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Tutorial – Frozen Pond

I have been busy building terrain to play in Frostgrave, a skirmish game set in a ruined city that has been frozen over in the past. I’ve been experimenting using aquarium and terrarium terrain to build cheap nice looking terrain pieces. I’ve done up this quick tutorial on making a frozen pond.

 

Things you will need:

  • Terrarium pond (Can be found at pet stores in lizard section)
  • Cracked ice fluorescent light cover (Big plastic sheets at hardware store)
  • Paint (I used a couple shades of blue)
  • Paper for making template
  • Woodland Scenics Realistic Water
  • Snow Flock
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First thing is to make a paper template of the inside of the dish, you could make your own outer dish with foam as well if you didn’t want to buy a premade one.

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Trace the pattern out onto the cracked ice sheet.

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Start cutting it out and realize you flipped it over and need to start over (you can skip this step if you like). I use a hobby knife and some pliers to score and snap the plastic.

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Cut it a little bigger and then shave it down so it fits.

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It fits!

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Get a couple different shades of blue. You can use cheap craft paint as this will be covered up.

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Paint the basin with the darkest color in the middle where the water would be the deepest.

Pour about 1/8″ of realistic water into the basin and let set over night.

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If you want just water in the basin you can stop here.

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Glue the plastic down. I used spray adhesive but any clear glue will work.

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Pour another layer of realistic water over the top (optional but I like the extra shininess)

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Combine snow flock and realistic water into a paste and apply to the gaps where the snow would drift into.

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Finished product!




Triaros WIP

I have managed to make a lot of progress on the Triaros. I love this model the more I work on it. Such a unique style and it fits the Mechanicum theme perfectly. Still need to do a lot of detail work and washes. Not sure if I’m gonna weather this one or not.

Triaros Armoured Conveyor

Triaros Armoured Conveyor

 




Little Man’s First Painted Mini

Sunday afternoon we were having a family craft day and my little boy kept wanting to “help” me paint the Mournfang Cavalry I was working on. I kept having him shake my bottles of wash which is something he likes to do while I paint, but he kept grabbing a spare brush and wanting to participate. I set aside the Mournfang and got a spare ogre model that was primed white. I then got a couple colors of wash and helped him paint his first mini! It was done all with washes and I would just point to an area with my brush and he would then paint with his. He of course went crazy a couple times as a three-year-old would, but overall did an impressive job. It actually made me think you could probably paint an entire army in a couple days using nothing but washes. The metallics might be a little difficult, but a quick drybrush could take care of those. I can’t wait for him to get a little older and get his first army to play with his dad, and I especially can’t wait for when he paints well enough for me to outsource my painting to him.

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Mechanicum Incoming

I have this years large painting and modeling project decided on.  I’m going to build and paint up 2000 points of Sons of Medusa Space Marines (Iron Hands successor chapter) and Adeptus Mechanicus Allies.  This is going to be mostly an exercise in hobby and I really want to stretch myself with a few new techniques.  Mostly I want to get batter at doing custom modeling work and getting better at kitbashing.  The Mechanicus side will be the place where I really do the most amount of work, the space marines will be mostly stuff I never finished for the Lamenters.  The AdMech are going to be played as Tau allies (unless I figure out a better codex for the rules).  I’m excited for the project and have already started converting models over.  This will be a lot more time consuming to complete compared to my normal building/painting so will probably be fewer models painted over the year.

A few of my ideas:

Knight Titan – converted from Dreadknight kit, this will be run as a Riptide and will be a centerpiece of the army.

Mechanicus Thralls – Converted from Dark Vengeance cultists, these will be the criminals/works picked up from the slums, some basic augments slapped on them, and pressed into service (Fire Warriors, maybe Kroot whichever fits the rules better).

Heavy Ranged Maniples (not sure on name) – converted from IG Sentinels (Broadside rules).

Magos – converted from Vampire Counts Wraith, with necron bits and pieces and a bunch of guns tacked on (Suit Commander)




First group of Saurus Warriors with spears

I painted up the first ten Saurus Warriors for my Lizardmen army. I went with a lighter blue/green color for the skin versus the skinks, but pretty much kept the rest of the colors the same. I can’t wait to see this army develop as I think it will look very striking when done.

Saurus Warriors with Spears

Saurus Warriors with Spears