In this short video I will explain you how to achieve an easy chipping and/or scratching effect. Suitable for gaming quality and showcase quality paintjobs.

I finally did it: painting a complete figure on camera. Filming and editing-wise there's a lot of room for improvement, I know, but in the end I'm very happy with the results.

Please share if you like this!

Best watched on YouTube in HD.

About a year ago I wrote a short post about some of the new Citadel paints I bought and how I transferred them into dropper bottles. Questions kept coming in so I decided to film the entire process :)

In this video I will show you my recipe for a simple neutral skintone, mainly for gaming miniatures. In the video below I'm painting up Gloin the dwarf from The Hobbit starter set.

Please switch to HD and full screen for the best viewing experience :)

Here are three videos I recently did on YouTube. It's kind of an experiment on different kinds of sand to use for basing. In the final video I will show you how you can use sand and paint it up like grass.

Here are the links to the painted miniatures I mentioned in the last video:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/77808
http://www.coolminiornot.com/102165

In this video I will explain how I use balsa wood on a base and how I improve the texture and hardness. This video is available in HD: when the video is running, click the cogwheel in the bottom right corner and switch to 720p.

This article will describe the process of stripping paint from a miniature using Acetone.

Acetone is cheap (I paid 5 euro for 1 liter) and quite easy to work with. Always use acetone in a well ventilated place, make sure you don't waste anything in the sink, on the ground, and keep the product away from children, pets, ...

I bought a bottle of acetone in a DIY store, you can find this product usually where other liquids like ammonia, white spirit and brush cleaner are.



Don't be fooled by the fact that acetone is often packed in a plastic bottle. The liquid and also the fumes will melt away most plastics, including those used in our hobby, both on models and bases. This makes it unusable for plastics. I haven't tried it on resin though.
This is the victim. Before submerging her into the acetone I removed the base.



Use a glass jar with a metal lid for the stripping process. A shallow jar is easier to retrieve the miniature. Put the figure in the jar (or more than one in one go), and pour a couple of centimeters over it.
Please notice I am doing this above the sink in my garage. By no means do this in your kitchen or anything. If you don't have a garage do this outside.



Now leave it to soak. How long is up to you and also depends on the paintjob on the miniature: is it covered in a thick layer of paint and/or primer? Is it only lightly basecoated? In my case the figure got an intermediate coat of white primer and some thin layers of paint.
Even minutes after putting it in the liquid I saw paint flaking off. So this stuff is quite violent to the painted surface. So my guess is, if you're in a hurry, you can already take out the figure after 30 minutes, or maybe less. I left mine to soak for 8 hours, but I assume there isn't much difference between a 4 hour soak or an overnight one. A lof of the primer has also dissolved by now:



Take the figure out of the jar with some pliers or tongs. Put it under some running water. Seeing the picture now makes me realize I'd better put a bucket or something in the sink. This is a must when working with small parts. You don't want any of those washing down the drain.



The result after the soak and the rinsing with water:



Now give it a good rub with a toothbrush, under lukewarm water and with some dishwashing fluid. The final result is quite surprising, all the primer came off. Only in the deepest recesses there is some paint left. If you want you can try to fiddle that out with a needle or something, but usually this won't be noticed when painting.

EDIT: the plinths mentioned in this article are no longer manufactured by VoodooWorx but are now sold by Secret Weapon Miniatures.

In this tutorial I will explain in detail how the base of my latest finished miniature, Bregan, Apostle of Darkness, was made. It's actually the first real step-by-step tutorial I have done for this blog. It was time-consuming but fun to do, so I might think about making another one soon. If you have any ideas for a particular tutorial you want to see here, please write it down in the comments section at the bottom of this post.

The plinth itself is from VoodooWorx (you can buy the item here), but as you will see some extra details were added. One important thing to notice before you start working with a resin plinth (just like any resin, plastic or metal part) is to wash it thoroughly (preferably in lukewarm water with dish-washing soap and a toothbrush).

First thing to do is drill a hole in the base to be able to pin the model on to it when everything is done. I positioned the unpainted figure on the base first to get a good idea where his foot which was going to be pinned would be. When the hole and pin were in place I also did a dry fit to check one last time.

The plinth already looks great, but I wanted to add some extra details, so I went to check my basing materials for something. I thought these Fenryll resin skulls would fit nicely.



Here's a quick tip if you want to firmly attach a small detail on a base. Lay down a flat piece of sanding paper and move the object over it a few times, in the position you want to glue it down. This creates a flat surface on the bottom which allows more room for the glue.



Next detail: some fine plant roots.



I cut off some small pieces and fit them on the base, cutting them more to fit on the base. Then I drenched them in diluted wood glue and put them into place with the help of some small drops of superglue. At the same time I glued some sand in place, around the plant roots and the skulls.



I primed the base black. I must admit this was done a bit too sparsely, but my spray can of back primer was almost empty :) The fact that not all crevices are well covered isn't really a problem. When painting showcase models it's better to have too little primer on than too much.



All the stone areas were basecoated using two layers of Vallejo Model Color (VMC) Basalt Grey, thinned to a 3:1 ratio (3 parts paint, one part water) and applied with a #3 brush.



After that I created a 3:1:4 mix of Vallejo Acrylic Wash (VAW) Black, VAW Sepia and water. This mix was liberally painted onto the entire base. I did this two times. When that was dry I painted one some pure VAW Black, with a touch of VAW Sepia, in the recesses between the stones, around the sand, etc.



At this point I returned with the basecoat color, but created a much thinner mix, about 1:1 VMC Basalt Grey and water. I painted most of the stones with this color, careful not to have it run into the in between. I'm still using a #3 brush here, not really paying attention to the smoothness of the paint. This way the stone recieves a hint of texture. I highlighted the edges by adding white to the mix, I did this in three stages.
For the few stones which were not painted in VMC Basalt Grey, I created the same basecoat mix, but added points of VMC Mahogany Sand and VMC German Black Brown. These colors are used on the figure's armor as well, so it will really tie well to the base. It's painted on and highlighted the same way as the other tiles.



Next up are the sand areas. These are basecoated with a mix of black with a point of VMC Mahogany Sand. In a few steps, by adding more Mahogany Sand VMC Deck Tan, the sand was highlighted, in a drybrush fashion of painting. The last highlight was pure Deck Tan. The result looks a bit harsh, but the last step of painting the base will be to cover the entire thing with pigments, and this will smooth out a lot of the rude highlights of the sand.
For the roots I used similar colors: the basecoat was black with some VMC Germany Camo Black Brown. For the next layer I used pure VMC Germany Camo Black Brown, then started adding VMC Deck Tan.



Now the work on the final detail can begin: the skulls. What I did first was to paint the skulls entirely with somem slightly dilluted black paint. The purpose of this is to make sure areas like the eye sockets and inside the mouth are shaded, the black primer also didn't reach there.
The basecoat was done using VMC Basal Grey with a touch of VMC Deck Tan, making sure the paint didn't get in the areas mentioned previously. Shading was done by adding a bit of VMC Germany Camo Black Brown and black. Highlight was done with white.



As a final step I dry-painted on some pigments. I always use Vallejo Earth & Oxide pigments. I mixed up some Carbon Black and Brown Iron Oxide. Just to keep things clear: I'm not adding any water, just the dry product! Then I started to apply the mix around the sandy areas, and in the corners of the stairs. Careful not to get too much of the stuff on the skulls.

All that's left now is to carefully remove the masking tape from the sides and paint them black. I always add one or two layers of varnish to the sides of the base, to avoid the black paint to rub off when handling the miniature. And then comes the spectacular moment of bringing the miniature and the base together!

That's it for this tutorial, I hope it was useful. Please consider leaving feedback if you thought this was helpful. If you want to stay up to date please subscribe to my blog, easiest way to do this is to click one of the square (social) media icons in the top right. Thank you!

The finished miniature:

CMON

Since I purchased a new camera during the holidays the doors to full-HD video tutorials are now open. I like the idea of video tutorials since it takes up way less time than writing one, editing in pictures, etc.

So here's my first one, I hope you like it.

Part two of the tutorial is done... both videos are posted here.

I got some additional questions and remarks after posting my "testing out green stuff press molds". So I decided to make a tutorial on this. I wanted to make a video for YouTube for a while, so this was a great excuse :)

I've uploaded part 1 already, still working on part 2 (filming is finished). Click the image below to go to the video on YouTube: