The Painting Bunkerc y

How to buy an Airbrush setup

Posted: February 9, 2013 in Airbrush setup
Tags: Airbrushing

So I had quite a busy week last week at work and didn’t really have any time to do anything other than wake up, eat breakfast, work, go home, eat dinner sleep repeat. It was a really good week though, I like being busy and I got some amazing results, however it didn’t leave much time for hobby… which blows, hard. It did however allow me to reflect on a few aspects of the hobby that I’ve been wanting to discuss for some time, however have been too busy doing my Realm of Battle Cityscape Board to have any time to write some posts about it. So after a seriously busy week at work I’ve decided to take the weekend off head over the Stradbroke Island to get my chilax on, recuperate and enjoy the remaining warm weather before Autumn arrives shortly.

This is the view from the place I’m staying at… perfect northerly view over the Pacific Ocean…

Over the past few weeks I’ve had quite a few questions on Airbrush set up, what one to buy, where to buy it, what else you’ll need and so on. The amount of confusion on this topic was made even more apparent to me when I did an Airbrushing tutorial at the ADFWGA Championships in 2012 to raise funds for Legacy. Many, if not all of the participants were very keen to learn about how to use an Airbrush, however I realised that more time needed to be spent discussing the considerations when investing in an Airbrush to make a positive advance in your hobby results. There seems to be lots of good, and not so good ideas out there on what is a sound way forward on this topic. As always with these things too, its the questions not asked which are often the most important so I want to look at a few of these too.

My aim with this post isn’t to impart practical skills for using an Airbrush, perhaps that will be a post for another day. My aim with this post is to help you to choose and set up as best as possible Airbrush kit that you can use and maintain for many years and bring your hobby result to new, higher standards. This post is aimed more for hobbiest who have not yet bought an Airbrush, or for someone who has, but is still getting mediocre results from using it due to not understanding how to set it up properly.

Because of my background, I’m a big believer in quality training. It’s where everything should start. It ensures that you don’t develop poor habits or beliefs and also puts your learning curve on a steeper gradient as (hopefully) the person(s) delivering the training have already made lots of mistakes or are drawing their training on people who have already made lots of mistakes and can give you best practice, or as a minimum, a solid foundation for you to build your own experience base. You can put the finest instruments in the world in the hands of someone who’s had no training and the results will be a botch, however you can put poor to average instruments in the hands of a competent well trained professional and that person will produce a masterpiece, or at the minimum a result well above the standards of most. So before you do anything, get some training on how to Air Brush.

When I was in high school, my school offered to seniors one afternoon a week where you could go to a tertiary learning institution (community college, TAFE) and do short courses on basically anything you like. Not being terribly interested in school, rather than further my academic credentials I decided to further my hobby skills. So I did a 6 week Airbrushing course. It was the best thing I ever did for my hobby and the skills I learnt from that course have served me very well over the years. The great thing about these courses is that you get good quality instruction, all the materials, including the Airbrush are supplied and the training consists of theory, that is then put into perspective through practical application. I can’t remember how much it cost, but it was less than $200 and gave me a solid foundation that I have built on considerably since then. I would strongly urge you to consider some form of recognised formal training (YouTube doesn’t count!) on Airbrushing before embarking on purchasing one for your own use.

So now you’ve done that, the next thing to do is delve into the confusing world of buying your first set up. To break things down a little more, I’ll discuss the five components of what you need to have a quality, thorough set up at home. I would urge you to consider acquiring all of these components, not just the last two. Those five components are:

Painting Area
Maintenance Supplies
Painting & Mixing Accessories
Compressor
Airbrush

So let’s look at each component in more detail.

The Painting Area

Ideally this should be a permanent place where you can paint. Why? Well Airbrushing is a very equipment intensive aspect to our hobby and all the items you need to use take up space. A small table will do the job, and it needs to have good natural or artificial light with a window close by. A very important feature of any quality Airbrush set up is a spray booth. The two main reasons why you should have a spray booth is to stop overspray going everywhere, and to assist in removing airborne paint particles from the immediate vicinity of the subject (the thing you are painting) The one I use has an extraction fan with a flexible hose that I have ducted out a window. It also has a series of filters that prevent paint particles clogging up the extraction fan. It also has a small turntable which allows me to put my subject on and move it about without having to touch it. As you can see from the picture, my area isn’t big and doesn’t take up a lot of room, and nor should it, but it is functional. I’ve got my spray booth, an area above it to keep useful items, a turn table and a clear space off to one side to set my subject down before and after its been painted.

This is the spray booth I use, depending on where you get it, it’ll cost around $200 – $250 There are others on the market too which are collapsable so if you can’t set it up in a permanent location it can be moved and packed up. The key point is that its a suitable workspace for Airbrushing that safely and effectively removes overspray. The other good aspect to using a spray booth is that other members of the household (specifically the Trouble & Strife) will like it as it makes a dramatic improvement on how much overspray ends up where it shouldn’t.

Maintenance Supplies

This is one area of using an Airbrush that I see most new users run into problems. Like any instrument, be it a car, a bike, a piano or fishing rod, if you don’t maintain it properly it will let you down no matter how well made it is. Below is a list of items you’ll need to properly maintain your new Airbrush. Before I go on, I’m a big fan of automotive stores, they contain all manner of useful stuff we can use, so if I put AMS after an item, that means I buy it from there (its generally WAY cheaper too than from a specialty hobby supplier).

Brake fluid in a tightly sealed lunch box sized container – Brake fluid is an interesting substance, it will remove paint, however it wont damage or degrade rubber. This is very important for an Airbrush as within all Airbrushes are very small rubber seals that once damaged or broken will seriously degrade its performance. When I want to thoroughly clean my Airbrush after a big painting session, I strip it down (including the nozzle) and place all the parts that came into contact with paint into the brake fluid bath. I’ll leave it there for a few hours and then remove it, and with the items listed below (tooth picks, cotton tips, toilet paper, tooth brush, and specific Airbrush cleaning brushes) I’ll clean excess paint from the Airbrush. I get my brake fluid from an AMS.
Tooth Picks – I use these to get into all the fine areas where paint accumulates on an Airbrush. You can use metal picks etc (such as dental tools) however I’ve found that the hard metal picks available tend to damage or scratch the fine internal details of an Airbrush. Wooden tooth picks are the go, plus they have tonnes of other uses in our hobby too, such as mounting fine parts for, you guessed it, painting.
Cotton Tips – Again, good for getting into hard to reach places that you don’t want to scratch or damage.
Toilet Paper – for wiping off parts and cleaning up minor spills.
Airbrush cleaning brushes – They look like very fine pipe cleaners, a good set has about five different sizes and will last for the life of the Airbrush.

Table top cleaning station – This is basically an empty glass jar with a lid on it that you can put the end of the Airbrush into and use it to “blow out” colours between colour changes. This keeps the Airbrush clean during a painting session. Make sure there is no paint, or fragments of dried paint whatsoever in the Airbrush between colours. Dried fragments of paint are the single biggest cause of poor performance with an Airbrush.

Wash bottles – I use three. One filled with demineralised water, the other filled with Tamiya X-20-A thinner and the other filled with Artists Turpentine. You can buy wash bottles from Airbrush suppliers but they are as dear as poison, so I get mine from Tattoo suppliers, much cheaper. I use wash bottles as opposed to just regular bottles as you can control how much fluid comes out with more accuracy from a wash bottle (requires pressure rather than gravity to get the fluid out) I use the demineralised water between paint colours to get all the paint out, then give it a quick blow out with the Tamiya thinners in the table top cleaning station before moving onto my next colour. I also quickly get a tooth pick or cotton tip and remove any paint build up from the nozzle protector.

Disposable rubber gloves – A must for any hobbiest. You don’t want half the stuff we use getting on your hands and absorbing into your skin. You also don’t want to get paint on your hands either as you may transfer it onto the subject.
Quick release coupler – Although not technically a maintenance tool, it assists tremendously in helping to keep your set up working well. What it basically enables you to do is remove your Airbrush from the air source without breaking the airtight seal. Its a miniature Nitto fitting if you’re familiar with them. Why is this helpful? When you want to clean the Airbrush, you can just disconnect it, disassemble it, put it in the cleaning bath and not worry about air escaping from the hose, or breaking the air tight seal you created when you fitted the airbrush to the hose in the first place. If you buy them from the specialty hobby store, expect to pay about $40+, but from the AMS they go for less than $10. Not essential, but very convenient to have.

Airbrush holder – Some airbrush compressors come with these, however I like to have a purpose built one on my desk so I can keep my air brush in it when not in use. Again, from the specialty hobby supply shop expect around $40, from the AMS, $15…

Airbrush lubricant – Used on a regular basis to keep your Airbrush needle and trigger from sticking or binding, contains no petroleum or silicone additives and can be used on all parts of the airbrush. It will not affect or react with any water-based, lacquer-based, or enamel-based paints. Very useful and often overlooked. Again dear as posion from the hobby shop, cheap as from the AMS.

Painting & Mixing Accessories

Again this is an often overlooked area of owning an Airbrush, but one of those things that will make life so much easier and results so much better. Having a few of these inexpensive items will make such a massive difference to your experience and results with your Airbrush.

The most IMPORTANT thing you need – A quality spray mask – I can not over emphasise how important it is to use a spray mask when using an Airbrush, if you are going to use an Airbrush, use a Spray Mask. Acrylic paint is a polymer, which we call plastic. When acrylic paint vapour is inhaled, it sticks to the bronchus of your upper respiratory system. Once its there, its there for life. This is not good. Don’t buy the cheap and nasty spray mask, get one that is specifically for spraying acrylic paints. I buy mine from a hardware store as they are better quality and you guessed it, less expensive than the hobby store. The good ones have a life span, make sure you keep track of how often its used and replace it when necessary.
Acrylic thinners – There is a lot written about this topic. Some good, some seriously bad. Lets address the seriously bad advice first. Use Windex (window cleaner). This does have its merits, however, window cleaner contains ammonia. When ammonia vapour is inhaled it can cause very nasty respiratory infections. Ammonia is a very caustic and hazardous. Just don’t use it, and anyone who says to use it to thin your paint doesn’t know their ass from their elbow when it comes to Airbrushing so politely excuse yourself from the conversation. A good thinner for paint basically should achieve two roles. The first is to ideally diffuse the medium that the pigment is suspended in (water or a water like substance in the case of most acrylics) thus increasing the ratio of medium to pigment. A good substance to use for this is alcohol (not the drinking type). The reason, as opposed to using water to thin paint, is quite a technical one. Very basically though, a water molecule is quite an open one, and alcohol molecules are able to slip between them, what this effectively does is reduce the paint’s viscosity (making it more “runny”), but proportionally does not reduce the amount of pigment density, therefore creating better and more consistent coverage when applied from an airbrush. Basically, just use alcohol to thin your paints. The next role a good thinner does is reduce the surface tension of the paint. Why is this important? Again, its a very technical answer, but it comes down to making the paint more wet, or slippery, thus helping it move through the Airbrush and coat the subject. An example of a wetting agent is detergent. Think about when you wash your hair with shampoo, versus just putting water on it from under a tap. The detergent in your shampoo helps the water become more slippery and move around more, better covering your hair. Same with paint. So using just rubbing alcohol (often recommended on the interwebs) isn’t the whole answer, it needs a wetting agent. So you can make your own paint thinner using alcohol and a very small amount of detergent (less than a drop) or you can just buy Tamiya A-20-X thinner. I just just buy the stuff. Heaps easier….
Pipettes – I buy them in a box of 1,000. They are 3.5ml in size, disposable and very, very convenient. Great for taking paint out of a paint pot and mixing it with thinners. Will stop you pouring the paint into a mixing jar, which in turn minimises waste and keeps your paint pots clean. They are also good for moving the thinned paint from the mixing jar into the airbrush in precise no mess amounts.
Mixing Jars – I get them in boxes of 200, they are made of glass, 30ml in size, have plastic lids and are great. So useful around the painting bunker. When bought in these quantities, they cost less than .40c and they are indispensable. They can also be washed after they’ve been used too. Awesome stuff. By having air tight lids too, you can keep mixed paint for long periods of time as well. I buy them from commercial packaging suppliers, CosPac is an example of just such a company here in Australia.

Wash bottles – previously mentioned.

Compressor

This is actually a very simple aspect to buying an Airbrush. Buy one that has these components. 1. Holding Tank, 2. Regulator, 1/8″ outlet valve. Most modern Airbrush compressors have all these features plus a few more and also basically run silent. Some compressors even come with a hose and an airbrush all in one box. Good stuff. Great for beginners. The first airbrush compressor I used was actually a shop compressor, it did the job very well and was very inexpensive (compared to an airbrush specific one) and had the dual use of being able to power air tools (which is handy for me). Today I use an Airbrush specific air compressor, it has two air outlets (I use two Airbrushes), a holding tank and a regulator with inbuilt moisture trap (its very humid where I live). Expect to pay upwards of $200 for one with the three features I’ve mentioned. Mine was closer to $400, however this is once piece of kit that isn’t to be scrimped on. Buy quality and take care of it, and it should last well over a decade (or more) you can buy ones that have all the features that I mentioned but don’t have a holding tank. I would strongly recommend just saving a bit more and delaying your purchase until you have the means to get one with a holding tank. Long term (remember their lifespan?) its a much better way to go, and you will not outgrow it, you will outgrow a compressor without a hold tank.

This is the Compressor I use now….

Airbrush

This is the final consideration that needs to be made when getting your set up, and in my opinion for the new Airbrusher, the easiest. There are a few considerations that we need to take into account when deciding what type of Airbrush to buy that will best suit our needs. A few questions to ask yourself are: What is my subject matter? What is my skill level? What is my budget? How serious am I about my hobby? What sort of results do I want to achieve? What sort of results am I capable of achieving?

Let me run you through a quick scenario to help me illustrate a point that many hobbiest overlook (as far as I can see anyway). Think back to when you bought your first car. Unless you were fortunate enough, most of us got a car that was cheap (most likely second hand) and had a few miles on it. It may have even had a scratch or two. Was it our dream car? Doubt it. Was it a high performance car? Very unlikely. Even if budget wasn’t the most important consideration, getting say a BMW M3 as your first car probably wouldn’t have been a wise decision. Why? Well, when you first get your car license you don’t have much driving experience and the likelihood of being involved in a minor fender bender was high, even if you managed to avoid it, you might scuff the wheels parking it, or not knowing about car maintenance, not properly appreciate what it takes maintenance-wise to own a car like that. In addition, your skill at driving a car would have been well below the performance threshold of such a car, so you could never come close to unlocking its potential, and besides, apart from being seen in a car like that, it just wouldn’t have been a smart idea to have such a car.

So why go and buy a $200 – $300 Airbrush as your first Airbrush? This is one area of getting an Airbrush that really frustrates me. I see guys go and buy an Airbrush that costs even over $100 because it can do such and such, yet in reality, very few people have the skills initially to actually use the features of these airbrushes. Let me explain.

Airbrushes were originally used to touch up photos, then they were used to create art (late 60’s early 70’s), both of these tasks require tremendous amounts of skill from the user, and amazingly precise engineering in terms of the Airbrush. Skill takes training and time to develop and precise engineering costs money to produce.

As modellers, the subjects that most of us want to paint, and the effects that we want to achieve with a sound level of competency, doesn’t take tremendous amounts of skill, or amazingly precise engineering. Furthermore, I guarantee you that you will trash your first Airbrush through misuse. You’ll drop it (minor fender bender) you’ll bend the needle tip (scuff the rims) leave dried paint in it (forget to service it, or get the wrong type of service) or a hundred other reasons why you’ll just ruin it and have to go buy a new one. Guaranteed. Also as I mentioned, you won’t, when you first begin, have the skills to realise a lot of the performance potential of the $100 – $300 Airbrushes, nor do you need to. Let’s face it, you won’t be painting the eye lens of a space marine with an Airbrush, even if you had the skill.

So all you need to get when you buy an Airbrush is a two stage, gravity fed Airbrush with removable nozzle and needle, ideally with a 1/8″ thread to attach a bradded hose (with quick release coupler). There are many, many on the market now that fit this description and with the type of models we paint they are ideally suited. The ones I use, I get from, you guessed it a AMS and cost around $50, in fact, they are currently on special and are selling for $38. They come with 3 needles, and corresponding nozzles, and that same AMS sells all of the items that I’ve mentioned in this post. The quality of these Airbrushes is extraordinarily high, however they just don’t have a fancy brand name on them (but look surprisingly similar…). When cared for properly too, they will last years and years. So don’t blow your budget on paying top dollar for an Airbrush that just doesn’t suit what we are doing, save your money and get the items mentioned in points 1, 2 and 3 of this post. That is where the results will be created, having the right accessories, coupled with the right training. So many hobbiest neglect getting all of the accessories and just rush out and buy an Airbrush and compressor and wonder why they get frustrated. It doesn’t need to be like that.

The Airbrush I use these days…

So to wrap up this post, before you go out and buy an Airbrush set up, get some training first. I’m not talking about watching a few YouTube videos that some random has put up, I’m talking about accredited training from a recognised training establishment. Its the solid foundation you need to set yourself up for success when using an Airbrush. Next, get the right equipment. Make sure you have an extractor (spray booth) and spray mask when painting, use the right thinners, not the cheap ones, and have the right maintenance tools to keep the airbrush clean and running smoothly. Finally, once you have all these things squared away, get a good compressor with all the features, and finally, choose an Airbrush. It doesn’t need to be expensive to get good results, especially for what we do.

I hope you’ve gotten something from this post, and congratulations if you’ve gotten this far, my word count says I’m up to 4,077 words… nice.

If you have any questions or queries, post them as a comments and I’ll be sure to answer them as best I can.

Until next time, thanks for stopping in

John Sutton, Brisbane, Qld

Man Cave Achievement Unlocked – The Display Cabinet

Posted: February 2, 2013 in Ars Gratia Artis
Tags: 40k, Armies on Parade, Carcharodons, Display Cabinet, Dreadnought, Drop Pods, forge world, Forgeworld, Imperial Armour, Imperial Gaurd, Infantry, Iron Hands, Land Speeder, Landraider, Legion of the Damned, Leman Russ, Ogryn, Reaver Titan, Rhino

So, I finally did it, I went and brought a display cabinet for my 40k Armies yesterday. I did quite a lot of research on what was the best choice, best value for money option, and after many months (seriously) I brought a 1800 x 900 x 450 commercial 6mm toughened glass display cabinet. I got it from the very helpful guys are Absoe Business Equipment in West End, and it set me back $750. It was unassembled and I had to use my Ute to get it home from (about 10 min drive from where I live) It came in two packages and the largest one weighed about 100kgs… so yeah, it was a bit of a struggle getting it off the Ute by myself, but I managed and then set about assembling it. Being commercial quality its built to last (a key reason why I chose it) all the fittings are robust and the base is seriously strong, with 4 castors on it too so it can be pushed around if I decided to relocate it. The glass doors slide on ball bearing runners and also are lockable too. So lets look at the pictures shall we?

All my models (less unpainted, which isnt many) fit only just, don’t know how many it is or how many points it all add up to, but its a lot. Maybe someone could work it out if you get bored?

The God Machines. You many not be aware, but where I live we’ve been getting some pretty extreme weather lately and as a result the Reavers Melta Cannon fell off. I haven’t reattached it yet as I’m considering getting another Turbo Laser Blaster for it.

So we have here most of Support Company (Snipers, DFSW, Anti-Armour & Mortars) Accompanied by a Leman Russ Tank Company, Baneblade and Macharius (I have both Turrets)

The Light Infantry Company with Vendettas and the rest of Support Company (Recon & Pioneers)

The good old Carcharodons

Iron Hands with Drop Pods and Rhinos

The dreaded Hextad of The Ancients Apoc Formation, along with Landspeeders and Terminators (Who I use in Apoc as the Death-knell formation) and some Legion of the Damned

So thats it, man cave review done. I’m pretty happy to see all the models all on display at one place at one time.

As an aside, I’ve been working on the Forge World Realm of Battle Cityscape boards over the past few days, so with any luck I should have an update on them shortly.

Thanks for dropping in

John

CanCon 2013 wash up – Iron Hands bring home 5th

Posted: January 29, 2013 in Competitions
Tags: 40k, Iron Hands, Space Marines, Tournaments, Warhammer 40000

So, CanCon 2013 has come and gone. It’s been a big weekend, having not been to this event in over 12 years. In some regards glad its over and happy to be home. So lets break it down blow by blow. Firstly, let me just quickly explain what CanCon is for those of you who are not familiar with it. CanCon is a 3 day Wargaming, Roleplaying, Card Game, Board Game convention that is held over the Australia Day long weekend in Canberra each year. It’s been going for something like 30 years and is a big event on the calendar of practically every person who’s into gaming. Virtually every wargame in every scale you can think of is represented at CanCon in one form or another, and this year I participated in the Warhammer 40,000 event.

For 40k CanCon 2013 it was a 1850pt event with no comp, and 40k approved Imperial Armour units were allowed. It’s 8 games over the three days, with 3 games on the Saturday, 3 games on the Sunday and two games on Monday, one in the morning and two in the afternoon. The first two games on Saturday are random draw and the rest of the games are seeded after that based on battle points alone. At the end of the event your battle points are modified by up to 20% for sportsmanship and painting respectively, and then the winner and other places are determined.

CanCon attracts some of the best 40k players in Australia and this year of the 130 players, 30 were ranked in the top 100 players according to RankingsHQ, of those 30, 8 were in the top 20. So the competition was pretty stiff, and the stakes were high for the more competitive players because a strong final placing in CanCon almost assures an invite to the High Lords of Terra comp held later on in the year.

So, lets look at my list first. Now, I consider my list actually a fluffy list, meaning its based on a theme I believe would be very consistent with how I perceive a Space Marine army would fight. It’s a bit of a ‘one trick pony’ but that one trick is pretty nasty indeed. It’s a full drop pod list that works on the basis that Marines would send their form of artillery in first to suppress the enemy, then once this is achieved they would launch the assault proper with massed infantry to neutralise and seize the objective(s), with close air support to maintain air superiority. I don’t see Marines using tanks and static formations to get into protracted symmetrical conflicts. They turn up to the fight, smash their opponent in the face with a brick, then run off with his wallet, putting the boot in just to be sure he doesn’t give chase.

The only slight deviation I took from this idea is that I would have preferred to used a Storm Eagle for the close air support however I didn’t have one painted so I had to use Imperial Guard Allies to achieve this aspect of my list.

So, how did it play out?

Game 1. Chaos Space Marines – Minor Win

This was an interesting army as it featured many 1st ed CSM models in the list. So I really enjoyed looking at it, brought back a lot of memories.

Game 2. Eldar – Major Win

This was a fun game, it was a nicely themed army with Wraith Guard and Wraith Lords en mass.

Game 3. Dark Eldar – Major Win

My opponent actually ended up finishing quite highly in the overall placings (6th overall), getting highest score for Xenos for a non placing army. However during this game, he didn’t appreciate the impact of putting his army so close together in the deployment zone.

Game 4. Orks – Major Win

This was a great looking Ork army with many interesting conversions. Sadly though, the orks really copped a pasting from the Deathwind’s and I got extremely lucky with a few rolls that went in my favour which spelt the end of for the Orks

Game 5. Chaos Space Marines – Minor Win

This was a very interesting game. At first things were really going my way, what I didn’t destroy with shooting, ran off the board after breaking in close combat. Then came the two Hell Drakes. These two managed to kill all but 3 of my marines by turn 5. Before their arrival I had around 30 on the board. If it wasn’t for Lysander getting the warlord trait allowing him to be a scoring unit things wouldn’t have been as rosy. Still a very hard fought game.

Game 6. Grey Knights – Minor Win

This army had Cotez with 5 x 10 man GK squads with 4 psycannons in each. He also had a squad of 10 hench man. This was a very tough game. Even though I managed to kill all but 3 of the Grey Knights by the end of the game I still only managed a minor win.

Game 7. Necrons – Major Loss

Yeah, Necrons… nuff said

Game 8. Imperial Guard with Grey Knight Allies – Minor Win

I’d had my fill of 40k by this stage and so had my opponent. I was glad when the game ended.

So in the end I managed 5th place out of about 130 players, by far my best placing in terms of size of players and talent at a comp. Which considering I was using marine list with apart from the 4 Imperial Armour, was pretty basic. So I am quite pleased with my result. Would I have done things differently? Yeah, for sure. I would have liked to have had a Storm Eagle, I would have done a few moves differently with the Necrons in the 7th game. But overall it was a great learning experience in terms of tactics and army composition.

The final placings were

1st – David Teoh – Necrons

2nd – Joshua Leondaris – Daemons

3rd – Joshua Pope – Dark Eldar

4th Chris Turk – Necrons

Best Imperial Army – Me – Space Marines

Best Xenos – Andrew Wynen – Dark Eldar

Best Sports – Joshua Diffey

Players Choice – David Travers (couldn’t hear what army he painted when it was announced)

Overall, as far as the event was concerned I was very disappointed. It didn’t live up to my expectations given the size and longevity of the event. Let me qualify a few observations of areas that were lacking when I compare them to other events I’ve attended.

Terrain – This for me was by far the biggest let down. For an organisation the size of the CGS that runs an event the size of CanCon with the amount revenue they must generate from CanCon, they STILL rely on terrain lent to them from the larger gaming community. Wouldn’t it be sensible to reinvest some of the revenue into their own tables and hire a storage shed to keep it between comps or even hire it out to other event organisers to create an income stream. I can not stress enough how much of a let down this aspect of the tournament was for me. Even just limit the amount of players so that you get quality over quantity.

At $50 per player and 130 players, that means $6,500 in revenue was generated. Prize pool was $2,000, with a large proportion of it donated by the Combat Company, The Games Capital & Milsims. I really think much more could have been done in this department. Big let down.

Organisation – Although the tournament ‘happened’ it could have happened a lot better with just a few minor improves. None of the tables had an ‘admin area’. Most tournaments I’ve been to have been played on 8 x 4 tables with a 1 x 2 section at each end cordoned off for the players to keep templates, models, drinks etc. I’ve even been to tournaments where key aspects of the game flow and terrain adjudications have been fixed to this area for easy reference. There was non of this at CanCon. Each table had a stapled together set of pages with this on it, but they went missing, and there was no admin area on the tables.

Also, for an event this size, 130 players, the round draws were printed out on A4 pieces of paper and sticky taped onto walls in two places. You can imagine what this looked like when 130 players wanted to find out where their next game was. It was ridiculous. Seriously. Hire a projector, ask a friend for one, buy one and book it as a capital purchase for CGS. Its not like it will never get used again. Printing out the draw on a few pieces of A4 paper and sticky taping them to the wall is far from an acceptable stand for an event of this calibre.

One last point on organisation. Timings and announcements. Neither of which were done well. If you know you’re going to be having to communicate to about 130 people in a giant hall with about 500 people in it, yelling won’t cut it. Get a PA or something, see my remarks regarding a projector for possible solutions to this problem.

Army Presentation Standards. Although this is to a degree out of the control of the organisers, it can be influenced and shaped by culture and incentive. By culture I mean ensure that players who are attending this event know that army presentation is expected to be and is to a high standard. This expectation is from the other players attending as they will be bring armies presented to a high standard, and this is reinforced by the event organisers ensuring that army presentation is elevated by themselves in terms of prizes and status provided by winning these components of our hobby at their competitions. Finally, the second way it can be influenced in a positive way is by having a reward, or consequence by not having a well presented army nor for players providing a vote for the players choice. By having more rigorous appraisal standards for painting, a bigger consequence for having a poorly presented army, and finally a negative effect on battle points for not voting on an army for players choice.

Non of this was present. I saw unpainted armies, no exaggeration. I saw some armies that were in various stages of assembly and some extremely well presented armies too. As a matter of fact the 2012 Armies on Parade winner was present. So it wasn’t all bad. However, on average the one third of people that did put some effort into their armies were grossly overshadowed by the people that had no regard to this important aspect of the hobby. This is disrespectful and mustn’t be allowed to feature as a cultural aspect of our hobby.

A culture of well presented, best of your ability armies needs to be fostered and rewarded, both in terms of status and prizes. Coming first for your painted army and first for your level of skill as a general needs to be equal and treated as such.

So, sadly I was let down overall by my experience at CanCon. Perhaps I had too high an expectation? Maybe. I genuinely believe that if a few improves where implemented this tournament could be world class. It seems that the event organisers have been using the same formula for many years and its been getting them by.

To finish on a positive note, it was great to play some of the best players in Australia and see the way they do business. If you want to improve your gaming ability and painting ability, tournaments are by far the best place to do that in, in the shortest amount of time. Also, going interstate meant that I was exposed to players and armies that I don’t see where I live in my usual gaming circle. So this experience was invaluable. I am looking forward to seeing if CGS implement some changes to their formula and turn CanCon into what it should be. Exceptional.

Thanks for dropping in

John

Realm of Battle City Scape Shattered Plaza Cathedral – Finished

Posted: January 24, 2013 in Scenery
Tags: 40k, Forgeworld, realm of battle cityscape, Scenery, Warhammer 40000

Two down, six to go….

This scenery project has been by far my most ambitious, it’s also the most satisfying now its complete. Now that I’ve finished it, I can also say its the most daunting project I’ve done. On so many levels I struggled with this piece, the size of it, the complexity of it, the many different mediums involved in creating it, the planning required to build and paint it and the level of detail required to paint it all tested my patience more than once.

However the over all result and the presence it has have all been worth it.

Lets look at the pictures then I’ll explain how I painted the white / marble effect as I’ve had a few questions on how I did it, and I’m pleased to say its pretty easy. But first to the pics…

I really like this picture

So there you go. I hope you have enjoyed seeing this come to life. The next board(s) I’m going to complete will be the two which have featured in these photos, and they are the Concourse Sectors. I’m doing these as I seem them as the Administration centres of the Cathedral, all those Imperial Administrators need somewhere to administrate the Imperium from…

Anyways, how I painted the white on the Shattered Plaza, Honoured Imperium Statues and the Cathedral…

1. Black Undercoat

2. Citadel Codex Grey (or new range equivalent)

3. Highlight Codex Grey with white (I used a touch of grey in mine)

4. Add chipping using favourite chipping technique

5. Cut in shaded areas with a watered down brown ink

6. Seal using a gloss or semi gloss clear

7. Make an oil wash containing a mixture of brown oil paint, white oil paint and brown weathering powder ( should look like muddy water, and have the same consistency)

8. Using the wash, apply to recesses of model

9. Make a mixture of brown and black paint to apply to severely battle damaged areas (like where large parts of the building are missing)

10. Seal with a matt varnish

There are probably a few other steps you can add in to suit your own visual tastes, however this is broadly what I did to achieve the effect. Hope that answers a few questions.

Ok, thats it for me for a few days now, I’m going to Canberra over the Australia Day long weekend to play in arguably the largest and longest running 40k comp in Australia, CanCon (it now has many other systems running too) So if you’re playing or attending come and say g’day its great being able to put faces to names I see on my FB page. It’s been many years since I played at CanCon, in fact the last time was well over 10 yrs ago when I took out first place for under 21’s… eeeerrrr (2nd ed era) Looking at some of the names of players attending, the calibre will be very high with 30 of the top 100 players in Australia attending (there are 130ish players in total playing in 40k)

There will no doubt be tones of pics and a comprehensive post CanCon debrief up the following week.

Until next time, bye for now.

John

Realm of Battle Cityscape Generatorum Sector The Crane – Finished

Posted: January 20, 2013 in Scenery
Tags: 40k, Forgeworld, realm of battle cityscape, Warhammer 40000

Well today I finished the scenery for my first completed Forge World Realm of Battle Cityscape Generatorum Sectors. Its been a long time coming, I didn’t think making scenery could be so time consuming. It hasn’t helped that while I’ve been doing the crane I’ve also been doing simultaneously the Cathedral that will go on the first Shattered Plaza board section too. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking but I’m sure you’ll agree that this crane will be a real centre piece of the table. Its massive! Its surprisingly stable too, as a measure to assist with it not being knocked over by clumsy gamers (read : me) I’ve actually magnetised the chain on the winch so if it were to be bumped the chain will just fall away rather than bring the whole crane down.

So lets take a look at them. There are two terrain pieces on this board, the crane, but also the Generatorum, I like to think of it as the generator or power source for the crane itself. I imagine that a raiding army has sabotaged its power source rather than topple the crane so that if need be it could be put to use in the future. Hence why the crane is in tact…

Behold! the God Machine Crane!

In this shot you can see the ruined generator building. I see the smaller section of roof as a sort of observation deck for the crane itself.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only hazard stripes.

The power conduits for the crane

So there you go. The first board completed… seven to go. The next board you’ll see by the end of the week most likely will be the Cathedral. Its now fully assembled and undercoated. Its a massive piece also making it awkward to handle, so painting it should be great fun….

The more I look at the crane and generator the more I like it, to be honest with you its still growing on me but its a very distinctive piece that I’m sure over time my appreciation of it will grow.

So thats it for today, look out for my next post which will be the completed Cathedral. It’s going to be a real eye opener.

Thanks for dropping in, your comments are aways welcome

John

Realm of Battle Cityscape Generatorum Sector WIP – The Crane

Posted: January 13, 2013 in Scenery
Tags: 40k, Forgeworld, realm of battle cityscape, Warhammer 40000

Two posts in one day! I have been busy…

About two weeks ago over the Xmas break my good friend Aaron of Forlorn Hope fame and I were having a bromantic night in watching Myth Busters and cutting out the seemingly endless sprues of the four Imperial Sectors I brought. The sprues would eventually be for the scenery stage of the Forge World Realm of Battle Cityscape boards I was at that time painting.

As we were watching Myth Busters we noticed a massive toy crane in the back ground of their office. Aaron suggest that it would be cool to have a crane on one of the boards. I did too, so I started looking online for something similar and eventually found one that looked cool, so a few days ago I found myself in Toys r Us with a toy crane under my arm. They were having a 25% off sale at the time and it was only $35! So how could I resist. The thought of having a massive Adeptus Mechanics crane on one of the boards was too tempting and the scale of what was on offer seemed to suit perfectly for the heroic 28mm scale of 40k.

So heres what I ended up getting from Toys r Us for $35!. Thats me playing with it when I got it home btw.

This is what I ended up doing to it, and where it’ll go on my board. As you can see I’ve shortened it, and “grim darked” it up quite a bit.

Another detail shot of its base and first level gantry. I’m really happy with this piece. Its very big but I think it’ll add a good sense of scale and perspective to the rest of the boards once its put into context with them around it.

Lots of bits of details added, most of it from the Titan kits I’ve made over the last year, plus some from the Imperial Sector buildings and a little brass etched pieces

So that I can store it, I’ve kept the mast and crane separate pieces. Its just a push fit with a simple male/female fitting

Some random junk on an industrial pallet. I made the tarp by soaking some thin cardboard in some water with PVA glue in it, I then shaped it over the crates etc and let it set.

Another angle of the pallet. I kinda like the simplicity of this piece. It looks cool.

Here are my work in progress shots. Again, your feedback would be nice on whether or not I should include these.

Ok, thats it for this post.

I’m thrilled with this piece. It’s turned out much better than I could have ever imagined. The paint job I have in mind for it is going to be pretty awesome too… So hold fast for that one.

Thanks for dropping in

John

Realm of Battle Cityscape Shattered Plaza Cathedral – WIP

Posted: January 13, 2013 in Scenery

I’ve been very busy over the last two days working on the scenery for the recently completed Forge World Realm of Battle Cityscape boards. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I really want the white marble Shattered Plaza board to have a massive Cathedral on it. No serious 40k board is complete without one, and well… they just look good. So I’ve set out to create a monster. Lets take a look at the pictures and you’ll see what I mean.

Please keep in mind that these are works in progress shots. The floor sections and different sub-assemblies are not even glued together at this stage. They are just resting together for the shots. I’m waiting on a critical piece to finish the floors, some 1/2 inch square Evergreen styrene tile sheet. My local hobby shop has run out and I’ve ordered it in, however it hasn’t arrived yet. With any luck it’ll rock up next week and I’ll be able to hook in and get it done. Until then, I’ve taken this about as far as I want to go with it before I can put the floor tiles in and then complete the assembly and detailing of this behemoth.

One thing I didn’t really like about the Shrine of the Aquila kit was the entrance doors. They seem too small and didn’t really say “your entering a really important place now” So with a little modification I added what I think is a much more suitable entrance and I’ve also created a small balcony where I’d imagine a Cardinal would address his loyal Imperial subjects in the Plaza before it was shattered…. And what sort of place of worship wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t have a bell tower…. complete with bell taken from a pet bird cage accessory… I can imagine a Vindicare Assassin in the bell tower picking of enemies of the Emperor while muttering “Blessed be the Emperor my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight”

I’m very pleased with the silhouette of the Cathedral and the way it “meets” the sky/space around it, it has a real sense of place and will also offer a great piece of terrain for gaming purposes. It’s got plenty of vantage points for soldiers to take firing points from and will be a real focal point in any game, both visually and tactically.

One aspect of scenery making I’ve noticed about myself is that I’m really struggling with the line between “its for gaming on” and “its a diorama” I think I’m slightly being egged on by the great “canvas” I’ve been given by the guys at Forge World to put my scenery on too. I constantly find myself having to cut down the level of detail I’m adding, while reminding myself that its a gaming table I’m making that models have to move around, hands have to get in and a degree of robustness needs to be incorporated… All features which are generally absent from a diorama.

This is the right side of the Cathedral, as you look at its front. This is the most intact side of the model (apart from the front)

The rear of the Cathedral, as you can see its been hit pretty hard and has extensive structural damage. To be honest, its unlikely it’d still be standing with this amount of damage but hey… it looks cool. Points to note are the exposed “I” beams and service ducts on the 2nd and 3rd floors

The last side, again some catastrophic structural damage to the building, but it means players can easily get their hands in and models on the piece.

An above shot of the damaged floors so you can see some of the detail present.

Bet you weren’t expecting that! Ceiling paneling.

Ok, I hope you’ve enjoyed this WIP. I’ve really had a great time making this piece. Its the first piece of terrain I’ve made in many, many years and I’m having a great time doing it. So much fun. I don’t know why I haven’t done this sooner. It’s nice having a break form making soldiers and tanks I think.

I’m trying out something a bit different below. As some of you know, I am very thorough with photo documenting what I do, however I don’t generally post those pictures. I do them mostly for myself as reference material should I need to remind myself how I did something at a later date. The pics are low quality and poorly composed but do the job. I thought I’d included them in this post incase some of you would like to see how I get from A to B. Let me know your thoughts about whether or not its worth while putting them in future posts, or if I should just stick to the staged shots which I post up.

Ok thats it for this post, thanks for dropping in.

Comments very welcome

John

Forge World Realm of Battle Cityscape boards – Done

Posted: January 8, 2013 in Scenery
Tags: 40k, Forgeworld, realm of battle cityscape, Warhammer 40000

Well, today I finished off the last board of the eight Forge World Realm of Battle Cityscape boards I brought about a month ago. Its a little difficult to believe that these arrived less than a month ago! Talk about a painting bender. I must say though, painting these boards has been a real pleasure. Its actually one of the most interesting projects I’ve tackled in a very long time. I think I just enjoyed painting a very different subject matter other than miniatures. The use of different techniques and just the scale of these boards keep me interested all the way to the end.

Its hard to get a real appreciation of just how good these boards look from just the photos. I don’t mean that as a self gratifying statement, its a compliment to Forge World actually. They have really outdone themselves with these boards. They are exceptional and I am eagerly awaiting further releases, but I get the feeling that the next lot wont be out for some time. These boards by far and away set the standard for table top modular scenery boards. Nothing, and I mean nothing on the market comes close to even touching them.

So lets take a look at them…

So I hope you’ve enjoyed this phase of the build… If you liked this stage, you are going to love the next phase, buildings. I am particularly excited about what is in stall for these boards once the buildings begin to take shape on them. Its really going to set them off.

The first board I’m going to work on is the white marble Shattered Plaza board. I’m going to build a White Marble Cathedral to adore thats magnificent board. Expect an update over the weekend with some significant progress. I’m pretty amped up about the next phase and cant wait to tackle it.

Until then, thanks for dropping in

John

Second Realm of Battle Cityscape Shattered Plaza – Finished

Posted: January 4, 2013 in Scenery
Tags: 40k, Forgeworld, realm of battle cityscape, Warhammer 40000

So today I finished off the sixth of the eight Realm of Battle Cityscape boards I have. As I’ve basically finished the four boards once I won’t be doing updates for each board from now on in and I don’t really want to bore you with updates as I CBF doing them either, going over what I’ve already more or less done.

The second Shattered Plaza board I painted it the same colour as the Concourse Sector so that the three boards when put together would form a city square of sorts. So lets look at a few pics

So I’m well and truly on the home stretch now. Just two boards to go now and then we can get onto the main attraction, building terrain for them. Can’t wait. My aim is to get them both finished off by mid next week, and then hit the scenery making hard next weekend. I did a mock up of a Cathedral for the Shattered Plaza earlier on in the week and I am really excited about how these boards are going to look when they have buildings on them. It’s going to be pretty amazing.

Ok, thats me for the time being, thanks for dropping in

John

Chaos Space Marine Army List 1850pt – Proxy for Horus Heresy World Eaters

Posted: January 2, 2013 in World Eaters
Tags: 40k, Forgeworld, Horus heresy, Warhammer 40000, World Eaters

So I want to build a new army for use in both games of Horus Heresy and games of 40k. Seeing as there are similar structural aspects to the Horus Heresy 30k list and new CSM 40k list, I thought it would be easy to make them cross compatible with few modifications. As most tournaments and social games are now 1850 points I am basing the list around this points cost.

I’m aiming to create a reasonably competitive CSM 40k army list and I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the army composition and whether you think it could be improved with regards to its competitiveness, playability and flexibility against different opponents. There are a few limitations on the CSM 40k army list selection however. Obviously I’m wanting to create a 30k army list with this too, so units like Hell Drakes, Defiler’s, Forgefiends etc can not be used in this army list as they would be inconsistent with the theme/look of the army I’m wanting to achieve.

Why World Eaters? They’re bad ass.

So lets go through the army list, remembering that I’ll be using Horus Heresy era miniatures to built it with

Kharn (As himself using a converted 30k model)

Daemon Prince with Mark of Khorn & Axe of Blind Fury (Angron)

Troops

20 x Khorne Berzerkers with Icon of Wrath, Melta Bomb (Kharn allows these guys to be troops and gives them hatred)

5 x CSM with melta gun

10 x CSM with 2 x melta guns (bolt guns)

Fast Attack

3 x CSM Bikes with 2 x melta guns

Heavy Support

5 x Havocs with 2 x auto cannons, 2 x missile launchers with flak missiles

Vindicator

Fortifications

Aegis defence line with Quad Gun

1850 points exactly

So the general scheme of manoeuvre is that the Aegis, Havocs, Vindicator and the 5 man CSM squad manning the quad gun will castle up on some decisive terrain in my deployment zone with the bikes and CSM squads on each flank and the Berzerkers, with Kharn & Angron positioned to advance and decisively engage the targetable centre of gravity of the enemy army. The 10 man CSM squads will move to secure objectives and support the Berzerkers advance and assault if needed. Kharn, Angron & the Berzerkers will be my main effort.

To provide cover fire for the Berzerkers advance the havocs, quad gun and Vindicator will engage and suppress enemy units at maximum range that pose a threat to the advancing Berzerkers, while the bikes turbo boost with their melta guns onto enemy armour or other high value targets to pose a creditable threat in the next turn should they not be dealt with thus restricting enemy armour freedom of movement and target selection. Enemy Flyers will have their freedom of movement restricted by the Quad gun and flak missile launchers within the havoc squads.

So I’m keen to get any constructive feedback on this army list compression. Any considered suggestions would be appreciated, I know there are a lot of pretty serious players out there who have a lot of experience in this department.

Cheers

John Sutton, Brisbane, Qld

The Painting Bunkerc y