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.

WIP on the Desk: Purple Paint.....Purple Paint

Lots of purple.  A anglo, an Arthurian, and a Roman Emperor.  The purple on the Roman has been glazed and washed, a bit more smooth than the other two.  The Roman is getting very close to being finished.  Once done, it will go up on Ebay for sale.

The Arthurian from Saxon Miniatures is a fun model to paint, very much in WIP form as I still have lots of stuff to do on it.  Some of the fleshtones on the models in the background are nearing completion.  Just about all of these models are going up on Ebay for sale once done, just do a search for Madhouse Workshop.  Besides I need a bit of hobby cash to buy tires for the 2016 racing season.... :-).

Dark Ages Building Update....

We last saw this building back in March.  I've finally gotten around to finishing it.

 

Its one of those cut mdf building.  I've never really worked with these before. For painting I decided the only thing that should get paint is the roofing.  For all of the wooden pieces I just did some a series of washes using Secret Weapons washes.

I think it will make another nice edition to my growing terrain collection.

New terrain piece for my Historics

 This is a fun building.  I still need to clear coat it, but its essentially done.  Believe its Vatican product, its been sitting on one of my shelves for years.

I've painted a little bit of terrain in the past, but this is really the first time that I've finished a piece off with a bunch of washes.  I think it turned out pretty cool

Should be a nice addition to my terrain pieces.

Been a while Since I Painted....

This time last year I was not sure what was going to happen health wise.  I thought I would be able to paint again if things went well and there was none of that c-word in the tumor.  Afterwards, I was not sure, my left eye was slow in recovery as it would not and still is not lubricating correctly.  Just blinking and closing it was a problem and still is occasionally.  Its gradually getting better, nerves are slow to heal.  I can't make it cry, and eating some foods makes it water profusely, and it still cracks open at night sometimes without my ability to control it perfectly.  With all that its taken me much longer to comeback to the hobby than even I thought.  If you would have asked me prior to surgery which would I be able to do sooner:  Getting back to work as an engineer, modeling and painting, or racing karts.  I would have said modeling and painting.  Turned out to be Work, Racing Karts, then hobby modeling and now finally painting.

So I started slowly on some terrain pieces, easy stuff.  You'll see that stuff in the next few days or so.  This is what I'm working on currently. 

I thought since its been awhile, lets retrain myself on how to use a wet palette and blend.  I base coated the metal on a few pieces and the picked some easy stuff.

The red cape on the Red Box Games dwarf is pretty stunning up close.  The green is a new color for me to play with from Vallejo.  Alot of my paints are showing the age, since its been a year since I have used them.

All those shields scattered about I worked on last night, with a bit of blending, drybrushing, washing, and then application of water slide transfers.  I'll be showing that Roman unit soon.

So I guess I can hold a brush again and see what I'm painting.

A Viking Giant....well sort of

 I've never painted a 54 mm miniature before.  I saw this cool viking on Ebay for cheap and decided to give it a whirl.  I guess I could always use it to counter giants and ogres in fantasy games.