Blog Warden's Other Paint Log

@Warden this is a whole world of awesome. Your stuff is fantastic! Love the jousting tournament, although I personally wouldn't want to be facing down a Steg in a jousting contest!!!

 

Thank you so much! The tents and all the pieces of terrain were a joy to paint!

 

I have heard that if you apply liquid super glue to paper and let it dry it will harden. I´ve never done it myself, so try it out on a separate piece first just in case.

 

Try the superglue on the backside. Maybe try one of those Army/Commoner tents first. Then try something with paint on the opposite side.

Super glue dries shiny and crunchy on paper. I use paper to contain and catch blobs of SG when I use it; I have seen it dried on paper.

If that does not work. Box sealing tape would stiffen and toughen paper. Applying that stuff to the back would be cheap, paint-safe, and tough. (But hard to do once folded up; would've been easier when the pavilions were still flat. )

 

I agree, I wish I had done something before I started painting, but I was hoping that the paint layer would fix the problem. I have to pack up most of my stuff at the moment, but the superglue method should work.

Also a quick edit to the campfire: some wire was added to the top, just got to paint some more.

 

Weird... I can't upload pictures from internet explorer anymore? Anyone else having this problem?

I took these pictures prior to moving, I haven't been able to finish them yet. I made a few more pieces of jousting terrain, still very WIP but enough to take pictures of.

Defensive stakes:



Same as before, experimenting with more resin pieces.

I made a 12 x 12 inch jousting terrain base. It will also function as a new centerpiece for my jungle castle for when the Bretonnians are the defenders.



New jousting lane dividers, more color to add to the field:



Next addition were some pieces to hold a Robin Hood-style archery tournament. Unfinished still of course but you get the idea:





Lastly, new doors for the jungle fortress:

 

Love the new doors! Awesome!

 

I have been doing some more work on my Lustrian Bretonnians recently. I cast a bunch more men-at-arms, which will wind up filling out two more units of x20 men-at-arms with halberds, plus a unit of x18 grail pilgrims, and four units of x4 trebuchet crewmen.



The grail pilgrims and the trebuchets have an assortment of weapons, including wood-elf blades, maces, clubs, lizardmen clubs, and a parrot (my favorite). I also made some custom swords, axes, and mallets out of spare bits of resin and clay.

Spoiler: closer-ups

The trebuchet crews:


Some more men-at-arms for some future units:



These troopers will be part of the grail knights, and the king's bodyguard.

I have made some progress on King Baldwin as well! lots more to do of course, but he is (slowly) coming together. Painting heraldry this small is nearly impossible for me.

Spoiler: the King/custom Grail Reliquae

 

Last set of pictures for the Bretonnians for now, I test-based one of my units of Knights Templar/Knights Errant. I tried to make it look like they were charging down a stone jungle road. It was so painful to take them off their original bases...

Spoiler: more knight pics

 

you cast the bret M@A?

 

That's what GW gets for discontinuing them!

 

i was more thinking "I want in on this"

 

I guess you've found a master to teach you.

@Warden Looks like you have an eager student.

 

The sorcerer of resins apprentice?

 

Nice!

 

You got me on a roll man

 

It is true a large amount of my growing Bretonnian colony force is now made out of resin.

The project started out with a box of x8 Bretonnian knights from my brother, then I added two of the Bretonnian battalions (x20 Men-at-Arms, x16 Peasants, x8 knights and a pegasus each) plus another box of men-at-arms to finish the force. Since then I have grown the collection from 96 plastic models to add 126 resin models, for a full force of 224 models. A lot of the Bretonnians have resin bodies with plastic heads, though I have been experimenting with casting heads as well. A large number of my newer knights (such as the Questing Knights and Grail Knights which are still WIP) are completely resin cast, right down to their horses.

This is the company I used to make all the molds: Amazing Mold Rubber.


You can also see the plastic bin I used to pour the mold into. I liked using this process because in every single GW set there are TONS of leftover arms, heads, and extra bits that never get used because you are always limited to the exact number of bodies they want to sell. My brother had the bright idea one day of just casting more bodies for cheap to use the extra pieces... hence this project was born!

Spoiler: Mold Examples

Here are examples of three of the molds I have produced. I have about 12 of them now (been doing this a few years)

Mold 1- For building my jungle trebuchets:

Mold 2- for casting some barded horses:



Mold 4- various parts to make mounted knights such as shields, heads, torsos, etc.



My brother has also had success using the Moldmaking and Casting Pourable Starter Kit.



Now that I think about it, my brother was the "master" that I had my apprenticeship from... he has succeeded in casting entire wood elf treemen and high-elf dragons!

Here is a good example of what I am talking about; this is the next back of Men-at-Arms I am slowly painting to create two whole new units of x20 men-at-arms, bringing there total up to 80 men-at-arms!



Out of that last set of pictures in the previous post, only four of the sixteen peasants actually had plastic bodies.

Two of the big points of caution of using this method are the following however:

1) Casting precision is never as perfect as the original plastic model. As you can see I have had to fill in lots of air-bubbles and gaps in the resin after the models are cast. This isn't a big deal for me, because I am mostly just casting grubby peasants , but it is much more painful for my illustrious knights. This also comes into effect for very thin details or weapons. I am unable to cast any spears or lances, simply because the resin won't cast pieces so thin. I am sure there is an alternate method to use, I just haven't tried it yet.

2) Mold Degradation also happens over time. When this process is done I will have 114 men-at-arms bodies spread throughout my men-at-arms, grail pilgrims, and trebuchet crews units, but I won't be able to cast many more simply because the molds have started to fall apart after multiple uses. Once again, this isn't a big deal to me because they are grubby peasants !; but long term that also means there is a finite limit on how long you can keep casting using this specific kind of mold. I did the calculations a long time ago though, for this project I am still saving a ton of money for myself to reinvest back into the hobby (or real life).

In the end I like the results; my painting-skills are meager but the process is quite rewarding . Its hard to believe that only three of the knights and horses in this unit are fully GW plastic!

 

Another small example of casting quality of one of my favorite new models, the King's Parrot Holder!



The only plastic pieces on this model are the parrot and the dudes head. You can pretty easily tell the base is cast, it looks especially wonky in this picture

 

All I'm looking for is the extra bodies. Unfortunately I don't have any M@A to do this with

 

After much deliberation on my Bretonnian movement trays I have decided to add some heraldry to the bases.



Main reason for this is they came out slightly different in size, meaning only their specific unit can actually fit on the base . Despite this loss in flexibility, I think they look fine as they are. My next batch of men-at-arms is almost done (28), I have only about ~16 left to put together before my infantry units are complete and my trebuchets have crews!