Shrinky Dink Boneswords

Shrinky Dinks are a craft project for kids, that my kids have been doing all summer.  Looked like a great way to make some bone swords, so I tried it out.  The package says that they shrink 3x smaller, so I started by drawing a picture of the bone sword I wanted to copy, 3x larger.  The Shrinky dinks we bought had 6,  8"  x 10" sheets for $5-7.  Great deal.  We bought ours at Michael's, but I bet most kid craft stores would have them.

Next I copied the pattern onto the shrinky dink with a sharpy 2 times and cut them out.

You can see that the material is very thin, easy to trace and cut.

Next you cook it in the oven for three minutes on 325 F (163 C) on some paper so it doesn't stick to your pan.

While they are baking the plastic material folds as it shrinks and kinda looks like bacon.  Mmmm.  Bacon.  It will flatten back out, but I found it helped to have some paper towel nearby to press it exactly flat once it was still warm.  The first one was a little warped after it cooled and I put it back in for a couple of minutes and then flattened it out with a paper towel.   At this point, I realized that it didn't shrink exactly to 1/3 the size, so I trimmed my second sword before I baked it.  After the material is baked it is very brittle, so trimming wasn't the best idea.  I chopped off some of the length of the baked sword, but couldn't make it skinnier without destroying it.  Back to the drawing board. 

You can see the one in the middle is a little thinner and a little shorter.  I later trimmed the longer one, but may do it again for the perfect sword. 

Here you can see the original drawing and the two new swords.

And Swarmy with some plasti-tac holding his swords on.  I intend to use a dremel tool to sharpen the edges of the swords and put some green stuff on them to make them look a little more organic.  Next time I want to do some Space Wolf icons for my tank doors and tops or make some custom shoulder pad icons for some space wolves.

Air Brush First Attempt

I finaly bit the bullet, and bought an airbrush.  I wanted to see just how much I could get done in a couple of hours.  After two painting sessions of two hours each, I got 6 tanks, a drop pod, and 36 space wolves undercoated. 

The Drop pod is probably the most finished of the batch.  I got a little too crazy with the drybrushing and made a mess of it.  No problem, I just covered over the areas with the airbrush, and problem solved.  I originaly painted this a robin egg shell blue, but decided I didn't want a powder puff team of wolves, and darkened the blue a bit.  You can still see some of the powder blue at the top of the pod.( and a paint spot from the airbrush not having the right consistency of paint.)

Can't wait to add some freehand and details to the Landraider.

I am still undecided on whether or not I like the guitar string aerial on this Vindicator.  Maybe I just need to bend it in a better arc.  You can see on this tank that I basecoated the whole thing with a dark brown/black and then painted the blue over the top of it.  Lastly I drybrushed it with a mix of codex grey and space wolves grey.

Magnetized predator.  Like the look of it, don't know if I will use him a lot.  Gotta love the tanks though.

This shows the color I originaly painted three tanks and a few guys.  I think they will match allright once I wash and drybrush them.  Sorry, a little out of focus.

Lastly, this shows the difference between a sweet resin base and your run-of-the-mill standard base.  The bases are Runic bases from Secret Weapon miniatures.  They look great.  I can't wait to finish them up.

I learned a few things about the airbrush.  I was a little intimidated at first.  It is NOT a magic, make everything look great machine.  It is another tool that has to be learned.  Just like dry brushing, washing, highlighting, etc.  It does paint a lot of stuff very fast.

The most important thing I have learned is to get the paint the right consisitency.  Too thick and it jams it up.  Too thin and you get splatter or watery spray. 

Thunder Wolves

I got my the Thunder Wolves I ordered from the Philipines.  I only had to wait about 5 weeks.  I didn't have any problems with them, and they threw in the bases they are on.  I really like these wolves.  It looks like they could actually carry some marines around.  Some other wolves out there look a little small.

All the bodies and weapons are magnetized so they can become iron priests, wolf lords, or just regular Thunder Wolves.  I can't wait to start painting them.

  I got the wolves on ebay under the search 'Wolf Mounts for Miniature Tabletop Gaming ' Sold by Jeanwulf.  He had some negative comments due to the time it was taking to get the models.  Mine took about 5 weeks to get them, but they are definitely worth the wait.

Now they are being sold by Mythicast, but are currently not listed.  They will most likely come up again.  They also were very affordable.  $55 for the set with $21 shipping. With shipping, that is just over $15 a wolf.

Here is one iron priest.  I need to drill into the metal body of the priest and put the magnet up into his torso.  Other than that, he looks great.

I also finaly took the plunge and bought some resin bases.  They look great.  I bought them from secret weapon miniatures.  I now want to have all my figures on them.  They are really nice looking and really add to the army to tie them together, and really make them shine.  Here is a wolf guard with twin claws on a base.  You can just make out a circle of runes under him.  It should be easier to see once its painted.

Finaly,  here is a pic comparing the Thunder Wolves to Canis Wolfborn.  I think the size of the wolves are great.  I need to get Canis on a better base so he looks like a leader. 

Eldar Army pics

I had a couple requests to see the whole army that is painted so far.  So here they are.  In June, I finished the wave serpents and the falcon.  Since then, I started some work on the shining spears, but my eldar have gotten derailed by my wolves and Tyranids.  But mostly the wolves.

I also have about 30 old school Harlequins that I painted in high school.  They didn't make it for the family picture.

Here is also a close up shot of the falcon on the falcon. 

Painted Falcon

I bought this baby like 12 years ago, and finally got up the courage to paint it.  I have been pulling out my eldar again to finish a 3000 point army for an apocalypse game.  So I finished this falcon, and three Wave Serpents.  I am pleased with the freehand work, and wish I had left some room open on the wave serpents for more freehand work. I have gone with a bird motif on my eldar.  The revenant, autarch, and now the falcon have birds on them.  Kinda like the 70's firebird with the sweet eagle on the hood.  I think the eldar would have loved the 70's.

I got the design for the hawk off of a snowboard design that I liked.  Drew it on with pencil, and then started painting. It only took about 15 minutes total.  The key is to get a design you really like, and then get the pencil as close as possible.  Then the painting is easier.  The Geometric pattern I made up myself. 

You can see the yellow looks a little 'splotchy' on the turret.  I originaly stippled it blue with the rest of the tank, and then decided to paint it yellow afterward.  After a coat of white, yellow white mix, and then yellow, the darker blue bled up into the paint as a brown color.  I decided to leave it instead of painting twenty more yellow and white coats on.  Also, I used a fine tip sharpie to outline the falcon and the sun pattern but moved the lines to make them more symetrical.  The sharpie kept bleeding up through the white/beige too.  It took about 7 layers to finally cover it up. 

I have had a revelation on my magnetizing.  On larger pieces like the turret and chin mount, it is easier to put a magnet (6mm) on the tank, and then a piece of sheet metal on the weapon.  Two larger magnets end up either breaking the model when you get them close together, or pulling out of the model and sticking together.  I got the sheet metal from a dry-erase board my wife threw away.  The metal is very thin, and easy to cut and shape.  Works like a charm.

I have always liked the falcon model, and am excited to blow up some mon-keigh upstarts.

Space Wolves-half a pack

Here are the first Space Wolves.  Half a pack of Grey hunters.  I like how the colors came out.  I am excited to finish this pack and then paint a whole pack at a time.  That should speed up the painting time.  I am going to magnetize the melta gun so I can switch it out to a plasma gun or other change for future codex changes, and if I want to try something else in the squad.  Can't wait to try these guys out in a battle.

The picture above is the best representation of the actual colors.  I am frustrated by the different results I get with each picture.  I feel like taking pictures takes as much skill as painting! 

Tervigon Mark II WIP

Here is the finished modelled tervigon.  I like him overall, but as a design element, wish I had the spawning termagants coming out forward.  They don't look as fearsome coming out the back of the model.  Still have some painting to do, but happy so far with the progress.