Category Archives: Paint Table

Pics of work in progress on the paint table

Dropzone Commander progress

May 2, 2020Dropzone, Paint TableGimgamgoo

The last couple of weeks in my hobby time, I’ve been working mainly on Dropzone Commander. I’ve more or less painted up the starter set, along with some extras from another starter set. There’s still some more models I’ve bought recently that need painting – and some of them look huge!

UCM Army – still ongoing

Scourge Army – still ongoing

And some extras I’ve bought recently.

I built the Broadsword (huge tank on the left) with a magnetised turret so it can turn.

The scourge Desolator (the floating gribbly with all the legs) is really big and the size of the Harbinger (the transport ship on the far left) really surprised me.

I’m Looking forward to getting time to splash some paint on these.

Take care.

Some Fantasy Bits

April 25, 2020Kings of War, Paint TableGimgamgoo

Another post – 3rd time, weekly! Wow. Some of the photo’s in this post are from about 6 months ago. I had updated some to their pages in my menus, but I thought I’d put them here with some of the newer pieces.

Firstly – my favourites. Bonefields. Although I’ve not got round to playing the game, I mainly went into this Kickstarter for the figures. I picked up 40 goblin skeleton spear/shield figures and 20 dwarf skeleton handweapon/shield wielders. They were to make some more diverse units for my Undead Kings of War army. I’ve managed to get round to painting the Goblin Skeletons so far. They’re lovely models, but it was really difficult to get them into various slotta bases and rank up. I know I could have trimmed them off their ‘tabs’ but I didn’t want to risk it with delicate resin bones. Nor did I want to multibase. I like my KoW units to have the correct amount of figures – like they did as wound counters in old Warhammer. Keeping them single allows use in other games too. All magnetised as usual so you can pick the movement tray upside down – if you felt the urge to.

Goblin Skeletons

Orc Boar Riders

And still on Kings of War, here’s another unit I knocked up quickly – using dip as well. They didn’t come out too bad. I have about 20 more of these to do too – from over a decade ago, er, possibly two decades. Really old GW Fantasy Orc Boar Boys from around the year 2000 I think.

Then there’s the mix of bits of terrain and objective markers I’d been putting together and occasionally splashing paint on .

The following were pieces of terrain I’d grouped for use in Kings of War Vanguard Skirmish – although I’ve still yet to get a game going of that. Still, the terrain will still do in larger Kings of War games.

And this last one, was taken in bad light while still on the paint table. More objective markers.

And next week, if I get round to some photo’s, it’s probably back to Dropzone Commander – as you can see in the last picture, they were creeping into the background.

Take care and stay safe.

Time for a Rant (updated)

June 15, 2019Paint Table, RantsGimgamgoo

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I got round to posting on here. Over a year. Ouch.

It’s been a long year. A total change of career – quitting teaching after 23 years – and a severe reduction in wages. I haven’t forgotten about wargaming or painting. I’ve still been painting a few things, and building lots of miniatures. I wrote a backlog of all the things I need to photo/blog and the list went on and on…

So, I thought I’d kick this year’s first post off with a rant.

Once upon a time, I had a large army of Orcs and Goblins for Warhammer Fantasy. I started painting them up as carefully (but speedily) as I could using a combo of GW Goblin Green paint and GW’s Green Ink. About a quarter of the way into painting them, GW discontinued the Green Ink. The replacement washes were nothing like the same colour, so my army went on the back burner. Damn them.

I’d also got used to painting with a colour called Mechrite Red. That also got discontinued by GW and replaced with the “equivalent” colour Mephiston Red. Well, I’m sure you can tell from the pic below, they are far from the same… (pic not mine)

The new Red is actually really good – In fact I was using the Mephiston Red Spray paint GW made to base paint my Gates of Antares Algoryn forces. That is, until – you guessed it – GW discontinued the spray.

You’d think I’d have learnt my lesson, but GW released a texture paint called Agrellan Earth. It’s basically a crackle paint that you paste on quite thick and it dries like dried earth. It’s pretty good stuff. I’d started using it on a lot of my Antares game bases. Not for the entire base, just some on a few bases to show the dried out land the models were stood on.

Anyway, my small pot of Agrellan Earth is about used up. So I went to GW’s website to order some more. There were 2 options, Agrellan Earth and Agrellan Badlands. Apparently the Badlands version dries in larger patches. Anyway, the good news for me was that they came in the new larger pots. Great. A tub of the Agrellan Earth will last me ages. I should have known.

Here’s the old pot on the left, and the new one on the right. They are most definately not the same colour.

I painted them onto a brown undercoated base to see the real difference…

As you can see, a massive colour difference. So, I decided to give them a few hours to dry, to see the crackle effect. I hoped that maybe drying out gave similar colours.

Nope. Nothing alike.

So much for adding some quick cool effects to the bases of my Antares armies. Yet again, Games Workshop changing colours, or discontinuing colours has wrecked my painting mid-way through an army.

From now on, I’ll be sticking with Army Painter and Vallejo all the way. A great deal of my paint collection is by them, and a dripper bottle is far better than the awful pots GW make – now those pots alone would make a whole rant post.

I’ll post some pics of minis soon…

EDIT – 22nd June 2019

I wrote an email to GW showing the colour difference. By the time I saw the email reply from them, they’d already sent another large pot free of charge through the post. Although I have my qualms with GW, their customer service is still really good.

Anyway, in the mean time, I’d bought large pots of cheap Saffron and Vanilla Crackle Paint from eBay. Although £5.65 per pot (inc postage) isn’t exactly cheap, they’re 50ml instead of GW’s 24ml.

Mixing the Saffron with the new GW Agrellan Earth in a roughly 50/50 batch gave a very similar colour to the old Agrellan Earth. As both paints are crackle paints, the mix didn’t ‘water down’ the crackling effect. The tubs are also ‘squirty/dripper’ types making it way easier to use than the GW pot.

Problem solved – and with enough crackle paint to mix do multiple armies now. 🙂

End of 2017

December 31, 2017Antares, Kings of War, Paint TableGimgamgoo

It’s been a pretty lousy year overall. Serious illness and loss of a job puts a block on all sorts of things. I’ve also bought about 4 times more models than I’ve managed to paint. However, the year’s ended pretty well. Illness under control and improving, a new job at a fantastic place, even if it is only till next summer.

How’s the hobbying and painting going then… well, I’m going to make a New Years’ Resolution this year. Although I’m still going to try to play the massive assortment of games I have, I’ll stick to a painting focus on just 2 games.

Game One

Beyond the Gates of Antares. Although I’ve always wanted to give this a try – after all, my main opponent – my wife only really enjoys Bolt Action. I’d overlooked Antares for too long. The rules are basically Bolt Action, but with stats added in for differences in aliens. The models are now coming out in plastic for the main troops as well and the larger models are in well crafted resin with a few metal pieces. In the Warlord sale, along with a voucher, I started the set off with:

Antares

With a few more additions since, I’ve taken it to having 3 average sized 1500 point armies. Ghar, Algoryn and Concord. As there’s three of us in the house, that means we can choose an army each to play with.

Game Two

Kings of War. I bought enough Ogres to field a 2000 point army. Why Ogres? Well, I’ve always loved the pics in the KoW rulebook of the red ogres with the white paint on their faces – kind of LotR’y. Also, 3/6 models per unit rather than 10/20 should speed up the painting process to get an entire army completed. I tried one out, and although the mobile photo isn’t brill, it came out fairly well – certainly at arm’s length with my dodgy eyesight. Ogres are also Neutral. So I can align these with the few Lizardmen or painted Dwarves I have to make a large enough army to take on the Undead or Orc/Goblin alliance. Although there’s a general hatred of Restic on the internet, these models were a breeze to clean up and put together.

Ogre Trial

I’m certainly not going to forget the other games I play, which is a rather long list now. There’s some fantastic stuff coming out for Maelstrom’s Edge. I’ve never seen such well made resin models as well as the new plastic Broken they’ve made. Mantic has just released most of the vehicles for Warpath. I’ve even (shock) bought some new GW stuff – 40k Death Guard and Dark Angel Primaris models, along with the new version of Necromunda. All built to play, but unpainted. Dracula’s America is also a great game to play with fun rules. I’ve got my Tombstone kickstarter arriving any week now, so that will also get some action. Lots of models to paint, even if it is only the odd one to break up the Ogres or Antares painting.

Hope you all have a great New Year!

Forge Father Hultr

November 12, 2017Deadzone, Paint Table, WarpathDeadzone, WarpathGimgamgoo

Here’s a quick turnaround of updates after the long gap. After building the Veer-Myn Tunnellers, I stuck with the Deadzone/Warpath Universe and decided to paint up the Forge Father Hultr I built a week or so ago.

Although I’m not doing any awesome paint jobs for my Deadzone/Warpath, I’m just trying to get them table ready, and also, in colours to make all the armies look different.

I’d previously been doing the Forge Fathers in AP’s Crystal Blue with a GW blue wash, and a quick drybrush of crystal blue followed by shining silver. I had to keep the Hultr in the same scheme. Although I did add a slight beaten up look to it.

Here’s a couple of pics (sorry – mobile phone shots in poor light), with the 2 weapon systems it has. And you guessed it, magnetised. 🙂 One of the pics has a selection of previously painted FF models to show how they fit in the colour scheme.

FF Hultr 01 FF Hultr 02

And then I got distracted and bought some Kings of War Ogres to paint. I keep seeing images of those red skinned ogres with the white face paint and wanted to do a few myself. If I do a few units, I can add ally them to the Lizardman army I was painting so there’s enough to take on my Orcs/Goblins or Undead armies.

Hopefully, I’ll have an ogre to post next time. I’ve built some, it’s just playing around with colours now till I get a scheme I’m happy with – and hopefully can be painted quickly.

Veer-Myn Tunnellers

November 8, 2017Deadzone, Paint Table, WarpathDeadzone, WarpathGimgamgoo

It’s been a long while since my last update. Ill health, losing my job, spending all waking hours trying to find a new job… takes as much time as working.

Anyway, part of my Warpath Kickstarter arrived last week to cheer me up. The Veer-myn Tunneller battlegroup. It consists of 3 Veer-myn (space skaven) transport/tanks with an extra wagon for more transport. I originally bought these to be just bits of industrial scenery. I was even going to carve one up and make it look like it was coming out of the ground. However, the Warpath Firefight rules seem really good, so I’m going to use them as part of an army.

I couldn’t decide which weapon choices, or whether I wanted the long transport or a short one, so I did my usual… Magnet time!

I magnetised the transport vehicle so the back wagon can attach or it can stay as a short vehicle. I then built the other 2 as tanks, but magnetised the weapons so both tanks can have the same weapon types, or 1 of each.

They worked out fantastic. They are also really, really big.

Kudos to Mantic on these, they are made of only a few parts, so no need spending hours and hours building them. They also have very few mold lines, so little clean up was necessary. Brilliant.

All I have to do now, is find a job so I can afford the massive amount of paint these beasts are going to require.

Veer-myn Transporter (10 or 20 rats)

Tunneller 01 Tunneller 02 Tunneller 03

Veer-myn Tank (2 identically made models with weapons options)

Tunneller 04 Tunneller 05 Tunneller 06

Ghost Town?

June 22, 2017Paint Table, Wild WestGimgamgoo

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been putting together terrain pieces to make a Wild West board. Most of it is finished now. All I need to do is paint up the figures I have and await the arrival of the Tombstone Kickstarter.

I’ve also put together a few other terrain oddments, all seen randomly in the photo below as I brought them up to the games room to pack away.

There are; 3 snowy trees to use in Frostgrave, an old pub to use in Pirate or fantasy games, 3 different ponds – one for an oasis in a desert, one for a mix of fantasy gaming or Saga and another I’m still working on for an industrial wasteland. Just caught at the edge of the camera are really the only models I’ve done anything on, a T-34 Soviet tank and just out of shot, 2 German Tiger tanks (all in 15mm). The ponds all have 3 inserts with a variety of pieces I can put on such as rocks, trees, palm trees, foliage (and when I finish the industrial one; a pipe system). The ponds are painted and coated with “Still Water”. A kind of thick setting varnish – I had to use this, my wife banned me from using resin in the house.

Here’s a few pics of the Wild West board coming together.

And the 3′ by 3′ Gaming board for Wild West games from above…

I do love the 4Ground mdf models. The only problem is the time they take to put together. The 2 story buildings are at least half a day to build. Some are a real nightmare to glue together too. Yes, I’m talking to you Stagecoach. (Horses and figures still awaiting mould removal and painting). I also sanded and painted the bases on all the fence pieces as well.

Now, let’s see if I can get some actual figure painting done for next time…

A ‘giant’ update

April 22, 2017Kings of War, Paint TableGimgamgoo

Pun intended.

I’ve been looking on and off for a good giant model for my Orc and Goblin army for quite a few years now. I was never impressed with the Games Workshop giant, it looked far to gormless, flabby and non-menacing. The Forge World model was larger, but still didn’t impress me, and obviously nor did it’s 3 figure price tag.

I’d looked into other manufacturers, but most of these were older metal models and the giants weren’t usually much bigger than trolls.

Anyway, after searching for that Fire Elemental (The D&D collector’s series Fire Myrmidon in my last update) I realised they did a few limited edition giants. The Storm Giant looked a little too ‘ancient greek’ and the Fire Giant had molten armour on (although it’s a fantastic model). I opted for this Frost Giant. I won’t be painting it with blue skin like a D&D frost giant. It will get human coloured flesh with an assortment of leather patched armours. It was only a 7 piece resin model and didn’t need much cleaning up either.

The photo shows the size compared to an orc and a troll. Perfectly huge, but it fits on a 50mm square base. A excellent addition to the Orc and Goblin armies I’m (still) painting for Kings of War.

It’s been a while…

April 20, 2017Paint TableGimgamgoo

My Blog hasn’t been forgotten. It’s been close to half a year since I updated it, but I’ve had a really lengthy illness which I’m still not over. My doctor has advised me to get back to things that I enjoy, but it’s been a difficult thing to do.

Over the last few weeks I’ve treated myself to a few new figures and although I’ve been managing to build them, the urge to paint hasn’t quite been there. I can sit at my paint table for hours looking at stuff and not managing to pick up a brush.

So far, I’ve started putting some green stuff onto bases for the next additions to my KoW Salamander (Lizardman) army, and after much searching, I found a great model to be the Greater Fire Elemental for the army – a D&D Collector’s series Fire Myrmidon. It’s a resin model, and although the lower half was horrendously warped, a quick dip in a boiling water bath, a reshape and a cold tap fixed it up beautifully.

Green Stuff bases:

Greater Fire Elemental model:

I’m going to base spray the elemental in white and mainly use yellow, orange and red washes/inks/glazes to paint it. My problem is this: Do I use darker reds/oranges in the recesses and work outwards to lighter yellow. Or the reverse – have the lighter yellow in the recesses and work outwards to the darker reds? Googling flame pictures doesn’t really help as you can see below…

Flames: Bright centre and dark tips OR Dark centre and bright tips?

If you have a prefered way in which you do your flames, let me know in the comments.

A little progress

June 12, 2016Maelstrom's Edge, Paint Table, SagaGimgamgoo

I’ve not done a single bit of work this weekend. It’s been about lazing in the hot tub, watching football and getting some painting done. 🙂

I’ve now got 3 points complete of Vikings for Saga. 2 units of warriors and 1 unit of hearthguard, as well as a Warlord. For ease of storage and carting them about, I’ve magnetised the bases and magnetised the movement tray they’re in (yeah, I know Saga doesn’t use movement trays, but they’re easier to store in them).

I also put together and painted a pig pen, and the piggies for some extra Saga terrain. Now if only 4ground would get off it’s ass and send me the 2 Saxon houses I ordered 3 weeks ago, I’d be about sorted.

Photo’s are from the paint table and using a mobile phone so they’re still lousy. Sorry.

I just started this morning on finally putting some paint onto some mdf terrain I made for my Maelstrom’s Edge board (or any other Sci-fi game I play). Only the base colours are done at the moment and I’ve got to start weathering them. Sponge work, then some weathering powders.

The cargo containers are mdf ones from Dark Ops and the Landing pad is from ttcombat. I’m really starting to love mdf terrain for it’s price and how solid it is. It just takes me forever to get round to painting it.