6th edition starter set Dark Vengeance - preorders

So the shiny 6th edition start set of DA & CSM is finally a week out so pre-orders are up. And to eek that extra bit of moneys from you all, there's a limited edition which gets you everything normal and this...

Vinsanity Painting Cygnar Commission Done!

Heya pinkies. Finished some Cygnar, quite happy with them. I'm always available for commissions, just shoot me an email. Leave some comments if you like/dislike or what to know how I painted them :D Siege 'I pity the fool who tries to assault my foxhole' Brisbane

Guest Article: The Sound of Machines - Guerrilla Hobbyist

We’d like welcome you to The Sound of Machines “Guerrilla Hobbyist” project funding campaign, please take a seat.

Straight to it: what is “Guerrilla Hobbyist”? Well, it’s planned to be both a DVD instructional and full colour, hardcover, painting tutorial book (comprising at least 144 pages) – both of which will be focussing on army building projects, many of which also include vehicles and monsters. We at The Sound of Machines see “Guerrilla Hobbyist” as aimed very much at those with some experience in the painting/modelling spheres, but who are also looking to try something new, expand their painting horizons or who are simply stuck in a painting rut and would like to find a way out. Utilising a wide range of products from many of the known brands (and some not so known), we plan to outline everything that goes into a new army project in high detail. Some of the topics covered will be:

Email in: Airbrush for Father's Day - Advice?

"Hi Kirby,

It's my first Father's Day this weekend, and my wife has offered to buy me an airbrush for painting minis. I'm thrilled at the prospect, but don't really know where to begin. I thought I would ask the advice of you (and your readers). What should I look for in an airbrush? What else do I need, besides a compressor? What sort of paints work best? And, most importantly, where can I find some good tutorials on using it? Any help, discussion, or links you and the blog can provide would be immensely helpful!

Thanks in advance!"

New Commission Painter

Another commission painter has joined our ranks - welcome Ultraraider.

Heya guys Ultraraider here. You may remember me as Mike Moore, im the guy who won best painted for my blood Angels army at the Bay Area Open in 2011. I'm writing to let you know I'm the newest commission painter for 3++! My Blog can be found at  http://thebrushandbolter.blogspot.com/  . I specialize in competitive level painting, basically Eavy Metal and above quality combined with a great work ethic to complete projects to a superior standard in a timely and informed manner. I don't do tiers unfortunately - it's too hard for me too below my standard I feel. I consider myself one of those painters for centerpiece models, special characters etc, etc. Rates are easy and as follows - 

Guest Article: Painting Biel-Tan Eldar (inc. Video)

Hi everyone - my name is Lloyd and I own www.paintedminis.co.uk. You'll see me in and around forums as GLD or GLD1, and I have a little side line as a commission painter. I paint all sorts, although for some reason I seem to attract space marines - not that I don't enjoy a super human soldier as much as the next person! I am based in the UK but willing to work for you wherever you are based. If you are interested then please get in touch either via my website or the comment section.

The main reason I am here however is that I love to make tutorials - and help people learn new skills and improve their painting. I am slowly transferring my back catalogue of tutorials from pictures into video. The first of which you can find at the bottom of this post. In the mean time, I am open to suggestions with regards to what kinds of tutorials people want to see - I have video tutorials lined up for minotaur space marines, lave themed bases, salamanders space marines, Blood Angels Honour Guard and Orks, which will probably come at a rate of around 1 per month. Please let me know if there is anything specific you want to see!

Vinsanity's Legion of Everblight & Necrons

Hey pinkies. A painting update from me with Necrons and Legion of Everblight done so far. A fair bit still to do for both and the Necrons have to be done for a tourney in late June and the to do list includes 12 Scarabs, 4 Ghost Arks, 5 Crypteks, 2 Stalkers, 5 Immortals, 3 Annihilation Barges and 1 Command Barge with Overlord ;)

How-To: Quick and Easy Purity Seals

MBG here with a little follow up on my  Lightning Effect tutorial. Today I have quick how-to on Purity Seals that is also really easy to do.

I did this tutorial using the same Grey Knight Purifiers that I've been painting up lately, as well.  So I definitely wanted something quick and easy that could be repeated like 200 times.

After talking with Kenny from Next Level Painting I got a idea of something that looks good, and is fast.

How to: Making cobblestone bases with greenstuff

A couple people requested something along this after my Menoth bases were posted so here it goes! It's pretty basic and straight forward but I'll do a step-by-step.

Tools needed:
green stuff
a base
hobby knife (or some other sharply pointed instrument)
sculpting tool (you want something at least three times as wide as the knife blade with a blunt edge)
a rock
water - remember to keep everything wet!

Menoth Bases - worn cobblestones

So I decided to get to work on my Menoth bases - I was tossing up between getting some resin inserts and doing my own and was looking at doing desert or lava based ones to go with the theme of the army and usual fluff of Menoth. In the end I went a different route - DIY cobblestones painted in an off-white color (i.e. sort of what you see in the Menoth book as what their cities look like - I'm thinking something like what Carthage might have looked like).

Exemplar Errant Color Scheme

I've been painting some Menoth lately and have been working on my Exempler Errants (and lamenting the fact they are not the new plastics!) but not sure on the color scheme. My Menoth are obviously a mix of yellow and orange and I've done the Warjack armor orange but the Temple Flameguard cloaks orange - Errants have both cloaks and armor so the question becomes, do I do the armor ornage and cloaks yellow like the Warjacks and keep the primary color as orange or do I reverse the scheme for infantry where cloaks are orange and armor is yellow? I'm leaning towards the former as I prefer the overall look of the orange color I've got going and it keeps the primary color throughout the army.

True-scale Marines by Three Stage Studios

True-scale isn't my thing - you've seen how long it has taken me to put together my full magnetised Marine army. The length it would take me to do this project would be insane... not to mention it's generally something you don't see regularly at serious tournaments because of the changes to models dimensions in comparison to other armies. Games Days and conventions though, well they come out in force and they are always a pleasure to look at.

Anyway, the blog Three Stage Studios was linked to me and its a guy who not only does true scale work, but looks to be casting and distributing that work as well. The work is pretty impressive and I'd love to see whole armies like this so go ahead and check it out :).

A curious monetary point about the new Privateer Press plastics...

This was pointed out by me to an emailer. Recently Privateer Press has been working on releasing more and more Plastic kits, specifically multi-part plastic Warjack and Warbeast kits which allow multiple (generally three) potential models to be made from one purchase. You basically get one body and then the bits to make any of the options provided and with some nifty magnet use, you have an all in one purpose Warbeast/Warjack. This is a great step in the right direction as one of the major advantages Games Workshop has over any other model company is they produce excellent multi-part plastic kits. Regardless of the asthetics or detailing on the models, plastic is much easier to work with and coming with lots of little bits makes all of us happy. Closing that barrier down is good.

40k Diorama Showcase

Hey everyone, it's the Steam-Powered Gamer here to bring you... wait... Warhammer 40k pictures?!  That's right.  I know that I've been writing some Warmachine/Hordes articles for all of you here at 3++, but I'm no stranger to 40k either, I just much prefer playing Warmahordes these days.  One of my best friends who lives in Savannah Georgia really loves 40k (and in fact got me into the game) and this spring had to create a senior art project to conclude his college degree.  With some gentle encouragement from yours-truly, I convinced him that he should use this project as an excuse to showcase his painting and modeling skills.  At first he wasn't convinced that it could be a "legitimate" project, but eventually decided to go for it and his classmates and professor ended up being thrilled and curious about the project!

To a tournament we go...

So after a mad week of painting (organisation in this endeavour really isn't my strong point...) I got quite a bit but not all of it finished :P. 15 out of the 20 ASM are pretty much 100% done, just a bit of detailing on some to be done. The other five have their base colors down but minimal highlighting as with the two Priests (which I really want to go back on and convert some more...maybe Warding Staves as Force Staves which protect a sort of Dome of Energy representing the Blood Chalice FNP/FC effect...). Anywho, Mephiston conversion on my Librarian is also completely done and the vehicles are all pretty much set outside of detailing on a few. All in all, not bad though my Scouts didn't get done - borrowing a friends :( (not Vincey's!).

The fun thing about this army...there are over 130 magnets in use. That's roughly 26 magnets per squad and fully magnetised weapons on the vehicles. My vision of a fully interchangeable army is getting there...finally. Hopefully I can paint an extra 500 points by early May for the 2000 point tourney...

Painting Week!

I'm going to be a busy boy this week...painting like mad! So hopefully you'll excuse the quietness of posts. A 1500 tournament this weekend with Blood Angels - everything is magnetised and being painted and will hopefully get some pictures up as things are done/fully completed but you never know...

I'm really aiming to have everything fully painted this time around rather than the 50-70% completion rate I generally end up with when running Marines since I keep pulling them apart. Place your bets now on whether or not this happens!

Army of the Dead- Painting Chaos Nurgle Death Guard

MBG back again, and today I'm going to go over step by step how I painted up my Chaos Space Marine Death Guard models for an upcoming Apocalypse Game.

It was really simple and took about 4-5 hours total for each squad of ten, which I thought for the end result was great.  Keep in mind they are Nurgle so there is "perfect" involved, messy is just fine.

I'm not sure how this would look on a say a regular Space Marine, or normal figure, but it would definitely work on say Orks, or Traitor / Renegade guardsmen.

Vinsane Painting Commissions Dark Eldar Done!

Hey pinkies. So I've been working on some things for some clients but have finished a Dark Eldar batch. Hopefully soon are Blood Knights, Space Wolves and more Dark Eldar :P

So onto pics. If anyone has any questions about how I did them then ask me in comments or if anyone is interested in my painting and wants something done then drop me an email ;)

New Citadel/Games Workshop Paints

So Games Workshop has re-released all their old paints with fancy new names and about doubled their product range in this regard. The only thing anyone really cares about though is pink came back right? Never count pink out.

Their website is currently taking forever to load so if you can get on this post gives a run-down of their new paints - apparently there are new styles and stuff.

Anyway, go wild. Shame they are still $6/pot in Aussieland ^^.

It's Like Magic! - Space Wolves

Greetings and welcome to the third in the “It’s Like Magic!” series, where I show you how to get an army up to tabletop standard quickly and easily.

This time round; Space Wolves! Whilst grey can be a difficult colour to work with, I am hoping to show that an acceptable tabletop standard can be achieved quickly using just a basecoat + wash. The same technique can be applied to other similarly-coloured Chapters (i.e. Space Sharks!)

First up is a Grey Hunter. There will be a Wolf Scout in the near future.