FREEBIE: Wound markers v 3.0

It’s my birthday and you know I like to give presents away [although this may not be the most exciting of gifts 😉 ]

 

You should all know by now I’m on record as disliking the common practice of using dice for recording wounds – they can be accidentally and ‘accidentally’ picked up. Of course I looked into it and ended up producing my own counters because they practically cost me nothing and if I leave them behind at a tournament I can make some more.

However this level of crafting can seem a bit amateurish so you can go next level like Warhammer 39,999 did with his Status effect markers but there’s still a cost involved in that and the smallest sized badge will be about 25mm in diameter so it’s not great for wounds.

However, I saw a tutorial by NafNaf on Objective Secured recently to achieve the same status effect but using adhesive plastic bottle caps. Now, a couple of things, I didn’t even know these plastic caps existed, but they do and they come in different sizes and shapes! In addition because they’re manufactured in China [mostly] you can get them in bulk.

So with this in mind I kept thinking about my current markers. I started off with triangular ones, so they took up less space and you could point them at the specific model that was wounded. They’re perfectly serviceable but over time those points fray just a little bit. By time I’m talking four years here so they’re really not that shabby. But for ease of construction for the many I give out to my opponents at tournaments I created the square format as the 90° angles are slightly more robust and so easy to cut them into strips with a scalpel and then snip the individual markers with some super-sharp scissors.

One thing I never considered was circular markers as cutting many of those would just be insane, but then I saw the bottle caps and in NafNaf’s tutorial they used a 25mm hole punch. So I started looking and found 10mm diameter caps and a 10mm leather/card punch. So now we have a device that can be accurately positioned on a marker and removed from it’s surround with a quick tap of the hammer.

All we need is a new wound marker template…

Cereal box card

The great thing is you can use the bottle cap to help position the punch, additionally you can leave them on the paper, or stick them onto cereal card for added durability or even mounting card for super thick counters [possibly overkill I think].

Mounting card

On top of that I’ve also ordered some 9mm square ones from China, which conveniently is exactly the same size as my v2.0 markers! so I’ll see what they’re like sometime in March. Ultimately though I think this is an ideal solution for those who want something that look more ‘professional’ without breaking the bank although the punch cost me £3 and 50 10mm bottle caps cost me another £3.50 so £6.50 for 50 wound markers… make your own mind up about value. Personally I can stick to my MK I’s for the time being. I only really entered into this as following a tutorial and expanding on it. Although as I ordered 230 of both 9mm square and 10mm round from China I may well have an idea to sell some should there be a demand, although I think I’ve proved that this is such an easy task there shouldn’t be.

Anyway here’s the circular wound template, just download and print at 300dpi:

Oh, and another use of these, back before Maelstrom missions you may well have created your own custom objective that did not have numbers on. These are discrete yet big enough to be tagged beside those strategic points to differentiate the numbered objectives.

UPDATE: So you can see at the top of the page I made some and I have to admit the whole process is a bit of a faff, the punch is not particularly durable and getting through the mounting card was a nightmare. So much so that I actually only took one out and instead stuck with the cereal card ones.

These would be OK for your own purposes but certainly not as a production line [and I’ll have 230 of these domes coming soon!]. That being said the adhesive domes are fantastic so hopefully the square ones will be cool and a much easier process that may result in production.

March 2nd is Old Stuff Day

Just a heads up March 2nd is Old Stuff Day A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs. To choose one of your own blogposts that your most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you were to share blogposts from other bloggers which you thought deserved the same spotlight of attention before they were returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

So if you have a blog don’t forget to root through your old posts and rediscover those hidden gems.

‘nids part 163 – Malanthrope

The three ‘nids – Malanthrope, carnifex and Deathleaperhave all been progressing. Sadly I haven’t taken too many WiPs as I’m a little down on that at the moment

Anywat, the Malanthrope and Carnifex have come on leaps and bounds as I’d hoped to use them in my game tomorrow. They aren’t finished but they may be enough for them to not look unpainted. Deathleaper has been put on hold so I could progrees further with these two and also because the freehand banner is a bit of a challendge and I don’t really need him until Blog Wars.

All the usual Hive Fleet Gorgon effects are in place here, although I started doing all the green and red bits before I’ve done the second set of bone highlights. That may come back to haunt me but we’ll see.

I have actually got to the point with the tendrils and sacs that there is just so much detail I actually don’t care. There’s going to be Tamiya Clear Red X-27 going on too so any highlights I do will be covered in places and as it will have a gloss varnish there will be areas of reflection that will obscure it as well.

I just want him done and although it won’t be perfect I’m happy with the result.

Possibly need some more glow effect highlights on the vents.

Terrain is everything – Project Ω – Realm of Battle Board – TO DONE!

Well, that’s it, I finally got my Realm of Battle Board done, in time for ‘Dave’s 40k @ 40’ tournament. This weekend me and my gaming crew will be having a mini tournament much like our ‘Game of Throne of Skulls’ this time it’s to celebrate my birthday, it was the wife’s idea and as there was only five of us, Ben offered his house as a venue. PeteB will be there in the afternoon so hopefully we can get the competition out of the way and have some X-Wing later. Given my mixed emotions about my birthday it was thought a day spent in the world of fictional superhumans fighting in space might help me through it. So I can’t thank the guys and the wife enough for letting me play toy soldiers, so look forward to some battle reports.

Anyway, the board got two coats of matt varnish. I had a squeaky bum moment with the second coat where some of the varnish looked a bit milky…

Lucky it all dried transparent and felt durable, although I did catch a nail on the edge while I was putting it away and stripped a bit of paint off!

As you can see I added some yellow flock too, just in some crevices for a little more detail and visual fun.

I’m really chuffed with it even if some is not quite as realistic as I’d imagined but that flock is a nightmare to work with so I’m happy.

Fingers crossed it stays stuck to the board.

So my 500ml bottle of varnish used about 100ml for the first coat and another 100ml for the second so you could probably get the 250ml for all six board. I could have done a third coat but I didn’t want to risk it. Still I can use it on other stuff.

These are higher resolution images but I’m not sure if they’re any better but there’s plenty of pics to feast your eyes.

Just note on the edge of the stones there are some touch ups on paint chips that I forgot to blend in with some Pumpkin/Vermilion shading. I’ll probably touch it up again at some point maybe set up a day were I fix any chips once a year.

I decided to put some terrain on the board, just to give it a bit of variety, hopefully there’ll be some proper in game shots that will make it more exciting.

Just look how much of that hand gel has evaporated from my Plasma Generator!

And here’s the Red Stamp of Approval! After so long and so many ‘snafus’ I’m really glad to get this off my list, not that I’ve really got anywhere to store/play with it 😉 Apparently I’ll be getting a shed later in the year and move all my hobby stuff out there, until then it’s in the bag in the garage.

600,000

It was back in September when I hit 500,000 page views and if I’m honest I’d considered not celebrating them until the cool million but I decided people clicking on my blog was actually worth thanking, not necessarily showing off. However, the stats say I managed this in roughly 5 months as opposed to the last 100,000 which took six. What is more shocking is the sad fact I’ve reduced my posting and haven’t had quite the big projects to justify the page views, at least not like I had last year with the Tyranid Skyshield Landing Pad.

So I can only reiterate my great thanks to those who continue to visit -THANKS! There are some interesting things in the pipeline, despite recent posts suggesting I was stuck mojo-wise. It’s fair to say things are not quite as frenetic as they were last year but I am making progress, just slowly and surely. Stuff is getting done I just need to find time to record what I’m doing so I can share it with you all and get my head back in the game. Just you wait, when I clear the decks of those pending models from my last post, what wonders I will have to share.

So, until 700,000 thanks once again, you’re the best.

What’s on my palette?

Bless me readers for I have sinned, it’s been nearly three months since my last confession. Where am I at? Well currently my head is all over the place. I’m getting stuff done, but If I was to prepare a hobby matrix, blogging would certainly be low on the list. I managed to push along with my Deathwing, I think at this stage I’d done the first set of highlightws on at least three of the fiver Terminators [with the 6th in the background for reference].

I then got them all done and hit a wall with the Crux Terminatus, which is odd because that’s supposed to be FerronProxima stone, so it’s just the Vermillion and Pumpkin shading of the base. However, I think I just saw it as a lot of faffing with not much reward when I could be getting be doing…

…this. Yes I went with the flow and started painting ‘nids, at least I didn’t touch the 30 Genestealers though! Still, Deathleaper got his base coats and washes

As did my second Carnifex, spare heads and weapons. I’d been anticipating a couple of pairs of Fleshborer Hives from a trade, but that fell through thanks to the other guy’s car being broken into, which included the envelope with my bits in his bag and the guy’s electric guitar and amp. So I couldn’t be too miffed considering his loss. Still, I managed to find a couple of pairs on a German ebay auction. I’m thinking that mught be the way to go in future – stop searching for Tyranids and look for ‘Tyraniden’ or whatever foreign words translate to the bit I’m needing. Unfortunately I got stung for postage in that additional items were free, except you had to complete the purchase to get them which meant I had to buy and pay for 2 left arms with €4 postage, getting the second arm free postage and then buy and pay for 2 right arms [as the this was a separate auction – bitz sellers, tsk!] with €4 postage, getting the second arm free. So I ended up paying €8 for postage when it should have been €4. In the end I think it came to £12, expensive bits but still cheaper than getting Forgeworld Devourers.

 

Anyway, whilst I’m throuwing nids back into the pile I’ll probably finish this guy off too!

And of course I’m hoping to get this done.

But Like I say my head is all over the place. I feel massive compulsion to get stuff done, there are elements I feel I HAVE to paint, or build, but it’s a bit overwhelming and insufficent to overcome my hobby inertia [have I got that right, inertia is a concept I really struggle with]. The fact is I am painting and hobbying but in small doses, certainly not to the level I would wish and kicking into another gear is really tough. Gaming is also in short supply however, me and the gaming crew are looking to have a little mini event in a week or so and that could be the impetus we need. I get to finally try the Tyrannocytes and see the new Necrons in phase or phase in.

Veteran of Warhammer 40,000 conflict struggling to come to terms with it

Veteran of Warhammer 40,000 conflict struggling to come to terms with it

Made me smile.

Terrain is everything – Project Ω – Realm of Battle Board – Varnishing Act!

It’s funny how just a hint of sunshine is enough for me to gamble again by spray painting these boards. So despite the crisp weather and quite blowy conditions I just went and sprayed them [will I ever learn?].

And it actually worked! of course I don’t know how tough and durable this is but it’s got a coat of varnish on at least. I’ve still got the Winsor & Newton varnish to follow for added durabilty but at this stage I was really happy. I’d got through about two thirds of the can and criss-crossed all six boards and rotatated them to get decent coverage.

And I was still finding paint chips that go straight through to the board. Reaffirming my need to varnish but I’m beginning to doubt the adhesive properties of the base colours. I’m feeling like my paint on Red Oxide Primer may have been a better solution altogether, but I only know that now. Hindsight is always 20:20!

There’s another one just visible on the right side about two thirds the way up. I’ve dabbed on some Red Oxide Primer and will go back and try and blend it in when it’s dry.

Of course at this stage I just decided to finish off the can of varnish and typically the finish went a little bit, erm… weird.

Whether it was the excess, the wind or the bottom of the can but this coat ‘fluffed up’ a bit, which I’m sure is prompting a lot of you to want to give me a good kicking but thankfully a quick brush with a cloth managed to remove the fluff and dust. To get the powdery bits out of the nooks and crannys a large paint brush helped.

So we’re still OK! All I need to do now is fix some of the paint chips and Winsor & Newton it, add a few bits of flock in the crevices for added interest and it’s done!

Terrain is everything – Project Ω – Realm of Battle Board – Edge to edge

I know you’ll say I don’t need to apologise for lack of posting but I will, it’s only polite afterall. So, sorry for not posting. I’ve been doing school Governor duties and just appointed a new headmaster. It’s actually had little impact on my hobby but that’s been just ticking along with stuff but not a great deal to share. However, I did decide it was about time I made some progress on Ferron Proxima. I hadn’t really expected to paint the edges of the board butin the end couldn’t NOT do it. I picked up some heavy duty red oxide primer. It’s in a tin, not spray and even needs white spirits to clean your brushes. So now the edges are all tidy.

Compared to the edges which were stained with the shadow wash. It really is totally unnecessary but I couldn’t help myself, even with 90% of the not inexpensive tin remaining. I even dropped one of the panels and got primer on one of my hoodies! Some white spirits may have removed most of it but it was still very tense.

So all the boards got coated and stacked in the garage. My only remaining things to do are perhaps a few more highlights on the skulls and the varnishing.

I have continued to debate what to do about varnish and I appreciate all the advice in the comments so far. I agree that the spray varnish may not be sufficient coverage, howver I think it may create a perfect base, to add to [he says after trying two separatevarnishes with no luck and thinks two unkonw entities may work].

To this end I’ll try my plastikote spray on the remaining end of my test piece and then following nafnaf’s advice managed to find a Winsor & Newton varnish that was siginificantly cheaper than other varieties for a 500ml bottle. It’s also semi-transparent [or even transparent] looking, which unlike the milky Polyvine and creamy Wilko varnish gives me more confidence it will not go bad.

Hopefully the combined spray varnish for durability and paint on varnish for guaranteed coverage and extra durability will be the perfect answer. I’ll get the tester going and then fingers crossed there’ll be a good day for weather on the horizon to get this boxed off. So close, just need a sunny day.

‘nids part 162 – Deathleaper and his ‘hero’ base

With BW9 announced it’s about time I stop proxying Deathleaper with my ‘Death’ Lictor well luckily his ‘hero’ base is progressing. I’ve painted the red brick and sand bags. Also the torn flag is white and I’ll be painting the Blog Wars 9 logo on it, if I can work it out that is.

Sadly the blue corrugated metal underneath can’t be seen but i know it’s there.

Still a bit to do but it’s turned out alright so far.

I spent the other evening pinning this guy together. It felt like overkill but it actually made it a lot easier for the super glue to bond as I wasn’t constantly holding it and that also saved a lot of gluing my hands to the model.

In actual fact he fits a lot better with his foot on the banner but I don’t want to obscure what is to come. It’s also handy that his right foot has extra rubble that isn’t completely dissimilar although I’ll probably paint it a bit different.

At 4.5″ tall he’s quite impressive. I’m not sure if it’ll secure best painted character but at least I feel like I’ll have attempted it properly this time.

Anyway, despite my nid embargo he will progess over the next few months. It looks like a slightly more complex Spawn of Cryptus. I can see those talons being a monotonous pain so I’ll have to manage this paint job without going insane.