Let's jump right into the basing of our, um bases. Above is my basic set up once I have super glued any details to said bases. I use a mix of white glue and carpenters glue. Why? White glue doesn't adhere as well as carpenters glue and carpenters glue doesn't saturate the basing material enough, but use them together, add a few drops of water and you get a nice strong bond that soaks right into the sand and gravel :)
Here is a look at how each base comes together. It's always good to vary your textures and keeping it random makes it look more natural. Below are a few shots of some of the more interesting bases I detailed from my DV box set...
Maybe I use the word "interesting" more liberally than others - that was actually kind of boring. So at this point everybody is ready for priming. Enter Vallejo Surface Primers! I used my Air brush on these and my portable spray booth too. Nice thing about the Vallejo primers is that they brush on too so if you finish spraying and it turns out you missed a spot or there is a place the spray didn't make it to you can just go in with a brush and touch it up with a color that is exactly the same. You could also mix a darker tone to create pre-shading right in the priming step of your minis if you are so inclined.
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| This is my airbrush. There are many like it, but this one is mine... |
I use an old two stage badger 150 with a Testors compressor for priming which was donated by my progenitor who builds and paints scale models (So now you know where the hobby bug comes from) and I bought a spray booth form a local retailer called
Hobby Hobby to catch all that over spray, but you could
make your own like
The Unrealistic Artist did.
So,what do I think of Vallejo primers? Vallejo primers cover well, self level and don't smell so they are perfect for indoor use during the long cold winters in Canada. To be honest, they are so good that I will not go back to primers from a spray can even when the weather warms up again. I got three 60ml bottles in white, grey and black. I primed my whole DV set and barely made a dent in those bottles!
Now here is my only complaint - it's not even a complaint so much as an observation, really. The grey primer is really pale - almost white. Check out what I mean below...
Good news though, you can mix the black and white to get what you want in terms of grey. Black plus white makes grey - duh. Glad I took all those art classes in high school. Finally, some payoff!
I love these primers and they were a joy to work with. I highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for a great replacement for spray cans. Okay. onto some important links you should all check out...
Don't forget to go to
Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher and bid(generously) in the
charity auction. My Vector mini has a bid of 10GBP, but Kitty is still up for grabs as are many others!
Dark Future Games is updating their blog and
they need you! I have a few things I'll be sending their way for sure.
It's your last chance to cast votes in the
Standard Template Construct Champions of Chaos Contest! I won the mystery prize that
The Chaos Manifesto was running in conjunction with this contest - of course a mystery prize from chaos does sound kind of ominous (I swear if it's a flaming bag of panda poo I'll never forgive you HOTpanda!)
As always check out the blog roll on the side there because I have added a bunch of great blogs this week. Next time I'll have WIP images of the Chaplain from the DV set.
Congrats to all who took part in the various contests and remember; you can't spell paint without a little pain!
