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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 5, 2019 16:26:14 GMT
I haven't tried grass for terrain, but for model bases what I do is sprinkle the grass onto the PVA glue, then hold the base upside down over the grass box and tap the base to shake off the extra... then I keep the model upside down (with magnets...) until the glue is dry. This way the grass is left standing up. I think an applicator give better results (haven't tried one but it looks good in the videos I've seen), but the results from the "upside down" thing are not too bad.
I think you'll find using a larger object as a stand can give you more to hold on to and work even better, you probably don't want something too wide though; I'm staring at a flat-topped deodorant bottle that just happens to be on my desk right now and thinking that's probably about right.
What kind of terrain are you planning with the plaster? I have no experience making terrain, but for stuff like forests and craters I don't think you need to build up too high so you probably don't really need plaster. And I'm hearing something like hills are being removed from the game soon?
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jul 5, 2019 16:39:02 GMT
I haven't tried grass for terrain, but for model bases what I do is sprinkle the grass onto the PVA glue, then hold the base upside down over the grass box and tap the base to shake off the extra... then I keep the model upside down (with magnets...) until the glue is dry. This way the grass is left standing up. I think an applicator give better results (haven't tried one but it looks good in the videos I've seen), but the results from the "upside down" thing are not too bad. I think you'll find using a larger object as a stand can give you more to hold on to and work even better, you probably don't want something too wide though; I'm staring at a flat-topped deodorant bottle that just happens to be on my desk right now and thinking that's probably about right. What kind of terrain are you planning with the plaster? I have no experience making terrain, but for stuff like forests and craters I don't think you need to build up too high so you probably don't really need plaster. And I'm hearing something like hills are being removed from the game soon? For now I'm very content with the balm as a handle, but I'll try out something bigger once I find something appropriate lying around. Do you have any pics with this type of grass application? As for terrain, pretty much all of it. I'll keep the board itself flat, just cover it in earth, ballast and grass etc. I was hoping the plaster would be sturdy enough to use for the terrain pieces, my stuff has a habit of getting absolutely trampled by pets and relatives., but it's a lot more brittle than I expected. I think I'll try out foamcore as an alternative, just once again I don't have a clue where I can buy the bigger stuff. I've also heard mention of hills being removed, but we've been doing a lot of homebrew terrain anyway, so I'll keep using hills even if they're officially cancelled.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 5, 2019 19:39:14 GMT
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jul 5, 2019 20:04:38 GMT
Oy, that looks almost exactly the same as the stuff PP use for the studio pics. Neat. It looks good for basing, but I'm not sure that I'd want to use it for a full table. What brand do you use?
I think Mininatur (the stuff Luke Towan uses) is the best looking I've seen so far, but it's disgustingly expensive.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 6, 2019 4:12:23 GMT
I'm pretty sure I just used GW grass for those models.
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jul 6, 2019 18:14:34 GMT
Last night was absolute Firetrucking hell, something like 10 mosquitoes entered my room and I couldn't get a wink of sleep. Takes me back to my time in the army, in a way. A really shitty way. Anyway, while these devilspawn were trying to suck the life out of my veins, I tried to speedpaint the rest of my praetorian swordsmen unit (at least those I could find). I'm overall happy with the result, I'm going to keep tweaking them, but for about 3-4 hours of work this is very nice. I only "really" worked on five of these guys - second on the left front row was done yesterday, and the guy on the far left on the back row already had the colors on him, I just added shading to the lower parts of his body and cleaned up the gold. The gang's all here, at a crips 3200 ISO for your viewing pleasure. I'll take a better pic once they're actually finished. I think I spent about 5 or 6 hours on this guy in total. I could do it in half the time now, I think. I had all the colors planned out before I started, but I feel more confident in applying them now. I'm very happy with how he looks. I just wish I cleaned him up last year before I primed him, the mold lines are fugly. Lesson learned. I'm so glad this guy is made of plastic, if he were made of metal half the paint would've chipped off when I dropped him. Not gonna lie, I would've snapped if that happened. Ironically, I think this picture shows off the paintjob far better than any of the others I've made. Painting the sword on the arm that fell off was trivial, but I spent WAY too much time trying to get the shine on the other sword to look right, and I'm still not that pleased with it.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 7, 2019 7:52:54 GMT
I mentioned that I've been experimenting with using a cheap airbrush for varnishing. I've been having a lot of issues with the airbrush very quickly getting blocked. Today though I stumbled onto this: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Basic-Spray-Gun-Set-with-Propel-Jar-Regulator-Hose-Airbrushes-Badger/153370339294Since there's no needle and the paint doesn't enter the airbrush, I'm hoping this will give me a lot less grief, so I'm going to order one and give it a go. If it works I will probably end up having to order a new compressor or either have to keep ordering new cans of compressed air or figure out a way to refill the cans. Sigh. This whole business is turning out to be way more expensive than I had originally intended. Sorry, not meaning to hijack the thread or anything, I just thought this might be useful since the topic of airbrushing came up earlier.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 18, 2019 6:50:32 GMT
I apologise again for the bit of thread-jack, I just wanted to post a quick update: the Badger airbrush arrived and it worked well in my first test with undiluted Vallejo varnish (using the included bottled air). A bit of fiddling was necessary to control the amount being sprayed, but overall it was far better suited to the job than the previous airbrush, and much easier to clean afterwards on account of the paint/varnish not actually entering the airbrush itself.
Just, you know, FYI.
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jul 18, 2019 18:22:40 GMT
My painting progress has come to a grinding halt, for now. I can't work on new minis until minimarket restock on black primer, and continuing work on my minis seems pointless until I get some varnish.
It doesn't help that it's been about 43 degrees celcius outside for the last week, and the air's dry as shit. I haven't felt this drained for a long time.
On tge bright side I finally got a game in with a new friend. I hope I'll be able to actually create a local community.
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Post by Charistoph on Jul 18, 2019 18:55:29 GMT
It doesn't help that it's been about 43 degrees celcius outside for the last week, and the air's dry as shit. I haven't felt this drained for a long time. That's a "cool" summer here . We're glad when it stays that low. We usually average about 46 or more, and aside from a few weeks at the tail end, it's always dry. Of course, our winters are, "Snow? You mean that stuff that makes mountain tops white?", and visiting Canadians are walking around like it's summer, so it's a nice balance (still dry 90% of the time, though).
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 18, 2019 18:59:01 GMT
My painting progress has come to a grinding halt, for now. I can't work on new minis until minimarket restock on black primer, and continuing work on my minis seems pointless until I get some varnish. That sucks. I'm in a bit of similar state; I have a number of partially finished models that got put on hold for various reasons including varnish issues. On tge bright side I finally got a game in with a new friend. I hope I'll be able to actually create a local community. That's cool, good luck.
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jul 19, 2019 9:11:22 GMT
It doesn't help that it's been about 43 degrees celcius outside for the last week, and the air's dry as shit. I haven't felt this drained for a long time. That's a "cool" summer here . We're glad when it stays that low. We usually average about 46 or more, and aside from a few weeks at the tail end, it's always dry. Of course, our winters are, "Snow? You mean that stuff that makes mountain tops white?", and visiting Canadians are walking around like it's summer, so it's a nice balance (still dry 90% of the time, though). Sounds hellish. It brings to mind a post I saw a couple of years ago, someone said the south parts of the US were never meant to be lived in. I mentioned dry because it's usually incredibly humid here, our average is somewhere between 85% - 95%, I think. Last time the air was this dry I was still in high school. Speaking of weather, is dry or humid weather bad for varnishing? I recall Samurai saying his varnish got ruined by high moisture. Any idea if having the AC on can help with that? I'd imagine the heat also has some kind of effect.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 19, 2019 11:14:46 GMT
As far as I know high humidity can screw with rattlecan varnish (and possibly even primer, though it's never happened to me). That's why I'm currently switching to airbrushing primer, where I don't think it's an issue (but don't quote me on that).
I think really cold weather can screw up rattlecan varnish, not sure about hot weather; I think heat is fine as long as it's dry.
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shmeep
Junior Strategist
Posts: 742
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Post by shmeep on Jul 19, 2019 13:12:57 GMT
As far as I know high humidity can screw with rattlecan varnish (and possibly even primer, though it's never happened to me). That's why I'm currently switching to airbrushing primer, where I don't think it's an issue (but don't quote me on that). I think really cold weather can screw up rattlecan varnish, not sure about hot weather; I think heat is fine as long as it's dry. What about brush-on varnishes? I want to try those out before I invest in an airbrush.
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Post by Soul Samurai on Jul 19, 2019 16:22:52 GMT
I have never heard of temperature or humidity ruining a brush on varnish. I really don't think there's anything to worry about on that front: brush on varnishes (the kind you get from GW or Vallejo or other wargame companies) are water based, so I can't see how humidity or reasonable temperatures would have an effect (I mean, they probably won't work in sub-zero weather, but...).
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