I recently had a chance to work on a Storm Eagle for a client. Like it’s baby brother, the Eagle has some impressive looking Vtrol engines on it with some kicking afterburners! The client expressed an interest in some OSL on the engines. I had done a little work with Tau OSL before using the Plasma Blue from the Miniataire Paint Line, but unlike the Tau engines, the Eagle engines are very narrow, very deep and pooling was an issue. So in short, I wasn’t getting a result I liked.
I had seen a tutorial on FTW a while back about heat stains. I liked Ron’s overall approach, so I decided to take it up a notch, crank that baby up to 11! Here’s how it works: As metal gets hot, it changes hue, going from steely blue, all the way up to a much warmer, brassy gold color.
Engines, being so hot anyway, seem a natural place to make this sort of transition work and to splash a little color on a normally bland part of the model. To start, I’ll need an engine.
Firstly, prime the engine black. Feel free to go lighter at the afterburner end, but overall you want those nice, crisp shadows.
Go ahead and give the engine a dry brush with your favorite metallic. I used GW Boltgun metal. Be generous, but leave those nice dark shadows alone.
Next, I dry brush some Tin Bitz on about half the engine. I wanted to warm up the output end of the engine, to give the impression of heat warping the metal (to a small, tiny degree).
Tin Bitz (or any brassy color) has a nice reddish hue I like, and will help to suggest heat to the underlying model.
I thin layered in some gold paint (burnished gold I think, but any gold will do) to further highlight the tail end of the afterburner. Again, we’re trying to warm up the metal, to give that illusion of heat.
Okay, start at the afterburner end (the danger zone . . . =) and lay in some white. I used an airbrush for this and I highly recommend you do the same. However, if you were the Michaelangelo of spray paint, you could maybe pull this off with spray paint too.
Diffuse the edge (pull the airgun/airbrush/spray paint) away from the afterburner to help blend out the white. Don’t drag the white too far down. A few inches should be enough (that’s what she said). White forms a basis for the Minitaire Tints (also called Glazes, Candies, etc) to do their work. You are basically going to stain the white with a thin layer of paint, called a tint.
At this point if you want to keep warming up the engine and just want another transition zone you could now lay down some minitaire brown in a thin strip. You could also Golden Yellow or a 1/1 mix of both. They all have advantages. Bottom line is you are looking for a brown/goldish color. Don’t overdo it! Just lay down a thin layer in a single pass or two at most. Note this step is NOT pictured below, this is just something that occurred to me after doing this tutorial and I thought it might be useful to the would be artist that uses this tutorial as a guide.
Now use the minitaire magenta. Just lay a thin layer down over the farther edge of the white. Don’t go too thick. You want some of the underlying metal color to come through. Again, diffuse the edge as you blend out towards the business end of the engine. Do this by pulling the airbrush away from the model Now, use the minitaire blue. You see how this works? Yep. Lay down another thin line, overlap the magnenta, etc.
You should still have some white showing at the tip at this point.
From here you could either leave the tip white, use some minitaire plasma glue to create a plasma like engine effect (such as on the tau, above), or go full Top Gun and use three thin/small strips of red/orange/yellow to create a real afterburner look. It’s up to you!
Now a little clean up. Take just a little white paint and lay it over the very tip (that’s what she . . er . . never mind). Just a bit to make the end pop and burn bright white. If you want to put a little rosy color back into areas you’ve over saturated, take a little warm metallic (gold, brassy, tin bitz, etc) and just drybrush back in a little color, remembering to be sparing.
Now lay down your varnish and BOOM, done.
Here’s a shot of the storm eagle where we tried this effect for the first time. We actually laid some color inside the Vtrol too, to make it appear the inside was warping from the heat as well.
If you liked this painting tutorial, be sure to check out more of our work at White Metal Games.
And if you aren’t listening already, check out of official podcast over at War Council. You can also download Warcouncil on Itunes! Until next time . .
In this episode we ask the question ‘What Would You Do Differently?’. If you were to redesign the 40k system, what are a few of the changes you would make and why.
Our special guest for this episode is Thomas Reidy, AKA Goatboy from Full of Monkey Painting. Thomas is an avid tournament player as well as an amazing artist, so we were definitely glad to get his two cents regarding changes to the game.
You can stream the episode from the White Metal Games Website, here.
Alternately you can also listen to the episode on Itunes.
War Council is a new podcast about 40k and things wargaming related. Justin was a one time client of Caleb’s that stuck around long enough for Caleb to ask him to do a podcast with him. Episodes revolve more around the hobby and fluff aspect of wargaming, and part of each episode follows the progress of White Metal Games as it tries to make a place for itself in a sea of miniature painting services.
For such an popular model in game, it sure wouldn’t kill GW to have a farseer on jetbike model! Guess we’ll we’ve have to improvise.
Hey guys, Caleb with White Metal Games here, with another fun conversion. This time, a farseer on jetbike! With the exception of the Chapterhouse Farseer on jetbike compatible kit, I don’t see a lot of options for these out there. So when a friend asked me to convert up something along these lines, I couldn’t resist the opportunity! This isn’t as in depth a tutorial as you might be used to, but I think you can get the gist from what I’ll outline below.
To start, I gathered up some bits. I wasn’t sure what I would need, and in the end I didn’t use everything featured below. But IMHO it helps to have more bits than you need to give you a few options with every conversion. I grabbed an assortment of both elf, eldar, dark elf and dark eldar bits, as well as a spare ( mostly assembled) jetbike from a previous eldar project.
I have some left over legs from a High Elf Lord on Flying Griffin. So I use a razor saw to remove the upper torso from the lower torso that would traditionally fit on the griffin (at the time, I was building a griffin for WFB by removing the elven rider)
I dry fit the upper body to the bike. Good fit, but kinda boring.
I also realize that the upper body doesn’t quite fit flush with the seat of the bike, so I use a hobby knife to cut away the extra plastic to make it fit better.
It’s hard to tell, but this is an Eldar Guardian head. The bit on the right is from a wave serpent I think? Anyway, long story short is I need a way to represent the ghost helm common to eldar seers, so I trim a bit of the helmet away to make it smooth so that this ‘flange’ bit will attach readily enough.
Earlier I mentioned that I was a bit bored by the plastic bike legs on the bike. Well, I just happened to have a set of pewter legs from a high elf model of some sort. Maybe a dragon rider from the 90’s . . . not sure really. I liked the legs better for a farseer so I dry fit them in place. With a little bending I was able to get them to fit on the pedals. However, the legs didnt’ really sit flush, and pewter isn’t easier to convert like plastic or resin.
So I decided on a more dynamic pose, with the Farseer riding sort of standing up on the bike, like leading his troops heroically into battle. Now I just need a lance to mirror this dynamic stance.
In the same griffin kit I found a lance with banner (I think it’s the griffin from Isle of Blood?) NICE! But kinda big. Also, it’s a lance, not a spear. Gotta change that too.
I trim the spear off of it’s and and realize I have a perfectly good cloak now.
I use a little grey stuff and glue to get the cloak into place. This helps to convey a sense of movement in the bike.
Here you can see the grey bit I used to help support the cloak. At the time, I figured I could incorporate this into the cloak and make it appear to be flapping behind him. And although I do feel I accomplished this in the end, I think in retrospect this was a sloppy approach and it would have be better to have support the cloak with another sort of bit that wasn’t so bulky. In reality, however, very little time will ever be spent focusing on the underpart of the cloak when looking at the model on the table, so I don’t sweat it too bad.
I scale the lance beside a spear from a high elf model to get a sense of size. This way I know about where I need to trim.
I trim the lance down, but I still need a shaft for the lower half of the spear. I find an old chariot banner that will work well. I carefully remove the lower portion of the banner pole.
I use a little plastic glue to create new shaft. On the finished model, the join will be hidden inside the hand of the farseer himself.
Time to gussy up the canopy a bit. I find this old pewter swooping hawk pack that I think will make a great canopy decoration.
I have to bend it a little to get it to fit just right, but eventually, fit it does.
Now I’m back to the helmet and thinking about something to gussy it up some too. I consider using these antlers from a Grail Knight (WFB Bretonnian) but settle in the end on some more high elf chariot bits for the helmet.
Now the model is basically done. Just need to apply a little grey stuff to a few places to finish it up.
The spear and canopy were left unattached for the purpose of painting ease.
Below you can see the cloak once repaired. It’s a bit too bulky on the underside. But again, this was an oversight on my part, a learning curve, so you can expect mistakes like this from time to time.
We also added on a grenade pack to give a little more detail to the model. When painted, we’ll probably paint it with some OSL. to make it appear to have eldritch properties.
Up next, WMG is excited for the pending release of the Tyranid Codex in line with 6th Edition rules! Check out this Tyranid BioBattery (Counts as Vengeance Battery) we recently mocked up (WIP) for the 11th Co. GT in November!
Have a conversion you need done? Models you need painted? Send us an email and we’ll provide you with a competitive quote right away!
Greetings fellow wargamers! Caleb with White Metal Games here!
Recently I started a hard nosed survey (dare I say investigation) of the miniature painting and assembly market. Namely I wanted to know who my competition was, what they were charging, what they were doing right, where they could make improvements, and what I could learn from them. Based on my findings I made some improvements to my site, offered a few new deals, and became a more competitive service. In fact, we’re still evaluating our pricing structure to bring it more in line with how other services price projects.
When you want to find someone that will paint and assemble your army for you, just walk into any FLGS with a wad of cash and ask. You’ll find someone. Everyone needs money, after all.
But will that person be able to deliver the goods in a timely fashion for your budget? Are they are a one trick pony, or can they take direction? For example, maybe your buddy ‘Joe’ has an awesome Necron army. You love it . . . you love it so much you offer to let him paint your Crimson Fist army.
But CAN he paint marines, that’s the question. Every army is different. Is ‘Joe’ a round enough painter to give you what you want, in your timeframe on your budget and if he can’t does he know when to walk away and tell you ‘sorry, but no thanks.’ This is what separates the pros from the talent. Maybe Joe is a hitter, but that doesn’t make him an MVP. And I want to be an MVP.
Research is great, but there is nothing like throwing yourself in the line of fire and trying something from a new perspective. What would it feel like to be a buyer rather than a seller for once?
So after all my research was done (or done enough) I picked a few services I thought were not only good, but fairly priced and comparable to what I was offering, and decided to commission a model or two.
To keep things nice and fair, we are going to call the Studios A, B, C, D, and E.
Here are the models I sent to each studio:
Studio A: Based in the Mid-West. A refurbishment project. 2000 points of Space Marines I picked up from another studio on the cheap. The project was to refurbish the army and lavish it with details.
Studio B: Based in England. This studio had really cheap rates, so I commissioned a squad of Orks. Studio was to buy the box, assemble to order, and paint to avoid the international tariffs.
Studio C: Based in the Mid-West. A small squad of Necrons, with lavish OSL. Assembled at WMG and sent to the painter.
Studio D: A Canadian based painting service. A small collection of models, including some daemon princes, a landraider, some zombies, some odds and ends, etc. Assembled at WMG and sent to the painter.
Studio E: Based in England. This studio impressed me with their work, so I sent them a giant daemon prince to paint up.
Remember that the goal of this project was to get first hand experience with commissioning models from other services, to gain a ‘client perspective’ on orders. Another goal of this project was to experiment with outsourcing projects, weighing the pros and cons of using international painters, whilst connecting the right model to the right painter/painting service to get the best possible results. After all, not every painter can be expected to paint every model equally well. For example, I love painting Tyranids, but maybe Studio XYZ doesn’t and it shows in their work. To each their own.
In this article, we’ll discuss what I learned from Studio A. Those models were the first to go out and the first to come back.
To their credit, the artist in this case was very willing to work with me on this refurbishment project. It was a coordinated effort. I purchased the models blindly from another player and then had them sent to the painter who would do the refurbishment.
When the models arrived, the painter let me know the models weren’t really in ‘refurbishment’ shape. Some of the models were broken, most were primed only with little to no details. Yikes. So not as much a refurbishment projects as we would have liked. More just a regular painting project from the ground up.
Okay, a change in gears, but still the same race. No problem.
We discussed options, and decided the way to go with the project was to use the existing primer color and then to just find a way to finish them quickly and effectively. We decided either Ultramarine or Crimson Fists were the way to go (blue primer) and since I’ve seen enough Ultramarines projects, we went with CF.
So, at this point it’s week one, the painter has the models in hand and we should be good to go.
Now I’ve always prided myself on customer service. So does Studio A. Studio A let me know that they send out an ‘update’ email to their clients every Monday to let them (the client) know the status of their project, even if that status is ‘Bits Ordered, en route’ or even ‘No status change’. In the later case, when other clients already booked orders, maybe you’re just waiting.
Kinda the same way that I call the cable company and they say they’ll show up between 11 and 2. Sometimes my place in the pecking order is just to wait.
Monday rolled around and no email came. I was a bit surprised. Actually surprised is too lenient. I was startled. I couldn’t believe how powerless I felt, being in the dark like this. I had given good money to Studio A and all I wanted to know was the status of my project. Was that too much to ask?
I gave it another day or two, then decided to touch based with Studio A. In point of fact, like I should have figured, a family emergency had occurred. Studio A briefly emailed me to say they were sorry for the delay, and they let me know paints for my project had been ordered, so all was well and good. In the face of personal tragedy, the vendor had overlooked his clients BUT quickly rectified the situation.
Man, did I feel like an ass. But I shouldn’t have really. I mean, I was only protecting my investment.
So, after a week or two to grieve, the painter got back to work. I didn’t want to press him or seem unsympathetic. A few weeks passed by and he finally called me with a update. His computer was being repaired, and without it he didn’t have regular access to email. He did take steps to take pictures of the WIP models with his phone, but they didn’t really give me a clear picture of the project.
To the artist’ credit, the painter then took the minis to a friend who photographed them and sent me the pics. The pics were ‘okay’, but didn’t really show me any detail. The artist let me know that the project was coming along well, but he was running low of funds. (This painter works by the hour, so when the time was up, you could either pay him more money to paint, or you could ask him to just send you the models).
So, I sent the painter some more money. Nearly doubling the original amount sit aside for the painting aspect of the project.
Here’s the kick . . . without great pictures from the painter in the beginning, I really had no way to track the project in terms of progress. What I mean is, I can’t see the detail that was added to the project on the 2nd half.
I mean, how could I? I had no before or after pics. What’s more is since the painter was a by the hour kinda guy, I had no real way to track his progress, other than trust. Which I gave them freely.
Some other services use the ‘hourly’ guide to create estimates. For example, someone might ask for a squad of Orks painted. I guesstimate . . . ‘that’ll take about 4 hours at $25 an hour, so about a hundred bucks, or $10 a model’. This seems pretty fair to me. If the painter wants to take his time then he doesn’t charge me extra. It’s an estimate, not a quote.
But the potential for abuse does exist using this payment system, and I didn’t really fee like I had a clear picture of what I was paying for in terms of detail.
A few weeks passed and the painter called me to let me know the project was done. We arranged shipping, and the painter said he’d send me an invoice for the shipping costs. A week passed. Nothing. No word.
Finally, about two weeks later, the painter called me to let me know that he had been out of town for a week and were sorry they hadn’t gotten in touch with me. But that the models were now en route and should reach me soon. And to be fair, they did. By the end of the week, they were there.
However, I’m not sure why they couldn’t have been mailed out beforehand? I mean, if you are going to be gone anyway, why not just ship the models out before leaving?
The models arrived and the quality was what we call at White Metal Games a ‘Man at Arms’ standard, or Level 1. It’s around a tabletop quality paint job. Light on detail, but a great starter army for a client that doesn’t have a major budget and wants to grow their collection.
It’s also a nice way to add a few units to an Apocalypse army. You’ll only use these models a few times a year, so the models don’t need to be as nice as your regular collection of models.
The army is currently for sale for anyone who is interested. We’re hoping to use the money raised to fund this project! A Necron/Ork themed army, the Necorks!
So, like most things in life, this experience was mixed with goods and bads. The painter had a few life events occur to them that made completing the project in a timely fashion difficult. But there were also a few missteps along the way and there was room for the process to be improved upon.
For me, that’s what’s its all about . . . trying to find a way to improve the quality of the services we offer so that clients are better able to see their vision brought to the table on a budget that is fair to all parties.
I have to remember that since most painting services are ‘spare time’ services, ie, most of us have regular day jobs, we should be a bit more patient with our commission painters. Life happens to them too.
If you think this was a worthwhile experiment, comment below.
If you think this is a baseless attempt to solicit your money, comment below. =)
What YOU think, this did give me a good sense for what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a commission for once and it taught me quite a bit.
I can’t recommend this to other miniature painting and assembly services enough. The brief insight you might glean could lead to remarkable changes in your core business mechanics. If this article does well, then I’ll continue this series with Studio’s B-E.
Until next time, remember to PUT YOUR MINIS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!
So I was chatting with my buddy the other day . . . well, truth be told I was losing to my buddy the other day . . when he brought up the centurion, spec. the devastators. You know, the model everyone loves to hate?
Anyway, we got to chatting about these guys, and I feel like centurion gets a bad rap for no real reason. Let’s break em’ down, shall we?
At 60 points a model they come in about 30% higher than a terminator without the invul. save. However they are rocking S and T 5 with 2 wounds. Okay, not bad. They can shoot both guns per turn with Decimator Protocols and they have Slow and Purposeful so they can walk and fire.
The devastator squad of three then is 190 points (Serg included of course). For that 190 points they come with hurricane bolters (three twin-linked bolters) and a TL heavy bolter. So each centurion is rocking basically three Strength 5 shots and three Strength 4 shots. All twin linked. That’s a lot of firepower!
As a unit, this means they have 9 Strength 5 shots and 9 Strength 4 shots. At Rapid fire range of course this goes up considerably to 18 Strength 4 shots! ALL TWIN LINKED! So basically of every 9 shots they take, 8 hit! (Nine Shots, hit 2/3 of the time, then the misses, approx 3/9 hit 2/3 of the time again, so 2 of the 3 misses hit for a total of 8 hits!!!)
So that means that most of the time the unit will score 8 Strength 5 hits and 8 Strength 4 hits a turn. In rapid fire range it goes up to 8 and 16 respectively so 24 hits!
What’s that you say? Go go gadget grav cannon? Centurions can take grav cannons AND grav amps for 20 points a model. Grav cannons are salvo 3/5, so the centurion always gets 15 shots (thanks to relentless) at max range, and the amps let them reroll failed wounds/vehicle pens! Of those 15 shots 10 should hit. Against MEQ targets, you would wound on 3’s, rerolling fails, which means that’s an average of eight AP 2’s wounds!
Against something like say, a Riptide, they wound on 2’s! That’s 8 or so AP 2 wounds and Hasta La Vista Riptide!
Grav weapons also immobilize vehicles on a 6 and cause a hull point. Multiple immobilized results cause extra hulll point loss. So against a lanrdaider, you are going to roll around 2-4 sixes. Even if you only get three you are going to likely strip 3 hull points and immobilize it each time as well. So that’s a total of 6 hull points lost and it’s destroyed.
What’s that you say? You’re a truist who prefers their devastators with a side of lascannons? How about six twin linked lascannons? Take that anything other than a flyer on the table!
So, in short, Centurions are highly durable. They can be built to kill vehicles, elite infantry, or light infantry. They are not necessarily universal with any build, nor are they are autopick, but I feel like they can put out plenty of firepower no matter the load out.
For 10 points the Serg. can take an Omniscope, granting the USRs Night Vision and Split Fire to the unit. Pretty good, right?
In addition to all the above, these boxes for bits alone are amazing!
In just one box of Centurions you get 6 lascannons, 6 melta guns, 6 flamers, and 6 grav cannons/grav amps! This is a converters dream. And those bodies make PERFECT Ork Meganobs. Just swap the heads, and a few grubbins and you’re good to go.
So there you have it . . the case for the centurion, as it were.
What do YOU guys think. Any public defenders want to go co-counsel on this one?
War Council is ‘an up and coming new podcast’ about all things 40k related. We are five episodes in and are now officially on Itunes!
In our most recent episode we discuss Commission Painter Services and have two guest speakers: Thomas ‘Goatboy’ Reidy of Full of Monkey painting and Rob ‘MBG’ Baer of Spikeybits.
War Council is a presentation of White Metal Games, a miniature painting and assembly commission service.
Each episode spans about 90 minutes, so it’s like a movie for your ears. Perfect for a hobby session. If you are looking for a change of pace from the regular competitively aimed wargames discussion, this is your podcast.
We present each episode as a dialogue between two wargamer buddies, myself and Justin Jones. We aim to make you feel like one of the group.
Be sure to subscribe via your own iTunes and you’ll know as soon as we post a new podcast. We aim to record an episode every two weeks. Our next episode is about Wargamers Around the World. We’ll contact players in the Canada, the UK, and beyond in an attempt to get a picture of the global 40k community.
Don’t have access to iTunes? Visit our homepageto stream the episode.
If you like what you hear, give us a like on Facebook!
Help for Heroes supports our wounded. Help for Heroes provides practical direct support to those servicemen and women wounded in the line of duty in the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is a charity raffle army, with the proceeds going to Help for Heroes. Tickets sales went live on Wednesday, September 18th. With each ticket you buy, you have a chance of winning a Salamanders army, donated, built and painted by the very talented YouTube wargaming community The Storm Wardens project from 2010 raised over $16,000 for Doctors Without Borders and this project is much more ambitious. This army is Apocalypse sized in nature, and since the new Space Marine codex just came out, their has almost never been a better time to buy. The project is being headed up by youtube personalities IDICBeer, bloodofthefallen1 and WarlordsWargaming, and all the proceeds from the project will go towards the fantastic work done by the HELP for HEROES charity, which I am sure you will all agree, is a very worthwhile cause. We have lots of awesome people on the project, from wargamers who are donating minis, to wargamers who are going all out, buying, converting and painting minis from new.
The army is not yet complete, but all the wargamers involved in the project are working as hard as they can to make the army look as amazing as we can get it, and we will be posting pictures of the completed units at the bottom of this page as they are finished. The list of units in the army is still increasing, and it will also feature a very special ‘SURPRISE’ Forge World model!
TICKET PURCHASING INFORMATION
Tickets are now available to buy at a cost of £1.50 GBP each and all the money made from the raffle will go to the HELP for HEROES charity. The raffle is a worldwide event and postage of the final army will be free to the winner. Sadly, we are unable to cover any addition charges that may occur, such as import tax etc. The final Draw date is still being finalised, but we will announced the draw details in the near future. CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS
PLEASE NOTE For every £1.50 ($2.50 USD) you donate, you will be entitled to a single entry into the raffle. So if you donate £4.50 ($7.50 USD), you will be entered three times. Obviously any donation amount is most welcome, but if you want your donation to have a chance to win the army, please allow us to see the amount you have donated, and leave your contact details for us. You will not receive a physical ticket, but all entries will be recorded and held in a safe place by us.
Main Contact Details: Please note that we are no longer looking for more painters for the army, but if you would like to donate minis or get involved in the project in any other way, you are more than welcome. We are always looking for ways to promote this worthy cause. So if you can help or have any questions, please contact us here: [email protected]
This is a list of all the models in the army so far, which as I said, is still expanding as I speak!
Aegis Defence Line x1 Assault Squad x2 Bastion (scratch built) x1 Captain x2 Chaplain x1 Command Squad x1 Devastator Squad x1 Dreadnought x4 Drop Pod x2 Honour Guard x1 Jet Bike Squad x1 Land Raider x3 Land Speeder Storm x1 Librarian x1 Librarian Terminator x1 Master of the Forge x1 Objective Marker Set x1 Predator x1 Prime Vulcan x1 Razorback x3 Rhino x5 Salamander Riders x1 Scout Sniper Squad x1 Scout Squad w/Heavy Bolter x1 Second Company Captain x1 Sergeant or Hero x1 Storm Talon x1 Striker/Hunter tank x1 Surprise Forge World Model x1 Tactical Squad x7 Techmarine x2 Terminator Squad x3 Thunderfire Cannon w/Techmarine x1 Vanguard Veteran Squad x1 Vindicator x2 Whirlwind x1
Here is a list of all the awesome contributors to the project, so please be sure to check them out and subscribe to their Channels. (NOTE, THESE ARE NOT LIVE LINKS!!! YOU HAVE TO LOAD THEM INTO YOUR BROWSER)
Pictures of all the finished units will be posted on the home page, and we already have a number of units ready to go. This army is going to look awesome, good luck everyone!
We had our first two guest speakers on the show this week, Thomas Reidy, aka “Goatboy” and Rob Baer, aka Man Boy Genius, to give their two cents about an article I wrote for Spikey Bits a few weeks ago
The article was an in depth survey of miniature painting services and the services they offered.
Goatboy has his own commission service and Rob owns his own gamestore! Both are prolific painters and have something valuable to add to the community in the form of their vast depth of gamer and hobby knowledge and lore.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s . . . . a bartender?
Hey guys, it’s Caleb with White Metal Games here, with a question on my mind.
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the Southern Front Con in North Raleigh as a vendor. It was the first show I’ve ever attended as a vendor, so it was a change from the norm for me.
Since it was a local con, I decided to pick up a few shifts at a restaurant I moonlight at on the weekends. So my day went a little like this:
AM: Arrive at Con, unpack Afternoon: Work the show, sell things, interact with people PM: Close up shop, head over to restaurant, work the night shift
Next Day: Rinse and Repeat
So it was a busy couple of days. Other vendors kept asking me where I was headed and I simply smiled and said “Life Stuff.”
Asking around, I realized that one of the other vendors was a bartender. So I wasn’t in this boat alone . . . but it got me thinking . . .
Who are we in real life? Real life is such a funny phrase. When I was in college, I used to wait tables full time, at night, weekends, you know the drill. Since then I’ve always had a serving job on the side to make ends meet. But while working as a server, I always heard others talking about their ‘real lives’ or ‘real jobs’ as though waiting tables didn’t qualify. Perhaps I’m confused by what makes a job a ‘real job’. There are bartenders out in Vegas that pull in over $100K a year.
What really interests me though is how we interact with each other as a community, and how we have this whole other side of our lives, our ‘real jobs’ that rarely gets talked about.
For example, I own a wargaming company. We assemble and painting miniatures on commission.
However, my primary source of income, at this time, is still a 9-5 job where I sit at a desk, managing files, paperwork, and responding to calls/emails. I’m an office manager at a hospital and while the work isn’t exhilarating, it does allow me to keep a roof over my head and food on my table.
So who are YOU in real life? Does you ‘real life’ every conflict with you gaming life? How do you define yourself?
If you are an entrepreneur like me hoping to break into the hobby full time, how are you handling the transition from part time hobbyist to full time hobbyist?
Another vendor at the con gave me an interesting piece of advice: “If you are going to do this as a job, you have to give it up as a hobby.”
What do you think? Was this vendor right? Or can you have your cake and eat it to?
War Council is a joint venture between myself and a buddy of mine, Justin Jones.
After having listened to plenty of podcasts about 40k, we wondered aloud to each other ‘Do we have anything to add to the ongoing dialogue?’
It turns out we do indeed! There are plenty of topics out there to discuss. And while many of them are trending topics, like on our most recent topic of the incoming Space Marine codex, most of our topics are from the vantage point of two blue collar gamers, gaming on a limited budget with limited time.
Sound familiar?
Hell, some weeks its a challenge just to find an hour or two to do the actual podcast! But we are encouraged by the many positive comments we’ve already received.
We’ll be adding War Council to itunes in the near future. Stay tuned for future updates, and until then . . .
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I recently had a chance to work on a Storm Eagle for a client. Like it’s baby brother, the Eagle has some impressive looking Vtrol engines on it with some kicking afterburners! The client expressed an interest in some OSL on the engines. I had done a little work with Tau OSL before using the Plasma Blue from the Miniataire Paint Line, but unlike the Tau engines, the Eagle engines are very narrow, very deep and pooling was an issue. So in short, I wasn’t getting a result I liked.
Now use the minitaire magenta. Just lay a thin layer down over the farther edge of the white. Don’t go too thick. You want some of the underlying metal color to come through. Again, diffuse the edge as you blend out towards the business end of the engine. Do this by pulling the airbrush away from the model
You should still have some white showing at the tip at this point.
From here you could either leave the tip white, use some minitaire plasma glue to create a plasma like engine effect (such as on the tau, above), or go full Top Gun and use three thin/small strips of red/orange/yellow to create a real afterburner look. It’s up to you!
