Budapest Grand Tournament

You know, that I don't play, but I have promote this event; if you are have some time drop in. I buy a beer for all my readers who show up. (I come as a spectator.) It will be held on the 16th-17th of October.

Here is the link  Regular tournament prizes, entry fee is €20 that includes luch on both days.

Saying goodbye to the Catachans

For some time I played with the idea of building an all metal Catachan army (the same way my Bretonnians are being collected) but I have to realize that I will never get to finish them. Facing the fact one has to have a great moral character, that I happen to possess, so here they are for sale.

Reasonable offers in e-mail.

Meanwhile summer holiday passed uneventful, but I managed to sell a lot of unused stuff to local gamers; and so I invested in a new airbrush+compressor combo. I haven't had much time to try it out (family holiday, canoeing with colleagues etc.) but I'm sure my Mk1 will shine at the time of the local Games Day.

The Great Vallejo Wash Review

Regular readers may know that I'm a bit partial to Vallejo paints. I love the dropper bottles, the consistency and the price/quantity ratio. The only thing I kept buying (of course I still own and use a lot of Citadel paints) from the Citadel range are their very cool washes. Obviously when I learned that Vallejo comes out with a brand new range, I had to have them. This is a humble review of my impressions.
I bought my set from Maelstrom; using their latest voucher the whole set cost a mere £ 12.79 for eight bottles, and let me remind you, you get 17ml bottles for this price, not 10 as for Citadel washes.The Citadel set sells around £15, so per ml you pay twice as much for Citadel.
The colour range is very similar as for the Citadel washes, the only exception being the lack of violet, where you get the mysterious pale wash instead. This is how the washes look boxed.

Methodology

I tested the washes basically in 4 or 5 different settings:

1. Undiluted over Vallejo's grey primer. (this is a fine light gray polyurethane resin primer, ready to use in an airbrush, but good to apply with an ordinary brush too.)
2. Wash diluted with distilled water, 1:1, over grey primer
3. Wash diluted with Johnson&Johnson Pronto Floor Polish mix 1:1 over grey primer. We have no Future in Hungary. Of course it is not nihilism, I'm not worried about the national debt, but we have no such product, as Future or Klear, or Klar etc. However we have this floor finish that is almost identical, but is not clear but have a pale almond colour. It disappears though as it dries.I mean the colour. I use my mix with 1 part Pronto and 1 part distilled water, so in this case in fact it is 3 parts water, 1 part Pronto
4. Wash applied over a suitable colour, to show how it fares under real circumstances
5. In case there is something needs testing, armour, a face etc.

For a test model I used CW's very fine Cadian standard bearer. Shown below with primer only, for reference.

Black

Black is one of the basic washes you need and Vallejo's works quite well:

1. Nice even finish, it glazes surface, but stays mainly in the recesses. Perhaps a bit too strong. Has a slight brownish hue 
2. Diluted the wash falls apart a bit and the result is rather blotchy, with some tidemarks
3. Diluted with floor polish the wash performs rather well; remains nicely in recesses,
4. For the colour test I chose Vallejo's air colour grey primer (not to confuse with the urethane one!)
5. The result is quite convincing, a tad too dark again
6. As armour wash over Citadel Mithril Silver: nice gradients, performs quite well

Conclusion: a solid performer, a bit dark, and I learned not to dilute it with water.
Rating: good 

Umber

Another classic. Umber comes in a nice neutral dark brown colour, that I came to like quite well

1. Over the primer it looks quite nice, promising
2. Diluted with water looks much better then black, perhaps a tad too light
3. Diluted with Pronto it looks OK, a bit light again
4. The real test is over VGC Iraqian Sand (I know, but they call it like that regardless) one of my favourites nowadays
5. The colour test looks very much to my taste, exactly what I'd expect from such a colour

Conclusion: Umber and me will be good friends. It has the perfect shade and coverage, can be used to make darker shades too, mixed with other washes

Rating: Excellent

Sepia

Sepia is exactly what you'd expect, a warmer, yellower brown. Less versatile than Umber, but still have it's uses.

1. Over the primer it looks good, with some of the quality of Umber, but warmer. It glazed the primer nicely
2. Diluted with water it falls apart a bit
3. Looks great with floor polish, I guess this is my new recipe for bone
4. Again, Sepia will be tested on Iraquian Sand
5. Nice even coverage, but a bit too much. Would look better diluted.

Conclusion: I think sepia will be a good choice for aging gold, bone, cloth, whatever. Good to have on the desk

Rating: very good

Fleshtone

Fleshtone is meant to shade human skin, let's see how it fares. The tone is much lighter than the previous colours, and looks very different than VGC Skin wash, which in fact is a dark orange ink, and looks quitre strange on minies (shading flesh I mean).

1. Applied over primer it looks exciting. It takes some abstract thinking to see human flesh in the flag, but you can try. A bit reddish where it pools.
2. Diluted with water it doesn't cover much
3. Little better with floor polish; stays in the recesses nicely
4. The test is with Iraquian Sand again, as I use it as basic skintone too, quite often
5. The result is OK but again one needs some imagination
6. Helping the thicker hobbyists I painted a Catachan face. I think it looks good, especially if highlights were added

Conclusion: I'm not yet fully convinced as it needs some more testing but the results look OK.
Rating: good

Pale

Pale wash is a very interesting colour. Actually it is light grey, and it is primarily meant to shade white, which is  good news to anyone struggling with that colour (Hey, Island of Blood is coming! Hint, hint... Elves?)

You can't see much on the first few pictures, as the primer and the wash have similar shade. The difference shows when tested on VGC White Primer; it shades white nicely and evenly. With the proper shading the results can be stunning. Please note that in the latest flag the wash was diluted 1:1 with Pronto mixture.

Conclusion: Pale wash is something new and I'm positive that it will make many of us happy in the future

Ranking: very good 

Red

Red is what I feel is the weakest link in the range. It has a dark magenta colour, that is great for enriching red though

1. Painted on the primer, red wash looks rather weird, but the consistency is OK
2. Diluting red is a bad idea. the result is a lot of uneven tidemarks looking quite bad
3. Using floor polish will not solve the problems either
4. I tested the shading qualities over Citadel Blood Red. Perhaps it was not such a good idea, I should have chosen a less saturated colour
5. Red wash shades Blood red nicely, but the result is too weak and light to work. As a side effect the magenta of the wash  boosts the saturation of Blood red to irrational levels.
6. With a second coat of wash the banner looks OKish.

Conclusion: Red wash in one layer will not do the trick, it is too light and bright for that. Might work on oranges perhaps. Before I'd bury it though, it must be said that combined with sepia or umber it will work well, and one can find many useful ways to use it. But still no good to shade red.

Rating: below average

Green

Green is similar to red in many ways but performs better. The colour is quite light and bright, and therefore suitable for lighter greens only.

1. Applies over the primer I quite like the way it looks, though it shows alrready, that the wash is too light
2. Diluted with water it is much less blotchy than red wash is
3. Looks nice, though pale with Pronto too.
4. I tested over VGC's Scorpion Green (A bit too saturated, but unfortunately I have a limited palette of light greens)
5. Wow! This looks cool! The paint and wash look great together.

Conclusion: Green is a decent wash, but to wash Orks or any darker green stuff, it is no good. Mixing it with umber or black may worth a try, but in itself it is good for lighter shades only.

Rating: Average 

Blue

Compared to red and green blue is a much darker shade that works as expected

1. It looks decent on primer
2. Does not look good diluted with water, does not fill the recesses or builds nice gradients
3. Looks OK though, diluted with Pronto 
4. For the test I used Citadel Enchanted Blue
5. I quite like the result, with highlights it would look splendid.

Conclusion: Blue works as expected, and gives a very nice result

Rating: very good

To sum it up

Vallejo washes are a cost effective alternative to Citadel ones. They are slightly more viscous, and should not be diluted with water. Future or matte medium works fine though. The glazing effect of the washes is nice, but they keep to recesses perhaps very slightly less than Citadel washes do. The gradients the washes create are very nice. Red and green are way too saturated and light for my taste. 

The range does not have a purple, and it is a shame, for purple is quite useful at times, but the revolutionary pale wash is a very good trade off. I'm quite happy that I bought the set, and advise all of you the same.

For the price sensitive ones will be delighted to hear that 200ml bottles are also available for £6.52.

For Vallejo I'd recommend to sponsor a professional painter, or a blog to help people to use their products most effectively. I still have no idea how to use VGC Smokey Ink (thick brown paste with flakes in it, no ink at all), VMC transparent smoke, the Skin Wash (not Fleshtone) or basically any of their inks. Up until that day it is trial and error, unless someone does the testing, or writes tutorials. But I think it is most easily done by those who designed these products.

That's all folks, I hope you liked it. Stay tuned there might be a wash comparison one day (including home made wash recipes!)

Tyranids for SALE

Hi Folks,

a friend of mine asked me to help selling his army as he plans to move to WFB.
The following is a rough list, there is some more (+5-10%) , so I'll update later. All of the minis are mostly unpainted, most have even no primer on, a lot of them still on sprue. Assembled pieces are made nicely/prepared for painting (de-flashed etc).
The seriously interested should drop me an e-mail.


What the army includes

1 Hive Tyrant 
1 Hive Tyrant OOP
44 Termagaunts 
45 Termagaunts on sprue
12 Hormagaunts on sprue
72 Genestealers
20 Genestealers on sprue
13 Warriors
24 bases of Swarm
3 FW Areal spore mines
8 Hive Guards, 2 in box
6 Carnifexes
2 Converted Carnifexes
1 Tyranid Trygon
1 Mawloc
1 Bivore
3+6 Spores
2 Lictors


Teaser pictures (assembled minis only):

Scout paint scheme

This week I was thinking about the best colour scheme for the scouts, these are the trial pieces:

The right one of course resembles the Sentinels' colour scheme more closely, whereas the left one for some is more pleasing. Which would you rather chose? Or perhaps a variation? lighter tan or darker grey? Please comment!

I also thinking about the chest eagle. Just have seen an excellent blood angels tutorial over All Things 40K and got totally hooked on that shoulder pad. Do you think that a chest eagle like this would look better? Please ignore the paintjob, I spent just about 5 minutes painting the whole thing.

Homemade decals - Astartes numerals

My first homemade decals are finished, in the last two weeks (apart from a small holiday) they were my primary project.

First I started with the drawing board and Adobe AI. Thanks to my earlier designs, the first draft was created rather quickly. After this the proper sizes for the individual designs were determined and checked against actual minis and shoulder pads. There are multiple sizes, different for scouts and terminators and vehicles.
Once I was satisfied with the result I printed the vector design on decal paper.
Please understand that these are not real decals, and therefore they have limitations. Firstly I cannot print white without access to an ALPS printer. ALPS printers are no longer in production, so buying one - even if buying one second hand is possible -combined with the increasing accessory prices do not make the business case viable. (other possibility could be screen printing, but for such small insignia, and so few copies it doesn't worth it.) So, since I cannot print white, I have to print on white. This means that to avoid a halo of white on the edge you have to print a halo with a colour matching the base colour of the mini or vehicle - in my case VMC Dark Prussian Blue.

For the best results after applying the decals the traditional way overpaint the edges with the base colour. This will crate a smooth gradient. By the way I almost always overpaint decals a little, so that they would look less uniform.

Secondly, professional decals come pre-cut. As I have no idea how it is done, so one have to cut out the decals usig a very sharp blade.

You know by now, that I'm a shameless promoter of my very own Sentinels, you can freely download the decal sheet in .pdf format. Please note that it is in letter format.

File Hosting Online Storage Backup

Since you never seem to get enough numerals on GW transfers, I also created my own number sets. As I previewed in my previous post, the numbers are fully vectorized. As making these astartes numerals was very time consuming, I won't give them away that easily... but they are of course available for all followers of this blog. Please e-mail me if you'd like the file.
Later, upon individual request I plan to produce custom decals, numerals in other colours, and even sell them in printed form, though it may take a little time.
I'm quite happy with the way the transfers turned out, but I was less satisfied with the Holi decal papers I was using. It was rather too thick to my taste. I have to find a different manufacturer for better results. Any suggestions?

Little teaser

Recently I spent some time with Adobe's Illustrator, and made fair progress on some custom decals for the Sentinels.
I also made some cool stuff:

Yes. Real, proper vectorized Astartes numerals...
Decals are soon to follow.

Land Speeder Redux

Some old time followers might remember one of my first posts back from January; it was about a Land Speeder, full of details that later turned out to be unnecessary. The paint scheme changed too, and as I became involved With my Land Raider Mk1 the work on this little one has stalled. Until last week, when I finished it :-)
Actually it is not finished, as the magnetized parts may get some transfers and freehand, and still need to be weathered.
The model is fully magnetized, all the doors/accessories/weapons can be removed. I'm a big fan of magnetization, both for versatility and portability.
The base is made of a standard AOBR base and a piece of carbon fibre rod, as I dislike GW flying bases.
The junk on the ground are made of plasticard (heated up and bent over fire) pieces of tin sheet and resin parts.
The scratches on the bumper and the hull are the weakest part of the paintjob, hell, next time they will turn pout better. The speeder was given a little coat of dust pigment (dust, dusty green and sand) as I felt that as a flying machine stronger weathering would be out of place.
As always, feedback is welcome.

Typhoon variant with multi melta (some sooth will be applied)

Tornado variant with heavy bolter

Engine glow

Things from the past - My absolute worst

Going through junk in the basement at my parents' house I found some remarkable items. 

These are 1:72 Revell Normans I painted in 1989. This is my second ever paintjob. This crime against humanity was committed with some very poor quality glossy enamel paint. Miniatures were impossible to get in Hungary back then, as far as I'm concerned. I had no idea how to paint minis, and it shows.

Those days I was - as so many of us - obsessed with AD@D, and I was given a copy of the Battlesystem rules. I was very excited but found no suitable minies. I even considered making my own of pewter, but at the end of the day these 1:72 ones were the only ones I could put my hands on, apart from some brass knights from Kinder Eggs.

My very first time -I mean with paints and toy soldiers - was somewhere around the mid eighties, when I abused some crude plastic soldiers, and painted them with gouache colours and applied a very heavy glossy enamel coat. At the time I was quite influenced by the "Dirty Dozen", that I was allowed to watch on TV for the first time. This set luckily seems to be lost saving me the embarrassment. 

Man, it was a long time ago... I was about ten then.

My Celestine

This is my version of the Living Saint. She serves no purpose in my would-be army, I just happened to come into the possession of the model and painted her just for fun. I won't keep her though, but I'll give her to my wife as present. I hope she'll like her.