How to: Hairspray and Salt Weathering Technique

 
 Today I'm gonna show you how I went about trying some weathering techniques for the first time.  I "borrowed" the models from my cousin for this experiment so I wouldn't mess up my own. Haha, sucker.  I'm gonna go through the pics and give my step by step for this method.  At the end I'll go over a couple things I learned that worked really well and a couple things that didn't go so well.

First up are the tools needed for this technique.  Above you can see the salt that I used for this.  It is very irregular in size and shape, so perfect for this.  Also it happened to be free as it was in the cupboard.  It does only costs a few bucks for 3 lbs though.  Below you can see that I used a Ruddy Brown primer from Wal-mart that costs 3 bucks.  This would give me a rusty, dirty look after weathering.  I also bought a 2 dollar can of hairspray, also from the walmart.  I was also using this exercise as an excuse for practicing some more with the airbrush, but you could just use some spray colors to get your desired effect.  You will also need an old toothbrush, some warm water and a toothpick is helpful.

 First prime all models used with the Ruddy Brown Primer

 Next spray a light coat of hairspray on the models and quickly sprinkle with salt before it dries

 Don't spray to many parts at once, just one at a time, then salt, then move on

 Top of Hammerhead after spraying and salting

 Side view

 Pic of bottom

 Next I airbrushed a light basecoat and then a darker pattern camouflage.  I need more airbrush practice, first time doing anything other than basecoating.

 Here you can see the salt still under paint, be careful while painting not to knock this off

After scrubbing the salt off using toothbrush and warm water.  You can also use the brush to weather the edges more if wanted. 

 Side view after weathering

 Other side view

 Rear view

 Bottom view

 This even worked on a couple crisis suits

The other Crisis suit

Group Hug Photo

Okay, so that was easy.  These four models only took me a couple hours from start to finish including waiting on everything to dry.  Granted i haven't touched any of these with a paintbrush yet, but they are definitely tabletop quality and ready to go with 3 colors.  Not perfect, but hey it's wear and tear after a long campaign.  Now for what I learned through this process to do better the technique.

1.  The undercoat can be any color you like, I just used the ruddy brown because it would show up well through light undercoat.

2.  You only need a very light coat of hairspray.  Don't overdo this step. 

3.  Make sure you let the hairspray dry for at least an hour depending on how much you applied.  I got to excited on this step and had some paint cracking issues.  I was able to cover these up with more coats, but I noticed on another model I did later that with a very light coat of hairspray and a longer dry time I had none of this.

4.  Let the paint dry for at least an hour after you apply over hairspray.  Again I got to excited here and in some places the paint came off too easily.   

5.  When brushing off the salt with toothbrush and warm water, DO NOT saturate the model over large areas.  On a separate project I had used to much hairspray and to much water.  This released most of the paint and I had to use a hair dryer to dry before it just flaked off.

6.  It is also very easy to remove the salt with a toothpick.  Just use the side and rub off.  This is also a great tool for weathering edges.  Just dip in water and rub the edges with side.  Paint easily comes off and looks great.

Well, I hope this has inspired you to try some simple weathering.  I would suggest you practice on some spare tank parts before going at a Landraider, etc.  It is very easy to do and gives good results.  The model I did after these worked out really well and I will be showing it off later.  If you have any questions about the process or if I left something unclear let me know in the comments and I'll try to give you an answer.  This was my first time doing this, but I feel like I learned a lot in the process that could help others not make the same mistakes I did.

Again Wanting New Stuff: Selling Wood Elf Army

 Well the time has come to sacrifice another army to my wants/desires.  I have been thinking hard about what I really want to keep and will have time to paint in my lifetime.  This time it is the Wood Elves that will hit the block.  I am going to put these on Ebay in a few days, but thought I would give someone the chance to get these at a good deal.  As with all the things I sell, I like to get back 65-70 percent of the retail value so I can "invest" in some new models or in this case rulebooks.  I am trying to catch up my 40k Codex collection as well as find the remaining books I need in the Legends of the Old West series from Warhammer Historicals.

I have some close-up pics of each unit if anyone wants to see them, but this army includes everything from the Wood Elf Army box that was released when the army book came out a few years ago as well as some extras.  I have:
Unit of 8 Glade Riders - built
10 of the old Wardancers
6 of the new Wardancers
12 of the old Waywatchers
3 new Warhawk Riders
2 Great Eagles- one built-one unbuilt
1 Warhawk
Some parts to make a Lord for steed - old metal model
Some parts to make a mage for warhawk - old metal model
Female mage - old metal model
Limited Std Bearer from army box
Lord with great wpn - new one
Floating mage - new one
Bits for Glade guard unbuilt below-how many came in army box?
Bits for dryads unbuilt below - however many came in army box?
Twilight Sisters on dragon - unopened in box shown
There may be other things in pic I didn't note

Well that's all of the Wood elves I have.  I will sell the entire army or just parts if you want certain things and not others.  The deal will be better for more models.  I'll give it a week on here then put the remaining on Ebay.  Email me at ctreleheb AT gmail DOT com if you're interested in any of this.  Next army on the block will be my 14,000 pts of fully built Fantasy Orcs & Goblins.  I'll post some stuff on them in the near future.

Do you play with "counts-as" armies to Win or Save Money?

Initially this post was just gonna show some pictures of some of my Chaos models that I had taken and never got around to posting about.  But then I started thinking about the great things about Chaos and using them for the multitude of power armoured armies out there.  I think lately with the release of Blood Angels and Space Wolves there are lots of Chaos guys out there that feel left out.  Chaos is probably the easiest army out there to use as a "counts-as" army.  All parts from every space marine model out there can be used in conversions. Below I will show some pics of models I have converted and what they are in the Chaos codex and what they can be in other books as well.  Some models will be easily moved from book to book while others may only serve one purpose.  This is okay, just don't try to pass off some half a$$ effort to make a model something it's not just so you can pull one over on your opponent for an easy win.  I only play with a small group so it is easier for me to play counts-as without looking like a jerk.  

 Iron Warriors Dreadnought, easily used in all books without discrepancy as is case with any Dreadnought

Another view, I like this model

Chaos lord with wings, Librarian, Chaplain, SM Captain, stretch to Dante in Blood Angels 

Chaos Sorcerer with wings, Librarian, Chaplain, SM Captain, stretch to Sanguinor in BA Codex 

Chaos Termies used as Abaddon's Bodyguard, Wolf Guard Termies counts-as 

Fantasy Pestigors used as Lesser Daemons in Chaos Codex, okay so just one use

I have more examples just no pics, like Plague Marines as Grey Hunters, Raptors as Assault Marines, Rhinos as Rhinos, Landraiders as Landraiders, etc.

I love building me some Chaos models as they are fun to build and look sweet.  I see no problem using most of the ones I have as other things using other rulebooks.  I don't do this to win, but to open up playing possibilities to vary my games.  This can also give insight into other armies that you may encounter and give you ideas on how to beat them using the ole' Chaos 'dex.  And if you're really into to Chaos stuff why not play with 3 or 4 different codexes to keep the game fresh but building and painting the models you enjoy the most. Which is what is important, this is a hobby after all.  And maybe you'll even save some money, but probably not if you're like me and want lots of this cool stuff.

So, in conclusion,  I think it's okay to use counts-as armies to a degree.  I still want the equipment be the same regardless of books.  It doesn't matter if the plasmagun has a few spikes on it or not, just that it is a plasmagun and not a meltagun or whatever you put in the guys hands. I think when playing "counts-as" that WYSIWIG is the most important element, not whether they worship Khorne or the Emperor.

Do you think all of the above models fit into the categories I put them in or do you think I am stretching the boundaries?  On the other hand do you think the boundary could be pushed further with some of them?  I know there are other ways to do a "counts-as" army besides using power armored dudes, but I think this is by far the most easily acceptable way in gaming circles.

Photographing Minis: How much can Shutter Speed effect your lighting?

Okay, so while working on this series of articles about photographing my minis I took a lot of pics in one evening for the article specifically.  And, in my opinion, none of them were as good as the ones I usually take.  Which sucks because I really thought I had it figured out and could help point some people in the right direction.  My methods may still help you, but don't stick to exact parameters and expect same results.  I did my usual thing exactly, but the difference being at night instead of in front of a window during the day as normal.  Maybe this changed the way my lightbox works and the lack of light between lens and box or whatever.  So, I guess my point is, sometimes I make what I think are pretty good pics and other times mediocre pics while doing the same thing with only slight variations in room lighting.  I do the same thing almost every time with varying results every time.  This still puzzles me and I am gonna come up with a real system that works every time the same.  Until then, maybe this post will help with part of the puzzle.  

This post is gonna show how much changing only the shutter speed can change the picture dramatically.  Below are a series of pics that were all taken back to back changing only the shutter speed.  I will note in the captions, some have been edited and altered to a suitable state of posting, but are still not what I like to get. I will not get into the numbered settings of my shutter speed as the same speed can take entirely different pics in different lighting conditions.  My previous post shows some pics taken a while back using same methods that are much better in my opinion.

Taken with long shutter speed

Resized, cropped, lighting corrected version of above

Slightly shorter than above

Again slightly less than above

And another with less than above-getting closer

Resized, Cropped, Lighting corrected version of above-decent

Shorter still speed than above

Resized, Cropped, Lighting corrected version of above-probably best of night, but still color is off

As shutter speed increases, light decreases more

And shorter still speed and lighting darkens significantly

Well, maybe this little segment on shutter speed effects will help you in your own search of taking the perfect mini pic.  I know I still have a lot to learn and will continue to look for new ways to be more consistent with taking better pics.

My next foray into better pics will involve working more with a macro function, but with manual settings.  If this helps then I am gonna try to learn more about white balance settings and see if this will help even more.

How I Photograph my Minis in Minutes

The setup I use when photographing my minis

Today, I will be continuing the series of posts about how I go about photographing my minis.  When doing this I try to keep my time doing this to a minimum to save my valuable hobby time I could use for painting, modelling, etc.  

The first timesaving tip is I keep the above setup in place so all I have to do is place the mini in the lightbox and put camera on tripod.  I use my wife's Nikon D40 SLR camera to take all my pics.  I have my own SD card just for minis and blogging that I swap in so mini pics don't get mixed in with wife's pictures.  The lightbulb in the lamp is a 150W Reveal(daylight bulb).  

That is my basic setup of all the hardware.  As far as settings on the camera go, I am still experimenting with that, but I will show you some of my results below and tell you how what I use.  I put the camera in Shutter Priority mode first, I know I should use macro mode but I am still learning.  Using the Shutter Priority mode allows me to change the shutter speed up or down depending on light.  This can vary the outcome of the picture greatly as I have found out during my trials.  Another key component in this is to always use the self-time mode.  Touching the camera especially during long shutter openings is very bad for quality.  I usually setup and take a pic using timer.  I then check the lighting in the picture and adjust the shutter speed up or down to let in more or less depending on this outcome.  Usually after a couple test pic I am close enough to finish with my next step.

When I have something I want to post, I will take the photos from SD card and open in imaging software like photoshop.  I usually keep my changes simple, Crop, Resize to 600x400(or thereabouts), then Autocorrect the lighting.  These take just a few seconds and can help the quality of lighting and pic alot.  Sometimes if I did everything right in the photobox I skip the Autocorrect lighting step.  Below are some pics I have taken in my photobox using the settings talked about above.  I am still in the trial and error stage and am still learning more about the camera each time I use it, so hopefully I will get better.

Pics taken just for this article using blue gradient background

Pic posted previously on blog using white background

Taken at same time as above pic

Pic taken with same camera setup, but no lightbox, just paper leaned against glue bottle

Taken same as above

Taken same as above

Pic taken outside with no other lightsources or tripod

Pic taken in lightbox with white background paper

Pic taken in lightbox with white background paper at same time as above pic of Gobbers

As you can see from above there are varying ways of doing this all with slightly different outcomes.  I think all of the above are acceptable for my blogging purposes.  The bottom pics(not Hordes pics) were taken over a year ago while the top pic was taken just two days ago.  As I am still learning the settings of the camera, I feel like I need something that pushes it to next level.  If you see what I am doing wrong, please tell me.  I think there is a little black magic involved in great pics, but that's just my opinion.

Well, I hope you have picked up something useful from my ramblings and poor grammar that will help you take better pics for your blog.  I really don't make a concerted effort to get great pics as I am pretty happy right now with my outcome.  It really only takes a minute or two per pic to photograph(and edit pics) of your minis to the above quality so give it a shot.  I bet you could have photographed your last project in less time than it took to read this post if you used the above methods. 

And as always if I learn more on the subject I will post the results of my trials and errors.  If you know something I can try, let me know and I'll give it a go.  

How to Build Your Own Photo Lightbox for Free, well almost Free.

This week I will be doing a series of posts about how I photograph my minis to coincide with the collaborative post going on over at From the Warp.  The first will be showing how I built my own lightbox to place my minis in.  I have no step-by-step pics of the process of building as I did this last year, but I think the pics in this post will explain most.

Items needed for build and setup:

Cardboard box

Parchment Paper

Tape

Printer Paper

Lamp with 150W Reveal(Daylight) Bulb

Tripod

Nikon D40 SLR(what borrow from wife)

To start I found a cardbox at work that I thought was large enough to hold a unit or a vehicle.  Next I used a hobby knife to cut the top flaps off, this would become the front opening.  I then marked off lines 1 inch in from the corners of the sides and top so I would have a guide to cut my openings.  After these were marked I cut these openings for the top and sides.  These were then covered in parchment paper(found in cabinet at home) to help with light diffusion.  As you can see in the pic I also made a couple triangular shaped pieces of white paper for the corners at top(not sure if it actually helps, but it looks like it does).  I then used some 11" x 17" printer paper and taped to bottom front and raduised through back corner and taped again at top.  I took pics with only white for first year, but have now added the gradient paper as seen in pics this week for new trials.  Building this took less than an hour and used only items found laying around, so free so far.

Pic of the setup I use

Above is my full setup, minus camera.  I usually leave this setup somewhere to speed up my picture taking.  I will get more into the setup, camera settings and example pics in the next post.  

I hope this helps you decide if a lightbox is what you need for your minis.  For the time(1 hour) and money(none) invested I think it is worth building and have laying around to use if you have space.  Or you could just lean a piece of paper up against an Elmer's glue bottle like I used to do.

Organizing Your Bitz

Fantasy Chaos/Undead Bitz Box

Here's another post about how I organize my things to maximize the little time I get to spend on my hobby.  After about the first six months of playing 40k, I like most had a stack of sprues with extra bitz laying around. I decided to minimized the space these took up in my college apartment at the time, so I went to Wal-mart and bought a couple tackle boxes used for fishing lures.  These costs 5-8 bucks depending on size.  At first I was able to put all parts in one box, but as I grew my hobby to other armies and games systems I began to expand my bitz box collection to the point of the last picture in this post.  

Now every time I purchase a new box of models and build them I clip the extras and sort into these bitz boxes by army.  Then in each box I have spots for heads, legs, torsos, left arms, right arms, backpacks, close combat weapons, ranged weapons, etc.  This is great as sometimes I don't build all the models that come in the box.  These are used later to kitbash other models, swapping bitz between armies and even game systems.  

Fantasy Empire Bitz Box

40k Chaos Space Marines Bitz Box

Stack of Bitz Boxes in Closet for all but vehicle bitz includes from top down: IG, SM, CSM, Fantasy Chaos/Undead mix, Lizardmen, Mordheim, Wood Elves, Kroot, Orcs & Goblins, Empire, Ogre Kingdoms, Necromunda, Oddball box

Now I just need to organize my vehicle bitz as they are just thrown in a drawer haphazardly.  This will be taken care of eventually when I purchase some more boxes.  Try this type of organization and I guarantee it will speed up your conversions immensely.  I know I used to just toss extra stuff in a box and then dig around for ages trying to find that plasma pistol I knew I had from a while back.  I would never go back to that cluster now.  Though some may think my OCD style of organizing is over the top and they may be right, but I'm sure you know someone that digs around for hours looking for bitz in a box.  If you're one of these, try this, it is inexpensive, efficiently stored and time saving.  Hope this helps, till next time.