SAGA Welsh Army project WIP#6 - Skirmish bases tutorial

SAGA may be a skirmish game, but moving multiple miniatures en masse on the battlefield can be tedious, so I decided to buy some of these excellent 2p Sabot skirmish bases from Warbases.

Here's how I did them:

1. Apply texturing.
I use GOLDEN coarse pumice gel, this allows me to make an uneven surface, but allows me to apply ink directly to it once dry. I use a knife to apply the gel, scraping away any that falls inside the sabots.

2. Whilst the gel is drying, I apply various tufts in random locations. I use tweezers to remove the tufts from the backing and to press directly onto the surface.

3. Once the gel is dry, I apply a brown ink wash 

Again, you should try to avoid inking inside the sabots, as the ink will become the glue for flock. Make sure you get the brown as close to the roots of your tufts as possible.

This is the ink I used, Rowney FW Sepia.

Fully inked and ready for dipping.

4. Whilst the ink is still wet, dip in your dipping tray. Here's mine, made of normal flock, clump flock and  scenic leaves.

I bought the leaves from Atenociti's workshop. Far more than I'll ever need for a reasonable price. My friend bought the dead leaves, so we traded a small amount (in the bag).

So, pop your still-wet base in there

Then give the whole box a few shakes to randomly cover the wet bits

Yes, the base is in there.

 Pull it out, shake it off and voila.

You'll notice there are some brown bits, which is fine. After dipping, run around the edge of the base with your finger to clear unwanted flock. You may want to take any detritus from inside the sabots out with a knife edge too.

This process works on larger bases in the same way, but you may need to dip each edge separately and sprinkle some across the middle.

before

after

So, pretty easy to do. Here's how they all look. Finished units at the back, newer, unfinished to the right, and the empty ones are for the two units I need to make for my basic 6pt army.

The army so far

Expect finished Priodaur unit 2 in WIP #7.

Laserburn Project WIP15 - Imperial and Redemptionist vehicles

A long time coming, here's part 15 of my never-ending 15mm SF project. This time up, some imperial vehicles and a cheap and cheerful red redemption flyer.

The first vehicle is an imperial ground attack aerodyne, which you may have seen in earlier posts, is a matchbox toy. I've done very little to it in terms of model making - a few mould lines cleaned up and a hole drilled for the offset base.

The metal rivet in the centre of the fan is a) too hard for most model drills and b) part of the functionality of the fan, so I drilled towards the rear.

The second vehicle is from Ground Zero Games. It's representative of a standard transport grav sled, widely in use across the imperium.

The last of the imperial vehicles is a Warthog APC from Atenociti's Workshop.

Finally, just because it's part of the same milieu, a red redemption transport, which you may recognise from a certain movie. It's a snap-together kit that comes pre-painted - all I did was give it a wash with army painter dark tone.

I'm sure there will be some more progress on this project at some point, but I have other things on my table at present.

Laserburn project WIP09 - Another toy, more vehicle painting

Scouring the toy shelves of local shops recently netted discovery of this little beaut for a mere £3.50. Looking distinctly like a 15mm ground attack aerodyne, it's heading for the painting table forthwith.

It's a Matchbox sky busters 'Strato saucer'. I believe they are re-releasing it in green too, but no-doubt it will require a repaint.

I've done a bit more work on my other vehicles. As you probably saw, I had masked the side of the pat-wagon in the last post. I used a high pigment liquitex ink to darken the stripes, for a nice low contrast effect. I did similar for the Imperial warthog, using chocolate brown on khaki.

After this, I worked on some lighting effects for the pat-wagon

That's all for now.

Laserburn project WIP08 - the story so far

Here are my nice new figures in comfort trays with what's happened so far on the miniatures side.

Here is the 'Painted' tray

And here is the 'Unpainted' tray. 

I still have a largish bag of unprimed stuff that can wait for now.

These were my Salute 2014 purchases. A Governance of Technology Skorpion tank from Atenociti's workshop

And a village encounter in the form of four cheap Amera buildings, a couple of objectives from Critical Mass, and a pair of laser cut MDF buildings from Warbases.

Here's the HQ assembled.

More soon

Laserburn project - WIP02 Vehicles & rebasing

The work continues. Here are some shots from the workbench.

I've purchased limited vehicles - I will probably get some more if it takes off with my players. I already have this Laserburn wagon and this Laserburn van from the original releases I bought waaay back. This Industrial transporter was a purchase from Ainsty, but I don't think they are spinning these moulds in their current incarnation.

Construction of the Patrol Truck's undercarriage

L-R Warthog, Skimmer, Patrol Truck.

So, having seen their extensive range at various shows, my first port of call was Ground Zero Games (henceforth GZG). The basic vehicle in a SF skirmish has to be the grav utility skimmer - the equivalent of a Traveller Air/Raft. So, one for my imperials, and one for the Judges. I will probably have to pick up some more for other forces (Redemption, Mercs, Commercial etc). I figured that The Judges could probably do with some sort of Patrol/Crowd control truck too, so I got one of those.

Warthog blister

The other Imperial vehicle had to be one of the splendid Warthog APC models from Atenociti's Workshop - from their Governance of Technology range.

The Judges' vehicles will be a midnight blue, the Imperials are Khaki.

I've already made inroads into the painting of miniatures too. First up, from GZG come these characterful Crusties. Whilst they don't fit exactly into the Laserburn universe, it's always good to have a random squad of aliens. These are a new paintjob.

Crusties from GZG

I've been doing a lot of rebasing too - mostly of the already-painted traveller and laserburn figures. The bases are GOLDEN clear granular gel. It's a paste, so I apply and leave to dry. It dries as a clear lumpy layer. I paint with Vallejo smokey ink, then drybrush with lighter shades of brown and grey.

Laserburn civilians

Traveller Aslan

And finally for this session. my first fully complete imperial squad.

Imperials!

More soon! Enjoy.