Painted some Armorcast Terrain

 Finally got around to painting up this terrain.  Some Armorcast ruins.  I purposely did up this terrain rather generic for my gaming table.  I think these pieces turned out pretty cool.

 Some more corner ruined pieces.  Basically alot of drybrushing with a whole lot of washes to bring out some more detail.

Fun stuff to do.

Centurion!! .....And other guy....

Hey finally cranking things up a bit. I was never really happy with my previous Romans in my WAB army.  And I recently sold off about half of that army.  My intention is to replace all of the stuff that I was not happy with, with some newer models.  These are a couple of them replacements.  

I also was a little tired of painting red after years of painting Khorne and Romans, so in comes some white.  I think the whites turned out pretty cool.

 And as you can see he has a Manica signifying a veteran in my army.

Below is a left over head from the Praetorians box set with a legionary Scutum.

 I really like the looks of the this figure and also gave him a manica on the gladius arm.

 I'm also very happy on how the armor, lorica segmentata, turned out.  I used Reaper Master series' metallic paints on these.  Very smooth triad of colors that transition nicely with my assembly line style of painting on these.

More to follow.....

Old Stuff Wednesday - 2008 Chicago GT Best Appearance Army: Khorne Demons

The return of Old Stuff Wednesday. Its been a while since I last done an Old Stuff Wednesday post. I pretty much stopped some of my normal postings over a year ago after being diagnosed with some major health issues that led to an extended recovery and hobby lay off, but as I'm recovering I'm getting back to my old self and getting in some much needed hobby time. So, what better way of bringing back Old Stuff Wednesday that coming out with my most award winning and notable army that I have ever produced.....the Khorne Demons.

This army dates back to 2008, and I had some very stout competition for best appearance at Games Workshop's Chicago Grand Tournament organized and ran by former GW great Dave Taylor. This was the debut for this army, only a few people had seen it and knew what I was doing.

 In GT fashion for those that were going for the Best Appearance, of course I was a horrible player and tactician at the time (probably still am), every model in the army was converted in some way.

 The army was led by my Blood Thirster with a couple of Khorne Heralds, Flesh Hounds, msu Bloodletters, and a unit of Khorne converted Screamers.

 This was the first time that I really did anything elaborate on the basing. I came up with the idea of using pools of blood and the Khorne Demons sending their hapless victims to the pits of hell being dragged down in the depths of the blood pools.

 The pools were simply smoothed out bases, with red swirl patterns painted on them and then sealed with high-gloss polyurethane wood finish to give them some depth.

 The army later developed into something more playable, and I started to understand the tactics and and add some other things to it later on. It went on to win best appearances at all, but a couple of events that I played in and I think both of those, I was not eligible to win as I had won an appearance award at the GT or won best appearance at the previous tournament.

Above and below is one of my Heralds that also counts as Skull-Taker on occasions. 

I still own every piece of this army. A couple of the pieces are beginning to show their age and need a little repair, but the bulk of the army is still in pristine shape and it essentially is relegated to sitting in a tub not be used with the demise of Warhammer Fantasy.

Tune in next month, probably in couple of weeks for another episode of Old Stuff Wednesday.....

Return of Old Stuff Wednesday

Here at the Madhouse Workshop, we like old stuff and old traditions......tune in a bit later for the return of Old Stuff Wednesday, my monthly feature of my old stuff.

New Painted Model: The Roman Emperor in Royal Purple

Well one piece out of about 200+ done.  I've had this Warlord Games Roman Emperor for many years.  Even though I have a Roman army, I don't plan on keeping this model.

Fun model to paint, definitely inspired by Gladiator the movie, one of my favorite movies.  I think turned out well.  Its really one of the first times, I have painted purple and I think it turned out pretty good on the cape.  I plan on using it bit more often.  

I especially like the way the horse turned out.  This horse is one of the more fun horses to paint.  Below is a bit closer view of the model.

As I said at the opening, I don't plan to keep this model.  Its already up for auction on Ebay, just do a search for my sellers name in the search engine, Madhouse Workshop or click this link.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331762263032?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

More to come.

Forest Litter Basing Tutorial...

I've seen a lot of tutorial on how people do their forest type bases over the years.  I learned some basic things while working with Mike Butcher years ago on team army for Adepticon where we based the both of our factions the same.  I've expanded off of that over the years.  I'm currently doing a little basing and thought I would give out some of my thoughts on it.  Above you see pictured some of my basic ingredients for the initial part of the basing, the granular portion.  They consist of two types of HO Scale railroad ballast, the black sand and the white sand, then we have some pieces of slate, some fine crushed dolomite that is easily found in the wilds here in Wisconsin, some crushed pieces of slate, and the fake rocks in the lower right corner which is simply Apoxie Sculp smashed with a hammer.

Below are some of the grasses that I use on various projects from a variety of suppliers, which you can get in bulk far cheaper from model railroad companies that you can from war games suppliers.  Pictured are a green and dead grass colored static grass, clumps of static grass flock and what I like to call straw in middle and upper right.

For most of the static grass and the forest litter I will use super glues of which there are a variety.  The "Thin" with the pink label is what I use for the forest litter, it is super thin and flows like water, its also sometimes called "Fast".

CAUTION:  USE THIN IN ONLY A WELL VENTILATED AREA. AND WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!  

Yes the thin has a super hot formula and accelerent in it.  If it gets in your eye it will cure almost immediately.  If you want to glue your fingers together, this is the stuff.  

 Here you see a scrap of plasti-card with some granular flock that I glued down.

You can see its the same stuff that I used on a Viking and my Romans.

Below is what I use for my forest flock litter, Italian Seasoning.  Its from the bargain bin of your local grocery.   It has no powder in it, that is important.  You do not want powder.  Its essentially all dried kind of crushed leaves.  

Take a pinch of the seasoning, sprinkle in the places that you want for a nice random look.

Take the "Thin" and place drops over the seasoning you want to keep on the base.

Drips like water.....

When you have what you want stuck down, clean up the debris.  The Thin coats the leaves of the seasoning and reinforces the texture in addition to adhering it to the base. The side benefit of using this is if you put your miniatures in a sealed bin for storage, when you open that bin it will have a nice Italian smell.

Below you see what it looks like on a raw base.

Then add or before, add some rocks. My favorites are slate and fake.  Glue where you want.

Some finished painted examples below:

That's it for now.