My 2014 recap and future projects

2014 was an eventful year for me both personally (I got my second daughter in Mars 31st) and hobby wise because this was the year I painted more non-GW models than I have done totally in my hobby career before. This has much to do with the release of Warzone: Resurrection which I focused on this year.

My Bauhaus force will grow even bigger in the coming year. 

No Painting Challenge? 

I didn't do an painting challenge last year, I don't think I would top 2013 anyway. But this is mainly due that I now paint models from different systems that so the Points system I used from WHFB and 40K didn't really work.

I will however do something else, that I have seen many other blogs do. Keep a tab on how many models you paint. And how many you bought over the year.

So how did I do this year then?

WZ:R Bauhaus
10 Hussars
1 Vulkan
1 Angelica Drachen
1 Max Steiner
5 Venusian Rangers
5 Etoles Mortant
2 Vorreiters
3 Juggernauts

= 28 models


WZ:R Dark Legion
1 Alakhai the Cunning
1 Razide
10 Undead Legionnaires
2 Necromutant Leaders

= 14 models


WZ:R Imperial
1 Greyhound LAFV
3 Golden Lions
1 Hurricane Walker
5 Blood Berets
10 Trenchers
2 Imp. Commanders

1 Brigadier P.D. Rist

= 23 models

WHFB: Warriors of Chaos
1 Throgg the Trollking
4 Chaos Trolls
1 Dragon Ogre
1 Chaos Ogre
18 Nurgle Warriors (rep)

= 25 models


WHFB: Dwarfs
20 Clansmen (HW/Sh)
1 Grudge Thrower (and three crew)
1 Gyrocopter
1 Cannon (and three crew)
1 Hammerer

= 30 models


WHFB: Empire
1 Captain
10 Handgunners
10 Crossbowmen

= 21 models

X-Wing: Miniatures Game

1 X-Wing

1 Tie Fighter

= 2 models

Total number of painted model 2014 is: 143

This is if I just count every piece as a single model, regardless if it's a big monster, character or just an normal infantry model. So this can vary very much depending on what models I paint up. I might do another system where a character is worth 3 models, a monster 5 etc. as they take more time to paint up. But for now this is what Iv'e achieved. Less than expected I must say but there are many models in there where I took a lot of time to paint, like Throgg, the Gyrocopter etc. So I'm happy with the result non the less and I think I can beat this quite easily this coming year.

Future Projects

I must try to do one project at a time and get that finished and then move on to the next one, easier said than done for me though.

My main focus in 2015 will still be Warzone: Resurrection. But as I get more and more models finished I hope I can get in more projects for different game systems. I have a lot of almost finished units for both my Empire and WoC armies that I want to get completed. I also want to paint up some Deadzone this year, 

List of hobby commitments for 2015 

Warzone: Resurrection

Finish my Imperial Force, including some new models that will arrive in the year. 

Finish my Bauhaus Force
Paint up some more Dark Legion
Start to paint up my Cybertronic and maybe even Brotherhood

Warhammer Fantasy

Empire
Finish my unit of 15 Knights of the Black Rose (10 left)
Finish my Celestial Hurricanum
Finish my unit of 40 Greatswords (14 left)
Finish my unit of 20 Spearmen
Finish my unit of 40 Flagellants (10 left)
Paint up some characters, Karl Franz, Wizards a Witchhunter

Warriors of Chaos
Finish my unit of 3 Dragon Ogres (2 left)
Finish my unit of 12 Chaos Trolls (7 left)
Paint my Nurgle Daemon Prince
Build and paint up two Nurgle Chariots
Finish three Chaos Spawn
Finish unit of 5 Chaos Nurgle Knights (4 left)
The Glottkin

Daemons of Chaos
Finish unit of 25 Plaguebearers

Dwarfs
20 Ironbreakers
1 Runesmith
20 Hammerers
1 Organ Gun

Deadzone
Paint up a Enforcer Faction starter
Paint up a Plague Faction Starter
Build and paint up a lot more terrain

One of the Empire Units I want to get finished, 14 models left.

Quite a lot of stuff, but better to hope to achieve all this even if I doubt it. I will proably paint up some other stuff than the things listed here as well. And I have several projects already started which I want to get finished, that is my main goal.

That is all for now, I hope to bring you a lot more stuff on the blog the coming year. With more tutorials and also more youtube clips from me.

Airbrushing Pt 1: Getting started.

Several months ago I bought my first Airbrush, a really cheap one which worked okey I suppose but I went and upgraded it shortly after to my new Harder & Steenbeck Evolution Airbrush.

Here's my first impressions of both the brushes and also how my first month trying to master to the Airbrush went. 

The first kit

For starters a I bought a quite cheap air compressor and airbrush, just to try it out and see if it's something for my. In the manual to the brush there's a tutorial on how to start learning how to use the brush. You should try different techniques doing dots and lines on a piece of cardboard to practice your skills. Blabla.... I did some dots and then went on to paint some miniatures instead. I started with doing black base coats with Vallejo Air Black Primer, this one just like the rest of the Air line from Vallejo are made for Airbrushing so you don't need to thin out your paints or anything. Great for a beginner.

And all worked out great, priming your miniatures is really easy and the cheap brush worked nice for this. I also learned more and more on how the brush behaves, and how to clean it.

I then started to paint other colours, and here I noticed something. Dropper bottles are so much better when it comes to airbrushing! Obvious I know, but it is something to think about when starting a new army project for sure if you are going to use an Airbrush much.

The second kit
I did have some mishaps with the first brush, but I think I would have with my new H&S as well. The H&S is much easier to clean though and that is a huge plus, because you will do a lot of cleaning on your airbrushes. The H&S is much easier to use as well, however I'm still very much a beginner I do feel a big difference in how the brushes behave. My 0,2 mm. nozzle on my H&S brush clog easy though but that is due the fact I haven't mixed the paint correctly.

So here are my impressions and thoughts about using an Airbrush as an newbie.

The facts

• It wont speed things up much in the beginning
• It requires a lot of practice
• Cleaning and prepare your models, painting area etc. takes time.
• So you need time when you paint with an airbrush, I won't touch it if I don't know I have at least an hour (but more is preferred)
• It's not a miracle cure that will make everything easy to paint
• Treat you airbrush as another great tool for painting your miniatures.

What an Airbrush will do for you

• When you get better it does speeds up the initial painting steps.
• Priming and paint on the first layers of paint is easy and you get a smooth result.
• For larger stuff like building and scenery they are invaluable.
• With practice you can do effects which is very hard and time consuming without an Airbrush
• I recommend painting many models at a time (using the same colours) or larger models

That's what I have found so far, I'm still a beginner to this. I haven't actually found the time to paint with my airbrush that much at all (having a three year old and a 5 months old baby don't make it easy ) And my compressor is quite loud so I don't want to paint much when they are asleep. 

What I do is the first layers on monsters and larger batches of models at a time to speed things up. I haven't tried more advanced methods yet but I'm enjoying painting with my airbrush (as long as it does not clog up). I hope to find more time to practice and use it in the future and will post a part 2 of this in the future I hope.

Some of my first models where I did the first layers with the airbrush. 

Tanks and bigger models is a blast to do with an Airbrush.

Hobby Tools: Upgraded to an Evolution Airbrush

Like two weeks I have tried out some airbrushing for the first time, I deliberately bought a cheap Airbrush because I didn't know If I liked it or not. Well I did, it's so much faster to put down all the base colours. especially for vehicles. But the cheap gun I use (no brand on it, bought from a generic shop here in Sweden) works but not for much more than put down the most basic colours (primer and one base colour). And I want to try it out some more so I early decided to upgrade my Airbrush for a real brand.

After some checking on the Internet and what not I decided to go with Harder & Steenbeck Evolution 2 in 1. Haven't had time to try it out yet but I'm very eager to do so. I also bought some more stuff I needed, new hose, nozzle cleaning kit and a cleaning pot. Now I'm ready to do some more Airbrushing!

The Evo comes in this nice little yellow box

All the stuff I bought now

The old one and the new Evo

How I put down the basic first colours on my models (done with the old airbrush)

First model I Airbrushed, I used blu tac to do the camo on this one.

Review: Kromlech Weathering Powders

A while back I got my hands on four Weathering Powders from Kromlech, I have now tried them out a little and here's my thoughts. First of all I must say that these are the first Weathering Powders Iv'e tried so far so I can't really compare to any other company's products. They do look similar to the Forgeworld ones for example though.

Also as you will probably see in the coming picture examples below I've just tested these straight away, I'm a total newbie with weathering so bare with me that these examples probably isn't the best way to actually show how to use them for best effect. 

The idea behind this review is to do from a newbies perspective and compare it to use normal colours like I did before, so take it for what it is.

As I said I was given four of the Powders, and powders I felt I most likely would use a lot. First of all the Orange Rust which I have tried out quite much already and will probably use a lot more in the future. For example you can see how I have applied the rust on the Nurgle Warriors below with Orange Rust as the last "highlight" of the Rust. It was easy to apply and I did that both with and without a mixture with the powder and Lahmian Medium.

In the next example below I have used the Orange Rust, Soot Black and Concrete Grey to give the Rhino a more worn look, compare it to the other side of the Rhino where I have only used normal colours.

All was really easy to do and was easiest when mixed with a little Medium, I probably went a little over board with the rust and should have painted that a little better I feel. In the lower part of the chassi I first applied Soot Black and then Concrete grey over that, around the vents I used only Soot Black. 

In the example above you can also look on how I could make this effect on the barrel of a Cannon, I painted on Soot Black straight from the pot at first and then with Medium closest to the gun barrel. I then took some of it away with my finger to let some of the metal shine trough. This totally gives the cannon a new look and it looks like it has been used. You can do this with washes as well I guess but this was much easier and you don't have to wait for it to dry before you give it another coat. 

 

So last Powder then was the Dark Dirt, I applied this in the upper Razorback picture. If you compare it with the lower pic there isn't a huge difference but the Powder does make it more realistic and I really like the effect it gave the Razorback. Doing this to one side took me like a minute to do, so it's really easy to do and fast.

Conclusion

I know that there are plenty of more refined methods of using Weathering Powders, but as a beginner I thought they where really easy to use and you got a nice weathering effect straight away. You could probably use washes and normal paints to get similar effects but I don't think that it would look as good and foremost it would be much more time consuming. Because using Weather Powders is really fast and easy method to use so these Powders from Kromlech is much recommended. So if you are interested in them be sure to check them out over at their website.