Wood process step by step

 This is a quick and easy process that allows me to paint raw wood very quickly to a good visual (if a bit cartoon like) quality.

I start with a black primer base.  I try for complete coverage but if its a little weak in the crevices I don'y worry about it too much.  You can see that the primer coat has some holes in the coverage...

 I've settled on some specific colors but they have easy equivalents in all brands.

First I do a heavy damp brush across the grain with Vallejo 'Flames of War' series German cam pale brown. 












Next I do a medium dry brush of of Vallejo Tan Earth. this is on one direction across the grain and is a little heavier than a top hoghlight dry-brush would be.

This two tone start gives good  depth to the piece.

 Next I do a liberal wash of Secret Weapon Dark Sepia.  This wash is along the grain and covers the whole piece. 

 The Secret Weapon washes are very heavily pigmented and tint the piece, even the black primer, which becomes tinted enough to be a real base shadow.  They are also good at covering any holes in the primer coat.

 When the wash has thoroughly dried I do a very light cross-grain dry-brush of Vallejo Sunny Skin Tone.

I repeat the Sunny Skin Tone very lightly along the edges and in other areas of the model that would be considered 'high traffic' or have a lot of sun exposure.


If there are any areas, especially in crevices, that are still showing primer holes or the wood is an outdoor item, like wood exposed beneath shingle or a post, I outline them with Secret Weapon Sewer Water which has a slight green cast to it.  This makes the area look water damaged and mildewed.  If you want it to look rotten just replace the Sewer Water with the Secret Weapon Baby Poop which more green than the Sewer Water.

Fast, easy, effective!

Tabletop World Building of the Week: Furniture Set

 Today's "Tabletop World Building of the Week" is actually not a building at all!  Its a furniture set.  There are enough pieces to fill out the furniture needs of several rooms.  In Game terms that could be up to four buildings.

Today I've got all of them crowded into the Coaching Inn but its really a bit more than the floor-plan can comfortably manage.  All the same they look great in there!

 As usual these were perfectly clean and required no prep work beyond a quick wash and a shot of primer. 

 These items, much like the Merchant shop goods, are replete with details... equipment, food, accents etc... Even the hidden surfaces are detailed.  Under sides of the benches and tables as well as the undersides of the shelves in the book case are all completely rendered.

 Here we see Mortaria for scale in the inn and separately with a few of the pieces.

These were a pleasure to paint.  The clean condition and great details make it easy to get inspired.

Now off to find a box with another Tabletop World building hiding in it... wonder which one it will be!








Oh, and batch three of the Lulus from Raging Heroes... or as I've found myself calling them the pack of brat snipers!  This makes 18 completed to date with 5 more on the table.  That will finish off the horde until the hand poured resins show up.

Raging Heroes Jailbirds - Mimi the Radio

I'm picking up the pace a bit in anticipation of a new round of  Raging Heroes arrivals!  No date yet but seems like I'd better clear the deck while I can!  So... post 2 this week!

Mimi the Radio for the Jailbirds faction. 

I like how the flesh turned out here and might have to use this combo more often.  The head is also wonderfully detailed with enormous hoop earrings, big sun glasses, and a headset.

The color density on these is improving as I get a handle on the Secret Weapon Washes.  I've moved most of the GW washes into glaze and light shadow duty while big shading and tinting is being done with Secret Weapon. 















I seem to have overlooked the face on the little Beanie Baby hanging from the back!  oops... amazing the things you miss until the photo is staring back at you.

 This model is posed in a way that makes it easier to use very busy bases.  the right leg can also be angled to give a couple of 'control' effects to the run over the terrain.





 The informal uniforms continue.  The plan is to incorporate several common elements in different ways to end up with a force that looks ragtag and haphazard... but also cohesive... at least to the extent that they all should look like they belong together... the anti uniform.

The Death Marshals for Malifaux 2e are starting with a base texture that will hopefully blend well with all the Tabletop World terrain that they will most likely be spending their game time inhabiting.

Speaking of Tabletop World... a sneak peek of the 'Building of the Week'  next week will be the furniture for use in the Coaching Inn that was this week's 'Tabletop World Building of the Week'.  Perfectly clean as usual!  Primed up and ready to paint.

All the Raging Heroes Mascots, a Tabletop World Coaching Inn and Batch 2 of Mad Nurses and Lulus... whew!

The random Tabletop World 'Building of the Week" for this week is the Coaching Inn.

This is a great model and, like all the TTW stuff I've seen to date, completely clean and pre-fitted.  I really love these guys!

 I'm going to have to build an actual light box... sigh... The bigger models just overflow my little white space!

In keeping with the rest of the village there is the signature 'warm glow' from the windows although I changed the interior windows to be a cool blue color... hopefully the village doesn't appear to be burning down when viewed from inside now!

An interesting design choice... there appears to be no access to the second floor room unless you are Zorro or a cat burglar!  For ease of use I don't miss the interior stair as they occupy a LOT of space and are essentially useless in terms of model placement... I approve!

 The Inn is a bit run down so I went with sun bleached red for the roof.  A Vallejo brown base, a wash of Secret Weapon Red Black, and a Highlight brush of Vallejo Sunny Flesh.

Whitewash walls began as GW Deneb Stone Foundation paint and worked up through the Reaper master Series Bone Triad.

 The railing is Vallejo Gun metal Gray with GW Ryza Rust and Typhus Corrosion.  While assembling the rail I was startled by a sudden noise and broke the thing into several pieces... as the place is a bit run down I left the repair in a haphazard condition.

 Here we have Bernadette for scale... I can see that the more extensive... and elevated basing is an issue!  For the Mordheim stuff I'll have to keep the bases to a lower profile.

The interior of the ground floor is well layed out and playable... thanks in part to the absence of what would have been a pesky stair to the upper level!

 Raging Heroes... all the Mascots!

 Harry the Hippo!  These are carting cans of.... Mountain Dew!?

I figure its that or Jolt... the nod to beer comes from the pink hippo... or Harry the Way One-Shot Blondie sees him...







Charlie!  I did two takes of the same basic idea... one was a work up of the Reaper Autumn Gold Triad and one was a straight wash of iron oxide over white... much faster of course but not terrible in the end.

 Jinx in all her Secret Weapon glory... A Blue-Black version and a Ruby version.  One over Black and One over white primer. 

 ... and lastly batch 2 of the Lulus and Mad Nurse Burnadette!

I had a small accident with the remaining Lulus and catapulted them across the room... I've mostly recovered them but ... one tiny arm turned up missing...  May have to sculpt another... ouch!

Tabletop World Windmill

 This week's random Tabletop World building is the Windmill.  I was hesitant to get this model but my wife loved it... so here it is! The reason I was hesitant is that it would almost certainly be fiddly and require a LOT of adjustment... like with a hammer... but WOW was I mistaken!

The vanes pictured above are straight out of the package... obviously pre-cleaned up and test fitted... oh.. and arrow straight with no warp whatsoever in spite of the ambitious twist and in spite of sitting in the pile for half a year.  As with all the Tabletop World kits to date I did zero clean up on these... just a wash before priming.

 The kit had no method to attach the upper turret to the main body and, after dorking around with magnets...mostly out of habit... I settled on inserting an old toothpick container to act as a swivel.  Works great!

In terms of painting I seem to have omitted one of the usual layers and replaced it with some washes and glazes... the overall result is that the windmill looks a little older that the rest of the village.

These got the same window treatment as the rest of the village.  I like the warm glow and it implies that its dark out! Vampires and Werewolves..Oh My!

 The real stand out differences are the sails and the copper roof details. 

The Sails were a lot of scrubby layers... Vallejo German Light Brown, Vallejo Sand Light, Vallejo Medium Flesh, Reaper Splintered Bone.

The copper was a lot less messy.  GW Bolt Gun Metal over black and three layers of GW Nihilikh Oxide.  The oxide is a technical paint and is intended to spot corrode instead of as a coverage paint but I think it works out ok here.

 Speaking of 'the village'  I think this collection of buildings needs a name!  While Mordheim is the most likely use for them.. they aren't all ruined and decrepit so I'm thinking another name for the group is in order! Something evocative... hmmm....  suggestions welcome!

And.. just for Greggles... Lulus for scale!  Turns out the windmill was built for Hobbits?  Or, more likely, more realistic medieval height people... plays well with my idea that its an old building... in a town where people tend to have to duck a little going through a door anyway!


The Lulus are from batch 2 and are more heavily pigmented than the first batch... which look a bit washed out against the buildings.  Lesson learned a few more layers of wash and glaze... or maybe 'White primer is not your friend."  I'm beginning to understand grey primers now... that took long enough!

Mad Nurse Bernadette, One Shot Blondie, and a Town Square

 Its been a busy couple of weeks.  Today we get a visit from Mad Nurse Bernadette!

This was one of the minis in the Raging Heroes TGG Kickstarter that really grabbed attention.  Inspired by an old Album cover  she is one of several nurse/medics offered in the KS.   Here she is paired with my second iteration of One-Shot Blondie.

The sculpt is very striking and the only construction challenge is the fore arm join which requires a bit of filling.  Once again RH demonstrates their great feel for style with a simple but iconic pose.

 This iteration of Blondie shares a lot of color elements with this Bernadette and I'm liking the "Combat Blue Jeans" look for Post Apocalypse style.  I've a couple more Bernadettes on the table at the moment each with different take on color but they should all mix well in any of the jailbird units.

I used a lot of Secret Weapon stuff on this batch... from bases to their washes.  I'm getting a better grip on using these washes, which are a lot more heavily... and coarsely... pigmented than their GW or Army Painter counterparts.

From Tabletop World I discovered this Town Square stuck in a box of paints.  I brushed it up with the same sort of stone gray as the buildings and discolored many areas with various washes to get a sort of greasy, well used look.  I opted to not use powders and grass fills in the crevices as this piece will get a lot of traffic in different configurations.

Below you can see it forming the basis for the Merchant Shop with a minis thrown in for scale.

Next on the plate.... completing batch 2 of the Lulus, grabbing another TTW building at random from the pile... and starting cleanup on some Malifaux 2e Death Marshals.

Fun fun fun!

One Shot Blondie and the Lulus

 Batch one of the lulus is done.  There are 4 batches total so three more remain on the table.  They are a fun group and have a lot of character.

 One Shot Blondie is the leader/guardian of the Lulus (also to be known as the brat packs in in the current version of my personal army fluff). This is an iconic pose and one of the few metal minis that I picked up from the KS.  I tended to get resins this go around but don't now recall why I got a handful of metals.

I see her as a little damaged so added the 'thousand mile stare' and some hair dye to the already included detail of lollipops and Mickey Mouse ears.

 Though metal the mini was relatively clean with well placed mold lines and went together without event. 

 There are six lulus including the 'Butterfly Lulu'  which was the hardest to get assembled.  In general I had more trouble with the mold lines that I originally had thought.

I decided to use some ideas like... colorful plastic galoshes and rain coats to theme the group and emphasize their identity as refugee children... as if all the teddy bears, pets, lollipops, false ears, and bling left any room for doubt on that score.

 Overall the group reminds me a lot of Peter Pan's lost boys.

I returned to a style of painting that I haven't used in a while painting in washes over while.  It'll take a few iterations to get better definition but, in general, I think its easier for this sort of subject. 

This lulu turned out to be my favorite and went together very easily.

And finally... a size comparison with a Lulu, Hilda, and the crazy Colossal Bone Giant.