Month: October 2019

Posted in Builds

The dragon, finished.

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As promised, here’s the post about the actual dragon base.

I started the base with red, then swirled in some yellows to give a more organic look.

I built a plastic wall around the outside to hold in the next part: PVA

I layer of pva, probably 5 mm thick. I left this to dry for a day, and got: well, not much change actually. I left it another day and again, not much. I think the pva was drying at the top, and I’d made the wall too well so it wasn’t actually letting any air through at all. I removed the wall, and let it dry for another day…..

Some of the pva was absorbed into the tissue, but I could see obvious signs of drying! I left it again…..

And it worked. I decided to give it a little dry brush of orange, to mix it up a little more.

Then came the interesting bit. Crackle.

This was done on the Warhamster stream, “Slapping it on” and using a hairdryer to dry it quickly.

This was immediately after drying it. I knew from the test piece it would continue to crack some more if left alone, so I did.

That’s the “finished” base. But not quite complete.

Paul did suggest “Object source lighting” on the rock to add a little more realism. As I hadn’t done any of that before, I thought it would be an interesting experience.

It doesn’t show up much in pictures, and isn’t that obvious in person, but I added some red and yellow to the underside of some rocks to imply the light from the lava lighting upwards.

I have a little more touching up to do to the model, but it’s basically done.

Watch on Sunday for the finished dragon, and the start of a new build that my patrons are voting for!

Posted in Builds, News

It’s all about the base…..

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If you’ve been watching my Warhamster streams on sundays, you’ll have seen I’m getting close to finishing the orange dragon. I’ve always intended it to have a base like cracked lava, so I thought I’d better practice.

I am using citadel paints, and they do have a good range of what they call “Technical” paints. These are usually used for effects: things like blood, snow, mud, and some have a special ‘crackle’ property as they dry.

I tried a couple of different ones and decided on Mordant earth as my black lava type top.

The dragon, on a tree, on a rock that’s going to be coming out of lava.

I have been told of a method for getting the best crackle, so I followed it and we will see how it comes together.

To begin, you need a good base colour. Obviously for lava that’s going to be red. Over that you need some yellow/ orange to make swirls and a visual texture. The tricky part comes next: PVA. Pva is a white glue, that goes transparent when it dries. It also shrinks quite a lot.

I didn’t take a picture of the base, but you’ll be able to see it when the pva goes transparent!
After about 24 hours, the underlying colour comes through.

The yellow was just ‘Slapped on’ to see how it could come through. I know lava doesn’t look anything like that.

The mordant earth, applied thickly.

The next trick I was told about is not to let the technical paint dry on its own. Using a hairdryer to quickly dry it gives more cracks, and makes them bigger.

I thought I’d gone too thick, so I added a thinner layer.

The thick paint didn’t crack much, so I added a thinner layer (closer to the camera in the picture). I sort of wanted something between the 2 finishes, so I thought I’d have to get the thickness of the paint just right. Except…. when I came back to it the next day something wonderful had happened.

It had continued to crack, getting almost exactly the effect I intended!

I’ll post another page about the actual base shortly. But suffice to say, it didn’t go quite as planned…….

Posted in Builds, News

Warhamster update

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As you may be aware, on a Sunday evening I stream the “Warhamster Late show” where I build and paint Warhammer stuff.

It’s been ongoing for almost a year now, with a flying skiff thing, an orange space tank, 3 parks in armour, a tiny Grot and Squig (don’t ask) all completed. The current project is a lovely bright orange dragon. I don’t know why orange has become the colour of the stream, but we are stuck with it now. 🙂

The stream itself is every Sunday at 8pm UK time and is usually about 90 minutes long. I very rarely do any “behind the scenes” stuff, except priming the kits for painting as that’s hard to do on camera. After the stream has finished the video is archived into a Patreon exclusive playlist, so although anyone can watch live, watching it again or on YouTube is reserved for my patrons. I have to have something a little special for them!

I have got a couple of streams I have left open for all so you can get an idea of what it’s about if you are unable to catch me live, and if you would like to watch something like 60 hours of “Previously on Warhamster” you can always join my Patreon…..

The current progress of the dragon is ‘Almost done’. I still need to do the base and decide if I am doing the rider or not…..

Come watch next Sunday to see how much I get done!

Posted in News

Bench update!

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No, not a ‘here’s stuff I’m working on’, this is an actual update of my bench.

I’m having a move around to try to get some better camera angles for filming and streaming. I also have some new mats to use, in a more neutral grey colour that should be nicer on film. (‘not that anyone actually uses film. Or even tape. ‘Nicer on ram’ doesn’t sound quite the same though does it?)

I picked up 3 sizes of mat, the big one I use at the moment is a1 although half of it is hidden under my storage area. Perhaps I can turn it around when it invariably gets dirty. Or the lines get cleaned off…..