Tag Archives: green stuff

GZG’s Spider Drones

Over the last 2 weeks I’ve been working on 12 of GZG’s Spider Drones – 2 packs each of the standard and rotary canon.  I paused in the middle and painted some other stuff, then my bases finally arrived from Litko, so I finished them up this weekend.

I painted them all the same, except for the top, which I painted in a similar style as I did the Grav Drones a while back.  Then I based them using Green Stuff.

raw

Cleaned and assembled.  There’s a bit of flash around the leg joints that I just left – it was going to be very time consuming to clean, and leaving just added to the “spider legs” effect, I think.

 

primed

Primed.

 

stages

Various stages.  Here’s was my process:

  • Do the bottom parts of all of them with a rough coat of metallic silver.
  • One at a time, do the metallic brass parts, then the black guns, the red lens, and highlights
  • Wash the bottom in heavy black
  • Paint the top

 

bases_raw

Here’s the bases in various stages.  Litko 0.8mm thick wooden bases, 30mm in diameter, with a Litko heavy duty magnet bottom under it.  Then I pre-cut the bits for the top of the base. That’s some metal mesh from the hardware store – I also use it to make chain link fences – and some square plastic mesh I got at the craft store in the knitting section.

 

bases_pre_paint

Here’s with the Green Stuff – ready for primer.

 

bases_in_progress

There’s the Green Stuff, rolled flat.  I put the base on it and use the razor blade to cut it to fit.  The copper pipe fitting I use to make the circular indent.  I have a smaller one, also.  The mesh I just press gently into it, and it sticks.  No glue needed.

 

bases_primed bases_primed_with_drones

All primed.

bases_done

All painted.

 

bases_and_drones GZG_spider_drones_all_based

A coat of shiny varnish, and then I glued the drone on to it.

 

GZG_spider_drones_all GZG_spider_drones_black_red GZG_spider_drones_blue_yellow GZG_spider_drones_green_tan

 

Making the bases was fun, but I don’t think they look as good on the Spiders as they did on the Grav Drones.  It’s too busy and dark.  Lesson learned.

 

GZG’s Grav Mini Drones

Hello.  I noted a few days ago that I was painting GZG’s Grav Mini Drones for Reddit’s April mini painting challenge.  Well, they are complete.

cleaned

Cleaned up and ready for primer.  As you can see, they are pretty small.

 

primed_2_missing

Primed.  “But,” you ask, “There are only seven.  Where are the other two?”  Well, I primed these in the backyard at night, and when they were dry and I was bringing them back into the house, I dropped two in the grass.  The very long grass that I have not cut in too long.  I went back outside with a flashlight, but I could not find them.

The next morning, in the sunlight, I found them right away. 🙂

 

stands_attached

Attaching the “post”.  I got some acrylic rod at the local hobby store.  It cut easy with wire cutters, and super glue worked just fine on it.

 

Painted_wash_still_wet_1 Painted_wash_still_wet_2

Painted.  Not the most realistic paint job, but a real drone would have been solid gray or dull black, and where’s the fun in that?  Most of the detail is in the bottom. which you really won’t see much of during game play, so I had to do something to give visual interest to the smooth top.

I painted the top first, then the bottom, and then washed the bottom in black.  If I was to do it over again, I would had painted and washed the bottom first, then painted the top.

 

fresh_made_bases

Making bases with Green Stuff.  This was the first time I didn’t have to work around the figure’s existing base, so I had a lot more freedom.

 

GZG Grav Mini Drones all_complete_front

Complete.

 

complete_black_red complete_blue_yellow GZG Grav Mini Drones fave_base

This base is my favorite.  I might go with variations of this base in the future.  It looks good, and was fairly easy to make and paint.

 

What would I do differently?  I would take more time making sure the base edges were flat.  Some of them had rounded bulges on the edges, and when I painted the edge black, it resulted in some sloppy looking paint jobs.

Adventures in Basing

Last week I tried my hand at making bases with Green Stuff.  I was painting GZG’s 15mm Ravagers Pack A and I really wanted to make nice bases.  I had some Green Stuff freshly delivered from Amazon, and I decided to give it a try.

I hadn’t really planned ahead at all, so I was improvising.  All in all, I think it came out pretty well.

ladies_painted

Here’s all 8 figures in Ravagers Pack A, 4 models, 2 of each.  I plan to use these for role playing, so I wanted to make them different – like the two women were different women, despite the same pose.

 

all_painted

Here’s the four figures I concentrated on painted and washed.

 

wet_pallette

This is the disposable wet palette I use.  A paper towel, soaked in water, with parchment paper over it.  The kind of parchment paper I found in my kitchen, on a roll.  It will keep the paint wet and ready to use for hours.  Thanks to  Rottenlead and his excellent videos for introducing me to the wet palette concept.

 

wood_base_only

I use 0.8mm plywood bases, 20mm diameter, from Litko.net.  I put their “Heavy Duty Magnetic Base Bottoms” underneath them.  Above is the plywood base only.

 

ready_for_basing

Those are the plywood base with the magnetic bottom attached.  Putting the minis on a stick with poster sticky stuff during painting is something else I learned from Rottenlead’s videos.

 

glued

Glued to the base with super glue.  That glue in the picture is the best.  The glue is very thick, and the squeezable sides give great control.  “Gel Control” is a very good description.

 

green_stuff_base

Green Stuff on the base and textured.  I used some of the metal mesh I use for chain link fences (article coming soon), some sewing thread to press straight lines, and the texture from one of my metal files to press the details into the Green Stuff.  You can see on the black haired woman that some metal dust came off my file.  I later used some spare Green Stuff to clean my files to almost new.  🙂

 

file

The file.  You can see the textures I used.

 

GZG Ravagers Pack A

The finished bases.  I used Citadel’s ‘Ardstuff to make them glossy.  Two coats.  My drybrushing of the yellow could have been better.  🙁

 

I think it was a good first try.  I have a ton of ideas on what to do better next time.

Sandbag Terrain Made From Green Stuff

This past week, when I wasn’t at Kingdom-con, I made some sandbag terrain from Green Stuff.  I’m not going to get into how to work with Green Stuff, the link I provided covers that.

I’ve never worked with Green Stuff before.  It wasn’t too difficult.  I made 2 different sandbag walls, using 2 different methods.

I was making some bases for Khurasan’s Female Auxiliaries and I had some Green Stuff left over, so I made the first sandbag wall.  A few days later, I made the second one.  The first one, I kept the sandbags connected in a row, not cutting all the way through Green Stuff.  For the second set, I decided to make individual sandbags, and stack them.

contiguous_soldier

 

Green Stuff Sandbag Terrain 15mm

 

Green Stuff Sandbag Terrain 15mm

both_rear

I think the individual sandbags looks way better.  It didn’t take much longer to do, either.

I have a tool that has a textured grip, so I rolled the grip across the top of the sandbags for texture.  Paint, black wash, sepia wash, and a dry brush.

I based them on thick cardboard, because that’s what I have around the house.  Vinyl wall spackle mixed with sand in a thin layer on the cardboard, then some sand and very little static grass, since my battle mat is desert themed.

I hope to mess with the Green Stuff some more in the future.