Hobby Days

A few years ago, Kelli was kind enough to get me a starter set to a tabletop wargame. It was a hobby that I could get into that would a) get me out of the house when necessary, b) give me a creative outlet, c) get me away from the computer, and d) without resorting to all the other past times men my age seem to pursue. This wargame involves picking an army, building units from model kits, painting them up to either represent a unit from the story behind the game or your own design, and then putting them on a table to move them around and roll dice to see which ones leave first (i.e. fight with them).

Well, I've finally completed the painting for my first unit. I've gotten several kits and built them, but never got around to painting them. Here's a progression of the results:

At first, I needed to decide what colors to paint the army, here are a couple I came up with initially:

There first one is a little Phoenix Suns, don't you think? The red shoulder pads on the second's a little better, but it doesn't quite work with the third. So, I went with brown body (with purple overtone), silver trim, and orange shoulder pads.

The process involves priming, basecoating, coloring, and then washing. Priming is done with a spray can of some paint designed to adhese with itself and make it easier for following paints to stay on the model. I used a black primer to start off with. Basecoating is establishing a strong color to then color as you need, this is best accomplished with what are called Foundation Paints. These paints act very similar to a primer, but are in small pots and not a spray can. For basecoating, I used brown for the body (and it actually stayed the main color there), stone for the trim and horns (this is the final color for horn and bone, too), orange for the shoulder pads, and red for odd little bits and bobs.

Coloring is then done to provide more color to the model in certain areas. Silver for the trim and assorted metal pieces, and a brighter orange and red to fill out the base coating.

Then there's the wash. This is a thin ink that adds a slight color to the model and fills in crevices to help them stand out more than light can provide. The body and half the silver are washed in purple (giving them that purple hue) and the rest of the silver, horn, and bone are given a black wash to fill out their definition.

And here's the results:

Yeah, they look like bad guys, because they are bad guys. Most of the good guys are used to much at the store, and these guys look far more interesting. Man, am I a glutton for punishment. All that interesting stuff turns into a LOT more work when you start painting them.

All that's left to do for them is called basing. That's adding some environmental effects to that little black disk they stand on (called a base). That will involve a little glue and some modeling sand (I like the desert, so sue me). That will also cover up the mess I made on the base when I painted them. :)

So that's a little bit I've done with my time.