Snow terrain, tutorial

Snow terrain tutorial

I was asked how I made the bases on my latest flames of war miniatures so I thought that a small tutorial would be in order.

I will show the techniques by making some areaterrain.

On my miniatures I had painted the base in light brown but here I will use the natural color of the sand. 

After I glued on the sand on the terrain pieces I waited for it to harden.

Next step is to use an old brush and some more white glue and adding the first grass color. After that a second color of grass. I like the effect of mixing more than one type of grass.

When they had hardened I added the snow.

And luckily for this tutorial it had snowed during the night so I can show you some pictures from my window showing the effects I am after.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention that the snow is from Woodland Scenic, and I think it was this one
http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/index.php?act=pro&pre=wsc_hob_lsc_msc_301_000


And here are the flames of war miniatures that were mentioned.

Sturm platoon

Stug begleit

Fantasy terrain tutorial

Fantasy terrain

A friend asked how I made the bases on the trollbrothers and I thought that it would be a reason as good as any to make a tutorial.
I will show the techniques I used but while making an area terrain, this will be used in my fantasy project later on. The techniques is the same as a small model base.

I started by sawing a masonite board in to a shape of my liking and by using woodglue and sand to cover it. On a regular miniature or a piece of terrain that sticks up a little more the this allmost flat surface or a terrain piece that doesn’t have basecolor that I like,  I prime with it with a black primer. (remember to not spray on a styrofoam as it will melt...)
Then I used my white base spray paint and applied a thin layer. I tried to use an 45degre angel with the white spray, to simulate sunshine. This won’t make such a different on a flat surface like this but will be more noticed on other pieces so I thought it would be mentioned.

Next step is to ably my regular paint. I tried to use “wrong” colors, bright and non-natural ones to make clear this is a fantasy terrain. By adding water into the paint the color will not entirely cover the white primer, this effect is intentional as it will make an automatically shadowing and highlight effect.

After some different colors I felt that I was done.

I then used my bellowed woodglue and a brush I’m not that afraid to lose, covering some of the parts of the base. Dont forget to clean the brush.

By adding green grass flock I will tie the piece into a more natural coloration.

Next step was to use my box of dried stuff. It contains all things that could be used on terrain, old tea, dried and crushed leaves and flowers, some sawdust and some leftover flock and so on.

The intention with this is to make it look as forest undergrowth, a more natural terrain piece.

And then Im done.

Unfortunately I don’t have any trees to my fantasy forest yet, so until then the area terrain could be used with these rune stones, or maybe just as a piece of terrain on its own.

How I painted the Danish troops

How to..

What I have done
* Removed the flash and cleaned the models.
* Glued the models on wooden sticks, paint stirrer or popsicles is perfect for this.
* Gave them a “zenith light” painting, this is probably totally unnecessary in this scale but I did it anyway. I first sprayed the models black and when that had dried I sprayed a light layer of white over the models in about 45 degree angle. This will make a natural light and shade on the model. This will give a much better effect on 28mm scale and I will not use it on all my 15mm models.
* I then painted them in the colors they will have, making no attempt to make any shade.
* Then I painted the models in a thin layer of GW:s Devlar mud.

* Then the trick is to highlight the models in the same colors that was under the thin layer of Devlar mud. This will make a quick and very effective effect.

And with some sand painted in downwatered brown and some flock they look splendid.

Handpainted flag...

Painting modern American camo

I made a quick tutorial how I indend to paint my American troops. Sorry for some of the bad pictures.
These models were fun to paint. Expect more to come.
The technique I will show is something that worked perfectly to paint German tropentarn camo in 28mm and I hope it will work here to.

I will try to paint a 1/72 Caesar model after this camo.

Step 1: Spray paint the model white.

 Step 2: Paint the on the places that you want the camo on with Valejjo 884 Stone Grey.

 Step 3: Use a sponging technique with the packing material you get in some blister when you buy miniature.

And sponge on some Vallejo German Fieldgrey 830 over the basecolor camo.

Step 4: Sponge on some Vallejo Green Grey 886.

Step 5: Paint all metal and other things like the straps for the goggles and so on with Vallejo German Gray 995 (best paint ever). I even painted over some of the earlier painting I have done with a water down mix of German Gray to give a better effect on shadows and to mark where the kneecaps ends and so on.

Step 6: I painted the skin with Vallejo Flat Flesh 955.

Step 7: Painted the boots with Vallejo Iraqi Sand 819.

Step 8: Now I realized that I had enhanced the shadow on the uniform but not on the skin and boots. Now would be a god time to do it instead of doing it in step 5.
So paint some watered down German Gray on the last parts, the boots and on the edges of the skin. I also painted some GW Wash Devlar mud on the places I wanted to enhance the shadows on. You should not paint the whole model with watered down German Gray and Devlar mud as this will make the effects of the camo disappear, just paint were you want to enhance the shadows.
I think the model is now tabletop and could be used in play.

Step 9. I now highlight some of the places on the model with the same basecolor I used on that place. So Iraqi Sand to highlight the boots and Flat flesh to highlight the skin.

Step 10. Small useless detail that no one will notice on a gametable. But fun to see if you look closer.
An American flag on one of the shoulder, a light highlight of dust on the weapon and a thin layer of red on the underlip the model. The lip I painted with GW Wash Ogryn Flesh and this should only be applied on the underlip or else it will look like lipstick.

So there you have it.

How to make a pine tree into a palm tree

I thought it was time for me to show how I made some palm trees.
I found some pine cones that a squirrel had “finished” for me on the parking lot of my work.
And that got my thinking, and in the local hobby shop I found some feathers that would be perfect for my project.

I used some watered down woodglue (pva ?) and formed the feathers to my liking. I then glued the cone and some sand on a base. After the feathers were painted I glued them on the cones and the palm tree is ready for gaming.