Mounting Quantum Expanse models on Stealth Counters

It is very easy to turn your Quantum Expanse Stealth Counters into bases.

First drill a hole into the Stealth Counter (do it outside or wear a mask, the counter is resin and the dust is toxic).

Then take a drywall screw and slide a piece of electrical shrink wrap around the threads and mount it in the hole on the Stealth Counter.

Finally glue a Rare Earth Magnet to the model and one to the screw head. Take care to check the polarity of the magnets before you glue them in place. The magnets should snap together firmly. I find them absolutely strong enough to hold the largest Dreadnought in place.

Star Field Game Board

This is a new game board & terrain I designed and painted for various space battle rule systems. Over the next few days I will publish tutorials for building: the gas giant, moon, asteroids, and star field board.

This shot is a skirmish using the Quantum Expanse rules and models

Quantum Expanse paint test

Recently I received Quantum Expanse, the models are clean resin casts and have perfected a paint scheme. These models should would work well with other rule sets (the QE rule set is currently a basic beer & pretzels type).

Now before I paint the entire fleet I have run into a conundrum and would like to hear your feed back.

If I paint all 48 ships the same pattern and try to play a two player game with just these ships, I am concerned the game area will look both confusing and visually bland.

How have you all dealt with painting large fleets of ships that are modeled similar but used as mixed or separate fleets? Any thoughts on painting patterns or basing before I commit my 48+ ships to the brush?

15mm Hussites (Essex Miniatures)

This is a Hussite army based to Field of Glory standards

Please contact me if you have any painting needs!

Please contact me if you have any painting needs!

Orks for sale

The eBay auction is up. I only added on group of five orks from my mob of 25. I think I am going to add an eBay store to sell the rest of them and other GW stuff as I finish them.

I don't feel eBay is the best place to sell my work but this time of year is always slow; so maybe it will drum up some new business.

I am thinking about running a deal for the first 5 people who contact me and arrange to send me five 28mm miniatures / four 15mm stands of miniatures and I paint/assemble them for free (you pay shipping back and forth).

If you decide to use me for a future order, I'll give you free shipping for that order. And for every client you send my way who spends $100 USD or more, I'll paint another 5man /4stands for free (you pay shipping back and forth).

What do you all think of that?

The eBay auction is up.

UltraForge Tree Woman WIP Part 1

An unfortunate lumber jack is being investigating by the Lady of the Forest!

The lumber jack is an old Wargames Factory Viking I had lying around. I made a few sculpting mods to him to "help" bring out some of his details and convert him into a more panicked expression. These casts a fairly "soft" and most of the detail is lost in the process. I think WG has improved their molds since the vikings but I stopped buying from them after the Chinese take-over.

If your looking for plastic vikings go for the Gripping Beast Plastic Vikings, they are sharp casts.

Notice the shine on the lumber jack. This is due to the custom washes and glazes I mix with Future Wax. It leaves this gloss effect, which is cool if your going for the wet look but nasty looking here. Once the model is complete I'll hit it with a coat of Testor's Dullcoat, this will kill any nasty shine.

I have begun adding branches to the model.

The next step is to build the tree canopy and finish the highlights.

Gripping Beast Skjaldborg!!

The Skjaldborg or shield-wall was commonly used tactic developed in Antiquity and implemented in many parts of Northern Europe, such as England and Scandinavia well into the Renaissance. The shield-wall did not require any great skill, and was essentially a shoving match with shields & weapons. This allowed poorly trained Fyrd (militia composed of farmers and other lower-class folk) to compete effectively with Huscarls, Thegns, and Hirdmen who were seasoned warriors that carried heavier weapons and consistently wore armor.

Below is a fearsome Skjaldborg of Gripping Beast Plastic Vikings. I feel these are the superior plastic vikings currently available. The casts are sharp with well defined features.

I totally dig them.

Now being a sneaky bastard, I often base plastics with neodymium magnets on metal bases . This allows flexibility for not only using a variety of basing conventions, but also allows one to slightly adjust miniatures when building a shield wall or positioning them in large base to base formations.

Sonni Criid

The Holidays were crazy on my end. I hope to load up the blog with pics of several projects I recently completed.

I centered the light effects around the skull and some minor glow from the sword on this Malifaux miniature. I think the real trick to lighting effects is not to overdo them but achieve bright colors that fade into darker colors without fading to black.