X-Wing Tutorial : Pimp my base the return in colorvision!

Quite a few people have asked me how I did my X-Wing bases, so here it is.

The idea is not originaly mine but taken (again!) from Rodent Mastermind.

For this tutorial, you will need:

- ultramarine blue, fuchsia, crimson red and white airbrush paint

- Citadel white scar layer

- your trusty airbrush

- an old toothbrush

- a black primed x-wing base

1) Using white paint with the airbrush at low pressure (1.5 bar), spray random patterns on the side of the base, trying to create roughly parallel lines and going back over some areas to get something from grey to pure white. The low pressure should create  a pattern of very small points, instead of the usual smooth airbrush transitions.

2) Go back to regular pressure, and spray your fuchsia color over some or close to the white patterns you have made, leaving white in places.

3) Spray the blue where the fuchsia color is weak, still leaving some white to show through.

4) Using the crimson red, go back over some of the fuchsia, reinforcing the color in places.

At this stage don't worry to much about cleanliness, the next step should correct any mistakes.

5) Dip the toothbrush in the white scar pot, then using your thumb, spray a pattern of dots on a test surface. When satisfied with the size of the dots, spray some on the base.

Just remember, at this stage, less is more, a few white dots will contrast strongly with the colored background, hiding the mistakes you may have made earlier.

6) Using a black marker, color in black the edge of the cardboard pilot inserts.

I hope you find this tutorial useful.

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing : pimp my base!

Why do we play X-Wing?

It's really an excuse to play with toy star fighters, move them around making engine noises and pew pew sounds. We want to have fun recreating the run on the Death Star trench, the Hoth evacuation, or just a simple encounter between two patrols.

The goal of this article is to show you 2 base mods that will increase your enjoyment of the game.

First : the Anti-slippage mod

The idea is to increase the amount of energy necessary to accidentally move a ship.

For this you will need flat weights that fit under a base and silicone sealant. Washers or small coins will do, just try to use non magnetic materials if you've already done or want to do  my asteroid mod. Start by gluing your weights at the center of the bottom base recess then apply a generous layer of silicone on top.

You should get something like this:

Remove the excess using a plastic card or a piece of cardboard then let harden on a piece of baking paper:

After a couple of hours, when the silicone is dry to the touch, remove the base from the baking paper and let harden bottom up for a day or two.

Second : the fun rotation mod

For this you will need small nails, with heads about 2 to 3 mm wide, and ball magnets (3mm diameter). In Europe you can get ball magnets from : Supermagnete a german company.

Cut your nail heads, you will need one per model you want to reposition:

Next drill a 3mm hole in the model you want to reposition about 2/3mm deep where the flight stand plug would be, then a smaller hole at the bottom the size of you nail head.

Nail head not yet pushed in

Glue the nail head in the hole then put a small bead of green stuff on top. Press a wet round brush handle hard on the green stuff to create a bowl shaped depression with nail head showing at the bottom. Let harden an hour.

In the meantime, cut the head of a flight stand, drill a small depression on top and glue your ball magnets in the depression. You should now have something like this:

To finish wet the magnet and press it in the green stuff bowl to improve the shape (we wait an hour to harden the surface of the green stuff and prevent it from sticking to the ball).

Wait for the green stuff to fully cure. You can now represent banks and rolls by really pivoting the model!

If you want to go one step further, you can paint the base as on this model:

Hope this helped.
Time to reload!
Ica

Industrial battlefield : bases tutorial

 Here is a short tutorial on how I make and paint my Ultramarine bases.

1) The location

Before starting your basing efforts, I think it's best to imagine your force in action,

where are they fighting? How long have they been fighting for? Who are they fighting?

I first started my Ultramarines on swampy bases. I pictured them fighting toe to toe with tyranids in a forsaken swamp, knee deep in the mud and brackish water. I started a few bases then painted a whole batch in a hurry for a tournament.

Here's my best effort:

Here's what my rush job looked like

They sucked!

I realised that I needed good looking bases, with a fast painting and modelling time.

The swamp bases could look good, but I had trouble transfering the process from 40mm to 25mm and they just took too long to paint and blend.

I could take the time to blend a few items on a base, but the main technique would have to be drybrushing.

I imagined that my Ultramarines were defending an old industrial complex.

Part of the force has been fighting for days in the complex, weathering several assaults and bombardments,

waiting reinforcements for a counter-attack. The other part of the force would be the reinforcements.

The main feature of the bases would be metal decking (to match with some of my space hulk terminators),

and concrete slabs to represent the walls of the complex. I would also sprinckle some other items : cables, tubes, lines,

to make them more interesting.

Materials:

plastic base

cork sheet (for the concrete slabs)

 fine plastic mesh (for the metal decking)

1. Cut rough pieces of cork the size of the plastic base
2. Glue them to the base, using PVA glue or a glue gun (recommended for speed)
3. Cut the mesh into small pieces about the size of your cork, glue them to the cork, using either PVA glue or a glue gun. Beware this step might prove difficult as the plastic has a tendency to curl up, you might need small clamps.
4. Glue random stuff to the base: sand, plastic strips, plastic tubes...

You should get something like this:

Prime black:

Dry brush (chaos black+shadow grey, shadow grey, shadow grey + white), and metal on the decking:

Now you should paint the small bits you glued during step 4.

Finally apply rust colored pigments :

 I use pigments in 2 ways : first as a paste (Brown iron oxyde by Vallejo + a dark brown called Terre de Cassel), mixed with white gas (Essence F in France), this will represent thick deposits, second with a dry brush for highlights with a lighter pigment (Dark red ocre by vallejo).

 Time to reload!