Another hot day at home with thoughts for future projects

The dry spells are on!

It hasn't been raining for a month and I am stuck at home most of the days. The heat can just outright knock me out.

With nothing much to do at home these days, maybe I should join some competitions and all that, just to past time. One of which that caught my eye was a painting competition. If you all know by now my painting skills is considered still below beginners level. So I am still considering whether should I join or not.

If I were to join, it would be the Space Marines Fire Hawks Chapter with the updated colour scheme of more orange and a flaming hawk as the shoulder pad's symbol. The main thing about this chapter is that the symbol is hard to paint, unless you got decals printed for it specially or stencils. But I have neither. Thus I am working on freehand.

I had actually finished two Fire Hawks models weeks ago but they are still under test runs and not really the colour I am looking for. Hopefully I get the right colour soon.

I too am working on one of my Valhallan assault weapons blister, so you should be expecting them to arrive on your screen soon. And with the dryness here and me unwilling to step out of the house, I should be able to get it done pretty fast. The one with the meltagun is a priority as of how I had planned to paint it but not the flamer guy yet. But first, I need to head down to a local store to get paints some time in the weekend.

A quick question though, anyone of you have any ideas how to make a base that is the interior of a spaceship? I am considering using Kneadatite Greenstuff but the flooring with the details and all would be a problem.

Ah well, I should just go on with Kneadatite, but do give me some tips! I am still a very low level modeller that needs guidance.

With the rumour that the next edition of Imperial Guards Codex is coming out probably in April, my projects are currently on hold. Who knows what detailed and cool stuff they would come up with for the new releases. Maybe I should just go on with my next one, but who knows, I have made my painting priority for March. Maybe painting tutorials might be a good idea.

Hopefully it rains as a good weather always pushes me on to do better and get things done faster. The heat has really packed a punch into my brain. I used to work well in this kind of weather but I guess I need a change once in a while.

See you all later!!


Winters

Foam Miniature (Catachan) Winterial 04

Hey all!

It is time I give my reflection for this Winterial and some other stuff that may be useful to you if you want to make this miniature yourself.

Reflection:

The end result turned out better then what I had expected it to be. Though much time have been dedicated to finish up the Catachans, I believe it was worth the time. With such good results and awesomeness, I am actually quite tempted to build more, probably a whole platoon of it, but I guess that will have to wait till I get more foam paper.

Tips and tricks:

1. You can have the miniatures built into different sub-builds before assembling them together if you ar building a lot at one go. So what are the sub-builds you ask. So let me tell you.

-build the torso and legs to the position you like and attach them to the base.

-build the head. I differentiated the sergeant by having the head band facing a different direction from the rest. A picture of the sergeant is all the way at the bottom of the post.

-have all the guns and weapons made out properly first.

- now, assemble the arms, then the hands, then the weapons, and lastly the head.

2. Don't apply too much glue although it dries clear as reflection from light may cause it to become very obvious from the foam.

3. Use a sharp scissors to cut foam as cut markings may get very obvious and would not look good.

Tools:

Nothing much to add except one, the glue. Any white glue would work but what I used is Elmer's tacky glue. Hence I recommend it.

So enjoy making your foam miniature. See you in the next blog post.

Winters

Foam Miniature (Catachan) Winterial 03

Hey all!

Welcome to part 3 of this Winterial! Without further ado, let us finish up the miniature!

Or rather, the miniature is complete. Now I will finish it further with more weapon choices.

Step 1:

Laspistol, what officer guard loves. We cut out a strip of black foam 5mm in thickness and 12mm in length. From one side, mark out 2mm from the top and 4mm to the left. From the 4mm marking, cut 1mm upwards. From the 2mm marking, cut 4mm towards the left. Next, severe it out with a diagonal cut. You should end up with something in Pict 1.

Step 2:

Using the dimensions for the grey ammo pack on the rifle previously and also the rifle handle, attach it to the pistol as shown in Pict 2. Take note that the ammo pack should be protruding from the right side of the pistol like the one that comes in the plastic Catachan set.

Step 3:

Now, we make the sword. Use dimensions of 4mm in thickness and 30mm in length with the grey foam as shown in Pict 3. This will be the blade. This is a long sword which I made to make it look awesome and stand out from the rest.

If you want to make a power sword, use one that is 25mm. If you want a combat knife, use one that is 12mm in length.

Step 4:

Now for the hand guard. Use a piece of black foam that is 6mm X 4mm as shown in Pict 4. You do not need this if you are making a combat knife.

Step 5:

Now for the handle. As I am making a long blade, I used dimensions of 3mm X 10mm as shown in Pict 5. 

If you are making the handle for the sword and knife, use the dimension 3mm X 6mm.

Step 6:

Now, combine it together with the hand guard in the middle. You should end up with a sword, similar to the one shown in Pict 6 unless you are making a combat knife without a hand guard.

Step 7:

Cut diagonally at the tip of the blade from the middle to the sides to make it more like a sword as shown in Pict 7. Ensure that the diagonal line is about the same length so it looks better.

That's about all the weapons I can make within my ability. If you got any weapons you would like to see to be added, say it in the comments and I will do my best to get it out to the best of my abilities.

Though many leg poses are easy as long as it does not look weird, there is one that I would like to highlight to you. That is the running pose.

The running pose have to be made as shown below, the knee is one pice of the foam almost vertically straight and the other two supporting it. The grey goes on from the two pieces as shown. This would give you a very good looking running pose for the miniature.

So that's all for today, look out for part 4 as I give my reflection and tips and tricks which I would share and maybe further details on what kind of materials I used (Example: the brand which I recommend).

Do stay tuned and to keep you guys looking forward for more, or rather maybe me just wanting eagerly for people to see this, Here is a picture of a 10 men Foam Catachan squad!

Winters

Foam Miniature (Catachan) Winterial 02

Hey all!

Welcome back to the foam miniature Winterial part 2!

In this part, I will finish up the lasguns, the skin areas and the pose of the miniature. So let's begin!

Step 1:

I would like to start off with the lasgun for the Catachan first. Cut out a strip of black foam paper with the thickness of 6mm as shown in Pict 1.

Next, cut out from this strip of black foam a length of 26mm as shown in Pict 2.

Step 2:

Now, we do some markings on this black piece of foam. On one side of it's length, mark out two points, the first being on one side 5mm and the other side 8mm. This can be seen in Pict 3.

Using the markings made, remove them with a breadth of approximately 1mm as shown in Pict 4.

Step 3:

At the side where the 8mm  piece was removed, remove another at the bottom of it as shown in Pict 5 but now of breadth 2mm. If you are unsure how thick the breadth is, just cut our one piece that is twice the breadth of the piece removed above it.

Step 4:

The shorter end with the 5mm length piece removed is the butt of the rifle. From the top, measure down 4mm at the edge of the black foam as shown on the left of Pict 6. The other would be 2mm down at the point where the 5mm ended previously. This is as shown at the right side of the Pict 6. Mark these two points out.

Cut it diagonally between the two points marked out and remove it as shown in Pict 7.

Step 5:

Now, the base of the rifle should be clear. At the base, remove at the end nearer the butt of the rifle a 4mm strip of foam of breadth 1mm as shown at the left of Pict 8. Remove another at the end nearer to the barrel of the rifle but this time, remove one that is 5mm in length and 1mm in diameter as shown on the right side of Pict 8.

Step 6:

Now, cut a grey piece of foam 3mm X 3mm and attach it to the base of the rifle where a platform like area is protruding outwards as shown in the middle of the rifle in Pict 9. 

Also, cut out a piece of black foam 3mm X 3mm too and attach it near the butt of the rifle as shown in Pict 9. This acts as the handle of the rifle.

The rifle is complete.

Step 7:

Now for the upper arm. Cut out a trip of foam from skin colour that has a thickness of 5mm. After which, measure 7mm on one side and 5mm on the other and cut diagonally between the two points as shown in Pict 10. You will need to repeat this four times as you need four pieces of this.

To cut it out easier, after cutting out the first piece, use it as a template to cut out the rest by aligning it with the foam strip and cutting out the remaining pieces which is shown in Pict 11.

Glue two pieces to each other to form a pair of upper arms as shown in Pict 12.

Step 8:

Using the same technique and measurement, repeat for the lower arm. The only difference is that the foam strip used now is 4mm in thickness rather than the previous 5mm thickness of the upper arm.

Pict 13 shows that you would end up probably about the same as the upper arm except for a slight difference. Hence remember to keep the upper and lower arm separated and not confuse them together.

Step 9:

As for the head, us two square pieces of size 4mm X 4mm foam and attach them together to form a star. From the top, it should look something like Pict 14.

Step 10:

Attach a red piece of dimensions 5mm X 5mm and attach it to one side of the star with a little protruding out at all four directions as shown in Pict 15. Remember that the red piece must always follow the piece of the foam that is is attached to in terms of where it's sides are pointed towards to.

Step 11:

At the red portion still showing fully (flip the head over), glue a piece of black foam of dimensions 4mm X 4mm on top of the head as shown in Pict 16.

The head is completed.

Step 12:

Hands are of dimensions 5mm X 5mm. You need two of it.

Step 13:

Attach the arms in the position you like and glue the rifle on. You can pick the pose you want. In all the Pict 17 that I took, it shows you the right side, front and left side view of the Catachan respectively.

Step 14:

Now attach the head when the pose you chose is dried. The pointed side of the top of the head is the nose while the flat side at the bottom is the jaw. My Catachan is firing his rifle, so it is facing you at Pict 18.

Pict 19 shows what to take note of the head, which is that it must be in the middle of the top of the miniature or the middle of the last piece of green foam at the top.

That's the end of part 2. But do not worry if you think this is the end of this Winterial. No! There is a part 3 coming up soon so do look out for it.

Winters

Foam Miniature (Catachan) Winterial 01

Hey all!

Welcome to the awesome, new foam miniature Winterial!

This is a Winterial on how to make a Warhammer 40k Imperial Gueard Catachan model out of foam paper. Though this miniature may not be as detailed as the Games Workshop ones and probably just as time consuming to assemble and paint a plastic one, this is all for the fun of it.

There are some steps that are very wordy so do post on the comments if you are unsure of any part and I would happily help you whenever I can.

So here we go!

Materials you need:

1. Foam papers:

   -Black

   -Green

   -Grey

   -Skin colour

   -Red

2. Scissors

3. Rule (15cm)

4. Compass

5. Pen and Pencil

6. Glue 

Step 1:

You need a base for your miniature. Hence we shall start with the base first. For the base, we would be using black foam paper. The base size would be 25mm in diameter. I managed to find a template which I probably got from a stationery store a few years back as shown in Pict 1. It has got a diameter of 25mm when drawn and cut out, thus it is my ideal choice. Not to worry if you do not have a template as you can always use a compass as shown in Pict 2 to draw out a 25mm circle. You will need two of this 25mm black circle to make a base.

    

Step 2:

Now glue the two black circles together as shown In Pict 3. If you are using the template, just glue the two pieces where the pen or pencil marking is shown so that it would not be seen. If you are using the compass to draw the circle, you would likely end up with one hole on one of the facing for each circle. Hence Glue the circles together such that the holes are facing each other so that the base would look much better and neater without a small hole in the middle of the base.

Step 3:

Now is to make the shoes of the legs. Use a grey foam paper for this. You must first cut out a strip of grey foam, which will have to be 3mm in thickness as shown in Pict 4. I know it is quite hard to get the actual thickness of the foam to be exactly 3mm, hence a little off 3mm is fine but don't be too off or the miniature would end up looking weird.

Using the grey strip, cut out the feets, which is two grey pieces of each length 7mm.

Using the grey strip again, cut out four grey squares of 3mm X 3mm. This few pieces would form up as the shoes of the foam miniature.

Step 4:

Cut out a strip of green foam paper but this time of thickness 4mm.

After cutting out this strip of green foam, cut it into squares of 4mm X 4mm. You should end up with ten of these squares as shown in Pict 7.

It will not be a problem if the squares are not perfect as I could not get them all perfect too but they cannot be too off the scale. Reason being the miniature would end up looking very weird.

Step 5:

Now, take four pieces of the green squares and glue them together into pairs as shown in Pict 8. 

Step 6:

Using the grey foam strip cut out earlier on, cut out a rectangle of 3mm X 4mm.

Glue the grey rectangle to the green pieces earlier in Step 5 as shown in Pict 9. Take note that the 4mm side is used to have the same length as the green pieces and the 3mm side is supposed to be the thickness of the foam strips glued together. In other words, the 3mm side is facing you in Pict 9.

Step 7:

Cut out another grey strip but this time with a thickness of 4mm. After which, cut out a piece from this grey strip of length 11mm. Glue this strip to the 4mm side of the foam made earlier on at Step 6 as shown in Pict 10. The 3mm facing of the smaller grey rectangle is still facing you, same as that in Pict 9.

This larger grey rectangle will act as the belt of the miniature.

Step 8:

Time to finish up the legs. I wanted my miniature to be firing his rifle probably at full auto of to get an accurate shot through the battlefield, hence I decided to have his legs placed in a bracing stance, legs wide apart. I slowly attached the remaining green squares onto the foam in Pict 10. There should be 3 additional green squares on each side of the legs. As I am widening the the stance, I separated the green squares for each level. Each square shifted outwards around 1mm at the very most as any further and the legs would not look very nice. let the glue set before moving on to the grey squares.

The grey squares cut out earlier on are the tricky ones. As they are 1mm smaller then the green squares, I still want it to further open the stance. Thus instead out letting it shift out 1mm towards the side, I placed it directly in line with the edge of the last green square on each leg. After which, I added another grey square 1mm out to the side from the previous grey square. 

After the glue sets, attach the feets, which are the grey pieces of cut out as seen in Pict 5. You would need to know which side is the front of your miniature or rather which side you prefer before attaching the feet. The heels are in line with the grey square while the front of it would look more realistic like a feet as it is longer.

You should end up with Pict 11.

Step 9:

When the leg is finally dry, attach it to the base. Remember to attach it to the middle of the base as it is the safest position no matter how you model the miniature as the top will not be too heavy and if it is too close to a certain edge, it may easily topple over, giving you loads of frustration. Hence glue the legs to the middle or as close to as possible to the middle of the base as shown in Pict 12.

Though this is different from plastic miniatures as I always assemble the entire body of the miniature first before determining where to glue it on the base so that it would not topple over easily. An example is a guy holding a heavy bolter, which causes the the front to be heavier, thus I glued the miniature a little bit to the back of the base.

Back to foam.

Step 10:

For the following steps, I shall highlight the fact that it would be easier for you if you let the glue set and dry after each step before going on.

Using the green strip cut out earlier on, cut out one of length 11mm. Attach it to the belt as shown in Pict 13. This should not pose as a problem as the dimensions of the green strip is the same as those of the grey belt, hence just attach it in line with the grey belt.

Step 11:

Now, cut out another green strip of thickness 5mm.

Using that strip, cut out one piece of length 11mm and attach it to the top of the previous green foam as shown in Pict 14.

You should place the strip in such a a position that that the breadth of the green strip is in line with the sides of the green foam earlier on. Do take note that the at the front and back of the legs, the new green strip must be placed in such a way that it is symmetrical to the legs on both sides as shown in Pict 14.

Step 12:

Now, cut out another strip of green of thickness 6mm.

Cut out two pieces of foam of length 11mm each. Attach both of them one by one as shown in Pict 15 and Pict 16. Off course, you must remember to glue each one after the glue sets for the previous one. 

Place the first green strip such that it is jutting out at the front with less then 1mm to the back to highlight the fact that he is extremely muscular as shown in Pict 15.

After that, glue the next one on doing the same thing as the previous one, jutting out to the front and a little to the back. The only difference for this is that it is not as jutted forward as the previous one but yet it is also not more than 1mm worth of green jutting out to the back as measured from the previous one. It should be similar to that of Pict 16.

Step 13:

Now for the collar of the shirt. Using the green strip of thickness 4mm, cut out one green strip of length 7mm.

You must attach it in such a way that it is directly in line with the legs as shown in Pict 17 and yet at the same time directly in the middle of the miniature as shown in Pict 18.

This is the end of the Foam Miniature Winterial 01. I am currently working on the second one and hopefully finish it soon. 

This Winterial finishes up the main body of the miniature. Now all it needs is the arms, head and weapons to finish it off. Hopefully it would not take long.

Winters

Imperial Knights up for pre-order !

Hey all!

As from the title, this post is on the Imperial Knights! They are now currently for pre-order!

The Imperial Knight is something I was looking forward to to buff up my current Imperial Guard army, but it comes at a staggering price. This puts my plans slightly behind schedule, sigh. Though I believe it could be worth the money as the Imperial Knight is a huge kit with many components, transfers which I have never seen before and from the website, it is at a height of 8 inches!

For those of you who have not seen it, click here to visit the page on it now!

The rules and points cost of each knight is located at the new White Dwarf Issue 4. If you have not gotten that issue, get it. It includes a section on paint splatter in which it teaches you on how to paint some colours of the Imperial Knight and how to effectively paint it before assembling the entire model together.

I would probably be getting one as soon as I have sufficient budget to get one. This is to make my army look cooler and more menacing. Two of these built differently sounds like a good plan too!

So what are you waiting for? Pre-order yours today! Or in my case, hopefully get enough budget to get one as soon as I can! 

In my estimation, they could most probably be off the shelf in no time at it's release, so get yours or you might need to wait till the next batch of Imperial Knights stock come in!

Winters

Miniature Dating

Hey all!

After weeks of consideration, I have decided it is time to date your miniatures. I have seen this idea on another blog several weeks ago (Sorry I forgot the blog name, but if anybody knows the blog, please link it for me. If the idea was yours do write it in the comments and link it so everyone can see too.) This idea is actually to write dates on the miniatures to when you paint them so you won't have to look at your miniatures painted years back and think your current paint job is still equally bad. This example is also from the other blog if I remember correctly. Correct me if I made a mistake.

I decided that I should modify the idea a little bit. Instead of just writing the date in which you painted your miniatures, why not for basing too? The difference too is I will not put in the actual that but rather only the month and year in which it was painted.

The letter 'M' will represent which month and year the miniature is painted and the letter 'B' will represent which month and year the base was completed.

My example: say you have a poorly done autocannon team like the following picture and you want to prove to your friends it was done many many years ago.

So to prove it, I just flipped the base over and it revealed the date! In this case: 'M:6/2013' , which means miniature painted on June 2013. But as the base have yet to be fully completed although greenstuff and corks have been added and a basecoat of black have been applied, hence the 'B' slot still remains empty. I wrote the 'B' there to remind myself I have a base to continue and see how long I drag it on until I finally got it done. This is also a sort of motivation for me to get my miniatures done.

Some may ask what if my base is a slotted one? Like maybe a small box of cadians, tyranids, orks, space marines and many other models that comes with a slotted base. Well, it is actually pretty easy. Instead of writing both 'M' and 'B', I decided to just put the 'M' there. This is to let me know when I painted the model. So, what if I did the base several months later? The answer is easy, just write down the date below the 'M'. If you are confident of writing the 'B' in, go ahead, if not, just stick with the date, like the base below, where I only wrote 'M' but did not write when the base is done as I have not based it yet. The reason for me not writing the 'B' is this:

The slotted base is separated into two portions, one larger than the other. As I have already used up almost all the space at the larger portion when writing in the 'M', I have no confidence I can write in the 'B' at the smaller portion. Thus I have to forgo writing it. But like I said earlier, if you are confident to do so, why not?

I got a Company Commander below where I tried my best to make the miniature pop. Though it wasn't very good, it was great improvements. 

And to show them how much effort you put in to improve your painting, show them your base to see the date/dates. That way you can see how much you have improved over the years rather then get confused with more recent models with older models. This is especially so if you got a load of miniatures like the tyranids or the infantry heavy Imperial Guard forces.

The following is a fully painted Catachan with it's base completed. 

The fluff for this guy and his squad is this : 

The Catachans were dispatched onto the deathworld with no soil except sand, with the tectonic plates of the planet constantly shifting to take out it's intruders. The Catachans not only face the threat of the enemy but also the threat of the alien menace that lurks on the planet. The entire planet is covered in rocks and grass plains. Their mission is to aid the troops (which is my cadians with purple helmets) to take as much of the planet's resource as possible before leaving as this planet was confirmed by the Mechanicum to be filled with huge amount of natural resources which can fuel an entire battlefleet.

The base shows an example of how I have written both the 'M' and the 'B' dates.

Last but not least is that I am very sure there is bound to be one or two models which you really like and full of sentimental value or the very first miniature you painted etc. Hence I came up with this, which is to write the number on the side of the base as I di for my Imperial Fists guy of the 3rd Company. He was the first marine to be ever painted by me, hence I wrote a '1'. I do the same with subsequent numbers such as '2' and '3' and so on but I would not recommend numbering every miniature you have with this except special ones as if all miniatures have a numbering, then the numbers have lost its meaning.

If you like to know what miniatures you paint on which day and all that, take a small notebook and jot down the dates and the type of miniature you painted so you can keep track of what you have painted on a certain day and so on. Though this may be a good way too, you may lose track of which models is which as you get more replicated models such as more Cadians or Tyranids. Thus I find the numbering of the month and year below the base is already sufficient enough for me.

Hope you guys could start dating your miniatures, though it is not exactly a must or is compulsory. I used Games Workshop Citadel Base Ceramite White to do the numbering, though any bright colours of your preference would do as long as it stands out from the base colour. You could also varnish the dates under the base too. For me, I would only varnish it after both dates for the 'M' and 'B' is written on, or rather painted on.

Hope you guys have a fun time painting, basing and archiving you miniatures!

Winters