts, especially the nozzle.
 
When you're finished, just put all the parts on a piece of kitchen roll, so they can dry completely.

Drying out and ready for maintenance

3. Airbrush Maintenance

An airbrush is a precision tool. You'll need to take good care of it, if you're expecting it to perform perfectly every time you use it.

I've noticed, that the trigger mechanism of my airbrush was getting a bit harder to pull, after I used the ultrasonic cleaner for the first time. This is because the cleaner removes not only the leftover paint, but also the lube inside of the airbrush. So you'll need to get a replacement lube, if you plan on using an airbrush. My choice was Ballistol, a German brand of cleaning oil, famous for it's use in gun-maintenance. I just sprayed a few tiny bursts of oil onto all the moving parts prior to assembly. For a final touch, I used the piece of kitchen towel which had some of the oil left on it, to carefully lube the needle, so that the whole mechanism was ready.

All the moving parts of the airbrush.

And it worked like a charm. The trigger was moving beautifully and all the little hitches were gone. Now you just need to re-assemble the airbrush and you are good to go.

The airbrush after cleaning and maintenance - good as new!

Cheers,


IK-Painter

How to shade cloth - 4 very different techniques

Hey guys,

as I worked on my Cygnar forces for a while now, I had ample opportunity to shade cloth. In this time, I tried out many different techniques, which I wanted to share with you. I will be covering layering, washing, airbrushing and using dry pigments in this article.

Layering

Washing

Using Pigments

Airbrushing