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 . . .
Greeting fellow wargamers, Caleb with White Metal Games here. We specialize in creating custom miniatures for your wargames . . . at least, we did, until Murderfrost came along.
I stumbled across this site a few months back and I thought it was high time I share my findings with the world. First off, stop drooling. Here’s the link! Best part of all, $20 bucks each! Woot, woot!
The site that makes these guys, Murderfrost, is a wargaming site that specializes in custom made plastic terrain and apparently a few models. They have some amazing terrain pieces, as well as some cool cannons and other bits of battlefield wargear. Check out their full range. Dirt cheap prices!!!
The range is called Dark Solemnity, which I suppose points to the fact that the primarchs were a serious bunch of guys.
There are currently four figures in this range. The first, featured at the top of the page, is called Lord Blind Portend. Note the red hair, signature weapon, crown and armor . . . remind you of anyone?
Moving on, next we have Lord Lionsbane . . okay, a bit more specific, more on point. If you swapped the pistol, I could actually see using this guy in just some regular fantasy games or RPG’s. Digging that armor.
Next we have my personal favorite . . . Lord Killfrenzy. I just like the name. Who can blame me! The dual axes really give this guy away, and that pleated battle skirt/kilt/whatever. Remind you of any other figures out there?
Last put not least, we have Lord Tenacity. Um . . . wow, that’s amazing, actually.
Never highlight again . . . well, at least not in the traditional sense.
Caleb here with White Metal Games, and I’m here to tell you we’ve all been pushing the cart uphill when we could have been coasting all along.
Traditionally painting works something like this:
Prime
Basecoat
Shade
Highlight
The problem is working in all those shadows and highlights takes time. A lot of time. And time isn’t a luxury any of us have these days. If you’re anything like me you’ve got a dozen or more projects on your desk at any one time, each vying for your attention. What to do, what to do? Well, you could hire someone to paint your minis for you, never a bad idea, or like me, learn to paint faster! And the greyscale method will help to get you there. Here’s how it works:
See the paint stick? Would you believe I painted it all with the same shade of blue? No? Well, I did. How you ask? Simple, the blue was laid down last.
Most paint is fairly opaque, which means not a lot of light gets through it. It’s thick, it covers the mini well. However, it also doesn’t allow for much contrast. It’s flat, it’s boring. To create a sense of depth to the miniature, most painters using a series of shades and highlights to make the model more visually appealing.
But there’s an easier way. By using a transparent paint, such as a candy, tint or glaze, you let more of the underlying color show through. Remember the top level of any miniature is not just the layer laid down last, it’s a cumulative effect built up from all the underlying colors. Another way to say this is every color you lay down effects the next color to be laid down.
The problem with the above is that it requires you find the right tones and harmonies of any paint as you layer up or shade down to make sure the layers look natural. If you want to highlight dark blue for example, you must select the right blue, or add a little white to the original.
By contrast, however, black, grey and by extension white are all natural variations of each other. Black blends naturally to grey, and grey to white.
In many ways, this method starts the same as zenithal highlighting. All we’re really trying to do is let the shadows falls where they may. And to do that, we use the natural contours of the model, rather than creating our own through line highlights or other time consuming techniques.
First, lay down a little black. If you are against black primer as so folks are, use a little dark grey. And by a little, I may lay down an even lay over the miniature. You can avoid the highest points, since these will end up being while, but concentrates in cracks/crevaces, and the like. Remember, these areas and where the shadows would natuarlly fall, so these are where the darkest colors will be anywhere. And by laying down black in these areas, when you finally do apply paint on top, the final layer will naturally appear darker since the underlaying color is in fact black, thus reflecting little to no light.
Next, move on to dark grey, or light grey if you started with dark grey. I tend to do this with an airbrush, but you could dry brush it on to the same effect. You want to work against the grain of the model. The best way to describe this is imagine a wooden beam, with grain running through it. You want to go against the grain. In the below, rather than going left to right (with the grain) you want to do up and down, against the grain. Think of it like cross the lines, making X’s, turning it into a graph. Whatever visual helps you. The bottom line is you want to apply the paint in such a way that the dry brush picks up the natural higher edges of the figure. If you use an airbrush, then as the paint is dispersed across the miniature, it will naturally settle on the higher areas, much like snow clinging to the top of a mountain peak.
Finally, apply a little white to the uppermost edges of the model, the highlights. If you do this with an airbrush, just remember to have a light touch. If you oversaturate these areas with white, then they will appear washed out. You don’t want that. You want contrast, you want variation. In short, you need all the greys to be visible. But these white areas are indeed crucial, and in terms of the color selected, they will be the closet to the color you selected in terms of a 1:1 ratio of color.
Now comes the fun part. Select a glaze, tint, or candy. If you don’t have a tint, then simply select your favorite paint, something hopefully not too opague and thin it down to the consistency of skim milk. Basically the same consistency you want with any airbrush paint. To test it, spread a little out across a piece of old newspaper. If you can still see the letters through the thinned down paint, your about right. If you can’t read the words anymore, keep thinning.
Using your now properly thinned down paint, apply the paint to the entire model. That’s right, the whole thing. Don’t overdo it. You don’t want to lay down so much paint that the underlying layers don’t show through.
Now behold! A miniature with natural looking transitions between darks and light (contrast) with minimal effort. So what do you think? Is it a win, or is it a cheap trick with no use in a painters arsenal?
To give credit where credit is due, I first got this idea from watching Asjarra’s St. Celestine video. If you’ve never seen Asjarra’s work, then I can’t recommend him enough. His channel is a huge inspiration to me.
In addition, I found this video on youtube that loosely outlines the principal I am talking about.
What SHOULD be noted is that this is by no means a perfect substitution for highlighting. The highlights will never be as bright as they would be if layered on top. They are great for shadows, however because, in essence, shadows are a lack of color and this achieves just that.
They’re also great for cranking out decent looking miniatures in a hurry, giving the illusion of blending without as much work as you might expect. Go speed painter, go speed painter, go speed painter, goooooo!!!
Until next time, this is Caleb with White Metal Games reminding you to . . .
Painting miniatures can be a rewarding experience, but how do you showcase your work in the best possible light. Here are 5 easy tips to improve your lighting studio set up to make photographing your minis that much easier!
1. Adequate Lighting
Unless you are going for a Noir style look, you are probably going to want more than one lamp. Fortunately lamps are cheap.
You can pick up a clip light such as this from a DIY store like Lowes or Home Deport, even Walmart, for about $5-6 bucks each. We recommend about 3 to be on the safe side.
Can’t get to the hardware store? Not to worry, because it’s Back to School Time! You can find a lamp like these practically anywhere. They’re a tad more expensive because, well, because they look a bit more aesthetically pleasing and they’re intended for college kids with parents flitting the bill. So in that vein, ask your mom to pick you up one (or three) or these for about $10-20 bucks each.
2. Kill the Shadows Now that you’re got your snazzy new lights, arrange them around your subject like so. This is the basics of three point lighting.
The idea is to eradicate shadows by filing in every angle of your subject, flooding those gaps with light. Sort of like how we use washes to fill out the details on a mini.
3. Quality Lighting
Things have changed since the day Thomas Edison first brought us the light bulb. Move over Edison, daylight is king! While your at the store, pick up a pack of Daylight balanced bulbs. $12 bucks will get you a four pack, which is more than enough lighting.
Not only are these bulbs brighter than traditional bulbs, they use less energy, so they save you money. Normally heat is a bi-product of using a traditional light bulbs. In general terms, the original light bulb was poorly designed from an energy use standpoint. These newer bulbs don’t get nearly as hot to the touch, so it’s more comfortable to photograph your models, which means you can shoot an entire army and still not break a sweat. Trust me, at the studio, we learned this the hard way. And even better, these bulbs will last much longer than traditional bulbs, so I’ll save money that way too!!!
Case in point, see the two Daemon Princes below.
The first figure was photographed using regular 60 watt bulbs. The second, using the daylight balanced bulbs above. See how much cleaner and crisper the second image looks?
Soft Lighting
You’ll want to soften the light in some way, so it doesn’t strike the model directly. Softening is a term photographers use to describe the quality of the light striking their subject. Remember when you were in the highschool and the photographer had those white umbrellas with the flashes pointed into them? Same principle. The light didn’t hit you directly and as a result the indirect light was softer as it drifted over the subject. See in the below picture how none of the lights are pointed at the subject directly? The light is being bounced around the inside of the light box, creating a ‘soft’ overall light.
This will also help to prevent any damage to the figure over long periods of exposure to bright light. After all, you don’t want to spend weeks painting a figure and then have it fade when you leave it in the photo booth for too long!
Another way to do this is to take a thin white material, like tracing paper, white muslin (for you drama majors out there, cheese cloth (for you bakers out there), or even you’re mama’s nice white linens. The material should be thin enough that light can beam through it. Remember, if the light doesn’t reach your subject, then it doesn’t matter how soft the light is, the subject will still be too dark.
4. Simple or gradient background
I see a lot of photos like this one out there:
And while this is okay for a quick upload to a site like Facebook or the like, it’s not really adequate when you want to showcase a model. There’s so much going on in the background I can’t focus on the model at all. You’re going to want something more like this: Gradient backgrounds are quite simply a fade from light to dark, usually colored in some way. Blue is common, mostly because it suggests a skyline. We’re used to seeing blue, we see it everyday outside (well, most of us do). Without getting into too much detail, finding a tutorial for how to print a gradient background isn’t all that hard. Just google it. Don’t have access to a printer? Then any basic blank white sheet of paper will do. Just try to position the sheet so we can’t see the edges. Ideally position the figure on the bend of the page. The idea is to create a seamless background, so all we have to focus on is the figure.
5. White = Bright!!!
Ever notice that most photoboxes are white? Do you know why? It’s simple. White reflects light. So a nice bright white photobox will help to bounce the light around and brighten up the subject matter. Case in point, take a look at these Tau we recently did for a client.
See how overall the figure just looks darker? It’s not your eyes, it’s the background.
CONCLUSION:
By following these simple tips you’ll be able to improve the quality of your miniature photography in no time and then you’ll really be able to . . . .
Well, we did it. We jumped on board the podcasting band wagon. You can find our first three podcasts here
Every podcast has their thing. Some are more narrative driven, some are more tournament play driven or competitive in nature.
I like to think of our podcast as a dialogue between two wargamers who are keenly interested in wargaming culture, trends, balanced play, rumors, and getting a better grasp on the rules.
We don’t spend a lot of time focused on game mechanics or strategy, we spend much more time focused on the passion of wargaming, what drives us to pursue it, understanding the wargaming mentality, and the like. It’s the perfect engine for me to talk about recent commission, kit bashes, upcoming releases, and its the perfect venue for Justin to combine his academic vernacular with his unabashedly encyclopedic knowledge of the 40k Fluffiverse.
So if you’re a wargamer like us, a beer and pretzels style gamer that just likes to have fun, this might be the podcast for you. We share some similarities to the Screaming Heretic Podcast, another podcast that is just a bunch of good friends have a few laughs.
All of the podcasts are uploaded on our website but we will also be uploading them to itunes soon.
While your on the site, be sure to peruse our gallery of almost 10,000 images of custom kit bashed miniatures, painted samples, full armies, terrain, and more!
You can also check us out on facebook and follow our updates, respond to queries we post on the show, etc.
So . . . have a listen, take us for a spin, comment on the facebook page and let us know what you think, and until then .. .
I was recently contacted by a repeat client who wants a customer squad of ‘The Eight’ created. The Eight are the members of Ta Commander Farsights personal bodyguard, consisting of a handful of crisis suits, a broadside, and a riptide!
Needless to say I was overjoyed at the prospect of building this squad, not only because it just came out ( the Tau Farsight Enclave) but because its so rare that I get to kit bash me some Tau. Tau just aren’t one of those armies that get modified that often. Not at least in the same way that Nids, Chaos daemons/marines, or Orks do.
Since I don’t have the supplement yet, I was a little confused on what sorts of bits I’d need to do this. I read something about Fusion blades, sort of a lightsaber for Tau, and heard you need twin linked fusion guns to do it. So I immediately tried to find some.
However, in doing a little more research only ONE of the Commanders carries a TL fusion gun and thus has access to the fusion blade. So I was stuck with all these extra bits! While I could have hoarded them for future work, I felt it would be better, for both me and community, to turn them back over to the vendor and release them back to the 2nd hard bits market.
I emailed the vendor, explained my situation, and waited to hear back from them. In hours the situation had been resolved amicably and the purchase was refunded.
Now with Spikey Bits no longer offering bits sales, the bits market is getting harder and harder to work through. If a client wants a specific model modeled up, it can be a challenge to get all the bits you need. My situation with the Looming Horror model a few days ago was no exception to this.
In many cases it might actually be cheaper for modellers like myself to buy up several kits, use the bits we need, and then keep the spares on hand for other projects. But this isn’t always the best solution, sometimes you just need that ONE BIT. And without the second hand market to make that happen, it’s getting harder and harder to provide that service to clients.
So I’d like to make two points.
Firstly, I’d like to publicly praise Bits World for their outstanding customer service.
Secondly, I’m curious how companies like Bits World continue to stay in business with the recent shift in GW policy regarding the second hand bits market.
Are bits providers like Bits World a dying breed, hunted to extinction, and if so, what’s a miniature studio to do when clients have custom orders to fill?
I’ve requested an interview with the owners of Bits World to let us see the men (or women) behind the mask. Stay tuned for details . . .
And until then . . PUT YOUR MINIS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!
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